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The European Union’s governing bodies are edging close to agreement on the research programme Horizon Europe.Credit: Phil Robinson/Avalon
Voilà: EU’s biggest research programme ever
The European Union’s three governing institutions — the Parliament, Council and Commission — have reached agreement on the outline for the EU’s next major science-funding programme, Horizon Europe. The budget is still up in the air, but it has been proposed at around €100 billion (US$114 billion) and is expected to be the largest EU research programme yet. The biggest beneficiaries will be collaborative projects between academia and industry; big-budget ‘missions’ to tackle specific societal problems; and well-established ventures, such as the European Research Council and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme.
Bennu’s bumps threaten NASA’s plan
The near-Earth asteroid Bennu is littered with big boulders and is ejecting more debris into space than expected — putting the first US attempt to bring asteroid dust back to Earth at risk. Japan’s Hayabusa2 faced similar challenges with the asteroid Ryugu before successfully probing its surface last month. “This is what discovery is all about — surprises, quick thinking and doing what it takes to get good science,” said Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA’s planetary-science division. “I am confident that the scientists and engineers will get us a sample of Bennu.”
New female PIs get less money and staff
Women starting their first research labs tend to be paid lower salaries, have fewer staff and have access to less laboratory space than their male peers do. A non-random survey of 365 early-career principal investigators in the United Kingdom found wide-ranging frustrations about lack of career support as well as significant gender differences in areas such as starting salaries. Major British funders, including the Wellcome Trust, have expressed interest in the findings.
Source: Ref. 1
FEATURES & OPINION
Abandon the entire concept of statistical significance
Three statisticians and more than 800 signatories call argue for scientists to abandon statistical significance. “We are not calling for a ban on P values,” say the researchers. It’s just time to stop “bucketing results into ‘statistically significant’ and ‘statistically non-significant’” because of the powerful sway such dichotomies hold on the human mind. “We must learn to embrace uncertainty,” they argue.
Source: V. Amrhein et al.
Facebook analysis reveals ties that bind anti-vaxxers
People who took part in a coordinated anti-vaccination effort tended to be women who share four common concerns — but came from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Researchers analysed a random sample of nearly 200 anti-vaccine commenters on a video posted on a Pennsylvanian paediatric practice’s Facebook page. From publicly available Facebook data, the study found that 89% of the commenters identified as female and had concerns about safety, conspiracies and trust in science and modern medicine.
The Washington Post | 7 min read
Read more: The biggest pandemic risk? Viral misinformation (Nature, from October)
