European Union News - Research & Innovation

According to the R&D Scoreboard published by the Commission, although the top EU companies recovered strongly in 2010, data for the world's top 1400 companies shows that EU companies as a whole lagging behind major competitors from the US and some Asian economies on R&D growth.

Pan-European team of scientists has flagged up a number of nasty pesticides that pose a threat to river ecosystems and which they believe should be added to the list of chemicals classified as risky in the EU Water Framework Directive. According to the researchers, their study shows the list needs to be regularly updated.

The GLORIA ('Global robotic telescopes intelligent array for e-Science') project, led by Spain's Facultad de Informática of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), seeks to create an open access network for astronomical observations. In particular, the GLORIA consortium will provide amateur astronomers with the means to study astronomy using robotic telescopes or by evaluating astronomical data available in both GLORIA's and other groups' public databases.

A research partially funded by the EU has uncovered new information linking healthy ageing and neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease.

October 6th 2011 marks the first anniversary of the Innovation Union (IU) flagship initiative, one of the cornerstones of the Europe 2020 strategy for growth and jobs. The Innovation Union has focused Europe's efforts – and co-operation with third countries - on challenges like climate change, energy and food security, health and an ageing population so far.

The ADITEC project has been launched with the funding of the European Union in order to speed up the development of novel and powerful immunisation technologies for the next generation of human vaccines has just got under way.

On the World Heart Day, celebrated on 29 of September, has been the day in which the European Commission took stock and reflect on some of the research projects into cardiovascular health research it funds. Research into cardiovascular diseases under the 'Health' Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) has seen around €215 million fund 33 different projects. These projects mainly focus on generating knowledge for improving diagnosis, prevention, treatment and monitoring of diseases of the heart and circulatory system.

The Competitiveness Council meeting held on 30 of September ended with an agreement reached on the launching of 'More Years Better Lives' initiative, a joint research programme. Ministers agreed that Joint Programming in research in the area of demographic change and population ageing as in the proposed initiative 'More Years Better Lives' will contribute to the reduction of fragmentation of research efforts of Member States.

A study which brought together 175 scientists across 126 research centres around the world, plus the EU funds, has permitted to discover 16 new sections of the genetic code associated with lung function. This new discovery could shed more light on the molecular basis of lung diseases.

The European Commission launched a contest to promote the ideals of co-operation and interchange between young scientists. It is also aimed to strengthen the efforts made in each participating country to attract young people to careers in science and technology.