European Commission adds €500m to research and innovation funding

What happened

With the additional financial support, the total budget raised by the flagship research and innovation programme comes to roughly €14.8bn. INNOVATION European Commission adds €500m to research and innovation funding by Laura Varley 30 Sep 2026 Save article Image: © Romolo Tavani/Stock.adobe.com With the additional financial support, the total budget raised by the flagship research and innovation programme comes to roughly €14.8bn.

The European Commission has announced that an additional €500m will be allocated to the Horizon Europe initiative, which is the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme. The new funding brings the total amount to around €14.8bn and will be implemented across 2026 and 2027.

The Commission also announced that it would be extending the scope of the scheme by introducing two new cross-cutting calls built to tackle major challenges in the research and innovation spaces. The first, ‘Bridging Actions 2027′, focuses on the ‘innovation to investment journey’ to better connect research with market deployment. This project has a total financing figure of €260m.

Key facts

• The European Commission has — announced: that an additional €500m will be allocated to the Horizon Europe initiative, which is the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme
• The Commission also — announced: that it would be extending the scope of the scheme by introducing two new cross-cutting calls built to tackle major challenges in the research and innovation spaces