Máire Geoghegan-Quinn appeals to research chiefs Carlos Moedas and Jean-Eric Paquet to keep R&D programme focused on excellence, rather than even spread of winners

New features in cohesion funding include incentives for cross-border investment and a dramatically scaled down rulebook

The seal of excellence is as much a signifier of the EU’s R&D funding shortfall as it is of Europe’s high quality science. Now, the EU wants money from the cohesion programme to fill the funding gap and translate research to market