Europe's research and innovation system is being actively reshaped by policy. Mario Draghi's September 2024 report on European competitiveness called for an additional €750–800 billion in annual R&I investment and a binding 3% of GDP R&D target — recommendations the European Commission formally picked up in its Competitiveness Compass (29 January 2025).

That agenda is now moving into legislation. The European Research Area (ERA) Act — which will anchor national commitments to the 3% R&D target and strengthen EU-wide coordination — closed a major public consultation on 23 January 2026 (735 contributions, 117 position papers, all 27 Member States represented), with a Commission proposal expected in Q3 2026, close to this webinar's date. In parallel, the Commission's Tech Sovereignty Package (3 June 2026 — covering chips, AI, cloud and open source) has raised the stakes for research-driven strategic autonomy, while the European Innovation Act has been postponed, leaving open questions about how Europe turns research excellence into innovation at scale.

Elsevier's report EU as a Science Innovator – Powered by the European Research Area, completed 28 October 2025 by Elsevier's Research Networks team, provides the evidence base for this conversation: a data-driven benchmark of EU27 performance against the US and China across the ERA's three pillars — research capacity and excellence, people and talent, and innovation and knowledge transfer. This webinar brings university, academy and innovation-council leadership together to react to that evidence at the exact moment policymakers are deciding what comes next.