Software: From features to foundations 

What to expect

Software R&D in 2026 is shifting from features to foundations. Regulation — the CRA, NIS2, the AI Act and the Data Act — has become an architectural input. AI has stopped being a feature and started being infrastructure. And the cost of software is now a boardroom conversation, not just an engineering one.

Most of the foundational engineering work this creates already qualifies as non-dilutive capital under WBSO, FZulG, ZIM, Eurostars or Horizon Europe. In this webinar, we walk through Ignite Group’s R&D Trend Analysis for Software & SaaS and show engineering and finance leaders how to turn architecture decisions — in AI, security, data and infrastructure — into a funding strategy that runs continuously, not once a year.

Key takeaways from the webinar:

• Which five engineering trends — AI-native software, cybersecurity as engineering infrastructure, data engineering and privacy by design, cloud architecture, and platform engineering — are generating fundable R&D work right now
• Why eligibility is rarely the limiting factor, and what actually stops software teams from claiming capital they have already earned
• What to document now, before deadlines such as CRA vulnerability and incident reporting (11 September 2026) and the AI Act’s high-risk applicability date (2 August 2026) turn evidence into an afterthought