European visionary research in focus: Vice-President Ansip participates in the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagships event in Brussels

Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip will participate on Monday in an event on the progress and future of FET Flagships. The FET Flagships are large-scale research initiatives running over ten years with a total budget for each flagship of around €1 billion, bringing together partners from the scientific community and industry. Two flagships have been launched in 2013: one on Graphene, which aims at taking this carbon-based and ultra-thin 2D material with extraordinary properties from the laboratories to the market, with new products and applications; and the Human Brain Project, which aims at understanding the brain and creating synergies between neuroscience and computing. A third flagship on Quantum technologies was announced in 2016 and is about to start, building on the final report of the expert group on quantum that will be officially presented on Monday. Ahead of the event, Vice-President Ansip said: “Europe needs such ambitious projects to be at the forefront of science and technology, to bring new medical treatments, safer transport, cybersecurity and many more benefits to people. Stepping up investments in research and innovation is essential for the future of Europe.“ Vice-President Ansip will speak at 11:00 CET, his speech will be published here. See also his recent blog post on quantum. One of the other highlights of the event is the keynote speech by Nobel Prize laureate, physicist Sir Konstantin Novoselov at 10:45 CET. Journalists can register for the event via email or follow the debates live here.