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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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A consortium led by Italian company Domyn has won the European Commission’s Frontier AI Grand Challenge. Launched in February, the competition invited leading European AI companies to develop an open-source AI model with at least 400 billion parameters and covering all 24 official EU languages.
For one year, the consortium, known as EUROPA, stands to receive up to 2.5% of the computing capacity of EuroHPC, a publicly funded European supercomputer initiative. The Commission hopes this will eventually allow its model to compete with frontier models like those of ChatGPT, Anthropic and Google’s Gemini.
The competition forms part of the EU’s bid for tech sovereignty.
“This is about strengthening Europe's ability to shape AI's future with openness, trust and strategic autonomy at its core,” Henna Virkkunen, European Commissioner for tech sovereignty, said in a press release.
Read more here.
Denmark’s Novo Nordisk Foundation and the EU’s Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking have announced a funding partnership to support research aimed at improving health outcomes in Africa and strengthening global health innovation.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation will contribute up the €18 million to the initiative, which will advance research priority areas under the EDCTP3 work programmes for 2026 and 2027. It is seen as the first step towards a more ambitious collaboration in the future.
“By combining resources, we can fund critical research and development to combat Africa’s dual burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases,” said Michael Makanga, executive director of Global Health EDCTP3.
Learn more here.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) will grant an estimated €292 million to 38 innovative start-ups and SMEs following the latest evaluation round of the EIC Accelerator scheme. About €80 million will be allocated via grants, while a further €202 million will be available for equity investments.
Of the 38 beneficiaries, 84% of them will be eligible for blended finance.
More details here.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) is set to invest in defence and dual-use technologies, thanks to an update to the agency’s work programme for 2026. Start-ups and SMEs developing technologies with both civilian and defence applications will be able apply for grants under the EIC Accelerator and STEP Scaleup.
“The European Innovation Council was built to take risks, and we need to take risks when it comes to developing European technologies that keep us safe,” said EU research Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva. “We must invest in critical technologies also to ensure Europe’s strategic autonomy – whether it’s drones, cyber defence, or quantum technologies,” she said.
The EIC is also launching a €100-million STEP Defence Scale Up call for companies in EU member states and associated countries and Ukraine to obtain financing to scale up their industrial capabilities on air and missile defence, drone and counter drones and other critical defence technologies.
“This is the first time any EU funding programme will ever invest direct equity in defence companies,” the agency says in a statement.
More details here.
The European Commission has opened a call for evidence on its plans to establish “a single basic act” for European partnerships to be implemented as joint undertakings in the next Horizon Europe.
The Commission wants to identify the partnerships that would best align with the upcoming European Competitiveness Fund.
More details here.
The League of European Research Universities (LERU) has released a statement criticising the European Commission’s plans to mainstream simplified administrative processes in the next Horizon Europe programme.
One of the proposed simplifications is using an organisation-wide unit cost to calculate personnel costs rather than individually calculating each project participant’s contribution based on their salary. The association says using one average rate for calculating all salaries within an organisation will lead to underfunding.
This is because any average rate will be calculated based on previous years’ salary data, ignoring inflation and thus costing organisations money. The association also points out that the staff involved in Horizon Europe projects are mostly researchers, which are highly educated and thus cost more than the organisation average.
“Making such options mandatory could generate unintended effects, including distortions in staffing strategies and uneven impacts across the EU for many types of organisations,” the association warns.
London and Tokyo have agreed a series of technology partnerships, ranging from microchips to robotics to defence.
During a visit by Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi to the UK on June 14, the countries announced a series of commercial tie-ups.
The UK Semiconductor Centre has inked a formal partnership with Rapidus, a Japanese chip manufacturing centre. The hope is that this will allow UK firms to make their own chips.
Cambridge Aerospace, a defence firm, signed a deal with Kawasaki Heavy Industries to build a factory in Japan to make counter-drone and missile interceptor technologies.
The EU’s Clean Aviation joint undertaking has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the German states of Brandenburg and Saxony to strengthen collaboration on the development of disruptive aviation technologies.
As part of the agreement, Brandenburg and Saxony will jointly provide more than €10 million by 2028 to support activities linked to a common technical roadmap.
Since 2023, Clean Aviation has signed similar agreements with Portugal and with regional governments in Occitanie (France), Hamburg (Germany), Andalusia (Spain), Campania and Piemont (Italy).
Read more here.
The EU and South Korea agreed to launch a new “competitiveness partnership” as leaders met for the 11th joint summit in Brussels on June 10.
The partnership “will strengthen engagement on issues of strategic importance such as trade, investment, supply chains, digital, advanced technologies, energy, and innovation,” according to the European Commission’s announcement.
Work under the partnership will be steered by a new high-level economic dialogue, which will strengthen cooperation on economic security, trade and industrial policy.
“The partnership between the European Union and the Republic of Korea has never been more important,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “We are working together to strengthen economic security and drive innovation.”
Full details here.
28Digital, formerly EIT Digital, has launched its five-year plan for 2026-30, after becoming financially independent from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology in 2025.
By 2030, it is aiming to train 2.5 million people, support 1,000 start-ups and scale-ups, create 500 new ventures, and mobilise €2 billion in investment.
28Digital also wants to expand its international presence, with a focus on the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Western Balkans and EU candidate countries.
See more details here.
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