Tagged / EU

Science groups gear up for and against Brexit

EU, Research news

European IPR webinarsWith just four months to go until the referendum on British membership of the EU on 23 June, academics are lining up on either side of the debate. Scientists’ lobby groups on both sides will register with the government as parties to the vote in the next two weeks.

Research Professional have written an interesting article which sets out both sides of the camp.  Click here to read more.

GenPort – Gender issues in EU funding

BU Challenges, EU, Women's Academic Network

Magnifying-GlassSerendipity can be a wonderful thing. 

Some months ago, I signed up for all the Horizon 2020-related groups that I could find on LinkedIn. Most of the time, the notifications I receive are of passing interest or not directly relevant but one received this week took my attention – it was notifying group members of an upcoming e-discussion of gender in climate actions within Horizon 2020 funding. One thing lead to another and, within a few clicks, I was signing up to join GenPort (which is funded by the European Union FP7-SCIENCE-IN-SOCIETY-2012-1 programme):

GenPORT is a community sourced internet portal for sharing knowledge and inspiring collaborative action on gender and science.GenPort

A developing online community of practitioners, policy-makers and researchers is served by the GenPORT portal, and made up of organisations and individuals working across the globe for gender equality and excellence in science, technology and innovation. This covers all sciences – natural and social sciences, and humanities.

The GenPORT community and internet portal provide an arena for organisations and individuals to showcase and act as a gateway to a wealth of research resources, policy information, practical materials, and much more. Constantly evolving online information and services are shaped by the activities and contributions of community members. The portal aims to facilitate the exchange of experiences and to foster collaboration, and so to support continuing policy and practical interventions in pursuit of gender equality.

GenPORT offers…

  • Searchable resources and online documents on the topics of gender, science, technology and innovation
  • Information and support in the development of gender-sensitive research design, and gender-equal research structures and processes
  • Links to relevant institutions, resource centres, large-scale databases, projects, and networks
  • Additional services to support diverse activities on gender and science – news and announcements, events calendars, reviews, discussion groups, and more.

It is important when bidding for European Commission funding to consider their cross-cutting issues – one of which is gender. GenPort has  over 700 items in their Resources section, which includes a link to the 2011 Toolkit Gender in EU-funded research. Although this guide was written for FP7, the examples of how you can embed this particular theme into your proposal are still relevant. Bringing this up to date for Horizon 2020, the paper For a better integration of the gender dimension in Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016-2017 indicates how gender can be included to the enhancement of the research proposal.

The GenPort also contains links to further relevant groups, including the GENDER NET Net ERA-NET.

If you want to ensure that gender is addressed creatively within your EU proposal, GenPort appears to be a good place to start this journey and link with other like-minded researchers.

BU Civic Media Hub & the Omega Research Foundation publish report on the misuse of Tear Gas in Europe

BU research, Fusion, Research news

tear gas turkey flag

Peaceful demonstrators tear gassed in Turkey

Responding to a request for more data on tear gas misuse in Council of Europe member states, the BU Datalabs team hosted a daylong data hack day to aggregate information and produce a report for the Council of Europe. The report offers a brief summary analysis of Human Rights investigations into the misuse of tear gas on peaceful and civilian protesters. It covers member states of the Council of Europe that came under investigation in a sample of publicly available reports published between 2006 and 2016.

Our summary report shares a number of key findings regarding human rights concerns. These findings include data indicating that tear gas is frequently being used in confined and enclosed spaces, which can increase the likelihood of suffocation, stampeding and related injuries and deaths. Tear gas is also being used in places with uninvolved bystanders, and in places where there are vulnerable populations, such as near, or even inside, hospitals and schools.

The number of incidents that took place in contained areas compared to streets

The number of incidents that took place in contained areas compared to streets

Another major finding of the report reveals the lack of adequate and transparent record keeping on police use of force. No Council of Europe member state currently keeps publicly available statistics on police use of force with tear gas or other less lethal weapons. This means that there is no access to information on the amount of tear gas that is used, where it is used, or what injuries and deaths it causes.

We conclude our report with a list of 9 recommendations for change. Primary among these is a call for member states to comply with the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.

Our full report is available to read and download here:USE OF TEAR GAS ON PEACEFUL PROTESTERS BY COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBER STATES

 

Dr. Anna Feigenbaum, Laura McKenna, Ozlem Demirkol, Tim Sontheimer, Daniel Weissmann, Charlotte Souter-Phillips, Thomas Dence, and Wilfred Collins-Fierkens conducted research for this report. With thanks to Dr. Phillipa Gillingham and Dr. Einar Thorsen for guidance, and a special thanks to Laura McKenna who worked as the Research Assistant throughout this project.

The Omega Research Foundation is part funded by the European Instrument on Democracy and Human Rights.

Screen Shot 2016-02-26 at 13.49.51

Become an EU Expert to further your experience of research submissions

EU, Research assessment, Training

One important way to learn more about how a funder manages the process of accepting, evaluating and awarding grants is to act as an expert reviewing applications. It may also help you meet with other experts in your field or promote interdisciplinary working.

For the EU, there is a section on Participant Portal dedicated to experts where you can find out more about the commitment required and how to register. Experts for the EU are involved in:image001

  • evaluation of proposals
  • monitoring of actions

In addition, experts assist in the :

  • preparation, implementation or evaluation of programmes and design of policies. This includes the Horizon 2020 Advisory Groups.

There are also opportunities to become a Business Innovation Coach for the SME instrument.

Interested? Why not take a look at the resources made available for evaluators for the Innovative Training Networks call? This page shows how much support is made available to experts and how this can be a valuable addition to your research CV.

You might also like to take a look at the various videos on the YouTube channel – Innovation Union.

If you are already an expert, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International so that you can share your experiences with others at BU.

 

 

Call for Ideas – Your view counts!

BU Challenges, EU, innovation

The European Commission has launched a Call for Ideas for a European Innovation Council to support Europe’s most promising innovators.question mark

Commissioner Moedas launched the Call for ideas at the Science|Business Annual Conference in Brussels. He said that “Europe has excellent science, but we lack disruptive market-creating innovation. This is what is needed to turn our best ideas into new jobs, businesses and opportunities.” While the number of start-ups created in Europe is on a par with competitors such as the United States, Europe lags behind in disruptive innovation and in scaling start-ups into world-beating businesses. A European Innovation Council could contribute to solving this problem.

To find out more and to participate in this survey, please go to the European Innovation Council website, where you can also view background documents and position papers.

The deadline for survey completion in 29 April 2016.

 

European IPR Helpdesk Webinars

EU

European IPR webinarsThe European IPR Helpdesk is running a number of webinars over the next few months and RKEO are promoting those relevant to EU Horizon 2020 activities.

The next webinars on Intellectual Property Rights in H2020 will be on:

10/2/16    9:30 AM     Introduction to IP        Location: TAG 03 – Talbot Campus

Duration: 60 minutes (presentation) + 15 minutes (Q&As)

2/3/16        9:30 AM     IP in EU funded projects / H2020        Location:  TAG 32 – Talbot Campus

Duration: 60 minutes (presentation) + 15 minutes (Q&As)

23/3/16     9:30 AM     Technology Transfer        Location:  TAG 30 – Talbot Campus

Duration: 60 minutes (presentation) + 15 minutes (Q&As)

4/5/16     9:30 AM     IP Management in H2020 with a special focus on Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions        Location:  P402 – Poole House Talbot Campus

Duration: 60 minutes (presentation) + 15 minutes (Q&As)

Please arrive at 9:15am for a prompt 9:30 start with the webinar duration being one hour. We have the room booked for a longer time so that we can have a post-webinar discussion afterwards, if appropriate. Please only register on the European IPR Helpdesk link if you will be joining the webinar(s) from your own desk rather than joining us. You can also check the European IPR Helpdesk Calendar for all their events.

If you would like to attend any of these, please email Dianne Goodman stating which webinars you will attend. If they prove very popular, we may need to change the room, so pre-booking is essential.

European IPR Helpdesk Webinar

EU

The European IPR Helpdesk is running a number of webinars over the next few months and RKEO are promoting those relevant to EU Horizon 2020 activities.

The next webinar on Intellectual Property Rights in H2020 will be on:European IPR webinars

20/1/16        9:30 AM     Presentation of the services of the European IPR Helpdesk. Location: TAG30, Talbot Campus

Duration: 30 minutes (presentation) + 15 minutes (Q&As)

Please arrive at 9:15am for a prompt 9:30 start with the webinar duration being one hour. We have the room booked for a longer time so that we can have a post-webinar discussion afterwards, if appropriate. Please only register on the European IPR Helpdesk link if you will be joining the webinar(s) from your own desk rather than joining us. You can also check the European IPR Helpdesk Calendar for all their events.

If you would like to attend any of these, please email Dianne Goodman stating which webinars you will attend. If they prove very popular, we may need to change the room, so pre-booking is essential.

Open Access publishing discussion at EU

BU research, EU, open access, Publishing, Research news

EU Open Access 2015The European Commission held a workshop in October about alternatives to Green and Gold Open Access publishing.  The presentations held at this workshop are freely available online, click here.  Discussions included questions such as: how might these alternatives work, how they have evolved, whether they work well, and what challenges they don’t manage to tackle. This report synthesises the presentations and discussions from the workshop.   For more details see: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/report-workshop-alternative-open-access-publishing-models

Open-Access-logo

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

COST Actions – supporting high-risk, innovative and emerging research themes

BU research, Featured academics, Funding opportunities, Research news

COST Actions are a flexible, fast, effective and efficient networking instrument for researchers, engineers and scholars to cooperate and coordinate nationally funded research activities. COST Actions allow European researchers to jointly develop their own ideas in any science and technology field. COST Actions are bottom-up  science and technology networks, open to researchers and stakeholders  with a duration of four years. They are active through a range of  networking tools , such as workshops, conferences, training schools, short-term scientific missions (STSMs), and dissemination activities.  COST does not fund research itself.

COST prides in its support for high-risk, innovative and emerging research themes. Importantly, COST does not set any research priorities. cost

Currently on the COST website is a report on Collecting research data to counter femicide worldwide

Femicide across Europe is the first pan-European research network investigating the causes and risk factors of a phenomenon killing thousands of women every year, worldwide.

Femicide refers to the killing of women and girls because of their gender. European researchers studying the  cultural, societal and psychological   causes  and  risks factors  behind femicide set up the network to fight the phenomenon through advocacy and research. One idea is to create a  European Femicide Observatory  gathering and comparing data from each of the 30 countries involved, of which half are Inclusiveness Target Countries . The goal is to come up with  new guidelines  and shape new EU public policies countering killings.

Specialists have been studying quantitative and qualitative data and ways to reduce discrepancies in country records. Such discrepancies are often due to the different definitions of femicide, which is sometimes seen as gender-based violence.

“When our COST Action was first proposed, the term femicide was not widely used. Everyone knew of homicide, but few had given thought to the fact that some women, particularly those involved in intimate relationships, were murdered simply because they were women. Today, two years within the COST Action, ‘femicide’ has become a buzzword, Action Chair Dr Shalva Weil explains.“

Network members have also been advocating for a more straightforward approach to lowering femicide rates in Europe. They have already addressed the Portuguese Parliament and the Parliament of Aragon in Spain. The network also took part in two United Nations sessions in Bangkok (November 2014) and New York (October 2015).

By participating in the network’s training schools and scientific exchanges, young researchers are also given the chance to better understand the phenomenon EU-wide. One outstanding result of the Action’s work is a  comparison of national statistics from 10 European countries .

The Action’s next annual meeting will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in May 2016.

Why not take a look at the COST Action database to see if there is a current Action relating to your research? You can then consider joining an existing Action or submitting your own proposal.

Click on the tag COST Action (below) to see other BU posts on this topic, including  Edwin van Teijlingen’s report on his recent publication and his experience of attending a COST Action Training School.

If you are interested in applying for COST, please contact Emily Cieciura, Research Facilitator: EU & International of you Faculty’s Funding Development Officer.