What is more important - safety or freedom? An EU-funded project is helping security forces get the balance right, with research on how to develop ethical counter-terrorism measures that respect citizens' rights.
Train travel is one of the safest modes of transport. For it to remain so, regular inspection and maintenance of train axles is vital to ensuring the structural integrity of wheelsets. The EU-funded AXLEINSPECT project has developed new ultrasonic inspection technology that makes check-ups both easier and more reliable than conventional methods.
Unfortunately the threat of a terrorist attack on an aeroplane is today a real threat to airline security. The EU-funded FLY-BAG2 project has developed a technology that enables aeroplanes to survive a Lockerbie-type explosion scenario. The bomb-resistant bags are ready to be manufactured and installed.
Prof. Nosnitsin’s ETHIO-SPARE project made several field trips to North Ethiopia to identify the most important collections, create inventories and make digital copies of over 2000 manuscripts. Next steps were the classification and scientific cataloguing of these cultural treasures and the publication of selected studies and research results.
Robots the size of bacteria represent the future of medical surgery, ERC research team BOTMED have developed microrobots, currently being tested on animals, that will be able to enter the body through natural pathways and perform key medical procedures with minimal impact. This development is a step forward as important as the advent of endoscopic surgery in the 1980s.
The human hand is a complex system of receptors, muscles and joints, making it hard to create a robot that can match not only its ability to move, but also to apply different levels of strength. Supported by the European Research Council (ERC), the SOFTHANDS team has succeeded in doing just this. Their prototype represents a great step-forward in robotics, since it is able to perform fine manipulations of a wide variety of objects.
By studying the geology of Mars, the team behind project 'E-MARS' has been able to identify the ideal landing spot for the next European mission to the planet. The 2018 ESA expedition is part of the ExoMars programme, which is set to provide new information regarding one of the most outstanding scientific questions of our time: whether there is life on other planets.
The project 'EARTH CORE STRUCTURE', funded by the European Research Council (ERC), has greatly improved the knowledge we have of the inside of our planet by determining a new method to understand its structure. The method uses knowledge from different disciplines and has helped scientists paint a picture of the Earth's core - more comprehensive than ever before.
Malaria has always been the centre of attention for Dr Ali Salanti’s, a molecular parasitologist and an ERC grantee. With his studies, he hoped to bring new insight into pregnancy-associated malaria, to save the lives of women and their babies in areas affected by the disease. Now, Dr Salanti’s research has shifted to battling against another deadly disease: cancer. This comes after an unexpected discovery yielded ground-breaking results for the diagnosis and treatment of this illness.
How close are we to developing a successful and comprehensive vaccine for cancer? ERC grantee Prof. Yvette van Kooyk thinks that a combination of glycobiology and immunology will lead us closer than ever before. Thanks to her ground-breaking multidisciplinary team and her new approach based on sugar receptors, she has developed a nanovaccine that promises to represent the future for cancer treatment.
EU-funding helped scholar Christophe Fricker restart his academic career and link it up with his experiences in the business world. His research has shed new light on the life and writing of controversial German author Ernst Junger.
New technologies claiming to protect pedestrians and cyclists in the event of a collision are being developed all the time. They could reduce pedestrian fatalities by 15-20%. But how do we know which systems are effective? How can we compare them? An EU-funded project drew up harmonised test and assessment procedures for pedestrian safety systems.
The Mediterranean and neighbouring countries are a climate change hotspot, the climate research community believes. Projections suggest water availability is highly likely to fall, while demand will rise. The EU-funded CLIWASEC project cluster studied climate change impacts on water and security, and helped prepare Europe and its neighbours for the challenges ahead with guidance on water efficiency and stakeholder involvement.
The importance of damage tolerance in aircraft was recognised as long as 400 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. The quest to improve tolerance continues, with much of the focus today on materials. Two EU-funded projects are developing advanced materials with the potential to both improve damage tolerance and the durability of composites.
Is a precise answer always better than a slightly less detailed one? Not necessarily. Some problems could take forever to compute and tie up vast IT capacity. Where solutions are needed urgently, e.g. in business or manufacturing, near-enough can be more than enough. ERC-funded research has produced a library of fast, powerful approximation algorithms.
In 2011 alone, more than 30 000 people were killed on EU roads and many more had their lives changed forever due to a serious injury. The European Commission has set the target of cutting road deaths by half by 2020, and projects such as ARTRAC are helping. The project developed new sensor technologies to reduce the likelihood of vehicles colliding with pedestrians - one of the most vulnerable of all road users.
Machine tools are expensive investments that need frequent preventive maintenance. EU-funded researchers have devised new methods to keep them in peak condition through remote monitoring, cutting maintenance costs. Commercial prospects for the new technology are strong thanks to the industrial partners in the project.
Agricultural, forestry and residential waste can provide fuel for transport, heat for homes and electricity for businesses, reducing Europe's dependence on imported fossil fuels and lowering green house gas emissions. EU-funded researchers are overcoming challenges to making residual biomass a technically viable and cost-competitive source of renewable energy.
In the battle against climate change, more funding is being directed to preserving the planet's forests and wilderness regions - often home to marginalised Indigenous peoples. Project COBRA is showing how their skills and experience can help make these vital conservation efforts more successful, with the UN Development Programme keeping a close eye.
EU-funded PENGUINAV was the first-ever study of how groups of king penguin chicks find their way home. We now know more about collective animal movements and how to study the movements of other species.
