Partnerships in the Age of Strategic Autonomy

The Insider, Season 2, Episode 6

“Partnerships in the Age of Strategic Autonomy”

Europe’s research and innovation system relies heavily on partnerships, but how well do we understand the machinery behind them? And what will it take for these partnerships to deliver the kind of strategic outcomes Europe now expects?

In this episode of The Insider, Ricardo Miguéis sits down with Niklas Blomberg, Executive Director of the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) and former Director of ELIXIR, Europe’s life-science data infrastructure. Few people have been as deeply embedded in both the technical and governance dimensions of Europe’s collaborative ecosystem (from distributed research infrastructures to large-scale public–private partnerships shaping health innovation).

Niklas brings a unique vantage point: years spent building frameworks that connect research, industry, public agencies and civil-society actors at European scale. Where coordination is complex, where legitimacy matters, and where design choices quietly determine what Europe can (and cannot) deliver.

Part 1 - How European Partnerships Really Work

The episode opens by unpacking how partnerships such as IHI are structured, what “capabilities” mean in practice, and why Europe’s model differs from the US or China. Instead of pooling cash alone, European partnerships pool expertise (industrial R&D teams, advanced engineering capabilities, public-sector knowledge, patient organisations, research infrastructures and regulatory actors).

This allows Europe not just to do research differently, but in many cases to do different research. Thus, tackling problems that are too complex, too cross-sectoral or too high-risk for a single organisation or country to take on alone.

Niklas reflects on the transition from earlier partnership models to Horizon Europe, how governance shapes trust and risk-sharing, why “no losers” is a design principle (not a constraint), and how the human side of collaboration, not structures, often determines whether partnerships truly work.

Part 2 - Strategy, Governance and Europe’s Next Phase

The second half of the conversation shifts from mechanics to strategy, examining what effective governance looks like when partnerships must deliver faster, under pressure and at scale. It explores how FP10 and the European Competitiveness Fund could reshape Europe’s approach, and what kinds of agency design, metrics and feedback loops are needed to sustain trust, adaptability and long-term learning.

Here the episode goes deeper into questions of power, legitimacy, evaluation and institutional capacity; not as abstract concepts, but as practical choices that determine whether partnerships evolve or stagnate.

This episode makes one thing clear: Europe’s real R&I challenge lies not in innovation or governance alone, but in the space where the two meet. It shows how scientific capability, institutional design and on-the-ground delivery shape one another; and what Europe will need to strengthen across all three if its partnerships are to turn ambition into outcomes as FP10 takes shape.

Listen to Episode 6: “Partnerships in the Age of Strategic Autonomy” on The Insider.