But in a time of dwindling resources in Europe and beyond, new energy technologies and processes must have efficiency as their watchword, says David Eyton, group head of technology at BP

The budget of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research should be absorbed by the European Research Council. A proviso that projects backed by Dutch money be conducted in the Netherlands would strengthen the country’s research, says Luc Soete, Rector Magnificus, Maastricht University

The US patent office has given specific examples of what types of software can get protection. This provides long-awaited clarification, says patent expert Andrew Thompson

How can Europe balance its goal of energy security with the need to reduce CO2 emissions? Part of the answer would be fixing the carbon emissions trading system

Officials gathered in Brussels this week to untangle some of the messy, competing goals for making European energy greener, cheaper and more modern. Cutting energy use is the leading priority, a Commission adviser told the meeting

A total of 277 SMEs will get funding to help get promising commercial ideas up and running. Companies from Spain, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and France did well, but the success rate is low overall

Three out of four Starting grants go to young researchers hosted by Germany, UK, France, the Netherlands, Israel and Spain. There are no grants going to Switzerland

In the race to create world-beating technology companies from scratch, Germany spent most of the past thirty years on the sidelines. But the country’s start-up ecosystem is now flourishing - and foreign investors are taking a second look

The EU has formally accepted Swiss scientists back into a handful of research programmes

Interest in the beautiful game did not flow naturally for Pablo Rodriguez, Telefónica’s Director of Research and Innovation. Until he realised how it all looked a lot like computers