European Union News - Research & Innovation

Researchers from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), universities and hospitals across Ireland, France, Finland and the United Kingdom work in a new project aimed at finding a test that would reduce the diagnosis time of respiratory tract infections from days to hours, so that the appropriate treatments can be administered as early as possible.

The European Commission launched a public consultation to prepare future EU activities in order to achieve further integration and the opening-up of national research infrastructures. The consultation seeks possible topics for future activities for integrating and opening national research infrastructures. The contributions can be made until the 22 October 2012.

A team of researchers funded in part with EU funds have discovered that energy produced from the planet's oceans can increase twofold when novel methods for predicting wave power are used. In particular, they developed a way to accurately predict the power of the next wave to extract more energy than double what is generated today. Even though, researchers believe that more subsidies are needed in this field to continue the research.

The ICT Proposers' Day, a unique networking opportunity to build partnerships and projects targeting the new Information and Communication Technologies Work Programme for 2013, and that will be held in 26-27 September, Warsaw, Poland, counts already with 1000 participants who have registered.

The Marie Curie Actions invite their current and former fellows to participate in this year's Marie Curie Prize contest. The application process, that is open until 31 of August, will be based on nomination by a peer (colleague, professor, employer, host institution) who has the capacity to judge the fellow

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) launched a public consultation to the technical report “Prevention of norovirus infection in schools and childcare facilities”. The ECDC is seeking views from the scientific community and stakeholders on the prevention and control of gastroenteritis outbreaks in schools and child care facilities.

The figures published by an European Commission's survey show the importance that top EU businesses companies place on R&D as a key factor for their future growth and prosperity, despite the current economic difficulties. In fact, it is expected that their investments in research and development grow by an average of 4% annually over the period 2012 to 2014.

The European Science Foundation (ESF) identifies new themes for social science research in and on the central and eastern Europe, to be promoted and endorsed by national and European funding institutions. The report also highlights that attention is needed on how these pan-European research agendas can blend with the specific dynamics of change occurring in various regions, and in particular, central and eastern Europe (CEE).

The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) which provides updated and reliable information on wild land fires in Europe supporting forest fire prevention and fire-fighting services in the European countries, has issued a statement with the current situation in the UE. Despite of a slight improvement forecast in the situation at the beginning of this week, fire danger conditions remain very high in the western part of the Mediterranean region, in Portugal, Spain and France.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has announced its plans to carry out a proactive publication of data related to clinical trials to allow interested parties full access to these data sets. However, before releasing this information it is necessary to address some political and practical issues. For that purpose the EMA is organising a workshop to be held on November 22.