Europe is "at the right level" for dual-use research and innovation (R&I Days 2025)

"Dual-use lies very much at the heart of this current geopolitical context where we are in these very turbulent times", states Eszter Lakos, Member of the European Parliament and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on 17/09/2025.

She is speaking at the R&I Days, an event organised by the European Commission in Brussels, during a session titled 'Dual-use research and innovation: opportunities and challenges'.

The Commission has recently proposed to allow, within the European research and innovation programme Horizon Europe, to fund research and innovation activities that can have both civil and defence applications.

"The world is running very fast around us. The U.S has been in the dual-use business for decades already; we are just catching up with them with these new initiatives."

"We have to really try to catch up and invest in dual-use. But I think we have to be courageous and set the right rules for this", she says.

Nikos Loutas, Director of Innovation at Nato, reports that the organisation "has been working on the dual-use question for the past five years". He also…