13 Oct 2025
Commission launches public consultation on ERA Act
On 13 October 2025, the European Commission launched the public consultation on the planned European Research Area Act (ERA Act). This consultation follows the Call for Evidence which closed last month.
The ERA Act is supposed to make important steps forward for achieving the full implementation of the ERA and towards the “fifth freedom” in the EU single market through binding European legislation.
The policy measures that could be included in the proposal for an ERA Act fall under three main blocks:
1) National commitments to reach the 3% R&D target: by developing new legal mechanisms to support and incentivise public and private-sector R&D spending, alongside national plans to achieve the 3% of GDP investment target.
2) Better alignment of investments and policies: Reinforced alignment of investments, policies and programmes around strategic priority areas between the EU and Member States and across Member States
3) Improvements in framework conditions for research(ers) and research organisations in Europe in areas such as researchers' careers, open science, improved legal framework for research infrastructures; better opportunities for knowledge valorisation, the upholding of ERA fundamental values, including safeguarding scientific freedom, strengthening ethics and the integrity of R&I, and promoting gender equality and improvements in coherence and consistency between EU and national approaches to R&I cooperation with third countries, as well as a minimum level of research security across the EU.
The consultation is open from 13 October 2025 to 5 January 2026. The Commission plans to present the proposal for a regulation in the third quarter of 2026.