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As Brussels debates how to extract more economic value out of its investments in science and technology, this news tracker brings together the latest developments in EU and national R&I policies, as well as updates on how the worlds of research and industry are working together for a more prosperous Europe.
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The EU is looking to mobilise up to €25 billion in investments by 2035 in a new push for renewable energy and clean technology cooperation with the countries in the Middle East and north Africa.
The goal is to develop renewable energy, hydrogen and clean technology manufacturing as well as modern, integrated electricity networks across the Mediterranean region.
To boost investment, the European Commission has made available more than €5 billion in guarantee capacity under the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus, an EU investment fund for partner countries.
The initiative, officially called the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy and Clean Tech Cooperation, is the EU’s biggest initiative under the Pact for the Mediterranean, a regional cooperation plan launched in November last year.
Read more here.
Australia is officially set to associate to Horizon Europe’s Pillar 2 for big collaborative research projects, after concluding negotiations with the EU today.
Australian researchers will be able to participate in collaborative Horizon Europe projects without contributing their own institutional financing starting in January 2027. Association will also allow Australian organisations to lead project consortia.
As a third country ineligible for most Horizon funding, Australia has so far participated in 239 projects since 2021. The country’s universities have argued that the association deal, tentatively agreed on last autumn, is a strategic necessity for them.
The UK has set out a £1.1 billion AI Hardware Plan, a strategy for developing, demonstrating, deploying and scaling the chips and semiconductor technologies that underpin AI.
The four-pillar plan encompasses innovation, skills, procurement and investment policy. New funding includes a £120 million investment programme for UK-based companies developing AI hardware innovation and a new £18 million hardware security research and development programme.
“[The plan] marks an evolution in how government supports the UK semiconductor sector to harness its strengths in AI hardware, moving from a set of individually strong but fragmented activities to a more coherent, system-level strategy,” said Liz Kendall, UK secretary of state for science, innovation and technology.
More about the plan here.
European research support to Ukraine should shift from emergency help for displaced academics to a longer-term strengthening of the country’s scientific ecosystem, according to an event held in Warsaw.
On May 26, representatives from Ukraine and Allea, an umbrella body for European scientific academies, met to discuss next steps for assistance.
An Allea-backed scheme, the European Fund for Displaced Scientists, has supported around 140 scholars since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
But now the focus is on offering researchers inside Ukraine long-term career prospects, and rebuilding labs and universities damaged by Russian attack, according to a report of the event released today. This could include joint funding schemes and research centres, and better ways to donate scientific equipment to Ukrainian institutions.
Universities, think tanks and other organisations from across Europe have launched a new project to bridge fragmentation in European science diplomacy. The project is funded under the Horizon Europe programme and is a direct response to the European Commission’s and the European Council’s calls for a European framework for science diplomacy.
Entitled “Consolidating European Science Diplomacy”, the Horizon Europe-funded project was launched on June 1. It will hold its first consortium meeting in Vienna on June 9 and 10.
The project intends to map Europe’s science diplomacy ecosystem, build an online science diplomacy hub and help train diplomats, science counsellors, policymakers and researchers.
More on the project here.
The European Commission’s 2026 European Semester spring package recommends EU member states to foster public and private R&D investment and improve business-academia cooperation as “shortfalls persist” in closing the innovation gap with global rivals.
The Commission advises Czechia, Spain, France and Poland “to deepen knowledge transfer, support innovation uptake, and provide an innovation-friendly environment for start-ups and scale-ups,” while Denmark, one of Europe’s innovation frontrunners, “is encouraged to further strengthen SME innovation, technology diffusion, and access to growth financing.”
Recommendations also include incentivising women to enroll in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and information and communications technology fields.
More details here.
Innovation procurement has the potential to strengthen European competitiveness but remains underused across the 27-member bloc, according to a report by the European Commission.
Not only most EU member states still lack action plans and targets to boost innovation procurement, but the EU’s dedicated procedures are not efficient to boost investments, “because conservative public buyers simply keep choosing not to use those procedures,” the report reads.
More details here.
Some EU member states have been investing more in R&D, but disparities persist, according to the European Research Area (ERA) scoreboard.
The document notes more investments and reforms in countries and regions with lower R&I performance. However, convergence between the member states has slowed in recent years. Widening countries such as Poland, Romania and Slovakia show long-term improvements, but other countries show signs of decline in R&D intensity.
More details here.
The European Commission has appointed a scientific panel and an advisory forum to advise its artificial intelligence office and national authorities on applying rules of the AI Act.
The scientific panel is composed of 60 independent experts with experience in frontier AI, engineering, technical auditing, industry and societal impact, whereas the advisory forum will provide technical expertise, including on standardisation and implementation.
Members of the two bodies will be serving two-year terms.
More details here.
The European Parliament has proposed a €47.39 billion budget for the next Erasmus+, well above the Commission's €40.8 billion proposal, but still short of the €60 billion universities requested.
Europe’s university and student association have jointly welcomed the proposal but warned that the programmes draft education and training budget share is more than six percentage points lower than under the current programme.
The draft report for the next Erasmus+, due to start in 2028, introduces minimum budget allocations for different programme areas, giving universities and other beneficiaries greater transparency and planning certainty for the first time.
The Parliament also proposes co-funding arrangements with the European Competitiveness Fund for strategic scholarships and stronger support for European Universities alliances, aligning with longstanding sector requests.
Read the draft report here, and the joint university association position paper here.
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