Mauro Ferrari joins EU organisation at a delicate moment but says his focus is on identifying 'breakthrough people'.

The experts will be responsible for designing the large-scale, objective-driven research projects, which are seen as central to reframing Europe’s approach to tackling ‘grand challenges’ including climate change, soil erosion, sustainable food production and marine and freshwater pollution.

The president of Switzerland's top-ranked university warned that both Switzerland and the European Union would lose out if his country were excluded from the next big EU research programme.

In the aftermath of the European elections, the calculators are starting to come out in labs and universities around Europe that depend on the EU for research funding: Will it mean more or less money for science and technology? The answer so far: fuzzy maths.

Six candidate research proposals lost in limbo.

EU Commissioners approved on 30 April details of an experimental new "matrix" design for their research policy department, which its chief says will force staff to work together across bureaucratic lines. "This is really about establishing an agile, modern, cross-cutting administration, which really can elaborate policies and projects differently," said Jean-Eric Paquet, director-general of DG Research and Innovation, known as DG RTD.

The next European science and research funding programme, known as Horizon Europe, is designed to connect people with the achievements financed by their tax money, and to fix problems with innovation funding, according to Carlos Moedas, the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation.

In creating a new innovation council, the European Commission is experimenting not just in policy but also in management.

Commission concedes it will need more time to resolve long-term budget negotiations – but it remains committed to its plan boosting R&D subsidies

The change is intended to enable researchers to access structural funds for projects reviewers say are excellent, but which don’t make the cut for Horizon Europe grants.

Slides from a talk given to the general assembly of Science Europe in Brussels on 22 Nov 2018. Gives an overview of the problems of over-metricised research evaluation and how this might be tackled, in part through initiatives driven by DORA, and how they are linked with drives such as Plan S to promote open science. Shared under a CC-BY-SA opinion (though Figshare doesn't seem to allow me to select that option from their drop-down menu).

The EUA Council adopted a statement expressing its concern about the lack of transparency and competition in the scholarly publishing business sector in Europe. 

Funding could help quantum technology gain commercial footholds in Europe.

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn appeals to research chiefs Carlos Moedas and Jean-Eric Paquet to keep R&D programme focused on excellence, rather than even spread of winners.

The Parliament voted in favor of almost all provisions that extend more rights to the establishment copyright industries while failing to protect users and new creators online.

The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, which represents the organisations most directly affected financially, was one voice of caution, saying it is "vital" that researchers have the freedom to publish where they choose.

Researchers gain more access to hi-tech research tool, but data start-ups warn the narrow rules create "a backseat for Europe's innovators".

Major European countries are mandating that publicly-funded research should appear only in open-access journals.

In this Perspective, a group of national funders, joined by the European Commission and the European Research Council, announce plans to make Open Access publishing mandatory for recipients of their agencies' research funding.