NewsByte

Chinese inventors contributed to a global surge in patent fillings related to fuel cells since 2016, according  to a new report by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Around half of youngsters in the EU have heard of the Erasmus+ mobility scheme for students, although newer alternative exchange programmes for pupils, apprentices and entrepreneurs are a lot less well known.

In 2020, nearly two thirds of a million people studied, trained or volunteered abroad under the scheme, which had a budget of €3.8 billion.

A report published this week by Invest Europe, an association representing private equity, venture capital and infrastructure firms in Europe, shows private equity fundraising reached €118 billion in 2021, the highest level seen to date.

Researchers value preprints more and more, with 67% of respondents in a 2021 Elsevier-conducted survey agreeing they are a valuable source of research communication, up from 43% in 2020.

An analysis by the OECD shows governments have shrunk their budgets for research in 2021, one year after the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to boost public expenditure on science.

There’s a correlation between where a country is placed on the global innovation index and how well it is progressing towards greater sustainability, according to a new European Commission report.

Despite major gains in equality at the highest levels of university management over the past eight years, some countries still do not have any female rectors heading their universities, according to data from more than 850 member universities and national rectors’ conferences of the European University Association (EUA).

Across all strategic technologies, Russian scientists were most active in publishing research on materials, artificial intelligence and robotics in recent years, according to 2021 UNESCO science report.

Materials science was a clear leader between in 2018 and 2019, with scientists putting out over 8,000 publications on the subject each year.

China remains the leading user of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) services, with almost 70,000 application filed in 2021, as EU leaders France and Germany fall further behind.

The regional innovation divide in Europe has grown due to poor investments in R&D and weak regional innovation ecosystems, according to a report by the European Commission on EU regional policy.

Some member states as a whole have made significant progress in catching up, but many regions, including in richer countries, are still innovation laggards.

Growing demand and soaring prices for gas are threatening EU’s climate targets because solar power is now being substituted for gas and not coal, according to the latest edition of the European Electricity Review, an annual report published by the environmental think tank Ember.

The UK suffered an outflow of nearly 1,300 scientists in 2020, having been a net importer of academics in 2015, the year before the Brexit vote to leave the EU, OECD data shows.

The new analysis of scientific migration data also shows a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of the US and China.

Most EU citizens believe that responsibility for research and development should be shared equally between Brussels and national governments, according to a new survey.

Europeans are amongst the most distrustful in the world of artificial intelligence companies, according to a survey that reveals a split between the rich and developing world over the technology.

Citizens from economically developing countries like China and India are “significantly more likely” than those from the wealthier world to be positive about the future impact of AI, to trust AI companies and to believe they understand the technology.

Last year, Swiss entrepreneurs defied the COVID-19 pandemic and set up 50,545 new companies in the country, an increase of 7.9% compared to the previous year.

According to a report by business management consultancy firm IFJ, Swiss entrepreneurs founded 17% more companies in 2021 compared to the average over the past decade.

Israeli high-tech companies raised a record $25.6 billion in 2021, a leap of 146% from 2020, according to a report by data analysis firm IVC.

The number of tech companies to reach valuations of $1 billion with the help of venture capital funds has doubled since 2019, according to the latest report by the European venture capital firm Atomico.

At the end of 2020, Europe had 115 VC-backed unicorn companies. Less than one year later, that number grew to 202.

Global trust in science rose in 2020, a new international survey has revealed, possibly because of the increased prominence of scientists during the pandemic.

The highest level of trust anywhere in the world is in western Europe, where 59% of respondents said they trust science ‘a lot’. While eastern Europe was some way behind, with 36% saying they trust science a lot, that was an 11% increase over 2018.

EU member states on average invested 2.3% of their GDP in public and private research and development in 2020, the year the pandemic engulfed the world, according to newest Eurostat figures.

In 2020, total EU investments amounted to €311 billion, €1 billion less the €312 billion invested in 2019. But as the bloc’s economy shrank as a result of the pandemic, the R&D expenditure took up a bigger slice of GDP, compared with 2.2% in 2019.

Industry invested 10% more in research and development between the third quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2021 than in the same period of 2019 – 2020, which had seen a 7% increase on 2018 - 2019.