HORIZON BLOG: European R&D policy newsbytes (Archived_03)

The InnoEnergy Skills Institute has trained 50,000 people to work across the battery value chain, which is expected to be at the heart of the EU’s green transition, since its creation in February 2022.

Some 800,000 workers will need to be trained or upskilled by the end of 2025 to meet the growing demand, according to EIT InnoEnergy, which celebrated this first milestone this week. The Institute is supported by 11 member states and regions including France, Spain and Hungary.

EU Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič said the training programme “serves as a successful blueprint for other sectors”.

Last week, the Commission announced an additional €3 billion in funding under the EU Innovation Fund to support the most sustainable European battery manufacturers. See more details here.

The European Council has agreed on updated recommendations designed to make research and innovation careers in the EU more attractive and open.

On 8 December member states signed off on a number of changes, including an updated European Charter for Researchers, and includes recommendations on work-life balance, social protection for early career researchers, and giving them skills to move between sectors.

“With this act, we are setting up standards that will guide member states, research organisations, funders and stakeholders in increasing stability and attractiveness of research careers in Europe,” said Diana Morant Ripoll, Spain’s science minister.

The European University Association has set out three priorities for 2027 as part of a new research and innovation agenda to further position universities as leading R&I actors. 

The priorities of the agenda, titled ‘seizing the moment, driving the change’, are: 

• Amplifying the societal impact of university R&I

• Cultivating robust, diverse and collaborative R&I culture(s)

• Championing a well-designed and sustainable R&I system

The 2027 agenda builds on the association’s vision for 2030 called ‘universities without walls’, first published in 2021. 

“The holistic, sector-wide measures proposed here are intended to counter the trend towards increasingly selective and fragmented European R&I policies,” EUA vice president Paul Boyle said. 

The EU and China have “agreed that we should seek to cooperate on artificial intelligence at the global level”, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

On her second visit to the country this year, von der Leyen also raised the issue of the EU’s trade deficit with China, which has doubled in the last two years.

“I am glad that we agreed with President Xi that trade should be balanced between the two of us,” she said.

In light of the ongoing COP28 climate summit, the Commission President urged China to join 125 countries in signing the global pledge to triple the installed capacity of renewable energy and double the rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030, which she announced on Saturday.

Canada is set to invest in 24 third-party science and research organisations through its Strategic Science Fund (SSF), the country’s science and innovation minister François-Philippe Champagne has announced. 

The chosen organisations are the first recipients under the SSF after applications for the inaugural call were opened in 2021. 

"With this investment, we are supporting organisations working in a multitude of areas including the development of novel cancer treatments, climate change, reconciliation and Indigenous-led science, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, as well as organisations that are inspiring the next generation of scientists and researchers,” Champagne said. 

The next call for applications to the SSF is scheduled for 2026. 

EU and US health emergency agencies have agreed to coordinate their funding for research and innovation projects on the next-generation diagnostic devices for respiratory diseases. 

EU’s HERA and the US’ BARDA will work together to ensure the projects they fund bring products to the market by exchanging outcomes and organising follow-up actions.  

HERA’s €24 million call on speeding up the development of and access to innovative medical countermeasures is open until 20 December. BARDA has launched two dedicated calls: one to support sample-to-answer solutions through regulatory clearance, and another oneto drive innovation in hardware, sample preparation and bioinformatics. 

Germany is preparing to launch six research ‘missions’ after the government approved its first report on the implementation of the new R&I strategy.  

A research mission is a novel type of R&I funding which uses seed funding to mobilise action to address specific goals. It was popularised by economist Mariana Mazzucato. The EU has launched five missions of its own in 2021, with mixed results.  

Germany’s government agreed on six missions areas: resource-conscious management, climate protection and preservation of biodiversity, health, digital and technological sovereignty, space and marine research and social resilience. There are six dedicated teams working to set up the missions.  

Spain’s research evaluation commission (CNEAI) has approved new assessment criteria in alignment with the Europe-wide movement to reform how research is evaluated. 

The new criteria promise to value quality over quantity, maximise impact and recognise a wider range of researchers profiles and careers as it assesses the country’s R&I efforts.  

The national commission, made up of twelve representatives appointed by Spain’s autonomous communities, carries out an evaluation every six years. 

Innovation UK has compiled a list of 50 emerging technologies that could lead to major breakthroughs.  

These include tiny nano-materials, quantum computing and brain-machine interfaces that allow you to control machines with your mind, among others.  

The European Commission has greenlighted €1.2 billion in public funding for cloud computing research, development and employment in seven EU countries. 

The funding is part of the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on next generation cloud infrastructure and services. It allows EU countries to jointly fill investment gaps to produce breakthrough innovation by exempting projects from prohibitions to state aid.  

The seven countries are France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain.