By Julien Sudre, founder of Grant360 and Innotrope, grant writer with more than a hundred applications written, and Horizon Europe project coordinator and project management specialist. Updated 6 October 2026.
Horizon Europe beneficiaries receiving funding must use their best efforts to exploit their results, directly or through another organisation, during the project and for up to four years after it ends. Exploitation means putting results to use: in further research, products, services, education, policy or standardisation. It does not require every project to create a company or guarantee commercial success.
The practical task is to identify usable results, clarify who owns them, choose credible routes to uptake and document the actions taken. This guide explains how to turn that obligation into a manageable process for collaborative Horizon Europe projects.
For the wider context, read why exploitation is not optional in Horizon Europe, how exploitation connects with intellectual property in Horizon Europe, and the difference between communication, dissemination and exploitation.
Is the obligation to exploit results new in Horizon Europe?
No. Exploitation was already an obligation under Horizon 2020. Article 43 of Regulation (EU) No 1290/2013 required funded participants to make best efforts to exploit their results or have another legal entity exploit them.
Horizon Europe continues that approach with its own contractual provisions and support tools. The Commission's dissemination and exploitation strategy describes the objective as turning research results into scientific, economic and societal value.
For a consortium, the useful change in perspective is operational: plan what users can do with the results alongside the activities that produce them. A completed deliverable records work; an exploitation route explains how someone will use what that work produced.
For example, a validation report may contain a method that another laboratory can adopt. Identifying that method, its prospective users and its adoption requirements makes the exploitation discussion much more concrete than promising to "maximise impact".
What counts as exploitation of project results?
Exploitation is the use of results beyond the activities covered by the project itself. It may be commercial or non-commercial, and may happen through the beneficiary or another organisation. The Horizon Europe Programme Guide explains the programme's approach.
These examples illustrate possible routes:
- A validated laboratory method can be adopted in a subsequent research programme, with evidence such as a protocol used in the new programme.
- A software tool can be deployed within a company's workflow, with evidence such as deployment records and user feedback.
- Policy recommendations can be used by a public authority, with evidence such as a decision or guidance drawing on the recommendations.
- Training materials can be integrated into a course, with evidence such as course materials and delivery records.
- Technical findings can contribute to a standard, with evidence such as a submission and evidence of incorporation.
A result can have several routes. For example, software may support further research immediately while its owner explores a commercial service later. Separate those routes so that progress on one does not obscure the work still needed on another.
How does exploitation differ from communication and dissemination?
Communication builds awareness, dissemination shares results and exploitation puts them to use. These activities reinforce each other but serve different purposes. The European Research Executive Agency's guidance explains their role in increasing project impact.
For a project developing a building-renovation assessment method, a public-facing article explaining the project is communication. A technical workshop presenting the method to practitioners is dissemination. A municipality adopting the method for its renovation programme is exploitation.
This distinction helps you choose indicators. Website visits show reach; workshop attendance shows engagement; adoption in a decision process shows use. Keep all three where relevant, but label what each measures.
Publishing a paper can help others discover a result. To plan exploitation, ask a further question: who could use the knowledge, and what would enable that use?
Where are the exploitation obligations written?
Read Article 16 together with the Horizon Europe provisions in Annex 5 of your signed Grant Agreement. The Annotated Grant Agreement (AGA) explains them, including the best-efforts obligation for funded beneficiaries. Additional call-specific obligations may apply.
Do not rely on the proposal's impact section alone. At project start, compare the planned exploitation activities with the signed agreement, call conditions and consortium agreement.
A useful internal exercise is to assign each relevant requirement to an owner and a review date. For example, the project manager can organise follow-up, while each result owner takes responsibility for its exploitation decisions. This turns a general commitment into actions that can survive changes in staff or project governance.
How long must you continue exploitation efforts after the project?
The standard best-efforts obligation extends up to four years after the action ends. This is not a universal requirement to commercialise every result within four years, nor a rule extending the grant budget for that period.
For an illustrative project ending on 31 December 2026, organise the handover around that end date and retain an exploitation follow-up process through the applicable four-year period. Schedule an earlier check before the first anniversary to identify unused results and address the platform obligation described below.
Practical arrangements should cover who retains the records, who receives enquiries, who maintains usable assets and who can authorise licences or further development. A generic project mailbox is insufficient if nobody will monitor it after closure.
A yearly internal review can be useful. Treat that as a management choice unless your agreement or call specifically requires annual reporting.
What happens if results remain unused one year after project end?
Where the relevant provision applies, beneficiaries must use the Horizon Results Platform to find interested parties if results remain unexploited one year after project end, unless the granting authority agrees otherwise in writing. The AGA explains this obligation and possible waivers.
The beneficiary must act; this is not simply permission for the Commission to publish unused results on its behalf. Listing also does not end the wider best-efforts duty.
Prepare a useful public description: what the result enables, whom it could benefit, how mature it is and what collaboration is sought. Do not publish confidential technical details simply to make a listing more informative.
For example, a team awaiting regulatory approval could prepare an explanation of its situation and discuss the appropriate approach with the granting authority. An internal decision to postpone a listing is different from a written waiver.
What does "best efforts" mean in practice?
It means taking credible action towards use and keeping evidence of the steps taken, the barriers encountered and the decisions made. A promising result can face technical, regulatory or adoption barriers without reaching its intended destination.
Useful records include discussions with prospective users, feasibility assessments, demonstrations, licensing negotiations, testing feedback and decisions to change the exploitation route.
For example, suppose a diagnostic method proves unsuitable for its intended clinical application. Record what the validation showed, why the original route is no longer credible and whether a research-use application remains worth exploring. That record is more informative than leaving "commercialisation ongoing" unchanged in successive plans.
Documentation supports an assessment of your efforts; it does not automatically establish compliance. Give reviewers enough context to understand why the actions were appropriate to the result and its circumstances.
How should you build a practical exploitation plan?
Build the plan around individual results, prospective users and next decisions. A Key Exploitable Result (KER) is a result with significant potential for use. A deliverable and a KER are not necessarily the same thing.
For each priority result, record its description, owner, intended users, route to use, evidence of demand, rights required, remaining barriers, next action and responsible person. For a deeper planning method, see how to write an effective exploitation and dissemination plan in Horizon Europe.
Here is an original management example. Suppose a consortium identifies six priority results, but only four have an agreed owner and a dated next action. Its internal coverage indicator is:
4 / 6 x 100 = 67%.
This is an illustrative calculation, not research data or a Commission compliance threshold. It identifies two results requiring attention; it does not measure whether the four others have been successfully exploited.
Use such indicators to prompt decisions. A dashboard showing several results awaiting user validation should lead to outreach or testing, rather than a cosmetic update to the plan. Connect this work to your continuous reporting process.
Do you need to protect every result before exploiting it?
No. Choose protection and access arrangements that suit the result and its intended use. Some routes require confidentiality or formal protection; others depend on sharing, accessible documentation and appropriate licences.
Intellectual property management should clarify ownership, access to pre-existing assets, permitted uses and any third-party restrictions. For software, review dependencies and licence compatibility. For a jointly developed method, agree who can authorise use and on what terms.
For example, an open training package needs clear reuse conditions. A potentially patentable invention needs a protection assessment before public disclosure. Both can support exploitation, but they require different decisions.
The European IP Helpdesk provides guidance and support for these issues. Involve your institution's legal or technology-transfer team before a rights question becomes an obstacle to adoption. Grant360 also has a dedicated guide to the European IP Helpdesk in Horizon Europe projects.
Which Commission tools can help you exploit results?
Choose tools according to the result and the support you need. Visibility, coaching and rights advice solve different problems.
Practical options include:
- Horizon Results Platform: visibility for policy-relevant and knowledge-sharing results. Use it to describe the result, intended users and collaboration sought.
- EU Innovation Platform: entry point for commercial results and innovation support. Use it to explore suitable services and opportunities.
- Booster: free expert support for dissemination and exploitation. Use it to work on strategy, business planning or barriers to uptake.
- Innovation Radar: visibility and connections for promising innovations. Use it to explore the initiative's relevance to your innovation.
- European IP Helpdesk: IP guidance and support. Use it to clarify ownership, protection and licensing questions.
The Commission's current support overview distinguishes the HRP from the EU Innovation Platform. Its REA guidance also points beneficiaries towards the Innovation Radar.
The former Horizon Results Booster is now called Booster. According to the Commission's announcement, the updated service runs until 2028 and offers free targeted coaching. The previous service supported more than 1,700 projects and over 4,000 organisations during 2020-2024. These are historical service figures, not proof that every supported result reached the market.
For an unused result subject to the contractual HRP provision, clarify the required route with the granting authority if the evolving platform landscape creates uncertainty.
Who should take responsibility for exploitation after project closure?
Each result owner needs a continuing organisational contact and authority to act. The coordinator can organise the shared process, while beneficiaries retain their respective obligations and decisions.
Before closure, hold a handover review. Confirm where each result is stored, who owns it, which users have expressed interest, what remains to be done and which team will take over. Involve the people who will actually maintain the asset or negotiate its use.
For example, transfer a software result to a named service team with a repository, maintenance decision and contact address. "The consortium will continue exploitation" provides little continuity once project meetings stop.
Include exploitation in the broader Horizon Europe project management framework, rather than leaving it entirely to the final reporting period.
How can you turn the exploitation obligation into lasting value?
Identify useful results early, assign ownership, engage prospective users and preserve a credible route to use after the grant ends. Keep evidence of progress and adapt the plan when technical or adoption barriers change.
Exploitation can mean a commercial product, a method used in further research, a policy decision or a training resource adopted by others. The practical objective is to connect the result to a real use, with people, rights and resources that make that use possible.
A final report closes a reporting process. A well-managed exploitation plan gives the results a continuing owner, a next action and a path beyond the project.