Dear Colleague,

The majority of us in Europe are experiencing a long period of lockdown in our houses, working from home (for those jobs that allow it), sharing the flat 24/7 with family (never happened before..!), new habits to build, new way of doing business and new ways of keeping ourselves professionally updated. This last item of new kind of lifestyle shows... Read more

The European Commission received approximately 4,000 applications for the 20-March deadline of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Pilot programme - more than double the usual amount. The upsurge is partly due to the call for ideas to help tackle the Coronavirus outbreak; over 1,000 startups and small and medium-sized companies with innovations relating to preventing the impact and spread of the coronavirus applied. Read more

ETSI created a new Industry Specification Group (ISG) designed to find alternative technologies to the 1970s-era TCP/IP-based networking protocols deemed inadequate for today’s 5G networks. Read more

Back in 2010, EU Member State leaders agreed to invest 3% of the bloc’s GDP in Research and Innovation. Ten years later, Members States have shamelessly failed to reach this target. The current EU programme for research, development and innovation, Horizon 2020, worth about €77bn, is Europe’s main tool for achieving this. At the same time, new priorities have been presented by the new Commission. So, how will Horizon Europe fit into this new landscape?

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Mr Angelo Salsi, Head of Unit of the LIFE Programme at EASME, recently spoke to us about the new-look 2020 LIFE call for project proposals.

Q) How did the crisis affect the launch of the 2020 LIFE call for project proposals?

A) Thankfully, the COVID-19 crisis did not stop or alter the launch of our call. Even though we are all working remotely, we managed to publish our call on 02 April as planned. 

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The European Trade Mark and Design Network (ETMDN), envisaged in the EUIPO’s first Strategic Plan (2011-2015) was the result of a collaborative and cooperative effort between the Office and its national and regional office partners, supported by user associations and international organisations.

Under Strategic Plan 2016-2020, the work continues. Cooperation on IP within the EU became part of the core business of the EUIPO upon the entry into force of Regulation 2015/2424 on 23 March 2016. In the light of this new mandate, the European Trade Mark and Design Network was renamed the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN).

This cooperation has five strands. Each strand contains at least one project, which is supported by a working group comprising EU national and regional IP office experts, users, and, where relevant, experts from international organisations.

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