The State of Victoria, Australia, population 5 million, wants to be in the top five for biotech by 2010 – and it’s building a synchrotron to help it get there.

RE$EARCH Infosource has issued this year's analysis of "Top Corporate R&D Spenders" in Canada.

Just three German universities are to get top funding as "elite" research institutions – concentrating resources on a few winners in a national contest to boost R&D and attract international investment.

Finland's Tekes publishes its foresight report.

"Some of the world's biggest energy companies" have gone into a huddle wiuth the Department of Trade and Industry in the UK to support the creation of a new institute "to accelerate the development of secure, reliable and cost-effective low-carbon energy technologies towards commercial deployment".