Research*eu results magazine. N° 38, December 2014/January 2015.
Date: 2015-01-13
Institutions: CORDIS, Publications Office of the European Union
Subjects: nanotechnology, research, research and development, research project, serial publication

ISSN 1977-4028

research eu

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

N°38
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015

ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH 
COULD HELP DETOXIFY 
POLLUTANTS
» PAGE 31

SPECIAL FEATURE

SPACE
PREVENTING FATAL 
ASTEROID COLLISIONS 
WITH THE EARTH 
» PAGE 45

CAN HYDROGEN 
REVOLUTIONISE  
OUR LIFESTYLES?

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

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EDITORIAL

by the editorial team

CAN 2015 BE THE YEAR THAT 
SEES HYDROGEN FINALLY 
REACH MARKET SUCCESS?

Hydrogen fuel cells are often considered as a high-potential technology in the search for more 
efficient and less polluting energy sources. But a look at the current state of these technologies 
begs a double-sided question: are we ready for hydrogen and, on the other side of the coin, is 
hydrogen ready for large-scale commercialisation? 

Fuel cells have been some 170 years in the making, with the first-ever successful demonstration 
having  been  given  in  1839.  While  society’s  late  concern  over  climate  change  has  boosted 
research  and  innovation,  the  market 
response  has  so  far  been  much  more 
lukewarm than for other renewable energy 
sources.  In  the  car  industry  —  the  most 
promising sector for the fuel cell market — 
‘electric vehicles’ (EVs) are now quite a few 
steps  ahead,  to  the  point  where  some 
stakeholders have started questioning the 
pros  of  investing  billions  of  euro  in  the 
necessary  refuelling  infrastructure.  EU 
Member States now have carte blanche when it comes to defining their alternative fuel station 
policy, and only 44 hydrogen fuelling stations are currently in operation in the EU. 

‘The market response 
has so far been much 
more lukewarm than 
for other renewable 
energy sources’

There are multiple reasons behind these mixed results, some of which are approached in this 
magazine. First, there have been concerns about the safety of hydrogen which, as Dr Lourdes F. 
Vega explains in an interview on the H2TRUST project, are widely based on misconceptions and 
a lack of awareness rather than actual shortcomings of the technology. Then, there is the cost: 
that  of  fuel  cells,  which  remains  high  compared  to  EV  batteries,  and  that  of  creating  and 
operating a dedicated refuelling infrastructure. Projects like HYTRANSFER, which is presented in 
our ‘special’ section, aims to bring down the latter by providing concrete solutions to make the 
refuelling of hydrogen-powered cars cost-efficient.

To enable the advent of a hydrogen economy, the European Commission together with hydrogen 
industries created the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen ‘Joint Technology Initiative’ (JTI) with an annual 
budget of EUR 470 million. Seven of the latest projects under this JTI are presented here, with 
a view to better understanding the remaining obstacles on the path to market success. 

We  therefore  close  this  year’s  series  of  ‘specials’  with  a  very  timely  topic.  This  month,  car 
manufacturer Toyota indeed announced the first commercially-available fuel cell vehicle, to be 
made available in 2015. Other manufacturers have already confirmed that they have similar 
plans, and public reception, along with a real industry commitment to developing the necessary 
refuelling infrastructure, could very well lay the foundations of the long-awaited hydrogen 
economy.

We  look  forward  to  receiving  your  feedback.  You  can  send  questions  or  suggestions  to:  
editorial@cordis.europa.eu

Erratum
In the previous edition of the research*eu 
results magazine, our article about the 
SIREN project referred to the Best Learning 
Game going to the ‘Village Voices’ game 
developed during the project. Actually, 
Village Voices is one of two mini-games 
developed under the project, the other 
being called ‘My Dream Theatre’. The SIREN 
game consists of both games played  
in turns with a single player profile.

research eu

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

NEXT
ISSUE

Focus on  
High tech 
concepts to 
sense the world

25

SPECIAL FEATURE

4  CAN HYDROGEN 
REVOLUTIONISE  
OUR LIFESTYLES?

ISSN 1831-9947

research eu

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

N°38
DECEMBER 2014/JANUARY 2015

ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH 
COULD HELP DETOXIFY 
POLLUTANTS
» PAGE 31

SPECIAL FEATURE

SPACE
PREVENTING FATAL 
ASTEROID COLLISIONS 
WITH THE EARTH 
» PAGE 45

CAN HYDROGEN  
BRING A REVOLUTION  
IN OUR LIFESTYLES?

4  Building trust in fuel cell hydrogen safety
6  Hydrogen fuel cells to advance the logistics industry
7 
8 
9 
10  How ‘Christmas trees’ can help improve hydrogen refuelling 

From sunlight to jet fuel: EU project makes first ‘solar’ kerosene
Fuel cells to connect our smartphones to the outside world
Advancing hydrogen and fuel cell technologies

technologies

12  Green energy: tomorrow’s reality

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13  BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
13  Neutralising antibodies for safer organ 

31  ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
31  Major breakthrough could help detoxify 

transplants

pollutants

13

14  Reinforcing tissue engineering research
15  Getting more from large-scale 3D radiology 

image data

16  Novel carriers for efficient drug delivery
17  Optimising vertebroplasty
17  Cancer targeting using nanocapsules
18  Clever probes detect lung infection

19   SOCIAL SCIENCES  
AND HUMANITIES

19  Improved risk communication during 

infectious disease crises

20  How museums will look in the future
21  The science of relevant networking
22  Political violence, public memories  

and state formation

23  The long history of minority integration 

struggles

24  A new approach to historiography

19

25  ENERGY AND TRANSPORT
25  Using intelligence to unlock the market  

for electric vehicles

26  Hybrid nanocomposites — automotive sector
26  Developing more reliable wind turbines
27  Maximum energy savings with minimum 

intervention for historic buildings

28  Lighter and stronger materials for greener 

aircraft

29  More energy-efficient cellular radio networks
30  Improved simulation of nuclear quantum 

effects

25

32  Impact of contaminated sediments in rivers
32  Making business the key to sustainable water 

management

33  20th century climate data gets a facelift
34  Using sound to picture the world in a new way

35  IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
35  Meet Poppy, the 3D-printed robot  

set to inspire innovation in classrooms

36  Tactile displays of the future to feel 

information

37  In-built security for a safer web experience
38  Towards intelligent systems for biomedical 

research

39  TV evolution leaves no one behind
40  Robots coming to the aid of humans caught 

up in disaster zones

41  Robotic solutions inspired by plants

42  INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES
42  Smart operation of equipment
43  Engineering-based food process control
43  Fresh approach to water-based wood  

coatings

44  New tool to expose welding defects
44  Eco-friendly helicopter door manufacture

45  SPACE
45  Preventing fatal asteroid collisions  

with the Earth

46  Pioneering data service for ground movements
46  Finding out how solar flares affect life on 

Earth

47 EVENTS

31

35

42

45

 
 
4

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015

S P E C I A L   F E A T U R E

SPECIAL FEATURE
CAN HYDROGEN REVOLUTIONISE  
OUR LIFESTYLES?

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I N T E R V I E W

BUILDING TRUST IN FUEL 
CELL HYDROGEN SAFETY
Can fuel cell hydrogen technology be considered as mature? Is it safe 
enough for regular use in cars, fuelling stations, combined heat and power 
generation and other applications? Those are the two major questions the 
H2TRUST project is trying to answer, to prepare the ground for large-scale 
commercialisation.

Whilst ‘electric vehicles’ (EVs) are 

starting  to  achieve  commercial 
success  and  infrastructure  is 
becoming more adapted, ‘Fuel cell vehi-
cles’  (FCVs)  are  still  lagging  behind. 
Explanations for this rather slow adoption 
generally revolve around four issues: cost, 
lack of infrastructure, safety and, more 
generally, public perception.

In  spite  of  its  various  advantages  over 
electricity, such as compressed hydrogen 
storage tanks taking up much less space 
than batteries, fuelling time being much 
faster  and  range  being  much  higher, 
hydrogen is still facing a lack of invest-
ment and political commitment, which is 
largely due to inaccurate popular beliefs, 
notably with regards to safety. 

The H2TRUST (Development of H2 Safety 
Expert Groups and due diligence tools for 
public awareness and trust in hydrogen 
technologies and applications) project is 
looking into the latter with a view to chal-
lenging misconceptions and raising aware-
ness among governments, industry and 
consumers. The project partners say they 
aim to foster a smooth and well managed 
transition to full-scale commercialisation 
of ‘Fuel cell hydrogen’ (FCH) applications in 
Europe and, from a safety perspective, to 
help  inform  about,  prepare  for  and 

increase  confidence  in  this  promising 
technology. 

Dr  Lourdes  F.  Vega,  project  coordinator 
and director of MATGAS — a joint venture 
between the company Air Products, the 
National Research Council of Spain and 
the Autonomous University of Barcelona 
— believes that developing good technol-
ogies is equally as important as selling 
them. In this exclusive interview for the 
research*eu  results  magazine,  she 
explains what the project team has done 
so far to ensure that Europeans can make 
informed  decisions  about  hydrogen’s 
future.

  What are the main objectives of 
the project?

Dr Lourdes F. Vega: The general pur-
pose of the H2TRUST project is to foster a 
smooth and well-managed transition to 
full-scale commercialisation of ‘Fuel cell 
hydrogen’  (FCH)  applications  in  Europe 
and, from a safety perspective, to aid the 
process by which all industry stakeholders 
are  informed  about,  prepared  for  and 
become confident in the technology. 

H2TRUST is a coordination and support 
action  focused  on  risk  assessment  of 
industries in all the main hydrogen appli-
cation areas. It builds on previous projects, 
mapping  safety  issues  at  the  different 
stages of the hydrogen life cycle, from 

production to transportation, storage and 
use, along with compiling best practices 
and making final recommendations. The 
goal of the project is to reach not only 
experts, but also society in general, pro-
moting the change towards a new hydro-
gen-based  economy,  raising  awareness 
about this, building on the project’s knowl-
edge and explaining the related advan-
tages and safety issues.  

  What are, according to you, the 
main non-technical barriers to the 
advent of a hydrogen-based 
economy?

In our opinion, some of the non-technical 
barriers will depend on how the hydrogen 
market develops, which itself will be highly 
dependent on the environment created by 
governments and on the financial support 
for the production of hydrogen. Currently, 
in the case of transportation, there is a 
lack of hydrogen vehicles and infrastruc-
ture. The cost of hydrogen ‘Fuel cell elec-
tric vehicles’ (FCEVs) remains prohibitively 
high, though this is projected to decrease 
as manufacturers progress towards com-
mercial levels of production. The expan-
sion  of  the  hydrogen  refuelling  station 
network will also require capital and oper-
ational support from governments in the 
early stages while vehicle uptake remains 
low. 

 
 
We need a sufficient number of vehi-
cles to justify the creation of fuelling sta-
tions  and  vice  versa.  This  requires  a 
cohesive approach, factoring in support 
mechanisms  for  production,  obligations 
for suppliers, capital and operational sup-
port for hydrogen fuelling stations, and 
incentives or mandates for vehicle manu-
facturers to deploy hydrogen FCEVs. 

In addition, it is important that final 
users and society are aware of these limi-
tations, instead of just thinking that hydro-
gen technology is not ready yet. Although 
further technical improvements will help 
lower the price, they are not the main bar-
riers, and this should be made known.

  What motivated you to do 
research in this area?

MATGAS is working on sustainable pro-
cesses  and  products.  We  firmly  believe 
that  R&D  is  still  needed  to  boost  the 
hydrogen economy, but we are also aware 
of the need to educate people about these 
technologies and their advantages. 

We  have  been  working  on  different 
aspects of fuel cells and their applications 
in different sectors, from transportation to 
‘Combined heat and power’ (CHP) applica-
tions, among others. One of the things we 
noticed  is  that  the  barriers  to  making 
hydrogen a real alternative to fossil fuel 
are related to the lack of knowledge on 
how to handle it, which enhances the per-
ception that there are many issues asso-
ciated with hydrogen and safety. We want 
to change this perception.

  What are the main difficulties 
you have faced during the project 
and how have you resolved them?

The  safety  aspects  of  hydrogen 
may  sometimes  be  a  challenging 
topic. For this reason, the main diffi-
culty that we have faced is clearly the 
poor availability of data and informa-
tion at the European level. Although 
there are some databases (e.g. HIAD) 

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DR LOURDES VEGA

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015

5

  S P E C I A L   F E A T U R E

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available, they report only macro-sta-
tistics, without detailed information on 
the  incidents/accidents,  etc.,  or  spe-
cific  recommendations  for  given 
applications. 

developed a webpage (h2trust.eu) and an 
online library where all documents related 
to  hydrogen  (from  production  to  final 
uses) and safety are classified for easy 
identification.

In  H2TRUST,  we  gathered  such 
information  through  different  meth-
ods such as questionnaires, surveys, 
expert  literature  data,  etc.  We  have 
also contacted equivalent entities in 
other  regions,  such  as  the  US  and 
Japan. They seem to be ahead of us in 
this regard. In our case, we found that 
some experts did not provide enough 
detailed information, because this is 
usually considered as ‘sensitive data’ 
by  companies  and  stakeholders. 
Similar to this, we also found that, in 
some areas, there is very little data 
being shared between industrial part-
ners,  hindering  the  validated  safety 
risk assessment methodology, which 
covers  all  application  areas  of 
hydrogen. 

In order to resolve all these issues, 
we  have  focused  on  different  case 
studies and document reviews as well. 
We  will  provide  a  summary  of  our 
findings, including the gaps, and will 
provide  specific  recommendations. 
Our aim is to advance the EU as much 
as we can in this area, from where we 
started, so that we or others can con-
tinue  the  work  and  build  up  solid 
knowledge, with the appropriate tools, 
on  the  advantages  of  technologies 
based on hydrogen and how to work 
with  them  in  a  safe  and  secure 
manner.

  Where do you stand with the 
project objectives? 

So far, we have gathered all the infor-
mation from selected stakeholders, ana-
lysed  it  and  issued  different  reports 
related to FCH safety issues, industry best 
practices and recommendations, a safety 
risk  assessment  and  a  public  safety 
assessment.  Moreover,  we  have 

Taking  this  into  account,  we  have 
achieved most of the technical work to be 
done under the project. However, the next 
and last part is the most important one, as 
we  need  to  disseminate  our  results.  In 
addition to conference and fair presenta-
tions, we are writing a book using our find-
ings and recommendations, and are also 
preparing videos for different audiences 
(school  training,  experts  and  society  in 
general) as well as working with similar 
associations to disseminate our work and 
build on theirs as well. 

“Contrary to popular belief, 
the technology is proven and 
ready to be used now.”

These actions are key to speeding up 
the hydrogen economy. We also hope to 
influence  some  regulations,  codes  and 
standards, as well as EU-funded projects 
addressing hydrogen safety.

  Electric car sales are starting to 
pick up with successful models being 
put on the market. How do you see 
this impacting other clean energy 
sources such as hydrogen?

The truth is that hydrogen FCEVs tend 
to be less well known than battery electric 
vehicles. In fact, they are often perceived 
to be futuristic, but, contrary to popular 
belief, the technology is proven and ready 
to be used now. In fact, some EU countries 
are ahead of others, for instance, Germany, 
the UK and Denmark, to mention just a 
few. Importantly, of all possible alterna-
tives  to  petrol/gas-powered  vehicles 
(including battery electric cars), FCEVs are 
the only option with a comparable range, 
performance and refuelling time, since a 
hydrogen vehicle takes less than five min-

 
 
 
6

utes  to  fill  up  and  can  travel  up  to  
400 miles on one tank of fuel. While bat-
tery vehicles are suited to small cars and 
short journeys, fuel cells enable full-func-
tion,  larger  vehicles,  with  long  driving 
range and quick refuelling. 

Again,  the  slow  implementation  is 
more related to the lack of infrastructures. 
It is also worth noting that hydrogen and 
battery cars are complementary technolo-
gies. They both have the same drive train, 
so economies of scale can be seen as both 
technologies are rolled out. 

A  number  of  automotive  companies 
are  developing  fuel  cell  electric  hybrid 
vehicles. In these, the fuel cell effectively 
recharges the battery, reducing the hydro-
gen consumption whilst delivering greater 
range. 

  Where does the industry stand 
with regards to safety? Is the 
technology getting close to 
commercialisation?

Hydrogen, like all fuels, must be treated 
carefully and with respect. For example, 
when filling a car with petrol or diesel, you 
do  so  carefully  and  ban  all  flames,  for 
example  from  lighters,  cigarettes  or 

matches. If you do the same for hydrogen, 
it is as safe as all other transport fuels. 

That being said, safety is our priority. For 
example, all Air Products hydrogen plants, 
fuelling stations and transporters comply 
with industrial standards and go far beyond 
the required standards. Air Products has a 
long history of handling gases and hydro-
gen safely, and has won several awards in 
recognition of this. Hydrogen is transferred 
into a vehicle using a locked seal to ensure 
that no hydrogen leaks. If it does however, 
providing it does so in a well-ventilated or 
outside space, it will simply float up and 
disperse. This is because hydrogen gas is 
lighter than air. Furthermore, in order to 
ensure strict safety standards are set for 
the domestic use of hydrogen, Air Products 
is cooperating with the rest of the industry, 
notably  the  European  Industrial  Gases 
Association (EIGA) and BC Safety Authority 
(BCSA).

What  we  need  now  to  move  the 
industry forwards is to bridge the gap 
between  demonstration  stage  and 
commercialisation.  This  is  where  
governments need to play a bigger role,  
as  is  already  the  case  in  some  EU 
countries. 

  What are the next steps for the 
project, and do you have any 
follow-up plans after its end?

The next step is clearly the dissemina-
tion of results not only to the experts, but 
also  to  society  in  general  so  that  they 
understand these technologies and their 
advantages. But of course, we also have 
plans after the project’s end. We are con-
stantly in contact with other hydrogen-
related projects, for which we will continue 
to provide consultancy and support on an 
expert panel, and we will also continue col-
laboration with different equivalent asso-
ciations.  We  also  hope  that  the  EU  will 
continue supporting projects and actions 
of this type so that we can capitalise on 
the work done and move it much further, 
building  the  trust  hydrogen  needs  and 
deserves.

H2TRUST

 Coordinated by MATGAS in Spain. 
 Funded under FP7-JTI.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/

rcn/109535_en.html

Project website:  
http://h2trust.eu/

HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS TO ADVANCE  
THE LOGISTICS INDUSTRY
New hydrogen fuel cell technology, to be tested on a system of forklifts and fuelling stations across Europe, could 
help advance the logistics sector and yield cleaner transport technology.

The success of commerce, trade and industry in Europe 

is based on efficient logistics systems and the synergy 
they bring to these sectors. Policymakers are constantly 
seeking ways to make logistics more energy efficient and 
sustainable in order to lessen transport costs of goods and 
streamline services. Against this backdrop, the EU-funded 
project SHEL (Sustainable hydrogen evaluation in logistics) is 
working on a pilot project involving forklift trucks to make this 
important class of vehi-
cles more eco-friendly.

“The SHEL project’s plans 
include using 10 forklift 
trucks and associated 
hydrogen refuelling 
infrastructure to be set up 
at sites located in four 
countries.”

Project members plan to 
demonstrate  how  sus-
tainable hydrogen tech-
nology  and  fuel  cells 
could 
lead  to  the  
commercialisation  of  
such hydrogen-powered 
vehicles for demanding 
logistics  operations.  
To achieve its aims, the SHEL project’s plans include using  
10 forklift trucks and associated hydrogen refuelling infra-
structure  to  be  set  up  at  sites  located  in  four  countries: 
Greece, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

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infrastructure in order to complete the pilot project. Things 
are looking promising here, with significant progress already 
achieved.

SHEL has already decided to purchase two hydrogen refuel-
ling stations for two of the sites, and is working on other 
infrastructure solutions for the other two. Challenges also 
involve product certification and approval for building the 

In addition, the project team has studied hybrid configura-
tions for forklifts and other electric vehicles powered by bat-
teries/supercapacitors and fuel cells. Progress made on this 
front as well as information on the project in general have 

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
been disseminated through different channels, including 
the project website. 

Ultimately, SHEL hopes to draw up system specifications 
and identify the costs of and training needs for installing 
this comprehensive forklift system. Inclusion of a monitor-
ing and simulation system for real-time data analysis will 
support the commercial installation of the system. Such a 
low-impact hydrogen refuelling system for forklifts, which 
can  deliver  low-cost  hydrogen  from  multiple  sources,  is 
bound to make the logistics industry more efficient and 
eco-friendly.

7

The project’s results are important for developing more efficient 
forklifts and will bring added benefits when used in other types 
of vehicles. Industries such as trade, transport, travel and tour-
ism all stand to benefit from this endeavour.

SHEL

 Coordinated by the CIDETEC Foundation in Spain.
 Funded under FP7-JTI.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/91987_en.html
Project website:  
http://shel.eu/

FROM SUNLIGHT TO JET FUEL:  
EU PROJECT MAKES FIRST ‘SOLAR’ KEROSENE
An EU-funded research project called SOLAR-JET has produced the world’s first ‘solar’ jet fuel from water 
and ‘carbon dioxide’ (CO2), a promising technology for better energy security and turning a greenhouse 
gas into a useful resource.

Researchers have for the first time 

successfully  demonstrated  the 
entire  production  chain  for 
renewable  kerosene,  using  concen-
trated  light  as  a  high-temperature 
energy  source.  The  project  is  still  at 
the experimental stage, with a glass-
ful of jet fuel produced in laboratory 
conditions, using simulated sunlight. 
However, the results give hope that in 
future  any  liquid  hydrocarbon  fuels 
could be produced from sunlight, CO2 
and water.

In the first step, concentrated light — 
simulating  sunlight  —  was  used  to 
convert carbon dioxide and water to 
synthesis  gas  (syngas)  in  a  high- 
temperature solar reactor containing 
metal-oxide  based  materials  devel-
oped at ETH Zürich. The syngas (a mix-
ture  of  hydrogen  and  carbon 
monoxide)  was  then  converted  into 
kerosene  by  Shell  using  the  estab-
lished ‘Fischer-Tropsch’ process.

Although  producing  syngas  through 
concentrated solar radiation is still at 
an  early  stage  of  development,  the 
processing of syngas into kerosene is 
already being carried out by compa-
nies, including Shell, on a global scale. 
Combining  the  two  approaches  has 
the potential to provide secure, sus-
tainable and scalable supplies of avia-
tion fuel as well as diesel and gasoline, 
or even plastics. Fischer-Tropsch derived 
fuels are already certified and can be 
used by existing vehicles and aircraft 
without modifying their engines or fuel 
infrastructure.

The four-year SOLAR-JET (Solar chemi-
cal 
reactor  demonstration  and 
Optimization for Long-term Availability 

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“The results give hope that in future any 
liquid hydrocarbon fuels could be produced 
from sunlight, CO2 and water.”

of  Renewable  JET  fuel)  project  was 
launched in June 2011 and is receiving 
EUR  2.2  million  of  EU  funding  from  
the  Seventh  Framework  Programme  
for  Research  and  Technological 
Development (FP7). The SOLAR-JET pro-
ject brings together research organisa-
tions  from  academia  and  industry  
(ETH  Zürich,  Bauhaus  Luftfahrt, 
Deutsches  Zentrum  für  Luft-  und 
Raumfahrt (DLR), Shell Global Solutions 
and management partner ARTTIC).

In the next phase of the project, the 
partners  plan  to  optimise  the  solar 
reactor and assess whether the tech-
nology will work on a larger scale and 
at a competitive cost.

Finding  new,  sustainable  sources  of 
energy  will  remain  a  priority  under 
Horizon  2020,  the  seven-year  EU 
research and innovation programme 

launched on 1 January 2014. In the 
Competitive  Low-Carbon  Energy  call 
published on 11 December last year, 
the  Commission  proposed  investing 
EUR 732 million over two years in this 
area.  The  call  includes  a  topic  on 
developing the next-generation tech-
nologies for biofuels and sustainable 
alternative fuels.

SOLAR-JET

  Coordinated by Bauhaus Luftfahrt  

in Germany.

  Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/

article_en.cfm?artid=32498

Project website:  

http://www.solar-jet.aero/

  http://bit.ly/1yzclKU

 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
8

I N T E R V I E W
FUEL CELLS TO CONNECT OUR SMARTPHONES 
TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD
The potential of hydrogen and fuel cell applications goes way beyond the development of green cars. The 
FCPOWEREDRBS team is determined to prove this with a Fuel Cell technology to power off-grid telecom stations. 
They believe not only that this solution is better than standard generators, but also that it provides a significant 
advantage in terms of ‘Total cost of ownership’ (TCO).

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technology  for  off-grid  telecom  applications.  These  trials 
consist in replacing the power supply of 15 radio base sta-
tions in the live network of selected Italian telecom operators 
with a new one based on our solution — which integrates dif-
ferent energy provider components (fuel cells, photovoltaics 
and batteries) with efficiency and reliability in mind. 

We  are  also  committed  to  other  initiatives  aiming  to 
increase the visibility of the fuel cell technology and facili-
tate its penetration in the telecom market.

  What is the added value of using hydrogen and fuel 
cell technology to power telecom stations?

Remotely  located  ‘Radio  base  stations’  (RBS)  for  Telecom 
applications are becoming more and more important with the 
increasing penetration of mobile services. As for many of these 
stations, the connection to the electricity grid is not an option, 
and specific off-grid power generation solutions are required 
and quite often based on diesel fuel generators. With the solu-
tion proposed by our project, the amount of unattended hours 
can  be 
increased 
thanks to an efficient 
usage of the different 
energy sources and to 
the  storage  potential 
of  H2.  For  a  Telecom 
operator,  this  means 
lower  operational 
costs. In general, we think that it’s possible to provide our cus-
tomers (the Telecom operators) with certain benefits in terms 
of ‘Total cost of ownership’ (TCO), something that nowadays is 
a strong argument for any Energy Manager.

“Really, our goal is to create 
long-term trust in fuel cells 
within the world of 
telecommunications.”

Moreover, the system includes a smart-metering and tele-
control system providing the operator with more details on the 
energy behaviour of their base station.

  What are the main difficulties you have faced in the 
project and how have you resolved them?

Even though this project is a demo, it is a major innovation 
for the telecom market. In all our activities, we have to challenge 
ourselves with the need to produce a system that complies with 
the demanding requirements of the telecom market: durability 
and reliability 24/7. Some of the issues we faced are compara-
ble to those occurring when introducing a new product to the 
market, in this case aggravated by the nature of the fuel in use. 
Resorting to H2 storage in the system implies the adoption of 
specific processes and procedures in terms of safety. Joint work 
is needed between the project and the Telecom operators who 
accepted to host our solution on their sites, in order to custom-
ise existing O&M procedures. 

When it was time to get the necessary authorisations from 
the different local administrations in the territories where the 
sites are located, we were sometimes faced with inconsistent 
knowledge of the national regulations, which led to misunder-
standings and delays in obtaining permits. 

GIANCARLO TOMARCHIO

Did you know that, in 2014 alone, worldwide smartphone 

usage has grown by 25 %? Or that most of the telecom 
sites connecting these smartphones to the outside world 
are off-grid? This increasing pressure on self-powered instal-
lations requires continued efforts to come up with ever more 
innovative, reliable, efficient, cost-effective and sustainable 
energy generators. 

Currently, most sites for which connection to the electricity grid is 
not an option rely on batteries and diesel generators. However, 
the FCPOWEREDRBS project has set out to convince telecom 
operators and local administrations alike that fuel cells represent 
a real alternative to such standard power sources. To this end, the 
project — which involves European industries and research cen-
tres Dantherm Power AS (Denmark) and MES SA (Switzerland), 
electrolyser  manufacturer  GreenHydrogen  (Denmark),  the 
University of Rome, the EU’s Joint Research Centre and Ericsson 
— is testing a custom-made fuel cell solution on various sites 
across Italy. This specific solution has been engineered by the pro-
ject team and integrates different energy provider components 
(fuel cells, photovoltaics and batteries) in the ‘most efficient and 
reliable way.’

For  Giancarlo  Tomarchio,  coordinator  of  the  project  and 
Customer Project Manager at Ericsson, the ultimate goal of the 
project is clear: demonstrating the industrial readiness and the 
market appeal of Fuel Cell technology for off-grid telecom appli-
cations. In this exclusive interview with the research*eu results 
magazine, he tells us how advanced he and his team are with 
the field trials, and how they intend to demonstrate the advan-
tages of hydrogen and fuel cells for delivering the expected 
power supply service. 

  What are the main objectives of the project?

Giancarlo Tomarchio: FCPOWEREDRBS is a demo pro-
ject within the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking 
Programme. We are conducting a set of field trials that aim 
to demonstrate the advantages of hydrogen and fuel cell 

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
We have adopted all the necessary precautions in order to 
avoid any loss of power for the radio station, as any interruption 
to the service would be the worst message to give, if we want 
to gain customers’ trust.

logic. These activities have been successfully carried out and the 
lab tests hold much promise. We will spend the next few months 
continuously monitoring the system behaviour and optimising the 
parameters to make the system as efficient as possible.

9

Really, our goal is to create long-term trust in fuel cells within 

the world of telecommunications.

  Where do you stand with the on-site 
demonstrations?

At the moment we have an agreement for installing 10 sys-
tems on Telecom Italia’s live network, and three on H3G Italia’s. 
We have already installed eight sites — five of which are now 
up and running — while the other sites are about to be con-
nected. We expect a first annual projection of TCO by the end of 
2014. The trial will then continue until next year to reach the  
12 months of operation normally needed for the verification.

We are also finalising the agreement for an additional instal-
lation of a non-telecom application, but with similar electrical 
requirements.

  Are you happy with the results of the project so far?

The project started at the beginning of 2012 with the initial 
purpose being to install a system which was a ‘simple’ integration 
of a commercial product. In reality, we discovered that, besides 
the system configuration tuning, some additional developments 
were needed both in the fuel cell equipment and in the control 

  When do you expect this technology to hit the 
market?

An exact forecast is always difficult. We definitely think that 
the solution proposed has high market potential: worldwide, more 
than 100 000 new cell phone base stations are installed every 
year. Most of them are installed in emerging and developing coun-
tries with a poor grid infrastructure, which means they have bat-
teries and/or a backup power generator installed. The majority of 
these new base stations could be set up with a fuel cell system 
for power generation, if the technologies were proven safe and if 
the systems were available at competitive costs. 

The FCPOWEREDRBS project still has some way to go to prove 
that such benchmarks are being achieved and opening up the way 
for broader commercialisation.

  What are the next steps for the project, and do you 
have any follow-up plans after its end?

For the project team, it is now time to consolidate the results, 
optimise  the  solution  and  disseminate  the  results.  We  have 
already begun training activities to raise awareness among the 
telecom engineers about the FC technology, and we will also con-
tinue to share the telecom requirements with the FC world.

Should the project become a success story, as we all hope, 
there will be some further work to do in order to industrialise the 
solution so that it can be considered as a real product. The intro-
duction or integration into a larger portfolio is now our dream and 
final goal.

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FCPOWEREDRBS

 Coordinated by Ericsson in Italy.
 Funded under FP7-JTI.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/101804_en.html
Project website: 

http://fcpoweredrbs.eu/

ADVANCING HYDROGEN AND FUEL CELL 
TECHNOLOGIES

A new software tool enables effective monitoring and assessment of new and emerging technologies. 
The development will help create cleaner transport solutions based on hydrogen technology and fuel cells.

Hydrogen energy and the advent 

of fuel cells represent promising 
non-polluting  or  less-polluting 
energy  solutions  for  the  future.  A 
major EU initiative known as the Joint 
Undertaking  for  Fuel  Cells  and 
Hydrogen (FCH-JU) aims to speed up 
the process for getting new, relevant 
technologies  onto  the  market. 
However,  this  requires  a  reliable 
method for monitoring and assessing 
the value of emerging technologies.

Against this backdrop, the EU-funded 
project TEMONAS (Technology moni-
toring and assessment) set out to help 

develop  technology  roadmaps  and 
evaluate the readiness of new tech-
nology. The project developed a soft-
ware  tool  for  monitoring  emerging 
technologies  effectively  and  ranking 
them in terms of how close they are 
to hitting the market.

One 
important  feature  of  the 
TEMONAS tool is its ability to define a 
variety of objects, such as EU-funded 
programmes and calls for projects, as 
well as targets, sources and research 
organisations. It lists research objects, 
which can range from new materials 
for  use  in  fuel  cells  to  complete 

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 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
 
10

vehicle systems. This enables effec-
tive comparisons to be made between 
technologies. Examples include bench-
marking the performance of different 
car systems and assessing materials 
used  in  building  vehicle  or  fuel  cell 
components.

Another key feature is dubbed ‘expert 
judgement mapping’: input from experts 
is added into the equation using scales 
in order to assess emerging technolo-
gies  and  their  market  readiness.  The 
system also features a powerful graphic 
engine  to  help  expert  users  create 
advanced  graphic  data.  Results  and 
data can also be easily imported into 
commonly used software packages.

The  project  team  identified  strong 
interest  from  both  industry  players 
and funding agencies. It disseminated 
information on its progress in building 
the  solution  to  innovation  and  tech-
nology  programme  managers  from 
the hydrogen community, as well as 
management professionals.

In  addition  to  providing  the  FCH-JU 
with a solution, the team enhanced its 
capabilities  and  marketed  it  to 
research and development consortia, 
industrial organisations and research 
agencies. The EU will therefore soon 
have a viable tool to help speed up the 
adoption of valuable technologies in 
this exciting domain.

TEMONAS

 Coordinated by CLIMT in Austria.
 Funded under FP7-JTI.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/89823_en.html

Project website:  

http://www.temonas.eu/

“Another key feature is 
dubbed ‘expert judgement 
mapping’: input from experts 
is added into the equation 
using scales in order to assess 
emerging technologies and 
their market readiness.”

I N T E R V I E W
HOW ‘CHRISTMAS TREES’ CAN HELP IMPROVE 
HYDROGEN REFUELLING TECHNOLOGIES
How can we ensure safe, fast and efficient refuelling of hydrogen-powered cars, all at the same time? 
This brain teaser, key to the successful deployment of hydrogen technology in our future green economies, 
is  being  mulled  over  thanks  to  sensor  technologies  and  a  prediction  model  developed  under  the 
HYTRANSFER project.

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SOFIA CAPITO

When discussing the market potential of hydrogen, 

the  sceptics  often  have  refuelling  at  the  top  of 
their list of cons. Not only will it take decades to 
build the necessary infrastructure, but the refuelling oper-
ation itself is challenging to say the least. 

Let’s pretend that you have a ‘Fuel cell vehicle’ (FCV) and 
need to fill the tank up before a long trip. With a ‘standard’ 
fuel car, the operation would be completed in about a min-
ute, whereas the latest FCVs require about three minutes 
for the whole operation. And getting to this result hasn’t 
exactly  been  a  sinecure  for  engineers:  unlike  petrol  or 

diesel, hydrogen tends to heat up as it is being compressed 
into the fuel tank, and the composite materials used to cre-
ate these tanks while keeping their weight as low as pos-
sible cannot withstand temperatures above 85 °C. In order 
to make the three-minute fast-filling operation possible, 
current refuelling stations pre-cool the hydrogen to -40 °C.

Improving this process to bring more efficient fuelling and 
even defuelling is the core objective of the HYTRANSFER 
(Pre-Normative Research for Thermodynamic Optimization 
of Fast Hydrogen Transfer) project, which started in June 
2013 and will end in November 2015. Should it achieve its 
objectives, the project would help in reducing investment 
and operating costs, increase the reliability of refuelling 
stations and reduce maximum refuelling time, which would 
be  a  huge  step  forward  in  the  successful  rollout  of  the 
technology. 

Sofia Capito, coordinator of the project, tells us more about 
HYTRANSFER’s achievements so far, and how close it is to 
the ultimate goal of providing new recommendations for 
implementation into international standards and refuelling 
protocols.

  What are the main objectives of the project? 

Sofia Capito: In the HYTRANSFER project we develop 
methods and processes to adapt and reduce pre-cooling 
requirements, thus also reducing the capital and operating 
expenditure of refuelling stations. Experiments show that 
the heat transfer between hydrogen gas and the tank wall 
is rather ineffective. As a result, even when the hydrogen 
inside the tank reaches 85 °C — the maximum tempera-
ture composite-based tanks can be exposed to — the tank 
wall temperature will be significantly lower. Experiments 
conducted with nitrogen show a difference of 27 °C! Using 

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
thermodynamics to determine the relation between injected 
hydrogen, filling parameters such as hydrogen flow rate, 
and ambient temperature, can lead to a hydrogen transfer 
process  which  is  optimised  for  the  real  boundary 
conditions. 

  What are the main difficulties you have faced 
during the project and how have you resolved them? 

Fortunately we are pretty much on track and many of 
the drawbacks we could have experienced just did not hap-
pen. The challenge for the two tank manufacturers involved, 
including project partner Hexagon Lincoln, are the particu-
lar requirements associated with the experiments: we need 
temperature sensors in the tank walls! And we don’t need 
just one or two of them, but 30 sensors per tank. Positioning 
them during the manufacturing process is rather tricky, but 
both manufacturers put a lot of effort into it and eventu-
ally succeeded. With these sensors we can measure the 
temperature inside the tank walls. But we also need sen-
sors to measure the temperature of the gas itself at vari-
ous points in the tanks. As the tank openings are just a few 
millimetres in diameter, we introduce sensor arrangements 
nicknamed ‘Christmas trees’, narrow enough to fit through 
the tank orifices before they unfold themselves, similar to 
putting a ship in a bottle. 

  Where do you stand with the project? Have you 
achieved a satisfying level of temperature control 
yet? 

“This will result in reduced 
maximum refuelling time, 
increased reliability of the 
station and maybe even 
reduced hydrogen prices.”

At  the  moment  three  different  laboratories  conduct 
experiments on three different kinds of tanks, as examin-
ing tanks in several labs ensures reliability and reproduci-
bility of the results. Many of the experiments take place at 
the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission 
which  is  a  project  partner.  In  parallel,  accompanying 
‘Computational fluid dynamics’ (CFD) simulations are fur-
ther developed to be 
consistent  with  the 
results of the experi-
ments.  The  project 
partner  TesTneT  is  
currently pre-checking 
initial  experiment 
results,  while  the 
French research insti-
tute  CNRS  has 
already  produced 
detailed measurements of the actual thermal properties of 
the  tanks  used.  A  simplified  model  with  significantly 
reduced computation time — seconds to minutes instead 
of days to weeks — has been validated as well. So far, our 
experiments and modelling support our assumption that 
there is significant room for improvement in pre-cooling 
requirements. 

  Are you optimistic about your approach 
impacting international standards?

As one of the first steps in HYTRANSFER, we analysed 
optimisation opportunities for the hydrogen transfer pro-
cess within existing international ‘Regulations, codes and 
standards’ (RCS) and state-of-the-art of hydrogen technol-
ogy. Based on this and the results obtained so far, we are 
quite confident that the project will produce test results and 
validation of these results leading to strong recommenda-
tions for RCS. 

The CCS Global Group (CCS), with its decades of leadership 
in  RCS  development  and  compliance  in  the  FCH  and 

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electrical sectors, is monitoring the relevant RCS activities 
and test results of the project so that we will be able to 
identify and extract RCS recommendations and develop a 
path forward for them to international bodies (e.g. CEN/
ISO). 

  How do you expect your conclusions to help 
boost the hydrogen car market?

Car efficiency as such will not be boosted, but the inter-
play between refuelling stations and fuel cell vehicles will 
be improved. For the customers, this will result in reduced 
maximum refuelling time, increased reliability of the sta-
tion  and  maybe  even  reduced  hydrogen  prices.  Ludwig-
Bölkow-Systemtechnik  (LBST)  will  conduct  a  detailed 
techno-economic  analysis  to  identify  the  impact  of  the 
improved processes.

  What are the next steps for the project, and do 
you have any follow-up plans after its end? 

Current vehicles typically have not just one, but two or 
three connected tanks, so we need to find a viable refuel-
ling approach for both single tanks and tank systems. The 
next step for us is to conclude our experiments on single 
tanks and further develop our simulations based on what 
we learn, after which a new, detailed refuelling protocol will 
be developed and tested on tank systems supplied by FCV 
manufacturer and project partner Honda. 

HYTRANSFER will be considered as successful when the 
newly developed refuelling approach is published as a rec-
ommendation to international RCS bodies, and when our 
recommendations related to defueling are published. 

We don’t have any specific follow-up plans yet, but when 
HYTRANSFER is concluded and finds its way into interna-
tional RCS, further validation and an even broader spec-
trum of experiments will have to be conducted. 

HYTRANSFER

 Coordinated by LBST in Germany.
 Funded under FP7-JTI.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/108580_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.hytransfer.eu 

 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
12

GREEN ENERGY: TOMORROW’S REALITY

More than 3 million people across the EU now work in eco-industries, producing nature-
friendly goods and services. It is an increasingly competitive sector, buoyed by constant 
innovation. Let’s see how scientists and manufacturers are joining forces to support 
this industrial evolution.

As  in  every  big  city,  the  air  in 

London is increasingly polluted 
because of car fumes.

One solution is to try and make all taxis 
emission-free by 2020. A small fleet of 
hydrogen-powered taxis is being tested 
as part of this European project. These 
black cabs running on fuel cells rather 
than  combustion  engines  are  much 
cleaner and quieter.

‘This vehicle drives entirely differently 
from anything I’ve driven before,’ says 
taxi  driver  Phil  Davis.  ‘It’s  much 
smoother, quieter, and it’s a pleasure 
to drive. It’s responsive, everything on 
it is electronic, which means less work 
for me to do. After getting out, after a 
few  hours,  it’s  like  I’ve  not  been  to 
work at all,’ he says.

A tank-full of hydrogen gives the taxi 
up  to  400  kilometres  of  autonomy. 
The  tests  should  give  researchers  a 
better idea of how to make the vehi-
cles lighter and more efficient.

‘There’s an enormous amount that we 
learn: the vehicle integration — how 
the different components talk to each 
other within the power chain; and how 
the  vehicles  operate:  different  taxi 
drivers, different driving style, differ-
ent performance characteristics, and 
importantly, how they interface with 
hydrogen for refuelling,’ says Dennis 
Hayter,  from  Intelligent  Energy,  a 

London-based  clean  power  systems 
company.

Today,  converting  a  car  to  hydrogen 
fuel  increases  its  price  five-fold  — 
making it completely unaffordable. But 
at  the  current  rate  of  research,  it’s 
hoped  this  technology  can  become 
more competitive in the next few years.

‘There are standards that will still need 
to be put in place for hydrogen vehicles, 
but part of projects like this helps to 
address  those  issues.  As  we  move 
towards  commercialisation  of  these 
vehicles in 2015, the required regula-
tions will be addressed and in place,’ 
says Diana Raine, project coordinator 
for the HYTEC (Hydrogen Transport for 
European Cities) project.

With a growing demand for clean fuels, 
governments and scientists need to get 
together  to  develop  more  efficient 
vehicles and better infrastructure.

The European Commission’s in-house 
science  service,  the  Joint  Research 
Centre (JRC), based in northern Italy, 
works  with  a  wide  range  of  eco- 
industries. In the JRC’s vehicle emis-
sions  laboratory,  tests  are  being  
carried  out  on  new  equipment  that 
reduces harmful engine exhausts.

‘We  look  into  different  options,  we 
assess these technologies, and then we 
share  our  conclusions  with  the 

car-making  industry,  setting  the  new 
standard of the future for these cars,’ 
says  Alois  Krasenbrink,  Head  of  the 
JRC’s Sustainable Transport Unit.

“Today, converting a car to 
hydrogen fuel increases its 
price five-fold — making it 
completely unaffordable.”

But is hydrogen a cleaner alternative if 
it relies on fossil fuels for its produc-
tion? Are electric cars running on bat-
teries  made  of  imported,  rare  earth 
compounds sustainable? Scientists are 
looking not only at the final product but 
also at its carbon footprint.

‘It is certainly true that on a local level, 
on an urban level, electric and hydro-
gen fuelled vehicles are cleaner,’ says 
Laura Lonza, scientific officer for vehi-
cle and fuel innovation at the JRC.

‘But it’s important to carry out research 
on the full energy footprint, not just on 
what happens inside the car,’ she adds.

Laboratory  analyses  of  combustion 
engine emissions can differ from real-
life situations.

This new mobile device, developed at 
the JRC, fits in a car trunk and works 
while the vehicle is on the road. ‘The 
device is connected to the exhaust pipe. 
The  exhausts  go  to  the  fume  meter. 
This  allows  us  to  measure  the  fume 
exhaust  flow  directly,  and  to  extract 
part  of  this  flow  which  is  then  ana-
lysed,’ says Alois Krasenbrink.

Mobile tools like this are able to provide 
much  more  accurate  measurements. 
For example, these tests show that in 
certain  real-life  conditions,  cars  pro-
duce two to four times more emissions 
than in a lab.

HYTEC

  Coordinated by Air Products  

in the United Kingdom.
 Funded under FP7-JTI.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/

article_en.cfm?artid=32238

Project website: 
http://hy-tec.eu/

  http://bit.ly/1EtDWPN 

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SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
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B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

13

B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

NEUTRALISING ANTIBODIES 
FOR SAFER ORGAN 
TRANSPLANTS
Health  project  MABSOT  has  developed  a  drug  that  could  make 
organ  transplants  significantly  safer  and  boost  the  European 
pharmaceutical sector.

Serious complications can arise following kidney 

transplants. If dialysis is required within the first 
seven days, then the transplanted organ is said 
to  have  a  ‘Delayed  graft  function’  (DGF),  and  has 
essentially been rejected by the body’s immune sys-
tem. The risk of DGF increases, the longer the blood 
supply has been cut off from the kidney.

While there is currently no specific treatment for DGF, 
the EU-funded project MABSOT (Development of OPN-
305 as an orphan drug for the treatment of Delayed 
Graft Function post solid organ transplantation) has 
developed  a  novel  drug  —  OPN-305  —  which  can 
reduce both the incidence and severity of this condi-
tion. The project was completed in September 2014 
and is expected to lead to safer, more effective surgi-
cal procedures and thus healthier patients.

During trials, OPN-305 was given to patients about 
to undergo kidney transplants. Antibodies — proteins 
in our body that attach to objects our immune sys-
tems  do  not  recognise  —  can  sometimes  react 

adversely to transplanted organs. When inflamma-
tion caused by specific proteins called TLR2 receptors 
is triggered as a response to a newly transplanted 
kidney, this can lead to DGF. This serious complication 
affects over half of those who receive kidneys from 
deceased donors.

What OPN-305 does is target these naturally-occurring 
proteins responsible for initiating an inflammatory 
reaction  (the  body’s  natural  response  to  injury  or 
infection).  By  blocking  these  TLR2  receptors,  
OPN-305  helps  to  trigger  the  immune  system’s 
response to organ transplants, and thus help prevent 
the  onset  of  DGF.  Initial  clinical  trials  involving  
50  medical  centres  in  the  US  and  Europe  and  
270 patients have shown that the drug is safe.

In addition to bringing significant benefits to patients, 
MABSOT  will  also  boost  Europe’s  pharmaceutical 
industry.  Developing  new  drugs  can  be  a  time- 
consuming  and  extremely  expensive  process,  
which  is  why  it  was  important  that  OPN-305  was 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
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B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

recognised as an ‘orphan’ by regulators. This means that 
the developers of the drug will benefit from a number of 
incentives, including scientific advice and market exclusiv-
ity once the medi-
cine  hits 
the 
market.

“The medicine could also be 
used for other organ 
transplants, such as lung, 
heart or pancreatic 
transplantation, and even 
for other diseases, including 
cancer and rheumatoid 
arthritis.”

To qualify for orphan 
status,  a  medicine 
must be intended for 
the  treatment,  pre-
vention or diagnosis 
of  a  disease  that  is 
life-threatening  or 
chronic.  Further-
more,  it  must  be 
unlikely  that  mar-
keting  the  medicine  would  generate  sufficient  returns  to  
justify the investment needed for its development. In other 
words, the application must be for a drug designed to treat a 
fairly rare disease.

Applications  are  examined  by  the  European  Medicines 
Agency’s Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP), 

using the network of experts that the Committee has built 
up.

Accelerated approval means that the MABSOT team has 
been  able  to  move  through  the  development  process 
quicker than they would have if orphan drug status had not 
been given. Furthermore, the medicine could also be used 
for other organ transplants, such as lung, heart or pancre-
atic transplantation, and even for other diseases, including 
cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. MABSOT received nearly 
EUR 6 million in EU funding and was coordinated by Opsona 
Therapeutics in Ireland.

MABSOT

 Coordinated by Opsona Therapeutics in Ireland. 
 Funded under FP7-HEALTH.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/121899_en.html 
Project website:  

http://www.mabsot.eu/

REINFORCING TISSUE ENGINEERING RESEARCH
The human body is made up of different tissues that can get damaged or diseased through age or trauma. 
Replacing or regenerating older tissues will promote good health and quality of life, particularly in Europe 
given its ageing population.

‘Tissue engineering and regener-

ative  medicine’  (TERM)  is  a 
complex, multidisciplinary field 
requiring complementary and cross-
sectoral skills in areas such as mate-
rials  science  and  cell  biology.  The 
EU-funded  project  MULTITERM 
(Training  multidisciplinary  scientists 
for tissue engineering and regenera-
tive  medicine)  recruited  and  trained 
13  ‘Early  stage  researchers’  (ESRs) 
who developed state-of-the-art inno-
vative products and techniques for tis-
sue regeneration.

MULTITERM conducted six multidisci-
plinary  training  workshops  and  nine 
generic courses in addition to offering 
supplementary courses.

This ensured that the ESRs gained the 
required skills at an early stage of their 
projects.  The  ESRs  developed  large-
scale  purification  processes  that  are 
needed for soft tissue engineering.

They also developed novel materials 
— synthetic injectable gels, bone and 
skin  substitutes  as  well  as  hybrid 
scaffolds made of collagen and knit-
ted polymers.

The  novel  materials  were  tested  in 
vitro for biocompatibility, efficacy and 
safety using cells from surgical speci-
mens.  Their  mechanical  properties 
and  cell  behaviour  were  studied  in-
depth to produce a superior collagen 
scaffold configuration. ESRs then pre-
pared an extracellular matrix contain-
ing constructs to develop off-the-shelf 
scaffolds and confirmed the suitabil-
ity  of  these  materials  for  TERM 
applications.

A major issue limiting the effectiveness 
of in vitro tissues is the lack of an ade-
quate blood vessel system. MULTITERM 
ESRs worked on pre-vascularisation of 
biomaterials using endothelial cells and 
stromal vascular fraction-derived cells 
to resolve this issue.

They  successfully  developed  a  pre-
vascularised fibrin hydrogel, 3 centi-
metres  in  diameter,  with  research 
continuing to upscale this process.

For long-term follow-up studies in ani-
mals,  ESRs  also  developed  magnetic 
resonance  imaging  modalities  with 

“A major issue limiting the 
effectiveness of in vitro 
tissues is the lack of an 
adequate blood vessel 
system.”

contrast using modified hydrogels and 
bone cement. Better visualisation was 
achieved using contrast agents such as 
fluorinated dendrimers and super para-
magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles.

In addition to strengthening the European 
work force in TERM, MULTITERM activities 
will also contribute to the development 
of innovative biomaterials for skin and 
bone tissues. This should enhance the  
EU  economy  and  improve  healthcare 
outcomes.

MULTITERM

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
  Coordinated by the Stichting 
Katholieke Universiteit in the 
Netherlands.

http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/148946_en.html 

Project website:  

http://www.multitermproject.eu/

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B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

15

M A G A Z I N E   E X C L U S I V E
GETTING MORE FROM LARGE-SCALE  
3D RADIOLOGY IMAGE DATA

EU-funded researchers with the VISCERAL project are organising benchmarks to process 
large-scale 3D radiology image data with the ultimate aim of generating new medical 
knowledge.

images and reports) were actually an unforeseen addition to 
the project work plan, made possible by sponsorship for the 
cloud infrastructure used by the team. VISCERAL’s innovative 
cloud-based evaluation approach is another key aspect of 
the project. It allows for the data to be centrally stored on a 
cloud on which the benchmark participants have programmed 
their approaches to the benchmarks in Virtual Machines. Mr 
Hanbury adds, ‘In effect, we are bringing the algorithms to 
the data, rather than the traditional approach of bringing the 
data to the algorithms. This makes sense, as the programs 
implementing the algorithms are significantly smaller than 
the data on which they operate.’

The VISCERAL team has certainly enjoyed significant success 
over the past two years, but naturally this complex task has 
also presented it with challenges. The sheer size of the images 
and the volume of data have been an issue, as Mr Hanbury 
explains: ‘The data handling has been the greatest challenge. 
We are working with a large number of huge 3D images, so 
transferring the data between various systems and ensuring 

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It is estimated that medical imaging data occupies 30 % of 

all data storage worldwide. However, because this data is 
unstructured in the form of images which are all different, 
it is very difficult to use it to gain new knowledge about dis-
ease prevalence and dis-
ease  development.  The 
EU-funded  VISCERAL 
(Visual Concept Extraction 
Challenge  in  Radiology) 
project 
is  organising 
benchmarks  for  algo-
rithms that can automati-
cally turn the unstructured 
image  data  into  semi-
structured data. The ulti-
mate  aim  is  for  new 
medical knowledge to be generated from the data for the 
benefit of patients and the research community at large.

“Ultimately, VISCERAL’s 
work will provide an 
unprecedented dataset 
on which to develop and 
test algorithms for the 
analysis of medical 
images.”

The VISCERAL project, which has been running for two years 
and comes to an end in April 2015, has made impressive 
headway towards its objectives. The team created an evalu-
ation infrastructure and software which has already been 
used in two completed and three ongoing anatomy bench-
marks. These benchmarks facilitate the development of algo-
rithms that can automatically turn the unstructured image 
data stored in radiology information systems in hospitals into 
semi-structured data. 

Project coordinator Allan Hanbury from the Vienna University 
of  Technology  explains  how  the  completed  benchmarks 
worked: ‘They involved the automated localisation and seg-
mentation of organs in CT (Computed Tomography) and MRI 
(Magnetic Resonance Imaging) images of humans. We pro-
vided images and ground truth on the organs, and challenged 
participants in the benchmarks to create algorithms to do this 
automatically. We then tested the algorithms submitted by 
participants on images that they had never seen.’ The bench-
marks provided information on which submitted algorithm 
performs best for which organ or structure.

‘Training’ algorithms to automatically recognise organs or 
pathologies in radiology images requires large amounts of 
training data to learn from. The VISCERAL team has adopted 
two approaches for getting this training data: a gold corpus 
and a silver corpus. Mr Hanbury elaborates: ‘The gold corpus 
is created by qualified radiologists manually annotating the 
radiology images, which means that the annotations are very 
accurate, but we cannot get many annotations as a radiolo-
gist’s time is expensive. The silver corpus is less accurate but 
there is no limit on how many annotations can be created. 
The silver corpus is created by fusing the submissions by par-
ticipants in the benchmarks. The results of the fusion are bet-
ter than each of the individual submissions, and can hence 
be used to train new algorithms.’ 

The benchmarks currently underway (focused on anatomy 
segmentation, lesion detection and the retrieval of radiology 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
16

B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

that the quality of images is good enough for what we want 
to do with them have been challenging. Furthermore, ensur-
ing that the manual annotations are of high quality has 
required some effort, as radiologists do not always fully 
agree with each other on the positions of the boundaries of 
the organs.’

Although VISCERAL is heading into the last few months of 
the project, the team is far from slowing down the pace of 
work. In fact, team members are currently running three 
benchmarks  with  submission  deadlines  in  March  2015. 
They will gather to discuss the results of these benchmarks 
at two workshops next year. In parallel to this, the team is 
carrying out further analysis of the results of the first two 
anatomy  benchmarks  to  extract  the  largest  amount  of 
knowledge from having run them. 

Additionally, they are finalising the images, gold corpus and 
silver  corpus  for  scientific  use,  as  Mr  Hanbury  explains: 
‘Making the images, gold corpus and silver corpus available 
for scientific use beyond the end of the project will allow 
computer scientists to continue to improve the automated 
radiology image analysis algorithms. We have now satis-
fied an ethics committee that this will be done in a respon-
sible way, so the data generated in the VISCERAL project 
will continue to be available for scientific use after the end 

of the project. In terms of lasting scientific impact, this is a 
very significant point.’

Ultimately, VISCERAL’s work will provide an unprecedented 
dataset on which to develop and test algorithms for the 
analysis of medical images. The conversion of unstructured 
medical image data to semi-structured data will allow new 
medical knowledge to be generated from this data which 
will be significant for the medical community and patients. 

Considering VISCERAL’s significant achievements, it’s hardly 
surprising that the team is keen to build on the project’s 
momentum, as Mr Hanbury concludes: ‘We are working on 
potential follow-up projects. One particularly pressing chal-
lenge to getting this approach to evaluation more widely 
accepted is to provide more flexible Virtual Machines on  
the  cloud;  and  we  are  currently  having  discussions  on  
doing this.’

VISCERAL

 Coordinated by Vienna University of Technology in Austria.
 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/106174_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.visceral.eu/

NOVEL CARRIERS FOR EFFICIENT DRUG DELIVERY
Therapeutics based on genetics promise solutions for devastating illnesses that cannot be treated by conventional 
approaches. The development of gene carriers is necessary for specific, efficient and safe treatment.

The recent discovery of gene silencing 

by ‘RNA interference’ (siRNA) led to 
the development of a new class of 

oligonucleotide-based therapeutics.

“TACIT is likely to have a 
broad impact on the 
development of 
personalised therapeutics.”

These genetic elements specifically inac-
tivate genes and are being investigated 
for treatment of cancer, diabetes, viral 
infections and inflammation.

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This novel drug development has been 
hampered by a problem known as sys-
temic  delivery.  siRNA  oligonucleotides 
suffer from a poor pharmacological pro-
file in vivo. Attempts to use conventional 
liposomes for delivery have resulted in 
non-specific immune stimulation, toxicity 
issues and limited distribution.

The EU-financed TACIT (Targeted ampho-
teric carriers in immunotherapy) project 
was put together by two academic and 
two commercial partners to address the 
urgent need for an effective delivery sys-
tem. The aim was to develop novel, clini-
cally-relevant carriers for delivery to the 
immune system and test them in inflam-
matory disease models.

The TACIT researchers designed and syn-
thesised new lipids with rational varia-
tions of the head group and lipid anchor 
chemistry. Amphoteric liposome carriers 
for systemic delivery of oligonucleotides 
were developed using the new lipids and 
a methodology that predicts the stability 
and efficacy of liposomes.

The  liposomes  were  tested  for  siRNA 
delivery in vitro, and effective formula-
tions were identified. New liposomal car-
riers were further tested in vivo for their 
tropism (attraction) to specific immune 
cell populations, such as macrophages 
and  dendritic  cells,  their  potency  for 

target knock-down and their safety. For 
topical administration of siRNA straight 
to the lung, the scientists developed sev-
eral formulations.

In addition, TACIT evaluated novel peptide 
carriers for the in vivo delivery of siRNA 
molecules.  These  vehicles  efficiently 
delivered cargo siRNA to macrophages in 
cell culture and in vivo in the model of 
allergic  asthma  in  mice.  Researchers 
used their expertise to target a central 
signalling pathway in macrophage acti-
vation (Akt kinase) in culture and in vivo 
in  a  model  of  aspiration-induced  lung 
injury in mice.

Overall,  new  lipid-based  and  non-lipid 
carriers  were  developed  and  can  be 
effective for systemic or topical delivery 
of siRNA to immune cells and inflamed 
tissues. TACIT is likely to have a broad 
impact on the development of personal-
ised therapeutics.

TACIT

  Coordinated by the Biomedical 

Research Foundation, Academy  
of Athens in Greece.

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/88923_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

17

OPTIMISING VERTEBROPLASTY
Painful vertebral compression fractures of the spinal cord are commonly treated using vertebroplasty 
when other treatments prove ineffective. Sadly, the incidence of new fractures after the procedure has 
been linked to bone cement in the original fracture site.

Vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive procedure used 

to treat osteoporosis, a bone disease characterised by 
low  bone  density  and  mass.  ‘Poly  methyl  meth-
acrylate’ (PMMA) is a material of choice here, as it features 
a  high  level  of 
stiffness and good 
biocompatibility for 
creating  the  bone 
cements  used  to 
stabilise  the  frac-
ture  site  in  such 
procedures.

“Ex vivo tests on human 
bone showed improved 
stability at the fracture site 
with no corresponding 
increase in overall stiffness 
in the vertebra.”

Unfortunately, 
PMMA’s  high  stiff-
ness can increase the overall stiffness of the vertebra when 
used on osteoporotic patients during vertebroplasty. This 
can cause adjacent fractures in patients with lower bone 
stiffness than PMMA. 

The  EU-funded  SPINEGO  (Re-integration  of  a  skilled 
researcher  through  an  intra-European  collaboration  on 
pathology-specific bone cements) project investigated the 
biomechanics involved and developed novel bone cements 
with lower stiffness characteristics in order to reduce such 
fracture risks.

These bone cements also have to be biocompatible and 
biostable and have similar properties to PMMA to ensure 
that they get clinical acceptance and regulatory approvals 
faster.  SPINEGO  successfully  developed  a  PMMA-based 
bone cement with a lower stiffness level that is closer to 
osteoporotic bone with good in vitro biocompatibility and 
handling properties.

Ex vivo tests on human bone showed improved stability at 
the fracture site with no corresponding increase in overall 
stiffness in the vertebra. Through this Marie Curie reinte-
gration grant, long-term research collaboration between 
several institutions has been possible.

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EU funding has been made available to these institutions 
for further research into biomaterials and biomechanics 
over  the  next  five  years.  Commercialisation  of  the  new 
bone cement should improve outcomes for osteoporosis 
patients following vertebroplasty and improve their quality 
of life.

SPINEGO

 Coordinated by the University of Uppsala in Sweden.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/148896_en.html

CANCER TARGETING USING NANOCAPSULES

Nanocapsules  —  for  targeted  drug  delivery  to  diseased  or  damaged  cells  —  hold  promise  for  the 
treatment of many conditions that do not respond to conventional drugs.

‘Small  interfering  RNA’  (siRNA), 

also  called  silencing  RNA,  are 
double-stranded  RNA  mole-
cules  about  20-25  base  pairs  in 
length.

siRNA interferes with the expression 
of genes and selectively blocks pro-
tein synthesis. This could be the key to 
the  development  of  innovative  per-
sonalised therapies.

The  EU-funded  project  NANOSIRNA 
(Transfection ability and intracellular 
pathway  of  LbL  nanostructured  
siRNA  delivery  systems)  worked  on 

developing new technology to effec-
tively  deliver  siRNA  to  cancer  cells. 
Scientists will embed siRNA into multi-
layered  and  multi-functional  ‘nano-
capsules’ (NCs) to target pro-survival 
factors in human cancer cells.

Degradable polymer NCs were chosen 
as  they  might  better  protect  the 
encapsulated  siRNAs  from  nuclease 
digestion and last longer than naked 
siRNAs. This would also improve their 
therapeutic potency.

NCs were prepared using the ‘Layer-
by-layer’  (LbL)  strategy,  which  is 

based on depositing interacting poly-
mers onto a porous colloidal template 
followed  by  core  removal.  Different 

“NCs were able to retain up to 
85 % of siRNA cargo and 
efficiently release it in a 
simulated intracellular 
environment.”

types  of  NC  were  successfully 
designed and synthesised and subse-
quently characterised for their struc-
tural and functional properties. They 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
18

B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

were  loaded  with  siRNA  cargo, 
designed to target the mRNA encod-
ing  for  the  anti-apoptotic  factor 
survivin.

environment.  This  would  activate  a 
cell safeguard mechanism that may 
limit the therapeutic effect in tumour 
cells.

Results showed that under different 
experimental  conditions,  NCs  were 
able  to  retain  up  to  85 %  of  siRNA 
cargo  and  efficiently  release  it  in  a 
simulated  intracellular  environment. 
siRNA-loaded NCs displayed good bio-
compatibility in in vitro tests. Empty 
NCs,  on  the  other  hand,  induced  a  
perturbation  of  the  intracellular 

Several oral and poster reports were 
presented  at  international  confer-
ences. The success of the NANOSIRNA 
project has led to the publication of 
four papers in peer-reviewed interna-
tional journals.

Project activities have demonstrated 
that  NCs  may  represent  a  superior 
delivery system for siRNAs compared 

to  lipid-based  transfection  systems. 
The results also highlighted the need 
for a careful evaluation of possible off-
target effects that may influence the 
therapeutic use of such nanodevices.

NANOSIRNA

  Coordinated by Fondazione IRCCS 

‘Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori’ in Italy.

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/148943_en.html

CLEVER PROBES DETECT LUNG INFECTION
Diagnosis  of  lung  inflammation  in  hospitalised  patients  is  often  delayed,  with  fatal  consequences. 
European scientists have set out to develop imaging probes for early detection of lung inflammation and 
infection to allow clinicians to accurately stratify patients for appropriate therapy.

‘Acute lung injury’ (ALI) is a clini-

cal syndrome mainly encoun-
tered in patients hospitalised in 
an ‘Intensive care unit’ (ICU). It is char-
acterised by heavy neutrophil infiltra-
tion  in  the  lungs  and  often  leads  to 
‘Ventilator-associated  pneumonia’ 
(VAP), a cause of high mortality.

Tracking ALI remains a major diagnos-
tic challenge for critical care clinicians. 
Seeking  to  address  this  issue,  the 
EU-funded CIPL (New tools for real-
time  cellular  imaging  and  protein 
labelling) project proposed to develop 

specialised molecular imaging probes 
for detecting ALI and VAP.

These  activity-based  probes  were 
designed to target either neutrophils, 
the primary cause of ALI inflamma-
tion,  or  gram-negative  and  gram- 
positive  bacteria.  CIPL  members 
tested  a  labelling  moiety  targeted 
against neutrophil enzymes such as 
caspase  and  human  neutrophil 
elastase or bacterial equivalents.

In vitro screening tests verified their 
discriminatory  capacity  against 
healthy lung tissue. Additionally, CIPL 

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researchers were interested in devel-
oping protein labelling methodology, 
which  could  be  combined  with  their 
imaging probes.

To  this  end,  they  utilised  the  well-
established histidine tag and modified 
specific  tyrosine  residues  on  the 
protein.

Detection  of  the  modified  proteins 
was carried out using specific probes 
containing ligands against these tags, 
as well as a fluorophore for imaging 
purposes.  Although  in  their  infancy, 
the CIPL optical molecular probes are 
expected  to  help  identify  critical 
inflammatory events in the lungs of 
ICU patients promptly.

“CIPL researchers were 
interested in developing 
protein labelling 
methodology, which could  
be combined with their 
imaging probes.”

In the long term, this method could be 
used to rapidly and accurately deter-
mine  the  aetiology  of  deteriorating 
respiratory function or the clinical sta-
tus of patients.

CIPL

  Coordinated by the University  

of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/148865_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015

19

S O C I A L   S C I E N C E S   A N D   H U M A N I T I E S

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S O C I A L   S C I E N C E S   A N D   H U M A N I T I E S

IMPROVED RISK 
COMMUNICATION DURING 
INFECTIOUS DISEASE CRISES
The TELL ME project is developing communication strategies that maximise 
opportunities and minimise risks during infectious disease crises.

As cases of the Ebola disease emerge in Europe, the 

crisis is gaining increasing levels of media cover-
age. Certain types of coverage can foster fear and 
stigmatisation, which leads to harmful consequences 
for the individuals, communities and countries involved. 
Therefore,  communication  strategies  that  maximise 
opportunities and minimise risks are vital. That’s why 
the TELL ME (Transparent communication in Epidemics: 
Learning Lessons from experience, delivering effective 
Messages,  providing  Evidence)  project  is  working  to 
develop models for improved risk communication dur-
ing infectious disease crises.

In the case of Ebola, the stigma of being perceived to 
be connected with the outbreak in the affected countries 
is intense and may make individuals hesitant to come 
forward with suspected symptoms. It may also impact 
the larger African community in Europe, including those 
who may have been settled here for many years. The 
TELL ME team is mindful that effective communication 
can make a crucial difference in this situation.

TELL ME is drawing on a range of disciplines (from pub-
lic health to law and ethics) to develop original commu-
nication strategies for complicated messages as well as 
advice based on uncertainties. The aim is to develop a 
way  of  communicating  that  influences  behaviours, 
reduces the spread of disease and avoids panic. The 
team is particularly keen to explore the huge potential 
of the information society in terms of evidence-based 
and participatory communication.

Stigmatisation,  as  a  result  of  poor  communication, 
affects not only individuals and families, but also entire 
countries. Paul Quinn from the TELL ME project notes 
the harmful consequences that he is seeing as a result 
of stigmatisation during this Ebola outbreak. He says, 
‘This sense of fear and stigma also affects the way in 
which foreigners are willing to deal with the countries 
in question. European airlines have for instance had to 
cancel flights to affected countries, often under pres-
sure from the union representation of their employees 
who fear a risk of contamination. This has created not 
only economic problems for the countries involved, but 

 
 
 
20

S O C I A L   S C I E N C E S   A N D   H U M A N I T I E S

also  major  logistical  headaches  for  international  public 
health  authorities  attempting  to  manage  an  emergency 
public health response.’

The consequences, he continues, go beyond health: ‘The 
effects that such events are able to create demonstrate 
that they carry serious risks not only in terms of human 
health and economic costs, but also in terms of serious 
social harms that can be felt both at the epicentre of the 
outbreak and beyond.’

Naturally, concerns and fear surrounding disease outbreaks 
are aired extensively on social media channels. As a TELL 
ME press release notes, ‘Social media are a fertile ground 
for [feelings of concern and fears], as well as for the circu-
lation of information, be they correct, distorted or totally 
wrong.’ A TELL ME analysis report on the Ebola crisis which 
focused on Twitter over seven days in September showed 
that  632 712  tweets  had  been  published  and  17 023 
hashtags using #ebola had been used.

The Ebola situation is pertinent for the research questions 
that TELL ME is exploring, in particular: ‘What are the most 
appropriate  communication  methods  used  to  deal  
with  complexity,  uncertainty,  ignorance,  information 

asymmetries, overwhelming information, biased informa-
tion, misinformation and malicious information?’

The project will come to an end at the beginning of 2015. 
Two  of  the  main  deliverables  will  be:  an  integrated,  
evidence  based, 
communication work 
package  (TELL  ME 
Communication  Kit) 
for  outbreak  com-
munication;  and  a 
prototype of a com-
putational  method 
for  simulating  the 
actions and interactions of autonomous decision-making 
entities within a virtual environment during an epidemic 
outbreak.

“The aim is to develop a 
way of communicating that 
influences behaviours, 
reduces the spread of 
disease and avoids panic.”

TELL ME

 Coordinated by Vitamib in France.
 Funded under FP7-HEALTH.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/121958_en.html 
Project website: http://tellmeproject.eu/

  http://bit.ly/1H8pnFk

HOW MUSEUMS WILL LOOK IN THE FUTURE
2014 marks 2 000 years since the death of Augustus, founder of the Roman Empire. A unique new 
exhibition is using the anniversary to showcase Europe’s very latest in virtual museum technology.

It’s  2 000  years  since  the  first 

Roman  emperor,  Augustus,  died. 
Rome is marking the occasion with 
a new exhibition on the Empire, ‘Keys 
to Rome’, which opened on Augustus’ 
birthday, 23 September, and is show-
ing in three other cities at the same 
time. This is more than just another 
exhibition on the city and its ancient 
past. A European research network 
— made up of archaeologists, art his-

“The journey is guided by two 
storytellers, an old merchant 
and his nephew, in the 
century following the end  
of the Roman Empire.”

torians, architects, computer scientists 
and communication experts — is using 
the  event  to  showcase  new  virtual 
museum technologies. They will dem-
onstrate how these technologies can 
be  used  to  engage  visitors  in  the 
future.

Exhibition in four cities  
at same time: a first

Members of the V-MUST.NET (Virtual 
Museum  Transnational  Network) 
project  are  curating  the  Keys  to 

Rome exhibition, which is being held 
simultaneously in four different cit-
ies representing ancient corners of 
the  Roman  Empire:  Alexandria  in 
Egypt  (Bibliotheca  Alexandrina), 
Amsterdam (Allard Pierson Museum), 
Sarajevo (City Hall) and, of course, 
Rome (Imperial Fora Museum).

‘Organising the exhibition in four cities 
at the same time has been a big chal-
lenge, a bit of a risk really. It has never 
been done before,’ commented Sofia 
Pescarin, V-MUST.NET coordinator.

Roman  collections  from  the  four 
museums  will  be  on  display  until 
May  2015  and  shared  through  a 
stream of new apps and ‘immersive’ 
technology  developed  by  the 
V-MUST.NET partners. Objects exhib-
ited in the four cities are discovered 
through  a  digital  itinerary  using 
computer  graphics  movies,  natural 
interaction installations, multimedia 
and mobile apps.

The journey is guided by two story-
tellers,  an  old  merchant  and  his 
nephew, in the century following the 
end of the Roman Empire (6th cen-
tury AD). Visitors are taken on a dis-
covery of the secrets of their family 
through  objects  owned  by  their 
ancestors, using the ‘Keys to Rome’ 

to unlock stories hidden in the items. 
‘The digital experience begins at this 
point,’  said  Sofia.  ‘“Travelling  in 
time”, they have to find those objects 
in the museum using a mobile appli-
cation called Matrix, which connects 
the objects in the four museums in a 
sort of treasure hunt,’ she explained.

Strolling through Rome  
2 000 years ago 

Visitors to any of the museums will be 
able to download Matrix, developed by 
the Fraunhofer Institute in Darmstadt, 
Germany, onto their smartphones for 
free and use it to choose a character to 
guide  them  around,  find  objects  and 
access the four collections. The appli-
cation  will  be  made  available  on  the 
Keys to Rome website.

Other  tools  include  a  wireless 
‘Radio-frequency  identification’ 
(RFID) system in the Allard Pierson 
Museum in Amsterdam that visitors 
can use to tailor-make content. In 
Rome,  a  Walking  Map  gives  them 
the  feeling  of  walking  within  the 
city now and 2 000 years ago. They 
can  print  out  a  sensor-laden  3D 
image of the famous Augustan Ara 
Pacis  altar  using  another  app, 
Virtex, touching the print-out button 
to  learn  more  about  the  altar. 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015S O C I A L   S C I E N C E S   A N D   H U M A N I T I E S

21

Another augmented reality app, Nisar, 
from  the  French  research  institute 
INRIA  enables  visitors  to  see  more 
details  about  an  object  by  pointing 
their  fingers  at  it.  They  can  also 
explore  reconstructed  3D  scenarios 
through  Admotum,  a  Kinect-based 
game  that  also  links  to  Holobox,  a 
manipulator  of  object  holograms. 
These  last  two  applications  were 
developed  by  the  Italian  research 
council, CNR ITABC.

As  well  as  the  18  project  partners, 
V-MUST.NET  has  120  associate 
members, some of whom are located  
outside  Europe.  It  has  set  up  a 
‘Competence  Centre’  to  market  the 
technologies once the project ends.

V-MUST.NET  is  a  European  Network  
of  Excellence  in  Virtual  Museums,  
a  four-year  project  with  funding  
of  EUR  4.45  million  from  the  Euro-
pean  Commission’s  7th  Framework 
Programme.  The  project  began  on  

1  February  2011  and  finishes  on  
31 January 2015.

V-MUST.NET

  Coordinated by the National Research 

Council in Italy.

 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/148258_en.html

Project website:  

http://www.v-must.net/

  http://bit.ly/1BIxBUo

THE SCIENCE OF RELEVANT NETWORKING
The EU SOCIETIES ICT research project has spawned a host of tools and applications allowing people to 
form smart communities in which they can discover, connect and organise ‘relevantly’ with one another.

We all use social networks in our private or profes-

sional lives. But how many people in our networks 
are really relevant to us? How can we identify the 
best person to talk to on a given subject? How can we rap-
idly connect and network with this person? This was a focus 
of  the  EU’s  3.5-year  SOCIETIES  (Self  Orchestrating 
CommunIty ambiEnT IntelligEnce Spaces) project: to create 
so-called ‘Community smart spaces’ (CSS) where members 
with highly-focused interests can connect, physically meet 
up, share problems and resources, and try together to find 
solutions in just about any area of life.

EU leads way in ‘Internet of things’ 
research 

SOCIETIES  researchers  have  been  working  on  pervasive 
computing — known as the Internet of Things — for over 
a decade now. An earlier EU ICT research project, PERSIST, 
looked at personal smart spaces and how individuals could 
connect to technology in their homes and offices through 
one device. ‘The obvious problem is, what happens when 
one or more personal smart spaces get together? That led 
us down the route of Community Smart Spaces and into the 
SOCIETIES project,’ explained coordinator Kevin Doolin, of 
Waterford  Institute  of  Technology’s  Telecommunications 
Software and Systems Group (TSSG) in Ireland.

The partners set about building a platform for matching 
people, resources and services, and discovered innovative 
areas  where  they  could  help  users  network  in  a  more 
focused and private way. They identified eight of these as 
core innovations: Learning (about users); Preferences (spe-
cialised community templates); User Intent (helping users 
achieve their goals); Community Orchestration (identifying 
who and what are relevant); Community Context (benefit-
ing  from  crowd  ‘wisdom’);  Location  (pinpointing  who’s 
nearby); Trust (stricter filtering mechanisms); and Privacy 
(integrating privacy into software development, rather than 
adding it on later).

Three user groups were chosen to trial services based on 
the innovations. For example, computer students at Heriot-
Watt  University  in  Edinburgh  tested  individual  Personal 
Agenda  and  MyTV  apps  and  the  lecturer-questioning 
AskFree.  Then,  on  a  group  basis,  they  participated  in 
Browsing ‘races’, collaborative quiz games and organised 
meet-ups using a location app based on ‘geo-fencing’. The 
SOCIETIES platform was found to be robust and reliable in 

use, with very little downtime, and able to respond to the 
inventiveness  of  the  students,  running  multiple  services 
simultaneously with multiple users.

In another trial, researchers took SOCIETIES to the European 
Commission’s 4 000-strong ICT 2013 conference in Vilnius, 
Lithuania, and tried out Relevance, a conference schedule, 
planner and networking app, customising it for the event. 
‘Relevance’ leveraged the Community Orchestration inno-
vation, using project algorithms and user-defined keywords 
to  enable  participants  to  decide  which  presentations  to 
attend and find people they wanted to meet in the ‘geo-
fenced’ environment. The feedback from users at the con-
ference was that there was significant interest in having an 
application which reduces ‘social clutter’. Indeed, six other 
conference organisers present also expressed an interest 
in having such an app at their events. This led to a com-
pany, Fuseami Ltd. being spun off from the project to tap 
into the potential. 

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S O C I A L   S C I E N C E S   A N D   H U M A N I T I E S

A third trial involved rescue workers in a forest fire simula-
tion in Germany. They wore ‘iJackets’ to connect with one 
another and with a remote disaster management centre.

SOCIETIES project spin-off launches  
in Ireland

Fuseami is launching its conference networking app based on 
‘Relevance’ in November 2014. The app is based on intelligent 
professional profile matching. Its core innovation is a Relevance 
Orchestration Engine, which fuses a number of complex algo-
rithms to provide each user with a similarity score for each 
potential connection, taking into account education, job title, 
areas of interest and key words based on who you would like 
to meet. TSSG says the app will allow users to ‘discover, con-
nect and engage with relevant business contacts.’

‘The whole idea is to cut through all the social media clut-
ter and allow people, if they go to an event or any location, 
to log into the Fuseami app, via LinkedIn, and find people 
relevant to them,’ explained Kevin. ‘It’s not going to go out 

and find your friends; the idea is to find people you don’t 
already know. It’s about making networking relevant.’

The SOCIETIES platform contains a wealth of architecture 
descriptions, context management systems, privacy con-
trols, and other specifications which are available to any 
developer,  on  a  whole  or  module  basis,  by  downloading 
from: http://www.ict-societies.eu/open-source/

SOCIETIES, involving 15 partners in 10 countries, ran from 
October 2010 to April 2014 and received EUR 10.6 million 
of funding from FP7.

SOCIETIES

  Coordinated by the Waterford Institute of Technology  

in Ireland.

 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/149097_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.ict-societies.eu

POLITICAL VIOLENCE, PUBLIC MEMORIES  
AND STATE FORMATION
European research has examined two specific periods in Cypriot and Irish history to compare the ways in 
which political violence in each was legitimised. Insurgencies against the state developed in the period 
1916–1919 in Ireland and 1955–1969 in Cyprus.

The POLITICAL VIOLENCE (Political 

violence  legitimization  in  Ireland 
and  Cyprus)  project  studied  evi-
dence  from  the  historical  records  of 
both  islands.  In  parallel,  the  research 
considered the subsequent, post-United 
Kingdom periods.

“The outcomes of POLITICAL 
VIOLENCE offer important 
insights into the histories of 
two states still dealing with 
unresolved questions.”

The  interest  here  was  in  the  public 
memories of the insurgencies and how 
they were intertwined in the processes 
of consolidation of the  new states that 
emerged. Both 
secondary 
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als and archival sources from the two 
areas were examined.

reflected  the  (varied  and  fluctuating) 
views of third parties.

The research also involved over 30 in-
depth  interviews  with  Cypriot  partici-
pants  and  spectators  of  the  events 
unfolding  there  during  the  four-year 
period in question. The findings indicate 
that the legitimisation of political vio-
lence  is  situational.  It  is  the  result  of 
many parallel processes integrating rep-
resentations of violence and collective 
commitments.

Although there are some general differ-
ences  between  the  two,  Cyprus  and 
Ireland present similarities in form. For 
example, the discourse regarding Cyprus 
included  a  much  wider  audience  than 
that of Ireland.

In Cyprus, nationalist insurgency and the 
British  counter-insurgency  violence 
were central to the legitimacy discourse. 
However, in Ireland, where the violence 
played out mostly in the interwar period, 
the focus of discourse was more on the 
legitimacy of the state (United Kingdom) 
and on nationalist claim to a republic. 
Comparisons highlighted a key differ-
ence in the general configuration of the 
two islands’ publics.

In Cyprus, those sympathising with the 
insurgency and those opposing it lived 
near to each other and the violence. 
However, in Ireland, much of the 
discourse developed from a 
relative  distance  and 

POLITICAL  VIOLENCE  also  considered 
the respective periods of state consoli-
dation in Cyprus and Ireland. Its research 
underlined differences in the develop-
ment of conflict between those support-
ing compromise and those seeing it as 
betrayal.

In each place, this development played a 
heavy role in how the collective memory 
of insurgent violence was figured, config-
ured  and  reconfigured.  A  book  manu-
script  outlining  project  research  and 
findings is currently being completed.

The outcomes of POLITICAL VIOLENCE 
offer important insights into the histo-
ries of two states still dealing with unre-
solved  questions.  Results  and  the 
knowledge created are of interest both 
to academics of comparative-historical 
sociology and comparative politics and 
to policymakers.

The book will also impact political and 
conceptual debates surrounding vio-
lence and its role in state formation.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE

  Coordinated by Queen’s University 
Belfast in the United Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/148914_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
S O C I A L   S C I E N C E S   A N D   H U M A N I T I E S

23

THE LONG HISTORY OF MINORITY INTEGRATION 
STRUGGLES

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With EU borders opening up and increasing mobility, minority integration is a hot topic 
in both academic circles and public debate. Researchers examined the early markings 
of this phenomenon.

To advance a better understanding of the subject, the 

EU-funded POLMIN-1418 (National Minorities at War: 
Integration,  Identity  and  Combat  Motivation  among 
Poles in German and Austro-Hungarian Society, 1914-18) 
project endeavoured to highlight dilemmas regarding the 
integration of minorities with a long history in Europe. The 
project’s  design  also  afforded  an  opportunity  to  further 
knowledge in another two related areas.

With a focus on the First World War, the first questioned 
how  war  contributed  to  national  identity  formation  and 
spread  in  east-central  Europe.  The  second  analysed  the 
influence of ideology, nationalism in particular, on modern 
combat motivation.

An in-depth study of the Poles of Germany and Austria-
Hungary looked into how polar opposite integration policies 
affected one minority. The time period in question went as 
far back as the four decades leading up to 1914.

Germany applied increasingly obtrusive assimilationist pol-
icies, while Austria had a more multicultural approach. To 
assess the effectiveness of these policies, POLMIN-1418 
studied Poles’ conduct during WWI. The outcomes indicate 
that both German and Austrian pre-war integration policies 
had limited success.

It also tested whether past integration policies had effec-
tively  promoted  social  cohesion.  Official  documentation 
and correspondence between minorities in military service 
and their families offered rich insights into the develop-
ment of minority identities.

The study also revealed that minorities in national or impe-
rial armies fought effectively even in the absence of an ide-
ological investment in the states they served.

To deepen their findings, project researchers carried out a 
regional  study  on  the  Masurian  people  in  East  Prussia. 
Findings point to pre-war assimilation policies strengthen-
ing protestant and political affinities. This led to a higher 
identification with the German war effort.

A regional study on Cracow highlighted two important war-
time phenomena. It tracked the rise and changing politics 
of Polish nationalism in the city, and analysed how wartime 
conditions affected inter-ethnic relations there.

The study’s results are important for the historiography on 
WWI and Poland, and add to the multidisciplinary literature 
on nation building. The project highlighted the limitations 
and problems of both assimilationist and multicultural inte-
gration  strategies,  revealing  their  major  socioeconomic 
impact.

With  dilemmas  of  integration  a  central  part  of  modern 
European history, POLMIN-1418 underlined that ethnic and 
religious diversity is not a new and unfamiliar phenomenon. 
Understanding the interplay of all of the above will help 
shift the public debate and better inform national and EU 
integration policymaking.

Materials were also gathered from archives and libraries  
in  Warsaw,  Cracow,  Berlin,  Vienna  and  Jerusalem. 
POLMIN-1418  showed  that  national  identities  hardened 
under the demands of war.

POLMIN-1418

 Coordinated by the University of Warsaw in Poland.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/148895_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
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S O C I A L   S C I E N C E S   A N D   H U M A N I T I E S

A NEW APPROACH TO HISTORIOGRAPHY

With the support of EU funding, a research project was set up to study a crucial period 
of Greek history. The approach is unique, due to the focus on the historical documentation 
of the period and the use of a specific text whose author and date of composition are 
unknown.

The period under study covers the 

last phase of the Peloponnesian 
War  and  the  emergence  of 
Spartan supremacy (i.e. from 412 B.C. 
to 386 B.C.).

The text in question is the Hellenica 
Oxyrhynchia  (HO),  which  comprises 
three papyrus fragments.

Before addressing the topic of author-
ship,  the  HTDPSH  (Historiographical 
tendencies  during  the  period  of 
Spartan  hegemony)  project  spot-
lighted literary and historiographical 
questions  deemed  to  be  of  more 
importance.

Through  the  application  of  various 
strategies  (narratology,  historical 
inquiry,  papyrological  investigation 
and  literary  comparison),  the  study 
first sought to shed light on how the 
text  relates  to  Thucydides  and 
Xenophon.

The analysis thus closely investigated 
vocabulary  and  style,  without  over-
looking  broader  issues  of  narrative 
technique  and  interpretation.  Initial 
research led to a refined set of project 
objectives, most of which have been 
achieved.

“The analysis closely 
investigated vocabulary and 
style, without overlooking 
broader issues of narrative 
technique and interpretation.”

These  include  an  examination  and 
clarification of the structure and nar-
rative  devices  of  the  HO  through  a 
close  comparison  with  previous  and 
contemporary historical works.

Significant  findings  were  detailed, 
revealing new narrative patterns in the 
HO. Other research findings related to 
the author’s identity: it is possible that 
the  HO  and  the  Theramenes  papyrus 
had the same author.

Despite  this,  HTDPSH  carried  out  a 
revised reading of Diodorus, and also 

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examined  the  political  language  of 
Thucydides in an attempt to discover 
stylistic clues similar to those offered 
in the HO.

No  definitive  conclusions  could  be 
drawn from this exercise. Studies of the 
topic of moralism in the various writ-
ings studied revealed that the HO’s his-
toriographical view differs considerably 
from  that  of  contemporary  authors 
such  as  Xenophon,  Theopompus  and 
Ephorus.

This  offers  a  new  path  for  future 
research looking at the HO authorship 
issue.  The  project’s  main  deliverable 
was a monograph that proposes a new 
methodological  approach  to  studying 

the HO and other fragmentary histori-
ans in general.

As such, it will constitute an unprece-
dented scientific tool, encouraging fur-
ther studies in the field.

Future work is planned, with the final 
goal being the production of a manu-
script detailing and discussing all find-
ings relative to HTDPSH’s subject.

HTDPSH

  Coordinated by the University  

of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/148913_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
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25

E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

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E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

USING INTELLIGENCE TO 
UNLOCK THE MARKET  
FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
The EU-funded OPENER project has developed 
intelligent ways for electric vehicles to achieve 
energy  efficiency,  making  them  much  more 
commercially attractive.

Our fuel-based economy must be rad-

ically  overhauled  if  Europe  is  to 
achieve  its  ambitious  emission 
reduction targets. One important piece of 
this  jigsaw  could  be  the  increased  com-
mercialisation of electric cars, which use 
carbon-free energy sources and emit no 
CO2 or other pollutants. As an added bonus, 
electric vehicles also generate less noise 
and vibration.

So why don’t we see more electric cars on 
the road? Cost is undoubtedly a factor, but 
a key constraint is the fact that these vehi-
cles  have  limited  driving  ranges,  which 
decreases  their  attractiveness  as  viable 
alternatives  to  fuel-driven  cars.  What  is 
needed is greater energy efficiency to pre-
serve battery life, which is exactly what the 
EU-funded OPENER (Optimal ENErgy con-
sumption and Recovery based on a system 
network) project has achieved.

After three years of intense collaboration 
and EUR 4.4 million of EU investment, the 
OPENER  project  recently  presented  two 
demonstration  electric  vehicles  in  Spain. 
Increased driving range was achieved not 
through enhanced battery technologies, but 

by the development of an intelligent energy 
management and recovery system.

In particular, the team worked on improv-
ing the braking system, navigation system 
and  surrounding  sensors.  An  adaptive 
cruise control was also installed to guaran-
tee more economical driving. These ‘eco-
routing’ functions are the key to achieving 
energy efficiency and preserving battery 
life.

Safety was another driving factor behind 
the project, with sensory advice targeted 
not just at energy efficiency, but also at 
providing  timely  warnings.  Optimised 
range predictions show reliable informa-
tion  on  remaining  driving  range,  thereby 
avoiding  unwanted  and  potentially  risky 
stops due to an empty battery.

In practice, this means that the car is intel-
ligent, providing the driver with braking tips 
based on traffic flows and advice on the 
best route to limit energy use. Energy sav-
ings of up to 30 % are therefore possible, 
with little time lost along the way. The pro-
ject  team,  together  with  reviewers  and 
members of the public, were able to drive 

the  new  vehicles  and  try  out  the  new 
functions.

The OPENER project, which was completed 
earlier  this  year,  comprised  six  partners 
from  across  Europe  who  shared  a  firm 
belief  that  electric  vehicles  can  —  and 
should  —  be  improved.  The  team  now 
hopes that the new system will be progres-
sively integrated into production from 2015 
onwards.

The  EU  has  stated  that  it  aims  to  have 
between 8 and 9 million electric vehicles on 
the road by 2020. There are a number of 
challenges  ahead  however,  including 
increasing the reliability and durability of 
batteries  and  super-capacitors,  reducing 
battery  weight  and  volume,  safety,  cost 
reduction, charging infrastructure and plug-
in solutions. Nonetheless, the electrification 
of  transport  (or  electromobility)  is  an  EU 
research priority.

The European Green Cars Initiative (EGCI), 
of which the OPENER project was a part, 
was  launched  in  2011  as  part  of  the 
European  Recovery  Plan.  The  initiative  is 
designed to help achieve the EU’s ambitious 
climate goals, such as the reduction of CO2 
emissions by 60 % by the year 2050. EGCI 
also  supports  the  research  and  develop-
ment of road transport solutions that have 
the potential to achieve sustainable results.

OPENER

 Coordinated by Robert Bosch in Germany.
 Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/121770_en.html

 Project website:  

http://www.fp7-opener.eu/

 
 
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E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

HYBRID NANOCOMPOSITES — AUTOMOTIVE 
SECTOR
Energy and climate change, inherently intertwined, are among the most pressing challenges of the 21st 
century. One solution, with a major impact on emissions, is novel batteries and solar cells that can be 
used in energy-autonomous automotive devices.

Energy  harvesting  will  likely  play  an  important  role  in 

meeting the EU’s stringent restrictions on carbon dioxide 
emissions for 2020. Inorganic-organic hybrid nanomate-
rials will play a major role in the technological development 
of energy solutions.

The  EU-funded  project  ORION  (Ordered  inorganic-organic 
hybrids using ionic liquids for emerging applications) created 
a  multi-disciplinary,  multi-sector  consortium  of  experts  in 
batteries and solar cells. Researchers worked on developing 
new  materials  exploiting  ionic  liquids  to  meet  the  energy 
challenge.

Ionic liquids can impart order and functionality in inorganic-
organic hybrids. The team used them to guide the growth of 
inorganic  nanomaterials  and  functionalise  their  surfaces. 
Following the synthesis, characterisation and modelling of a 
variety  of  novel  materials,  researchers  turned  toward  the 
development of demonstrators to showcase the technology.

The  team  delivered  two  energy-autonomous  devices  for 
automotive applications exploiting the ORION solar cell and 
battery prototypes. These devices should also result in sig-
nificant  weight  savings  and  simplify  assembly  processes, 
generating further savings in production costs. This in turn 
will reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

ORION’s explosive activity led to over 70 publications and 11 
patent applications, six of which have already been awarded. 
Patents  are  not  the  only  evidence  of  progress  toward 

commercialisation. Sales outside Europe of novel metal salts 
developed by ORION skyrocketed from 11 % in 2011 to 40 % 
in 2012. Another partner produced dye-sensitised solar cell 
modules to cover the façade of the Swiss Tech Convention 
Centre using knowledge acquired during the ORION project. 
Numerous  other  project-related  technologies  are  finding 
their way into products at partner facilities with outcomes 
generating positive repercussions throughout the EU.

Highlights can be found in the project newsletter and in vid-
eos of the two demonstrators.

The  novel  inorganic-organic  hybrids  exploiting  ionic  salts 
developed by ORION researchers were fundamental to the 
development of energy devices. Knowledge gained is likely to 
pave the way towards numerous other applications in optics, 
electronics, sensing, environmental sciences and medicine. 
The wealth of publications and products now on the market 
should fuel a new era of discovery, ensuring a leading role 
for the EU.

ORION

 Coordinated by Cidetec in Spain.
 Funded under FP7-NMP.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/91020_en.html 
Project website:  

http://www.cidetec.es/ORION/index.html

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DEVELOPING MORE RELIABLE WIND TURBINES
Wind energy accounts for around 3 % of Europe’s overall electricity production and is projected to provide 
12 % by 2020. To achieve this target, wind turbines need to be increased in number and at the same time 
operate at optimum efficiency and cost.

Manufacturers of wind turbines 

are focusing on improving reli-
ability in order to reduce oper-
ation  and  maintenance  costs.  To 
achieve  this,  new  designs  are  being 
developed that require fewer regular 
service  visits  and  less  time  lost 
through non-operation.

The EU-funded INTELWIND (Development 
of an intelligent condition monitoring sys-
tem  for  application  on  critical  rotating 
components of industrial-scale wind tur-
bines)  initiative  aimed  to  significantly 

reduce the number of failures in critical 
rotating components of industrial-scale 
wind turbines. It further sought to reduce 
the need for corrective maintenance by 
developing and implementing an intelli-
gent monitoring system. This ‘Condition 
monitoring  system’  (CMS)  is  based  on 
integrating  acoustic  emissions,  vibra-
tions, torque sensing and oil data from 
sensors.

Sensors already included in wind tur-
bine logging systems provided the ref-
erence  parameters  needed  for  data 

“The CMS represents a major 
step forward in monitoring 
the condition of wind 
turbines.”

analysis,  such  as  wind  speed  and 
direction and power output. INTELWIND 
developed algorithms and embedded 
them  into  the  CMS  to  provide  data 
allowing for estimations of the wear 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
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27

on bearings as well as other factors. 
The data are compared with a series 
of ‘healthy’ key performance indices. 
If  a  value  outside  the  acceptance 
range  is  identified,  an  alarm  is  trig-
gered. This provides the capacity for 
automated  monitoring  and  early 
intervention.

The CMS represents a major step for-
ward  in  monitoring  the  condition  of 
wind  turbines.  It  not  only  identifies 
faults in critical rotating components, 
but also enables continuous measur-
ing and recording of the load on com-
ponents  making  up  the  drive  train. 
This  is  achieved  using  a  surface 
acoustic  wave  sensor  to  measure 
torque in the high-speed shaft in com-
bination with the developed software. 
Together with software for estimating 

the  remaining  life  of  components, 
these developments represent a new 
era  in  preventative  maintenance  for 
wind turbines.

INTELWIND’s intelligent system can be 
incorporated  into  both  newly  manu-
factured turbines and older installa-
tions. It will lead to significant savings 
related  to  expensive  replacement 
equipment such as gear boxes, as well 
as savings on maintenance costs.

INTELWIND

  Coordinated by Innovative Technology 

and Science Limited in the  
United Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-SME.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/147176_en.html

Project website: 

http://intelwind-project.com/

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MAXIMUM ENERGY SAVINGS WITH MINIMUM 
INTERVENTION FOR HISTORIC BUILDINGS
Europe’s historic buildings draw visitors from all over the world. But keeping them energy-efficient without 
having to carry out significant construction work can be a struggle. The EU-funded project SEEMPUBS 
plans on using a new ICT-based monitoring, visualisation and control system to reduce these buildings’ 
energy consumption, cope with the existing energy systems in place and avoid possible damages caused 
by major building works.

The  FP7-funded  SEEMPUBS  (Smart  Energy  Efficient 

Middleware for Public Spaces) project has developed 
a new computer-based system that can control light-
ing, heaters, air conditioners and other environmental units 
in large buildings. The SEEMPUBS technology includes a 
central control software system connected wirelessly to 
energy structures placed in different parts of a building or 
even a number of buildings.

Professor Enrico Macii of the Polytechnic University of Turin 
says that ‘beyond any actual hardware, the most signifi-
cant result has been the elaboration of an energy-efficient 
model for existing buildings and public spaces. This model 
can be applied to many different historic buildings where 
legacy  energy  systems  are  already  in  place,  avoiding 
expensive  construction  work,  disruption  and  possible 
damage.’

The functionality of this system is already being demon-
strated on existing buildings at the Politecnico Campus, and 
Valentino Castle. By comparing reference and test rooms, 
average weekly savings ranging from 27 % to 36 % have 
been observed in heating energy in the winter period. These 
savings have ranged from 63 % to 74 % for cooling energy 
in the summer period.

Great economic potential

read  temperature  gauges  and  other  sensors,  and  then 
adjust the heating and other units manually.’

The SEEMPUBS systems draw together building services, 
electronic devices and operations in order to optimise and 
integrate all maintenance functions. When possible, exist-
ing building management systems are left in place, while 
new hardware used for fine-grained monitoring and control 
can be added.

The  SEEMPUBS  operator  can  actually  visualise  different 
spaces and navigate through a building virtually, oversee-
ing  the  entire  inter-
linked  system  of 
environmental  and 
energy control.

“The SEEMPUBS operator can 
actually visualise different 
spaces and navigate through 
a building virtually, overseeing 
the entire interlinked system 
of environmental and  
energy control”

The project has also 
developed  a  hand-
held  app  allowing 
users  to  visualise 
and  inspect  various 
environmental  sys-
tems  as  they  walk 
through a building, providing real-time light, temperature, 
humidity and other data as well as architectural and struc-
tural information.

Light, temperature and humidity in such buildings are often 
difficult to control. ‘Typically, these historic buildings have 
individual heaters and air conditioning units in the different 
rooms,’ Macii says. ‘There is no central environmental con-
trol. So someone has to walk around to the different rooms, 

The project partners believe that the economic potential is 
significant, including creating a market for ICT-based solu-
tions  that  integrate  new  and  existing  technologies,  and 
opening doors to new services, from the design of custom-
ised systems to operations and maintenance.

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One of the project partners is currently working on a com-
mercial  version  of  the  methodology,  including  a  beta-
release of the supporting software. Another partner is also 
exploiting some of the project’s findings, namely those con-
cerning sensor technologies, to enhance its portfolio of sen-
sor devices for ambient sensing and monitoring. Finally, the 
features of the SEEMPUBS methodology are currently being 
extended  for  use  at  district  level  as  part  of  another 
EU-funded R&D project, DIMMER.

The project is also looking forward to a new collaborative 
framework ultimately taking shape between the ICT and 
building and construction sectors, exploiting opportunities 
to develop ICT-based systems in compliance with the EU’s 
Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

‘We are doing all of this while at the same time achieving 
more efficient and sustainable operations,’ Macii says. ‘The 
result is reduced energy consumption, cost savings and a 
“greener” overall environmental performance. We also want 
to raise citizen awareness, especially among youngsters, of 
the positive impact new technologies can have over the 
mid- to long-term. For this, we have developed a game 
called SEEMPubSDice using augmented reality technolo-
gies and a theatre show called ToBeSmart.’

The game allows players to interact with elements of the 
project (wireless sensors, temperature sensors, light bulbs, 
old electric wires, etc.) and to monitor the impact energy 
management can have on the overall energy consumption 
of a building. The theatre show, which was presented twice, 
used special projection technologies to teach the audience 
the basics of the project’s technological development.

The  SEEMPUBS  project,  completed  in  2013,  brought 
together  nine  partners from five countries  and  received 
EUR 2.9 million of funding under the EU’s 7th Framework 
Programme (FP7).

SEEMPUBS

 Coordinated by the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy.
 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/148259_en.html
Project website: 

http://seempubs.polito.it/

LIGHTER AND STRONGER MATERIALS  
FOR GREENER AIRCRAFT
EU-funded researchers have used carbon nanotubes to create exceptionally strong, lightweight and cost-
effective materials for aircraft parts. They have demonstrated the potential of this material for making 
lighter aircraft that burn less fuel — a big boost to the competitiveness of Europe’s transport industry.

Aiming to improve environmental 

performance and cost efficiency, 
the transport industry is moving 
away from materials based on metal 
and towards lightweight composites, 
such  as  reinforced  polymers.  Less 
weight results in lower fuel consump-
tion  —  and  fewer  greenhouse  gas 
emissions.

“This integration allows us to 
eliminate a number of 
metallic parts and reduce 
weight.”

Carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers are 
now the preferred composite materi-
als  as  they  provide  low  weight  and 
high strength with cost savings — a 
particularly attractive combination for 
the airline industry.

The  EU-funded  project  IMS&CPS 
(Innovative  material  synergies  and 
composite processing strategies) has 
contributed to this advance by devel-
oping a new closed-mould manufac-
turing  technology  that  produces 
integrated components. This integra-
tion  allows  manufacturers  to  elimi-
nate  a  number  of  metallic  parts 
— with the aim of reducing aircraft 
weight and manufacturing costs.

The team also created a pure carbon 
nanotube fibre fabric and a pure car-
bon nanotube yarn. Numerical models 
developed by the team can be used to 
integrate  these  materials  within 
polymers.

The pure carbon nanotube fibre fabric 
is  likely  the  first  of  its  kind,  says 
Emmanuel Detaille from project coor-
dinator Coexpair in Belgium.

‘Around 998 million passengers trav-
elled by plane in 2010, compared to 
262  million  in  1989,’  he  adds.  ‘In 
2008, 25 million tonnes of kerosene 
were  consumed  for  intra-European 
flights alone. We wanted to provide an 
effective answer to the issue of global 
energy by proposing technologies to 
decrease  an  airplane’s  total  weight 
and thus fuel consumption.’

The carbon nanotube 
potential

Conventional carbon fibres are five to 
ten  micrometres  in  diameter  and 
made of carbon atoms in a crystal lat-
tice. They have been successfully pro-
duced for commercial use, particularly 
in  the  aircraft  industry,  since  the 
1960s.

But  new  possibilities  appeared  with 
the  discovery  of  carbon  nanotubes. 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

29

These tube-shaped carbon molecules, 
with diameters in the range of nano-
metres or billionths of a metre, have 
unusual  properties,  including  high 
electrical  conductivity,  making  them 
very  useful  in  a  variety  of  electrical 
and mechanical applications.

For  example,  used  in  aircraft  wings, 
the conductivity of carbon nanotubes 
could help provide protection against 
lightning  strikes.  This  use  would 
reduce  weight  compared  to  the 

metallic parts currently used for such 
components — such as copper mesh.

As a demonstration of their work, the 
researchers produced two sections of 
an aircraft: a small part of a fuselage 
panel and a re-engineered nose land-
ing gear door.

‘The “Same-Qualified-Resin-Transfer-
Molding”  (SQRTM)  process  can  be 
used to produce a one-shot complex 
structure,’ adds Detaille. ‘This integra-
tion allows us to eliminate a number 
of metallic parts and reduce weight.’

IMS&CPS also studied different ways 
of integrating carbon nanotubes into 
composite  materials.  The  studies 
resulted in a database on mechanical, 
electrical and fire properties for use by 
researchers and industry.

Next steps

/

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The results of the project are expected 
to  help  manufacturers  reduce  the 
cost, weight and fuel consumption of 
new aircraft. Energy consumption will 

also be lower during manufacturing, 
because fewer parts need to be pro-
duced separately.

‘The results support the development 
of strong European expertise in both 
innovative materials development and 
composite materials manufacturing,’ 
adds Detaille.

Since  the  end  of  the  project  in 
September  2013,  the  companies 
involved have moved forward with a 
large-scale  manufacturing  pro-
gramme based in part on the results 
from IMS&CPS.

IMS&CPS

  Coordinated by COEXPAIR SA 

in Belgium.

 Funded under FP7-NMP.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/

article_en.cfm?artid=32960 

Project website:  

http://www.materials.imdea.org/
research/projects/IMS-CPS

MORE ENERGY-EFFICIENT CELLULAR  
RADIO NETWORKS
An EU-funded project has tackled the energy consumption challenge for cellular radio networks. The 
initiative  developed  advanced  tools  and  software  platforms  to  help  operators  improve  the  energy 
efficiency of their current and future network deployments.

Current  mobile  networks  were  not  designed  to  be 

energy efficient and they consume more energy than 
is needed to satisfy user demand. Radio access net-
works are often responsible for most of the total power 
consumed by mobile network operators.

The  GREENNETS  (Power  consumption  and  CO2  footprint 
reduction in mobile networks by advanced automated net-
work management approaches) project worked to increase 
the energy efficiency of radio networks. Developments in 
such areas will help the EU achieve ambitious energy and 
climate change objectives for 2020. Consortium partners 
developed energy-efficient equipment and improved net-
work  operations  and  radio  deployment 
efficiency  by  operating  only  what 
was needed of the radio network.

Smarter use of existing and new 
radio equipment led to reduc-
tions  in  energy  consumption, 
as did adapting the use of the 
radio infrastructure to reflect 
current demand. This included 
putting the unnecessary parts 
of  the  radio  access  network 
into sleep mode or temporarily 
switching  them  off  to  reduce 

power consumption.

Project partners created algorithms to map network key 
performance indicators and to form part of the ‘Energy effi-
ciency optimiser’ (EEO). The EEO was designed as an auto-
matic  system  capable  of  proposing  and  carrying  out 
actions, such as the times to switch on or off parts of the 
radio network, resulting in energy savings.

GREENNETS’ work will enable mobile network operators to 
meet both commercial and sustainability targets in Europe 
and the rest of the world. Energy costs account for half of 
a mobile operator’s operating expenses. Solutions support-
ing improved energy efficiency are therefore not just ben-
eficial for the environment, they also make good business 
sense.

GREENNETS

 Coordinated by Datax in Poland.
 Funded under FP7-SME.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/147155_en.html

“Smarter use of existing and new radio 
equipment led to reductions in energy 
consumption, as did adapting the use of the 
radio infrastructure to reflect current 
demand.”

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30

E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

IMPROVED SIMULATION OF NUCLEAR 
QUANTUM EFFECTS
The concurrent simulation of nuclear quantum effects for both electrons and light 
nuclei is now considerably less expensive, thanks to an EU project. This development 
will help to improve materials used in lithium batteries, fuel cells and many other 
chemical and biological applications.

At  the  quantum  level,  materials 

behave in a way that is substan-
tially different to that in the every-
day  Newtonian  world.  This  can  affect 
the  manner  in  which  materials  and 
devices that contain hydrogen or other 
light atoms function.

Computer-based simulation techniques 
are used to model this behaviour. For 
condensed-phase  systems,  ‘Density 
functional  theory’  (DFT)  provides  an 
acceptably  accurate  framework  for 
looking at the quantum electronic struc-
ture. DFT is, however, costly.

Combining DFT simulations with ‘Path 
integral  molecular  dynamics’  (PIMD), 
which is a convenient approach to devi-
ations  from  Newtonian  behaviour,  is 
desirable in certain cases.

The  problem  is  that  using  the  two 
together  is  both  highly  expensive  and 
time-consuming.  The  NQEAIMD  (Fast 

and  accurate  simulation  of  nuclear 
quantum effects in ab-initio molecular 
dynamics  by  a  generalised  Langevin 
equation) project aimed to make PIMD 
simulations less costly.

The idea was to facilitate a combination 
of  ‘Nuclear  quantum  effects’  (NQEs) 
with DFT simulations. The researchers 
began  by  applying  a  coloured-noise, 
‘Generalised Langevin equation’ (GLE) to 
a PIMD simulation.

When they had established this method-
ology, they studied the impact of NQEs 
on  the  properties  of  water.  Then  they 
extended it to more complex problems 
in  collaboration  with  experimental 
groups.  The  team  developed  a  hybrid 
technique called PI+GLE, which reduces 
the cost to one fifth or less. PI+GLE was 
then  improved  to  produce  the  PIGLET 
method, which could make it a routine 

matter  to  include  NQEs  in  ab  initio 
molecular dynamics.

To this end, the researchers also devel-
oped i-PI, an interface using electronic 
structure codes, and released it as open-
source  code.  The  results  of  NQEAIMD 
will have an impact on computer simu-
lation  work  by  other  scientists. 
Simulations should be more accurate in 
the  case  of  materials  and  chemicals 
that  contain  light  atoms,  including 
hydrogen.

In turn, this could help fulfil the potential 
of  computer-aided  materials  design, 
leading  to  better  batteries,  enzymes, 
fuel cells and other devices.

NQEAIMD

  Coordinated by the University  

of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/148897_en.html

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research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015

31

E N V I R O N M E N T   A N D   S O C I E T Y

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E N V I R O N M E N T   A N D   S O C I E T Y

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH COULD 
HELP DETOXIFY POLLUTANTS
Scientists at the University of Manchester (UK) hope a major breakthrough 
could lead to more effective methods for detoxifying dangerous pollutants 
like ‘polychlorinated biphenyls’ (PCBs) and dioxins. The result is a culmination 
of 15 years of research and was published in Nature on 19 October. It details 
how certain organisms manage to lower the toxicity of pollutants.

The team at the Manchester Institute of 

Biotechnology (MIB) were investigating 
how some natural organisms manage 
to lower the level of toxicity and shorten the 
life span of several notorious pollutants.

Professor David Leys explains the research: 
‘We already know that some of the most 
toxic pollutants contain halogen atoms and 
that most biological systems simply don’t 
know  how  to  deal  with  these  molecules. 
However,  there  are  some  organisms  that 
can  remove  these  halogen  atoms  using 
vitamin  B12.  Our  research  has  identified 
that they use vitamin B12 in a very differ-
ent way to how we currently understand it.’

He continues: ‘Detailing how this novel pro-
cess of detoxification works means that we 
are now in a position to look at replicating it. 
We hope that ultimately new ways of com-
bating some of the world’s biggest toxins 
can  now  be  developed  more  quickly  and 
efficiently.’

It has taken Prof. Leys 15 years of research 
to reach this breakthrough, made possible 

by a dedicated European Research Council 
(ERC)  grant  under  the  DEHALORES 
(Breathing chlorinated compounds: unravel-
ling  the  biochemistry  underpinning  
(de)halorespiration,  an  exciting  bacterial 
metabolism with significant bioremediation 
potential) project. The main difficulty has 
been  in  growing  enough  of  the  natural 
organisms  to  be  able  to  study  how  they 
detoxify the pollutants. The team at the MIB 
were  finally  able  to  obtain  key  proteins 
through genetic modification of other, faster 
growing organisms. They then used X-ray 
crystallography to study in 3D how halogen 
removal is achieved.

The  main  drive  behind  this  research  has 
been to look at ways of combating the doz-
ens of very harmful molecules that have 
been released into the environment. Many 
have been directly expelled by pollutants or 
from burning household waste. As the con-
centration of these molecules has increased 
over time, their presence poses more of a 
threat  to  the  environment  and  humanity. 
Some measures have already been taken to 
limit  the  production  of  pollutants,  for 

example PCBs being banned in the United 
States in the 1970s and worldwide in 2001.

Professor Leys says: ‘As well as combating 
the  toxicity  and  longevity  of  pollutants, 
we’re also confident that our findings can 
help to develop a better method for screen-
ing environmental or food samples.’

He continues: ‘I am pleased to have been 
supported by an ERC grant over the last five 
years. This long-term funding has been cru-
cial in reaching today’s results on under-
standing  pollutant  removal  by  certain 
microbes.’ He adds: ‘This discovery is a great 
example of how the ERC promotes excellent 
work in the field of biochemistry.’

DEHALORES

  Coordinated by the University  

of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-IDEAS-ERC.
 http://erc.europa.eu/erc-stories/

major-breakthrough-could-help-detoxify-
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IMPACT OF CONTAMINATED SEDIMENTS  
IN RIVERS
Environmental impacts of sediment and its associated contaminants on aquatic ecosystems have long 
been recognised by scientists, land managers and policymakers. Long-term storage of pollutants in 
sediments is set to become a source of contamination in the future, threatening EU water quality targets, 
however European research has helped towards curbing these negative impacts.

The SEDSRES (Quantifying sources and residence time of 

contaminated  sediment  in  human-impacted  river 
basins: an integrated approach) project developed an 
integrated  approach  for  measuring  sources  and  removal 
times of contaminated sediment in river basins affected by 
industrial, mining and agricultural pollution. 

Field sampling was carried out in the catchment of the River 
Tamar  in  south-west  England.  The  region  is  synonymous 
with agriculture and has a history of metal mining, making 
it ideal for investigating key sediment-associated pollutants. 
Laboratory analysis used sediment tracers to measure the 
transport, in suspension, of different sediment sources and 
associated contaminants stored in water channel deposits.

The removal time for contaminated sediments was esti-
mated in order to provide a time scale for river and catch-
ment recovery from sediment contamination. 

The Australian soil erosion model SedNet was used for the 
first  time  in  a  European  context.  This  provided  unique 
insight into the way river basins respond to land use and 
recent environmental change not otherwise possible using 
conventional monitoring alone. While considerable effort 
is being made to reduce the amount of ‘Diffuse water pol-
lution  from  agriculture’  (DWPA)  in  rural  lowland  catch-
ments, little attention has been given to the potential role 
of sediments stored in channels.

This knowledge gap could compromise management of 
the  catchment.  Therefore,  the  work  conducted  by  the 
SEDSRES  project  will  directly  contribute  to  improving 
catchment management decision-making. It will also help 
achieve the EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60//EC) 
goal calling for United Kingdom rivers to achieve a good 
ecological status by 2015.

SEDSRES

  Coordinated by the University of Plymouth  

in the United Kingdom.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/147694_en.html

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MAKING BUSINESS THE KEY TO SUSTAINABLE 
WATER MANAGEMENT
The EU-funded LIFE+ Investing in Water project has resulted in the adoption of conservation measures 
by businesses across Malta, saving an estimated 141 million litres in water each year.

While the history of Malta has 

been shaped by the sea, the 
future of this Mediterranean 
island may very well be determined by 
the  sustainability  of  its  freshwater 
supplies. The country is one of the dri-
est in the world, and what little natu-
ral  freshwater  exists  is  contained  in 
underground  aquifers  that  only  get 
replenished following rainfall.

This  is  why  the  EU-funded  LIFE+ 
Investing in Water project has been of 
such importance. The initiative, led by 
the  Malta  Business  Bureau  (MBB), 
involved  more  than  130  enterprises 
implementing  best  practice  in  water 
saving. It was recently announced as the 
runner-up in the ‘Supporting the devel-
opment of green markets and resource 
efficiency’  category  of  this  year’s 

European  Enterprises  Promotion 
Awards.

Above  all,  this  project  has  been  about 
ensuring the long-term sustainability of 
Malta. The fact of the matter is that the 
island’s natural resources simply cannot 
meet demand. Malta’s water consumption 
is conservatively estimated to be around 
65 million cubic metres per year, with only 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015

33

E N V I R O N M E N T   A N D   S O C I E T Y

23 million cubic metres of water available 
underground. Given this situation, effective 
and  efficient  water  management  must 
become an absolute priority.

“The project received the runner- 
up prize in the supporting 
resource efficiency category, 
which recognised policies and 
initiatives designed to support 
SME access to green markets.”

The project began in early 2012 by car-
rying  out  a  set  of  water  audits  with 
around 40 enterprises operating in vari-
ous  sectors.  These  audits  highlighted 
where water could be saved. The solu-
tions developed have since been pub-
lished  in  a  brochure,  which  has  been 
distributed  to  businesses  and  hotels 
across Malta and made freely available 
through the project’s website. Another 
key strength of this initiative has been 

its ability to offer enterprises individual 
consultations  on  identifying  possible 
water-saving solutions.

The  project,  which  was  completed  in 
March 2014, has resulted in the adop-
tion of water saving measures by busi-
nesses across the island, which will save 
an estimated 141 million litres of water 
every year. Enterprises have thus been 
able to reduce their operating costs and 
have a positive impact on the environ-
ment at the same time. MBB CEO Joe 
Tanti has credited Maltese enterprises 
for  driving  forward  environmental 
sustainability.

One  example  of  good  practice  can  be 
seen in APS Bank’s commitment to sus-
tainable  development  at  its  new  head 
office. The bank decided to invest in a 
holistic on-site water conservation pro-
gramme, reducing operational costs and 
helping  to  conserve  scarce  national 
resources. Similarly, the Hilton hotel has 
installed a sewage treatment plant.

The importance and applicability of the 
Investing in Water project were key fac-
tors  in  the  recognition  received  at  this 
year’s  European  Enterprises  Promotion 
Award. The project received the runner-up 
prize in the supporting resource efficiency 
category, which recognised policies and 
initiatives designed to support SME access 
to green markets and help improve their 
resource efficiency through, for example, 
green skills development and matchmak-
ing as well as funding.

The Investing in Water project received 
50 % co-financing under the EU’s LIFE+ 
funding programme, with the Maltese 
government the main co-financier.

LIFE+ Investing in Water

  Coordinated by the Malta Business 

Bureau in Malta.

 Funded under the LIFE+ programme.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/121776_en.html

Project website:  

http://www.investinginwater.org/

20TH CENTURY CLIMATE DATA GETS A FACELIFT
Long before global climate shifts became a concern, international researchers had been collecting data about 
Earth’s systems. Located around the world, and often available only in analogue format, the potential of these 
data, in terms of understanding today’s climate change process, had remained unexploited, until now.

There are plenty of 20th century records detailing atmos-

pheric, oceanic and terrestrial conditions over the past hun-
dred years. Such information has, as you might expect, 
proven useful to modern climate researchers and meteorolo-
gists. However, these data sets have often been incomplete, too 
varied to warrant comparison, and primarily derived from old-
fashioned methods and instruments. The usefulness of these 
data has been further constrained because most records were 
available only on paper.

In 2011, a consortium of nine EU-funded institutions undertook 
the ERA-CLIM (European re-analysis of global climate observa-
tions) project in order to unlock the potential of these historic data. 
ERA-CLIM’s primary objective was to recover, digitise and stand-
ardise climate-related data recorded over the past century.

In addition to locating and digitising remarkable quantities of 
observations, ERA-CLIM researchers standardised the resulting 
datasets, then analysed various metrics. By successfully com-
paring the data, researchers were able to fill in gaps in climate 
records which have persisted for much of the past century.

Finding  and  digitising  a  multi-faceted  data  set  spanning  
100 years of global climate observations is a noteworthy scien-
tific feat in itself.

The project also accomplished the parallel objective of making 
these  datasets  and  related  analysis  products  open-source. 
Available online to anyone interested, the ERA-CLIM datasets 
offer  unprecedented  detail  and  precision,  both  for  historic 
research and for modelling the future.

Judging by citation statistics, reanalysed data such as those 
offered by ERA-CLIM are of great interest to geoscientists. The 
project’s work is likely to be used by researchers, practitioners 

and  government  entities  focused  on  atmospheric  science, 
oceanography, climate science and other relevant fields includ-
ing energy, health and environmental science.

Building  on  the  ERA-CLIM  data,  the  consortium  has  already 
secured  funding  for  ERA-CLIM2.  This  second  phase  aims  to 
transform the already-valuable datasets into a readily accessi-
ble product/service system. Further funding will enable ERA-
CLIM partners to transform their efforts from research into a 
reliable service.

ERA-CLIM

  Coordinated by the European Centre for Medium-Range 

Forecasts in the United Kingdom.
 Funded under FP7-ENVIRONMENT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/90490_en.html 
Project website:  

http://www.era-clim.eu/

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E N V I R O N M E N T   A N D   S O C I E T Y

USING SOUND TO PICTURE THE WORLD  
IN A NEW WAY
Have you ever thought about using acoustics to collect data? The EAR-IT project has 
explored this possibility with various pioneering applications that impact on our daily 
lives. Monitoring traffic density in cities and supporting energy-saving devices in houses, 
for example, could well boost the development of smart cities and buildings.

batteries and most of them are installed 
in  lamp  posts  due  to  the  energy- 
sustainability  benefits  they  offer.  The 
small batteries recharge overnight as the 
electricity flows and therefore require vir-
tually no maintenance.

Energy-efficient, secure 
homes — a sound idea

EAR-IT  has  also  worked  on  the  use  of 
acoustic data in the home to save energy 
by assessing what is going on in a room 
and how many people are in it. ‘Windows 
can be made to open, curtains close and 
lights and heating turn on and off auto-
matically’,  explains  Prof.  Maló,  adding 
that users can choose their settings.

One very important application, in the 
light  of  Europe’s  ageing  population, 
would be the use of acoustic sensors to 
detect if someone is safe at home. They 
could  transmit  a  distress  message  if 
someone  falls,  for  example,  letting 
healthcare providers and family know if 
they need to intervene.

The need for privacy is not 
forgotten

With all the benefits the technology can 
bring, the project is well aware of the 
need to ensure no one’s privacy is vio-
lated. It has created a tool for develop-
ers  wishing  to  use  acoustic  sensors, 
which  is  available  from  the  project’s 
website.  This  assesses  the  situation, 
tells them of possible legal issues and 
proposes solutions to ensure our private 
lives remain private.

The project mobilised six European part-
ners and an SME from China. Supported 
with funding of EUR 1.45 million from the 
EU’s ICT 7th Framework Programme, the 
project  ran  for  two  years.  It  closed  in 
September 2014 and will be fully wrapped 
up by the end of December 2014.

EAR-IT

 Coordinated by Uninova in Portugal.
 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/149053_en.html

Project website: 

http://www.ear-it.eu/

  http://tinyurl.com/oxzgufj

The EAR-IT (Experimenting Acoustics 

in  Real  environments  using 
Innovative Test-beds) project has 
taken  intelligent  acoustic  technology 
developed in laboratories, and modified 
and adapted it to real-life environments. 
The  project,  involving  both  research 
institutes  and  market  advisors,  has 
focused on outdoor and indoor applica-
tions: traffic flow monitoring, and con-
trolling the use of energy indoors based 
on the number of people in a room.

Helping urban traffic flow 
more smoothly and safely

As  part  of  the  FIRE  initiative  (an  EU 
future  internet  concept),  the  city  of 
Santander in Spain had turned itself into 
a huge experimental research facility, 
SmartSantander. It is the test bed for 
EAR-IT’s  outdoor  applications:  traffic 
flow monitoring at a junction near the 
city’s  hospital  and  analysis  of  traffic 
density on two city streets.

Project  coordinator  Prof.  Pedro  Maló 
explains, ‘The complex junction was the 
scene of quite a few traffic incidents. 
Traffic comes in a variety of directions 
and  emergency  vehicles  are  trying  to 
get through. EAR-IT has set up sensors 
which  “hear”  sirens  and  then  trigger 
other sensors to track the vehicle. This 
data is then used to change traffic lights 
in the ambulance’s favour.’

The sensors can help get people to hos-
pital more safely and quickly, but they 
can also send a message to a smart-
phone app to tell you about a concert 
happening near you, or a street event 
you might enjoy. Once the sensor is in 
place, the data it collects can be used 
for a wide range of applications.

The project also tested the sensors’ ability 
to count cars on a road. To check the data 
collected was accurate, EAR-IT used two 
streets which had electromagnetic induc-
tion sensors under the street surface.

‘I  was  really  relieved  and  delighted 
when, after a year of work to adapt the 
technology  to  a  city  environment,  we 
found the acoustic and pressure sensors 
were giving us the same message,’ says 
Prof. Maló. While the street sensors can 
only  count  cars,  the  acoustic  sensors 
have a wide range of applications.

Since the sensors can identify the num-
ber of cars passing, even when they go 
by in large groups, the equipment can be 
used to check traffic density hot-spots. 
Added to that, the sensors can also be 
used in conjunction with pollution detec-
tors. This could be a vital tool in the EU’s 
bid to improve air quality for its urban 
population.

EAR-IT is notably taking advantage of the 
unique SmartSantander experimentation 
infrastructure  and  has  set  up  12 000 
devices all over the city. Devices run on 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015

35
I T   A N D   T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

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MEET POPPY,  
THE 3D-PRINTED ROBOT  
SET TO INSPIRE INNOVATION 
IN CLASSROOMS
Written in cooperation with Inria, France, European Research Council 
(ERC)  grantee  Dr  Pierre-Yves  Oudeyer,  is  today  presenting  the  
first  complete  open-source  3D-printed  humanoid  robot,  called 
‘Poppy’ (@poppy_project). Poppy is a robot that anybody can build — 
its body is 3D printed and its behaviour programmed by the user.

However, it is not just a tool for sci-

entists  and  computer  ‘geeks’  — 
the  team  of  developers  aims  to 
use  the  robot  as  part  of  vocational 
training in schools, giving students the 
opportunity to experiment with and pro-
gram  3D  printed  robots  with  various 
characteristics.

Poppy was developed in France by Inria’s 
Flowers team, which creates computer 
and robotic models as tools for under-
standing  developmental  processes  in 
humans.  Dr  Pierre-Yves  Oudeyer,  who 
holds an ERC Starting Grant in Computer 
Science and Informatics, comments: ‘The 
advances  offered  by  3D  printing  have 
already  revolutionised  design  and 

industry.  However,  only  very  little  has 
been done to explore the benefits of 3D 
printing and its interaction with computer 
science  in  classrooms.  With  our  Poppy 
platform,  we  are  now  offering  schools 
and teachers a suitable tool for cultivat-
ing the creativity of students studying in 
fields such as mechanics, computer sci-
ences, electronics and 3D printing.’

Build your own robot

Poppy’s  body  is  3D  printed  and  its 
behaviour determined with freely avail-
able  software,  meaning  users  can 
design  body  parts  quickly  and  easily, 
and  program  their  robot’s  behaviour 
themselves.  Dr  Oudeyer  provides 

clarification: ‘Both hardware and soft-
ware are open source. There is not one 
single  Poppy  humanoid  robot,  but  as 
many as there are users. This makes it 
very attractive as it has grown from a 
purely technological tool to a real social 
platform.’

Accessible  hardware  and  software 
make it easy for users to experiment 
with building their own robots for the 
first time. Poppy is now also compati-
ble with the Arduino platform, which 
allows  the  robot  to  interface  with 
other  electronic  devices,  including 
smart  clothing,  lights,  sensors  and 
musical instruments.

 
 
 
36

I T   A N D   T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

Do It Yourself in schools

Dr Oudeyer, who is a Research Director 
at  Inria,  plans  to  extend  use  of  this 
technology beyond research labs, to 
the  educational  sector  in  particular. 
Commenting on the Poppy initiative, 
EU  Commissioner  for  Research, 
Innovation  and  Science  Máire 
Geoghegan-Quinn said: ‘This is a great 
offshoot of an ERC project: a low-cost 
platform  that  could  foster  a  more 
interactive and inspiring learning envi-
ronment, allowing students to connect 
with research and design.’

The Poppy platform has come about 
thanks to the ERC-funded EXPLORERS 
(Exploring epigenetic robotics: raising 
intelligence  in  machines)  project,  in 
which Dr Oudeyer studies the mecha-
nisms  of  learning  and  development 
using robots. ‘Our hypothesis is that 
the body is an essential variable in the 
acquisition of motor and social skills 
in  humans.  To  study  this  theory,  we 
needed to create a platform allowing 
fast  experimentation  of  new  robot 
morphologies.  This  led  to  the  Poppy 
platform.’

Talking about the benefits of his ERC-
funded  research,  Dr  Oudeyer  high-
lights: ‘My ERC grant was essential in 
developing problem-solving and criti-
cal thinking ability in robotics. I would 
now  be  glad  if  students  who  need 
more education in computer science, 
coding and design, could train using 
Poppy and perhaps, later, be able to 
find a job in the robotics sector.’

Gathering across frontiers

Poppy will also allow users to share 
their ideas and results in a very open 
and collaborative way through a dedi-
cated web platform — gathering peo-
ple across the frontiers of school, art, 
science and industry.

Dr  Oudeyer’s  team  has  already  used 
Poppy in other fields, including the arts. 
In  an  ongoing  artist  residence  pro-
gramme entitled ‘Etres et Numériques’, 
the team worked with a dancer and a 
visual artist to explore the emotions and 
perceptions of body gestures and move-
ments using the robot. They expect to 
extend these experiments to other artis-
tic performances.

“Poppy’s body is 3D printed 
and its behaviour determined 
with freely available software, 
meaning users can design 
body parts quickly and easily, 
and program their robot’s 
behaviour themselves.”

In  his  recent  TEDxCannes  talk,  
Dr Oudeyer explained how open-source 
baby  robots  can  help  scientists,  and 
society at large, better understand the 
human mysteries of learning, curiosity 
and language acquisition.

EXPLORERS

 Coordinated by Inria in France.
 Funded under FP7-IDEAS-ERC.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/

article_en.cfm?artid=33016 

Project website:  

https://www.poppy-project.org/

  http://bit.ly/1BJNoSW

TACTILE DISPLAYS OF THE FUTURE  
TO FEEL INFORMATION

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We are more and more accustomed to interacting physically with technology — using touchscreens for 
example. We now routinely ‘thumb-flick’ through information on our phones or tablets rather than pressing 
keys. For Professor Sriram Subramanian and his team, this kind of technology needs to be pushed beyond 
a flat interaction with the screen under our fingers — instead we should be able to feel what we are 
currently touching. Only by doing so can we fully interact with the information we are accessing.

The concept underpinning this is known as haptic feed-

back:  the  ability  to  ‘feel’  and  manipulate  objects 
through our sense of touch. Professor Subramanian’s 
ERC project INTERACT (Interactive systems involving multi-
point surfaces, haptics and true 3D-displays) is a revolu-
tionary exploration of the future possibilities of touchable 
technology. The work in his lab is multi-faceted — encom-
passing  everything  from  touchless,  floating  displays  to 

sensory bubbles. Prof. Subramanian presented his research 
at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New 
Champions  in  Tianjin,  China  and  will  be  at  the  Genoa 
Science Festival (Italy) this month.

He is a veteran of demonstrations, having presented the practi-
cal possibilities of his haptic technology to a wide variety of 
audiences  from  fellow  scientists  to  potential  investors: 
‘Audiences  are  always  surprised  to  discover  that  we  have 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
 
 
 
something concrete to demonstrate to them — they are expect-
ing the technology to be purely theoretical. With our latest tech-
nology, SensaBubble, which uses sensory information delivered 
in airborne bubbles, there is an added novelty value — it has the 
entertainment factor as well as scientific significance. It has 
potential for both education and gaming applications.’

The science of touch

Behind all of these innovations lies a shared aspiration: to har-
ness the rich sensory possibilities of touch to improve our rela-
tionship with the technology we use every day. The ambition is 
that a sea change in technology will lead to interactions that 
come naturally to us without the need to learn to use the tech-
nology. This means for example that medical students could 
concentrate on key surgical techniques, rather than on the med-
ical device interface itself. Similarly, car drivers could focus on a 
safe and pleasurable driving experience rather than worrying 
about the dashboard controls. New display devices developed  
in this project will multiply the possibilities for applications of  
the technology: particularly in terms of teaching aids and in- 
vehicular interfaces.

Prof. Subramanian and his team are attempting to create dis-
plays we do not have to touch. We could feel and interact with 
these  displays  without  entering  into  contact  with  them:  the 
objective is to turn flat 2D information into ‘feelable’ 3D inter-
actions. The haptic technology they are developing is designed 
with multiple users in mind — each able to receive their own 
individualised ‘feelable’ feedback from the screen. This technol-
ogy is game changing not only because it will provide the user 
with customised feedback, but also because the information is 
generated with minimal interference: you can be as close as  
3 cm or as far away as 2 m, and you do not have to wear gloves 
or use special equipment in order to interact with the screen.

Interactive workstations 

One particular facet of this research is the ‘MisTable’ technol-
ogy. Prof. Subramanian explains: ‘The “MisTable” technology 
relies on creating a see-through and reach-through environ-
ment  in  which  the  user  can  interact  with  the  tabletop 

I T   A N D   T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

37

— reaching through the mist to proactively interact with both 
the tabletop and the space above it to receive tactile feed-
back as they learn.’

The idea of ‘SensaBubble’ came from a table tennis game: 
could information be projected in 3D rather than on a flat 
screen, and why not on a bubble? SensaBubble produces bub-
bles filled with fog delivering information to users in two 
ways:  visuals  are  projected  on  the  bubble  and  scent  is 
released in the air when the bubbles burst, creating a multi-
sensory experience.

The ERC funding has enabled the team not only to pursue 
their ambitious blue-sky research but also to attract talent. 
Prof. Subramanian’s international team is larger than initially 
anticipated because ‘we have had the freedom and flexibil-
ity to follow the science without external pressures,’ he says.

‘We try to combine good science with creativity and inspira-
tion in order to further enhance the research we do,’ notes 
Prof. Subramanian. The project has produced a spin-off com-
pany, Ultrahaptics, and the technology has been sold to sev-
eral  universities  in  order  to  further  develop  the  tools  for 
supporting learning. Ultrahaptics is enabling the technology 
to be scaled up and the team to explore further entrepreneur-
ial possibilities.

An ERC ‘Proof of Concept’ grant recently received will allow 
the team to improve the perceptual quality of the tactile 
feedback whilst making the system noise-free. The team 
will also use the ‘Proof of Concept’ grant to demonstrate 
the technology at trade shows in order to help grow the 
spin-off company.

INTERACT

  Coordinated by the University of Bristol  

in the United Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-IDEAS-ERC.
http://erc.europa.eu/erc-stories/

tactile-displays-future-feel-information

  http://bit.ly/1qjxzxv

IN-BUILT SECURITY FOR A SAFER  
WEB EXPERIENCE

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EU researchers have come up with an innovative security framework that 
gives both web users and developers greater protection against cyber attacks.

October  is  European  Cyber  Security 

Month  and  the  awareness  of  online 
security  in  the  EU  has  never  been 
higher. Cyber crime is estimated to cost the 
European economy tens of billions of euro 
every year, much of it from the theft of credit 
card data later sold on the black market.

One of the projects the EU has funded in 
the battle against cyber crime is called 
WEBSAND  (Server-driven  Outbound 
Web-application Sandboxing), which has 
come up with new tools to make sys-
tems harder for hackers to crack.

WEBSAND’s computer scientists have 
built solutions based on ‘sandboxes’, 
restrictive mechanisms that separate 
server systems and information flows 

(between servers and users’ browsers) 
from untrustworthy code.

Let’s fix the Web

‘The main success of WEBSAND has been 
to show developers how to make security 
a default part of the system, rather than 
an afterthought,’ explained coordinator 
Dr Martin Johns.

The Web has changed considerably since 
1990, when it was used as a static doc-
ument-delivery tool. It has now become a 
real-time,  multi-source  environment, 
pushing developers to add security on to 
systems rather than making it an integral 
part of the client-server model. WEBSAND 
was formed to try to change that.

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
email program, Facebook, Google or a cur-
rency  converter,  for  example  —  while 
transparently  guarding  them  from  Web 
attacks.

technology. They also belong to the non-profit 
organisation Open Web Application Security 
Project (OWASP) and are promoting their find-
ings through its user groups and meetings.

38

I T   A N D   T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

‘We set a deliberately ambitious goal at the 
start of the project. We thought: “Let’s try to 
fix the Web”. And we have succeeded to 
some degree. We have built a lot of solu-
tions directly on the server side that enforce 
the security we want for certain areas.’

“At SAP and Siemens, we 
use WEBSAND technology 
to make our own products 
more secure.”

The aim was to put the developer in the 
driver’s  seat,  by  taking  a  server-driven 
approach to security and building a mod-
ular,  easy-to-use  framework  allowing 
developers  even  with  limited  security 
backgrounds  to  build  applications  that 
are secure by default.

WEBSAND’s scientists have also explored 
and come up with solutions to some of the 
Web’s fundamental ongoing problems.

They have designed a lightweight addition 
to the client side of browsers that prevents 
DNS  Rebinding  attacks,  a  common  and 
reoccurring method of extracting informa-
tion from a server without the host’s knowl-
edge.  A  slight  expansion  of  the  server’s 
‘same origin policy’ puts pay to this risk.

And they have also come up with a differ-
ent  way  of  authenticating  passwords  by 
implementing  a  new  challenge-and- 
response  system  initiated  by  the  server 
instead of the browser.

The  other  thing  WEBSAND  did  was  to 
develop a set of browser extensions for 
end users. These include CSFIRE , which is 
‘invisible’ to users in that it tries not to 
interfere  with  the  functionality  of  the 
applications they are using — be that an 

Now the core partners in the project — German 
companies SAP and Siemens, and the universi-
ties  of  Leuven  in  Belgium  and  Chalmers  in 
Sweden — are working with the international 
internet standards bodies, W3C and IETF, to per-
suade browser companies to adopt WEBSAND 

‘At SAP and Siemens, we use WEBSAND 
technology to make our own products more 
secure. But we would also directly benefit 
from a Web that is secure by default,’ said 
Dr Johns. ‘Security is very costly and a safer 
Web would also allow companies to devote 
more resources to functionality.’

WEBSAND, which ran from October 2010 
to  April  2014,  received  FP7  funding  of  
EUR 3.2 million and involved five partners 
in three countries.

WEBSAND

 Coordinated by SAP in Germany.
 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/149101_en.html

Project website:  

https://www.websand.eu/

  http://bit.ly/11xZui5

P R O J E C T   R E Q U E S T
TOWARDS INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS  
FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
Biomedical  research  has  a  tremendous  impact  on 
advances in disciplines such as biochemistry, anatomy, 
biology, pathology and genetics. But like all theoretical 
work, its performance largely depends on the ease of 
access  to  peer  articles  and  data.  Conscious  of  the 
problems  faced  by  experts  in  the  field,  the  BIOASQ 
team  is  helping  shape  the  future  of  biomedical 
information retrieval systems.

Those who completed their studies with a dissertation or a 

thesis know it: the research part is sometimes reminiscent 
of looking for a needle in a haystack, with tools that do not 
always work how you would expect them to. Now imagine you 
are  a  biomedical  expert  looking  for  specific  articles  or  data 
spread across hundreds of sources and databases, all working 
differently, on a daily basis: such an experience can turn into a 
real headache, especially when each minute counts.

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The EU-backed BIOASQ (A challenge on large-scale biomedi-
cal semantic indexing and question answering) project was set 
up with a view to looking into these problems and encourag-
ing the development of better information retrieval solutions. 
Over the course of two years, various ‘challenges’ — which 
saw biomedical experts testing and providing feedback on var-
ious systems — were set up in a bid to ‘bring us closer to the 
vision of machines that can answer questions from biomedi-
cal professionals and researchers’. Participants included both 
industrial  and  academic  institutions,  with  the  most  recent 
challenge welcoming registrations from as many as 216 users 
and 142 systems. A total of 28 teams (with 95 systems) from 
Europe, America and Asia eventually submitted their results. 

In fact, the challenges were so successful that they exceeded 
the project team’s expectations. 

‘The main surprise for me is that we were able to achieve 
a significant impact in a research field, without doing the 
research ourselves,’ explains BIOASQ project coordinator 
George  Paliouras,  researcher  from  the  IIT  at  the  NCSR 
Demokritos in Athens.

A win-win experience 

The project rationale is based on mutual benefits. On one 
hand, biomedical experts need better systems to work with, 
and they are willing to help developers create solutions that 
meet their specific needs. The problem is well summarised 

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
I T   A N D   T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

39

by an expert interviewed towards the end of the project: ‘As 
I’m growing older, I spend more time in front of the computer 
but I learn less. The complexity has increased, the variety has 
increased and my time has been reduced.’ There is a general 
consensus among researchers that more natural and intel-
ligent  methods  of  requesting  information  are  needed  in 
order to meet these challenges.

“In every step that we take, 
biomedical experts benefit 
from faster access to more 
accurate information.”

‘For articles, all experts use MEDLINE and PubMed, while a few of 
them also look at more general sources, such as Google Scholar, 
SCOPUS and even Wikipedia,’ says George Paliouras. ‘There, they are 
faced  with  high  vol-
umes  of  collected 
material and unnatural 
search  methods. 
Sometimes results that 
cannot  make  it  to  a 
published article — for 
example a drug trial that stopped due to an adverse effect — may 
be particularly interesting but it is nowhere to be found.’ Searching 
for other types of data is no walk in the park either, as the relevant 
systems often require proper training. Experts therefore tend to 
focus on sources that they already know how to use, potentially 
ignoring others that may be more relevant. 

‘Efforts to link some of these databases and provide a uniform 
way to access them are particularly important, and BIOASQ sup-
ports solutions such as Linked Life Data that are aiming to do 
just that,’ Paliouras explains.

The main incentive for industry, on the other hand, was the prom-
ise to boost product improvement based on concrete user feed-
back. ‘Computer scientists are eager to help achieve progress in 
other domains, particularly in biomedical research. There are very 
strong research groups around the world, working hard to improve 
information access in the field. We were particularly glad to see 
many of them participate in BIOASQ,’ Paliouras says. And this par-
ticipation is already proving very fruitful: the performance of the 
National Library of Medicine’s ‘Medical text indexer’ (MTI), for exam-
ple, was improved by 4.5 % thanks to the first BIOASQ challenge. 
While  this  might  sound  like  marginal  progress  to  the  general 

public, Paliouras stresses that the impact on public health can be 
very significant. ‘That’s what makes it worth our effort,’ he says.

Towards more intelligent systems

Thanks  to  the  project’s  results,  George  Paliouras  and  his 
team now have a very clear idea of what the ideal informa-
tion retrieval system would look like. It should first be able 
to  understand  what  kind  of  information  the  expert  needs 
based on a request in natural language, before converting this 
request into a machine-readable format and matching it to the 
information and data available across various sources. ‘In order 
to  achieve  this,  integration  of  information  from  different 
sources and large-scale semantic indexing, far beyond what can 
be achieved by human curation, is needed. There is a lot more 
work to be done before we achieve this vision, but in every step 
that we take, biomedical experts benefit from faster access to 
more accurate information,’ Paliouras explains. 

In addition to the challenges and an award system for the win-
ners, BIOASQ provides an open-source infrastructure that is 
always available and open to all. It includes data for training 
and testing systems, as well as evaluation services and the 
possibility for anyone to set up new challenges — be it for bio-
medicine or any other interesting field.

Although the project ended in September, George Paliouras 
says the BIOASQ venture will continue. ‘I believe that BIOASQ 
will be pushing the boundaries of research in biomedical infor-
mation access for several years to come,’ he concludes. ‘The 
attention that BIOASQ has attracted allowed us to seek exter-
nal  sponsorship,  a  process  that  is  currently  in  progress. 
Furthermore, the lessons learned in BIOASQ have helped us 
shape ideas about how we could assist biomedical research-
ers in finding answers to complicated questions. We are cur-
rently forming a research agenda on the basis of these ideas.’

BIOASQ

  Coordinated by the National Centre for Scientific Research 

‘Demokritos’ in Greece.
 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/105774_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.bioasq.org/

TV EVOLUTION LEAVES NO ONE BEHIND
European broadcasters and technology companies have teamed up to set the trend for future TV services. Thanks to 
EU funding under the HBB-NEXT project, they were able to further the integration of TV and internet technologies.

Television companies realise they can 

really make use of the internet now 
that  it’s  fast  and  benefits  from 
broad bandwidth and geographical reach. 
They are beginning to air services not just 
on TVs, but also simultaneously on PCs, 
tablets  and  smartphones  —  however 
such integration is often limited.

Thanks to technology known as ‘Hybrid 
broadcast  and  broadband  TV’  (HbbTV), 
broadcasters can offer additional internet 
services directly to the TV set. Demand for 
broadcast and broadband integration is 
growing fast, and to this day HbbTV is the 
only open standard to support it. This led 
the European Commission to fund a pro-
ject, HBB-NEXT (Next-Generation Hybrid 

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research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
40

I T   A N D   T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

Broadcast Broadband), to drive the next 
generation of this technology. The project 
partners have come up with many novel 
solutions,  from  synchronising  video 
across consumer devices via the cloud to 
controlling TVs using face and gesture 
recognition technology along with inno-
vative accessibility solutions.

Synchronising video across 
smart devices

Thanks to the HbbTV standard, a plethora 
of new services are now appearing across 
devices.  These  include  complementary 
content (for anything from elections to 
sports  coverage),  home  shopping  and 
links to advertisers’ web pages, catch-up 
TV and educational courses.

‘When  we  started  to  prepare  the  HBB-
NEXT project, the HbbTV 1.0 standard had 
just  come  in,’  explained  coordinator 
Bettina  Heidkamp,  of  German  public 
broadcaster RBB, part of the ARD.

‘We identified several missing pieces in 
the user experience for which we and our 
partners  designed  and  developed  solu-
tions. These include the personalisation 
and recommendation of content for users, 
notably in a multi-user environment, and 
the  synchronisation  of  broadband  with 
content  broadcast  onto  one  or  more 
screens.’

HBB-NEXT came up with novel middle-
ware that uses the cloud where a con-
sumer  device  does  not  have  the 

capability, e.g. to synchronise video. This 
is  no  small  achievement,  since  even  a 
delay of 40 milliseconds between devices 
is noticed by users. ‘With HBB-NEXT, we 
contributed four features that will be sup-
ported in the new HbbTV 2.0 standard 
hopefully to be released later this year,’ 
said  HBB-NEXT  technical  coordinator 
Michael Probst, of IRT, the German broad-
casting technology institute.

HbbTV allows broadcasters to add infor-
mation into their signal, enabling a TV to 
load apps retrieving related content from 
the internet and displaying it on your TV. 
And HBB-NEXT came up with a range of 
novel applications for editors’ considera-
tion, including instant voting (first aired on 
a  popular  TV  science  programme  in 
Germany). Others, benefiting users, permit 
customisation of subtitles, sign language 
for  the  hearing-impaired,  smartphone 
audio for the blind or partially sighted, and 
services for minority languages — all of 
them sourced via the internet.

Television recognises viewer

The project partners also developed an 
app that makes recommendations to indi-
viduals and groups of viewers about what 
they should watch, combining it with face, 
voice and gesture recognition technology. 
When a viewer, whose profile has already 
been loaded into the TV, walks into the 
room and says ‘Hello’, the television rec-
ognises the person and replies by suggest-
ing programmes he or she might like to 

see. A second person might then come in 
and  both  will  receive  their  ‘group’ 
recommendations.

‘The face and gesture recognition achieved 
in the project goes beyond what has been 
possible before,’ said an enthused Bettina. 
‘It is really innovative and people will enjoy 
it. It is the future, I think!’

‘As for the broadcast apps, we are now 
creating an HbbTV Toolbox based on HBB-
NEXT so that very soon editors will be cre-
ating them on a day-to-day basis so that 
everyone can personalise and enrich the 
television they are watching,’ she added.

HBB-NEXT involved representatives of 
the various sectors affected economi-
cally by the advent of hybrid TV, from 
broadcasters and application develop-
ers (many of whom are SMEs), to TV 
and consumer electronics manufactur-
ers, and telecoms companies.

The  HBB-NEXT  project  involved  nine 
partners  from  five  countries  and  ran 
from October 2011 to March 2014. It 
received EUR 2.98 million from FP7.

HBB-NEXT

 Coordinated by RBB in Germany.
 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/149087_en.html 

Project website:  

http://www.hbb-next.eu/

  http://bit.ly/1BJO2Qp

ROBOTS COMING TO THE AID OF HUMANS 
CAUGHT UP IN DISASTER ZONES
The FP7-funded ICARUS project is developing unmanned search and rescue devices to get people trapped in life 
and death situations to safety more quickly.

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Following the high death tolls in the wake of the Haitian and 

Japanese  earthquakes,  the  European  Commission  has 
committed itself to funding projects to bring more robotic 
‘search and rescue’ (SAR) technology from the lab to the field.

One  such  project  is  ICARUS  (Integrated  Components  for 
Assisted Rescue and Unmanned Search operations), which 
aims to help bridge the gap between the discoveries being 
made  within  the  research  community  and  practical, 

on-the-ground application, by developing a tool-box of inte-
grated components for unmanned devices.

Such devices, used alongside human intervention, can be vital 
tools in detecting, locating and rescuing people caught up in nat-
ural disasters such as earthquakes or incidents such as col-
lapsed buildings and mines as well as transport and industrial 
accidents. Rescuing people in such conditions can be very risky 
for the emergency crew members first on the scene. Unmanned 
devices can help prevent further accidents while working effi-
ciently in challenging conditions.

In  September  2014,  ICARUS  tested  unmanned  aerial  and 
ground vehicles and sensors in Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium. 
The project successfully ran field trials on devices such as the 
Skybotix Hexacopter, designed to search for victims indoors, 
and the Multicopter which can search outside, both using 3D 
reconstruction to locate victims. To control the vehicles, the 
project also tested a Command, Control and Intelligence plat-
form and a communications system connecting all the various 
platforms.

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
The consortium feels the tests demonstrated that although a lot 
remains to be done, the components are not only functioning 
well, but are robust enough to be deployed in the field.

ICARUS devices have already been used in the aftermath of the worst 
natural disaster Bosnia-Herzegovina has faced in the last century. An 
unmanned aerial vehicle, the Microdrone MD4-1000 quadrotor, was 
used to assess the damage caused by the 2014 floods and to detect 
the possible location of landmines displaced by resulting landslides.

To ensure they are meeting the needs of the emergency services 
and other users of their technology, ICARUS is announcing an 
early adopter programme. The project is selling the new Visual 
Inertial sensor, which can be used in unmanned vehicles and 
robotics, for EUR 3 900. The price is discounted to encourage 
research teams around the world to use it and provide their 

I T   A N D   T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

41

feedback to the project, thereby turning the sensor from some-
thing that is market-ready into a product that is user-friendly.

The ICARUS project, coordinated in Belgium, involves nine coun-
tries and 24 partners from the research, business and non-profit 
communities.  Running  since  February  2012  and  ending  in 
January 2016, it has a total budget of just over EUR 17 million, 
of which EUR 12.6 million comes from the EU.

ICARUS

 Coordinated by the Royal Military School in Belgium.
 Funded under FP7-SECURITY.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/121874_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.fp7-icarus.eu/

  http://bit.ly/1xLkBbE

ROBOTIC SOLUTIONS INSPIRED BY PLANTS
EU-funded researchers are demonstrating revolutionary robotic techniques inspired by plants, featuring a 3D-printed 
‘trunk’, ‘leaves’ that sense the environment and ‘roots’ that grow and change direction.

Humans naturally understand problems 

and solutions from an animal’s perspec-
tive, tending to see plants as passive 
organisms that don’t ‘do’ much of anything, 
but plants do move, and they sense, and they 
do so in extremely efficient ways.

Barbara Mazzolai of the Istituto Italiano di 
Tecnologia  (IIT)  coordinates  the  FP7 
PLANTOID  (Innovative  Robotic  Artefacts 
Inspired by Plant Roots for Soil Monitoring) 
project, funded via the ‘Future and emerg-
ing technologies’ (FET) scheme. She says 
humans can learn a lot from plants. ‘Our 
aim is to design, prototype and validate a 
new generation of ICT hardware and soft-
ware technologies inspired by plants.’ And 
she  sees  potential  applications  for  such 
technologies in agriculture, medicine and 
even space exploration.

The PLANTOID prototype was designed with 
two functional roots: one root demonstrates 
bending capabilities, responding to input from 
the sensors at the tip of the root. This way the 
root is bending away from a stumbling block 
or aggressive or toxic products. A second root 
demonstrates artificial growth. ‘Layers of new 
material are deposited near the tip of the root 
to produce a motive force, penetrating the 
soil,’ Mazzolai explains. Practically, the robot 

grows by building its own structure and pen-
etrates the soil.

The roots are connected to a trunk housing 
a micro-computer. The trunk itself is made 
of plastic and was produced using a 3D 
printer. Finally, just like natural leaves, the 
‘leaves’ of the PLANTOID robot include sen-
sors that can assess environmental condi-
tions,  including  temperature,  humidity, 
gravity, touch and chemical factors.

Unique design exploiting 
unique plant properties

Backed by EUR 1.6 million of EU funding, 
the PLANTOID project is the first to design 
and  develop  robotic  solutions  based  on 
plant models. The prototype is not meant 
to serve a particular application as such, 
but  represents  a  demonstration  of  new 
robotic techniques. However, Mazzolai says 
real-life  applications  in  the  future  could 
include detection and assessment of pol-
lutant concentrations, e.g. heavy metals or 
nutrients in the environment, as well as 
mapping and monitoring of conditions in 
terrestrial soils.

Indeed, plant-like robots could be uniquely 
suited to space exploration, able to dig and 

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implant themselves on alien worlds, follow-
ing sensory leads while adapting to poten-
tially harsh external conditions.

Other promising applications could include 
flexible endoscopic robots for delicate sur-
gical applications in the medical field, while 
larger plant-like robots could be of use in 
search and rescue operations, for example 
after a natural disaster.

‘Plants are very efficient in terms of their 
energy consumption during motion,’ says 
Mazzolai,  ‘and  this  suggests  many 
approaches that are muscle-free and thus 
not necessarily animal-like for the world of 
robotics.’ Indeed, the unique characteristics 
of plants could become a source of inspira-
tion for new companies that can produce 
smart and useful plant-like robotic devices.

PLANTOID researchers are set to complete 
the three-year project in April 2015. They 
are now working to integrate more func-
tions into a single root, to both penetrate 
and steer in the soil. Other interesting top-
ics include plant structures that can exploit 
external environmental energy.

And  they  are  asking  whether  plants  are 
capable of ‘intelligent’ behaviour, i.e. if the 
robot’s growth can change over time, based 
on previous experience. This could lead to 
the development of even ‘smarter’ devices 
with the ability to sense, but also to follow 
stimuli and take decisions.

PLANTOID

  Coordinated by the Italian Institute  

of Technology in Italy.
 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/148260_en.html 

Project website:  

http://www.plantoidproject.eu/

  http://bit.ly/1EYNunO

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
42

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015

I N D U S T R I A L   T E C H N O L O G I E S

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I N D U S T R I A L   T E C H N O L O G I E S

SMART OPERATION  
OF EQUIPMENT
A group of researchers in Europe has recently been focusing on 
reducing energy consumption by 25 % in the manufacturing industry. 
They believe that this should be possible if the existing infrastructure 
is optimised in terms of processes and machinery, and they are 
determined to find a way.

New industrial processes and new 

ways  of  operating  existing  pro-
cesses  seem  to  be  the  global 
mantra  for  higher  energy  efficiency 
and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. 
In particular, process control and opera-
tion, rotating machinery and electrical 
equipment  are  becoming  radically 
more integrated. This offers new oppor-
tunities  for  energy  saving  through  
better equipment management, auto-
mation and optimisation.

However,  there  is  a  need  for  further 
training and research work to address 
current technology gaps. In response to 
this, scientists initiated the EU-funded 
project  ENERGY-SMARTOPS  (Energy 
savings from smart operation of elec-
trical, process and mechanical equip-
ment) to train a cohort of early-stage 
engineering researchers to investigate 
this area.

Through  tailor-made  programmes, 
researchers  will  gain  experience  and 

in-depth training in research projects. 
They will also be offered short courses 
on  technical  topics  and  training  on 
complementary skills, and take part in 
workshops and symposia.

Researchers are working on generating 
and  testing  creative  ideas  for  energy 
savings in large-scale industrial sites 
through  case  studies.  The  focus  is 
placed on developing scalable monitor-
ing systems that will integrate multiple 
measurements  from  the  process, 
mechanical and electrical subsystems. 
New algorithms for better overall per-
formance and control will be devised 
through 
integrated  automation. 
Optimisation will provide energy sav-
ings with better integration of opera-
tions  across  the  process,  mechanical 
and electrical interfaces.

Researchers  have  already  modelled 
electromechanical  systems  and  used 
electrical  drives  for  diagnosing 

mechanical-electrical interactions. On 
top  of  that,  they  developed  a  model 
methodology for turbomachinery pro-
cesses and a platform for online moni-
toring, diagnosis and optimisation. The 
interconnections  between  process, 
mechanical  and  electrical  equipment 
have been designed, and maintenance 
has been planned based on equipment 
performance. 

ENERGY-SMARTOPS  is  in  line  with  the 
European strategy for reducing energy 
consumption by at least 20 % by 2020.

ENERGY-SMARTOPS

  Coordinated by the Imperial College 
of Science, Technology and Medicine  
in the United Kingdom.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/144773_en.html 

 Project website:  

http://www.energy-smartops.eu

 
 
I N D U S T R I A L   T E C H N O L O G I E S

43

ENGINEERING-BASED FOOD PROCESS CONTROL
Key food processing procedures have been the focus of attention for a team of EU scientists who have 
developed novel smart and integrated control to optimise plant operations. The benefits are wide-ranging 
and include improved product quality and lower energy and water consumption.

An increasingly savvy food consumer base is driving 

the  food  processing  industry  towards  healthy  new 
products  and  environmentally-friendly  preparation 
methods.  The  EU-funded  project  CAFÉ  (Computer-aided 
food processes for control engineering) developed smart 
control for four common processes: bioconversion, separa-
tion, preservation and structuring.

CAFÉ’s success stems from exploiting sensing devices and tech-
nology that analyses processes, in combination with simulations 
and models. Case studies from wine making, microfiltration of 
food beverages, freeze-drying of lactic acid bacteria and ice 
cream crystallisation demonstrated the benefits.

Smart control configurations for an entire food plant are 
used to efficiently adapt several different production lines, 
offering greater flexibility when it comes to dealing with 
demand. Food processing is a diverse and complex busi-
ness,  yet  process  monitoring  typically  evaluates  simple 
parameters  such  as  temperature  and  pressure.  These 
parameters are not directly related to product quality or to 
energy and water consumption.

Incorporating the ability to monitor and control physico-
chemical food properties, such as nutrient content, colour, 
viscosity or microbiological characteristics associated with 
food safety, provides ample opportunity to improve product 
quality  and  diversity.  More  efficient  use  of  information 
through advanced data acquisition, analysis and prognosis 
tools enables accurate estimations of as yet unmeasured 
plant states and predictions of future scenarios.

CAFÉ delivered novel technology for sensing and controlling 
four  common  food  processing  procedures  and  optimising 

general plant operations in real time for better product quality 
and  safety.  For  a  variety  of  food  processing  sectors,  it  is 
expected to bring major benefits, including decreased operat-
ing costs and greater market adaptability and penetration.

CAFÉ

 Coordinated by UCL in Belgium.
 Funded under FP7-KBBE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/86577_en.html 
Project website:  

http://www.cafe-project.org/

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FRESH APPROACH TO WATER-BASED  
WOOD COATINGS
Researchers in Europe have successfully developed novel water-based wood coatings, as an environment-
friendly replacement for organic solvent-based coatings such as varnish.

Recent EU legislation has put a limit on 

the  use  of  volatile  organic  com-
pounds, such as those found in con-
ventional  varnishes.  However,  current 
water-based wood coatings take longer to 
dry, have a less attractive finish and do not 
protect wood effectively in comparison to 
solvent-based coatings.

“The polymers were all 
synthesised from plant sources 
to reduce the environmental 
impact of the final product.”

The EU-funded ECOVARN (Development 
of  a  wearable,  functional,  regulation- 
compliant water-borne wood coating) pro-
ject was set up to address this perceived 

need in the furniture industry. Its approach 
was  to  research  new  compounds,  test 
them and scale the best ones up to indus-
trial production levels.

Three different families of polymers were 
investigated.  The  polymers  were  all  
synthesised from plant sources to reduce 
the  environmental  impact  of  the  final 
product.

Project researchers found ways to attach 
various functional chemical groups, such 
as acrylates and fluoro-polymers, to the 
polymer backbone structure to improve 
the coating’s physical properties. The pro-
duction methods for the most promising 
coatings were then successfully tested at 
industrial scale, and showed good physical 
and mechanical properties.

Overall, ECOVARN produced and patented 
several new coatings that can compete 
with  conventional  varnishes.  A  market 
strategy was developed and an economic 
analysis conducted, with the result that 
products will be commercially available 
within the next few years.

ECOVARN

 Coordinated by Inspiralia in Spain.
 Funded under FP7-SME.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/92103_en.html

Project website:  

http://www.inspiralia.com/proyecto.
php?id_proyectos=10

  http://bit.ly/1xTAq0Y

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
44

I N D U S T R I A L   T E C H N O L O G I E S

NEW TOOL TO EXPOSE 
WELDING DEFECTS
The safety of car repairs has been enhanced following 
the development of an easy-to-use, affordable and non-
destructive testing tool using ultrasound. The results of 
this EU-funded project mean that flaws in spot welds in 
vehicles are now much easier to detect.

When considering the thousands of spot welds present in 

any car, it is inevitable that some will need to be reworked 
if a vehicle goes in for a repair.

It is clearly not possible to destructively test repair welds. Matching 
test samples could be produced to provide some reassurance, how-
ever there is currently no suitable method available to ensure that 
the  welds  will  hold  once  vehicles  get  back  on  the  road.  The 
EU-funded project SPOTTRACK (Development of an automated 
spot  weld  inspection  device  for  safe  vehicle  repair)  set  out  to 
address this need and developed such a device.

With a consortium of nine partners, the project first focused on 
assessing the market needs and then designed the device using 
a numerical model. The ultimate aim was to develop a lightweight 
and low-cost device as well as a probe that can access difficult 
regions and be used by a non-expert. Project partners pioneered 
the finite element modelling methods for ultrasound prediction.

The models make it possible to study a large set of samples rel-
atively inexpensively and provide more detailed insight. The mod-
elling results provide visualisation of the sound field throughout 
the entire area at any point in time during the weld test.

This provides a greater understanding of the variables’ effects on 
the reliability of test results. For better inspection results, SPOTTRACK 
uses an array probe and a multiplexer with a single pulser-receiver. 

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The multiplexer allows signals to be collected, eliminating the need 
for expensive phased-array equipment.

The project team also created a set of samples to ensure that the 
SPOTTRACK could reliably determine the quality of spot welds. 
Samples included good welds and a range of defective welds.

The team used the data from these tests to develop novel signal 
processing algorithms for the inspection system. Novel algorithms 
that automatically identify the main reflections (from the backwall 
of the weld), intermediate reflections (in the case of an undersized 
weld or defects in the weld) and certain parameters of the reflec-
tions such as arrival time and amplitude, were developed.

Using this information, the team could determine the thickness 
and the approximate size of the weld and decide whether the 
weld was defect-free or not. Two prototype devices were devel-
oped and field trials were conducted on cars being repaired.

With a false call rate under 1 %, the SPOTTRACK device guaran-
tees safe vehicle repairs.

SPOTTRACK

 Coordinated by Vermon in France.
 Funded under FP7-SME.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/148937_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.spottrack.eu/

ECO-FRIENDLY HELICOPTER DOOR MANUFACTURE
Producing helicopter components from laminated composites is currently a highly energy-intensive process. Novel laser-
assisted processing eliminates the need for the energy-hungry autoclave, providing numerous other benefits as well.

High-performance composites for heli-

copter doors provide reduced weight, 
high  strength  and  recyclability. 
However, conventional processing of thermo-
set  composites  requires  a  highly  energy-
intensive  autoclave  step  to  cure  the 
fibre-reinforced  pre-impregnated  sheets 
(prepregs) that have previously been manu-
ally aligned. 

Scientists  in  the  EU-backed  project 
DEFCODOOR  (Development  of  an 
Ecological  friendly  final  consolidation 
step  using  Thermoplastic  Fibre 
Placement for a helicopter door) devel-
oped  technology  to  make  helicopter 
door manufacturing more sustainable. It 
is  based  on  using  thermoplastics  and 
laser-assisted  ‘Thermoplastic  fibre 
placement’ (TFP).

TFP enables the rapid deposition and in 
situ consolidation of thermoplastic unidi-
rectional  tape,  eliminating  the  need  for 
various joining steps. Eliminating the auto-
clave  also  decreases  production  time. 

Thermoplastics offer several advantages 
compared to thermosets and are gaining 
ground rapidly. They do not require the 
autoclave for curing to form cross-links.

As they are not irreversibly formed, they 
can be melted and reused, making them 
highly recyclable.

The process used to manufacture them is 
also  more  eco-friendly  than  thermosets, 
which require large amounts of energy and 
produce noxious chemicals. The team devel-
oped  technology  to  produce  structures  
consisting of skin and stiffener (to prevent 
buckling) for helicopter components.

Customised stiffener laminates with local 
reinforcements  were  produced  by  laser-
assisted TFP and thermoformed into a hat 
profile to be used in helicopter doors. These 
were joined in situ to skin laminates again 
via the laser technology.

Scientists compared the properties of in 
situ  consolidated  laminated  specimens 
with  conventional  post-consolidated 

specimens, providing important insight into 
processing. DEFCODOOR demonstrated the 
many benefits of laser-assisted TFP and 
subsequent thermoforming for producing 
structural components for helicopters from 
eco-friendly thermoplastics.

Not  only  does  the  process  decrease 
energy consumption and scrap, but the 
scrap can be reused to produce smaller 
components.

Eliminating bonding processes and materi-
als thanks to in situ consolidation can also 
reduce assembly costs by about 40 %.

With  continued  optimisation  of  product 
quality,  technology  could  make  a  major 
impact  on  the  competitive  position  and 
sustainability of the helicopter industry.

DEFCODOOR

 Coordinated by TUM in Germany.
 Funder under FP7-JTI.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/148848_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015

45

S P A C E

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S P A C E

PREVENTING  
FATAL ASTEROID 
COLLISIONS  
WITH THE EARTH
More  than  10 000  asteroids  and  comets  are 
within striking distance of the Earth. An asteroid 
as small as 50 metres wide that penetrates the 
atmosphere could damage an entire city or part 
of a country. To prevent such a potential disaster, 
an EU-funded project, NEOSHIELD, is studying 
ways to deflect an incoming asteroid or destroy 
it before it has a chance to collide with the Earth.

‘We have known for a long time 

that  asteroids  could  hit  the 
Earth,  but  until  recently  no 
one  knew  how  many  were  out  there. 
Now,  we  are  detecting  hundreds  of 
such  objects  every  year,’  says  Alan 
Harris,  coordinator  of  the  EU-funded 
project NEOSHIELD (A Global Approach 
to  Near-Earth  Object  Impact  Threat 
Mitigation) and senior scientist at the 
German  Aerospace  Centre  (DLR)  in 
Berlin.

Harris is leading a team of researchers 
from  European  countries  that  have 
space  programmes,  as  well  as  from 
Russia  and  the  United  States,  to 
develop plans for using spacecraft to 
deflect asteroids from a possible colli-
sion course with the Earth.

The NEOSHIELD team is studying three 
techniques: slamming a spacecraft into 
the object to change its path (‘kinetic 
impactor’); using the gravitational pull 

between a spacecraft and the object to 
alter its course (‘gravity tractor’); and 
using an explosion to nudge or destroy 
the object (‘blast-deflection’).

Fortunately,  using  observations  and 
projections, astronomers would be able 
to know decades in advance if a large 
asteroid were to pose a threat. ‘In such 
a  case,’  explains  Harris,  ‘scientists 
would begin working perhaps 15 years 
or more in advance to prepare a mis-
sion to deflect the object.’

In addition to designing the plans for a 
potential mission, the NEOSHIELD team 
is also developing a roadmap for the 
sort  of  international  collaboration 
needed to realise such an endeavour. ‘A 
lot of effort has to go into this. There is 
a need for broad international agree-
ments, and at least a handful of major 
space-faring countries [countries that 
have  space  programmes]  should  be 
involved in the scientific and technical 

work,’ says Harris. ‘There would be a lot 
of questions: Exactly who is going to do 
this and how?’ he adds.

Even though not part of the NEOSHIELD 
project’s tasks, ‘a test mission to dem-
onstrate a deflection technique on an 
asteroid  that  is  not  threatening  the 
Earth should be seriously considered,’ 
says Harris. ‘This could be envisaged as 
a  collaborative  effort  including  the 
European Space Agency and the United 
States National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA),’ he concludes.

Asteroids and comets have frequently 
hit the Earth throughout its history — 
including the sizeable object that struck 
present-day  Mexico  66  million  years 
ago  and  which  many  experts  believe 
contributed  to  the  extinction  of  the 
dinosaurs.  More 
recently,  on  
15 February 2013, a meteor exploded 
in the atmosphere above Chelyabinsk, 
Russia, injuring 1 500 people and dam-
aging  7 200  buildings,  according  to 
international media reports.

Such collisions could become prevent-
able  in  the  future  if  NEOSHIELD 
researchers  successfully  developed  a 
method to deflect or destroy incoming 
celestial objects. ‘Relatively speaking,’ 
concludes  Harris,  ‘even  a  very  small 
change of trajectory would be enough 
to  steer  an  asteroid  away  from  the 
Earth, given adequate warning time.’

NEOSHIELD

 Coordinated by DLR in Germany.
 Funded under FP7-SPACE.
 http://ec.europa.eu/research/

infocentre/
article_en.cfm?artid=32956 

 Project website:  

http://www.neoshield.net/

   http://bit.ly/11yw97m

 
 
46

S P A C E

PIONEERING DATA SERVICE FOR  
GROUND MOVEMENTS
Landslides and ground subsidence can cause major economic, environmental and health problems. A recent 
project has developed sophisticated tools for monitoring ground movement using satellite and ground sensor data.

Across Europe, landslides and other ground deformations 

are a serious and underestimated problem. These can be 
natural or caused by human activities such as mining and 

construction work.

The  EU-funded  DORIS  (Ground  deformations  risk  scenarios:  
An advanced assessment service) project set out to develop a 
data processing service to detect, map, monitor and forecast 
ground  deformations 
in Europe.

“Case studies at several test 
sites around Europe provided 
real-life data to validate the 
new techniques.”

DORIS pioneered new 
data processing tech-
niques in order to use 
‘Synthetic  aperture 
radar’ (SAR) archive data from environmental monitoring satel-
lites. This approach provided time series and maps of ground 
deformation in unprecedented detail.

Project members also developed new techniques to analyse 
data from differential SAR interferometry — established ground 

deformation  modelling  software.  These  were  coupled  with 
ground-based sensor data to model and monitor rapid ground 
movements such as landslides.

Case studies at several test sites around Europe provided real-
life data to validate the new techniques. A spatial data infra-
structure was built to make the new DORIS tools easier to use.

Researchers  produced  a  business  model  and  sustainability 
strategy for DORIS to ensure that it would be able to function 
successfully as an independent service. The project has provided 
a sensitive and robust service for downstream users such as civil 
authorities and emergency rescue groups.

DORIS

 Coordinated by the National Research Council in Italy.
 Funded under FP7-SPACE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/90025_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.doris-project.eu/

FINDING OUT HOW SOLAR FLARES  
AFFECT LIFE ON EARTH
Solar flares can strongly influence life on Earth, causing power outages, disrupting radio communication 
and airplane navigation, and posing potential threats to astronauts and spacecraft. To better understand 
these cosmic events and therefore anticipate their effects, the EU-backed project HESPE has developed 
a range of advanced techniques.

Flares, for example, can interfere with air-
craft navigation, forcing planes to reroute 
away  from  the  poles  and  towards  the 
equator. Better information on the effects 
of flares could make it easier for pilots to 
manage these adjustments, smoothing 
air  traffic  worldwide.  This  is  a  prime 
example of how enhanced data on solar 
flares could provide tangible benefits for 
life on Earth.

These solar explosions are thought to be 
triggered  by  changes  in  the  shape  of 
magnetic fields that encircle the Sun. 
‘For  the  first  time,’  explains  Piana, 
‘researchers have been able to detect 
these changes at a level of clarity not 
previously achieved.’ This is an example 
of how the HESPE team could use all 
available data and open new insights 
into the behaviour of solar flares. ‘One 
of the nicest things about our database 
is the ability to conduct statistical anal-
yses of the flares,’ says Piana. ‘This has 
not been done before.’

HESPE’s novel analytical methods are 
expected  to  be  adaptable  to  STIX,  an 
X-ray telescope planned to be mounted 
on the European Space Agency’s Solar 

Orbiter, scheduled to be launched from 
the  Kennedy  Space  Centre  in  2017. 
‘Even  beyond  this,’  comments  Piana, 
‘our  methods  could  be  used  for  all 
future  satellite  missions  that  involve 
high-energy measurements.’

Though  the  first  solar  flare  was 
observed more than 150 years ago — 
noticed and recorded by British amateur 
astronomer Richard Carrington — sci-
entists  still  cannot  predict  when  they 
will occur, nor do they fully understand 
their causes or mechanisms.

HESPE involved a team of researchers 
from  Europe  and  the  United  States 
sharing  all  available  information  on 
solar  flares  with  a  wide  audience  of 
astrophysicists, solar physicists and oth-
ers in the scientific community.

HESPE

  Coordinated by the University  

of Genoa in Italy.

 Funded under FP7-SPACE.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/

article_en.cfm?artid=32856 

Project website:  

http://www.hespe.eu/

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‘Solar flares have a big impact on 

the  Earth’s  atmosphere.  By  pro-
cessing all the available data from 
satellites and ground-based sources, we 
can begin to foresee the possible harm 
that flares can cause,’ says HESPE (High 
Energy Solar Physics Data in Europe) pro-
ject coordinator Michele Piana, a profes-
sor of numerical analysis at the University 
of Genoa in Italy.

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
 
47

EVENTS

JANUARY
05▶06

JANUARY
12▶14

FEBRUARY
14▶15

Barcelona, SPAIN

Dublin, IRELAND

Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS

C O N F E R E N C E
INTERNATIONAL 
CONFERENCE ON 
HUMAN GENETICS  
(IHGC 2015) 

The International Conference on Human 
Genetics  (IHGC  2015)  will  take  place 
from 5 to 6 January 2015 in Barcelona, 
Spain.

IHGC 2015 will bring together innovative 
academics and industrial experts in the 
field of Human Genetics. The aim is to 
promote research in the field of Human 
and Medical Genetics and facilitate the 
exchange of new ideas in these fields. 
Claudio Franceschi, Scientific Director of 
the Italian National Research Centres on 
Aging will be the keynote speaker.

For further information, please visit: 
http://genetics.conference-site.com/
index.html

C O N F E R E N C E
APPLICATIONS OF 
NOVEL SCINTILLATORS 
FOR RESEARCH AND 
INDUSTRY (ANSRI 2015)  

The  Applications  of  Novel  Scintillators 
for  Research  and  Industry  workshop 
(ANSRI 2015) will take place from 12 to 
14 January 2015 in Dublin, Ireland.

The primary goal of this workshop is to 
address  the  shortfalls  of  current 
scintillator  detectors  and  to  explore 
possible  solutions  to  these  problems. 
The  latest  developments  in  inorganic 
and glass scintillator technologies will 
be discussed. Another goal of the event 
is to bring together experts from diverse 
backgrounds  in  order  to  identify  the 
limits  of  the  current  generation  of 
scintillators in the relevant application 
areas,  and  present  promising  new 
materials  and  possible  pathways  for 
future developments.

For further information, please visit: 
http://ssmr.ucd.ie/ansri2015/Home.
html 

C O N F E R E N C E
SIXTH INTERNATIONAL 
CONFERENCE ON 
ENVIRONMENTAL 
SCIENCE AND 
DEVELOPMENT  
(ICESD 2015) 

The  Sixth  International  Conference  on 
Environmental Science and Development 
(ICESD 2015) will take place from 14 to 
15  February  2015  in  Amsterdam, 
Netherlands.

ICESD 2015 provides a common forum 
for innovative academics and industrial 
experts  in  the  field  of  Environmental 
Science and Development. The primary 
goal  of  the  conference  is  to  promote 
research and developmental activities in 
these fields. Another goal is to promote 
scientific  information  interchange 
between researchers, developers, engi-
neers, students and practitioners work-
ing in Amsterdam and abroad. 

For further information, please visit: 
http://www.icesd.org/

EVENTS

For more forthcoming events:  
http://cordis.europa.eu/events

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FEB.
18▶20

Tromsø, NORWAY

C O N F E R E N C E
SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON 
MARINE BIOPROSPECTING (BIOPROSP_15) 

The  Seventh  International  Conference  on  Marine  Bioprospecting 
(BIOPROSP_15) will take place from 18 to 20 February 2015 in Tromsø, 
Norway.

BIOPROSP  is  a  biennial  conference  on  bioprospecting  from  cold  marine 
environments.  The  conference  brings  together  scientists  and  industry 
representatives to address issues of how to translate basic research into 
applied research on possible industrial applications.

There  is  limited  space  available  for  exhibitors  (companies  and  cluster 
organisations) at BIOPROSP_15.

For further information, please visit:  
http://bioprosp.com/

research*eu results magazine N°38 / December 2014/January 2015 
 
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Twenty years for CORDIS on the  

World Wide Web

In November, CORDIS celebrated its 20th World Wide Web-Birthday. Indeed, 
it was on 7 November 1994 that the www.cordis.lu domain was registered, 
leading to the launch of the EU institutions’ first permanent website. 

While the CORDIS web server was initially used for the partner search 
service, expressions of interest and the first calls for proposals of the  
4th research Framework Programme (FP4), it quickly became clear that 
the  web  was  not  just  an  additional  technology.  The  early  2000s  saw 
CORDIS become the central web platform of the research and innovation 
programmes, hosting thousands of web pages for each programme and 
developing web applications for a variety of needs. 

Now CORDIS contains information on over 100 000 EU-funded projects, 
stretching from some of the earliest EU research under the first framework 
programme (FP1) though to the planned publication of emerging Horizon 2020 
projects. The core information on projects and results is complemented by multilingual top stories and news services, 
including articles submitted by the research community. These and highlights of project ‘Results in Brief’ are included in this 
magazine.

After 20 years on the web, we are again experiencing a shift, as the number of website visitors is less of a measure of 
success than making it easy for clients to find and reuse our rich repository of data. After the launch of the new suite of 
web applications, the future of CORDIS will be driven in the years to come by the European Commission’s strategy for the 
dissemination and exploitation of research results.

Free subscriptions, orders and downloads

The research*eu magazines are free of charge.

To subscribe to either research*eu results magazine or research*eu focus, please go to: 

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