Horizon 2020: €80 billion investment in research and innovation in Europe

The European Commission has recently presented a package of measures to boost research, innovation and competitiveness in Europe. Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has announced Horizon 2020, an €80 billion programme for investment in research and innovation. Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou has put forward a Strategic Innovation Agenda for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), which will receive €2.8 billion of funding under Horizon 2020. In parallel, Vice-President Antonio Tajani has announced a complementary new programme to boost competitiveness and innovation in SMEs, with an additional budget of €2.5 billion. The funding programmes run from 2014 to 2020. 

Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness.

"Horizon 2020 will focus funds on three key objectives. It will support the EU’s position as a world leader in science with a dedicated budget of €24.6 billion, including an increase in funding of 77% for the very successful European Research Council (ERC). It will help secure industrial leadership in innovation with a budget of €17.9 billion. This includes a major investment of €13.7 billion in key technologies, as well as greater access to capital and support for SMEs. Finally, €31.7 billion will go towards addressing major concerns shared by all Europeans, across six key themes: Health, demographic change and well-being; Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research and the bio-economy; Secure, clean and efficient energy; Smart, green and integrated transport; Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials; and Inclusive, innovative and secure societies. "

Read the full Press Release

Learn more about Horizon 2020

EPWS Lunch-Debate in the European Parliament - Registration now Open

“Towards a Gender Balanced Science Culture 

to Foster Innovation”

Brussels 

31st January 2012 

11.00 to 14.00 - Room A5G1 

At the invitation of MEP Leonidas Donskis, of Lithuania, EPWS will hold a lunch-debate at the European Parliament in Brussels, on 31st January 2012, entitled “Towards a Gender Balanced Science Culture to Foster Innovation”. 

Context 

"Against a backdrop of rising societal concerns and lagging economic performance, in 2010 the European Union launched the Europe 2020 strategy to guide Europe’s economic recovery and present an agenda towards becoming a more competitive, sustainable and inclusive economy. At the core of this strategy, the Innovation Union Flagship Initiative sets out how Europe will tackle the innovation emergency it is facing, through a strategic approach integrating research and innovation instruments and actors.” (Innovation Union Competitiveness report 2011)
In these circumstances, the European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS stresses the significance of women's potential for contribution in science as an important way to reach these ambitious targets.

Aim 

The aim of the debate is to inform Members of the European Parliament, officials from the European Commission, and representatives of other European and international organisations about the science culture in Europe and to put emphasis on the situation of women scientists. The debate should provide participants with up-to-date information on the current situation and give them tools and measures for a gender-balanced architecture of science culture to foster innovation. We hope that the conference will help to establish a dialogue that will allow women scientists to better contribute to European policy-making in the future.

We trust that you will find this debate interesting and hope that you will be able to attend this meeting between MEPs, policy-makers and European women scientists. Lively discussions with audience participation are expected.

Participation and registration

Participation is without costs but requires registration. If you would like to attend, your completed form should be returned to Claudine Hermann (claudine.hermann[at]cegetel.net) no later than January 20, 2012. 

Brigitte Mühlenbruch 

EPWS President

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Register now

Read the Programme 

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Czech National Contact Centre for Women and Science - Newsletter

The first 2011 issue of the Czech National Contact Centre for Women and Science's newsletter is dedicated to the outcomes and conlusions of the 2nd national conference on women and science titled Gender as a social innovation. Equal opportunities in changing research environment. The conference was held on 22 September 2011 under the auspices of Senator Alena Gajduskova, President of the Czech Academy of Science Jiri Drahos, Deputy Minister for Higher Education and Research Ivan Wilhelm at the Ministry of Education, and Michal Broza, Director of the UN Information Centre in Prague.

The Centre is currently in progress of communicating the conclusions and outcomes to relevant stakeholders and hope to initiate negotiations about implementation of at least some of those recommendations.
You can find more information about the conference and the presentations at their website .

The Newsletter also brings you an interview with a postdoctoral fellow who was the first to challenge the well established practice at the Czech Research Council, which is to advise pregnant researchers/researchers with small babies to return grants because babies and grants don't go together.

Read the Newsletter

European Research Area Conference 2012 - Registration now Open

"On 13 September 2011, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the European Research Area,  aimed at identifying the main bottlenecks in Europe's research system and environment which prevent the free circulation of researchers, scientific knowledge and technology, thus hampering realisation of a genuine single market for research and innovation.

Following closure of the consultation on 30th November 2011, the Research and Innovation Directorate-General of the European Commission is organising a major stakeholders conference where the responses to the consultation will be presented and discussed, and the implications drawn for what needs now to be done to give a strong and definitive impulse to the achievement  of the European Research Area."

 THE COMMISIONER FOR SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IS GLAD TO INVITE YOU TO THE:

ERA CONFERENCE 2012

Fostering Efficiency, Excellence and Growth

From the public consultation to the completion of ERA

Brussels, 30 January 2012

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

Register Now 

Click here to see the conference programme.

For further information about the European Research Area, please visit http://ec.europa.eu/research/era

You may also contact us at RTD-ERA-CONFERENCE-2012@ec.europa.eu

 

Job posting: Post-doctoral Research Fellow - GIGA Hamburg

 
"The GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies / Leibniz-Institut für Globale und
Regionale Studien seeks to hire a

Post-doctoral Research Fellow

 

Applications are invited for a full-time position, with a contract of one year, starting 1 April
2012. The salary is commensurate with TV-AVH / TVöD EG 13.

The successful candidate will
- be part of the Hamburg International Graduate School for the Study of Regional Powers
- work on power shifts among non-European regions and states, related conflicts about regional
leadership within these geographical areas, potential contests over spheres of influence,
or the formation of governance structures among the new regional powers
- have the opportunity to further deepen the expertise on regional powers, develop a research
project, prepare publications, and be a member of an international team of junior and
senior researchers.

Desired qualifications:
- doctorate in Political Science (preferably International Relations), Economics, or related field
- expertise on non-European regions (preferably with a focus on Africa or the Middle East)
- methodological proficiency
- promising publication record.

The GIGA promotes gender equality and actively encourages applications from women.
Among equally qualified applicants, women will receive preferential consideration in those
areas in which they are underrepresented.

Please send your application (Ref.-No. GIGA-11-12) and relevant supporting documentation
(CV, credentials, list of publications, max. two work samples) to:

Stephanie Stövesand, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies,
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany.
E-mail: stoevesand@giga-hamburg.de. E-mail applications are preferred.

Screening of applications will begin on 31 January 2012.

For further information, please visit the GIGA homepage (www.giga-hamburg.de) or contact
Dr. Anja Jetschke (e-mail: jetschke@giga-hamburg.de, phone: +49 (0)40 – 42825-768)."

Job posting: junior professor on Comparative Politics at Leuphana University of Lüneburg

"Leuphana University of Lüneburg bases its development on an all-encompassing idea of education
and on the content and value-oriented implementation of its activities. The university sees itself as
humanistic, sustainable, and proactive. Leuphana has introduced a university model unique within the
German academic landscape and is growing quickly.

We are currently looking for a qualified applicant to fill the position of junior professor (W1) at the
Institute for Political Science:

Comparative Politics

The professorship will be in conjunction with the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
(Hamburg). If your application is successful, you will represent comparative politics within the research
framework of one of the GIGA’s regional institutes (Africa, Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East),
and you will be teaching undergraduate and graduate students at Leuphana University. Applicants
should have an interest in actively shaping the scientific profile of the GIGA and the Center for the
Study of Democracy (ZDEMO) at Leuphana and should have published relevant material in refereed
(international) journals and publishing houses. Applicants should also have experience in the
procurement of third party funds. The position requires that your focus be on democracy research. You
will work as a member of both GIGA Research Programme 1 “Legitimacy and Efficiency of Political
Systems” and one of the regional institutes referred to above. We would also request that the applicant
1) has research experience in one of the aforementioned regions, 2) has previous work experience
with foreign research institutions, and 3) is willing to teach English-language courses and publish
English-language articles. A further requirement involves being willing to both cooperate along
interdisciplinary lines and participate in the university’s existing institutions of self-governance.

The preconditions for employment according to §30 NHG apply to this professorship. Leuphana
University Lüneburg strives to increase the percentage of female professors and therefore expressly
invites qualified women to apply. Disabled applicants will be given preference according to the applicable
legal provisions. For more information, please visit www.leuphana.de or www.giga-hamburg.de, or
directly contact the director of the ZDEMO, Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Müller-Rommel.

Please send any supporting documentation along with standard application materials (a statement of
purpose, resume, list of publications, list of courses taught, and letters of reference) to beko@leuphana.de
or to the president of Leuphana University Lüneburg by 10 January 2012."

EPWS Newsletter - December 2011

The EPWS Newsletter of December 2011 is now available.

In this issue you can find out about the upcoming EPWS meeting in the European Parliament, the new Benchmarking Report on EU research, and the most recent news from our Members.

Read it now