Whether you are from academia, industrie or a public organisation, your Horizon Europe National Contact Point (NCP) is supposed to guide you through Horizon Europe and the respective application process. And the best thing about it: They do so free of charge! The concept has become so popular over the years that the European Commission and member states have started to establish NCPs for other European funding programmes like the Digital Europe Programme.
Read here what the European Commission itself says about NCPs on the Funding and Tenders Portal:
"In general, the following basic services are available in accordance with the NCP Guiding Principles agreed by all countries:
- Guidance on choosing relevant Horizon Europe topics and types of action
- Advice on administrative procedures and contractual issues
- Training and assistance on proposal writing
- Distribution of documentation (forms, guidelines, manuals etc.)
- Assistance in partner search
As the NCPs are national structures, the type and level of services offered may differ from country to country."
Who is my NCP?
The European Commission has requested all European member states and states associated to the Horizon Europe Programme to establish and fund NCPs in their countries. Some third countries have also chosen to establish NCPs in order to better support their organisations in Horizon Europe. How exactly these states implement that request and what types and levels of services these NCPs can offer to you is different from country to country.
In some countries, the local NCP may be a single person established in the national ministry responsible for Horizon Europe in that country. In other countries the NCP may actually be a network of persons from different organisations (ministries, universities, research organisations, agencies or even consulting companies), being individually responsible for different areas of Horizon Europe.
Whichever is the case for your country, your NCP will provide you with on-the-spot support in your own national language and will do so free of charge, following the above-mentioned NCP Guiding Principles.
You can find all the Horizon Europe NCPs on the Funding and Tenders Portal and filter through this list to find the right contact from your country:
If you are looking specifically for the person responsible for digital technologies in Horizon Europe, you can probably find them on our website, with contact details and a photo! Simply click on "National Contacts" on the navigation bar at the top of the page!
What are NCP network projects?
NCP network projects are EU-projects funded through Horizon Europe in order to provide additional services to you that are beyond the capabilities of a single NCP. Ideal-ist itself is such a project, one that has been going for a very long time (since 1996 in fact!) with consecutive grants from the respective EU framework programmes. You can get an idea of what we do simply by looking through the content on this website.
No matter which part of the EU framework programme you are looking at, there will likely be not only a dedicated NCP in your country, but also an NCP network project to support both you and your NCP. So make sure to take a look at what the NCP project responsible for the respective programme area has to offer on top of what your local NCP can provide!