This article begins with an examination of phenomena such as the market, homo economicus and entrepreneurialism, which have become salient in discussions of neoliberalism in recent years and which are central to the contributions to this special issue. In the second half of the article, the focus shifts to the author's personal take on these phenomena, through an analysis of documents published under 'Horizon 2020', the current European Commission framework for academic research funding. It is argued that neoliberal keywords are rife in these documents, which represent a further move towards the instrumentalization of academic research.