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The arrival of European Research Council (ERC) grants means that for the first time there is competition between European Universities in different member states. “Before they couldn’t care less; they were stuck in their own country,” Helga Nowotny, President of the ERC, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington, DC. The arrival of competition is forcing universities to change, and do more to support younger scientists.

A shift in the global research landscape will reposition the US as a major partner, but no longer the dominant leader, in science and technology research in the coming decade. However, the US could benefit from this research shift if it adopts a policy of knowledge sharing with the growing global community of researchers.

The many obstacles in the way of campus start-ups range from mundane rivalry over laboratory space, to a lack of a top-level commitment to promoting technology transfer and entrepreneurialism. This year's ACES winners met with EIT to discuss experiences and share insight.

University technology transfer and commercialisation is a delicate balancing act, calling for scale and a global outlook on one hand, and intimate knowledge and continuous contact on the other, says Keith Robson, Chair of SETsquared.

DFG has agreed to set up nine new research units in topics ranging from engineering to social sciences. Five of the new groups will be involved in international projects.

A new design of optical fibre network developed in an EU Framework 7 project, was unveiled last week. The design will mean faster networks with a wider reach.

The European aerospace group EADS announced it is to collaborate with scientists at Glasgow University, to work on making the use of solid hydrogen for fuelling planes a commercial proposition.

A total of 52 new research labs and research programmes have been selected to share an investment of Euros 340 million, in the first step of a public research funding bonanza that will pour in Euro 22 billion raised on the bond markets to create an elite cadre of universities in France

Knowledge transfer association ProTon Europe has elected Pat Frain, the former director of University College Dublin's technology transfer division, as its new Chair.