Frankfurt/Brüssel, 9 April 2026 – Commenting on the preparations for the next EU research framework program, “Horizon Europe,” Hartmut Rauen, Deputy Executive Director of the VDMA, says:

• “Competitiveness and technological leadership are based on research that can be put into practice. That is why the EU Research Framework Program, which is currently being developed by the EU institutions and starts 2028, must absolutely incorporate industry expertise into the program’s design in order to create sustainable jobs in Europe. It is therefore appropriate that this priority is clearly implemented through the Horizon sub program ‘Competitiveness and Society.’”

• “In the proposals put forward so far by the European Commission and the European Parliament, industrial enterprises have been left on the sidelines. The opportunities for these highly innovative companies to participate in setting strategic priorities and implementing them are insufficiently addressed.”

• “As a result, those responsible for Horizon Europe risk that EU research activities will ultimately fail to meet the technological needs of industry, miss out on technological developments, and fail to sufficiently adopt and scale up research results.”

• “The future structure of the EU Research Framework Program must ensure that companies are involved in defining research priorities and projects—for example, through industry-led platforms that ensure the relevance of the topics and provide access.”

• “The goal must be to ensure that EU research funding actually reaches companies. There is a significant need to catch up in this area: for example, German machinery and equipment manufacturing firms—Europe’s largest industrial sector—receive only 0.26 euros in grants from Brussels for every 100 euros they spent on research and development—in other words, virtually nothing. We need more ‘research for industry’ and less ‘research for the library.’”

VDMA represents 3500 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 900 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.