The Insider, Season 2, Episode 7

"The Legal Argument Brussels Doesn't Want to Hear"

Europe is redesigning its research and innovation architecture. FP10, the European Competitiveness Fund, defence research, dual use, competitiveness and security are all being pulled into the same conversation, and often treated as if the only question is how fast we can move.

But there is a more fundamental question underneath it all: Are we still operating within the limits of EU law?

In this episode of The Insider, host Ricardo Miguéis (INESC Brussels HUB) speaks with Prof. Kurt Deketelaere, one of Europe’s leading legal minds in research governance, about the issue almost no one in Brussels wants to confront: the legal validity of how defence research is being embedded into FP10 and the proposed European Competitiveness Fund (ECF).

FP10, the ECF, and a governance problem hiding in plain sight

Kurt explains why many universities and research organisations fear that, as currently drafted, FP10 risks becoming subordinate to the ECF. He discusses the joint statement issued by seven major university and research networks, and why they argue for two principles that must hold in the next cycle:

• Autonomy of FP10 and the ECF
• A clear interface that connects excellence to competitiveness (without merging them or placing one under the other)

The metaphor he uses is simple but powerful: FP10 as the generator of excellent science and talent; the ECF as the amplifier that scales it where Europe has a strategic interest.

The legal line: when a fund becomes a “specific programme”

Then the conversation goes where policy debates rarely go: into the treaty articles that determine who decides what.

Kurt lays out, in accessible terms, why he believes using the ECF regulation as the specific programme for FP10’s defence research might violate the EU’s “centre of gravity” principle; and why building a €125 billion line on shaky legal ground is a risk Europe cannot afford to ignore.

This is the “legal argument Brussels doesn’t want to hear”: not sensational, but deeply structural because it forces Parliament, Council and Commission to confront how far they are prepared to stretch the treaties in the name of speed and strategic autonomy.

Dual-use, safeguards, and Europe’s identity

The conversation also touches on one of the most difficult questions in today’s research landscape: the growing blur between civilian, dual-use and defence technologies. Kurt emphasises the importance of:

• Clear definitions
• Transparent flagging of dual-use calls
• Guarantees that researchers are not pushed toward militarised framing
• A firm separation between dual-use and deliberate defence research

What is EU-level R&I actually for?

The episode closes with the foundational question: what should EU-level research funding achieve?

Kurt brings it back to the treaties: Europe’s R&I mission is both to generate new knowledge and to strengthen its competitiveness. The challenge isn’t excellence (Europe has plenty). The challenge is turning excellence into impact, without sacrificing academic freedom, legal certainty, or the institutional safeguards built after the crises of the 20th century.

If you want to understand not just the proposals on the table, but what they mean for Europe’s long-term governance, legality and strategic direction, this episode offers a unique, unfiltered view from inside the debate.

Listen to Episode 7: “The Legal Argument Brussels Doesn’t Want to Hear” on The Insider.

The Insider, Season 2, Episode 6

“Partnerships in the Age of Strategic Autonomy”

Europe’s research and innovation system relies heavily on partnerships, but how well do we understand the machinery behind them? And what will it take for these partnerships to deliver the kind of strategic outcomes Europe now expects?

In this episode of The Insider, Ricardo Miguéis sits down with Niklas Blomberg, Executive Director of the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) and former Director of ELIXIR, Europe’s life-science data infrastructure. Few people have been as deeply embedded in both the technical and governance dimensions of Europe’s collaborative ecosystem (from distributed research infrastructures to large-scale public–private partnerships shaping health innovation).

Niklas brings a unique vantage point: years spent building frameworks that connect research, industry, public agencies and civil-society actors at European scale. Where coordination is complex, where legitimacy matters, and where design choices quietly determine what Europe can (and cannot) deliver.

Part 1 - How European Partnerships Really Work

The episode opens by unpacking how partnerships such as IHI are structured, what “capabilities” mean in practice, and why Europe’s model differs from the US or China. Instead of pooling cash alone, European partnerships pool expertise (industrial R&D teams, advanced engineering capabilities, public-sector knowledge, patient organisations, research infrastructures and regulatory actors).

This allows Europe not just to do research differently, but in many cases to do different research. Thus, tackling problems that are too complex, too cross-sectoral or too high-risk for a single organisation or country to take on alone.

Niklas reflects on the transition from earlier partnership models to Horizon Europe, how governance shapes trust and risk-sharing, why “no losers” is a design principle (not a constraint), and how the human side of collaboration, not structures, often determines whether partnerships truly work.

Part 2 - Strategy, Governance and Europe’s Next Phase

The second half of the conversation shifts from mechanics to strategy, examining what effective governance looks like when partnerships must deliver faster, under pressure and at scale. It explores how FP10 and the European Competitiveness Fund could reshape Europe’s approach, and what kinds of agency design, metrics and feedback loops are needed to sustain trust, adaptability and long-term learning.

Here the episode goes deeper into questions of power, legitimacy, evaluation and institutional capacity; not as abstract concepts, but as practical choices that determine whether partnerships evolve or stagnate.

This episode makes one thing clear: Europe’s real R&I challenge lies not in innovation or governance alone, but in the space where the two meet. It shows how scientific capability, institutional design and on-the-ground delivery shape one another; and what Europe will need to strengthen across all three if its partnerships are to turn ambition into outcomes as FP10 takes shape.

Listen to Episode 6: “Partnerships in the Age of Strategic Autonomy” on The Insider.

The Insider, Season 2, Episode 5

“Building the R&I Agency of the Future”

Europe is not short on ideas. Over the past decades, it has built world-class universities, produced exceptional science, and developed some of the most advanced policy frameworks in the world.

Yet when it comes to turning knowledge into strategic technologies, industrial strength and long-term innovation capacity, the results remain uneven — especially when compared with countries in East Asia that have managed to preserve and strengthen their institutional foundations.

Why does this gap persist? And what would it take for Europe to rebuild the public-sector capacity that modern innovation systems require?

In this episode of The Insider, Ricardo Miguéis sits down with Rainer Kattel, Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), to explore exactly that.

Over the past 20 years, Kattel has become one of the leading voices on how innovation bureaucracies work, why they fail, and what it means for states to act strategically. His award-winning book How to Make an Entrepreneurial State puts forward a simple but provocative idea: bureaucracy is not the enemy of innovation; it is one of its essential conditions.

The episode unfolds in two parts:

Part 1 – How Europe lost (and others kept) institutional capacity

The conversation begins with an honest look at Europe’s position: a continent that invests heavily in R&I but struggles with implementation. Ricardo and Rainer discuss how, from the 1990s onwards, many European countries gradually hollowed out their strategic capabilities, turning agencies into project managers focused on compliance rather than long-term direction.

Kattel contrasts this with the trajectories of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other East Asian economies, which built public organisations able to learn continuously, anticipate technological shifts, and act with coherence across decades.

The question they raised seems unavoidable: Can Europe still govern innovation in a world where second chances are disappearing?

Part 2 – What enables real change

The second half of the episode shifts from diagnosis to possibility. What would it take for European governments to actually strengthen their innovation capability, not on paper, but in day-to-day practice?

Rainer outlines the core ingredients: institutions that learn quickly, agencies that operate with a degree of protected autonomy, and political systems that allow experimentation without collapsing into short-termism. He argues that reform is less about redesigning entire ministries and more about creating the spaces (and the incentives) for public organisations to think strategically, coordinate across sectors, and retain the expertise they need.

The discussion also touches on talent, time horizons, and why the public sector’s ability to adapt often depends on the smallest units inside it: the teams empowered to test, adjust and build institutional memory before the next political cycle resets the conversation.

With geopolitical tensions rising and major technological shifts already underway, Europe is rethinking its R&I system for the decade ahead. This episode goes straight to the core question: Can Europe rebuild the institutional capacity it needs to stay competitive (and to govern innovation) in a world that won’t slow down?

A timely episode for a critical moment...

Listen to full episode “Building the R&I Agency of the Future”

The Insider, Season 2, Episode 4

“A 2026 Deep Dive with Muriel Attané”

Europe enters 2026 with a strong inheritance in research and innovation. Well-established frameworks, mature institutions, and a long-standing reputation for scientific excellence continue to underpin its global position. But the year ahead will test something more demanding: Europe’s ability to act strategically in a context shaped by geopolitical pressure, industrial competition, and accelerating technological change.

In this episode of The Insider, Ricardo Miguéis is joined by Muriel Attané, Secretary General of EARTO, for a wide-ranging conversation on where Europe’s research and innovation system stands, and the choices now taking shape beneath the surface.

Part 1 – Looking at Europe from the outside

The discussion deliberately starts beyond Europe’s own policy debates. Drawing on Muriel’s recent international engagements, including in South Korea and Canada, the episode explores how Europe is perceived as a research and technology partner, and how global actors assess its reliability, speed, and strategic clarity.

The conversation looks at how international collaboration is evolving in a more politicised environment, where research, technology and geopolitics are increasingly intertwined. It also examines what external partners read into Europe’s current discussions around FP10 and the European Competitiveness Fund, and how those signals shape expectations about Europe’s future role.

This first part focuses on positioning and perception: where Europe inspires confidence, where questions arise, and why credibility, coordination and clarity matter as much as formal frameworks.

Part 2 – FP10, competitiveness and the capacity to deliver

The second part turns inward, shifting from perspective to analysis. Rather than revisiting familiar reform narratives, the discussion looks at the quieter dynamics inherited from 2025: mounting pressure for speed and scale, changing governance patterns, and growing questions about institutional readiness.

A central focus is the evolving relationship between FP10 and the European Competitiveness Fund. Beyond funding volumes or programme architecture, the conversation examines steering capacity, governance choices, and the challenge of aligning instruments, actors and timelines in a system under strain.

Throughout the episode, Research and Technology organisations (RTOs) emerge as key, if often understated, actors. Positioned at the interface between research, industry, and policy, they are increasingly called upon to help translate ambition into action, coordinate across ecosystems, and respond at speed to shifting priorities.

Rather than offering predictions, the episode closes with a set of questions that will define the years ahead: how Europe chooses to govern its innovation system, where it is willing to prioritise, and how long difficult decisions can be deferred without consequence.

Rather than offering predictions, the episode closes by identifying the issues that will decisively shape Europe’s trajectory in the years ahead — and the risks of postponing difficult decisions.

Listen to “A 2026 Deep Dive with Muriel Attané”

— — —

References:

During the episode, Ricardo Miguéis refers to two books that help frame the discussion around state capacity, innovation and long-term competitiveness. For listeners interested in exploring these ideas further, the references are listed below:

• How to Make an Entrepreneurial State: Why Innovation Needs Bureaucracy

Kattel, R., Drechsler, W., & Karo, E. (2022). Yale University Press.

• How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations

Frey, C. B. (2025). Princeton University Press.

The Insider - Season 2, Episode 2

"European Innovation Scoreboard 2025 Explained: Bridging Data and Policy with Alasdair Reid"

Season 2 continues with a topic that sits right at the crossroads of evidence and strategy in European research: the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) 2025. We talk a lot about innovation in Europe — but do we really understand the numbers we rely on to judge how well we’re doing?

In this episode, Ricardo Miguéis is joined by Alasdair Reid, economist and long-standing contributor to Europe’s innovation policy framework. Alasdair has been closely involved with the European Innovation Scoreboard since its origin, overseeing key elements of innovation policy benchmarking, and currently serves as coordinator for the 2024-2027 period. His perspective reflects a deep, system-level understanding of how innovation indicators are developed, interpreted, and translated into policy.

With the new EIS 2025 now out, this conversation is a chance to take a step back and look at what these indicators actually tell us, and what they don’t.

Part 1 – Making Sense of the Numbers

The first half of the episode looks at how the scoreboard came about, how it has changed over the years, and what the 2025 edition reveals about Europe’s innovation landscape. Ricardo and Alasdair discuss:

• What stands out in the EIS 2025 results, and where the data remains silent
• Why countries with similar tools and spending patterns often move in very different directions
• The role that governance, trust and institutional capacity quietly play in shaping innovation
• Why benchmark indicators often become political stories, not just technical ones
• How the scoreboard can be both incredibly useful — and sometimes misleading

It’s a reminder that metrics don’t simply describe reality; they influence how we understand it.

Part 2 – From Indicators to Strategy (and FP10)

The conversation then widens to Europe’s bigger innovation challenges and the structural questions behind them. This includes:

• The long-standing regional paradox: why some areas surge ahead while others remain stuck
• Lessons from countries like China or Canada, and what Europe can and cannot borrow from them
• The persistent gap between policy intentions and actual outcomes on the ground
• Whether our current indicators are fit for a world shaped by green, digital, social and geopolitical transitions
• How FP10 might look if Europe treated metrics not just as a scoreboard, but as a steering tool

One theme keeps resurfacing: measurement shapes strategy, and Europe may need to rethink what it values if it wants different results.

For anyone involved in European R&I — from research organisations and innovation agencies to policymakers and analysts — this episode is an opportunity to hear directly from someone who has helped define the indicators we all work with. It sheds light on the logic behind the EIS, its limitations, and the broader implications for the next Framework Programme.

Listen to “European Innovation Scoreboard 2025 Explained: Bridging Data and Policy with Alasdair Reid” on The Insider.

The Insider Podcast - Season 2, Episode 1

"Progress Reimagined: Putting Societies at the Heart of European Research"

We’re back!

Season 2 of The Insider opens with a big question – maybe THE question – for European research right now: What happens when society becomes an afterthought in how we fund and govern science? And what would it take to put people back at the centre of the picture?

In this first episode, Ricardo Miguéis sits down with Dr. Gabi Lombardo, Director of the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH) and someone who’s spent years trying to fix exactly that. Gabi has seen the system from every angle, from the London School of Economics and the ERC to Science Europe and EASSH, and she’s built one of the strongest cases for treating the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) as co-designers of European R&I, not just background noise.

The episode unfolds in two parts:

Part 1 – Where we come from

Gabi reflects on her path, the institutional blind spots she’s seen up close, and why SSH remains structurally misunderstood in Europe. She talks about the famous Frascati Manual problem, fragmented national systems, and why “integration” is not the same as genuine collaboration. Behind the acronyms lies a deeper issue: the way Europe still defines what counts as “research excellence” – often in ways that overlook the human dimensions of progress.

Part 2 – Where we go next

The conversation dives into FP10, and the new Society policy window, asking what it would really mean to let SSH help design missions, instead of commenting from the sidelines. From the obsession with “resilience” to the need to look beyond GDP when measuring progress, this part links directly with how Europe defines ambition and what kind of future it is actually building.

Throughout the episode, one idea keeps coming back: Europe doesn’t just need to fund SSH, it needs to learn from it. Because, if we want to talk seriously about trust, democracy, or legitimacy, we can’t treat social knowledge as an accessory. It’s a public good.

For INESC Brussels HUB, this episode sets the tone for Season 2 – a season about how Europe chooses to innovate, and what kind of progress it truly wants to build.

Listen to “Progress Reimagined: Putting Societies at the Heart of European Research”, now streaming on The Insider.

The Insider – Season 2, Episode 0

Season 2 of The Insider starts with a special Episode 0 – a pre-launch recorded live during an internal INESC webinar in October: “Understanding FP10 & the European Competitiveness Fund: Strategic implications for INESC.”

In this episode, host Ricardo Miguéis talks with Carla Matias dos Santos, Research and Space Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union. From her position inside the Council policy ecosystem, Carla has been closely involved in the political discussions around the Framework Programme 10 (FP10) and the proposed European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) – two instruments that will shape how Europe organises and funds research and innovation in the next decade.

The session was originally designed as an internal workshop for the INESC community. We’re now sharing it more widely because the discussion is highly relevant for anyone trying to understand where the European research and innovation policy is heading.

During the conversation, Carla and Ricardo look at:

• How FP10 is being structured – including key novelties such as dual-use research, research and technology infrastructures, and changes to widening measures.

• The rationale behind the European Competitiveness Fund, its four policy windows, and the idea of following the full path from research to deployment, manufacturing, and market uptake.

• The links between FP10 and the ECF: shared governance, a common rulebook, and what this means in practice for collaborative research and strategic domains like AI, digital, decarbonisation, health, resilience, security and defence.

• What all this implies for research organisations: larger and more directional projects, stronger emphasis on partnership-building, and the need to think earlier and more strategically about positioning.

For INESC, this episode also serves as an early step on the way to the HUB Winter Meeting 2026, feeding into our work on scenario building, FP10 readiness and long-term strategic alignment across centres and institutes.

Whether you work within INESC, lead a research organisation elsewhere in Europe, or are involved in designing and implementing R&I policy and programmes, this episode offers a very concrete, practitioner-level view of the FP10–ECF debate.

Listen to Episode 0 and explore how FP10 and the ECF are likely to frame European research and innovation in the next decade.