Universities

Half of postdocs say they don’t have access to social security, a situation made even worse because many don’t have permanent contracts either. Now campaigners are putting pressure on the EU to lean on member states to improve working conditions for Europe’s young scientists

The government withheld funding for a research institute after objecting to the views of one of its scholars. Researchers say this is an attempt ‘to intimidate scholars whose research might result in refutations of opinions held by some politicians’

The EU and African Union will adopt a joint innovation roadmap later this month. A group of around 2,000 universities are calling for it to come with funding attached

As a body representing more than 50 of Europe’s leading science and technology universities, CESAER wants to see EU institutions and local and national governments provide better support to scientists in commercialising their research

Universities want to reshape research assessment, giving less prominence to metrics such as citations and journal papers published and putting more focus on quality. But will the international rankings add their considerable heft and follow suit?

The appeals add another layer of complication to an ongoing dispute between Brussels and Budapest over the autonomy of many of Hungary’s higher education institutions

New threats, such as cancel culture and censoring research by withdrawing funding, are increasing the pressure on universities

A fact-finding trip to Budapest has left MEPs from across the political spectrum uneasy. Their impressions of deteriorating academic freedom and self-censorship are at odds with how government representatives portrayed things

Member states have almost settled on a call to make immediate open access the default, with no author fees. But some say the Council needs to do more to prevent AI-generated papers threatening the integrity of the scientific record

A Budapest university that is not affected by the EU block on funds has received emails from worried grant partners after an unclear message was posted on the EU’s funding portal