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EU research commissioner vows to avoid interruptions in the flow of EU R&D funding amid delayed rollout, as she outlines plan for stricter rules for international research cooperation, to reflect ‘geopolitical changes’

This is the first call from the European Research Council under the new Horizon Europe research programme

Government says newly christened Advanced Research & Invention Agency will have ‘a much higher tolerance for failure than is normal’

Money will fund sequencing to pick up dangerous variants and trials network to test updated vaccines. Vaccines approvals will be eased and supply contracts modified. The initiatives are a dry run for the proposed Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority   

The new government promises to increase R&D spending to 2% of GDP. Researchers say this needs to be accompanied by reforms. There should be more competitive calls and a new independent council to increase transparency and reduce political interference, they say

Brexit put the brakes on investment for years, but champions of the tech say there is now a chance to make up ground. A new £130M research centre is on the way and plans for the first gigafactory are in hand

Leaked draft work programme outlines EU plans to call on social science and humanities researchers to help boost democratic governance, protect our cultural heritage and promote social inclusion

Countries accounting for 75% of global GDP aim for carbon neutrality by 2060, creating huge demand for clean technologies. Horizon Europe must support research and scale-up to ensure Europe can lead these markets   

Its French co-inventor, Emmanuelle Charpentier won a Nobel prize last year. Now the European Commission says the EU should look to the ‘major advances’ CRISPR gene editing provides to boost yields and reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture

The focus will be on post COVID-19 recovery, with leaked draft work programme indicating that in 2021 researchers can expect six calls for proposals on topics ranging from mental health to improving healthcare systems