The European Commission has announced an additional €500 million injection into its flagship research and innovation scheme, Horizon Europe. Designed for implementation across 2026 and 2027, the extra capital raises the programme's total budget to roughly €14.8 billion.
Funding Next-Generation AI and Energy Infrastructure
The updated plan introduces two cross-cutting initiatives to address key technological and environmental goals. The largest slice, titled Bridging Actions 2027, receives €260 million to develop next-generation AI digital platforms aimed at creating a more affordable, secure, and sustainable European energy network.
Bridging Actions 2027 encompasses 16 specific actions backing technologies with high commercial potential. Key areas targeted under this call include autonomous driving, scaling frameworks, talent-focused research infrastructure, and a modular multilingual AI media platform designed for public-interest news and audiovisual media. These projects are intended to establish baseline preparations for the EU's subsequent research framework spanning 2028 through 2034.
Biodiversity and SME Skill Development
The second call, Nature-Positive Economy and Society, secures €237 million to fund 11 research and innovation actions. This stream focuses on identifying and developing skill requirements among innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to support biodiversity and assess the environmental impacts of digital and clean industries.
According to the European Commission, this initiative supports its goal of directing 10 percent of spending toward biodiversity under the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025–2027.
Broader EU Innovation Strategy
Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Start-ups, Research and Innovation, noted that the programme has already assisted over 151,000 young researchers and enabled 20,000 companies to commercialize products and services, with more than half of all participants joining Horizon Europe for the first time.
The budget increase builds on broader regional efforts to strengthen deep-tech competitiveness. In August, the EU confirmed that its €5 billion Scaleup Europe Fund had cleared its final legal hurdles to begin full operations, expanding on its strategy to encourage tech enterprises to launch and scale within Europe.
AI-generated editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.
Source: European Commission adds €500m to research and innovation funding
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