HORIZON BLOG: European R&D policy newsbytes

The UK government intends to allocate a minimum £30 million with the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund to help local leaders in key UK regions target science and technology funding towards regional strengths. 

“With backing for more regions to come we can unlock the new jobs and business opportunities that are central to boosting the economic growth at the heart of our Plan for Change,” said UK secretary for science and technology Peter Kyle. 

Read the full statement here. 

The European Commission’s draft regulation on the new Competitiveness Fund (ECF) needs to be revised so that research stakeholders are able to understand how it will link to Horizon Europe, the League for European Research Universities (LERU) said in a statement. 

“The real work begins now: we must preserve the strong elements of the European Commission’s [Horizon Europe] proposal and work to improve the weaker ones,” said Kurt Deketelaere, secretary general of LERU. “The ECF proposal must be rewritten, because right now, nobody understands it and nobody can explain it.”  

LERU expressed concerns, for example, over the links between Horizon Europe and the mega-fund, the role of “moonshot” projects, the position of dual-use technology, the directionality in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and the Commission’s attempt to weaken the role of the European Research Council president. 

Read the full statement here. 

The European Commission has approved up to €403 million in state aid from France, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia to boost innovation in medical devices, particularly those integrating advanced digital and artificial intelligence features.

The funding is expected to leverage an additional €826 million in private investments. The project will focus on technologies that support predictive, preventive, and personalised medicine, with the goal of reducing healthcare costs and strengthening the EU’s medical technology value chain while contributing to the EU’s green and digital transitions.

“[This project] will make healthcare better, faster, and cheaper [...], will strengthen the entire chain in the EU and help the green transition of the medical devices’ industry. The aid we approved today enables investments in the next generation of medical devices, while preserving competition in the Single Market,” said Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition.

More details here.

The UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have launched a new roadmap aimed at expanding national computing capacity and positioning the UK as a global leader in AI and data-driven research.

The plan includes up to £2 billion in investments to create computing ecosystem and a further £750 million to fund a new national supercomputing service based in Edinburgh.

The roadmap aims to accelerate research in areas such as health diagnostics, climate science, and energy innovation.

More details here.

EU-LIFE, which brings together 17 research institutes in the life sciences, is calling on the EU to strengthen the proposed budget for the next iteration of Horizon Europe, due to start in 2028.  

The life sciences organisations say the European Parliament and the Council should work towards reinforcing the €175 billion budget proposed by the European Commission last week.   

“Although an increase in absolute numbers, [the €175-billion figure] remains less than 10% of the whole [multiannual budget] and is still far from the broadly supported minimum of €200 billion proposed by leading independent experts and the R&I sector, including EU-LIFE,” the statement reads. 

EU-LIFE also complains about plans to subordinate Horizon Europe to the governance of the new European Competitiveness Fund, the “attack” on the European Research Council’s independence, the lack of adequate investment in early-stage research, and the lack of clarity on the measures to reduce top-down, prescriptive calls. 

Read the full statement here. 

The European Union and Japan have committed to accelerating the negotiations on the latter’s association to the Horizon Europe programme “in good faith” following the EU-Japan Summit 2025. 

The deal aims to “enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in science and technology,” the European Commission said in a statement. 

The two parties also plan on boosting dialogue on advanced materials and will soon sign a Memorandum of Cooperation on information sharing regarding hydrogen safety between the Joint Research Centre, the EU’s science hub, and the High-Pressure Gas Safety Institute of Japan. 

Read the full statement here. 

The Coimbra Group has welcomed the increase in the combined budget share for Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe but wants further details on the precise budgetary breakdown within the programme. 

The budget for both programmes is expected to rise from about 9% in the 2021-27 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) to almost 11% in the proposed 2028-2034 MFF. 

Coimbra also calls for more details on how the governance and structure of Horizon Europe and the proposed Competitiveness Fund will be articulated. The organisation is “firmly reiterating our caution against any attempts to operationally integrate the two instruments or to align their strategic directions.” 

Read the full statement here.

The European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) has urged the EU executive to clarify how decision-making related to FP10 will work within the European Competitiveness Fund and how funds will be granted between the different instruments. Consultants also call for transparent rules to be set for the default use of lump sums, as well as more transparency on how grants will be awarded after 2027.  

“Transparent governance, efficient instruments, and stable funding will be key to turning this ambition into real impact for researchers, businesses, and society,” said Virginie Robin, board member of the EAIC. 

Read the full statement here. 

The board of the European University Association (EUA) is calling on all parties to engage in “meaningful, peaceful and constructive dialogue” in efforts to resolve the situation that Serbian universities, which continue to mobilise against the government’s pressure on research, are facing. 

Citing the withholding of state funding for operational costs and the recent introduction of a new regulation restricting the amount of time academic staff at institutions can spend on research activities, the EUA pointed to “clear infringements of university autonomy.” 

Read the full statement here. 

South Korea becomes the first Asian country to associate to Horizon Europe, EU's flagship research and innovation programme. 

Korean researchers and organisations will be able to join and lead international research consortia, access funding and collaborate with leading research institutions across Europe and beyond. Korea will also contribute financially to the programme's budget.

Korea has been benefiting from a transitional arrangement that entered into force on 1 January 2025. Korean entities have been able to apply and be evaluated as prospective beneficiaries in Horizon Europe proposals for all calls implementing Pillar II already in the 2025 budget. 

More details here.