Thank you “Juliette” for your sensitive comment on all the hatred and twisted ideas about conspiracies that sometimes fill my blog! And if people can not come up with something more substantial than insults to Helen Duffet – think again! When she says that she got interested in politics when politics took an interest in [...]
A FAIR day for European research infrastructures
Last week the new Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research was launched in Darmstadt in Germany.
FAIR, as it is known, is a great example of the new approach to research infrastructures that the European Commission is promoting for the EU: making the best possible new world-class research infrastructure available [...]
blogs.ec.europa.eu/potocnik/a-fair-day-for-european-research-infr
I have just returned from 10 fascinating and eye-opening days in Argentina and Brazil.
Even before I went, I had a pretty clear idea in my mind of the enormous potential these countries have to increase their agricultural production.
But nothing could prepare me for the reality.
The farms I visited were on a totally different scale to [...]
blogs.ec.europa.eu/fischer-boel/feed-and-fuel-from-argentina-and-
I received an email recently from a UK citizens who had participated in one of our Plan D projects this year. It’s always nice to get positive feedback and in this case the lady in question was so eloquent about her experience that I asked her if she would write a guest entry in my [...]
The EU is proud of its excellent research centres and infrastructures where European and international scientists gather together to breach new boundaries. But who would have guessed that one of Europe’s top scientific installations is to be found in the middle of the desert in Chile! This is exactly what I had the good fortune [...]
Today is Blog Action Day. Today thousands of bloggers around the world will talk about one issue â?? the environment. I think this is interesting for at least two reasons â?? firstly it shows how the environment has become a serious issue for debate, discussion and direct action. Secondly, it shows how important the [...]
We are hosting a conference this week in Brussels about rare diseases. I unfortunately can’t attend, though I have sent a video message to the participants. But I wanted to make this a theme of the week, because I think the issue of rare diseases illustrates perfectly why we need a European research effort.
Rare diseases [...]
blogs.ec.europa.eu/potocnik/rare-diseases-%e2%80%93-a-perfect-exa
As many of you probably know, research can be fun. It can even be so attractive that it is decisive when determining the choice of destination for your holidays. Jana, our secretary and a very reliable member of my cabinet team, experienced this philosophy in practice - this year, this summer. Here is her storyâ?¦
“Summer, [...]
Permanence â?? the week one is on duty while the rest are enjoying vacations. Not exactly the dictionary definition but an explanation that, as we in the Commission would tend to say, is close to the citizens. If nothing unexpected happens, which is of course the wish of all of us who are [...]
There’s a lot of debate about climate change - the recent report from the International Panel on Climate Change said it’s 90% sure that humans have contributed to the mess we’re in, but there are still scientists who say that this is all just part of a cycle of nature. When you see the evidence [...]
Thanks to advances in air travel, the world has become smaller and more accessible for all of us. Flying is safe and fast. But we know that aircraft emission and noise have an effect on our environment. And so we need to think about this in the context of our efforts to tackle climate [...]
I often like to say that knowledge and science can remove borders. This week I have yet again seen that this is true.
Last week I received special guests â?? the science ministers of three western Balkan countries. They were here to sign an agreement associating them with the Seventh Research Framework Programme. A representative of [...]
blogs.ec.europa.eu/fischer-boel/staying_competitive_by_producing_
I’m travelling again this week, and this time it’s something of a Mediterranean odyssey- Cyprus on Wednesday, Greece on Thursday and Slovenia on Friday. Even if we Slovenes only have less than 50k of Mediterranean coast, we connect with our Southern neighbours in many ways-many ways - food, wine, musicâ?¦all the important things really!
The Mediterranean [...]
A lot of people who read this site know about the Framework Programme and how it supports scientists around Europe working together on projects, exchanges and so on. Perhaps less well-known is the important role played by the European Commission in providing scientific support to policy-making, through its Directorate-General Joint Research Centre. The JRC works [...]
I’m patron of an event taking place this week in Nogaro in the South of France called the European Eco-marathon. Student teams are invited to design and build a car that goes as far as possible on one litre of fuel (or its fuel cell equivalent). I agreed to be patron of this event because [...]
My last theme of the week was about the Commission launching a debate on the European Research Area. Many thanks to those of you that have already commented. From reading what you have said, it is clear that mobility â?? how free researchers are (or aren’t!) to move around the EU â?? is a big [...]
The Commission is publishing a Green Paper today which considers where we want Europe to go in research terms and what we need to do to change things so we can achieve our goals. At this stage ideas are quite preliminary, because we need to hear what YOU think before we decide how to [...]