The society we live in is constantly changing. This fact is not new, but what is new is that the dynamic of changes is much greater compared to the last century. The main reason why this happens is the so-called globalization process, which in simple words is nothing but a process of interconnection between nations and the dissemination of the best practices and the most dominant social models throughout the world.

An old factor that encouraged globalization was trade. Because the economy depends on trade, each country did its “homework” and gathered information about the traditions and needs of the nearby countries, especially the neighboring ones, to know what was most indispensable to them and what was consumed the most, so that they can sell more products. Researching different aspects of the countries in the area for strategic interests of an economic, military, or political nature, each country ended up borrowing ideas, values ​​, and principles from the other country if they proved to be useful.

A newer factor is technology, which has taken globalization to a whole other level. If before globalization was more of a ‘top-down’ process, meaning that a method of doing something, an idea or principle is copied and applied in institutions first and only then applied within society. This was because the societies were mostly sealed by the external ones. Then, with the advent of technology and its transformation into an indispensable tool for daily life activities, but also into an environment in which the political game, economic activities, etc. are carried out, globalization began to happen rather from the bottom to the top. Meaning, that people borrow ideas, values, ​​and principles from other nations and cultures, and apply them in their daily lives triggering a process of social uniformity, one with which national governments cannot keep up because they strongly want to preserve the national governance model.

In this context, the European Union was built as a perfect structure to face the greatest social challenges. Starting from this, the European Union came in 2021 with one of the most contemporary strategic social development programs, namely Horizon Europe.

Horizon Europe was built to draw new directions for policies and social actions that will be implemented in the European space until 2027. This funding program focuses on research and innovation and has a budget of 95.5 billion euros.

Picture by Mathieu Stern from Unsplash

What problems does the program intend to solve?

As we know, research has been seen for a long time as a separate field from politics, which is why it was, and still is, quite difficult for national states to solve crises of any kind. For the European Union, research has been a critical field, however, the Union pays special attention to this domain only in 2021 with the intention of bringing research closer to government, everyday life, business, and consumers so that innovation and modernization can take place.

Another problem of society is the jobs. Many people would probably contradict this, as for example at the moment on a Romanian employment platform called e-jobs we find 36.346 vacant jobs in Romania. The problem is, in fact, that 16.825 of these are in Bucharest, 6.409 in Cluj, 5.740 in Timisoara, and 5.207 in Iasi; this means that approximately 2.500 jobs remain available for other areas, which are mostly also distributed in the big cities. Hence the problem of the lack of jobs in all living areas, and the agglomeration of cities due to the concentration of job offers in urban areas.

This program also deals with a series of other issues such as health, culture and creativity, civil security, social inclusion, digital space, climate, energy, mobility, food, natural resources, agriculture and environment, innovative ecosystems, and others.

All these topics differentiate the actions of the Union on three pillars:

Pillar I: Excellent science

Pillar II: Global challenges and European industrial competition

Pillar III: Innovative Europe

Opportunities

This program offers the opportunity to access European funds for opening new businesses or for improving the existing ones, developing research, and for other projects as long as they comply with the goals of the Horizon program.

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Sources:

European Commission. (2022, 07 05). Horizon Europe. Retrieved 07 05, 2022, from European Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe_en

Gavrilov Doina. (2022). EUROPE AND CHINA: CULTURAL CLASHES OR CULTURAL BLENDING. Revista Universitară de Sociologie, XVIII, no.1.

Horizon Europe. (2020, 01 01). Horizon Europe. Retrieved 07 05, 2022, from https://www.horizon-eu.eu/

Science Europe AISBL. (2022, 01 01). EU Framework Programmes – Horizon Europe. Retrieved 07 05, 2022, from Science Europe: https://scienceeurope.org/our-priorities/eu-framework-programmes/