With 70% of the EU population now fully vaccinated, European universities are planning to welcome students back to lecture halls and seminar rooms for the 2021-22 academic year, after long months of disruption and distance learning.

New research points to growing participation of Western Balkans researchers in EU academic exchange programmes, as the EU takes steps to welcome countries in the region as associate members of the Horizon Europe.

EU officials are urging Australia and New Zealand to associate to Horizon Europe, publicly telling them how welcome they would be - but it's not clear if the feeling is mutual.

In a major post-Brexit move, the UK government kicked off its own student mobility programme with an announcement that its Turing Scheme will fund over 40,000 students for education and training placements across 150 countries. According to the outcomes of the first funding round, 363 projects were approved to receive £96 million in grants to send students to Canada, Japan and the US, but also in several European countries.

The pact for research and innovation should give stakeholders a greater say over the implementation of the European Research Area (ERA), says Science Europe.

The outgoing president of the European Research Council (ERC) Jean-Pierre Bourguignon called for an end to the current "boom and bust" approach to basic research funding, at a meeting of EU science ministers in Slovenia on Monday.

This year will be crucial for the future development of the European Research Area (ERA), but one of its fundamental principles is being neglected: academic freedom. Academic freedom is under threat and Europe needs to act.

Switzerland is mounting a campaign to convince Brussels its participation in Horizon Europe should not be confounded by broader political tensions, but member states say it may time take to patch things up after Switzerland unilaterally withdrew from talks about its overall relationship with the EU.

The long wait for a new ERC president is finally over, with the head of the European Molecular Biology Organisation, Maria Leptin appointed as president.

Policy makers and lobbyists in Brussels want to explicitly limit access for scientists in countries that flout academic freedom and intellectual property rights.

A new study of grants awarded to early-career researchers by Europe's premier science agency is reviving an old controversy over the way governments decide which scientists get research money, and which do not.

Women represent nearly 50% of active scientific authors in Portugal. Over the past two decades, the country achieved the largest percentage increase in the EU in women's representation - an impressive nine percentage points, putting Portugal at the leading edge of closing the gender gap in research.

Switzerland has been excluded from a provisional list of third countries eligible for Horizon Europe funding.

Horizon Europe, the EU's new €95.5 billion R&D programme, is finally underway. It is starting more than five months late - a record even by Brussels' dilatory standards. But what's in it? 

Europe’s research labs scrambled to make the best use of their resources and offered remote access for researchers during the pandemic. Some of these changes are set to become a permanent feature.

Researchers from Israel, Switzerland, Britain and other non-EU countries may be allowed to join the EU's quantum and space research projects, under a deal between representatives of member states and the European Commission reached this week. The agreement could end months of uncertainties around international participation in sensitive R&D projects in Horizon Europe, the EU's new €95.5 billion R&D programme.

Prolonged discussions about associate status and the breakdown of negotiations on EU-Switzerland relations has left Swiss universities bracing for potential exclusion from the €95.5 billion programme. 

EU research ministers on Friday committed to enhance the attractiveness of research careers and improve brain circulation in Europe, and are calling on member states and the European Commission to take a common approach. That will include setting up an EU system to track mobility of talent, assess working conditions and promote gender and intergenerational equality.

Nearly 900 universities, research organisations, and funding agencies want science publishers to be more transparent and abide by open access rules, after scientists complained their submissions are rejected if they apply a public copyright licence to accepted manuscripts.

Brussels presented a new global research agenda on Tuesday, committing to a more cautious approach to cooperation with foreign science powers, while at the same time pledging to reinvigorate ties with an EU-friendly US administration.

Swiss universities called on the Federal Council on Monday to resolve a long-running treaty saga with Brussels, or risk scuppering the country's chances of a research deal.

The UK's association to Horizon Europe has been agreed "in principle" and awaits Parliament's scrutiny, while agreements with Israel and Switzerland could be finalised by the end of the year.

The European Commission is about to uncork the champagne to mark the start of Horizon Europe, but significant parts of the research programme are still being negotiated, as stakeholders scramble for last minute changes.

Research ministers have agreed to more aggressively police foreign participation in the EU's research programme, adding a new provision to Horizon Europe that is aimed primarily at preventing China and the US from getting access to sensitive European research.

The 2021 draft budget would give Horizon Europe commitments of €11.5 billion, less than the European Commission's June proposal which had €12.3 billion slated for the R&D programme.

The decision by the governing body of the European Research Council (ERC) to pull support for the radical open access initiative Plan S, is a "slap in the face" to all those who support the scheme, said its creator.