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The European Commission has signed a cooperation strategy with the Western Balkans at the Brdo Summit on Wednesday.
The strategy will promote promote scientific excellence, prevent brain drain, and help countries in the region to pursue reforms of their education systems.
“The Innovation Agenda for the Western Balkans will open these opportunities to students, researchers, innovators and cultural operators so that they access new markets, become more competitive and build sustainable prosperity,” said EU research commissioner Maryia Gabriel.
The strategy is part of the Brdo Declaration, a document that reaffirms the EU’s commitment to expand in the Western Balkans, as China and Russia are increasingly raising investments in the region. However, some EU countries have recently voiced their reluctance to welcome any new members in the near future.
German chemist Benjamin List, the recipient of two ERC advanced grants, has won the 2021 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing asymmetric organocatalysis, a greener way to build molecules. List shares the award with British chemist David W.C. Macmillan.
“It is fantastic news that another ERC grantee has taken home a 2021 Nobel Prize,” said ERC president designate, Maria Leptin. “The number of ERC grantees who go on to win a Nobel bears witness to that giving top researchers the freedom to pursue their scientific dreams truly pays off,” Leptin said.
The announcement was made one day after former recipients of EU research grants Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in physics. Hasselmann and Parisi share the physics award with Japanese-American meteorologist Syukuro Manabe for their work on understanding complex physical systems.
Former recipients of EU research grants Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics.
They won the prize jointly with Japanese-American meteorologist Syukuro Manabe for their groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems.
Hasselmann and Manabe received the prestigious award for laying foundation of knowledge of the Earth's climate and how humanity influences it, while Parisi is rewarded for his revolutionary contributions to the theory of disordered materials and random processes.
“I am proud that the EU has backed two of them […] through research and innovation funding aimed at advancing scientific knowledge,” said Mariya Gabriel, EU commissioner for research and innovation. “This shows us that investing in top frontier science helps to keep European research at the forefront.
Hasselmann worked in two projects funded by the EU’s seventh framework programme for research, while Parisi was awarded substantial funding from the European Research Council (ERC) for nearly a decade.
Earlier this year, Professor Parisi also won the prestigious Wolf Prize in Physics.
Germany’s government has published new guidelines for financing hydrogen production, processing, storage and transport projects outside the EU.
There’s a total of €350 million available for hydrogen plants, research projects, studies and training until 2024 as part of the country’s hydrogen strategy announced last year.
“The published funding guidelines are a central element in the implementation of the national hydrogen strategy,” said the economy minister Peter Altmaier. “By promoting pilot and reference projects abroad, we are at the same time helping to strengthen Germany as an industrial and export location."
Companies can request up to €15 million in grants, while projects run by research organisations can get up to €5 million in funding.
The two countries have signed a new cooperation agreement to launch a joint call for research-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Through the call announced by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, Hungarian companies can receive a total of €7 million for the implementation of their cross-border projects.
“The proposal encourages cooperation in key forward-looking areas, from artificial intelligence to quantum and biotechnology to autonomous manufacturing systems,” said László Palkovics, Hungarian minister for innovation and technology.
The joint call is part of a project within EUREKA, the European R&D network for SMEs. Since Hungary joined EUREKA in 1992, Hungarian institutions participated in 125 calls and received nearly €78 million in grant funding. A third of these projects had German partners.
The EIT Climate, EU-supported innovation community, today kicked off a four-year project set to help European cities drastically cut down their green house gasses emissions as part of the new Horizon Europe mission which aims to lead 100 European cities to carbon neutrality by the end of the decade.
NetZeroCities will bring together 33 organisations from 13 countries to develop an online platform to support 30 pilot cities in moving towards carbon neutrality, co-create net-zero innovations, and build up capacities for citizen engagement, financing and social innovation.
The cities mission is one of five ambitious Horizon Europe projects launched earlier this week. It aims to mobilise Europe-wide action in making at least 100 cities both climate neutral and smart by 2030, starting with an initial budget of €359.3 million from the EU research programme.
The EU’s global navigation satellite system, Galileo, from today will be managed and further developed by a new dedicated office.
The new body will be run by the European Commsision, the European Space Agency and the EU’s agency for the space programme, EUSPA. Each will have three representatives, with the Commission taking charge.
The new centralised management will help coordinate risk management and ensure any issues can be dealt with without delays or cost overruns, helping improve the performance of the EU’s leading satellite system which provides information for autonomous and connected cars, railways, aviation and other sectors.
A new financing deal for the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) foresees a €3.2 billion investment between 2022 and 2036, which will enable the institute to expand.
IST Austria, which funds basic research and postgraduate education in physical, mathematical, computer, and life sciences, today host over 60 research teams. By 2036, the number is expected to reach 150.
The UK government has confirmed that it will make it easier to research genetically engineered crops, moving the country away from the EU’s relatively restrictive system.
By the end of the year, the UK will loosen research rules for crops created by new genetic engineering techniques that do not introduce foreign DNA into altered plants and animals.
The UK will also reclassify genetically engineered crops which “could have been developed by traditional breeding” so that they not longer count as genetically modified organisms, and so are no longer subject to the same stringency of regulation.
“These technologies have great potential and will enable our farmers to grow plants that are more nutritious, more resilient to climate change, and less reliant on pesticides or fertilisers,” said environment secretary George Eustice in a statement.
The government also said it will “continue to monitor” whether divergence from the EU on genetic engineering impacts the UK’s ability to trade with the bloc.
In loosening the rules, the UK appears to be siding with academic over public opinion. Almost two thirds of academic institutions said that replied to the government’s consultation said that genetically engineered produce was no more dangerous than natural counterparts. But nearly nine in ten individuals believe they are more risky.
The European Commission’s new publication explains how universities can take advantage of both of the EU’s academic mobility programmes, Erasmus+ and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).
For example, European university alliances funded under Erasmus+ can take advantage of the MSCA Doctoral Networks and COFUND call to develop doctoral and postdoctoral programmes. Individual Erasmus+ participants can also join MSCA research teams through traineeships, short-term and staff exchanges.
The Commission’s goal is to improve awareness and maximise the use of the funds available through the programmes. Erasmus+ has a budget of €26.2 billion for the next seven years, while MSCA will receive €6.6 billion from the EU’s research programme, Horizon Europe, by 2028.
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