This article was the Topic of the Week in the newsletter for week 51 of 2025.

The goal of the ECF is to enhance the international competitiveness of European companies in strategic sectors across the entire investment process – from research to industrial implementation to market introduction.

Financing is planned for four distinct economic areas ("windows"):

• Clean transition and industry decarbonisation
• Biotechnology, agriculture, and bioeconomy
• Digital leadership
• Resilience and security, defence industry, and space

Ease of access remains key

The complexity of EU funding programs deters many – especially small and medium-sized enterprises – from participating. Introducing a unified regulatory framework for the 14 existing programs is therefore a step in the right direction. This simplification must also be evident to businesses and applicants: It is crucial to design application submission and processing from the outset from the perspective of involved actors, such as intermediaries and implementation partners at the national and/or regional level.

Only procedures that are practically implementable for businesses and offer concrete support can ensure the success of the fund. This includes, for example, straightforward application processes, clear tender documents, uncomplicated disbursement modalities, and reliable and clearly designated contact persons.

Expertise from and for the economy required

In shaping the annual or multiannual programs of the fund, it is essential to actively involve the economy as the principal stakeholder. To make the ECF as practical as possible for businesses, representatives from the public and private sectors should collaboratively discuss which financing instruments are suited for which policy windows. Likewise, program durations should be aligned with the respective sector and desired investment. Given varying needs and capabilities, the entire breadth of the economy must be considered – ranging from innovative start-ups and scale-ups to micro-enterprises, SMEs, and multinational corporations. The independent members of the ECF’s key governance bodies should bring proven innovation expertise and extensive experience to make innovation-driven and risk-tolerant decisions detached from political processes. Models for agile and efficient funding management are the American ARPAs (Advanced Research Project Agencies).

Maintaining technology openness

A narrow focus in funding poses the risk of overlooking promising innovations in other value chains. As it is not yet foreseeable which technologies or components will prevail in the long term, funding must be effective but sufficiently broad to ensure entrepreneurial potentials are not prematurely excluded.

Balancing flexibility and planning reliability

The flexibility targeted in the new EU budget is also reflected in the ECF proposal: fewer rigid targets, but more opportunities to quickly respond to emergency situations. These are lessons learned from the ongoing budget period, which has seen multiple sudden crises. The Commission's leeway in setting specific funding criteria and developing work programs is fundamentally reasonable in this context. This flexibility also enables the inclusion of new and disruptive technologies not previously within the EU’s strategic focus. At the same time, businesses require sufficient reliability to make long-term investment decisions.