[REVISION HISTORY]
EU research and innovation funding developments
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2026-09-30 13:34 UTC → 2026-10-03 17:13 UTC ·
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The European Union continues to deploy significant funding through the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and the Horizon Europe program. While the EIT has allocated €70 million to 35 projects under its 2025 Higher Education Initiative, Horizon Europe has seen substantial recent developments. A €411 million investment was designated for 73 Horizon Europe projects across four categories: INFRASERV (€154m) for health and digital transformation, INFRADEV (€109m) for research infrastructure, INFRAEOSC (€85m) for open data sharing, and INFRATECH (€63m) for scientific instrumentation. These efforts target sectors such as climate resilience, agriculture, and manufacturing. To address budgetary constraints, the European Commission announced a €500 million boost for Horizon Europe to be implemented across 2026 and 2027, bringing the total budget for those two years to approximately €14.8 billion. This includes €260 million for the ‘Bridging Actions 2027’ initiative focusing on AI-driven energy systems, and €237 million for the ‘Nature-Positive Economy and Society’ call to support biodiversity. The funding increase follows reports that the program is currently unable to fund 75 per cent of high-quality grant proposals. Since 2021, the program has reportedly required over €150 billion in additional funding to support all worthy proposals, with applicant success rates declining from 17 per cent in 2022 to 10 per cent in 2025. Furthermore, concerns persist regarding equitable distribution, as countries in the widening group receive only about 5 per cent of European Research Council (ERC) grants. In response to record-breaking demand, the Commission has also allocated more than €210 million to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme under the ‘Choose Europe’ initiative. This investment aims to support over 700 researchers, following a 2026 call for postdoctoral fellowships that received 21,627 applications, the highest in over 40 years.
Versions
- 2026-10-03 17:13 UTC EU research and innovation funding developments
- 2026-09-30 13:34 UTC EU research and innovation funding developments
- 2026-09-21 18:42 UTC European Union research and innovation funding
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