By Julien Sudre, Horizon Europe grant writing and project management specialist, founder of Grant360 and Innotrope.
Communication makes a Horizon Europe project and its activities understandable and visible to relevant audiences, including the public. Dissemination makes its results available to people who may use them, such as researchers, companies, practitioners and policymakers. They have different purposes, but a coherent strategy connects them through shared objectives, evidence, audiences and coordinated timing. Exploitation is distinct again: it is the use of results in research, products, services, policy or other applications.
A project does not need to follow a rigid sequence of communication, then dissemination, then exploitation. These activities can overlap, and their timing depends on the maturity of results, intellectual property (IP) considerations and the needs of each audience.
What is communication in a Horizon Europe project?
Communication promotes the project and its activities and results through targeted, accessible information for multiple audiences. It explains what the project is doing, why it matters, who is involved and what the European Union (EU) funding helps achieve.
A communication activity might be a project launch announcement, a short video explaining a research challenge, a local event, a newsletter or an accessible article about a validated result. Its success depends on reaching and engaging the intended audience, not simply producing content.
For example, a flood-resilience project could publish an accessible story about why urban flooding is becoming a concern and explain how the consortium is studying possible responses. It should distinguish the project's ambitions from results already demonstrated.
Communication should begin early and evolve with the project. It does not require a standalone website or dedicated social media accounts in every case: existing beneficiary channels may be appropriate, subject to the grant's requirements.
For a broader channel-by-channel approach, see How Do You Build an Effective Communication Strategy for a Horizon Europe Project?.
What is dissemination in Horizon Europe?
Dissemination is the public disclosure of project results by appropriate means, other than disclosure resulting from protecting or exploiting them. It helps potential users discover, understand, assess and, where permitted, reuse those results.
Results may include research findings, methods, datasets, software, technical reports, recommendations and other outputs generated by the action. Dissemination activities include scientific publications, conference presentations, technical workshops, policy briefs, open repositories and documentation intended for prospective users.
For example, the flood-resilience consortium could publish a peer-reviewed paper describing its model, validation data and uncertainty, accompanied by a technical briefing for municipal engineers. The project should specify any conditions governing access or reuse.
Dissemination can occur as soon as suitable results are available; it need not wait until the end of the project. However, beneficiaries must respect the grant's rules on prior notice, legitimate interests, confidentiality, security, data protection and protection of results.
How do communication, dissemination and exploitation differ?
They differ principally in their purpose and intended audience, not necessarily in the format of the activity.
- Communication: main purpose: raise awareness and explain the project and its relevance. Typical audience: public, media, communities, stakeholders and decision-makers. Example: accessible story explaining a prototype's purpose. Useful evidence: relevant reach, engagement and audience feedback.
- Dissemination: main purpose: disclose results to audiences able to understand or use them. Typical audience: researchers, practitioners, industry, policymakers and other potential users. Example: technical report describing validated prototype performance. Useful evidence: qualified users reached, downloads, citations, requests for technical information.
- Exploitation: main purpose: use results in research, innovation, policy, services or other applications. Typical audience: result owners, adopters, investors, public authorities and other users. Example: incorporating the prototype into a service or follow-on research. Useful evidence: documented uptake, agreements, adoption or further development.
A single event can serve more than one purpose. A public demonstration may communicate the project's relevance, disseminate verified technical findings to specialists and initiate discussions about adoption. The consortium should nevertheless define distinct objectives and indicators for each purpose.
Read What Is the Difference Between Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation in Horizon Europe? for a deeper comparison.
How can you build one coherent communication and dissemination strategy?
Start with project objectives and expected results, then map each audience to the information it needs, the action you want it to take and the evidence you can provide. Use this mapping to coordinate messages, formats, responsibilities, timing and indicators.
A practical planning matrix could include:
- Citizens: communication objective: understand the problem and project's relevance. Dissemination objective: access a plain-language explanation of findings. Suitable channels: public events, beneficiary channels, accessible summaries. Evidence of progress: feedback and relevant engagement.
- Researchers: communication objective: become aware of the project's approach. Dissemination objective: evaluate and build on validated findings. Suitable channels: conferences, publications, repositories. Evidence of progress: qualified attendance, citations, reuse enquiries.
- Municipalities: communication objective: understand potential public value. Dissemination objective: assess methods and evidence for local application. Suitable channels: stakeholder meetings, technical briefs, workshops. Evidence of progress: follow-up requests, technical evaluations.
- Companies: communication objective: identify relevant developments. Dissemination objective: assess specifications, maturity and access conditions. Suitable channels: industry events, targeted briefings, demonstrations. Evidence of progress: qualified enquiries and documented follow-up.
These are illustrative choices, not mandatory Horizon Europe indicators. The right channels and targets depend on the action, its audiences and its contractual commitments.
How should messages change for different audiences?
Keep the underlying facts consistent while changing the level of detail and the decision each audience can make with the information.
For example, a public-facing message might explain that a project is testing a tool to help cities anticipate floods. A technical brief for municipal engineers should specify the model's inputs, validation conditions, limitations and requirements for deployment. Neither should claim that the tool is operational if it remains experimental.
A shared evidence register can help: for every major claim, record the underlying result, its validation status, its owner, any restrictions and the approved wording for different channels.
How should you coordinate timing and responsibilities?
Use one editorial and results calendar, but give communication and dissemination activities separate objectives and approval routes. Work Package (WP) leaders should flag emerging results; scientific leads should verify claims; IP and data-protection contacts should review sensitive material; and the communication team should adapt approved information for its audiences.
For example, before a paper is submitted, the consortium might prepare a public explanation of the research question without revealing protectable findings. Once the necessary checks have been completed, it can coordinate the paper, a technical webinar and a public summary. This is a possible workflow, not a universal publication sequence.
See How Do You Design a Strong Communication Work Package in Horizon Europe? for task allocation, deliverables and monitoring.
How do you coordinate dissemination with intellectual property protection?
Review proposed disclosures before publication or public presentation, especially when they concern potentially patentable results, confidential information, personal data or another beneficiary's legitimate interests. Dissemination should be timely, but it must not undermine applicable protection and contractual obligations.
For standard Horizon Europe collaborative grants, beneficiaries should check the prior-notice and objection provisions in their signed Grant Agreement and Consortium Agreement. They should not assume that a social media announcement is harmless simply because it is short: public disclosure of technical information can affect later protection options.
A workable internal process is: identify the proposed content and result owners; check confidentiality, protection and other restrictions; allow the relevant partners to review; document approval; and publish the version cleared for the intended audience. Where protection is needed, coordinate its timing with the disclosure.
For more detail, see How Is Intellectual Property Managed in Horizon Europe? and How Do You Write an Effective Exploitation and Dissemination Plan in Horizon Europe?.
What communication and dissemination obligations must beneficiaries respect?
Beneficiaries must follow Article 17 and Annex 5 of their applicable Grant Agreement, including requirements to promote the action and its results, acknowledge EU funding and meet any action-specific communication and dissemination provisions. Open-science, results-protection and exploitation obligations must also be checked in the relevant grant provisions.
The EU emblem and the applicable funding statement must be used correctly and prominently where required, together with the relevant disclaimer. The emblem is not a substitute for the project's own visual identity. Communication should be accurate and should not present anticipated outcomes as established findings.
A dedicated project website, a particular social platform or a fixed number of press releases is not universally mandatory. Check the signed Grant Agreement, Description of Action (DoA) and any applicable call-specific conditions before treating a suggested activity as a legal requirement.
For practical compliance guidance, read What Are the Communication, Dissemination and EU Visibility Requirements in Horizon Europe?.
How should you measure communication and dissemination results?
Measure whether each activity reached the intended audience and supported the desired next step. Output counts alone cannot demonstrate understanding, knowledge transfer or adoption.
For communication, combine indicators such as relevant website visits, event attendance, newsletter engagement and audience feedback. For dissemination, consider qualified participation, technical-document access, citation or reuse evidence, requests for methods or data, and follow-up from prospective users. For exploitation, track actual uptake separately rather than treating reach as proof of use.
For example, a webinar with 40 municipal engineers who request a technical assessment may be more useful for a project's dissemination objective than a broadly viewed video with no evidence of specialist engagement. That does not make one format inherently superior: each should be judged against its stated purpose.
Set baselines and targets where feasible, record the source of each metric, and review the strategy when the evidence shows that a channel is not reaching its intended audience. Avoid attributing downstream policy or commercial impact to a communication activity without supporting evidence.
Conclusion: How do communication and dissemination work together?
Communication explains the project and its relevance; dissemination makes results available to those who may use them. A coherent Horizon Europe strategy connects the two through shared evidence, audience-specific messages, coordinated approvals and meaningful indicators, while treating exploitation as the distinct process of putting results to use.
Plan these activities together, but do not collapse them into one generic list of websites, publications and events. Define what each activity is meant to achieve, who is responsible, what can safely be disclosed and how progress will be assessed.
About the author
Julien Sudre specialises in Horizon Europe proposal development, project management and project communication. Through his professional work and Grant 360, he develops practical resources to help research and innovation consortia plan, implement and report on EU-funded projects.