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In today's Morning Brief:

New INESC article published on Science Business: EU Cancer Mission depends on data

A new article by INESC – the fourth of the six agreed with Science|Business – has been published this morning. Titled EU Cancer Mission depends on data, the article reflects on the role of technology and data sharing and analysis to tackle the Cancer Mission, one of the priorities of EU research. The article includes a panoramic view of INESCs health technologies projects under three major dimensions – prevention, diagnostics and treatment of cancer. We cannot but thank Joana Matos Dias (INESC Coimbra) and the entire HUB Work Group Health Technologies for their excellent work on it!

The article can also be accessed on the HUB website. Please do not hesitate to circulate it in your professional and social networks. If you do use Twitter or Linkedin, remember to tag the HUB (Twitter: @HUBINESC).

 

INESC Brussels HUB spring meeting coming up (1-2 June 2021)

This might not sound like news, but we would like to remind you that the agenda of the INESC Brussels HUB Spring Meeting is available on the HUB website. The events that compose it will take place virtually on June 1st and 2nd, and will include a public workshop organised by the Work Group Agro-Food and Forestry, titled “Enhancing science-based knowledge on EU forests – its influence in decision making” (1 June, 10-12 CEST), and a public high-level roundtable on deep tech, featuring profiles from INESC and high-level European stakeholders in the area (1 June, 15-17 CEST). The events will take place on Zoom and registration is now open on the event pages.

The Spring Meeting will also include two events the participation in which is restricted to the Management Committee and selected observers: a thought leadership workshop on EU research career development (2 June, 10-12 CEST) and the Management Committee meeting (2 June, 14-17 CEST). The interested parties will receive instructions on how to register by email.

 

European Research and Innovation Days 2021 – Registrations open

The bespoke conference on R&I organised annualy by the European Commission is taking place on the 23rd and 24th June. Registration is now open and we recall that the agenda is available here.

 

Strategic autonomy emphasized by EU and UK alike

Both the EU stands firm on its plan to exclude researchers from the UK, Israel and other non-EU countries from “sensitive” parts of the bloc’s upcoming €95.5 billion research programme and the UK is following a similar path with the announced formation of a new unit that will offer confidential security advice to researchers before entering international collaborations, in a drive to protect research assets from “hostile actors” in China and other countries. Our take at the HUB is: the more you close yourself, the more retaliation it will happen. It is not intelligent to do that at this stage, when China and others are basically independent and ahead in many areas. But to the interest of our researchers, please beware of the consortia partners you bring in when sensitive technology is at stake.

 

Alternative funding needed: Commission awards Seal of Excellence certificates to 2,885 researchers

The Commission awarded 2,885 Seal of Excellence certificates to individual researchers under the MSCA call. The Seal of Excellence (SoE) quality label is awarded to applicants of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual Fellowships (IF) who scored highly in the call but in the end did not reach the funding because of budget limitations. The 2020 Individual Fellowships call received record 11,300-plus proposals. However, only 1,630 applicants were funded. Proposals obtaining at least 85% of the score get awarded the SoE quality label which underlines the value of these projects. The applicants proposing these projects may then use the SoE label to help find alternative funding. Thanks to SoE certificate, other funding bodies at national, regional and university-level are in a position to exploit the Horizon 2020 evaluation process if they wish.

 

Two new members to the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the EC

Commissioner Gabriel appointed two new members to the European Commission’s Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (GCSA) for the next three years. Professor Eva Zažímalová and Professor Eric F. Lambin were nominated by European Research Organisations and selected by an independent Identification Committee, and will replace Professor Carina Keskitalo and Sir Paul Nurse, whose mandates expired on 15 May 2021.

 

EIT Raw Materials Summit

EIT RawMaterials is part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) RawMaterials, an EU body forming the world’s largest consortium in the raw materials sector. On 17 June, the European Commission will join EIT RawMaterials for the RawMaterials Summit. This year’s edition, RawMaterials Summit: In Focus, will gather Europe’s foremost industry leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers and academics from across the raw materials value chain to showcase raw materials innovation enabling the EU Green Deal goal of a carbon-neutral future. More information on the event can be found here.

 

WaveFarm creates “plug’n’play” industrial package

Wave energy is a highly valuable and predictable source of renewable power. Up to 10% of the EU’s energy can be harvested from waves by 2050, so the technology will be indispensable in reaching net-zero emissions. Today, however, the installed capacity in Europe and the world is still very small and mostly restricted to demonstration units. To realise its full potential, the technology needs to be scaled up quickly.

That thought was on the minds of Christopher Ridgewell and Jussi Åkerberg, respectively CEO and CTO of AW-Energy, when in 2019 they submitted their WaveFarm project to the “Blue Economy Window”, an EU-funded financing facility.

The Finnish company had already developed, certified and demonstrated the WaveRoller, a submerged oscillating wave surge converter attached to the sea bottom near the shore. It generates electricity from the movement of the waves and is connected to the electric grid on land. A full-scale commercially-applicable WaveRoller unit was deployed in Portugal in October 2019. By integrating up to 24 WaveRoller units, the new project will deliver the world’s first large-scale, multiple-megawatt WaveFarm. Read more on this project here.

 

EU Green Week

Next week it will take place the EU Green Week, a series of events dedicated to the sustainability and green ambitions of the EU. This year, the Green Week will be dedicated to the ‘zero pollution ambition’. It will also look at other relevant European Green Deal initiatives, such as the climate initiatives, the upcoming Chemicals Strategy, as well as initiatives in the fields of energy, industry, mobility, agriculture, fisheries, health and biodiversity. The event promises to be an opportunity to engage with all stakeholders and interested citizens on how we can work together to make the ambition for a zero pollution and toxic-free environment a reality.

Check the event webpage for the full agenda.

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 »