Nicosia: Strengthening research and innovation as key drivers of Europe's competitiveness, resilience, and strategic autonomy, was the focus of the Informal Competitiveness Council for Research held virtually on 31 March 2026. The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy of the Republic of Cyprus, Dr. Nicodemos Damianou, with the participation of the European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva.
According to Cyprus News Agency, while the European Union continues to demonstrate strong performance in research and scientific excellence, Ministers acknowledged that persistent structural barriers continue to hinder the scaling-up of innovation across borders. These barriers include market fragmentation, regulatory complexity, limited access to finance, and obstacles to the commercialization of research results.
Ministers exchanged views on the main challenges limiting cross-border scale-up, ways to strengthen the research-to-innovation pipeline, and measures to bridge the gap between research results and market uptake. They also shared national and regional best practices and discussed how the Union and its Member States can work more effectively together to attract researchers, innovators, and investors to Europe, as well as support the development and scaling of breakthrough innovations across Europe and beyond.
"Our role as Presidency is to ensure these initiatives translate into concrete results. Since the start of our Presidency, we have focused on being pragmatic and results-oriented-providing political direction on key research and innovation files and helping shape the next phase of the Commission's work, with particular focus on the next framework program (FP10) that will be decisive for Europe's ability to enhance and adequately fund fundamental research but also the innovation capabilities," noted Damianou.
Ministers also welcomed Dr. Ioannis Kymissis, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Vice Dean for Infrastructure and Innovation at Columbia University, as a distinguished guest speaker. Drawing on his extensive international experience, he delivered a keynote address on 'A Few Factors for Innovation Success', followed by an interactive discussion with Ministers, the statement concludes.