Planned €100bn for EU research ‘not enough’

Commission’s bid to boost R&D spending hotly contested

Research organisations are calling on politicians to give the EU’s next R&D Framework programme a bigger budget than the €97.6 billion proposed by the European Commission on 2 May, but they are facing competing arguments from other interests.

Universities, national R&D funders, business associations and other groups welcomed the Commission’s plan to devote more funding to R&D and higher education in the EU’s 2021-27 budget, which will now be negotiated by the European Parliament and national governments. But they say the increases don’t go far enough.