EU legislation sets out how regional funds can be used for R&D, but red tape means few have tried these routes
In the map: investment for jobs and growth goal (the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund) eligibility, 2021-2027. Photo credits: European Union
Synergies are a great idea on paper, but in practice tapping the links between different EU funds has proved difficult - and not for the lack of trying.
For the last five years or so, the European Commission’s research directorate has been mapping routes for the €226 billion European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to back excellent research which the oversubscribed research programme, Horizon Europe, cannot. The task has been a bureaucratic nightmare, but there now five approved ways to do so.
The idea of exploiting ERDF for research is not new. The framework programmes have never had enough money to fund all the excellent proposals they receive. But despite various attempts, the potential hasn’t been realised. In 2022, the European Court of Auditors examined how synergies worked in the…
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