#european-research-council

#european-research-council

Modern scientific societies are increasingly vulnerable due to their dependence on membership fees and journal subscriptions, which are being challenged by the rise of virtual networking and open-access publishing.

The first event is a roundtable on "Zhuangzi: Fate, Desires, Transformation" on April 6th at 9:00am Beijing time.

Mistral AI has raised 723 million euros through debt financing from seven banks, including BNP Paribas and Bpifrance, to build a new data center near Paris. This facility will be equipped with 13,800 Nvidia GB300 chips, marking a significant step in establishing European AI infrastructure.

Four of last year's 10 winners opted to skip the ceremony rather than travel to the US, and the situation has not improved. Nor is it just the Ig Nobels being affected by the hostile US environment for international travel. Many international gaming developers are choosing to skip this year's weeklong Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, citing similar concerns.

Known as ExStra, this is a permanent national funding programme designed to strengthen research at the nation's top universities and make them more competitive internationally. While the ExStra programme allows for up to 15 "Excellent Universities" (Exzellenzuniversitaten), only ten institutions have made the grade for the next round of funding.

Digital products & services shape almost every sector of modern life. They have become an important backbone of the world's economy and society. The balance of our digital economy depends on a delicate interplay between tech companies, startups, software developers, foundations, and other stakeholders - many of which have partly become autonomous in recent years.

During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country. We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the USA this year. The move comes amid Donald Trump's sweeping crackdown on immigration, in which he has focused on deporting migrants illegally in the US, as well as holders of student and visitor exchange visas.

Traditionally, statistics show that most users will trust what they see at the top of a search page. They don't generally question it. That sort of placement alone can give a company a significant advantage, as it can greatly influence and help shape user behavior on a large scale.

A senior machine learning engineer at a top European AI lab can expect to earn between €120,000 and €180,000 annually. Their counterpart at Google DeepMind's US offices, OpenAI, or Anthropic routinely commands $350,000 to $700,000 in total compensation - sometimes more when stock is factored in.

The initial phase targets what the regulation classifies as "unacceptable risk" AI systems - including social scoring, real-time biometric surveillance in public spaces, and manipulative AI designed to exploit vulnerabilities. Penalties for violations can reach €35 million or 7% of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. For a seed-stage startup, that's not a fine. That's an extinction event.

Nscale has now raised over $4.5 billion across equity rounds in less than six months. The capital funds Nscale's vertically integrated AI infrastructure, consisting of GPU compute, networking, data services, and orchestration software, with expansion planned across Europe, North America, and Asia.

Against that backdrop, Europe's reliance on American-made AI begins to look more and more like a liability. In a worst case scenario, though experts consider the possibility remote, the US could choose to withhold access to AI services and crucial digital infrastructure. More plausibly, the Trump administration could use Europe's dependence as leverage as the two sides continue to iron out a trade deal. "That dependency is a liability in any negotiation-and we are going to be negotiating increasingly with the US," says Taddeo.

Starting this year, organizations based in or controlled by China cannot apply for grants to fund projects involving artificial intelligence, telecommunications such as 5G, health, semiconductors, biotechnology or quantum technologies. China's Seven Sons of National Defence, a group of universities affiliated with the government's ministry of industry and information technology, are also barred from all funding. However, Chinese organizations can still apply for or participate in select research projects related to climate, biodiversity, food and agriculture.

"I was involuntarily undressed by Elon Musk's Grok on X," Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch said in a recent video on the platform. She is one of countless victims of a feature on X's AI chatbot, Grok, that allows users to digitally strip women and children of their clothing. In less than two weeks, Grok generated three million sexualized images, including tens of thousands that appear to depict children.

As the race to dominate AI accelerates, Europe's most prominent AI startup is betting that geography - not just technology - can be a competitive advantage in its home market. Arthur Mensch, the CEO and cofounder of French AI company Mistral, said the company's edge in Europe over Silicon Valley rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic isn't about having dramatically smarter models.

The €12.3 billion figure, compiled from data tracked across major European venture databases and deal trackers, reveals a market that's concentrating capital rather than spraying it. Mega-rounds are returning - but only for companies with clear revenue trajectories and defensible technology. The spray-and-pray era of seed investing hasn't come back, and it probably shouldn't.

Aerospace and satellite systems manufacturer Swissto12 has secured €73m in financial support from European Space Agency (ESA) member states to accelerate Swissto12's development and industrialisation of the HummingSat space programme. Explaining its core mission, Swissto12 says it is enabling a transformational shift in the global satellite communications industry, away from legacy large, purpose-built, expensive and slow-to-deploy services towards smaller, faster, cheaper assets that leverage software-defined, reconfigurable payload architectures and agile, multi-orbit capabilities.

The European Union has formally inaugurated NanoIC, a semiconductor pilot line backed by a €700 million investment under the European Chips Act. The facility aims to accelerate the development of advanced chip technologies and strengthen Europe's position in the global semiconductor landscape. Situated at the research hub imec in Leuven, NanoIC is designed as an open pilot line where companies, research institutes, and startups can prototype and test cutting-edge components before commercial deployment.