Moving to the stage-2 proposal – how to make your Horizon Europe impact credible and convincing

11th February 2026 at 4:20 pm

Successful stage-1 applicants from the second half of 2025 and across all Horizon Europe Pillar II Clusters have already been invited to submit their full stage-2 proposals. While passing stage 1 confirms that your concept is well aligned with the call topic, stage 2 is where evaluators will assess the clarity and ambition of your objectives, the credibility of your pathways to achieve expected outcomes and impacts, and the quality and efficiency of your implementation.

The stage-2 submission deadlines differ by Cluster and call, but most fall within a tight window of a few months as shown below. This leaves limited time to expand and refine elements of the Excellence section and to develop the Impact chapter fully, particularly the measures to maximise the communication, dissemination and exploitation of project results.

EC recommendations for your stage-2 proposals

When preparing your stage 2 proposal on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal, it is worth revisiting the Work Programme, the General Annexes and the topic-specific expected outcomes and impacts. These documents clearly signal what evaluators will look at more closely at this stage. In many recent call updates, there is a strong emphasis on strengthening the credibility of the impact pathway and on providing robust dissemination and exploitation measures. Stage 2 is therefore the moment to ensure that your communication, dissemination and exploitation approach is fully aligned with the topic’s expected outcomes and translated into concrete, well-structured measures in the work plan.

In practice, this means that your Impact section, notably chapter 2.2, is no longer a formal requirement to tick off. It becomes your opportunity to demonstrate that results will reach the right audiences, be taken up by relevant stakeholders, and lead to tangible scientific, societal, policy or market outcomes.

Practical tips on how to strengthen your project`s communication, dissemination and exploitation

Based on our experience as a dedicated communication, dissemination and exploitation partner in dozens of Framework Programme projects in the Health, Energy, Food and other Clusters since 2008, the following points consistently make a difference at stage 2.

1. Allocate sufficient structure in the work plan

If not already foreseen at stage 1, a dedicated work package (WP) for communication and dissemination is strongly recommended. For Innovation Actions, a separate exploitation WP can further strengthen credibility, especially when market uptake, standardisation, policy uptake or scale-up are expected outcomes. Evaluators look for clarity in responsibilities, timing and effort. A standalone work package makes it easier to demonstrate that DISCO activities are planned, resourced and monitored throughout the project.

2. Align work packages with lump-sum logic

For lump-sum projects, communication and dissemination activities often run throughout the entire project duration. While this is conceptually sound, it can create practical issues if all related tasks sit in a single work package spanning the full project. To ensure regular reimbursement and smoother reporting, it can be advisable to split this WP into several WPs, ideally aligned with reporting periods. This allows you to link concrete outputs, deliverables and milestones to each period, which is fully in line with lump-sum expectations.

3. Focus on the quality rather than the quantity of activities

A minimum of three communication activities and three dissemination activities is widely considered the gold standard. Typical examples include a project website and visual identity, peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations or workshops. Additional activities should be defined based on the project’s objectives, target groups and expected results. Evaluators quickly spot generic lists that do not reflect the specific consortium, sector or stakeholder landscape. Tailoring is essential, particularly at stage 2.

4. Clarify the exploitation pathway early

Even if exploitation continues after the project ends, the pathway needs to be credible already at proposal stage. This includes identifying exploitable results, expected users, potential barriers and the role of consortium partners regarding the future commercial and/or non-commercial use of project results, such as industry, public authorities or technology transfer offices. Where relevant, links between dissemination activities and exploitation objectives should be made explicit. This makes clear that dissemination supports uptake and exploitation, rather than standing alone as a separate activity.

Useful resources for stage-2 refinement

If you are currently revisiting your work plan and impact section, some of our previous blogs might be useful for the preparation of your stage-2 proposal:

• Materials and twin transition stage-1 evaluation results are out – how to increase your chances for stage 2?
• Moving from stage-1 to stage-2 with your Health proposal – tips for the non-scientific parts
• Moving from stage-1 to stage-2 with your Health proposal – tips for your work plan
• Boost your impact – Effective communication and dissemination of Horizon Europe Green Deal projects

These examples illustrate how successful consortia translate high-level impact ambitions into implementable communication and dissemination strategies.

Including the right partners to strengthen your project’s impact

Engaging a dedicated communication and dissemination partner is one effective strategy to reinforce your project’s impact at stage 2. This is particularly powerful when combined with the in-house strengths of academic institutions, such as experienced press offices or technology transfer offices.

At accelopment, we support Horizon Europe consortia as a specialised communication and dissemination partner, from proposal preparation to project implementation and reporting. If you are looking to strengthen communication, dissemination and exploitation in your stage 2 proposal with hands-on, framework-aware expertise, we would be happy to discuss how we can support your project.

Andreia Cruz
Research & Innovation Project Manager

Dr. Eva Avilla Royo
Research & Innovation Project Manager

Dr. Johannes Ripperger
Research & Innovation Manager