FP10: “Do not reinvent the wheel”, but allocate at least 50% of the budget to Pillar 2, Paul Walsh says

The European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) is calling for at least 50% of FP10's budget to be allocated to Pillar 2 (Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness), while preserving the overall architecture of the current Horizon Europe programme.

In an exclusive interview with News Tank Academic on 09/10/2026, EAIC Secretary General Paul Walsh stressed the importance of collaborative research and warned against allowing short-term industrial priorities to influence the development of future technologies. “We are not proposing that we reinvent the wheel,” he said, describing Horizon Europe as a highly successful programme.

He also identified the growing use of artificial intelligence in preparing funding applications as a major challenge for evaluation…