Are You FP10 Ready?
Europe’s next Horizon
Research managers across Europe are entering a critical planning window. The next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, FP10, is less than two years away. The European Commission has published its proposal for the new programme, the European Parliament has set out its position, and the detail is now being negotiated in earnest ahead of the planned 2028 launch.
Across Europe and beyond, universities and research-intensive organisations must now consider not only what FP10 will look like, but what it will mean in practice. The programme will define funding opportunities, partnership structures, proposal expectations, and international collaboration routes into the mid-2030s. That makes the current phase especially important for research support teams, who need to track developments now to prepare their organisations.
State of play
The European Commission formally unveiled its legislative proposal for FP10 on 16 July 2025, confirming that the programme will once again operate under the Horizon Europe brand and run from 2028 to 2034.
FP10 is embedded within the proposed EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034, alongside the proposed European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). After significant resistance from the research community and MEPs over President Ursula von der Leyen’s push to disregard the legal requirement for FP10 and absorb it into the ECF, the Commission confirmed that FP10 would remain a stand alone programme, albeit one more tightly bound to the broader EU competitiveness agenda than previous programmes.
Horizon Europe already combines excellent science, collaborative research, innovation support, and widening participation objectives. FP10 is set to preserve those core functions, but with a stronger emphasis on simplification, faster implementation, and better conversion of research results into economic and societal impact. For institutions accustomed to managing Horizon Europe as a highly structured but still recognisably research-led programme, the shift to emphasising competitiveness will be a significant change.
The finer points will remain open during negotiations and the legislative process. But the direction is clear: FP10 is intended to be bigger, more strategic, and more closely aligned with broader EU policy priorities than Horizon Europe is currently. This is likely to affect not only what is funded, but how applications are prepared and how institutions position themselves for success.
The Commission’s proposal
The European Commission’s FP10 proposal stated that the next programme should be ‘twice bigger, simpler, faster and more flexible’, signalling an ambition to expand scale while reducing friction for applicants and beneficiaries. Structurally, the Commission has proposed a familiar model, expanding the three-pillar model of Horizon Europe:
- Excellent Science
Support for frontier research, attracting top talent and promoting excellent research in Europe through an expanded European Research Council (ERC), researcher mobility via Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), and science for EU policies through the Joint Research Centre. - Competitiveness and Society
This pillar is likely to see the most change. The existing cluster structure may be streamlined, with stronger alignment to EU industrial policy and fewer, more mission-oriented thematic areas. This reflects the greater emphasis on translating research into economic and societal impact, particularly in strategically important sectors such as AI, clean energy, and health resilience. - Innovation
Centred on the European Innovation Council (EIC), this pillar is expected to expand further, with increased support for scale-ups, venture-style funding mechanisms, and stronger links between research and market deployment. - European Research Area (ERA)
Includes ERA policy support and widening participation mechanisms. Efforts to address disparities in participation across Europe will remain central, potentially with expanded instruments and stronger conditionality linked to national reforms. This pillar will also incorporate technology infrastructures – the labs and testing grounds needed to scale innovations – and place them on equal weight alongside the research infrastructures championed by Horizon Europe.
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The Commission’s proposal calls for a budget of €175 billion for the 2028-2034 period, nearly doubling the current programme’s initial funding. That reflects both ambition and a political judgement: if Europe wants to compete globally in science, technology, and industrial capacity, research and innovation spending needs to rise rather than merely be protected.
FP10 is being shaped in parallel with the broader EU budget conversation as part of a wider funding ecosystem that is intended to support priorities such as strategic technologies, industrial capacity, and societal resilience. Success may therefore depend less on fitting into a programme topic and more on demonstrating alignment with wider policy, industrial, or European-level objectives.
For research managers, this signals:
- Closer connections between collaborative research and downstream innovation.
- Increased emphasis on impact, valorisation, and EU strategic priorities.
- Potentially more complex funding landscapes requiring coordinated institutional strategies.
Another overarching theme is simplification. The Commission has acknowledged persistent concerns about administrative burden in Horizon Europe. FP10 is expected to introduce simplified funding instruments, reduced proposal complexity, and potentially shorter time-to-grant.
One area that will be significantly streamlined is European Partnerships, with current co-funded partnership formats expected to be phased out in favour of a more coordinated toolbox, with greater reliance on Memoranda of Understanding, Joint Undertakings, and article-based structures. That may reduce complexity in some cases but also raises questions about continuity for established partnership networks and the administrative models that support them.
Under the Commission’s proposal, FP10 will finally allow funding for ‘dual use’ (civil and military) projects, scrapping the 40-year-old rule restricting Framework Programmes to projects with civilian applications. While the focus will remain on predominantly civilian use, the Commission’s proposal would allow for research with defence applications, reflecting current global instability and Europe’s new Security and Resilience agenda.
The Parliamentary position
As expected, the European Parliament does not regard the Commission’s proposal as a finished settlement. Having already pushed back strongly in favour of a standalone FP10 with a stronger degree of autonomy and expert-led governance, MEPs are concerned that R&I could become too tightly subordinated to wider industrial policy if the programme is absorbed too fully into the competitiveness framework.
On 3 March 2026, Rapporteur for Horizon Europe and Co-Rapporteur for the European Competitiveness Fund, Dr Christian Ehler, published his draft report on the proposed regulation establishing the framework programme for 2028-2034, marking the start of parliamentary negotiations.
The draft report signals a clear intention to reinforce the next Horizon Europe as a distinct, stand-alone programme, while sharpening its contribution to European competitiveness and strategic priorities. It proposes a transformed Pillar II with the introduction of Councils to create an arm’s-length relationship between Commission DGs and programme implementation that is standard practice across Europe. These Councils would oversee Expert Teams responsible for drafting calls and managing project portfolios.
A central theme is the need to preserve the programme’s core features, including support for collaborative, bottom-up research and a stable rules framework for participation. At the same time, the draft introduces a stronger emphasis on aligning research and innovation funding with industrial policy goals, including decarbonisation, digital leadership, health and security.
Dr Ehler also proposes significant changes to the programme’s structure and budgetary architecture. These include clearer delineation of funding ‘windows’ across thematic areas, increased overall investment in the region of €220 billion and enhanced allocations for innovation and the European Research Area. The report further calls for more transparent budget lines and stronger mechanisms to ensure that unspent research funds are reinvested within the programme. It also highlights the importance of safeguarding academic freedom and maintaining openness in international collaboration.
The budget debate
The most likely point of contention between the European Commission and Parliament is the FP10 budget. The Commission views its proposed €175 billion as realistic within current fiscal constraints. By contrast, the European Parliament – particularly voices within the ITRE Committee, drawing on the 2024 Heitor Report – regards this figure as a minimum floor. MEPs argue that €200 billion or more is necessary to avoid a real terms cut once inflation and the scale of the green and digital transitions are considered, especially if the EU is serious about the ‘Fifth Freedom’ of knowledge and innovation.
Negotiations are further complicated by delays at Member State level. EU governments failed to reach agreement by their original target of 29 May, with four key issues still unresolved: strategic priority setting (including alignment between FP10 and the European Competitiveness Fund), partnerships, the Widening programme, and support for bottom-up collaborative research and innovation. However, as the European Parliament is not expected to enter trilogue negotiations until October, there remains a window to resolve these differences and keep FP10 on schedule.
As with previous Framework Programmes, the final budget will be settled within the broader Multiannual Financial Framework negotiations and will depend on Member State consensus. Headline figures may therefore shift significantly before a final agreement is reached.
UK participation
The UK remains an important part of the FP10 landscape, as international collaboration continues to be central to European research. The UK government supports association in principle and wants FP10 to remain open to associated countries – an encouraging signal for institutions and consortia working across UK–EU borders.
Recent developments also hint at broader engagement beyond FP10 itself. Speaking to the Financial Times in late May, EU Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva indicated that the UK could potentially participate in the EU’s €4 billion equity investment fund for start-ups within the Horizon Europe ecosystem. While separate from FP10, this may lead to discussions about deeper UK–EU collaboration in research and innovation instruments. Any such participation would require changes to current arrangements. In parallel, the UK’s proposed European Partnership Bill, as announced in the 2026 King’s Speech, aims to establish new agreements with the EU, as part of a wider reset.
However, UK support for FP10 association is not unconditional. The government insists that it must deliver value for money and ensure meaningful access for UK researchers. The outcome will depend on FP10’s final design, the terms of association, and the political climate at the time of negotiation.
For current Horizon Europe participants, existing collaboration may continue, but the post-2027 environment is unlikely to replicate the present. Organisations should plan for a range of scenarios, including shifts in association terms, funding rules, and political priorities.
FP10 timeline
The road to publication of the first FP10 calls is paved with legislative milestones:
- May 2026 (Now): EARMA Conference discussions; stakeholders provide feedback on the ITRE draft report.
- September 2026: European Parliament Plenary Vote on the FP10 position.
- Late 2026-Early 2027: ‘Trilogues’ – the three-way negotiations between the Commission, Parliament, and Council to finalise the budget and legal text.
- Summer 2027: Final adoption of the FP10 Regulation and the first Strategic Plan.
- Autumn 2027: Publication of the first Work Programmes.
- 1 January 2028: Official Launch and first call deadlines.
What does this mean for Research Managers?
For those working in research development and management, FP10 represents both continuity and change. Many of the core mechanisms of Horizon Europe are likely to remain, but expectations around impact, collaboration, and strategic alignment are increasing.
Institutions can begin preparing now by:
- Aligning research strengths with emerging EU priorities.
- Strengthening partnerships across Europe and beyond.
- Investing in impact development and stakeholder engagement.
- Monitoring policy developments closely as FP10 takes shape.
Perhaps most importantly, research managers will need to navigate a more strategically driven funding landscape, where success depends not only on scientific excellence but also on relevance to European priorities and the ability to deliver tangible outcomes.
Institutions that understand the emerging structure and budget pressures will be better prepared to support researchers, shape partnerships, and plan ahead with confidence.
As part of its ongoing coverage of research funding and policy developments, ResearchConnect will continue to monitor and report on the latest developments on the road to FP10. We offer a user-friendly database containing a global source of research opportunities, covering a broad range of funders and disciplines. Our news content features the most recent research calls and funder updates, providing access to the latest funding opportunities and developments to researchers worldwide.