Horizon Europe is well underway, but the world of European R&D policy goes well beyond the confines of the €95.5 billion R&D programme. EU climate, digital, agriculture and regional policies all have significant research and innovation components. National governments often come up with new R&D policies, decide to fund new research avenues, and set up international cooperation deals. This blog aims to keep you informed on all of that and more.
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The European Research Council (ERC) has announced today the winners of the latest round of its Proof of Concept competition.
The competition is open only to ERC grantees who wish to explore the commercial and societal potential of their frontier research projects. ERC evaluators picked 55 projects out of 96 proposals, and each grantee will receive €150,000.
The grants will go to researchers working in 16 countries, including 7 in the UK, a country which is not yet associated to Horizon Europe.
The ERC says the list of winners is provisional, as the UK grantees will be eligible for funding only when the UK’s association to Horizon Europe is completed. Until then, researchers working in UK host institutions can still receive ERC funding if they move to an institution in an eligible country inside the EU or an associated country.
ERC grantees can still apply for Proof of Concept grants in the third round of the call in 2022. The next deadline is on 29 September 2022.
The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities is concerned the European Innovation Council’s intellectual property (IP) provisions undermine the role of universities in knowledge transfer.
The EU’s innovation fund introduced new IP rules for the Pathfinder and Transition programmes last March giving the researchers better access rights to their research outcomes in a bid to empower grantees to turn their ideas into products on the market. But universities say the new provisions underestimate their role in knowledge valorisation.
This, in turn, the Guild argues, weakens universities’ knowledge and technology transfer offices and at times contradicts institutional, national and regional rules.
The Guild’s statement comes as the European Commission prepares to adopt a European Innovation Agenda, a new plan on how to strengthen Europe’s innovation performance.
The EU must outline volume needs for raw materials as it accelerates its transition towards clean energy in mission to wean itself off Russian energy, says to Bernd Schäfer, CEO of EIT Raw Materials.
The necessary technologies, which include wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, fuel cells, solar panels, heat pumps, and batteries, will all require minerals and metals to drive the clean energy transition, Schäfer argued at the fourth summit of EIT Raw Materials, one of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s eight sector-specific innovator communities, funded by the EU.
In response, the EU Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič told listeners the European Commission is set to draft a legislative proposal on critical raw materials as part of the upcoming move towards clean energy.
Other speakers warned the supply of raw materials for key technologies, much of which comes from outside the EU, should not be taken for granted in the current geopolitical climate. “The supply of Titanium, Palladium, Nickel or Neon is a matter of concern. It seems that no significant short-term disruption of supply is anticipated in the current situation of sanctions or retro-sanctions. But the supply is hampered at least by huge logistics disruptions,” said Philippe Varin, head of French Governmental Mission on Critical Materials.
The EU has said it will step up research and innovation collaboration with Gulf countries as part of a wider strategy to better engage with the region.
In a communication released earlier this week, the Commission said it wanted to better support the inclusion of Gulf researchers in the EU's Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions, which offer doctoral training and postdoctoral fellowships.
The Commission said it would promote research and innovation "openness" with the Gulf, "balanced with greater levels of reciprocity, and will seek a level-playing field based on respect for fundamental principles such as academic freedom, gender equality, ethics, integrity and inclusiveness of research, open science and evidence-based policy-making."
The wider context is that the EU is seeking to diversify away from Russian gas in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, and has turned in part towards Gulf states to fill the gap.
The goal of the strategy is to ensure Ireland’s R&I expenditure makes a difference in addressing societal challenges such as climate change and health emergences.
The strategy includes the creation of a new funding agency, merging the functions and activities of the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland, and a bigger focus on researchers and entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups, among other measures.
"We will create an inclusive research and innovation system delivering the solutions for Irish society and our economy, solving our common challenges through teamwork, and enhancing our reputation,” said Simon Harris, Ireland’s minister education, research, innovation and science.
Clean Hydrogen, a €2 billion industrial research partnerships under Horizon Europe, will get a top-up as part of the EU’s new plan to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.
The top-up will help the partnership, which brings together industry, researchers and the European Commission to jointly advance hydrogen R&I, double the number of Hydrogen Valleys it supports by 2025 and launch a large project to develop skills for the hydrogen economy.
The goal is to advance green hydrogen technology to boost production from 5.6 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes by 2030.
Research and innovation will also play a role in Europe’s plan to achieve energy independence by accelerating technology development for solar energy, energy savings, decarbonizing industry and speeding up renewable permitting.
Nine renewable industry lobby groups say the EU’s Innovation Fund aimed at financing low-carbon technology demonstrators is failing to advance renewable energy technologies.
In a letter sent to EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, the associations argue the award criteria for its calls "put renewable projects at a structural disadvantage.”
In the first €1 billion Innovation Fund call for large-scale, no money went to renewable energy generation projects and only one renewables manufacturing project won funding. In the second edition of the call this year, proposals for renewable energy projects plummeted, as the sector lost hope in securing funding. The letter suggests this undermines EU’s green energy objectives, which heavily rely on renewables.
To fix the issue, the associations calls on the European Commission to dedicate the third call for large-scale projects to renewable energy, adjust the award criteria, and create new calls for medium-sized projects, ranging between €7.5 to €60 million.
Bernard Bigot, who served as ITER’s director general for the last seven years, passed away due to an illness last weekend.
In a statement paying tribute to Bigot, the ITER organisation highlighted his contribution to the field of science and energy and praised work managing the world's biggest nuclear fusion project.
Bigot’s deputy Eisuke Tada will now lead the project while the ITER Council looks for a long-term successor.
The European Commission and – Leiden European City of Science 2022 have launched a call for the EU TalentON competition for young academics who can contribute to the five research missions in Horizon Europe.
The event is organised jointly with entrepreneurs and representatives of universities and industry. Early career researchers will team up and pitch their ideas to address one of the five EU research missions: fighting cancer, adapting to climate change, protecting the ocean, seas and waters, living in greener cities and ensuring healthy soil and food.
The event is part of the Coommissions’s plan to get young researchers and ordinary citizens involved in delivering the research missions, which are one of the main novelties in Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme.
More information is available on the Commission’s website.
Maria Leptin, the president of the prestigious EU fund for fundamental science, European Research Council (ERC), has joined the ranks of some of the world's most eminent scientists at the Royal Society.
“Her leadership in European science builds on her research contributions across fields from immunity to genetics,” tweeted the Royal Society, announcing Leptin’s fellowship.
The German biologist previously served as director at the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
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