European Union News - Research & Innovation

At the end of the year, the French Presidency of the EU will draw to a close and the Czech Republic will take over the reins for the first time since it joined the EU in 2004. With occasion of the celebration of the European Conference on Research Infrastructures (ECRI2008) held in Versailles (France), Czech Vice-Minister for Education, Youth and Sports, Vlastimil Ruzicka, presented his country's plans in the fields of higher education and research for the first half of 2009.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEO, on December, 9th, 2008, FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2009-1 Call for Proposals, related to the specific “Capacities” Work Programme of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013).

The BEFORE project recently delivered its conclusions after performing a comparative analysis (benchmarking) of efficient support instruments for RTD in geographical areas with demographic significant imbalances, analysing specific tools of support for rural companies and entrepreneurs, and developing a set of indicators of impact of the regional RTD support policies in such regions.

The European Commission is consolidating the longstanding cooperation with the US and Canada with the launch of a new round of 24 innovative projects involving universities and training institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. The objective is to promote mutual understanding, transparency and quality in higher education and training, by setting up long-term institutional cooperation at bachelor's and master's level, allowing students from Europe and from the partner countries to have a unique experience studying abroad in a global context.

The European Commission has launched a Call for Proposals under the 2009 work programme “People” of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013), whose main objective is to support training and career development of researchers though Marie Curies Scheme, for EU Member States or Associated Countries.

Bosnia and Herzegovina signed on November 24th, 2008 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Commission which will allow full access to the EC's 7th Research Framework Programme. This "associated status" will allow Bosnia and Herzegovina to participate in all calls for proposals and compete on an equal footing with the EU Member States and the other associated countries for research co-operation and support actions funded under FP7, as of January, 1st, 2009.

The Commission published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, on November, 19th, 2008 some new calls for proposals under the 2008 People work programme and under the 2009 Cooperation and Ideas work programmes of the 7th EC Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007-2013) and under the 2009 work programme of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) for Nuclear Research and Training Activities (2007-2011).

The contract is managed by the Directorate-General Information Society and Media, Directorate C — Lisbon Strategy and Policies for the Information Society.

The European Union published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) of November 7th, 2008, a Call for Proposals on European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST). COST promotes within the EU new research networks, with an innovative, interdisciplinary and general character.

Raw materials are an essential part of both high tech products and every-day consumer products, and European industry needs fair access to raw materials both from within and outside the EU. For certain high-tech metals, the EU has a high import dependency and access to these raw materials is getting increasingly difficult. In response to this challenge, the European Commission launched on November, 4th,  a new integrated strategy which sets out targeted measures to secure and improve the access to raw materials for EU industry.