FP10 Negotiations Update: Progress and Challenges Ahead The Future of European Research Funding Takes Shape

By Emilia Didier, Head of EU Public Affairs 

As Europe enters 2026, negotiations for the 10th Framework Programme (FP10) have reached a critical juncture. The European Commission's July 2025 proposal to nearly double the research budget to €175 billion (2028-2034) has set an ambitious trajectory (see previous article). The first semester of negotiations has secured key structural consensus—crucially reaffirming the ERC's frontier science mission and MSCA's career development role, both preserving their bottom-up, excellence-driven approach. However, crucial questions remain unanswered as negotiations intensify.  

FP10 Negotiations: Stakes and Challenges 

Budget: Ambitious yet fragile: €175B (+83%) falls short of €220B recommended. It is essential to protect this minimal funding. 

Collaborative Research: Continuum under threat: FP10's integration into the industrial-focused European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) risks undermining fundamental and collaborative research. FP10 must remain the EU's primary vehicle for research excellence. The interface between FP10 (research excellence) and ECF (industrial competitiveness) will be decisive, requiring clear governance to avoid funding gaps or a shift away from foundational science. 

Governance: Unclear proposals threaten research quality. Member States and scientists must guide strategy to prevent industrial priorities from overshadowing foundational science. 

Simplification: Real or bureaucratic reshuffling? Must reduce researcher burdens—not just streamline bureaucracy. Key priorities include keeping lump sums optional, shortening excessive evaluation phases, and maintaining flexibility with clear documentation. 

Institut Pasteur's Strategic Position 

• Facing competitiveness challenges and multiplying threats—particularly in health—Europe's future hinges on its research and innovation sovereignty. Institut Pasteur, with over 130 years of leadership in infectious diseases and a global footprint spanning more than 30 institutes, calls for an ambitious FP10 that integrates fundamental research, innovation, and public health into a coherent European strategy. The proposed €175 billion budget represents a historic opportunity, but scale alone will not suffice. This investment must be matched by robust FP10-ECF governance ensuring scientific excellence drives the ecosystem, genuine simplification serving beneficiaries, and seamless translation from discovery to deployment. Half-measures are no longer an option: Europe's capacity to protect its populations and assert itself as the global leader in health innovation is being decided now.  

Key recommendations (advocated at EU level and through collective position papers: eg. ANRT, Paris Saclay Summit) 

1. Ambitious Budget 

• R&I at the heart of European competitiveness: the European scale is essential  

• Global health challenges require sustainable structural funding  

2. Scientific Excellence 

• Preserve and strengthen excellence instruments (ERC, MSCA) with full research freedom 

• Maintain investigator-driven, bottom-up logic grounded in excellence  

• Global competition for talent: reinforcing talent pipelines 

3. Collaborative Research 

• Maintain balanced support alongside the entire R&I continuum, with strong emphasis on upstream phases (fundamental research as engine of innovation) 

• Preserve the ERC → collaborative projects → EIC continuum 

4. Governance 

• Establish effective & coherent governance between Horizon Europe (FP10) and the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) 

• Member States’ role must remain central to governance and programming 

• Scientific community consultation upstream in decision-making processes 

• Partnerships: maintain their strategic value structuring R&I communities (eg. EDCTP3) 

5. Simplification & adaptation 

• Bottom-up (not top-down) simplification: reduce friction for beneficiaries and researchers 

• Support single rulebook HE/ECF, targeted lump sums, open topics, time-to-grant focus  

• Reject: Generalized PUC, RIA/IA merger, blind evaluation, legal complexity 

• Crisis-response agility: prioritize agile project management 

6. International Collaboration 

• Third-countries association: open participation grounded in excellence  

• EU commitment essential on global health challenges (climate, infectious diseases, mental health) → soft power + mutual benefit at heart of R&I collaboration 

• In a an increasingly contested geopolitical context, support trusted international cooperation, aligned with Europe’s economic security and strategic autonomy 

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The coming months will be decisive: negotiations at EU level will continue throughout 2026. The programmes must be adopted before the end of 2027 to enable implementation from January 2028. 

For Institut Pasteur and the entire research community, active engagement is essential to preserve what makes European research unique: excellence-driven, bottom-up investigation combined with strategic focus on global challenges, particularly health. Europe's strength lies in mobilizing scientific talent across borders to address challenges no single country can solve alone. 

For more information on FP10 developments and how to prepare for the new programme, contact the Grants Office. We will continue monitoring negotiations and providing updates as key decisions are made.