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Debate widens on open access

The academic community is in the middle of a massive debate on how people should be able to access the results of publicly funded research.

Don't let the deadline get out of reach

Complying with the EU’s labyrinthine new REACH chemicals legislation was always going to be a tortuous process. For those who wait too long, it could be impossible.

SMEs say yes to Framework

SMEs across Europe are backing to Framework Programme 7 - provided it avoids the funding pitfalls that emerged over the life of its predecessor.

EIF steps into the seed funding gap

This week the European Investment Fund took the first step in its ambitious new plan to unleash a wave of technology transfer across Europe. In doing so it endorsed a model pioneered in the UK.

The fission season is back

On Tuesday the UK became the latest country to jump back on the nuclear energy bandwagon. But 20 years after Chernobyl, how easy is it to turn on the nuclear tap?

Free software goes political in France

For the last three years, the French parliament has been struggling with legislation on copyright and associated rights in information society. It has surfaced in the headlines, portrayed as a fight to force Apple to make its iTunes music downloads playable on competing music boxes. But there's more involved.

Professors' privilege: When to be greedy and when to share

A key distinction between physical and intellectual property is that the value of the latter is created as much by sharing it as by owning it. How to share it, between creator and enabler, is a particularly acute issue within the academic environment - as indicated by a recent, noteworthy debate on the subject in Sweden.