This week, national leaders and the European Parliament agreed on the budget for 2025. Lean years lie ahead for the sciences: funding for the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme will be significantly reduced.

The European Research Council (ERC), which funds a relatively large proportion of Dutch scientific research, will also have to make do with less. The ERC is part of the Horizon programme.

Draghi

Horizon will now have to stomach an initial cut of 130 million euros. With an annual budget of almost 13 billion euros, that’s ‘only’ a one percent drop, but it’s still striking given the desire in Brussels to increase research funding.

The decision to cut a total of 2.1 billion euros over the next three years from the Horizon Europe budget was made a year ago, when government leaders wanted more money for defence.

But when Ursula von der Leyen secured her second term as Commission president in July, EU policymakers began to hope that the cutback could be reversed – at the time of her appointment, Von der Leyen promised to promote research and innovation. In September, former ECB president Mario Draghi also suggested significant budget increases in these areas.

The ‘Draghi report’ in particular has been getting a lot of attention. If Europe is to remain economically relevant, Draghi argues, it needs to increase annual investment by 100 billion euros, requiring a joint commitment from industry, national governments and the EU. If it were up to Draghi, the ERC’s budget would be doubled.

Erasmus+

While the European Parliament pushed to expand the Horizon budget, government leaders pulled in the opposite direction, proposing to cut it by almost half a billion euros. They’ve now reached a compromise, deciding to cut 130 million euros instead.

This is only a small part of the 2.1 billion euro belt-tightening Horizon is facing over the next three years. Barring any dramatic policy changes, this means that the programme will need to cut almost a billion euros per year in 2026 and 2027.

The 2025 budget does earmark additional funding for Erasmus+, an EU programme that supports student exchanges and internships abroad. It also helps teachers who want to gain experience working in another European country. Erasmus+ will receive an additional 180 million euros.