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Under pressure to demonstrate economic returns on research spending, the UK’s research councils are going to make academics think commercial and to cosy up to industry.

The Lisbon strategy aim of making Europe the leading knowledge-based economy remains a far-off aspiration. Now the UK wants a fresh approach to the single market to move things forward.

In the lean years since the post-genomics bust, venture funding has been hard to come by for Europe’s biotech start-ups. Now they have polished up their business models, and valuations are low, attracting investors back in.

Europe’s companies increasingly recognise that they need to switch from fierce protection to licensing widely to generate revenues.

The French presidential election is unlike any previous one: this time, both right and left are hoisting research policy to the top of their agendas.

As the German presidency gets into its stride, Framework Programme 7 was officially launched last week, with a two day event in Bonn.

The Czech Republic has capped off a series of investments by US software companies with the news that Red Hat is to set up a development centre in Brno.

A shortage of later stage projects is forcing companies hunt further down the drug discovery ladder. Now the Wellcome Trust is injecting charitable money to fill the holes.

Science is an international affair, of course. But a few recent news tidbits highlight just how fast that international dimension is expanding.

The company may top the US's patents league, but IBM still thinks the system is broken.

Check out the research grants to get some insights into what it will take to commercialise polymer electronics.

New research suggests that the majority of start-ups offer products or services that are not new to the market.

Matching consumer demand with R&D may seem like an obvious starting point for innovation. But it has proven a transient goal for many countries and companies.

The DETECT-it 2 project aims to find opportunities for SMEs to participate in the first call of the 7th Framework Programme.

2006 was a record year for patents covering financial innovations.