R&D

Research bodies and industry groups have joined Europe’s top scientists in calls to deliver on the proposal to increase the R&D budget to €80 billion

John Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, told ScienceBusiness the large one-off increase in science funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has delivered in terms of new facilities and research outputs.

Germany’s car industry is the country’s biggest spender on R&D. What will the catastrophic state of the industry mean for innovation budgets?

The Technische Universität Dortmund is to lead the launch of Europe’s largest PhD programme in the developing field of industrial biotechnology.

Norway is to set up between five and seven regional funds to promote research, innovation and development at a regional level, with nearly Euro 33.5m available.

The charity Cancer Research UK confirmed its position as the largest single investor in R&D in the field, announcing it spent a record £333 million on research in its last financial year.

Professor Geneviève Berger, who led France’s CNRS between 2000 and 2003, has been appointed as Unilever’s chief R&D officer.

Kenneth Calman is to chair the National Cancer Research Institute, a UK-wide organisation consisting of 20 government and charity and association partners.

There was no headway towards the Lisbon target of spending 3 per cent of GDP on R&D, according to the latest figures from Eurostat.