The HybridNeuro Project is proud to announce its collaboration in the release of a new joint policy brief and supplementary policy factsheets on Twinning calls, prepared together with eight sister Twinning projects under the coordination of the GEMSTONE Project at Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University. The documents are now publicly available via Zenodo.

Titled “Twinning for Europe's Competitiveness: Keeping Excellence Connected Across All Regions,” the policy brief brings together insights from diverse Twinning projects - spanning neuroscience, environmental monitoring, cultural heritage, business innovation, and social sciences - to show how the Twinning instrument strengthens Europe's research excellence, institutional capacity, and international collaboration.

The brief highlights Twinning's scalability, cost-efficiency, and its role in fostering inclusion within the European Research Area. It calls for the reinstatement of annual Twinning calls under the WIDERA Work Programme to sustain research capacity and momentum, and provides recommendations for enhancing future Twinning schemes, including sustainability, mutual benefits for Widening and non-Widening countries, and stronger synergies with other Horizon Europe initiatives including EDRF support.

HybridNeuro, together with GEMSTONE, BAANG, EarthBridge, REMODEL, REMOTE XUAR, SMART4ENV, and TwinVECTOR , contributed to this joint effort, representing a collective voice from the Widening community and showcasing the long-term impact of collaborative EU funding on scientific excellence, institutional capacity, and policy engagement.

Read the full policy brief: Twinning for Europe's Competitiveness
Explore the supplementary policy factsheets: Why Twinning Matters

Target audience: European policymakers, National Contact Points, research funders, and stakeholders shaping Horizon Europe and the European Research Area.

HybridNeuro Research Manager, Tanja Botić, co-authored the policy brief bringing expertise to this collective effort.