June 2012

“Brussels in Brief”:
Highlights on EU policies and funding programmes related to the knowledge-based economy: The “Lisbon Strategy”

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  • General EU Information

    General EU Information

    • European Commission

      2012-06-27 - European Commission: building blocks towards economic growth

      On 28th and 29th June, EU leaders will come together at the European Council to agree on a comprehensive package of measures to boost growth and jobs in the European Union, a "Compact for Growth And Jobs". This package builds on significant measures taken by the European Commission in recent years. Since the launch of the Europe 2020 Strategy two years ago, the Commission has introduced a number of initiatives to help overcome the crisis, kick-start growth and create more and better jobs in the EU. At this defining moment for European integration, it is time to step up a gear in creating a smart, sustainable and inclusive EU economy. This note gives an overview of the initiatives that the Commission has tabled and that are expected get full support from the European Council through the adoption of the Compact for Growth and Jobs.

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    • European Parliament

      2012-06-11 - 2012-06-14 - Plenary Session - Strasbourg

      Parliament will vigorously fight the plan, agreed by Home Affairs Ministers on 7 June, to change the legal basis for evaluating the working of the Schengen visa-free area, pledged President Martin Schulz in his opening speech. The switch was sharply criticized by almost all political groups, as an attack on EU citizens' basic rights. He also warned Serbia's President Tomislav Nikolic against rewriting history and drew attention to the trials of Sakharov prizewinners Leyla Zana and Asmaa Mahfouz.

      Further information
  • EU policies and funding programmes for Research, Innovation, Training and Competitiveness

    EU policies and funding programmes for Research, Innovation, Training and Competitiveness

    • Research Policy

      • European Research and Innovation projects
        • ICT
          2012-06-21 - Working in harmony makes for beautiful music

          Researchers believe coordinated action is fundamental for fuelling social interaction. In a new study, an international team of scientists found that musical performances are executed better when the non-verbal sensorimotor communication between the conductor and the musician is maximised. The study, presented in the journal PLoS ONE, was supported in part by two EU-funded projects: SIEMPRE ('Social interaction and entertainment using music performance experimentation') and POETICON ('The poetics of everyday life: grounding resources and mechanisms for artificial agents'). Funded under the 'Information and communication technologies' (ICT) Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), SIEMPRE is backed with almost EUR 2 million and POETICON received more than EUR 3 million.

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          2012-06-27 - Europeans develop open-source software for biosciences

          Processing bioimaging data has just become easier, thanks to new open-source software for multidimensional image visualisation, processing and analysis, developed by a team of German and Finnish researchers. In the making for the last 10 years, the so-called BioImageXD software is facilitating the analysis of cell and tissue functions, including how molecules move on cell surfaces and how they bond together. Presented in the journal Nature Methods, the study was funded in part by a grant under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Researchers from Turku and Jyväskylä in Finland and Dresden in Germany are giving the life sciences sector an edge by providing software that enables analysis of cell surface composition. The software also allows researchers to probe the spread of cancer cells in a three-dimensional (3D) environment and to determine how effectively viruses and targeted drugs enter cells, something that has never been done before.

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        • Health
          2012-06-01 - Life expectancy for HIV patients improving

          Life expectancy for HIV patients treated with antiretroviral drugs, now considered common course in treating the virus, can expect to live considerably longer lives, new research from the United Kingdom shows. This study was funded in part by the EUROCOORD ('European network of HIV/AIDS cohort studies to coordinate at European and international level clinical research on HIV/AIDS') project, which is backed with EUR 12 million under the Health Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). EUROCOORD brings together a number of other networks, all of which have played a central role in developing our understanding, progression and treatment of HIV.

          Further information
          2012-06-01 - Less training for faster running times? Danish study says it's possible

          With the summer sport season well under way, runners across Europe are taking advantage of the longer evenings and getting in plenty of extra training sessions while the good weather holds out. But how would they react if they were told increasing their training schedules will actually do nothing to help them improve their personal bests? That's the view of a team of Danish researchers who has just published a study exploring a new type of training concept that can improve both a person's running performance and health, despite a significant reduction in the total amount of training time. Writing in the Journal of Applied of Physiology, the team from the University of Copenhagen present their new '10-20-30' training concept. Runners in their study improved performance on a 1 500-metre run by 23 seconds, and on a 5-km run by almost a minute, despite a 50% reduction in their total amount of training time over a 7-week period.

          Further information
          2012-06-05 - Study shows mothers who smoke impact baby weight and size

          Researchers have long recognised the risk smoking poses to babies, such as suffering from heart and brain defects. Now a new study from Spain provides evidence that babies born to mothers who smoke do in fact weigh and measure less. Presented in the journal Early Human Development, the findings show the babies' corporal dimensions are much lower compared to children of whose mothers did not smoke. A team of researchers at the University of Zaragoza in Spain evaluated 1,216 newborn babies to determine differences in body composition and proportional distribution of body mass between newborn babies whose mothers smoked and those who did not smoke during their development. The gestational age of the babies was at least 37 weeks. The study confirms that mothers who smoke give birth to babies that weigh and measure less.

          Further information
          2012-06-05 - Scientists unlock blood mystery in mummy

          Vampires and werewolves can step aside because a real life mummy has just taken the spotlight. Scientists recently discovered the oldest blood known to modern science inside a mummy. Ötzi is a 5 000-year-old glacier mummy, discovered accidently by a pair of tourists in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian-Italian border in 1991. While scientists got a rare glimpse into the life of Ötzi around the time he was alive, many years Before the Common Era (BCE), researchers failed to identify any traces of blood... until now.

          Further information
          2012-06-05 - Proteins working hard on secretion in cells, say researchers

          EU-funded scientists have discovered that 15% of the proteins encoded by the human genome contribute to the process of secretion in cells. Writing in the journal Nature Cell Biology, the team, from Germany and Ireland, reports that their findings are the results of a study of more than 8 million individual cells. Their work was supported by the MITOCHECK ('Regulation of mitosis by phosphorylation - A combined functional genomics, proteomics and chemical biology approach') project, which received EUR 8,578,177 of funding under the ' Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health' Thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

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          2012-06-06 - Visual perception improved by magnetic stimulation

          What we see is not always what we get. In fact, contrary to popular belief, people with perfect eyesight do not really perceive everything that happens before them. The brain simply won't allow it. It does this so that we don't overload our senses, and in fact the brain frequently 'buffers' our perception, allowing us to register what it deems appropriate. This process is likened to a digital transmission of images whereby an initial visual scan is made, and then, to reduce data transmissions, only changes to the initial visual scan are transmitted. However, one international team of researchers has achieved some amazing results in this area of visual perception, supported by the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) via the ERA-Net Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research (NEURON) and the Marie Curie Intra-European Programme. Through the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the BEYONDVIS ('When attention meets perception') project team have enhanced the visual abilities of a group of healthy subjects, allowing them to perceive a lot more of what is really before them.

          Further information
          2012-06-06 - Getting to know retroviruses better could lead to improved drug treatments

          Czech and German researchers have for the first time uncovered the detailed structure of the shell surrounding the genetic material of retroviruses, when they are still being formed - a crucial and potentially vulnerable stage in their life cycle. A retrovirus is a ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus that is duplicated in a host cell using the reverse transcriptase enzyme to produce deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from its RNA genome. Then the DNA is incorporated into the host's genome by an integrase enzyme after which the virus replicates as part of the host cell's DNA. One of the most well-known retroviruses is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), part of the lentivirus group, a subset of the retrovirus family.

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          2012-06-06 - Simulations show 3-degree warming possible

          Thousands of people from around the world volunteered their home computers to run a complex atmosphere-ocean climate model, enabling scientists to better forecast the impact of changing climate patterns. As a result of their efforts, scientists concluded that global warming of 3 degrees Celsius is possible. The study, presented in the journal Nature Geoscience, was supported in part by the EU-funded projects WATCH and ENSEMBLES. Both WATCH ('Water and global change') and ENSEMBLES ('Ensemble-based predictions of climate changes and their impacts') were funded under the ' Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems' Thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) to the tune of EUR 9.98 million and EUR 15 million, respectively.

          Further information
          2012-06-07 - Ants treat their sick and keep pathogens in check

          Researchers in Germany and Austria have successfully demonstrated how micro-infections promote social vaccination in ant societies. Presented in the journal PLoS Biology, the study was supported in part by two EU-funded projects: SOCIALVACCINES and LATENTCAUSES. Both SOCIALVACCINES ('Social vaccination in ant colonies: from individual mechanisms to society effects') and LATENTCAUSES ('Modelling latent causes in molecular networks') were funded under the European Research Council (ERC) of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of EUR 1.3 million and EUR 1.24 million, respectively.

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          2012-06-11 - Study shows calorie restriction keeps heart young

          Researchers in Italy and the United States have discovered that people who consume fewer calories in order to live longer have hearts that function more like those of people who are 20 years younger. The findings of the study are presented in the journal Aging Cell. Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in the United States and Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome, Italy identified that a key measure of the heart's capacity to adapt to physical activity, stress, sleep and other elements that impact the rate at which a heart pumps blood doesn't decline nearly as rapidly in people who restrict how many calories they consume for around seven years, compared with the hearts of those who do not limit their caloric intake.

          Further information
          2012-06-12 - Venomous snail key behind therapeutic molecules

          Can a painkiller be re-engineered to get a closer look at how proteins bind to communication channels? Researchers across Europe are using state-of-the-art computing techniques to re-engineer a painkiller from the XEP-018 protein, which was identified inside the venom of the Conus consors, a species of sea snail. The study is funded in part by the CONCO ('Applied venomics of the cone snail species Conus consors for the accelerated, cheaper, safer and more ethical production of innovative biomedical drugs') project, which is backed with more than EUR 10 million under the 'Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health' Thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). CONCO, gathering 19 European partners and the J.Craig Venter Institute in the United States, is using the venomous sea snail to develop new therapeutic molecules.

          Further information
          2012-06-13 - Key discovery of protein that controls nerve cell protection

          Neuroscientists in the United Kingdom have made an extraordinary new discovery that could lead to new therapies for stroke and epilepsy. The discovery involves a key protein that can regulate the transfer of information between nerve cells in the brain. When activated, it could protect neurons from damage during heart failure or epileptic seizure. This study was funded in part by a European Research Council (ERC) grant under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and was published in the journals Nature Neuroscience and PNAS.

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          2012-06-15 - Scientists pinpoint malaria parasite hotspots with new technique

          In a groundbreaking study, an international team of scientists has created a novel tool to identify hotspots of malaria parasite evolution, and to quickly and efficiently track the increase of malarial drug resistance. The findings are presented in the journal Nature. Led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom, the researchers used new sequencing technologies and informatics methods to evaluate malaria genomes from 227 patient blood samples in six countries. They identified a number of differences in how malaria develops in Africa, Asia and Oceania. Mosquitoes spread the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which is responsible for severe forms of malaria infection. More than 200 million people suffer from malaria, and around 600 000 die from this disease each year. Children living in sub-Saharan Africa, aged five and under, are affected most.

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          2012-06-15 - Prion busting molecules

          Newly developed self-illuminating polymers have been intentionally designed with the ability to home in on toxic prions and render them harmless, offering the potential to cure fatal nerve-destroying illnesses. This Swedish-Swiss study was supported in part by the LUPAS ('Luminescent polymers for in vivo imaging of amyloid signatures') project, which is backed with almost EUR 5 million under the Health Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The findings were presented in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

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          2012-06-18 - Europeans crack embryonic stem cells mystery

          Europeans are driving research and technology, and their latest achievement is in discovering that embryonic stem cell properties are impacted by the laboratory conditions used to grow them. In their groundbreaking study, a European team of researchers evaluated embryonic stem cells grown in a pure undifferentiated state. The use of next generation sequencing technology enabled them to analyse gene expression (i.e. transcriptome) and chromatin modifications (i.e. epigenome). The study, presented in the journal Cell, was supported in part by four EU-funded projects: HEROIC, PLURISYS, EUROSYSTEM and ATLAS. The results pinpoint key differences between pure stem cells and embryonic stem cells grown in laboratory settings.

          Further information
          2012-06-20 - Final piece in the puzzle: scientists complete the genome of the bonobo - the last great ape to be sequenced

          An international team of scientists has successfully sequenced the genome of the bonobo (Pan paniscus), which is, along with the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), one of man's closest relatives. Although they are similar in many respects, bonobos and chimpanzees differ from each other in striking ways and the study shows that 3% of the human genome is more closely related to either the bonobo or the chimpanzee genome than these are to each other. The study, published in the journal Nature, brought together researchers from Austria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Spain, Turkey, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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          2012-06-22 - Researchers make progress on early detection of resistance to colorectal cancer drugs

          Mutations in a gene called KRAS are causally associated with acquired resistance to targeted therapies for colorectal cancers (CRC), according to new findings from EU-funded researchers from Italy and their research colleagues in the United States. Writing in the journal Nature, the team explain that patients often develop resistance to colorectal cancer drugs that target epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFRs). The team show in cell-line models that KRAS mutations can cause resistance to an anti-EGFR therapy called cetuximab. These mutations can either be acquired during treatment or may have pre-existed in a small fraction of tumour cells before treatment.

          Further information
          2012-06-22 - Eat slowly and reduce diabetes risk

          Your parents must have told you a thousand times - don't eat so fast, slow down! Now it appears that scientific research is backing them up. At the recent joint International Congress of Endocrinology and European Congress of Endocrinology in Florence, Italy, a research team from Lithuania presented their research showing that people who eat their food quickly are 2.5 times more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes than those who take their time during meals. The research team led by Dr Lina Radzeviciene from the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences scientifically determined for the first time the role that eating speed has as an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

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          2012-06-25 - Europeans to fight tuberculosis with innovative technique

          A European team of scientists is working on making new tuberculosis treatments a reality by developing better diagnostic imaging technology. The study is supported by the PREDICT-TB ('Model-based preclinical development of anti-tuberculosis drug combinations') project, which has clinched almost EUR 14.8 million from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). IMI is a public-private partnership between the EU and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The PREDICT-TB team is working together with the European pharmaceutical industry; the project's coordinator is the United Kingdom-based GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. Results will help the many patients suffering from this airborne infectious disease: almost 9 million people worldwide currently have tuberculosis.

          Further information
          2012-06-25 - Regular meals keep teenagers slimmer, say Spanish researchers

          EU research has shown that eating regular meals helps teenagers stay slimmer, regardless of their exercise regime, according to a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Scientists working at the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition (ICTAN), part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), have found that adolescents who have more than four meals a day are thinner than their peers. More than 25 % of Spanish teenagers are overweight or obese, and so finding ways to help them stay slim is imperative for their well-being and for the country's health budget.

          Further information
          2012-06-26 - Researchers find exome sequencing is fast and cheap

          Dutch researchers in a new study have discovered that exome sequencing offers good, fast and cheap diagnosis of heterogeneous disease. Presenting their results at the recent European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) conference, the researchers genetically diagnosed around 20% of 100 cases of patients with intellectual disability and 50% of 25 cases of patients with blindness. Researchers at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands observed that the exome test surpasses the commonly used Sanger sequencing method, which uses the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as a template to produce a set of fragments that differ in length from each other by a single base. These fragments are later separated by size, and the bases at the end are then identified, recreating the original sequence of the DNA. The main advantages of exome sequencing are that it is quick and low-cost.

          Further information
          2012-06-26 - European scientists move closer to solving stillbirth mystery

          Researchers from Europe and the United States have made an important step towards resolving the mystery of stillbirth, an Italian researcher announced on Tuesday. Intrauterine foetal demise (IUFD), or stillbirth, where a baby dies in the womb after the 14th week of pregnancy is responsible for 60% of perinatal mortality and occurs in about 1 in every 200 pregnancies in Europe. Around half of these stillbirths are unexplained, but scientists from Germany, Italy and the United States believe that up to 8% of these deaths may be caused by specific genetic heart conditions.

          Further information
          2012-06-27 - British scientists investigate role of stress in Alzheimer's

          A number of illnesses are known to develop earlier or to be exacerbated due to chronic stress, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and multiple sclerosis. However, scant research exists on the role chronic stress plays for those with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease. One in three people over the age of 65 will die with dementia: research carried out by the British Alzheimer's Society shows that 800 000 people in the United Kingdom suffer from a form of dementia, and that more than half of these have Alzheimer's. In 10 years, a million people will be living with dementia, and this figure will soar to 1.7 million by 2051. It is therefore imperative that researchers gain a greater understanding of the disease if they are to find ways to hinder its development.

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          2012-06-29 - Scientists uncover why human sense of smell is so poor

          A European team of scientists has discovered that the olfactory bulb, a structure in vertebrate brains that processes sensory input from the nose, has something completely unique in humans. It differs from all other mammals because no new neurons develop in this area after birth. This finding could shed light on why humans lack the heightened sense of smell that animals have. Presented in the journal Neuron, the study was funded in part by the European Research Council (ERC) under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). This project was led by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, in collaboration with researchers in France, Austria and Sweden.

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        • Environment
          2012-06-01 - Climate change to affect species relations in polar regions, say scientists

          Global warming will produce modifications in biological communities of polar regions, resulting in changes in the dominant species and the relations among them, according to a new study published by EU-funded researchers in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study brings together scientists from Germany, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. It is supported by the EU-funded project ASSEMBLE ('Association of European marine biological laboratories'), which received EUR 8.7 million of funding under the 'Capacities' Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

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          2012-06-01 - Study finds there's still hope for Himalayan glaciers

          The world is becoming increasing concerned about the threat of an upcoming water shortage, leading to its very own crisis. However, it now appears as if previous fears regarding the Himalayan glacier may have been unduly warranted, according to a new international study. The results are an outcome of the HIGHNOON ('HighNoon: adaption to changing water resources availability in northern India with Himalayan glacier retreat and changing monsoon pattern') project, which received EUR 3.3 million under the Environment Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Researchers led by the University of Zurich in Switzerland have discovered that the Himalayan glaciers are in better shape than previously thought. The scientists claim that previous predictions made in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) overstated the decline of the Himalayan glaciers.

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          2012-06-07 - Melting glaciers pose threat to water supply: study

          The melting of small glaciers around the world will wreak havoc with the water supply for various towns in valleys nourished by the rivers that flow down from surrounding mountains, a new international study predicts. Scientists estimate that freshwater fauna is at risk from the retreating ice. The findings, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, shed fresh light on the impact of global thawing on biodiversity in watercourses, something that has never before been measured. Scientists led by the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) in France and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark focused their work on investigating what the future holds for populations in streams formed by meltwater in the Alps, Alaska and the equatorial Andes. The group from the IRD has been working in the Andes, where they collected samples from around 50 different sites in paramos (i.e. alpine tundra ecosystems).

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          2012-06-08 - Just a slight risk of blue-green algal blooms in Finland's sea areas this summer

          The risk of blue-green algal blooms off the coast of Finland, especially in the Gulf of Finland and around its mouth, is mainly moderate this summer, environmental researchers have reported, and the risk is much lower in comparison to last summer. The team, from the Finnish Environment Institute's (SYKE) Marine Research Centre, note that although in the southern reaches of the Archipelago Sea and in the northern parts of the Baltic proper there will be a considerable risk of algal blooms, in the Gulf of Bothnia no major blooms are forecast. It is the southern Baltic Sea that faces the greatest risk of blue-green algal blooms.

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          2012-06-08 - Cut sludge with help from microbial biomass

          Scientists have developed a process that can cut the amount of sludge generated from wastewater treatment plants by a factor of 10. This biological treatment is an outcome of the INNOWATECH ('Innovative and integrated technologies for the treatment of industrial wastewater') project, which was supported under the 'Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems' Thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) to the tune of EUR 2.75 million. Most people recognise that treating industrial wastewater cheaply is possible through biological processes. The problem, however, is that microbes more or less fail to break down industry-generated pollutants, including leather, textiles and pharmaceuticals. Enter a team of scientists from the Water Research Institute (IRSA) of the Italian National Research Council that developed a sophisticated technology that allows microbial biomass, which has the capacity to break down wastes, to grow mostly as granules. They developed, tested and scaled up the process.

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          2012-06-12 - Study shows bacteria forms dolomite

          For many years scientists have been investigating how the carbonate mineral dolomite is formed but no concrete results have ever emerged... until now. Researchers in Germany, Spain and Switzerland have succeeded in shedding light on this puzzle, finding that bacteria play a key role in this mineral's formation. The results are presented in the journal Geology. Led by the Cluster of Excellence 'The Future Ocean' and GEOMAR |Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany, the team examined globally distributed marine bacteria that use sulphur compounds instead of oxygen to generate energy (i.e. sulphate respiration). They discovered that primary dolomite crystals are formed under conditions that are currently found in marine sediments.

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          2012-06-14 - New reclusive crab species found tucked away on Galician seabed

          Although it might seem like we have an extensive record of all the species we share the planet with, there are plenty left to be discovered who have long eluded humans' cataloguing efforts. Case in point: Uroptychus cartesi, a new species of crab found at a depth of more than 1 410 metres on the underwater mountain Banco de Galicia, just off the Galician coast in Spain. The newly discovered crab measures between just 5 cm and 7 cm. The deep-sea finding was made as part of the INDEMARES ('Inventory and designation of marine Natura 2000 areas in the Spanish sea') project. INDEMARES is partly funded to the tune of EUR 7.7 million by the European Commission, as part of the EU's 'LIFE+' programme under the 'Environment' Thematic area.

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          2012-06-14 - Spotlight on shrinking oyster reef

          A British-American team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom has performed a quantitative assessment of an oyster reef area, the first ever study of its kind. Working with the Nature Conservancy and other research institutions and management agencies, the Cambridge group determined the actual biomass, or living weight, of oyster reefs in various estuaries across the United States. Their work, presented in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, will help intensify efforts being made for coastal restoration. The oyster habitat has taken a hit over the years, on both a spatial and temporal scale.

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          2012-06-18 - Scientists question Eemian period analogy

          Researchers in Germany have shed new light on why the Eemian interglacial period should not be used as model for climate change in today's world. Presenting their study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers discovered key differences between the Eemian and modern climatic conditions. Geologists typically investigate the past to get a hold on what is going on now and will be the case in the future. They evaluate epochs that had conditions known to us today. Once the major climatic processes are determined, scientists simulate these processes with numerical models to further test the potential reactions of the systems on Earth.

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          2012-06-19 - A green Arctic tundra? Study suggests it's possible

          Soils in high latitude regions contain more carbon than the atmosphere. With the planet sustaining increasing temperatures, it is important to remember that the Arctic is also feeling the heat. Investigating the potential effects of global warming on the Arctic tundra, researchers in the United Kingdom have discovered that carbon stored in the tundra could be released into the atmosphere by new trees growing in the warmer region. The result? Increasing climate change. The finding of the study is presented in the journal Nature Climate Change. A warmer climate offers a prime breeding ground for a greener Arctic. Scientists thought that a greener area would mean more carbon dioxide (CO2) would be absorbed from the atmosphere, which in turn would mitigate global warming. But this latest study suggests the opposite is true. If decomposition rates in soils increase, the forest can be expanded into the tundra in arctic Sweden, and in turn trigger the release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

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          2012-06-19 - Please leave a message: insect's voicemail strategies

          Humans are used to answering machines when trying to get in touch with friends and family when they don't answer our calls, but it seems we are not the only ones prone to leaving the odd 'voicemail' message. In a new study published in the journal Ecology Letters, Dutch scientists show that herbivorous insects use plants as 'green phones' when it comes to communicating with other bugs by leaving messages in the soil. The team uncovered this original communication method in the ragwort plant, where they found that the effects the insects have on soil fungi is a means of letting other insects know certain things.

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          2012-06-20 - Solar minima triggers climate event in pre-Roman Iron Age

          A European team of researchers has discovered that a Grand Minima of solar activity can affect climate conditions. Scientists from the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ, in collaboration with Swedish and Dutch colleagues, have provided evidence for a direct solar-climate linkage on centennial timescales. What the scientists found was that an abrupt cooling in Europe, together with an increase in humidity and in particular wind, coincided with a sustained reduction in solar activity 2 800 years ago. The study was presented in the journal Nature Geoscience.

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          2012-06-21 - Study spotlights social networking in birds

          Researchers from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom say they have found a novel way to assess the social networks that connect individual animals to each other. The way in which animals connect with one another plays an important role in the health and survival of animals, both when they are alone and in groups. The study was presented in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface. Evaluating around one million wild great tits helped the researchers develop this new study approach, which allows periods of intense social activity within many observations to be identified. So the team not only got a more detailed look at the birds but they determined which birds are 'real friends' and which are sizing one another up to mate. This study is unique in that past studies have not been very successful at uncovering the networks of animal societies.

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          2012-06-22 - Europeans investigate ecological status of streams

          An international team of researchers put the ecological status of 100 streams in Europe in the spotlight, paying particular attention to excessive nutrient loading. Aquatic ecosystems around the globe feel the pressure of excessive nutrient loading, which leads to major shifts in aquatic biodiversity and biogeochemical processes. Presented in the journal Science, this study performed a systematic quantitative assessment by using a leaf-litter breakdown, finding a strong nutrient limitation in unaffected systems. Researchers usually measure temperature, acidity and nutrient concentrations to get a handle on what is happening inside rivers and streams. They also look at insect larvae and other small streambed organisms, what experts call the benthic macroinvertebrate community, to obtain the information they need.

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          2012-06-28 - Predicting hot days in Europe

          "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight, red sky in morning, fisherman's warning." This saying is one of Europe's earliest rhymes that were used to predict weather for the following day. With advances in modern technology, from radar to satellite imagery, we can now predict weather well beyond the following day. European scientists have gone one step further, however, by predicting weather, not just days and weeks in advance, but a whole season ahead. Seasonal prediction can help us prepare against adverse weather conditions in the areas of agriculture, health and other industries. The findings were published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

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          2012-06-29 - Savannahs soon to be covered in trees not grass, researchers say

          New research from researchers based at two German research institutes predicts that large parts of Africa's savannahs may well be forests by the time the year 2100 comes round.  Writing in the journal Nature, Steven Higgins from the Goethe University Frankfurt and Simon Scheiter from the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) in Frankfurt suggest that fertilisation by atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is leading to major increases in tree cover throughout Africa. Grasses and trees differ fundamentally in their response to temperature, CO2 supply and fire, and continually struggle for dominance in savannahs.

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        • Agriculture
          2012-06-01 - Global success: tomato genome sequenced

          A major international study has sequenced the genomes of the domesticated tomato and its wild ancestor, Solanum pimpinellifolium. The results, presented in the journal Nature, could lead to the development of innovative tools with the capacity to cut costs and help boost tomato production across the globe. The study was funded in part by the EU-SOL ('High-quality solanaceous crops for consumers, processors and producers by exploration of natural biodiversity') project, which received EUR 18.7 million under the 'Food quality and safety' Thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

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          2012-06-21 - 10 years of EU-funded Integrated Research delivers an improved and safer food chain

          The combined findings from 14 EU-funded food traceability projects that investigated the safety and integrity of the whole food chain have just been published, representing over 10 years of research results. Now, in light of the February 2012 launch of the European Commission's Bioeconomy Action Plan, the forthcoming Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, continued negotiations on CAP reform, and an ever vigilant consumer, CORDIS News takes stock of how far we've come on the road to a safer food chain and how these EU-funded projects have made a difference.

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        • Nanosciences
          2012-06-07 - Better Alzheimer's detection: new EU-funded project to develop nanoscope

          A new research project that will pioneer a nanoscope to screen patient cells and potentially help with the early detection of Alzheimer's disease has just kicked off. With a boost of more than EUR 4 million in funding from the 'Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the LANIR ('Label free nanoscopy using infra red') project will bring together researchers from 11 partner institutes across Belgium, Germany, Ireland, France, Italy and Romania. The consortium is made up of both small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and academic partners.

          Further information
        • Space
          2012-06-11 - Switching gears: getting to know black holes better

          Black holes are extremely powerful and efficient engines that swallow up matter and return a lot of energy to the Universe in exchange for the mass they eat. When they attract mass they also trigger the release of intense X-ray radiation and power-strong jets. However, not all black holes do this the same way, something that has long puzzled space-gazers. Now, findings from researchers at the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research suggest that each black hole can change between two different 'settings' to carry out this task, much like when a driver changes the gears of a car engine.

          Further information
          2012-06-13 - Europeans gear up for largest optical/infrared telescope

          The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has announced it will construct the biggest optical/infrared telescope worldwide, as part of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) programme. The project, which encompasses a near-40-metre segmented-mirror telescope that will help astronomers piece together Universe-related puzzles, recently got the ESO Council's green light and is pending confirmation of four so-called ad referendum votes. The E-ELT, said researchers, is scheduled to get off the ground after 2020, and will surpass the current largest optical telescope by gathering 13 times more light. The location of the new telescope is Chile, specifically on the Cerro Armazones mountain and near the ESO's La Silla Paranal Observatory. Support for the project from ESO Member States is strong. At the 11 June Council meeting, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland gave the project a thumbs up, while affirmative votes from Belgium, Italy, Finland and the United Kingdom are expected in the near future.

          Further information
          2012-06-15 - Not so predictable: small planets can form around stars with less heavy elements

          Scientists long believed that small Earth-like planets only formed around stars with a high content of elements such as iron and silicon, but now a new study from researchers in Denmark, Sweden and the United States shows that small planets can actually form around stars with a wide range of heavy element content. These findings increase the likelihood that small Earth-like planets could be much more widespread in the Universe than was previously thought. For the study, published in the journal Nature, the team used the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Kepler Space Telescope to examine the elemental composition of more than 150 stars harbouring 226 planet candidates smaller than Neptune. One of the researchers, Anders Johansen from Lund University, Sweden, was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for the PEBBLE2PLANET ('From pebbles to planets: towards new horizons in the formation of planets') project. It is funded to the tune of EUR 1 330 000 under the 'Ideas' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

          Further information
          2012-06-28 - French astronomers watch as planet's atmosphere evaporates

          Astronomers have observed dramatic changes in the upper atmosphere of a faraway planet, catching a tantalising glimpse of the changing climates and weather of planets outside our solar system. Using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble space telescope, scientists reported that just after the planet was bathed in intense X-ray radiation following a violent flare on its star, the planet's atmosphere gave off a powerful burst of evaporation.

          Further information
          2012-06-29 - Space tornadoes may hold key to solar mystery

          A team of European scientists has discovered super-hot and super-fast tornados on the Sun, which may help answer a number of outstanding questions in the realm of physics. Writing in the journal Nature, they report that these `magnetic¿ tornadoes reach speeds of up to 10,000 kilometres per hour, completely dwarfing anything found on Earth. In fact the fastest recorded tornado on Earth only reached speeds of approximately 486 km per hour, and was by no means an example of a common occurrence. These magnetic tornadoes on the Sun, created by rotating magnetic field structures which force plasma to move in spirals, are not only common but may hold the answer to a long-standing physics conundrum: why the surface of the Sun is cooler than its outermost atmospheric layer.

          Further information
        • Socio-economic sciences and Humanities
          2012-06-08 - Scientists piece together Homo heidelbergensis height puzzle

          Researchers in Spain have reconstructed the human limb bones of Homo heidelbergensis found in the Sierra de Atapuerca in Burgos. The finding helps shed light on the height of various species of the Pleistocene era, showing that Homo heidelbergensis, like Neanderthals, had more or less the same height as that of modern man living in the Mediterranean region and central Europe. The study was published in the Journal of Human Evolution. The University of Burgos researchers reconstructed 27 complete bones around 500 000 years old. The team also found a considerable number of fossils around the area.

          Further information
          2012-06-11 - Study shows obese women face job discrimination

          Researchers from Australia and the United Kingdom have discovered that discrimination is alive and kicking in the labour market. Presented in the International Journal of Obesity, the study shows that obese women do not really stand a chance of landing a job when they are up against non-overweight candidates. But that is not all. Obese women are even paid less than their thinner counterparts. Researchers from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and Monash University in Australia investigated whether a recently developed measure of anti-fat prejudice, the universal measure of bias (UMB), predicted actual obesity job discrimination.

          Further information
          2012-06-13 - How do different types of touch affect our emotions?

          An international team of scientists from the Netherlands, Italy and the United States has discovered that when the brain makes the connection between touch and emotion, the association begins in the brain's primary somatosensory cortex. Until now, neuroscientists were under the impression that this region only responded to the actual touch and not to its emotional quality. Writing in the journal PNAS, the team explains how they measured brain activation. Self-identified heterosexual male subjects were placed in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner and were each caressed on the leg under two different conditions.

          Further information
          2012-06-20 - Study finds no link between depression and loneliness in elderly

          No one likes to be lonely but the elderly are affected most as they suffer from myriad health problems and are at a higher risk of succumbing to death, a new study from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the United States shows. The findings were presented in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. The UCSF researchers evaluated data in a nationally representative study, called the Health and Retirement Study - conducted by the National Institute on Aging in the period 2002-2008 - to investigate the effect loneliness has on older people.

          Further information
          2012-06-28 - EU backs project probing early settlement in Europe

          The EU is a strong supporter of young scientists' efforts to foster knowledge and to develop innovative tools through myriad research studies, regardless of the fields in question. A case in point is a new multinational educational network backed under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), called BEAN ('Bridging the European and Anatolian Neolithic: demography, migration, and lifestyle at the advent of civilisation'). This project, which has clinched a Marie Curie Initial Training Network grant worth more than EUR 2.5 million, seeks to optimise the skills of a new generation of researchers in population genetics, computer modelling, anthropology, prehistory and demography. Led by a team of anthropologists at Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz in Germany, the BEAN partners hail from France, Germany, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

          Further information
        • Security
          2012-06-01 - Improved disaster and crisis preparation for Europe

          A new EU-funded project that aims to get Europe better prepared for disasters has just got under way. CRISMA ('Modelling crisis management for improved action and preparedness'), funded with EUR 10 million under the 'Security' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), brings together researchers from Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy and Portugal. The aim is to develop a decision-support tool to help authorities and community actors alike better prioritise the most important measures for saving lives and mitigating the effects of a crisis.

          Further information
      • Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development 2007- 2013 (FP7)
        • News
          2012-06-12 - Celebrating Irish researchers' success

          Irish companies and academic researchers who have made a significant contribution to research in the country have been awarded for their efforts. At a special ceremony titled 'Ireland's Champions of EU Research', held in Dublin on 8 June, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins presented outstanding achievement awards to the high achievers. The main aim of the awards is to recognise the contribution that Irish research success has had on Ireland's allocation of Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funds. Since FP7 kicked off in 2007, over 1,200 applicants from Ireland have won EUR 384 million in funding.

          Further information
          2012-06-21 - EU campaign makes science and innovation a 'girl thing'

          With the European Union needing up to one million additional researchers by 2020, the European Commission has today launched a campaign to get more girls interested in science and encourage more women to choose research as a career. Women make up more than half the EU's student population and 45 per cent of all doctorates (PhDs), but they account for only one third of career researchers. Women PhD graduates are also still a minority in engineering and manufacturing. The three year campaign will first seek to get teenage girls interested in studying science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM subjects). The focus will then broaden to female students more generally, encouraging them to consider research careers.

          Further information
        • European Technology Platforms
          Advanced Engineering Materials and Technologies (EuMaT)

          No events planned

          Further information
          Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE)

          No events planned

          Further information
          European Technology Platform for Wind Energy (TPWind)

          No events planned

          Further information
          European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration (EPoSS)

          3-4 June 2013, Reutlingen - Produkte suchen Produzenten
          2-7 June 2013, Chemnitz - Graphene week 2013
          5-7 June 2013, Cork -  4th Week of Innovative Regions in Europe (WIRE IV)
          6-8 June 2013, Gdansk - 6th International Conference on Human System Interaction 2013
          12 June 2013, Geneva - The Microtechnics Alliance meets at EPMT Fair
          16-19 June 2013, Helsinki - 2013 SPIM Conference – Innovating in Global Markets: Challenges for Sustainable Growth
          16-20 June 2013, Barcelona - Transducers 2013 - 17th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems
          16-20 June 2013, Helsinki - IoT Week 2013
          16-19 June 2013, Helsinki - ISPIM Conference 2013: 'Innovating in Global Markets: Challenges for Sustainable Growth
          17-18 June 2013, Berlin - AMAA 2013 - "Smart Systems for Safe and Green Vehicles"
          18-20 June 2013, Dublin - EuroNanoForum 2013
          18-20 June 2013, Bucharest - 9th International Conference on Ecosystems and Sustainable Development (ECOSUD 2013)
          26-28 June 2013, Tallinn - 10th International Conference on Wearable Micro and Nano Technologies for Personalized Health (pHealth 2013)
          1-3 July 2013, Postdam - MEMSWAVE 2013
          3-5 July 2013, Lisbon - Future Network and Mobile Summit (FuNeMS 2013)
          18-19 July 2013, Athens - Ninth International Conference on Intelligent Environment (IE'13)
          29-31 July 2013, Reykjavík - 10th International Conference on Wireless Information Networks and Systems (WINSYS 2013)
          25-28 August 2013, Enschede - COMS 2013 - 18th edition of the annual international conference on commercializing micro- and nanotechnology
          8-11 September 2013, Krakow - Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS) 2013
          8-13 September 2013, Sevilla - European Congress and Exhibition on Advanced Materials and Processes (EUROMAT 2013)
          24-27 September 2013, Cork - Joint event MNBS 2013 & EPOSS Annual Forum 2013
          7-10 October 2013, Calgary - Workshop on Smart Materials and Structures, SHM1
          4-16 October 2013, Aachen - Microsystemtechnik-Kongress
          16-18 October 2013, Tampere - ITST 2013
          27-31 October 2013, Freiburg - MicroTAS 2013 - 17th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences
          6-8 November 2013, Vilnius - ICT 2013 - Create, Connect, Grow
          2-4 July 2014, Brenen - SysInt 2014 - 2nd International Conference on System-Integrated Intelligence: New Challenges for Product and Production Engineering

          Further information
          European Technology Platform Food for Life (Food)

          No events planned.

          Further information
          Forest Based Sector Technology Platform (Forestry)

          6-8 May 2013, Hannover - LIGNA 2013
          15-16 May 2013, Riga - Invest in Forest
          16-21 May 2013, Estoril - 3rd International Congress on Planted Forests
          3-6 June 2013, Copenhagen - 21st European Biomass Conference & Exhibition
          4-6 June 2013, Brussels - Green Week 2013
          18-20 June 2013, Dublin - EuroNanoForum 2013 & FTP wood nanotechnology workshop
          23-26 September 2013, Gerardmer - 5th Forest Engineering Conference
          23-24 September 2013, Biarritz - 6th International Wood Fibre Polymer Composites Symposium
          30 September-2 October 2013, Brussels - EFIB 2013
          30 September-3 October 2013, Brussels - 5th European Innovation Summit
          3-4 October 2013, Aarhus - 5th European Innovation Summit
          23 October 2013, Brussels - Workshop - 21st Century Design and Construction
          9-13 December 2013, Rovaniemi - European Forest Week
          9-13 December 2013, Rovaniemi - Metsä 2013 Joint session of the ECE Timber Committee

          Further information
          Embedded Computing Systems (ARTEMIS)

          14-17 May 2013, Berlin - 9th International nanotechnology Conference on Communication and cooperation
          11-12 June 2013, Madrid - ARTEMIS Summer Camp 2013
          16-20 June 2013, Budva - The 2013 Mediterranean Conference Event: Embedded and Cyber-physical Systems
          18-20 June 2013, Dublin - EuroNanoForum 2013
          24 June 2013, Budapest - 2nd Workshop on Open Resilient human-aware Cyber-physical Systems (WORKS 2013)
          26 September 2013, Paris - European Microelectronics Summit
          26-27 September 2013, Messecenter Graz - JTI Electronics In Horizon 2020
          1-2 October 2013, Brussels - JTI Event
          6-8 November 2013, Vilnius - ICT 2013: Create, Connect, Grow
          8-10 November 2013, Dresden - SEMICON Europa 2013
          27-28 November 2013, Barcelona - European Nanoelectronics Forum (ENIAC)
          4-5 December 2013, Stockholm - Co-summit 2013

          Further information
          Nanoelectronics Technologies 2020 (ENIAC)

          14-17 May 2013, Berlin - INC9
          24 May 2013, Brussels - 7th SEMI Brussels Forum
          18-20 June 2013, Dublin - EuroNanoForum
          15-19 July 2013, Otsu - 13th International Forum on Embedded MPSoC and Multicore
          16-20 September 2013, - ESSDERC-ESSCIRC Conference Series
          18-20 September 2013, Roma - Nanoforum
          8-10 October 2013, Dresden - SEMICON Europa 2013
          6-8 November 2013, Vilnius - ICT 2013: Create, Connect, Grow
          27-28 November 2013, Barcelona - European Nanoelectronics Forum

          Further information
          European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC)

          No events planned

          Further information
          European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC)

          14 May 2013, Brussels - ERTRAC 2nd Steering Group
          6 June 2013, Brussels - ERTRAC 2nd Plenary meeting 2013
          24 September 2013, Brussels - ERTRAC Steering Group
          22 October 2013, Brussels - ERTRAC Plenary

          Further information
          European Space Technology Platform (ESTP)

          No events planned

          Further information
          European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP)

          16 May 2013, Brussels - European Steel Day

          Further information
          European Technology Platform for the Electricity Networks of the Future (SmartGrids)

          16 May 2013, Brussels - Joint workshop organised by STARGRID and ETP SmartGrids

          Further information
          Future Manufacturing Technologies (MANUFUTURE)

          16-17 September 2013, Hannover - VDMA Congress: "Producing more intelligently"

          Further information
          European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (Euratex)

          27-28 May 2013, Brussels -PROsumer.NET project final conference
          23-23 October 2013, Brussels - 1st European Textile Flagships Conference

          Further information
          Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH)

          9 September 2013, Brussels - The 5th International Conference on Hydrogen Safety

          Further information
          Industrial Safety ETP (IndustrialSafety)

          21-22 May 2013, Stuttgart - 5Th INTeg-Risk Conference 2013

          Further information
          Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)

          13 May 2013, Brussels - IMI Stakeholder Forum 2013

          Further information
          Integral Satcom Initiative (ISI)

          No events planned

          Further information
          Mobile and Wireless Communications (eMobility)

          8-10 May 2013, Dublin - FIA Event 2013
          31 May 2013, Ghent - ONIT 2013
          9-13 June 2013, Budapest - IEEE International Conference on Communications
          19-20 June 2013, Bogota - Dinero Movil LatAm (Mobile Money LatAm 2013)
          3-5 July 2013, Lisbon - Future Networks and Mobile Summit 2013

          Further information
          Nanotechnologies for Medical Applications (NanoMedicine)

          15 May 2013, London - Nano4Life 2013
          18 June 2013, Dublin - EuroNanoForum 2013
          23 June 2013, Basel - European Summit on Clinical Nanomedecine (CLINAM 2013)
          25-28 June 2013, Porto - Advanced Summer School Interrogations at the Biointerface
          26-28 June 2013, Tallinn - pHealth 2013 Conference
          18-20 June 2013, Dublin - EuroNanoForum 2013
          23-26 June 2013, Basel - European Summit on Clinical Nanomedicine (CLINAM 2013)
          6-13 July 2013, Thessaloniki - ISSON 2013
          9 July 2013, Thessaloniki - 10th International Conference on Nanoscience & Nanotechnologies (NN13)
          8-11 October 2013, Faenza - MiMe - Materials in Medicine International Conference
          4-6 November 2013, Vienna - Bio-Europe 2013
          3-5 March 2014, Amsterdam - International Congress on Targeted Anticancer Therapies - TAT2014

          Further information
          Networked and Electronic Media (NEM)

          8-10 May 2013, Dublin - Future Internet Assembly
          27-31 May 2013, Ghent - IM 2013 - The 13th IFIP/IEEE Symposium on Integrated Network and Service Management
          27 May-1 June 2013, Valencia - CONTENT 2013
          2 June 2013, Dresden - 3rd International Workshop on Self-Organizing Networks (IWSON)
          9-13 June 2013, Budapest - Context-aware Personalization Systems
          10-12 June 2013, Seoul - 11th IEEE IVMSP Workshop on "3D Image/Video Technologies and Applications"
          23-28 June 2013, Rome - Eighth International Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services
          3-5 July 2013, Lisbon - Future Network and Mobile Summit - FuNeMS2013
          8-11 September 2013, Berlin - The 3rd IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics(IEEE 2013)
          28-30 October 2013, Nantes - NEM Summit 2013
          6-8 November 2013, Vilnius - ICT Event 2013: Create, Connect,Grow
          12-13 December 2013, Bayonne - 8th International Workshop on Semantic and Social Media Adaptation and Personalization

          Further information
          Networked European Software and Services Initiative (NESSI)

          8-10 May 2013, Dublin - Future Internet Assembly 2013
          16 May 2013, Brussels - The 2013 European Cyber Security Conference
          11-12 June 2013, Dublin - SMEs and Europe: with innovation out of the crisis
          26-27 June 2013, London - Cloud World Forum 2013
          1-5 July 2013, Montpellier - European Conference on Software Architecture, ECSA 2013
          3-5 July 2013, Lisbon - Future Network & Mobile Summit 2013
          29-31 July 2013, Reykjavik - 8th International Joint Conference on Software Technologies
          10-13 September 2013, Wrexham - Fifth International Conference on Internet Technologies & Applications

          Further information
          Photonics21 (Photonics)

          12-16 May 2013, Munich - 3rd EOS Conference on Manufacturing of Optical Components (EOSMOC 2013)
          12-16 May 2013, Munich - 2nd EOS Conference on Optofluidics (EOSOF 2013)
          13-16 May 2013, Munich - Laser World of Photonics (13 - 16 May 2013) & World of Photonics Congress (12 - 16 May 2013)
          27-28 May 2013, Frankfurt am Main - Trends in Bioanalytical Imaging - Analytics and Applications
          9-14 June 2013, San Jose - CLEO
          11-13 June 2013, Munich - LOPE-C 2013
          16-21 June 2013, Whistler - Optical Interferings Coatings
          14-19 July 2013, Rio Grande - Advanced Photonics
          14-19 July 2013, Orlanda - Frontiers in Optics
          22-26 July 2013, Porto - 8th Iberoamerican Optics Meeting / 11th Latinamerican Meeting on Optics, Lasers and Applications
          23-26 July 2013, Porto - ETOP 2013 - 12th International Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics
          29-31 July 2013, Reykjavik - OPTICS 2013- International Conference on Optical Communication Systems
          25-29 August 2013, San Diego - SPIE Optics + Photonics 2013
          26-31 August 2013, Riga - Biophotonics Riga 1st International Conference
          10-13 September 2013, Almaty - FOAN2013 - 4th International Work Shop on Fiber Optics in Access Networks
          23-26 September 2013, Dresden - SPIE Security+Defence 2013 & SPIE Remote Sensing 2013
          23-25 September 2013, London - ECOC 2013
          14-17 October 2013, New York - SPIE Optifab 2013
          16-17 October 2013, Coventry - Photonex, UK's Premier Photonics Event
          27 October-1 November 2013, Paris - Advanced Solid Stae Lasers

          Further information
          Photovoltaics (PV Platform)

          No events planned

          Further information
          Plants for the Future (Plants)

          13-14 May 2013, London - Plant Genomics Congress
          14-16 May 2013, Calabria - 31st New Phytologist Symposia on Orchid symbioses-models for evolutionary ecology
          3-7 June 2013, Copenhagen - 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
          9-16 June 2013, Athens - SAHYOG Summer School
          9-13 June 2013, University of Norway - Essential and Detrimental Trace Elements entering the Food Chain via Plants
          23-27 June 2013, Gargnano - SUMMER SCHOOL on Biomchemical and genetic dissection of control of plant mineral nutrition
          24-28 June 2013, Sydney - International Arabidopsis Conference
          30 June-6 July 2013, Szeged - EPPN Summer School on Plant Phenotyping
          2-5 July 2013, Zurich - 13th International Fire Blight Workshop
          4-6 July 2013,Evry - Plant signalling in a changing environment
          8-19 July 2013, Barcelona - 2nd Summer biotechnology course
          16-19 July 2013, Warsaw - 11th International Conference on Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species in Plants
          26-30 July 2013, Helsinki - Plant Vascular Biology Meeting
          28 July-2 August 2013,Hong Kong - Gordon Conference on "Post-Translational Modification Networks
          11-15 August 2013,Helsingor - 25th SPPS Congress
          20-23 August 2013, Eindiedeln - Science & Policy Summer School: Governing the Transition to a Bio-based Economy
          26-28 August 2013, Utrecht - 7th International Utrecht PhD Summer School
          1-4 September 2013, Greece, - 7th EPSO Conference
          5 September 2013, Porto Heli, Plant Phenotyping Workshop of the European Plant Phenotying Network
          8-10 September 2013,Amsterdam - 2nd Current Opinion Conference on Plant Genome Evolution
          17-20 September 2013, Madrid - 2nd International APLE-APLF Congress on Pollen Biotechnology, Diversity and Function in a Changing Environment
          25-27 September 2013, Norwich - AAB Conference International Advances in Plant Virology
          14-18 October 2013, Versailles - 6th Workshop on Leaf Senescence
          10-14 November 2013, Antalya - International Plant Breeding Congress
          20-23 November 2013 Buenos Aires - 32nd New Phytologist Symposium on Plant interactions with other organisms (molecules, ecology and evolution)
          4-6 December 2013, Nantes - Conference on Biopolymer Assemblies for Material Design
          22-26 June 2014, Dublin - Plant Biology Europe FESPB/EPSO 2014 Congress

          Further information
          Robotics (EUROP)

          6-10 May 2013, Karlsruhe - 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2013)
          24-30 June 2013, Eindhoven - WK RoboCup International Robot Tournament (RoboCup 2013)
          26-28 June 2013, Porto - FAIM 2013 - Workshop on Robotics in Smart Manufacturing
          27-28 June 2013, Berlin - Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS 2013)
          29-31 July 2013, Reykjavík - 10th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO 2013)
          29-31 July 2013, Reykjavík - The 3rd International Conference on Simulation and Modeling Methodologies, Technologies and Applications (SIMULTECH 2013)
          11-15 August 2013, Montreal - The 30th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction and Mining (ISARC 2013)

          Further information
          European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem)

          14 May 2013, Brussels - F3 Factory session at Suschem stakeholder
          3-7 June 2013, Copenhagen - 21th European Biomass conference and exhibition
          5-6 June 2013, Budapest - Smart Cities Annual Conference
          18-20 June 2013, Dublin - EuroNano Forum 2013
          19-20 June 2013, Frankfurt - Biochemicals & Bioplastics
          8-13 September 2013, Sevilla - Annual Congress and exhibition on advanced materials and processes

          Further information
          Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNE-TP)

          21-24 May 2013, Prague - 1st ARCHER EUROCOURSE
          1-5 July 2013, Saclay - MATTER International School on DEsign Rules for gen IV reactors and INnovative reactors (DERIVIN)
          17-19 July 2013,Karlsruhe - EURACT-NMR workshop
          21-26 July 2013, Karlsruhe - ACTINIDES 2013 Conference
          8–12 September 2013, Brussels - 21st International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management Economy 2013
          9–12 September 2013, Bled - 22nd International Conference Nuclear Energy for New Europe
          1–3 October 2013, Cannes - 10th International Conference on Non Destructive Evaluation
          2–4 October 2013, Avignon - ERMSAR 2013
          14-16 October 2013, Vilnius - FISA & EURADWASTE 2013
          27-31 October 2013, Paris - 2 nd SNA & MC 2013 - Joint International Conference on Supercomputing in Nuclear Applications + Monte Carlo

          Further information
          Water Supply and Sanitation Platform (WSSTP)

          No events planned.

          Further information
          Waterborne ETP (Waterborne)

          21 May 2013, La Valletta Malta - SG47+MIRROR GROUP + GA
          26 September 2013, Brussels - SG48 + MG
          21 November 2013, Brussels - SG49 + MG

          Further information
          Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants Technology Platform (ETP ZEP)

          No events planned

          Further information
          European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating & Cooling (RHC)

          22 May 2013, Brussels - Board Meeting of the RHC-Platform
          9 October 2013, Brussels - Steering Committee meeting of the Solar Thermal Technology Panel

          Further information
        • Joint Technology Initiatives
          Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)

          13 May 2013, Brussels - IMI Stakeholder Forum 2013

          Further information
          Embedded Computing Systems (ARTEMISA)

          14-17 May 2013, Berlin - 9th International nanotechnology Conference on Communication and cooperation
          11-12 June 2013, Madrid - ARTEMIS Summer Camp 2013
          16-20 June 2013, Budva - The 2013 Mediterranean Conference Event: Embedded and Cyber-physical Systems
          18-20 June 2013, Dublin - EuroNanoForum 2013
          24 June 2013, Budapest - 2nd Workshop on Open Resilient human-aware Cyber-physical Systems (WORCS-2013)
          26 September 2013, Paris - European Microelectronics Summit
          26-27 September 2013, Messencenter Graz - JTI Electronics in Horizon 2020
          1-2 October 2013, Brussels - JTI Event
          6-8 November 2013, Vilnius - ICT 2013: Create, Connect, Grow
          8-10 November 2013, Dresden - SEMICON Europa 2013
          27-28 November 2013, Barcelona - European Nanoelectronics Forum (ENIAC)
          4-5 December 2013, Stockholm - Co-summit 2013

          Further information
          Nanoelectronics Technologies 2020 (ENIAC)

          14-17 May 2013, Berlin - INC9
          24 May 2013, Brussels - 7th SEMI Brussels Forum
          18-20 June 2013, Dublin - EuroNanoForum
          15-19 July 2013, Otsu - 13th International Forum on Embedded MPSoC and Multicore
          16-20 September 2013, - ESSDERC-ESSCIRC Conference Series
          18-20 September 2013, Roma - Nanoforum
          8-10 October 2013, Dresden - SEMICON Europa 2013
          6-8 November 2013, Vilnius - ICT 2013: Create, Connect, Grow
          27-28 November 2013, Barcelona - European Nanoelectronics Forum

          Further information
          Aeronautics and Air Transport (Clean Sky)

          30 May 2013, Brussels - Clean Sky SME Day
          17-23 June 2013, Paris - International Paris Air Show 2013
          1-5 July 2013, Munich - EUCASS 2013: Fifth European Aerospace Conference

          Further information
          Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH)

          9 September 2013, Brussels - The 5th International Conference on Hydrogen Safety

          Further information

    • Innovation policy

      2012-06-19 - Public consultation: Boosting the demand for innovative European products and services

      The European Commission has launched a public consultation with the aim to gather inputs from stakeholders and citizens on the scope of possible future EU-level actions in demand-side policies for industrial innovation policy.Consumers and public procurers should not underestimate their power to spur industrial innovations, for example by buying products which consume less energy and/or are friendlier to the environment. The Commission is therefore calling for ideas for potential new policy measures and focus areas for future targeted demand-side innovation actions at EU level, to enable faster uptake of innovations and to create a better environment for creating innovations in order to maintain the value chain and business investments in Europe.

      Further information
      2012-06-26 - Unleashing the huge potential of key enabling technologies for jobs

      The European Commission has today called for a European effort to boost Key Enabling Technologies (KETs). The global market in KETs, which comprises micro- and nanoelectronics, advanced materials, industrial biotechnology, photonics, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing systems, is forecast to grow from € 646 Billion to over € 1 Trillion between 2008 and 2015; this is a jump of over 54%, or more than 8% of the EU's GDP. Rapid growth in jobs is expected, too. In nanotechnology industries alone, the number of jobs in the EU is expected to increase from 160,000 in 2008, to around 400,000 by 2015. The European Commission tabled its strategy today to boost the industrial production of KETs-based products, e.g. innovative products and applications of the future. The strategy aims to keep pace with the EU’s main international competitors, restore growth in Europe and create jobs in industry, at the same time addressing today's burning societal challenges. As a matter of fact, Europe is a global leader in KETs research and development with a global share in patent applications of more than 30%. Despite this, the EU is not translating its dominant R&D base into the production of goods and services needed to stimulate growth and jobs. This is why the Commission calls for a European effort to boost KETS.

      Further information

    • Regional policy

      2012-06-14 - Commission awards innovative EU-funded projects with 2012 RegioStars

      Innovative and inspirational projects from Sweden, Poland, Austria, and two transnational partnerships will tonight take centre stage in Europe as Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn, presents the RegioStars 2012 Awards. Together with the President of the Jury, Luc van den Brande, Commissioner Hahn will award five prize categories for good practice in regional development to projects with EU co-investment.

      Further information
      2012-06-20 - The outermost regions: Commission unveils plan to support jobs and growth

      Today the Commission adopts its communication on "The outermost regions of the European Union: towards a partnership for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth", which proposes a renewed strategy for eight regions: the four French overseas departments, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion and Martinique, the overseas Collectivity of St Martin; the Portuguese autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira and the Spanish Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands. The aim is to support the outermost regions (OR) realise their potential above all through diversification and modernisation of their economies. This means developing new practices in traditional sectors like agriculture or fisheries and exploiting the potential for developing new products arising from their biodiversity and marine ecosystems, as well as developing their potential as centre for climate and space research, astrophysics and renewable energy. The Communication also sets out how, across a very wide range of sectors, the Commission will be engaged to mitigate their permanent constraints, to ensure their full integration in the single market, and their improved integration in their geographical neighbourhoods.

      Further information

    • Information society

      2012-06-18 - Digital Agenda: Annual scoreboard confirms need for structural economic reform across Europe and surplus of ICT jobs; big trend towards mobile services and technology

      Europe's citizens, businesses and innovators are generating enough digital demand to put Europe into sustainable economic growth, but failure to supply enough fast internet, online content, research and relevant skills is undermining this potential. Greater data consumption and a shift to mobile technologies (such as smartphones) and mobile services (such as 3G internet, music streaming and webmail) are the most significant trends in the information & communications technologies (ICT) sector, which now accounts for 8 million jobs and 6% of EU GDP.

      Further information

    • Enterprises

      2012-06-06 - Vision 2020: Recommendations to help car industry reach new heights

      On the occasion of the presentation of the CARS 21 report, the European Commission announced today concrete actions to be taken in reaction to the current economic situation. Recognising the strategic importance of the automotive industry for prosperity in Europe (12 million jobs, € 92 bn trade balance, € 30 bn investment in R&D) an Action Plan will list measures to help the sector. Planned actions concern:
      1) providing EU financing for research, in particular to help the sector adapt to the technologies of tomorrow, and reinforcing EIB lending to industry
      2) managing the sector's costs by applying the principles of smart regulation and
      3) supporting the internationalisation of EU industry by improving market access through trade negotiations and work on regulatory and procedural convergence with the ultimate aim of achieving a worldwide car type approval. This would mean that any car produced in the world can be marketed in every country of the world.

      Further information
      2012-06-15 - SMEs: Better access to finance and boosting entrepreneurship

      On the occasion of the fourth meeting of the European SME envoys held in Malta today, European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani announced a series of new initiatives and planned actions to improve access of SMEs to finance, to boost entrepreneurship and to go international. To facilitate access to finance, the European Commission published today a practical guide providing information on how to access over €50 billion of public finance in the 27 Member States. Secondly the Commission launched a European wide training campaign for the Enterprise Europe Network to help SMEs get access to finance. SMEs can contact one of 600 Enterprise Europe Network partners, who will be able to provide information on EU and national sources of finance. Vice President Tajani will also discuss with the SME envoys possible elements for an entrepreneurship action plan which Mr Tajani aims to table after the summer break to encourage the creation of new businesses and jobs. The plan intends to address obstacles, which hinder would-be entrepreneurs to set up their own business. It will also include measures to make the option of becoming his or her own boss a more widespread option.

      Further information
  • Other EU Policies and funding programmes supporting the Lisbon Strategy

    Other EU Policies and funding programmes supporting the Lisbon Strategy

    • Environment

      2012-06-05 - How can we do more with less? Commission gathers high-level input on resource-efficient growth

      Today Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik launched the European Resource Efficiency Platform to provide high-level guidance and advice on policy measures designed to transform the European economy towards a more sustainable growth path. Resource efficiency is a pillar of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and is therefore a top priority for the European Commission. The primary task of the Platform will be to determine how to achieve the milestones and vision set out in the Commission's Roadmap to a resource-efficient Europe, including the ultimate vision of decoupling resource use and its impacts from economic growth.

      Further information
      2012-06-15 - Will your city be the European Green Capital 2015?

      Today the Commission launches the search to find the city that will win the European Green Capital title in 2015. The European Green Capital Award recognises cities that are at the forefront of environmentally-friendly urban living and which can act as role-models to inspire other cities. The annual award is intended to spur European cities to become more attractive and healthy places – “fit for life”.

      Further information
      2012-06-18 - Towards a sustainable bioeconomy in Europe: how the Czech Republic is making the difference

      The Czech Liaison Office for Research and Development (R&D) and the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union recently held a special conference on the country's contribution to moving Europe towards a sustainable European bioeconomy. In light of the European Commission's February 2012 Bioeconomy Action Plan launch, the aim was to highlight some of the work being carried out across various Czech research institutes to meet the central objective of the action plan: shifting the European economy towards greater and more sustainable use of renewable resources.

      Further information
      2012-06-29 - Environment: Copenhagen European Green Capital 2014

      The Danish city of Copenhagen has won the European Green Capital Award for 2014. The award was presented by EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik at a ceremony in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, the current holder of the title, on Friday evening. Copenhagen received special praise for its achievements, notably in terms of eco-innovation and sustainable mobility, its commitment to act as a role model for the green economy, in Europe and beyond, and for an exceptionally promising communication strategy.

      Further information

    • Health

      2012-06-07 - 1,000th designation of an orphan medicinal product: improving the lives of patients

      Over 30 million European citizens suffer from a rare disease. The small numbers of patients affected by a single disease and the fragmentation of knowledge about rare diseases translates into difficulties for people to get the right diagnosis, the right medical advise and the right medicine. In many cases, the medicine they need has not yet been developed. Today's 1000th designation of an orphan medicinal product marks a tremendous success in improving this situation.

      Further information
      2012-06-27 - European Innovation Partnership: Strong stakeholder support for action on active and healthy ageing

      Efforts to increase the healthy lifespan of EU citizens by two years received a major boost today as 261 projects were submitted for inclusion in the European Innovation Partnership for active and healthy ageing. The partnership brings together more than 50 regions, technology companies and health providers to deliver solutions for:

      • better adherence to medical treatment,
      • prevention of falls,
      • prevention of functional decline and frailty,
      • integrated care models,
      • independent living and active ageing,
      • age-friendly buildings, cities and environments.

       

      Further information

    • Transport

      2012-06-07 - Danube Strategy: Transport ministers to cooperate on navigability

      On the initiative of the Commission, the transport ministers of the riparian states of the Danube met for the first time today in Luxembourg and agreed on a declaration setting out a number of commitments to avoid a repeat of last autumn's navigation standstills on the river. The declaration reasserts existing obligations to maintain the fairway to a good standard and undertakes measures to tackle problems like low water or ice. The ministers of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia signed the declaration, while Serbia and BiH have sent letters of support for the declaration. Hungary has not yet signed the declaration. The ministers agreed to meet again, and to co-ordinate actions through the structures of the Danube Strategy and the Trans-European Transport Network Coordinator for Inland Waterways.

      Further information
      2012-06-07 - Connecting Europe Facility: Member States reach an agreement on building our future infrastructure

      Siim Kallas, European Commission Vice-President responsible for transport and mobility, welcomed the efforts of the Danish Presidency and the outcome of today's Transport Council reaching a partial general approach on the initiative known as 'Connecting Europe Facility'. "The establishment of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is one of the key initiatives of the Commission in the context of the proposed package for delivering sustainable growth and jobs", said Kallas."I think this text presents a delicate balance within the Council and forms a fair basis for further work. It also reflects the very good coordination with discussions on the sectoral guidelines for trans-European networks, for whose implementation the CEF is crucial", he added.

      Further information
      2012-06-29 - Transport and logistics: Commission looks ahead with new High Level Group

      European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas responsible for transport met today with top-level representatives of the European transport and logistics sector. The occasion was the launch meeting of the High Level Group on Logistics (HLGL), set up to provide strategic advice on the future transport policy measures with impact on logistics.

      Further information

    • Agriculture and fisheries

      2012-06-11 - European Union and China step up cooperation in agriculture and rural development

      The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dacian Ciolos, and China Minister for Agriculture, Han Changfu, signed today in Beijing a Cooperation Plan on Agriculture and Rural Development. Building on established relations between China and the European Union, this Plan will give a new impetus to our partnership and bring mutual benefits by establishing a stronger and closer relationship in agriculture, so that we tackle bilateral and international challenges more effectively together.

      Further information
      2012-06-22 - Commission to recover € 426 million of CAP expenditure from the Member States

      A total of €436 million of EU agricultural policy funds unduly spent by Member States is being claimed back by the European Commission today under the so-called clearance of accounts procedure. As some of these amounts have already been recovered from the Member States, the financial impact is somewhat lower at €426 million. This money returns to the EU budget because of non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure. Member States are responsible for paying out and checking expenditure under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the Commission is required to ensure that Member States have made correct use of the funds. In order to take account of the financial pressures being felt by some Member States due to the financial crisis, the Commission has adopted a regulation allowing Member States under financial assistance to delay, on certain conditions, the reimbursement of disallowed funds for up to 18 months. This comes in addition to existing options to request that the reimbursement be spread over a limited number of years. The first Member State to apply for this facility is Greece.

      Further information
      2012-06-28 - € 35.9 million EU support for the promotion of agricultural products in the European Union and in third countries

      The European Commission has approved 20 programmes to promote agricultural products in the European Union and in third countries. The total budget of the programmes, which will run for a period of three years, is € 70.7 million of which the EU will contribute € 35.9 million. The selected programmes cover fresh and processed fruit and vegetables, milk and milk products, PDOs (Protected Designations of Origin), PGIs (Protected Geographical Indications) and TSGs (Traditional Specialities Guaranteed), seed oil, wine and meat.

      Further information

    • Energy

      2012-06-06 - Renewables: Commission confirms market integration and the need for growth beyond 2020

      The European Union is committed to achieving a 20% share of renewable energy by 2020. This goal can be reached only in a cost-efficient manner if all policies currently in place are implemented across all Member States and if support schemes converge. In the Communication adopted today, the Commission is therefore calling for a more coordinated European approach in the establishment and reform of support schemes and an increased use of renewable energy trading among Member States. Moreover, the fact that investors need regulatory certainty makes crucial to start discussing the future and building a solid framework beyond 2020.

      Further information
      2012-06-18 - EU Sustainable Energy Week: Commission will present financing opportunities for renewables

      Between 18 and 22 June 2012, an estimated 150,000 people across Europe will discuss energy efficiency and renewables during the seventh edition of the EU Sustainable Energy Week. The European Commission is organising a high-level policy conference in Brussels which would allow for a first public debate on the issue of investing in higher energy efficiencies and a wider use of renewable energy sources.

      Further information
      2012-06-28 - Commissioner Oettinger welcomes decision on "Nabucco West" pipeline

      Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger welcomes today's decision of the Shah Deniz Consortium (Azerbaijan) for the "Nabucco West" pipeline."With this pre-selection, we are a step closer to getting gas directly from Azerbaijan and other countries in the Caspian region. Whatever the final decision on the whole route from the Eastern part of Turkey to Europe, Azerbaijani gas is certain to come to Europe. This is a success for Europe and for our security of supply."

      Further information
      2012-06-28 - Commissioner Oettinger welcomes TANAP gas pipeline agreements

      EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger welcomed today's signature of the Inter Government Agreement and the Host Government Agreement to implement the Trans-Anatolia Gas Pipeline (TANAP): "Europe is now a step closer to its aim to get gas directly from Azerbaijan and the other countries in the Caspian region."

      Further information

    • Maritime Affairs

      2012-06-08 - Fishing opportunities for 2013: improvements for some fish stocks

      In a consultation document adopted today, the European Commission sets out its intentions for fixing fishing opportunities for 2013. Through this annual document the Commission asks for the views of Member States and stakeholders on the setting of Total Allowable Catches (TACs), quotas and fishing effort (days-at-sea) for the following year. The document shows that the Commission's efforts to phase out overfishing are starting to bear fruit. There are now 20 fish stocks in European seas which are known not to be overfished, compared to only 5 stocks in 2009. Reducing TACs in the past years even made it possible to increase some TACs for 2012. This could result in at least €135 million extra income for the fishing industry.

      Further information
  • Research, Innovation, Training and Competitiveness related EU events

    Research, Innovation, Training and Competitiveness related EU events

Special chapter on training opportunities

Next Sessions in English in Brussels

Prochaines sessions en français à Paris et Bruxelles

Le montage des projets européens du 7ème PCRD

Date : mardi 04 juin 2013

Comment rédiger une proposition réellement compétitive? Conseils stratégiques et méthodologiques.

Formations dispensées par d’anciens "Project Officers" de la Commission européenne ayant une expérience pratique des projets européens de R&D.

Lieu : Paris - Langue de formation : Français

Prix : 590€ HTVA

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Les contrats européens de recherche : module financier

Date : mercredi 05 juin 2013

Session d'approfondissement - Comprendre les règles financières sous le 7ème Programme-Cadre de Recherche et Développement. Comment préparer votre budget? Comment gérer votre budget?

Formations dispensées par d’anciens "Project Officers" de la Commission européenne ayant une expérience pratique des projets européens de R&D.

Lieu : Paris - Langue de formation : Français

Prix : 590€ HTVA

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Audits et contrôles de votre contrat européen de recherche

Date : mardi 25 juin 2013

Les audits et contrôles de votre contrat européen de recherche.
Comment s’y préparer et comment y réagir?

Formations dispensées par d’anciens "Project Officers" de la Commission européenne ayant une expérience pratique des projets européens de R&D.

Lieu : Paris - Langue de formation : Français

Prix : 590€ HTVA

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Horizon 2020: Comment comprendre le nouveau programme Européen de recherche et d'innovation

Date : mercredi 26 juin 2013

Formations dispensées par d’anciens "Project Officers" de la Commission européenne ayant une expérience pratique des projets européens de R&D

Lieu : Paris - Langue de formation : Français

Prix : 590€ HTVA

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Próximas sesiones en español a Madrid