Swiss Chemical Society - Brussels News Update, March 2017

European Highlights

Are You a Chemist? – Participate in the Survey!

European chemists working in Europe or abroad and chemists from everywhere based in Europe are invited to the 2nd Employment Survey for European Chemists.
ESEC2, which is anonymous, is accessible at http://www.euchems.eu/esec2/ from 1 March until 31 March 2017, and its main objective is to create a clear snapshot of the chemistry labour…

From Waste to Health – Registrations Open

The registrations for the EuCheMS workshop From Waste to Health are now open online. This event, taking place in Malta on 5 April, will look into the possibilities of a circular economy approach in the pharmaceutical sector while taking into consideration the role of chemistry in this field and the current European Union legislative proposals…

The Ethical and Social Dimensions of Chemistry: Reflections, Considerations, and Clarifications

The Chemistry - a European Journal editorial Ethical and Social Dimensions of Chemistry: Reflections, Considerations, and Clarifications is now available online. “Ethics in Chemistry” is a huge topic with various viewpoints and arguments on what it actually is and what compliance to ethical guidelines and participation in ethical discourse imply, covering principles of science…

Paper on Online Course to Improve University Laboratory Teaching Practice

Online course to improve university laboratory teaching practice, a paper exploring the possibilities of an online course on teaching in laboratory classes, has been recently published. This paper relates to the work of the ECTN working group Lecturing Qualifications and Innovative Teaching Methods, which is developing an online course on teaching in laboratory…

Upcoming EuCheMS Calls

EuCheMS will be publishing in March calls on its awards promoting excellence in chemistry: 1) a call for nominations for EuCheMS Award for Service 2017; 2) a call for the members of jury of EuCheMS Lecture Award 2017; and 3) a call for the jury of the new EuCheMS award, the European Chemistry Gold Medal.…

European Research Area Progress Report 2014-2016

The European Commission has recently published the third edition of the European Research Area (ERA) Progress Report. The 2016 Report summarises the state of play of ERA and the progress on ERA implementation over the period 2014-2016. For the first time, progress on ERA is measured for each country on each priority, based on…

Draft Legislation on Waste Management Approved by the Parliament

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted earlier this month on four directives concerning waste management, mainly waste from households and small firms, representing 8% of total waste. These plans are a first step towards creating a circular economy where products are designed in order to facilitate reuse. One of the key issues is how…

New European Legislation on Mercury

New legislation restricting the use of mercury, a persistent pollutant that has adverse effects on the environment and human health, was recently adopted by the European Parliament. The bill, already informally agreed with the Council of Ministers, aims to close the gap between existing EU legislation and the United Nations Minamata Convention against mercury pollution.…

Carbon Capture and Storage Directive - Commission Adopts Report on Implementation

In the context of the State of the Energy Union report, the European Commission adopted in February the second implementation report on the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Directive, which lays down the rules for the safe geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the EU. The report concludes that the provisions of the CCS…

Structural Indicators for Monitoring Education and Training Systems in Europe 2016

Is informal learning recognised everywhere in Europe for entry into higher education? How common are work placements as part of higher education programmes? These questions are answered in a series of thematic overviews published by the Eurydice Network. The publications examine education structures, policies and reforms in five key areas, namely in higher education and…

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Reaching 100 000 Excellent Researchers

Earlier this month, the European Union celebrated the one hundred thousandth fellow benefiting from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). To mark this milestone in the history of the MSCA, 30 highly promising researchers, including five fellows from the chemical sciences, have been selected to showcase the EU's actions dedicated to excellence and worldwide mobility in…

Antimicrobial Resistance Remains High

Bacteria found in humans, animals and food continue to show resistance to widely used antimicrobials, says the latest report on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The findings underline that AMR poses a serious threat to public and animal…

Ten Years of the European Research Council

Some 7,000 top researchers, including six who later became Nobel Prize Winners, have been supported in Europe by the European Research Council (ERC) to expand the frontiers of our knowledge and draw us nearer to the solutions. To mark the tenth anniversary, research institutions and national authorities in Europe will hold various events during the…

Strengthening Scientific Cooperation Between European Commission and Slovenia

On 28 February 2017, the European Commission´s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport signed a Memorandum of Understanding to boost cooperation and scientific excellence. The Memorandum envisages strengthening the activities in the framework of EU's macro regional strategies for the Danube, Alpine, and Adriatic–Ionian regions, as well as a…

2017 EU Prize for Women Innovators

Commissioner Carlos Moedas and Vice-President of the European Parliament Mairead McGuinness announced the four winners of the EU Prize for Women in a ceremony that took place recently in Brussels. The awardees were Ms Michela Magas, founder of Stromatolite, a UK Design Innovation Lab with a studio in Sweden; Ms Petra Wadström, founder of Solvatten,…

Support for Innovative SMEs

71 small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) from 22 countries have been selected for funding in the latest round of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2. The total amount to be distributed between the SMEs working on 66 projects is €103.82 million. In this phase of the instrument, each project will receive up to…

Information on Some Chemicals Still to be Provided

In 2016, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) focused its dossier evaluation activities on substances with the greatest potential to negatively affect people and the environment: substances produced in high volumes – over 100 tonnes per year – and with a potential concern. To encourage registrants to update their dossiers already before compliance checks or risk…

Consultation: Review of the 2006 Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning

The objective of the consultation is to gather input for informed changes to the 2006 Key Competences Framework. The consultation aims to gather inputs on the topics of 1) strengths and weaknesses in use of the 2006 Key Competences Framework; 2) Priority areas where changes to the Framework and the definition of the competences defined…

Consultation: Mid-term evaluation of the Erasmus+ Programme

The consultation aims to gather comments and perspectives from various stakeholders and the general public on the relevance of the Erasmus+ programme's objectives, the effectiveness of the measures taken to achieve them and the efficiency of their implementation. It will also gather views on the coherence of the programme and its added value in relation…

Survey: How to Better Explain Uncertainty

The European Food and Safety Authority (EFSA) is currently running a survey on the topic of uncertainty, to improve the way that EFSA communicates and explains the scientific uncertainties related to its assessments. Even when there is strong evidence that something will happen, there will almost always be some uncertainty about the outcome, a point…

Impact Assessment: Optimising the Internal Market's Industrial Property Legal Framework

This impact assessment will look into how to optimise the internal market's industrial property legal framework relating to supplementary protection certificates (SPC) and patent research exemptions (particularly, Bolar exemptions) for sectors whose products are subject to regulated market authorisations. SPCs are an intellectual property right that constitute an extension (of up to five years) to…

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Chemistry in Europe

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7th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress

ECC7, 26 - 30 August 2018
Liverpool, UK

From Waste to Health

5 April 2017, Valletta, Malta
Website: http://www.euchems.eu/

EuCheMS aisbl - Rue du Trône 62, 1050, Brussels, Belgium; www.euchems.eu. Produced for EuCheMS by Nineta Hrastelj, Bruno Vilela and Marta Kucza. This newsletter has been carefully prepared and only contains correct information to the best of EuCheMS´ knowledge, however this does not exclude the possibility of existence of incorrect information. EuCheMS cannot be liable for the use or misuse of any information, whether correct or incorrect, present at this newsletter. Intellectual property belongs to its rightful owners, always explicitly traceable on each article. Compilation Copyright © 2017 EuCheMS

Brussels News Update, March 2017