The paper gathers ten recommendations aiming to foster a robust, competitive, and inclusive research environment, which is critical for achieving a sustainable energy transition and meeting the EU’s climate targets.

The European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), as the voice of the low-carbon energy research community in Europe and representing more than 250 organisations from 31 countries, is proud to announce the release of its position paper on the European Union’s next Framework Programme (FP10), which is set to succeed Horizon Europe in 2027.

Through this position paper, formulated as ten key recommendations, EERA aims to share the expertise and express the views of the organisations it represents on how to construct an attractive, robust, competitive, and balanced research environment to propel the EU to the forefront of global innovation.

As the European Commission prepares its mid-term evaluation of Horizon Europe (FP9) and starts drafting the outline of its successor, EERA’s position paper offers concise insights on how the EU can better foster and promote an ambitious Framework Programme.

In this context, EERA notably joins the calls of other players in the research field, demanding the allocation of a robust budget of €200 million for FP10, to ensure future challenges will be adequately addressed.

Most importantly, making FP10 and Research and Innovation (R&I) a key driver of the Clean Energy Transition will be instrumental to the successful implementation of the European Green Deal and to achieving the EU’s 2030, 2040, and 2050 climate targets.

Overall, EERA calls for ensuring that the EU’s future framework programme maintains a balance across the research continuum, between all technology readiness levels (TRLs) and includes interdisciplinary approaches, as well as social sciences and humanities (SSH).

Expert contributors to the position paper also underlined the importance of EU Partnerships and EU Missions within FP10, exploring paths for improvement. They highlighted the need to create an attractive and inclusive research environment, pay particular attention to simplifying complex administrative procedures, protect scientific freedom, close the widening gap, and promote international collaboration while protecting the EU’s strategic autonomy.

The complete list of recommendations include:

1 - Making FP10 a key driver to deliver on the Clean Energy Transition

2 – Ensuring stable and ambitious funding & creating funding synergies

3 – Maintaining a balanced approach across the research spectrum

4 – Promoting interdisciplinary approaches & stakeholder engagement

5 – Reinforcing the role and ambition of the European Partnerships

6 – Enhancing EU Missions for increased impact

7 – Closing the widening gap through a tailored approach

8 – Facilitating international cooperation while preserving EU’s strategic autonomy

9 – Advancing equality, inclusion, and research excellence

10 - Keeping on improving administrative procedures

Discover the full vision paper: link to the paper