Eligible and associated countries

Legal entities established in a Member State are always eligible and always fundable. Associated Countries participate on the same terms under an agreement negotiated with the EU, and their entities are funded exactly as Member State entities are. The list of associated countries changes (associations are negotiated, suspended and restored for political reasons) so it is checked per call, not remembered.

A third category exists: entities from low and middle income countries are generally eligible for funding as well, which is why African, Asian and Latin American partners appear regularly in Horizon consortia without anyone paying for them separately.

Everyone else may take part but is not funded. An organisation from a high-income non-associated country can join a consortium, contribute to the work and be named in the grant agreement, but it covers its own costs, either from its own budget or from its national government's parallel scheme. Some countries operate exactly such schemes for this purpose.

Eligibility of the ENTITY is what counts, not the nationality of the people. A company established in a Member State is eligible regardless of who owns it or where its staff hold passports; a subsidiary established outside is not eligible merely because its parent is inside. Establishment means a legal entity with an address and registration, not a sales office.

Some topics restrict participation further for strategic reasons (security, space, quantum, certain digital and defence-adjacent areas) by limiting control of participants or excluding non-EU entities from parts of the work. Those conditions are in the topic text and the general annexes, they override the general rule, and they are checked at validation rather than argued at evaluation.