European Union News - Research & Innovation

All buildings built after 31 December 2020 must have high energy-saving standards and be powered to a large extent by renewable energy. Public authorities will lead the way two years earlier and part of the funding for these changes will come from the EU. These are among the key points of a deal reached  between Parliament and Council negotiators.

The Official Journal of the European Union includes the publication of a call for proposals to co-finance actions of mobility for experienced researchers at different stages of their careers.

The Commission has welcomed the conclusions of the General Affairs and External Relations Council of 16/17 November, which acknowledge the progress achieved in the field of the Integrated Maritime Policy over the past two years and endorse the integrated approach to maritime affairs. In its conclusions, the Council referred both to last month's IMP progress report submitted by the Commission and to the recent Communication on the integration of maritime surveillance.

At the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt), the European Commission today has welcomed a landmark step towards a truly global (and local) internet: the announcement that "Internationalised Domain Names" will be introduced at the top level. Until now, internet domain names were either fully or partly in the Latin "a to z" alphabet. ICANN has announced that a fast track process would be launched today to open up country code top level domains (like ".eu" of europa.eu) to non Latin characters.

Worldwide corporate R&D investment increased by 6.9% in 2008, in spite of the economic crisis, according to the 2009 "EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard" published today. With an 8.1% increase, the R&D investment growth of EU companies', defined as companies having headquarters within the EU, is significantly higher than US ones for the second year, at 5.7%, and Japanese ones, at 4.4%.

Plans to coordinate research across Europe on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s received strong backing from the European Parliament in a resolution adopted on Thursday. The aim is to pool skills, knowledge and funding and thus maximise the benefits of work being done in the 27 EU countries.

The "Manifesto for Creativity and Innovation in Europe" is one of the key outcomes of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009. The document is the result of a collective work of the Ambassadors of the Year, who are leading European personalities from the fields of culture, science, business, education and design. With its 'Seven Commandments', the Manifesto will help shape the EU's strategy for promoting creativity and innovation for the next decade.

At a conference in Brussels, Belgium on 6 November, European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen, and Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik restated the EU's commitment to the reduction of animal testing.