World Research and Innovation Congress opens

The inaugural World Research and Innovation Congress is being held in Brussels, Belgium. The two-day event, attended by Pan European Networks, will help to connect scientific researchers, policy makers, private sector leaders and European institutions.

Healthcare is the major theme for this year’s conference, with many events focusing on this area. With Europe approaching agreement on Horizon 2020, the EU’s next research and innovation framework programme, there will also be a focus on future funding issues. The EU is playing an increasingly larger role in funding scientific endeavours across the continent and the world.

Increasing complexities in scientific efforts combined with a perceived reduction in available resources for researchers is also helping to fuel interest in collaboration. Speaking during the morning session, Dr Norman Saunders, head of the research group at the University of Melbourne and Jean-Francois Ghersi-Egea of Inserm, the French Institute of Health and Medical Research, remarked that international collaboration had expanded greatly in recent years and now plays an essential role in research today.

A variety of speakers from some of the world’s leading research organisations will participate in the conference, including the World Health Organisation, Science Europe, CERN, European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST Office) and the Russian Academy of Sciences.