European Union News - Research & Innovation

This Thursday, the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, opened the Science against Poverty International Conference in La Granja (Segovia); the event, which forms part of the Spanish Presidency of the EU, is intended to highlight 'research and technology's enormous potential' for promoting human development.

EU-funded researchers in Germany have discovered that three factors need to coincide for the neurodegenerative disorder Parkinson's disease to develop. The findings, which are published in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology, are an important step forward in our understanding of what causes the debilitating condition.

Legislation to regulate the use of animals for scientific experiments has moved a step closer after Parliament and Council representatives reached on Wednesday an agreement on the final details of draft legislation in the pipeline. The key point is to improve animal welfare without hampering the fight against diseases.

The Conference “The European Framework Programmes: From Economic Recovery to Sustainability” will be the key public event in a series of new Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as cornerstone of the smart investments of the European Economic Recovery Plan

The brain's immune cells may be behind the loss of neurons associated with Alzheimer's disease, new EU-funded research suggests. The findings, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, could lead to the development of new treatments for the neurodegenerative disease.

European Commission has launched the ninth edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard, which shows how crisis has affected not only economy and employment, but also innovation across Europe, despite the efforts to make it a key issue on European recovery.

The OJEU has published three calls for proposals to support research within and outside the European Union through the Marie Curie Fellowships. The grants, with a total budget of € 151 million, are targeted to researchers from third countries wishing to carry out their work temporarily in the EU, Europeans who want to go to a high-level research organisation in a third country and who want to investigate in any Member State.

The nominees for the European Inventor Award 2010 include inventors of pioneering innovations in a wide range of fields, from the conservation of drinking water to the synthesis of football-shaped carbon molecules or "fullerenes", and from cancer treatments to digital data encryption. The award honours individual inventors, or teams of inventors, who, through their pioneering work, respond to the challenges of our time, thereby contributing to progress and prosperity.

The EU counts nearly half a billion citizens: their impact on the environment, and on energy consumption in particular, is huge. Europeans must act to curb this impact and manage resources wisely in order to protect the environment. Enter the ENERSIP project which will design a graphic interface to provide key services helping consumers save energy but also maintaining their comfort levels. The upshot is efficient energy production and consumption based on user demand.

This conference aims to promote a connected community of stakeholders and identify possible joint actions to support innovation through public procurement. To start building a European critical mass in this field, there is a need to facilitate the networking and exchanging of best practice among public procurers, policy makers and relevant stakeholders.

An exchange of views was held on the new 2020 Strategy for jobs and growth at the latest meeting of the Competitiveness Council on 1 and 2 March in Brussels, Belgium. The debate focused on the new strategy from the perspective of the internal market and will help contribute to the general framework of the new strategy.