EMPIR programme closes: 240 metrology research projects, 4,000 contributions to standardisation — French laboratories in 114 projects; the European Partnership on Metrology continues
On 2 June 2026 France’s national metrology and testing laboratory (LNE) reported on the official closing of the European metrology research programme EMPIR, held on 7 May 2026 in Brussels. The programme was launched in 2014 under Horizon 2020 with a budget of EUR 600 million.
- According to LNE, EMPIR had a total budget of EUR 600 million over seven annual calls, of which EUR 300 million came from the European Commission and the rest was co-funded by Member States. By the end of the programme, 240 research projects had been completed, involving 1,500 companies and 450 universities and research organisations.
- The outcomes, according to LNE, are 2,000 peer-reviewed publications and 4,000 contributions to standardisation committees — a deliberate link between fundamental research and the standards that laboratories use. French laboratories of the national metrology network (RNMF), coordinated by LNE, took part in 114 of the 240 projects.
- EMPIR’s successor under Horizon Europe is the European Partnership on Metrology (EPM); the implementation agreement was signed on behalf of the French metrology community by LNE’s Director of Scientific and Technological Research, who also chairs its Steering Committee. LNE gives the EPM budget as EUR 740 million, including a French contribution of EUR 58 million; its priorities are the climate and digital transitions and public health.
- The figures in the second source differ from LNE’s: the European metrology organisation EURAMET refers to 243 EMPIR joint research projects and a Partnership budget of “around 690 million euro” for 2021–2027; the predecessor of both programmes, EMRP, funded 119 projects. In total, EURAMET programmes run since 2007 have provided EUR 1.738 billion of support.