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Incessant talk of a North-South R&D divide is not baseless but it’s becoming tired. It is time to try and change things says Carlos Zorrinho, Brussels’ quiet revolutionary

Reform of the EU Emissions Trading System and review of genetically modified organisms and copyright laws on the slate for next year

The long-gestating Europe-wide patent, due to arrive at the start of 2015, is late. There remains uncertainty over the fees and the strength of the unified patent court, but EPO head Benoît Battistelli says don’t rush to judgement

Researchers at University of Bologna designed the first self-assembling molecular motor capable of converting light energy into work. The study was published in Nature Nanotechnology.

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

China and the US set the pace on patent filings in 2013, while the number of patent applications received by the European Patent Office fell

Special emphasis was put on good usability in the selection process of the new research information management system.

ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich are founding a new translational research centre at the interface of medicine, science and engineering: the Wyss Translational Center Zurich. A USD 120 million donation from Dr. h.c. mult. Hansjörg Wyss to the two Zurich universities is making this possible. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the new centre aims to accelerate the development and application of innovative medical therapies and groundbreaking robotic systems.

For five years, robotics expert and Executive Board member Roland Siegwart has held the post of Vice President Research and Corporate Relations. He is now in the process of handing over this vice presidency to his successor, Detlef Günther, but he will always remain a firm fan of ETH Zurich.

A leading HIV expert at Imperial College London, Professor Weber has taken up his appointment as Director of the AHSC.

Innovation clusters in life sciences and raw materials set to start in 2015, following year-long bidding competition

Member states line up 2,000 project proposals in transport, energy and research, for funding from the EU’s new investment scheme

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

ETH Zurich and the Wilhelm Schulthess Foundation are set to expand their research and teaching collaboration. ETH Zurich will establish a new chair to study how physical activity affects human physiology and long-term well-being. The Wilhelm Schulthess Foundation is supporting the creation of the Chair of Physical Activity and Health with 10 million Swiss francs over a 10-year period.

Chalmers and Ruag Space have signed a long-term agreement for collaboration in the area of information and communication technology for space.

The University of Warwick has been awarded £1 million by The Leverhulme Trust to bridge the gap between mathematical and social sciences with a new doctoral scholarship programme.

The project aims to bring together researchers, engineers, people from industry and young students and to encourage them to come up with new ideas that are useful for society, says Markus Nordberg of CERN

There are grounds for cautious optimism as member states propose to make an exception for R&D, and an MEP involved in drafting the data protection bill says the new law will not be allowed to hamper research

Europe’s carbon market is not dead in the water, but rather a work in progress, says Andreas Loeschel, who advises Chancellor Angela Merkel on overhauling Germany’s energy mix

An expert panel urges the new European Commission to reap the economic benefits of science on-line