The European Union is about to make one of the most consequential decisions of the decade: how to spend €175 billion on research and innovation through its next Framework Programme, FP10. On paper, this is an investment in Europe’s future competitiveness. In practice, it is also a political choice about the kind of society Europe wants to build: whose knowledge, priorities, and needs will shape that future?
Yet civil society organisations, communities, citizens, and even most academics remain almost entirely absent from these discussions. The result is a growing gap between what the programme funds and what people across Europe (and beyond) see as urgent: the climate emergency, widening inequalities, fragile health systems, and the need for global partnerships capable of preventing the next pandemic. With €175 billion at stake, and with climate disruption and global health risks intensifying, the way Europe funds research is no longer a technical matter reserved for experts.
To reflect on these critical issues, we invited three experts, from different backgrounds, to offer valuable insights into the challenges, future opportunities, and to offer some recommendations:
- Dr Aude Lapprand, Director of Sciences Citoyennes
- Vincent Fautrel, EU representative for the French Research & Development Institute (IRD)
- Eloise Todd, Executive Director of Resilience Action Network International (RANI)
;
