The European Commission’s plan to put an extra €13.5 billion into Horizon Europe to help research recover from the pandemic won’t be enough to make up all the lost ground, according to Lidia Borrell-Damián, secretary general of Science Europe, a body representing national research funding agencies and research performing organisations.
In a budget proposal released in May, the commission called for a €750 billion recovery fund to prop up the first four years of the EU’s 2021-2027 multiannual budget. Horizon Europe is slated to get €13.5 billion out of it, but the money needs to be allocated in the first years of the programme, to research and innovation projects that are ready for commercialisation, for a quick market uptake.
