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Projeler
Education commissioner Tibor Navracsics has told the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) to advance reforms and simplify its processes.
Research commissioner Carlos Moedas, however, says the European Innovation Council (EIC) will struggle to compete with EIT and its already remarkable achievements. Speaking at the EIT conference in Budapest, Hungary, on Monday, Moedas said: “I’m asking you not to fear where your place will be alongside the EIC, but to define it. The EIT has done a great job.”
The EIT has been criticised for its suffocating ‘red tape’, its gender balance figures, and the way in which it is promoted. Navracsics, also speaking in Budapest, said: “The EIT Governing Board, its administration and the KICs [Knowledge and Innovation Communities] know that they have my total support. The EIT has had growing pains”, he admitted, before stating that reform “needs to be pushed further and faster”.
The weaknesses in the EIT’s practices were highlighted in a report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), which recommended the abandonment of the annual cycle of EIT funding, improving “poorly defined” KIC complementary activities, providing greater evidence of tangible results and expanding its geographical concentration. Improvements in each of these areas, Navracsics conceded, would all contribute to greater public support. “We can do much better,” he said. “I look forward to seeing real progress at next year’s event.”
Entrepreneurs that have experienced the benefit of the EIT, however, have only good things to say of it. Dr Chris Emmott, who is helping to bring affordable solar energy to homes in Uganda and Rwanda said: “Without the EIT, I’d still be doing research.”
Co-founder of Dutch start-up Nerdalize, Florian Schneider, said: “[The EIT] put their fingers on the pain points in our business plan. They also forced us to be ruthless and find customers and investors.”
The EIT was formed in 2008 to combine academic and industrial expertise in KICs to focusing on renewable energy, climate change, health, raw materials and new-generation IT projects.
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The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) has launched a €60m call for proposals to focus on the challenges of drug development.
The amount is to be matched by European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) for their own contribution to groundbreaking projects.
The core research proposals include: improving the understanding of antimicrobial resistance for an EU-wide research platform; the delivery of a model and platform for carrying out detailed studies of flu vaccine effectiveness in Europe; the delivery of simple biological markers (e.g. blood tests) that could be used to predict which patients could develop serious liver diseases; the delivery of tools and knowledge for developing personalised treatments in rheumatic disease; and facilitating research in the development of new software to test drug toxicity, thereby reducing animal testing in medicines safety and data quality.
IMI executive director Pierre Meulien said: “The diversity of the topics in this new Call for proposals reflects the sheer variety of challenges that still exist in medicines research and development. IMI is committed to tackling these challenges head on, by creating collaborative projects that bring together the brightest and best from academia, pharmaceutical companies, small companies, patient groups, public health institutes and others.”
IMI is a partnership between the European Union and the European pharmaceutical industry. IMI has a budget of €3.3bn for the period 2014-2024. Half of this is provided by Horizon 2020 with the remaining half by the pharmaceutical sector that do not receive EU funding, but contribute to the projects ‘in other ways, e.g. via research collaborations and access to facilities and resources’.
IMI projects are delivering innovative research and groundbreaking results that help to advance urgently-needed new treatments.
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A European Research Council team have discovered that xenon gas which was found in a German spring originated from multiple extra-terrestrial sources.
The team studied spring mineral water from Germany’s Eifel region, which was discovered to contain noble gases which emanate from a source in the Earth’s mantle. Such gases are usually difficult to study as they are colourless, odourless, non-flammable, and easily contaminated by the atmosphere, but researchers were able to separate the xenon out from the spring water, where they were able to measure its abundance and subject it to analysis using a spectrometer to discover its isotopic composition.
It was discovered that the xenon contains a component that differs from the precursor of atmospheric xenon, meaning that the xenon discovered in the Earth’s mantle is from a distinct source. The team describes the source as extra-terrestrial bodies, similar to asteroids, in the paper which is published in the journal Nature. The scientists also calculated that the gas was formed around 4.45 billion years ago, which may mean that studying it could offer some key insights into the formation of the Earth.
The researchers were led by Professor Bernard Marty, from the Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques, France, who received an ERC grant in 2011 and has recently been selected to receive another under Horizon 2020.
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240 million people in 45 developing and/or conflict-affected nations have been reported by the EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) as in a ‘food stress’ situation.
Among these, 80 million are reported as being in a ‘food crisis’. Just over half of these (41.7 million) live in countries consistently affected by the El Niño weather system.
A European Commission report compiled by JRC scientists in collaboration with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) identifies those countries in the most desperate need of assistance. The report also lays out short, medium and long-term plans with the objective of strengthening resilience in these areas.
‘Regarding regions with food security concerns,’ the report concludes, ‘weather anomalies related to El Niño are most marked in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Horn of Africa, southern Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, and South America. Remarkably, the West African Sahel is not affected by the El Niño phenomenon, even though it is structurally vulnerable to drought. The impacts of the current El Niño phenomenon have been particularly high in Ethiopia (which is facing the worst drought in 30 years), Papua New Guinea (where one-third of the population is affected by food shortages), Haiti and the Dry Corridor of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua). Its impact has also been strongly felt in southern African countries.’
The nations listed in the report as causing the most concern due to conflict are Syria and Yemen in the Middle East, and Sudan, South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR) in Africa.
The report states that ‘years of conflict have destroyed agricultural infrastructures, displaced farmers and disrupted the regional food and agricultural input trade. Many farmers cannot access or afford inputs, which have soared in price and degraded in quality. Livestock production is also suffering, as animal feed is scarce and costly. Veterinary services are also lacking. Many farmers have lost their assets or have abandoned their fields and animals because of the conflict.
‘Displaced and refugee populations do not have access to assets and face difficulties in entering the labour markets in hosting communities.
‘The malnutrition situation of refugees is mainly attributed to the lack of quality and diversity of diet.’
The JRC is the European Commission’s science and knowledge service which, funded by Horizon 2020, employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy. The full report is available here.
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European commissioners Günther H Oettinger, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, and Carlos Moedas will appear at the Digitising European Industry conference event in Hannover, Germany, today.
The event was opened yesterday by US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who presided over this year’s Hermes Award – going to Harting Technologiegruppe. The event continues today with the opening presentation being delivered by Oettinger, who will offer the stage to Bieńkowska and then Moedas, before returning later and handing over to US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.
Hannover Messe 2016 presents the opportunity for innovators to exhibit their cutting edge mechanical and electrical engineering enterprises. Comprising the key theme of intelligent energy systems, Hannover Messe 2016 will focus on Industrie 4.0 and the Industrial Internet.
Dr Jochen Köckler of the Deutsche Messe managing board said: “Hannover Messe will bring together the best of both worlds. German industry will be climbing into the ring with their world famous engineering prowess, while their US counterparts will be flexing their muscles as creators of novel data-based business models. It will be a case of ‘Industrie 4.0 meets the Industrial Internet’. And Hannover Messe 2016 will reveal the potential for common ground between the two approaches.”
The Robotics Award will be presented tomorrow (26 April) by Köckler and by Olaf Lies, minister for economic affairs, labour and transport in Lower Saxony, to one of the following nominees: FARO Europe GmbH & Co. KG, pi4 robotics GmbH, or pi4 robotics GmbH.
For livestreaming and further information about this year’s event, click here.
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European innovators meet in Budapest, Hungary, today for the two-day INNOVEIT 2016 event organised by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
Convening more than 350 entrepreneurs, business representatives, academics, researchers and policy makers, the event offers the opportunity to discuss collaboration with the aim of impacting some of Europe’s most pressing societal challenges. Debates will also focus upon economic growth through innovation and honours will be given in recognition of successful start-ups and entrepreneurial abilities through the EIT Awards.
Some of this year’s nominees have been featured by Forbes magazine’s list of bright young entrepreneurs, ’30 under 30’.
EIT Interim Director Martin Kern said: “INNOVEIT is the key moment of the year for the EIT, showcasing our work – bringing together entrepreneurs, researchers and academics from across Europe to make innovation happen. By working together, we are developing new products and services that address major global challenges such as climate change, digitalisation, sustainable energy, health and the supply of raw materials, thereby supporting economic growth and job creation and creating the future of Europe.”
The EIT is an independent body of the EU that develops and boosts successful innovation, entrepreneurship and the awareness of societal challenges.
Chairman of EIT’s governing board Peter Olesen added: “The EIT community provides effective support to entrepreneurs across Europe. The EIT’s innovation communities have already developed 200 innovative start-ups and more than 140 new products and services. Almost 500 students graduated from the EIT educational programmes, and that’s just the beginning. INNOVEIT is a great forum to share experience and best practices on making innovation happen.”
To find out more, or to view the event through livestreaming, click here.
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The KIC InnoEnergy has announced the six start-ups, innovations and individuals it has nominated for the upcoming European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) awards.
The EIT awards are an annual event, this year taking place as part of the INNOVEIT event, on 24 April in Budapest, Hungary. KIC InnoEnergy, which describes itself as ‘the innovation engine for sustainable energy across Europe’, has put forward six nominees in three categories.
Diego Pavia, CEO of KIC InnoEnergy, said that the awards were an indication of the high-calibre work being undertaken by the nominees: “INNOVEIT is a great showcase of innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe. We are thrilled to have such a high calibre of candidates up for nomination, and we look forward to cheering them on during the ceremony later this month.”
The categories are the Innovation Award, which recognises innovative products and services with high potential for societal and economic impact, and for which the KIC nominated BIPV Insight, a Photovoltaics company, and MrCySeMol, which developed a CAD tool for cyber security; the Venture Award, which rewards start-ups and new SMEs, and for which the KIC nominated Eco-Dryer Systems, an energy efficient tumble dryer, and Pro-Drone, which offers an infrastructure inspection solution; and the CHANGE Award, which is given to individuals, and for which Allen Ali Mohammadi, who developed a complex disease detector, and Carlos González, who worked on a directional fault passage indicator, were nominated.
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UK trade company World First has published its first 2016 quarterly report that highlights the uncertainty that could be caused by a UK exit from the EU for its SMEs.
The report combines World First research data with a YouGov survey of 730 UK-based SMEs. By revealing how exchange rates affect UK businesses, the report also showcases the strategic importance of the EU for UK SMEs – 25% of which report the upcoming referendum as having negative impacts during this quarter, and 15% stating that investment decisions have likewise been affected due to market volatility.
World First chief economist Jeremy Cook says: “[Pound] sterling has become increasingly volatile as markets react to the possibility of a Brexit and all the uncertainties that would go with that. What has been surprising is the SME reaction, with shorter hedge contracts being preferred. With the outcome of the vote still uncertain, many SMEs find themselves in an environment that makes it difficult to plan in many areas of their business and this is typified by indecision amongst SMEs when it comes to currency strategy.”
Claire Skentelbery of Scientists for EU adds: “[UK] SMEs will be affected in many ways other than loss of access to direct EU research funds. Trade, employment and regulatory barriers will be the first negative impact, followed by a decline in the UK scientific ecosystem that supports investment and access to skills.”
This volatility, as well as the possibility of being disqualified from H2020 funding, does not deter UK SMEs from either international trade or the exploration of new markets, with the World First report showing a quarter on quarter increase of 30% in trade between UK SMEs and, for example, India and New Zealand.
According to the report: ‘The currency most traded by UK SMEs is the euro, with 49% taking place in this currency, reinforcing the EU’s role as the UK’s biggest trade partner. However, World First’s data also shows that UK SMEs were particularly busy trading with New Zealand, India and Sweden in the first quarter of this year. This follows over 30% increases in the volumes of these currencies bought or sold by World First’s SME clients in Q1 2016 compared with Q4 2015.’
The full World First report, SME Global Trade Barometer, is available here.
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The European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) has urged the European Commission to take a ‘security by design’ approach to its new digitisation strategy.
The commission announced its new digitisation strategy earlier this week, along with plans to create new digital infrastructure to support those industries which are lagging behind in the adoption of digital technologies.
In a speech delivered to the Industry, Research and Energy Committee Meeting at the European Parliament, ENISA Executive Director Udo Helmbrecht argued that the development of new infrastructure and digital products should focus on cybersecurity as a market differentiator. “Recognising that this will place an additional cost on industry, I believe that the importance of information security will prevail and the extra cost will be justified in terms of consumer confidence. One supporting activity to achieve this objective is the use of appropriate security standards in public procurement.”
Helmbrecht went on to say that he felt ENISA’s role was crucial to implementing digitisation in Europe: “I consider the diversity of different member states approach to network and information security as an advantage for Europe, and that ENISA has the unique role of bringing together this knowledge, experience and willingness to work together for the benefit of EU industry and the citizens of the EU.”
ENISA has criticised the commission’s lack of focus on cyber security in the past, and Helmbrecht re-emphasised this, but expressed a desire that the organisation would place more focus on this area in the future.
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