The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) has released its first draft report on the European Commission’s proposal for the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation for the period 2028-2034 (FP10). The report still needs to be formally adopted by the committee, but it already provides a clear indication of the priorities of the Parliament’s lead committee for shaping the future EU research and innovation landscape.

 Some headlines of the amendments proposed by ITRE:

• Striving for a stand-alone programme, based on the current Horizon Europe structure, counting with 220 billion Euro
• More autonomy for ERC and EIC
• Funding allocation should be designed to be expert-driven
• Need for an optimal coordination between FP10 and the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF)
• In Pillar 1: introduction of a fast track to excellence Programme
• In Pillar 2: governance should be guided by experts, and introduction of Fast Track to Innovation instrument and European Demonstrator Scheme
• In Pillar 3: introduction of challenge-driven "ARPA"*-like approach implemented by Programme Managers; role of EIT should be explained unless its elimination has been decided upon
• Simplification to reduce administrative burden for beneficiaries, with shorter proposals, and only targeted use of Lump Sum Funding (and other simplified cost options) (thus not by default); the (Annotated) Model grant Agreement should be available by the start of the programme
• Introduction of definitions of the kind of actions: research actions, research&innovation actions, innovation actions
• European partnerships based on contractual agreements (in stead of memorandum of understanding) 

Background: The Commission has launched in July 2025 its regulation proposal and specific programme proposal of the next Framework programme of 2028-2034 (FP10), cfr. our resp. news item 

*ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency (from USA)