EU companies lag far behind US in R&D on biotech and software
Despite the success this year of a few European biotech companies in the COVID-19 disaster, overall EU corporate investment in a biotech and key computing technologies lags far behind that of their US competitors, according to a new report by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
EU-based biotech companies in 2019 spent €2.6 billion on R&D – a fraction of the €34.3 billion spent by US-based companies. In software and internet services, EU companies spent €7.5 billion on R&D compared to €92.7 billion by US companies. The numbers partly reflect that the EU has fewer such companies than the US, but even after that is taken into account the gap remains. At the same time, Chinese companies now track second in the world in investment in these sectors after the US.
Many migrants work in the hospitality sector in Europe
The researchers estimate that lockdown measures put nine million workers at high risk of unemployment based on their job attributes. The analysis sheds new light on employment risk in Europe where data has previously been lacking.
Uneven consequences for the labour market
The research focuses on two main categories: EU workers (born in an EU Member State other than the one where they currently work and reside) and Extra-EU workers (born outside of the EU). The analysis applies to the EU14+UK area (countries that were members of the EU prior to expansion in 2004).
Josef Aschbacher (Credit: ESA–Philippe Sebirot, 2016)
PARIS (ESA PR) Today, the ESA Council appointed Dr Josef Aschbacher as the next Director General of ESA, for a period of four years. He will succeed Prof. Jan Wörner, whose term of office ends on 30 June 2021.
Dr Aschbacher is currently ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes and Head of ESRIN, ESA’s centre for Earth Observation near Rome.
Born in Austria, Dr Aschbacher studied at the University of Innsbruck, where he obtained Masters and PhD degrees in Natural Sciences. He has over three decades of experience working in international organisations, including ESA, the European Commission, the Austrian Space Agency and Asian Institute of Technology.
Munich company turns free satellite data into a business
Rathsman, meanwhile, said she would speak but only after the official announcement on December 17. Until those plans were nobbled by ESA.
As for the deafening silence we received from Pascale Ehrenfreund, president of the International Astronautical Federation and former head of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) this writer s not quite sure what to make of that.
Suffice to say, Ehrenfreund s departure from DLR earlier this year was shrouded in a similar amount of confusion and conspiracy as Wörner s upcoming departure from ESA one speaks of a lack of support but not much more.