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The European Council adopted a Council regulation today establishing joint undertakings under the Horizon Europe programme. The joint undertakings complement the existing Horizon Europe framework by addressing global challenges and priorities that require critical mass and long-term vision.

Unlocking the potential of higher education institutions for innovation and entrepreneurship is a key priority for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), aiming to foster institutional change and further integrate them into innovation ecosystems.

On 10 November 2021, the EU Commission adopted the first three work programmes for the new "DIGITAL Europe" programme, which will have a total budget of €7.5 billion allocated to relevant innovation projects until 2027: the main Digital Europe work programme with a budget of €1.38 billion until the end of 2022, the first cybersecurity work programme with a budget of €269 million until the end of 2022, and the second work programme for European Digital Innovation Centres.

With the aim of promoting the competitiveness and growth of the European cultural and creative industries, the European Institute of Technology (EIT) has launched a new innovation partnership in the form of a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC). The ninth KIC, Culture & Creativity, aims to strengthen collaboration between stakeholders from education, research and industry, as well as the cultural and creative industries, to accelerate the recovery of the cultural sector after the Corona Shutdown and to unlock untapped economic opportunities in areas such as architecture, design and music.

Associated States are on an equal footing with Member States when applying for Horizon Europe. Association is a particularly close economic cooperation relationship between the European Union and states outside the EU.  The aim is to facilitate trade and the movement of goods as much as possible, but also political dialogue and close cooperation in culture, science and education. So far, Iceland, Moldova, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine have signed the official Horizon Europe Association Agreement with the EU.

The Commission is launching today the second call for large-scale projects under the Innovation Fund, one of the world's largest programmes for the demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies, financed by revenues from the auction of emission allowances from the EU's Emissions Trading System. With a budget of €1.5 billion it will finance breakthrough technologies for renewable energy, energy-intensive industries, energy storage, and carbon capture, use and storage.

Clariant, a focused, sustainable and innovative specialty chemical company, today announced the official completion of its sunliquid® cellulosic ethanol plant in Podari, Romania. The completed construction is an important next step for the commercial deployment of sunliquid® technology and thus supports Clariant’s sunliquid® licensing business strategy. The facility will be operational in the fourth quarter, producing cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues. BayFOR is a partner in the EU project LIGNOFLAG.

More women in science and research, fewer gender gaps in the labour market, more inclusion, a more balanced participation of women and men in different sectors of the economy and other gender equality initiatives – all of this is what the European Union wants to achieve, among other things through the introduction of a "Gender Equality Plan" (GEP) which will become mandatory in all Horizon Europe applications for calls with a deadline in 2022.

On Friday 8 October 2021, UAS4EUROPE, the leading network of European Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS), handed over its Action Plan for Innovation to EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel. The Action Plan for Innovation contains twelve concrete recommendations from the field of applied research to realise the planned European Innovation Area (EIA).

The first "Cooperation Lounge" to intensify scientific cooperation between Bavaria and Tunisia, which took place from 4 to 6 October 2021, met with great interest. For three days, 140 stakeholders from Tunisia and Bavaria discussed potential paths and instruments for successful cooperation between the two regions for joint research projects in various fields of the humanities, economics, natural sciences and engineering.