The Guild calls for a Scale-Up Research Actions (SUPRA) instead of a European Excellence Initiative

The Guild of research-intensive universities has called for the introduction of Scale-Up Research Actions (SUPRA) in FP10 instead of a European Excellence Initiative.

In a paper published on 08/10/2026, Jan Palmowski, Secretary-General of the Guild, said: "Our ideas of a Scale-Up Research Action would be instrumental in bringing together Europe’s researchers to pursue levels of ambition that were hitherto not possible. This will be transformative in allowing European research to make a step-change in global leadership in new areas critical to our economic and societal well-being."

SUPRA would be a dedicated instrument within Pillar II of FP10, designed to develop collaborative frontier research and address the funding gap for high-risk, bottom-up research. It would scale up transnational…