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Armenia has become the latest country to join Horizon Europe, the EU’s multi-billion euro research and innovation programme that kicked off this year.
A statement from the Commission confirmed the country had signed an association agreement today.
“I welcome Armenia to our Horizon Europe programme,” said research commissioner Mariya Gabriel in a statement.
“Armenia has continuously increased its participation in the previous Horizon 2020 programme and has supported the acceleration of the reforms of the Armenian national research and innovation system in the past few years. Armenia will build on its past successes in Horizon Europe,” she said.
The announcement is no surprise, and follows association agreements with other framework programme regulars including Norway and Turkey, plus the successful conclusion of talks with Israel. The association agreement with Israel is expected to be signed before the end of the year.
But the association of the UK and Switzerland remain on hold until wider political tensions with Brussels are resolved.
MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour to support a new research partnership between the European Commission and national metrology institutes aimed at harmonising metrology innovation around the bloc.
The Horizon Europe partnership will build on previous European efforts in the science of measurement, laying the foundations for new technologies.
“Metrology is a discipline at the service of all areas of knowledge”, said the European Parliament rapporteur Maria da Graça Carvalho during the Wednesday night parliamentary debate. “We wouldn't be where we are technologically without metrology. Neither would we get where we want to go."
EU policymakers started negotiations on the partnership in September. They hope the partnership will play an integral role in developing new technologies, such as quantum computers and AI-based healthcare.
The European Commission has adopted the work programmes for the Digital Europe funding programme setting out almost €2 billion in investments for the next two years.
The seven-year programme aims to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty in areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, quantum computing and cybersecurity.
The biggest chunk of the money, €1.38 billion will be invested in key technologies as well as boosting digital skills and broadening the use of digital tools in the European economy. Another €269 million will be spent on cybersecurity in the next year. A further €329 million over the next two years will be invested in digital innovation hubs.
“Europe's digital decade has begun. By 2030, data, cloud and device computing, as well as quantum computing, will drive innovation in industry and society, creating new business models. The €2 billion euros of investment announced today will enable European companies of all sizes, and in particular start-ups, to seize the opportunities offered by rapidly growing markets,” said EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton.
The European Commission is teaming up with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to support the translation of research results to the market.
The two organisations aim to help SMEs boost their innovation potential and improve the understanding of the benefits of intellectual property. As part of the collaboration, they will also share IP related data and co-develop IP management policy.
“This will contribute to the implementation of EU policy on research, science and innovation in relation to intellectual property matters and supports European Research Area objective to translate results into the economy,” said EU research and innovation commissioner Mariya Gabriel.
The European Commission has a set a late-November date for the next Horizon Europe info days targeting 2022 research calls focused on digital, industry and space sectors.
The three-day event will be livestreamed on a dedicated webpage from 29 November, with a total of 12 sessions explaining how researchers can apply and participate calls for research throughout 2022.
Today is the first day of the European Science Festival, which aims to showcase the continent’s diversity and excellence in science as well as promote European values in the scientific community.
The festival is a three-day umbrella event which brings together science festivals held simultaneously around Europe. The joint festival celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and marks the World Science for Peace and Development Day on 10 November.
France on Monday announced its AI plan to become a world leader in artificial intelligence is entering a new phase focused on fostering talent.
The French government will invest €781 million in AI training and attracting international talent as part of the new €2 billion phase supported by both public and private financing. “This ambitious strategy should allow us to “transform the trial” of the first phase and bring out future AI champions,” said Cédric O, secretary of state for the digital transition.
The country first announced its ambition to become a leader in AI in 2018. President Emmanuel Macron at the time set out a budget of €1.5 billion to create a network of interdisciplinary artificial intelligence institutes, fund doctoral programs and invest in public research. This first phase of the plan upped national and regional support for AI projects from €170 million in 2018 to more than €1 billion in 2021.
Basic and applied agricultural research should receive a boost from a new innovation push launched at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate was jointly launched by the United States and United Arab Emirates on November 3, and aims to raise $1 billion for “climate-smart” agriculture and food systems innovation over the next five years.
One of the objectives is to boost agricultural innovation, through funding basic science, public and private applied research, and the development of new products.
Aside from the US and UAE, another 31 countries are partners of the project, including a number of European countries, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, Israel, Bangladesh, Kenya and Canada.
The European Research Council (ERC) today launched the second edition of its prize for public engagement today aiming to award three grantees €10,000 each.
All of 6,800 of the basic research funder’s grantees can apply until 3 February 2022, and the winner will be announced during the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in July.
The award was introduced in 2020 to highlight the importance of engaging the public with science. “Europeans are more and more interested in science. And over 50% of them, according to a recent Eurobarometer, think that scientists need to engage better with the public. ERC grantees can help meet this expectation and bring their research closer to citizens,” said EU research commissioner Mariya Gabriel.
The new president of the ERC, Maria Leptin, promises to make public engagement an even bigger part of the agency's work, starting with connecting grant holders with journalists and bloggers. “We don't need to do it all ourselves, but we need to establish means for people who are experts in communication,” said Leptin in an interview with Science|Business.
Portuguese economy minister Pedro Siza Vieira and EIB Vice President Ricardo Mourinho Félix announced the Portugal Tech II programme at the Web Summit on Tuesday.
The programme will mobilise €250 million in venture capital investments to boost technology-transfer projects from universities and technology-based start-ups with high potential in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, fintech, healthtech and cybersecurity, amongst others.
Portugal Tech II continues the work of its predecessor programme launched in 2018. "[It] will continue to support an environment where technology and innovation play central roles in the transformation of our economy," said Vieira.
The programme will select venture capital funds managed by Portuguese private teams with relevant track-record in the venture capital, technology transfer and acceleration segments, provided that they are able to raise capital from private and institutional investors.
“This initiative crowds in private investors resources and will help transform disruptive ideas into successful businesses that can give Portugal and Europe a leading edge in the global tech race,” said Félix.
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