The Widening News

A lack of clarity on an EU funding ban has led to some Hungarian researchers being excluded from European projects

Swiss-backed project to provide much needed scientific infrastructure for Ukraine, where damage to R&D facilities is estimated at over €1B

Measures that aim to close Europe’s research gap must be used to fund science, says University of Tartu professor

Momentum is building for the EU’s next research and innovation framework programme, FP10, to have a budget of €200 billion. But what place is there in the programme for Widening measures? This week, we delve into how Europe’s research community wants the scheme to change and evolve. We also look at why reforms of Poland’s Academy of Sciences are proving controversial, moves to fight back against predatory publishers in central and eastern Europe, and why Slovakia needs help to increase its participation in European Innovation Council calls. 

The communist legacy leaves researchers exposed to fee-charging publishers who don’t do peer review or editing. But a fightback is underway

We analyse the views of 15 groups of stakeholders to see how they want measures designed to close the east – west research performance gap to change in FP10

The Academy and the government are pursuing separate reform agendas, raising concerns about independence

Deep tech champions from Widening countries must first be nurtured within their local ecosystems

This month marks 20 years since the EU’s largest single enlargement, when 10 countries joined the union. In today’s newsletter, we look at how the research and innovation landscape has changed in those countries over the past two decades. There are a lot of encouraging signs, but also a few areas of decline and stagnation. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology is also celebrating the 10-year anniversary of its Regional Innovation Scheme, aimed at closing Europe’s innovation gap. It’s been a huge success, the EIT says, but now is time for evolution. We also take a deep dive into the Teaming instrument of the Widening measures, and look at how Estonia is using the EU’s post-pandemic funds to propel investment in green tech start-ups