This live blog is tracking the latest developments in European research and innovation programmes, including the broader debate on the future of R&D policy and funding in the next multiannual budget due to start in 2028. Beyond that, we look at other EU policies with significant research and innovation components in climate, digital, agriculture and regional development. In addition, national governments often come up with new R&D policies, decide to fund new research avenues, and set up international cooperation deals. This blog aims to keep you informed on all of that and more.
If you have any tips, please email them at [email protected].
You can read the full archive of this blog here.
The National Digital Exchange (NDX) is a new digital hub being built to help improve the UK public sector’s procurement of technology.
Currently in early development, the hub is set to modernise how the public sector invests £26 billion a year on technology. It hopes to save up to £1.2 billion annually through enabling hospitals, schools and government departments to rate suppliers and make faster decisions on which tech to buy.
In a major shift, the platform aims to use an AI powered engine to match teams with suppliers based on what they actually need, significantly reducing processing times. Additionally, this should all contribute to opening the market to more UK tech firms, with a target of a 40% increase in small business involvement in government contracts.
Through including “real reviews, upfront pricing and smart AI to match buyers with the right suppliers in hours”, NDX will contribute towards “cutting waste, boosting innovation and backing British tech”, says Feryal Clark, Minister for AI and Digital Government.
Full press release here
The Commission received 734 responses from 43 countries, as well as 166 responses to their call for evidence on the future European Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Science. An additional questionnaire targeting the scientific community was answered by 568 respondents.
The strategy aims to make science in the EU more impactful, through the effective adoption of AI. Contributions to the consultation covered seven main areas including:
Access to infrastructure
Access to talent
The European Data ecosystem
Interdisciplinary partnerships
Improving AI skills
Coordination between member states
Enhancing international cooperation.
Feedback from the consultations is under analysis and will contribute towards defining the priorities of the strategy.
“Our goal is to make sure AI supports scientists and inspires innovators”, says Ekaterina Zaharieva, commissioner for startups, research and innovation.
Further details can be found here
The UK government has announced a £86 billion package to fund scientific and technology fields ranging from new drug treatments to longer-lasting batteries.
The investment, which is part of the wider Plan for Change, is expected to reach £22.5 billion each year by 2029-30 and includes up to £500 million to create regional innovation clusters across the UK.
The announcement comes ahead of the government’s Spending Review designed to stimulate the UK’s fastest-growing sectors, from life science to advance manufacturing to defence.
Read the full statement here.
Horizon Europe is in for a small boost next year if the European Commission’s proposal to set its budget at €12.97 billion is approved.
The proposed budget is €211 million bigger than this year’s. But the increase is all but certain as the budget will have to be approved by the EU Council of member states and the European Parliament. Most years, this process sees the member states make small cuts to Commission’s proposal.
A part of this proposed increase will be funded by redeploying €147,7 million of unused Horizon funds. Around half of this money, €73,3 million, will finance the European Research Council’s Advanced Grants call that next year will target researchers from abroad under the Choose Europe initiative.
The rest of the money will allow for small top-ups in other parts of the European Research Council and Horizon’s Pillar II for collaborative research.
Other draft EU programme budgets include:
€1.00 billion for the European Defence Fund
€1 billion for Digital Europe
€299 million for InvestEU
€2.33 billion for the space programme
€4.3 billion for the Erasmus+ education and mobility programme.
A full break down of each of the proposed budget can be found here.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is expected to speak today at a conference organised by STOA, the European Parliament’s panel for the future of science and technology (STOA).
The discussion will focus on how research and innovation can shape Europe’s competitiveness at a time when R&D stakeholders are putting up a fight against Commission plans to fold the EU Framework Programme for research and innovation into a new Competitiveness Fund.
The event will be livestreamed here.
In 2023, EU countries exported €59.4 billion worth of research and development services to countries outside of the EU and imported €102.6 billion, resulting in a €43.2 billion trade deficit. Both exports and imports increased compared with 2022, by 9.0% and 16.6%, respectively.
Nearly half of all EU exports went to the US, while Switzerland and the UK were the next largest partners for exports.
Most EU imports came from the US (5.0%). The UK (9.6%) and India (6.4%) came second and third.
Read the full press release here.
The UK is looking for ways to improve access to scale-up finance for UK science and technology companies, as the EU is also making strides in boosting public and private funding for start-ups.
Members of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee hosted a discussion this week on the role of the National Wealth Fund, the British Business Bank and pension funds, in increasing scale-up capital.
Due to current economic blockages, “The markets will always be more attractive in the US, where the liquidity and volume is much higher”, Sir Jonathan Symonds, chair of the board at GSK, told members of the House of Lords in a hearing on Tuesday.
This comes after the recent publishing of the European Commission’s start-up and scale-up strategy, which aims to boost the EU’s capacity to grow deep tech companies. The strategy incentivises companies to remain in the EU by addressing urgent financial and regulatory obstacles.
More details here.
The European Commission should help provide researchers with an equitable access to AI infrastructure, the European University Association (EUA) says.
“A distributed approach with transparent modes of access, for example through competitive, European-wide calls for projects, would be a sensible choice,” the EUA says in a statement.
While the Commission’s push for increasing private investments, the EUA says the EU should ensure that research activities are also financed through core public funding to avoid any private monopoly from vendors. “In particular when it comes to attributing access to the AI factories, the independent voice of researchers must be a defining element, for example through a scientific council or similar body,” the EUA says.
Read the full statement here.
The League of European Research Universities (LERU) says “more” needs to be done to make Europe the world’s most supportive environment for technology companies.
The research lobby group said the success of the EU's new strategy on start-ups and scale-ups, presented last month, will depend on the “long-overdue” completion of the European single market, especially when it comes to capital, taxation, patents, labour and procurement.
“It’s only by addressing structural gaps and building on Europe’s strengths that the EU can become a genuine leader in global innovation,” Kurt Deketelaere, secretary general of LERU, said in a statement.
Read the full statement here.
The European Commission is looking for experts to evaluate and monitor Horizon Europe proposals and projects.
An online info day is set to take place on June 19.
More details here.
Receive the Funding Newswire [full access requires a subscription] each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.