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Science is about to get back into Washington’s good books – and not before time, says Science|Business’s Nuala Moran.

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.

The fur on the Celtic Tiger is getting extremely ruffled, but despite being the first country in the eurozone to go into recession, the Republic of Ireland continued to attract significant inward investment in 2008,

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.

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.

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 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.

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).

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.