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Germany can now ratify the agreement on the unitary patent and unified patent court, a common European patent system, after a top court rejected two challenges to the bill.
The agreement, which is backed by all EU member states expect for Spain and Poland, is set to unify patent rules in the block, making the protection and enforcement of patents in Europe cheaper.
The treaty to create an EU-wide patent court dates back to 2013 but after a successful deal following years of negotiations, its implementation was halted by legal challenges in Germany and Brexit, which led the UK to withdraw.
Once operational, the new rules will enable cheaper and more efficient uniform patent protection in all participating EU member states, including Germany which accounts for 40% of European patent approvals.
Venture capital firm OTB Ventures is set to invest €50 million in early-stage technology companies with R&D components.
The fund, which will finance the growth of 15 companies in fields such as cybersecurity, space, fintech and robotic automation, is backed by the European Investment Fund’s pilot programme for encouraging venture funds to secure follow-on investments for companies in their portfolio.
“We need more funding options for promising technology start-ups in Europe, which create new jobs and help secure our competitive edge. I look forward to seeing many more such examples in action,” said Commission vice president for Valdis Dombrovskis.
The European Commission is trying to tackle gender inequality in the European start-up landscape with the help of a new pilot programme providing funding and mentoring to female-led start-ups around Europe.
Launched today, the pilot will offer grants of up to €75,000 as well as coaching and mentoring services through the European Innovation Council for up to 50 promising deep-tech start-ups. The first call, open to companies founded or co-founded by women, is now live and will close on 10 November.
“Through Women TechEU, we want to increase the number of women-led start-ups and create a fairer and more prosperous European deep-tech ecosystem,” said EU research commissioner Mariya Gabriel. “We believe that today’s support to deep-tech female founders will increase their chances of success and boost the overall European innovation ecosystem by drawing in more female talent.”
The EU’s public-private supercomputing partnerships, EuroHPC, can now access its €7 billion pot of funding after EU member states gave their final approval to its new legislation.
The partnership between the European Commission, industry and member states, which first launched in 2018, will continue developing Europe’s supercomputing infrastructure and acquire more world-class computers but with a bigger budget at its disposal.
“Today’s decision contributes to the EU’s strategic autonomy and delivery of the European Research Area. The goal is clear: to make Europe a world-leading actor in super computing. It will help tackle global challenges and help ensure the EU's green and digital transitions,” said Slovenian science minister Simona Kustec.
Supercomputers are vital to the success of Europe’s science and industry. They provide computational power that allows to solve hugely complex and demanding problems as well as enable more uses of artificial intelligence, data analytics and cybersecurity.
The European Commission wants to improve its communication on science, research and innovation and is asking citizens how it should do it in new survey.
The short survey asks respondents which science areas are most important to them, what media they prefer, who influences their opinion on research and innovation, and what they see as the main goals of European science projects.
The German Research Foundation is set to award €47.4 million to 13 new research groups addressing pressing issues in their subject areas.
The newly funded groups will study the intricacies of lower back pain, dissect the behaviour of DNA viruses, dive into the history of psychiatry, and develop new visual computing simulation and learning techniques, among other topics. They will receive funding for up to 6 to 8 years to carry out their research.
The foundation currently funds 173 such teams of scientists that work on big, long projects that cannot be funded through individual grant programmes.
The European Commission has concluded the first round of negotiations for Moldova and Tunisia’s association to Horizon Europe, which would give the two countries privileged access to the research programme.
In the first series of meetings, the Commission explained the details of how the countries will be able to contribute to the programme financially in return for access.
The next round of negotiations will take place in the second half of July, with the aim to conclude the negotiations in autumn and seal the deals by the end of the year.
The Commission hopes to complete most of the agreements with countries that were associated to the previous research programme, Horizon 2020, by the end of the year to avoid prolonged delays and uncertainty. Until then, researchers and organisations from previously associated countries are invited to apply to Horizon Europe funding calls as if their countries already held full access to the programme.
The European Parliament on Thursday voted through its resolution on the European Research Area (ERA), naming the initiative ‘a key priority’ for the EU and its green and digital ambitions.
The ERA is a single market where researchers and scientific knowledge can move freely. The European Commission and EU member states first embarked on creating it in 2000 but quicky lowered ambitions. Last year, the Commission renewed the efforts putting forward a proposal for a revamped ERA.
Responding to the Commission’s proposal, the Parliament on Thursday stressed the importance of prioritising fundamental research as part of the plans and highlighted the link between research and entrepreneurship should be exploited to boost innovation in Europe.
The MEPs also highlighted the role of universities in creating a single market for research and emphasised the importance of empowering women and girls to enter scientific careers.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology has revealed the evaluation criteria it will use to pick a consortium trusted to launch its new Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) for culture and creativity.
The call will go live in October, with a deadline for submissions in March 2022. But potential applicants – consortia made up of research organisations, universities and companies – can already check by which criteria their application will be judged.
Due to launch next year, the new KIC will be the ninth network of universities, companies and research organisations providing training, advice and funding to promising innovators across the EU. Its creation is part of the reinforced EIT, the EU’s innovation agency.
Spain will invest €2.3 billion in research and innovation this year, double the amount invested in science by the country last year.
The increase in budget is largely due to the EU rolling out its recovery budget which will inject €672.5 billion in member state economies over the next few years.
The money will be distributed to research and innovation projects around the country through the country’s three funding agencies. Thanks to the top-up, the agencies will fund more proof of concept, green and digital transition projects, provide more direct funding to companies, and increase the average funding per project for selected calls.
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