22 Dec 2020 | News
Viewpoint: ‘We’ve come up with the world’s best research programme’
Christian Ehler says the EU’s long-sought science spending deal ’saved the political face of Europe’
MEP Christian Ehler. Photo: EU Parliament.
European People’s Party member Christian Ehler hailed legislators for approving the European Union’s 2021-2027 research spending plan, saying it is, “The best, most modern research programme in the world.”
In 2021, the EU’s Horizon Europe programme succeeds the current scheme, Horizon 2020, which has distributed roughly €74 billion to more than 150,000 scientists over the past seven years.
Ehler, a German and one of the most influential MEPs on research and innovation funding, said the new €95.5 billion scheme (in current prices) will help fuel scientific discovery in the difficult years following the pandemic. The investment also represents “the last chance that Europe has to catch up with the digital revolution
Herbal leys can make a significant contribution to beef output
Results from a five-year trial, carried out by scientists at Reading University, confirms that dry matter output from diversified swards will out-perform that achieved by a perennial ryegrass (PRG) leys – receiving 250kg of nitrogen (N) per annum – three years after all the swards were established.
Significantly, the diversified leys did not receive bagged nitrogen at any time.This was one of the key findings delivered to delegates participating in the recent European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) ‘Focus on Farmers’ webinar series, hosted by AgriSearch.
Reading University’s Dr. David Humphreys also confirmed that cattle on a grazing trial performed as well on the herbal leys as they did on the PRG sward.
Covid-19 could have seen Europe’s start-ups retreat into their shells, to wait for the worst to pass. Instead, many have been spurred on to achieve new milestones, pushing forward with the development innovative solutions that will contribute to making the post-pandemic world a better place.
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has brought forth many challenges for most branches of industry, and start-ups across a wide range of fields have risen to this challenge, taking the opportunity to validate their innovative solutions and connect with the demands of the continent’s many stakeholders.
Several of the most innovative start-ups were part of the latest EIT Jumpstarter cohort, which reached its conclusion late last month.
December 18, 2020 12:05 pm
Former National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and World Farming Organisation (WFO) president Peter Kendall believes that agriculture’s direct response to the challenge of global warming must be to produce more food.
Speaking at a recent European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) ‘Focus on Farmers’ webinar, hosted by AgriSearch in Northern Ireland, Kendall said that farming has every opportunity of becoming a net ‘zero carbon’ industry by 2040.
“Agriculture is undergoing massive change and this process will continue. But farmers must be persuaded that the changes asked of them will be worthwhile. They cannot be forced down a road they do not wish to travel along,” he said.