When Mario Draghi stated on 16 September 2025:
“The planned increase of Horizon Europe to €175 billion is welcome. But for breakthrough research, this will fall short unless the additional resources are concentrated into sizeable priority programmes.”
Mario Draghi, One Year After Report
I agreed — and suggested that these additional resources could be provided through the budgets proposed for the policy windows of the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF):
- Clean transition and industrial decarbonisation: €26.210 billion
- Digital leadership: €20.393 billion
- Health, biotech, agriculture and bioeconomy: €51.493 billion
- Resilience and security, defence industry and space: €125.204 billion