Research*eu results magazine. No 15, September 2012.
Date: 2013-01-29
Institutions: CORDIS, Publications Office of the European Union
Subjects: research, research and development, research project, serial publication

ISSN 1831-9947

ISSN 1830-8864

research eu

R E S U L T S   M A G A Z I N E

No 15  September 2012

In this issue:

Special feature: 

Africa: international cooperation, 
research for development and the digital divide.
Interview: Graciela M. Rusch of the Norwegian Institute for Nature 
Research (NINA) — on trees and sustainable agriculture in Africa
Other highlights: 
 New nomenclature for Biomphalaria species in Lake Victoria, page 6
 Sounding out bubbles in pipes, page 13
 Europe, South Africa look to water conservation, page 24
 Inspired by challenge — our robotic future, page 31
 Europeans push the bio-nano-technology envelope, page 39

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

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R E S U LT S   M AG A Z I N E

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R E S U L T S   M A G A Z I N E

No 14  July 2012

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R E S U L T S   M A G A Z I N E

No 13  June 2012

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R E S U L T S   M A G A Z I N E

No 12  May 2012

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In this issue:
Special feature: 

Creative and talented: nurturing Europe’s next generation of 
scientists and building an inclusive, innovative society for the future
Interview: Dr Davide Iannuzzi on 
‘Diving into the world of the very small’
Other highlights: 
Study investigates aquatic parasites on fish, page 6
New motor can cut space exploration costs, page 13
Innovative pellets to benefit organic farmers, page 18
Open access: EU project results go public, page 26
Invisibility field cloak a reality, page 33

In this issue:
Special feature: 

Growth through innovation: ‘Green cars’, ‘Energy-efficient 
buildings’ and ‘Factories of the future’
Interviews: Juliusz Żach, Juan Ramón de las Cuevas Jiménez 
and Richard Scaife on projects funded by the EU’s public-private 
partnerships for research (PPPs)

Other highlights: 

There is something healthy in the state of Denmark, page 6
New hope for hydrogen-powered cars, page 13
Going underground for optimal crops and yields, page 19
Future Internet … a thing of beauty and promise, page 25
New method to clean and treat polluted water for extraction of 
chemicals, page 34

In this issue:
Special feature: 

Ecosystems and food security
Interview: Professor Augusto de Guimaraes Medina  
on food and health research

Other highlights: 

Nutrition labelling: not as effective as you might think, page 8
Exploring your transport options, the EU way, page 13
Europeans develop innovative,  
sustainable food packaging product, page 19
A cheap and fully optical solution for ultra-fast internet, page 26
Infant eye movement and cognition, page 33

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No 9  February 2012

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R E S U L T S   M A G A Z I N E

No 11  April 2012

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R E S U L T S   M A G A Z I N E

No 10  March 2012

R E S U L T S   M A G A Z I N E

(cid:79)(cid:3)Biology and medicine 5

(cid:79) Energy and transport 12

(cid:79) Environment and society 18

(cid:79)(cid:3)IT and telecommunications 30

(cid:79) Industrial technologies 37

(cid:79) Events 46

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In this issue:
Special feature: 
  Knowledge beyond frontiers: cross-border science and innovation

Other highlights: 

Eat fish, build up brainpower, page 6
Loco on logistics, page 14
Trees boost sustainable agriculture, page 21
Broadband, a gig per second for all! page 28
Marrying innovation with old traditions 
for European bread, page 36

In this issue:
Special features: 

Interview: The Balkans — a new approach to an entangled history
Through the looking glass: 
search engines, data and the semantic adventure

Other highlights: 

Dr Robot, brain surgeon, page 6
Clean energy? Mother Nature still knows best, page 14
Strengthen education to build social cohesion, page 20
Gigabit wireless data coming to your home, car… or flight, page 27
A noiseless, emission-free car? 
Europeans are on the right track, page 37

Special feature
Archaeology, history and heritage: a civilisation discovered  
in Libya’s desert

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Other highlights
(cid:79) Study shows link between ancestor’s brain and evolution, page 5
(cid:79) Maximum aircraft design, page 12
(cid:79) Slavery: the European context, page 18
(cid:79) Wireless healthcare, page 30
(cid:79) Nanotech fights trypanosomiasis south of the Sahara, page 37

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F O C U S   M A G A Z I N E

No 13  May 2012

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F O C U S   M A G A Z I N E

No 12  February 2012

F O C U S

● A strategy for the Danube 4
● The Innovation Union ﬂ agship initiative 6
● Innovation on the Danube 7
● River transport 10
● Environment matters 12 
● Energy links 17 
● Socio-economic research 20 
● RTDI on the Danube 22

Green innovation
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for sustainable

build 
connect
grow

The Danube 
A river of innovation

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No 9  December 2010

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F O C U S

● Introduction to RSFF 4
● How does RSFF work? 8
● RSFF progress & fi nance needs 18
● RSFF stories 24
● Other RDI instruments 32
● Key challenges & conclusions 38

F O C U S

● FET overview 5
● Projects in focus 11
● FET community 37
● Publications and info 39

Pilot Flagship 
Initiatives 
pull-out 

F O C U S

● Mobile communications 7
● Micro- and nanoelectronics 10
● Safety critical systems 13
● Digital media 16
● Photonics 19
● Broadband communications 22
● ICT and healthcare 25
● ICT on the roads 28
● Robotics 31
● Information management 34

Risk-Sharing 
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Innovative loans for 
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Future and Emerging 
Technologies

‘Specials’ icon: ©iStockphoto.com/Tom Nulens
Cover photo: 
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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

Cooperation is key: 
from development to research
On  24  October,  United  Nations  Day  coincides  with  World  Development  Information  Day, 
established in 1972 to draw the world’s attention to the problems of global development and the 
international cooperation efforts to solve them. Research is just one of the forms of international 
cooperation that can improve the lives of people with poor access to land, water and resources, but 
it is an important one. African science is also moving from strength to strength, with many research 
organisations interested in collaboration with European ones. 

So cooperation with countries outside the EU has always been an important part of the EU’s 
research Framework Programmes (FPs). FP7 includes a budget line on ‘International cooperation’ to 
support international science and technology policy dialogue and coordination, under the specific 
programme ‘Capacities’. Researchers and organisations from outside the EU can also participate in 
projects funded under the specific programme ‘Cooperation’, and receive funding if they are from 
recognised ‘International cooperation partner countries’ (ICPCs) — as most African countries are.

3

EDITORIAL

ISSN 1831-9947

ISSN 1830-8864

research eu

R E S U L T S   M A G A Z I N E

No 15  September 2012

In this issue:
Special feature: 

Africa: international cooperation,  
research for development and the digital divide’.
Interview: Graciela M. Rusch of the Norwegian Institute for Nature 
Research (NINA) — on trees and sustainable agriculture in Africa 
Other highlights: 
 New nomenclature for Biomphalaria species in Lake Victoria, page 6
 Sounding out bubbles in pipes, page 13
 Europe, South Africa look to water conservation, page 24
 Inspired by challenge — our robotic future, page 30
 Europeans push the bio-nano-technology envelope, page 38

In 2009, a EUR 63-million FP7 call was dedicated wholly to research with Africa, addressing some of 
the science and technology objectives included in the ‘EU-Africa Strategic Partnership’. The funded 
projects aimed to strengthen Africa’s research base, as well as improve health conditions and water and food security.

And previously, under FP6, many European research projects worked fruitfully in Africa and with African organisations. With this in mind, 
the special feature in this issue of research*eu results magazine focuses on ‘Africa: international cooperation, research for development and the 
digital divide’.

The ‘environment and society’ section features many examples of research for development and research in Africa, starting on page 22 with 
‘How trees can help poor farmers’. This is an interview with Graciela M. Rusch, Senior Research Scientist at the Norwegian Institute for 
Nature Research (NINA) and coordinator of the Funcitree project, which is studying ‘Agro-forestry systems’ and the factors affecting or 
preventing their adoption in two sub-Saharan sites, in Mali and Senegal. 

The ‘biology and medicine’ section also starts with an article on research relevant to development in Africa. ‘New nomenclature for 
Biomphalaria species in Lake Victoria?’, on page 6, reports on a project that investigated the water snails in Africa’s Lake Victoria that act as an 
intermediate host for the human parasite responsible for schistosomiasis. Understanding the types of snail species present in the lake may help 
prevent the spread of this disease.

The ‘energy and transport’ section starts with the article ‘Sounding out bubbles in pipes’ on page 13. The story focuses on how European 
researchers helped find a new method of measuring gas bubbles in pipelines, enabling workers to avoid bubble ‘blow-outs’ like the one that 
took place in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

The feature article of the ‘IT and telecommunications’ section is ‘Inspired by challenge — our robotic future’ on page 31, which looks at how 
European scientists are developing robots by looking at the problems we face today and the challenges of the future, then trying to build smart 
and intelligent technologies to combat these difficulties.

The ‘industrial technologies’ section opens with ‘Europeans push the bio-nano-technology envelope’, on page 39, which shines the spotlight 
on a project using so-called ‘DNA origami’ to build nanopore biotechnology — one of the most promising approaches to single molecule 
detection and analysis.

The issue ends, as usual, with a list of events and upcoming conferences.

We look forward to receiving your feedback on this issue and on the research*eu publications in general. Send questions or suggestions to: 
cordis-helpdesk@publications.europa.eu

The editorial team

Want more information on the contents of this issue? 
For online versions or information about the contributors in this issue 

of research*eu results magazine:

- Technology Marketplace: http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace

- Research Information Centre: http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre

- European Research Council: http://erc.europa.eu

Watch this space!

Coming up in issue 16 of research*eu results magazine — a special dossier on ‘Natural 
disasters and climate change: how science expects the unexpected’.  

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TA BLE  OF  CONTE NT S

BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

6

 New nomenclature for Biomphalaria species in Lake Victoria? ...........................................................6

Researchers develop novel method for silk thread unravelling ...........................................................7

Cutting mosquito lifespan to control malaria ................................................................................................7

Nanotechnology for targeted cancer therapy ................................................................................................8

Hindering infection with sugars .............................................................................................................................9

Laser-ing in on brain surgery ..................................................................................................................................9

Tiny robots for less-invasive surgery ............................................................................................................... 10

Better quality meat .................................................................................................................................................... 11

Improved gel matrices for tissue regeneration .......................................................................................... 12

Harnessing fungal-plant relationships for greener cultivation ......................................................... 12

ENERGY AND TRANSPORT 

13

Sounding out bubbles in pipes.............................................................................................................................13

Smart ICT for energy eﬃ  ciency ........................................................................................................................... 14

Renewable energy in the form of oil from algae ...................................................................................... 16

Automatic temperature regulation without energy input .................................................................... 16

Superconducting cables for electricity grids ................................................................................................ 17

Mimicking plants for clean, renewable energy ........................................................................................... 18

Automated high-voltage transformer-monitoring system .................................................................. 18

Exploiting the oﬀ shore sector .............................................................................................................................. 19

Intelligent cargo for more eﬃ  cient, greener logistics ............................................................................. 20

The road to heavy-duty fuel cells ...................................................................................................................... 21

ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY 

22

How trees can help poor farmers  ..................................................................................................................... 22

Europe, South Africa look to water conservation ...................................................................................... 24

Advancing Africa’s right to clean water .......................................................................................................... 24

Enhancing African smallholder farming productivity ............................................................................. 25

Restoring woodlands in Tanzania ...................................................................................................................... 26

New farms for new ﬁ sh ........................................................................................................................................... 26

Managing vegetation from space ...................................................................................................................... 27

Sharing water fairly for mutual beneﬁ t ......................................................................................................... 28

Traditional cereal improves quality of life .................................................................................................... 28

Supporting innovative agriculture in water-dry areas............................................................................29

Improved resource management for better ecosystems ..................................................................... 30

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

5

TA BLE OF CONTENTS

IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS 

31

Inspired by challenge — our robotic future ................................................................................................. 31

One step closer to quantum computers ......................................................................................................... 32

P2P comes to the rescue of Internet video .................................................................................................. 33

So(cid:4) ware development gets easier ................................................................................................................... 34

New optical sensor can ‘see’ dangerous chemicals ................................................................................ 35

Shedding light on experimental physics ........................................................................................................ 36

Communicate with the future .............................................................................................................................. 37

Stimulating communication, preventing selﬁ sh behaviour ................................................................. 38

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES 

39

Europeans push the bio-nano-technology envelope ...............................................................................39

Enhanced eﬃ  ciency of nickel mining ............................................................................................................... 40

Enhancing quality control in aeronautics ...................................................................................................... 41

Rational design of stretched plastic packaging ......................................................................................... 41

Multi-functional decorative coatings for electronics...............................................................................42

Using nature’s cue to make complex natural products ......................................................................... 42

Magnetic refrigerators ............................................................................................................................................. 43

Environmentally friendly catalyst for industrial use ............................................................................... 44

Novel ceramic materials and processes ........................................................................................................ 44

The manufacturing miracle ................................................................................................................................... 45

EVENTS 

46

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6

BIOLOGY  A ND  ME DI C IN E

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

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 New nomenclature for Biomphalaria 
species in Lake Victoria?

Africa’s Lake Victoria is a hot spot for Schistosoma mansoni¸ a major human parasite responsible for schistosomiasis (snail fever) that 
uses freshwater snails of the genus Biomphalaria as intermediate hosts. Past studies linked some Biomphalaria species with varying 
parasite compatibility, which impacts local transmission. Now researchers from the United Kingdom have discovered that molecular 
groupings are inconsistent with morphological divisions, suggesting that the various forms of the snail are in fact a single species.

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, 
was funded in part by the Contrast1 project. 
Contrast  received  almost  EUR  3  million  in 
funding under the International Cooperation 
(INCO) Cross-cutting activity of the EU’s Sixth 
Framework Programme (FP6). 

Putting morphological and molecular vari-
ables in the spotlight, researchers found that 
molecular  groupings  are  inconsistent  with 
morphological divisions.

Their  data  show  that  habitat  predicted 
morphotype,  or  in  other  words  the  shape 
of  the  snail  is  correlated  with  where  they 
live, thus hinting that the various forms of 
Biomphalaria  found  in  Lake  Victoria  are 
‘ecophenotypes’ of one species ― that is, 
they are phenotypes resulting from environ-
mental conditions and not from diﬀ erent gen-
etic make-up.

The  researchers  recommend  a  change  be 
made  to  the  classification,  proposing  the 

names B. choanomphala choanomphala and 
B. c. sudanica.

‘The desire to identify accurately the species of 
Biomphalaria in Lake Victoria is linked directly 
to the need for greater understanding of the 
transmission patterns of S. mansoni in the 
lake,’ write the authors of the paper. ‘Intestinal 
schistosomiasis is rife in communities living 
by the lakeshore, and by understanding the 
dynamics of the snails responsible for trans-
mission it will be possible to identify possible 
exposure hot spots, and direct treatment and 
education interventions to these areas.’

The  team  says  an  interesting  finding  was 
that several diﬀ erences in the average meas-
urements were significant between habitat 
types. ‘Although causation is far from cer-
tain, this evidence could tentatively suggest 
that habitat might be a factor in driving the 
morphological plasticity seen in the dataset,’ 
the authors write. ‘Shell shape is known to be 
strongly environmentally determined in many 

snail species so it would not be difficult to 
imagine factors associated with habitat driv-
ing ecophenotypic variation in Biomphalaria in 
Lake Victoria.’

Policy-makers could use the results of this 
study to improve our knowledge of exposure 
risk, and devise and implement better and 
more eﬀ ective initiatives for disease control.

This  study  was  undertaken  by  research-
ers from the University of Nottingham, and 
the Natural History Museum, London, in the 
United Kingdom.

1 

  ‘A multidisciplinary alliance to optimise schistosomiasis 
control and transmission surveillance in sub-Saharan 
Africa’.

Funded under the FP6 specific programme ‘Specific 
measures in support of international cooperation’. 
Promoted through the Research Information Centre.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre > search > 23335

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

BIOLO GY AND MEDICINE

7

Researchers develop novel method 
for silk thread unravelling

Scientists led by Oxford University in the United Kingdom have discovered that a layer of mineral 
calcium oxalate covers the surfaces of wild cocoons, making unravelling a complex process. 
Removal  of  this  layer  facilitates  the  unreeling  of  silkworm  cocoons  into  long  strands  of  silk 
comparable to those derived from the domesticated mulberry silkworm (Bombyx mori, B. mori). 

(EDTA),  the  team  softened  the 
cocoons sufficiently to unravel 
the farmed silk without damag-
ing the threads.

By ‘demineralising’ the surfaces of 
wild cocoons — i.e. removing the 
mineral calcium oxalate layer — 
the researchers were able to unreel 
the cocoons into long continuous 
strands with commercial reeling 
equipment.  These  strands  could 
easily compete against those of 
the Mulberry silkworm cocoons.

‘Unlike traditional ways of treat-
ing wild silk cocoons — such as 
degumming using pineapple juice, 
carding and hand spinning — our 
new method softens the cocoon 
so that it can be reeled but does 
not  damage  the  strands  which 
give  silk  its  sought-after  prop-
erties,’  explains  Tom  Gheysens 
from the Department of Zoology 
at  Oxford  University,  who  led 
the  work  with  Oxford  super-
visor Professor Fritz Vollrath. ‘The 
demineralising  process  makes 
it possible, for the first time, to 
create  long  continuous  strands 
of silk from wild cocoons produc-
ing a high-quality wild silk which 

The research was funded in part 
by  the  SABIP1  project,  which  has 
clinched  a  European  Research 
Council (ERC) grant worth almost 
EUR  2.3  million  under  the  EU’s 
Seventh  Framework  Programme 
(FP7).  Presented  in  the  journal 
Biomacromolecules,  the  findings 
could lead to the development of 
new silk industries in Asia, Africa 
and  South  America,  areas  where 
wild  silkworm  numbers  are  in 
abundance.

People have long recognised how 
crucial a role silk moths play in 
the silk industry. Silk fabric first 
materialised in ancient China, as 
long ago as 3500 BCE. Made by 
the unravelling of ﬁ ne, so(cid:4)  thread 
from the silk moth’s cocoons, the 
majority of silk found in today’s 
markets comes from cocoons of 

B.  mori.  Unravelling  (unreeling) 
the threads from this silkworm 
is easy, allowing long continuous 
strands to emerge.

For those working in the silk indus-
try, unravelling the cocoon threads 
of ‘wild’ species is not as easy. In 
order to get the product they want, 
workers use harsher methods on 
the cocoons. The drawback, how-
ever, is that the strands are usu-
ally damaged, resulting in poorer 
quality silk. Enter the Oxford team, 
which successfully developed and 
tested  a  method  to  unravel  the 
strands  of  silk  of  wild  cocoons 
without damaging them.

They  tested  their  new  method 
on the wild silkworm Gonometa 
postica. Using a warm solution of 
‘Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid’ 

Cutting mosquito lifespan to control malaria

EU  research  has  developed  a  promising  new  strategy  for  the  control  of  malaria.  Infecting  the 
female mosquito with a bacterium, to cut her lifespan, will help prevent the spread of the parasite.  

The  high  incidence  of  malaria 
in  Africa  —  due  to  its  vector, 
Anopheles  gambiae  (A.  gam-
biae) — needs to be tackled by 
novel  control  strategies.  One 
possible  approach  is  to  reduce 
the mean age reached by adult 
female  mosquitos.  This  sig-
nificantly  limits  the  spread  of 
malaria due to the lengthy incu-
bation  period  of  Plasmodium 
parasite prior to its transmission. 

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is,  potentially,  a  match  for  the 
“farmed” variety.’

Writing in the paper, the research-
ers conclude: ‘The fibres of G. pos-
tica, which previously had not been 
examined in any great detail, when 
obtained this way showed competi-
tive properties to ﬁ bres produced by 
the commercial mulberry silkworm 
B. mori. This suggests that our deg-
umming method should increase the 
range of wild silk moth species that 
can be wet reeled, and may be im-
portant for the development of the 
silk industries not only in Asia but 
also in Africa and South America.’

The study was led by scientists 
from  Oxford  University,  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  with  contri-
butions  from  the  University  of 
Bristol, United Kingdom, and the 
Commercial  Insects  Program, 
International  Centre  of  Insect 
Physiology and Ecology in Kenya.

1  

 ‘Silks as biomimetic ideals for 
polymers’. 

Funded by the European Research 
Council (ERC) under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘Ideas’.
http://erc.europa.eu/succes-stories/new-
polymers-strong-silk
Promoted through the Research 
Information Centre.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre > 
search > 21553

A strain of bacterium Wolbachia 
called  wMelPop  has  recently 
been shown to shorten the life-
span  of  mosquitoes  other  than 
A. gambiae.

The EU-funded Anopage1 project 
has been examining the potential 
of wMelPop as a novel malaria-
control tool in A. gambiae.

Anopheles cell lines infected by 
wMelPop  were  created,  char-
acterised, purified and trans-
ferred into A. gambiae by 

microinjection. The eﬀ ect  >

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BIOLOGY  A ND  ME DI C IN E

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

on  parasite  inhibition  and 
mosquitos’  lifespan  was  then 
monitored.

Anopage researchers used state-
of-the-art techniques, including 
quantitative  ‘Polymerase chain 
reaction’  (PCR),  fluorescence 
microscopy, complementary DNA 
(cDNA)  microarrays  and  gene 
knockdowns.  Injecting  purified 
wMelPop cells into adult females 
created  non-inherited  somatic 
infections.  Creation  of  stable 
inherited infection is in progress.

An age-estimation assay for the 
A. gambiae complex was devel-
oped  and  tested  under  semi-
field conditions to compare age 
structure  between  greenhouse 
and wild populations. A suite of 
mathematical models analysed 
different interventions affecting 
adult mosquito longevity.

Project data revealed a signifi-
cant  up-regulation  of  several 
immune  genes  in  the  infected 
mosquitos, along with a direct in-
hibition of Plasmodium parasites.

In addition, seasonal and highly 
male-biased  releases  were 
found to be essential for suc-
cessful Wolbachia spread and 
reduction of vector capacity.

The  knowledge  and  the  ex-
perimental  tools  produced  by 
the Anopage project are push-
ing  the  frontiers  of  malaria 
research. The design and appli-
cation of more effective strat-
egies to control malaria spread 
can now be initiated.

The project was coordinated by 
researchers at the University of 
Oxford, United Kingdom.

1  

'  Population age structure and age 
structure modification via Wolbachia 
in A. gambiae’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘Health’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8875

Nanotechnology for targeted cancer therapy

EU-funded researchers have made new advances in the use of functionalised nano-materials 
with photosensitive capabilities — having potential applications in areas as diverse as drug 
delivery and energy conversion. 

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Nanoparticle-based drug-deliv-
ery systems are likely to reduce 
toxicity  and  side  effects  (via 
targeted delivery), cost of treat-
ments  and  even  time  of  treat-
ment with respect to alternative 
therapies.

‘Single-walled carbon nanotubes’ 
(SWNTs)  have  received  much 
attention lately due to the dis-
covery that they can potentially 
penetrate human cells four times 
faster  and  travel  deeper  than 
comparable  uniformly  shaped 
particles. For example, rapid local 
injections  of  drugs  could  take 
the  place  of  several  hours  of 

non-localised intravenous infu-
sion in diseases like rheumatoid 
arthritis or Crohn’s disease.

Combining  SWNTs  with  those 
smart materials that respond to 
environmental  stimuli,  to  cre-
ate  controllable  drug-delivery 
devices for tumour therapy, was 
the  driving  factor  behind  the 
SNAP1 project.

Scientists  focused  on  photo-
sensitisers, substances that react 
to  the  absorption  of  light.  One 
class of these substances is used 
in  photo-dynamic  cancer  ther-
apy,  whereby  exposure  to  light 

activates a drug that kills cells. 
While highly eﬀ ective, they lack 
speciﬁ city with respect to healthy 
and cancerous cells and are not 
very soluble in water, the basis of 
intra- and extra-cellular ﬂ uid.

In order to enhance their ability 
to diﬀ erentiate between normal 
and cancerous cells, researchers 
sought  to  functionalise  photo-
sensitisers. Addition of various 
sensor  (receptor)  units  would 
enable the photo-sensitisers to 
be switched on or oﬀ  in the pres-
ence or absence of certain sig-
nals  (substrate  molecules  that 
bind with the receptor, or local 

environmental conditions such as 
ion or pH changes).

Researchers developed water-sol-
uble carbon nanotubes and char-
acterised them using a variety of 
experimental techniques, provid-
ing information not found in the 
literature.  They  also  developed 
a procedure for producing high-
purity selectively functionalised 
SWNTs that preserved optical and 
electrical properties.

Synthesis and characterisation of 
a number of potential photo-sen-
sitisers, and subsequent covalent 
bonding  to  SWNTs,  pointed  to 
uses in photovoltaic applications, 
such as energy conversion.

The  SNAP  project  team  made 
important progress in the devel-
opment of water-soluble SWNTs 
a n d   p h o t o - s e n s i t i s e r s   t h a t 
should serve as a basis for fur-
ther  development  of  targeted 
and  intelligent  photo-dynamic 
drug-delivery systems as well as 
solar-energy devices.

This project was coordinated by 
researchers  at  Trinity  College 
Dublin, Republic of Ireland. 

1  

 ‘Smart nano-materials with 
applications in photo-dynamic 
therapy’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘People’ (Marie-Curie 
actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8909

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

Hindering infection with sugars

BIOLO GY AND MEDICINE

9

A  team  of  European  researchers  is  applying  glycoscience  to  the  development  of  revolutionary  new  drugs  and  vaccines. 
Targeting pathogens in the early stages of infection also promises to aid the efficiency of current therapies. 

Carmusys1 project. The consor-
tium is focusing on a membrane 
protein  of  immune  dendritic 
cells, DC-SIGN.

This  membrane  protein  is  a 
highly  important  part  of  the 
immune  system.  It  facilitates 
invasion  of  certain  pathogens, 
notably  HIV.  Importantly  for 
control  of  infection,  DC-SIGN 
action can be blocked by sugars 
when  present  in  multiple  cop-
ies on scaffolds — multivalent 
elements that can react with a 
number of members of a signal-
ling pathway.

The multidisciplinary Carmusys 
team  worked  to  analyse  and 
synthesise DC-SIGN ligands and 
multivalent scaffolds to bind to 
a  variety  of  receptors.  Project 
scientists also investigated and 
evaluated the different ligand-
receptor interactions. Speciﬁ cally, 
the  focus  is  being  placed  on 
receptors in genital and intestinal 

mucosa, a common entry point 
for many pathogens.

Project  researchers  have  built 
up a library of potential DC-SIGN 
ligands based on carbohydrates 
and  glycomimetics.  The  team 
used  computational  methods 
as  well  as  ‘Nuclear  magnetic 
resonance’ (NMR) spectroscopy, 
X-ray diﬀ raction and biosensors. 
Evaluating criteria such as aﬃ  n-
ity,  binding  mode,  the  epitope 
(or portion of the molecule re-
sponsible for the binding), four 
monovalent  ligands  have  been 
selected for the basis of multi-
valent systems.

Using the simple sugar, mannose, 
as a reference ligand, Carmusys 
has  also  developed  a  set  of 
multi valent scaﬀ olds, for future 
testing  using  biosensors,  to 
select the most appropriate bind-
ing  ligand  for  DC-SIGN.  Assays 
for evaluation of the activity of 
selected compounds, and tests 

including infection and immun-
ological criteria, are available as 
a result of the project’s work.

Promising  results  from  the 
Carmusys  initiative  have  been 
published and patents secured. 
Data indicates that DC-SIGN in-
corporated into a specially con-
structed receptor site is a new 
target for the design of antiviral 
agents.

T h e   p r o j e c t   w a s   c o o r d i n -
ated  by  the  Spanish  National 
Research  Council  —  Agencia 
Estatal  Consejo  Superior  de 
Investigaciones Cientíﬁ cas (CSIC).

1  

 ‘Carbohydrate multivalent systems 
as tools to study pathogen interaction 
with DC-SIGN’. 

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘People’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8851

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Glycoscience — the study of the 
complex carbohydrates on the sur-
face of proteins and lipids — is on 
the verge of creating a revolution 
in molecular biology. In particular, 
glycoproteomics is helping to forge 
a path for the development of new 
drug and vaccine therapies.

Biotech  experts  and  academic 
institutions in the ﬁ eld are work-
ing together on the EU-funded 

Laser-ing in on brain surgery

Medical operations have become almost commonplace, but 
the  delicacy  of  medical  procedures  involving  the  brain  and 
the spinal cord force physicians and patients to consider other 
alternatives.  European  researchers,  however,  could  change 
this  following  their  development  of  a  laser  for  minimally 
invasive brain surgery. 

The achievement is the result of 
an  interdisciplinary  EU  project 
that involved partners from seven 
European  countries,  creating  a 
table-top  solid-state  laser  sys-
tem that can cut brain tissue with 
unprecedented precision. These 
results  are  an  outcome  of  the 
Mirsurg1 project, which secured 
almost EUR 2.8 million in fund-
ing  under  the  ‘Information  and 
communications  technologies’ 
(ICT) theme of the EU’s Seventh 
Framework Programme (FP7).

The  inspiration  for  the  project 
began in 1999 when scientists 

from  Vanderbilt  University  in 
the  United  States  removed  a 
brain  tumour  from  a  patient 
with  a  free-electron  laser  at 
a  wavelength  of  6.45  microns 
(μm). It is important to note that 
this wavelength ― in the mid-
infrared spectral region ― had 
been  recognised  in  a  number 
of  early  experiments,  with  dif-
ferent soft tissues, as being the 
most  suitable  for  such  surgi-
cal operations. Despite this, the 
technological know-how has not 
been  transferred  into  operat-
ing  rooms,  as  the  equip-

ment needed could not fit.  >

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10

BIOLOGY  A ND  ME DI C IN E

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

Free-electron lasers, for example, 
are huge and accelerator-based 
facilities are both expensive and 
generally  unsuitable  for  rou-
tine  use  in  clinical  conditions.

In 2008, the Mirsurg project was 
launched  with  the  objective  of 
developing  a  laser  source  that 
would  emit  a  wavelength  near 
6.45  μm  and  provide  the  high 
single-pulse energy and average 
power  needed  for  minimally 
invasive neurosurgery. The pro-
ject  partners  believed  such  an 
achievement  would  close  the 
gap  for  diode-pumped  solid-
state lasers in the mid-infrared 
spectral range around 6.45 μm.

m i d - i n f r a r e d   w a v e l e n g t h , ’ 
explains  Dr  Valentin  Petrov 
from  the  Max  Born  Institute 
for  Nonlinear  Optics  and  Short 
P u l s e   S p e c t r o s c o py   ( M B I ) , 
w h i c h   h e a d e d   t h e   p r o j e c t .

The  Mirsurg  team  presented 
a  fairly  compact  all-solid-
state  prototype  that  fits  on  a 
table-top  at  a  recent  meet-
ing in Saint-Louis, France. The 
desired  optical  wavelength  of 
6.45  μm  is  generated  by  fre-
quency  conversion.  A  laser 
beam  with  a  wavelength  near 
2.0  μm  is  converted  to  the 
mid-infrared  by  the  use  of 
non-linear  optical  crystals.

‘So  far,  there  were  no  com-
pact  and  reliable  solid-state 
lasers  emitting  at  the  desired 

The new laser emits short pulses 
exactly at 6.45 μm with a rep-
etition  rate  of  100-200  hertz 

(Hz) which ensures the targeted 
average power of over 1 watt. 
The  greatly  reduced  collateral 
damage  at  this  wavelength  is 
due  to  the  combined  absorp-
tion  of  water  and  resonant 
laser  heating  of  non-aqueous 
components  (proteins).  The 
penetration depth at this wave-
length is of the order of several 
microns,  which  is  comparable 
to  the  cell  size,  and  is  there-
fo r e   c l o s e   t o   t h e   o p t i m u m 
value,  not  achievable  by  any 
other  state-of-the-art  lasers.

The Mirsurg partners plan to fur-
ther optimise the new table-top 
laser, assess its tissue-ablation 
capabilities and, possibly within 
a follow-up project, demonstrate 
real solid-state laser surgery at 
6.45 μm. ‘I hope that in the near 

future such a laser could become 
a practical surgical tool in every 
specialised operating room,’ says 
Dr Petrov.

This  project  was  coordinated 
by  the  Max  Born  Institute  for 
Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse 
Spectroscopy  (MBI)  in  Berlin, 
Germany.

1 

 ‘Mid-infrared solid-state laser systems 
for minimally invasive surgery’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘Cooperation’ under the 
theme ‘Information and communication 
technologies’.
Promoted through the Research 
Information Centre.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre > 
search > 25573

Tiny robots for less-invasive surgery

Millions of Europeans undergo abdominal surgery each year 
to treat a range of different disorders, from cancer and heart 
disease  to  obesity.  EU-funded  researchers  are  developing 
innovative micro-robotics and micro-system technologies to 
make such operations less complicated, invasive and costly.

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Surgical procedures have improved 
rapidly in recent years, aided by 
technology that is gradually mak-
ing the surgeon’s scalpel a thing of 
the past — increasingly replaced 
by robotics, miniature devices and 
innovative procedures that have 
fewer health risks, speed patient 
recovery and leave less scarring. 
But there is always room for fur-
ther improvement.

‘There are issues with abdominal 
surgery at present, both with the 
technology and the procedure,’ 
says Professor Arianna Menciassi 
of  the  BioRobotics  Institute  at 
Scuola  Superiore  Sant’Anna  in 
Italy.

At  present,  abdominal  surgery 
is  either  performed  by  a  sur-
geon manually, using a key-hole 

technique  also  known  as  lapa-
roscopy, or with the aid of a tele-
operated robotic device. The most 
widely used surgical robot for the 
procedure  is  highly  precise  — 
more so than manual surgery — 
but it is also bulky, expensive and 
still requires several incisions to be 
made in the abdomen.

Araknes  team  developed  highly 
innovative  devices  and  technol-
ogies that greatly reduce the inva-
siveness of surgical procedures, 
minimise scarring, decrease the 
risk of infection, and speed patient 
recovery time at potentially much 
lower cost than existing commer-
cial systems.

This  current  system  makes  the 
surgery easier for the surgeon, ‘but 
it is just as invasive as the trad-
itional laparoscopic procedure for 
the patient, requiring a minimum 
of four incisions in the abdomen: 
two for the robotic tools, one for 
further manoeuvres and one for a 
camera,’ Prof. Menciassi explains. 
‘We set out to develop an alterna-
tive system using state-of-the-art 
micro-robotics and micro-system 
technologies that would be less 
expensive and less invasive.’

Working in the Araknes1 project, 
Prof.  Menciassi  and  a  team  of 
researchers from across Europe 
focused  on  an  approach  to  ab-
dominal surgery that integrates 
the  advantages  of  traditional 
open surgery, ‘Minimally invasive 
surgery’ (MIS) — also known as 
laparoscopic or key-hole surgery 
— and robotic surgery. Supported 
by EUR 8.1 million in funding from 
the  European  Commission,  the 

One of the results of Araknes is 
a  tele-operated  robotic  system 
called the ‘Single-port laparoscopy 
bimanual robot’ (Sprint) that repli-
cates with high precision the hand 
movements of a surgeon sitting at 
a console interface. However, the 
system is speciﬁ cally designed for 
‘Single-port laparoscopy’ (SPL) — 
a relatively new type of keyhole 
surgery in which the surgeon oper-
ates through a single incision, usu-
ally in the patient’s navel.

‘Instead  of  four  incisions,  this 
technique uses only one incision 
— the access port — of around 
three  centimetres  in  diameter. 
And because the incision is made 
through  the  navel  —  a  natural 
scar — there is no visible scar-
ring,’ explains Prof. Menciassi, the 
Araknes scientiﬁ c manager.

Sprint is comprised of two arms 
with  six  degrees  of  freedom  of 
movement and rotating grippers 

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

BIOLO GY AND MEDICINE

11

at the end, providing a high degree 
of dexterity for performing a wide 
variety of surgical tasks inside the 
patient’s body.

‘The arms function much like our 
own and, through the tele-oper-
ated interface, replicate precisely 
the  movements  of  the  surgeon, 
who  views  the  procedure  via  a 
3D high-definition camera,’ Prof. 
Menciassi says.

Crucially, thanks to state-of-the-
art micro-robotic technology, the 
motors that control the grippers 
and the ‘elbows’ of each arm are 
located on the device, while the 
motors  for  the  ‘shoulders’  are 
external.

‘This is a key diﬀ erence with exist-
ing  commercial  systems,  as  it 
means the entire system is much 
less bulky. It ﬁ ts much more easily 
into the operating room and allows 
better access to the patient,’ the 
project manager explains.

who conducted in-vivo tests on a 
pig at a lab run by project partner 
Novineon in Germany in January.

‘Surgeons accustomed to using the 
previously  existing  DaVinci  sys-
tem welcomed the small size and 
increased visibility of the patient, 
as well as the reduced invasive-
ness, while surgeons who normally 
perform  the  single-port  proce-
dure manually saw an immediate 
advantage in terms of precision,’ 
Prof. Menciassi says.

Another  device  developed  by 
the Araknes team is designed to 
eliminate the need for incisions 
entirely. Developed for ‘Natural 
oriﬁ ce translumenal endoscopic 
surgery’ (Notes), the device con-
sists  of  a  magnetic  platform 
coupled with miniature robotic 
arms that can be inserted into 
the  patient  through  a  natural 
orifice,  such  as  the  mouth  or 
anus,  with  no  other  incision 
necessary.

The  reduced  size  of  the  sys-
tem  was  one  of  several  highly 
regarded  features  by  surgeons 

Notes itself is still considered an 
experimental surgical technique, 
but one that potentially has many 

advantages for the patient over 
invasive methods.

‘The  Notes  platform  is  experi-
mental, and unlikely to be used 
in surgery for some time for both 
technical  and  clinical  reasons. 
Nonetheless, it consists of many 
innovative enabling technologies 
that could find more immediate 
applications,’ the project manager 
continues.

On  the  other  hand,  the  Sprint 
robotic system is much closer to 
market in light of the success of 
the in-vivo trials carried out by the 
project partners. The Sprint tech-
nology is currently being patented 
and the partners are looking to use 
it as the basis for a commercial 
system.

‘We  are  currently  seeking  fund-
ing from both public and private 
sources for further development,’ 
Prof. Menciassi explains. ‘It’s still 
a  prototype,  but  we  are  confi-
dent  that  if  produced  commer-
cially it would be less expensive 
than  existing  systems.  Plus  the 
faster recovery time using the SPL 

technique should reduce hospitali-
sation time for the patient, lower-
ing health-care costs.’

The Araknes team initially focused 
their work on developing systems 
for  weight-loss  surgery,  a  pro-
cedure to reduce the size of the 
stomach, or bypass it entirely, that 
is undergone by tens of thousands 
of Europeans each year. However, 
Prof. Menciassi emphasises that 
the devices could be used for any 
type of abdominal surgery ― for 
example,  to  remove  cancerous 
tumours  or  treat  problems  with 
the heart, liver or kidneys.

This project is coordinated by the 
BioRobotics  Institute  at  Scuola 
Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy.

1 

 ‘Array of robots augmenting the 
kinematics of endoluminal surgery’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘Cooperation’ under the 
theme ‘Information and communication 
technologies’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8654

Better quality meat

A study of the meat supply chain is revealing several novel 
ways to upgrade quality, promote food safety and reduce risk 
from microbial diseases.

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The  meat  industry  is  an  im-
portant part of the economy and 
the food chain, but it has some-
times been mired in controversy 
and acquired an unhealthy repu-
tation. The EU-funded Quarisma1 
project is bringing innovation and 
in-depth know-how to the sector, 
creating progressive exchanges 
between industry and research. 
The project is focusing on chain 
management, quality standards, 
information  management,  risk 

management  and  food  safety, 
using  boar  meat  as  a  starting 
point.

Quarisma is working on develop-
ing and improving cost-eﬀ ective 
consumer-oriented  net-chain 
integration, through public-pri-
vate partnerships and knowledge 
transfer. It is using the ‘Deutsche 
Raffeisen  Verband’  (DRV)  in 
G e r m a n y   a s   a   s u s t a i n a b l e 
model  and  conducting  a  study 

on planning, logistics and opti-
misation of meat chains. This is 
expected to lead to mechanisms 
that  can  combat  outbreaks  of 
classical swine fever in the Lower 
Saxony region.

Moreover, the project is looking 
at  herd  health  management  in 
pork, which includes the applica-
tion of antibiotics. It is elaborat-
ing recommendations to improve 
animal  health  and  production, 
strongly supporting farmers and 
actors in the meat chain.

In  more  detail,  the  project  has 
developed  a  new  approach  to 
compare  the  microbiological 
quality of minced meat produced 
in  different  production  plants. 
It  has  validated  serological 
screening  for  Mycobacterium 
Avium  and  developed  a  new 
boar-taint  detection  method. 
Quarisma has also improved dis-
infection of slaughter equipment, 
studying risks of listeria, salmo-
nella and other disease hazards.

These  new  innovations  and 
a c c o m p a n y i n g   s t u d i e s   a r e 
expected to improve risk-based 
meat  inspection  across  Europe 
and  support  farmers  in  health 
management  throughout  the 
meat supply chain. The develop-
ments will bring a welcome boost 
to food safety, disinfection meth-
ods, environmental management 
and more.

The  project  is  coordinated  by 
Trans-Border  Integrated  Quality 
Assurance — Grenzüberschreitende 
Inte-grierte Qualitätssicherung e.V. 
(GIQS) in Bonn, Germany.

1 

 ‘Quality and risk management in meat 
chains’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘People’ (Marie-Curie 
actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8858

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BIOLOGY  A ND  ME DI C IN E

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

Improved gel matrices for tissue regeneration

European  scientists  are  working  on  improved  peptide-based  hydrogels  with  antibacterial 
properties that could also support the growth of mammalian cells.

distinct hydrophobic and cationic 
faces. The cationic face of each 
folded peptide remained exposed 
to the solvent and served as a 
potential warhead for bacterial 
engagement. The most eﬀ ective 
antibacterial hydrogels proved to 
be those consisting of arginine-
containing peptides.

After examination of the mech-
anical  properties  of  hydrogels, 
the  project  has  developed  an 
optimised  gel,  composed  of 
a  peptide  containing  six  argi-
nine  residues  (PEP6R).  PEP6R 
gels demonstrate high potency 
against  bacteria,  without  the 
need  for  the  addition  of  anti-
bacterial  agents.  At  the  same 
time, they are compatible with 
the culture and growth of human 
erythrocytes  and  mammalian 
mesenchymal stem cells.

Hydrogels constitute a novel way 
of autologous tissue engineering, 
as  they  provide  the  matrix  for 
infused cells to grow and repair 
damaged tissue. However, appli-
cation eﬀ orts have been compro-
mised by bacterial infections that 
arise in the implants.

To overcome such challenges, the 
EU-funded Peptidebasedhydrogel1 
project  aims  to  develop  self-
assembly peptide-based hydro-
gels that will allow the efficient 
culturing of cells while minimising 
the potential of bacterial growth.

Through modulation of peptide 
sequences, scientists designed 
a  family  of  10  novel  peptides 
that  could  assemble  into  a 
fibrillar  network.  The  surface 
chemistry of the ﬁ brils could be 
controlled by simply modifying 
the amino acid composition of 
the peptide monomer used for 
self-assembly.

By  analysing  the  peptide  sec-
ondary structure, as well as the 
kinetics  of  peptide  folding  and 
self-assembly, it was seen that 
the generated peptides contained 

Hydrogel  materials  developed 
during the Peptidebasedhydrogel 
project  can  be  used  to  coat 
implant surfaces or directly treat 
wounds in order to prevent or kill 
existing  infections.  Apart  from 
its  commercial  utility,  the  pro-
ject’s  technology  provides  use-
ful insights into how composition 
inﬂ uences peptide self-assembly 
and antibacterial properties.

The project is coordinated by the 
Instituto de Medicina Molecular 
(IMM) at the Faculty of Medicine 
of  the  University  of  Lisbon, 
Portugal.

1 

 ‘Toward the development of 
peptide-based hydrogels for tissue 
regeneration applications with 
inherent antibacterial activity’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘People’ (Marie-Curie 
actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8815

Harnessing fungal-plant relationships for greener cultivation

Symbiotic relationships between fungi and plants in the rhizosphere result in the production 
of  plant-signalling  chemicals.  Modulation  of  these  molecules  could  be  a  potent  means  for 
chemical control of parasites and nutrition.

The molecular dialogue between 
symbiotic partners, it seems, is 
not private but is open to access 
by  other  organisms  resulting 
in other relationships that may 
be  beneficial  or  detrimental. 
The  EU-funded  Apomyc 1  pro-
ject focused on the importance 
of  the  apocarotenoid  group 
of  molecules.  Included  in  this 
group,  which  occurs  widely 
in  living  organisms,  are  the 
‘Phytohormones strigolactones’ 
(SLs) and ‘Abscisic acid’ (ABA).

Previous research by a member 
of the Apomyc team has shown 
that ABA is a regulator of SL pro-
duction. By generating transgenic 
tomato plants, Apomyc scientists 
confirmed  and  characterised 
the  key  role  of  ABA  in  SL  pro-
duction and regulation of plant 
architecture.

R o o t   p a r a s i t i c   p l a n t s ,   t h e 
Orobanchaceae, were shown to 
use SLs as potential host cues. 
This family of parasites carries 
huge economic importance due 
to  crop  damage,  so  this  opens 
up  the  possibility  of  using  SLs 
as a source of biological control. 
Moreover,  Apomyc  researchers 
demonstrated that AM symbiosis 
reduced germination of branch 
broomrape,  which  also  para-
sitises  tomato  plants.  Genetic 
manipulation of SL synthesis was 
shown to reduce root parasitism 
by  branch  broomrape  without 
compromising AM symbiosis.

Apomyc  detected  divergent 
responses  by  the  tomato  to  a 
variety of AM fungi. Overall, pro-
ject results suggested that the 
speciﬁ c responses caused diﬀ er-
ential impact on plant physiology 

Beneﬁ cial associations between 
soil micro-organisms and plants 
are  a  prime  example  of  how 
plants  have  evolved  to  over-
come  unfavourable  environ-
mental  conditions.  Arbuscular 
mycorrhizal  (AM)  symbiosis 
means  that  the  plant  gains 
nutrients, particularly phosphate. 
One advantageous spin-off for 
the  AM  fungus  is  a  supply  of 
carbon, enabling completion of 
its developmental cycle.

and the ability of plants to deal 
with biotic stress.

Work  by  Apomyc  shows  great 
potential  for  manipulating  the 
signalling  mechanisms  in  AM 
symbiosis  for  biological  weed 
control.  A  reduction  in  agro-
chemical  input  on  crops  would 
be advantageous from both an 
environmental  and  economic 
perspective.

T h e   p r o j e c t   w a s   c o o r d i n -
ated  by  the  Spanish  National 
Research  Council  —  Agencia 
Estatal  Consejo  Superior  de 
Investigaciones Cientíﬁ cas (CSIC).

1 

 ‘Apocarotenoids as signaling 
molecules in the arbuscular 
mycorrhizal symbiosis’. 

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘People’ (Marie-Curie 
actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8807

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

ENER GY A ND TRANSPORT

13

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Sounding out bubbles in pipes

An international team led by European researchers has come up with a new method of measuring gas bubbles in pipelines, 
enabling workers to avoid bubble ‘blow-outs’ like the one that took place in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Pipes and pipelines have become the ‘veins’ 
of modern society. They transport precious 
fuels like oil and gas from the ocean floor 
depths, across country borders, through cit-
ies and into our homes. But that ﬁ rst step, to 
bring oil and gas through pipes from the sea-
bed, is a complex procedure fraught with dan-
gers due to the changing pressures involved. 

From the bottom of the seabed to the water’s 
surface,  there  is  a  difference  in  pressure. 
Any bubbles present in the oil or gas being 
brought  up  through  the  pipe  will  naturally 
expand as the pressure reduces the closer 
to the surface it gets. These expanding bub-
bles can cause a blow-out, which is the sud-
den  release  of  oil  and/or  gas  from  a  well.

In April 2010, the world was shocked by the 
environmental  damage  caused  by  a  me-
thane gas bubble which triggered an oil-rig 
blast, killing 11 people in the Gulf of Mexico. 
A small methane bubble expanded to such a 
large size that it shot oil 240 feet (73 metres) 
into the air. To avoid accidents like this, the 
ability to measure gas bubbles in pipelines is 
vital to the manufacturing, power and petro-
chemical industries. 

New  research  from  the  University  of 
Southampton in the United Kingdom, how-
ever,  presented  in  the  Royal  Society  jour-
nal  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  A, 
has devised a new method to more accur-
ately  measure  gas  bubbles  in  pipelines.

At the moment, gas ‘bubble-size distribution’ 
(BSD) is estimated by sending sound waves 
through the bubble liquid and comparing the 
measured  attenuation  of  the  sound  wave 
(loss in amplitude as it propagates) with that 
predicted by theory.

Problems surface when transferring theory 
into practice. According to theory, the assump-
tion  is  made  that  bubbles  exist  in  an  infi-
nite body of liquid. This could lead to errors 
in the estimation of the bubble population.

The  European-led  research  team,  headed 
by Professor Tim Leighton from the Institute 
of  Sound  and  Vibration  Research  at  the 
University  of  Southampton,  has  devised 

a  new  method,  which  takes  into  account 
the  fact  that  bubbles  exist  in  any  pipe.

They  measured  how  phase  speeds  and 
attenuations  in  bubbly  liquid  in  a  pipe 
might  be  inverted  to  estimate  the  BSD 
(which  was  independently  measured  using 
an  optical  technique).  This  new  technique, 
appropriate  for  pipelines  such  as  the  tar-
get  test  facility  (TTF)  of  the  USD  1.4  bil-
lion  Spallation  Source  (SNS)  at  Oak  Ridge 
National  Laboratory  (ORNL),  Tennessee, 
United States, gives good BSD estimations 
if the frequency range is sufficiently broad.

According to Professor Leighton, ‘This paper 
reports on the method we devised halfway 
through the research contract. It works, but 
just  after  we  designed  it  the  2008  global 
financial crash occurred, and funds were no 
longer available to build the device into the 
mercury pipelines of ORNL. A more aﬀ ordable 
solution had to be found, which is what we are 
now working on. The original design has been 
put on hold for when the world is in a 

healthier ﬁ nancial state. This has been  >

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14

ENERGY AND  TRAN S PO RT

a fantastic opportunity to work with nuclear 
scientists  and  engineers  from  ORNL  and 
[the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory] (RAL).’

Professor  Leighton  and  his  team  were 
commissioned  to  undertake  the  work  as 
part  of  an  ongoing  programme  to  devise 
ways  of  more  accurately  estimating  the 
BSD  for  the  mercury-filled  steel  pipelines 
of  the  TTF  —  one  of  the  most  powerful 
pulsed-neutron  sources  in  the  world.

This  facility  is  capable  of  firing  a  beam 
of  protons  using  a  linear  accelerator  hun-
dreds  of  metres  long,  into  20  tonnes  of 

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

pumped  liquid  mercury.  Specialised  neu-
tron instruments are built in a circle around 
the source to catch the beams of neutrons 
and  use  them  to  probe  the  internal  struc-
tures  of  materials,  to  test  aircraft  wings, 
forensic samples and biomedical products.

which cause cavitation bubbles to collapse 
in  the  mercury  and  erode  the  steel,  the 
replacement[s] may need to be [made] more 
o(cid:4) en than originally planned at full operating 
power. Indeed, achieving full design power is 
in jeopardy.’

‘The SNS facility was built with the expecta-
tion that every so o(cid:4) en it would need to be 
shut  down  and  the  now  highly  radioactive 
container of the mercury replaced by a new 
one, because its steel embrittles from radi-
ation  damage,’  said  Professor  Leighton. 
‘However, because the proton beam impacts 
the  mercury  and  generates  shock  waves, 

This  study  was  led  by  scientists  at  the 
Institute  of  Sound  and  Vibration  Research 
at  the  University  of  Southampton,  United 
Kingdom.

Promoted through the Research Information Centre.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre > search > 25733

Smart ICT for energy efficiency

Amid  rising  energy  demand  around  the  world,  securing 
resources  and  increasing  environmental  awareness,  saving 
energy, 
transmission  and  distribution,  and 
generating  power  from  renewable  sources  have  become 
priorities for Europe. 

improving 

Energy  efficiency  is  the  catch-
phrase of the early 21st century. 
Changing  the  way  we  gener-
ate, transmit, distribute and use 
energy will have a major impact 
on every segment of European 
society,  from  big  industry  to 
household consumers. Improving 
energy  efficiency  will  save 
money,  help  protect  the  envir-
onment,  create  new  jobs,  spur 
economic  growth  and  improve 
security  of  supply  by  reducing 
Europe’s dependency on imported 
fossil fuels. 

With those goals in mind, and aim-
ing at reducing energy consump-
tion across the EU-27 by 20 % by 
2020, the European Commission’s 
Communication ‘Energy 2020 — A 
strategy for competitive, sustain-
able and secure energy’, adopted 
in 2010, called for action in energy 
eﬃ  ciency, infrastructure and tech-
nology, as well as choice and se-
curity for consumers. 

In the envisioned energy-eﬃ  cient 
Europe of the future, new tech-
nologies  will  have  a  big  role 
to  play.  ‘Dumb  energy’,  squan-
dered carelessly at the ﬂ ick of a 
light switch or the rev of a car 
engine, will be replaced by ‘smart 
energy’, enabled by ‘information 
and communication technologies’ 
(ICTs)  that  allow  consumers  to 

closely monitor their consump-
tion and energy suppliers to more 
efficiently  meet  demand.  In  a 
nutshell: less waste, more gain. 

‘ICT can also give us a smarter 
two-directional  power  grid,’ 
Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of 
the  European  Commission  re-
sponsible for the Digital Agenda, 
has said ‘especially at the retail 
level:  getting  real-time  infor-
mation on time and quantity of 
energy consumption, and allow-
ing households to become energy 
suppliers to the grid.’

Already being rolled out in many 
countries,  smart  metering  sys-
tems for electricity are a big step 
in that direction and have been 
shown to cut annual household 
energy  consumption  by  up  to 
10 %.  Estimates  also  suggest 
that smart electricity grids, cur-
rently at the pilot project stage, 
could  reduce  CO 2  emissions 
in  the  EU  by  between  9  and 
15 %  and  reduce  primary  con-
sumption by the EU energy sec-
tor by almost 9 % by 2020.

By  giving  consumers  the  abil-
ity  to  monitor  their  electricity 
consumption  in  real  time,  they 
offer  a  big  incentive  to  save 
energy.  Combined  with  ambi-
ent  intelligence  technologies, 

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

smart metering will enable smart 
homes  to  adjust  energy  use 
dynamically, for example turning 
down the heating when no one is 
in or automatically adjusting the 
lighting depending on the activ-
ities taking place in a room. 

For electricity suppliers, smart 
grids ensure energy gets where 
it  is  needed  when  it  is  needed 
by accurately matching supply 
with demand, thereby reducing 
the  need  for  wasteful  excess 
capacity,  while  enhancing  the 
integration of renewable energy 
sources such as wind and solar 
that are prone to erratic spikes 
and dips in generation. 

‘We  will  have  to  address  the 
issues that stand in the way of 
full  implementation  of  smart 
grids right now. We cannot aﬀ ord 
to miss out on the opportunities 
an upgraded electricity system 
would oﬀ er in terms of decarbon-
ising our economy and providing 
real  added  value  for  consum-
ers,’  noted  Günther  Oettinger, 
European Commissioner respon-
sible for Energy. 

Upgrading the grids: 
challenges ahead
However, there are several chal-
lenges  to  upgrading  Europe’s 
electricity grids, which were con-
sidered  state  of  the  art  when 
they were deployed in the mid-
dle of the last century but will 
be obsolete in the smart energy 
world of the future. 

T h e   ‘ S m a r t G r i d s   E R A - N e t ’ 
project  is  addressing  those 
challenges,  developing  trans-
national  research  activities  to 
speed  up  the  development  of 
a  ‘Smart  European  Electrical 
Infrastructure’ with the support 
of  a  wide  spectrum  of  stake-
holders,  including  energy  sup-
pliers,  technology  companies, 
regulators and end-users. 

They  are  studying  the  many 
issues  facing  the  roll-out  of 
smart grid infrastructure, from 
methods  to  improve  electrical 
transport and distribution sys-
tems  in  order  to  facilitate  the 
integration of renewable energy 
sources  and  improve  the  sus-
tainability of supply to address-
ing  regulatory  issues  and  the 
development of eﬀ ective energy 

markets.  The  project’s  goal  is 
to  lay  the  groundwork  for  the 
development of a smart, robust 
and  effective  pan-European 
grid that is capable of meeting 
future demands. 

Information and energy: 
a smart marriage
In meeting that goal, the Internet 
will have a crucial role to play, 
given  that  in  the  smart  grids 
of  the  future  information  will 
need to be distributed alongside 
energy.

The Finseny1 project is speciﬁ cally 
tackling this energy-information 
integration,  bringing  together 
key  actors  from  the  energy 
and  ICT  sectors  to  identify  the 
ICT  requirements  of  smart 
energy  systems.  The  research-
ers are planning a trial of how 
a future ICT-enabled smart grid 
might work.

‘The  Finseny  consortium  brings 
together the best expertise in the 
ﬁ eld of ICT, energy, research and 
the  world  of  academia  to  cre-
ate  innovative  solutions  in  the 
energy field in order to optimise 
the delivery of energy to homes, 
buildings, industries and cars. This 
approach  will  not  only  change 
the  way  we  live,  but  will  also 
oﬀ er new business opportunities 
and will allow new competitors 
to enter the energy market and, 
at  the  same  time,  reduce  CO2 
emissions and improve the envir-
onment in which we live,’ explains 
Werner Mohr, the Finseny project 
coordinator  at  Nokia  Siemens 
Networks in Germany. 

In a similar vein, the IoE2 project 
is developing hardware, so(cid:4) ware 
and  middleware  for  seamless, 
secure  connectivity  and  inter-
operability  by  connecting  the 
Internet with energy grids, pri-
marily with the aim of enabling 
the  widespread  use  of  electric 
vehicles. 

The  benefits  of  this  approach 
are two-fold. On the one hand, 
IoE  is  supporting  the  develop-
ment of the future electric grid 
by  using  data  communication 
to  move  electricity  more  effi-
ciently,  reliably  and  affordably 
and, on the other, the project is 
contributing to the development 
of the future Internet by using 

ENER GY A ND TRANSPORT

15

the electric grid to facilitate and 
speed  up  the  communication 
among the various energy nodes 
and domains. 

Using  power  lines  to  transmit 
data  as  well  as  electricity  for 
smart grid applications is also 
the  focus  of  the  Integris3  pro-
ject.  The  pan-European  con-
sortium  is  developing  a  novel 
and  flexible  ICT  infrastructure 
based on a hybrid of ‘Power-line 
communications’  and  wireless 
technologies to efficiently fulfil 
the  communications  require-
ments  of  future  smart  grids. 
The team’s approach, which will 
be tested in a series of ﬁ eld tri-
als, covers applications such as 
monitoring,  customer  integra-
tion,  demand-side  manage-
ment, voltage control, quality of 
service  control,  control  of  dis-
tributed  energy  resources  and 
asset  management  for  power 
suppliers. 

Thinking locally, saving 
globally 
At a more local level, the IREEN4 
project  is  investigating  strat-
egies to create energy-efficient 
neighbourhoods and communi-
ties. Working with a wide range 
of stakeholders, including tech-
nology, energy and construction 
companies,  local  authorities, 
building managers and owners, 
the IREEN team hopes to extend 
the  concept  of  energy-positive 
homes (i.e. homes that generate 
more energy than they consume) 
to larger areas, laying the foun-
dations  for  highly-energy-effi-
cient smart cities.

Other projects are working even 
further down the energy chain 
on ways to save energy within 
individual homes and buildings. 

The  researchers  behind  the 
SEEDS5 initiative, for example, are 
using advances in self-learning 
methods, wireless-sensor tech-
nology and building technology 
to develop a novel energy-man-
agement system that will allow 
buildings to continuously learn to 
maintain user comfort while mini-
mising energy consumption and 
CO2  emissions.  The  technology 
is to be tested at oﬃ  ces and car 
parks in Spain and on a university 
campus in Norway. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  S4EeB6  pro-
ject, researchers are innovatively 
using  sound  sensors  to  deter-
mine occupancy in a building so 
that  heating,  air-conditioning, 
ventilation,  lighting  and  other 
systems  can  be  automatically 
adjusted.

Besides  buildings,  big  gains 
in  energy  efficiency  are  also 
possible  through  the  imple-
mentation  of  ICT  solutions  in 
many  sectors  from  industry 
and  commerce  to  transport. 
The E-SAVE7 project, for example, 
is  contributing  to  the  develop-
ment of energy-efficient supply 
chains by providing tools to help 
companies monitor, manage and 
share  energy  use  and  carbon 
footprint data in order to support 
supply-chain-design decisions. 

And in the automotive sector, the 
NoWaste8 project is developing 
an engine waste-heat recovery 
and  reuse  system  that  prom-
ises to improve energy use by as 
much as 15 %. 

Individually,  these  EU-funded 
initiatives  and  many  like  them 
promise  to  have  a  big  impact 
on energy efficiency. Combined, 
these  emerging  technologies 
will help Europe reduce energy 
demand, integrate more renew-
able  sources,  lower  costs  for 
consumers, create new jobs and 
new  markets,  and  improve  the 
security  and  sustainability  of 
energy supplies. 

1 
2  
3  

4  

5  

6  
7  

8  

 ‘Future Internet for Smart Energy’.
‘Internet of Energy for Electric Mobility’.
 ‘Intelligent Electrical Grid Sensor 
Communications’.
 ‘ICT Roadmap for Energy Efficient 
Neighbourhoods’.
 ‘Self-Learning Energy-Efficient Buildings 
and Open Spaces’. 
‘Sounds for Energy Efficient Buildings’.
 ‘Energy Efficiency in the Supply Chain 
through Collaboration, Advanced 
Decision Support and Automatic 
Sensing’.
 ‘Engine Waste Heat Recovery and Re-
Use’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘Cooperation’ under the 
theme ‘Information and communication 
technologies’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8653

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ENERGY AND  TRAN S PO RT

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

Renewable energy in the form of oil from algae

World petrol/diesel consumption is creating supply disturbances as well as having detrimental 
effects on the environment. EU-funded researchers are investigating oil from algae as superior 
even to the conventional alternative of crop-based biomass. 

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Among the many alternatives to 
fossil fuels that have been pro-
posed  is  the  use  of  renewable 
biomass. Crop-based terrestrial 
sources of biomass, such as oil 
of  palm,  face  problems  asso-
ciated  with  finite  area  of  land 
available for cultivation. Eﬃ  cient 
algal oil production could solve 
this problem.

In addition, certain algal species 
produce more energy than their 
crop-based  counterparts,  pro-
duce more biomass per hectare 
of  cultivation  area,  and  have 
faster growth rates than biofuel 
crops.

In order to investigate in greater 
depth  the  feasibility  of  using 
algae as a feedstock for produc-
ing biofuels, European research-
ers initiated the Mabfuel1 project.

Scientists focused on both native 
seaweed and cultured micro- and 
macro-algae in an eﬀ ort to iden-
tify species and processes with 
the  greatest  potential  for  fuel 
production.

Sampling of 16 macro-algal spe-
cies  included  pretreatment  to 
enhance oil extraction followed by 
subsequent analysis of hydrogen 
and methane production. Scientists 

then  selected  Batella  bifurcata 
(B. bifurcata) for continued test-
ing. Land-based tanks to culture 
B. bifurcata will be implemented 
to evaluate the feasibility of large-
scale production.

Long  lines  of  the  macro-alga 
Laminaria  digitata  (L.  digitata) 
have  also  been  placed  next  to 
salmon cages with initial biore-
mediation  and  data  collection 
under way.

Furthermore, four promising micro-
algal  species  have  been  grown 
successfully indoors in transparent 
plastic culture bags and outdoors 

in shallow ponds. Scientists iden-
tiﬁ ed Phaeodactylum tricornatum 
(P. tricornatum) as having the high-
est growth rate. In addition, scien-
tists developed ways to reduce the 
large energy requirement associ-
ated with harvesting and centrifu-
gation to separate the algae cells 
from water.

To  determine  the  harvest  time 
associated  with  the  maximum 
extraction of biofuel derivatives, 
the scientists are developing a 
rapid screening method.

Continuation  of  the  Mabfuel 
project should provide appropri-
ate algae-based biomass feed-
stocks  and  the  technologies  to 
produce and extract oil such that 
biofuel can become a profitable 
and  attractive  business  sector. 
Commercial exploitation has the 
potential to significantly reduce 
dependence on fossil fuels, reduce 
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 
and boost local economies.

The  Mabfuel  project  is  coord-
inated  by  researchers  at  the 
Daithi O’Murchu Marine Research 
Station, Ireland.

1 

 ‘Marine algae as biomass for biofuels’. 

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘People’ (Marie-Curie 
actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8708

Automatic temperature regulation without energy input

EU-funded researchers worked to develop processes for maintaining a constant temperature 
in  everything  from  buildings  and  freezer  trucks  to  swimming  pools  without  the  need  for 
energy input. 

waste products, innovative encap-
sulation methods and new testing 
techniques.

Heating and cooling homes and 
businesses  typically  requires 
electricity, in most cases provided 
by the burning of fossil fuels. The 
same is true for the refrigeration 
and cold storage of foods.

A  class  of  materials  able  to 
absorb  heat  when  tempera-
ture  rises  and  release  it  when 
temperature  falls  (so-called 

phase-change materials, PCMs) 
may be the perfect way to main-
tain a constant desired tempera-
ture  based  simply  on  the  heat 
absorption properties of the ma-
terials chosen, with no external 
inputs or controls.

Although applications are virtu-
ally  limitless,  commercial  ex-
ploitation  has  been  minimal 

due  to  high  production  and 
encapsulation costs. In addition, 
mechanical strength testing of 
commercial microencapsulated 
PCM products has been lacking.

To  address  these  issues,  Euro-
pean  researchers  initiated  the 
Eﬃ  buildings1 project with the goal 
of  developing  new  production 
technology based on the use of 

Eﬃ  buildings has initiated research 
regarding PCM use in cold stores 
and industrial freezers as well as 
vacuum impregnation of PCM in 
porous natural products for use 
in building materials such as con-
crete and wood.

In addition, computer modelling 
work was initiated to evaluate 
the  use  of  PCM  in  regulating 
water temperature in open-air 

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i

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

ENER GY A ND TRANSPORT

17

swimming pools. Two new test-
ing  systems  were  constructed 
to  assess  the  thermal  per-
formance  of  the  composite 
materials.

Continuing  efforts  in  this  field 
of  enquiry  should  have  an  im-
portant  impact  on  the  com-
mercialisation  of  PCM-based 
components  for  temperature 
regulation  in  a  wide  variety  of 
applications.

The project was coordinated by 
the Universidad de Lleida in Spain.

1 

 ‘Thermal energy storage with phase 
change materials for energy efficiency 
of European building stock’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘People’ (Marie-Curie 
actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8749

Superconducting cables for electricity grids

Power  grids  around  the  world  are  reaching  their  limits  at  the  same  time  that  electricity  demand  is  growing.  EU-funded 
researchers developed and tested one of the first superconductor-based cables to address the issue. 

beam-assisted deposition’ (IBAD) 
and ‘High-rate pulsed-laser de-
position  (HR-PLD).  In  order  to 
achieve  superconductivity,  a 
cryogenic envelope consisting of 
a liquid-nitrogen cooling system 
was incorporated.

The  consortium  delivered  a 
30-metre HTS power cable, one 
of the world’s first, with termi-
nations  and  a  cooling  system 
that was successfully tested and 
shown to meet power objectives.

Innovation  enabled  a  care-
ful evaluation of integration of 
such cables into existing power 
grids as well as economic com-
parison  with  other  available 
technologies.

The  Super3c  project  has  posi-
tioned Europe as a world leader in 
superconducting CC technology. It 
promises to be the high-capacity 
environmentally friendly and eco-
nomical solution to upgrading the 
world’s electricity grid.

The project was coordinated by 
Nexans France, based in France.

1 

 ‘Super coated conductor cable’.

Funded under the FP6 programme 
‘Sustainable Development, Global 
Change and Ecosystems’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8951

‘High-temperature superconduct-
ing’ (HTS) cables have attracted 
attention  in  the  last  couple 
years as a solution to the short-
age of transmission capabilities. 
Superconductors  are  materials 
that lose their resistance to the 
flow  of  electrons  when  cooled 
to temperatures close to abso-
lute zero — hence, they conduct 
electricity almost ideally.

In  addition  to  their  electrical 
capabilities, HTS cables are also 
particularly attractive for several 
other reasons. They are compact, 

thus requiring less underground 
space where lots of piping and 
other  structures  already  exist. 
They are also more environmen-
tally friendly, conserving energy 
and  resources  and  delivering 
power while generating no exter-
nal magnetic ﬁ elds.

Several  prototypes  have  been 
produced  worldwide  based  on 
multi-ﬁ lamentary wires. However, 
the technology is expected to be 
replaced  in  the  near  future  by 
more cost-effective HTS-coated 
conductor (CC) tapes.

European  researchers  initi-
ated  the  Super3c 1  project  to 
develop,  manufacture  and  test 
a  30-metre  prototype  system 
expected  to  be  the  first  in  the 
world  based  on  low-loss  HTS 
cable technology using CC tapes.

Extensive  modelling  resulted 
in the design of HTS cable and 
terminations  that  were  val-
idated  in  prototype  testing. 
Simultaneously, scientists devel-
oped  an  HTS  copper  hybrid  CC 
tape  manufactured  using  two 
well-established processes: ‘Ion 

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ENERGY AND  TRAN S PO RT

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

Mimicking plants for clean, renewable energy

European research is on track to develop a catalyst that would do the work of the complex 
bio-machinery of the plant in photosynthesis. The result would be hydrogen and oxygen, and 
renewable and clean fuels. 

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The  first  part  of  plant  photo-
synthesis  basically  uses  solar 
energy  to  split  the  water  mol-
ecule  by  photo-oxidation  and 
form  intermediates  molecular 
oxygen (O2) and hydrogen ions. 
Combined  with  carbon  dioxide 
(CO2),  the  hydrogen  ions  form 
glucose  through  two  complex 
cycles  and  the  sun’s  energy  is 
locked for further use by plants 
or herbivores.

Harnessing  the  light  phase  in 
artiﬁ cial photosynthesis is there-
fore  one  of  the  most  promis-
ing  processes  for  the  direct 

conversion  of  sunlight  energy 
into  renewable  chemical  fuels, 
molecular hydrogen and oxygen. 
Much research is being ploughed 
into novel highly efficient cata-
lysts  that  can  facilitate  water 
oxidation as well as identifying 
the fundamental reaction mech-
anisms  behind  their  efficiency 
and function.

The  H2Osplit1  project  focused 
research  efforts  on  inorganic 
ruthenium-containing  polyoxo-
metalate  homogeneous  cata-
lysts,  a  recently  synthesised 
group of molecules that have a 

high level of reactivity and stabil-
ity in solution.

Using  first  principles  ‘Density-
functional theory’ (DFT), the ener-
getics as well as the structural 
and electronic properties of the 
intermediates  in  the  oxidation 
of the four RuIV-H2O units were 
studied.  After  characterisation 
of the reaction intermediates in 
the gas phase, the H2Osplit team 
showed  there  was  a  solvent-
induced structural distortion on 
the solvated tetraruthenate core. 
This prediction is in line with ex-
perimental X-ray diﬀ raction data.

The calculated electronic prop-
erties of the catalyst are weakly 
dependent  on  the  presence  of 
the solvent. The initial states and 
those involved in the electronic 
states  of  the  electron  trans-
fer for the oxidation of the four 
catalyst-H2O units are localised 
on the tetraruthenium-oxo core. 
However, the free energy diﬀ er-
ence between the initial and the 
activated  state  is  significantly 
lower  than  the  thermodynamic 
limit for water oxidation. H2Osplit 
suggests  that  higher  oxidation 
states are required.

The main results of the project 
so  far  have  been  published  in 
the  journal  Physical  Chemistry 
Chemical  Physics.  With  the 
development  of  catalysts  able 
to  undergo  the  key  steps  of 
photosynthesis, water and sun-
light could be the only feedstock 
needed  for  renewable  energy 
production.

The project was coordinated by 
the  Consiglio  Nazionale  delle 
Ricerche, Italy.

1 

 ‘Water splitting catalysts for artificial 
photosynthesis’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘People’ (Marie-Curie 
actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8732

Automated high-voltage transformer-monitoring system

EU-funded  researchers  have  developed  an  automated  system  for  monitoring  insulation  oil 
vital to extending the lifetime and reliability of Europe’s power transformers.

High-voltage power transformers 
are  devices  used  worldwide  by 
the power industry to control and 
deliver electricity. 

Most of the transformers in ser-
vice in Europe today were installed 
nearly  50  years  ago  and  are 
reaching  the  end  of  their  func-
tional lifetimes. Simultaneously, 
deregulation of the power industry 

has  led  to  increasing  competi-
tion,  favouring  lower  prices  for 
consumers  but  resulting  in  less 
money available for capital invest-
ment and maintenance.

So-called blackouts are increas-
ingly  common  and  there  is  an 
urgent  need  to  extend  the  life 
of  existing  transformers  while 
improving their reliability.

Oil is o(cid:4) en used to provide insu-
lation  among  internal  parts  of 
the  transformer  as  well  as  to 
cool it, and is arguably the most 
inﬂ uential factor in extending the 
service life of transformers.

European  researchers  work-
ing  on  the  Transman1  project 
sought to produce an automated 
power transformer oil-insulation 

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monitoring  and  treatment  sys-
tem.  In  particular,  they  set  out 
to  develop  low-cost  online 

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

ENER GY A ND TRANSPORT

19

dehydration and particle removal 
technologies for transformer oils.

To this end, investigators devel-
oped an online moisture-removal 
system from recyclable packing 
material as an alternative to con-
ventional materials that must be 
disposed of as chemical waste.

and  maximising  contrast  for 
enhanced detection. Rotation of 
porous membranes in the part-
icle ﬁ ltration unit caused turbu-
lent flow of particles across the 
membrane  surface,  minimis-
ing particle deposition and pore 
blockage with respect to conven-
tional cross-ﬂ ow ﬁ ltration units.

Another  development  was  a 
novel real-time optical particle 
sensor to illuminate the oil sam-
ple, minimising light scattering 

Researchers also developed intel-
ligent transformer management 
software to enable online real-
time data analysis.

Transman has delivered a cost-
effective,  compact  prototype 
device  for  power  transformer 
oil-insulation  monitoring  and 
treatment.  Further  research 
should  facilitate  full  exploit-
ation  of  the  significant  mar-
ket  potential,  enhancing  the 
c o m p e t i t i v e   e d g e   o f   s m a l l 
and medium-sized enterprises 
(SMEs)  working  in  the  power 
industry while ensuring reliable 
energy  supply  to  consumers 
throughout Europe.

Lead contractor on the Transman 
project  was  Kelman  Ltd.  of 
Lisburn in Northern Ireland.

1 

 ‘A product to extend the life of 
energy transmission and distribution 
transformers by total management of 
insulation systems’.

Funded under the FP6 programme 
‘Horizontal research activities involving 
SMEs’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8579

Exploiting the offshore sector

Deep-sea  technology  and  harnessing  sustainable  energy  from  the  sea  could  mean  that 
Europe’s offshore economy will boom for many years to come. 

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The offshore economy, i.e. off-
shore  engineering,  floating 
structures, survey vessels, cable 
laying  and  sub-aquatic  equip-
ment, is considered the second 
most important economic sector 
in Europe. 

The  EU-funded  Acmare  (CA) 1 
project  articulated  technol-
ogies  and  resources  needed 
to progress in the sector, such 
as  those  related  to  produc-
ing hydrocarbons from the sea, 

undersea drilling, pipeline instal-
lation,  renewable  technologies 
and  carbon  dioxide  (CO2)  cap-
ture.  The  project  also  consid-
ered reduction of environmental 
impact on producing, transport-
ing,  delivering  and  exploiting 
energy, and involving an even-
tual  shift  from  natural  gas  to 
hydrogen-based energy.

no global positioning system on 
the sea ﬂ oor. This requires devel-
opment  of  a  whole  new  sub-
decametric geodesic system. Also 
important is the ‘marinisation’ of 
production  process  on  floating 
structures, i.e. moving production 
and processes from sea level to 
sea ﬂ oor and migrating to deeper 
waters.

The challenges in the sector are 
many,  such  as  the  inability  to 
transmit radio through water and 

Project  recommendations  have 
included horizontal cooperation 
between  enterprises,  formation 

of multinational teams and trans-
sectoral collaboration with other 
high-tech  dependent  industries 
such as aeronautics and informa-
tion technology (IT). Acmare (CA) 
also called for political and ﬁ nan-
cial support to yield a more com-
petitive European industry, open 
new markets, develop innovative 
technologies  and  achieve  sub-
stantial reduction of CO2 emis-
sions. It highlighted the two main 
priorities  as  being  demonstra-
tion and deployment of technol-
ogies whose feasibility is already 
proven, as well as development of 
innovative high-technology solu-
tions for the sector.

The  most  crucial  new  technol-
ogies to develop would include 
innovative  deep-water  produc-
tion equipment, robotics, deep-
sea service vessels and oﬀ shore 
renewable energy production, in 
addition to gas liquefaction and 
LNG vaporisation. With a detailed 
roadmap, these important areas 
are enough to keep the European 
offshore  economy  busy  for 
decades.

The Acmare (CA) project was co-
ordinated by the Community of 
European Shipyards Associations 
(CESA), Brussels, Belgium.

1 

 ‘Co-ordination Action to implement 
an Advisory Council for Maritime 
Transport Research in Europe’.

Funded under the FP6 programme 
‘Sustainable Development, Global 
Change and Ecosystems’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8538

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ENERGY AND  TRAN S PO RT

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

Intelligent cargo for more efficient, greener logistics

EU-funded  researchers  have  developed  a  proof-of-concept  ‘intelligent  cargo’  system  that 
promises  to  revolutionise  the  freight  industry,  improving  efficiency,  saving  suppliers  and 
recipients time and money, and helping protect the environment.

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Millions of trucks, freight trains 
and cargo ships are on the move 
around  the  world  each  day. 
Combined, they account for more 
than 14 % of global greenhouse 
gas  emissions  and  consume 
around  a  third  of  total  energy 
consumption.  Wastefully,  many 
of those vehicles are travelling 
empty. 

Despite  efforts  to  improve 
freight-transport  efficiency,  a 
cargo truck plying Europe’s roads 
will currently still spend around 
half  of  its  working  life  empty 
—  returning  from  a  delivery 
or travelling to pick up its next 
shipment. But what if cargo was 
made aware of its context and 
purpose? It could ﬁ nd space on a 
passing truck, let logistics opera-
tors know where it is and keep 
recipients  informed  of  its  esti-
mated time of arrival. Perishable 
and  hazardous  goods  could  be 
closely  monitored,  transport 
routes  dynamically  changed  to 
avoid congestion, and the entire 

transport industry made dramat-
ically more eﬃ  cient. 

‘Put simply, intelligent cargo is 
about giving cargo the capacity 
to understand who I am, where I 
am, what my mission is and what 
I  should  do  if  something  goes 
wrong,’ says Margherita Forcolin 
at the IT services company Insiel 
in Italy. ‘From an artificial intel-
ligence point of view, it’s a basic 
level of intelligence — it simply 
reacts to what’s going on around 
it, but from a logistics viewpoint 
it’s a huge step forward.’

Insiel  coordinated  a  consor-
tium  of  22  companies,  univer-
sities  and  research  institutes 
in defining concepts and devel-
oping  technology  for  an  intel-
ligent  cargo  system  based  on 
a  combination  of  sensor  net-
works,  wireless  communica-
tions and ambient and artificial 
intelligence.  Supported  by  EUR 
8.25  million  in  funding  from 
the  European  Commission,  the 

team behind the Euridice1 pro-
ject  implemented  their  system 
in  eight  different  pilot  studies 
involving transport and logistics 
operators across Europe. 

Euridice  aimed  to  use  ‘coop-
erative  systems’  —  systems 
(or  objects)  that  communicate 
with  each  other  and  their  sur-
roundings — to provide the right 
information  in  the  right  place 
at  the  right  time  at  low  cost, 
using  modern  communication 
networks. 

Intelligent cargo 
The Euridice definition of intel-
ligent  cargo  is  built  on  six  key 
capabilities. 

To begin with, the cargo needs 
to  be  able  to  identify  itself  so 
that an operator at a warehouse 
can  ask  a  container,  pallet  or 
box for its unique ID and deter-
mine  what  is  inside.  The  oper-
ator, in turn, should then be able 
to  access  information  services 

from the owner, haulier and cus-
toms authority to determine the 
nature, route and clearance sta-
tus of the goods. 

The  cargo  also  needs  to  be 
aware  of  its  context,  enabling 
it to report, for example, that it 
is inside a truck on the road or 
waiting to be picked up in a stor-
age depot. It should also monitor 
and  report  its  status  which, 
depending on the type of cargo, 
could mean checking its temper-
ature, humidity, whether it is still 
sealed or has been hit or dam-
aged in anyway. 

This information, combined with 
artiﬁ cial intelligence technology, 
enables  the  cargo  to  act  inde-
pendently and make autonomous 
decisions, for example, alerting 
logistics planners automatically 
if it deviates from the predeﬁ ned 
route, if there is a delay. 

‘There are two parts to the sys-
tem:  the  sensors,  data  stor-
age, software and transmission 
components on the cargo and a 
connected  fixed  infrastructure 
that  handles  the  overall  man-
agement of the system,’ explains 
Ms Forcolin, who coordinated the 
development and deployment of 
Euridice. 

Precisely what components need 
to be used and how depends on 
the intended application. A ship-
ping container, for example, could 
be ﬁ tted with a range of sensors 
to monitor all of its contents and 
its whereabouts, whereas a prod-
uct package could be tagged with 
an  RFID  chip  that  simply  tells 
logistics operators what it con-
tains and where it is going. 

The  back-end  infrastructure 
is similarly flexible. It could be 
installed by a logistics company 
to manage all of its operations or 
by a third-party service provider 
offering services to a cluster of 
transport  firms,  suppliers  and 
product recipients. 

‘We have looked at many diﬀ er-
ent business models. Ultimately, 
how a system like this is imple-
mented and used will be deter-
mined by the end-users and the 

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

ENER GY A ND TRANSPORT

21

market,’ Ms Forcolin notes. ‘The 
overall concept is to have cargo 
that is able to communicate im-
portant information about itself 
to  the  infrastructure  and  from 
there to all the stakeholders in 
the  transport  chain.  Although 
we talk about intelligent cargo, 
from  a  technical  viewpoint  it’s 
really cargo intelligence — it’s a 
distributed intelligence achieved 
through  different  means  and 
processes.’ 

Solving real-world 
problems 
The  enormous  potential  of  the 
approach was demonstrated by 
the Euridice team in eight pilot 
implementations  that  showed 
how intelligent cargo and cargo 
intelligence can solve a variety of 
real-world problems within diﬀ er-
ent areas of the freight industry. 

One pilot focused on using the 
system  to  interconnect  trans-
port  and  production  processes. 
Working  with  Italian  eye-wear 
manufacturer  Safilo,  a  project 

partner, technology was imple-
mented to provide the company 
with automated real-time infor-
mation about the whereabouts 
of eye-wear components, from 
before they leave the supplier’s 
factory until they check in at the 
company’s warehouse. 

Equipped  with  the  real-time 
information about all the parts 
—  even  from  different  suppli-
ers — Saﬁ lo could better sched-
ule assembly and manufacturing 
processes,  avoiding  delays, 
reducing  costs  and  improving 
production eﬃ  ciency. 

With Fiorital, another pilot end-
user, the logistics requirements 
were  different.  The  company 
deals  with  the  distribution  of 
perishable  consumer  goods, 
such as fresh ﬁ sh, and needs to 
closely monitor the status, stor-
age  conditions  and  transport 
history  of  its  products.  In  the 
trial, the EURIDICE implementa-
tion enabled Fiorital to monitor 
in real-time the temperature and 

conditions of the product during 
transport and receive automated 
alerts in the event of an incident. 

And  what  happens  after  the 
goods have been safely delivered 
on time? 

At Gebrüder Weiss, an Austrian 
logistics  service  provider,  the 
Euridice  system  was  imple-
mented  to  optimise  the  return 
of empty pallets and boxes and 
ensure that trucks do not return 
empty. The trucks automatically 
advertise that they have space 
available and the boxes and pal-
lets inform operators that they 
have  been  unloaded  and  are 
waiting to be returned. 

‘Individually,  the  pilots  repre-
sented elements of a real-world 
supply chain. Together, they cov-
ered an almost complete supply-
chain scenario,’ Ms Forcolin says. 
‘There are so many possibilities 
for this type of intelligent sys-
tem. Looking ahead, I can imag-
ine having an intelligent system 

on the cargo communicating with 
the vehicle which in turn commu-
nicates with the transport infra-
structure, the roads, ports, etc. 
— it’s the vision of the “Internet 
of Things”.’

With several of the partners con-
tinuing to build on the work car-
ried out in Euridice, that vision of 
a more intelligent, more efficient 
and more environmentally friendly 
transport sector could come about 
sooner rather than later. 

The Euridice project is led by the 
Italian  information  technology 
company Insiel. 

1 

 ‘European inter-disciplinary research 
on intelligent cargo for efficient, safe 
and environment-friendly logistics’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘Cooperation’ under the 
theme ‘Information and Communication 
Technologies’ (ICT).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8697

The road to heavy-duty fuel cells

Fuel cells have already powered small road vehicles all over the world, but the challenge is 
on to perfect the technology for rail, trucks and even yachts. A new European initiative brings 
us closer to this objective. 

science, thanks to the eﬀ orts of 
the EU-funded Felicitas1 project.

The project worked on develop-
ing FC technologies for heavy-
duty  road,  rail  and  marine 
t r a n s p o r t   u s i n g   ‘ P o l y m e r -
electrolyte  fuel  cells’  (PEFCs) 
and  ‘Solid-oxide  fuel  cells’ 
(SOFCs). It aimed for cells that 
provided over 200 kW electrical 
output  and  over  10 000  hours 
operation time, as well as a sys-
tem eﬃ  ciency of over 60 %. This 
involved exploitation of ‘Proton-
exchange  membrane’  (PEM) 
technology that could eventually 
even power heavy-duty vehicles 
such as inner-city buses.

After  intense  research,  design 
and  testing,  the  project  made 
remarkable progress in further-
ing its objectives. In addition to 
considering  pure  hydrogen,  it 

investigated the use of diﬀ erent 
hydrocarbon-based  fuels  as  a 
precondition for most heavy-duty 
applications. Felicitas also made 
headway in using gas turbines to 
increase electrical eﬃ  ciency and 
promote intelligent reuse of ther-
mal energy in SOFC.

The project successfully designed 
hybrid PEFC clusters that were 
ideal for public-transport appli-
cations such as city buses, light 
rail or trams in urban areas, but 
not for heavy rail, tram or truck 
applications. On the other hand, 
although the project made sig-
nificant headway in developing 
Rolls-Royce  hybrid  SOFCs,  the 
technology still needed modiﬁ ca-
tions before being successfully 
used in marine applications.

Other key achievements of the 
project  included  doubling  the 

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Visionaries  have  dreamed  of 
making  heavy-duty  vehicles 
operate on super fuel cells (FCs), 
from  large  cars  and  trucks  to 
trains and boats. Such a vision 
has  come  within  the  grasp  of 

lifetime for single PEFC systems 
in hybrid conﬁ gurations, as well 
as over 60 % eﬃ  ciency for hybrid 
SOFC and PEFC systems. While 
more work is needed to achieve 
the heavy-duty applications envi-
sioned, the overall progress has 
helped advance FC technology in 
numerous ways, bringing much 
optimism to the future of cleaner 
transport.

The  Felicitas  project  is  co-
ordinated  by  the  Fraunhofer 
Institute for Transportation and 
Infrastructure  Systems  (IVI)  in 
Dresden, Germany.

1  

 ‘Fuel cell power trains and clustering in 
heavy-duty transports’.

Funded under the FP6 programme 
‘Sustainable Development, Global 
Change and Ecosystems’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8510

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ENVIRONME NT AN D  SO CI E TY

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How trees can help poor farmers 

Meeting  the  challenges  of  a  changing  climate  and  degraded  natural  resources  requires  a  new  and  innovative  approach  to 
sustainable agriculture. The Funcitree1 project is studying ‘agro-forestry systems’ (AFSs) and the factors affecting or preventing 
their adoption in two sub-Saharan sites, in Mali and Senegal. 

The project set out to develop regionally spe-
ciﬁ c, trait-based and ﬁ eld-tested AFSs ready 
to  be  implemented  in  semi-arid  Africa  and 
Central America. The main aim is to provide 
farmers with a portfolio of regionally suitable 
tree  and  shrub  species,  organised  by  their 
traits or attributes, which can provide a range 
of agricultural products and ecological func-
tions, as deﬁ ned by the farmers themselves. 
Comparing research results from Africa with 
a  third  field  site  based  in  Central  America 
has also enabled the researchers to test the 
generality of the findings in seasonally dry 
environments. 

Research*eu results magazine asked the pro-
ject’s coordinator Graciela M. Rusch — Senior 
Research Scientist at the Norwegian Institute 
for Nature Research (NINA) — to explain in a lit-
tle more detail what the project is working on.

What is the Funcitree project setting 
out to achieve? 
The  main  theme  of  Funcitree  is  about  the 
attributes of trees and how they determine 
the ecological and productive functions they 
perform in agro-forestry systems, especially 
in seasonally dry tropical regions. Funcitree 
focuses on the diversity of these attributes 
and how this diversity underpins the provision 
of multiple benefits to farmers and to the 
various users in rural communities in Central 
America and West Africa.  

certain characteristics, what beneﬁ ts will be 
gained, and which ones are incompatible with 
them? 

Another  objective  is  to  make  those  who 
receive beneﬁ ts from AFSs aware of the var-
iety of beneﬁ ts that derive from such func-
tionally  diverse  systems,  and  to  draw  the 
attention towards trees that are seldom part 
of conventional agro-forestry recommenda-
tions, which o(cid:4) en concentrate on just a few 
varieties. 

The  main  objective  is  to  understand  bet-
ter how the attributes of trees correspond 
to functions that are important in the farm, 
both from a production and an ecological per-
spective. Also, to investigate which functions 
trade-oﬀ  against each other, which leads to 
the question: if one chooses tree species with 

Funcitree then aims to communicate these 
findings to the farmers in an inclusive and 
participatory way, with the purpose of rais-
ing awareness about the implications of the 
choices they make in terms of production and 
of the ecological properties of the agro-for-
estry systems they manage. 

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

23

ENVIRONM ENT AND SOCIETY

America. Related to this was the problem of 
ﬁ nding a common working language. 

potential,  how  they  affect  the  vegetation 
growing beneath them and the surrounding 
soil — had previously been limited.  

From the research point of view, the team is 
largely multi-disciplinary, with participants 
with diﬀ erent research backgrounds. We are 
foresters, agronomists, ecologists, soil scien-
tists, eco-physiologists, economists, sociolo-
gists, etc. It was a challenge to communicate 
the principles of functional ecology and to 
translate them into the language and con-
cepts of the diﬀ erent disciplines.  

So,  the  language  problem  goes  beyond 
communicating in French, Spanish, English, 
Norwegian or Dutch. It also arises from com-
munication  across  cultures  and  scientific 
disciplines. 

How do you go about solving such 
problems?
We solved the question of being geograph-
ically dispersed and the partners not know-
ing each other well by spending considerable 
eﬀ ort in the ﬁ rst one-and-a-half years of the 
project in organising meetings at the three 
case study sites. We also organised work-
shops  where  field  protocols  and  methods 
were discussed, developed and tried. Some 
of these were aimed speciﬁ cally at training, 
because  an  additional  challenge  was  that 
not all teams had sufficient methodological 
skills in all the areas of research. We also 
conducted joint fieldwork campaigns, which 
helped us to get to know each other and pro-
vided opportunities for discussion, ﬁ ne-tuning 
the sampling protocols, and learning by doing. 

Regarding  the  language  problems,  we  have 
been lucky in having a diverse team with con-
siderable international experience where almost 
everyone had command of two to three com-
mon languages and who have been willing to 
assist colleagues with more limited language 
skills. We also put effort into translating field 
protocols, presentations and other material.  

Regarding  the  scientific  language  and  the 
ecological concepts in the project, we have 
achieved progress in communication through 
exchange, talking at meetings and workshops, 
communicating by e-mail and other means. 
We have also been very fortunate to have a 
team with members who have been exposed 
to this kind of multi-disciplinary work before, 
and who are respectful of others’ work.   

What  are  the  concrete  results  from  the 
research so far — and how will they contrib-
ute to sustainable development?

We have learned much about the properties 
of the tree species that are common in the 
agro-pastoral landscape of the study sites, 
especially  where  knowledge  of  their  eco-
logical attributes — such as their different 
strategies  of  water  economy,  their  forage 

In  addition,  we  have  a  better  understand-
ing of how the farmers and other local users 
value the trees and their products, as well as 
the functions they play in the production sys-
tems. More functionally diverse and biologi-
cally more complex production systems are 
more versatile and better equipped to face 
signiﬁ cant changes, such as those expected 
to occur as a consequence of global warming. 

What are the advantages of 
participating in an EU project?
I would say that, by far, it is the opportunity to 
participate in diverse research teams, not only 
scientifically but also culturally diverse. This 
enables us to look at research questions from 
a wider range of perspectives than would be 
the case with geographically, culturally and sci-
entiﬁ cally homogeneous research teams. 

EU projects have the potential to facilitate a 
very productive exchange of ideas and expe-
riences. Many diﬀ erent insights are brought 
to the projects and there is a potential for a 
rich exchange of viewpoints, ideas and meth-
odologies. The experiences with Funcitree and 
the other EU projects I have participated in 
have been of great value. We are fortunate 
as scientists to have access to this amazing 
resource in Europe.   

What are the next steps of the 
project, or next topics for your 
research?
I am interested in understanding in greater 
depth the dynamics of these systems, such 
as how their attributes are linked to responses 
to environmental ﬂ uctuations. There are also 
many challenges about how to restore sys-
tems  whose  functional  diversity  has  been 
degraded by overuse and/or bad practices. How 
to best promote restoration of the productive 
capacity without relying exclusively on intro-
duced, cultivated species is a big challenge for 
many anthropogenic systems in the Tropics. 

The Funcitree project is coordinated by the 
Norwegian  Institute  for  Nature  Research 
(NINA) in Norway.

1 

 ‘Functional diversity: an ecological framework for 
sustainable and adaptable agro-forestry systems 
in landscapes of semi-arid and arid eco-regions’.

Funded under the FP7 specific programme Cooperation 
under the theme ‘Food, agriculture and fisheries, and 
biotechnology’ (KBBE).
For further information see the project website: http://
funcitree.nina.no  

http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > search > offers > 6720

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Graciela M. Rusch

What is new about Funcitree and the 
way it is addressing these issues?
From the theoretical point of view, the most 
innovative aspect is that Funcitree brings in 
functional ecology theory to agro-pastoral 
forestry systems and the concept of func-
tional diversity to assess impacts of produc-
tion activities, as well as for the planning of 
more diverse agro-forestry systems. In more 
practical terms, we also had a challenge in 
setting up demonstration activities. 

Demonstration parcels are difficult to set 
up within the course of a four-year project, 
particularly  if  we  intend  to  disseminate 
ﬁ ndings produced by the project. Each site 
has identiﬁ ed a package of demonstration 
activities,  with  different  methodologies, 
designed  by  the  local  research  partners, 
which  all  aim  to  demonstrate  the  multi-
functionality of agro-forestry systems and 
the diversity of functions provided by the 
local tree resources. 

What first drew you to this area 
of research?
I am very interested in the ﬁ eld of the ecol-
ogy of man-shaped ecosystems. In order to 
manage and use natural resources, we need 
to understand the fundamental biological and 
ecological processes that govern these sys-
tems. Through studying nature we can under-
stand the processes by which life systems 
respond to and modify the environment. 

Investigating anthropogenic systems — with 
similar approaches and theories to those that 
emerge from the study of natural systems — 
helps us to understand the consequences of 
anthropogenic impacts on life systems and 
provides the basis for planning a more sus-
tainable use of biological resources. 

What are some of the difficulties 
you have encountered in the 
Funcitree project?
Regarding the management and organisation 
of the project, it is always a challenge for a 
team to have partners geographically dis-
persed (in our case in Europe, West Africa and 
Central America). Also, many of us had never 
worked together before, and not all of us had 
work experience from both Africa and Central 

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

ENVIRONME NT AN D  SO CI E TY

Europe, South Africa look to water conservation

The world’s growing population and increasingly unpredictable 
climate  is  putting  ever  more  pressure  on  water  resources. 
Improving  water-resource  management  is  therefore  of 
paramount importance in places like Africa.

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The  people  of  the  African  con-
tinent have often felt, and con-
tinue to feel, the eﬀ ects of a lack 
of safe drinking water. Avoiding 
human suﬀ ering on such a scale 
in  the  future  will  require  more 
rational use of this limited natural 
resource.

In recent years, considerable pro-
gress has been made in ‘Integrated 
water  resources  management’ 
(IWRM). With the aid of EU fund-
ing, IWRM experts from the EU 
have combined forces with their 
counterparts in South Africa to 
improve  the  outlook  for  both 
water resources and their users 
in the region.

The LOGO WATER1 project sought 
to  educate  and  empower  local 
government in the SADC. The ﬁ rst 
step involved collecting and dis-
seminating  information  about 
best IWRM practices to govern-
ment representatives.

By meeting and speaking directly 
with  people  from  local  agen-
cies,  the  LOGO  WATER  team 
obtained a better understanding 
of the obstacles to proper water-
resource  management.  For  ex-
ample, the regulatory framework 
is not ideal. It is also necessary 
to decide whether management 
will  be  implemented  by  region 
or  by  river  basins,  which  often 
span  several  regions.  Financial 
aspects must also be taken into 
account  when  responsibilities 

are transferred from the state to 
regional authorities.

Based on the ﬁ ndings, the LOGO 
WATER  team  developed  IWRM 
strategies targeted to the SADC. 
The hope is that the local govern-
ments will be able to transform 
these  strategies  into  concrete 
action plans in the near future. 
The strategies and other reports 
can  be  found  on  the  project 
website.

Finally,  collaborations  such  as 
LOGO  WATER  are  also  con-
tributing  toward  achieving  the 
Millennium  Development  Goals 
related to water.

The  LOGO  WATER  project  was 
coordinated  by  ICLEI  —  Local 
Governments for Sustainability, 
European Secretariat, in Freiburg, 
Germany.

1 

 ‘Towards effective involvement of 
local government in IWRM in river 
basins of the Southern African 
Development Community (SADC) 
region’.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Specific measures 
in support of international 
cooperation’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace 
> search > offers > 7954

Advancing Africa’s right to clean water

Many people in Sub-Saharan Africa suffer from the effects 
of poor sanitation. An EU-funded project set out to identify 
and implement sustainable, low-cost sanitation approaches 
in the region.

implement sustainable sanitation 
approaches integrating low-cost 
technologies  with  community-
based management.

Nearly two-thirds of the popula-
tion of Sub-Saharan Africa does 
not  have  access  to  sanitation 
facilities that ensure a clean and 
safe water supply, and which pro-
tects against the spread of dis-
ease associated with the bacteria 
in  waste.  Thus,  the  Millennium 
Development  Goals  (MDGs)  for 

sanitation cannot be met by 2015 
as  planned  without  significant 
improvements  to  the  provision 
of  sanitation  services  to  Sub-
Saharan Africa.

The Netssaf1 project was initiated 
to develop collaboration among 
stakeholders  to  identify  and 

The investigators focused on West 
African countries and first iden-
tiﬁ ed settlements with no sanita-
tion access. They then selected 
several case study sites based on 
a variety of factors, and assessed 
seven sanitation systems along 
with sustainable alternatives. The 
researchers identified potential 
sanitation  providers  by  region, 

creating a database of small and 
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) 
operating in West Africa.

The  final  project  outcome  was 
development  of  a  sanitation 
decision-support or management 
tool  (Sanitation  Management 
Support Tool) and a guide for its 
use  to  help  stakeholders  apply 
large-scale sustainable sanitation 
concepts to the varying conditions 
in West Africa. Implementation 
of the Netssaf project outcomes 
should help Europe and Africa to 

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25

ENVIRONM ENT AND SOCIETY

meet the MDGs for global sanita-
tion access and thus enhance the 
lives of the millions of people in 
West Africa currently living with-
out access to clean water.

The  Netssaf  project  was  co-
ordinated by the Bremerhaven 
Technology  Transfer  Centre 
(TTZ), in Bremerhaven, Germany.

1  

 ‘Network for the development of 
sustainable approaches for large scale 
implementation of sanitation in Africa’.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Sustainable development, 
global change and ecosystems’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 7825

Enhancing African smallholder farming productivity

It is generally accepted that Africa needs to increase agricultural productivity in order to meet 
the needs of a rapidly growing and urbanised population. However, finding broad agricultural 
solutions is particularly difficult given the diversity of types of farm.

The  AfricaNUANCES 1  project 
was  designed  to  address  this 
i s s u e   by   i n c o r p o r a t i n g   t h e 
variances  to  determine  best 

practices for achieving food se-
curity, sustainability and resil-
ience  of  natural  resources  in 
Sub-Saharan Africa.

The project targeted humid and 
semi-humid  ecosystems  and 
developed  an  analytical  model 
combining spatial and temporal 
characteristics  of  smallholder 
farming.

Specifically, the model consid-
ered  crop  production  in  rela-
tion  to  soil  fertility  as  well  as 
livestock production for various 
livestock systems and manure 
handling.  Particular  emphasis 
was  given  to  efficient  use  of 
nutrients and to improving soil 
quality.  In  addition,  the  tem-
poral characteristics were con-
sidered  by  including  balances 
in  feed,  organic  material  and 
labour over time.

Researchers evaluated the model 
in  terms  of  costs  and  bene-
fits,  in  particular  as  related  to 
productivity, economics and en-
vironmental  services.  As  such, 
the project represents the first 
instance  of  simulation  models 
incorporating  agro-ecological 
and socio-economic parameters. 
In addition, the temporal char-
acteristics of the model enabled 
careful analysis of the dynamic 
interactions between production, 

consumption and resource man-
agement.  Although  the  project 
focused on issues of soil fertility, 
the results are broadly applicable 
to the evaluation of agricultural 
processes.

Thus,  the  AfricaNUANCES  pro-
ject  contributed  a  modelling 
tool of particular importance to 
Sub-Saharan Africa and its crit-
ical need to increase agricultural 
productivity  amid  the  inherent 
complexities  of  its  smallholder 
farms.  The  information  was 
shared  with  local  farmers  and 
extension workers in addition to 
its free availability on the web-
site, and should yield fruitful — 
or  should  that  be  ‘legume-full’ 
— results.

The project was coordinated by 
the  Plant  Production  Systems 
G r o u p   a t   t h e   Wa g e n i n g e n 
University,  in  Wageningen,  The 
Netherlands.

1  

 ‘Exploring trade-offs around farming 
livelihoods and the environment: the 
AfricaNUANCES framework’.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Specific measures in 
support of international cooperation’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 7807

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

ENVIRONME NT AN D  SO CI E TY

Restoring woodlands in Tanzania

The EU has taken an interest in preserving biodiversity in Africa, including rare woodlands in 
Tanzania. New methods and recommendations to enhance sustainability have borne fruit in 
helping Tanzania preserve its woodlands.

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The biodiversity of Africa is stun-
ning,  yet  often  comes  under 
pressure from natural and man-
made threats. The EU has backed 
numerous  projects  to  address 
these  threats,  which  have  put 
Tanzanian woodlands in danger. 
The EU-funded Mitmiombo1 pro-
ject was one such project, which 
supported Tanzanian researchers 
to restore ecosystems and man-
age sustainable production.

It transferred cutting-edge meth-
ods to achieve project objectives 

and establish research plots in 
the country to promote natural 
regeneration, as well as to study 
growth, variations, pest problems 
and tree diseases. In addition, the 
team members encouraged tech-
nology transfer, workshops and 
exchange visits among research-
ers,  aiming  to  involve  local 
communities, farmers and tree 
growers as well. Exchanges with 
researchers  beyond  Tanzania, 
with  focus  on  other  African 
countries and Europe, were also 
encouraged.

The  project  drew  many  valu-
able results from the test plots. 
It found that trees which make 
excellent timber constituted 55 % 
of the overall mix, although those 
in certain areas do not grow con-
tinuously. It also concluded that 
using the Miombo woodlands for 
timber is unsustainable and that 
deforestation  was  occurring  at 
an alarming rate, mainly due to 
turning it into charcoal.

Mitmiombo  recommended  ins-
t e a d   t h e   d e v e l o p m e n t   o f 

second-generation biofuels that 
do  not  threaten  the  security  of 
food and land, considering as well 
biodiversity in developing a bio-
energy policy in forests. It advo-
cated continued involvement of 
local communities and stakehold-
ers in managing and regenerating 
the Miombo woodlands.

The project results were dissem-
inated  to  interested  research-
ers and have helped to secure 
funding  for  future  projects  to 
preserve Tanzanian woodlands. 
In  the  meantime,  conserva-
tion methods developed during 
the  project  were  well  received 
a n d   h a v e   p r ov e n   s u c c e s s -
ful with people on the ground. 
This  bodes  well  for  improving 
sustainability in Tanzania, pos-
itioning the EU as an important 
player in the region, too.

The Mitmiombo project was co-
ordinated by The Finnish Forest 
Research  Institute  (Metla)  in 
Vantaa, Finland.

1 

 ‘Management of indigenous tree 
species for ecosystem restoration and 
wood production in semi-arid Miombo 
woodlands in Eastern Africa’.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Specific measures in 
support of international cooperation’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 7333

New farms for new fish

An EU-funded project endeavoured to bring effective and profitable fishery establishments to 
Eastern Africa with the aim of alleviating these economically depressed regions.

The broad geographical area cov-
ering Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda 
calls  for  the  establishment  of 
suitable sites for ﬁ sheries. To dis-
cover the most appropriate sites, 
the BOMOSA1 project used feeder 
technology and fingerling trans-
port protocols as criteria. Project 
partners pioneered a hub and plot 
system to integrate agriculture 
with aquaculture in an effort to 

alleviate these poverty-stricken 
regions.

The evaluation plots were estab-
lished  in  these  three  regions, 
covering  four  climatic  zones: 
humid  areas,  river/lake  flood-
plains, highlands and semi-arid 
regions.  While  remote  sensing 
was used to evaluate potential 
areas  for  the  new  sites,  each 

was evaluated to meet the cri-
teria  of  low  cost,  reliability, 
high  accuracy,  simplicity  and 
universality.

In addition, veterinary and pub-
lic health issues were addressed 
to ensure absolute food safety. 
This included evaluating water 
quality  as  a  critical  factor  to 
e n s u r e   a n i m a l   h e a l t h .   T h e 

project  determined  that  cook-
ing the fish produced would be 
a suﬃ  cient precaution to ensure 
that  no  parasitic  organisms 
entered the human food cycle.

BOMOSA also evaluated various 
fe e d i n g   m e t h o d s ,   d e v e l o p -
ing feed packages and storage 
options. Agricultural by-products 
were examined for their nutri-
ent  values  and  criteria  were 
established for potential dietary 
ingredients based on local avail-
ability and abundance.

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27

ENVIRONM ENT AND SOCIETY

The  economic  performance  of 
these plots, as applicable to the 
individual  farmer,  was  critical. 
Therefore,  different  strategies 
were  developed  to  reduce  fish 

mortality during transport and 
to increase overall productivity, 
as well as smoking techniques 
to  preserve  of  stock  left  over 
from over-production.

BOMOSA  also  looked  into  the 
factors  of  social  acceptance, 
which  included  ethical  and 
perceived  benefits,  manage-
ment and environmental issues. 

Addressing  these  enabled  the 
development  of  a  successful 
strategy, maximising sustainable 
production  and  continuation 
of  a  successful  Technology 
Information Plan even a(cid:4) er the 
completion of the project.

The  BOMOSA  project  was  co-
ordinated  by  the  University 
of  Natural  Resources  and  Life 
Sciences in Vienna, Austria.

1 

 ‘Integrating Bomosa cage fish farming 
systems in reservoirs, ponds and 
temporary water bodies in Eastern Africa’.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Specific measures in 
support of international cooperation’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 7335

Managing vegetation from space

Europe  possesses  the  technology  to  monitor  and  manage 
its  ecosystems  from  space.  It  has  now  turned  to  assisting 
African nations in exploiting this technology to help support 
agriculture and the environment.

VGT generally refers to vegeta-
tion  studied  from  space,  as 
reflected  in  the  EU-funded 

VGT @WORK1 project. The project 
worked on training for exploiting 
research  related  to  monitoring 

a n d   m a n a g i n g   t e r r e s t r i a l 
ecosystems.

VGT@WORK reinforced the cap-
abilities of African project part-
ners to monitor their vegetation 
from space by creating tools to 
manage  agriculture,  land  use 
and rangelands. It built on past 
initiatives related to the ‘Global 
monitoring for environment and 
security’ (GMES) European pro-
gramme,  educating  experts  in 
target countries on transmitting 
new data to policy-makers and 
stakeholders.

The  project  achieved  its  aims 
by identifying target audiences 
and information needs. It then 
trained involved African scien-
tists  to  use  specific  VGT  soft-
ware  and  arranged  for  many 
scientists to train both in Europe 
and in participating African or-
ganisations.  This  enabled  the 
scientists to gather information 
on vegetation in their countries 
through the eyes of satellites on 
a continuous basis and feed this 
information to key stakeholders.

Apart from scientists, the project 
trained other end-users and devel-
oped  the  necessary  documen-
tation and software to assist all 
stakeholders. It ensured that these 
eﬀ orts continue a(cid:4) er the project’s 
end, encouraging the exploitation 
of data for many years to come. 
The  results  of  VGT@WORK  con-
tinue to foster the expert use of 
remote-sensing data to monitor 
and manage vegetation.

The  VGT@WORK  project  is  co-
ordinated  by  the  Teledetection 
and Earth Observation (TAP) div-
ision of the Flemish Institute for 
Technological  Research  in  Mol, 
Belgium.

1 

 ‘How space helps to manage 
ecosystems’.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Specific measures in 
support of international cooperation’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 7892

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

ENVIRONME NT AN D  SO CI E TY

Sharing water fairly for mutual benefit

Water is a critical natural resource whose scarcity, either due to natural environment effects or 
poor management, takes a great toll on biodiversity, economic development and human survival. 
EU-funded researchers investigated the overlapping and often conflicting goals of water-resource 
management,  biodiversity  conservation  and  livelihood  sustainability  in  semi-arid  regions  of 
Africa, with important implications for policy development.

Limited access to water in semi-
arid developing regions has led 
to  pressure  to  use  the  water 
for ‘higher economic value’ ac-
tivities  rather  than  fostering 
ecosystem  preservation  and 
protection of the livelihoods of 
inhabitants. 

In semi-arid regions of Africa, 
programmes  for  ‘Integrated 
water  resource  management’ 
(IWRM),  ‘Sustainable  liveli-
hoods’  (SL)  and  ‘Biodiversity 
conservation’ (BC) have evolved 

i n d e p e n d e n t l y,   l e a d i n g   t o 
increased poverty and decreas-
ing biodiversity.

The Intrepid1 project was under-
taken to highlight the necessity 
of integrating BC to increase en-
vironmental security, participa-
tory democracy to enhance social 
security,  and  higher  income 
per  capita  to  fuel  economic 
growth. The project built on the 
European  Water  Framework 
Directive  (WFD)  and  used  the 
Mara river basin system in Kenya 

and Tanzania as a case study to 
develop a conceptual framework 
to  focus  research  efforts  and 
policy initiatives on sustainable 
practices and equitable partner-
ships regarding water-resource 
management.

To   t h i s   e n d ,   t h e   r e s e a r c h -
ers  developed  a  web-based 
i n f o r m a t i o n   s y s t e m   f o r 
p o l i c y - m a k e r s ,   r e s e a r c h -
ers,  governmental  and  ‘Non-
governmental  organisations’ 
(NGOs) and ‘Community-based 

organisations’  (CBOs)  to  coor-
dinate activities and strengthen 
collaboration among those re-
sponsible for environmental and 
livelihood  issues  in  the  exam-
ined water basin.

They  also  organised  a  policy 
workshop  to  fill  in  gaps  in  the 
database  by  accessing  unpub-
lished  knowledge  and  informa-
tion, to provide a forum promoting 
good  practice  and  to  identify 
future research directions.

Intrepid outcomes thus provided 
a framework for integrating three 
previously  separate  areas  of 
focus to ensure future success-
ful and equitable water-resource 
management in semi-arid areas 
of Africa. Implementing project 
recommendations  should  lead 
to economic development, sus-
tenance of livelihoods and pres-
ervation of biodiversity through 
sustainable practices.

The  Intrepid  project  was  co-
ordinated by the James Hutton 
Institute, formerly the Macaulay 
Land Use Research Institute, in 
Aberdeen, United Kingdom.

1 

 ‘Integrated trans-boundary river 
management policy development’.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Specific measures in 
support of international cooperation’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 7908

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Traditional cereal improves quality of life

Traditional cereals comprise the staple diet of many people in rural areas of Africa. One such 
cereal is fonio — an indigenous plant from West Africa that is still cultivated in an enormous 
swathe of land that extends from Senegal to Chad.

Fonio (Digitaria exilis) is an im-
portant  source  of  nutrition  for 
several million people during the 
early growing season, when the 
main crop is still immature and 
alternative  food  resources  are 

scarce. Therefore, fonio consump-
tion  plays  an  important  role  in 
providing food security when other 
cereals are not available, as in the 
case of a failed harvest. However, 
scientific research into this tasty 

and  nutritious  crop  has  been 
limited.

The goal of the EU-funded Fonio1 
project was to enhance the quality 
and competitiveness of the cereal 

through improved production and 
technology  and  by  developing 
both the local and export markets. 
The initiative involved interdiscip-
linary research teams from three 
European and four West African 
countries with experience in food 
technology, nutrition, process en-
gineering,  social  sciences  and 
agronomy. Project partners worked 
closely with stakeholders, including 

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ENVIRONM ENT AND SOCIETY

producers, women’s groups and 
small enterprises.

Scientists focused on determin-
ing the biochemical composition 

of  fonio  and  its  technological, 
cooking and nutritional properties. 
Researchers  strove  to  improve 
the quality of the cereal and to 
develop new products in order to 

improve regional trade and boost 
export trade in fonio.

The  commodity  chain  was  also 
addressed at all levels, including 

varieties grown, suitable farming 
systems and the use of post-har-
vest mechanisation. This enabled 
fonio to become a source of pro-
duction diversiﬁ cation and higher 
incomes  for  local  farmers  and 
processors.

The Fonio project has helped to 
improve  the  quality  of  life  for 
people  in  West  Africa  thanks 
to  enhancing  the  quality  of 
the  cereal  and  increasing  its 
competitiveness.

The Fonio project was coordinated 
by French agricultural research for 
development organisation CIRAD 
in Paris, France.

1 

 ‘Unlocking the potentialities of 
agriculture in Africa’s drylands for 
fighting hunger’.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Specific measures in 
support of international cooperation’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 7909

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Supporting innovative agriculture in water-dry areas

Drylands  are  ecosystems  characterised  by  their  relative 
lack  of  water.  EU-funded  researchers  fostered  sustainable 
agricultural development in Africa’s dryland regions via policy 
and  funding  recommendations  based  on  previous  success 
stories.

They evaluated individual case 
studies  and  tested  alternative 
hypotheses within the involved 
communities using ‘Participatory 
rural appraisal’ (PRA) techniques 

and on-farm trials. The AIDA pro-
ject placed particular emphasis 
on the dissemination of project 
results  through  conferences,  a 
dedicated website and extensive 

Drylands  are  often  considered 
incapable  of  sustaining  liveli-
hoods.  However,  the  African 
drylands population has proved 
remarkably resilient, with main 
food production coming from the 
cultivation of ﬁ eld crops and of 
pasture used for grazing.

Although  the  African  economy 
is  built  on  the  foundation  of 
agriculture, very little money is 
allocated  to  this  sector.  Given 
the resilience of the African dry-
lands population together with 
its openness to innovation, the 
AIDA1  project  was  designed  to 
foster research eﬀ orts and facili-
tate  the  development  of  rural 
drylands.

The researchers sought to iden-
tify  successful  projects  and 
assess  the  drivers  behind  the 
successes  in  order  to  develop 
policy  recommendations  and 
promote investment in agricul-
tural innovations. They focused 
on farm household systems and 
farm-level activities, evaluating 
criteria  for  social,  cultural,  en-
vironmental and economic sus-
tainability. Although design of a 
generic approach to investment 
in  sustainable  development  is 
difficult,  the  researchers  suc-
ceeded in creating a database of 
effective development projects 
and  a  template  for  the  evalu-
ation of future projects.

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

ENVIRONME NT AN D  SO CI E TY

use of media coverage so as to 
reach the general public.

To  summarise,  the  AIDA  pro-
ject  resulted  in  a  database  of 
successful  innovations  in  sus-
tainable  agriculture  in  Africa’s 
drylands, a framework for ana-
lysing  projects  and  prioritising 

options  for  successful  imple-
mentation, and policy briefs for 
fostering  policy  development 
and funding of the agricultural 
pillar  of  Africa’s  economy.  The 
AIDA  project  should  thus  have 
signiﬁ cant impact on sustainable 
agriculture in Africa’s drylands, 
helping  to  reduce  poverty  and 

hunger in a region characterised 
by its resilience to drought and 
climate  change  in  the  face  of 
limited budgetary allocation.

1 

 ‘Unlocking the potentialities of 
agriculture in Africa's drylands for 
fighting hunger’.

The  AIDA  project  was  coord-
inated  by  French  agricultural 
research for development organ-
isation CIRAD in Paris, France.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Specific measures in 
support of international cooperation’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 7909

Improved resource management for better ecosystems

An EU-funded initiative has created a network of practitioners and researchers to study the 
governance of commons in southern Africa, targeting an improved approach to the subject for 
enhanced management and exploitation of natural resources.

Many  southern  African  natural 
resources  are  legally  recognised 
as  ‘commons’,  a  term  describ-
ing shared resources in which all 
stakeholders have equal interests. 
In southern Africa, the issue of their 
governance  has  received  much 
attention from researchers as well 
as respective government agencies.

The  Croscog 1  project  was  a 
Specific  Support  Action  (SSA) 
seeking  to  build  on  and  share 
commons  governance-related 
research  and  experiences  of 
institutions  dealing  with  par-
ticular  problems  of  resource 
management.  The  focus  was 
on large-scale natural resource 
commons  across  the  region’s 
various ecosystem types. These 
included  arid  and  semi-arid 
grasslands,  savannahs  and 

forest patches, and marine and 
other large water-body coastal 
zones.

Recognising the need for informa-
tion-sharing about eﬀ ective com-
mons governance, the EU-funded 
project based its work on the view 
that addressing natural resource 
degradation  in  Africa  calls  for 
ways of identifying, encouraging 
and reproducing, on a large scale, 
positive  practices  of  commons 
management. Carried out in two 
thematic phases, the network of 
researchers and practitioners pro-
duced a series of papers based on 
their ﬁ ndings.

Papers from the ﬁ rst phase, with 
the  theme  of  knowledge,  eco-
nomic  transformation,  power 
and existing commons practices, 

focused on a set of speciﬁ c cases 
each  representing  a  particular 
ecosystem.  The  second  phase, 
with  the  theme  of  building  on 
existing  practices  to  promote 
effective  governance,  included 
purely  case-based  work  and 
comparative papers focusing on 
cross-case issues that emerged 
from  discussions  in  the  first 
theme.  These  issues  included 
tourism,  addressing  historical 
discrimination  and  co-man-
agement  institutions  —  all  as 
related to the commons.

General project activities included 
workshops, networking and policy 
events, and specific recommen-
dations in the form of messages 
to  communities,  non-govern-
mental organisations (NGOs) and 
policy-makers. Through specific, 

targeted-outreach  and  dissem-
ination efforts, Croscog worked 
to share the gathered informa-
tion and study results with policy-
makers in southern Africa, local 
communities and the global sci-
entiﬁ c community, among others. 
The activities and their outcomes 
bode well for improved actions to 
be taken in the management and 
governance of commons.

The Croscog project was coordin-
ated by the Innovative Fisheries 
Management research centre at 
Aalborg  University  in  Aalborg, 
Denmark.

1 

 ‘Cross sectoral commons governance 
in southern Africa’.

Funded under the FP6 specific 
programme ‘Specific measures in 
support of international cooperation’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8292

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IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

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Inspired by challenge — 
our robotic future

European scientists developing robots are not seeking their muse in popular culture; they look at the problems we face today 
and the challenges of the future, then try to build smart and intelligent technologies to combat these difficulties.

Sci-fi stories often inspire actual scientific 
research and achievements. Stories of aliens 
and  spacemen  exploring  the  universe  can 
make  a  big  impression  on  astronauts  and 
space researchers. 

We frequently see multifunctional humanoid 
robots like C-3PO and the Terminator in mov-
ies and on TV, but a walk through a typical 
robotics laboratory would rarely reveal any-
thing even remotely human-looking. Instead, 
most  robots  are  specialist  machines  that 
excel  in  a  small  number  of  specific  tasks. 
Today’s  robots  may  have  wheels,  worm-
like structures or other biologically inspired 
shapes.

European robotics research is looking at three 
areas: perception, understanding and action. 
Perception  projects  are  studying  how  and 
what robots can sense in their environment. 
Research  on  understanding  is  discovering 
new ways for robots to make calculations, 
inferences and learn to ﬁ nd solutions to the 
tasks and problems they face. Finally, there 
is action — how robots respond to the world 
around  them  and  perform  their  instructed 
tasks eﬃ  ciently and safely.

Home from work
In some areas, such as manufacturing, the 
development  and  application  of  robots  is 
already well advanced. Without robots, many 

industry sectors in many higher-wage coun-
tries would be under considerable financial 
pressure.  Indeed,  sectors  including  micro-
electronics, agro-food and automotive, which 
make up more than 20 % of the EU’s GDP and 
employ 25 % of the workforce, could have 
disappeared  entirely  were  it  not  for  auto-
mated labourers.

Robots can even create employment. A recent 
study entitled ‘Positive Impact of Industrial 
Robots on Employment’ has also estimated 
that  a  million  robots  currently  being  used 
for industrial purposes have resulted in the 
development of almost 3 million jobs 
worldwide:  from  jobs  created  in  the 

>

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

IT AND TELECOMMUN I CATI ONS

robotics industry itself, to employment in new 
manufacturing sectors enabled by industrial 
robots, as well as growth in the related distri-
bution and service industries.

Research is now under way to bridge the gap 
between the industrial use of robots and their 
performance in less-controlled environments 
such as in the home. The Dexmart1 project is 
working on this very issue, developing robots 
that  can  interact  safely  with  humans  and 
handle objects with skill. The project team 
are developing a two-armed robot which can 
adapt to sudden and unpredictable changes in 
its environment, for example to avoid bump-
ing into people who walk in its way.

Other researchers are looking at the manipu-
lative skills of robots and how to increase 
their dexterity so they can increase the num-
ber and complexity of tasks they perform. The 
THE2 project is studying how the very nature 
and structure of the human hand aﬀ ects the 
way that we learn to control and use it. The 
idea is to couple feedback with learning so 
that future robotic hands can quickly master 
new manipulative abilities.

Of course, humans use their hands all the 
time  in  a  controlled  and  skilled  way.  But 
robots  could  still  improve  our  accuracy  in 
delicate, high-precision tasks such as sur-
gery. Currently, automation is not used in the 
operating room for a number of technical and 
legal  reasons,  not  least  because  life-and-
death decisions on incisions cannot be left 
to artificial intelligence. The I-SUR3 project, 
however, is developing advanced technologies 
that will enable more automation and robotic 
solutions, initially for minor surgical tasks like 
puncturing, cutting and suturing.

Nothing routine
In all these projects, the researchers hope 
to develop robots that can replace or assist 
people with daily challenges and tasks. But 
there are many other important activities that 
humans simply cannot do. Creating machines 

to  extend  our  capabilities  is  another  im-
portant aspect of European research.

Robots  with  the  ability  to  fly  are  an  obvi-
ous example, and there is a large volume of 
research going on in this area. The Airobots4 
team, for example, is building aerial service 
robots. They can carry out remote inspections, 
for  example,  or  support  humans  in  a  var-
iety of situations. The robots will be able to 
move around freely above ground and inter-
act safely in environments that humans could 
not hope to reach. Where environments are 
dangerous, inaccessible or perhaps particu-
larly fragile, the robots will be able to interact 
non-destructively, hovering close to areas of 
interest and carrying out various operations, 
all controlled by the operator.

For advanced aerial surveillance, the SFLY5 
project is developing a swarm of micro-ﬂ y-
ing robots that coordinate their movements 
to view and map an area from above. The 
miniature helicopters will act autonomously 
and carry monitoring and surveillance equip-
ment. They will also have the ability to work 
out  where  they  are  in  3D  space  without 
using GPS technology. The helicopters are 
designed  with  safety  in  mind;  they  weigh 
only 500 g and have the ability to coordinate 
their ﬂ ight in small swarms, even in enclosed 
spaces.  The  SFLY  bots  could  be  used  for 
search  and  rescue,  environmental  moni-
toring, security surveillance, inspection and 
law enforcement.

Swarming  behaviours  are  particularly  at-
tractive for robots, because swarms of sim-
ple machines can have synergistic benefits 
and carry out tasks that would be impossible 
with a single agent. Coordinated groups can 
provide  advanced  sensing  capabilities  and 
work eﬃ  ciently in dangerous and challenging 
environments.

The  SHOAL6  project  is  developing  robotic 
ﬁ sh which move by mimicking the swimming 
action of real ﬁ sh. These robotic ﬁ sh are being 

developed to monitor aquatic environments 
and look for pollutants in water, for example 
to detect leaks in ports. The ﬁ sh move in a co-
ordinated shoal, to analyse contaminants and 
produce real-time maps of pollutant concen-
trations in a 3D schematic of the port.

The underwater environment is particularly 
challenging for humans, so a perfect oppor-
tunity for robots to demonstrate their worth. 
Researchers  in  the  Trident7  project  recog-
nise that underwater robots could be used 
for a wide variety of jobs, but it is costly to 
develop specialist machines for every task. So 
they are ﬁ nding ways to create multi-purpose 
robots which could be employed for tasks as 
diverse as underwater archaeology, ocean-
ography and oﬀ shore industries. The Trident 
system will involve an autonomous surface 
craft which is linked to an underwater sub-
mersible with a robotic arm.

Whether we see swarms in the sky or find 
ourselves talking to a humanoid home helper, 
robotics are no longer limited to repetitive 
manufacturing monotony. European research 
is showing that robotics can provide highly 
practical solutions to today’s problems.

1 

2  
3  
4  

5  
6  

7  

 ‘Dexterous and autonomous dual-arm/hand robotic 
manipulation with smart sensory-motor skills: A bridge 
from natural to artificial cognition’.
‘The Hand Embodied’.
‘Intelligent Surgical Robots’.
 ‘Innovative aerial service robots for remote inspections 
by contact’.
‘Swarm of micro flying robots’.
 ‘Search and monitoring of Harmful contaminants, other 
pollutants and leaks in vessels in port using a swarm of 
robotic fish’.
 ‘Marine robots and dexterous manipulation for enabling 
autonomous underwater multipurpose intervention 
missions’.

Funded under the FP7 specific programme ‘Information 
and communication technologies’ and by the Competitive 
and Innovation Programme’s (CIP) ‘ICT-Policy Support’ 
scheme.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > search > offers > 
8610

One step closer to quantum computers

EU-funded researchers have developed novel ways of producing qubits that enhance their efficiency, potentially bringing the 
world one step closer to the ‘Holy Grail’ of supercomputing.

Computers based on ‘Quantum 
bits’ (qubits) rather than stand-
ard  bits  have  the  potential 
to  perform  calculations  at  an 
exponentially  higher  rate  than 
that  of  standard  computers. 
Quantum  computers  open  up 
limitless applications to complex 

numerical calculations — think 
of  the  huge  difference  in  cap-
ability between a calculator and 
a computer in terms of quickly 
executed repetitive calculations.

The power of qubits lies in their 
ability  to  exist  in  more  than 

one state at a given time — no 
more ‘0’ or ‘1’, now ‘0 and 1’ is 
also  a  possibility.  However,  an 
interference phenomenon called 
decoherence has proved a major 
stumbling  block  to  the  per-
formance required for quantum 
calculation. Decoherence refers 

to random changes in quantum 
states, an instability that leads to 
loss of information.

Thus,  the  main  issue  in  deal-
ing  with  qubits  is  decoher-
ence.  A  number  of  designs 
for  qubits  are  based  on  the 

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33

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European researchers supported 
by funding of the HYBMQC1 pro-
ject are seeking to demonstrate 
the feasibility of designing high-
quality  qubits  partly  based  on 
the  Josephson  effect  in  ‘High 
Tc  superconductors’  (HTSs)  for 
intrinsic  quantum  protection 
against decoherence.

Scientists have conducted numer-
ous experiments comparing LTS 
and  HTS  JJs.  They  focused  on 
alternatives to the conventional 
niobium (Nb) junctions, including 
niobium nitride (NbN).

These  junctions  were  charac-
terised by ‘Moderately damped 
regimes’  (MDRs),  with  damp-
ing able to sustain macroscopic 
quantum  tunnelling  at  lower 
temperatures compared to con-
ventional JJs.

HTS JJs appeared to oﬀ er comp-
arable functionalities to LTS JJs 
with  more  flexibility.  Progress 

in control of HTS JJs led to the 
design of an HTS quantum inter-
ference device (rf-SQUID) and the 
impetus for a new hybrid design 
and fabrication integrating indium 
arsenide (InAs) nanowires.

The eﬃ  ciency of the qubits pro-
duced  by  the  HYBMQC  project 
team,  using  classical  junction 
platforms,  opens  the  way  for 
extension to novel materials with 
potentially novel functions.

The HYBMQC project was coord-
inated by the Seconda Universita 
degli  Studi  di  Napoli  in  Naples, 
Italy.

1 

 ‘Macroscopic quantum dynamics and 
coherence in hybrid superconducting 
circuits for quantum computation’.

Funded by the FP7 specific programme 
‘People’ (Marie-Curie actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8904

so-called  Josephson  effect  in 
‘Low  critical-temperature  (Tc) 
superconductors’ (LTSs), where 
the critical temperature is that 
at  which  a  material  becomes 
superconducting.

The Josephson eﬀ ect, the abil-
ity  of  electrons  to  ‘tunnel’ 
through  very  thin  non-con- 

ducting regions in the absence 
of an applied external voltage, 
probably arises from incoher-
ence  of  the  electrons  in  the 
two  superconductors  separ-
ated by that region. The sys-
tem of two semiconductors and 
the  typically  non-conducting 
space  between  them  is  the 
‘Josephson junction’ (JJ).

P2P comes to the rescue of Internet video

Peer-to-peer  applications  sometimes  get  a  bad  name 
because of Internet piracy. But the same technology that has 
long helped Internet users illegally share copyrighted music, 
games  and  videos  now  promises  to  help  content  providers 
stream  video  to  millions  of  viewers  simultaneously  using 
a  fraction  of  the  bandwidth  of  traditional  methods.  The 
transition is being helped by EU-funded research.

Video  content  is  the  fastest 
growing  area  of  the  Internet. 
Broadcasters are oﬀ ering video-
on-demand  and  live  streams 
over  the  web,  Internet  service 
providers  are  rolling  out  their 
own  IP-based  TV  services,  and 
Internet  users  themselves  are 
uploading and sharing ever-more 

videos via sites such as YouTube. 
According  to  some  estimates, 
video  equivalent  to  five  years’ 
worth of viewing time will stream 
across the Internet every second 
by  2015,  accounting  for  more 
than  half  the  world’s  Internet 
traffic. Even with new technol-
ogies  providing  end-users  with 

more  bandwidth  at  lower  cost, 
that is still a massive amount of 
data for networks to handle.

‘The golden rule to remember is 
that all bandwidth available will 
be consumed,’ says Jari Ahola, 
a  project  coordinator  at  the 
VTT  Technical  Research  Centre 
of  Finland.  ‘Just  as  bandwidth 
increases, the ways to consume 
it are increasing too: high-deﬁ ni-
tion video is one example.’

The problem is due in large part 
to  the  way  Internet  infrastruc-
ture is designed, based on ser-
vers sending data to each client. 
This  so-called  unicast  model 
works well for viewing a website 
or transferring an email, but it is 
simply not efficient for distrib-
uting  bandwidth-hungry  video 
content  to  millions  of  people 
simultaneously. More problem-
atic still is the fact that, unlike 
other types of data that can be 
broken down into packages and 
transferred in almost any order, 
video  data  must  be  streamed 
sequentially for the video to be 
watchable.

But  what  if  data  could  bypass 
servers  entirely,  hopping  from 
one  user  to  another?  That, 
in  essence,  is  what  peer-to-
p e e r   ( P 2 P )   n e t w o r k s   h a v e 
long  achieved.  Although  made 
famous  by  people  using  file-
sharing  applications  to  share 
pirated content, P2P technology 
has a wide range of legitimate 
uses,  not  least,  in  the  view  of 
Mr Ahola and others, potentially 
saving the Internet from video-
induced congestion.

Working in the P2P-Next1 project, 
Mr Ahola coordinated a consor-
tium  of  20  industrial  partners, 
media-content  providers  and 
research institutions in the devel-
opment  of  an  innovative  open 
source P2P video delivery plat-
form called NextShare. Supported 
by  EUR  14  million  in  funding 
from the European Commission, 
the team designed, implemented 
and  successfully  tested  algo-
rithms and protocols to use P2P 
architecture to stream video.

‘The  key  difference  with 
P2P  applications  for  file 

>

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IT AND TELECOMMUN I CATI ONS

sharing is that video data can’t 
be broken into diﬀ erent packets 
and sent in any order; it has to be 
sent in sequence and maintain 
a certain level of quality of ser-
vice,’ Mr Ahola explains.

Beyond BitTorrent
The  P2P-Next  team  initially 
based their system on the widely 
used  and  proven  BitTorrent 
protocol,  adapting  it  to  handle 
video  streams,  whether  video-
on-demand, live webcam feeds 
or TV channels. Building on that 
research,  they  then  developed 
their  own  open  source  proto-
col called Swi(cid:4) , which has been 
presented as a new P2P video-
sharing standard.

To  test  their  technology,  the 
team built a web-browser plug-
in  called  Swarmplayer  allow-
ing  Internet  users  to  access 
Internet  video  via  the  Firefox 
browser, with each user acting 
as  both  a  client  and  a  server 
— peers — for other users. In 
collaboration with project part-
ner Pioneer Digital Design, they 
also  developed  a  set-top-box 
to show how simply and cost-
effectively  the  system  can  be 
incorporated  into  consumer 
electronics devices.

‘The  set-top-box  is  a  low-cost 
device that gives users access 
to P2P-distributed video streams 
on  their  TV  via  their  Internet 
connection.  It  also  has  social 
networking features so, for ex-
ample,  users  can  view  Twitter 
comment  feeds  about  what 
they are watching as they watch 
it — something that is likely to 
become increasingly popular in 
the future,’ the P2P-Next coord-
inator explains.

The  researchers  validated  the 
system in several trials, the larg-
est  of  which  was  conducted  at 
the University of Lancaster in the 
United Kingdom, looking not just 
at  the  bandwidth  savings  ver-
sus other technologies, but also 
video quality and stability. They 
also  showcased  their  set-top-
box and the underlying technol-
ogy  at  several  conferences  and 
events, including IBC 2011 in the 
Netherlands, where they streamed 
a live BBC broadcast from London 
using the system.

‘The  feedback  from  test  users 
and others who have seen it in 
action  has  been  very  positive; 
most  thought  it  was  at  least 
as  good  as  a  traditional  video 
stream,’ Mr Ahola says.

More signiﬁ cantly, the team found 
that  the  P2P  approach  slashes 
bandwidth  demands  by  a  min-
imum of 65 % compared to the 
unicast streaming approach. It is 
also less demanding than mul-
ticasting  —  another  approach 
to  distributing  video  content 
whereby one data stream is dis-
tributed  to  many  local  servers 
that subsequently rebroadcast the 
content to local users. However, 
most  current  IP  routers  do  not 
support multicasting and imple-
menting it widely would be costly.

‘For  network  operators,  P2P 
offers a big advantage in terms 
of bandwidth demands and cost. 
Content providers are also inter-
ested in this technology as a low-
cost alternative for their content 
delivery networks,’ the P2P-Next 
coordinator says.

Providers  such  as  the  BBC  and 
IRT/EBU  were  partners  in  the 
P2P-Next  initiative  and  may 
look to develop commercial sys-
tems based on the technology. 
Meanwhile,  Bitnomica,  a  Dutch 
IT spin-oﬀ  from Del(cid:4)  University 
of Technology in the Netherlands, 
another  project  partner,  has 
started to market a P2P platform 
based on the Swi(cid:4)  protocol.

The technology is well matched 
to a content delivery environment 
in  which  the  old  unidirectional 
broadcast model is being replaced 
by a user-centric, time and place 
independent  model,  as  people 
demand the ability to view, gener-
ate and share content whenever 
and wherever they like, using a 
range of heterogeneous devices.

‘By developing these open source 
protocols and algorithms, we’ve 
laid  the  groundwork  for  oth-
ers to follow and develop their 
own  applications.  I  would  not 
be  surprised  to  see  P2P  video 
s t r e a m i n g   b e c o m i n g   m u c h 
more widespread in the future,’ 
Mr Ahola concludes.

The P2P-Next project was coord-
inated by a European consortium 
of 21 partners from 12 countries.

1 

 ‘Next generation peer-to-peer content 
delivery platform’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘Cooperation’ theme 
‘Information and communication 
technologies’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8784

Software development gets easier

New tools to support software engineering based on aspect-oriented programming will make 
it easier to break down mammoth programming tasks and overcome challenges.

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Software  systems  are  becom-
ing  larger  and  more  complex, 
requiring  increasingly  sophisti-
cated solutions to facilitate so(cid:4) -
ware engineering. The EU-funded 
RIVAR1 project developed novel 
approaches  that  divide  chal-
lenges into parts and recombine 
partial solutions within integrated 
modular systems.

It  examined  these  challenges 
through  ‘Aspect-oriented  pro-
gramming’  (AOP),  considering 
various  modularisation  strat-
egies that enable programmers 
to eﬀ ectively maintain modulari-
sation hierarchies in parallel and 
combine  them  to  produce  one 
whole system.

To  achieve  its  aims,  RIVAR  in-
vestigated  the  source  code 
of  three  large  aspect-based 

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35

IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

systems,  documenting  spe-
ciﬁ c assumptions made by their 
developers.  It  then  catalogued 
them in a single publication that 
can  be  used  for  assumption 
elicitation in code walkthroughs, 
among other uses. The ensuing 
catalogue  of  aspect  assump-
tion  types  was  published  at 
the  International  Conference 
on  Aspect-Oriented  Software 

Development,  2011,  focus-
ing  specifically  on  the  AspectJ 
language.

In addition, the project developed 
templates  of  formal  expres-
sions  of  the  assumption  types 
for  verifying  that  an  aspect’s 
assumptions can be easily inte-
grated  into  a  base  system. 
Aspect developers can use these 

templates to help facilitate dif-
ferent key elements of so(cid:4) ware 
engineering. Many of the tools to 
help this endeavour have been 
published  on  the  project  web-
site,  which  features  published 
papers, relevant data and other 
resources.

The  RIVAR  project  was  co-
ordinated  by  the  Computing 

D e p a r t m e n t   a t   L a n c a s t e r 
University  in  Lancaster,  United 
Kingdom.

1  

 ‘Rich interfaces for verifiable aspect reuse’.

Funded under the FP7specific 
programme ‘People’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8869

New optical sensor can ‘see’ dangerous chemicals

EU-funded researchers have developed an optical solution to identify chemical and gaseous 
dangers  that  is  safer,  easier  to  install  and,  unexpectedly,  much  more  sensitive  than  most 
existing chemical sensors.

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Electricity and some gases and 
liquids  can  be  a  dangerous  — 
even explosive — combination. 
But  sensors  are  still  needed  in 
harsh gaseous and liquid envir-
onments,  whether  to  check  for 
leaking hydrogen fuel cells or to 
measure the composition or acid-
ity of industrial chemicals. 

III–nitride  semiconductor  sys-
tem — (Al,In)GaN — chemically 
stable semiconductor materials 
with  excellent  opto–electronic 
properties, these structures show 
changes in their photolumines-
cence properties when exposed 
to even the smallest changes in 
the chemical environment.

Developed  in  the  Dotsense 1 
project,  the  sensors  are  based 
on an innovative application of 
quantum  dots  and  nanowires 
—  miniscule  semiconductors 
whose features are thousands of 
times smaller than the width of 
a human hair. Made of the group 

‘To date, many approaches have 
been adopted for sensing tech-
nology,  including,  for  example, 
using  nanowires  as  chemical 
sensors,  but  these  approaches 
are  based  on  measuring  elec-
trical  conductivity.  This  means 
you  have  to  put  in  electrical 

c o n t a c t s   a n d   m e a s u r e   t h e 
change  in  the  electrical  resist-
ance of the nanowire in diﬀ erent 
chemical environments,’ explains 
Dr Martin Eickhoﬀ , the Dotsense 
project  coordinator  at  Justus-
Liebig-University  in  Giessen, 
Germany.  ‘With  our  approach, 
that’s unnecessary. Our solution 
is based on a completely optical 
analysis.’

Instead of running an electrical 
current through the nanostruc-
tures and measuring the resist-
ance, the Dotsense team created 
an integrated sensor system that 
works solely with light.

An  optical  transducer,  made 
of an array of a billion GaN or 
InGaN ‘quantum dots’ or ‘nano-
disks’  in  nanowires,  is  placed 
inside the gaseous or liquid en-
vironment  that  is  to  be  moni-
tored and an excitation light is 
shone  through  a  transparent 
substrate  that  simultaneously 
serves as a sealing window. The 
photoluminescence  properties 
of  the  nanostructures  change 
depending  on  which  chemicals 
are present in the environment 
being monitored, hence varying 
the intensity of the light emit-
ted  from  the  transducer.  The 
change  can  then  be  read  out 
using  commercially  available 
photo-detectors.

‘We take advantage of the chem-
ical  sensitivity  and  the  high 
surface-to-volume  ratio  of  the 
nanostructures  without  having 
to  implement  a  more  compli-
cated processing technology — 
there’s  a  lot  less  technological 
effort  involved  to  deploy  and 
use this kind of sensing system,’ 
Dr Eickhoﬀ  notes.

The  approach  has  numerous 
advantages. It is less complex, 
as only light is involved and there 
is no need for electrical contacts 
and  measuring  systems.  The 
sensors require much lower op-
eration temperatures compared 
to conventional sensor systems. 
And,  because  light  —  and  not 
electricity — is all that is passing 
through the environment being 
monitored, it is much safer, par-
ticularly in cases where the gas 
or liquid is flammable, pressur-
ised or explosive.

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EADS Innovation Works, a mem-
ber of the Dotsense consortium, 
is interested in using opto-chem-
ical sensor technology in aero-
space applications, for example, 
where safety and robustness are 
major concerns.

‘On  an  aircraft,  they  could  be 
used  to  monitor  water  qual-
ity, hydraulic fluid, gas leaks or 
fuel,’  Dr  Eickhoff  notes.  ‘When 
we started the project, aeronau-
tical applications were our main 
focus, but we soon realised that 
there are additional applications 
for this technology in many other 
industries.’

More sensitive than 
electrical sensors
Although the primary goal of the 
Dotsense project, supported by 
EUR 1.2 million in funding from 
the European Commission, was 
to develop chemical sensors that 
do not require electrical contacts, 
the team found that in several 
cases  their  all-optical  solution 

is actually much more sensitive 
than electrical equivalents.

‘The  idea  was  not  to  make  a 
highly  sensitive  device,  but  in 
the end it turned out that these 
optical nanostructures can actu-
ally be much more sensitive than 
electrical  sensors,’  Dr  Eickhoff 
says. ‘It was certainly something 
we  hoped  might  be  the  case, 
but we couldn’t be certain until 
we  conducted  tests.  Combined 
with their other advantages, that 
opens up a whole range of uses.’

He  points,  for  example,  to  gas 
detection in industrial environ-
ments  or  home  smoke  alarms, 
to health-care applications and 
to  uses  in  the  food-processing 
industry to test the composition 
of liquids.

electrical current running in the 
medium in which you are oper-
ating — the key beneﬁ ts of this 
are  safety  and  reliability,’  the 
Dotsense coordinator explains.

Nonetheless,  the  technology 
remains  some  way  away  from 
commercial  use.  The  Dotsense 
team  overcame  key  technical 
challenges, such as pushing the 
emitted light from the transducers 
into the visible range so it can be 
excited by LEDs and detected with 
relatively inexpensive commercial 
photo-detectors, controlling the 
growth of the nanostructures, and 
understanding the photo-electrical 
processes that occur on the sur-
face of the nanostructures in dif-
ferent  chemical  environments. 
But more research is needed, Dr 
Eickhoﬀ  notes.

‘There are many applications for 
these sorts of sensors. In fact, 
a  lot  of  industrial  sectors  like 
the  idea  that  you  don’t  need 
electrical  components  and  an 

Partly  with  that  goal  in  mind, 
members  of  the  team  have 
launched  a  national  follow-up 
project called ‘Sinomics’ in which 
they  will  integrate  LEDs  and 

photo-detectors with nanostruc-
tures on-chip to develop innova-
tive devices for gas sensing and 
detection.

‘I’m optimistic that over the com-
ing years this technology will ﬁ nd 
several applications, and it will 
become cheaper and hence more 
commercially  viable  to  start 
producing  all-optical  sensors,’ 
Dr Eickhoﬀ  says.

The  Dotsense  project  was  co-
ordinated  by  researchers  at 
the  Justus-Liebig-University  in 
Giessen, Germany.

1  

 ‘Group III-nitride quantum dots as 
optical transducers for chemical 
sensors’.

Funded under the FP7 specific 
programme ‘Cooperation’ under the 
theme ‘Information and communication 
technologies’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8608

Shedding light on experimental physics

Accurate phase measurement in experimental physics has come of age, thanks to high-tech 
advances in broadband-squeezed light.

that  is  pumped  by  a  narrow-
band laser.

Project  researchers  have  been 
working  on  generating  and 
detecting  correlated  quantum 
states by exploring new avenues 
to super-resolved phase meas-
urement.  The  scientists  are 
attempting to achieve sub-shot 
noise phase measurement using 
‘precision DC’ (PDC) as the source 
for broadband quantum squeez-
ing and ‘Sum-frequency gener-
ation’  (SFG)  as  the  ultra-fast 
detector of this squeezing.

Precision  experimental  phys-
ics depends on accurate phase 
measurement,  which  has  been 
an elusive objective in research 
circles. The EU-funded Precision 
DC LIGHT1 project is working on 
overcoming this limitation.

T h e   p r o j e c t   i s   a i m i n g   t o 
achieve  what  is  known  as  the 

Heisenberg  limit  for  precise 
measurement of optical phase, 
considered  the  Holy  Grail  of 
quantum  measurement.  It  is 
exploiting non-classical (phase-
squeezed) states of light with 
inherent quantum correlations, 
using broadband-squeezed light 
produced  by  broadband  para-
metric  ‘down  conversion’  (DC) 

In parallel, the project is work-
ing on a high-power broadband 
‘Optical  parametric  oscillator’ 
(OPO) and on optimising its per-
formance to use in applications 
such as spread spectrum optical 
communication.

After extensive testing, the pro-
ject  team  made  significant 

progress  in  achieving  its  ob-
jectives. It successfully demon-
strated a source of an ultra-high 
flux  of  entangled  photon  pairs 
and generated correlated fields 
by broadband FWM. Moreover, it 
conducted an analysis of SFG as 
an ultra-fast detector of squeez-
ing  and  established  a  detailed 
simulation  of  OPO  source  for 
high-power broadband PDC.

The  success  achieved  so  far  is 
on  track  to  helping  European 
researchers  advance  precision 
experimental physics and position 
Europe as a leader in the ﬁ eld.

This project was coordinated by 
the research authority at Bar Ilan 
University in Ramat Gan, Israel.

1  

 ‘Precision measurement beyond the 
classical limit with novel sources of 
broadband squeezed light’.

Funded by the FP7 specific programme 
‘People’ (Marie-Curie actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8778

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

37

IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Communicate with the future

An EU-funded project has developed a computer framework that ensures we will always be 
able to use data, however and wherever it is saved and stored.

Do you hate it when you try to 
open  a  computer  file  and  up 
pops  a  box  which  says  ‘Invalid 
file  format’?  Or  when  vendors 
of software and operating sys-
tems  announce  they  will  no 
longer support and update legacy 
systems?

Data  formats,  ICT  hardware, 
so(cid:4) ware and protocols are con-
stantly evolving. But even as we 
gather and manipulate so much 
data, could it be lost just because 
its  format  is  old  or  hardware 
has changed? The prosperity of 
future generations relies on their 
access to the information of the 
past.  Are  our  descendants  at 
risk of knowing nothing because 
everything  we  know  today  is 
locked  in  computer  systems 
and codes that one day may be 
impossible to crack?

A framework for 
development
The  EU-funded  Shaman1  pro-
ject has developed a framework 
that  makes  ‘digital  preserva-
tion’ (DP) a reality for virtually 
any data format. People will be 
able to store and archive digital 
objects and information in conﬁ -
dence, knowing that they will be 
fully accessible and useable in 

the future, whatever the future 
brings. ‘Shaman has developed 
new  technologies  which  could 
enable us to communicate with 
the future, securing the valuable 
digital  we  are  creating  today. 
They will be readable, accessi-
ble and usable for future gener-
ations,’ remarks Ruben Riestra, 
the project’s coordinator.

‘Contrary to the general idea that 
“digital lasts forever”, the risks of 
losing digital content related to 
obsolescence  of  hardware  and 
software  should  not  be  under-
estimated, and can create con-
siderable  damage  to  valuable 
information assets,’ he continues. 
‘The  fast  pace  of  development 
of digital information isn’t nec-
essarily reﬂ ected in other areas; 
for example, the Airbus A380 will 
be operational for some decades 
and therefore the digital docu-
mentation  of  aeroplane  main-
tenance must be stored, secured 
and easily accessed for perhaps 
the next 40 to 50 years.’

A holistic solution
The  ‘Shaman  reference  archi-
tecture’  (SRA)  provides  a  uni-
ﬁ ed view of digital preservation, 
approaching  the  problem  from 
a  holistic  perspective.  The  SRA 

enables  digital  preservation  to 
be  integrated  seamlessly  into 
the  overall  architecture  of  an 
organisation.

The development of the frame-
work required the project part-
ners  to  explore  current  DP 
practices  and  create  an  archi-
tecture that was not limited to 
a  specific  DP  methodology.  By 
looking at the specific concerns 
expressed  by  those  using  cur-
rent digital preservation methods 
in a variety of organisations, the 
Shaman team was able to pro-
duce a solution which makes this 
straightforward for organisations 
for  whom  preserving  content 
is not necessarily their primary 
business requirement, but is nev-
ertheless  important  for  future 
success.

The Shaman framework includes 
tools  for  analysing,  managing, 
accessing and reusing informa-
tion  objects  and  data  across 
various  libraries  and  archives. 
It supports the preservation of 
information,  and  the  specific 
applications  and  services  that 
could be applied to the data, all 
in ways that future technologies 
and  systems  will  be  able  to 
understand and execute.

For example, if you want to pre-
serve animation ﬁ les you cannot 
simply  store  a  video;  it  is  also 
important  that  you  can  apply 
or reapply post-production pro-
cesses  (such  as  colour  trans-
formations) to individual frames 
of  the  video.  The  Shaman  ref-
erence architecture makes this 
possible.

Beyond the cloud
The  architecture  also  goes 
beyond  simple  cloud  storage 
solutions. As Mr Riestra explains, 
‘the most important difference 
is  the  time  frame:  storage  in 
the  cloud  is  mainly  for  short 
term,  while  digital  preserva-
tion is related to issues such as 
multiple  migrations  over  time, 
hardware  and  mainly  software 
obsolescence.’

The cloud currently consists of 
a wide variety of services, solu-
tions,  platforms  and  technol-
ogies,  all  in  their  early  stages. 
‘Putting  digital  content  on  the 
cloud  is  still  a  risk,’  Mr  Riestra 
suggests.  ‘Instead,  we  need 
robust, long-term solutions that 
can secure data and metadata in 
many formats for the future.’

Prototype applications
T h e   S h a m a n   p r o j e c t   p r o -
duced  three  prototype  appli-
c a t i o n s ,   d e s i g n e d   t o 
demonstrate the validity of 

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IT AND TELECOMMUN I CATI ONS

the framework and to showcase 
some exemplary tools developed 
using the reference architecture.

The  first  prototype,  developed 
in association with the German 
National  Library,  successfully 
demonstrated  that  the  com-
plete digital lifecycle (creation, 
assembly, archival, adoption and 
reuse) could be applied to books 
and  associated  material  (such 
as  documents,  slides  and  vid-
eos).  The  project  showed  how 
complete information, including 
structural  metadata  and  data 
on  the  creation  context,  could 
be applied. Furthermore, certain 
archival  functionality,  such  as 
migration of image formats from 
TIFF to JPEG, could be carried out 
with high-quality assurance.

The second prototype applied the 
Shaman  framework’s  concepts 
to  industry,  aiming  to  increase 

efficiency, ensure legal compli-
ance  and  improving  back-up 
times. ‘In industry, digital preser-
vation is still not widely accepted 
and has different requirements, 
o(cid:4) en driven by legislative rules. 
Trust,  authenticity  and  access 
rights also shape the solutions 
currently on oﬀ er and in develop-
ment,’ explains Mr Riestra. ‘The 
prototype  demonstrated  suc-
cessful integration of a product 
lifecycle  management  system, 
with digital preservation built in, 
based on a consumer electronics 
test case.’

The third prototype looked at the 
science sector, an area that con-
tinuously generates and needs to 
manage a large volume of data. 
‘We set up three scenarios: we 
wanted  to  demonstrate  how  it 
was possible to capture and pre-
serve sensor data from civil en-
gineering (dam safety), scientiﬁ c 

workflows  and  experimental 
data in particle physics,’ says Mr 
Riestra. ‘In these areas, a large 
amount of complicated data in 
many diﬀ erent formats needs to 
be stored, managed and reused 
and the Shaman infrastructure 
was able to deal with this eﬀ ect-
ively, further demonstrating its 
ﬂ exibility.’

The project has already contrib-
uted to preserving digital infor-
mation for future reference by a 
variety of organisations, includ-
ing  universities,  engineering 
firms, technology spin-outs and 
national  libraries.  By  develop-
ing a holistic solution, designed 
to  provide  multiple  benefits 
to  organisations,  Shaman  has 
developed an architecture which 
makes  DP  easy  and  attractive. 
Hopefully, those annoying error 
boxes  will  be  a  thing  of  the 
past  (and  probably  one  of  the 

few things we may not want to 
preserve).

The  Shaman  project  received 
EUR 8.4 million (of the total EUR 
12.29 million project budget) in 
research funding. It was coord-
inated  by  INMARK  Studies  and 
Strategies (IEE) in Madrid, Spain.

1 

 ‘Sustaining heritage access through 
multivalent archiving’.

Funded by the FP7 specific programme 
‘Cooperation’ under the theme 
‘Information and communication 
technologies’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8827

Stimulating communication, preventing selfish behaviour

Individuals’  mobile  networks  offer  the  prospect  of  enhanced  communication,  but  also 
raise questions regarding their potential for dangerous use. A European research project is 
addressing relevant concerns in the hopes of promoting ongoing development of supporting 
technologies.

to relay information for enhanced 
personal  experiences,  and  are 
useful in the case of emergen-
cies or disasters.

However, this exciting and revolu-
tionary technology raises critical 
issues related to user behaviour 
and security, given the unavoid-
able  reality  of  ill-intentioned 
behaviour as an unavoidable part 
of human nature. As such, indi-
viduals — the carriers of these 
devices, or nodes — may be hes-
itant to embrace the technology 
and  benefit  from  its  potential, 
which will in turn have a negative 
impact on its scientiﬁ c and indus-
trial development.

The  Rational1  project  has  been 
established to address such con-
cerns. It advances mechanisms 
or  tools  critical  to  construct-
ing secure distributed systems, 
thereby  addressing  so-called 
selﬁ sh-node behaviour. The EU–
funded  project  is  focused  on 

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The  advent  of  mobile  commu-
nication devices able to directly 
link  to  each  other  using  short-
range  communication  technol-
ogies (such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi) 

can be applied to the develop-
ment of completely distributed, 
infrastructure-less  networks. 
These so-called mobile networks 
of individuals oﬀ er the potential 

building primitives for forward-
ing  and  reliable  broadcast  in 
mobile networks of people, build-
ing protocols for consensus in a 
mutually suspicious domain, and 
better understanding the impact 
of ‘selﬁ shness with outsiders’.

Work to date has been presented 
in leading conferences, and sev-
eral  submissions  have  been 
made  for  future  participation 
as  well  as  paper  publications. 
Ongoing  efforts  and  contribu-
tions  to  the  field  of  study  of 
distributed systems promises to 
advance the tremendous poten-
tial  of  this  technology  for  the 
beneﬁ t of society at large.

The  Rational  project  was  co-
ordinated by researchers at the 
Sapienza University of Rome in 
Italy.

1  

 ‘Rational: Secure mobile networks of 
selfish individuals’.

Funded by the FP7 specific programme 
‘People’ (Marie-Curie actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8866

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39

INDUSTRIA L TECHNOLOGIES

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Europeans push the 
bio-nano-technology envelope

Researchers in Germany have once again made a major breakthrough in bio-nano-technology, this time in the area of solid-
state nanopore sensors, enhancing their capabilities by fitting them with cover plates made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). 

This major advance was made in part thanks 
to the DNA Origami Devices1 project, which 
received a European Research Council (ERC) 
grant worth EUR 1.5 million under the EU’s 
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). This 
project  has  opened  up  novel  opportunities 
for  a  systematic  study  of  macromolecular 
interactions in biology and is likely to deepen 
our understanding of regulatory processes in 
biology. The ﬁ ndings of this latest study were 
presented in the journal Angewandte Chemie 
International Edition.

Anything in the nanoscale refers to some-
thing so small that it can only be measured 
in the billionth. In this case, nanopores are 
very small holes, usually in synthetic mater-
ials like grapheme or silicone, and are used to 
analyse and sequence single nucleic acid mol-
ecules. Nanopore biotechnology oﬀ ers one of 

the most promising approaches to single mol-
ecule detection and analysis.

What  the  researchers  at  the  Technische 
Universitaet  Muenchen  (TUM)  in  Germany 
have  achieved  is  enhancing  the  ability  of 
solid-state nanopores by fitting them with 
cover plates made of DNA. These nanoscale 
cover plates, which have had central aper-
tures tailored to various ‘gatekeeper’ func-
tions, are formed by so-called DNA origami. 
This is the art of making structures from DNA 
to fold into custom-designed structures with 
speciﬁ ed chemical properties. This represents 
a major breakthrough for the industry as a 
whole with far-reaching eﬀ ects.

This achievement did not come easy and is 
the result of hard work by different teams 
over  recent  years.  One  team  led  by  TUM’s 
Professor Hendrik Dietz focused its eﬀ orts on 

reﬁ ning control over DNA origami techniques 
and demonstrating how structures made in 
this manner can enable scientiﬁ c investiga-
tions in diverse ﬁ elds. Another research team 
at TUM, led by Dr Ulrich Rant, was doing the 
same but in the ﬁ eld of solid-state nanopore 
sensors, where the basic working principle 
is to urge biomolecules of interest, one at a 
time, through a nanometre-scale hole in a 
thin slab of semiconductor material. When 
biomolecules pass through or linger in such 
a sensor, minute changes in electrical current 
ﬂ owing through the nanopore translate into 
information about their identity and physical 
properties.

By  working  together  they  were  able  to 
develop a new device concept which until now 
had been purely hypothetical; this involved 
the placement of a DNA origami nano-
plate over the narrow end of a conically 

>

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INDUSTRIAL  TE CHN O LO GI E S

tapered solid-state nanopore. By adjusting 
or ‘tuning’ the size of the central aperture 
in the DNA nanoplate, they could filter the 
type of molecules that pass through accord-
ing to size. Furthermore, by placing a single-
stranded  DNA  receptor  in  the  aperture  as 
‘bait’, they should enable sequence-specific 
detection  of  ‘prey’  molecules.  In  principle, 
such a device could even serve as the basis 
of a novel DNA-sequencing system.

‘We’re especially excited about the selective 
potential of the bait/prey approach to single-
molecule sensing,’ said Prof. Dietz, ‘because 

many diﬀ erent chemical components beyond 
DNA could be attached to the appropriate site 
on a DNA nanoplate.’

This  project  was  coordinated  by  research-
ers at the Munich Institute of Technology in 
Munich, Germany.

High-resolution  sensing  applications, 
such  as  DNA  sequencing,  will  face  some 
additional  hurdles,  however,  as  Dr  Rant 
explained:  ‘By  design,  the  nanopores  and 
their DNA origami gatekeepers allow small 
ions to pass through. For some conceivable 
applications,  that  becomes  an  unwanted 
leakage  current  that  would  have  to  be 
reduced, along with the magnitude of cur-
rent ﬂ uctuations.’

1 ‘Single-molecule studies of protein-protein-DNA interactions, 
enabled by DNA origami’.

Promoted through the Research Information Centre.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre > search > 24973

Enhanced efficiency of nickel mining

Our earth is a storehouse, a virtual treasure trove of useful substances that nature provides and which are extracted in various 
ways and forms. EU-funded researchers are collecting mineralogical data to enhance the widespread and efficient use of a 
simple and cost-effective nickel-mining process.

Nickel  is  an  important  alloying 
element used to make steel for 
construction and high-quality cut-
lery. Ores are typically either sul-
phide or laterite, where the former 
is deeper, higher grade, expensive 
to  mine  and  requires  practices 
of  questionable  environmental 
impact.  Laterites  account  for 
about 70 % of the world’s nickel 
resources  and  laterite  process-
ing is predicted to be the mining 
method of choice in the future.

Superficial  lateritic  nickel  ore 
deposits are typically formed in 
hot, wet tropical areas by chem-
ical ‘weathering’ of the underlying 

rock. This weathering, or break-
ing  down  of  the  rocks  and  soil 
through  contact  with  air  and 
water, results in a broad spectrum 
of soil types and mineral contents 
depending on the parent material.

EU-funded  researchers  work-
ing  on  the  NICAL1  project  are 
investigating  the  compositions 
of several laterite deposits in an 
eﬀ ort to enhance their mining by 
cost-eﬀ ective ‘Atmospheric heap-
leaching’  (AHL)  methods.  They 
also aim to deﬁ ne criteria for the 
identiﬁ cation of future oxide-rich 
nickel-laterite resources suitable 
for AHL.

AHL diﬀ ers signiﬁ cantly from trad-
itional in situ mining processes. A 
‘heap’ of crushed ore is placed on 
a liner and leach chemicals per-
colate through it (at atmospheric 
or environmental pressure, but no 
special high-pressure equipment). 
This  ensures  that  valuable  ma-
terials end up in the leachate for 
processing.

The consortium first carried out 
geological  and  mineralogical 
studies employing advanced im-
aging techniques at three sites 
(Albania,  the  Philippines  and 
Turkey) to identify soil compos-
itions, porosity and the like.

They  then  conducted  AHL  ex-
periments, sampling products at 
regular intervals during the pro-
cess. Data was fed into the met-
allurgical-modelling programme 
Metsim to enhance future predic-
tive power.

Although ongoing, experiments 
have already demonstrated sev-
eral  mineral  phases  previously 
not seen in bulk tests that will 
prove  useful  in  optimising  AHL 
of nickel and retention of soluble 
nickel in the leachate.

Continuing  work  will  focus  on 
the  combined  use  of  X-ray 
fluorescence and X-ray diffrac-
tion, with promising preliminary 
results to date.

The  project  was  coordinated 
by  researchers  at  the  Natural 
History  Museum  in  London, 
United Kingdom.

1  

 ‘Atmospheric heap-leaching to solve 
nickel laterite processing problems’.

Funded under the FP7 specific programme 
‘People’ (Marie-Curie actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8819

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41

INDUSTRIA L TECHNOLOGIES

Enhancing quality control in aeronautics

The  manufacturing  industry  relies  heavily  on  precise  measurement  during  assembly  and 
inspection.  New  optical-sensor  technology  and  image-processing  algorithms,  developed  by 
EU-funded research, can enhance speed and accuracy while reducing manufacturing costs. 

In  the  aeronautics  industry, 
metrology  faces  certain  dif-
ficulties  related  to  the  com-
bination  of  manufacturing 
very  large  and  highly  reflec-
tive  parts  together  with  the 
need for extreme precision and 
accuracy.

Conventional methods employ 
very  large  frames  capable  of 
holding both the parts and the 
manual  measurement  instru-
ments. Inspection is thus both 
labour-  and  time-intensive, 
both  of  which  significantly 
increase manufacturing costs.

European researchers initiated 
the Ipromes1 project to develop 
optical-image processing tech-
niques  for  assembly-phase 

positioning  as  well  as  final-
product measurement.

The  consortium  developed  an 
optical sensor with robust image-
processing algorithms suited to 
aeronautical  components.  Such 
structures exhibit highly reﬂ ective 
surfaces, curved and sharply cut 
edges and various hole shapes.

The  Ipromes  sensor  exhibited 
increased  accuracy  via  imple-
mentation of a structured light 
algorithm  capable  of  handling 
various ambient illuminations. In 
addition, the sensor and process-
ing software were quite flexible 
and  user-friendly.  The  system 
had  the  ability  to  repeatedly 
measure  any  arbitrary  shape 
without restriction by employing 

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Rational design of stretched plastic packaging

Virtually  every  home  recycling  container  or  bin  can  attest  to  the  ubiquitous  use  of  plastic 
packaging materials. EU-funded researchers evaluated a variety of materials and processing 
methods that should advance the design of new products. 

and  the  two  conventional  pro-
cessing methods, thermoforming 
and stretch blow moulding.

They sought to elucidate corre-
lations between polymer struc-
tures  and  end-use  properties. 
Thus, they studied evolution of 
microstructure during process-
ing with a special focus on the 
rheology (ﬂ ow properties) of the 
polymers.

Experimentally, scientists devel-
oped high-velocity loading tests 
for thermoforming and stretch 
blow moulding. They advanced 
knowledge  related  to  micro-
structure  development  as  well 
as heating, stretching and cool-
ing.  Results  contributed  to  the 
formation  of  a  database  on 
heating, thermal contact, load-
ing histories and friction during 
processing.

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Careful scientiﬁ c development of 
new packaging products and pro-
cessing procedures based on the 
relationship between the struc-
ture of polymers and their result-
ing properties is lacking.

European  researchers  seek-
ing to develop a global strategy 

for  scientific  optimisation  of 
stretched plastic packaging initi-
ated the APT-PACK1 project.

Scientists focused on three types 
of polymers relevant to stretched 
plastic  packaging  (amorphous, 
semi-crystalline and amorphous 
that crystallises during forming) 

a user-defined frame-of-refer-
ence based on measured data.

Ipromes technology should speed 
up the inspection process while 
increasing  accuracy  of  meas-
urements, leading to important 
cost  reductions  and  enhanced 
quality  within  the  aeronautics 
sector. Further enhancements in 
accuracy, as well as implementa-
tion of wireless PC control, have 
the  potential  to  extend  appli-
cations  to  many  other  manu-
facturing sectors.

The  project  was  coordinated 
by  the  Alma  Consulting  Group, 
based in France.

1 

 ‘Using image processing as a 
metrological solution’.

Funded by the FP6 specific programme 
‘Aeronautics and space’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8952

Data  has  helped  to  define  and 
propose relevant models as well 
as  to  focus  future  numerical 
codes for rational design. Overall, 
APT-PACK  advanced  scientific 
knowledge and understanding of 
the  correlation  among  polymer 
materials,  processing  methods 
and conditions, and ﬁ nal end-user 
product  properties  that  should 
advance  the  global  stretched 
plastic packaging market.

The  project  was  coordinated 
by  the  Association  pour  la 
Recherche et le Développement 
des  Méthodes  et  Processus 
Industriels-  Ecole  Nationale 
Supérieure des Mines de Paris, in 
France.

1 

 ‘Advanced knowledge of polymer 
deformation for tomorrow’s 
packaging’.

Funded by the FP6 specific programme 
‘Nanotechnologies and Nano-sciences’ 
(NMP).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8948

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

INDUSTRIAL  TE CHN O LO GI E S

Multi-functional decorative coatings for electronics

EU-funded researchers have developed a new class of thin-film coatings with a huge spectrum 
of mechanical, optical and electrical properties. Tailor-made combinations of properties should 
make the coatings a winner with the consumer electronics sector. 

Scientists developed a new range 
of  coatings,  transition  metal 
oxynitrides (TM-O-N), combining 
the strength of nitrides with the 
colours attainable using oxides. 
In  addition,  transition  metals 
have  interesting  electrochro-
mic properties, or the ability to 
change  their  optical  properties 
in response to a small voltage in 
applications such as ‘smart’ win-
dows or X-ray mirrors. As metals, 
they also can act as conductors 
or semiconductors.

Integrating  all  these  potential 
characteristics  in  one  class  of 
compounds  and  exploring  the 
vast spectrum of possible com-
binations  was  the  goal  of  the 
Hardecoat project.

In addition, investigators opted 
to  modify  the  physical  vapour 
deposition  (PVD)  method,  spe-
cifically reactive sputtering, for 
deposition  of  the  novel  coat-
ings.  PVD  produces  much  less 
negative environmental impact 
than conventional electroplating 
or  chemical-vapour  deposition 
methods that use toxic chemicals 

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Thin-film  coatings  are  widely 
used  throughout  the  medical, 
automotive and machine tools 
industries.  They  provide  add-
itional  resistance  to  a  num-
ber  of  conditions  detrimental 
to  the  life  and  function  of 
components.

Thin-film coatings are also im-
portant  to  the  electronics  and 
optics  industries.  They  play  a 
major role in the semiconductor 
sector and in electrical connec-
tions  on  circuit  boards.  Optical 

coatings  are  applied  to  every-
thing from household mirrors to 
photovoltaic (PV) cells.

More  recently,  decorative  thin-
ﬁ lm coatings in a wide range of 
colours  have  made  consumer 
electronics a bit more attractive 
than black, white and silver.

European researchers set out to 
develop new coatings for deco-
rative and micro-optoelectronics 
applications via the Hardecoat1 
project.

and produce a large volume of 
waste.

Four modified reactive sputter-
ing  processes  were  developed 
for TM-O-N thin-ﬁ lm deposition. 
Coatings demonstrated a range 
of colours, optical and electrical 
properties  as  well  as  excellent 
resistance to corrosion and wear.

Hardecoat  coatings,  with  their 
rich spectrum of tuneable prop-
erties, should make a signiﬁ cant 
impact on the decorative, opto-
electronic and micro-technology 
sectors.  In  addition,  the  cost-
effective  and  environmentally 
friendly  deposition  processes 
should be welcomed by manu-
facturers and consumers alike.

T h e   p r o j e c t   w a s   c o o r d i n -
ated  by  the  École  Nationale 
Supérieure de Mécanique et des 
Microtechniques  de  Besançon, 
France.

1 

 ‘Development of new hard decorative 
coatings based on transition metal 
oxynitrides’.

Funded by the FP6 specific programme 
‘Nanotechnologies and Nano-sciences’ 
(NMP).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 9038

Using nature’s cue to make complex natural products

This EU-funded project investigated novel chemical synthesis 
methods  mimicking  nature’s  efficiency  to  develop  a 
library  of  simple  precursor  molecules  capable  of  one-step 
functionalisation, yielding complex bioactive natural products.

Chiral molecules are abundant 
in  living  organisms.  Examples 
include  DNA,  enzymes,  anti-
bodies  and  hormones.  These 
molecules  exist  as  pairs  of 
mirror-image molecules known 
as  enantiomers  that  are  not 
superimposable.

Most drugs are also chiral mol-
ecules.  The  two  enantiomers 
typically  have  different  activ-
ity. In the best case, where one 

form  is  benign,  non-selective 
synthesis  leads  to  decreased 
production eﬃ  ciency, increased 
cost  and  the  need  to  dispose 
of unwanted compounds. In the 
worst case, where one form is 
harmful  although  the  other  is 
beneficial, lack of specificity in 
synthesis can have devastating 
results. Thus, the synthesis of 
pure enantiomers (asymmetric 
synthesis) has become increas-
ingly important.

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E q u a l l y   i m p o r t a n t   t o   t h e 
commercial  applicability  of 

synthesis  reactions  is  the  use 
of a catalyst that speeds up the 

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43

INDUSTRIAL  TE CHN O LO GI E S

INDUSTRIA L TECHNOLOGIES

rate  of  the  chemical  reaction 
without itself being altered — 
the catalyst is used again and 
again and the product is quickly 
ampliﬁ ed.

In  2001,  the  Nobel  Prize  in 
chemistry  went  to  scientists 
who developed catalytic asym-
m e t r i c   s y n t h e s i s   m e t h o d s 
employing  a  single  enantio-
selective chiral catalyst to pro-
duce  millions  of  pure  chiral 
products.

Since  then,  researchers  have 
tried  to  mimic  biology  and 
develop  asymmetric  catalytic 

methods to build architecturally 
complex molecules, but results 
have generally lacked the effi-
ciency and ﬂ exibility of nature.

EU-funded  researchers  work-
ing on the CED1 project set out 
to develop a novel asymmetric 
catalytic technique for chemical 
synthesis based on one-step con-
version of a common functional 
block to a wide variety of enan-
tio-pure natural products.

Scientists  focused  on  develop-
ment  of  a  ‘Catalytic  enantio-
selective dearomatisation’ (CED) 
process,  essentially  converting 

ﬂ at aromatic rings into complex 
asymmetric molecules. In add-
ition,  they  sought  to  improve 
synthesis of a model compound 
and  investigate  a  variation  on 
CED called the zipper reaction in 
which a linear (rather than circu-
lar) precursor is used.

The search for simple molecules to 
act as precursors to complex bio-
logically active molecules via sim-
ple catalytic processes should lead 
to the creation of a novel library 
of small molecules with untapped 
biological  capabilities.  Project 
results could thus have signiﬁ cant 
impact on the cost-effective and 

eﬃ  cient industrial synthesis of im-
portant enantio-pure molecules.

The project was coordinated by 
researchers at the University of 
Cambridge in Cambridge, United 
Kingdom.

1 

 ‘Catalytic enantio-selective 
dearomatisation’.

Funded under the FP7 specific programme 
‘People’ (Marie-Curie actions).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8812

Magnetic refrigerators

Molecular  magnets,  gaining  widespread  attention  as  the 
potential  building  blocks  of  tomorrow’s  spintronics-based 
quantum  computers,  are  also  being  evaluated  for  their 
unique  properties  related  to  magnetic  refrigeration.  EU-
funded  researchers  investigated  the  role  of  specific  metal 
cores in complex chemical molecules in cooling.

The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) 
refers  to  a  reversible  change  in 
temperature of a material induced 
by exposure to a changing mag-
netic field. It is particularly prom-
inent  in  the  chemical  element 
gadolinium  (Gd),  from  the  lan-
thanide (4f) series of the periodic 
table.

Recent work supports a role of so-
called 3d-4f complexes (referring 
to electron subshells or orbitals of 
3d transition metals and 4f lantha-
nides ) in magnetic cooling eﬀ ects.

European  researchers  sought  to 
investigate  3d-4f  complexes  in 
structures consisting of two anti-
ferromagnetic  rings  capable  of 
aligning magnetic poles and their 
potential  as  ‘magnetic  coolers’ 
via  EU-funding  of  the  Linkrings1 
project.

The  magnetic  properties  of  sev-
eral  3d-4f  complexes  based  on 
the transition element cobalt (Co) 
and the lanthanide series, including 
Gd, were first prepared and then 
studied.

The maximum MCE was produced 
by the Gd derivative in each family 

of complexes tested. The change in 
entropy (a measure of heat absorp-
tion) was proportional to the per-
centage of Gd in the core of the 
complex supporting its critical role 
in molecular temperature modu-
lation via magnetic manipulation.

Heat-capacity measurements (indi-
cating the amount of heat required 
to change the temperature of the 
material by a certain amount, or 
intuitively the amount of heat it 
can store before changing temper-
ature) supported results of mag-
netic analyses, suggesting that the 
Co-Gd family is an excellent mag-
netic cooler.

Thus, project work confirmed the 
importance of 3d-4f complexes in 
magnetic cooling via the MCE and 
also highlighted the relationship 
between the size of the MCE eﬀ ect 
and the percentage of Gd in the 
core of the linked-ring complex.

The  Linkrings  project  success-
fully advanced molecular magnet 
research  with  a  focus  on  mag-
netic  coolers.  Future  magnetic 
refrigeration  would  eliminate 
the  need  for  hazardous  cool-
ants  as  well  as  reduce  energy 

consumption,  providing  a  new 
range of environmentally friendly 
refrigerators.

1 

 ‘Linking rings into complex 
structures’.

The  Linkrings  project  was  co-
ordinated by researchers at the 
University of Manchester in the 
United Kingdom.

Funded by the FP7 specific programme 
‘People’.
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8762

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44

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

INDUSTRIAL  TE CHN O LO GI E S

Environmentally friendly catalyst for industrial use

Catalysts  are  compounds  that 
speed the rate of chemical reac-
tions without themselves being 
altered  by  the  reaction.  Thus, 
they  can  be  used  again  and 
again.

Oxidation  catalysis  of  organic 
substrates  is  a  main  field  of 
research,  given  that  oxidation, 
typically  mediated  by  a  tran-
sition-metallic  compound  and 
using  hydrocarbons  (organic 

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compounds) as a feedstock, is a 
common step in the production 
of commodity and ﬁ ne chemicals.

Metal  complexes  can  activate 
molecular oxygen (O2 or dioxy-
gen)  for  catalytic  oxidations. 
Although  iron  and  copper  sys-
tems have been studied exten-
sively,  other  metal  complexes 
have not.

Studying  the  ability  of  nickel 
(Ni) to activate molecular oxy-
gen and of the catalytic poten-
t i a l   o f   t h e   r e s u l t i n g   N i - O 2 
species  toward  organic  sub-
strates was the motivation for 
the  EU-funded  NiO2activation1 
project.

Researchers focused on an iso-
latable  and  thermally  stable 
superoxo compound, [NiII(beta-
diketiminato)(O2)] (LNiO2).

LNiO 2  showed  unprecedented 
dioxygenase-like activity in the 
oxidation of 2,4,6-tri-tert-butyl-
phenol,  an  industrial  chemical 
used as a fuel, oil, gasoline or 
lubricant additive. No example 
of  such  a  reaction  appears  in 
the literature, and it appears to 
be speciﬁ c to Ni as copper- and 
cobalt-based  metal  superoxo 

compounds  do  not  exhibit  this 
behaviour.

In addition, scientists found that 
LNiO2 interacted with an iron(I) 
complex to form a highly reac-
tive  compound  with  a  NiO 2Fe 
core exhibiting mono-oxygenase 
activity.

NiO2activation1  project  results 
supported the powerful oxidis-
ing  potential  of  Ni-dioxygen 
compounds and their viability as 
environmentally friendly alter-
natives to heavy metal counter-
parts  palladium  and  platinum 
for use in industrially relevant 
oxidation catalysis reactions.

T h e   N i O 2a c t i v a t i o n   p r o j e c t 
was  coordinated  by  research-
ers  at  the  Berlin  Institute  of 
Technology in Berlin, Germany.

1 

 ‘O2-Activation at nickel complexes 
and their use as catalysts for 
environmentally friendly oxidation 
technologies’.

Funded by the FP6 specific programme 
‘Nanotechnologies and Nano-sciences’ 
(NMP).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8646

Novel ceramic materials and processes

Development  by  EU-funded  researchers  of  novel  nano-
composite  ceramics  and  adaptation  of  a  high-accuracy 
metal-machining  process  for  complex  geometries  has  the 
potential to broaden the applicability of ceramics.

Ceramics  as  a  class  of  mater-
ials  include  much  more  than 
the traditional ceramic clay with 
which we are all familiar. In add-
ition to silicate glass and cement, 
the  vast  array  of  advanced 
ceramics has found widespread 
application in ﬁ elds as diverse as 
aerospace, medical, military and 
communications devices.

Ceramics provide many advan-
tages over other materials due 
to their high wear-and-corrosion 
resistance  combined  with  low 
density. Furthermore, their raw 

materials are abundantly avail-
able at a low cost. Most ceramics 
are produced by powder metal-
lurgy  which  leads  to  the  need 
for post-processing in more than 
half of the components.

Adapting  an  existing  metal-
machining process for use with 
ceramics  and  thus  enhancing 
the potential market for ceram-
ics was the goal of the Moncerat1 
project.

‘Electrical  discharge  machin-
ing’ (EDM) is a process used for 

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machining  hard  metals  that  is 
restricted  to  electrically  con-
ductive  materials.  Despite  this 

limitation,  it  enables  accurate 
production  of  small  and  odd-
shaped parts.

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

45

INDUSTRIA L TECHNOLOGIES

Application  of  EDM  to  ceramic 
parts  required  development  of 
novel electro-conductive ceramic 
materials combined with an inte-
gration of the EDM process tech-
nology adapted for ceramics.

With  the  advent  of  nanotech-
nology, researchers have found 
that nanopowders consisting of 
particles on the scale of atoms 
or molecules enhance the mech-
anical properties of the ceramic 
products  in  which  they  are 
incorporated.

M o n c e r a t   r e s e a r c h e r s   s y n - 
the sised novel high-quality nano-
powders using ‘Self-propagating 
high-temperature  synthesis’ 
(SHS). As a result, new ceramic 
composite  materials  including 
nanocomposites, were developed. 
Investigation  of  the  effects  of 
ceramic material microstructure 
on the EDM process led to inte-
gration  of  process  effects  into 
the materials design phase.

Commercial  exploitation  of 
Moncerat results is expected to 

facilitate a shift from the use 
of classic materials to ceram-
ics,  which  often  exhibit  su-
perior  properties  and  can  now 
be  produced  more  effectively. 
Broadening the potential mar-
ket for ceramics should provide 
a boost to the ceramics indus-
try and the EU economy.

1 

 ‘Broadening the application field of 
ceramic components by joint and 
interactive research on EDM machining 
technology, novel ceramic materials 
based on nanopowders made by SHS 
and design methodology’.

The  Moncerat  project  was  co-
ordinated by researchers at the 
Catholic  University  Leuven  in 
Leuven, Belgium.  

Funded by the FP6 specific programme 
‘Nanotechnologies and Nano-sciences’ 
(NMP).
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search > offers > 8646

The manufacturing miracle

An  EU  project  has  produced  a  set  of  recommendations  to  make  the  manufacturing  sector 
more sustainable, based on the latest EU directives. Environment, health and safety will all 
gain ground.

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terms of environment according to 
the International Plant Protection 
Convention (IPPC), and looked at 
accident hazards according to the 
EU’s Seveso II Directive.

Equally important, these recom-
m e n d a t i o n s   t o o k   i n t o   c o n  -
si  deration occupational health and 
safety  as  stipulated  in  the  EU’s 
ATEX Directive which describes the 
equipment and systems to use in 
potentially explosive atmospheres.

Under  the  project,  a  network  of 
all  these  actors  worked  closely 
with  industry,  the  public,  gov-
ernment  authorities  and  NGOs 
in  order  to  build  a  set  of  highly 
valuable  and  useful  recommen-
dations.  The  expected  outcome 
of  project  results  is  increased 
safety  and  minimised  pollution 
all the way from raw materials to 
end products. With this, Europe’s 
industries are destined to become 
cleaner, greener and much more 
sustainable.

The  project  was  coordinated  by 
the National institute for industrial 
environment and risks (INERIS) in 
Verneuil-en-Halatte, France.

Efficient  industry  and  manu-
facturing  processes  play  an 
important  part  in  sustainable 
development. From reducing haz-
ards  and  minimising  waste  to 
managing  water  and  optimising 
resources, many processes related 
to production and storage can be 
improved  significantly  in  favour 
of sustainability. The EU-funded 

project  Shape-Risk 1  aimed  to 
advance this concept.

recommendations that meet diﬀ er-
ent stakeholders’ needs.

1 

Working  on  streamlining  inte-
grated  risk  management,  the 
project  sought  to  produce  use-
ful  guidelines  for  designing 
safer and cleaner industrial sys-
tems.  It  conferred  with  indus-
try players in order to formulate 

Moreover,  the  project  developed 
its recommendations in line with 
expert  authorities  and  bodies 
beyond industry to capture all the 
requirements needed to achieve its 
objectives. To illustrate, Shape-Risk 
considered  risk  management  in 

 ‘Sharing Experience on Risk 
Management (Health, Safety and 
Environment) to Design Future 
Industrial Systems’.

Funded by the FP6 specific programme 
‘Nanotechnologies and Nano-sciences’ 
(NMP).
http://cordis.europa.eu/marketplace > 
search > offers > 8829

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46

EVENT S

research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

‘EastLink: The Way to Knowledge Economy’ Conference

The Klaipeda Science and Technology Park (KSTP) will organise its biannual EastLink conference on cooperation in science and 
business on 1 and 2 October 2012 in Klaipeda, Lithuania.

In line with the EU Eastern Partnership policy and EU Central Asia cooperation strategy, the EastLink conference will bring together science and business institutions 
from the EU, Russia, the Baltic States and Central Asia to discuss and identify key areas in science and business where closer cooperation can be fostered.

The main goal of EastLink is to reinforce existing links and create new partnerships in science, research and business cooperation in the post-Soviet geopolitical area 
with the aim of strengthening competitive positions in the global economy and promoting ties between institutions in the East and West.

For further information, please visit: 
http://www.east-link.eu/en/

BioPartnering FutureEUROPE conference on life science partnerships

BioPartnering Europe will be held at the Square Brussels Meeting Centre in Brussels, Belgium from 7 to 9 October 2012.

Supported by the European Commission, EuropaBio, European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises and the European Biotechnology Network, the 
20th Annual BioPartnering FutureEUROPE conference aims to promote innovation within the European life science industry, expand the global reach 
of biotechnology-based companies, and build sustainable proﬁ table partnerships which are essential to the future success of the pharmaceutical 
and biotechnology industry.

For further information, please visit: 
http://www.techvision.com/bpfe/

European MedTech Forum 2012

Jointly  organised  by  the  European  medical  technology  industry  associations  Eucomed  and  EDMA,  the  European  MedTech 
Forum will take place from 10 to 12 October 2012 in Brussels, Belgium.

Bringing together approximately 500 leaders active in the EU health-care scene, including policy-makers, scientiﬁ c communities, patients’ repre-
sentatives, health-care professionals, academics and industry, the 2012 MedTech Forum will focus on topics under the banner ‘Europe leading in 
value-based innovation — Smart regulation as a catalyst for growth’.

Attendees will discuss the status and outlook of collaborations between the diﬀ erent health-care actors in Europe and the implications of the 
European Commission’s proposal for the Revision of the In Vitro Diagnostic and Medical Devices Directives in terms of patient access to safe 
medical technology, industry regulatory approval and venture capital investment in the future.

For further information, please visit: 
http://www.medtechforum.eu

The 12th Annual Broadband World Forum 2012

Broadband World Forum 2012 will take place from 16 to 18 October 2012 at the RAI Exhibition & Convention Centre, Amsterdam, 
The Netherlands.

The 12th Annual Broadband World Forum conference and exhibition will bring together over 300 speakers along with 150 service-provider case 
studies to address the commercial and technical opportunities, developments and issues currently surrounding broadband. This year, there will be 
three co-located summits on-site dealing with the most pressing and topical issues in wireless technology, cloud computing and home networks.

For further information, please visit: 
http://www.broadbandworldforum.com/

The eChallenges e-2012 Conference on Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

The 22nd eChallenges Conference, an international forum on Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-related research 
at European level (FP7), will take place from 17 to 19 October 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal.  

The 22nd eChallenges Conference, supported by the European Commission, will provide delegates from leading commercial, government and research 
organisations from around the world with a forum in which to share knowledge and experience, lessons learnt, good practice and innovation in the 
ﬁ eld of ICT.

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research*eu results magazine — N° 15 —September 2012

47

EVENTS

The goals of e-2012 are to promote ICT knowledge-sharing and innovation between commercial organisations, government agencies and the 
research community, exchange experiences about the current state of eAdoption at a sectoral, national or regional level, and stimulate the rapid 
take-up of research and technology development (RTD) results by industry, in particular SMEs.

For further information, please visit: 
http://www.echallenges.org/e2012/default.asp

World Health Summit 2012: Research for Health and Sustainable Development conference

The M8 Alliance of leading academic health centres and medical universities is organising a high-level international conference, 
the World Health Summit, in Berlin, Germany from 21 to 24 October 2012.  

The 2012 World Health Summit will bring together researchers, physicians, leading government oﬃ  cials and representatives from industry as 
well as from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and health-care systems to debate the most pressing issues that medicine and health-care 
systems will face over the next decade and beyond, and to develop cogent and timely responses regarding the health of populations worldwide. 

The conference will address how stable public-private partnerships and renewed political engagement with the understanding of health as a public 
good will be the basis for harnessing innovative power and scientiﬁ c development in the future.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.worldhealthsummit.org/

The 19th World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems

From 22 to 26 October 2012, ERTICO - ITS EUROPE, in close cooperation with its counterpart regional organisations and the 
Vienna Exhibition & Congress Centre, will organise the 19th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS) 
in Vienna, Austria.

Within the theme ‘Smarter on the way’, the 19th ITS World Congress will discuss innovative systems for the improvement of mobility and the use 
of intelligent systems and services within energy-eﬃ  cient and environmentally friendly transport policies in Europe and across the world.

For further information, please visit: 
http://2012.itsworldcongress.com/content

2012 European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology 

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and partners will present the 2012 European Scientific Conference 
on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology (ESCAIDE) in Edinburgh, UK, from 24 to 26 October 2012.

The 2012 ESCAIDE conference will address ways to strengthen and expand the human network of all involved in applied infectious disease epide-
miology and debate new models for sharing scientiﬁ c knowledge and experience in this ﬁ eld, both in Europe and internationally.

The conference will also provide a dedicated platform for fellows from EPIET (European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology), FETP (ﬁ eld epi-
demiology training programme) and EUPHEM (European Public Health Microbiology Training Programme) to present their work.

For further information, please visit: 
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/ESCAIDE/Pages/ESCAIDE.aspx

‘UrbanTec: Smart technologies for better cities’ conference and exhibition

The Cologne Conference Centre in association with the Federation of German Industry will host the ‘UrbanTec: Smart technologies 
for better cities’ conference and exhibition on sustainable urbanisation from 24 to 26 October 2012 in Cologne, Germany.

The UrbanTec 2012 conference will bring together leading experts from politics, industry, business and science to discuss the main challenges 
facing urban infrastructure, such as sustainable concepts for traﬃ  c, eﬃ  cient construction, intelligent energy and water supply, and the innovative 
solutions which can help overcome these challenges.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.urbantec.com

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