South Korea plans to spend WON 155 billion ($121 million) to fund 26 short-term, green projects in eight fields (biopharmacy, robotic applications, renewable desalination plants, LED applications, system semiconductors, next generation displays, green cars, clean briquette energy). There are seven projects for LED applications, five green car projects, four biopharmacy projects and four semiconductor projects. […]

The Korean Ministry of Justice plans to introduce a bill this year in the National Assembly requiring the collection of DNA from convicted felons. The bill would also require that DNA samples from suspects accused of crimes in 11 categories, including murder and robbery, be collected. Source: The Korea Times

Science and technology (S&T) funding in Japan’s fiscal 2009 economic stimulus package totaled ¥1,346.5 billion ($13.5 billion), approximately 10% of the stimulus package. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) received 49% of the funding. Of this amount, ¥300 billion will be allocated to a special fund run by the Japan Society […]

The European Commission has adopted specific rules for active and intelligent materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. The rules apply to substances that are part of a separate container or are directly incorporated into packaging material. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will carry out the safety assessment of the substance […]

The six nations that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates) have formed a food safety and risk authority to evaluate and monitor health risks for food, animal and plant products using scientific data. The authority will work with risk management and food safety bodies in […]