We are doing science for policy
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the European Commission's science and knowledge service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy.
The JRC’s annual forest fires report confirms a trend towards longer and more intense fire seasons in Europe and neighbouring regions, with wildfires now occurring throughout the year. The report coincides with an international study which finds that global wildfire trends could have significant health implications due to rising harmful emissions.
On 6 October 2017, the JRC celebrated its 60th anniversary with a ceremony organised together with the Italian Civil Protection and the Italian Fire Brigade.
Under the theme of civil protection, the celebration highlighted the importance of collaboration with national authorities. It showcased what the JRC and the EU do to help Italy on priority issues like disaster risk management to build resistance against earthquakes, floods, forest fires and landslides.
Countries hoping to boost scientific impact should favour international exchange and collaboration, according to the latest joint research from the JRC and Ohio State University, published this week in Nature.
The research offers strong support to the open rationale of the European Commission's research funding programmes in Horizon 2020.
The European Commission has launched the trial version of a new tool to support schools in using digital technologies.
600 schools from 14 countries have the opportunity to try the new 'SELFIE' tool in this pilot phase, before it is finalised and made available to interested schools in Europe early 2018.
The ‘digital transformation’ originally affected companies that mainly operated in ICT-related sectors, but it now touches all aspects of our economies and societies.
This is reflected in a new JRC-OECD report, which finds that the largest industrial R&D investors play a leading role in the development of digital technologies. These investors own about 75% of global ICT-related patents, while only 25% of them actually operate in the ICT sector.
According to the latest Annual Economic Report, the overall economic performance of the EU fleet improved again in 2015.
While still marginally profitable in 2009, the EU fleet registered record-high net profits of EUR 798 million in 2015, and estimates for 2016 and 2017 point towards further profitability gains. However, the report also confirms that economic performance stagnates where fleets depend on stocks which are still subject to overfishing or overexploitation.