A new global organisation is trying to prevent dramatic advances in bioscience from unleashing engineered pathogens from the lab, and wants research funders, scientists and journals to help. The International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science (IBBIS) warns that scientists might be able to order the DNA of dangerous pathogens like smallpox from unregulated companies, and wants much tighter screening of the industry.

Effective Altruism (EA), a movement of rationalist do-gooders that has been growing in size and influence for just over a decade, hit the headlines worldwide in 2022 - although not quite as its supporters hoped.

The EU is to pilot a new initiative that aims to improve working conditions for young researchers, starting in 2024. The pilot will test how the European Commission, member states and industry could work together to coordinate financing and knowledge networks and strengthen and diversify research career paths by promoting links between academia and industry.  

European research leaders have reacted with disappointment to Switzerland's expulsion from the body that coordinates scientific infrastructure across the continent.

The European Commission is making a big push to reform research assessment, but Germany's university leaders are not convinced the call for change from above is the right way to deliver it.

In a landmark decision this week, the European Research Council (ERC) announced changes to its application forms and evaluation procedures that will be implemented starting with the 2024 calls for proposals.

 Of 174 UK-based ERC grant winners 23, or around one in eight, have decided to relocate, while only four of 66 researchers based in Switzerland did so.

The EU is working on defining a new agenda for science diplomacy in the face of increasing geopolitical instability on the continent.

The EU and US have set out a joint roadmap to find common ways to define and evaluate artificial intelligence (AI), though critics say they are still not going far enough to make sure AI protects democracy and human rights.

Along with New Zealand, Canada will soon be the first country to join Horizon Europe under new rules that allow "like minded" democracies with strong science systems to associate, regardless of where they are in the world.

The European Parliament has launched a permanent forum to debate new policies and laws to protect academics in the EU against interference from government or other sources, after experts raised the alarm over the erosion of academic freedom in Europe.

Ukrainian researchers are planning for a brighter future for their country, despite ongoing bombing and electricity shortages. A delegation from Ukraine's research community, led by first deputy minister for education and science, Andrii Vitrenko, came to Brussels last week for the first joint meeting on research and innovation with the European Commission. 

Arctic scientists are scrambling to modify projects that had involved Russian researchers as the war in Ukraine wears on, leaving questions about whether a data gap from such a key partner might be harmful to the ongoing body of scientific knowledge in the region.

EU policymakers have reached a deal on the budget for next year, and with the focus squarely on tackling the fallout from the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis, research and innovation do not feature at the top of the policy priorities.

The EU moved to exclude the UK from Horizon Europe calls on sensitive quantum projects in October due to doubts over the country's willingness to provide EU researchers with reciprocal access to UK programmes and to comply with intellectual property rules. The move reverses the EU's previous decision to accept UK participation in more mature quantum projects with high 'technology readiness levels'.

Ukraine urgently needs new doctoral schools to train its next generation of academics, according to a senior Ukrainian science administrator. He warned that, without that and other measures to stop "internal brain drain", many researchers are fleeing universities for better paid IT jobs in order to make ends meet. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, European countries have launched countless schemes and scholarships to help displaced Ukrainian students and academics.

The EU has been pushing for convergence in the university sector for several decades, but when it comes to collaborating transnationally, universities struggle to deal with the patchwork of national regulations governing higher education. The European University Association (EUA) has taken stock and listed the biggest barriers to transnational collaboration in a briefing paper last week.

George Freeman has been reappointed as UK science minister four months after he resigned from the post when former prime minister Boris Johnson lost power. Jan Palmowski, secretary general at The Guild of European Research Intensive universities welcomed the news, telling Science|Business, Freeman knows the science sector and "gets the importance of Europe."

The impact of the war in Ukraine is reverberating through research infrastructures, with rising energy costs and shortages of equipment manufactured abroad hitting these important shared facilities and forcing some to temporarily close their doors.

US and EU officials agreed to expand R&D collaboration on cancer, climate change, green aviation and other fields, signaling a further warming of transatlantic science relations.