"A driverless van has completed the longest-ever trip by an unmanned vehicle, beginning in Italy and arriving in China, covering 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles), researchers said. [...] The European Research Council primarily funded the expedition, to develop technology to increase road safety and fuel efficiency by supplementing driver decisions at the wheel. The project used low-cost technologies that could be integrated in most current vehicles' chassis, researchers said..." Read More
ERC in the Press for 2010
21 September, 2010
"The European Research Council (ERC)
is actively wooing promising scientists from non-European countries, including India. In the latest round of selection for grants, four Europe-based Indian scientists have made the grade. Currently, the ERC’s annual budget is €1.5 billion and this will reach €1.7 billion by 2013. The ERC is the first European funding body that supports investigator-driven frontier research through open and direct competition…" Read more
17 June, 2010
"European Union funding for pure scientific research should be at least doubled in the next budget cycle, according to the League of European Research Universities (Leru).The alliance of 22 prominent European research-intensive universities [...] made the call in its recommendations on the EU's Eighth Framework Programme for Research[...] The report, published last week, acknowledges the importance of collaborative "top-down" research to address challenges such as global warming and energy security. But it says the budget of the European Research Council, which was launched at the start of the current EU budget cycle in 2007 to fund basic research, should be "significantly increased" in order to prevent European research from falling behind competitors in the US and elsewhere.…" Read more
11 June, 2010 (Vol. 328. no. 5984, p. 1327)
"Editorial by Helga Nowotny:
Next month, the Fourth Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF 2010) opens in Torino, Italy, to discuss the frontiers of science and technology in Europe and to stimulate policies that bridge the gap between science and society. In this context, the current European research landscape can hardly be imagined without the innovative funding programs of the European Research Council (ERC), which has selected its 1000th grantee just over 3 years after its launch. As the new president of the ERC, I am particularly pleased to continue building on past achievements while preparing for the challenges ahead… " Read more (Subscription needed)
Summary
26 May, 2010
"President of the European Research Council, Professor Helga Nowotny sets out her vision for the future of European innovation, declaring research to be ‘the frontier of knowledge’? …" Read more
