Fabrice Delaye

At its 2nd annual conference next week, the Desertec project for the large-scale production of electricity from sunlight in the deserts of north Africa – and its export to Europe – will discuss progress to date

The modernisation of France’s universities masterminded by Valerie Pécresse, is an achievement in which President Sarkozy takes much pride. With the presidential campaign looming, Pécresse’s successor, historian Laurent Wauquiez, has to sell these reforms

Crocus Technology, a spin out from France’s Atomic Energy Commission, has secured $300 million to build a semiconductor foundry in Russia, with $245 million coming from the state-owned nanotechnology investment fund Rusnano

Europe may be competitive in nanotech research, but it needs to pay more attention to commercialisation, says Aymeric Sallin, a venture capitalist who specialises in investing in this field

A total of 52 new research labs and research programmes have been selected to share an investment of Euros 340 million, in the first step of a public research funding bonanza that will pour in Euro 22 billion raised on the bond markets to create an elite cadre of universities in France

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne has just opened the doors to a new national robotics research centre that aims to usher in a new era of robots, designed to do useful things in ordinary circumstances.

Index Ventures raised $400 million dollars in its last fund, of which about half will be invested in life science start-ups. Senior partner, Francesco de Rubertis says personalised medicine will take a large share of this.

Research spending goes up in 2011 and projects funded by stimulus money are in progress. But the government needs to show R&D is worth it.

Once researched behind closed doors, biofuels from micro-organisms and enzymes are starting to reach pilot plants in France, the US, and Brazil.

Halving the weight of metal parts looks like a magic recipe, but it's not easy changing the transport industry.