Florin Zubașcu

The fate of the €4 billion top-up for Horizon Europe remains uncertain, as Hungary and Poland veto budget deal. Research lobbies continue fight to ringfence the additional money for ERC and Marie Curie grants

New European Court of Auditors report finds there is a risk of further cost increases and delays to the ITER project. All other Horizon 2020 joint undertakings have ‘healthy’ financial management but some are behind schedule on implementation

In ‘last impassioned plea’ dozens of MEPs are asking the EU commission president and German chancellor to defend the budget for Horizon Europe

Public trust in scientific advice would improve if scientists engaged more effectively with the general public, says Rolf-Dieter Heuer, chair of the European Commission’s group of scientific advisors

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