interview with 2010 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics Prof Konstantin Novoselov

In the latest years graphene research has witnessed a tremendous explosion. This two-dimensional dream material has come into the main spotlight of fundamental and applied research in diverse nano-science fields but, surprisingly rapidly, it has also attracted the interest of major stakeholders in the private sector, such as the ICT industry

GraphITA (L'Aquila, Italy, 15 to 18 May 2011) has been a major international conference on what promises to be the material of the future, bringing together scientists and engineers working on different technological uses of graphene in a multidisciplinary environment.

http://www.inabruzzo.com/media/20110517_intervista_Novoselov.mp4

EC launched an Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe project

The European Commissioni has launched the project “Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe” (OpenAIRE), the purpose of which is to encourage and support free online access to knowledge generated by researchers within grants from the Seventh Framework Programme and the European Research Council.

OpenAIREwill provide support structures for researchers and an electronic infrastructure to handle peer-reviewed articles. It also aims to establish cooperation with communities to deposit access and manage research datasets.

http://www.openaire.eu/

European Research Council (ERC) starting grant holder wins Nobel physics prize

A recipient of one of the European Research Council’s (ERC) first grants, Konstantin Novoselov, has won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on graphene, a new carbon material that is expected to have widespread application in electronics and photonics. 

Novoselov, who was awarded his ERC Starting Grant in 2007, becomes one of the youngest Nobel Prize winners, at the age of 36. The prize was awarded jointly to Novoselov and his fellow Russian Andre Geim, with whom he carried out the research at Manchester University. Geim has been funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for the past ten years, most recently being awarded a £5 million grant in October 2009.

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New milestone for ERC project as driverless vehicle reaches China

After a 13,000 kilometre, three month journey through Europe and Asia, unmanned vans powered by green energy and funded by the European Research Council have crossed the Chinese border.

The expedition started on July 20 in Italy, with the goal of reaching the World Expo in Shanghai on 28 October, where a demonstration will take place at the European Union/Belgian Pavilion.

The Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge is part of a research project on autonomous driving funded mainly by the ERC, which aims to improve road safety.

“We have now covered more than two thirds of the route. When it comes to the technology of the vehicles it went smoothly all-in-all,” said lead researcher Alberto Broggi, of Parma University’s Vislab. “We are happy about the test and the great amount of data we are acquiring for further processing at the end of the trip. We had to intervene manually only on limited occasions, for example in the traffic jams of Moscow, when passing a toll station or in case of really adverse weather.”

The convoy, which includes back-up vehicles, has travelled about 6,500 km in 80 days and passed the border between Kazakhstan and China. The rest of the trip will take an estimated 17 days, through varied Chinese landscape, including the Gobi Desert.:

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Bidding opens on 2011 €780M information technology funding

The European Commission has announced the largest annual budget in 25 years of backing information technology research, opening the bidding for 2011 funding of €780 million at ICT 2010, the biennial showcase of the fruits of its investment in the field, held in Brussels this week.

More is to come, since the Commission has committed to increasing the ICT research budget by a further 20 per cent each year up to the end of Framework Programme 7 in 2013. And speaking at the opening of the conference Neelie Kroes, head of the Digital Agenda, told the 6,000 delegates she will make “a very strong case for even stronger levels of support,” in FP8.

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Innovation Emergency

The European Commission is calling for a ‘collaboration revolution’ to get the public and private sectors working together, as the main plank of its new plan to promote innovation and so create jobs, solve the grand challenges and build an innovation culture to rival that in the US.

The focus for doing this will be European Innovation Partnerships, (EIP) each focused on a specific grand challenge, with concrete goals, driven by a board that will be chaired by one or more commissioners, with ministers from national governments, MEPs, and people from industry, academe and the public sector. Along with acting on the supply side to develop and introduce new products and services, EIPs will be able to act to bring down regulatory barriers, and so smooth the path to market and adoption.

The first partnership, due to get off the ground in 2011, has the objective of extending the health span of EU citizens by an average of two years by 2020. “This will reduce the strains on health budgets and open up new markets,” said Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner for research, innovation and science, unveiling the project as a centerpiece of the Innovation Union, one of seven initiatives the Commission is launching as part of its Europe 2020 economic strategy.

To read more: http://bulletin.sciencebusiness.net/ebulletins/showissue.php3?page=/548/art/19983 

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EU aims to make data access and planning a part of research funding

The European Commission, now planning its next big cycle of research funding, is considering giving greater importance to the way researchers manage, share, store and gain access to scientific data.  

EU Vice President Neelie Kroes said, “We need to ensure that every future [research] project funded by the EU has a clear plan on how to manage the data it generates. Such plans should foster openness and economies of scale, so that data can be re-used many times rather than duplicated.”

With plans for the next big Framework research programme FP8 now being drafted, Kroes said, “We should all should strive to make real progress towards open access to the scientific data produced within the EU’s framework programme research projects.” 

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