Science|Business Widening Newsletter No.37 | Sign up here
03/07/2024
“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 Poland’s wishlist for FP10, an analysis of how regions hope to shape the EU’s research and innovation landscape over the coming years, and a deep dive into how a group of independent experts want to change EU’s regional innovation policy.

The latest news

IMPROVE WIDENING: The Polish Chamber of Commerce for High Technology says the Horizon Europe successor programme FP10 should strike a balance between bottom-up and top-down calls, offer improved instruments for Widening countries, and support the participation of SMEs. Anna Rzhevkina has the story.

REGIONS WANT TO PLAY BIG IN FP10:  The Committee of the Regions (CoR) regions wants a bigger role in the design and implementation of FP10, as the European Commission admits there are persistent regional disparities in research and innovation performance. According to CoR rapporteur Anne Besnier, vice president of the Centre-Val de Loire region, FP10 should “fully acknowledge the key role of regions and cities in its strategic programming and implementation and the significance of regional and local innovation ecosystems.” Read the full story here.

CHANGE IN PHILOSOPHY? Senior advisers at the European Commission say the EU’s ambition of levelling up innovation in every region of Europe is misguided. Instead, the focus of EU policy should be on supporting the emergence of bigger innovation hubs in less favoured regions. The report is not official EU policy, but it is likely that it will feed into the debate around FP10, the next framework programme for research and innovation, due to start in 2028. Read the full story by Ian Mundell here.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK OF THE WIDENING: We launched The Widening newsletter back in 2022 to shed more light on the R&I ecosystems of the newer EU member states, an area we felt did not receive the media attention it deserves. Now, almost two years and 36 editions later, we have built up a strong following of 7,000 subscribers and have covered topics and countries far beyond our original plan. But we can always do better, and that’s why we are asking you to help us to improve our newsletter by responding to this very short survey. Your support is always appreciated.

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

POLISH MINISTER VISITS RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS: Poland’s new science minister Dariusz Wieczorek completed a tour of 16 academic centres. Since February, Wieczorek travelled the country to talk to students and doctoral researchers about their ideas for improving Poland’s higher education system. In a press conference last week, Wieczorek said Poland could make better use of EU funds to consolidate its research system and to boost international cooperation. He also floated the idea of merging universities in order to boost their research potential and deal with the falling number of students. A readout of the minister’s press conference is available here in Polish.

CZECH INVEST EXPANDS IN TAIWAN: Czechia’s business and development agency has announced the opening of a new office in Taiwan, which will facilitate bilateral cooperation in advanced technologies. “We have strong potential for cooperation particularly in the area of semiconductors, which have a broad range of uses in the automotive industry, industrial applications, the energy sector and automation,” said Czech industry and trade minister Jozef Síkela. “The new office in Taipei will further support [research] projects.” More details are available here.

MICRO-CREDENTIALS: After two years of intensive preparations, Masaryk University is one of the first universities in Europe to introduce micro-credentials, which bring a major change to lifelong learning. By the end of the semester, the university will have issued almost two hundred of them. “We believe that we will be able to set up the area of lifelong learning in the micro-credentials system so that it meets the requirements of those interested in this form of education [as well as] employers," said Svatava Kalná, head of the university’s Lifelong Learning Department.

ACADEMY INSTITUTE SETS UP GENE THERAPY SPIN-OUT: Gene therapies emerging from the laboratories of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) at the Czech Academy of Sciences will be translated through spin-out Adalid Sciences. The company has already secured investment from BTL Group, a leading manufacturer of medical technologies. “There is something right in the genes of our institute that inspires colleagues not only to excellent science, but also to apply their results in practice,” said IOCB director Jan Konvalinka. More details here.

Mark your calendars 

DUBROVNIK, 5-7 SEPTEMBER: Croatia’s ENTRENOVA (ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference) looks to examine economic, management, organisational, marketing and other issues related to innovation, information technology, and R&D driven by enterprises. Find out more here. 

PRAGUE, 24 SEPTEMBER: The second edition of Prague.Bio conference will gather start-ups, industrial partners, investors, researchers, and other biotech experts from central Europe.

BRNO, 2 OCTOBER: The annual conference of the Czech Association of Research Managers and Administrators will take place in Brno on 2nd October. More than 150 project management professionals from across the Czech Republic will gather to discuss the role of their profession.<> 

BUCHAREST, 2-3 OCTOBER: The How to Web conference describes itself as the meeting point for eastern Europe’s technology scene. Over 100 speakers and 3,000 attendees are expected this year in Romania’s capital. Find out more here.

WARSAW, 29-30 OCTOBER: The Deep Tech CEE Summit offers a chance to dive into the goings on in central and eastern Europe and connect with like minded entrepreneurs. There is also an investors’ day on 28 October. Find out more here. 

Science|Business Widening group

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