The Informal Competitiveness Council for Research was held virtually on 31 March 2026. The Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy of the Republic of Cyprus, Dr Nicodemos Damianou chaired the meeting, which was also attended by the European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ms Ekaterina Zaharieva.
Centred on the theme “From Research Excellence to Global Level: Unlocking Europe’s Innovation Potential”, the Informal Meeting provided a platform for an open and forward-looking exchange of views on strengthening research and innovation as key drivers of Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy.
While the European Union continues to demonstrate strong performance in research and scientific excellence, Ministers acknowledged that persistent structural barriers continue to hinder the scaling-up of innovation across borders. These include market fragmentation, regulatory complexity, limited access to finance and barriers to the commercialisation of research results.
In this context, Ministers exchanged views on the main challenges limiting cross-border upscaling, ways to strengthen the research-to-innovation process, and measures to bridge the gap between research results and market uptake.
They also shared national and regional best practices and discussed how the EU and its member states can work more effectively together to attract researchers, innovators and investors to Europe, as well as support the development and upscaling of breakthrough innovations across Europe and beyond.
Mr Damianou stated that “the role of the Cyprus Presidency is to ensure that these initiatives are translated into tangible results. Since the start of our Presidency, we have focused on being pragmatic and results-oriented — providing political direction on key research and innovation files and helping shape the next phase of the Commission’s work, with particular focus on the next framework programme (FP10) that will be decisive for Europe’s ability to enhance and adequately fund fundamental research but also innovation capabilities.”
Ministers also welcomed Dr Ioannis Kymissis, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Vice Dean for Infrastructure and Innovation at Columbia University, as a distinguished guest speaker. Drawing on his extensive international experience, Dr Kymissis delivered a keynote address on ‘A Few Factors for Innovation Success’, followed by an interactive discussion with Ministers.