Three Danish universities – up from only one in 2018 – feature among the top 10 recipients of funding from Europe’s flagship innovation programme Horizon Europe following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, with the three institutions netting a total of €212 million (US$233 million) in grants between them.
While the top-performing university in Horizon Europe was the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands with €93.6 million received, followed by KU Leuven in Belgium with €91.8 million, Danish universities have taken spots three, four and six on the list, according to the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Research figures up to the end of February 2023.
The Danish universities include the Technical University of Denmark (€87.2 million), Aarhus University (€66.7 million) and the University of Copenhagen (€58.3 million).
In total, 479 researchers at Danish universities participated in the contracts: 135 researchers from DTU, 131 from the University of Copenhagen and 113 from Aarhus University.
Other universities in the top 10 for 2023 include Ghent University in Belgium (€61.9 million), Italy’s Polytechnic University of Milan (€52.9 million) and the University of Bologna (€47.1 million), the University of Vienna in Austria (€46.4 million) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology with €46.2 million.
Dan Andrée, former representative of Swedish innovation agency Vinnova, based in Belgium, and current Brussels representative for the University Alliance Stockholm Trio made up of the Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University, told University World News the alliance had, since Brexit, become the “top university”, receiving €95.9 million for 164 Horizon Europe projects.
“In 2020 two UK universities were ahead. We have seen an increase in funding and we are a coordinator in Horizon Europe as a result of Brexit,” he said.
Professor Eskild Holm Nielsen, dean of the faculty of technical sciences at Aarhus University said his university had been one of the first to adopt a mission-driven approach – a primary reason for its success in securing Horizon funding, rather than Brexit.
“We have been working purposefully with a mission-driven approach and coincidentally have a large faculty with many years of experience in green transition in agriculture and food industry, as well as the twin transition,” he said.
Bruce Reed, a retired consultant who has advised clients on European Union research programmes for three decades, notably in Norway, said the “secret success factor” for participation in Horizon programmes is how well the researchers speak English.
“It is English-speaking universities that have always had an advantage in working together within European frameworks where English is the lingua franca of collaborations (with or without the Brits).”
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