The European Union is investing €411 million in 73 Horizon Europe projects intended to improve the facilities, data services, instruments and digital tools available to researchers. The selected projects are beginning work across health, climate, agriculture, transport, manufacturing and frontier science.
Where is the funding going?
The European Research Executive Agency divides the portfolio into four areas. Thirty projects receive about €109 million for developing and consolidating research infrastructures; 13 receive €85 million for open and FAIR data services; 12 receive €154 million for research-infrastructure services; and 18 receive €63 million for new instruments, methods and digital solutions.
What counts as research infrastructure?
The term covers more than buildings. It includes laboratories, specialist instruments, collections, data resources, computing services and networks that researchers need to carry out work. Shared infrastructure can give teams access to capabilities that would be too expensive or specialised for every institution to maintain independently.
Which projects illustrate the programme?
The agency highlights CLAIMA, which plans an AI-driven climate digital-twin platform; ESG4Stars, which will examine the environmental footprint of scientific computing and data analysis; and EPITA, which aims to develop 22 prototypes with industry for particle-accelerator technologies. These are project goals, not completed results.
How were the projects selected?
The 73 projects were chosen from 159 applications submitted to a competitive 2025 call. According to the agency, independent experts coordinated by the European Research Executive Agency carried out the peer evaluation. The projects span 18 funding topics and are now starting their activities.
What should readers watch next?
The meaningful measures will be working tools, access delivered to researchers, published methods and demonstrable improvements in cost, speed or scientific capability. The €411 million figure is the rounded EU contribution across the portfolio; it should not be read as funding for one facility or a single technology.
Primary sources: the European Research Executive Agency’s funding announcement and its Horizon Europe research-infrastructures overview.
Reporting basis: official information available on 26 September 2026. Illustrative image: photo by Taylor Vick on Unsplash.