Have your say about the future of the framework programme – is a competitiveness fund the right way forward?

A number of reports on the EU’s single market and the EU’s competitiveness have highlighted the importance of putting research and innovation at the centre of the EU’s economy. The reports have also shown that there is great need for simplification, increased efficiency, and coordination within the EU’s funding to enable the challenges that the EU is facing to be addressed.

In response to this, the European Commission has now produced a proposal to establish a European competitiveness fund, focusing on research and innovation. The fund will gather together initiatives that are currently divided up across several different, and partly overlapping, programmes. It will support the entire investment chain, from research to industrial implementation and manufacturing. The EU’s next framework programme for research and innovation is one of the programmes that according to the proposal may be included in the new initiative.

The European Commission is now inviting member states to a number of public consultations to gather views on the proposal. Via these consultations, the Commission wants to learn about the needs of different actors in the member states, from public agencies and companies to organisations and citizens. One of the consultations, “EU funding for competitiveness” deals with research, innovation, and the proposed competitiveness fund.

“I can strongly recommend actors in Sweden to take this opportunity to submit their recommendations for how the EU can support research and innovation. If the proposed competitiveness fund becomes reality, it is important that it is designed so as to best benefit Swedish and European research and innovation,” says Ellenor Devine, who is responsible for research at SWERI, the Swedish Research Council’s and Vinnova’s joint office in Brussels.

Give your views and responses to the consultation “EU funding for competitiveness” no later than 6 May 2025 (European Commission’s website) External link.

This summer, the European Commission will present its proposal for a budget for the period 2028–2034, which the member states and the EU Parliament will thereafter negotiate. The idea is to present the competitiveness fund as part of the budget proposal.

Preparations are ongoing

The European Commission has a lot of material to base its preparations on ahead of the next framework programme: evaluations of the current programme, recommendations from member states and actors within the sector, as well as identified development needs within Europe. The Swedish Research Council has contributed via the recommendations that the Swedish Research Council submitted to the European Commission in 2024.

Read more about the competitiveness fund and the underlying documentation:

The proposal for a competitiveness fund in the EU’s compass for competitiveness (European Commission’s website) External link.

The proposal for a competitiveness fund in the EU’s route map for the next long-term budget (European Commission’s website) External link.

Draghi’s Report on EU competitiveness (European Commission’s website) External link.

Enrico Letta's Report on the future of the single market (European Commission’s website) External link.