25/09/24 (Agence Europe) – Published on 25 September, a letter addressed to the European Commission, Commissioner Iliana Ivanova and Commissioner-designate Ekaterina Zaharieva that had been sent by Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Malta, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Portugal and Romania emphasised their opinion on “the paramount importance of continuing the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’ strand in the successor programme to Horizon Europe “to improve research excellence within the EU”. In their view, the next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10) should retain the key elements of the Spreading Excellence programme, while simultaneously integrating other actions to “genuinely” improve research and innovation collaboration throughout Europe and to improve the overall participation of all Member States in all pillars of FP10. (CG)