Recommendations of the independent High-Level Group of Innovators on the European Innovation Council (EIC)

“The independent High-Level Group of Innovators published recommendations on the European Innovation Council (EIC), indicating it should support breakthrough innovation for the benefit of all, meeting the needs of high potential innovators from across the EU from start-up to scale-up.

In their first set of recommendations, the Group (including successful innovators, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from across the EU), also recommend bringing all relevant EU funding schemes into a single, fit-for-purpose ‘one-stop-shop’ for innovation financing, with major reforms to introduce excellence, flexibility and agility (for example to combine grant financing with venture capital investments).”

Source: European Commission

EC published a guide to ICT-related activities in Horizon 2020 WP 2018-20

The European Commission published a guide to ICT-related activities in Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2018-20.

Roughly EUR 6 billion out of the overall budget of EUR 30 billion will be spent on research and innovations in the ICT sector. ICT is present in many of the Horizon 2020 areas. This guide is designed to help potential proposers find ICT-related topics across the different parts of H2020 in work programme 2018-20.

ICT-related activities in Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2018-20: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/guide-ict-related-activities-horizon-2020-work-programme-2018-20

Source: European Commission

HORIZON Prize Materials for clean air – € 3 Million

The Horizon Prize on materials for clean air will be awarded to the most affordable, sustainable and innovative design-driven material solution that can reduce the concentration of particulate matter in urban areas. The contest has been launched and will run until the end of 2018. Contestants are able to submit their entries until 23 January 2018. The rules of contest are available online: http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizonprize/index.cfm?prize=clean-air&pg=rules

HORIZON Prize Materials for clean air: http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizonprize/index.cfm?prize=clean-air

Clean air prize – flyer: http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizonprize/pdf/cleanair/cleanair_prize_flyer_2015.pdf#view=fit&pagemode=none

Clean air prize – infographic: http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizonprize/index.cfm?prize=clean-air&pg=infographic

Source: European Commission

The European Research Council has announced its 2018 Work Programme

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced its 2018 Work Programme and grant competitions with a total budget of €1.86 billion.

One of the programme’s new elements is the reintroduction of Synergy Grants, the funding scheme for groups of 2-4 scientists who can jointly address ambitious research problems.

The ERC Starting Grants and Synergy Grants calls were open on 3 August 2017.

Other grant competitions will be launched according to the indicative calendar which is availabe at the ERC website: https://erc.europa.eu/news/nearly-%E2%82%AC2-billion-investment-top-european-researchers-erc-plan-2018

Source: ERC website

High Level Group on maximising impact of EU Research and Innovation Programmes

The High Level Group on maximising impact of EU Research and Innovation Programmes Report: “LAB – FAB – APP – Investing in the European future we want” was published on 3rd July 2017, on the occasion of the ‘Research & Innovation – Shaping our Future‘ conference in Brussels.

Report is availabe at: http://ec.europa.eu/research/evaluations/pdf/archive/other_reports_studies_and_documents/hlg_2017_report.pdf

Survey on intersectoral mobility

The European Commission is carrying out a study on fostering industrial talents in research at European level. The overall objective is to conduct a feasibility study into whether there is a place for additional EU level initiatives in order to increase the level of intersectoral mobility in Europe. The study foresees web-based surveys of individual researchers, higher education and publicly funded research institutions, industrial and non-academic research organisations, as well as those involved in intersectoral mobility schemes.

Survey is available at: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/euraxess/news/survey-intersectoral-mobility

Source: European Commission EURAXESS

Interview with Prof. Lucyna A. Woźniak

Open access to JRC Research Infrastructures

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) opens its scientific laboratories and facilities to people working in academia and research organisations, and private sector: industry, small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Scientists will have the opportunity to work in the following fields:

• nuclear safety and security (Euratom Laboratories);
• chemistry;
• biosciences/life sciences;
• physical sciences;
• ICT;
• Foresight.

For more information please visit JRC website: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/research-facility/open-access

Source: JRC website

Aplikuj o stypendia PIASt – Polski Instytut Studiów Zaawansowanych

The Polish Institute of Advanced Studies (PIASt) invites applications for 5- or 10-month research fellowships, starting their residencies from October 2017.

ELIGIBILITY
At the time of the application, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Poland for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date – May 15^th 2017 (short stays such as holidays do not count).
Applications are open to active researchers at two stages of their careers:
–    juniors/postdocs, who have obtained their PhD in the last 10 years and have subsequent working experience as researchers for at least two years (PhD training is not considered in the calculation of research experience) – 4 fellowships;
–    seniors/professors, who have minimum 10 years of full-time research experience after obtaining a PhD – 8 fellowships.

SELECTION PROCEDURE
The Institute attaches great importance to the quality and fairness of its selection process. All applications go through a four-stage procedure:
1/ formal preselection process of eligibility and completeness of documents by the Institute’s staff;
2/ peer-reviewing by independent assessors;
3/ ranking by international Scientific Advisory Board responsible for the final selection of successful fellows;
4/ detailed negotiations of individual Host Agreements.
The deadline for applications within this call is June 19^th 2017, 12 PM (noon) GMT. Late applications will not be considered.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT THE WEBSITE

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) offers MOOC “EU budget and funding for regions and cities”

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) offers this MOOC to contribute to capacity-building of regional and local authorities with regard to EU affairs, more particularly on EU budget and funding for regions and cities. While regions and cities matter in EU policy-making, they may have a limited knowledge of how the EU budget works and what are the possibilities for accessing EU funds. The course will attempt to fill this knowledge gap.

This MOOC has been co-created with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission – Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and Directorate-General for Budget (DG BUDG).

The course consists of videos, factsheets, infographics and web-streamed live debates with Q&A from the course participants. Moreover, course followers can interact and contribute via social media and fora. The course will last six weeks, starting on 31 October and ending on 9 December 2016. Studying time is about two hours per week. The course material will remain available online until 31 July 2017.

https://www.fun-mooc.fr/courses/CoR/114001/session01/about