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3 Consultations and Roadmaps, BNU April 2016

Roadmap: Revision of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF)

The general objective of this revision is to remove obstacles to mobility of learners and workers related to the understanding and trust of their skills and qualifications regardless of whether they are EU citizens or third country nationals and whether it concerns qualifications obtained in the EU or in a third country. The initiative should thus contribute to a better use of available skills and qualifications for the benefit of individuals, the labour market and the economy.
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/

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3 Consultations and Roadmaps, BNU April 2016

Roadmap: Minimum Quality Requirements for Reused Water in the EU

The primary goal is to encourage efficient resource use and reduce pressures on the water environment, in particular water scarcity, by fostering the development of safe reuse of treated wastewater. To this end the initiative will look into the possibility of establishing a common approach on water reuse across the EU providing clarity, coherence and predictability to market operators who wish to invest in water reuse in the EU under comparable regulatory conditions. Additional objectives of the initiative would be to increase the recycling of nutrients contained in waste water when appropriate, and to contribute to growth and jobs creation in the EU by stimulating the development of innovative technologies and water infrastructure that will provide EU actors a first-mover advantage in this fast growing world market. The new initiative would complement the existing EU water policy, notably the Water Framework Directive and the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive.
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/

 

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3 Consultations and Roadmaps, BNU April 2016

Public consultation on Horizon 2020 ‘Science with and for Society’ Work Programme 2018-2020

The purpose of the present open public online consultation is to collect views and opinions on the strategy, scope, objectives, and expected impacts of the Horizon 2020 ‘Science with and for Society’ Work Programme 2018-2020.
Contributions to the present consultation will feed into preparation of the next SWAFS Work Programme 2018-2020. The Commission expects to develop the content of Work Programme 2018-2020 during the fourth quarter of 2016 and first semester 2017, with adoption and publication of calls for proposals in the autumn of 2017.
Deadline: 4 July 2016
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/research/

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3 Consultations and Roadmaps, BNU April 2016

Public consultation on Methylisothiazolinone

The Commission invites interested parties, including national authorities, manufacturers of cosmetic products, producers of the substances concerned, and relevant industry and consumers’ associations, to submit their comments on Methylisothiazolinone (MI) in the framework of Regulation (EC) No. 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on cosmetic products – rinse-off cosmetic products.
Deadline: 1 July 2016
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/

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2 Innovation & Entrepreneurship, BNU April 2016

CoRAP Updated with 138 Substances to be Evaluated

ECHA has adopted the updated Community rolling action plan (CoRAP) for 2016-2018 with 138 substances to be evaluated. Registrants of these substances are encouraged to coordinate their actions and to interact early with the evaluating Member States. The Member States, the European Commission and ECHA have agreed on the recommendations on best practice for interaction between registrants and the evaluating Member States during substance evaluation. These are available on ECHA’s website. The registrants of substances listed on the CoRAP will in any case have an opportunity to comment before any decision to request further information is taken.
CoRAP specifies the substances that are to be evaluated over a period of three years. The plan is annually updated to include substances for the additional year as well as any revision to the substances that were included in the second and third year of the previous plan.
Source: http://echa.europa.eu/

 

 

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2 Innovation & Entrepreneurship, BNU April 2016

New Portal to Bring EU Projects and Potential Investors Closer

The European Investment Project Portal (EIPP) is a new online platform designed to attract a wide reach of potential investors to EU projects. Via the EIPP, potential investors will be able to search for suitable projects and receive project updates in a virtual meeting place for both project promoters and investors.
To be published on the portal, a project must have a total cost of at least €10 million, be expected to start within three years of its submission to the EIPP, be promoted by a public or private legal entity established in an EU country, and be compatible with all relevant EU and national laws. The sectors covered by the EIPP include renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy infrastructure, energy R&D and fuel extraction and refining.
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/

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1 European Highlights, BNU April 2016

Facts and Figures from ERC Consolidator Grants 2016

The preliminary statistics on submitted proposals for the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grants for 2016 show that the Number of applicants increased 12% comparing with the previous Consolidator Grant call. The highest number of applications was submitted in the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering (1075), followed by Life Sciences (713), and Social Science and Humanities (516). The ERC Work Programme has earmarked €605 million for an estimated number of 335 Consolidator Grants in 2016.
Source: https://erc.europa.eu/

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1 European Highlights, BNU April 2016

Making Open Science a Reality

Research data produced by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission or in cooperation with other partners is now publicly available, in support of the European Commission’s strategy on Open Science for improved circulation of knowledge and thus innovation for generating growth. The JRC Data Catalogue is online and its datasets can be freely consulted and downloaded.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/

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1 European Highlights, BNU April 2016

Series of COST Info Days

The COST Association has been organising a series of half-day events where national research communities are informed by its representatives about the COST Framework’s policies, activities and funding opportunities, with an emphasis on the Open Call for new COST Actions proposals, and COST Action representatives from the specific countries showcase the outstanding results of their participation in COST Actions and share their experiences and best practices. After info days organised in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina the next info day is organised in Ljubljana on 22 April 2016. You may check presentations in the link bellow.
Source: https://danube-inco.net/

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1 European Highlights, BNU April 2016

Erasmus Mundus Graduate Impact Survey

According to the Erasmus Mundus Graduate Impact Survey, the programme is rated highly satisfactory. The report shows that over 90% of the participants were satisfied with the programme, with more than 65% very satisfied. Overall, 81% of graduates were satisfied with the quality of the courses offered. As a negative point, graduates said that contacts with potential employers, as well as practical experiences on the course, were lacking: 72.6% of participants found the links to employment to be too weak.
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/education/

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1 European Highlights, BNU April 2016

Detecting “Legal Highs”

“Legal highs” are new psychoactive substances (NPS) which are very similar to illicit drugs such as cannabis, heroin and cocaine. They can be cheaply and easily produced and they have recently gained popularity even amongst casual drug users, often teenagers and young adults, therefore becoming a serious new threat to public health.
Scientists at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) are helping to develop methods by using highly advanced analytical and chemo-informatics tools for the structural characterisation of these unknown psychoactive substances when they enter European territory. Once their chemical “fingerprint” has been established, most analytical laboratories can use it to identify the substances, e.g. customs and police authorities in confiscated samples, as well as hospitals in the blood or urine of drug-related victims.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/

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1 European Highlights, BNU April 2016

Increasing Renewables, Decreasing Fossil Fuels

According to a report published earlier this month by the European Environment Agency (EEA), the use of fossil fuels across the European Union continues to decline due in part to increased consumption of renewable energy sources like wind, solar and biomass. The report, which assesses progress on the use of renewable energy, found that clean energy technologies are an important driving force in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and in creating employment in Europe. Also according to this report, public funding in research and development of new renewable energy sources has increased between 2005 and 2013 but at a slower pace than before, posing a risk of missing the break-through technologies of tomorrow. The International Energy Agency has recommended the tripling of current public research and development spending on clean-energy innovation.
Source: http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/

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