Prestigious R&D institutions are among the organizations named by China’s Central Audit Office as having misused government funding. According to the report, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) excluded a CNY 681 million ($10 million) surplus from its 2008 budget. The Institute of Chemistry is charged with taking a 5% share of research funding […]

Under France’s draft fiscal 2010 budget, the budget for the Higher Education and Research Ministry would increase 5.3%, adjusted for inflation, to €29.2 billion ($42.7 billion). Research funding would decline 6.8% to €804 million. Research investments would include a 2.5% rise in funding for public research agencies, including a 6.7% increase for the Pasteur Institute, […]

Earlier this month, the Canadian government announced CAD 75 million ($69 million) in funding over three years for food safety, building upon last year’s $113 million investment. To improve the detection of foodborne-illness risks, a national public health surveillance system will be implemented. In addition, the country’s existing lab network will be strengthened and the […]

South Korean spending on R&D increased 10.2% last year to $28 billion to make up 3.37% of GDP, according to a government survey conducted between March and July this year. The public and private sector represented 26.8% and 72.9% of 2008 R&D expenditures, respectively. Foreign R&D represented 0.3%. By source, private companies, public research institutes […]

Scheduled to take effect in October, China’s latest revisions to its intellectual property laws will affect foreign and domestic drug makers. The new “standard for novelty” principle requires that a patent be issued if the invention is truly new, not just new to China. The revisions also eliminate the requirement that patents on Chinese inventions […]