EU budgets 94.4 billion euros for 'Horizon Europe' research project

The European Commission proposes allocating 94.4 billion euros to research and innovation in the "Horizon Europe" program, as part of a massive 1.85 trillion euros, seven-year, European Union (EU) budget plan to help recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the

Science

report.

The budget is nearly 11 billion euros more than originally planned, and it will be used to fund research into health, climate and digital transition. The European Commission believes this spending will drive productivity, employment rate and competitiveness.

"The solution to the crisis will clearly come from research. The money won't be available until January 2021, however, and only a tiny portion of the 13.5 billion euros is likely to fund COVID-19 treatments or vaccines," said Thomas Estermann, head of funding policy at the European University Association lobby group.

People are beginning to realize the importance of technology since the outbreak of the pandemic.

"If I ask a person here in the streets, 'What are the sources that bring us prosperity and wealth?' he or she will say, 'education and technology,'" said Robert-Jan Smits, president of the Eindhoven University of Technology and former head of the Commission's research policy department. The value of research and development (RD) spending is getting increasingly attention.

However, most RD funding in Europe comes from the private sector, and most of the rest comes from national governments, not the EU, according to American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). "The capacity of the EU institutions to shape the way research is done in Europe is limited, said Andres Rodriguez-Pose, an economic geographer at the London School of Economics.

(Cover image via VCG)