Europe Unveils €10 Billion Strategy to Dominate Global Life Sciences by 2030
Work News | New Stardom
© European Union, 2025, photo: Claudio Centonze – EC Audiovisual Service
The European Commission has unveiled an ambitious strategy to transform the EU into the world’s most attractive ecosystem for life sciences innovation by 2030. Backed by over €10 billion annually from the EU budget, the plan seeks to reassert Europe’s leadership in health, biotech, food, and environmental research by accelerating clinical trials, simplifying regulation, and scaling high-impact technologies.
The strategy, announced 2 July and detailed in a 90-page Commission communication, outlines a coordinated industrial and research agenda across the entire life sciences value chain. It comes amid growing concerns that the EU is losing ground to global competitors in translating scientific breakthroughs into real-world applications.
Europe’s life sciences sector contributes nearly €1.5 trillion in value and supports 29 million jobs, but fragmentation, underfunded scale-ups, slow clinical pathways, and regulatory complexity have hindered its global competitiveness. The EU currently ranks second worldwide in biotech patents but is facing increasing pressure from China’s fast-expanding innovation footprint.
To counter this, the strategy proposes three flagship pillars:
Optimising Research and Innovation (R&I):
The Commission will introduce an EU investment plan for clinical research, including new funding pilots for multi-country clinical trials and a €4 million network of Centres of Excellence in advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). It also pledges €250 million to develop biomanufacturing, novel molecules, and other industrial biotech innovations.Streamlining Market Access:
A forthcoming EU Biotech Act will establish a more innovation-friendly legal framework across biotech sectors. Regulatory sandboxes and updated EU standards aim to reduce time-to-market for breakthrough technologies. A startup-industry-investor matchmaking tool, built on the European Innovation Council portfolio, will also be launched.Boosting Uptake and Trust:
To speed adoption of new technologies, the Commission will allocate €300 million toward the public procurement of life sciences solutions in areas like cancer, climate adaptation, and vaccines. A new Life Sciences Coordination Group will oversee policy alignment across sectors and member states.
Additional measures include a €100 million push for microbiome-based One Health solutions, €50 million to integrate AI in biomedical research, and a €25 million investment to expand genomic data infrastructure under the European Health Data Space framework. By 2026, the Commission plans to roll out a pilot AI-powered regulatory navigator for researchers to better access funding and data services.
The strategy also addresses skills shortages and researcher mobility, announcing new incentives to attract top international talent through the "Choose Europe" initiative and a €1 million foresight study into future life science competencies.
President Ursula von der Leyen first signaled the initiative in her 2019 political guidelines. The release now comes as part of the broader “Competitiveness Compass” aimed at reinforcing EU strategic autonomy and economic resilience.
While the strategy sets bold goals, its success will depend heavily on member state cooperation, cross-sector alignment, and the Commission’s ability to cut through entrenched bureaucratic obstacles that have slowed Europe’s biotech ascent.
Sources:
European Commission, IP/25/1686 | European Commission Communication COM(2025) 525 final | JRC Reports: Life Sciences sectors in the EU, Trends in patents in Life Sciences
Follow global work and job trends. Subscribe to The Monthly Work Roundup newsletter.
Have insights on work and the future of work? Submit an opinion piece to New Stardom. Love work and career books? Explore our fun workplace book collection.
New Stardom is an independent magazine covering the Future of Work, AI, and emerging job trends.
