Science|Business Widening Newsletter No. 46 | Sign up here
12/02/2025
“The Widening” is a product of Science|Business and is not related to EU institutions or programmes.

Focus on central and eastern Europe

Welcome to a new edition of The Widening newsletter, a roundup of news and analysis of research and innovation policy and investments in central and eastern Europe, delivered to your inbox twice a month. Sign up here.

Edited by Florin Zubașcu

This week we take a look at the European Parliament’s new Widening task force, we analyse the know-how gap in EU project management, and we explore Lithuania’s rapidly growing deep tech start-up ecosystem.

The latest news

THE WIDENING TASK FORCE: Hungarian MEP Eszter Lakos is leading a new Widening task force aimed at assessing the effectiveness of EU funding instruments designed to reduce the research and innovation performance gap between richer and poorer member states. The MEPs in the task force advocate “mainstreaming” Widening funding schemes and their principles across the whole of FP10. Eleonora Francica has the story.

THE KNOW-HOW GAP: Increasing project management demands are a significant barrier for Widening countries in EU research programmes. Bid writing and project management have become more complex thanks to requirements such as gender balance and open access policies. Many institutions in the Widening countries, which includes most of central and eastern Europe, lack the know-how to respond, making it difficult for them to compete. Read the full story.

THE ERC CHALLENGE: Researchers in Europe’s Widening countries are far less likely to win funding from the European Research Council  than their peers elsewhere in the EU. The latest success rates show some improvement, but parity is still a long way off, Goda Naujokaitytė reports.

FAST GROWTH: More money and bigger markets are needed to consolidate Lithuania’s rapidly growing deep tech start-up ecosystem. Companies and investors hope that a unified start-up ecosystem across the EU could reduce some of these headaches, allowing start-ups to spend less time and money navigating differing legal, regulatory and employment frameworks when they try to expand abroad. Sarah Drumm has the story.

THE HORIZON PAPERS: In case you missed it, Science|Business has been publishing the Commission’s sector-by-sector plans for Horizon Europe. On this page you can find links to the draft Horizon Europe work programmes for 2025, including a history of the drafting process, with earlier-stage drafts that were leaked to us over time.

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY? We welcome opinion pieces and other contributions on R&I policy in central and eastern Europe. Send yours to news@sciencebusiness.net.

In other news

PUBLIC HOLIDAY: Slovenia has introduced Science Day as a new public holiday to be observed on November 10. The government says this would make science “more accessible to the general public and strengthen knowledge as one of the fundamental values of Slovenian society.”

JOINT PROJECT: GE HealthCare and the University of Debrecen are working together on a project aimed at using artificial intelligence to make medical diagnostics and pharmaceutical research more efficient. The project is worth €3.6 million, of which nearly half is supported by Hungary’s National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.

CAR BATTERIES VENTURE: The University of Zagreb and Munich BMW Group are expanding their cooperation with a new joint R&D project on battery cell manufacturing using artificial intelligence models. More details here.

PLUGGING THE BRAIN DRAIN: INSAIT, Bulgaria’s top AI research institute, has announced the second edition of its Explorer programme, a four-year initiative that supports young talents in artificial intelligence and technology. This year, up to 10 students will receive a scholarship of €1,000 per month for four years. More details here.

APPOINTMENT: Former EU commissioner for values and transparency Věra Jourová has been appointed vice rector for human resources development and new technologies at Charles University.

Mark your calendars 

SEOUL, 17-19 February 2025: Czechia’s Technology Agency is organising a bilateral Energy Tech Forum, which will gather companies, research institutions and academics interested in working with counterparts in South Korea. More details are available here.

KRAKOW, 18 MARCH 2025: Registrations for the Euro HPC Summit are now open.

KRAKOW, 14-16 MAY 2025: The European Defence Agency is organising the third European Defence Innovation Days. Register here. 

BRNO, 2-6 JUNE 2025: Masaryk University is organising a five-day training programme for academics interested in improving their knowledge of grant funding opportunities and management. The MUST Week 2025 for Research Managers and Administrators will take place in Brno, Czechia. Application deadline is February 28. 

BRNO, 10-12 JUNE 2025: The Czech city will be the host of next year’s conference on core technologies for life sciences. The event is aimed at facility administrators, managers, researchers and professionals, who will discuss cross-facility workflows, professional development of facility staff, open science in core facilities, building of a national core facility community, and engagement with industry. Registration is now open. Early bird fees are available until 28 February 2025.

Science|Business Widening group

Did you know that we host a meeting of the founding members of our Widening initiative once a month, during which we discuss the latest progress and the future of the community? You can find out more about becoming a member at this link.

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