The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is urging companies to seriously prepare for a no-deal Brexit scenario, due to take place on 31 October 2019. The warning encourages downstream users especially, who may rely on supply chains originating from a UK-based REACH registration to prepare for the eventuality of a no deal, which would make the UK a ‘’third country’’ and registrations by UK manufacturers and importers in some cases become void. More information about the possible disruptions to supply chains and registered substances is available here.

A study in the Journal of European Planning Studies has shed light on the growing integration between EU countries on research networks. The study analysed the first four years of Horizon 2020 as well as its two predecessor programmes, the Sixth and Seventh Framework Programme. The findings suggest that EU-15 (older EU members) and EU-13 (newer EU members) have increased collaboration, with specific organisations fulfilling a ‘bridging function’. Nevertheless, EU-13 countries continue to be much more engaged in research activities within the programmes that are considered less complex. The study will likely boost views that the future framework programme Horizon Europe should play a greater role in encouraging cross-border collaboration and in bridging the innovation and research gap between EU member states. You can access the study online here.

Edited by Brigitte van Tiggelen, Chair, and Annette Lykknes, Vice-Chair, of the EuChemS Working Party for the History of Chemistry, and including the work of several authors, ‘Women in their Element’ opens the door to the stories often forgotten or unstudied of how women shaped the Periodic Table and Chemistry as a whole. Coinciding both with the International year of the Periodic Table, and with a growing shift in attitudes in academia and in society over the role of women, the book provides its readers with a journey across time and challenges the stories we thought we knew. It moreover includes a preface by EuChemS President Pilar Goya, and IUPAC Past-President Natalia Tarasova. You can find out more about the book here.

Following a provisional agreement by the European Parliament and the Council on the Horizon Europe package, the European Commission launched a ‘co-design’ consultation which intends to foster greater debate and encourage feedback from a variety of stakeholders and from citizens. The feedback received will be used to evaluate how Horizon Europe can better be targeted and what the future investment priorities should be.

EuChemS’ response to the consultation emphasises that Horizon Europe should continue to support excellence and international collaboration in order to best benefit Europe’s science and innovation base. Excellent discovery research is a vital component of a successful research and innovation sector and should remain a key focus of Horizon Europe’s Excellent Science pillar through instruments such as the European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. EuChemS has moreover underlined that need to enable broad third country participation to preserve and enhance international collaboration, just as has been successfully done in previous framework programmes.

Finally, EuChemS urges the EU and other international programmes to align in order to tackle the global challenges that we face. The overlap of the European Commission’s proposal for ‘Missions’ with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals illustrates the way international collaboration and alignment can help achieve progress on tackling today’s global challenges.

You can download the full response here.