Future EU research funding: the clock is ticking

- High risk, negotiators fail to fix Horizon Europe architecture before EU elections -

Tomorrow’s discussion at the Competitiveness Council should give a clear sense of urgency to agree on the next European research and innovation programme “Horizon Europe” before the EU elections. The programme will play a vital role in levering investments and structuring European industrial research and innovation post-2020.  

We witness a clear acceleration of the global innovation race. In China, industrial investments in research and innovation went up 20% between 2017 and 2018, compared with only + 8% in the EU and + 9% in the US. Europe must do better to be on top of the curve.

BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer said: “It is very important that the architecture of the “Horizon Europe” programme is agreed among institutions before the EU elections. This would give enough time to prepare public-private partnerships for an effective start in January 2021. Unfortunately, the risk is very high that negotiators fail to agree before May. Tomorrow’s discussion at Competitiveness Council should give a clear sense of urgency. There is a lot at stake for European companies. Industry is ready to start working with the European Commission to have the programme ready on day one. We urge EU negotiators to speed up the work and to overcome last institutional bottlenecks as soon as possible.”

Read our Message to the Competitiveness Council meeting on 18-19 February 2019.