EU POLICY
The consultancy joined stakeholders in Brussels to discuss simplification, excellence, and the design of FP10 with Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva
Zabala Innovation took an active role in the European Research & Innovation Days 2025 in Brussels, the European Commission’s flagship event on research and innovation policy. During the high-level dialogue “Making Horizon Europe Work Smarter: Implementation and Simplification” with Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva, the firm shared its insights and concrete proposals to strengthen Horizon Europe and prepare the ground for FP10 — the next EU research and innovation programme starting in 2028.
The R&I Days bring together policymakers, researchers, industry leaders, and civil society to discuss the future of European research and innovation. In 2025, the event focused strongly on competitiveness, sovereignty, and the role of research in addressing global challenges.
The policy dialogue in which Zabala Innovation participated gathered around 100 participants from academic associations, research centres, and companies across all EU Member States and Associated Countries. For nearly two hours, stakeholders exchanged views on how to simplify Horizon Europe’s implementation, making the session both dynamic and highly productive.
Drawing on its long-standing engagement in EU programmes, the consultancy underlined that excellence should remain the guiding principle of European research and innovation funding. According to its contribution, FP10 should be a strong and well-financed framework that supports industrial leadership, reinforces European sovereignty in critical technologies, and generates value for society and the economy.
The position paper also pointed to the need to avoid fragmentation in the next framework, with priorities focused on scale-up, market deployment, and the valorisation of research results.
In its feedback on Horizon Europe, the company suggested a series of operational improvements to the proposal submission process:
On the evaluation process, the contribution recommended:
The position paper noted that lump sum represent progress in simplification, especially for SMEs, as they help reduce administrative overhead. At the same time, several bottlenecks were identified:
The contribution presented at the R&I Days builds on the consultancy’s long-standing role in European Framework Programmes. Since the 1980s, it has worked with organisations across Europe — from SMEs and universities to major industry players — supporting them in securing funding and implementing projects.
This experience provides the firm with a perspective on both the strengths and the bottlenecks of Horizon Europe. The recommendations made are consistent with its FP10 Position Paper and previous contributions to the European Parliament, aiming to ensure that the lessons learned from Horizon Europe feed into the design of the next Framework Programme.
News
FP10 POSITION PAPER
We present our position paper on the 10th Framework Programme. Today we define the lines that will mark the policies that will support Innovation in the period 2028-2034
Opinion
Horizon Europe
Camino Correia
Head of European Programmes / Executive Commitee
Publication
10th Framework Programme
Explore the document in which we share our recommendations and strategic vision for the forthcoming 10th Framework Programme
Zabala Innovation assists private and public players in their search for and acquisition of public funding and has developed a methodology for accompanying and supporting national and European project coordinators.
We are experts in European funding programmes, which provide the opportunity to finance the development and market access of your company's innovative projects.
To maximise the success and impact of a project, we manage the communication and dissemination activities, but we also define a social innovation strategy and tools to measure its impact.