HORIZON BLOG: European R&D policy newsbytes (archived)

The European Commission has appointed three new members of the European Research Council’s (ERC) governing body, the Scientific Council.

They are appointed for an initial period of four years and will take office on 2 March.

The three new members are:

• Professor Chryssa Kouveliotou, professor at the George Washington University, Washington D.C., United States;
• Professor László Lovász, professor emeritus at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary;
• Professor Giovanni Sartor, professor at the University of Bologna and at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.

“This addition will ensure that the independent ERC Scientific Council with its leading researchers from all disciplines continues to represent the scientific community in Europe across the full breadth of research domains,” said ERC president Maria Leptin.

The European Commission has announced today the first 50 women-led companies to receive €75,000 grants each.

The money would help companies working on deep-tech innovations to get started.  The Women TechEU programme is funded through Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation fund.

“We will assist these 50 women-led companies with funding, mentoring and networking opportunities and we will scale up this programme in 2022,” said Mariya Gabriel, EU commissioner for research and innovation.

Projects will start in spring 2022 and are expected to run for 6 to 12 months. The winners will be given tailored coaching and mentoring in the European Innovation Council’s women’s leadership programme.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) has launched today three calls worth a total of €1.7 billion to select innovative companies for scale-up funding.

The calls cover multi-disciplinary research teams working on potential technology breakthroughs in any field and to turn research results into innovation opportunities.

Some of the money will be routed to mature technologies based on proof of concept projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC). 

About €60 million will go to projects on “green digital devices for the future” and a clean energy technologies.

University associations warn Brussels the new Data Act does not provide enough means to ensure a fair access to privately held data for research purposes.

In a statement published on Monday, the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities said the European Council and Parliament should “recognise that research is an activity conducted in the public interest and that research is crucial to ‘respond to a public emergency’, ‘prevent a public emergency’, and ‘assist the recovery from a public emergency’.”

The full statement is available here.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) visited the Prague headquarters on Wednesday to discuss synergies, security and Europe’s use of satellite communications under the GOVSATCOM programme.  

The European Union Agency for the Space Programme is responsible for implementing the seven-year €14.8 billion EU space programme, which the Parliament approved together with EU member states last year. This was the Parliament’s first visit since the start of the new programme. 

“As custodians of the EU space policy, it’s crucial that the ITRE Committee continues to foster a strong partnership and collaboration with EUSPA’s team, who enable the policy to excel both here on earth and in space,” said Cristian Bușoi, chair of ITRE. 

The EU’s new fund for digitalisation, Digital Europe, has opened its second call for proposals looking to fund data, blockchain, AI and cybersecurity projects.

There is €249 million for projects on data spaces, blockchain infrastructures, training courses for advanced digital skills, digital public services, piloting AI to fight crime and AI testing facilities.

In the field of cybersecurity, there’s a €43 million in grants for the health sector and the deployment of a network of centres helping governments implement EU cybersecurity-related legislation.

The calls are open until 17 May to are open to companies, organisations and public administrations from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and organisations from countries associated with the programme.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has launched a website where it upload policy, good practice and learning documents produced by its seven knowledge and innovation communities.

The reports will, for example, cover topics such as artificial intelligence in health innovation, the strategic importance of raw materials mining, and research on how to build consumer trust in the food system. The database will also store documents presenting the EIT operational model.

The UK has formally opened up applications to its backup funding scheme designed to replace Horizon Europe grants if the country fails to association to the programme in time. 

In updated guidance released today, UK-based winners of European Innovation Council Pathfinder and Transition calls can register their winning grants. Universities had previously raised concerns that the backup scheme had no way for researchers to apply.

However, only winners of two types of calls can apply so far. UK Research and Innovation, which is running the safety net funding scheme, says that other winners, for example those of European Research Council Starting Grants, will only be able to apply "once it is clear that UK association to Horizon Europe will not occur before you have to formalise your EU Grant Agreement". 

And the updated guidance does not appear to widen the number of calls covered. There are concerns that the UK's safety net is too limited, and currently does not cover UK-based winners of certain grants including ERC Proof of Concept awards. 

The French Presidency today officially launched Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, the bloc’s largest rail research and innovation programme to date.   

The partnership, like the other 40-odd partnerships under the Horizon Europe research programme, will run until 2027 funding rail-related R&I projects, with the first call for proposals launching in March. The EU is putting €600 million in the partnership, to be matched by industry. 

The initiative builds on previous partnerships with the rail industry and aims to harmonise and green European rail systems using digitalisation and automation to reduce costs and increase the capacity, flexibility and reliability of Europe’s rails. 

"If we truly want rail to be the backbone of a sustainable mobility, we need to deliver new technologies and solutions that will make rail more attractive, reliable, cost efficient and even more environmental-friendly," said Henri Poupart-Lafarge, chairman of the Union of European Railway Industries, which represents railway manufacturers in the partnership.

The EU today filed a case against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for restricting EU companies from going to foreign court to protect and use their patents.  

China is infamous for disrespecting IP rights, enabling illegal use of EU companies’ technologies by Chinese industry. If patent holders do go to court over malpractice outside the country, China often retaliates by fining them. All this puts patent holders under pressure to settle for sub-par licensing fees. 

The EU argues such policy damages innovation and growth in Europe.  

The first step in the dispute is settlement consultations. If they do not lead to a solution within 60 days, the EU can then request the WTO to set up a panel to rule on the matter.