France

Its science fiction overtones once left robotics out of the funding mainstream and reliant solely on government funding. Not any more.

For two years France’s industrial innovation agency put large sums of public money into big company R&D projects. No longer.

The European Commission said it will investigate whether a €96 million aid that France plans to grant Peugeot-Citroën and other partners for the development of a hybrid diesel car is compatible with EC Treaty state aid rules.

France Angels, the country’s business angels’ network, has agreed to provide seed funding for the Microsoft start-up programme Idées.