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The 2025 Work Programme of the European Research Council has been adopted. The Programme sets out funding opportunities, budgets of the calls, the calendar of grant competition and conditions for ERC funding. The document had been drafted and endorsed by the ERC Scientific Council, and adopted by the European Commission. 

The Digital Europe programme aims to bring digital technology to businesses, the public and public administrations. The European Commission is seeking feedback as part of a public consultation on the interim evaluation of the EU's Digital Europe programme. The evaluation focuses on the programme's effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value. Both the activities directly managed by the European Commission and the programme components indirectly managed through other initiatives are being evaluated. The aim of the evaluation is to inform stakeholders about the progress made by the programme and to support the design of future work programmes. The deadline for feedback is 20 September 2024. The consultation can be found here.

Source: KoWi

Today, the Commission launched a call for applications for members of the new Technology Council for Advanced Materials. This high-level group will coordinate efforts to meet future needs for advanced materials in Europe and is key to building a single advanced materials ecosystem. It should ensure leadership in promoting research, fast-track deployment of innovations, address European industry needs and offer guarantees for an effective protection of human health and the environment. If you would like to apply as a Bavarian player, please let us know so that we can support you!

The European Commission is currently conducting a public consultation to gather input for the roadmap for the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Facility in the period 2025-2027, as set out in the second Strategic Plan for Horizon Europe, the R&I component will be implemented as a cross-cluster instrument in Horizon Europe with an indicative budget of around EUR 120 million per year.

Hungary takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU from Belgium on 1 July. Prime Minister Viktor Orban will chair the summits of the EU's 27 heads of state and government, and ministers will chair the Council of Ministers.

German universities have been successful in the current selection round of the European University Network: 15 German universities are participating in the 14 new networks. Among them are the four German universities TH Würzburg-Schweinfurt, TH Deggendorf, OTH Regensburg and TH Ingolstadt. The Commission selected the new European University Alliances as part of an Erasmus+ call and will support them with up to €14.4 million each over a period of four years.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), part of Horizon Europe, the EU's research and innovation programme, is to launch a new Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) from 2026 in the field of water, marine and maritime sectors and ecosystems.

The European Commission has released its 2024 Science, Research and Innovation Performance report. According to this report, the EU is ranked second globally (only surpassed by China) in terms of scientific output.

Martin Reichel, Managing Director of the Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR), will take over as Spokesman of the Bavarian Research and Innovation Agency (BayFIA) on 1 July 2024. He succeeds Dr Christian Haslbeck, Managing Director of the Bavarian Research Foundation. This is the third time that Martin Reichel has served as spokesman for the agency - a position he also held in 2016 and 2020.

The EU Commission has identified 151 regions as Regional Innovation Valleys (RIVs), as part of the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA). These include a total of twelve in Germany, three of which are in Bavaria: "Nuremberg Metropolitan Region", "Oberbayern" und "Niederbayern". BayFOR supported the stakeholders in the RIV "Upper Bavaria" during the application phase and will also actively support the operational phase.