It seems that nearly every big EU funded investment program seems to have all the funds slurped up by companies that specialize in grant applications and doing

It seems that nearly every big EU funded investment program seems to have all the funds slurped up by companies that specialize in grant applications and doing as little as possible to get the government funding, while doing not much of any use to anyone. Yes! You don't have to look angry further than canada for how government funding completely corrupts incentives and destroys any possibility of innovation. A great VC quote about a big Canadian startup in it's death throes: .the failure ... is indicative of Canada’s “nascent venture ecosystem,” which is racked by “incestuous” relationships stemming from extensive Crown institution involvement in the sector. “Canada needs to figure out how to get the politics out of its capital. It does feel cautious and political. You don’t want cautious and political in a crisis. Decisions around the table felt like they were coloured by: ‘How we’re connected to this and who will think this and I don’t want blame for this.’ It caused people to sit on their hands.” https://archive.md/Iyr6v https://archive.md/Iyr6v And that doesn't even get into the tax credit and granting regimes (superusters) that have completely corrupted how any corporate R&D gets done.