The European Commission has published the ERA Scoreboard 2025, offering the latest evidence on progress towards the European Research Area (ERA) priorities at EU and national levels.
Now in its third edition, the ERA Scoreboard has been further developed as a streamlined monitoring tool under the ERA Monitoring Mechanism. For the first time, it brings together the previous ERA Scoreboard and ERA Dashboard into a single framework, covering 60 indicators that track developments across the ERA priorities.
The 2025 edition shows that Europe is making continued progress in a number of important areas for research and innovation. Substantial positive developments are reported in R&D investment, Open Science, gender equality, researchers’ careers and mobility, global engagement, Positive developments are also evident in synergies with sectoral and industrial policies, as well as in citizen and societal engagement in research and innovation.
The Scoreboard also points to more gradual progress in knowledge valorisation and in efforts to strengthen research and innovation systems in countries and regions with lower R&I performance. At the same time, it highlights areas where progress remains limited or uneven, including scientific leadership, challenge-based ERA actions, synergies with education and skills policies, excellence-based integration, long-term R&I investment reforms, and the coordination of R&I investments.
Several headline indicators illustrate the scale of change. The share of publications available in open access has risen significantly since 2010, the number of researchers per million inhabitants has increased, and women’s representation in senior academic positions has improved. These trends underline the role of ERA in supporting a more open, connected and inclusive European research landscape.
However, the Scoreboard also makes clear that important structural challenges remain. Disparities between countries persist, convergence has slowed in some areas, and Europe’s innovation impact and global competitiveness could be weakened without sustained reforms, stronger investment coordination and deeper collaboration across countries and sectors.
The findings are organised around the four ERA priorities: deepening a truly functioning internal market for knowledge; addressing the green and digital transitions and other societal challenges; enhancing access to research and innovation excellence across the Union; and advancing coordinated research and innovation investments and reforms.
Read the ERA Scoreboard 2025
Read the ERA Scoreboard 2025 – Executive Summary
Short video introducing the ERA Scoreboard 2025 and its role in monitoring progress across ERA priorities.
European Commission news article
