HORIZON 2020
Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.
Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness.
Seen as a means to drive economic growth and create jobs, Horizon 2020 has the political backing of Europe’s leaders and the Members of the European Parliament. They agreed that research is an investment in our future and so put it at the heart of the EU’s blueprint for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and jobs.
By coupling research and innovation, Horizon 2020 is helping to achieve this with its emphasis on excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges. The goal is to ensure Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovation.
The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation will be complemented by further measures to complete and further develop the European Research Area. These measures will aim at breaking down barriers to create a genuine single market for knowledge, research and innovation.
NUCLEUS
NUCLEUS develops supports and implements inclusive and sustainable approaches to Responsible Research and Innovation within the governance and culture of research organizations in Europe. A major goal of the trans disciplinary project will be to stimulate research and innovation which continuously reflects and responds to societal needs. In order to achieve a multifaceted and cross-cultural New Understanding of Communication, Learning and Engagement in Universities and Scientific Institutions, 26 renowned institutions from 15 countries, among them leading representatives of 14 universities, will collaboratively identify, develop, implement and support inclusive and sustainable approaches to RRI.
For a mutual learning and exchange process, the project will reach out beyond the European Research Area by including renowned scientific institutions in China, Russia and South Africa. Within a 4-year timeframe NUCLEUS will systematically uncover and analyze structural and cultural obstacles to RRI in scientific institutions. The partners will collaboratively develop innovative approaches to overcome these barriers. The project is expected to lead to an applicable ‘RRI DNA’, providing practical guidelines for higher education institutions and funding agencies across Europe and beyond. This ‘DNA’ will form the basis for the ‘NUCLEUS Living Network’, an alliance to ensure sustainability of the approach beyond the project timeline. By offering new academic insights and practical recommendations derived from 30 ‘RRI test beds’, NUCLEUS will contribute to the debate on science policies both on a national and European level, including the future design of HORIZON 2020 and the European Research Area (ERA).
The project designed within the frames of the European Science Events Association (EUSEA), where ISU Science Picnic is a member organization since 2013. The project is coordinated at ISU by the Vice-Rector Ms. Nino Dvalidze.
The COSMOS2020plus funded by the H2020 programme is a project of the International Network of National Contact Points in Space fields (NCP Space), which aims to exchange and disseminate information on space exploration, share experience, carry out trainings, expand cooperation between European countries, develop joint projects.
Space exploration is extremely important for human life today. It is becoming a part of our daily lives. It is important to involve more countries in these activities.
The participating countries are: Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus, France, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey, Great Britain.
The consortium was established 10 years ago. Georgia has been involved in it for the first time.
The molecular mechanisms underlying memory formation in vertebrates are not well understood, despite their paramount importance to neuroscience. CHARM-Vis aims at investigating changes in the chromatin landscape and transcriptional activity in a prototypical model system for memory formation: visual imprinting in domestic chicks.
During visual imprinting, visually naïve chicks come to recognize an object by being exposed to it. This phenomenon can be reproduced in tightly controlled conditions, thus offering an ideal model for the study of memory formation. Particularly, the project will focus on identifying changes in chromatin landscape and gene transcription within the chick brain following visual imprinting.
Samples from the intermediate and medial mesopallium, a chick forebrain region previously recognized as of crucial importance for visual imprinting, will be analyzed using Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin and single nuclei RNA sequencing. The use of these two technologies will ensure the identification of memory-related molecular events at an unprecedented level of resolution.
Our findings will allow to characterize the molecular mechanisms involved in memory formation, with potential impact on the treatment of mental illness, especially amnesias.
Coordinator: Ilia State University