Key Themes

Since the mid-1980s, the number of bees in Europe has been in decline. Threatened by pesticides, insecticides and climate change, they are also being struck by infestations of mites and a crippling virus that deforms their wings. But new technology aims to take the sting out of the situation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and cyber security should be priorities in future EU industrial research policy in order to reinvigorate industry and recover jobs that have been lost abroad, according to Professor Jürgen Rüttgers, a former research minister in Germany.

Big data has given scientists – and companies – a treasure trove of new information for analysing, understanding and predicting human behaviour, but it’s also thrown up a raft of questions about privacy and ownership.

Missions modelled on the 1960s 'moonshot' programme to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade could help make Europe a cool place to do business and unite the public behind European science and innovation, according to Professor Mariana Mazzucato, founder and director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose atUniversity College London, UK, where she holds the chair in the economics of innovation and public value.

The European Union is scaling up its investment in battery technology with the announcement of a €10 million open competition to design a better battery for electric vehicles and a €50 million cash injection to develop Europe's largest green battery factory.

Hundreds of kilometres away from any sea, ocean or sandy beach, students from countries such as the Czech Republic have been discovering their connection with the marine world.

An audit committee that reviews deaths during childbirth and works out how to avoid them has won its founders the €1 million EU Horizon Birth Day prize for a solution that saves the lives of mothers and their babies.

We need a new bill of rights to absorb the changes brought about by the gig economy, or using apps and websites to arrange casual jobs, which are now spreading to other areas of work, according to an international labour expert speaking at a conference on the future of work.

The first full-length mainstream music album co-written with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) was released on 12 January and experts believe that the science behind it could lead to a whole new style of music composition.

Picture the humanitarian aid sector and you don’t immediately think of start-up accelerators and hackathons. But aid agencies are co-opting these tools of innovation to help solve global issues – and a new EUR 5 million prize from the EU is designed to boost this even further.