The world’s oceans are set for a long overdue boost in the coming days as the United Nations votes for the first time on a planned treaty to protect and regulate the high seas.

The waters outside national maritime boundaries – which cover half of the planet’s surface – are currently a free-for-all that has led to devastating overfishing and pollution.

But after more than five years of negotiations, UN members are poised to agree to draw up a new rulebook by 2020, which could establish conservation areas, catch quotas and scientific monitoring.

Image: Dead seabird with a large amount of plastic debris in its stomach. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

A few weeks ago we discussed our efforts to get performance data from the European Investment Fund, the EU institution that is the cornerstone of the European venture capital industry.

The body previously seemed to drag its feet, taking around five months to reveal quite limited data about the performance of its portfolio. But this time the EIF, which is directly responsible for 10 per cent of all investment in European venture capital firms, has been more forthcoming with more detailed information.

One of the best routes any entrepreneur can take to grow is by utilizing the right tools. If you can speed up your processes or obtain a deeper understanding of your customer base through data analysis, your business will benefit -- and your investment in those tools will have been a worthwhile endeavor.

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In the salad days of bitcoin, venture capital firms bought into the craze in a roundabout way. Instead of simply purchasing bitcoins, they invested in companies like Coinbase, which makes a wallet for digital currencies, or 21.co, which aimed to improve the process of mining coins. Some of these bets were better than others. 21 has changed names and business plans, but Coinbase’s app hit the No. 1 spot on Apple’s App Store this month as the hyperventilation over bitcoin reached an extreme.

Long before he was recruited by TechColumbus to rework the company, Tom Walker had been founder of an organization, a graduate with a BS in aerospace/mechanical engineering, a self-taught blues guitarist and a writer—a jack of all trades, yet seemingly proficient in each.

Where he has ended up professionally may seem a strange deviation from his engineering degree and initial career path—NASA—“Some of it was planned and some of it wasn’t, like all of our careers,” Walker says.

“Ecosystem, it’s a bit of a cliche, an important one though.”

This is how Simon Galpin, managing director at investment agency the Economic Development Board (EDB), kicked off the day at Seedstars MENA summit, which took place at the Corporate Hub 9 in Manama last Thursday, for the second year in a row.

Around 150 people attended the event, including entrepreneurs, VCs, students and major stakeholders like EBD, corporate hub CH9, global accelerator 500 Startups and the Babson Global Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, a subsidiary of Babson Global for educational leadership.

JOHNSTON, Iowa  --  Vaccines, medical devices, precision, and digital agriculture and biobased chemicals could provide the kind of higher-paying, higher-skilled jobs that Iowa leaders seek, they say, if they can find the resources and convince companies to expand business in the state.

Those are the major components of new report leaders released Tuesday at DuPont Pioneer that also call for a Iowa Bioscience Development Center to lead efforts to expand bioscience research and development.

Image: http://whotv.com

The Women's Startup Lab has opened applications for their Silicon Valley Immersion Program, a two-week acceleration program that starts on March 4, 2018.

If you know any brilliant women entrepreneurs who are interested in accelerating their leadership skills and their business success to the next level, please encourage them to apply ...

Apply to the Silicon Valley Immersion Program for Women Entrepreneurs: Information and Application

Applicants who are accepted will spend two weeks at Hito House, a live-and-work house in Woodside, California. The entrepreneurs will be challenged by their mentors and by their peers to refine their vision, their model and their pitch. The atmosphere of Hito House allows the entrepreneurs to create lasting relationships, invaluable for guidance, introductions and investment.

The Republican tax plan passed Congress this week. The legislation, which is part tax cut — $1.5 trillion over 10 years — and part reform — replacing multiple deductions and credits with overall lower rates — will affect the U.S. economy for years to come. Education, employment, capital access and business investment are likely to be directly affected as soon as next year, and, if state budgets hold any value as predictors, regional innovation economies will be particularly affected through future reductions in federal spending.

For several years now China has been increasingly investing in Europe.

In 2016 Chinese companies invested €35 billion in the EU.

Often these investments are in advanced manufacturing sectors or meant to buy certain technologies. Afraid of losing some crown jewels of the European economy, the EU is preparing measures to halt this trend.

But perhaps Europe shouldn´t worry too much about this. After all, the next wave is already coming: Chinese innovation and technology which will conquer the world.

And the first signs are visible. A few week ago, Europe launched two initiatives which are symptomatic and a reaction to the Chinese threat. Europe decided to form an alliance among some top European companies in order to regain lost ground on Chinese electric car battery manufacturers.

Image: EUOBOR

Expenditures for R&D from state government agencies increased by 17.3 percent from FY 2011 to FY 2016, reaching $2.3 billion, according to data from the Survey of State Government Research and Development, a survey sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Nearly two-thirds of this total – 64 percent – came from just five state governments (California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Ohio).

Capital Region, December 13, 2017– Today, the Greater Washington Partnership (the Partnership), a civic alliance of CEOs that together employ more than 175,000 workers in the region, released a new report that outlines why developing, attracting and retaining digital technology workers will be imperative for the Capital Region’s future growth and economic competitiveness.

Underscoring the report’s thesis are the results from a survey of the Partnership’s 20 employer organizations, revealing that those employers alone will need to hire more than 135,000 workers – including more than 20,000 “digital tech” workers – over the next five years to fill open jobs through growth and attrition in the Capital Region that are vital to their organization’s success. “Digital tech” workers are those in 20 defined occupations with high levels of digital activity, including software developers and programmers, computer support, database and systems, technology and engineering related, and computer and information systems managers.

2017 has undoubtedly been a standout year in the realms of telemedicine and digital health.

In telehealth alone, much has happened over the past 12 months.

A new law in Texas officially gave physicians permission to utilize telemedicine services to treat patients they haven’t met in person, quashing a previous requirement that physician-patient relationships had to be initially established with an in-person visit.

The moves that led to Nokia’s decline paint a cautionary tale for successful firms.

In less than a decade, Nokia emerged from Finland to lead the mobile phone revolution. It rapidly grew to have one of the most recognisable and valuable brands in the world. At its height Nokia commanded a global market share in mobile phones of over 40 percent. While its journey to the top was swift, its decline was equally so, culminating in the sale of its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2013.

Innovation in agriculture is vital. One key to feeding the world is releasing pressure on the use of scarce natural resources through innovation.

Around one in nine people in the world currently suffers from hunger. One in three is malnourished in one form or another. Moreover, global food demand is expected to increase by at least 60 percent by 2050. To nourish a population of 10 billion, innovation in agriculture is imperative. The good news is that historically, agricultural innovation has proven both feasible and incredibly successful. Advances such as pasteurisation, refrigeration, mechanisation and the so-called ‘green revolution’ have boosted the world’s food supply and triggered socio-economic development.

Image: https://knowledge.insead.edu

State-backed investments in stem cell research have resulted in the creation of nearly 1,400 new jobs over the past 10 years, according to new data from Maryland Technology Development Corp.

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, administered by TEDCO, supports research grants and loans to public and private entities. The funds are intended to help push innovative stem cell therapies toward commercialization. To date, more than $140 million has been committed to over 400 research projects in the state through the fund.

JANUARY 15, 2018 for New Applications

FEBRUARY 5, 2018 for Re-submissions

APRIL 5, 2018 for Grant Submission

Newly announced, the NIH Applicant Assistance Program (AAP) is a pilot program to assist eligible small businesses in understanding and completing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) application process. AAP is intended to help new and/or previously unsuccessful small businesses submit a competitive SBIR or STTR application to one of the participating institutes (NCI, NINDS, NHLBI).

Click HERE to apply.

Bacteriophages, or simply phages, are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria, and they hold considerable potential for combatting antibiotic-resistance and other threats to human health. Timed with the hundredth anniversary of their discovery, a new review published in the British Journal of Pharmacology examines the challenges and opportunities of developing phages as health-promoting, commercially-viable biopharmaceuticals.

The $1.5 trillion tax bill passed by the House and Senate has been called a gift to corporate America, with a sharp reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, the retention of significant loopholes and deductions, and the ability of pass-through businesses to deduct 20% of the first $315,000 of earnings.

From fast-spinning fads that dominated American classrooms to surprise-filled eggs with fuzzy creatures, TIME’s Top 10 Toys of 2017 quickly flew off shelves at retailers across the country. Products like WowWee’s “Fingerlings” captivated young users with its interactive nature, and Nintendo’s Super NES Classic Edition had nostalgic adults running to stores to relive some of their best childhood memories.

Image: http://time.com - From Video.