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In today's Morning Brief:
€134 million euros for cybersecurity in 2021 and 2022
According to a Science Business analysis of a report by an EC expert group, the European Commission is to allocate a total of €134.8 million for research to improve cybersecurity in 2021 and 2022, as it seeks to build a more cohesive cross-border cyber defence strategy. The Horizon Europe draft work programme outlines four topics for this year to achieve the EU’s cybersecurity objectives: recovery and business continuity after an attack; improved security in open-source hardware for connected devices; artificial intelligence; and preserving privacy for cross-border computation. The Commission is planning to fund 16 projects this year, with a budget of €67.5 million. In 2022, another €67.3 million will go to projects aimed at monitoring and responding to digital threats, developing methodologies and tools to test the security of hardware and software, transitioning to quantum-resistant cryptography, and creating tools used for certification of ICT products, services and processes.
Manifesto for a Rural European Innovation Area backed by Commissioner Gabryel
The European Commission has given political backing to a grassroots manifesto for a Rural European Innovation Area, as it prepares for the launch of a long-term strategy for the countryside in June.
“We need to empower innovation stakeholders in rural areas, so that local players can unlock the innovation and connectedness potential,” Mariya Gabriel, EU research commissioner told the launch of the manifesto. “I’m happy to endorse the new platform,” she said.
The manifesto calls on entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and other public and private stakeholders in Europe to put rural innovation on the EU policy agenda. The Rural European Innovation Area brings together 70 partners from 17 countries and is being coordinated by the University of Salamanca. They call for the establishment of accelerators and incubators in partnership with universities to forge rural innovation networks across Europe.
Ageing and Common Agricultural Policies
The Commission has released the report “Evaluation of the impact of the CAP on generational renewal, local development and jobs in rural areas”. According to the report, ageing of Europe’s farmers remains a major challenge in rural areas, with farm managers over 65 outnumbering 3 to 1 the farm managers under 40. The CAP on its own has revealed to be insufficient to address main entry barriers into farming, such as access to land and access to capital, and although the measures included in the CAP are supporting the economic sustainability of young farmers, the full potential of such measures is not exploited. The need to improve the impact of CAP generational renewal measures will be reflected in the future CAP Strategic Plan.
Data protections rules ‘harming EU leadership’ in health research
Europe’s status as a health research leader “is at risk” because of barriers to sharing data introduced by the bloc’s data protection rules, a joint report by three academy networks says. It estimates that more than 5,000 international health projects were affected by GDPR requirements in 2019 alone. The joint study comes from three academy networks, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council and the Federation of European Academies of Medicine (FEAM).
Webinar on patent pools
The DG GROW of the European Commission will host a webinar on how to make patent pools work for both standard essential patent (SEP) holders and licensees. The focus of the webinar will be on the advantages and challenges of patent pools especially in the sectors of the Internet of Things. This initiative is part of the 2020 IP Action Plan, as it aims at exploring ways to improve transparency and predictability in the licensing of SEPs for the digital transformation of Europe’s industry. The webinar will take place on April 20th from 14.30 to 17.30 CEST: registrations for participants are open here until April 16th.
Data 4 Healthy Recovery Hackathon
The deadline to apply to participate in the Data 4 Healthy Recovery Hackathon is April 15th, 4 pm GMT. The event, that will take place from June 18th to 20th, will focus on hacking smart health solutions to help Europe recover from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger and faster and to contribute to a more resilient and innovative European industry. The challenges that the hackathon participants are invited to address include personalised predictive medicine, telemedicine, health monitoring and remote care, improved diagnostics, data-driven health, safety of medical data. The hackathon will be preceded by a number of matchmaking sessions to match challenge partners and brainstorm innovative solutions to the challenges. All the information on the event and how to register can be found here.
Global taxes and economic growth
As IMF revised this year’s growth forecast for the eurozone up to 4.4 percent of economic output, the Biden administration wants the world’s largest 100 companies — those with revenues of at least $20 billion — to pay into countries’ coffers wherever they sell their goods or services, according to proposals sent to more than 130 governments involved in ongoing tax talks.
Deep-dive: Future of green hydrogen in Europe
“2021 will be the year in which the EU and its member states take important decisions that will largely determine further deployment of hydrogen in our continent,” said Bas van ‘t Wout, Dutch minister of economic affairs and climate policy, speaking at conference on hydrogen organised by the Portuguese Council Presidency, and reported by Science Business. Hydrogen is seen as a critical component of greening Europe’s energy market and delivering on the aim of becoming the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050. While renewable electricity will lead the way, hydrogen is expected to replace natural gas in industries that cannot be easily electrified, such as steel production and aviation. In 2050, the gas could make up as much as 23% of the EU energy mix. This week, the Hydrogen Europe association, representative of industry and research entities involved in hydrogen and fuel cells field, launched the Hydrogen Act proposal, encompassing he Hydrogen Infrastructure Act and the Hydrogen Market Act (see table below).
The report sets a concrete timescale that is best visible in the following figure:
You can download the full report 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
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