Horizon Europe is well underway, but the world of European R&D policy goes well beyond the confines of the €95.5 billion R&D programme. EU climate, digital, agriculture and regional policies all have significant research and innovation components. 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 next EU framework programme for research and innovation, FP10, should improve access to finance and business acceleration services and support European SMEs in accessing global markets.
Eureka, a network for international cooperation in R&D, bringing together 47 national governments to support international collaborative business-led innovation, published a position paper contributing to the design of FP10, which is due to start in 2028.
According to the paper, the EU should continue and strengthen the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs programme, a 7-year co-founded initiative supporting two funding programmes for innovative SMEs, in the next framework programme.
“Eureka should have a clear role and function for international research, development and innovation cooperation in FP10 through the continuation of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs,” reads the document.
Read the Eureka position paper here.
The European Council has adopted the Strategic Agenda for 2024-2029, confirming EU competitiveness and economic security as key priorities for the upcoming mandate.
EU leaders are pledging to reduce dependencies and build capacity in key technologies such as defence, space, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, health, biotech, and net-zero technologies. “Promoting innovation and research, as well as leveraging tools such as public procurement, is crucial in this endeavour,” the document states.
To unlock private funding, there are plans to further implement the Capital Markets Union, and continue efforts from the last mandate to reduce regulatory and bureaucratic burden on businesses, while taking the needs of start-ups and SMEs in to account.
Scaling up the European defence industry is another priority. The strategic agenda references joint procurement, flagship projects by member states, and improved access to public and private finance, which are all subject to ongoing initiatives.
Today, NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) launched a call for proposals seeking innovators with dual-use, deep technologies to address critical defence and security issues.
DIANA is accepting proposals in five challenge areas: energy and power, data security, sensing and surveillance, health and performance, and critical infrastructure and logistics. Also, it encourages projects’ themes related to space, resilience, and sustainability.
Selected innovators will receive funding, mentorship, and access to facilities, with applications due by August 9.
“Innovators across the Alliance are working on ground-breaking technologies to address the world's most complex and profound security challenges,” said Deeph Chana, DIANA’s managing director. “With our second group of Challenges, we're inviting the best and brightest minds across five deep technology focal areas to join the effort to build a more peaceful and resilient future.”
More details here.
On Friday, the Commission announced that 14 new European Universities alliances are joining the existing 50. The group will receive up to €14.4 million each over four years, involving over 560 institutions.
The 64 alliances, spanning 35 countries, promote cross-border education, innovation, and collaboration among students, academics, and various sectors with the aim to enhance Europe's higher education competitiveness.
“As Enrico Letta said in his report on the future of the single market, these alliances are central to what could become the fifth freedom of our Single Market – the freedom to learn, study, teach and do research without boundaries across the continent,” said research commissioner Iliana Ivanova.
“The 64 alliances are now building the future of Europe’s higher education sector,” she concluded.
More details here.
On Wednesday, the European Commission awarded four European innovative AI start-ups as winners of the Large AI Grand Challenge, sharing a prize of €1 million and 8 million computational hours to boost AI development in Europe.
The Commission received a total of 94 proposals, showcasing the competitive nature of Europe’s AI landscape.
The chosen start-ups - Lingua Custodia (France), Unbabel (Portugal), Tilde (Latvia), and Textgain (Belgium) - specialise in fintech, multilingual support, machine translation, AI-powered chatbots, and predictive text analytics, contributing to advancements in various sectors including finance, language technologies, and hate speech analysis.
Commissioner Thierry Breton presented the awards in a ceremony at Berlaymont in Brussels.
More details here.
On Tuesday, the Commission published a document outlining strategic actions to boost European hydrogen economy, including supporting early-stage Hydrogen Valleys, enhancing data-driven decision-making, and collaborating on the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for green hydrogen.
Additionally, initiatives like the European Hydrogen Academy and significant funding efforts aim to bolster over 120 hydrogen projects, fostering international cooperation on clean hydrogen deployment and market development.
The European Union aims to have at least 50 Hydrogen Valleys operational or under construction by 2030, focusing on local renewable hydrogen supply and demand.
"EU is at the cutting edge of hydrogen technologies thanks to long-term investment into research and innovation,” said research commissioner Iliana Ivanova. “Hydrogen Valleys are another important step forward.”
More details here.
Yesterday, the Commission announced the launch of the Climate City Capital Hub to financially support cities participating in the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.
This hub will focus on engaging public and private capital and addressing both mitigation and adaptation projects.
“It is great to see the EU Missions on Cities and on Adaptation to Climate Change come together and join forces,” said research commissioner Iliana Ivanova.
“With the Climate City Capital Hub, we will enhance our support to trailblazing cities that chart the course to climate neutrality with their mitigation and adaptation plans,” she said.
More details here.
The next EU framework programme for research and innovation, FP10, should eliminate EIT “flowback” requirements that are aimed at securing returns on investments, since they are detrimental to public institutions like universities, CESAER says.
CESAER, a body representing more than 50 of Europe’s leading science and technology universities, published a position paper contributing to the design FP10, which is due to start in 2028.
As political controversy is mounting around calls to revamp the EIT or merge parts of it with the EIC in FP10, the university lobby group CESAER wants to see the EU revitalising the EIT and ensure its relevance.
For that scope, CESAER proposes a three-step strategy: returning to the primary mission of EIT, reassessing financing of EIT and enhancing synergies.
As for the second step, the group urges the EU institutions and member states to ensure sustainable funding that balances both competitive and non-competitive streams, allowing universities to take risks and innovate in supporting talent across diverse career paths in research and innovation.
“It is imperative to move away from a profit-focus and remove flowback requirements and adopt a more flexible approach focused on effectively funding innovation ecosystems and training and education outcomes,” reads the document.
Read the CESAER position paper here.
Last week, the Commission unveiled SAVE, a new Euratom project aimed at advancing nuclear fuel diversification in Europe.
With a €10 million EU contribution, the project includes 17 partners from seven EU Member States and Ukraine.
“The Euratom Research and Training Programme is providing crucial support to our industry in the quest for reliable alternative fuel for reactors in EU Member States and Ukraine that until now needed fuel from Russia to operate,” said research commissioner Iliana Ivanova.
More details here.
Today, the Commission has disbursed €2.967 billion to support 39 energy projects across 10 Member States, focusing on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas reduction.
The funding initiative aims to help the EU move towards climate neutrality by 2050.
The money comes from the Modernisation Fund, a EU’s instrument that supports thirteen lower-income Member States in their transition to climate neutrality. Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia are the beneficiary states of today’s Commission allocation.
“By supporting this group of Member States in modernising their energy systems, we continue to move forward on our decarbonisation path via investment into clean technologies that also make us competitive in the long run,” said Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President for European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight.
More details here.
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