System and policy formulation via participatory approaches. Climate action, energy, agrifood. +5 years Horizon Europe | Opinions are my own
Joined June 2012
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Delivering the farming system for the next decades
In a decisive time for the next MFF and CAP, projects @Root2Res and @BreedMicro met with Commission and Parliament representatives to share policy recommendations supporting breeding strategies for more efficient crop varieties
Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
One of my favorite examples of Chinese tech spillovers:
China doesn’t just make solar panels. It makes solar manufacturing equipment too, including equipment for slicing silicon wafers.
This wafer-slicing equipment typically uses diamond-coated wires. China also has the world’s largest synthetic diamond industry.
These capabilities also benefit China's silicon carbide (SiC) industry. SiC is one of the hardest industrial materials and requires specialized cutting equipment, often using diamond abrasives. Chinese companies like Gaoce have expanded from solar wafer-cutting equipment into SiC semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
SiC semiconductors are increasingly important in power electronics, particularly EVs, high-power industrial motor drives, and emerging solid-state transformers.
Solid-state transformers are a promising technology for managing complex power grids, especially those with lots of clean energy. As well as AI data centers.
(And now China is considering placing export controls on some of this solar manufacturing equipment)
Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
Excellent Ukrainian operational security obscures the full situation on the front, but the idea of a "relentless Russian advance" has already been proved fiction. Moreover, democratic Ukraine may even have liberated more Ukrainian territory this year than fascist Russia seized.
III- Situation on Oskil 🇺🇦 (eastern) front
The front across the Oskil river was the most successful one for Ukraine this year, from Lyman to Kupiansk. A year ago, Russia was on the brink to capture Kupiansk, was reaching Borova and Lyman and cutting the southern part of this direction in two parts.
A year later, the situation in Kupiansk barely changed, the city remains partly a grey zone, Ukraine took back some positions near Borova and launched a successful counter-offensive in Lyman, cutting the edge of Russian progression and fully securing Lyman.
▫️Right now, there is a stabilization on the southern part of this frontline, around Lyman. Ukrainian forces continue to consolidate their gains in the forests east of the city and will take up defensive positions for the winter on the Zherebets river.
▫️Further north, largely unnoticed actions happened around Borova (and east of it). Further proofs are needed, but it seems Ukraine advanced slowly and took back multiple positions.
▫️Finally, the situation is more difficult near Kupiansk, but the operation inside tunnels north of the city stopped the flow of infiltrators, while most of the city and the eastern part of it remains a grey zone.
Thus, the situation largely improved in 2026 in this direction, I'm expecting further offensive operations, particularly north of Borova next year to push back the Russians from Kupiansk.
Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
Quick thread on AI and productivity:
Lots of people say this chart shows AI is now showing up in the productivity data.
But I made this chart to argue the opposite: a trend that pre-dates AI and only shows up in the US doesn’t look like AI.
Here’s how I’m thinking about the data and underlying dynamics:
Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
Some high-end manufacturing in Europe has been doing really well over the last decade. Cars didn't... Source: buff.ly/fjY5yGC
Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
Gene Roddenberry had a rule that drove the writers of Star Trek The Next Generation absolutely crazy: there can't be any interpersonal conflict amongst the crew. The result was a cultural product I consider almost unique: a story about good people trying to do the right thing that isn't boring.
These days, moral ambiguity, twisted anti-heros and an apocalyptic vision of the future practially comes standard in our stories. Dark and complicated is synonymous with "smart," but in fact it's probably ten times harder to write a compelling story about principled, competent and psychologically healthy people. Star Trek TNG dared to imagine a future for humanity where we outgrew our petty squabbles and became our highest selves, where we travel the stars fulfilling our curiosity and genuinely making the universe a better place.
Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard was the indispensable anchor to this vision. Instead of William Shatner's campy swagger as James T. Kirk, Stewart's Picard made "tea, Earl Grey, hot" iconic. His depth and gravitas as a thespian specializing in Shakespeare sold the moral dilemmas that were so often at the heart of the best TNG episodes.
The dramatic tension in TNG comes from people sharing the same ethical framework as a group facing difficult problems. The buck stops with the Captain. He listens to and respects his crew, but ultimately it is up to him to "make it so."
For TNG to work as a show, Stewart had to take those very internal struggles between a man and his conscience and make it dramatic. He made Captain Picard's very moral seriousness charismatic. He made you believe that...yeah...of course there is a moral arc to the universe and it bends towards justice. Of course it is worth paying the price to stay true to our principles. And of course, the struggle to discern what is right action is actually much more interesting than wallowing in how broken everything and everyone is.
Bon Voyage, mon Capitaine
Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
🚀🌱 #Root2Res and BarleyMicroBreed held a joint Parlimentary Session bringing together Commission and Parliament representatives to share policy recommendations supporting #BreedingStrategies for novel #CropVarieties
Missed the session?
🎥 youtube.com/live/yWG9QGniTvE…
Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
Delighted to host @Root2Res and @BreedMicro in the European Parliament this week.
Both projects presented the opportunities arising from a new understanding of root-soil interactions as practical policy recommendations.
Proud to also support ongoing research at @teagasc Carlow.
Delivering the farming system for the next decades
In a decisive time for the next MFF and CAP, projects @Root2Res and @BreedMicro met with Commission and Parliament representatives to share policy recommendations supporting breeding strategies for more efficient crop varieties
The session recording is available and will be accompanied by a comprehensive document that will allow decision-makers to act in the short term
📰 root2res.eu/parliamentary-se…
▶️ youtube.com/live/yWG9QGniTvE…
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Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
I keep thinking about the resilience of the European economy to the energy shock, and how none of the explanations are very compelling. I wonder if it's as simple as this, and we're operating with an outdated mental model of the economy when we needed 50% more oil and gas to run.
Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
The passing of a legend. Less well known is that she coded and simulated the ODEs that Lorenz ended up using for the “Lorenz” system (with Linda Fetter).
We’ve lost an icon. Margaret Hamilton, a computer science pioneer best known for her work at MIT leading development of the flight software for the Apollo missions to the moon, has died at 90. Read about her legacy via MIT News: news.mit.edu/2026/margaret-h…
ALT Margaret Hamilton is reclined inside a NASA spacecraft module, surrounded by control panels and switches.
Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
“We had to find a way and we did. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.” —Margaret Hamilton
Rest in peace, Margaret. Your trailblazing work leading the development of the on-board flight software for the Apollo spacecraft will forever be remembered. 🫡
ALT Margaret Hamilton poses in a command module mockup in 1969. Credit: MIT Photo Service
O anuncio de #Boeing como gañador do novo concurso da mariña estadounidense, hai escasas horas, configura o panorama aeroespacial para as décadas vindeiras
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Óscar Bernárdez 🔻🇪🇺 retweeted
La Unión Europea acaba de dar un paso importante en su intento de reducir algunas de sus principales carencias militares.
El Consejo ha aprobado los cinco primeros Proyectos Europeos de Defensa de Interés Común (EDPCI), iniciativas que abarcan desde drones y sistemas contradrones hasta defensa aérea y antimisiles, vigilancia marítima, protección de infraestructuras submarinas, capacidades espaciales y refuerzo del flanco oriental.
Sobre el papel, los proyectos contemplan inversiones potenciales por cientos de miles de millones de euros durante las próximas dos décadas y podrían contribuir a transformar tanto las capacidades militares europeas como su base industrial y tecnológica.
Sin embargo, las cifras que se han puesto sobre la mesa obligan a la cautela, pues la aprobación de estos cinco proyectos no implica todavía contratos o compromisos financieros por parte de los Estados miembros.
Lo que la Unión ha creado, por ahora, es únicamente el marco dentro del cual los Estados deberán coordinar requisitos, financiación, producción y adquisiciones.
Un marco dentro del cual España participa ya en cuatro de las cinco iniciativas, situándose así en una posición muy aceptable frente a un proceso que podría determinar qué tecnologías, empresas y estándares terminan ocupando una posición central dentro del ecosistema de defensa europeo.
ejercitos.org/luz-verde-a-lo…
