ISSN 1977-4028 research eu N°33 RESULTS MAGAZINE JUNE 2014

SPECIAL FEATURE THE HEARTBEAT OF EU SCIENCE

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES IT AND CAN MACHINES CRACK TELECOMMUNICATIONS THE MYSTERY OF MUSIC ROBOT CAREGIVERS CREATION? HELP THE ELDERLY » PAGE 19 » PAGE 34 research eu RESULTS MAGAZINE

Published by EDITORIAL The Community Research and Development by the editorial team Information Service (CORDIS) managed by the Publications Office of the European Union 2, rue Mercier 2985 Luxembourg COMBATTING HEART LUXEMBOURG [email protected] DISEASE ON ALL Editorial coordination Gyn Nilsson FRONTS The research*eu results magazine is published Most of us have at least one acquaintance who has suffered a heart attack at some by the Community Research and Development point between their early 20s and late 90s. Fortunately, an increasing number of Information Service (CORDIS) and managed by patients recover and can move on with their life — although their lifestyle is not quite the Publications Office of the European Union. the same after a cardiac event. Practicing physical exercise, maintaining a healthy Content is prepared using several sources, diet, resting, avoiding stress and quitting cigarettes and alcohol are some of the main prerequisites to avoiding a relapse; but medicines, therapies and surgeries have also including CORDIS, the Research Information evolved to a point where fatalism can increasingly be ruled out. Centre, ERC, as well as original material collected specifically for this publication. But does it mean the worst is behind us? To this day, cardiovascular disease still causes 4 million deaths every year, around half of all fatalities across Europe. And The research*eu magazines are free of charge. health professionals and researchers still have much on their plate if they want to further curb this trend. The EU is well aware For all issues of the research*eu results of that, and heart disease is very high on its magazine you can: ‘To this day, political and research agenda. Under FP7, - download the PDF or e-book version more than 100 projects related to heart - order single paper copies cardiovascular disease have been funded. - subscribe to have every issue posted to you To mark the World Congress of Cardiology at http://cordis.europa.eu/research-eu disease still causes (WCC), which took place on 4-7 May in Melbourne, Australia on the initiative of the 4 million deaths World Heart Federation, the research*eu Disclaimer results magazine highlights some 11 every year’ projects either recently completed or close Online project information and links published to completion. The common element in in the current issue of the research*eu results these projects is their contribution to better treatments for heart disease, however magazine are correct when the publication they cover very specific topics ranging from risk factors to new drugs, beneficial goes to press. The Publications Office cannot plant-based medicine, implants and stem cell therapy. be held responsible for information which is Among these articles are three interviews. One is with Juan Pablo Lázaro-Ramos from out of date or websites that are no longer live. TSB in Spain, who told us how the HEARTWAYS project is on track to make patient rehabilitation more efficient, less expensive and more enjoyable for the patient. Then, The technologies presented in this magazine we discuss the CARE-MI project with its coordinator Dr Antonio Bernad of Spain’s may be covered by intellectual property rights. CNIC. The project is bringing forward a new approach in stem cell therapy for ‘Ischaemic heart disease’ (IHD), which he hopes could benefit patients in five years from now. Finally, our interview with Prof. Michael Atkinson from Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany ventures into the unknown with a thorough analysis of low radiation impact on the human heart. The magazine also includes our usual seven sections, and closes with a list of upcoming events. ISSN 1831-9947 (printed version) ISSN 1977-4028 (PDF, EPUB) We look forward to receiving your feedback. You can send questions or suggestions to: [email protected] © European Union, 2014

Reproduction permitted, provided the source is acknowledged. Neither the Publications Office nor any person acting on its behalf is Want more information on responsible for the use that may be made of the contents of this issue? the information contained in this publication For online versions or information 24 or for any errors that may remain in the texts, about the contributors in this issue despite the care taken in preparing them. research eu of research*eu results magazine: RESULTS MAGAZINE For reproduction or use of photos and any CORDIS other artistic material, permission must be • http://cordis.europa.eu/projects Focus on sought directly from the copyright holder. • http://cordis.europa.eu/stories Nothing gets Excluded from this constraint are the photos • http://cordis.europa.eu/news and artistic material owned by the NEXT European Research Council lost: the power European Union. • http://erc.europa.eu ISSUE of biomass Cover photo © SHUBHANGI GANESHRAO KENE, EC DG Research and Innovation Science Photo Library, Corbis • http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre N°33 JUNE 2014 JUNE SPECIAL FEATURE 4 THE HEARTBEAT OF EU SCIENCE

ISSN 1831-9947 4 Home-based rehabilitation for CVD patients 6 Cell therapy for heart diseases research eu 6 Potent multidrug pill for cardiovascular disease RESULTS MAGAZINE N°33 JUNE 2014 7 Ascertaining low-dose radiation impact on the heart 9 Modelling diseases in Mediterranean countries SPECIAL FEATURE 9 New treatment for myocardial infarction THE HEARTBEAT OF EU SCIENCE 10 Consuming lupins for a healthy heart 10 New concept for myocardial implants 11 Resolution of congenital heart defects SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES IT AND CAN MACHINES CRACK TELECOMMUNICATIONS THE MYSTERY OF MUSIC ROBOT CAREGIVERS CREATION? HELP THE ELDERLY » PAGE 19 » PAGE 34 12 New stem cell therapy for ischaemic heart disease 13 Stem cells to treat a damaged heart

14 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 34 IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS 14 New surgical breakthrough in repairing 34 Robot caregivers help the elderly damaged spinal discs 35 Location-based apps come of age 15 Managing malaria from above 36 SCENENET: 3D recreation of live events 16 Targeting cancer: nanocontainers from mobile videos deliver localised chemotherapy 37 Improving event transport management 17 Patients with kidney failure 38 Augmented Reality: Bringing history and the to get a new lease on life future to life 14 18 A stroke rehabilitation device 34 39 INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES 19 SOCIAL SCIENCES 39 Modular, flexible, sustainable: AND HUMANITIES the future of chemical manufacturing 19 Can machines crack the mystery 41 Composite patch cracks and corrosion of music creation? 41 Giving workplace injuries the slip 20 The emerging debate on inequalities 42 Capturing carbon dioxide in flue gases 21 Enhancing suicide prevention measures 42 Tiny holes that increase protection 22 Better use of statistics for economic growth 43 Plastic weld joints — non-destructive tests 23 Opening up a universe of 19 employment possibilities 39 44 SPACE 44 Ushering in a new era of space flight 24 ENERGY AND TRANSPORT 45 Unravelling the mysteries of our planet 24 Smart sensors for greener helicopters 46 Facilitating exchange among space 25 Solar-powered air conditioning National Contact Points 25 New lens technology for solar collectors 26 High-tech safety boost for train axles 27 Helping transport keep its cool 27 Effective new self-heating technology An eco-friendly helicopter engine 44 24 28 47 EVENTS 29 ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY 29 International exchange fosters better local action on deforestation 30 Life cycle assessment for green buildings

31 Possible eco-impacts of CO2 leakage 32 Genetic testing for brood-spawning fish 33 Hovercraft to clean ocean oil spills 29 33 Scanner to measure fish weight in situ 4 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 SPECIAL FEATURE SPECIAL FEATURE THE HEARTBEAT OF EU SCIENCE © SHUBHANGI GANESHRAO KENE, Science Photo Library, Corbis KENE, Science Photo Library, © SHUBHANGI GANESHRAO

INTERVIEW HOME-BASED REHABILITATION FOR CVD PATIENTS Patients who are found to suffer from cardiovascular diseases often have long years of treatment ahead of them and are urged to drastically change their lifestyle. But what is probably the most difficult part of the process is the return home where old habits die hard. A new technology relying on remote sensors could soon make post-CVD-event life a whole lot easier.

ardiovascular disease (CVD) is a cardiac rehabilitation continues to be monitoring more patients without real plague for society. Not only underutilised. reducing the quality of care. is patient rehabilitation difficult, C The HEARTWAYS (Advanced solutions What are the main objectives of the but the financial burden is enormous. for supporting cardiac patients in reha- project? According to WHO estimates, CVD bilitation) project was born from the costs the EU some EUR 196 billion Juan Pablo Lázaro-Ramos: idea that implementing quality perfor- each year. And despite public invest- HEARTWAYS aims to develop an mance measures, automated referral ment, it still causes as much as advanced, remote, modular IT solution systems, and the option of exercise- for patients suffering from cardiovascu- 46 times the number of deaths and based cardiac rehabilitation at home lar disease as they begin a rehabilitation 11 times the disease burden caused for some patients may all help to process outside medical centres — at by AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria reduce the risk of suffering an acute home for example. combined. Four million patients die of cardiac event again. The project, which CVD each year in Europe. The technology is comprised of: is due to end in September, is develop- t-shirts embedded with wearable sen- In order to live longer and eventually ing advanced wearable sensors and sors to monitor breathing rates and reduce the health and financial burden intelligent algorithms for supporting heart rates; ECG and pulsioximetry CVD represents for society, patients are cardiac patients in rehabilitation out- measurements; accelerometers placed required to quit smoking, eat more fruit side medical centres. in patients’ arms and legs to measure and vegetables and increase physical Juan Pablo Lázaro-Ramos, R&D director exercise performance; and intelligent activity, all this while being subjected at TSB in Spain and coordinator of the algorithms. We gather data on exercise, to combination drug therapy and hav- project, explains how the new technol- lifestyle, the patient profile and clinical ing their blood pressure monitored on ogy will help to monitor the vital signs history, and translate this into a risk a regular basis. Whilst this is all man- needed for diagnosis, assess exercise assessment of future health events. ageable in the hospital, it is much more performance and progress, and enable The technology is of course targeting difficult at home where exercise-based remote personalised support as part of professionals — helping them with research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 5 SPECIAL FEATURE patient follow-up, intervention strategies and clinical care plans, but it doesn’t stop there. Patients will also have access to their personal data by means of a mobile app, so that they can adapt their lifestyle and control the effectiveness of physical exercise, wherever they are.

What is new or innovative about the technology you are developing? The HEARTWAYS technology is the first cardiovascular monitor predicting risk based on personalised data. The innovation resides both in individual tech- nologies and in the overall system. Bringing all stakeholders and solutions together around a single system for use by both patients and professionals is an innovation per se. The special gloves integrating pulsi- ometry and other sensors, and the crea- tion of intelligent multiparametric analysis middleware integrating informa- tion coming from various sources into a single communication framework, are also major innovations. The system leaves the door open to additional infor- Lázaro-Ramos © Juan Pablo mation systems and sensors, making JUAN PABLO LÁZARO-RAMOS future integration with existing customer IT systems an easy task. Making our mobile app accessible by The clinical trials start in July 2014 Generally speaking, HEARTWAYS will all patients, intuitive and integrated into and last until April 2015. If indicators allow doctors following up CVD patients everyday patient processes, was also a on economic savings and improve- to prescribe technology for the mid and challenge. ments in terms of risk and cases of long-term rehabilitation process, which relapses are positive, trials will con- Last but not least, we had to position they couldn’t do until today. tinue in hospitals already using the our technology in a market traditionally technology and should be available to How will it improve patients’ reluctant to take up technology prescrip- customers and patients by the end of lives? tions because of the lack of evidence. 2015 or early 2016, especially in the Our technology is efficient, safe and HEARTWAYS will gather its own evidence public sector. cost-effective. It brings CVD patients by means of a clinical study that will Market prospection started this closer to their families, allows them to measure both economic savings and year, and it is possible that early bird blend back into society, and reduces improvements in the clinical condition of private customers may start using the stress associated with management of patients using it. system in the last quarter of the year, the disease as well as the need for psy- once the medical device certification  chological support. What are the next steps for the process is complete. The related reduction in hospitalisa- project itself and after it ends? tions and acute events also enables sig- We will soon start clinical trials with If successful, what could nificant cost savings to be made. 30 users in two hospitals in Valencia HEARTWAYS mean in terms in (Spain) in order to validate the clinical economic benefits for society? What were the main difficulties protocols behind the assistance process. Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation you faced and how did you resolve We need to validate the overall com- has proven to be beneficial for patients. It them? posite in different countries (Croatia, Italy can lead to a 25 % reduction in mortality from cardiovascular disease over three We faced four main challenges, each and Portugal) regarding usability, accept- years, improve psychological factors and related to one of the technologies we ability and expectations from an end user quality of life, create incentives for a developed. point of view and from the market point healthy lifestyle and reduce the probabil- The first challenge was the develop- of view. Then, we need to provide a prod- ity of future cardiac events and hospital ment of algorithms capable of perform- uct exploitation plan in both public (public readmissions. ing personalised risk assessments in health systems) and private markets terms of the risk of new acute heart (rehabilitation clinics and centres, private events in the short-term. Then, we had to insurance-based healthcare providers). HEARTWAYS find a way to produce usable and afford- Coordinated by TSB in Spain. able sensors, knowing this has, until now, When do you expect the Funded under FP7-SME. been one of the main drawbacks of such technology to be made available http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/ technology. for patients? rcn/105228_en.html 6 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 SPECIAL FEATURE CELL THERAPY FOR HEART DISEASES Regenerative medicine is emerging as a promising frequency of 2 % in younger people and below 1 % in the approach to restoring damaged tissue architecture elderly population. and function, particularly for ischaemic heart disease. The consortium also explored new strategies for heart mus- An ischaemic episode implies restricted or no blood cle cell-replacement therapies for ischaemic heart disease. flow to the heart, causing irreversible necrosis of the From the mouse heart, they were able to isolate a cell pop- affected heart muscle (also called myocardium). ulation with stem cell-like properties and propagate them for linical pictures of patients who have suffered such heart a long time in culture. The option of myocardium prosthesis attacks suggest little if any reparative capacity of the was also considered with the design of synthetic matrices to Cheart after injury. A number of clinical trials have tested support the growth and function of heart muscle cells. the ability of bone marrow cells to regenerate heart muscle CARDIOCELL generated invaluable information that opens up with unfortunately new avenues for therapeutic interventions after cardiac minimal functional infarction. The proposed cell sources are considered safe for “Partners were able to improvement. This transplantation and are expected to improve the outcome of estimate that heart muscle highlights the need patients suffering from ischaemic disease. for alternative treat- cells regenerated annually ment strategies that with a frequency of 2 % in rely on the regenera- younger people and below tion or replacement of the injured 1 % in the elderly myocardium. CARDIOCELL population.” As a result, scientists Coordinated by Lund University in Sweden. from the EU-funded Funded under FP7-HEALTH. CARDIOCELL (Development of cardiomyocyte replacement http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/8448_en.html strategy for the clinic) project set out to study pluripotent and adult heart stem cells. Their aim was to identify key sig- nalling pathways that drive the differentiation of these cells down the cardiac muscle lineage. Mammalian heart muscle development was studied using a mouse model. Through this, researchers identified transcrip- tion factors (Islet1, Fgf10) and signalling pathways (Fgf, BMP) that are important for cardiac development. Work on the heart-derived progenitor and stem cells led to the iden- tification of markers (CD36, N-cadherin, ATP1b1) and proce- dures for their purification. Radiocarbon (C-14) dating was used to assess the ability of human cardiomyocytes to regenerate as it can date organic molecules like DNA down to one year. The average age of heart muscle cells was six years younger than the individual, indicating that these cells had regenerated during adulthood. Using mathematical modelling, partners were able to esti- mate that heart muscle cells regenerated annually with a © Ugreen, Thinkstock

POTENT MULTIDRUG PILL FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE Globally, ‘cardiovascular disease’ (CVD) is a leading cause of mortality, costing European economies about EUR 192 billion annually. Most CVD patients show poor long-term adherence to their treatment regimen due to factors such as complexity, physician inertia and cost. o successfully lower ‘Systolic Pill In Reducing cardiovascular Events) ‘polypills’ contained aspirin 75 mg, blood pressure’ (SBP) and ‘Low- was initiated in Europe and India. simvastatin 40 mg, lisinopril 10 mg, Tdensity lipoprotein’ (LDL) levels in and either atenolol 50 mg or hydro- CVD patients, the barriers to adher- The trial enrolled 1 004 patients in chlorothiazide 12.5 mg. The FDC- ence and treatment gaps need to be Europe and 1 000 patients in India. taking patient compliance as well as overcome. To achieve this, the Some CVD patients were dosed with a SBP and LDL levels were compared to EU-funded randomised, blinded clini- single pill having a ‘Fixed-dose combi- those patients taking their usual cock- cal trial UMPIRE (Use of a Multidrug nation’ (FDC) of several drugs. The tail of medications. research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 7 SPECIAL FEATURE

Despite an underestimation of patient adherence, trial outcomes revealed that using FDCs significantly improved patient compliance and effectively lowered SBP and LDL levels. Barriers to adherence such as complexity were successfully overcome through pack- aged delivery, low cost, simplified prescription dosage and consump- tion. Increased patient adherence demonstrably offset the risk of sub- optimal risk-factor control with a sig- nificant reduction seen in cholesterol and BP levels. © Nathan Benn, Corbis This randomised trial was the first of its kind to assess the long-term use CVD could improve patient access to of FDCs on CVD patients. An FDC UMPIRE care, and reduce treatment inequali- Coordinated by the Imperial College treatment strategy would also lower ties and associated healthcare costs of Science, Technology and Medicine costs of medication and overall even in resource-poor countries. in the United Kingdom. healthcare, thus increasing patient Ultimately, CVD patient outcomes Funded under FP7-HEALTH. acceptance. Implementation of an and quality of life will considerably http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ FDC strategy in health policies for improve with FDC implementation. rcn/9915_en.html

INTERVIEW ASCERTAINING LOW-DOSE RADIATION IMPACT ON THE HEART We are all exposed to radiations. Such exposure and Japan, will be capital in this quest for understanding can be harmless at very low doses but damage our radiation impact on the human heart. It is also very unique health above certain thresholds. But what happens since, unlike previous research, it involves researchers who in between is more difficult to predict. The decided to look into the impact of low-dose exposure while PROCARDIO project is casting light on part of this challenging preconceptions and casting new light on con- mystery, with a focus on radiation-induced heart tradictory findings. disease. Prof. Mike Atkinson, Director at the Institute of Radiation e might not always realise it, but our body is con- Biology in Germany and coordinator of PROCARDIO, told us stantly subjected to radiations. Part of this consists about his team’s findings so far. of what is commonly called ‘background exposure’. W  Over their lifetime, Europeans are exposed to an average What are the main objectives of the project? 2 400 µSv (microsievert) every year. About 80 % of these Prof. Mike Atkinson: PROCARDIO was designed to radiations are natural, and have a very limited impact on address a very specific problem in radiation protection. We our health. Others, like those emitted by cell phones, have know that high doses of radiation, typically those received been debated for years as intensive use is suspected to in cancer treatment or from atomic bomb detonations, increase cancer risk. damage the human heart. Our concern is that much lower doses, those typically received in the nuclear workplace or Other non-natural sources of radiations include work in from diagnostic medical imaging such as CT scanning, may nuclear power plants, medical imaging and radiation ther- also be damaging to the heart. If this were true, we would apy technologies. Although essential to diagnosis and need to amend clinical practice and workplace dose limits treatment, the likes of X-rays and CT scans have to be used to afford adequate protection. parsimoniously. Every time a patient’s body is scanned for a fracture or tumour or — in the case of cancer treatment Unfortunately, the epidemiological evidence of an effect — is subjected to radiations, there can be varying levels of on the heart at these low doses offers contradictory find- impact on our health. ings. A major reason for the lack of consensus lies in the way in which effects at low doses are predicted. This is But what exactly do we know about such impacts? Experts based on the extrapolation of evidence collected at high agree that the actual radiation risk to different parts of the doses where the effects are easy to identify. Whilst it may body varies. Radiations at high doses are known to cause be true that the effects decrease in a linear fashion with cancer, however research around ‘Radiation-induced heart decreasing doses, it may equally be true that there is a disease’ (RIHD) has recently been gaining momentum. threshold below which no damage may be expected, or The EU-funded PROCARDIO (Cardiovascular risk from expo- even that lower doses may be more damaging than pre- sure to low-dose and low-dose-rate ionising radiation) pro- dicted by a linear dose response. Only by understanding the ject, which involved partners from Europe, the United States biological mechanisms of radiation action on the heart can 8 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 SPECIAL FEATURE

we construct the correct dose response relationship needed to extrapolate effects down to low doses.

What is new or innovative about the project’s approach?

Our understanding of cardiovascular effects of radiation Atkinson Mike © Prof. is very much coloured by the experience of observations made at very high, almost lethal doses. Here, tissue dam- age and cell death predominate, leading to heart failure due to destruction of vital functions or massive inflamma- tory responses to the damage. In PROCARDIO we have thrown away these preconcep- tions and started from a blank sheet of paper, making no assumptions about the mechanisms operating at low doses. We have for- mulated a number of new hypotheses “Our project plan included to explain the radia- a sister project (CEREBRAD) tion effects at low doses, low-dose to study the risks stemming rates (acute versus from radiation exposure chronic exposures), to the brain.” the effects of differ- ent radiation quali- ties (e.g. photons vs. PROF. MIKE ATKINSON heavy ions) and the cell types directly and indirectly involved in the response to radiation insults. At the same time, we joined forces with a of the mitochondria (energy-producing sub cellular struc- large EU-funded epidemiological study on the survivors of ture) as the major site of damage. Our biomathematical childhood cancer. This allowed us to gather new epidemio- activities have produced a whole series of mathematical logical data on the long-term effects of cancer radiother- models that will be used to test the shape of the dose apy and to use these data to test our hypotheses. response curve when our epidemiological efforts are What were the main difficulties you faced and finished. how did you resolve them? What are the next steps for the project itself The diversity of activities meant that we had to assem- and after it ends? ble a highly interdisciplinary research team, many of whom National funding is already being awarded to consor- had no prior experience of cardiovascular research. This was resolved by recruiting an international scientific advi- tium members to continue the work started under sory board led by one of the chief cardiologists in the PROCARDIO. We have already begun to reformulate new United States. A second major difficulty was the lack of hypotheses to replace those that were disproved by the experimental facilities for the study of chronic effects of research work, thus driving our understanding of radiation radiation. Here, we formed a strategic alliance with the effects forwards. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Rokkasho, Japan in one When and how do you expect patients to start of the first joint Europe-Japan collaborations in radiation benefiting from your research? research. Our project plan included a sister project (CEREBRAD) to study the risks stemming from radiation Already we can see the impact of our work, as stake- exposure to the brain. Combining two large projects was a holders and medical practitioners have been specifically daunting task, but we have worked very hard to maintain targeted to make them aware of the potential long-term and grow the links between the two projects, including run- health risks of even low doses of radiation exposure to the ning joint scientific sessions, organising common training heart. This new awareness of the risks to the heart is being and education activities, and sharing technology and seen in therapy planning and in imaging activities, where results. We are all very proud that the two projects have the heart is now spared from exposure as much as possi- grown closer together, with a lot of unexpected cross- ble. We are seeing a shift in perception in the radiological fertilisation arising. protection community as well, where the heart is no longer considered a radiation-resistant organ, adequately pro- Are you satisfied with the project outcomes tected by legislation designed to protect against cancer. so far? Although it is rather early to consider the overall project outcomes, we have already made a number of exciting sci- entific breakthroughs thanks to PROCARDIO. These have changed the way that the cardiovascular effects of radia- PROCARDIO tion are viewed. For example, we show that two distinct Coordinated by the Helmholtz Zentrum München in Germany. types of cell are affected by low doses of radiation, the vas- Funded under FP7-EURATOM-FISSION. cular endothelial cell (a blood vessel lining cell) and the car- http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/12654_en.html diomyocyte (contractile heart muscle cell). Another Project website: immediate impact of the work is that we identified the role http://www.procardio.eu/ research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 9 SPECIAL FEATURE MODELLING DISEASES IN MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES The MEDCHAMPS initiative focused on awareness-raising to prevent ‘cardiovascular diseases’ (CVDs) and diabetes in Mediterranean countries. Project activities included the development of country-specific epidemiological models and policies for prevention and treatment. iabetes and CVDs are increasing in mainly in Syria. There is a high probability prevalence in low- and middle- that mortality rates due to CHD rose in Dincome countries around the Syria and Tunisia as a result of the associ- Mediterranean Sea. This has alerted ated risk factors. health authorities to take appropriate A survey on diabetes and CVD policies in action and devise country-specific recom- these countries revealed a lack of compre- mendations in order to reduce the burden Corbis Taufic, © William hensive and well defined measures. Major of these diseases. contributors to this situation were the cen- Based on this, the EU-funded MEDCHAMPS tralised management system, the scarcity (Mediterranean studies of cardiovascular of information on the aforementioned dis- disease and hyperglycaemia: analytical eases and a lack of specialist health per- modelling of population socio-economic sonnel. The data from all four countries transitions) project wished to conduct an were computed into CHD and diabetes epidemiological analysis of the risk factors models and compared with observed data implicated in diabetes and CVDs in occu- and global estimates of disease burden. pied Palestinian territories, Syria, Tunisia processed food. Successful outcomes will Overall, the MEDCHAMPS risk factors were and Turkey. The information would then be reduce the incidence or severity of CVDs successful in explaining the mortality used to formulate policy recommenda- and diabetes through timely interventions rates due to CHD and predicting diabetes tions inside and outside the health sector. and lifestyle changes. prevalence. The information was utilised For ‘Coronary heart disease’ (CHD), risk by project partners who proposed appro- factor data including cholesterol levels, priate policies for each country, with MEDCHAMPS blood pressure, diabetes and ‘Body mass healthcare cost estimations and appropri- Coordinated by the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the index’ (BMI) were collected and computed ate action plans. One such measure is the United Kingdom. into epidemiological models. Findings reduction of dietary salt intake through a Funded under FP7-HEALTH. revealed an increase in BMI and a persist- health promotion campaign, food packag- http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ ing prevalence of smoking among men, ing labelling and reducing salt content in rcn/6766_en.html

NEW TREATMENT FOR MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION Although the long-term prognosis of patients after The trial Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan have been ‘Acute myocardial infarction’ (AMI) has improved, created. The Protocol, Investigators’ Brochure and related the one-year mortality rate is still as high as 13 %. trial documents were submitted for clinical trial approval New data suggest that autologous ‘Bone marrow- and a positive decision has been received. Some countries derived mononuclear cells’ (BM-MNCs) can restore have already received approval for the trial. Partners tak- cardiac function following AMI. ing part have developed a randomisation system and a database for future BAMI patients. major reason for the high morbidity and mortality rates after sustained AMI is that the heart has an inadequate Information about the project and its progress has been regenerative response to the myocardial necrosis. disseminated at meetings, through press releases, news- A papers, TV reports and radio features that have included Despite the use of available conventional treatment, mortal- interviews with patients following recruitment, treatment ity rates of patients with post-infarction heart failure are still and reinfusion of stem cells. high and rehospitalisation occurs at a yearly rate of 6 to 8 %. The EU-funded BAMI (The effect of intracoronary reinfusion Successful trial outcomes will demonstrate that transcoro- of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) on all- nary infusion of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells is cause mortality in acute myocardial infarction) project is a safe and might reduce the mortality rate by 25 % and the phase III multinational, multi-centre study that aims to dem- rehospitalisation rate by 15 %. onstrate that a single intracoronary infusion of autologous BM-MNCs reduces mortality following AMI. During its first two years, BAMI reviewed existing data BAMI Coordinated by Queen Mary and Westfield College regarding bone marrow aspiration technique and cell har- in the United Kingdom. vest. The consortium then selected the best method of cell Funded under FP7-HEALTH. delivery. Intracoronary infusion is the most common route http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/12872_en.html of delivery and employs balloon angioplasty with cells Project website: being infused through an over-the-wire balloon. http://www.bami-fp7.eu/ 10 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 SPECIAL FEATURE CONSUMING LUPINS FOR A HEALTHY HEART Seeds of the Lupinus species, also called lupins, have been consumed by Mediterranean populations for thousands of years. These protein-rich food sources could prove to be a sustainable and healthier alternative to milk, meat, egg and soybeans.

he EU-funded LUPICARP (Innovative composed of 35-40 % proteins, high fibre aspects such as food storage and deliv- functional foods from sweet lupin and antioxidants. Sweet lupins are low in ery resolved. Approval for the clinical Tprotein for cardiovascular preven- alkaloids (that cause bitter taste), and study was successfully obtained. Nine tion) project will investigate the health anti-nutritional substances such as phy- business cases were prepared for the benefits of sweet lupins as food and feed. toestrogens are at negligible levels. participating small- and medium-sized A multi-centre randomised study will Primary allergies from consuming lupins enterprises (SMEs). compare the effect of diets based on are extremely rare. Another bonus is their Globally, increasing population numbers lupins with animal proteins in terms of ability to stabilise emulsions and foams. are responsible for raising demands for cholesterol metabolism. To ensure product optimisation and protein-based foods and feeds. Unless commercial readiness, the LUPICARP more plant-derived sources are used, “Lupins are composed consortium is composed of five lupin this trend will cease to be eco-sustainable food manufacturers, one lupin ingredi- as plant proteins are less water- and of 35-40 % proteins, ent producer and five research and tech- soil-intensive and consume carbon diox- high fibre and antioxidants.” nological development performers from ide — a major player in global warming. academia and hospitals. The consortium Approval of the health claims of lupin- Their ability to reduce or prevent dyslipi- agreement was finalised at the start of based food products will boost SMEs in daemia will be assessed using low- the project to ensure smooth technology the EU food sector with an expected density lipoprotein-cholesterol values as transfer by discussing intellectual prop- turnover of several million euros. well as inflammatory and metabolic erty and patent rights distribution. markers. Other important aspects such LUPICARP In keeping with European Food Safety as taste, nutritional factors, safety, grow- Coordinated by the University of Milan Authority (EFSA) documents and ing conditions, yield and other applica- in Italy. European regulations, LUPICARP has tions will also be looked into. Funded under FP7-SME. ensured that foods used in the clinical http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ Literature reviews and previous scientific study will be safe. Alkaloid levels and rcn/12887_en.html studies including several EU-funded pro- nutritional compositions were taken into Project website: jects have revealed that lupins are account and challenging logistical http://www.lupicarp.eu/

NEW CONCEPT FOR MYOCARDIAL IMPLANTS Cell therapy and tissue engineering are emerging as novel therapeutic paradigms for heart muscle repair. This new approach is based on an increased number of heart muscle cells, cardiomyocytes, within the diseased area.

ne strategy currently available involves the combina- identified ECM components that resulted in the most effi- tion of cells with polymeric scaffolds ex vivo to gen- cient recruitment of endothelial and myocardial cells. Oerate an implant construct. This is then grafted onto Researchers found that the optimal condition for the for- the heart muscle. However, these procedures are hampered mation of vessels is by the limited direct functional integration of grafted cells low fibrin concentration “Scaffolds were and high degree of donor cell death following cell grafting (7.5 mg/ml) and high cell in host myocardial tissue. density. implanted into a rat The EU funded four-year NANOCARD Scaffolds were implanted heart after the induction (Nanopatterned scaffolds for active into a rat heart after the of myocardial infarction.” myocardial implants) project is sup- induction of myocardial porting work in this field through a infarction. There was no indication of cardiac or systemic consortium of 11 corporate and toxicity of the implanted scaffolds. However, no positive academic partners. NANOCARD effect was seen on cardiac function.

© Shelley D. Spray, Corbis © Shelley D. Spray, aims to create a new concept for implant design. Overall, the devel- An important impact of NANOCARD lies in the evaluation of

opment is based on ‘High- Corbis © Shelley D. Spray, new technologies and the generation of data for future throughput screens’ (HTS) for efforts in the development of functional myocardial implants. identifying specific ‘extracellular matrix’ (ECM) materials. This is fol- lowed by in vitro tests for the recruitment of cells and cardiac tis- NANOCARD sue formation, and in vivo (animal) Coordinated by the Max Planck Society in Germany. testing of implants. Funded under FP7-NMP. http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/9998_en.html NANOCARD successfully developed Project website: and implemented HTS and http://www.mf.mpg.de/NanoCARD/ research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 11 SPECIAL FEATURE RESOLUTION OF CONGENITAL HEART DEFECTS

‘Congenital heart defects’ (CHDs) are present in the heart at birth and affect almost 1 % of the population. Besides poor life expectancy and quality of life for patients, considerable healthcare expenses are also incurred.

onventionally, severe CHDs are treated via high-risk opera- Ctions on the developed heart in early childhood to restore normal blood circula- tion, but outcomes are uncer- tain. No link has been found between genetic mutations and CHDs, suggesting that forces causing abnormal blood flow in the foetus are responsible for CHDs. The EU-funded project HEMODYNAMICS IN CHD (Mechanical regulation of congenital heart defects) is investigating the in utero forces that remodel the heart and result in CHDs. Researchers plan to investi- gate the embryonic development of CHDs in chicken embryos and thereby find alternative therapeutic options to prevent CHDs. under- develop- Relevant heart defects were success- ment of the fully created in chicken embryos using left atrioventric- Thinkstock © Weareadventures, ‘Left atrial ligation’ (LAL) and ‘Right ular valve and left atrial ligation’ (RAL). Blood flow was ventricle of the heart. thereby disturbed on either the left or right side of the heart at early stages RAL reduced shear stress of heart development. Measurements levels and cardiac work in the were made of morphological changes right side of the heart while caus- such as valve size, and haemodynam- ing remodelling only in the right atrio- ics were modelled using ‘Computational ventricular valve. More information is fluid dynamic’ (CFD) methods. available on the project website. Using LAL on embryonic day 4, scien- CFD modelling should provide in-depth tists successfully created an animal information on changes in haemody- model of ‘Hypoplastic left heart syn- namic environments, such as shear drome’ (HLHS). A CHD created using stress levels and their effects on heart RAL was the first model of its kind to development. Correlating the structural ever be generated to describe CHDs changes to haemodynamic alterations affecting the right side of the heart. 3D should provide novel insight into CHD “Parameters such as peak geometries from ‘micro-computed tomography’ (micro-CT) were used to occurrence, its progression and possi- velocity and average velocity make morphological measurements. ble treatment options. through the heart valves Haemodynamics were assessed using ultrasound images. Parameters such helped determine shear stress as peak velocity and average velocity levels and changes in cardiac through the heart valves helped deter- mine shear stress levels and changes performance.” in cardiac performance. HEMODYNAMICS IN CHD Coordinated by Doğuş University Analysis of the ultrasound and micro- in Turkey. CT images revealed some interesting Funded under FP7-PEOPLE. facts. LAL reduces shear stress in cer- http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ tain areas inside the heart, causing rcn/12940_en.html 12 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 SPECIAL FEATURE

INTERVIEW NEW STEM CELL THERAPY FOR

ISCHAEMIC HEART DISEASE © Antonio Bernad

An EU-funded project is looking into ‘Cardiac stem cells’ (CSCs) to tackle the problem of chronic heart failure in Europe. Whilst previous research has concentrated on cells from the patients themselves, the CARE-MI team focuses on cells from various donors. Clinical trials are expected as soon as summer 2014 in Spain and Belgium.

schaemic heart disease (IHD) was What are the main objectives responsible for 12 % of all deaths in of the project? ANTONIO BERNAD Ithe OECD in 2011. The disease, Antonio Bernad: Our main goal is to which causes blood supplies to the develop widely available and clinically heart to diminish, progressively dam- applicable treatments for IHD. CARE-MI needed to treat AMIs and perform PTCAs ages heart tissue. exploits the biology of ‘endogenous resi- are available — that is, in most large dent cardiac stem cells’ (eCSCs) and the Whilst the introduction of angioplasty medical centres. and stents has successfully helped molecular mechanisms responsible for Because of their generic nature, these reduce early mortality rates, the lack of their activation and differentiation in situ. therapies will be available to all candi- solutions to repair the damaged tissue The proposed therapies may directly date patients. An additional attractive often leads to initial patient recovery impact the resident eCSCs population, feature of the proposed approach is the being followed by cardiac remodelling resulting in their activation, expansion fact that despite their generic and off- and ‘Chronic heart failure’ (CHF). The only and differentiation into cardiomyocytes the-shelf nature, these treatments will cure for CHF is heart transplantation, but — endothelial and smooth muscle vas- produce autologous regenerated myo- few patients are lucky enough to find a cular cells — to regenerate the contrac- cardium. We believe that the transition compatible donor in time. tile tissue and the microvasculature lost as a result of the ischaemic event. from autologous cell therapy — as An alternative to heart transplantation These therapies have been validated already clinically tested widely — to the may reside in endogenous CSCs, recently in initial preclinical results in animals pre- use of allogeneic cells for their paracrine discovered pluripotent cells contained in senting a cardiac anatomy, physiology effect before moving to a cell-free ther- adult myocardium (heart muscle). CSCs and pathology comparable to that of apy based on the subset of the paracrine can potentially heal tissue through the humans. Now, if we want to enable an factors is not only a logical conceptual production of new cardiac muscle cells effective and clinically-applicable myo- progression, but also the safest route for (cardiomyocytes) or trigger molecular cardial regenerative therapy, we have to making progress in this field. pathways of cardiac repair through compare the relative merits of the two What were the main difficulties growth factors. arms proposed, and see if combining you faced and how did you resolve them can result in any additional This potential has only been tested them? recently by using autologous cell therapy benefits. for repairing damaged tissue. Put simply, CARE-MI put an enormous effort into  the method consisted in using the What is new or innovative about developing a solid background that patient’s own cells to repair the myocar- the project? demonstrates the feasibility of the use dium. But although promising, the autol- CARE-MI relies on the use of alloge- of allogeneic CSCs for the treatment of ogous approach has so far proved very neic ‘Cardiac stem cells’ (CSCs) and/or a ischaemic cardiac disease. The logistics time-consuming, expensive and, most limited number of regenerative factors, of the clinical trial have been a major importantly, relatively ineffective. known to be secreted by the eCSCs, for challenge for the consortium. For exam- the activation/promotion in situ of the ple, aspects related to large-scale cell Researchers from the CARE-MI (Cardio endogenous repair programme. These production became especially painstak- repair European multidisciplinary initia- allogeneic CSCs, which survive only tran- ing as we were producing a medicinal tive) project have set out to tackle this siently in the recipient, set off a potent product. The strict controls and the issue with the help of FP7 funding, by endogenous regenerative process by importance of robust results on the cell shifting the view from autologous to allo- activating the endogenous eCSCs. The identity have consumed most of our geneic. Instead of taking cells from latter is capable of limiting progressive efforts — under the leadership of patients themselves, they developed a degeneration and partially restoring the CORETHERAPIX Ltd, partner and pro- new methodology relying on cells from anatomy and function of damaged moter of the clinical trial. different donors. myocardium. Moreover, the conditions associated Dr Antonio Bernad, coordinator of the The two proposed treatments and/or with an allogeneic scheme (mainly CSC project, believes this technique could be their combination will, for the first time, immunoregulation properties and puta- the basis of ready-to-use, affordable and provide generic off-the-shelf regenera- tive CSC immunoresponse) have also user friendly therapies based on the in tive therapies which will be ready to be involved many discussions, especially in situ activation, multiplication and differ- applied at any time wherever the techni- defining the more solid and reliable entiation of endogenous CSCs. cal means and professional expertise methods for evaluating those research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 13 SPECIAL FEATURE properties. However, thanks to the col- that we can produce more relevant When do you expect patients to laboration of sound experts in the con- results during the year. start benefiting from your sortium, as well as external scientific research?  advisors, CARE-MI has overcome most What are the next steps for the When talking about innovative treat- of these difficulties. project itself and after it ends? ments we need to be very cautious to Our next steps are devoted to avoid giving false hope. We are in phase  Are you satisfied with the speeding up the other relevant arm of I/II of a clinical trial, which means that project outcomes so far? our project, testing the growth factor additional trials will be requested prior to The project has produced very rele- therapy as a feasible alternative for the final release of the product. vant results in this fourth year; CARE-MI the treatment of IHD. Our final goal is However, we are confident of our has completed the GMP production of to produce enough data to generate results in the preclinical phase and expect the cell therapy medicinal product to be the preclinical dossier taking into con- positive outcomes with patients. It is dif- used in the clinical trials, while the com- sideration our previous experience ficult to predict the exact date on which plete ‘Clinical trial application’ (CTA) has with regulatory agencies. Of course, this treatment will be available for the been submitted to Spanish and Belgian we will also be involved in the devel- wider public, but we have set a five-year Regulatory Agencies (AEMPS and FAGG timeframe for our estimations. This is opment of the clinical trial and will try respectively). strictly dependent on the optimal devel- to produce relevant results regarding The Spanish Regulatory Agency opment plan of our industrial partner, patient immune responses to the CORETHERAPIX, supporting Phase III. approved the CTA on 16 April 2014 — treatment, along with data regarding allowing CARE-MI to achieve one of the the safety and effectiveness of the major milestones of the project — and proposed therapy. CARE-MI we are awaiting the final decision from Coordinated by CNIC in Spain. Belgium’s Regulatory Agency (FAMHP). A Additionally, we have submitted a Funded under FP7-HEALTH. clinical trial is expected to start shortly; proposal (H2020) for the clinical eval- http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/ currently we are in the recruiting phase uation of CSC (CARE-MI) in the chronic rcn/94265_en.html and we expect to start treating our first scenario. If we get funding, we would Project website: patients this summer. This is a very be ready to go into a clinical trial in http://www.caremiproject.eu/ exciting opportunity for us and we hope two years.  http://bit.ly/1h88b3y

STEM CELLS TO TREAT A DAMAGED HEART Seeking to develop novel therapeutic approaches to the treatment of cardiac infarction, scientists from the MESENDOT study proposed the use of ‘Mesenchymal stem cells’ (MSCs). ardiac infarction is considered one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Given the low regenerative potential Cof cardiac muscle, patients who have suffered cardiac infarction often progress to congestive heart failure.

MSCs are a powerful source of stem cells since they are © Fuse, Thinkstock able to differentiate to a plethora of cell types. As a result, they are increasingly being used in regenerative medicine and for the development of biological prosthetic implants. Recent reports suggest that MSCs concentrate around blood vessels, but the precise MSC natural microenviron- ment is not completely understood. The key objective of the EU-funded MESENDOT (Regulation of mesenchymal stem cells by vasculature and enhancement of their regenerative potential for the treatment of acute myocar- dial infarction) project was to investigate the reciprocal interplay The outcome of CXCL-6 administration on the inflammatory between MSCs and their microenvironment. By elucidating the response post-infarction was addressed in a rat model of acute cues that MSCs receive from the endothelium as well as the and chronic myocardial infarction. Injection of MSCs was also effect of the stem cells on angiogenesis and endothelial differ- investigated as a strategy for reducing the infarct size. entiation and function, scientists hoped to come up with novel Taken together, the findings of the MESENDOT study provide a treatments for myocardial infarction. new role for MSCs as a treatment pathway for cardiac infarc- With a particular focus on the vascular niche, MESENDOT mem- tion. Although clinical validation is pending, the results of this bers aimed at delineating the molecular mechanisms responsi- investigation open up new dimensions for the regenerative ble for its homeostasis. Using a co-culture system of human potential of MSCs. adipose tissue-derived MSCs with ‘Human umbilical vascular endothelial cells’ (HUVECs), scientists were able to conduct a high-throughput analysis of the secreted proteins. Various pro- MESENDOT teins were found to be up-regulated, including CXCL-6, a Coordinated by SERMAS in Spain. chemokine highly expressed in the heart and also implicated in Funded under FP7-PEOPLE. MSC proliferation and migration. http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/12589_en.html 14 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE © Alexander Raths, Thinkstock

BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE NEW SURGICAL BREAKTHROUGH IN REPAIRING DAMAGED SPINAL DISCS Lower-back pain due to damaged spinal discs is a major cause of long-term disability for millions of people. Seeking a cure, EU-funded researchers have developed a new surgical approach and the materials to repair damaged spinal discs, potentially helping many sufferers enjoy better, more productive lives.

ome 30 % of European workers suf- Specialised treatment Council (CNR) is proud of the team’s suc- fer from back pain, the top work- cess in reaching project targets. Back pain from spinal-disc problems has related disorder reported by the S to be treated in different ways. Younger ‘There is no one single achievement I European Agency for Safety and Health people with sports-derived injuries may would emphasise,’ he says, ‘but it is the at Work. The human cost of this suffering be able to recover to some extent via the integration of all the different expertise in terms of lost wages, and the economic body’s own natural healing process. But and techniques that went so well … the image analysis, the materials technology, consequences in healthcare spending, when the problem is due to disc degen- the cellular structures, the bio-active are both exorbitantly high. eration, as is common in older people, the compounds, the surgery, the injection In response, researchers in the DISC repair process has to be helped. method and a custom approach for par- REGENERATION (Novel biofunctional high In view of the above, the team developed tial and total disc replacements. What we porous polymer scaffolds and techniques two different types of injectable gels for have achieved is a real step forward in controlling angiogenesis for the regener- the soft inner core, the nucleus, of the treating spinal-disc problems.’ ation and repair of the degenerated spinal disc. While both are bio-hybrid The concepts, materials and surgical intervertebral disc) project have devel- structures that closely resemble the practices developed by the DISC oped a solution for those with damaged human tissue in its essential attributes, REGENERATION project are still relatively spinal discs, the predominant cause of there are differences. new developments in medicine. ‘Spine- severe and lasting back pain. They have The first gel type, designed for use with motion preservation’ is an emerging developed a new surgical approach and patients up to the ages of 40 to 50, is technology, and the next step will be to the necessary materials that enable sur- loaded with live human cells, and is undertake a full-scale clinical trial. geons to repair damaged intervertebral suited to those vertebral discs that still If the techniques developed within the discs. have the ability to self-repair to some project prove successful with living extent. patients, they could not only relieve back The team used modelling to determine pain for many, but also become one of The second gel type has no live cells, and the complexity of the stresses placed on the strongest market opportunities in the instead is made of gellan gum and esters the human vertebral disc and then calcu- European medical-technology industry. lated the bio-active repair capability of hyaluronic acid components. This sec- ond type is designed for patients over 50, needed for any replacement. Following whose spinal cells are less able to repair this work, they developed suitable mate- and regenerate themselves. The gel also rials for both the hard outer element of includes a growth component to help DISC REGENERATION the disc (the annulus) and the soft, gel- regenerate the disc nucleus. Coordinated by the National Research like inner core (the nucleus). They then Council in Italy. worked out how to inject both types of Cooperation and expertise Funded under FP7-NMP. material with minimum invasive surgery, Project coordinator Professor Luigi http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/ and how to seal the disk afterwards. Ambrosio of Italy’s National Research article_en.cfm?artid=31978 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 15 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE MANAGING MALARIA FROM ABOVE According to the World Health Organisation, out of the hundreds of millions of malaria cases, over 80 % are located in Africa. A European–African consortium has worked on the development of ‘Earth observation’ (EO) systems for controlling malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.

here is a global front towards planning of optimal malaria vector “The project partners reducing the burden of malaria control measures. EO data from dif- developed EO applications to Tby 2015. For effective implemen- ferent sensors (MODIS, ASTER, tation of malaria vector control meas- RAPIDEYE & METEOSAT) are being support the daily work of the ures, stakeholders are considering EO, used in combination with malaria sur- National Malaria Control ‘Geographical information’ and ‘Global vey data from South Africa, Swaziland positioning systems’ (GIS and GPS, and Mozambique. Programmes.” respectively). RAPIDEYE data were used to generate The EU-funded project MALAREO malaria-relevant land cover/use (EO in malaria vector control and classes which are of special interest to management) aimed to develop such NMCPs for identifying malaria risk technology and introduce it into were able to model the spatial distri- areas and looking at the influence of bution and spread of malaria. malaria control programmes. The area land cover/use on vector presence and of interest was the cross-border malaria risk. Very high-resolution All these EO products were combined region of Mozambique, South Africa imagery was used to identify houses into a MALAREO MapBook for assist- and Swaziland. These three countries and small huts. Information on the ing in the implementation of malaria have different malaria epidemiologi- house type, amount and distribution is vector control measures. With appro- cal profiles. Swaziland is currently in very valuable for more efficient priate stakeholder training, EO solu- the malaria elimination stage while tions could be applied in the fight South Africa is in the malaria pre- ‘Indoor residual spraying’ (IRS). against malaria. elimination stage and Mozambique As mosquitoes are drawn to water for the malaria control stage. breeding, water bodies are potential The project partners developed EO breeding sites for the most prominent applications to support the daily work malaria vector in the region. Water of the National Malaria Control body maps serve as input for model- ling malaria risk and developing Programmes (NMCP). The solutions MALAREO breeding site probability maps. Low- generated by MALAREO mainly Coordinated by Eurosense Belfotop included a variety of thematic maps, resolution EO data (rainfall estimates, in Belgium. e.g. land use/land cover map, water land surface temperature, vegetation Funded under FP7-SPACE. body map and household map. High- indices) were used to assess factors http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ resolution maps covering the whole related to malaria transmission. By rcn/10418_en.html project area were generated to assist taking into account the population dis- Project website: malaria programme managers in the tribution in the project area, partners http://www.malareo.eu © ShaunWilkinson, Thinkstock © ShaunWilkinson, 16 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE TARGETING CANCER: NANOCONTAINERS DELIVER LOCALISED CHEMOTHERAPY Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the EU — and this figure is expected to rise due to an ageing population in Europe. In his ERC-funded NANOTHERAPY project, Professor George Kordas has developed ‘nanocontainers’ — tiny hollow spheres with a width measured in molecules — which are attracted to cancer cells and, once there, deliver their payload of chemotherapy drugs. It is a kind of ‘guided missile’, aimed at the heart of a cancer cell.

‘Through targeting they become much more concentrated around cancer cells. So the non-toxic nanocontainers can deliver toxic drugs directly to the cancer,’ he continues. ‘Our results so far indicate a 20-30 % reduction in cancer cells in just two weeks. The nanocontainers become internalised in the cells and are destroyed — becoming non-toxic — while releasing their loaded drug, destroying the cancer cells’ DNA.’ ‘Chemotherapy doses are limited by patients’ tolerance to the drugs’ toxicity — usually related to their weight and height — but localised delivery means higher concentrations are possible,’ he explains. ‘Combination therapy can reduce total toxicity by 70 %, but our nanocontainers can reduce toxicity to the patient to close to zero.’ © Bunwit, Thinkstock Business plan and patents ur project NANOTHERAPY (A Novel Nanocontainer drug carrier for targeted treatment of prostate ‘Most of our work during this five-year project has been on the ‘Ocancer) aims to use nanoparticles or ‘nanocontain- chemistry used to produce these targeting molecules,’ he ers’ as carriers for drug delivery to target diseases such as explains. ‘At first, we used computer simulation to design new cancer,’ explains Prof. Kordas. ‘We have demonstrated their molecules and then went on to explore their properties: what success and are now in the process of moving towards clin- sites are active? What can be bonded together? What difference ical trials.’ does attaching them to the surface of the nanocontainer make to the molecules?’ ‘What we are talking about is extremely local chemotherapy,’ he ‘My background is in a different field — physics and materials continues. The containers could be loaded with drugs and science — where I had been designing nanocontainers for injected into the patient. The team has designed coatings for the 10 years,’ he recalls. ‘But that was for industrial applications — nanocontainers that are sensitive to a cancer environment and such as self-healing of cars and building materials — so I’m external alternating magnetic fields (such as radio-frequency thankful to the ERC panels, evaluators and reviewers for being radiation). These ‘targeting molecules’, which are added on the open-minded enough to fund this medical research based on carriers’ surface, are attracted to cancer cell molecules: making the quality of my previous work.’ it possible to target specific cancers. This has been demon- strated in two types of cancer — breast and prostate cancer. ‘Thanks to the ERC grant, we were able to recruit 15 very high- standard researchers to the team — mostly working in polymer Guided missiles chemistry and pharmacology. The ERC ‘Proof of Concept’ grant is now funding a business plan and the filing of patents on the ‘Our main achievement is the proof of targeting,’ the professor technology.’ says. ‘There’s nothing like this combination in the literature. Our ‘During the summer of 2014, we plan to find companies to test containers have specificities to the cancers and the way they the technology,’ the professor says. ‘The nanocontainers can accumulate in cancer cells is unique.’ deliver any drug — for different diseases and types of cancers The project team has developed a chemical process for fabricat- — so we want to work with several companies. We may be ing hollow containers from polymers. ‘We make a core, add a around three years away from clinical trials, however.’ coating crafted with the targeting molecules, then remove the ‘I have lost friends to cancer and I hope this technology will help core,’ explains Prof. Kordas. ‘The surface is therefore coated with people,’ he says. ‘I will be very happy if it can contribute to reduc- molecules that have positive and negative sites that are both ing suffering.’ attracted to, and trapped by, the molecules on the outside of can- cer cells.’ NANOTHERAPY The nanocontainers are also sensitive to the cancer cells’ internal Coordinated by Demokritos in Greece. environment and are destroyed on entry — delivering the payload Funded under FP7-IDEAS-ERC. of drugs inside. They can be used to deliver traditional chemother- http://erc.europa.eu/erc-stories/ apy drugs, but may also enable a new generation of more effec- targeting-cancer-nanocontainers-deliver-localised- chemotherapy tive drugs that are even more toxic to cancers. Because they will Project website: be delivered safely to the cells where they are needed, any side http://www.ims.demokritos.gr/nanotherapy/index. effects for the patient should be significantly reduced. php?option=com_content research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 17 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE PATIENTS WITH KIDNEY FAILURE TO GET A NEW LEASE ON LIFE

End stage kidney disease is a global public health problem with an estimated 2.4 million patients on dialysis. The number of new cases is rising (7-8 % annually) due to population ageing and increased diabetes prevalence. The NEPHRON+ project is improving the lives of patients by developing a wearable artificial kidney device, enabled with information and communication technologies for remote monitoring.

hronic kidney disease will affect What’s more, the life expectancy of a The future of wearable 1 in 10 of us at some point in our person in their 20s who has suffered dialysis Clives. For those of us unlucky kidney failure is just 20 years, unless The NEPHRON+ (ICT-enabled Wearable enough to suffer renal failure as a they’re lucky enough to receive a Artificial Kidney and Personal Renal result, the health consequences can donated organ. be disastrous. Care System) ‘Wearable artificial kid- All this could change, however. An ney device’ (WAKD) is currently under- Without treatment, kidney failure is EU-funded research consortium has going animal trials and will have to deadly. However, even the best treat- been developing a wearable artificial pass several rounds of stringent tests ments are not ideal. Patients have to in humans before it is ready to be kidney that would make it possible for be treated with a dialysis machine at used by all patients with kidney dis- dialysis patients to lead a more home or in hospital, sometimes as ease. However, the project has reached often as once every four hours. full and active life while adding a stage where commercial partners Patients spend a large part of their another 10 to 16 years to their life are ready to take the technology to lives connected to dialysis equipment. expectancy. the next stage. With kidney failure rates on the rise and pressure on hos- pitals to find more cost effective and clinically effective treatments, the market for wearable dialysis devices could be worth as much as EUR 15 bil- lion per year, according to Dr Leonidas Lymberopoulos, project coordinator. The advantages of wearable dialysis The NEPHRON+ system works like a conventional dialysis machine, taking the patient’s blood and passing it through a number of filters, removing waste products that would be excreted

“The market for wearable dialysis devices could be worth as much as EUR 15 billion per year.”

in a healthy patient’s urine and mak- ing sure that the patient’s blood pres- sure stays at a safe level. The patient can see the monitored data via their smartphone. What’s more, the data can be sent to the patient’s specialist doctor, so that their condition can be monitored at all times. In addition, the wearable device will reduce the chance that a patient has to go to © Nanodialysis hospital for emergency treatment, as © Randy Faris/Fuse, Thinkstock balance duringtraining.” and helpthemmaintain their the patienttoawalking position “The devicewasdesigned tolift 18 overall qualityoflife. 50 years.Finding rehabilitationsolutionsfor stroke patientscouldimprove theirphysicalrecovery and Currently, 1in500peopleEuropewillsuffer astroke, andthis numberisexpectedtodoubleinthenext from.’ syndrome’ thatmanypatientssuffer eliminates the‘afterdialysissickness health conditiontremendouslyand the naturalkidney. Thisimproves the tion of toxins over the day similar to offers asmoothanduniform extrac 24/7 dialysis with awearable device NEPHRON+ explains: ‘Continuous, Frank Simonis,technical managerof tive thanintermittenttreatment. constant dialysisismuch more effec BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE A STROKE REHABILITATION DEVICE research*eu resultsmagazineN°33/June2014 - -

lead amorenormallife, workingand project leader, ‘thepatientcannow explains MsAnastasiaGarbi,former of EUR5-7billion.Mostimportantly, Europe thisimpliesanannualsaving patient/year. With 340000patientsin expected tobeEUR15000-20000/ Cost savingsinmedicalcareare nursing staffandinstallationcosts. in theneedfor prescriptionmedicine, disease willfallduetothereduction cost ofcaringfor apatientwithkidney Dr Lymberopoulos suggeststhatthe

S tion solutionsthatwillrestoretheirmobility. of eurosperyear, Europeisdeterminedtofindrehabilita rehabilitation andhospitalisationcostsamounttobillions     including spinalcordinjuriesand Parkinson’s disease. exploited for recovery from other medical conditions, The ergonomicnatureoftheWALKX devicecouldbe physical training,thereby preventingfuturestroke attacks. the WALKX deviceprovides theopportunity for overall Apart fromoffering qualityrehabilitation tostroke patients, trolled andvariablewithtask-specificwalkingactivities. added tothedevice.Theirtrainingwouldalsobemorecon remaining stationary, a motorised feet propulsion unit was Finally, toallow patientstotrainmoreintenselywhile training. weight, sincetheyofteninjurethemselvesduringgait tion willrelievephysiotherapistsofasignificantamount function afterastroke. Atthesametime,thissupportfunc strength andfor improving bloodcirculationandorgan during training. The upright position is vital for gaining to awalkingpositionandhelpthemmaintaintheirbalance a sensor system. The device was designed to lift the patient bearing vestthatsupportstheupperbodyandislinked to The WALKX rehabilitationdevice consistedofaweight- cise andcoordinatedwalkingsteps. bilitation process of walking again through physical exer device. Thetermgaittrainingisusedtodescribethereha tion ofstroke victims)projectdeveloped agaittraining and exercisedevicewithupperbodysupportfor rehabilita the EU-funded WALKX (Development of a raising, walking sible withoutassistance.To aidinsuchphysicalrecovery, a stroke episodemustlearntowalkagainassoonpos To regaintheirindependence,patientsthathavesuffered     https://sites.google.com/site/walkx262569/ Project website: http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/12998_en.html Funded underFP7-SME. Coordinated by theMadefor Movement GroupinNorway. WALKX dently intheirown homes.Giventhatstroke patient bility inEurope,withpatientsfailingtoliveindepen troke constitutesoneofthecommoncausesdisa

    visits tothehaemodialysiscentres.’ exercising withouttheregularlong     http://www.nephronplus.eu Project website: rcn/13003_en.html http://cordis.europa.eu/result/story/ Funded underFP7-ICT. Coordinated by ExodusinGreece. NEPHRON+

------research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 19 SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

© jojoo64, Thinkstock SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES CAN MACHINES CRACK THE MYSTERY OF MUSIC CREATION? Who has not wanted to compose as catchy a song as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney or Charlie Parker? French researcher Dr François Pachet has always been fascinated by the mystery of how these great musicians managed to create these amazingly iconic, and strangely addictive, melodies.

hanks to his ERC Advanced Grant, Pachet and his works with sequential data such as musical notes, team are working on a software package, chords or words in texts. A string of this data makes TFLOWMACHINES (Flow Machines: Interacting with a corpus, which can be for instance all music com- Style), which will help musicians or writers to explore the posed by Charlie Parker or all texts written by Marcel magic of creativity and compose music or write books Proust. ‘What we are trying to do is to add into the in an easier way. By deciphering the intriguing relations corpus new ideas, which we call constraints. It means between technology and musical creativity, he aims to that a person using the ‘Flow machine’ can decide to offer clues to creators who wish to turn style and its var- compose blues in the style of Charlie Parker but to ious dimensions into malleable and interactive objects. have all the notes different,’ says Pachet. The idea behind Pachet’s project is that when you want Thanks to the ‘Flow machine’, the constraints are to create something really different, you need to invent added digitally and the user can quickly see the result your own style. ‘New things usually come from taking and decide whether the musical phrase is what they existing styles and adding a new element; a chord had in mind. If it is not, they can alter the constraints. sequence, a new rhyme or a different rhythm for ‘A trick of this project, in a positive way, is to turn the instance. If you take Picasso, the way he invented his creativity question into a mathematical problem,’ style was by playing with, and distorting, the styles of emphasises the researcher. his predecessors. Picasso was actually a very good painter in the style of Velazquez and others before him. What’s old is new again By playing with their styles, Picasso developed his own,’ To conduct their research, Pachet’s team develops new explains Pachet. technologies based on models invented by Russian He is working on the development of a computer-based mathematician Andrey Markov. Markov models have compositional tool that makes developing your own many applications: from economic evaluations to individual style easier. This so-called ‘Flow machine’ Google’s ranking algorithms. Markov chains are 20 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

well-known tools used to model the sta- the state of mind of people who have ERC grant has given me the freedom to tistical properties of temporal found the ideal equilibrium between hire people, to travel to meet musicians, sequences. Sequential data are the boredom and total absorption in what and to buy equipment. But the grant also equivalent of Markov chains in the they are doing. The ‘Flow machine’ can brings you recognition and the confidence ‘FLOWMACHINES’ project. ‘What makes act as a tool to help people to achieve of the people you meet in your work.’ our experiments innovative is that no this state of flow. The result of Pachet’s project could be one was able until now to control the soon put to the test in a very public way. degree of plagiarism when replicating Comic strip, Morricone Last year, the researcher obtained a these chains. Recently, we have come and his future plans licence to play in the Paris metro where up with new results where our ‘Flow Pachet, who is also a jazz musician and he plans to go with his ‘Flow machine’ to machine’ was actually able to do this. has released several CDs, has plans to gauge people’s reactions. ‘The Paris This is a real breakthrough,’ notes publish a comic strip about his project. He metro is the biggest stage in the world Pachet. also wants to write a book about the with millions of people taking the metro According to him, the ‘Flow machine’ will series of interviews he conducted with every day. To be honest, I have not gone not produce pastiches, but new music famous composers to advance his there yet but I will take my chance as and texts. ‘We create new sequences in research. ‘A few weeks ago we inter- soon as I feel the courage to conduct my a way that people can still recognise the viewed Ennio Morricone and asked him experiments in the spotlight offered by original style of a musical piece without about the melodies he had composed for this renowned location,’ concludes having to use any of the successive Once Upon a Time in the West and so on. Pachet. items that were present in the original We did the same with Ivan Lins, one of corpus. What we can do is to take all the best composers in Brazil,’ Pachet FLOWMACHINES jazz from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s adds. His idea is to try to understand why Coordinated by Pierre-and-Marie-Curie and compose a new piece where only people intuitively like the melodies they University in France. 10 % of it originates from the 20s for composed. Funded under FP7-IDEAS-ERC. example.’ http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/ Pachet has worked at Sony Computer rcn/104383_en.html Asked about what inspired him to call his Science’s lab, a ‘blue sky’ research centre http://erc.europa.eu/erc-stories/ project FLOWMACHINES, Dr Pachet based in Paris, for the last 16 years. This can-machines-crack-mystery-music- responded that the idea came from a environment has enabled him to focus on creation concept developed by Hungarian- his research uninterrupted. ‘I think there is Project website: American psychologist Mihaly a lot of convergence between the mission http://www.flow-machines.com Csikszentmihalyi who describes ‘flow’ as of the ERC and the mission of this lab. The  http://bit.ly/1j1t1S4

THE EMERGING DEBATE ON INEQUALITIES An EU-funded project has offered new insight into inequalities in income/wealth and education, and their associated social/political/cultural impacts. With important policy implications, the initiative’s research activities spotlight inequality for 25 EU countries as well as for Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States. s inequalities become increasingly pronounced, and espe- differences concerning educational inequalities, and social as cially so in wealthier countries, there is a need to study well as political and cultural impacts of increasing inequalities Aassociated changes in the social, political and cultural in income, wealth and education. Another research focus was domains. The GINI (Growing inequalities’ impacts) project was on redistributive and educational policies. set up to separate and underline the issues at hand. Project Project results were mainly disseminated through the conclud- objectives focused on three broad areas relevant to the emerg- ing conference, circulation of a summary of results (also avail- ing international debate: different dimensions and the precise able on the project website) and a special workshop organised nature of various inequalities, impacts and policies. by the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Since the 1980s, income inequality has increased in most of the Inclusion. Five policy papers, presented at the workshop, were developed world. Country studies revealed significant variations written for the Directorate-General. in the ways and extent to which individual nations have GINI partners generated extensive knowledge on the topic of attempted to alleviate associated pressures or to handle their inequalities with regard to income, earnings and education, and consequences. Researchers also examined country-specific presented a diverse set of policy conclusions. These cover, among others, policies related to the welfare state, unemploy- ment and active labour market policies, exclusion, resourcing policies and education.

GINI Coordinated by the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Funded under FP7-SSH. http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/9828_en.html Project website:

© sirup, Thinkstock http://www.gini-research.org research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 21 SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES ENHANCING SUICIDE PREVENTION MEASURES European researchers have employed a comprehensive approach towards suicide research and the development of interventions. Their assessments and recommendations for implementation are contributing to sustainable suicide prevention policymaking.

upported by EU funding, the OSPI-EUROPE (Optimizing sui- Scide prevention programs and their implementation in Europe) pro- ject aimed to provide stakeholders, health politicians and the European Commission with an efficient and evidence-based suicide prevention concept. Consortium members, representing 14 institutions from 10 European countries, implemented a state-of- the-art intervention programme on suicide prevention in four European model regions. Building on concepts and materials developed within the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD), they covered five areas of focus: Level 1 involved the education and training of primary care physi- cians; Level 2 covered public aware- ness; Level 3 targeted training opportunities for community facilita- tors (e.g. priests, social workers, teachers and the media); Level 4 involved offers for high-risk groups © Burger, phanie, Phanie Sarl, Corbis © Burger, and support for self-help activities and relatives; and Level 5 entailed the restriction of lethal means. OSPI-EUROPE implemented its com- Intensive dissemination and public parable multilevel community-based relations activities were an important prevention intervention across coun- part of the project’s work, and helped tries with diverse EU health systems to reach the wider public, the scien- “Project partners developed and socio-cultural characteristics. For tific community, policymakers and a newly optimised and each country — Germany, Hungary, stakeholders at both national and EU Ireland and Portugal — two specific levels. Overall, OSPI-EUROPE contrib- improved intervention population regions were selected, uted to comprehensive and evidence- concept.” one for intervention and the other for based recommendations for control. The project team evaluated implementing sustainable suicide suicide prevention efficacy and inter- preventive measures. mediate outcomes, as well as imple- Consultations with key players and a mentation processes and health thorough review and evaluation of economic aspects. published reports on prevention pro- Although there are difficulties in grammes informed the development proving the effectiveness of every of this state-of-the-art intervention possible measure, the multilevel concept. Cross-national differences intervention approach and evalua- OSPI-EUROPE in suicide rates were considered, and Coordinated by Leipzig University a comparative analysis carried out of tions offer insight into the mecha- in. Germany possible explanations for these dif- nisms and measures involved: which Funded under FP7-HEALTH. ferences and their related aspects. are redundant or have potential for http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ This analysis facilitated the appropri- optimisation. On the basis of evalua- rcn/5907_en.html ate adaptation of intervention pro- tion results, project partners devel- Project website: grammes to specific situations in oped a newly optimised and improved http://www.ospi-europe.com different European regions. intervention concept.  http://bit.ly/1nd05dJ 22 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES BETTER USE OF STATISTICS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH Europe 2020 is the EU’s 10-year growth strategy that seeks to facilitate smarter, more sustainable and more inclusive economic growth. Scientists have developed important ways to enhance the exploitation of business statistics to meet goals.

integrate data and databases, and enhance access and release. Enterprises are both data users and data providers and thus have a dispro- portionate burden regarding their con- tribution to high-quality statistical business information. BLUE-ETS has proposed ways to reduce that burden as well as highlighted the importance of motivation on the part of enter- prises to both use and contribute to NSI statistics. The project also pointed to the important role of NSIs in improving both their own statistical literacy and that of business users. Finally, scientists developed a new set of indicators to help official statistics capture structural jumps and changes to be more relevant to policymakers. Some of these cover measurement of intangible assets, a multidimensional competitive index for public institu- tions, indicators for business collabo- ration and collaborative working environments, while others cover rural areas. BLUE-ETS has successfully demon- © violetkaipa, Thinkstock strated that reducing the statistical burden on businesses can be accom- ore efficient policymaking and The project was tailored to the plished with methodologies and activ- socioeconomic research to European Commission’s programme ities that actually increase the Machieve economic growth Modernisation of European Enterprise accuracy and robustness of statistical require high-quality statistical busi- and Trade Statistics (MEETS). Work business information and its rele- ness information. The EU-funded pro- focused on pilot testing advanced sta- vance for policy use. Implementation ject BLUE-ETS (BLUE-Enterprise and tistical methodologies and cutting- will help the EU through the severe Trade Statistics) focused on develop- edge best practices, as well as economic crisis it is now facing and ensuring greater contributions of point the way to continued economic National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) in growth in the future. creating such tools and procedures. “Developed options can reduce Scientists have developed options for the statistical burden through data producers that reduce the statis- application of soft computing tical burden through application of and text mining.” soft computing and text mining. They include tools for fast extraction of rel- BLUE-ETS evant data, a fuzzy logic tool for clas- Coordinated by the National Institute sification and a neural network-based of Statistics in Italy. ment of cost-effective improvements tool drawing on genetic programming. Funded under FP7-SSH. in the collection and use of business Researchers have also provided a http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ data that simultaneously reduce the number of methodologies for data rcn/12990_en.html complexity of related regulations for users. These include techniques to Project website: businesses. improve statistical data availability, http://www.blue-ets.istat.it research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 23 SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

targets young people in economically OPENING UP A UNIVERSE OF disadvantaged parts of London. Anna Harris, the Get On Track Project EMPLOYMENT POSSIBILITIES Coordinator, explains why they have volunteered to pilot the system: Nearly a quarter of Europe’s adults under 25 are not in ‘The reason for engaging in the TARDIS education, employment or training. These so-called programme was to give the young NEETs are struggling to get on the first step of the people some valuable interview prac- employment ladder in this harsh economic climate. Young tice and experience,’ she said. ‘I think having regular access to such a pro- adults say that they need more confidence to get through ject would be fantastic as it allows the job interviews but, with opportunities so scarce, young people to see themselves in an they often go into interviews feeling nervous and interview situation and have relevant key feedback which can help progress underprepared. Now an EU-funded research project that and refine their interview skills. This uses virtual reality is helping to change that. will then reduce the pressure felt when attending interviews and also outh unemployment leads to a making gestures of boredom or help in setting them up to win.’ range of problems, from poverty annoyance. ‘With TARDIS, young people can Yto social exclusion. The longer explore their strengths and weak- that young people stay unemployed, Helping young adults nesses and reduce their anxiety of the harder it is for them to ever enter to manage interview stress applying and being interviewed for the workplace. jobs,’ said Dr Jonquoy, adding that the The system also has a sophisticated virtual agent will allow over-stretched But getting that first job is a daunting emotional model that allows it to youth organisations to help many prospect. As well as having less work understand how the user is feeling, more disadvantaged young people. experience than the generation above based on their body language and them, first-time job seekers are at a tone of voice. This model allows the disadvantage in interviews. The virtual interviewer to give appropriate TARDIS (Training young Adults’ responses to the user. As an added Regulation of emotions and feature, the user can see at a glance Development of social Interaction where they looked confident and TARDIS Skills) project is redressing that bal- relaxed, and where they appeared to Coordinated by Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University in France. ance by offering young people ‘virtual be nervous. Funded under FP7-ICT. interviews’ to practise their social The system is being promoted and http://cordis.europa.eu/result/story/ skills and help them prepare for the offered to youth organisations rcn/13067_en.html real thing. throughout Europe. One of the early Project website: http://www.tardis-project.eu TARDIS — A vehicle adopters is the YMCA London South for success West. Their Get On Track programme  http://bit.ly/1j1vWKs The designers of the system — a con- sortium of academics from the Netherlands, Germany, France and the

UK — have created a system that © TARDIS uses ‘virtual agents’. ‘The platform provides a realistic interviewing environment, as close as possible to real life,’ says Dr Aurélie Jonquoy, the TARDIS Project Manager. ‘TARDIS is a ‘serious game’, in which many potentially limiting features of the real world are removed. As young people are familiar with — and like — using computer games, the game aspect of TARDIS is very important in keeping them motivated to train again and again and as many times as they need.’ The system is made up of several parts: the user interacts with a virtual interviewer via a webcam and an audio headset. The virtual interviewer asks questions and gives realistic ver- bal and non-verbal feedback, such as giving encouraging comments, or 24 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 ENERGY AND TRANSPORT

“The team modified a CTS, developed and patented by a partner for cars, to be suitable for helicopter use.” © Ron Chapple Stock, Thinkstock

ENERGY AND TRANSPORT SMART SENSORS with a thermocouple to measure oper- FOR GREENER ating temperature. The team modified a CTS, developed and patented by a partner for cars, to HELICOPTERS be suitable for helicopter use. It was manufactured and tested, demonstrat- EU-funded scientists have developed ing better sensing performance and durability against ageing. In addition, it technology to monitor torque and rotation is capable of measuring static behav- iour and can be plugged into the shaft speed of helicopter turboshaft engines. rather than being inserted in a cut. These smart sensors could play an important Although the piezoelectric nanofibre role in the development of greener and mesh with the desired microstructure was successfully fabricated, technical quieter helicopters in the near future. difficulties with further process steps prohibited subsequent development of the PZT-MEMS sensor. Scientists he ‘Sustainable and green engine’ EU-funded scientists investigated the thus used a commercial PZT solution (SAGE) 5 concept is an ‘Integrated potential of smart monitoring technol- instead. Ttechnology demonstrator’ (ITD) ogy to facilitate reductions in emis- for developing eco-friendly and silent sions and noise as part of the project Further development and optimisation turboshaft engines for helicopters. ACTIPPTSENS (Active pressure, posi- of the smart monitoring technology This is in line with the Clean Sky initia- tion and temperature sensors for tur- will have important implications for tive. Reducing emissions of toxic boshaft engines). The original focus the production of greener and quieter gases is largely related to increasing helicopters in the near future. was on two types of emerging sensor fuel conversion efficiency and thus technologies: ‘Contactless torque sen- lowering fuel consumption. Power sors’ (CTSs) to measure torque and transmission optimisation can thus ACTIPPTSENS rotation speed and piezoelectric increase efficiency and reduce noise. Coordinated by Tecnalia in Spain. ‘microelectromechanical system’ In order to optimise fuel consumption Funded under FP7-JTI. and engine function, it is necessary to (MEMS) sensors. For the latter, the http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ modulate shaft speed and the tem- plan was to incorporate a ‘piezoelec- rcn/12991_en.html perature and pressure of air, fuel tric transducer’ (PZT) pressure sensor Project website: and oil. based on electrospun PZT nanofibres http://www.actipptsens.eu/ research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 25 ENERGY AND TRANSPORT SOLAR-POWERED AIR CONDITIONING Air conditioning in the summer months is putting more and more pressure on the electrical grid. To address this problem, a new research project has developed a low-cost, solar air conditioning unit.

bsorption cooling is a system that uses a heat source to drive Acooling and requires very little “CESAR tested various cooling power. Although a very promising fluids before settling on the technology, current systems are expensive and incompatible with com- most promising one.” mon air conditioning designs. In response, the EU-funded CESAR (Cost-Effective Solar AiR conditioning) project sought to design and build a small, cheap absorption cooling unit that uses a renewable energy source. To achieve this, they needed to develop new cooling fluids, heat exchangers and a control system. As such, CESAR tested various cooling fluids before settling on the most promising one and studying it exten- sively for compatibility with the proto- type device. The rest of the heat

exchange system (absorber, genera- © cynoclub, Thinkstock tor, condenser and evaporator) has Further development and validation of CESAR been redesigned to reduce cost and control system software and design improve efficiency. Design software Coordinated by Tecnalia in Spain. tools is required. This new solar air Funded under FP7-SME. and algorithms were also advanced to conditioning unit promises to revolu- http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ aid in the development and testing of tionise the industry through signifi- rcn/13058_en.html the prototype in the laboratory and in cant power savings and increased use Project website: the field. of renewable energy sources. http://www.cesarproject.net

NEW LENS TECHNOLOGY FOR SOLAR COLLECTORS Researchers have developed a prototype production he ‘concentrated photovoltaic’ (CPV) market currently method for the manufacture of optical lenses that relies on optics made of silicon-on-glass. The light would improve the efficiency of solar collectors. Ttransmission through this type of lens deteriorates The lenses themselves have a micro-structured over time, and the lifetime of the material can be as short surface that provides extreme precision, allowing as 15 years. for highly accurate control of incoming light. A better option in terms of durability is a polymer-on-glass lens, which would also increase the power generation of CPV modules by 5 %. Within the EU-funded POLYGLASS (Development of a new method to produce high efficiency solar concentrators based on polymer casted directly on glass) project, consortia successfully developed a proto- type manufacturing process and prototype CPV module that uses these lenses. The project set out to deliver this new competitive product with a view to prolonging material lifetimes, reducing installation and maintenance costs, and reducing manufac- turing costs. Ultimately, the intention was to increase the generation of solar power. Crucial to the success of the project was the development of a suitable polymer, a production tool and a manufactur- ing process. Once achieved, researchers constructed the prototype CPV module, which was subjected to industry © Peter Ginter, Science Faction, Corbis Science Faction, © Peter Ginter, standard tests to prove suitability. 26 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 ENERGY AND TRANSPORT

The prototype was POLYGLASS technology comes at a time when demand for “Crucial to the success of the also exposed to day- solar collector systems and cost-effective components is project was the development light, showing good high. As such, it is set to increase European competitiveness performance in gener- in this area, especially because the novel manufacturing of a suitable polymer, process is flexible. a production tool and ating electrical current under normal condi- a manufacturing process.” tions. Furthermore, POLYGLASS Coordinated by DKI Plast in Denmark. researchers reported Funded under FP7-SME. excellent results for adhesion between the polymer and glass, http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/12997_en.html which could have other potential applications beyond the Project website: project. http://www.polyglass-fp7.eu

HIGH-TECH SAFETY BOOST FOR TRAIN AXLES A set of new instruments promises to help assess cracks and corrosion in train axles, streamlining maintenance and upgrading safety. This promises to enhance train operation and bring benefits to rail users. urope’s rail infrastructure for pas- fatigue, providing yet another analysis will bring benefits not only to the sengers and cargo is growing tool for axle life estimation. transport sector but to the economy considerably, demanding as well, while underlining rail as a E With the European Commission con- increased reliability and safety in rail safer, greener and leaner transport sidering rail as the greenest transport vehicles and equipment. Train axles in mode. mode and working towards its propa- particular are prone to damage from gation, the project results could help constant cracking and corrosion that enhance safety and efficiency signifi- increases with distance travelled. The cantly. This is especially important EU-funded project WOLAXIM (Whole since there are currently around WOLAXIM life rail axle assessment and improve- 250 000 passenger carriages and over Coordinated by TWI Limited ment) worked on upgrading the effi- 1.2 million freight wagons in circula- in the United Kingdom. ciency of axles by extending their Funded under FP7-SME. tion with a total of 3.5 million axles. shelf life and improving inspection http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ technologies. The project will particularly help small rcn/13036_en.html and medium-sized enterprises in the Project website: The project developed three promising sector to build on these results and http://www.wolaxim.eu methods for detecting cracks and cater to this enormous market. This  http://bit.ly/1gGlttA evaluating corrosion. The first involves a portable microscope and software tools to pinpoint corrosion more effi- ciently and improve decision making on scrapping axles. The second method involves shortening overnight inspections of hollow axles for high- speed trains from 20 minutes to

5 minutes, while the third verifies axle © Mark Stout, Thinkstock strength as wagons pass through the station. The project designed and tested an instrument that detects cracks 2-3 mm deep on the axles of trains passing through inspection stations at 5-10 km/h. It also built an instrument to assess corrosion damage, including risk of fatigue crack growth within an area of 10 cm2 over a 10-second measurement period. The third instru- ment that was produced inspected hollow axles using a non-rotating probe and could detect cracks up to 3 mm deep within 5 minutes. Lastly, the project team developed software to help calculate inspection intervals for crack growth caused by corrosion research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 27 ENERGY AND TRANSPORT HELPING TRANSPORT KEEP ITS COOL Any future technology used in surface transport will need to be cooled in the quietest and most efficient way possible. Therefore, an EU-funded initiative has investigated the thermal efficiency and acoustic performance of cooling systems in road vehicles and trains. trict EU environmental regulations have increased the demand for cooling units in vehicles that do not produce Sexcessive noise. The ECOQUEST (Efficient Cooling Systems for Quieter Surface Transport) project developed a

quieter cooling unit with lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emis- sions for both automobiles and trains. Project partners developed new compact layouts, innovative heat management strategies, innovative fan designs and new passive noise control measures. These were integrated into the new cooling systems. Mass produced units for cars and larger units produced in smaller numbers for trains were considered at the same time. Researchers investigated all aspects of engine cooling. For the automotive application, a typical car platform was cho- sen and heat dissipa- tion studied by Thinkstock © Zoran Stojkovic, “Two full-scale modules, modelling various one for cars or lorries and module configura- A high-performance numerical acoustics simulation method tions. These were was adapted and validated through a separate series of another for trains, were then analysed using small-scale model tests at an acoustic laboratory for noise implemented in vehicles system tools such as assessment. The results will provide an important tool for and examined under multiphysics simula- future component development and certification of the tion software. vehicle. realistic test conditions.” The cooling system Commercialisation of ECOQUEST cooling systems will reduce for trains involved a noise at source while increasing energy efficiency and reduc- detailed study of the coolant efficiency ratio, noise emission ing CO emissions. This will enable Europe’s automobile and and energy consumption. In addition, researchers investi- 2 locomotive manufacturers to develop more eco-friendly sur- gated the best use of space, the optimal weight of the unit and integration into a powertrain. By coupling the vehicle face transport for people and goods, and enhance the EU’s model with the cooling system, the entire system could be global competitiveness. successfully studied. New design strategies were validated by full-scale tests. Two ECOQUEST full-scale modules, one for cars or lorries and another for Coordinated by the University of Siegen in Germany. trains, were implemented in vehicles and examined under Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT. realistic test conditions. The technologies were developed http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/11344_en.html with regard to improving thermal efficiency while minimis- Project website:

ing energy consumption, CO2 emissions, noise and costs. http://www.uni-siegen.de/ecoquest/

EFFECTIVE NEW SELF-HEATING TECHNOLOGY Efficient heating of tools and materials during manufacturing significantly decreases production time and costs as well as energy consumption. EU-funded scientists have developed novel technology to do this in many applications. omposites are increasingly used of energy efficient / lightweight com- Three applications were identified by in numerous applications and posite parts and tooling based on small and medium-sized enterprises Ccurrent demand exceeds the pro- Tailored Fibre Placement technology / (SMEs): self-heated flexible mem- duction capabilities of manufacturers. self heating technology). The focus branes for preforming or repair tasks, Textile preforming combined with liq- was on exploitation of ‘Tailored fibre self-heated rigid laminates for tooling uid moulding technologies offer excit- placement’ (TFP) technology that was (moulding) and self-heated rigid lami- nates for multifunctional composites. ing potential for automation and developed in the 1990s for embroi- enhanced productivity, but innovation The team chose silicone membranes dery machinery. Researchers adapted for testing along with pre-preg mate- is required to overcome certain tech- it for advanced composites manufac- nical challenges. rials, a liquid laminating resin and a turing, by embedding carbon fibres or surface gel coat for the laminates. EU funding gave scientists the oppor- metallic wires in elastomeric materi- Heat transfer simulations explored the tunity to develop solutions through als or rigid composite laminates to best configuration of self-heated the project EMBROIDERY (Development produce a resistive self-heated layer. laminates for homogeneous thermal 28 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 ENERGY AND TRANSPORT

distribution in ‘Resin transfer mould- conducted embedding trials to vali- reduction and sales growth compared ing’ (RTM) moulds. date flexible membranes and pre- to currently manufactured compo- preg materials for rigid laminates. The nents. This technology decreases pro- “EMBROIDERY promises a electrical and thermal properties of duction time and energy consumption specimens demonstrated that this while increasing the quality of compo- significant cost reduction technology can fulfil all requirements, nents and will have a major impact on and sales growth compared and novel high-performance proto- the competitiveness of related SMEs. to currently manufactured types were produced. Scientists devel- oped the computer algorithms to components.” enable automated fibre steering via EMBROIDERY TFP enables fibre steering such that spindle control of an endless feeding Coordinated by Tecnalia in Spain. the fibre orientation can be aligned device for maximum benefits. Funded under FP7-SME. http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ with the stress field for optimal EMBROIDERY concepts for self- rcn/13038_en.html reinforcement and material usage and heating based on TFP-embedded Project website: ultra-light components. Scientists layers promises a significant cost http://www.embroidery-project.eu

AN ECO-FRIENDLY HELICOPTER ENGINE EU-funded scientists have developed a novel diesel engine for light helicopters as an alternative to conventional turboshaft engines. The technology demonstrated substantial reductions in fuel consumption and emissions. © pablographix, Thinkstock

elicopters conventionally employ substances, carbon dioxide (CO2) and out by the Advisory Council for Aviation a turboshaft engine that has a noise. Research and Innovation in Europe much better power-to-weight (ACARE) for the year 2020. The engine H To realise such an engine, the team ratio compared to diesel engines. is compatible with the use of alterna- employed extensive modelling to solve However, engine efficiency decreases tive fuels such as 100 % biofuel problems related to engine configura- dramatically with increasing altitude (B100), reducing dependence on fossil tion design and integration with the and it requires a large and heavy fuels and thus reducing greenhouse rotorcraft. Scientists analysed the reduction gear to reduce the main gas emissions. high-dimensional, dynamic, multi-body rotor speed to the desired revolutions- mechanical system and the adaptive DELILAH technology promises to have per-minute. The EU-funded project control system to address issues a significant impact on the environ- DELILAH (Diesel engine matching the related to vibration, noise, oscillations, mental and operating costs associated ideal light platform of the helicopter) engine control and response. with helicopter flight. Increasing the developed a lightweight, high-power competitiveness of the helicopter diesel engine that can also operate on Comparison of flight scenarios demon- industry while drastically reducing biofuel. strated that the DELILAH optimal tur- emissions will make the new diesel bocharged diesel engine for light engine for light helicopters a marketing The team conducted a multi-criteria helicopters could potentially reduce dream. analysis to develop the desired clean- fuel consumption by 50 %. As a result, energy solutions. Scientists focused on CO2 emissions were halved with optimising the design of a turbo- 20 times less carbon monoxide pro- DELILAH Coordinated by Lublin University charged diesel engine with self-ignition duction and over 200 times less soot of Technology in Poland. and an electronic control system. Their than conventional turboshaft engines. Funded under FP7-JTI. goal was to achieve substantial reduc- The results are fully in line with the http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ tions in the emission of toxic environmental impact reductions laid rcn/12977_en.html © SPrada, Thinkstock the ground. change’ (UNFCCC) —couldbetranslated intoideasfor actionon place under the ‘United Nations framework convention on climate national policyinitiatives—for example,thediscussionstaking The REDD-ALERTprojectfocused onhow suchinternationaland reduce deforestation andothermajorcontributorstoclimatechange. Many efforts arebeingmadeatagovernmental andgloballevelto ACTION FOSTERS INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE T from deforestation anddegradation The REDD-ALERT (Reducingemissions emissions. ciated ‘greenhousegas’ (GHG) that could be pursued to reduce asso their practices,andthepolicy options drivers and environmental impact of team examinedthesocio-economic impact ondeforestation. Theproject stakeholders whoseactivitieshavean national policymakers andthelocal helped establishlinksbetweeninter ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY regions intheworld,project its 12partnersinfour different hrough theresearchactivitiesof ON - - BETTER ple, Cameroon,’ saysDrMatthews.‘If deforestation rate.‘Sotake, for exam country inreturn for reducingits International fundingisavailable toa Matthews, projectcoordinator. deforestation,’ explainsDrRobin national level could be used to reduce ways inwhichfundsarriving atthe Vietnam), the project team ‘looked at tries (Cameroon,Indonesia,Peruand Focusing on four representative coun agricultural researchinstitutes. several Europeanandinternational forests oftheTropics) projectinvolved through alternative landuses in rain DEFORESTATION ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY research LOCAL * - - - eu resultsmagazineN°33/June2014 situation,’ hesays. need tobetailored toeachindividual ‘The devilisinthe detail,andsolutions and thatitisdifficulttogeneralise. anisms isdependentonlocalcontexts tion anddegradation’(REDD+) mech ‘Reduced emissionsfromdeforesta cess of the implementation of project teamhasshown thatthesuc The modellingworkcarriedoutby the pensate for that,’headds. gible toreceivecarboncreditscom agreed baseline,itwouldthenbeeli its rateofdeforestation below an it candemonstratethathasreduced

29

- - - - - 30 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY

One activity of the project focused on partners, helped quantify the emis- a side event in the European Union the changes in GHG emissions of for- sions for the specific pattern of tree (EU) pavilion to address the relevance est areas in Indonesia as they make cover change on the three continents, of REDD and, indeed, raise the ques- way for palm oil and acacia planta- taking into account their contrasting tion of its future, which the book also tions. ‘From our work, we now have a drivers of change,’ says Meine van tackled. According to Dr Matthews, much better grasp of the implications Noordwijk, Chief Science Advisor ‘The support from the EU to the REDD- at ICRAF. of these changes. The results will con- ALERT project meant that we were tribute to the new ‘Intergovernmental ‘We also advised on how national sys- able to draw together a team of panel on climate change’ (IPCC) guide- tems for monitoring, reporting and world-class researchers on tropical lines for calculating greenhouse gas verification can be set up, making use deforestation to address the REDD+ emissions from these land-use of pre-existing data from various initiative on the global imperative of changes,’ explains Dr Matthews. sources. Overall, the work showed that reducing emissions from land-use conflict resolution rather than pay- change in the tropics.’ ments must be the first step towards “The results will contribute to making a difference in tropical forest the new ‘Intergovernmental margins, when seen from a bottom-up panel on climate change’ perspective,’ says van Noordwijk. (IPCC) guidelines.” Another key outcome of the project was the publication of a book, Climate REDD-ALERT Change, Forests and REDD, which was Coordinated by the Macauley Land One of the international partners, the produced by the University of Use Research Institute in the United Kingdom. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Amsterdam with contributions from Funded under FP7-ENVIRONMENT. which is headquartered in Nairobi, all the project partners. The book assessed drivers and policy instru- http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ Kenya, had a key role to play in the rcn/11548_en.html ments for promoting REDD+ and mak- project. The partner analysed the http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/ ing it effective in different countries. changes in land-use in relation to article_en.cfm?artid=31916 above ground carbon stocks. ‘Our At the UNFCCC CoP18 meeting in Project website: work, together with the other project Doha, in 2012, the project team held http://redd-alert.hutton.ac.uk

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT FOR GREEN BUILDINGS A ‘Life cycle assessment’ (LCA) determines the environmental impact of a product, starting with the extraction and processing of raw material and ending with its disposal or recycling. An EU-funded initiative has developed operational guidelines for conducting LCAs on energy-efficient buildings. CAs can be used for the certification of sustainable buildings and the development of ‘Environmental prod- Luct declarations’ (EPDs) for products used in building construction. There is also a growing trend to use them dur- ing building projects as a decision-making support tool. The EEBGUIDE (Operational guidance for performing life cycle assessment studies of the energy efficient buildings initiative) project developed a common methodology and set of rules for conducting LCA studies on energy-efficient buildings. The methodology is based on existing guidelines such as the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the ‘International reference life cycle data sys- tem’ (ILCD) handbook. EEBGUIDE will enable LCA practitioners from the private and public sectors to quantify environmental impacts in a © konglinguang, Thinkstock © konglinguang, consistent and meaningful way. For this purpose, a guid- ance document was developed and LCA case studies pro- vided and disseminated to LCA practitioners and industry. construction. It can also be applied to building products and A website was also set up to act as an information hub. technical solutions within the ‘Energy efficient building The EEBGUIDE guidance document will help assess the life European initiative’ (E2B EI), an industry-driven research cycle of both existing buildings and those under programme. research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 31 ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY

At the European policy level, EEBGUIDE directly links the consumption and production’ (SCP) and the ‘Sustainable construction industry to the European Platform on LCA and industrial policy’ (SIP) action plan. the ILCD data network. Other impacts of EEBGUIDE will include the creation of new Project activities also impacted European policies such as high-skilled jobs, improved European competitiveness, and the ‘Integrated product policy’ (IPP), the new ‘Construction healthy and secure eco-friendly working conditions. In addi- products regulation’ tion, the use of participatory approaches in the develop- “The EEBGUIDE guidance (CPR) and the Lead ment of the guidance document will help contribute to a document will help assess Market Initiative for more democratic and knowledge-based society. Europe on sustaina- the life cycle of both existing ble construction. buildings and those under Environmental indi- EEBGUIDE cators and LCA will Coordinated by Fraunhofer in Germany. construction.” also influence the Funded under FP7-ENVIRONMENT. thematic strategies http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/12955_en.html on the ‘Prevention and recycling of waste’ and the Project website: ‘Sustainable use of natural resources’. Some important and http://www.eebguide.eu recent instruments in this regard are the ‘Sustainable  http://bit.ly/1hX7UAF

POSSIBLE ECO-IMPACTS OF CO2 LEAKAGE

Although scientists don’t expect significant leakage of carbon dioxide (CO2) from large-scale carbon capture and storage projects, they have assessed the risks just in case. Using field experiments,

observations of natural CO2 emissions and modelling, they have provided data to inform assessments of the possible impact of CO2 leakage on onshore and offshore ecosystems.

he objective of the EU-funded selection of appropriate CO2 storage RISCS (Research into impacts and sites and safety measures. These “Norway and the United safety in CO storage) project T 2 guidelines will also allow site opera- Kingdom were host to was to conduct fundamental research tors and regulators to adequately that could shape frameworks for the assess the potential impacts of leaks onshore experiments safe management of CO storage 2 on near-surface ecosystems. sites. The project specifically looked at that assessed the impact of marine and terrestrial ecosystems. CO2 on oats, wheat, barley In Italy, the Netherlands, the United and oilseed rape.” Kingdom and Norway, marine scien- RISCS

tists examined the effect of CO2 expo- Coordinated by the Natural sure on individual species (e.g. shrimp Environment Research Council in the and crabs) and communities, including United Kingdom. microorganisms. They also examined Funded under FP7-ENERGY. the recovery potential of marine sedi- http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ rcn/12987_en.html ments after CO2 exposure and studied Project website: the effects of natural CO2 off Italy. http://www.riscs-co2.eu Norway and the United Kingdom were host to onshore experiments that

assessed the impact of CO2 on oats, wheat, barley and oilseed rape. Grass/ clover cover, pasture plots and ground- water were also investigated, the lat-

ter at natural CO2 sites in Italy, Greece and France. Other work involved numerical onshore modelling of the movement

of CO2 through the soil and its effect on plants. Marine modelling focused

on the dispersion of CO2 in the water column by tides and the sensitivity of

different species to CO2. The key results obtained during the study have been compiled in the RISCS publication ‘A guide to impacts of

potential leaks from CO2 storage’ in

order to provide a sound basis for the Thinkstock © Ivary, 32 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY GENETIC TESTING FOR BROOD-SPAWNING FISH

Selective breeding schemes in aquaculture are expensive and difficult to implement for mass-spawning fish species. However, recent research has developed a cost- effective way to improve the efficiency of selective breeding for these fish.

elective breeding for mass- commercial species by designing and REPROSEL produced optimised breed- spawning and communally testing a high-throughput genetic ing schemes that resulted in less than Sreared fish, such as the heritage test. In addition, the consor- 1 % inbreeding and improved breeding European seabass and the gilthead tium wanted to design selective efficiency. The project also published a seabream, is difficult because it is breeding schemes and produce set of guidelines for farmers on selec- hard to control the contribution of guidelines for farmers regarding tive breeding schemes for mass specific parents in a brood. The indus- mass spawning and communally spawning and communally reared try also requires a way to limit reared marine fish species. marine fish species. inbreeding, and to regulate when and Researchers analysed several com- how the breeding animals spawn. For mass-spawning fish breeders, mercial breeding facilities to identify REPROSEL outcomes offer great ben- ways to improve spawning efficiency. efits in terms of genetic improve- They found that hormone treatments ments to their fish and thus potential “REPROSEL produced were successful in synchronising economic savings. More sustainable optimised breeding schemes spawning in both species. breeding programmes and an To design the genetic tests, data was improvement in the competitiveness that resulted in less than collected from various public data- of the breeders’ market are expected. 1 % inbreeding and improved bases to develop ‘Single nucleotide breeding efficiency.” polymorphism’ (SNP) and ‘Short tan- dem repeats’ (STR) markers, which could be used to differentiate individ- ual fish. Software was then devel- The EU-funded REPROSEL oped to allocate parentage based on (REPROduction protocols and molec- genetic similarity. Testing showed ular tools for mass spawning and that the software was able to iden- communal rearing based SELective tify both parents with up to 99-100 % REPROSEL breeding schemes applied to multi- accuracy. Coordinated by Nofima in Norway. ple-spawning marine fish) project Funded under FP7-SME. aimed to improve the selective breed- Using this newly developed tool along http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ ing methodology in these two with a breeding simulation programme, rcn/13048_en.html © IvanMikhaylov, Thinkstock © IvanMikhaylov, research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 33 ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY HOVERCRAFT TO CLEAN OCEAN OIL SPILLS Oil spills can have devastating consequences for coastal and open sea waters, and timely responses are often limited by the vehicles used to reach the scene. Now, thanks to EU funding, a specialised hovercraft that will enable immediate emergency action has been unveiled.

Researchers successfully met these goals by producing an amphibious air cushion vehicle and an oil-water separator. This came after in-depth studies “The hovercraft is highly into critical fea- modular, which will allow it tures, like an intuitive piloting to be used in different system, the ability contexts and scenarios.” to navigate rocks and a versatile platform to transport different kinds of equipment. All the necessary components were individually tested and, once fully assembled, prototypes were tested in the field. Feedback from members of the consortium as well as operators was very positive. The hovercraft is highly modular, which will allow it to be used in different contexts and scenarios. This innovative © Foxtrot101, Thinkstock solution represents a milestone in the response and reme- diation of oil spills.

t was developed as part of the HOVERSPILL (Multienvironment air cushion oil spill fast response and Ipost emergency remediation system) project. The aim was to solve the problem that traditional vehicles have in reaching areas like shoals, beaches and muddy points. HOVERSPILL The team set out to create a vessel that would be cheap Coordinated by Innova in Italy. and easy to maintain, and easy to transport and store. The Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT. craft also needed to be capable of a high operative speed, http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/12985_en.html and of storing oil collected from spills.  http://bit.ly/1gfYxki

SCANNER TO MEASURE FISH WEIGHT IN SITU Accurately estimating fish biomass is a vital aspect of commercial aquaculture. A recent project has developed a system to improve these estimations through the continuous remote monitoring of fish in sea cages.

here is currently a 5 % error in project aimed to achieve 99 % accu- as well as a surface module for the estimates of fish weight, racy in fish weight measurements. recording and transmitting data. leading to an annual loss of Their goal was to develop a product T The small businesses involved in the EUR 91 million. Recouping these losses that would continuously measure the project will continue to test and refine weight, size and growth of fish in sea will help the EU aquaculture industry these prototypes on site in order to cages. become more globally competitive. produce the final FISHSCAN system. It Researchers started with a survey of is estimated that the system could “There is currently a future users in order to better under- save farmers up to EUR 41 million stand their needs before designing the annually. 5 % error in the estimates system. FISHSCAN also studied fish of fish weight, leading to an responses to the proposed system to better inform the product design. annual loss of EUR 91 million.” Appropriate materials were evaluated FISHSCAN Coordinated by Storvik Aqua and chosen to house the system’s The EU-funded FISHSCAN in Norway. camera and lighting module. Following Funder under FP7-SME. (Development of novel system for this, design specifications were devel- http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ continuous remote monitoring of oped and several prototype systems rcn/13025_en.html weight, growth, and size distribution built. These included an underwater Project website: of fish in aquaculture enclosures) housing unit with lights and a camera, http://www.fishscanproject.com 34 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS © EU

IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS ROBOT CAREGIVERS HELP THE ELDERLY Our life expectancy is growing by the day and members of the ‘silver generation’ are making up an ever-larger proportion of the population. Can technologies help us in caring for ourselves, our older relatives and friends? Could we learn to live together with robots while being watched over by sensors? The people behind one EU research project certainly think so.

ur aging population is changing The demand for care services has network of sensors in cooperation our society’s dynamics and many countries stretched to the limit. with a robot can help older people live Oeconomy. By 2050, there will That’s where technology can help. safer, more independent lives and only be two (instead of four) Europeans According to Mr Von Rump: ‘Today enjoy social life from their home. The of working age for each person over there are an estimated 5 million star of the system is Giraff, a tele- 65, and within a decade Europe will homes in the EU where elderly resi- presence robot. It moves around the need to care for an estimated 84 mil- dents are receiving formal care ser- person’s home and enables them to lion people with age-related health vices, and 12 million homes globally. interact with family, friends and problems. Those numbers would more than dou- healthcare professionals via video- ble if we include the elderly who don’t conference. The GIRAFF+ system There is an upside to this challenge, comes with sensors throughout the though. Collectively, Europe’s over- receive formal care, but who (or whose families) would gladly pay for a tele- home and in wearable devices. These 65s have a disposable income of over sensors are designed to detect activi- EUR 3 trillion and a substantial part of care service if it extended their time living at home.’ ties like cooking, sleeping or watching this will be ploughed back into the car- television, but they also provide medi- ing economy. According to Stephen GIRAFF+: A robot carer cal information, like blood pressure Von Rump, CEO of Giraff Technologies in your home and body temperature. They allow the AB, the EU market for robots and other person’s carers to remotely monitor devices that help take care of our GIRAFF+ (Combing social interaction their wellbeing and to check for falls. elderly will reach EUR 13 billion by and long term monitoring for promot- One of the users in the GIRAFF+ pilot, 2016, and at least EUR 14.5 billion in ing independent living) is an EU 94-year-old Lea Mina Ralli, wrote on the US. research project on testing how a her blog: ‘People ask why I don’t just research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 35 IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS live with my daughter; the reason is in the middle of the evaluations, but “With this valuable assistant she has grandchildren of her own and we are already seeing that various many new responsibilities. But with aspects of the system are appreciated that I call ‘Mr Robin’ I’m more this valuable assistant that I call ‘Mr differently by the different users. This relaxed about the years Robin’ I’m more relaxed about the goes to show that there is no ‘one- ahead, and so are my children years ahead, and so are my children size-fits-all’ approach to technology and grandchildren.’ at home, and that the latter should be and grandchildren.” An emerging market both adaptable and tailored to the in caring technology user’s needs.’ GIRAFF+ Current plans are to put the system Coordinated by Orebro University ‘The system will be installed in 15 in Sweden. homes by the end of 2014,’ says Amy into commercial production next Funded under FP7-ICT. Loutfi, the project coordinator. ‘So far year, based on an upfront fee and http://cordis.europa.eu/result/story/ we have had six homes in Europe — monthly subscriptions which would rcn/13066_en.html two homes each in Spain, Sweden and make it competitive when compared Project website: Italy — where people have lived with to increasingly expensive full-time http://www.giraffplus.eu the GIRAFF+ system. We are currently care.  http://bit.ly/1lEoWWQ

LOCATION-BASED APPS COME OF AGE Smartphones look set to welcome a new generation of highly accurate location-based apps based on advanced European ground and satellite technology. s technology marches on encour- along with surveys and question- disseminated to stakeholders. This is aged by consumer demand, naires. It has also defined the techni- poised to help SMEs significantly in Asmartphone-based positioning cal requirements for outlining the developing new, more precise loca- applications are becoming increas- methodology. tion-based applications that consum- ingly ubiquitous. However, the inaccu- ers are demanding or could benefit POSTO’s work will be pivotal in provid- racy of ‘Global positioning system’ from. Thanks to POSTO, smartphones ing applications related to hiking and (GPS) technology represents a key are set to become even smarter within forestry, as well as in tracking vulner- barrier to advancing such applications. a relatively short period of time. able people such as children and the The ‘European geostationary naviga- elderly. Other applications that could tion overlay service’ (EGNOS, a pan- be developed include a construction European satellite navigation system) management application, a site health and the EU’s Galileo ‘Global navigation POSTO satellite system’ (GNSS) hold much monitoring application in restricted or dangerous areas, and the AgriGeo Coordinated by Helileo in France. potential in helping to overcome these Funded under FP7-SME. application. limitations. http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ rcn/13043_en.html The EU-funded project POSTO Preliminary smartphone applications in these fields have already been Project website: (Methodology and SW libraries for the http://www.posto-project.eu design and development of GALILEO/ designed and developed, while the  http://bit.ly/1gZsxvK EGNOS-based POSiTiOning applica- project’s results so far have been tions for smartphones) is working to contribute to efforts. It is setting out the methodology and supplying the software to help small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) create Galileo/EGNOS chipsets for smart- phone applications. To achieve its aims, the project con- sortium is analysing existing smart- phone platforms and related software development kits. It is adapting EGNOS algorithms to smartphone platforms and defining relevant guide- lines to support technology manufac- turers and developers, particularly the SMEs involved in the project. Already, the project team has ana- lysed the state-of-the-art in smart- phone positioning applications development using EGNOS technology © Comomolas,Thinkstock 36 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SCENENET: 3D RECREATION OF LIVE EVENTS FROM MOBILE VIDEOS

Ever been to a rock concert and wished you could experience it again, just as it was… or better? This may be possible soon thanks to an EU-funded research project, SCENENET, which is developing the technology to combine mobile feeds from different spectators around the arena to reconstruct the event in 3D.

SCENENET, which is funded by the ‘Future and emerging technologies’ (FET) scheme just as UNLOCX was, runs until January 2016 and consists of four European partners: the University of Bremen, Steinbeis Innovation, and European Research Services, all in Germany, and Switzerland’s EPFL. The first year of the project has seen the team develop the mobile infrastructure for the video feeds, a mecha- nism for tagging them, and their transmission to a cloud server. They’ve also developed basic tools for a human- computer interface that will allow users to view the 3D video from any vantage point ‘in the arena’ and edit the film themselves. This, they believe, will help create online communities for sharing the content and reliving the con- cert experience together. With this in mind, the partners are to study privacy and intellectual property rights issues over the next two years of the project.

© İhsan Eroğlu, Thinkstock ‘We have, at the end of the first year, and sooner than expected, already built the entire SCENENET pipeline based on current state-of-the-art components,’ said Chen. hen and Nizan Sagiv had the idea when they were at Indeed, the accelerated computer vision algorithms they a Depeche Mode concert in Tel Aviv five years ago. are creating for mobiles is a pioneering effort worldwide, C‘While I was busy watching the show, Nizan was and leading chipset manufacturers are following the pro- watching the crowds,’ explained Chen, SCENENET (Mobile ject closely. Crowd Sourcing Video Scene Reconstruction) project coor- dinator. ‘He could not SCENENET involves several technological challenges: on- help noticing the device pre-processing that requires immense computer “We have, at the end of the huge number of power, efficient transmission of the video streams, devel- first year, and sooner than faint lights from opment of accurate and fast methods for registration between the video streams, and the 3D reconstruction. All mobile phone expected, already built the of these tasks have to run at near real-time rates. screens. People were entire SCENENET pipeline taking videos of the ‘We believe that the various components that make up based on current state-of- show. Nizan thought SCENENET, e.g. registration of images and 3D reconstruc- that combining all tion, have great potential for mobile computing and cloud the-art components.” the videos taken by computing, Thus SCENENET offers a huge technological individuals into a breakthrough — in its entirety and also via each of its synergetic, enhanced and possibly 3D video could be an components,’ she added. interesting idea. We discussed the concept for many months, but it looked too futuristic, risky and Moving beyond concerts complicated.’ Myriad possible uses for SCENENET are emerging as the project develops. Rights and privacy concerns permitting, Israel-Europe collaboration the technology might also be used to recreate other events in 3D, such as breaking news or sports, or in the They sought advice from ISERD, the Israel-Europe R&D tourism or surveillance sectors. The partners are also Directorate, and contacted Prof. Peter Maass from the looking at shooting static, as well as active, objects from University of Bremen in Germany, and Prof. Pierre various angles, to create instructions that can be sent on Vandergheynst from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale to 3D printers. The mobile-cloud server model could also (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, with whom Chen had be used for a host of other applications, say the research- worked on an earlier 7th Framework Programme project, ers. But for the moment they are concentrating on music UNLOCX. fans. The result is the SCENENET project, awarded EUR 1.33 mil- ‘SCENENET revolves around mobile cameras and 3D lion by the European Commission, and coordinated by Chen vision. The invasion of mobile cameras and their continu- and Nizan’s Ra’anana-based company, SagivTech, special- ally improved quality has meant we are flooded with ists in computer vision and parallel computing. images we want to enhance and show off. Many devices T Africa), the 2010 Commonwealth FIFA World CupinCapeTown (South ing events.Thisincludedthe2010 nology’ (ICT) systems at major sport ‘Information andcommunicationtech ject was set up. The project tested with ImpactsonUrbanMobility)pro Applications Designedfor largeevents (SmartTransportSTADIUM To addressthis,theEU-funded of time. massive organisationinashortspace mittee’s’ (LOC) budget, and requires 20 events. Thiscanconsumeuptoabout the contextofhostingmajorsporting city. Researchershaverecentlytestedseveraltechnologicalsolutionstotheseproblems. Large eventssuchastheOlympicsorFIFA World Cupposehugetransportchallengesfor theorganising health. research andICTthroughnanotechnologytoenergy EUR 634million,infieldsrangingfromcuttingedge over 800projectsfundedby theECtotuneof have benefited from the 7th Framework Programme in between theEUandIsrael.Some1 SCENENET isagoodexampleofcollaborationinresearch other hand,’thecoordinatorexplained. world ononehand,andeasieranalysisofthe is becomingmoreimportantfor better visualisationofthe based onimageprocessingandcomputervision.3Dvision Google Glass,for instance—wheremostofthisworkis that ‘understand’visualinputsarebeingdeveloped— MANAGEMENT IMPROVING EVENT TRANSPORT

© Anna Stowe/LOOP IMAGES/Loop Images/Corbis % of the ‘Local organising com and it becomeseven more so in part of a city’s infrastructure, ransport isacomplexandcrucial - - - - 600 Israeliscientists global positioningsystemtracking (taxis andautorickshaws)using buses) with paratransit services linked publictransport(trainsand a mobileapplication.Theproject integrated bookingsystemthatused Delhi operationsinvolvedtestingan operating inthecity. mass transportsystemsalready successfully integratedwiththe ciency. Asaservice,itwas time’ oftaxisandtoimprove effi control centretoreducethe‘down in minibustaxis.Thesystemuseda demand-responsive transportsystem In CapeTown, STADIUM testeda Kingdom). Olympic Games in London (United Games inDelhi(India),andthe2012

IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS     Chen summarised. leading academicpartnersandcompaniesinEurope,’ scientific andindustrialcommunities,collaboratewith ‘This isanopportunitytobeapartofthethrivingEuropean     http://scenenet.uni-bremen.de Project website: http://cordis.europa.eu/result/story/rcn/13005_en.html Funded underFP7-ICT. Coordinated by SagivTech inIsrael. SCENENET research*eu resultsmagazineN°33/June2014 - -

In London,CCTVcameraswereused transit times. and forecasting toolstoimprove     major sportingevents. disrupting publictransportduring dinate travelrequirementswithout This willenableLOCs tobettercoor port managementatfutureevents. projects intoaguidebookfor trans the resultsofthesedemonstrator The STADIUM projecthascompiled despite increasedtraffic. control and overall travelling times, the operatorswhileimproving traffic gestion. Thisreducedtheworkloadof potential traffic problems and con system thatcouldalertoperatorsto mated trafficandincidentdetection ysis. Itwasintendedasanauto to provide datafor visualsceneanal     http://www.stadium-project.eu Project website: rcn/10266_en.html http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ Funded underFP7-TRANSPORT. Coordinated by ISISinItaly. STADIUM communication technology’

(ICT) systemsatmajor

“The projecttested ‘Information and sporting events.”

- - - - - 37 38 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS AUGMENTED REALITY: BRINGING HISTORY AND THE FUTURE TO LIFE Have you ever wished you had a virtual time machine that could show you how your street looked last century? Or have you wanted to see how your new furniture might look, before you’ve even bought it? Thanks to VENTURI, an EU research project, you can now do just that.

not give me the information that I need according to where I am, what I am doing and what I enjoy. ‘However, I do believe that this is about to change. In VENTURI, we have been exploring cutting edge ‘reality sensing’ through computer-vision and sensor fusion, and have tied this together with intuitive ‘world augmentation’ through 3D audio, Smartwatch interaction and HMDs like Google Glass. ‘The aim of the VENTURI project is to create augmented reality applications that blend seamlessly with the user’s interaction with the real world.’ Rather than needing to stop to look at their smartphone or tablet, users would receive information that enhances their experience of the world around them through an earpiece or smart glasses. Using AR to help customers It’s not only virtual history galleries that can be created

© Venturi using the VENTURI project’s augmented reality systems. Companies like Volkswagen, Audi and IKEA are working with project partner Metaio to create exciting new tools. For rès Cloîtres Numérique, due to be launched this sum- example, Audi customers can take a virtual tour of their mer, is a ‘living memorial’ to a neglected quarter of new vehicle to learn about its features, while Volkswagen ‘TGrenoble,’ says VENTURI (immersiVe ENhancemenT allows users to customise a car before ordering. IKEA and of User-woRld Interactions) Project Coordinator Paul Mitsubishi both allow clients to see how their products Chippendale. The project was designed to appeal to people would look in their familiar with the neighbourhood as well as those who are homes or offices, “Companies like Volkswagen, interested in Grenoble’s rich cultural heritage and human before buying. history. Audi and IKEA are working By working with Participants can use a tablet or smartphone to look at the Metaio and Sony, with project partner Metaio to city through a virtual lens. The modern-day scene that they the VENTURI pro- create exciting new tools.” can see through their device’s camera is overlaid with his- ject is creating torical photographs and 3D reconstructions of ancient what they believe buildings, allowing the users to look at their surroundings, will be the first generation of ubiquitous AR tools. According going backwards through time. Local schoolchildren have to Paul Chippendale: ‘Thanks to Sony’s participation in collected photographs and souvenirs from their parents VENTURI, we have had privileged access to their future and grandparents in order to preserve their memories for future generations. vision of wearable devices, ranging from smart life logging bands (wrist-worn devices that log a user’s activity) to Beyond smartphones and tablets: advanced head mounted displays. We have been using this wearable ‘augmented reality’ (AR) insight together with Metaio’s strong market knowledge, to create personalised AR content according to a user’s social Whilst Très Cloîtres Numérique is ambitious, it still relies on profile, the current environment and what it is that they’re the user looking through the screen of their smart device. currently doing.’ ‘But rather than having to view the world through your device,’ says Mr Chippendale, ‘it should be possible to expe- rience an augmented environment seamlessly through smart glasses, watches and earpieces. VENTURI ‘The customary ‘letterbox’ paradigm of AR — holding up Coordinated by the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Italy. your smartphone and using it as a magic looking glass — Funded under FP7-ICT. certainly makes AR accessible to the masses, but in my http://cordis.europa.eu/result/story/rcn/13004_en.html opinion it is not a comfortable experience. Even though I Project website: work in this field I still do not use AR Apps in my everyday https://venturi.fbk.eu life,’ says Mr Chippendale. ‘They are just too generic and do  http://bit.ly/QZwjyb research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 39 INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES © Arhendrix, Thinkstock

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES MODULAR, FLEXIBLE, SUSTAINABLE: THE FUTURE OF CHEMICAL MANUFACTURING Picture a chemical plant. How would you describe it? You’re probably not thinking along the lines of compact, nimble or adaptable — but that’s about to change. Europe’s chemical industry is innovating in order to survive and thrive in the face of rapidly changing market demands and fierce global competition. New technologies will enable the industry to manufacture products faster, more flexibly and more sustainably, and EU-funded research is providing the solutions.

OPIRIDE (Combining process plants. The results of their work have help to secure jobs by providing intensification-driven manufac- the potential to provide the chemical smart, moveable and flexible chemi- Cture of microstructured reactors industry with a much-needed com- cal plant concepts,’ says project coor- and process design regarding indus- petitive boost. dinator Dr Patrick Löb, head of the trial dimensions and environment) Mixing and Fine Chemistry Department and F³ FACTORY (Flexible, fast and Small plants, huge at the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz. future production processes) are two potential ‘For example,’ he adds, ‘a chemical of the projects that have developed The achievements of COPIRIDE plant embedded in a 3-by-12-metre innovative technologies to support include patents on gasification, a cat- container is more capable of adapting the shift towards greater versatility alyst system and reactor fabrication to market trends and bringing process and smaller environmental footprints. technology. and product innovations faster to They have produced new technolo- market.’ gies, processes and manufacturing ‘COPIRIDE has contributed to improv- concepts that will feed into the design ing the competitiveness of the The team developed novel miniatur- and operation of innovative chemical European chemical industry and will ised reactors (micro-reactors) 40 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES

— designed to fit inside these garage- judge the different processing or pro- ‘was a strategic endeavour for all sized plants — that give operators far duction options,’ says Dr Löb. participants.’ better control over chemical reactions. A wide variety of partners were This advance will lead to more sus- ‘The fascinating thing,’ he notes, ‘was involved in the project, establishing tainable processing, with fewer inputs that people left the competitive envi- pan-European cooperation that of energy and raw materials. ronment and got together in a joint should help ensure widespread dis- environment, to develop technology semination of the outcomes through- Tried and tested that they could all enjoy.’ He is con- out Europe’s chemical industry. To ensure that COPIRIDE’s findings vinced that this collaborative were relevant across the industry, the Cleaner, leaner, faster approach could hold the key to similar project’s research teams were grouped processes advances in other industries. around specific chemical processes. To demonstrate that its production ‘Piloting activities were carried out to The F³ FACTORY project’s vision for technology could place the EU’s demonstrate results and show the chemical plant of the future chemical industry ahead of the curve, improvements in the chemical pro- focused on reconciling the seemingly cess itself,’ explains Dr Löb. conflicting requirements of flexibility F³ FACTORY moved from theory to and resource efficiency. This trans- practice by building a model factory One demonstration involved a chemi- lated into the development of a — the INVITE Research Center. cal factory embedded in a special standardised, modular type of plant flexible and moveable container. The designed for easy deployment Located in Leverkusen, Germany, this move from drawing board to bricks throughout the industry — a ‘plug- standardised platform was trialled and mortar required two different and-play’, container-based produc- successfully by the industrial partners facilities, each equipped for a differ- tion facility. In addition to their work involved in the project. ‘We had seven ent process step. Once up and running on the equipment, the partners different major chemical companies at an industrial site in Germany, the designed software to facilitate and preparing their processes and operat- plants were able to produce a large streamline the design of new ing these in the respective process batch of a particular chemical. processes. containers on one single site,’ The outcomes offer intriguing possi- Dr Buchholz reports. bilities. The partners estimate that What does the future hold for the F³ their technology can, for example, “We were able to boost the FACTORY technology? Further work is reduce time-to-market by up to 50 %, being carried out to prepare it for efficiency of various process cut operating expenses and capital steps by orders of magnitude.” expenses by as much as 20 % and widespread deployment, and a num- 40 % respectively, and potentially ber of partners are planning to adopt halve the environmental footprint of it alongside existing facilities. The Another demonstration addressed the individual processes. model factory INVITE is now being need for lower production ranges. This operated by a separate legal entity, The team’s work aimed at a modular required a modular multi-purpose and remains available for open inno- and container-based platform provid- ‘mini-plant’, the construction of which vation and any company to use. was led by a consortium partner from ing the prerequisites for a variety of the small and medium-sized enter- chemical process types (e.g. poly- Like COPIRIDE, F³ FACTORY ended in prise (SME) sector. mers, healthcare and agrochemicals), August 2013, leaving a legacy of in contrast to conventional bulk pro- innovation that will help to take the A separate demonstration plant was cessing technology that is tailored to EU’s chemical industry another step set up to allow researchers to explore just one type of feedstock or process, ahead. the feasibility of producing biodiesel but cannot readily be used for another. from waste oils in supercritical condi- tions. The demonstration targeted To optimise their innovative plant, the cost efficiency, greater competitive- participating chemical companies, ness and improved sustainability academic organisations and equip- compared to other starting materials ment manufacturers also seized COPIRIDE and processing conditions. opportunities for process intensifica- Coordinated by the Mainz Institute tion. ‘We were able to boost the effi- of Microtechnology in Germany. The gasification of biomass to pro- ciency of various process steps by Funded under FP7-NMP. duce chemicals and ammonia (which orders of magnitude,’ says project http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ can then be processed into fertiliser) coordinator Dr Sigurd Buchholz of rcn/6696_en.html was also trialled. In addition, the pro- Bayer Technology Services. COPIRIDE website: ject team sought to improve proces- http://www.copiride.eu sing approaches. They looked into a Consensus for change concept known as ‘Novel Process F³ FACTORY ‘In addition, they harmonised produc- Windows’, which aims at reducing Coordinated by Bayer Technology tion practices among the participating reaction time through a highly inten- Services in Germany. industrial partners sufficiently to sified approach that better exploits Funded under FP7-NMP. ensure that the resulting technology chemical reactivity. http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ would work for them all. This open rcn/6215_en.html ‘Quite unique to the COPIRIDE project and enthusiastic cooperation among http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/ has been that, from the beginning, major chemical companies,’ says Dr article_en.cfm?artid=31476 simplified cost analysis and life cycle Buchholz, ‘was one of the project’s F³ FACTORY website: assessments have been performed to main assets. The project,’ he adds, http://www.f3factory.com/ research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 41 INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES COMPOSITECOMPOSITE PATCHPATCH CRACKS AND CORROSION were shown to be suitable for automated monitoring. Numerical modelling techniques were developed to simulate the behaviour of patched structures. Based on this, the team developed best practice guidelines and application procedures covering evaluation of damage, patch design, composite patch application and repair moni- toring. The guidelines also covered regulatory considerations as well as recommended personnel training. © Nneirda, Thinkstock CO-PATCH research- “CO-PATCH researchers Degradation of large steel structures used in ers successfully dem- aerospace, shipping and civil engineering can have onstrated the ability successfully demonstrated catastrophic consequences. EU-funded scientists of composite patch the ability of composite have developed advanced repair technology to repairs to reinforce address the issue. steel structural mem- patch repairs to reinforce bers through full- steel structural members onventional techniques to address fatigue and corro- scale tests. The sion involve re-welding, applying bolted or welded technology is envi- through full-scale tests.” Cplates, or even replacing entire panels. Recently, com- ronmentally stable, posite patches have been effectively exploited in the aero- can be classified as a permanent repair, and is equally suit- space industry to reduce the maintenance time and cost able for marine vessels and civil engineering infrastructures. associated with repair or reinforcement. Scientists employed Implementation will significantly reduce maintenance costs experimental and numerical techniques to explore their use and, in the case of metal bridges, prolong service lifetime. in ships and bridges with the EU-funded project CO-PATCH This has important implications for our safety and the com- (Composite patch repair for marine and civil engineering petitiveness of related EU industries. infrastructure applications). CO-PATCH The team began by defining the regulatory framework for Coordinated by the National Technical University of Athens both applications to ensure compliance. They developed a in Greece. defect inspection and classification procedure to determine Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT. which defects are candidates for composite patch repair. http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/9999_en.html Non-destructive testing techniques were evaluated for mon- Project website: itoring the integrity of the patch once applied, and some http://www.co-patch.com

GIVING WORKPLACE INJURIES THE SLIP Slipping is responsible for more were intended to improve on current than 40 % of workplace injuries. government legislation regarding this A recent project has developed topic. tools for footwear and flooring The project also developed a ‘wear manufacturers to help improve and tear’ simulator to allow manufac- anti-slip features. turers to investigate the durability of ootwear manufacturers have, in their anti-slip designs. Another tech- the past, often relied on intuition nological tool created was high-speed Fand previous experience to design image acquisition and the accompa- soles for shoes. This approach has nying software. This allows manufac- contributed to the large number of turers to study in great detail the accidents caused by slipping, and also interaction between sole, floor and makes the design process more various slippery substances. expensive and time consuming. Lastly, several design tools were The EU-funded ULTRAGRIP (Develop- advanced and tested. These include ment of a high grip designing tool) pro- slip behaviour prediction software and ject aimed to produce a range of a tool to correlate the slip testing © KatarzynaBialasiewicz, Thinkstock software tools and guidelines for foot- wear and flooring manufacturers to methods used in the two industries. design better soles and flooring. The The ULTRAGRIP project will improve project also developed several tech- the competitiveness of the two manu- ULTRAGRIP nological tools. facturing sectors by streamlining and Coordinated by INESCOP in Spain. Funded under FP7-SME. improving the design process. In the Researchers produced two documents http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ that contain recommendations and long-term, the work done here will rcn/13039_en.html requirements for improving slip resist- help to make the working environment Project website: ance under different conditions. These a safer place. http://www.ultragrip.eu 42 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES CAPTURING CARBON DIOXIDE IN FLUE GASES

The EU is dedicated to reducing its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. EU-funded scientists have demonstrated the feasibility of retrofit post-combustion calcium looping CO2 capture technology that exhibits both low cost and very high efficiency.

The first FBR is a carbonator that captures CO2 from the

combustion flue gas as CaCO3, releasing a tremendous amount of heat in the process. Solids from the carbonator are channelled to a fluidised bed calciner where oxy-fired combustion of coal produces high temperatures to calcine 3 the CaCO back to calcium oxide (CaO) and CO2. The latter is at a very high concentration and thus facilitates easy recov- ery. The high temperatures and heat produced by both reac- tors significantly increase the process efficiency. This is because the heat can be used to generate steam that can drive a turbine to produce electricity. Furthermore, purge material with high CaO concentrations can be used to make cement for other applications.

© Andrés Sánchez-Biezma Sacristán, Provider’s image © Andrés Sánchez-Biezma Sacristán, Provider’s CAOLING developed new sorbents and techniques to enhance sorbent performance as well as simulation tools for the scale-up process. Scientists successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the technology with a 1.7 Megawatt thermal power plant. It had a low efficiency penalty and was suitable for retrofit in exist- ing coal combustion “Very high CO2 capture power plants. Very efficiencies (over 90 %) were high CO2 capture ong-term energy goals include meeting a significant efficiencies (over demonstrated on three portion of energy demands with renewable sources. 90 %) were demon- different rigs.” LDuring the transition period, carbon capture and stor- strated on three age is a promising way to reduce greenhouse gas emis- different rigs by identification of appropriate conditions and sions from the combustion of fossil fuels. The EU-funded parameters. project CAOLING (Development of postcombustion CO cap- 2 CAOLING is the biggest initiative in the world to test calcium ture with CaO in a large testing facility) worked on scaling looping for post-combustion capture from flue gases and up post-combustion calcium looping technology as a nec- thus its success should position the EU as a leader in the essary prerequisite for a pre-industrial demonstration field. plant.

Calcium looping is a limestone (calcium carbonate (CaCO3))- based process that relies on ‘Fluidised bed reactors’ (FBRs)

that are common and thus inexpensive to install. CaCO3 is an excellent and cost-effective sorbent for CO2. Calcium CAOLING looping using flue gases from a commercial coal power Coordinated by Endesa Generación in Spain. plant is therefore an extremely attractive option compared Funded under FP7-ENERGY. to other technologies. http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/10235_en.html

TINY HOLES THAT INCREASE PROTECTION Anodisation of metals such as Exquisite control of pore formation Scientists obtained a well ordered aluminium (Al) produces a and geometry can significantly structure on pure Al and some Al protective coating of metal oxide, improve the performance and lifetime alloys (those with high copper content of anodised aluminium. Such nano- are more problematic). Computational aluminium oxide (Al2O3) in this case. EU-funded scientists scale control is not possible with cur- fluid dynamics models were used to have investigated the controlled rent industrial anodisation processes. model the circulation system for ano- disation in order to optimise parame- growth of nano-structured pores EU-funded scientists working on the ters for the prototype and scale-up in the coatings to enhance project NANOCOAT (Nano-structured system. performance and durability. aluminium oxide coatings) investi- gated the requisite nano-structuring Results at lab scale were reproduced he Al2O3 coating is very hard and non-reactive, enhancing durabil- process for large-scale applications. in an industrial environment for the Tity and preventing corrosion. The Researchers studied process materi- first demonstration of nano- metal-oxide layer is highly porous, als and parameters for anodisation structured oxidation of Al alloys at also facilitating adhesion of subse- of pure Al, Al alloys and Al with industrial scale. In addition, the black quent layers for colouring or sealing. inclusions. colouration obtained without opening research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 43 INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES

pores was uniform after a double ano- assessment compared energy con- (SMEs) that supply a wide range of disation procedure with constant sumption of the NANOCOAT process products to numerous industries of micro-hardness of the oxide. with conventional oxidation processes. strategic importance to the EU econ- Despite higher energy requirements omy. Project technology will thus have “Results at lab scale were and capital expenditures than conven- a major impact on the competitive tional processes, these novel coatings positions of both SMEs and their reproduced in an industrial are well suited for application in high- customers. environment for the first performance optics, aerospace and demonstration of nano- space components, and high-value NANOCOAT consumer products. Coordinated by International Project structured oxidation of Management, Plating and Materials NANOCOAT has made important in France. Al alloys at industrial scale.” advances in controlling the growth of Funded under FP7-SME. highly organised, nano-structured http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ A simplified life cycle analysis was rcn/13022_en.html Al2O3 coatings for enhanced perfor- carried out to address production mance and durability. The surface Project website: issues related to environmental legis- finishing industry is dominated http://www.nanocoat-project.eu lation. A complete techno-economic by ‘small and medium-sized enterprises  http://bit.ly/1nYJf68

PLASTIC WELD JOINTS — NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTS Plastic piping has replaced metals and concrete in many applications, but standardised ‘Non-destructive evaluation’ (NDE) techniques are lacking. EU-funded scientists have developed the technology to detect every type of flaw that can occur in welded joints in ‘polyethylene’ (PE) pipes. lastics have better resistance to chemicals and corro- TESTPEP’s ultra- “Commercialisation will sion than metals. In addition, they are lightweight, sound-based NDE Phave long predicted service lives and are more resist- technology for reduce leaks, disruptions due ant to leakage — all of which decrease installation and welds in plastic to repairs and the maintenance costs, not to mention reduce environmental piping fills a critical hazards. industry need for environmental risks of standardised flaw catastrophic failures.” Scientists working on the EU-funded project TESTPEP detection and (Development and Validation of an Automated Non- acceptance criteria. Commercialisation will reduce leaks, destructive Evaluation (NDE) Approach for Testing Welded disruptions due to repairs and the environmental risks of Joints in Plastic Pipes) have developed an automated catastrophic failures. Increasing confidence in the use of phased-array ultrasonic NDE system for volumetric analy- plastic piping will also enhance the competitive position of sis of welds in PE pipes, either during production or plastics manufacturers. retrospectively. The team successfully developed and optimised all the main system compo- nents, including probe/wedge assembly, scanner and flaw detector, and carried out validation trials on the prototype inspection system both in the labora-

tory and in the field. Researchers com- image © TWI Ltd, Provider’s pleted the characterisation of ultrasound propagation for both medium density and high density PE pipe materials. Procedures were then developed to insert planar flaws and particulate contamination into both butt fusion and electrofusion welds. Following this, numerous welds with various types, sizes and amounts of flaws were manufactured in order to develop both the TESTPEP inspection procedures and the flaw acceptance criteria, Coordinated by TWI Limited in the United Kingdom. based on both short-term and long-term mechanical per- Funded under FP7-SME. formance. Researchers designed and manufactured novel http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/13027_en.html phased-array probes and different probe holders and Project website: attachment mechanisms for the modular scanning system, http://www.testpep.eu which can inspect welds in PE pipes of diameters ranging  http://bit.ly/1mN9rP3 from 180 to 710 millimetres. 44 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 SPACE © RossellaApostoli, Thinkstock

SPACE USHERING IN A NEW ERA OF SPACE FLIGHT Many children dream of becoming an astronaut, yet only a few ever see that dream realised. That may soon change, thanks to the EU-funded project FAST20XX. Run by a European consortium, which was led by the European Space Agency (ESA), the project investigated and developed technologies to conquer the grey zone between aeronautics and space in Europe.

he results achieved set the foundation for a new, The FAST20XX project team managed to develop the long-term transportation paradigm, which would ALPHA concept to the point where, if resources Tcommercialise space flight and move it closer to allowed, its entire system — from the space-plane within the general population’s reach. itself, to its hybrid In particular, the FAST20XX (Future high-altitude propulsion and corre- high-speed transport 20XX) team worked on two con- sponding flight con- “Space flight is a cepts: recreational suborbital flight (space flight that trol system — could dream for so many start being developed. has less energy than needed for entering orbit) and people. This project point-to-point transportation (moving from one place Molina explains that, to another). The first concept, ALPHA, is a vehicle that because ALPHA high- has made that dream is air-launched from a carrier plane before it ignites lighted regulatory and a bit more attainable.” its own hybrid rocket motor to climb out of the atmos- technological prob- phere and then glide back to Earth. Passengers on lems, the concept was this recreational suborbital flight would reach an alti- an important step for tude of 100-120 km, crossing the Kármán line (the his team towards commercial, rocket-powered point- boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer to-point transportation. These problems need to be space). solved before their second concept, SpaceLiner, is ready for development. ‘Everyone who crosses that line can call themselves an astronaut,’ says Rafael Molina from the ESA, who After that, the advanced form of point-to-point trans- took over as coordinator of the three-year project in portation, SpaceLiner, would ‘allow a person to fly 2011. from Europe to Australia in two hours,’ explains research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 45 SPACE

Molina. The futuristic vessel is to be powered by a rocket So far, US suborbital tourism projects have been very suc- engine and would take off vertically, and land horizon- cessful. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, for example, tally. Although SpaceLiner is not yet ready for develop- raised over USD 40 million from ticket deposits and sales ment, the project team has uncovered and solved over the past three years, even though not a single flight numerous technical issues related to its design. For the has yet been scheduled. Molina believes a European com- first time, environmental aspects, such as sonic and petitor to US providers is sure to prosper. Because accord- chemical pollution of suborbital space flight, were also ing to Molina, ‘flying in space would be a life-changing investigated. experience for anyone. Who would say no to such a dream?’ ‘Space flight is a dream for so many people. This project has made that dream a bit more attainable,’ adds Molina. FAST20XX The FAST20XX project also highlighted the need for an Coordinated by the European Space Agency in France. international regulatory framework for space flight. ‘We Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT. have plenty of engineers capable of developing innova- http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/92911_en.html tive suborbital transportation, so it is high time we http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/ develop an international framework,’ believes Molina. article_en.cfm?artid=32036 Currently, only the United States has such a system. Its Project website: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has provided http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering/ licences to build a number of spaceports across the FAST20XX_Future_High-Altitude_High-Speed_ country and has eased rules for selling suborbital flights Transport_20XX to the general population.  http://bit.ly/SagA0C

UNRAVELLING THE MYSTERIES OF OUR PLANET Initially only a handful of spacecraft could observe the Earth’s magnetosphere — the magnetic bubble that surrounds the planet — but their number has grown in recent years. Today, these spacecraft have begun to provide multi-point measurements to afford a better understanding of what drives changes in the magnetosphere. he European Space Agency’s (ESA) multi-spacecraft mission has been Tin orbit for more than a decade, investigating space weather events as they unfold, something that was impos- sible with a single spacecraft. The EU-funded project called ECLAT (European cluster assimilation technol- ogy) will provide an important upgrade to the ESA’s ‘Cluster active archive’ (CAA). CAA is a state-of-the-art data repository that contains processed and validated multi-point measurements collected by the four Cluster spacecraft.

“Using information about the © NASA/Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS solar wind conditions will facilitate creation of a routines as well as a modelling infra- weather in space caused by solar structure are also being added. activity. detailed 3D map of the The software tools enable users to In turn, with this information on hand, Earth’s magnetosphere.” place spacecraft within the space researchers could watch space weather recreated from ground observations, unfold in a way never before possible CAA enables researchers to conduct marrying the two datasets (space- and, more importantly, improve the qual- detailed studies of the highest resolu- and ground-based observations) for ity of forecasts of space weather events. tion cluster observations accumulated the first time. On the other hand, using from different types of experiments. information about the solar wind Although an invaluable resource to conditions will facilitate creation of a the space physics community, this detailed 3D map of the Earth’s ECLAT multi-instrument data is difficult to Coordinated by the University magnetosphere. of Leicester in the United Kingdom. mine and analyse, as it lacks support- Funded under FP7-SPACE. ing contextual data. By analysing the different character- istics of the observed magnetic and http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/ ECLAT scientists are upgrading the electric fields, this state-of-the-art rcn/9796_en.html CAA by importing measurements from database will lead to new insights into Project website: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/ a variety of other space missions and many natural processes — from those physics/research/rspp/missions/eclat/ ground-based observatories. Data occurring deep inside the planet and eclat-european-cluster-assimilation- mining, visualisation and analysis affecting the Earth’s magnetic field, to technology 46 research*eu results magazine N°33 / June 2014 SPACE FACILITATING EXCHANGE AMONG SPACE NATIONAL CONTACT POINTS

An EU project is aiding networking among space agency ‘National contact points’ (NCPs). This will help them share information and raise the standard of communication services.

“NCPs for space organisations can benefit from a network of like-minded individuals.” © CPD-Lab, Thinkstock

CPs for space organisations can benefit from a net- The final goal is to provide information about COSMOS+ work of like-minded individuals. This will help to bal- and to raise awareness about FP7 or Horizon 2020 space Nance and raise the overall quality of NCP services. projects and related topics. Aiming to achieve this is the EU-funded COSMOS+ To date, the project’s work consists of a kick-off meeting in (Continuation of the cooperation of space NCPs as a means June 2012. Non-member agencies were invited for a brief- to optimise services) project. The project brings together 21 ing. Prior to the project’s official launch, the University of scientific research agencies from around Europe. Surrey (United Kingdom) hosted an information day, inform- ing over 160 participants from 24 countries about FP7’s The project’s work will be structured into six ‘work pack- most recent space call. Training events (in Spain and Cyprus ages’ (WPs), each with its own goal. The first, ‘integration’, in 2012) allowed the network to participate in an EU space aims to even chances for all Seventh Framework Programme event, and improved partners’ knowledge of space activi- (FP7) countries and regions. This includes equalising oppor- ties and organisations. tunities for additional countries, small and medium-sized The project, and its planned future events, will support a enterprises, and both genders. smooth start to Horizon 2020. This will mean articulated space proposals, hopefully leading to successful projects. An exchange system promises to foster contacts among COSMOS+ partners. A mentoring scheme with developing countries will improve collaboration among key space play- ers. Additionally, the project will improve the knowledge and COSMOS+ Coordinated by DLR in Germany. skills of space NCPs, and provide them with current infor- Funded under FP7-SPACE. mation about performing certain duties. COSMOS+ will also http://cordis.europa.eu/result/brief/rcn/12615_en.html ensure the smooth transfer of space NCP services beyond Project website: 2013 funding. http://ncp-space.net/ © IPGGutenbergUKLtd, Thinkstock EVENTS London http://www.iicbe.org/2014/07/05/47 For moreinformation, pleasevisit: references ofnovel researchmaterial. conference, includingfigures,tablesand address thethemesandtopicsof short papers,postersandabstractsthat invited to submit full-length papers, the solutions adopted. practical challenges encountered and Participants willalsodiscussthe ecological andmedicalsciences. regarding allaspectsofagricultural, their experiences and research results and scholarstoexchangeshare leading academicscientists,researchers The conference aims to bring together from 3to4July2014inLondon,UK. Sciences’ (AEMS-2014)willtake place Agricultural, EcologicalandMedical The ‘International Conference on CONFERENCE MEDICAL SCIENCES ECOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL, CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL 03 JULY ▶ 04 , UK http://c2.glocos.org/index.php/meme/main For moreinformation, pleasevisit: leading totheemergence ofnewresearchagendas andproviding guidelines for futurework. conference is expected to foster closer cooperation between theoretical andexperimental practitioners Besides promotingdemonstrations anddiscussionsofrecentadvancesinhottopicsresearch, the tools for thestudyandexploration oftheEarthandOcean. and otherscientistscanengage anddiscussthedevelopmentofinnovative scientificandtechnological The main goal oftheconference istoprovide a multidisciplinary forum wheremathematicians, engineers 21 to25July2014inAveiro,Portugal. A conference entitled‘MathematicsandEngineeringinMarineEarthProblems’willbeheldfrom Aveiro, CONFERENCE AND EARTH PROBLEMS MATHEMATICS AND ENGINEERING IN MARINE Participants are 21 PORTUGAL JULY

▶ 25 Opatija conferences/air-pollution-2014.html http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14- For moreinformation, pleasevisit: related toairpollution. dealing withawidevarietyoftopics presentation anddiscussionofpapers to exchangeinformation throughthe active inthestudyofaircontaminants to bring together researchers who are ronment. known impactsonhealthand the envi community. Itiswidespreadandhas ing problems facing the international Air pollutionisoneofthemostchalleng in Opatija,Croatia. 2014’ willbeheldfrom7to9July2014 A conference entitled‘Air Pollution CONFERENCE AIRPOLLUTION 2014 http://cordis.europa.eu/events For moreforthcoming events: EVENTS 07 JULY ▶ 09 The goalofthisconference is , CROATIA

research

* - - eu resultsmagazineN°33/June2014 experts fromdiversebackgrounds and scholars, leadingresearchersand The ICNPAA congresses bringtogether Norway. from 15to18July2014inNarvik, Aerospace andSciences’willbeheld Mathematical ProblemsinEngineering, An evententitled‘ICNPAA Congress: Narvik icnpaa/2014 http://icnpaa.com/index.php/ For moreinformation, pleasevisit: industry acrosstheworld. academia, government laboratoriesand engineers andresearchersfrom conference seriesattractsscientists, mathematics isachieved. and allareasofsciencesapplied areas within engineering, aerospace, level exchangeinnewandemerging applied communities,sothatahigh the theoretical,experimental,and placed onpromotinginteractionbetween applications areas.Specialemphasisis CONGRESS SCIENCES AEROSPACE AND ENGINEERING, PROBLEMS IN MATHEMATICAL ICNPAA CONGRESS: 15 JULY ▶ 18 , NORWAY

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