A reply to Ovanesov et al.

Balancing the risks and benefits of the European Economic Security Strategy: The case of the electric vehicles industry

“…If China were to retaliate by restricting access to its internal market, some European carmakers could face high financial losses -a fear largely shared by German carmakers who have high stakes in the country. 45 At the geopolitical level, China has already shown resolve to respond in a like-for-like manner and reacted swiftly with retaliatory measures by conditioning access to its critical raw materials -including gallium and germanium. 46 As the world's leading graphite producer, on 20 October 2023 Beijing announced new export restrictions on certain types of graphite that are key to making EV batteries.…”

EURO-CARES - A European Sample Curation Facility for Sample Return Missions

“…Planetary protection is essential to preserve our ability to study the astrobiologicallyinteresting planets and moons of our Solar System by preventing contamination with terrestrial micro-organism or organics (forward PP) and thus removing the possibility of false-positive results. The second aspect of planetary protection aims to protect the Earth's biosphere from extraterrestrial agents, which might be harmful if released into the Earth environment (backward PP) [6]. Both aspects have been considered during the design of the ESCF: forward PP on samples collected and then returned, and backward PP during transport and curation phases.…”

“…Planetary Protection requirements state that the probability of a single unsterilized particle of ≥0.1 μm being released from this facility shall be ≤ 1 x 10 -6 . The highest level of containment currently used for biological materials are Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) laboratories [6]. These facilities are designed to allow handling and safe storage of the world's most pathogenic agents and rely on equipment and building standards, rather than on probability calculations.…”