Article 1 — Subject matter
In brief
This opening article states the purpose of the Regulation. It introduces common rules for procuring research and development services (referred to as R&D procurement), including a harmonised Union framework for joint R&D procurement. It also announces the creation of a Competence Centre at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and points to the EUIPO’s role in intellectual property-backed finance and the commercialisation of intellectual property.
Key points
- Establishes common rules for carrying out R&D procurement.
- Provides a Union harmonised framework for joint R&D procurement.
- Creates a Competence Centre at the EUIPO.
- Assigns the EUIPO tasks relating to intellectual property-backed finance and the commercialisation of intellectual property.
What it means in practice
This article does not create obligations on its own; it frames the two main strands of the Regulation. Public buyers and economic operators involved in R&D procurement will find the operative rules in later chapters, while IP holders, their advisers and financial institutions are signalled that the EUIPO will take on a role connected to IP-backed finance and commercialisation.
Official text — Article 1 (COM(2026) 567)
Source: European Commission, proposal for a Regulation establishing the European Innovation Act, COM(2026) 567 final, 9 September 2026. Read the official proposal (PDF). Text may change during the legislative process.
Anthony Bochon’s analysis
In my view, the subject-matter provision is more ambitious than its sober wording suggests. By creating common rules for R&D procurement and a harmonised framework for joint R&D procurement, the legislator is deliberately carving research and development services out of the ordinary logic of the 2014 procurement directives and treating them as a distinct instrument of European innovation policy. What I find most telling is the pairing of that procurement machinery with a Competence Centre at the EUIPO and a mandate on intellectual property-backed finance: the Regulation is trying to connect the demand side (public buyers) with the financing and commercialisation of the intangible assets that innovation actually generates.
What I would watch as this moves through Parliament and Council is how tightly the two pillars are drafted to interlock, because a purchasing regime and an IP-finance mandate housed in one text will only deliver if their scope and definitions remain coherent. Addressees should read Article 1 as the interpretive key to everything that follows.