European Union News - Research & Innovation

The European Commission welcomed a delegation led by Nobel laureates Sir Tim Hunt and Professor Jules Hoffman that have presented an open letter, signed by 44 Nobel laureates and 6 Fields medallists, and 130,000 people from Europe and around the globe, which emphasises the importance of EU funding for research and innovation, and warns against the consequences of budget cuts in these areas.

The SANDRA ('Seamless aeronautical networking through integrations of data links, radios and antennas') project, a new data link which is the connection between the Airborne Thematic Mapper (ATM) and ground systems, and co-funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7), will help cope with the demand in aircraft operations because the current systems are unable to process and provide flight information in real time in European airspace.

The Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2012 presented by the European Commission and that compares 190 European regions shows that there is considerable diversity in regional innovation performance not only across Europe but also within the Member States. Most of the European countries have regions at different levels of innovation performance. The report also shows how in almost all European countries capital regions are the national innovation leaders.

With a budget of €11 million, the calls for proposals will be launched in January and will offer research funding in areas such as agriculture, health, climate change and energy, grouped under three headings: "Renewable Energy", "Interfacing Challenges" and "Idea driven research". This initiative has been developed within the framework of the €2 million, three-year "ERA-Net for Africa" (ERAfrica) project.

The Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan Quinn announced that the European Commission is proposing a fivefold increase in its funding for the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) of up to €1 billion.

The winners of the first Marie Curie Prize were announced by the European Commission at a ceremony held in Nicosia, Cyprus. The three winners are Dr Gkikas Magiorkinis from Greece, in the 'Promising Research Talent' category, Dr Claire Belcher from the United Kingdom, for 'Communicating Science', and Dr Sarit Sivan from Israel, for 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship'.

The last call form the European Research Council (ERC) for junior researchers recorded a total of 3,329 proposals, reaching almost 50% increase in relation to the 2,169 proposals registered for last year's call for proposals. This is the third consecutive year in which there is a significant increase in received applications.

The European Commission has opened a public consultation in order to identify promising and potentially game-changing directions for future technological research. The Commission is inviting scientists, researchers, engineers, innovators, artists, entrepreneurs and individuals to submit their ideas before 30 November 2012.

According to Commission's ninth report on SME participation in FP7, the target initially set by the European Parliament and the Council on research funding granted to European SMEs has been reached. The report highlights that SMEs have received around €2.9 billion from Cooperation Program.

An event celebrated last 12 October in Karlsruhe marked the celebration of 20 years providing nuclear forensics support by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. Nuclear forensics provides information for the prosecution of nuclear smugglers and enables the identification of the origin of the intercepted material, thus providing essential information for improving preventive measures.