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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 QuantERA programme is designed to accelerate the development of quantum technologies (QT) in Europe, amid global competition. A member of the QuantERA Strategic Advisory Board - a scientific body with a broad range of perspectives in the QT field - has just been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Prof. Alain Aspect, along with Prof. John. F. Cluster and Prof. Anton Zelilinger received the prize "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science".
US voters are expected to go to the polls in record numbers on November 8, driven by concerns about inflation, the economy and abortion rights. Layered on top of that are low approval ratings for President Joe Biden and ongoing polarisation among voters and politicians stirred by former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
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.
The European Innovation Council's (EIC) future will involve more horizon scanning, intelligence and strategy, according to a programme manager responsible for scoping the potential for technological and innovation breakthroughs and for directing EIC health-related projects, to ensure there is a coherent plan that will support development of a competitive sector.
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.
New Zealand and the European Commission announced they will enter formal negotiations on joining Horizon Europe, the EU's €95.5 billion research and innovation programme. Along with Canada, New Zealand was the first highly industrialised country to start exploratory talks with the EU on becoming an associated country in Horizon Europe. In the previous research programme, Horizon 2020, New Zealand participated as a 'third country' a status that does not offer the full benefits of association.
The European Research Area (ERA) Forum is about to enter its implementation phase, after mapping out priorities across twenty R&I policy actions proposed by the European Commission.
The European Commission is about to embark on assessments of the EU's research programmes, guided by a joint consultation with stakeholders opening in November. Three tasks on the agenda are a new strategic plan for the current €95.5 billion Horizon Europe research framework; evaluation of the first half of Horizon Europe; and the final assessment of the previous research programme, Horizon 2020.
Fundamental science is a gamble. Scientists set out on projects in pursuit of knowledge, hoping to answer questions that no one has answered before. But in 2007 the EU decided it would give billions to the pursuit. Fifteen years on, the European Research Council (ERC) can justly claim to be doing well. Last week, three scientists who have received ERC funding won Nobel prizes.
It's all here. The draft work programmes for the next two years of the EU's Horizon Europe research programme, which the European Commission has been keeping under wraps - for the most part - have been leaked.
As the transnational European university alliances enter their fourth year, the European Commission is pumping in an extra €384 million to keep the initiative going. But the current alliances say the goal should be long-term sustainable support. The fourth call for proposals launched this week, will back existing alliances to expand and to launch new ones, as the scheme edges towards the goal of having 60 alliances with more than 500 member universities by mid-2024.
Science|Business has published an exhaustive but unapproved draft Horizon Europe work programme detailing the calls for climate and mobility projects for the next two years and an early draft outlining bioeconomy, food and environment calls.
The White House sent a report to Congress urging that the US do a better job supporting international research collaboration - and saying that currently it is losing out to China and other competitors because of poor organisation.
It's that time of the year, and the Brussels research community is urging policymakers to ensure there is enough money for the EU's Horizon Europe research programme in 2023.
European Research Council president tells UN General Assembly science alone is not guaranteed to save the world from the climate disaster and the other crises it faces.
Europe's largest research labs have begun to worry about soaring utility bills and are drafting proposals for additional funding, as they enter into negotiations with national research agencies on overall budgets.
The lifting of pandemic restrictions on travel and increased requirements in EU research programmes for researchers to spend time abroad is drawing renewed attention to the way in which blanket EU rules for managing labour flows are getting in the way.
Thailand and the EU last week signed off a new scheme allowing researchers from Thailand to join European Research Council-funded projects. ERC already has a number of such arrangements with countries including Australia, Brazil, China, India and the US, but this is the first time it has cooperated with Thailand's National Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Policy Council.
In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, allied governments rushed out a series of "science sanctions", as part of a broad campaign of penalties designed to deter Russia. What impact might they have on current or future science?
The UK government's plan to increase R&D spending requires a skilled workforce which its universities and research institutes will struggle to assemble, expert witnesses told the House of Lords' science and technology committee today. "The attractiveness of the UK as a destination for scientists might have decreased in recent years," said Maggie Dallman, vice president for international affairs and associate provost for academic partnerships at Imperial College London.
ETH Zurich is opening a new research and teaching centre with a focus on exploring the origin and prevalence of life on Earth and beyond. Under the leadership of Noble Laureate, Didier Queloz, more than 40 research groups from five departments will address the big questions posed by humankind.
