Florin Zubașcu

Results announced as European Research Council fights for a bigger 2021 – 2027 budget to maintain its reputation as one of the world’s leading funders of bottom-up excellent science. Success rate in this call was only 7.7%

Pierre Larrouturou wants member states to agree new financial transaction tax that he says would raise €50B per annum to boost EU budgets for health, research and climate programmes that are essential to pandemic recovery

German MEPs Sven Simon and Christian Doleschal want the commission to come up with a plan to pay researchers whose Marie Curie projects were affected by the pandemic. In parallel, scientists are voicing their concern that a shortage in EU funding could force them to choose career paths in the US or China

Parliament’s budget rapporteur goes on hunger strike to protest the council’s unwillingness to top up Horizon Europe and 14 other programmes, as negotiations go past the deadline set by German presidency

European Council has so far failed to come up with a proposal that satisfies the parliament’s demand for a €39 billion top-up across 15 flagship programmes

Estimates indicate OECD’s 37 member countries intend to invest €312 billion in green technologies, as a route to economic revival. Experts are calling for more clarity on how this money will be spent

The Bonn Declaration on Freedom of Scientific Research commits governments to an EU system for monitoring academic freedom. Along with safeguarding research from political intervention, the move aims to increase public trust in science

The European Commission has put forward a calendar of policy initiatives for 2021, putting flesh on the proposal to set up a biomedical research modelled on the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Agriculture ministers agree on plans for green food production but want scientific impact assessments before policy becomes law, and are calling on the European Commission to publish its study on precision breeding

More money for Horizon Europe looking unlikely, as member states won’t put more in than agreed in July. MEPs want concessions and are holding out on starting final discussion on 2021 - 2027 budget