David Matthews

The European Council has adopted a negotiating mandate with Switzerland. When talks formally begin, transitional measures will allow applications to the European Research Council this year, and the entire programme in 2025 if an agreement is reached in time

Alongside New Zealand and Canada, Korea would be one of the first countries from outside the European region to join the EU’s research and innovation programme. Association is set to start in 2025

The Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, set up to create real world impact in the US, is very much open to global cooperation, its director tells Science|Business

An annual deep dive into the German ecosystem shows it is no longer haemorrhaging scientists, but lags behind on crop genetic engineering and AI investment. A swath of policy reforms are needed

French science minister has visited the UK to strengthen scientific relations, promising more money for joint projects, and collaboration on AI safety

Simon Johnson, former International Monetary Fund chief economist, says funders and universities should create new, socially beneficial forms of AI through grants and competitions - and not leave the field to tech companies

Ultra-rare tritium is needed to jump start fusion reactors. But global supplies are tiny, and most is produced as a byproduct of specific nuclear fission plants concentrated in Canada - a shortage with geopolitical implications

Two years on from the invasion of Ukraine, the war has exacerbated Russian academic isolation from Europe and North America. Ukraine, meanwhile, has seen a surge of collaboration with the west – and with Poland in particular

Brussels and London still have very different approaches to regulating the technology, but the UK’s AI minister struck a collaborative tone on a recent visit to Brussels, part of a wider détente on science and technology

At the Munich Security Conference, Bettina Stark-Watzinger made the case that research is now at the centre of geopolitical rivalry. But changing the German research system remains difficult