Tag: Horizon 2020

The European Commission, member states and industry will invest more than €22 billion over the next seven years in innovation. The investment will primarily go to special sectors via five public-private partnerships called Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs).

Several European Commissioners say they regret the cuts in the 2014-2020 EU budget, agreed on Friday (8 February) after a marathon 24-hour summit. However, the Commissioners expressed hope that the European Parliament would approve the deal.

INTERVIEW / The Dutch multinational Unilever wants to boost its participation in EU research programmes to develop the breakthrough technologies it needs to cut the water use and CO₂ emissions of its products by half – two of its key environmental objectives.

SPECIAL REPORT / Nanotechnologies that deliver fertilisers to plants offer promising ways of improving farm productivity while reducing the risk of water contamination. But the scientists behind a new Swiss-funded study caution that while the technology is still evolving, potential risks must be considered.

The EU's research budget must not be allowed to dip below a minimum of €80 billion as a result of the ongoing budget negotiations for 2014-2020, says Portuguese MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho, the European Parliament's rapporteur on the EU's proposed Horizon 2020 research programme.

SPECIAL REPORT / EU ministers with research portfolios have agreed new funding procedures for SMEs so that they can more easily access funds from the EU’s next framework programme for research – called Horizon 2020 – but the exact sums remain in doubt.

SPECIAL REPORT / Innovative technologies will form the core of a new industrial policy that the European Commission will put forward next month. But its success relies on a sharp increase of the EU's budget, which will be a hard sell for cash-strapped EU nations struggling to contain their budget deficits.

Travelling across Europe by rail, coach or other services would become easier if EU national governments would do a better job of sharing information and using technology to improve trip planning, said EU officials trying to spur transport efficiency.

Following last month’s Bologna Process Ministerial Conference, Professor Helena Nazaré writes that expenditure in higher education should be deemed an investment rather than a cost, and exhorts governments not to ignore higher education as a by-product of the wider financial crisis.

An ongoing tussle between the EU institutions over the future funding of a controversial nuclear fusion project – which will come under the spotlight during the Danish EU presidency – threatens to hack into the European Commission’s €85-billion Horizon 2020 budget proposal.

The European commissioner for research and innovation, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, has publicly sought the support and advice of Internet rivals Microsoft and Google in her quest to carry through the EU executive’s ambitious €80-billion Horizon 2020 research programme.

Portuguese MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho (European People's Party) is calling for more structural funds to be used for research in a new report to be discussed at a Parliamentary workshop later this month. She is a firm believer that Europe needs to spend more on science and research to emerge from its current economic malaise.