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.
If you have any tips, please email them at [email protected].
You can read the full archive of this blog here.
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has become the latest member of cOAlition S, a group of research funders advocating for free, unrestricted access to scientific publications since 2018.
As a member, the SNSF will task its researchers with making their article freely available starting next year. Until now, SNSF researchers’ publications were only made accessible in open repositories after six months.
"We don't just want to achieve 100% open access. Publications must first and foremost advance research," says Matthias Egger. "Content quality and good peer review are also critical. We want to work together on these kinds of issues in cOAlition S as well."
Germany saw a big post-pandemic jump in academic mobility but must now bear the impact of the war in Ukraine, according to a new report by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Last year, DADD, the world’s largest academic exchange support organisation, funded around 135,000 researchers and students going on exchanges. This is a 22% increase compared to 2020, when the pandemic halted travel and exchanges around the world.
Joybrato Mukherjee, president of DAAD, said crisis management shaped the work of the organisation over the past year. The Hilde Domin programme, for one, was expanded to support at-risk Afghan academics following the Taliban offensive. Now, the focus has shifted to Ukraine.
The European Research Council’s (ERC) grantees Conny Aerts from KU Leuven and Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard from Aarhus University, alongside Roger Ulrich from UCLA, have won a $1 million Kavli Prize for Astrophysics.
The scientists’ work has been contributing to the understanding of stellar evolution. Aerts has received two grants from the EU’s frontier research fund, one for researching massive stars in 2008 and a second one for exploring asteroseismology in 2015. Christensen-Dalsgaard won an ERC grant in 2010 to carry out research on asteroseismology.
The prize is awarded to by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters scientists for breakthroughs in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. Six ERC grantees have won the award since 2008.
The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities' (ALLEA) fund for Ukrainian scientists fleeing war is now accepting applications.
Applications can be submitted by universities, academies and other research-performing organisations that plan to host researchers displaced by the war.
The grants will run for up to 12 months and amount up to €25,000 each. Each application can secure funding for one beneficiary, such as a postdoctoral researcher, assistant, associate and full professor affiliated with a Ukrainian institutions.
The grants will be given out in two rounds. The first round for applications is open until 1 July. The deadline for the second round is yet to be announced.
Mario Brandenburg will serve as parliamentary state secretary, assisting Bettina Stark-Watzinger in running the research ministry, a role somewhat similar to deputy minister in other countries.
The minister welcomed Branderburg’s appointment in a press statement and highlighted his expertise in artificial intelligence. "Here he can set important impulses for the technological sovereignty of our country in the future,” said Stark-Watzinger.
Branderburg replaces Thomas Sattelberger, who resigned earlier in May due to health and personal reasons. Sattelberger played an important role in the ministry’s push to improve research translation, including the creation of the new German Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI).
Seven teams of researchers and engineers were each awarded between €20,000 and €50,000 for innovate ideas and proposed solutions in the area of nuclear fission.
The winners were picked from 28 candidates in two prize categories, safety of reactor systems and radioactive waste management.
UK Research and Innovation, the country's main research funder, has opened a portal for winners of Horizon Europe grants to apply for the UK's guarantee scheme.
The Innovation Funding Service has now opened, UKRI announced yesterday, and allows researchers to submit proof that they have successfully won grants through Horizon Europe.
UK researchers are allowed to apply for Horizon Europe grants, but because association has not yet been confirmed, grant agreements cannot be signed, and so the UK government has said it will guarantee many winners' awards with an equivalent grant.
The European Commission has still not signed off on UK association, despite it being agreed in theory, due to ongoing disagreements between London and Brussels over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Faroe Islands has signed off its association to the EU’s €95.5 billion Horizon Europe research programme, enabling its researchers to participate in projects on equal terms with their EU-based counterparts.
The country has been taking part in EU research programmes since 2010, with a focus on ocean science, aquaculture and environmental projects. Its researchers enjoyed an above-average 20% success rate under Horizon 2020, the previous seven-year EU research programme.
Faroe Islands is one of thirteen countries associated to Horizon Europe, another three – Albania, Tunisia and Ukraine – are expected to sign off their participation shortly.
Researchers and organisations planning to apply for grants from the EU research mobility programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), can now meet potential cooperation partners and get help preparing projects on a new dedicated platform.
On the MSCA-NET platform, researchers and organisations can now find and offer mobility arrangements that could be funded under MSCA calls for postdoctoral fellowships, doctoral networks, staff exchanges and other programmes.
The European Commission has appointed Laurence Moreau to lead the European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA), the body that helps the European Research Council (ERC) manage and implement its research funding programmes.
The decision comes nearly six months after Moreau has been appointed acting director of the ERCEA. She took on the position after the previous director, Waldemar Kütt, retired in December 2021.
Moreau is a French national and holds a PhD in veterinary medicine. She has been working at ERCEA since 2016 as head of department. Prior to that she headed the legal affairs and internal control unit. Before joining ERCEA, Moreau worked as deputy head in the coal and steel, and materials units at the Commission’s directorate general for research and innovation (DG RTD).
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.
