The European Commission and the pharmaceutical industry will today unveil a €2bn (£1.6bn) partnership to arrest the EU's declining international role in medical research. The money will be offered to academic researchers and small businesses, writes Andrew Jack in London .

Teams of commercial and not-for-profit researchers will be able to seek support for work on a range of medical projects, on condition that their findings are publicly shared in an effort to stimulate faster and safer drug development.