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.
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The EuroHPC Summit 2026, which was set to bring together key European players in high-performance computing between March 10 and 12 in Paphos, Cyprus, has been postponed due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The summit “is postponed until further notice due to the evolving situation in the Middle East, which had led to travel disruption and limited flight availability,” the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking says in a statement.
Other events of the Cypriot EU presidency have been postponed or cancelled. The informal meeting of research and innovation ministers, on the other hand, appears to be maintained on March 31.
More details here.
The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced its strategic collaboration with Mistral AI, a French artificial intelligence start-up founded in 2023, as part of efforts to speed up innovation in Europe.
According to the EPO, the collaboration has already helped boost the processing of European patent applications. “EPO experts and Mistral AI’s technical teams have co-operated closely on a new solution, which integrates state-of-the-art optical character recognition developed by Mistral AI into the EPO’s workflows,” it says in a statement.
More details here.
The European Commission will award €16.3 million to fund 49 projects under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), in order to bring researchers closer to schools and the wider public.
The aim is to organise in 40 countries the 2026 and 2027 editions of the European Researchers’ Night, a research communication and promotion event taking place across member states and countries associated to Horizon Europe, and implement Researchers at Schools, an MSCA initiative which brings researchers into primary and secondary classrooms.
The first projects are set to start at the earliest in spring 2026.
More details here.
A new type of innovation challenge set up by the European Innovation Council (EIC) has received 709 applications, the council has announced.
The EIC’s advanced innovation challenges are designed to get teams competing against each other to develop new technologies, with €300,000 for teams that make it to the first round this year, and up to €2.7 million for the most promising in 2027.
In February, the EIC closed applications for challenges in two areas: accelerating physical artificial intelligence, and reducing the use of animals in medical testing. Nearly seven in ten applicants are companies, with Germany, Italy and the Netherland submitting the highest number of proposals.
Applicants should be informed of the results by May.
The European Investment Fund (EIF) has committed €50 million to Join Capital’s third fund, its largest investment yet in defence.
The investment is supported by the Defence Equity Facility, a €175 million initiative co-financed by the European Defence Fund which sees the EIF act as an anchor investor in venture capital funds supporting European defence technologies.
Join Capital’s Fund III, targeting €235 million, will invest in 25 early-stage deeptech startups across Europe developing technologies in defence, dual-use, security and space.
See more details here.
The European Innovation Council’s (EIC) Global Business Expansion Programme has announced a business mission for 12 EIC-backed start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs in South Korea.
The business expansion programme, beginning on April 8, will feature three months of structured coaching, an online academy and an onsite mission week in Seoul in June.
The focus is on AI-enabled industrial innovation, advanced manufacturing, and commercialisation-oriented deep tech.
The call is open until March 25. More information is available here.
The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres has published its position on the next Horizon Europe programme, calling on the EU to ensure sufficient support for fundamental science and earlier-stage research.
The association wants the next Horizon Europe, due to start in 2028, to prioritise low-technology readiness level projects and ensure financing for fundamental research is not channelled to policy priority-driven programming.
“Horizon Europe 2028-34 needs to retain its distinctive research-driven identity alongside industrial policy focused instruments,” the paper says.
Read the full position paper here.
The European Commission has put forward a proposal for an Industrial Accelerator Act, a set of legislation incentivising EU industry to adopt cleaner, European-made technologies and products.
The proposals include using public procurement to boost demand for EU clean tech industry and products, as well as simplifying permitting for industrial projects, among other measures.
Read more here.
Spain has updated its position paper on the next iteration of the Framework Programme for research and innovation, warning the EU should balance budgetary flexibility with predictability of funding.
The government is now advocating independent minimum funding allocations for each sub-programme.
“The proposed degree of budgetary flexibility does not appear adequate for aligning national or regional priorities,” its statement reads. “While flexibility is necessary to address unforeseen priorities, the legal basis should provide greater budgetary definition. The indicative nature of the proposed budget, rather than the ceilings that were previously applied, creates excessive uncertainty.”
More details here.
Digital Science, a technology company which provides data and insights to the research community, is partnering with the Higher Education Research Security Association (HERSA), as part of efforts to support UK universities in boosting research security, integrity and trust.
Digital Science will support the development of a new Trusted Research, Education and Innovation Security Hub for UK institutions, as well as enable export control and research security practitioners to exchange.
“Over time, we hope our collaboration with HERSA will help facilitate a national model of higher education collaboration across the research security landscape in the UK, enabling the sharing of best practice and lessons learned, within a peer-led community,” said Jonathan Breeze, Digital Science’s executive vice-president of academic at Digital Science.
More details here.
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