The APRE Annual Conference 2025, held on 16–17 October, offered a comprehensive overview of the European Union’s R&I policies and outlined the key strategic investment priorities under the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), whose proposal has already been presented by the European Commission and is now entering the negotiation phase towards the final agreement. The event, streamed live, featured a series of APREbriefs and APREdialogues addressing crucial topics such as digital transition, industrial decarbonisation, health, biotechnology, agriculture, resilience and security, defence industry, and space, with contributions from national and international experts.
At the heart of the conference was the evolution of the European budget for 2028–2034. The proposed budget amounts to almost €2 trillion. Of this, €409 billion is allocated to the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), including €175 billion for Horizon Europe. The ECF aims to strengthen Europe’s position in key areas such as innovation, decarbonisation, and resilience. Its main features include scalability, impact, and a continuous investment pathway linking basic research, applied research, and production.
The New Horizon Europe: Key Pillars and Priorities
Unlike the current framework, the Commission’s proposal for the new 2028-2034 Horizon Europe is structured around four pillars:
- Pillar I – SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE: With an overall budget of €44.1 billion, this pillar includes the European Research Council, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and Science for EU Policies. It aims to strengthen the EU’s scientific base, attract top research talent, and promote high-level, cutting-edge research across Europe.
- Pillar II – COMPETITIVENESS AND SOCIETY: With a total budget of €75.9 billion, this pillar aims to support collaborative research and innovation in areas with a high societal impact. It focuses on enhancing Europe’s competitiveness through key domains such as Clean Transition and Industrial Decarbonisation, Health, Biotech, Agriculture and Bioeconomy, Digital Leadership, and Resilience and Security, including Defence Industry and Space. Under the Society component, it addresses global societal challenges, supports EU Missions, and promotes the New European Bauhaus Facility.
- Pillar III – INNOVATION: With a total budget of €38.8 billion, this pillar aims to support innovation across Europe, focusing on the development of new products, services, and business models. It includes the European Innovation Council, Innovation Ecosystems, and the Knowledge Triangle, all working together to strengthen Europe’s capacity for breakthrough and market-creating innovations.
- Pillar IV – EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA: With a total budget of €16.3 billion, this pillar aims to support the development of a unified European Research Area, promoting excellence, inclusiveness, and impact. It focuses on ERA policies, the development and interoperability of research and technology infrastructures, and on widening participation and spreading excellence across all EU Member States.
According to the European Commission, the new Horizon Europe introduces several important updates designed to make the programme more efficient, coherent, and aligned with the European Union’s long-term strategic objectives. A key improvement concerns the simplification of applications , with clearer and more streamlined procedures to make participation easier for researchers and innovators.
Another major change is the stronger link between Horizon Europe and the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). The programme is now closely connected with the four policy windows defined in the ECF Regulation, ensuring strategic coherence between research, innovation, and competitiveness policies. In particular, there is a strong correlation between the ECF and Pillar II – Competitiveness and Society, which focuses on areas with high societal and industrial impact.
The structure of European Partnerships has been simplified into two main types: one based on the work programme, and another established through a legislative partnership act. These partnerships will remain a key instrument of Horizon Europe and will operate in synergy with the ECF to foster collaboration between the EU, Member States, industry, and research organisations.
The European Innovation Council (EIC) has a tripled budget, turning into the largest European deep-tech venture capital fund. It will continue to play a central role in supporting innovative start-ups and SMEs, promoting the development of new products, services, and business models across Europe.
Furthermore, Research and Technology Infrastructures have been moved to Pillar IV – the European Research Area (ERA) to strengthen excellence, inclusiveness, impact, and interoperability across Europe.
The Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence component has been refined, now distinguishing between transition countries and widening countries. This differentiation seeks to reduce disparities in research and innovation capacity across the EU and to ensure that all Member States can benefit from and contribute to Europe’s scientific and technological advancement.
Thematic Sessions Shaping the Conference Agenda
The conference was organised into a series of sessions, each dedicated to a distinct area of focus:.
Digital Leadership
Digital leadership emerged as a cornerstone of Europe’s competitiveness within the proposed 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). With a dedicated funding window of €51.5 billion, the EU aims to accelerate digital innovation, strengthen its position in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and ensure technological sovereignty through resilient and interoperable digital ecosystems. It was stressed that AI leadership, technological autonomy, and digital transformation are key to empowering European industries, citizens, and institutions, ensuring that Europe can compete globally while maintaining control over its digital future.
During the APREdialogue, experts from the European Commission and INFN highlighted Europe’s structural weaknesses—particularly in AI and semiconductors—and the urgent need to close these gaps. Advancing scientific innovation is essential to strengthen Europe’s global standing, and although progress has been made, current efforts remain insufficient to meet future challenges. In this context, the new MFF positions digital leadership not only as a funding priority but as a strategic enabler of Europe’s competitiveness, resilience, and technological independence in the decade ahead.
Clean Transition and Industrial Decarbonisation
The Clean Transition and Industrial Decarbonisation agenda stands at the heart of the 2028–2034 MFF, reflecting the EU’s commitment to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The proposed framework directs substantial resources towards promoting clean technologies, energy efficiency, climate resilience, and the circular economy. Funding under this priority targets key sectors such as energy and transport, which are essential to reducing emissions and driving the transformation of Europe’s industrial base.
During the APREdialogue, experts from the European Commission and ENEA underscored the importance of ensuring greater coherence across funding programmes to effectively support the green transition, outlined the importance of an EU’s integrated approach to circularity and climate neutrality, and stressed the need to valorise research outcomes and empower SMEs as key actors in implementing the transition. Within the new MFF, clean transition and industrial decarbonisation are positioned not only as environmental imperatives but as economic and technological drivers—ensuring that Europe’s path to sustainability also strengthens its competitiveness and industrial resilience.
Health, Biotech, Agriculture and Bioeconomy
Research and innovation in Health, Biotechnology, Agriculture, and the Bioeconomy play a central role in strengthening Europe’s resilience and competitiveness. The MFF proposal envisions the EU as a global hub for life sciences and bioeconomy research, driven by initiatives such as the European Biotech Act, aimed at revitalising biotechnology in Europe, and the EU Strategy for Agriculture and Food Security, designed to make European agriculture both competitive and sustainable.
During the APREdialogue, experts from the European Commission, Federchimica Assobiotec, and the University of Siena discussed how to enhance the EU’s leadership in these interconnected sectors. The speakers carried on a conversation underscoring the need to simplify access to funding and build a connected ecosystem that bridges research, innovation, and market competitiveness. A key theme was the One Health approach, which recognises the deep interdependence between human health, agriculture, and the environment—a guiding principle for future EU research and policy.
Resilience and Security, Defence Industry and Space
The session explored how Resilience, Security, Defence Industry, and Space will be positioned within the next MFF and Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10). Set within the broader policy landscape, these areas reflect the EU’s ambition to strengthen technological sovereignty and industrial resilience. Under the ECF, a dedicated policy window will direct investments to supply chain resilience, defence industry support, space policy advancement, and civil security.
During the APREdialogue, experts from the European Commission, APRE, Confindustria, and Università degli Studi di Catania, discussed how to reinforce the link between research, innovation, and defence, calling for stronger coherence between research and industrial policy and more streamlined funding structures across programmes such as Horizon Europe and the European Defence Fund. A central theme was the growing importance of dual-use research and the need to balance open science with security considerations, ensuring that innovation supports both European competitiveness and strategic autonomy.
Conclusion
The two-day conference highlighted the European Union’s strategic priorities for the coming years in research and innovation.
The discussions provided an opportunity to better understand the Commission’s proposal for the 2028–2034 MFF, and to gain a first reading of its implications for the research and innovation landscape. While the proposal offers a clear direction for Europe’s future investments, it remains partial and subject to change, as negotiations have only just begun.