The European Parliament has approved a €54 billion fund earmarked for research and development for the next seven years, paving the way for companies and researchers take a share of the money.
The Seventh Framework Programme is the European Union's chief instrument for funding research, giving cash to a wide range of projects, upgrading laboratories and encouraging a new generation of scientists.
It is part of the Commission's drive to help Europe catch up with Japan and the United States in research and development as well as becoming generally more competitive.
The framework replaces a previous one, which runs out at the end of this year, that provided for a budget of €17.5 billion for the 15 "old" EU member states between 2002-2006. The new budget will cover 27 member states, including Romania and Bulgaria who join the EU next year.
"There are many things which are in the framework programme seven through which we are trying to address the major challenge of humanity in the future," Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik told reporters after parliament voted it through.
The Commission regularly presses member states, industries and business to spend more on research and development, with a bloc-wide target for spending of 3 per cent of gross domestic product by the end of the decade. But although the message is recognised, progress is slow - the EU spends just 1.9 per cent of GDP on research and development.
Analysts say the EU is not good at turning innovation into commercial products and that attitudes towards risky start-ups are less creative than in the United States.
The majority of the budget will go to cross-border research projects in health, agriculture, information and communication technology, nanoscience, energy, environment, transport, socio-economic sciences, space and security. Research bodies have to apply for funding for specific projects and must include partnerships from different countries.
The rest of the budget, about €22 billion, will go towards training, fellowships, frontier projects, improving research infrastructures and research on nuclear energy