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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.

Nearly half the jobs in Europe now require computer skills – but most employers don’t think the educational system is providing workers with the needed training.

In a rare example of a university tec transfer deal attracting an upfront payment, French pharma company Ipsen paying €1.25 million for a treatment licence.

The UK government has given £1.1 million to Plasticell Ltd to fund the development of a system to automate stem cell research.

Scotland is investing £9.5 million of public money in the Swedish stem cell company Cellartis AB to fund an R&D and manufacturing facility in Dundee.

Global acceptance of biotech crops increased in 2006, with acreage reaching 102 million hectares in 22 countries, according to a new report.

France’s best-known engineering school, the École Polytechnique, is mapping out a major expansion drive for the next five years.

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

Europe has staked its future on building a knowledge economy. But once again, a major R&D investment by one of its leading companies is going to the US.