David Matthews

Virtual reality researchers are attempting to use cascade funding, in which money is awarded to consortia which then decide how to distribute it, to create pan-European calls. But they are wrestling a thicket of bureaucracy

There’s no sign of a breakthrough just yet, but pressure is building domestically for Bern to re-engage with Brussels in order to get association moving

Washington needs researchers in Europe to join the US in trimming artificial intelligence collaboration with China, otherwise any controls will be ineffective. It’s unclear if academics in the EU would get on board with this agenda

A Net-Zero Industry Act and a European Sovereignty Fund aim to attract much needed investment. But research leaders insist Horizon Europe money must not be diverted into another ‘political pet project’

As it gets easier to engineer deadly pathogens, the International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science wants tighter controls on custom-order DNA companies, and an end to the current ‘checkbox’ approach to lab safety

The crash of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange drew attention to a growing movement in the tech world aiming to become better at predicting, steering and sequencing scientific breakthroughs. The notion is gaining traction in Europe and the US – scandal notwithstanding

The UK can play a global role in R&D and whilst remaining involved in EU programmes said George Freeman, setting out plans to attract foreign capital into the research ecosystem

Research commissioner Mariya Gabriel has linked re-admittance to ESFRI to wider relations between the EU and Switzerland. Some see this as a sign the body is too heavily controlled by the Commission

Despite hosting CERN, the country is being excluded from ESFRI because it has not associated to Horizon Europe. Swiss scientists call the decision “unreasonable”

The agency wants to give individual reviewers the power to fund proposals they think are promising, even if other panellists disagree. The aim is to avoid only backing the least controversial applications