European Union News - Research & Innovation

Photographers from Hungary, France and United Kingdom have won the EU photo competition organised in the framework of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation with the theme "Imagine a new world". The winning photographers received their prizes in Brussels and their works put on display.

The Austrian Research Promotion Agency organises the 'SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] go Health' initiative. It will hold its fifth information and training workshop in Stockholm, Sweden on 25 November 2009.

Researchers partially funded by the European Union will be using state-of-the-art technology to look into building underwater observatories that will monitor underwater seismic activity in the eastern Mediterranean. As populations grow in the region, scientists have been developing ways of looking for signs of earthquakes before they happen.

As part of its efforts to portray the Lisbon Strategy as a way out of the current crisis, the EESC debated the state of play of Lisbon at its November Plenary Session. The discussion singled out priorities for the post-2010 agenda and several key opinions were debated and adopted.

Climate change will be the main theme of the EESC plenary session which will adopt an important resolution on sustainable development and climate change. The future European Parliament's working programme will be presented to the EESC by its President, Jerzy Buzek. The EESC will also award the winners of the third edition of the EESC prize for organized civil society.

The European Commission has approved funding for 196 new projects under the second call for the LIFE+ programme (2007-2013), the European fund for the environment. The projects are from across the EU and cover actions in the fields of nature conservation, environmental policy, and information and communication. Overall, they represent a total investment of €431 million, of which the EU will provide €207.5 million.

European Commission has issued a call for proposals which grants ERC (European Research Council) advanced investigators with the aim of supporting research projects to be performed in any Member State or associated country to the Framework Programme

As digital TV replaces old analogue TV, four-fifths of the airwaves that used to carry TV broadcasts to our homes will be freed up. This means that they can be used for new, innovative services that use radio spectrum, from wireless internet and more advanced mobile phones to new interactive and high-definition TV channels. Remote regions could be big winners from this as wireless broadband could use the new spectrum to deliver high-speed internet to areas not yet reached by landlines. The allocation of the newly freed airwaves – the "digital dividend" – to new services is coordinated across Europe it could give the economy a boost of €20 to €50 billion.

Less congested roads, better and more efficient energy delivery or state of the art medical treatment managed at home are typical examples made possible by the Internet of the Future. The European Commission has unveiled a strategy to put Europe at the forefront when it comes to the development of smart internet-powered infrastructures. It calls on Europe's governments and its ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) sector to take advantage of the increasing demand for innovative applications of the internet to make existing infrastructures like healthcare systems, energy grids or traffic management 'smart'.

Two new EU-funded projects to promote research between the EU and the US will help both continents to increase their research expertise, expand bilateral relations and create a greater global science and technology base in accordance with the goals of the Lisbon Agenda.