The European Commission published today the 2026 edition of the Science, Research and Innovation Performance of the EU report, providing a comprehensive assessment of Europe's research and innovation landscape.
The report shows that Europe remains a global scientific leader. The EU ranks second worldwide in scientific output, while 57% of its scientific publications involve international collaboration. It also finds that the quality of EU research remains high.
However, Europe is less successful in turning that scientific strength into strategic technologies, market leadership and productivity growth.
The report highlights four main challenges related to investment in R&I under the EU target of 3% of GDP, fragmentation of the research and innovation efforts, bottlenecks in financing, knowledge valorisation and technology deployment and the need for the EU to strengthen its position in strategic technologies while maintaining scientific excellence and attracting top talent, including through initiatives such as Choose Europe.
Source: European Commission
