Israeli participation in Horizon Europe halves as boycotts bite Israel’s participation in the EU’s €93.5 billion Horizon Europe research and innovation programme has halved since it began in 2021, data for 2025 shows, as the country’s wars on Iran and Lebanon…

Israeli participation in Horizon Europe has halved as academic boycotts linked to the war in Gaza begin to affect research cooperation across Europe. New data points to growing pressure on universities and partnerships:

MEPs adopt long-term budget report with €200 billion for next Horizon Europe The European Parliament’s budget committee has adopted an interim report and compromise amendments calling for a stronger, predictable EU budget from 2028. This includes a larger pot for the next…

MEPs are calling for a €200 billion budget for the next Horizon Europe as part of their position on the EU’s long-term budget after 2027. The proposal now feeds into negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework:

ERC announces stricter application rules for 2027 calls The European Research Council (ERC) has announced stricter eligibility rules for its grant calls, as it contends with an increasing number of applications and growing pressure on peer reviewers. As a…

The European Research Council is tightening application rules for the 2027 calls, affecting how often researchers can apply and when they can return after rejection. Changes that will shape planning for future ERC applicants: buff.ly/Aj5n5BR

Orbán election defeat brings hope Hungary’s Horizon Europe ban will be lifted Hungarian academics are hopeful that an EU ruling banning 30 institutions, including 21 universities, from Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ will finally be lifted with the election of a new…

Hungarian academics hope Péter Magyar's election victory and the Tisza Party's success could help lift the Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ ban affecting 30 institutions. Next steps depend on reforms to restore academic autonomy and meet EU transparency milestones: buff.ly/Oyntzab

A new study from CentraleSupélec proposes a different way to understand deep-tech start-ups, with lessons for public and private funders.
Read more: buff.ly/jokmkAT

Viewpoint: it's time to experiment with how Europe funds science In the next few months, the EU will set the shape of its next Framework Programme for research and innovation. The institutions are arguing about the size of the budget and what to spend it on, but…

Europe is preparing its next research programme, but how often do we test whether funding decisions themselves work as intended? Sam Bogerd argues the EU should create an experimental metascience unit inside the European Commission to trial new approaches across FP10.

Insider’s View: mentoring scheme fills a technology transfer skills gap Laura Powell, a technology transfer associate at the University of Southampton in the UK, went into the TenU Rise mentoring programme thinking mainly of the practical things she wanted to learn. At…

The TenU Rise mentoring scheme is helping technology transfer professionals build skills in negotiation, licensing and commercialisation pathways often learned only on the job.
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Funding radar: European Defence Fund to launch bottom-up calls The European Commission will launch two bottom-up calls for defence innovation this week, to be funded as part of the €8 billion European Defence Fund (EDF).The total funding pot for the calls, due…

Two new bottom-up calls under the European Defence Fund are opening this week, offering €62 million to support disruptive defence innovation projects led by SMEs and research organisations across a wide range of technologies.
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In Berlin, a historic industrial site is being used to test a new model for industrial R&D, bringing start-ups and researchers into a working factory environment.
buff.ly/jokmkAT

Anchor Greenlanders in Arctic climate research, experts tell EU ahead of policy update The European Commission is looking to strengthen Greenland’s role in Arctic research, both as a participant in EU-funded projects and as a unique site for gathering information on climate change and…

As geopolitical attention around Greenland grows and the EU prepares an update of its Arctic policy, the question of how Greenland participates in European climate research — and benefits from it — is moving higher on the agenda:

How EU universities could be the backbone of AI sovereignty? European universities could play an invaluable role in developing sovereign capabilities that the continent will rely on, particularly artificial intelligence (AI). Many of these centres of learning…

What role can universities play in Europe’s technological sovereignty in areas such as AI? A key question at the Udice European Forum in Brussels on 26 March.

Data corner: European patenting activity growth is driven by China and Korea The European Patent Office (EPO) is receiving growing numbers of patent applications, hitting the 200,000 mark for the first time ever in 2025, with application rates from outside of Europe…

#Patent applications to the European Patent Office passed 200,000 for the first time in 2025, with the fastest growth coming from China and South Korea.
The trend reflects shifting momentum in strategic technology fields such as #AI and #batteries:

Aviation partnership hopes for central role in EU moonshot The EU’s Clean Aviation joint undertaking (JU) is hoping that its successor public-private partnership will have a central role in steering funding under Horizon Europe and the European…

Aviation is one of the sectors expected to feature in the EU’s future “moonshot” initiatives under the next Framework Programme.
The Clean Aviation partnership hopes its successor could help steer investment from research to deployment:

EU to pilot €120M fast-paced disruptive defence innovation scheme The European Commission last week proposed a €120 million pilot scheme for rapidly delivering disruptive military innovation as it continues to revamp how the EU funds defence. The new grant scheme,…

The European Commission is preparing a €120 million pilot scheme to fast-track funding for disruptive #defence #innovation, with grants expected to reach start-ups within four months. The Agile instrument targets technologies such as AI, quantum and drones:

EIT Manufacturing looks to establish new legal entity, CEO says After filing for liquidation, EIT Manufacturing is looking to establish a new legal entity to ensure it can carry on backing innovation projects in a critical field for Europe’s economic…

After filing for liquidation, EIT Manufacturing is exploring the creation of a new legal entity to continue supporting its innovation projects across Europe.
Whether that happens now depends on backing from the EIT and policymakers in Brussels.
More: buff.ly/vj5W8bk

Mapping Cyprus’ DNA Understanding the genetic blueprint of a population is one of the central challenges of modern biomedical science. In Cyprus, this effort is being led by biobank.cy Center of Excellence for Biobanking...

Cyprus is building one of its largest biomedical research efforts to date through the CYPROME project. With data from over 12,000 volunteers, researchers are identifying population-specific genetic variants to support more personalised healthcare and prevention: sciencebusiness.net/news/mapping...

At today’s UDICE European Forum, discussions focused on how research-intensive universities contribute to Europe’s scientific and technological sovereignty, from deep tech start-ups to AI talent development and stronger links between research, industry and policy.

Research lobbies reject reassurances over Horizon Europe budget reshuffle Research Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva has reassured MEPs that countries associated to Horizon Europe will not lose out in a planned budget reallocation.

Research organisations warn a planned Horizon Europe budget reshuffle could damage MSCA calls now, even if balances with associated countries are corrected later in the programme: sciencebusiness.net/news/horizon...

Czech Academy of Sciences pursues more spin-outs with launch of joint-stock company The Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) is hoping to better capitalise on the research results of its 54 institutes with the launch of a new joint-stock company. CAS Innovations, set to launch in April, w...

The Czech Academy of Sciences is launching a joint-stock company to support spin-outs and bring private investment into technologies emerging from its institutes.
The aim is to help more companies grow directly out of public research.
🔍https://tinyurl.com/mr3snukr

Insider’s View: how a transatlantic spin-out chose Stockholm over Chicago The spatial biology spin-out CubaseBio has two academic parents. One is Joshua Weinstein, assistant professor of molecular engineering at the University of Chicago. The other is Björn Högberg, head of...

CubaseBio has academic roots in both Chicago and Stockholm, but chose Sweden to build the company, pointing to the role of local ecosystems, IP frameworks and EIC support in shaping deep tech spin-outs: sciencebusiness.net/news/r-d-fun...

Data Corner: central and eastern Europe does not get much out of the EIC The 13 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and afterwards have all struggled to catch up with the older member states when it comes to research funding. But the divide is particularly marked in the E...

Central and eastern Europe has secured just 6% of EIC Accelerator grants so far, pointing to a sharper east-west divide as the EU expands the EIC’s role: sciencebusiness.net/news/r-d-fun...

Data Corner: central and eastern Europe does not get much out of the EIC The 13 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and afterwards have all struggled to catch up with the older member states when it comes to research funding. But the divide is particularly marked in the E...

Central and eastern Europe has secured just 6% of EIC Accelerator grants so far, highlighting a sharper east-west divide as the EU prepares to expand the programme’s role in supporting start-ups.

Read more: sciencebusiness.net/news/r-d-fun...

EU’s clean tech Innovation Fund faces questions over design, strategy and impact The EU’s estimated €40 billion clean tech Innovation Fund has received a scathing review from the European Court of Auditors, as the EU prepares to extend it for another seven years from 2028. João Le...

A €40B clean #tech fund is central to the EU’s #climate strategy, but auditors warn delays, project failures and weak strategic planning are limiting its impact just as its future extension is being discussed: sciencebusiness.net/news/r-d-fun...

Save smart specialisation R&D strategies, regional associations tell EU A group of 12 European associations has called on the EU to ensure that Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3), which help regions coordinate R&D priorities, are maintained and reinforced during the…

Smart specialisation has shaped how regions set R&I priorities across Europe for over a decade.
Now, as the next EU budget takes shape, its role is becoming less clear:

ERC chief welcomes parliamentary support for funder’s independence Maria Leptin, the president of the European Research Council (ERC), has welcomed the strong support for the ERC’s independence voiced by the European Parliament’s lead rapporteurs on Horizon…

Parliament backs the ERC’s independence, but attention is turning to funding, with doubts that even a €31.5B budget will be enough to match growing demand and new schemes:

Commission postpones European Innovation Act The European Commission failed to present its Innovation Act as planned on March 18, suggesting that it needed more time to complete work on the proposal. “The Commission adopts its initiatives when…

The Innovation Act was meant to come out this week. It didn’t.
Something is still being worked out in Brussels:

Commission pitches ‘game changing’ EU-wide company regime Plans presented by the European Commission for an EU-wide corporate regime could be a big step in making Europe a more attractive place to found and scale innovative companies, but some MEPs already…

Europe wants to cut fragmentation with a single company regime.
The proposed “EU Inc.” could change how start-ups scale across the EU, but questions are already emerging.
Read more:

India is moving towards joining Horizon Europe, says government think tank India is moving towards joining the EU’s €93.5 billion Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, a leading policy advisor to the government in New Delhi has said, as the two powers step up…

EU–India tech cooperation is deepening, and Horizon Europe could soon be part of it.
Association would ease collaboration, even as differences remain, especially on AI.
Read more: buff.ly/4Onac7j

Türkiye hits out at plan to divert Horizon Europe contributions to Scale Up fund Türkiye has publicly hit out at European Commission plans to divert money from non-EU countries to support a €5 billion Scale Up Europe Fund designed to give promising start-ups growth capital.“Recent...

If associated countries fund Horizon Europe, should they have a say in how it’s spent?
Türkiye pushes back on plans to redirect funds to a new Scale Up Europe Fund.
Read more: sciencebusiness.net/news/horizon...

If tuberculosis is preventable and curable, why is progress still so slow?
From late-stage trials to access, the bottleneck is clear. EDCTP3 is trying to move more solutions from the pipeline to patients.
🔍https://tinyurl.com/54ppc68b
@globalhealthedctp3.bsky.social