The Widening News

Concerted efforts to increase success in winning grants from the research programme are bearing fruit. While still low in the EU league table, the two countries now have the networks and support systems in place to make further headway 

SynergistEIC supports start-ups to give them a better chance of success in the EIC Accelerator. But high demand means getting selected for the scheme is almost as competitive as the EIC Accelerator itself

Three universities in Widening countries are under investigation, including the University of Zagreb, where a dean of faculty and 28 others were arrested on suspicion of fraud involving €1.7M of EU funds

With the likely new government promising to increase R&D funding and ‘depoliticise’ science, researchers are pointing to further reforms they say are needed to increase the standing and quality of the country’s research system

As things stand, the country’s national contact points have to juggle their day jobs with helping researchers to win funding. Creating a professional network is now on the cards, but it may take some time

The dean of the geodesy faculty and a fellow professor are accused of stealing from projects funded through the European Regional Development Fund and the EU Solidarity Fund

French MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield has a ‘creative’ answer to the current stalemate, saying rule of law concerns could be circumvented by handing the management of EU research funding to an independent body

Drawn by the generous terms of NATO’s Diana accelerator and mobilised by the war in Ukraine, start-ups in central and eastern Europe are opening up to adapting their technologies for use in defence

After a slow start, the new instrument allowing partners in Widening countries to join a project after it starts is beginning to have an impact – but reservations remain about the way the scheme is being run

Poland’s Supreme Audit Office reported ‘alarming’ irregularities in the allocation of funds by the national research funding agency