EU adds €500 million to research and innovation support

The European Commission has allocated an additional €500 million to Horizon Europe, its flagship research and innovation programme, bringing the two-year 2026-2027 budget to around €14.8 billion. The Commission is also widening the programme's scope with two new cross-cutting calls: Transformative Change Towards a Nature-Positive Economy and Society, budgeted at €237 million, and Bridging Actions 2027, with total financing of €260 million. Two monitoring reports published the same day show the programme has invested €61 billion in grants and €1.3 billion in equity across nearly 23,000 projects involving more than 34,000 organisations, including 20,000 companies, with the private sector rece…