Commission Report Highlights Horizon Europe’s Growing Impact and Europe’s Innovation Ambitions

The European Commission has published its Annual Report on Research and Technological Development Activities of the European Union and Monitoring of Horizon Europe in 2025, providing an overview of how research and innovation continue to support Europe’s competitiveness, sustainability, and technological leadership. The report also highlights the growing importance of knowledge valorisation, innovation ecosystems, and intellectual property in translating research results into real-world impact. 

According to the report, Horizon Europe has continued to attract strong participation, with nearly 149,000 eligible proposals submitted between 2021 and 2025 and more than 21,000 projects selected for funding. By the end of 2025, the programme had awarded €52.8 billion through 19,456 grants, involving over 31,000 organisations from 175 countries. SMEs accounted for 35% of all participants, underlining the programme’s role in supporting innovation-driven businesses. 

The report also provides insights into the programme’s innovation outputs. Horizon Europe projects have already reported 7,645 innovative products, processes, methods, and other results, alongside 283 intellectual property rights outputs, including 94 patent applications. The Commission notes that this number is expected to increase as additional patent applications become publicly available following the expiry of confidentiality periods. 

Beyond patent generation, the report emphasises the importance of ensuring that research results reach the market and society. To support this objective, the Commission continued to invest in dissemination and exploitation services. In 2025, the Horizon Results Platform and Booster services supported beneficiaries in commercialising and promoting their results, with the Booster alone delivering 764 services to more than 1,600 beneficiaries. 

Looking ahead, the report points to a stronger focus on innovation uptake and scaling through upcoming initiatives such as the European Innovation Act, the Scaleup Europe Fund, and new measures aimed at strengthening Europe’s innovation ecosystems. Together, these efforts seek to improve Europe’s ability to transform research excellence into market-ready innovations, economic growth, and societal value.