HORIZON BLOG: European R&D policy newsbytes (Archived_01)

The European Commission today signed a deal setting a common direction for reforms in the assessment practices for research, researchers and research organisations.  

The agreement is the culmination of a Commission-led EU-wide effort to revamp the way research is assessed, moving away from rigid quantitative measurements relying on publications.  

Signing the agreeing, the Commission joins the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), a group of over 100 organisations in 25 countries set to implement the reform as part of the EU’s push to a common European Research Area. 

In addition to signing the reform agreement, the Commission endorsed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), in a promise to improve how researchers and their outputs are evaluated. 

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) will invest a further €12 million in up to 15 projects aimed at helping higher education institutions nurture innovation as part of its third installments of the EIT HEI Initiative.  

The upcoming call, open between 17 November and 28 February, will have a special focus on training tech talents, in conjunction with the EIT’s new goal to skill one million people in deep tech in the next few years.

Applications should come from consortia of academic and non-academic organisations in Horizon Europe and associated countries.

Carina Faber will guide the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) work on renewable energy conversion and alternative resource exploitation, consolidating a portfolio of funded innovation projects in the field.  

Faber is the tenth programme manager to join the EU’s new start-up fund as a strategic adviser for investments in a specific sector. In the past few years, she has co-led a programme on e-fuels at Engie Belgium and been an active member of the EU’s public-private partnership’s SUNERGY industrial advisory board, co-leading the creation of its strategic R&I agenda for solar fuels and chemicals. 

Almost 3,000 early-career researchers applied for the European Research Council’s (ERC) starting grants this year, 8% less than in the previous call.  

The new €628 million call is set to fund around 407 grants, putting the success rate for applicants at 15%, slightly higher than the overall estimated 12% ERC success rate in Horizon 2020 .  

Success rates have been a point of contention in the EU’s research programmes, as limited budgets mean few excellent proposals get funded. 

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Kazakhstan prime minister Alikhan Smailov have signed an agreement for a bilateral partnership on renewable hydrogen, batteries and raw materials.

The deal was signed at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt and it provides a framework for the two parties to work together on new and sustainable technologies for mining and refining raw materials.

The EU needs a stable supply of critical raw materials, such as rare earth magnets, lithium, cobalt and polysilicon to be able to deploy new wind turbines, innovative batteries and high-performance semiconductors. 

“A secure and sustainable supply of raw materials, refined materials and renewable hydrogen is a key layer to help build a new, cleaner foundation for our economies, especially as we move away from our dependency on fossil fuels,” von der Leyen said.

While at COP27, Von der Leyen will sign a similar partnership with Namibia.

The European Commission has announced today the launch of a series of events across Europe gathering to make science more accessible to children.

Researchers and innovators will interact with school teachers and their pupils over the next six months.

Researchers funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are expected to team up and create learning material, such as experiments, quizzes and games. 

The Commission estimates 2,400 schools and 225,000 pupils in several countries will gain access to presentations, hands-on experiments and lab visits.

More details are available here.

German research institutions will be included in government energy subsidy programmes, education and research minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has announced this week.

The German government released a plan to curb gas prices and planned to cap energy prices from the beginning of 2023 to help alleviate the impact of gas and energy prices due to the war in Ukraine.

Now, the government decided to include education, science and research sectors in the measures, acknowledging the significant challenges that the crisis poses to the sector.

Besides plans to cap gas and electricity prices, research institutions will also benefit from a further funding up to €500 million for energy research.

The German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) has published a report with recommendations for the German government to improve its digital and technological diplomacy amid global internet governance fragmentation.

According to the report, international digital governance is currently fragmented due to a struggle for control over global digital connectivity between democracies and authoritarian countries.

To help ensuring a global and open digital connectivity, the report suggests that Germany should work in synergy with the EU international digital policy initiatives and strengthen coordination with like-minded partners.

The DGAP also urges the German government to engage on an inclusive and democratic digital agenda with the Global South, an area of the world which is seeing an attempt by China for a massive digital penetration as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The European Commission has announced today it will allocate €3 billion for the third call under the EU Innovation Fund.

The Commission will allocate €1 billion for projects in renewable energy, carbon capture, energy storage and low-carbon fuels.

Another billion will go towards projects aimed at replacing the use of fossil fuel in industry and boost the production of renewable hydrogen.

Projects in manufacturing components for electrolysers, fuel cells and heat pumps will have access to a further €0.7 billion. Highly innovative projects focused on breakthrough low-carbon technologies can apply for mid-sized pilot grants worth €0.3 billion.

“Today more than ever, we need to boost innovation and scale up technological solutions that tackle the climate crisis and bring Europe energy sovereignty,” said Commission executive vice president Frans Timmermans.

French biotech Meletios Therapeutics has received €5.2 million in financing from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to support the clinical development of an antiviral drug that could be effective against coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, as well as the H1N1 influenza virus.

Meletios is of the 75 companies picked by the European Innovation Council (EIC) last month from a pool of more than 1,000 projects submitted by the 15 June 2022 cut-off date.

The company will receive a €2.5 million grant and a €2.7 million equity investment through the EIC Fund. The money will go towards a Phase 2 clinical trial of its antiviral drug MLT103.  

“Meletios Therapeutics has been committed since its creation to the development of a new generation of antiviral treatments in response to the ever-increasing emergence of new viral diseases, including the recent Covid-19," said CEO Catherine Martre.

“Obtaining this highly selective financing is a very important vote of confidence and support that will allow us to rapidly advance the clinical development phases of our compound,” said Martre.