In today’s Morning Brief:

CONCORDi 2021

CONCORDi is the biennial European conference on corporate RD&I. Its 8th edition is organised by the Joint Research Centre of the EC on 22-25 November 2021 on “Industrial innovation for competitive sustainability”, in cooperation with EARTO, the OECD and UNIDO.

For more information on the programme and registration for the event, click here!

“FUTURAS IN RES – The Quantum Breakthrough” Conference

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, will host its “FUTURAS IN RES – The Quantum Breakthrough” Conference on 24-25 November livestream from Berlin. The focus areas of this year’s international science and technology conference are the new quantum technologies, which have immense future potential for many industries. Fraunhofer experts, international companies, science organisations and start-ups will provide exclusive insights into their research, business solutions and applications.

For more information click here!

BNCT/CSTP High-Level Conference “Technology in and for Society: Innovating well for inclusive transitions”

The world faces unprecedented challenges in health, food, climate change and biodiversity, and these require systems transitions or even transformations. Emerging technologies will also have a critical role to play in finding solutions.

This high-level conference marks an important milestone of Committee on Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP) work on STI-led transitions and technology governance as well as work of the OECD Working Party on Bio-, Nano- and Converging Technologies (BNCT) on responsible innovation.

Make sure to register here for this fascinating event!

Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Spain issue warning on DMA ahead of ministerial meeting

The Danish, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish embassies to the EU circulated a warning statement on Monday (22 November) ahead of the Competitiveness Council that is set to adopt the EU’s Digital Markets Act, a key piece of digital legislation, on 25 November.

The four countries addressed their EU peers stressing the need for improvements in the DMA, a landmark EU proposal to regulate online platforms that are so large they play a ‘gatekeeper’ role in the online economy.

In particular, the four EU countries regret that obligations to provide fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions of access for business users are “unambitiously limited” to app stores. By contrast, they want to see the scope of these provisions extended to social networks and search engines.

Read more here.

Europe’s social climate fund too small to make a difference, critics say

The European Commission proposed a “social climate fund” to protect vulnerable people from changes brought by the energy transition. Still, it is not fit for purpose, according to researchers and policymakers in the European Parliament.

The EU executive’s proposal came as part of a July package of climate legislation and was sold as a way to ensure the most vulnerable households are included in the green transition.

But the fund has been criticized for falling short of what’s needed to support the poorest European households. And the money is expected to come from a separate proposal to introduce a carbon market for road transport and buildings, which critics say risks fueling energy poverty.

“We are already observing a very worrying situation regarding rising energy prices and the Commission’s proposals may significantly worsen the situation,” said the Polish climate and environment minister, Adam Guibourgé-Czetwertyński at a ministerial meeting in October.

Read more here.