As interest groups start lobbying on Horizon Europe’s successor, there is a call for an end to institutions with an inside track in Brussels getting an early view of what research will be funded 

EU lawmakers need to take universities into account when drawing up new laws. This will stem the growing compliance burden, make for better regulation - and result in more efficient policy making

Universities are increasingly looking at other ways of exploiting academic assets, beyond the traditional focus on patenting

Alongside a boom in private universities in Germany, state institutions are increasingly supported by private funds. They don't see this jeopardising their independence but campaigners are calling for greater transparency on where the money is coming from

Despite an increasingly strong showing in winning EU funds, special support measures remain necessary for the country’s long-term development, says Eugénio Campos Ferreira, vice rector for research and innovation at the University of Minho

The proposed directive on Transparency of Interest Representation, designed to prevent malign foreign lobbying, could force universities to register any foreign-funded research, observers fear

The European Parliament has rejected a call to bring Hungarian universities back into the Erasmus student and academic mobility scheme, with a large majority of MEPs insisting prime minister Viktor Orbán must make the required reforms first

Ottawa’s new policy creates the West’s most detailed - and public - security procedures for grant applicants, potentially affecting ‘everything under the sun.’  Universities are studying the likely impact

Europe remains ‘fairly open’ but there is a feeling that ‘things could get much more closed’, says Thomas Jørgensen of the European University Association