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In this Morning Brief, we bring you an exciting opportunity with a webinar powered by INESC TEC on the integration of offshore renewable energy technologies, news on a new digital tool by the EU that helps nations monitor their resilience, the EU is going to also increase cooperation on rare diseases under the French Presidency, and more!

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:

Webinar: Integration of offshore renewable energy technologies

The eleventh “Power and Energy Webinar Series”, powered by INESC TEC, will be organised Thursday December 16, at 11 am (WEST), under the motto “Integration of offshore renewable energy technologies”.

Those interested in participating in the session should register here. After completing the form available on the website (“participate” section) the participants will receive, closer to the session, an email from the organisation with the access credentials.

Call for additional €4B investment in European research infrastructures

Europe needs to build eleven new international research labs at a cost of €4.16 billion, according to the latest roadmap from the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), published today, as the European Commission called for a review of funding sources for the shared facilities.

The 11 research infrastructures listed in the roadmap would cost €380 million on average, a steep increase from previous plans. The average cost of a new lab in the 2018 roadmap was €112 million, while in 2016 it was €148 million.

As the representative of Europe’s large research labs, ESFRI periodically publishes a roadmap setting out what new, shared facilities are required to stay at the leading edge of science. Over the past 20 years, the EU has invested €20 billion in research infrastructures pitched in these roadmaps. If the 11 labs proposed in the latest document were to be built, that will rise to €24 billion.

In addition to cash, most projects on the new roadmap also require increased political commitment. On average, seven governments and institutions from 14 countries are backing each proposed lab.

Read more here.

New digital tool helps EU countries monitor their resilience

The European Commission is launching an interactive website to navigate the resilience dashboards, a set of indicators and information on resilience in Member States and non-EU countries. This will further help EU countries identify their strengths and vulnerabilities when it comes to navigating the green and digital transitions, facing challenges and coping with potential shocks.

With a wide-ranging set of indicators, the dashboards give policymakers the information they need to help build stronger and more resilient economies and societies. The dashboards provide a holistic picture that spans four dimensions: social and economic, green, digital, and geopolitical.

By focusing on multiple dimensions and their interlinkages, the dashboards expand on existing tools that tend to be sectoral or focus on single policy fields.

Find out more here.

EU set to increase cooperation on rare diseases

The EU is to up its ambition in tackling rare diseases, with France – as a long term champion of EU cooperation in this area of unmet medical need – due to put the topic on the agenda of its upcoming presidency of the Council.

With 30 million patients in the bloc and treatments available for only 6% of the diseases, the issue has been on the EU agenda for years. In 2009, the member states adopted policy recommendations initiating new efforts, while the European Commission has invested €1.8 billion in research in the last 14 years. Yet, patients and their families continue to have difficulties getting a diagnosis and accessing appropriate health services.

Experts and the European Parliament say it’s high time for the EU to come up with a new action plan for jointly tackling the burden of rare diseases. “These diseases can only be effectively tackled at the European level. It is therefore necessary to make the European plan for rare diseases a priority to be included in the context of the European Health Union,” said Alessandra Moretti MEP in a recent debate at the European Parliament.

Read more here.

US to push ‘democracy-affirming technology’ with prizes and research projects

The US is set to fund prizes, challenges and research projects to create so-called “democracy affirming technologies” that allow open societies to reap the benefits of innovation without sacrificing privacy or accountability. The initiative will be launched this week at the virtual Summit for Democracy, a meeting of 111 invited countries convened by president Joe Biden in an attempt to “renew” democracy.

Examples of democracy affirming technologies include methods of machine learning that respect the privacy of individuals, or alternatives to what the US sees as the compulsory genomic surveillance of populations.

“We’re really interested in ways we could spur innovation and pioneer a new class of technologies,” Tarun Chhabra, senior director for technology and national security of the US National Security Council told the virtual conference, ‘Technology in and for Society’, hosted by the OECD. These technologies should “advance the values of privacy, transparency, accountability and access to information” he said, setting out the objectives of the programme on Monday, in advance of the Summit on 9 and 10 December. The US wants to set up prizes, challenges and pilot projects “with likeminded countries” in order to “build a future where we can really accelerate the development of technologies,” Chhabra said.

Read more 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 »