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Policy

Ocean monitoring tools can tell scientists how climate change affects our waters. Image credit  — Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance (AORA)
environment | policy | open to the world
13 July 2017

South Atlantic agreement takes on board questions too big to be solved alone

Scientists from different continents are coordinating their research to provide a deeper understanding of the South Atlantic and Southern Ocean, thanks to an EU-led collaboration.

Many start-ups suffer because investors are too risk-averse. Image credit_Flickr/Berlin Startup Tours
policy
05 July 2017

Next EU research fund needs to help start-ups to scale-up

Fear of investing in innovation is preventing promising start-ups from reaching their full potential and that’s preventing growth across Europe, a conference on the future of EU research funding heard.

Former World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy says the EU’s next research funding programme should be twice as big. Image credit: Flickr/ Sebastiaan ter Burg
policy | interview
03 July 2017

The next EU science fund should be doubled in size – Pascal Lamy

The next EU research funding programme should be doubled in size to help fix Europe's growth problems, according to former World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy, who is chairing a group of experts selected by the European Commission to analyse which changes to make after the current programme expires in 2020.

Research institutes and policymakers have agreed to create the European Open Science Cloud to provide access to data from all publicly funded research carried out in the EU. Image credit: CC0
policy
15 June 2017

Europe joins forces to create largest ever shared data repository for researchers

World-leading research institutes have agreed to join forces with funding agencies and policymakers to create the European Open Science Cloud, the largest shared data repository in history.

Prof. Luke Georghiou says that Europe needs more companies that are able to apply research. Image credit: Prof. Luke Georghiou
policy | open innovation | interview
29 May 2017

Europe’s companies often need a kick-start for innovation – Prof. Luke Georghiou

Europe needs to demonstrate to many of its companies the benefits of innovation, according to Professor Luke Georghiou, the vice-president for research and innovation at the University of Manchester, UK.

Statistics such as the number of women on boards do not always tell the full story of gender balance. Image: Pexels/ energepic.com
policy | women in science
16 May 2017

Gender equality figures promising but not the full story

Relying just on numbers to assess gender equality is insufficient because companies and researchers are smart enough to game the system, a conference in Brussels, Belgium, has heard.

Prof. Eliezer Rabinovici helped to set up SESAME so researchers in the Middle East could access a particle accelerator closer to home.
policy | frontier research | open to the world | interview
16 May 2017

Mid-East particle accelerator is ‘lighthouse’ for mutual understanding – co-founder

The first Middle East particle accelerator – officially opened on 16 May – sets an example for young researchers on how a small group of people can build bridges across the troubled region, according to one of the original founders of the project, Professor Eliezer Rabinovici from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, who also holds the Louis Michel Chair at France’s Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques.

European scientists are tackling some of the challenges that we’ll be facing in the next 60 years.
policy
09 May 2017

10 breakthroughs to shape Europe for the next 60 years

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the EU. During that time, the EU has provided more than EUR 200 billion to advance our understanding of the world around us and develop innovations to tackle the challenges faced by our society. At the halfway point of the EU’s biggest research and innovation funding programme, Horizon 2020, we explore a selection of EU-funded projects whose breakthroughs could help to shape Europe during the next 60 years.

Over 1 million migrants arrived in southern Europe by boat in 2015. Credit: Flickr/ Freedom House
policy | open to the world
08 May 2017

Migration blind spots add impetus to Euro-Mediterranean research push

There is an urgent need to understand what would enable the middle-class families that make up the majority of Europe’s migrants to stay in their home countries, a meeting to secure research collaborations across the Mediterranean has heard.

Scientists should step up efforts to make their results widely available in order to dispel alternative facts, according to Prof. Van Langenhove.
interview | policy | open to the world
11 April 2017

How ‘alternative facts’ could be tackled with science diplomacy

Science diplomacy – where scientific collaboration is used to promote broader discussions between countries – enables scientists to help tackle issues such as protectionism and government control over research findings, and could even mitigate the future threat of wars over knowledge and data, according to Professor Luk Van Langenhove, research professor at the Institute of European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.

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