In today’s Morning Brief:

European Commission and European Union Intellectual Property Office commit to closer collaboration

Yesterday, the European Commission Directorate General Research and Innovation, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agenda (EISMEA), and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) signed a letter of intent for co-operation on intellectual property management.

This will lead to develop a process of co-operation towards closer collaboration between these parties regarding intellectual property management. This will directly support the European Research Area’s intent to translate results into the economy, ensuring market uptake of research output and Europe’s competitive leadership in technology.

The signatories will coordinate their efforts in terms of:

– awareness raising activities on IP;

– support measures for innovative SMEs to boost their innovation potential and improve the understanding of the benefits that IP can provide.

In addition, they will share IP related data and will cooperate in management policy development and knowledge transfer activities.

Read more about this here.

New report on Climate Action in a Post-COVID-19 world from EU funded projects.

Don’t miss the European Commission’s newest report on the urgect need to act on the climate crisis if we want to save the planet and ourselves, which the COVID-19 pandemic, and its reminder of the need for wellbeing in the planet, has led to a surge in recovery strategies for a genuine paradigm shift.

This report focuses on what advice can the research community give to policymakers at this critical moment, against the backdrop of COP26, to help them shape a greener, more equitable and prosperous future for all with the help of EU-funded Horizon 2020 projects.

Make sure to read it here.

EIB to triple climate adaptation finance

The European Investment Bank (EIB) launched its first dedicated Adaptation Plan to support projects around the world to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

EIB President Werner Hoyer commented: “Climate change is already happening today, and it is threatening the lives and wellbeing of more and more people around the world. Together with our partners, we must scale up finance and technical assistance to support projects to protect vulnerable communities worldwide”.

The EIB Adaptation Plan supports the objectives of the European Union Adaptation Strategy inside and outside the EU. The EIB pledges to increase the share of adaptation support to 15% of the bank’s overall finance for climate action by 20215. The EIB will screen all projects it finances for the risks of climate change and ensure they are adapted for future changes.

Click here to find out more details about this plan.

COVID-19 vaccine maker BioNTech acquires EIT Health start-up

Yesterday, EIT Health announced the acquisition of one of its supported start-ups: PhagoMed GmbH, by BioNTech SE. PhagoMed is developing novel synthetic lysin technology for precision antimicrobial treatments and was accelerated by EIT Health under its Gold Track programme.

According to Jan-Philipp Beck, CEO of EIT Health, “antimicrobial resistance is a huge concern for public health all over the world. Science and innovation is needed to find new and alternative solutions to antibiotics that are losing effectiveness, as we have seen from the last two years that we are not safe from infectious diseases.”

To find out more about the Gold Track programme, click here.

China and US announce deal to accelerate climate action this decade

The world’s two biggest emitters released a surprise joint statement this week setting out their intention to “seize on this critical moment to engage in expanded individual and combined efforts to accelerate the transition to a global net zero economy”.

Under the deal, both sides promised to act in this “decisive decade” to reduce emissions and keep the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit temperature rise well below 2 degrees and pursue efforts for 1.5 degrees within reach.

Both nations recognized that there remains a gap between current national carbon-cutting pledges and policies and what is needed to achieve the Paris goals.

This move could see a possible deal for climate plans to cover a five-year period to be struck over the next couple days.

If you want to read more about this click here.

Challenge of greening agri-food system is ‘absolutely massive’

Discussions on climate change often focus on the usual suspects when talking about emissions: power generation, cars and planes, shipping, and factories.

But the emissions from food and drink, measured from farm to fork, make up an estimated 30% of total carbon emissions in the EU, with the manufacturing process accounting for about a tenth of these emissions.

Policymakers and the industry are looking at ways to reduce this necessary sector’s carbon footprint to carbon neutrality by 2050, the overall goal for the entire economy. However, because it involves such a large value chain with so many actors, the food and drink sector may be one of the trickier ones to decarbonize.

The industry recently published a Roadmap that could serve as a basis for decarbonizing the food manufacturing sector, with the EU’s carbon neutrality target and the SDGs in mind.

“Agriculture is a challenging area – if you look at the food and drink industry, nothing will happen if we don’t reduce the footprint from agriculture, but we know the science on agriculture isn’t quite there yet,” said Chris Daly, chief sustainability officer for Europe at PepsiCo. “If you look at the carbon footprint of a food and beverage company, 30-40% will come from agriculture. Therefore, we absolutely need to get agriculture going in the right direction.”

Read all about this here.