Germany's federal research minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger is calling for sweeping reforms at the Fraunhofer Society, one of Europe's most prestigious applied research organisations, after auditors found "numerous violations" of financial rules, including members of the executive board exceeding spending limits for hotel stays and hiring luxury cars.

As the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer releases the Spring Budget, the life science industry appears to be at the heart of the country's global image in years to come.

A recent article in the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research (IJHPR), analyzes the factors behind a recent surge in high quality publications by Israeli researchers, which have also informed global efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog highlights two of those factors which may be particularly relevant for researchers, research institutions, and research authorities in other countries.

The UK Government’s research evaluation system encourages a higher quantity and lower quality of work from academics, according to a recent paper.

Tomorrow's vote on the Windsor framework in the UK parliament marks a crucial step on the country's potential path to associating to Horizon Europe, the EU's €95.5 billion research and innovation programme. 

A transitional arrangement means researchers in New Zealand can apply for Horizon Europe grants as of now, even though Brussels and Wellington have yet to fix a budget following the agreement last December under which New Zealand became the first country to secure full association to the research programme.

China, the US and the EU's race to control their own scientific advances and cut out supply chain dependencies could lead to a "decoupling" of research activities at a time when collaboration to solve global issues is crucial, says a stark report by the OECD. 

UNESCO and its partners are organizing an official side event on 23 March during the United Nations’ 2023 Water Conference on indigenous knowledge of water governance and management.

An international panel of scientists has identified 100 of the most important questions facing plant science.

Scientists from Africa, South America, and South Asia are more rarely consulted than their peers in the Global North. A new database aims to change that.

From a CUP Announcement: The rules are set out in the first AI ethics policy from Cambridge University Press and apply to research papers, books and other scholarly works. They include a ban on AI being treated as an 'author' of academic papers and books we publish. 

Two new laws are intended to ensure a commitment to increase public and private investment in research will survive changes in government. The aim is for total spending to reach 4% of GDP by 2030

The National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have boosted science and technology in the national agenda.

Facing a potential re-election battle next year, President Joe Biden laid out broad funding priorities for the US government on 9 March. His proposed budget for 2024 would invest new research funds into a range of programmes designed to achieve goals in scientific innovation, domestic manufacturing and clean energy, among others. 

Today the science academies of the G-7 countries issued three joint statements to their respective governments to inform discussions during the G-7 summit to be held in Hiroshima, Japan, in May, as well as ongoing policymaking.

Opinion: European universities still face "far too many" restrictions on their autonomy, hindering them from realising their full potential, according to a recent comparative scorecard on university autonomy.

Nearly 5 years after a Chinese scientist sparked worldwide outrage by announcing he had helped create genetically edited babies, China has unveiled new rules aimed at preventing a repeat of such ethically problematic research on humans.

In the first nationally representative survey of U.S. adults on reasons for trust in federal, state, and local public health agencies' information during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers found that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was highly trusted for information by more than one-third of U.S. adults, whereas state and local health departments were highly trusted by about one-quarter.

A year ago, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine redefined geopolitics in a shockwave that is still reverberating through the science world. The EU research community was quick to cut ties with Russia and lend Ukraine a helping hand - but now it is grappling with resulting instability and uncertainty as the war climbs into its second year.

UK scientists had been shut out of the multibillion-euro scheme amid drawn-out Brexit negotiations.

Windsor Framework could end impasse over Horizon Europe funding program, but hurdles remain.

UK researchers received little funding from EU programme because of Brexit trade deal negotiations.

Climate change adaptation is increasingly being addressed by public, private, and hybrid governance institutions across global, regional, national, sub-national, and local scales.

Robert P Crease explains why science can only thrive if we understand what makes humans tick

Funding should incentivize institutions to support healthy careers and to spark collaborations with industry.

Researchers say science is bleeding in Ukraine - but they are determined to sustain their work with help from other nations.

The Treasury has taken back £1.6bn that it had allocated to UK involvement in a EU science research programme.

A JRC report analyses the most spread narratives, their consequences, factors predicting how likely people are to believe or share them, and the most efficient ways to counter them.