EU’s strategic technology programme mobilises €10B in first year
Date: 25/06/2025
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The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (Step) has directed more than €10 billion in EU funds towards digital and deep technology, clean technology and biotechnology in its first year. But EU governments have been slow to get behind the initiative, with only a few committing cohesion and other funds to the cause.
Launched in 2024, Step is designed to coordinate funding across 11 EU programmes managed either by the European Commission or by member states.
In its first year, €4.6 billion was directed towards Step priorities from funds managed by the Commission: Horizon Europe, the Innovation Fund, the European Defence Fund (EDF), the Digital Europe programme and EU4Health. All of this money has come from existing budgets, apart from €1.5 billion that was passed through Step to the EDF and on to the European Defence Industry Programme.
A further €5.9 billion was reprogrammed by EU member states and regions from their cohesion policy funds.
The Commission is satisfied with this result, saying in its first annual report on the programme, published on June 17, that Step “has demonstrated its value as a catalyst for strategic investment.”
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The largest contribution from the Commission-managed programmes was a €4 billion Step-aligned call under the Innovation Fund, which supports clean technologies.
Meanwhile, €461 million was earmarked for Step-relevant actions in digital technologies in 2024, through two topics under Horizon Europe, three under the Digital Europe programme and 12 under the EDF. This does not include the first €300 million Step scale-up call released by the European Innovation Council as this only closed in 2025.
A further €154 million budget for biotech projects was spread across three EU4Health call topics and two EDF topics, in areas including antiviral development, vaccine production and the manufacturing of essential medicines.
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By the end of 2024, the Commission had also approved €5.9 billion in cohesion policy programme amendments in six member states, to align regional development funds with Step objectives. An additional five member states had submitted amendments, meaning the majority of EU countries have yet to align their programmes with Step priorities.
The investments mostly come under the European Regional Development Fund, but they also leverage the Just Transition Fund and the European Social Fund Plus. Investments in research and innovation account for around 15% of the total allocation, with a similar amount going to skills development.
Italy’s Umbria region, for example, established a financial instrument to support SMEs that find it difficult to access credit to invest in the development of manufacturing of biotech, digital and deep tech and clean technologies.
The Step programme also gives member states the possibility to use resources from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the €650 billion fund set up to help countries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, to support Step priorities. So far, however, no member state has taken up this option.
In April, the Commission proposed extending the scope of Step to introduce defence technologies as a fourth area for support.