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 this Morning Brief we start out with a fresh new episode of “The Insider”, INESC Brussels Hub’s weekly podcast continuing our Deep Tech series with Science|Business, this time discussing deep tech in a climate and carbon capture point of view. We also let you know of events related to Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 organised by Science|Business and the European Commission, the latest regarding the Conference on the Future of Europe and much 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:

“The Insider”- new episode with Christoph Beuttler

Don’t miss the newest episode of the of “The Insider”, INESC Brussels Hub’s weekly podcast, continuing our Deep Tech series with Science|Business. In this episode we sit down with Christoph Beuttler, Head of Climate Policy at Climeworks.

We delve into a very important area in deep tech: climate and the importance of carbon capture. Make sure to click here to listen to the episode in full and subscribe to it on your favourite podcast-listening platform.

 

Horizon Europe: The first assessment

Horizon Europe, the EU’s biggest-ever research and innovation programme is finally underway. So how is the programme going? In this annual Science|Business conference taking place between 8 and 9 February, members and guests will offer the first public assessments of HE.

The conference assessments will be assisted by surveys and research by the Science|Business news team in the months leading up to the event. The results will include a high-impact white paper – a first report card for Europe’s biggest bet on the future.

Find more information about the conference and register here.

 

Member States urged to convene for discussions on supporting young researchers

The Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE), which brings together European learned societies and research organisations, is calling on EU member states to support young researchers whose careers have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

ISE hopes EU research ministers, who are convening in Paris this week, will respond to the call for a conference discussing the precarity faced by young researchers during the pandemic, an idea that was first floated around by the former European Research Council President Jean-Pierre Bourguignon in November.

The precariousness of research careers is a growing issue in Europe, with young researchers complaining of being low salaries, lack of permanent contracts and job security, which can lead talent to leave academia or seek science careers in other parts of the world.

Find out more here.

 

Future of Europe: people’s ideas for democracy and the planet

The Conference on the Future of Europe plenary of 21-22 January debated people’s ideas on how to improve democracy, rule of law, environment and health in the EU.

More than 40 representatives of European citizens’ panels and national panels discussed their recommendations for a better Europe with members of the European Parliament and their counterparts from the national parliaments, representatives of EU institutions and national governments, regional and local authorities, trade unions and civil society.

Make sure to click here to read or watch the recommendations that came out of this session.

 

Universities call for support adapting to the new Erasmus+ programme

The Guild is urging the European Commission and national agencies to help universities meet the expectations of Erasmus+.

The new seven-year framework for the programme provides new types of support for students such as top-up grants for environmentally-friendly ways of travelling, short-term and blended mobility, and grant top-ups for applicants with fewer opportunities. Universities are reportedly struggled to meet these new mobility expectations as Erasmus+ funding in 2021 remained at 2018 levels.

The Guild hopes universities can work with the Commission and national authorities to find long-term and immediate fixes to the arising problems, such as national co-funding, greater flexibility at reporting stage, and support mechanisms to reach the top-up targets.

 

European Investment Bank boosts COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to countries in need

Werner Hoyer, the President of the EIB backed a new funding call from COVAX, the global initiative to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world. Hoyer said that the EIB would make an extra €300 million available to enable African countries to access additional doses through COVAX.

The new €300 million commitment from the EIB builds on the Bank’s support for €1 billion of vaccine purchases over the last year. It targets the acute needs of sub-Saharan Africa, where the EIB is working with a network of African partners, including the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team. The innovative funding will ensure that African countries can quickly purchase more vaccines and double the percentage of their populations immunised against COVID-19 from 30% to 60%.

Find out more about this initiative here.

 

Webinar: Avoiding errors in declaring personnel costs in Horizon 2020 grants

The European Commission has organised a webinar on February 16th from 10h00 to 12h00 (CET) on how to find a way to correctly declare personnel costs in Horizon 2020 grants.

The webinar will feature Peter Härtwich, Head of Unit at the European Commission’s Research DG; David Mejuto Gayoso and Sorin Serban. There is no registration needed, just click this link.

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 »