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The EU Research team take a look at current events in the scientific news
Iliana Ivanova is leaving European Commission after just one year The European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth is standing down for personal reasons. The current Bulgarian EU Commissioner cannot stay on in the new European Commission for personal reasons. Iliana Ivanova, who has been responsible for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth in the first von der Leyen cabinet, announced on her Facebook profile: “I have been immensely honoured and privileged to serve as a commissioner in the last year of the term of the current European Commission!” Ivanova thanked the Bulgarian authorities and citizens for the trust, the broad support and the opportunity to represent Bulgaria at the highest European level. “During this dynamic period, I have made every effort to discharge the duties assigned to me within a portfolio of key importance for the future, with a considerable budget. I am proud of everything that my colleagues and I have been able to
achieve in such a short time,” she said.”I am convinced that Bulgaria will remain well-represented in the coming years in making the most important decisions for the European policies,” she said. Iliana Ivanova was appointed by the Council of the European Union as the new European Commissioner from Bulgaria on September 19, 2023. She replaced Mariya Gabriel for the remainder of the Commission’s term. Gabriel resigned from the post to become deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Bulgaria, with the prospect of taking over as prime minister under a rotation arrangement. Ivanova had been a member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2012. From 2013 until being proposed by the Bulgarian government for European Commissioner in 2023, she represented Bulgaria at the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg.
Scientists create a Mushroom controlled robot Biohybrid robot with fungal electronics could help usher in an era of sustainable robotics. Building a robot takes time, technical skill, the right materials -- and sometimes, a little fungus. In creating a pair of new robots, Cornell University researchers cultivated an unlikely component, one found on the forest floor: fungal mycelia. By harnessing mycelia’s innate electrical signals, the researchers discovered a new way of controlling “biohybrid” robots that can potentially react to their environment better than their purely synthetic counterparts. The team’s paper published in Science Robotics. The lead author is Anand Mishra, a research associate in the Organic Robotics Lab led by Rob Shepherd, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University, and the paper’s senior author. “This paper is the first of many that will use the fungal kingdom to provide environmental sensing and command signals to robots to improve their levels of autonomy,” Shepherd said. “By growing mycelium into the electronics of a robot, we were able to allow the biohybrid machine to sense and respond to the environment. In this case we used light as the input, but in the future it will be chemical. The potential for future robots could be to sense soil chemistry in row crops and decide when to add more fertilizer, for example, perhaps mitigating downstream effects of agriculture like harmful algal blooms.”
Two biohybrid robots were built: a soft robot shaped like a spider and a wheeled bot. The robots completed three experiments. In the first, the robots walked and rolled, respectively, as a response to the natural continuous spikes in the mycelia’s signal. Then the researchers stimulated the robots with ultraviolet light, which caused them to change their gaits, demonstrating mycelia’s ability to react to their environment. In the third scenario, the researchers were able to override the mycelia’s native signal entirely. Experts believe that this advance lays the groundwork for building sturdy, sustainable robots. In the future, these hardy, light-activated cyborgs could be deployed to harsh environments on Earth or even on missions outside our planet.
Mycelia are the underground vegetative part of mushrooms. They have the ability to sense chemical and biological signals and respond to multiple inputs. “Living systems respond to touch, they respond to light, they respond to heat, they respond to even some unknowns, like signals,” Mishra said. “If you wanted to build future robots, how can they work in an unexpected environment? We can leverage these living systems, and any unknown input comes in, the robot will respond to that.”
Research sector gives Draghi report broad initial welcome The research and innovation sector has broadly embraced the long-awaited report on EU competitiveness from former Italy prime minister Mario Draghi. Another ambition that’s regularly floated making it into the Draghi report is the creation of a new funding instrument modelled on the US advanced research project agencies. It is suggested this would be done by reforming the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) pathfinder instrument which supports deep tech projects. Björnmalm notes strong similarities with the European Competitiveness Research Council proposed by CESAER.
The Draghi report is expected to have a major role in shaping EU policy over the next five years, and the research community is naturally delighted by its call for more public research and innovation funding, including €200 billion for the successor to Horizon Europe to run from 2028-2034, Framework Programme 10 (FP10). Draghi also calls for better coordination of public research and innovation expenditure across EU member states, via a ‘Research and Innovation Union’ and a ‘European Research and Innovation Action Plan.’
The bulk of the full 328-page report is dedicated to detailed policy recommendations for specific sectors including clean technologies, semiconductors, defence, and pharmaceuticals, and addresses issues industry has been complaining about for years, such as burdensome regulations and access to capital. It also includes recommendations to support the development of AI models in several strategic industries.
This more Europe-centric approach recommended by the report would prioritise collective EU-wide ambitions, rather than national value for money. Björnmalm hopes this message will be picked up by the expert group report on FP10, due next month. “This outdated mindset of seeing the EU funding programme as primarily a means to redistribute member states’ funds limits Europe’s potential to become a global leader in science and technology,” he said.
Research Commissioner Iliana Ivanova © European Union.
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Research and innovation have never been more present in mainstream policy debates after this week former Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, placed research and innovation at the heart of his recommendations for boosting EU competitiveness. That followed on from an earlier report by another former Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, on the future of the single market, in which he called for a ‘fifth freedom’ for research and innovation.
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Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, director general of the trade association DigitalEurope, said the report provides “a long list of positive ideas” including simplifying AI regulation, better commercialisation of research, and integrating technology into strength industries. Nathalie Moll, director general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, said the publication “shows ambition at the highest level” to address the issues facing the pharma industry, with Europe struggling to attract R&D investment.
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