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In today's Morning Brief:
LIFE awards for projects supporting nature, environment and climate action
During the EU Green Week earlier this week, the winners of the 2021 LIFE Awards were announced by the EU’s LIFE programme. The LIFE Awards recognise the most innovative, inspirational and effective LIFE projects in three categories: nature protection, environment and climate action. The jury rewards projects who demonstrated an outstanding contribution to environmental, economic and social developments and showed excellence in impact, replicability, policy relevance, cross-border cooperation and cost-effectiveness.
The three awards were: LIFE ENERGY (Award for Nature), whose team put a stop to many birds colliding with power lines by installing 8 600 bird flight diverters along 77 km of the most dangerous areas; LIFE REUSING POSIDONIA (Award for Environment), that used dried seagrass as effective and inexpensive thermal insulation in 14 social housing units for poor and disadvantaged people on the Balearic island of Formentera, Spain; the LIFE FORECCAsT (Award for Climate Action), which helped forest managers in France’s Haut-Languedoc Regional Nature Park put in place climate change adaptation strategies by building a mobile application to help foresters assess and manage the risks to their land. More information on the winners and finalists of the awards can be found here.
Green City Accord – Online Workshop: A closer look at indicators for monitoring & reporting
On June 16th, from 13 to 16 CEST, the EC DG Environment will host a workshop on the Green City Accord. This workshop will introduce the Green City Accord monitoring and reporting framework including the mandatory set of indicators providing ample time to ask questions and exchange with experts and other participants. Registrations will open today and be available here.
Academics are overworked and underpaid, says OECD report
According to the new report by the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), one in five corresponding authors of scientific papers are working more than 55 hours a week, while a third make less than $30,000 a year. A majority of researchers say they have to compete for resources within their organisation, while 71% need to compete for and secure funding from external organisations. Based on OECD’s International Survey of Scientific Authors, the report sheds light on differences between employment in the public sector and the private sector, including salaries and contractual status.
According to the report, these working conditions point to the pressure and competition in academic research. OECD will use the report to improve job security of academic researchers.
EU-Bill Gates set up a €820M fund to bring down the price of clean energy
The European Commission is teaming up with the Bill Gates-led green energy financing programme, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, to raise €820 million for clean energy demonstration projects. The money will be invested in technologies that are currently too expensive to scale-up, starting with green hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels, direct air capture and long term energy storage. The involvement of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst will hopefully send a signal to private investors that clean energy is a safe bet – and will bring returns in the next few years, according to the industry. Read more on the topic here.
Research infrastructures: DG RTD calls for global coordination
The sophistication, size and costs of research infrastructures are hard for any one country to manage. Regardless of the desire of the EU for technological sovereignty, international cooperation is needed to finance and operate them. This was the message that Jean-Eric Paquet, European Commission’s director general for research and innovation, sent to global science leaders this week. Paquet was speaking in advance of addressing the International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI), on a panel focusing on the possibility for multilateral cooperation in financing, designing and operating these facilities.
Policymakers argue that international research infrastructures could help the world respond better to climate change and foster sustainable development. But, as these facilities are getting bigger and more partners are involved, they need international governance structures. The EU has a strategic forum for research infrastructures (ESFRI), but that model might not be replicable at a global level. Read more on this on Science Business.
More Articles
26/05/2023: New Horizon Europe calls, a global drive for open science, European Commission DG RTD recent reorganisation, EU-China & much more
In today’s Morning Brief:
Horizon Europe
– Twinning call for proposals is open – Read all about it
– Horizon Europe ERA Fellowships call is now open
– EUR 20 million available for Pathways to synergies – Call for proposals
– New Horizon Europe funding opportunity: Dissemination & Exploitation Support Facility call
– Commission Open Call: Expert Group on the Interim Evaluation of Horizon Europe
– Industry 5.0 Award contest opens: apply by 1 September 2023
– Horizon Europe: The EU and the Republic of Korea launch formal negotiations on association to the programme
– European Space Agency chief seeks ‘forward-looking decisions’
Research & Innovation:
– EU research ministers make fresh call for a full transition to free open access publishing
– Open Science: stakeholders welcome European efforts towards publicly owned and not-for-profit scholarly communication
– Global drive for more open, rigorous research is growing
– European Commission sets up new European Innovation Council unit in the research directorate
– Spain wants EU presidency to be ‘bridge’ with Latin American R&D
– Green industry law haunted by old conflicts over nuclear, financing
– The five EU research projects involving China’s military-linked universities
– Critical Raw Materials: EU ministers want to move fast but dilemmas abound
– G7 ministers call for rules to improve research security
– Territorial Economic Data viewer supports policy monitoring
News from INESC institutes:
– INESC Brussels HUB is signing an Open Letter regarding changes to Who is Who in EC Directorate
– ECI Cruelty-free cosmetics – Consultation to adhere to joint final statement
– Structuring the ecosystem: RTOs collaboration with higher education institutions
– INESC TEC develops pioneering research in the application of variational quantum circuits to reinforcement learning
– INOV: MULTICAM prototypes, an online presentation on Blockchain and 5000 followers
– Job Opportunities
Events & Training workshops
19/05/2023: HUB Summer Meeting, Digital Europe Programme, Regional Innovation Valleys, European R&I funding and policy, and much more
In today’s Morning Brief:
Horizon Europe
– Commission Expert Group on the Interim Evaluation of Horizon Europe
– Commission launches first €122M call to create regional innovation ecosystems
– New calls for proposals of the Digital Europe Programme
Research & Innovation:
– EU research commissioner Mariya Gabriel resigns
– France to boost funding for health research infrastructures and UK to invest £100M in improving RIs
– Commission takes European Innovation Council management under its wing
– Industry 5.0 Award: The contest is open for applications
– AI Act moves ahead in EU Parliament with key committee vote
– Defence industry renews call for R&D spending boost
News from INESC institutes:
– Technology and Law: building a virtuous relationship, by Graça Barbosa
– The 2022 INESC-ID AnnualReport is out
– Exciting news from H2020-RESCUER
– Launch of the New Horizon Europe Project SYCLOPS
– INESC TEC supports the implementation of robotic technologies to reduce the ecological footprint
– INESC TEC develops virtual reality app to support youngster looking for jobs
– Job Opportunities
Events & Training workshops
05/05/2023: HE calls update, cohesion policy, open access, open science, cohesion policy and coordination of national and EU R&D policy.
In today’s Morning Brief:
Horizon Europe
– Horizon Europe – easy call and topic search
– From KOWI: MSCA: Model Working Contract for Doctoral Networks published
Research & Innovation:
– Report on the outcome of 2021-2027 cohesion policy programming
– Spain adopts national open access strategy
– Commission attempts to strengthen coordination between national R&D policies and EU research programs
– Commission Plans to launch a European Standardisation Panel survey
– Research funders draw attention to uneven implementation of open science
– EIT Climate to become financially sustainable by end of 2024
– Preparing for Belgium’s Thirteenth Presidency of the Council of the European Union
– African Union-European Union High Level Policy Dialogue – Science, Technology and Innovation. Senior official meet to endorse the AU-EU Innovation Agenda
News from INESC institutes:
– INESC MN has a new publication in Advanced Materials Journal
– INOV projects on Youtube
– Diogo Vaz published an article in Público
– Job Opportunities
Events & Training workshops