Mario Draghi: €175 billion for Horizon Europe "will fall short" for breakthrough research

"The plan to increase Horizon Europe to €175 Bn is welcome, but for breakthrough research, this will fall short unless the additional resources are concentrated into sizable priority programmes", states former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on 16/09/2025.

He speaks at a conference in Brussels marking the first anniversary of the publication of his report on the future of European competitiveness, released on 09/09/2024.

According to him:
• “Resources must flow into a system of excellence, focusing on higher-risk, higher-reward projects selected through an Arpa-style process.
• They should be reinforced by strong industry linkages with academic institutions to turn research into real applications.
• Implementation must rest with expert project managers, not bureaucrats, and Europe should be capable of making direct investments in a few large strategic deep-tech initiatives.”

In the same conference, Ursula von der Leyen addresses the three pillars of the report, notably the first one dedicated to "closing the innovation gap with the US and China" by highlighting both progress and…