Bridges are an integral part of today's road and rail transport network, but maintaining them puts significant strain on public finances. The EU-funded project Long Life Bridges has found a way to keep them safe at lower cost. It has also built a prototype of a device designed to extend the lifetime of bridge cables.
Biofouling - or biological fouling - is the build-up of plants, algae and other marine organisms on wet surfaces, which can corrode and damage objects such as ships, pipes, and bridge supports. The issue has long defied engineers and scientists. The EU funded research project SEACOAT has developed a novel green technology that applies special coatings on vulnerable surfaces to control biofouling.
Within the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015, the FET Proactive call "Emerging themes and communities" had three initiatives: Global Systems Science (GSS); Knowing, doing and being: cognition beyond problem solving (KnowDoBe); and Quantum simulation (Q-SIM). The call closed end of March 2014 and 13 projects have been selected for funding.
An internal clock determines many of our bodily functions. The same is true for tumour cells, EU-funded research suggests. This discovery could point the way to a more efficient, personalised approach to cancer treatment.
Climate change poses new challenges for farmers, and for the scientists who try to predict its effects. An EU-funded researcher has developed a computer model for better predictions of environmental impacts on crops and communities.
Just as the internet revolutionised the way we use mobile devices, the ‘connected car’ has the opportunity to transform the driving experience. CARMESH, a European Union (EU)-funded Marie Curie project, took the first steps towards a seamless integration of digital life into the car.
Graphene is the strongest, most impermeable and conductive material known to man. Graphene sheets are just one atom thick, but 200 times stronger than steel. The European Union is investing heavily in the exploitation of graphene’s unique properties through a number of research initiatives such as the SEMANTICS project running at Trinity College Dublin.
The European Research Council (ERC) has selected 328 first class scientists to receive its prestigious Starting Grants, worth up to €2 million each. The awarded €485 million contributes to supporting a new generation of top scientists in Europe developing so-called "blue sky research": ambitious high-risk, high-gain research projects in any field.
Experts predict that, in the coming years, a higher frequency and intensity of heat waves could lead to an increase of fatalities in the elderly population. To help prevent this, a Marie Curie research fellow, Dr. Andreas D. Flouris, studied and explained the sequence of events leading to heat stroke. His research work was as part of the EU-funded project THERMOMICS.
Today (5 December 2014) the European Union and Switzerland signed a comprehensive international agreement associating Switzerland to parts of Horizon 2020, Research and Training Programme of Euratom and the ITER project. This will see Switzerland participate in project consortia in eligible programmes on an equal footing with EU Member States, while financially contributing to these programmes with an estimated €400 million until the end of 2016.
Forecasters predicting the spread of Ebola are using one of the most sophisticated modeling systems in the world – the result of an EU research project.
Its arms are soft and deformable, they can bend in any direction at any point along the arm; however, they can stiffen when needed and they can grasp and pull objects with considerable strength; the octopus does not have a large brain, yet it can control this huge range of possible movements and motion parameters. What are the secrets to the octopus's soft dexterity? This is the core question the OCTOPUS project endeavoured to answer.
Soft robotics technologies are becoming a major focus of robotics and hold great promise to become a cutting-edge for the development of systems for a wide range of new applications especially in those areas previously forbidden to rigid robots. RoboSoft is a FET Open Coordination Action that aims to bring together and consolidate the soft robotics community to enable the accumulation and sharing of crucial knowledge needed for scientific and technological progress in this field.
Today, in Trento (Italy), the European Commission has awarded three prizes to three MSCA fellows for having reached excellent results as Promising Research Talent, Communicating Science and Nurturing Research Talent.
Understanding the brain and its various pathologies could benefit millions of people. At the same time, progress in neuroscience is increasingly dependent on advanced technologies. This kind of synergistic cross-disciplinarity is a hallmark of FET research.
Professor Michela Chiappalone is a neuroscientist at the Department of Neuroscience and Brain Technologies, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). She is also the coordinator of the BRAIN BOW FET Open project aiming to connect in vitro neuronal assemblies to an artificial system for restoring the lost neuronal functionality. In this interview she tells us about her experience, as a researcher involved in a FET project.
This year's Nobel Prize laureate Prof. E. Moser is leading the FET GRIDMAP project which aims to better understand the processes used by the mammalian brain to generate and read spatial information. Prof. E. Moser is joining the prestigious list of 9 Nobel Prize laureates that chose the FET programme to collaborate with the best scientists in Europe on ambitious scientific endeavours.
This bionic hand is a direct result of 10 years of EU-(and national) funded research. This science-fiction like prototype was tested with the help of amputee Dennis Aabo Sørensen who said "To feel what you're doing again is an amazing feeling. It's so close to be like a natural hand".
Chronic neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's, are all characterised by an inflammatory reaction within the brain. Until now, some of the factors behind this reaction have been unclear; however a European research fellow has identified a molecular system that contributes to the mechanisms regulating the progression of neurodegeneration. This could potentially lead to new therapeutic treatments to effectively combat the condition.
The European Union (EU)-funded project PLASTICITYINAMPUTEES has provided new insights into the ability of the brain to rewire its connections following the loss of a hand. The research work is expected to pave the way towards the development of rehabilitation techniques for both residual and intact limbs.
