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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A group of Ukrainian mathematicians have come together to create the new International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine with hopes that it will help boost science and research in the domain and play a role in the country’s eventual post-war reconstruction.
An initial support meeting for the centre was hosted by the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques on Thursday, 12 January, with representatives of leading European mathematical institutes and the Ukrainian government in attendance.
French mathematician Jean-Pierre Bourgoignon, former head of the European Research Council, has been elected as the first member of the centre’s board of trustees. The new centre is currently looking for new donors to contribute to the €1 million in matched funding that has already been committed by algorithmic trading company XTX Markets.
A French scheme set up in 2020 to preserve jobs industry research and development jobs as the pandemic hit the economy has helped save 1,400 jobs, according to the government.
The scheme was set up to help companies continue investing in young graduates in R&D roles as they adjust to a worsening economic outlook. Measures included allowing industry workers to work in public research laboratories and partly funding researchers on joint projects run by companies and public labs. This has cost the government €149 million, financed through the EU’s recovery fund.
Iris.ai, a European company developing an AI engine for scientific text understanding, is set to receive €2.4 million in grants and up to €12 million in equity investments from the EU’s €10 billion start-up fund, the European Innovation Council (EIC).
The company was selected for funding in the latest round of the EIC’s Accelerator programme for promising deep tech companies. With the new investment, it will get a boost in the race against competition from the US and China in the AI sector.
The company’s tool helps researchers find relevant papers in a sea of content faster by using AI language models to categorise, navigate, summarise and systematise data from academic papers, patents and other sources.
Ireland has announced a third tranche of funding for greening the higher education sector with a €26 million call.
The money will be used to test a range of building retrofit approaches and inform decisions as larger scale programmes are rolled out in the future.
The programme aims to higher education institutions improve energy efficiency by 50% and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by the end of the decade.
The European Commission has announced two upcoming information sessions for Horizon Europe applicants.
Researchers interested in applying for grants under Horizon Europe’s culture and health clusters can sign up for the online sessions on 17 and 19 January respectively.
The info days event series is organised by the European Commission and are aimed at informing applicants about the topics open for funding in Horizon Europe.
A 10-member consortium led by Lynred, a global provider of infrared detectors, has announced the start of a joint project funded by the European Defence Fund (EDF).
The consortium will use €18 million in EDF money to develop electronic components for innovative infrared sensors for the defence industry.
Infrared sensors detect, recognise and identify objects or targets during the night and in adverse weather conditions.
Internal market commission Thierry Breton has been glad-handing EU leaders to build support for a European answer to Washington's Inflation Reduction Act.
Through the act, the US is pumping billions of subsidies into green industries, including electric cars and hydrogen fuel. This has worried Brussels that US incentives could create an unfair playing field, putting EU companies at a disadvantage.
France's economy minister Bruno Le Maire has signalled he wants a EU-wide package to counter Washington. This week Breton has also been meeting with leaders in Poland and Belgium to scope out an EU "clean tech act", changes to state aid rules and a "basket of EU financing solutions".
Official forms for early uptake of the unitary patent have been made available by the European Patent Office (EPO).
The unitary patent system will enable inventors to get unifiorm protection in up to 25 EU member states through a single request submitted to the EPO.
The full rollout of the system is intended to start on 1 June. Until then, the EPO has introduced two transitional measures that would allow applicants to get accustomed to the new system. Holders of European patents can now request a unitary patent with uniform protection in the EU.
The unitary patent will be enforced by the Unified Patent Court (UPC). So far, 17 EU countries have ratified the the UPC agreement.
The Korean government is proposing significant tax cuts for semiconductor manufacturing to catch up with other countries bolstering their industries.
Under the proposal, big businesses in chips, secondary battery and vaccine industries would be entitled to tax breaks of up to 15%, while tax breaks for small and medium enterprises are to be raised up to 25%.
The world’s leading economies have been racing to boost their chips industries, which serve as a backbone to many strategic technologies and the global manufacturing supply chain.
The Spanish government has announced the creation of over 1,600 new jobs in public research organisations and the transition of nearly 2,500 temporary roles to permanent positions, as part of moves to attract talent back to the country.
Of the new positions, 899 are for researchers and 771 for technical and management staff.
Most of the temporary roles being made permanent are at Spanish National Research Council. Others are at the Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research and the Carlos III Health Institute
The total of 2,476 jobs represents a 26% increase in the permanent staff of these three public research organisations.
There is also one new permanent position at the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
Spain is attempting to strengthen its research environment by creating new jobs to attract people back to the country.
The government estimates that between 2011 and 2016 more than 5,000 research positions were lost.
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