Emys, a robot developed as part of the Lirec (Living with robots and interactive companions) project funded by the EC (photo, ©2011 LIREC)
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – The European Commission 20 July agreed to commit €7 billion to research and development, in what it says is its “biggest ever European Commission funding package”, designed to create some 174,000 jobs in the short term and another 450,000 in the long term and to stimulate nearly €80 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) growth within the next 15 years.
Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn says the package will be used for stimulating European innovation through research funding.
The funding will take the form of grants to 16,000 recipients in European universities and research organizations and to industry specialists, with “a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises”.
“A common problem is bridging the gap between research and the market, and this funding can help demonstrate the commercial potential of a new technology, for example, or that a new idea can work on a sufficiently large scale to be industrially viable,” the EC notes on Cordis, its news site.
“Challenges like climate change, energy and food security, health and an aging population can be better managed if public sector intervention is used effectively to stimulate the private sector and remove bottlenecks stopping the best and brightest ideas from reaching the market, due to problems such as a lack of finance or fragmentation in research.”
How the money will be spent
The EC details how the funds will be distributed. Key points include:
Swiss hare in field with bare patch (photo ©2010 Swiss Ornithological Institute / Marcus Jenny)
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Tigers have a hope of surviving, at the end of 2010, but bluefin tuna could well disappear from the face of the Earth and its cousins in the fish world are not in good shape, with one in five species threatened.
These are some of the conclusions of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), which runs the Red List of Threatened Species. WWF Switzerland, in a year-end look at IUCN’s winners and losers in the species departments, notes that worldwide, the number threatened with extinction has been rising steadily, from 16,928 in 2008 to 18,351 two years later, some 33 percent of all species.
Bluefin tuna (photo: WWF)
Tigers have a fighting chance, after governments agreed in 2010 to a series of protective measures, according to the IUCN. But governments let down the bluefish tuna, whose stocks are badly overfished, the Gland-based group states.
And then there is the hare-razing tale of one of Switzerland’s disappearing creatures.
The hare and the wolf are two of the losers in Switzerland, with the hare population falling to 2.7 per square metre, in some areas 1.6/m2, with experts saying that 2-6/m2 pushes a population into the critical stages to remain viable. Hare numbers are shrinking rapidly due to urban growth, reduced protected road passages and less ground cover that leaves young hares in above-ground nests where they are easily run over by tractors.
Switzerland has an estimated population of only 15 wolves, but even this small number is threatened by parliamentary approval that would give hunters and farmers the right to shoot. If parliament passes changes to the law, which are under discussion, the country would need to pull out of the Bern Convention, a strict international agreement to save the wolf.
Panay Monitor Lizard (Varanus mabitang) © Tim Laman
Gland, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A major new assessment of the threats to the world’s biodiversity shows that the continuing encroachment on many species’ habitats is increasing their vulnerability. The 2009 edition of world’s most comprehensive list of life under threat of extinction, the Red List of Threatened Species, was published Tuesday 3 November. The Red List is published yearly by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in Gland, near Geneva.
“The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis is mounting,” says Jane Smart, Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group.
Calanthe-yuksomnensis (image ©2009 Sudhizong Lucksom / WWF Nepal)
One of 12 new poppy species discoveries, Meconopsis tibetica (© 2009 Margaret Thome / WWF Nepal)
Gland, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Eastern Himalayas, one of the richest and most bio-diverse areas of the world, is also one that is most threatened by global warming, according to a new report by The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), out 10 August.
Over the past 10 years, researchers have discovered an average of 35 new species a year in the region, which WWF says is on a par with other biological cauldrons such as Borneo. The Eastern Himalayas are home to a flying frog (Rhacophorus suffry), which uses its webbed feet to glide, and the world’s smallest species of deer. When first discovered, researchers thought the deer was the young of another species. It stands 60-80 cms tall and weighs 11 kg.
The region encompasses Nepal, Bhutan, northern Bengal and the three northeastern-most states of India, Assam, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as the extreme north of Burma (Myanmar).
Flying frog (image ©2009 Totul Bortamuli / WWF Nepal)
Pressures on the region include population growth, logging, mining activities and inappropriate infrastructure building, especially roads and dams.
Full report: “The Eastern Himalayas. Where worlds collide” (pdf)
