EU funding opportunities

The European parliament has given the green light to a 400 million Eurostars programme aimed at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) conducting market-oriented R&D (see also Chemistry World, March 2008, p46). Meanwhile, the European Commission has developed a draft guide to help researchers select and combine funding opportunities from the bewildering array of sources available from website.

FDA five-year safety plan

The US Food and Drug Administration has released a new five-year plan explaining how it will enhance and modernise the drug safety system, hiring more staff with $30 million extra fees collected annually from industry under the prescription drug user fee act (PDUFA IV). 

Chemistry for our future wins funding boost

The RSC's £3.6 million Chemistry for our future  pilot programme has been awarded £1.65 million of further funding from the Higher education funding council for England (Hefce). It will be extended by 11 months to July 2009. The funding will go towards outreach, curriculum development, promoting careers and bridging the school-to-university gap. 

Go Figure 

253 million  year-old cellulose fibres have been found in salt crystals from an underground nuclear waste dump near Carlsbad, southern New Mexico; the oldest biological material on Earth to be directly examined. Jack Griffith at the University of North Carolina, who led the research published in Astrobiology, says cellulose provides the 'perfect paper trail' in the search for life on other planets.