As the European Commission has recently launched the new European Innovation Council, the first EIC Accelerator calls, which overall budget amounts to €1 billion, have officially opened on 9 April. Almost half of the attributed budget (€495 million) will be targeted at digital and health technologies as well as Green Deal related activities. The other half will be dedicated to innovation in all fields.
EIC Pathfinder research and innovation grants programme was opened on the same day with a total budget of €168 million.
On 30 and 31 March 2021, the UNESCO’s International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) was inaugurated online by the Republic of Slovenia’s President, Borut Pahor, and the UNESCO’s Director General, Audrey Azoulay. This Center is under the auspices of UNESCO at Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI), Ljubljana, Slovenia. IRCAI’s objectives are to provide a coordination point, funding route and exploitation accelerator for approaches to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that make use of AI.
Opening speeches introduced the audience to the IRCAI project and the many contributions from Slovenia in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years; for which it was selected. Emphasis was put on transparency, gender balance and how a more ethical AI would help reach the United Nations’ 17 SDGs by 2030. Discussions also focused on the need for a more efficient open education system on AI.
There are currently 10 initial projects that are being developed and are to be launched in 2021.
You can find more information about it on the IRCAI website and watch the launch event here.
As of 27 March 2021, the new Transparency Regulation (EU) 2019/1381, passed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, will be put into application. This regulation will foster the ability of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to carry out its risk assessments while complying with the highest transparency standards. It also aims to increase the independence of studies, to strengthen governance and scientific cooperation and to develop a comprehensive risk communication.
An online celebratory event for the entry into application of the Transparency Regulation took place on 31 March 2021.
“This is a pivotal moment for the assessment of risks in the food chain in the EU. EFSA is grateful to the European Parliament, to the European Commission and to the EU Member States for giving us this opportunity to bring citizens and stakeholders closer to our work and to benefit from greater scrutiny of our working processes and practices.”
The call for the ERC Consolidator Grants is currently open.
ERC Consolidator Grants are designed to support scientists wishing to consolidate their own independent research team or programme in Europe. The ERC Consolidator Grants opened for researchers of any nationality with 7-12 years of experience since completion of PhD. Applications can be made in any field of research.
Deadline: 20 April 2021
Click here for more information about it.
ERC released a tentative calendar for its 2022 Open Calls
The European Research Council (ERC) released a calendar for the 2021-2022 ERC calls with tentative dates. Due to the start of Horizon Europe, the EU new Framework Programme, the calendar for the upcoming and future ERC calls differs from the previous years.
In March 2021, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI Committee) gathered to discuss several pressing issues, including a ban on pesticides export.
On 23 March 2021, the DG SANTE, discussed during the ENVI committee meeting the regulation on EU pesticides ban export. Currently, pesticides banned in the EU can be found in products that the EU imports from third countries, where pesticides regulation is different. As a result, banned pesticides in the EU circulate within the 27 member states. Although 72 countries signed the Rotterdam’s Convention, which is a global agreement on pesticides and chemicals regulation, the EU law in this regard is more restrictive according to Jürgen Hellbig, senior Expert on Chemicals advising the DG ENV.
MEPs pointed out the “tolerance 0” on pesticides within this regulation: third countries do not insure the same level of food safety as in the EU. In addition, trade agreements, such as the Mercosur, also do not guarantee the same risk assessment level between the EU 27 states and other countries.
Emphasis was also given to banned chemicals produced inside the EU that are being used by third countries. In November 2020, 70 NGOs urged in an Open Letter to the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, to prohibit the export of banned pesticides and the import of food with these same banned pesticides.
The recording of the full session is available here.
This strategy is part of the European Union’s toxic free environment by 2050, as announced in the European Green Deal. This new strategy for chemicals sets the long-term vision for the EU chemicals policy and aims to ban the most harmful chemicals in consumer products and to phase-out hazardous chemicals that affect vulnerable groups.
In its conclusions, the Council supports the European Commission in implementing the actions laid down in the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. The Council emphasised the necessity to limit exposure to endocrine disruptors and to reduce the harmful effects of chemical mixtures.
Read more about the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability in the press release of the Council of the European Union.
On 24 March 2021, the European Commission launched the Open Research Europe publishing platform. In its press release, the European Commission presents this platform as a tool to support open science and transparency in the scientific publishing process within the EU. Open Research Europe will also enable rigorous open peer review and fast publication.
Furthermore, Open Research Europe is free-of-charge, making the platform accessible for everyone.
Researchers from all scientific, humanities and social sciences fields, stemming from Horizon 2020 funding, can submit their articles on Open Research Europe at no cost to them. One author of each publication must have been, or still is, a recipient of a Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe grant.
EuChemS had its representative within the High Level expert group of the Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP), which advised the European Commission on how to further develop and practically implement open science policies.
The European Chemical Society has recently answered to the European Commission’s public consultation with regards to the upcoming repeal on the Mercury Regulation.
Relying on its previous contribution to the public consultation for the last Mercury Regulation repeal in 2014, EuChemS could provide its views on the Commission’s plan for a complete Mercury phasing-down process to be completed by 2030.
While supporting the European Commission’s initiative and its relevance with the European Green Deal and the European Water Directive (amongst others), EuChemS reiterated some reservations about the total elimination of Mercury use in specific professional sectors where it might remain the best-known option to this day.
The crucial need for international scientific cooperation was also addressed.
The European Chemical Society, EuChemS, is organising a webinar ‘The Carbon element – Key towards a sustainable society’. The webinar will take place online on Thursday 22 April, from 10:00 to 16:30 CEST // morning session: 10:00-12:00 CEST – afternoon session: 13:30-16:30 CEST.
Registration link ➡️ CLICK HERE Please note that online registration for this event is mandatory. One unique link will be sent to you via email and will give you access to the full event at any time.
The webinar will be chaired by Nicola Armaroli (EuChemS Executive Board member, CNR) and hosted by Floris Rutjes (EuChemS President, Radboud University). Speakers from the international Chemistry community and the EU institutions will address scientific and policy-related topics.
Participants are invited to submit COST Action proposals contributing to the scientific, technological, economic, cultural or societal knowledge advancement and development of Europe. Multi- and interdisciplinary proposals are encouraged.
The Open Call Action proposal submission, evaluation, selection and approval (SESA) procedure is fully science and technology-driven and will ensure a simple, transparent and competitive proposal evaluation and selection process, reflecting the bottom-up, open and inclusive principles of COST.
The International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) Innovation Challenge 2020/2021 addresses innovators from around the world which are active in developing sustainable chemistry solutions linked to renewable energies.
ERC first calls for proposals of Horizon Europe are open.
On 22 February 2021, the European Commission presented the Work Programme 2021 for the European Research Council (ERC), which is the first Work Programme approved under Horizon Europe. This legal document sets out how the ERC will allocate its funding of €1.9 billion in 2021 to pursue frontier research. It includes three main calls for proposals:
Among the innovations, researchers will now be invited to present their proposals in interviews to a panel as part of the evaluation process for the Advanced Grant.
Synergy Grants and Proof of Concepts Grants are not available under this work programme, but the ERC is hoping to open the calls later this year, with funding from the next Work Programme.
