Some EU R&I partnerships pull in five times their public funding

Biennial analysis of joint research and innovation funding finds major leveraging of investments

Some of the EU’s research and innovation funding partnerships are attracting more than €5 of investment for every €1 provided from the EU budget, according to a report.

The EU’s biennial Performance of European Partnerships report, published on 19 September, says that Knowledge and Innovation Communities—a special form of institutionalised partnership—have the greatest total leveraging effect, pulling in €5.60 for every €1 they receive from the EU budget.

Run by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology across nine thematic areas including climate change, food and manufacturing, KICs bring together education, research, business and non-profit organisations to support innovation through knowledge exchange and capacity building.

The report evaluates several kinds of EU R&I partnership. It says that for co-programmed partnerships, whose partners are mostly companies, the figure is €3.55; for co-funded partnerships, which involve other public funders, it is €2.21; and for other institutionalised partnerships, which are implemented by dedicated legal entities, it is €1.64.

But it warns: “Given the self-reporting nature of this data and the fact that indirect activities are likely to be triggered further down the lifetime of the partnership, the figures reported in this report are to be taken with the necessary caution.”

The analysis comes as several research organisations have called for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s remit to be reconsidered as part of the plans for the EU’s next R&I programme, which starts in 2028.

Clear purpose needed

The EU’s R&I commissioner Iliana Ivanova said in her foreword to the report that partnerships “have become one of the key instruments” of the EU R&I funding programme.

“They bring together a range of public and private partners who pool resources with the EU to address challenges, such as the green and digital transition, that no single country or company can tackle alone,” she said.

In the future, Ivanova said, such partnerships must “not only demonstrate high value but also clear purpose”.

She elaborated: “They must be inclusive to best address challenges, which increasingly lie at the intersections of scientific disciplines or industrial sectors, but also to reinforce the deployment and uptake of innovations. And they should also become role models of open innovation, bringing in new perspectives from all over Europe and piloting solutions with citizens.”