Meanwhile, the MSCA postdoctoral fellowships received 17,058 applications — the most for any funding initiative in the 40-year history of the EU’s research framework programmes.For the Bulgarian commissioner, the increased interest from researchers in Europe is part of the “Choose Europe” strategy launched in May, which wants to help innovative companies to operate and grow in the bloc. Earlier this week, she had a meeting with several private investors to establish the Scaleup Europe fund, which is set to invest in the European companies in strategic sectors, such as artificial intelligence, quantum, semiconductor and biotech. Still, European tech companies have historically often had to turn to US markets for investment.