With his long-awaited report at the beginning of September, former Italian Prime Minister and ECB President Mario Draghi increased the pressure on EU member states to invest more in research and, above all, innovation. Among other things, Draghi criticized existing EU research programs as bureaucratic and underfunded. He is pushing for the EU research and innovation budget to be doubled to €200 billion for the next seven-year framework program from 2028 to 2034.