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Europe¡¯s main research funding scheme Horizon Europe is to remain ¡°self-standing¡±, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has confirmed.

Ending months of speculation that the next research and innovation funding framework could be?subsumed into a larger scheme?on industrial competitiveness, von der Leyen used a speech to confirm that the next seven-year funding scheme would?stay a standalone scheme.

¡°Our framework programme Horizon Europe will stay as a self-standing programme,¡± said von der Leyen on 20 May, explaining that it was an ¡°outstanding brand ¨C the most renowned research programme worldwide¡± ¨C that had ¡°financed groundbreaking research that has won 33 Nobel Prizes over the last 40 years¡±.

¡°We want this success story to continue,¡± she said.

The assurance follows concerns that the next iteration of??¨C which funds the European Research Council, the ?2 billion a year blue sky research agency, and research into industrial competitiveness and grand challenges, as well as innovation ¨C could be merged into a funding scheme more closely aligned with increasing the competitiveness of European businesses.

That would?have had potentially huge implications for the funding of fundamental research across Europe, experts had warned. It could have seen fewer research programmes based on scientific excellence found in universities and?more initiatives?designed around increasing the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises or supporting the survival of major employers in Europe¡¯s existing industries such as steel, nuclear and car manufacturing.

Instead, the next framework programme starting in 2028, known as Framework Programme 10, which will replace the €95 billion (?80 billion) 2021-2027 scheme, will be ¡°tightly connected¡± to the European Union¡¯s competitiveness fund while retaining its independence, said von der Leyen, who highlighted the ¡°need [for] a seamless flow from fundamental research to applied research to start-ups to scale-up¡±.

Welcoming what it called ¡°this long-awaited and reassuring statement¡±, Kurt Deketelaere, secretary general of the League of European Research Universities (Leru) commended the decision, noting von der Leyen¡¯s apparent desire to keep the Horizon Europe brand.

¡°This statement says nothing about the budget and the content of that next framework programme, nor about the ¡®tight connection with the European Competitiveness Fund¡¯. But let¡¯s be happy today,¡± said Deketelaere.

¡°This is a major statement by president von der Leyen, and Leru and the rest of the European research and innovation community are grateful to her to make an end to months of uncertainty about the future European R&I policy,¡± he added, stating that his organisation would ¡°look forward to the next steps now, and continue to offer our full support.¡±

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com