This policy brief offers a centre–right vision for the future of European research and innovation (R&I) policy under the next Framework Programme (FP10). In an era marked by rapid technological disruption and geopolitical volatility, the EU must mobilise its scientific talent and R&I capabilities to achieve competitiveness and strategic autonomy. The brief outlines a decentralised, market-based and geopolitical approach to R&I.

The recommendations aim to unleash the collective intelligence of the EU’s rich and diverse R&I landscape by empowering researchers, businesses and civil society through trust, streamlined governance, and enabling conditions. Key recommendations include maintaining Horizon as a standalone excellencefocused programme, embracing innovation across all policies, and building shared platforms for key enabling technologies, such as AI, biotech and semiconductors.

The brief also calls for robust standardisation to unify markets and maximise the ‘Brussels Effect’, targeted brain-gain strategies to attract global talent, and nuanced dual-use R&I policies to strengthen Europe’s defence and resilience. Finally, it urges investment in ethics and foresight activities to imagine realistic scenarios and policy options for a human-centric future amid transformative technological change. By avoiding overprescriptive central planning and enabling emergent creativity, FP10 can help Europe become a scientific and economic powerhouse capable of safeguarding freedom, prosperity and sustainability in the twenty-first century.