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

Nicoló Giacomuzzi-Moore has been appointed executive director of the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU). 

He had been occupying the role on an interim basis since September 2022, and has previously worked at the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency. 

“I see the Joint Undertaking evolving in its role from an implementing body to that of an enabler of the circular economy and bioeconomy,” said Giacomuzzi-Moore, adding that effective communication will be crucial. 

“It is fundamental to raise the awareness of consumers and businesses on how highly innovative bio-based products can address the global environmental and economic challenges we face,” he wrote in a letter to the CBE JU community. 

Swiss education secretary Martina Hirayama has held exploratory talks with the European Commission with a view to the country participating in the Erasmus+ education mobility programme.

“We welcome Switzerland's interest in becoming part of Erasmus+,” Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, the EU’s director-general for education, youth, sport and culture, who was present at the meeting, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Collaboration on education & culture will be mutually rewarding!”

The European Parliament has previously lent its support to Swiss participation.

China will set up a Young Envoys Scholarship (YES) programme to encourage Americans to visit the country through school exchange programmes, short visits, summer schools, and winter camps, Xie Feng, Ambassador to the US has announced.

It follows President Xi Jinping’s commitment in November 2023 to invite 50,000 young Americans to China on exchange and study programs in the next five years.

“We are firmly against any decoupling in education, and are committed to increasing youth exchanges with concrete actions,” said Ambassador Xie.

Representatives from the European Commission and the US government discussed how to increase bilateral trade and investment, and co-operation on economic security and emerging technologies, at the fifth meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

“In the margins of this TTC meeting, both sides agreed to continue to explore ways to facilitate trade in goods and technologies that are vital for the green transition,” the Commission said in a statement.

They also agreed to strengthen their approaches to investment screening, export controls, outbound investment, and dual-use innovation.

The next ministerial meeting, which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said will be the “capstone TTC”, will take place in Belgium in the spring.

Eight organisations representing the public research and higher education sectors have addressed an open letter to Ilze Juhansone, secretary-general of the European Commission, calling for their concerns to be better integrated into policy decisions.

“We have too often seen that the needs of research and higher education are not taken into account, leading to harmful uncertainty and inadvertent barriers to research,” the letter states.

For example, it cites the Digital services Act, which does not explicitly exempt not-for-profit organisations from the obligations designed for commercial platforms.

The signatories want the Commission to review the EU’s Innovation Principle, and update its Better Regulation guidance to “properly and fully include the needs and interests of higher education and research as well as ensure the protection of academic freedom.”

The EU is facing a massive investment gap if it wants to meet its cleantech manufacturing ambitions, according to a report from the Cleantech for Europe initiative.

“Over the last decade, the EU has become a cleantech innovation powerhouse,” the report states, however it struggles to scale and industrialise these new technologies.

The European Commission estimates that €92 million is needed in public and private investments until 2030 in just five key net-zero technologies. The current rate of private investment, however, leaves a €50 billion funding gap, “which could easily double” once other strategic technologies are accounted for, the report continues.

Cleantech for Europe is calling for an “EU Cleantech Investment Plan to mobilise capital from institutional investors, deploy public guarantees to de-risk cleantech, and earmark EU ETS revenues for cleantech manufacturing.”

A new report by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) points to persisting challenges in terms of access to research infrastructures.  

The report is based on a survey of users of research labs and is part of an effort by ESFRI to update the Eruopean Charter of Access to Research Infrastructures.  

According to the survey, researchers want increased opportunities for remote and hybrid access of research infrastructures. They also note that these labs should be further opened up to new research communities and industry users.  

The report is available here.  

The UK government has launched a media blitz to advertise EU funding opportunities for research groups and companies in Horizon Europe. 

The campaign is part of a push by the government to make the most of its participation in Horizon Europe, the EU’s €95.5 billion research and innovation programme. According to the government, the average Horizon grant is worth £450,000 to a UK business. 

“Being part of Horizon is a colossal win for the UK’s science, research and business communities and we need to capitalise on this incredible opportunity, once again putting our world class researchers and businesses at the very heart of the Horizon programme, which is precisely why I have set up this campaign blitz,” said UK science and technology secretary Michelle Donelan.  

Next month, Donelan is set to meet with EU research commissioner Iliana Ivanova in London. 

The Dutch government has outlined ten critical technologies in a new strategy released earlier this month, to be prioritised by the government, research institutions, companies and civil society organisations.

They are optics and integrated phonics; quantum technologies; green chemical production processes; biotechnology aimed at molecules and cells; imaging technologies; optomechatronics; artificial intelligence and data; energy materials; semiconductors; and cybersecurity.

The strategy sets out specific targets for where the Netherlands should reach in these areas by 2035.

A survey is asking the European research community for feedback on Horizon Europe’s missions, a new type of initiative that seek to deliver concrete results in areas like cancer, ocean and water pollution, and soil health by 2030.

The questionnaire wants to know the “current perception and state of implementation” of the five missions and hear “concrete challenges and needs” that researchers currently have.

The survey takes around 15 – 20 minutes to complete.