12 Oct 2026
EU report highlights science strength but warns of innovation gap
On 1 October, the European Commission has published its 2026 Science, Research and Innovation Performance of the EU report, highlighting Europe’s scientific strength while warning that it struggles to translate research into strategic technologies, market leadership and productivity growth.
The EU ranks second worldwide in scientific output, and 57% of its scientific publications involve international collaboration. Research quality also remains high.
However, the report identifies four major challenges: insufficient investment, fragmented research efforts, barriers to scaling up innovation and intensifying global competition. An estimated €560 billion in additional investment would be needed to meet the EU’s target of spending 3% of GDP on research and development by 2030.
Financing constraints and difficulties in commercialising research and deploying technologies hamper progress, particularly in artificial intelligence, advanced semiconductors and cloud computing.
To address these weaknesses, the report calls for better coordination of public and private investment, stronger regional collaboration and a sharper focus on strategic technologies.
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