Europe contains landscapes that are breathtakingly beautiful – and essential for wildlife, communal activities, human wellbeing and local economies. An EU-funded project brings together data on how these landscapes are changing, to help manage them wisely for the long term.
About 300 million people in 75 tropical and sub-tropical countries are infected with Schistosoma flatworms, which cause a debilitating disease. An EU-funded project looked into a new way of fighting the parasites: tackling specific enzymes in the worms to modify gene expression and stop their development in its tracks.
Some of the most innovative sustainable transport initiatives are being driven by the world’s emerging economies. An EU-funded project is making sure that European industry can learn and prosper from these developments.
Could it be easier and greener to travel around your city? A solution might already exist. People around the world are coming up with clever ideas for low-carbon, high-quality transport. An EU-funded project helps cities learn from the best.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women, with more than one million cases diagnosed in the world every year. The EU-funded BASIS project has reached a major milestone in characterising the different genetic mutations that lie behind this disease – defining the range of possibilities for drug development.
Juicy burgers, spicy kebabs, creamy chocolate shakes — limiting your intake of animal protein doesn’t mean you have to forego such treats. Products as varied as meat-free steaks and non-dairy ice cream can, for example, be made from lupin seeds. An EU-funded project has helped to optimise such foods and studied potential health benefits.
Controlled odour emission could transform video games and television viewing experiences and benefit industries such as pest control and medicine. The NANOSMELL project aims to switch smells on and off by tagging artificial odorants with nanoparticles exposed to electromagnetic field.
Could creatures of the deep help treat disease and keep us looking young? A team of EU-funded researchers thinks so. To overcome current bottlenecks in taking marine-derived biomolecules from discovery to exploitation, researchers will assess the potential of animals such as sponges, soft corals and tunicates.
A data sharing portal to facilitate marine ecosystem monitoring in North Africa, a spin-off satellite mapping start-up and continued cooperation between researchers in the region – these are some of the key results from an EU-funded project likely to have a long-lasting impact.
Where there’s pee, there’s phosphorus — and that’s not a resource we can afford to pour down the drain. Nor should we waste the ammonia our urine contains, say EU-funded researchers who are developing a recovery process. Large buildings could soon house their own treatment systems to extract these substances for reuse, notably as fertilisers.
How much do you know about the effects of glutamate on the frontostriatal circuits? Not as much as you’d like, possibly, but then again there is still a lot to learn. EU-funded researchers are studying the role of this neurotransmitter and potential genetic factors in the development of compulsive disorders such as autism, ADHD and OCD.
Inflammation is not your enemy. It's a mechanism the body uses to keep us healthy, e.g. to fight invading pathogens. But sometimes, the immune system doesn't know when to stop, say EU-funded researchers. They are learning how to get the message across, in a bid to help tackle diseases caused when our tiny defenders go rogue.
The widening gap between rich and poor is leading to segregation in more and more European cities. The rich and the poor are living at increasing distance from each other, and this can be disastrous for the social stability and competitive power of cities. These are the conclusions of joint research of Prof. Maarten van Ham, ERC grantee at Delft University of Technology, and Prof. Tiit Tammaru, Dr. Szymon Marcińczak and Prof. Sako Musterd.
Keeping global warming below 2 °C: this objective was set to avoid dangerous levels of climate change. That said, even if the rise in average temperatures worldwide could still be contained within this limit, it will have major consequences. How will two additional degrees affect Europe? An EU-funded project has looked into the future.
Top football clubs in four EU countries are about to kick-off a health and fitness programme to help their larger fans become more active, less sedentary and lose weight. EU-funded researchers aim to expand the programme to the rest of Europe if the approach leads to healthier, more active lifestyles.
Climate variability and change have an impact on everyone, including various industries. While climate prediction technologies have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, their output is often far from user-friendly. The EU-funded project EUPORIAS is tailoring climate prediction services to specific user needs.
Can too many cooks spoil the broth? Not if they find the right way to work together. An EU-funded project explored new methods for researchers, policy-makers and civil society groups to collaborate to make food sustainable – for both people and the planet.
EU-funded researchers have tested new techniques to manufacture lighter aircraft tail cones with the aim of reducing fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and noise. The results are mixed, but the tests and development of the techniques have helped boost competitiveness within Europe’s aviation sector, they say.
The EU-funded OpenNESS project aims to encourage informed, sustainable land, water and urban management by tapping the potential of ecosystem services and natural capital. Researchers are uploading the results from 26 case studies onto a pioneering online resource.
There’s more to green spaces than parks, and there’s more to parks than being pretty. In addition to boosting public health, our cities’ leafy infrastructure can generate income for the community and help to mitigate the impact of climate change, for example. The Green Surge project is breaking new ground for the management of this crucial resource.
