EU

EU members are among New Zealand’s most important research partners. Given that over 40% of the world’s non-military research takes place within the EU’s boundaries, this is not surprising. A 2002 MoRST survey found that nearly 30% of Kiwi researchers had a current collaboration with a British colleague, 14% had a German collaboration and 7% had a French partner. With significant links reported to the Netherlands, Italy and Denmark as well, it can reasonably be assumed that most New Zealand researchers actively collaborate with a colleague in the EU.

Most of these research links are national – that is, that New Zealand researchers work with their partner on projects funded at a national (or lower like State or institutional) level. However there is increasing opportunity for, and interest in New Zealanders participating in the European Union’s research activities, which generally take place through the Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6) administered by the European Commission’s Research Directorate General (RDG).

In 1991, New Zealand and the EU signed a S&T arrangement, to facilitate closer research links. Although underutilised in the past, this arrangement is now seen as an important framework tool for enhancing collaboration.

News

4 July 2008:  The European Space Agency is giving graduate students the opportunity to take their experiments to new heights. Under the programme 'Fly Your Thesis! - An Astronaut Experience', Master's or PhD thesis students will fly their experiments in microgravity.  The ESA's Education Office says interested parties have until 31 August 2008 to submit their proposals.  Read more

4 July 2008:  New Research Infrastructures portal launched.  Research Infrastructures (RIs) are playing an ever increasing role in advancing knowledge and technology throughout Europe. More however could be done to increase their profile, which is precisely what the creation of the European Research Infrastructure Web Portal intends to do.  Read more

4 July 2008:  Much noise has been made about how water lubricates the base of Greenland's ice sheet, accelerating its slide into the oceans.  In a rare "good news" announcement, climatologists now say the ice may not be in such a hurry to throw itself into the water after all.  Read more

3 July 2008:  Climate change threatens global food and water supply.  Scientists from all over the world representing some of the most prestigious national academies of science from the countries of the G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission), Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa have issued a warning that is making people sit up and take note.  Read more

2 July 2008:  A drive backed by substantial funds to tackle the tide of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) spreading around the world was announced by the World Health Organisation.  Read more

2 July 2008:  Austria has lifted a ban on importing and processing genetically modified corn as part of the European Union's efforts to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling on biotech foods.  Read more

1 July 2008:  The practice of radioastronomy is finally being brought up to speed with current technologies. Radio telescopes across the globe are being linked together in a network to deliver new standards of quality of data. Plans for the most powerful radio telescope on Earth are also in development.  Read more

30 June 2008: US-EU private data sharing agreement at hand: report. Read more

30 June 2008: European airlines angered by EU 'CO2 tax'. Read more

30 June 2008: Slovenia looks back on a successful presidency. Read more

30 June 2008: The European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs) and the European Science Foundation (ESF) have set out their shared vision and an action plan for the future of the European Research Area (ERA). Read more

30 June 2008: As food shortage weighs heavily on the minds of many, several countries recognise the key role irrigation can play in this issue. A team of EU-funded researchers teamed up to assess how the latest satellite imagery can be applied not only to make water use more efficient, but also boost farming output in the process.  Read more

26 June 2008: The secrets of zeolite minerals are slowly giving themselves up thanks to the intense scrutiny of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). Read more

26 June 2008: Can biosensors tell juice manufacturers when fruit juice is about to expire? The collective research project QUALIJUICE is working on technology that can. Read more

26 June 2008: EU funding for information society technologies (IST) research under the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) has helped make Europe a world leader in a number of key areas, including high-speed networking and nano-electronics. Read more

26 June 2008: Managing fisheries with semantic technologies. Read more

25 June 2008: Ministers give green light to EUROSTARS and assisted living programmes. Read more

25 June 2008: The European High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure is growing. The consortium of the Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications (DEISA) is striving for an integrated HPC network. Read more

25 June 2008: An international life sciences students' conference will take place in Warsaw, Poland, from 10 to 14 September. Read more

24 June 2008: In a world first, geneticists at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have determined the DNA sequence of a woman. Read more

24 June 2008: In a European first, the European Space Agency's (ESA) automated transfer vehicle (ATV), Jules Verne was used to refuel the International Space Station orbiting the Earth at 28,000 km. Read more

24 June 2008: Ireland could become a key player in the production of biofuel from seaweed, scientists told a conference in the west of the country on Monday. Read more

23 June 2008: EU CO2 emissions drop 7.7 percent from 1990 levels: EAA. Read more

23 June 2008: Lifestyle traits a strong factor in obesity. Read more

23 June 2008: EU-funded researchers have found what they believe to be conclusive proof that non-human species plan for their future, an attribute previously thought to be exclusive to humans. Read more

23 June 2008: Researchers at Newcastle University in the UK have discovered that cows which are allowed to graze as nature intended produce better quality milk. Read more

20 June 2008: Budapest wins race for EIT seat. Read more

20 June 2008: Car insurance companies and people in charge of analysing satellite mission quality are just two of the beneficiaries of the EU-funded OntoGrid project, which came to an end recently. Read more

20 June 2008: Multicore technology, which combines two or more processor cores on a single silicon chip, allows computers handle separate tasks at the same time, thereby increasing their performance. Read more

20 June 2008: European Science Foundation aims to strengthen 'regenerative medicine'. Read more

19 June 2008: European Union governments fail to rely enough on scientific evidence in health care spending decisions and are sometimes influenced by political factors, World Health Organisation officials said on Wednesday. Read more

19 June 2008: The European Commission is planning a wide ranging consultation on nanotechnologies with the aim of raising awareness of nanotechnologies' potential. Read more

19 June 2008: Leading European scientists have called for the study of lipids to be strengthened. In a report published by the European Science Foundation (ESF), they stress the crucial role those so-called 'fatty' molecules play in the healthy functioning of the human body as well as in the development of diseases. Read more

19 June 2008: The DIABIMMUNE study is now asking whether by removing all bacteria, we are not actually weakening our children's immune systems. Read more

19 June 2008: International conference on science and technology indicators, Vienna, Austria. Read more

Older news

European RTD Insight

European RTD Insight is a monthly publication on developments in EU research and policy.  Insight is funded by the British Council and is available without charge.

In addition to EU policy and research news, Insight includes information on education, training and culture, external collaboration, events and awards, and new publications and on-line resources.  It also contains a glossary of EU acronyms and terms.

Should you wish to receive Insight by email each month, please send an email to ukro@bbsrc.ac.uk, stating 'European RTD Insight' in the subject line. You will then be added to our mailing list.

Please address any comments or recommendations on Insight to ukro@bbsrc.ac.uk. Your input will help us in developing the publication and ensuring that it meets your information needs. read more

Links

FRENZ is a joint initiative between the New Zealand Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) and the European Commission (EC) to enhance the engagement of the New Zealand research, science and technology community with the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7).

Erasmus Mundus goes from strength to strength

Now in its second year, the EU's Erasmus Mundus exchange programme now offers 57 Masters courses at more than 190 European universities open to postgraduate students from around the world. Building on Europe's highly successful Erasmus programme, which sees thousands of European students do their Masters in other EU countries every year, Erasmus Mundus is directed at students from third countries in a bid to attract the best of the world's scholars to the European higher education system. “Erasmus Mundus is establishing itself as a popular and well-known programme of excellence in and beyond Europe,” said EU Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism Commissioner, Jan Figel, “each year thousands of students and academics will come to study in Europe for up to two years on the courses.” As well as offering two-year Masters scholarships to postgraduate students, Erasmus Mundus also provides three-month funded research postings for academics from outside the EU. Thirty-eight universities in non-EU countries also take part in the programme, facilitating exchanges between European and non-European students. “Already, 930 students and academics from all over the world have received Erasmus Mundus scholarships,” said Commissioner Figel. “Next year, this total is expected to rise to 1200 students and 170 academics.” To find out more about Erasmus Mundus, including the list of Masters courses available, go to ­ http://europa.eu.int/erasmus-mundus

President of the New Zealand-Europe Business Council

Andrew Williams, Trade Commissioner of Flanders and Hon Vice Consul of Belgium in Wellington was elected President of the newly formed New Zealand-Europe Business Council at its AGM. The Council was incorporated last November with its primary object being to promote the establishment of closer economic co-operation between NZ and Europe. Thus far 22 European countries are represented on the Council.

FP7 Project Management

About The Programme
Each year thousands of European project managers and researchers realise the hard way that winning a project is just the beginning.  This new training by Europa Media will introduce hands-on approaches for the management of your existing FP6 projects and will highlight the changes in the financial and contractual framework for FP7.  You will work in small groups with your fellow participants from over a dozen European countries, simulating FP7 project management in practice and sharing experiences for 2 days.  You will learn how to: act during the forthcoming FP7 Grant Agreement negotiations successfully avoiding any unnecessary reduction in your budget or a sudden increase in your workload; protect your background IPR in a proper Consortium Agreement that also defines the rules for exploitation of your foreground IPR together with your roles and responsibilities in the project; set up a simple but robust project management system that will keep record of your time and money spent on the project in a way that reporting will be easy to maneuvre within the new FP7 contractual framework in terms of costs and performance whilst compensating your staff and and dealing with tax and VAT implications at the same time put together your cost statements that comply with your national and FP6/FP7 accounting rules take maximum advantage of all the secondary benefits your project has to offer.

2-week E-LEARNING (before the workshop)
The goal of the e-learning is to prepare you for the workshop so that we can focus on practice while you are here. You will also get to know all the other participants well in advance! With Europe's only full-featured e-learning solution we are ready to bring comprehensive knowledge on FP7 project management right to your desktop.

e-LEARNING MODULES
European Union funding 2007-2013
FP7 Basics Understand the policy backdrop of FP7.  Explanation of all the new terms and expressions used in FP7, and differences in management issues.  Explained using clear and practical examples
Grant Agreement negotiation
The new EC Grant Agreement, the Consortium Agreement and the new legal framework.
Project Management
Coordination, reporting obligations, responsibilities, IPR.  Time and cost-keeping systems, examples, best practices
Financial issues related to FP7 projects
The new financial rules and forms.  Budget preparation for your FP7 project proposal - financial management of running projects.
Reporting and monitoring
Accounting system, Activity reports, Management reports, EC audits, Dissemination

More information is available at: www.eutrainingsite.com/open_details.php?id=1


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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