EC proposes to increase research budget

The European Commission outlined its Horizon Europe research and innovation proposal for 2021-27 on Wednesday, which includes a budget increase to €97.9 billion ($118 billion). The €18 billion (23%) increase over the current Horizon 2020 program is intended to fund open science and innovation and address global challenges, but is less than half of the increase recommended by a panel commissioned by the EC.

In the summary, the EC announced a planned expansion of its pilot European Innovation Council (EIC) project, which is receiving €2.7 billion from 2018-20 to fund and mentor companies developing breakthrough technologies. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have been a primary focus for the current Horizon 2020 program...