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 information on today’s INESC TEC Autumn Forum, on the Energy Infrastructure Forum 2021, the European Hydrogen Week and the many calls and opportunities currently open and supported by the European Union, 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:
INESC TEC Autumn Forum 2021
Today is the day! The annual initiative of the institution, which aims at promoting a forum to debate issues of national interest, from the economic to the public policies POVs is back!
This year’s edition is dedicated to technologies interaction, specifically, Artificial Intelligence in Health.
The Portuguese Minister of Health and the Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education will both be present and you can check the agenda here!
Energy Infrastructure Forum 2021
In two days, the Energy Infrastructure Forum will be back. It is an initiative organised by the EU in cooperation with the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities, and gathers representatives of the EU institutions, transmission system operations and the financing community who meet to discuss the challenges of developing Europe’s energy infrastructure and building an internal energy market.
Please click here to see the agenda and the guiding questions for the event!
European Hydrogen Week
The European Hydrogen Week is a unique event starting on the 29th of november where the tremendous opportunities associated with the production and use of hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels for the Green Deal, will be discussed.
This year features special addresses by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Vice-President Frans Timmermans and will offer the opportunity to European industry, policy makers, government representatives, and the research community to discuss and steer the increased potential for clean hydrogen in the upcoming years.
Click here to check the programme and to register!
An enhanced EOSC Portal for the European Research Community
The Horizon 2020 project EOSC Enhance successfully concluded its 24-month mission, announcing the launch of its second release for the EOSC Portal, one of the main gateways to information and resources in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).
EOSC aims to develop a web of fair data and services for science in Europe upon which a wide range of value-added services can be built. This ecosystem is being built upon existing infrastructures and services supported by the European Commission, Member States, as well as multidisciplinary research communities.
EOSC Enhance has aligned with the EOSC Future project over the second half of 2021, as EOSC Future is taking over operations on the EOSC Portal starting in December 2021, continuing the work on integration and development of all components.
The final EOSC Enhance webinar, introducing the key upgrades included in this second EOSC Portal release, is taking place on 25 November 2021 at 15:00 CET. Register here.
The EU invests over €1 billion in innovative projects to decarbonise the economy
The European Union is investing over €1.1 billion into seven large-scale innovative projects under the Innovation Fund. The grants will support projects aiming to bring breakthrough technologies to the market in energy-intensive industries, hydrogen, carbon capture, use and storage, and renewable energy.
The selected projects cover a wide range of relevant sectors to decarbonise different parts of Europe’s industry and energy sectors, such as chemicals, steel, cement, refineries, and power and heat. All projects are either already part of industrial hubs or kick-start decarbonisation clusters of interconnected industries.
If you want to learn more about them click here and if you have a project that was not successful in the first call click here to apply until 3 March 2022.
Stop the mining rush in protected nature
Every so often gloomy headlines warn us about looming shortages of critical metals required for the successful implementation of the Green Deal and reaching at least the Paris Climate Goals.
We need to take this challenge seriously. If substantially higher prices for metals such as lithium and cobalt persist through the end of this decade, as the IMF researchers imply, this bottleneck could effectively put the energy transition at risk.
It comes as no surprise that the action plan on critical raw materials published by the Commission in September 2020 earned far more attention than its predecessors, as it tries to address supply risks for raw materials of high economic importance. In light of the Green Deal, it is clear why lithium, cobalt and a wide range of rare earth elements are included in the list of 30 critical raw materials.
It is also clear that this action plan acts as a catalyst to resuscitate mining projects for these critical raw materials inside and outside EU borders. While we should not dismiss these out of hand, we urgently need to draw a line when it comes to protected areas. In Portugal, for instance, 28% of the areas allocated for lithium exploration are inside nationally protected areas, such as the Serra da Argamela, part of a Natura 2000 area.
Some policymakers argue that we need to “balance biodiversity and economic goals” to secure the metals required for the green transition. This is code language for opening up protected areas for large-scale mining. However, a more honest balancing act would require preserving the integrity of EU protected areas.
This is a unique opportunity for ensuring a circular industry and creating new jobs. The Green Deal provides an excellent framework for all of this, now is the time to set the wheels in motion.
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
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