European Union News - Research & Innovation

Political representatives, academics and members of the business community will debate on innovation, with emphasis on the European Innovation Plan. The conference, jointly organised between the Spanish ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Commision, will be an opportunity to exchange views on the way forward in the field of innovation.

A new EU-funded project is building multilingual internet programmes that will facilitate the presentation and retrieval of online information across a range of languages. The programmes will meet government, industry and business needs to make full use of the Internet's information dissemination potential.

Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, has launched a voting process on the Science and Innovation Citizens Agenda project, an innovative science awareness initiative promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation as part of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union.

Brussels hosted last March a meeting of experts and stakeholders in public procurement and innovation in Europe. They have now been published on the website of DG Enterprise of the European Commission.

EU countries consider that measures should be adopted to meet the target of 100% coverage of basic broadband to all citizens by 2013 and promote wide take-up of high speed broadband by 2020. The need of digital public services that promote the reuse of public sector information, increase the efficiency of government and reduce administrative burdens on citizens and businesses. Competitiveness of Europe’s ICT sector must be strengthened through further research, development and innovation by means of better adapted programmes for sector firms, SMEs in particular

MEPs urge all Member States to introduce mammography to detect breast cancer earlier. In a written statement, signed by 381 deputies, Parliament points out that this type of cancer is the leading cause of death in european women among 35 and 59. Each year, more than 300,000 women are diagnosed with this disease.

Some of the world's top neurodegenerative disease experts gathered in Stockholm, Sweden on 15 April to start working on a pan-European research agenda that will guide the work of the new Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND). The JPND is the first Joint Programming initiative to get underway, and its launch marks a step change in the way research is funded and coordinated in Europe.

Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, will put the spotlight on the development of a European Strategy for the Danube Region, as closing speaker of a major conference, taking place next week 19 to 21 April in Vienna (Austria) and Bratislava (Slovakia). This conference is the third in a series of broad consultation events aimed at shaping plans for the Strategy, which seeks to improve environmental conditions and develop the huge economic potential of the Danube Region.

The European Commission has earmarked €21 million for two new research projects on cancer, as part of an international research effort coordinated since 2007 by the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), which aims to elucidate comprehensively the changes in the human genome - the organism's hereditary information including genes - present in many forms of cancer. Understanding these mutations is paramount for advancing prevention, early detection, monitoring and treatment of a disease which killed 7.5 million people worldwide in 2007.

Over the next 4 years, more than 60 researchers from 15 countries will work together to improve the coastal management of the Mediterranean Sea. For the first time under the one research agenda, the EU-funded project will undertake an all-inclusive study of the sea, its coasts and marine ecosystems in a bid to build consensus on the future governance and prosperity of the ailing basin.

The European Commission has launched a €35 million call for eco-innovation projects that turn environmental challenges into business opportunities to be funded under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme. Under the 2010 CIP Eco-innovation call for proposals, funds are available for new projects in the area of materials recycling, sustainable building products, the food and drink sector and green business practices.