In April, Spain released its 2013 National Reform Programme document outlining the country’s research goals for 2020. Despite the government’s claim that its budget for 2013 civilian research spending was not cut, data from the government’s Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology show that the budget was cut by €67 million ($88 million). The Programme […]

Portable and handheld NIR have rapidly developed into a major analytical instrument market alongside other portable spectroscopy techniques, all of which have benefited from similar technological improvements. The portable NIR market has transitioned into a much more mature market in recent years with the acquisition of smaller start-ups that pioneered the market by major diversified […]

Company Announcements Service firm Almac and TTP Labtech formed an alliance to give their customers access to their respective FLEXYTE fluorescence lifetime assay on the Ameon reader. Labcyte announced in January a collaboration with the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, which will apply acoustic liquid handling technology to the discovery of specialized leukemia treatments. In […]

Company Announcements Advion named KONIK an exclusive distributor for Spain, Portugal and South American countries, with the exception of Brazil. LECO is supporting the West Coast Metabolomics Center, a consortium of research and service labs housed at the University of California, Davis, Genome Center. The Center gained access to a Citius LC-HRT TOF MS. In […]

Company Announcements Accelrys’ 2012 revenues grew 12.6% to $162.5 million. Adjusted operating profit fell 47.2% to $2.0 million. License and subscription, maintenance on perpetual license, and professional services and other revenues grew 12.6%, 9.7% and 68.9% to make up 55%, 24% and 14% of sales, respectively. However, content revenue fell 25.6% due to the phaseout […]

South Korean president Park Geun-hye signed the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (REACH) bill into law this month. The registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemical substances are covered by the law, which is based on the EU system. The law takes effect January 1, 2015. Registration is mandatory if a firm manufactures or imports […]

Brazil’s São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) will invest $680 million in 17 Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers over 11 years. The FAPESP previously funded 11 centers. The FAPESP will provide 54% of the funds, which come from the 1% of São Paulo state’s tax revenues it receives, and 45% will come from six state universities […]

Venture capital (VC) investments in biotechs, defined as biomedicine firms, fell 13.6% to a nine-year low of $3,152 million in 2012, according to data from BioCentury. US financing declined 4%, while European financing plummeted 31%. Of the 235 rounds of financings for “innovative biotech,’’ only 11 were for start-ups. Product development–stage firms garnered the largest […]

The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Medium-Term Oil Market Report, released in May, states that North American production related to shale gas, light tight oil (LTO) and oil sands is expected to affect all aspects of the oil supply chain over the next five years. Among non-OPEC producers, North American supply is forecast to grow by […]

Food safety will have the most impact on R&D strategies this year, according to 47% of the 514 food and beverage processors that responded to the annual Food Processing R&D survey, which was conducted in March. “Contributing to cost reduction” and “organic/natural” were the top answers for 23% and 10% of respondents, respectively, when asked […]