Driving Innovation: The Potential of Horizon Europe
November 2025 FDI Insights Survey
Ireland's Migration Pathways
AmCham 2026 Budget Submission
July 2025 FDI Insights Survey
As the EU prepares its next major phase of research and innovation funding, decisions taken now will shape where global innovation happens for the next decade.
AmCham Ireland’s new white paper, Driving Innovation: The Potential of Horizon Europe, sets out why reducing barriers to EU research funding and keeping collaboration open to trusted international partners will be critical to Ireland’s and Europe’s competitiveness.
The paper highlights:
• growing restrictions on participation under Horizon Europe
• the impact on key sectors such as digital, cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing
• the importance of multinational–academic collaboration in turning research into jobs, investment and industrial scale
• practical recommendations to ensure Ireland is ready to maximise the opportunity of the next Horizon Europe programme (FP10)
With €175bn in EU research and innovation funding planned from 2028 to 2034, this is a pivotal moment for policymakers, industry and the research community.
An AmCham survey of US multinational members conducted in the last week found that the US multinationals community continues to view Ireland as an important location for strategic investment and optimism remains high for the future of their businesses in Ireland.
Employment in US multinationals operating in Ireland increased by almost 35,000 on this time last year, and now stands at 245,000 (211,000 in November 2024). Since 2023, Ireland has also moved from the 7th to 5th largest FDI investor into the US, demonstrating the two-way nature of the business relationship.
Over 4 out of 5 member companies said their corporate headquarters continues to have a positive view of Ireland as an investment or growth location based on their company’s experience in Ireland in the last year.
When asked about the top challenges facing their businesses, 33% said housing is the greatest challenge for Ireland to overcome in order for their company to invest and expand in Ireland. 18% said cost competitiveness is the number one challenge, and 16% cited enhancing R&D tax incentives.
It is vital for Ireland’s continued growth and competitiveness that companies based in Ireland have access to the best international talent. Current delays in the Irish migration system, driven by complexity of processes, are resulting in assignments being cancelled, key project deadlines being missed, and companies choosing to expand operations in other jurisdictions rather than in Ireland, thereby undermining the positive progress made in other streamlined areas of the migration system. It is important to address these issues to protect Ireland’s position as the destination of choice for FDI and growth.
AmCham has today launched its Budget 2026 submission: Ireland 2026: Bridging Economies, Leading Change – Pioneering Prosperity in the Transatlantic Relationship. The recommendations within this submission focus on six key priorities that are essential to enhancing Ireland’s overall competitiveness for business and talent:
Over 90 percent of AmCham members plan to increase or maintain employee numbers over the next 12 months, according to the latest AmCham FDI Insights survey.
The survey found that 60 percent of respondents plan to increase the employee headcount at their Irish operations over the next 12 months, while a further 32.5 percent said they will maintain their current employee numbers.
9 in 10 survey respondents also say their corporate headquarters have a positive view of Ireland as an investment location, and 68 percent said their corporate headquarters already have plans to invest in Ireland over the next 5 years.
AmCham’s 2025 US-Ireland Business Report: ‘Succeeding Together: Driving Transatlantic Innovation and Trade’, tells the story of the resounding success and impact of the two-way US-Ireland business relationship. A success story that has resulted in job creation, in research and innovation, in the development of world-class talent and in the prosperity of both countries, with economic growth across both Ireland and the US continuing to outpace competitor jurisdictions.
This success is built off a two-way, mutually beneficial investment relationship, where Ireland is the 6th largest investor in the US and Irish companies now employ more than 118,000 people across all 50 US states. Meanwhile, there are more than 970 US companies employing 211,000 people across Ireland.
US companies operating in Ireland continue to hold a positive view of Ireland as a location for investment and growth, according to the latest AmCham FDI Insights survey of members conducted last week, which found that 9 in 10 respondents report their corporate headquarters holds a positive view of Ireland for investment. A further 80% of respondents also said they would continue to have a positive view of Ireland as an investment location if tariffs were imposed by the US on the EU.
Some 63% of members surveyed said a skilled and highly skilled talent pool is Ireland’s main competitive advantage which has led their company to invest and expand here. However, almost two-thirds (64%) also identified skills gaps in their organisation with digital and data (23%), engineering (21%) and machine learning and AI (19%) the main areas of concern.
AmCham launched it’s 2025 to 2027 strategy: Competing for the Future, in which it outlines the opportunity for Ireland - built on a pedigree of delivery and can-do attitude - to capture the next wave of growth and support existing investments to thrive. AmCham’s strategy 2025 to 2027 is built on five strategic pillars:
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