Moment of truth: Will Europe’s vision for R&I survive the real world?

Following her re-election as Commission President in the summer of 2024, Ursula von der Leyen pledged to put “research and innovation (R&I), science and technology, at the centre of our economy” – a message that was reaffirmed in both her recent ‘SOTEU’ speech in Strasbourg and the European Commission’s first proposals for the next multi-annual financial framework (MFF), including the post-2027 Framework Programme for research and innovation (FP10).

The Commission has certainly been moving forward at speed to strengthen Europe’s R&I foundations as part of its current mandate, with a multitude of new legislation and proposals already on the table or in the pipeline – including the Startup and Scaleup, AI in Science, Quantum and Life Science strategies, the ERA and Innovation Acts, as well as the ‘28th Regime’ legal framework. Nonetheless, with months of complex political negotiations ahead, it is still unclear to what degree the other EU institutions will back Ms. von der Leyen’s vision and agree to the resources needed to deliver it.

Against this backdrop, the 2026 Science|Business Annual Network Conference will convene the first major R&I-oriented public debates following the official start of interinstitutional negotiations over the MFF. Around 350 leaders and decision makers from the worlds of research, industry and policy are expected to join us in Brussels on February 5 to explore a number of strategic issues that will be critical to FP10 and the next MFF, including but not limited to:

• What are the key trends shaping the politics and economics of R&I in Europe and beyond, and how might these shape the negotiations to follow?
• Is Europe truly ready to embrace single market reforms and a ‘5th freedom’ for knowledge and innovation?
• To what degree can the forthcoming ERA and Innovation Acts and ‘28th Regime’ help to transform this ambition into reality?
• In which ways will R&I and industrial policy align concretely under the next MFF, specifically at the interface between the Competitiveness Fund and FP10?
• How will President von der Leyen’s call for greater European independence through massive investments into AI, digital and clean tech influence the Commission’s plans for FP10?
• And what does all of the above imply for the future of international cooperation in R&I, not least with the major R&D nations which have associated to Horizon Europe?