News

Scotland’s flagship life sciences project, Edinburgh BioQuarter, has been awarded £12 million by the development agency Scottish Enterprise and Edinburgh University to set up a technology commercialisation fund.

A pan-European project to develop standards for the collection of samples for use in diagnostics has been launched as part of Framework Programme 7. The project aims to increase accuracy and safety, and to create a single market for diagnostics products.

The prospect of a sub-$1,000 human genome sequence moved closer as Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd agreed a marketing deal with Illumina Inc for its low-cost sequencing technology.

After a late start, Spain’s entrepreneurial culture has taken root. It remains modest compared to other major European countries, but the credit crisis does not yet seem to have stifled innovation.

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has ratified the European Patent Convention and, on 1 January, became a member of the European Patent Organisation (EPO).

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture has issued a call for tenders for the design and testing of a global ranking system for universities.

Graham Spittle, Vice President Software for UK, Ireland and South Africa with IBM, has been re-appointed as Chair of the UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB), for a further three years.

The Norwegian Government is weighing a Euro 300M rescue package for the biotech industry as part of a national financial rescue package it is due to announce by the end of January.

ETH Zurich is celebrating a record year for spin-offs, creating 23 companies in 2008. Six companies were established in computer science and six in communication technologies and services; four in bio-technology/pharmaceuticals; four in electrical and electronics engineering; two in medical devices, and one in micro- and nanotechnology.