European Union News - Research & Innovation

The European Commission announced that some €150 million of funding will be allocated to 20 new international brain research projects. This announcement is made at the same time as the 'European Month of the Brain' initiative is launched. This initiative has as main aim to highlight European research and innovation in the area of neuroscience, cognition and related areas through over 50 events across Europe this May.

CoRehab, Quuppa, Volumental are the three start-ups chosen to compete for the EIT Entrepreneurship Award 2013. Klaus Beetz, Business Director of the EIT ICT Labs stated that the EIT Entrepreneurship Award is a great opportunity to highlight and encourage entrepreneurial ventures that are coached and supported by the Business Developers of the ICT Labs.

The Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council endorsed the compromise reached between the Council and the European Parliament in their negotiations on a new financial and governance framework for the European satellite navigation systems (EGNOS and Galileo) for the period covered by the multi-annual financial framework for 2014-2020.

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has merged data on daily traffic data and with information on which habitats are favourable to fin whales favourable habitats to produce maps of potential risk of strike. While the Mediterranean Sea is a major forage ground for the endangered fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) it also represents 30% of all international maritime traffic concentrated within only 0.8% of the global ocean surface.

A team of researchers have created a virtual prototype of the combined power plant developed by the Combined Power Plant 2 Project, that has already shown that it is technologically possible to let each individual producer feed their electricity into the grid and have the grid remain stable during this process.

A report published by the European Commission shows that women are still under-represented in EU research. According to this report, women represent only 33% of European researchers, 20% of full professors and 15.5 % of heads of institutions in the Higher Education sector.

Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, stressed that efficiency is crucial not only for achieving our energy security and climate goals, also to give a real boost to the economy by bringing important savings and job creation, in addition to environmental benefits, during her speech in a conference held that focused on the role of efficient buildings, vehicles and equipment as an essential driver to economic success.

The European Commission presented a draft regulation aimed at cutting by 30% the cost of rolling out high-speed Internet. The new rules leave organisational issues very much to the discretion of member states.

The results of the European Commission Innovation Union Scoreboard 2013 show that while the most innovative countries have further improved their performance, others have shown a lack of progress. Sweden remains at the top, followed by Germany, Denmark and Finland. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are the countries that have most improved since last year.