Welcome to today’s Morning Brief. The Morning Brief newsletter is only available to INESC staff and affiliated researchers upon subscription (weekly or daily), after creating an account in the Private Area of the HUB website. To do so, click the log-in icon on the top-right corner of this website.

In today’s Morning Brief we bring you two new events happening in November, an open discussion on the Mission Adaptation to Climate Chance and an even on the European Rare Disease Ecosystem. Don’t miss our COP26 updates and the EU calls for Excellence Hubs.

Any comments or suggestions, hit me up with an email on teresa.carvalho@inesc.pt.

In today's Morning Brief:

In today’s Morning Brief:

Commission launches new tool to digitalize work-based learning and boost educators digital competences

SELFIE for Work-Based Learning will help vocational education and training (VET) schools, as well as companies offering apprenticeships and other forms of work-based learning to improve the digitalisation of their training programmes, raising the digital skills of learners. SELFIEforTEACHERS gives educators a snapshot of their digital capabilities and suggests way to forward them.

Calls for Excellence Hubs opened yesterday

On the 3rd November a call of strategic interest for INESC opened: Excellence Hubs (HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-ACCESS-04).

Excellence hubs are an initiative to strengthen regional innovation excellence in placed based innovation ecosystems by cross-border collaboration on a common strategy and/or alongside value adding chains. Place based innovation ecosystems are interconnected companies, research institutions, governmental bodies and societal actors that are mutually reinforcing each other in a territorial context and together raise the level of innovation excellence in their regional fabric.

Deadline is the 15th March of 2022.

See also the calls for ERA Chairs (same deadline, 15/03) and for Twinning actions (deadline 18/01).

COP26: US lays out its plan to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

World leaders took the floor in Glasgow to call for urgent action and set out their national plans to reign in carbon emissions.

US president Joe Biden told fellow world leaders that current soaring energy prices, which last month led to electricity shortages in industrial regions of China, were a reason “to double down on clean energy deployment” so that countries were not “overly reliant on one source of power”.

Biden also unveiled the US plan to achieve economy-wide net zero emissions “by no later than 2050”.

Unsurprisingly, the strategy says the US will have to deploy a spectrum of new technologies to hit the target: renewable energy sources; sustainable fuels like hydrogen and biofuels; and energy saving technologies.

But it also repeatedly mentions nuclear power as part of a green energy mix.

Before Biden spoke, the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, rebuked rich countries for relying on undeveloped technologies to get to net zero. “These commitments made by some are based on technologies yet to be developed. And this is at best reckless, and at worse dangerous,” she said.

If you want to read more about the world’s leader’s race towards net zero click here.

EIT supports the New European Bauhaus with €5 million

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) launched the ‘EIT Community Booster – Scaling New European Bauhaus Ventures’ in order to support the New European Bauhaus initiative. This first call will support 20 innovative companies with a budget of up to €50,000 each to accelerate solutions integrating sustainability (from climate goals, to circularity, zero pollution, and biodiversity), aesthetics (quality of experience and style, beyond functionality) and inclusion (including diversity first, securing accessibility and affordability).

Commission, Ukraine, Turkey and Republic of Moldova working closer in research, innovation and education

At the EU-Ukraine Summit, the leaders of the European Union and its Member States, finalised the association of Ukraine to Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme (2021-2027), and the Euratom Research and Training Programme (2021-2025). This was followed by Turkey and the Republic of Moldova agreements on the 27 October.

Researchers, innovators students, pupils, trainees, teachers, and young people can now participate under the same conditions as EU Member States. This cooperation in science, research and innovation further strengthens the alliance between the EU and Ukraine, Turkey and the Republic of Moldova to deliver on common priorities, such as the twin green and digital transition.

Portugal launches €250M programme to boost tech transfer in universities

Portuguese economy minister Pedro Siza Vieira and EIB Vice President Ricardo Mourinho Félix announced the Portugal Tech II programme at the Web Summit in Lisbon.

The programme will mobilise €250 million in venture capital investments to boost technology-transfer projects from universities and technology-based start-ups with high potential in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, fintech, health tech and cybersecurity, amongst others.

Portugal Tech II continues the work of its predecessor programme launched in 2018. “[It] will continue to support an environment where technology and innovation play central roles in the transformation of our economy,” said Vieira.

The programme will select venture capital funds managed by Portuguese private teams with relevant track-record in the venture capital, technology transfer and acceleration segments, provided that they are able to raise capital from private and institutional investors.

Read about it here.

EC, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and EIB Partnership in Climate.

At COP26, Ursula von der Leyen, Bill Gates and EIB President Werner Hoyer, have officially entered into a pioneering partnership that will boost investments in critical climate technologies.

This partnership will mobilise up to €820 million between 2022-2026 to accelerate the deployment and rapidly commercialise innovative technologies that will help deliver European Green Deal ambitions and the EU’s 2030 climate targets. Investments will be directed towards a portfolio of EU-based projects with high potential in four sectors:

– clean hydrogen;

– sustainable aviation fuels;

– direct air capture;

– long-duration energy storage.

EU funding for the partnership will be drawn from Horizon Europe and the Innovation Fund, and will be managed under InvestEU according to established governance procedures. The EU-Catalyst partnership will be open to national investments by EU Member States through InvestEU or at project level. The first projects are expected to be selected in 2022.

For more information make sure to click here.

Open Discussion on the Mission Adaptation to Climate Change

On 23 November at 13:30 GMT the European Commission is hosting an open debate on the Mission “Adaptation to Climate Change”.

This discussion will feature the following speakers who will explain how the Mission intends to work and how regions will be able to become part of it.

– Clara de la Torre, Mission Manager;

– John Bell, Deputy Mission Manager;

– Connie Hedegaard, Chair of the Mission Board;

– Dirk Beckers, Director of the European Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment Executive Agency CINEA

The  session will be followed by a Q&A session via SLI.DO. To register please click here.

European Rare Disease Ecosystem: A Collaborative Path Forward

On November 9, don’t miss the inaugural Rare Conversations Conference will be an opportunity to facilitate essential discussion on the future of the OMP ecosystem involving leading experts. This ecosystem can only be enhanced following a multifaceted and holistic approach, with regards to issues to address, stakeholders to involve and cross-country cooperation.

This high-level conference will be the occasion to discuss the rare disease ecosystem in its whole spectrum of policies and stakeholders at national, EU, and international level. Hearing from different views and needs will help to draw the full picture.

Make sure to sign up here!

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

Read More »

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

Read More »

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

Read More »