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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You can read the full archive of this blog here.
The European Commission has launched a call for applications to the board of the European Innovation Council (EIC), which oversees the implementation of the agency’s funding programmes.
The EIC board, which comprises 15 to 20 members – from researchers to investors to public administration experts, is looking for candidates with “a strong deep tech focus and a strong track record in any of the areas of growing a deep tech company, corporate innovation, public sector transformation, venture capital, or research.”
The call will close on May 19.
Read the details here.
Systemic reforms brought by the European Universities Initiative must benefit the whole education system, the European University Association (EUA) said as it welcomed a draft report by the European Parliament on the subject.
“It is very positive that the draft presented by the rapporteur, MEP Laurence Farreng, highlights the EUI’s role in promoting systemic reform,” the EUA said in a statement. “These reforms must benefit the sector as a whole, including higher education institutions that do not take part in an alliance, by dismantling barriers to cooperation for all.”
The report, entitled ‘A new vision for the European Universities alliances,’ is set to be analysed by the Parliament’s committee on culture and education.
The EUA also highlighted the need to ensure that funding remains strong under the EU’s new Framework Programme and that new alliances can be established. The organisation is also supportive of the report’s call to retain the EUI as one of the flagships of Erasmus+, thanks to funding sources outside the EU existing schemes.
Read the full statement here.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund has mobilised more than €2.6 billion in additional investment, primarily from private investors, for early-stage technology start-ups, the European Commission says.
This equates to “over EUR 3 of additional investment for each EURO of direct investment through the EIC Fund,” the Commission wrote in a report assessing the impact of the EIC.
The EIC Fund has completed more than 150 investment rounds in start-ups and SMEs, including 60 last year.
The Fund allocated €830 million for quantum and semiconductors, €725 million for artificial intelligence, and €700 million for energy generation and storage solutions.
Read the full report here.
The European Commission announced last week the winners of the 11th edition of the European Prize for Women Innovators in efforts to recognise the role of women in bolstering EU innovation.
The top prize was awarded to Agnès Arbat, the co-founder of Oxolife, a company that is developing innovative drugs to enhance fertility.
“For eleven years, we have celebrated exceptional women driving innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe,” EU research commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva said in a statement. “I hope their success encourages more women in Europe and beyond to pursue innovation and leadership.”
Read the full statement here.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) welcomed 37 new members to its Trusted Investor Network, which now gathers 111 investors managing over €336 billion in assets.
The network brings together venture capital firms, family offices, corporate and long-term institutional investors willing to co-invest in deep-tech companies alongside the EIC Fund.
It was established in 2024 with 71 investors.
Read the full statement here.
Elected members of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are calling on the Trump administration to stop funding cuts, layoffs in federal agencies, the removal of public access to data and overall pressure on scientists on ideological grounds.
“We see real danger in this moment. We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry,” their statement reads. “We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated.”
The working group is now gathering signatories.
“We call on the administration to cease its wholesale assault on US science, and we urge the public to join this call,” it writes. “We all benefit from science, and we all stand to lose if the nation’s research enterprise is destroyed.”
Read the full statement here.
Switzerland has provisionally signed an agreement to join EU programmes as part of efforts to strengthen and expand bilateral cooperation in Horizon Europe, Euratom and Digital Europe retroactively from 2025, ITER from 2026 and Erasmus+ from 2027.
“Once fully associated, Swiss participants will be able to receive direct EU funding and lead consortia on the same footing as entities from EU member states,” a government statement reads.
Read the full statement here.
The European Commission should maintain funding for collaborative research and innovation projects as the centrepiece of FP10, according to the League of European Research Universities (LERU).
“In an era of geopolitical tensions, the European Commission needs to continue stimulating international R&I collaboration,” Kurt Deketelaere, secretary general of LERU, said in a statement. “Precompetitive, collaborative R&I funding is the best tool for ensuring these important international linkages in FP10.”
LERU says FP10 should have open and strategic calls that are less prescriptive than in Horizon Europe, in order to meet industry-driven and societal needs. LERU also says the Commission should appoint portfolio managers for each priority area.
Read the full statement here.
Ireland and other EU member states should “actively engage” in shaping the ongoing negotiations on the future of EU research funding, according to Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council (ERC).
“I strongly urge you to support ambitious proposals for increased investment in research and innovation at European level,” Leptin told delegates at the ERC Impact Forum in Dublin. Ireland will hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in 2026, when budget negotiations for the EU’s next multiannual budget will intensify.
“The future prosperity of Ireland – and indeed, Europe's competitiveness – depends significantly on national governments investing confidently in their own research base,” said Leptin.
Read the full speech here.
On Wednesday, MEPs approved the Parliament’s guidelines for the 2026 EU budget with 441 votes in favour. The guidelines call for “increased funding to be provided under Horizon Europe to fund at least 50 % of all excellent proposals.”
The Parliament says the EU should continue to support researchers and companies, particularly SMEs, in bringing new innovations to market and scaling up, while also preventing brain drain from Europe.
“We have delivered a strong position, showing the Commission and the Council that Parliament is a serious player, fully prepared to defend the priorities of our citizens," the European Parliament's rapporteur for the 2026 EU budget, Andrzej Halicki, said.
The Commission is expected to present its proposal for the 2026 budget in June 2025.
More here.
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