The funding of research and innovation by the European Union is based on principles of mutual aid, economic growth, and collective goods.
Its basic premise is that its members pay into a pool and in return funding is distributed through programmes and frameworks like Horizon. This funding is sometimes distributed through competitive processes and sometimes allocated based on economic need. As programmes work across the EU, and in the case of Horizon beyond the EU, work is done at such a scale to allow collaboration between experts and institutions to tackle the global challenges which may be too large for one institution or nation to tackle alone.