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Commission’s R&D flagship was justifiably celebratory—now comes the hard part, says Daniel Spichtinger
This year’s European Research and Innovation Days conference was the first to allow in-person attendance since before the pandemic. That alone was enough to create a feel-good mood. But beyond this, the European Commission has always made the annual event an exercise in accentuating the positives.
This iteration was framed as a celebration of 40 years of R&I within the EU, harking back to the launch of the first R&I framework programme in 1984. The achievements since then were showcased: 1.8 million proposals received, 126,000 grants signed and 700,000 participants involved.
When worries did surface—of being outpaced in emerging technologies, of precarious research careers and lagging nations, of failing to give research a budget to match the expectations placed on it—they were presented as opportunities.
The Commission also used the event to unveil the 2025-27 strategic plan for Horizon Europe, the current R&I framework programme. The plan focuses on the green and digital transitions and creating “a more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe”. Another significant release was guidance for the responsible use of artificial intelligence, including a recommendation against using generative AI in “sensitive activities” such as peer review.
These were largely positively received, with the League of European Research Universities—never shy to criticise EU policy—praising the EU’s flexible approach and commitment to academic self-governance in its draft document on research security.
There is a lot to feel good about. Horizon Europe really is a “game changer” worldwide, to quote Simon Draper, New Zealand’s ambassador to the EU, who described the country’s recent association deal as its biggest science policy event in a generation. Statistics show that associated countries have above-average success rates in the framework programmes.
The presence of the Commission’s executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager and economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, alongside more usual suspects such as research commissioner Iliana Ivanova and staff from the research directorate, also showed the EU’s ambitions for R&I and the significance of research in wider policy thinking.
Budget talk
This ambition was clear in discussions on the budget, with evidence from the recently completed evaluation of Horizon 2020, the R&I framework programme for 2014-20, given as a compelling rationale for more research funding. Every euro invested in Horizon 2020 generated five in benefits, but the evaluation also showed that many high-quality proposals went unfunded due to lack of resources.
The same will surely be true for Horizon Europe, highlighting the need for an increased budget in Framework Programme 10, due to begin in 2028. Organisations advocating for research have suggested €200 billion—but with Horizon Europe’s budget already under pressure, achieving this solely through the traditional source of member states’ contributions looks nigh on impossible.
In this context, one of the most interesting suggestions came from Gentiloni, who floated the idea of a Next Generation EU-type instrument for investment in research, based on the €800bn supplied to aid recovery from the pandemic. This is a bold proposal, but some voices in frugal (or should that be stingy) member states are probably loath to see the Next Generation EU experience repeated, mostly due to ideological concerns about creating what’s been called a ‘Schuldenunion’, or debt union.
Building support
When realising policy ambitions depends on the decisions and priorities of member states, it helps to remember the political realities outside the hall—particularly as most sessions were panel discussions, with audience participation limited to questions submitted online. The explicit support voiced from Belgium, which currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU member states, is a good start but is not enough.
One way to build support for EU R&I funding is to improve research across the continent. In this context, it was good to see the RI Days giving countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, the focus of EU efforts to widen participation in research, a platform to highlight their use of diverse funding sources and reforms to their national R&I ecosystems.
As we start the long and winding road towards Framework Programme 10, securing widespread support from member states’ top decision-makers will be vital to realising the full potential of EU-funded research. For this, those who advocate for research will need to make themselves heard not just in Brussels but also with less friendly audiences in finance ministries across Europe.
Daniel Spichtinger is an independent EU research policy specialist and former member of the European Commission’s open science unit
This article also appeared in Research Europe