In the spotlight
Start work on vaccination certificates, von der Leyen tells EU
reuters-it, 05.03.2021
EU governments must immediately begin technical work to ensure a COVID-19 vaccination certificate system can be introduced across the 27-member bloc in time for summer, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.
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Fair vaccine access is a goal Europe cannot afford to miss
bruegel, 04.03.2021
Europe has so far been slow to vaccinate its people against the coronavirus, lagging far behind the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel. Slowness in the rollout of the vaccination campaign is frustrating. But it might give European countries an opportunity to learn from, and avoid, the mistakes of the front-runners.
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COVID When will children be able to get COVID-19 vaccines?
boston, 04.03.2021
When will children be able to get COVID-19 vaccines? It depends on the child’s age, but some teenagers could be rolling up their sleeves before too long. The Pfizer vaccine already is cleared for use starting at age 16.
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#COVID19vaccines: where are we now?
Rolling reviews in progress, submitted applications, authorisations completed 👇 pic.twitter.com/jmIdIBJNI0— EU Medicines Agency (@EMA_News) March 4, 2021
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Digital transition
🔖 What we're reading #TheWebThisWeek
📖 REPORT – One Year Onward: Platform Responses to COVID-19 and US Elections Disinformation in Review https://t.co/0IWmN5Y8BD https://t.co/9QREWimro0
— World Wide Web Foundation (@webfoundation) March 6, 2021
Switzerland gears up to place robots in classrooms
swissinfo, 02.03.2021
In school classrooms around Switzerland another robot is slowly making its entrance. “Thymio” is a small white box on wheels developed by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Its main advantage is that it can teach computer programming in a simple way to school children. Easy to program, the children can see immediate results.
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Healthcare revolution in the platform economy
forbes, 01.03.2021
If there is any industry worthy of platform innovation and disruption, it’s the healthcare industry. Advancements in inpatient care, unit productivity and service accessibility can be the difference between life and death.
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Environmental sustainability
Worried about climate change? There’s a book for that.
reuters-it, 04.03.2021
As the warming world faces raging forest fires, rising seas and increasingly erratic weather, the United States has seen a boom in books about climate change. The annual number of new U.S. titles has grown from 19 in 2010 to 434 in 2020, according to market data from NPD Group. The trend for e-books is similar.
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An urgent call for a new relationship with nature
scientificamerican, 03.03.2021
In a speech given at Columbia University last December, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said, “Humanity is waging war on nature. This is suicidal. Nature always strikes backand it is already doing so with growing force and fury.”
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Climate: Scientists to study sea ice and precipitation in the Arctic
enea-en, 04.03.2021
Finding out the causes of the sharp rise in Arctic temperatures compared to the rest of the globe, a phenomenon known as “Arctic amplification”, and study its complex dynamics. This is the goal of the projects ECAPAC and SENTINEL.
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#WorldWildlifeDay: many would disappear without the conservation programmes by modern zoos & aquariums 🐡
More than 90 from 🇺🇸🇿🇦🇩🇰🇨🇿🇫🇷🇬🇧🇪🇸🇧🇷🇵🇹🇩🇪 & more joined our 🌎 Coalition #UnitedforBiodiversity, raising their voices #ForNature ahead of #COP15 https://t.co/CUpgBinlOg
5/6 pic.twitter.com/h5tjG5sguv
— EU Environment (@EU_ENV) March 3, 2021
Mobility & Energy
Interested in R&I in transport and mobility in Europe? Find out about some of the latest research in the #TRIMIS_EU newsletter 👉 https://t.co/rLB6ykFeGx @Transport_EU pic.twitter.com/pUDEbNRHUF
— EU_ScienceHub (@EU_ScienceHub) March 7, 2021
Polluting cars could soon be banned from Oxford
oxfordtimes, 05.03.2021
If Oxford City and Oxfordshire County councils agree to the latest version of the zone then it will start in August, this year. Oxford would then be one of the first places in the UK to introduce a Zero Emission Zone which will restrict polluting vehicles from going into specific city centre streets during the day.
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New EU energy labels applicable from 1 March 2021
eureporter, 03.03.2021
To help EU consumers cut their energy bills and carbon footprint, a brand new version of the widely-recognised EU energy label will be applicable in all shops and online retailers from Monday, 1 March 2021.
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Agriculture & Food
No meat, no milk. Is it okay to raise my child on a vegan diet?
deutschewelle-en, 05.03.2021
At the same time, the overconsumption of fatty, sugary food, which has poor health outcomes for children and adults, is a much more common problem. “The number of children showing severe health damage at a primary school age due to a hypercaloric diet and other forms of malnutrition is probably millions of times higher,” writes Smollich.
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The risk of #obesity has increased during the #COVID19 pandemic because many people have had limited ability to obtain healthy food, do exercise and access healthcare services. Read more here 👇 https://t.co/k4xMxj59vj
— WHO/Europe (@WHO_Europe) March 4, 2021
Health
How to integrate well-being into work so employees perform and feel their best
forbes, 08.03.2021
While executives have long recognized that well-being is important, the COVID-19 pandemic brought home how significant it really is. Organizations suddenly found themselves called upon to prioritize workers’ physical and mental well-being as a matter of survival, as protecting their health and alleviating their stress became critical to operations.
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#Rubella infection early in pregnancy can lead to congenital rubella syndrome – a condition that includes severe #BirthDefects and lifelong disability:
Rubella can be prevented through vaccination#VaccinesWork pic.twitter.com/0xXAI8u56X— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 3, 2021
🚭 Tobacco users may be at an increased risk of #COVID19, both in contracting the disease and complications.
Find out more 👇 & 👉 https://t.co/BjfZSLCO0d#coronavirus pic.twitter.com/XOVMRcDtKH
— WHO/Europe (@WHO_Europe) February 26, 2021
Science policy & Communication
Google says it won’t use new ways of tracking you as it phases out browser cookies for ads
cnbc, 03.03.2021
Google is clarifying its plans for targeted advertising as it phases out browser cookies, saying in a new blog post it won’t use other ways to “track” users around the internet. Instead, Google says it will only use “privacy-preserving technologies” that rely on methods like anonymization or aggregation of data.
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TikTok hires expert panel to improve child protection in Europe
forbes, 03.03.2021
TikTok has created a Safety Advisory Council for Europe, made up of external experts on child safety, mental health and extremism.
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Coronavirus disinformation: Online platforms took more actions fighting vaccine disinformation
eureporter, 26.02.2021
The Commission has published the new reports by Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, TikTok and Mozilla, signatories of the Code of Practice on Disinformation . They provide an overview of the evolution of the measures taken in January 2021.
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EU initiatives
We are glad to present the members of the #NewEuropeanBauhaus high-level roundtable!
👉 18 advanced thinkers and practitioners bringing inspiration and acting as community ambassadors for the initiative.
📣 More: https://t.co/nlYA6Tggpc#EUGreenDeal pic.twitter.com/xO1GPwA6fl
— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) March 6, 2021
UK budget muted on research with no Horizon Europe money
sciencebusiness, 04.03.2021
Visa fine-tuning to create “radically simplified bureaucracy for high-skilled applications”, with quicker processes for entrepreneurs, was a research highlight in the UK’s annual budget on Wednesday. But science groups are left perplexed by the missing billions of pounds earmarked for participation in the EU’s Horizon Europe research programme.
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EPRS Briefing – Digital services act
europarl, 03.03.2021
The rules governing the provision of digital products and services in the EU have remained largely unchanged since the adoption of the e-Commerce Directive in 2000, while digital technologies and business models continue to evolve rapidly and new societal challenges are emerging, such as the spread of counterfeit goods, hate speech and disinformation online.
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The next step towards immersive communication
idw-online, 03.03.2021
The new EU project CHARITY develops a framework for enabling holographic applications and immersive virtual training. Heidelberg – Advanced media technologies for business and leisure, such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and holographic communications, are on the rise.
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Curious news
For the first time, organic matter crucial for life has been found on an asteroid’s surface
sciencealert, 05.03.2021
Follow the twisted limbs of your family tree all the way back to its primordial origins billions of years in the past and you’ll find that we all originated from dust rich in Just where this organic dust came from has been a topic of debate for more than half a century.
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Covid 19 coronavirus: Australia develops surface spray that kills disease in 90 seconds
nzherald, 02.03.2021
“Think about when you go to the supermarket and someone passes you a trolley that has just been wiped down,” he said. “In reality, Covid-19 can stay on that surface for 10 minutes or longer and so it is highly transmissible.
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