HORIZON BLOG: European R&D policy newsbytes (Archived_02)

The European Research Council (ERC) today announces the awarding of 400 new Starting Grants to fund researchers across the EU in carrying out fundamental research. In total, €628 million will go towards the winning researchers’ projects via the EU’s flagship R&I funding programme, Horizon Europe. 

The highest number of winners are based in Germany, with 87 grantees based there, followed by 50 in France, 44 in the Netherlands and 32 in the UK. 

As the UK is still not associated to Horizon Europe, UK-based grant winners will not be able to accept the funding unless they choose to move to an institution located in a country associated to Horizon Europe. The UK has its own funding safety net in place to support researchers who win Horizon Europe while the UK remains outside the programme.

The EU has pledged €440,000 to support researchers in Nigeria as part of the Horizon Europe programme. 

It comes as Nigeria’s attempts to bolster its engagement with the EU and its flagship R&I programme, Horizon Europe, with the country only having minimal involvement to date.

Turkey has completed an association agreement for the €7.5 billion Digital Europe Programme. It opens the door for Turkish participants to get involved in joint projects in areas such as artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies. It also means it will be possible to set up Digital Innovation Hubs in the country. 

In a statement, the European Commission said that it hopes to see Turkey “foster closer links to the EU economy and society, cooperate more on developing our technological capabilities and support digitalisation, in particular of small and medium-sized enterprises”. 

Europe must double down on its investment in advanced technologies, EU Commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, said during a speech today at the Tallinn Digital Summit in Estonia. 

It is not a new idea, but one he reiterated here, calling out the need to invest in AI, quantum technologies, semiconductors and supercomputers. 

“Referees don't win matches,” he said, referring to the EU’s pride in its strong technology regulations. “For Europe to be a digital leader, we need to invest in innovation, industrial development and digital infrastructure deployment so that our digital players can grow and expand.”

The UK has unveiled more details about the agenda for its upcoming AI safety summit, designed to create international consensus on how powerful new systems can be used for good, rather than creating harm. 

"The need to address these risks, including at an international level, is increasingly urgent," according to a recent statement about the conference, scheduled for 1-2 November. 

The summit will discuss, among other things, "areas for potential collaboration on AI safety research, including evaluating model capabilities and the development of new standards to support governance," it says.

One question that has dogged the runup to the summit is whether to invite China - there's no official confirmation yet of whether Beijing will be present. 

The European Parliament's research service has released a brief paper outlining challenges to the EU's space strategy, warning, amongst other things, of dependence on SpaceX, Elon Musk's private space firm that has pioneered the use of re-usable rockets. 

The European Space Agency was forced to use a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch its Euclid telescope in July this year, the briefing points out. "Europe needs to assess how to improve its independent access to space in terms of governance, investment and research," it says. 

It also assesses that jamming and cyber attacks are more likely to be weaponised against satellites than missiles that actually shoot them down, despite recent Russian tests of such kinetic weapons. "This is mainly because such measures do not create debris, are less expensive than building interceptor missiles, offer deniability, and are less likely to trigger armed retaliation," it says. 

Talk of the EU de-coupling or de-risking scientific ties with China is missing a bigger picture, the rector of Ghent University in Belgium, Rik Van De Walle, has said. 

In an opinion piece written as part of the 2023 ACA Think Pieces series, Van De Walle wrote that assessing scientific cooperation with China on a case-by-case basis risks drying out the knowledge system. 

His remarks come after a June conclusion by the Council of the European Union calling for a multifaceted policy approach to China. More recently, the European Commission stated it will change Horizon Europe rules to reflect Brussels’ assessment that Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is “high risk”.

For Van De Walle, this thinking is backwards. 

“The reasoning that seems to be behind this strategy is that collaboration with certain regimes by default constitutes a risk rather than a benefit,” he wrote. 

“In the current context, however, the common presumption that China always takes from the West and never the other way around seems highly questionable. How can we be confident that keeping knowledge from ‘leaking’ to other parts of the world will bring more benefits than drawbacks? Is not the knowledge system one of multidirectional circulation rather than of ‘leaking’ in a single direction? And is it then a wise thing to start closing knowledge pipelines ‘case by case’ with the risk that the overall knowledge system gradually dries out?”

The European Commission will host an online workshop on 15 September to brainstorm how the EU can use digital tools to speed up research and innovation related to advanced materials. 

The event will include discussions on innovative platforms, data exploitation and data sharing. 

Sign up for the workshop here. Registration closes on 13 September. 

Julien Guerrier is leaving the European Commission to take up the role of EU ambassador-designate to Vietnam at a time when Marc Lemaître, the head of the research directorate, is preparing to revamp DG RTD. 

Guerrier has long been involved in research policy at the Commission and departs from his role as director of the Common Policy Centre for Horizon Europe.

He is not the first RTD official to leave Brussels for Asia. Last year, RTD’s former director-general Jean-Eric Paquet took a job as EU ambassador to Japan.

In a newsletter post, Guerrier highlighted recent EU achievements in R&I, including the launch of EU Missions, the European Innovation Council and the adoption of the 2021-24 Strategic Plan for Horizon Europe. 

“These achievements would never have been possible without the commitment [of the people I have worked with] to the European project and their relentless efforts to ensure Horizon Europe fosters real progress towards a Europe that remains a leading powerhouse in science and innovation,” he wrote. 

Annual philanthropic donations to UK universities have doubled in the last decade to a record £1.5 billion in 2022 despite crises, a study found.  

Philanthropic donations now make up a significant proportion of some universities’ incomes. In the 10 highest performing universities, this percentage rose to a record average of 10.4% of overall turnover in 2022. 

Philanthropy is on the rise while public funding for UK universities is at its lowest level since the 1990s, making it a key source of income, according to the ten-year study carried out by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the fundraising consultants, More Partnership.