24 October 2017
Brussels, Belgium
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/
Science Delivery for Sustainable Use of the Baltic Sea Living Resources
17 – 19 October 2017
Tallinn, Estonia
Website: https://europa.eu/
EuCheMS Executive Board Meeting
27 – 28 February 2018
Berlin, Germany
Website: http://www.euchems.eu/
ChemCYS 2018 – 14th Chemistry Conference for Young Scientists
21 – 23 February 2018
Blankenberge, Belgium
Website: https://chemcys.be/
16EPI – 16th Iberian Peptide Meeting / 4GEQB – 4th Chemical Biology Group Meeting
5 – 7 February 2018
Barcelona, Spain
Website: https://eventum.upf.edu/
ABCChem – Atlantic Basin Conference on Chemistry
23 – 26 January 2018
Cancún, Mexico
Website: http://abcchem.org/
13th ICPG – 13th International Conference on Polysaccharides and Glycoscience
8 – 10 November 2017
Prague, Czech Republic
Website: http://www.polysaccharides.csch.cz/index.html
EuCheMS Historical Landmarks
Deadline: 30 April 2018
Website: http://www.euchems.eu/
EuCheMS Lecture Award
Deadline: 31 December 2017
Website: http://www.euchems.eu/
EuCheMS European Chemistry Gold Medal
Deadline: 31 December 2017
Website: http://www.euchems.eu/
ERC Synergy Grant
Deadline: 14 November 2017
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/
Era Chairs
Deadline: 15 November 2017
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/
Twinning
Deadline: 15 November 2017
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/
EU Prize for Women Innovators 2018
Deadline: 15 November 2017
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/
EFSA Public Consultation on The Active Substance Milbemectin
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will assess all comments from interested parties regarding the active substance Milbemectin. Input is requested on the following: physical/chemical properties; details of uses and further information; methods of analysis; mammalian toxicology; residues; and environmental fate and behaviour.
Deadline: 11 December 2017
Website: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/consultations/call/171011
Amendments of the Annexes to REACH for Registration of Nanomaterials
The Commission is requesting feedback on amending Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) as regards Annexes I, III,VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII to address nanoforms of substances.
Deadline: 7 November 2017
Website: https://ec.europa.eu/
Evaluation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive
The main objective of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD) 91/271/EEC is to protect the environment from the adverse effects of waste water discharges from urban areas and certain industrial sectors by setting requirements for the collection and treatment of urban waste water. The evaluation will assess five criteria: effectiveness, coherence, efficiency, relevance, and EU added value by analysing the Directive’s requirements and implementation in the last 25 years in the entire EU5. The findings of the evaluation will feed into the Commission’s reflection on possible further action.
Deadline: 9 November 2017
Website: https://ec.europa.eu/
Public Consultation in Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) and Patent Research Exemptions
With this consultation the Commission seeks the views of stakeholders on the Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPC) and patent research exemption of SPCs. Citizens and stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on their experience and knowledge, which the Commission will carefully analyse before deciding whether and to what extent it should take further action. SPCs are a unique intellectual property right that constitute an extension (of up to 5 years) to the term of a patent right (of 20 years). SPCs apply to innovative pharmaceutical and plant protection products that have been authorised by regulatory authorities. They aim to offset the loss of effective patent protection that occurs due to the compulsory and lengthy testing and clinical trials that products require prior to obtaining regulatory marketing approval.
Website: https://ec.europa.eu/
Patent Case Studies
A new publication by the European Patent Office (EPO) provides concrete examples of how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can use intellectual property (IP) to their advantage. It not only illustrates the variety of approaches to using IP and their many advantages, but each study also contains a list of specific recommendations. In a highly competitive business environment, Europe’s SMEs need to remain agile and responsive to market conditions. One way of doing this is to invest into R&D and build as well as maintain a strong intellectual property portfolio. But developing and fine-tuning IP strategies is not always easy, particularly for smaller entities, which often have limited resources.
Source: https://www.iprhelpdesk.eu
Schools Going Digital
The European Commission has launched the trial version of SELFIE, a new tool to support schools in self-assessing the use of digital technologies. 600 schools from 14 countries have the opportunity to try the new tool in this pilot phase, before it is finalised and made available to interested schools in Europe early 2018. SELFIE stands for Self-reflection on Effective Learning by Fostering Innovation through Educational Technology and is based on the Digitally-Competent Educational Organisations framework that offers a detailed description of what it takes for educational organisations to be digitally competent.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/
2nd World Open Educational Resources Congress
The second World Open Educational Resources (OER) Congress closed as experts and national delegates from 111 countries adopted by acclamation the 2017 Ljubljana OER Action Plan. This action plan presents 41 recommended actions to mainstream open-licensed resources to help all Member States to build Knowledge Societies and achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 4 on “quality and lifelong education.” The 2017 Ljubljana OER Action Plan provides recommendations to stakeholders in five strategic areas, namely: building the capacity of users to find, re-use, create and share OER; language and cultural issues; ensuring inclusive and equitable access to quality OER; developing sustainability models; and developing supportive policy environments.
Source: http://www.oercongress.org
Western Balkans Research Foundation
Following the recommendation of the “Joint Science Conference”, which was jointly organised by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the French Académie des sciences, the Heads of State and Government decided at the Western Balkans Conference on 12 July in Trieste, Italy, to establish a foundation to support junior scientists at scientific institutions in the Balkans, the Western Balkans Research Foundation. This foundation is designed to enable outstanding junior scientists from the Balkans and from Europe to build up excellent research labs and teams in the Balkan countries within a period of five years through ad personam grants, enjoying grant portability. The grants will allow a preceding one to two-year training period in top research teams or labs in Europe, thus enhancing scientific links between the Western Balkans and the European Union.
Source: https://wbc-rti.info/in_focus
Impact of ERC Research
A new independent study published in September, shows the impact of the European Research Council’s (ERC) funded research. According to this study, 73% of projects evaluated have made breakthroughs or major scientific advances. The report also found that the ERC is achieving its goals of funding high-risk/high-gain projects and interdisciplinary frontier research. The study furthermore found that impact went beyond scientific spheres (into economy and society), despite that this aspect was not taken into account at the time of funding.
Source: https://erc.europa.eu/
Air Quality in Europe 2017
The European Environment Agency has recently published the 2017 edition of “Air Quality in Europe”. This report presents an updated overview and analysis of air quality in Europe from 2000 to 2015. Among other, it reviews the progress made towards meeting the air quality standards established in the two European Ambient Air Quality Directives, and towards the long‑term objectives of achieving levels of air pollution that do not lead to unacceptable harm to human health and the environment. According to this report, air pollution continues to have significant impacts on the health of the European population, particularly in urban areas with Europe’s most serious pollutants in terms of harm to human health being Particulate Matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ground-level ozone (O3).
Source: https://www.eea.europa.eu/
EU Countries Should use Pesticides More Sustainably
The report on the sustainable use of pesticides Directive recently adopted by the European Commission takes stock of progress made by the EU Member States in applying measures to reduce the risks and impacts of pesticides. It covers a wide range of topics such as aerial spraying, information to the public or training of professionals. The report indicates, among other, that it was found that protection of aquatic environments or specific areas such as public parks is difficult to assess given the lack of measurable targets in most National Action Plans. Moreover, the Integrated Pest Management (which promotes low-pesticide-input pest management) remains underused by Member States even though the number of EU-approved low risk pesticide substances has doubled since 2009.
Source: http://europa.eu/