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CAMBRIDGE, U.K., AND TOKYO--A face-saving compromise is beginning to take shape in the battle between the European Union (E.U.) and Japan to host the $5 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor [...]

The article explores the Horizon 2020 program proposed by the European Commission to fund scientific research in the European Union. The program contains three main objectives: to support excellence in the sciences through the strengthening of education and strengthen existing institutions, facilitate industrial leadership with government and private investments in biotechnology, nanotechnology, and other emerging areas, and solve common social problems such as food supply and climate change. The proposal must first be approved by the European Parliament and its member states, a prospect endangered by the European Union's financial crisis.

The article presents an interview with European Union director-general for research, Robert-Jan Smits, about the European Commission's Horizon 2020 research program proposal. He discusses the rationale of combining government research and innovation programs into one entity, its prospects for support and funding in the European Parliament, and the perception that European scientists are not entrepreneurial.

The article discusses the merger plans of science organizations in Europe that include the national research councils collectively referred to with the acronym EUROHORCS and the European Science Foundation (ESF). EUROHORCS president Dieter Imboden is cited regarding the goals of the merger. The European Research Area (ERA) and its objectives are defined.

The article discusses plans shared by certain European countries for development of the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) that will result in a facility housing the most powerful laser device yet built. The laser is planned to be capable of producing 200-petawatt pulses, a power level said to exceed that of the best existing lasers by a factor of 200. According to Max Born Institute director Wolfgang Sandner, countries advocating the project, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania, are hopeful that research benefits will accrue from their membership in the European Union.

The article reports that after a year and a half of tense diplomacy and secret discussions, an international fusion research collaboration has finally chosen a site for the world's most expensive science experiment. Meeting in Moscow this week, ministers from China, the European Union (E.U.), Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States announced that Cadarache, in southern France, has been chosen as the location of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). In return for the withdrawal of the Japanese site, companies in Japan will get substantial E.U. procurement contracts, and European money will help build a major research center in Japan. Originally proposed at a U.S.-Soviet summit in 1985, the ITER design was essentially complete in 2001, but when the six partners gathered in Washington D.C., in December 2003 to pick between two candidate sites, South Korea and the U.S. supported Rokkasho in northern Japan, whereas Russia and China backed the E.U.'s candidate at Cadarache.

The article presents information about the $11 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) fusion project of Japan and the European Union (EU). And if European politicians and Japanese newspapers are to be believed, the most expensive science experiment on Earth will be built in France. The original schedule for building the ITER called for a siting decision to be made in December 2003 between Cadarache in southern France or Rokkasho in northern Japan. But the project's six partners split down the middle, the U.S. and Korea supported the Japanese site, whereas Russia and China backed the EU site in France.

As the horse-trading to select a site for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) has been heating up, an eagerly awaited report has weighed in on the merits of the two European sites vying to host the $5 billion facility. Competition is fierce to host ITER, which will aim to show that generating power through nuclear fusion is a practical proposition. ITER partner countries have been studying four candidate sites, in Canada, Japan, France, and Spain. To boost its odds, the E.U. decided to put forward only one candidate either Cadarache in France or Vandellòs in Spain and asked David King, chief scientific adviser to Great Britain government, to head a committee to assess the sites.

The article focuses on the European Space Agency's Copernicus program of Sentinel satellites for environmental and climate research. It comments on the failure of the scientific observation satellite Envisat on April 8, 2012 and mentions the Copernicus program spreads instruments on over a half-dozen Sentinel satellites so the failure of one satellite won't impact time series research. It states the program was delayed due to budget cuts from the European Union.

The article discusses the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) fusion project and its budget. The European Commission's (EC) updated budget exceeds its original estimate by a factor of 2.7. As European Union (E.U.) fusion funding falls short of the estimated budget, the article reports that EC solicited additional financial support from E.U. member states. Commentary is provided on political aspects of the negotiations.

The article discusses a report released by the European Union offering a mixed analysis of the performance of European research. Topics include statistics related to the intensity of European research and development (R&D) projects and examples of countries whose intensity has increased in relation to Europe including Japan, China, and Korea.

The article discusses the pick for phenomenon of the year by "Science," which is the scope of European science. Topics include a brief history of advances in European science such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland, the ambitious planning by the European Union (EU) to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project and the creation of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) of astronomy projects.

The article reports on a paper release by the European Union which stipulates that Asian research funding could soon eclipse European public and private spending on research and development. It is stated that China could overtake the European Union by 2009 in terms of research and development spending as a percentage of gross domestic product. In addition, the paper also noted that the European industry contributed less to research. There was only 55 percent of total research and development spending in comparison with 64 percent in the U.S. and 67 percent in China.

The article announces the space policy by the European Union (EU) which aims at bringing more coordination and coherence to space programs in Europe. Roger Bonnet, director of the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland claims that the policy will have a little effect on space science. The new space policy will also promote synergy between civil and military space efforts. In addition, it will mandate the EU, the European Space Agency (ESA), and national agencies find funding for two key programs: the Galileo navigation satellites and an earth-observing system called Global Monitoring for Environment and Security.

The article presents information related to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project. It is reported that the Japanese researchers have won to receive provisional approval of the consolation prize of some $870 million that will be spent on fusion-related facilities in Japan, with equal contributions from Japan and the European Union (E.U.). In 2005, Japan had lost a bid last year to host the $12 billion ITER project. In an effort to win support for their sites, both Japan and the E.U. upped their offers to pay as much as 50% of the total ITER cost if they were host in 2005.

This article reports that facing down skeptics in the academic community, European Union (EU) officials are forging ahead with a proposal to create a new research-intensive university on the continent. They say that their objective is to remedy problems in European higher education by building a flagship modeled on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rather than a single site, however, a plan published last week by the European Commission, the EU's executive, calls for a network of centers across the 25 member states. But the idea continues to meet with near-universal hostility from scientific and education leaders. Academics argue that there is no need for a new European Institute of Technology. Peter Cotgreave of the Campaign for Science and Engineering in England, a pressure group says that there are a lot of very good institutions in Europe which are grossly starved of funds. And they worry that the commission's new enthusiasm will attract attention and funding away from the new European Research Council (ERC), due to begin work next year. One concern is the potential impact on funding for the ERC, a new grants agency.

This article presents information on global warming. As climate change climbs up the political agenda, researchers have pooled much of the most recent research into what many believe is a compelling case for the immediacy of global warming. This information was presented in a report based on a meeting convened last year at the request of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. It says a range of measures, from emissions trading to nuclear power, are needed to both minimize future impacts and cope with those that cannot be avoided. During 2005, Prime Minister Tony Blair was both chair of the G8 leaders of industrial powers and president of the European Union and pledged to use his twin roles to combat global poverty and climate change. To advance the climate initiative, 200 researchers from across the globe met at the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter last February. The meeting came 4 years after the last assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the benchmark for global warming, and the scientists chewed over new results. The report contains models showing how the acidity of the oceans will increase as a result of more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

This article reports that India has expressed formal interest in joining the effort to build an energy-producing fusion reactor. The six current partners China, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the U.S. have just agreed on Cadarache, France, as the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

The article focuses on the government ministers from the 25 European Union (E.U.) countries who declared last week that they want to keep negotiating with the other five partners in the international effort to build a $6 billion fusion reactor. The message was contained in the new instructions they gave to the European Commission, the E.U.'s executive arm. It declared that the southern French town of Cadarache is no longer Europe's candidate site for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

The article presents a report on $6 billion ITER fusion reactor. This fall research ministers from the European Union (E.U.) set a deadline of 26 November for a decision to begin building the reactor near the French town of Cadarache. ITER's goal is to achieve a sustained fusion reaction and generate more power than it consumes. Last December the United States and Korea decided to back the Japanese site, whereas Russia and China favored Cadarache. If it works, it promises almost limitless energy, using deuterium extracted from water as fuel and producing little radioactive waste.

This article reports on the a meeting of research ministers from the 25 European Union (EU) countries. Europe is ready to scrap the planned collaboration on what is supposed to be a global fusion reactor. Last month, outgoing EU research commissioner Philippe Busquin expressed regret for not having" closed the file" on ITER, whose partners, the EU, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States, have been split for nearly a year over whether to locate the reactor in France or Japan. The council also ordered the commission to figure out how to fund the project without taking any extra money from EU coffers.

A $10 billion effort to harness energy from nuclear fusion was teetering on a knife edge earlier this week after another deadlocked meeting of its six international partners. Since last December, the six — China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the U.S. — have been split over whether to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor at Rokkasho in Japan or Cadarache in France. After 2 decades of preparation for the grand experiment, which aims to reproduce the sun's furnace here on Earth, a decision on the site was expected by the end of 2003. But with the E.U. and Japan equally determined to play host, more technical studies were carried out, followed by a series of meetings exploring a "broader" fusion research program with other facilities that would speed the move to commercial reactors and could be sited in the nation that does not get to host the tokamak.

Japan and the European Union are busy dispatching last-minute envoys to other members of an international consortium this month, hoping to become the host of the world's first workable nuclear fusion reactor. Their goal is to line up enough support by the December 20, 2003, meeting in Washington D.C., at which the consortium will choose the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Last week in Vienna, Austria, the ITER partners agreed that the host would pay about 45% of the $10 billion needed to build and operate the reactor.

The European Union (EU) chose Cadarache, France, as its candidate site to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a $5 billion test bed for harnessing nuclear fusion to generate electricity. It aims to show that such a machine can generate more power than it consumes for extended periods and so pave the way for fusion power stations. The decision has allowed EU officials and representatives from the other ITER partners — Canada, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States — to begin deliberations on the final choice for siting the giant project.

The article reports that the European Union needs a plan for space R&D — and some cash for it. Traditionally, the E.U. has not gotten directly involved in space projects. But demand is growing for continentwide efforts, such as an upcoming 30-spacecraft global positioning constellation being built in cooperation with the European Space Agency. To guide future projects, the E.U. needs a 5-year road map for space research and technology development, says the European Commission, the E.U.'s executive body. It also calls for E.U. space spending to grow by as much as 4.6% annually.

Reports on the delay in selection procedure of European candidate for the competition to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor by a council of European Union ministers. Delayed date of the selection procedure; Plan of ITER to demonstrate practicality of generating power by fusing atomic nuclei.

The article discusses cuts in science ties with Russia after it's invasion of Ukraine. Topics include Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) dissolved the partnership with Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, after Russia started the invasion in Ukraine; European Commission suspended Russia's participation in research program, Horizon Europe; and some science organizations have resisted making decisions regarding the ban on Russia calling it political minefield.