For CELTIC-NEXT, 2025 was a year of successful renewal. The 2nd EUREKA Clusters’ Programme started in July 2025, and our new, updated SRIA has enabled future successful innovation support and change since December 2025. Let’s look at what was achieved in the first half of 2026 and what we plan for the rest of the year 2026.

2026’s first half’s achievements

Since the renewal of our license to operate our Cluster under the EUREKA flag, we have been working to deliver the promised alignments and changes among the clusters and with the Funding Bodies of the EUREKA Network. This encompasses a dedicated webpage on the “Fees”, alignment of the proposals’ evaluation template across the clusters, and the ramp-up of a “Market Impact Report” survey mailing to projects that ended 18 and 36 months ago (to capture the impact of public funding on participants). We are also working with the other EUREKA Clusters on developing an internal operational handbook for cluster processes to help new Funding Bodies support us, the Clusters, and, therefore, you in funding your consortia in additional countries.

We had a great Proposers’ Brokerage Day in Vienna, Austria, at the end of January, with a very good attendance, fifteen pitches of innovative ideas, and lots of discussions. The Labelling meeting will happen in the first half of June 2026. Labelling decisions will be communicated before the end of June.

The end of this first half of 2026 sees the end of my role as Clusters Coordinator for the Industry. It is a rotating ambassador and coordination role, serving as the one voice of the clusters to the EUREKA Chair Country(ies) during the same period (July to June). It was an amazing period where I learnt a lot about the role of the EUREKA Chair Country, the responsibility for them to organise and manage the EUREKA Network, but also the incredible “race against the clock” exercise it is. I now have a better understanding of the EUREKA Network’s internal workings, the different stakeholders, the diversity of countries’ opinions, and, at the same time, their capacity to reach consensus-based decisions and actions, knowing that the EUREKA Network is larger than the European Community and includes countries from four continents! And despite this size, it feels like a family when we meet at the quarterly EUREKA Network meetings. Why? Because all those countries and their delegates are guided by this one fundamental principle: enabling innovation and its return of value for the EUREKA societies via international cooperation. My mandate will terminate at the end of June 2026, in sync with the end of the Swiss Chairmanship. The new EUREKA year 2026-2027 will be guided by Belgium, taking over from Switzerland. A newly appointed Clusters Coordinator for the Industry will take over from me.

Outlook for 2026 second half

At the EUREKA Clusters Programme’s level, the work will continue: the alignment of processes, the optimisation of synchronisation of funding decisions, and the inclusion of more countries to fund clusters’ calls and projects.

At CELTIC-NEXT’s level, we will open the Autumn Call 2026 in the first week of July, plan a Proposers’ Brokerage Day at the beginning of September, and set the call-for-proposals deadline for the 23rd of October 2026. We will decide upon the labelling at the beginning of December 2026. Please stay tuned by visiting our Call Calendar page: https://www.celticnext.eu/call-calendar/ and/or by subscribing to our Newsletter under https://www.celticnext.eu/news-subscription/

Further information

• Stay tuned by visiting our Call Calendar page: https://www.celticnext.eu/call-calendar/ and/or
• by subscribing to our Newsletter under https://www.celticnext.eu/news-subscription/