Horizon Europe, the world’s largest multinational research and innovation programme, has issued its first call for grant applications. Over the next 7 years, the European Union’s giant research-spending scheme will distribute a record €95.5 billion (US$116 billion) — including €5.4 billion from a COVID-19 recovery fund — to basic-science projects and cross-border research collaborations that tens of thousands of researchers across 27 member states and more than a dozen other countries will carry out. It also heightens the focus on open science, equality, interdisciplinary research and practical applications.