Environment & climate action

Please join us on the 13 October in Manchester for a European Commission presentation on the content of the EU Horizon 2020 Work Programme SC2 on Resource Efficient Bio-based Value Chains, including opportunities in Primary Production, Food, Marine and the Bioeconomy.

Annette Schneegans from European Commission, DG Agriculture & Rural Development, Unit Research & Innovation, will be the keynote speaker.

The Annual Conference of EPoSS, the European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration, will be a joint event with the MNBS Consultation and Concertation Workshop on Micro-Nano-Bio Convergence Systems.

A Call for Presentations was launched for the EPoSS Annual Forum 2015 on 13 October 2015 under the motto “State of the (Sm)Art: Smart Systems Responding to Demand Side Requirements”.

The Call is open until 14 August 2015

Building a sustainable future is a key challenge facing governments today. Information on possible approaches is needed, and a wealth of relevant research does exist — but it is not necessarily easy to find and use. An EU-funded project has compiled extensive knowledge online and promoted dialogue between scientists and policy-makers.

When we look at galaxies far, far away, we don’t see them as they are today. We see them as they were a long time ago, because their light takes a while to reach us. These images could easily fade on their epic journey, but “natural telescopes” in their path enable astronomers to study some of these postcards from the distant past.

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.

Information and Networking event for Horizon 2020 funding for Water Innovation.

Join us for this event to:

• Gather information on the range of European funding options available in 2016 & 2017 via Horizon2020 related to water in the urban and agricultural environments.
• Learn how this route could be used to accelerate the development of a product or service or large-scale demonstration of emerging solutions;
• ...

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.

Horizon 2020 is the EU’s biggest ever programme for research and innovation, and it has got off to an excellent start. This brochure presents information on the first 100 calls for proposals that closed by 1 December 2014.

On 25 September, the Commission launched an online survey to gather opinions from stakeholders on the impact of the simplification measures introduced in Horizon 2020, and to ask for new ideas on future simplification.

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU research and innovation programme ever. Almost €80 billion of funding is available over seven years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private and national public investment that this money will attract. This publication presents the full set of Key Performance and Cross-Cutting Issues Indicators for Horizon 2020, including those for the European Institute of Technology and EURATOM.

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.

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.

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.

EU-funded scientists are pioneering the development of a coordinated, global mercury observation system. It will help policy makers and researchers from around the world to monitor the presence of mercury in ecosystems and food chains and assess the effectiveness of emission reduction measures.

A drought on the Tibetan Plateau could be a drought for nearly half the world’s population — some 40%, to be precise. Too much water is also a daunting prospect, as floods in this area frequently affect vast communities, claiming lives and destroying livelihoods. An EU-funded project has advanced the forecasting of precipitation on the roof of the world.

Climate change knows no boundaries. Its impacts are being felt everywhere, including in the Amazon River basin in South America. An EU-funded partnership between European and Brazilian researchers is studying the underlying mechanisms with a view to drawing up environmental and social mitigation policies.

We know a lot about the human genome and the role genes play in disease. But environmental factors could play an even more important role than genetics. EU-funded researchers are helping to put together a so-called exposome to characterise the complex environmental exposure mixtures linked to disease.