Increase in R&D budgets, GM soybean decision, DG Research…

This week in Europe in brief: European businesses predict increase in R&D budgets; Researchers challenge GM soybean decision; DG Research to evaluate Framework Programmes; Germany launches €16m epigenome project; Europe and Australia to link carbon trading.

European businesses predict increase in R&D budgets

A European Commission survey claims that major EU-based companies are expecting their R&D budgets to grow by 4 per cent a year for the next two years. The 2012 Survey of R&D Investment Business Trends predicts a “positive and stable trend” for investment growth, despite the uncertain economic outlook. However, this is a decrease of 1 per cent compared with last year’s survey and is less than the 7 per cent growth predicted before the crisis.