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 European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, ALLEA, appointed on March 16 Tatjana König as the new director of the secretariat.
König has previously served as managing director of the Falling Walls Foundation and a member of the executive board of the Körber-Stiftung,
“I am delighted to be appointed director of ALLEA and to work with all its member academies in jointly strengthening the role of science in society, in ensuring scientific integrity, and defending academic freedom, which is more important than ever,” König said in a statement.
More details here.
Swiss and Brazilian policymakers met in Bern this week to discuss further strengthening their countries’ collaboration in education, research and innovation.
In this seventh meeting of the joint committee, the policymakers discussed strategic plans and explored ways to further develop joint funding instruments.
Brazil is Switzerland's leading partner in Latin America, with the Swiss National Science Foundation funding around 200 joint projects between 2019 and 2024.
Read more here.
The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures has unveiled a new briefing outlining its strategy and plans for the future.
The body is designed to coordinate investment in scientific equipment across the continent.
It’s set out four priorities, including consolidation of infrastructure, governance improvement, and bolstering its advice role.
A group of research and university lobbying bodies have warned against the demise of so-called smart specialisation strategies in the next EU research and innovation framework programme, set to start in 2028.
The idea is to focus resources building up strengths regions already have in research and innovation, rather than scattering money more thinly.
But under current European Commission plans, the concept “faces strategic ambiguity and risks being reduced to an optional territorial reference,” the letter warns.
A new report by the European Research Council (ERC) has delved into how to use artificial intelligence in health research, looking at 238 ERC projects funded by €450 million.
“The study shows how AI-based models, clinical decision-support systems and platforms – including machine learning and deep learning – are being developed to enable earlier disease detection and more personalised risk prediction, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment,” the report says.
Fames, one of the first semiconductor pilot lines funded under the EU Chips Act, has launched its second annual open-access call aimed at actors from industry, research and academia.
Fames is coordinated by CEA-Leti, the French public research institute for electronics and information technologies, based in Grenoble. Users gain access to a range of semiconductor technologies, including testing, process design kits, demonstrators and manufacturing capabilities.
The call will close on 22 May 2026. For details of the call and the available technologies, see here.
Belgian nanoelectronics research institute Imec has launched a consortium bringing together 26 European university groups to focus on design automation and chip architecture research for the next generation of chips.
The work will centre around a paradigm introduced by Imec known as CMOS 2.0, which expands the chipmaking toolbox beyond traditional transistor scaling and its associated scaling challenges.
Within the consortium, 26 PhDs will be funded, and it will also make use of the EU-funded NanoIC pilot line based at Imec.
The consortium includes the likes of the National Technical University of Athens, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Universiteit Gent. Full details here.
Algeria has successfully concluded negotiations with the EU on its participation in PRIMA, the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area, for the 2025-27 period.
Algeria is expected to contribute €6 million to the partnership between 2025 and 2027. The deal will allow Algerian entities such as universities, research centres, foundations and businesses to fully participate in PRIMA projects.
Algeria has been involved in PRIMA since its launch in 2018 and has participated in 99 out of 269 PRIMA-funded projects.
The European Committee of the Regions is calling on the EU to adopt a place-based strategy for start-ups and scale-ups to ensure innovators in all parts of Europe can benefit.
The call comes in response to the EU start-ups and scale-up strategy the European Commission launched in May 2025. While the committee welcomed the strategy, it stressed that access to innovation finance, talent, infrastructure and networks in Europe is unequal and failure to address these gaps could undermine EU’s long-term competitiveness.
“Too many European startups never scale – not because they lack ideas, but because their local ecosystems lack skills, capital, and connections,” said Jozef Viskupič , the committee’s rapporteur on the strategy.
Read the full opinion here.
Nine finalists have been selected for the European Prize for Women Innovators, which is jointly managed by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). The winners will be revealed at the European Innovation Council (EIC) Summit in June.
The competition has been divided into three categories: EIC Rising Innovators for women under 35 with a winning prize of €50,000, EIC Women Innovators for women founders across the EU and association countries for €100,000, and EIT Women Leadership for members of the EIT Community for €50,000.
More details here.
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