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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.

The European Commission has published its annual report on the EU’s research and innovation activities and the implementation of Horizon Europe, and EURATOM in 2023. A large section of the report is dedicated to Horizon Europe highlights (e.g. update on associated countries), including monitoring data on calls launched, success rates and signed grants. In particular, there are focus sections on European Partnerships, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), and the EU Missions.

Today at the Digital Ocean Forum (DOF) 2024, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova and other high-level representatives from Belgium, France and the European Commission unveiled the first pre-operational platform of the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO).

10 June 2024 marks the launch of the ERA Talent Platform, a novel solution for researchers and research-performing organisations. This comprehensive online gateway offers seamless access to a range of services, including EURAXESS service centers and portals, the HR Excellence in Research initiative, the RESAVER pension scheme, the Innovation Talent Platform, and the Research and Innovation Careers Observatory.

The 10th EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10) will start in 2028 - the corresponding legislative proposal from the EU Commission is expected in mid-2025. In preparation for this and for research policy discussions at EU level, the BMBF has published a discussion paper from the German federal government with suggestions and key recommendations.

The CEO of BayFOR, Martin Reichel, and Umweltcluster Bayern, Alfred Mayr, have signed a two-year cooperation agreement to intensify their collaboration. The aim is to actively promote innovation and the internationalisation of Bavarian universities and SMEs in the environmental sector in order to strengthen Bavaria as a location for business and science and to advance the circular economy.

Landshut, Germany – Over three years of research, the consortium of the EU project HyFlow has successfully developed a highly efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective hybrid energy storage system (HESS) that can meet high energy and power demands. The researchers achieved this by combining a high-performance vanadium redox flow battery with a supercapacitor with water-based electrolytes. With one of the demonstrators developed in the HyFlow project, major energy consumers such as enterprises, municipal utility companies, medical facilities, and data centres can determine the optimal system dimensions for their individual requirements. Using their existing power usage data, the system computes the ideal storage solution in terms of capacity and output required. The HyFlow project has been realized by Landshut University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with nine further partners from six countries across Europe. The European Union has funded the project with around 4 million euros.

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A new set of calls has been launched worth over € 112 million from the 2023-2024 Horizon Europe Digital, Industry, and Space work programme. The European Commission has announced the launch of new Horizon Europe calls, with a substantial funding pool of over €112 million. These calls are aimed primarily at pioneering projects in the realms of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies.

The European Commission has used previously unallocated funds for the EU research and innovation programme Horizon Europe. This means that almost 1.4 billion euros can increase the budget for the 2024 research programme to a total of 7.3 billion euros. This was made possible by an amendment to the 2023-2024 work programme, which will benefit the missions in Horizon Europe, the New European Bauhaus and young researchers.