Nuala Moran

The UK government has given £1.1 million to Plasticell Ltd to fund the development of a system to automate stem cell research.

In a rare example of a university tec transfer deal attracting an upfront payment, French pharma company Ipsen paying €1.25 million for a treatment licence.

A shortage of later stage projects is forcing companies hunt further down the drug discovery ladder. Now the Wellcome Trust is injecting charitable money to fill the holes.

The Czech Republic has capped off a series of investments by US software companies with the news that Red Hat is to set up a development centre in Brno.

As the German presidency gets into its stride, Framework Programme 7 was officially launched last week, with a two day event in Bonn.

The European Commission launched an online information service, Erawatch, covering research systems and policies within the European Union.

The UK's National Environment Research Council (NERC) has launched Oceans 2025, an ambitious GBP120 million five-year programme.

The latest Eurostat data on R&D investment in the EU published last week show that in 2005 the EU27 spent just over Euros 200 billion.

New research suggests that the majority of start-ups offer products or services that are not new to the market.