The SRIA was launched on 23 September and formally presented to Thibaut Kleiner, Director for Future Networks at the European Commission’s DG CONNECT.
Software is the foundation of Europe’s digital future. The new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) outlines the research priorities and investments needed to strengthen Europe’s software capabilities and advance its digital ambitions.
Developed through the Software Research Working Groups of Informatics Europe and ERCIM, with contributions from researchers, research organisations, industry and other stakeholders across the European software ecosystem, the SRIA calls for software to be recognised and supported as a strategic European capability.
The launch in Brussels brought together representatives from academia, industry, research organisations and policy. The programme reflects the breadth of the challenge, with perspectives from Informatics Europe and ERCIM alongside Siemens, Canon, Ericsson, Eiffel Software, Recognyze AI, Software Heritage, HiPEAC and the French General Secretariat for Investment (SGPI).
The SRIA identifies 20 concrete capability needs, structured around four strategic pillars:
- Trustworthy, secure and compliant software systems
- Evolvable large-scale software systems
- Sovereign and resilient digital infrastructure
- Human and organisational capabilities.
These priorities are considered across five perspectives spanning societal impact, sustainability, skills, governance and innovation.
Beyond research priorities, the agenda calls for coordinated European action, including clear institutional ownership of strategic software within the European Commission and a sustained European programme bringing together the Commission, Member States, industry and the research community.
The SRIA responds to a persistent investment gap in foundational software research and public software infrastructure, at a time when software underpins virtually every area of Europe’s digital transformation — from AI and healthcare to energy, mobility, public administration and critical infrastructure. Its central premise is clear: Europe cannot achieve digital sovereignty, trustworthy AI or long-term technological competitiveness without mastering the software foundations on which they depend.
Explore the full SRIA on our Recommendations webpage. Turning the highlighted priorities into meaningful action will require continued engagement. Join the IE Software Research Working Group to contribute to this effort and connect with the Software Research community across Europe.
The SRIA initiative was led by Prof. Dr. Tanja Vos, Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de València and the Open Universiteit in the Netherlands, and Chair of the IE Software Research Working Group, and Prof. Dr. Tijs van der Storm, Senior Researcher at CWI, Professor at the University of Amsterdam, and Chair of the Software Research Working Group of ERCIM. Both are affiliated with VERSEN, the Dutch association for software engineering research, from which the initiative to develop this agenda at European level originated. Vos and Van der Storm coordinated the joint efforts of the European software research communities to develop this strategic agenda.
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