Research & Technology in the EU

Latest news about research and innovation policy in the European Union.

EU moves to protect critical European assets — 26 March 2020, 23:52 CET

The European Commission issued guidelines Thursday to ensure a strong EU-wide approach to foreign investment screening in a time of public health crisis and related economic vulnerability.

Enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot — 12 March 2020, 23:24 CET

The Enhanced EIC pilot supports top-class innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies and scientists with bright ideas and the ambition to scale up internationally. It brings together the parts of Horizon 2020 that provide funding, advice and networking opportunities for those at cutting edge of innovation.

Start-ups, SMEs take up EUR 344m EU research funding — 18 March 2020, 00:05 CET

The European Commission announced Thursday that 107 innovative projects from across Europe are to be supported with EUR 344 million through the EU's European Innovation Council pilot.

Use of EU's space assets under auditor scrutiny — 09 January 2020, 17:42 CET

The EU Court of Auditors said Thursday it is examining how effectively the European Commission promotes the uptake of services provided by two of the EU's key space programmes, Copernicus and Galileo.

Brussels looks to strengthen IPR protection — 14 January 2020, 17:09 CET

The EU Commission signalled its intention Thursday to crack down on intellectual property rights infringements, which it says cost European firms billions of euros in lost revenue and put jobs at risk.

EU companies increase R&D investment in face of stiff global competition — 19 December 2019, 22:31 CET

Companies' investment in research and development grew for the ninth consecutive year in 2018, though below the global growth rate, driven by the auto, health and ICT sectors - according to an EU report.

2019 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard — 19 December 2019, 22:30 CET

The 2019 edition of the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard (the Scoreboard) comprises the 2500 companies investing the largest sums in R&D in the world in 2018/19. These companies, based in 44 countries, each invested over €30 million in R&D for a total of €823.4bn which is approximately 90% of the world’s business-funded R&D. They include 551 EU companies accounting for 25% of the total, 769 US companies for 38%, 318 Japanese companies for 13%, 507 Chinese for 12% and 355 from the rest-of-the-world (RoW) for 12%. This report analyses the main changes in companies' R&D and economic indicators over the past year and their performance over the past ten years. It also includes patent-based analyses aimed at characterising further the R&D efficiency of the business health sector and the activity of the Scoreboard companies in the field of environmental technologies.

New rules to boost crowdfunding across EU borders — 28 December 2019, 10:55 CET

The EU Parliament and Council reached provisional agreement Wednesday evening on EU-wide rules to help crowdfunding services function smoothly and foster cross-border business funding.

EU greenlights EUR 3.2 billion battery research project — 11 December 2019, 17:47 CET

The European Commission approved Monday under EU state aid rules a 'Common European interest' project jointly notified by seven EU Member States to support research and innovation in batteries.

75 start-ups, SMEs selected for EU innovation funding pilot — 05 December 2019, 21:38 CET

'Blended' grant and equity financing formed part of a funding package for 75 promising start-ups and smaller businesses announced Thursday, in a pilot offer from the new European Innovation Council.

Road opens to building world-class supercomputers in Europe — 28 November 2019, 17:45 CET

Representatives of supercomputing centres in eight EU countries marked the signature Tuesday of hosting agreements launching the procurement process for the acquisition and installation of the new supercomputers.

Gender gap could hold back expected R&D surge: report — 14 November 2019, 15:57 CET

Complacency over gender diversity could be an important factor in holding back an expected global surge in research and development activity, according to new research published on Wednesday.

US chipmaker ordered by EU to stop 'anticompetitive practices' — 17 October 2019, 20:26 CET

Broadcom, the world's leading supplier of chipsets used for TV set-top boxes and modems, must stop applying exclusivity provisions in agreements with its top customers, the Commission ordered Wednesday.

EU sets its sights on huge potential of blockchain — 14 October 2019, 22:44 CET

Blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, has the potential to transform the way we exchange a much wider range of assets, according to a new report from the EU's research centre.

Blockchain now and tomorrow: Assessing multidimensional impacts of distributed ledger technologies — 10 October 2019, 21:04 CET

Blockchain can enable parties with no particular trust in each other to exchange digital data on a peer-to-peer basis with fewer or no third parties or intermediaries. Data could correspond, for instance, to money, insurance policies, contracts, land titles, medical and educational records, birth and marriage certificates, buying and selling goods and services, or any transaction or asset that can be translated into a digital form. The potential of blockchain to engender wide-ranging changes in the economy, industry and society – both now and tomorrow – is currently being explored across sectors and by a variety of organisations. This report provides multidimensional insights into the state of blockchain technology by identifying ongoing and upcoming transformations in a range of sectors and setting out an anticipatory approach for further exploration. Moving beyond the hype and debunking some of its controversies, we aim to offer both an in-depth and practical understanding of blockchain and its possible applications.

Nantes named European Capital of Innovation 2019 — 25 September 2019, 23:16 CET

The city of Nantes in north-west France has been named the European Capital of Innovation 2019, the EU Commission announced Wednesday at the European Research and Innovation Days.

Europe's satnav system reaches 1 billion smartphones — 12 September 2019, 00:10 CET

Galileo, Europe's satellite navigation system, reached 1 billion smartphone users worldwide Tuesday, as the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency reached its 15th anniversary.

EU auditors review innovation support for SMEs — 11 April 2019, 23:27 CET

The European Court of Auditors is conducting an audit of EU's innovation support scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including start-ups, it announced Thursday.

EU sets out guidelines for ethical articial intelligence — 09 April 2019, 23:41 CET

Based on work of a group of independent experts, the EU Commission launched Monday a pilot phase to ensure that ethical guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI) development and use can be implemented in practice.

AI ethic guidance a first step but needs to be transformed into tangible rights for people — 08 April 2019, 23:44 CET

On Monday, 8 April, the European Commission's High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (HLEG) will publish its "Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI". AccessNow, ANEC and BEUC, all members of the expert group, support these guidelines but stress that they can only be a first step. The European Union has the responsibility to ensure that fundamental and consumer rights are respected and bring benefits to people.

Innovation Fund Delegated Regulation — 01 March 2019, 01:21 CET

The Commission announced on 26 February an investment programme worth over €10 billion for low-carbon technologies in several sectors to boost their global competitiveness.

World Rare Diseases Day — 28 February 2019, 22:43 CET

Europe invested over EUR 1.4 billion in more than 200 collaborative research and innovation projects through the framework programmes related to rare diseases. 28 February is World Rare Diseases Day.

High-Performance Computing — 19 February 2019, 14:29 CET

High performance computing (HPC), also known as supercomputing, involves thousands of processors working in parallel to analyse billions of pieces of data in real time, performing calculations thousands of times faster than a normal computer. In the digital era, it is at the core of major advances and innovation and a strategic resource for Europe's future.

EU issues first call for supercomputers sites — 19 February 2019, 14:34 CET

The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking launched its first calls for expressions of interest Monday to select the sites that will host its first supercomputers by the end of 2020.

European AI platform launches with EUR 20m EU funding — 18 January 2019, 01:32 CET

The EU's AI4EU artificial intelligence project officially launched Thursday with a view to mobilising Europe's AI community to build the first European on-demand Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform.