HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-03: Government in Transition — How Governments Change the Way They Work and Prepare the Civil Service for the Future

This Horizon Europe topic, officially titled “Government in transition: how governments change the way they work and prepare the civil service for the future,” funds research into the internal transformation of government: the innovation strategies, organisational reforms, and civil service changes that rarely surface publicly but determine whether public administrations can cope with concurrent crises, fast-moving technology, and declining trust.

Call at a Glance

Expected Outcomes

Projects should contribute to all of the following. Note how concrete they are compared to most research topics:

• Country government innovation info sheets, trends, inspiring good practices, and the most innovative solutions recently developed or in progress for next-generation governance and future-informed public decision-making across Member States and Associated Countries.
• Policy recommendations for both EU-level and national action on adopting new governance paradigms, and strategies for enhanced technical and financial support for internal government innovation.
• Publication of lessons learned, making the often-invisible internal innovation strategies of national governments visible to officials and the public.
• A comprehensive MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) for government officials, with relevant examples and cases.
• Closer ties and collaboration between Member States and Associated Countries, leveraging national capabilities in innovative governance and sustaining peer learning through networks and knowledge exchange platforms.

Scope: Three Focus Areas, All Required

Proposals are expected to cover all three of the following:

1. New governance paradigm. New governance approaches and reforms responding to declining public trust: crisis preparation, anticipatory governance, agile leadership, innovation portfolio approaches to strategic planning, working with the innovation ecosystem in strategic decision-making, the impacts of digital technology (especially AI, automation, and the redefinition of tasks), open government approaches, democratic participation, central communication strategies, and information flows including social media.

2. Innovative approaches to public service and policy development. Multidisciplinary approaches to high-quality public service and effective administrative delivery: citizen participation, stakeholder engagement, systems thinking, the role of technology and AI, interconnected data systems, and experimentation for evidence-informed policymaking.

3. New public employment management and civil service empowerment. Transforming the civil service through innovation and public intrapreneurship, HR policy including a public administration health-check, capacity building (upskilling, reskilling, future literacy), organisational conditions conducive to innovation and resilience (sensitive to the needs of the next generation of civil servants), and cooperation with other EU governments through data exchange and mutual support.

Method Expectations

National governments in the EU and Associated Countries are the primary focus, though regional and local governments and well-documented international good practice cases are also of interest. The research should give voice to the civil service itself, examining how officials across roles, functions, decision-making levels, and personal characteristics see the changing role of the state and their own role in it.

The call is unusually specific about method: build on existing work by EU institutions, international organisations (World Economic Forum, OECD, United Nations, Chandler Institute of Governance), schools of governance, national governments, and innovation agencies, complemented by primary data collected through large-scale surveying, in-depth interviews, and strategic reflection workshops. Proposals must elaborate on how primary data will be collected and analysed beyond desk research, and demonstrate deep reach into national civil services through engagement with senior officials.

Proposals are encouraged to take stock of the uptake of Commission Communication COM(2023) 667, and to seek complementarity with EU-funded projects, the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, and relevant JRC work.

Eligibility and Consortium Requirements

Standard Horizon Europe eligibility applies (General Annex B). The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as a consortium member with zero funding or as an associated partner, without taking part in preparing the proposal.

Where to Apply

Proposals are submitted through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Check the official topic page and the Cluster 2 work programme for authoritative conditions.

Related Calls in This Destination

Also closing 23 September 2026 under Innovative Research on Democracy and Governance:

• HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-06 — Governing global commons sustainably
• HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-10 — Digital and media literacy for democratic and civic resilience
• See all HORIZON-CL2-2026-01 calls

Building a Proposal for This Topic?

We partner in Horizon Europe consortia on the software, data, and adoption layer. Several expected outcomes here are engineering as much as research: a MOOC, a knowledge exchange platform, country info sheets that stay current, plus interconnected data systems and large-scale surveying. That fits software, AI and tech development and open source consulting.

Read more about how we work in Horizon consortia, or browse our wider projects and research.