European Union News - Research & Innovation

The European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe announced that Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, Oslo, Norway by Snøhetta is the winner of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2009. The Jury also awarded a Special Mention for an Emerging Architect to Lea Pelivan and Toma Plejic STUDIO UP for Gymnasium 46° 09' N / 16° 50' E, in Koprivnica, Croatia. By supporting the prize, the European Commission underlines the role of architecture as a driver for creativity and innovation, opens up culture to audiences beyond national borders and draws attention to the European professionals' contribution in the development of new ideas and technologies that impact Europeans' everyday life.

Economic recovery is at the heart of next year’s spending, as put forward by the preliminary draft budget for 2010 adopted by the Commission on April 29th, with €139bn expenditure. The proposal channels the biggest share of funds (45%) into growth and employment measures to help restore competitiveness across the Union. Funds for major programmes linked to research and energy will increase by more than 12% and cash for cohesion policy will grow too, with the EU-12 set to receive 52% of cohesion and Structural Funds. All headings in the budget will see an increase, reaching a total of €138.6bn in commitments (1.18% of GNI) and €122.3bn in payments (1.04% of GNI).

Two major concerns of citizens – health and environment - were the big winners when the European Commission and the European Patent Office (EPO) presented the 2009 European Inventor of the Year awards, in Prague. Honoured were 4 inventions: a drug to combat chronic myelogenous leukaemia, a malaria drug based on an herbal agent, enabling the commercial use of solar energy and a highly efficient heat exchanger.

The European Commission has published a call for projects within the program "People", 2009, within the VII Framework Program for research, technological development and demonstration, by which it will fund partnership initiatives and university-business gateway between the European Union.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published in the Official Journal of the European Union on April 24th 2009, the launch of a selection procedure that aims to draw up a reserve list of external experts to be considered for the membership of a working group of scientific experts to externally review the quality of the scientific outputs of the Authority.

A group of EU-funded researchers are counting the costs of the damage caused by invasive species in Europe. Writing in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, scientists from the DAISIE project highlight the invasive species with the greatest economic and environmental impacts. The findings of the project will contribute to the EU's Strategy on Invasive Alien Species.

During the latest Fusion for Energy (F4E) Governing Board the accession of Switzerland to F4E was reported to be formally approved by both chambers of the Swiss Parliament with an overwhelming majority.

Unlimited computing power, computers mimicking the brain, mind-controlled wheelchairs and friendly robotic companions are part of a new European plan to boost visionary research, unveiled by the European Commission today. With more investment and cooperation in high-risk research on future information technologies, Europe can lead the way in turning bright research ideas into future technologies. The Commission has proposed to boost Europe's high-risk research into future technologies by doubling research investment at national and EU level in this area by 2015. The Commission will lead by example, increasing the current funding of € 100 million per year by 70% by 2013.

The Official Journal of the European Union has published on April 20th 2009, a Call for proposals for actions in the field of eco-innovation under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), which will be funded with up to 30 million Euro. Closing date for applications is September 10th 2009.