Research*eu results magazine. N° 47, November 2015.
Date: 2015-11-20
Institutions: CORDIS, Publications Office of the European Union
Subjects: 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°47
NOVEMBER 2015

SPECIAL FEATURE

TACKLING
DIABETES
IN EUROPE

IT AND 
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
TURNKEY SOLUTION 
FOR A CONNECTED 
SELF-SHOPPING 
EXPERIENCE
» PAGE 31

SECURITY
NEW DEVICES TO 
CONTAIN BLASTS ON 
AIRPLANES
» PAGE 41

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

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EDITORIAL

by the editorial team

FIGHT AGAINST DIABETES:  
IS SCIENCE LOSING GROUND?

On 14 November the world will be celebrating World Diabetes Day for the 15th time since its launch in 
1991. That was two years before the haemoglobin A1c test — which tracks the quantity of glucose in a 
patient’s blood — officially became a standard measurement method for potential diabetes-related 
complications, and also before metformin — now the preferred drug for treatment of type 2 diabetes — 
was finally approved for commercialisation everywhere in the world. 

A lot of things have changed since then. Of course treatments and prevention have improved, but that 
didn’t prevent diabetes from becoming a more pressing issue and, according to WHO estimations, diabetes 
prevalence in 2030 will be twice that observed in 2005. Today in the EU, 32 million people (8.1 % of the 
EU population) live with diabetes, and one EU citizen dies from the consequences of the disease every two 
minutes. This is largely blamed on unhealthy diet, aging, stress and lack of physical activity. 

This doesn’t make the fight against diabetes a lost cause. Exciting technologies, from contact lenses that 
measure blood glucose levels to artificial pancreases, smartphones apps to help patients manage their 
diabetes, big data for next generation databases, food scanners and wireless sensors, are being developed, 
which experts believe could help reverse the trend, 
while the objective of reducing the diabetes bill for 
healthcare systems is also pushing innovation.

‘Since 1991 some 892 
projects directly or 
indirectly impacting 
diabetic patients have 
been funded.’

In Europe, the Commission does not have legal 
competence in the matter and can only rely on 
active support from national governments. But the 
EU is nonetheless contributing actively to research 
in this field. Since 1991 some 892 projects directly 
or indirectly impacting diabetic patients have been 
funded, with research work including novel treatments, beta-cell imaging technologies, artificial pancreases, 
immunotherapies and solutions to counter diabetes side-effects.

This edition of the research*eu results magazine focuses on some of the latest results brought about 
thanks to these EU-funded initiatives. These include research specifically focused on diabetes such as 
innovative footwear, an app to scan food for carbohydrate levels and new RNA diagnostics to predict 
diabetes occurrence and design exercise plans to fight it, but also broader food-related innovation that 
could be beneficial to diabetic patients. A total of 10 projects are covered in the special feature section of 
this magazine. 

This section is followed by our usual insights into biology and medicine, social sciences and humanities, 
energy and transport, environment and society, IT and telecommunications, industrial technologies and 
space, as well as a new section fully dedicated to security research.

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

Want more information on 
the contents of this issue?
For online versions or information 
about the contributors in this issue  
of research*eu results magazine:
CORDIS
•  http://cordis.europa.eu/projects
•  http://cordis.europa.eu/stories
•  http://cordis.europa.eu/news
European Research Council
•  http://erc.europa.eu
EC DG Research and Innovation
•  http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre

research eu

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

NEXT
ISSUE

Focus on  
New perspectives 
for the textile 
value chain

SPECIAL FEATURE

4 TACKLING DIABETES 

IN EUROPE

ISSN 1831-9947

research eu

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

N°47
NOVEMBER 2015

SPECIAL FEATURE

TACKLING
DIABETES
IN EUROPE

IT AND 
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
TURNKEY SOLUTION 
FOR A CONNECTED 
SELF-SHOPPING 
EXPERIENCE
» PAGE 31

SECURITY
NEW DEVICES TO 
CONTAIN BLASTS ON 
AIRPLANES
» PAGE 41

Food decrypting app for CHO calculation
EU stem cell research opens door to new diabetes treatments 

4 
6 
7  New RNA diagnostics could become  

the crystal ball of diabetes 

9  Novel therapeutic targets for diabetes
9 
11  Understanding the activation of BAT for improved diabetes 

A step ahead in the race for an artificial pancreas

treatment 

12  The cardiovascular system in diabetes
12  Functional food that tastes good
14  Milling innovations help food sector tap barley’s health properties
14  Foot-reading device for personalised footwear

16  BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
16  Cutting-edge video technology brings new 

31  IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
31  Turnkey solution for a connected  

anti-malaria concepts

17  Molecular determinants of inflammation
17  Exposure therapy for anorexia nervosa 
18  The value of junk DNA
19  3D printing of bone replacements
19  A novel biosensor for enteric pathogens

20   SOCIAL SCIENCES AND 

HUMANITIES

20  Online resource provides insights into 

perceptions of populist ideas

21  Effects of taxation in times of financial 

distress

21  The plight of migrant workers
22  New conservation products for historic 

building materials 

23  ENERGY AND TRANSPORT
23  Demo plants show potential of algae as 

sustainable energy source

24  Energy dense lithium battery for the electric 

car sector

25  Omniflow technology combines solar and wind 

energy

26  Enhancing the global travel experience
27  Innovative docking tool for cargo shipping

self-shopping experience

32  Efficient control software
33  Spying out user preferences
33  Affordable IT solutions to help SME logistics 

firms get ahead

34  Increasing passenger comfort thanks to virtual 

reality

35  INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES
35  Robotic co-worker for Europe’s ship 

services sector

36  New packaging materials from cheese
37  Sustainable chemical production
38  Laundry with less water and less time
39  New lasers for low-cost industrial processing
39  Safer and greener flame retardants
40  New ceramic materials

41  SECURITY
41  New devices to contain blasts on  

airplanes

42  New modelling tool for better crisis 

management

43  Cutting-edge technology in the fight  

against global financial crime

28  ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
28  Cleaner skies over Athens
29  Improved and increased turbot production
30  Bee movements control reproduction
30  Plankton monitoring for climate change

44  SPACE
44  Advanced protection from solar storms
45  Cryogenic space exploration missions
46  Prepare for landing on planets

47 EVENTS

16

20

23

28

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4

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015

SPECIAL FEATURE
TACKLING DIABETES IN EUROPE

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I N T E R V I E W

FOOD DECRYPTING APP  
FOR CHO CALCULATION
Some food labels provide information on the amount of carbohydrates 
in the product, others don’t. But in both cases shopping, cooking and 
correctly evaluating the resulting need for insulin remains a real 
headache for diabetic patients, even with the many guides and 
strategies that can be found across the internet. This might soon 
change with a few taps on a smartphone screen.

Have you ever been tempted or given in to taking a pic-

ture of a mouthwatering dish in a fine gastronomic res-
taurant? What the EU-backed project GoCARB (Type 1 
Diabetes Self-Management and Carbohydrate Counting: A 
Computer Vision based Approach) proposes is to turn this 
practice into a habit that could change the quality of life of 
people suffering from diabetes. From a simple picture of a 
meal, the GoCARB app can extract precise information about 
the amount of ‘carbohydrates’ (CHO) it contains. 

‘In a typical scenario, the user places a credit card-sized 
reference object next to the meal and acquires two images 
using his/her smartphone. The first image is acquired above 
the plate at a distance of 30-40 cm, while the second is at 
about 20 degrees from the vertical axis crossing the cen-
tre of the dish,’ explains Dr Stavroula Mougiakakou, who 
coordinated the project for the University of Bern. ‘The dif-
ferent food items on the plate are automatically detected, 
segmented  and  recognised,  while  their  3D  shape  is 

reconstructed. By using the shape, the segmentation results 
and the reference object, the volume of each item is then 
estimated. Finally, the CHO content is calculated by com-
bining the food type with its volume, and using a nutritional 
database.’

GoCARB has the potential to completely change the daily 
life of patients with diabetes, who need to estimate the 
prandial insulin dose required in order to compensate for 
the effect of their upcoming meal, several times a day. ‘A 
recent study has shown that a substantial number of adult 
individuals with type 1 diabetes estimate prandial insulin 
needs inappropriately, even those with the most experi-
ence,’ points out Dr Mougiakakou. ‘Making these estimates 
is a complex and time-consuming task, which depends on 
the carbohydrate content of the upcoming meal, pre-meal 
glucose concentration, insulin-to-CHO ratio, insulin sensi-
tivity,  and  the  insulin  already  present  in  the  patient. 
Imprecise  CHO  counting  can  lead  to  either  under-  or 

 
SPECIAL FEATURE

TACKLING DIABETES IN EUROPE

overestimation of prandial insulin, in turn resulting in non-
physiological post-prandial hyper- or hypoglycaemia and 
poor glycaemic control. Clinical studies have shown that an 
inaccuracy  of  ±20  grams  in  CHO  counting  significantly 
impacts the postprandial glycaemia level.’

“The preclinical study 
indicated that the system is 
able to estimate the meal’s 
CHO content with higher 
accuracy than the patients 
themselves.”

Although the app — codename m-Health — is not publi-
cally available yet, its accuracy and ease of use has already 
been tested on 19 adult volunteers with type 1 diabetes. 
Six mixed food dishes served by the restaurants at Bern 
University Hospital 
were  presented  to 
each  volunteer, 
who  was  asked  to 
count the CHO con-
tent  of  each  meal 
before  repeating 
the  procedure  but 
this  time  using 
GoCARB.  The  sub-
jects  then  com-
pleted  a  questionnaire  at  the  end  of  each  session  to 
describe their user experience. ‘The preclinical study indi-
cated that the system is able to estimate the meal’s CHO 
content with higher accuracy than the patients themselves. 
Furthermore, the feedback gathered from the participants 
showed that the system is easy to use, even for non-smart-
phone users,’ says Dr Mougiakakou.

The GoCARB system was developed based on requirements 
for an error margin of less than 20 grams and minimum 
user interactions. This was made possible thanks to a vis-
ual dataset of over 5 000 images which includes a broad 
spectrum of non-packed central European foods of various 
shapes. The only assumptions made by the system are that 
the plate is round, that the food items are not occluded, and 
that only one plate is present in the image.

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research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015

5

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

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DR MOUGIAKAKOU

Reaching beyond diabetes

The team is now investigating the effectiveness of the sys-
tem in improving glycaemic control. A clinical trial is taking 
place at Bern University Hospital under the management of 
the  Department  of  Endocrinology,  Diabetes  and  Clinical 
Nutrition. It involves individuals with type 1 diabetes under 
sensor-augmented pump therapy. ‘We are very excited and 
curious to see the results of this study,’ Dr Mougiakakou says 
enthusiastically.

What  about  future  commercialisation?  ‘As  an  academic 
research group, our first priority is to optimise the algorithms 
behind the system in order to improve the system’s accuracy,’ 
Dr Mougiakakou notes. ‘Transforming the developed proto-
type into a product is something we already discuss with our 
industrial and clinical partners, and it will be done when we 
are convinced that the system meets user needs. Considering 
the promising results we have so far, I would be optimistic 
and say that this will be done in the near future.’

Dr Mougiakakou is also conscious of the potential of the app 
beyond diabetes with, why not, a similar app to know the 
number of calories or identify allergenic ingredients. ‘This is 
certainly  something  we  can  imagine.  Estimation  of  other 
macro-nutrients and calories is of importance even for dia-
betes self-management, since there is increasing evidence 
that  fat  and  protein  can  influence  the  glucose  profile. 
Therefore, the expansion of the system to a broader nutri-
tional spectrum is definitely in our future plans.’

GOCARB

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 Coordinated by the University of Bern in Switzerland.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/100244_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.gocarb.eu/

 
 
 
 
6

EU STEM CELL RESEARCH OPENS DOOR TO 
NEW DIABETES TREATMENTS 
An EU-funded project that used stem cells to restore insulin production could transform 
how diabetes sufferers — most notably children — are treated.

generate pancreatic precursor cells that 
can differentiate to insulin-producing cells, 
following transplantation in animal mod-
els. Human embryonic stem cell gener-
ated cells were pre-clinically validated as 
cell therapy products for clinical develop-
ment and trials. Parallel studies defined 
markers  for  safety  and  efficacy,  and 
examined ways for minimising immune 
and inflammatory reactivity in recipients. 

Preparatory  steps  were  also  taken 
towards the submission of a clinical trial 
protocol for the transplantation of encap-
sulated  human  embryonic  stem  cell 
-derived progenitor cells. 

The BETACELLTHERAPY consortium plans 
to continue the development of cell ther-
apy products and protocols for beta cell 
replacement in diabetes, through further 
collaborations with the research and clin-
ical departments of industrial partners. 
‘Our consortium included clinical refer-
ence  centres  and  clinical  diabetology 
units where novel forms of diagnosis and 
treatment are prepared, evaluated and 
implemented,’ says Pipeleers. ‘The results 
have already led to benefits for patients 
with  type  1  diabetes,  but  the  duration 
and scale of implementation must now 
be increased.’ 

Taken  together,  the  successful  find-
ings of the BETACELLTHERAPY study 
represent a significant step forward in 
the  development  of  innovative  new 
approaches  for  treating  diabetes. 
These have the potential to improve 
the  quality  of  life  of  patients,  and 
greatly improve scientific understand-
ing  of  how  chronic  diseases  can  be 
treated  less  invasively.  ‘Our  annual 
reports received high scores from the 
project’s scientific advisory board with 
an  overall  rating  of  excellent,’  adds 
Pipeleers.

BETACELLTHERAPY

 Coordinated by VUB in Belgium.
 Funded under FP7-HEALTH.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/

rcn/93426_en.html

Project website:  

http://www.betacelltherapy.org

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Type 1 diabetes is a chronic insulin 

deficiency  condition  that  is  trig-
gered by massive destruction of 
beta cells — pancreatic cells that nor-
mally produce insulin. This type of dia-
betes can be diagnosed at all ages but 
is the most frequent form when clinical 
onset occurs under the age of 40 years. 
While the administration of insulin can 
make up for shortages within the body, 
mimicking the tight hormonal control 
of a normal beta cell mass — and thus 
avoiding the risk of complications — is 
difficult to achieve. 

“The project successfully 
showed that beta cell 
transplantation could provide 
an alternative solution to 
injections.”

The  EU-backed  BETACELLTHERAPY 
(Beta  cell  therapy  in  diabetes)  pro-
gramme  has  been  developing  and 
implementing new therapies to restore 
a functional beta cell mass in patients 

with this disease. This involves finding 
ways to replace lost beta cells and pro-
tect existing beta cells against disease. 
The programme was supported by an 
EU-funded FP7 project until June 2015.

‘Significant progress has been made 
on  the  roadmap  towards  beta  cell 
replacement  in  diabetes  patients,’ 
says  project  coordinator  Daniel 
Pipeleers from the Free University of 
Brussels, Belgium. ‘During the project’s 
final six-month extension, we completed 
preclinical assessments, comparisons of 
encapsulated cell therapy products and 
used human pancreatic beta cell prepa-
rations as references.’

This  project  built  upon  biology-driven 
tracks towards beta cell replacement, first 
in preclinical models and then in patients. 
The track to therapeutic beta cell implants 
sought to develop large-scale sources for 
biologically defined grafts and addressed 
the current shortage in metabolically ade-
quate  beta  cell  grafts  prepared  from 
human donor organs. 

Human pluripotent stem cells — undiffer-
entiated biological cells that can differen-
tiate into specialised cells — were used to 

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
7

I N T E R V I E W
NEW RNA DIAGNOSTICS COULD BECOME  
THE CRYSTAL BALL OF DIABETES 

Physical  activity  may  be  one  of  the  golden  rules  of  diabetes  prevention,  but  its 
effectiveness can vary from one person to another. In addition to clarifying the genetic 
mechanisms behind these differences, results from METAPREDICT provide the basis for 
what could be the cornerstone of future diabetes prevention — a programme best 
suited to our very own molecular make-up.

Diabetes  associations  across  the  world  have  been 

stressing the importance of physical activity as a pre-
ventive measure against diabetes for a long time, and 
with good reason. Benefits include better physical fitness, 
improved lipid levels, improved glycaemic control, reduced 
risk  of  cardiovascular  disease,  decreased  adiposity  and 
enhanced physiological well-being. But what these associ-
ations also insist on is the fact that exercise is not without 
risk, and that physical activity should only be considered 
when the benefits outweigh these risks.

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The latter observation begs a fundamental question: how do 
we know if, and what sort of physical activity is good for us? 
Surely answering that question before a patient starts exer-
cising would prove useful, but we currently know too little 
about the causes of adverse or absent reactions to exercise.

Scientists from the EU-funded METAPREDICT (Developing 
predictors of the health benefits of exercise for individuals) 
project,  who  have  already  demonstrated  how  30 %  of 
patients show no improvement in insulin sensitivity when 
performing endurance training, are making waves with the 
development of new RNA diagnostics. The latter are capa-
ble of anticipating differences in responses to exercise and 
could potentially estimate the risk of a patient developing 
diabetes by designing individual exercise plans around the 
molecular make-up of the individual. 

Prof.  Jamie  Timmons,  Chief  Scientific  Officer  at  project 
partner  XRGenomics,  highlights  the  value  of  the  project 
results and their potential for creating the prevention pro-
gramme of the 21st century — one that will be tailored to 
each patient’s genes. 

  Your project was inspired by the observation 
that aerobic fitness is ineffective for some people. 
How is this possible?

Prof. Jamie Timmons: This is a remarkable observa-
tion I agree. We see no change in aerobic capacity in about 
20 % of all people with fully supervised exercise training 
(training three to five days per week). In fact we were able 
to replicate this observation in the new METAPREDICT HIT 
(High Intensity Training) study (one of three modalities of 
exercise in the study). Those who failed to change their aer-
obic capacity were ‘trying’ harder on the bike in the end, and 
ventilating more, but this was not resulting in more oxygen 
being consumed by the mitochondria in their muscles.

When studying the mechanisms behind this failure in gain-
ing aerobic fitness, we originally found that people who do not 
gain in aerobic fitness fail to activate gene-expression pro-
grammes relating to blood vessel growth. Then we demon-
strated, in a new animal model developed by Lauren Koch, 
that if you selectively breed for good or poor aerobic fitness 
responses to exercise it is possible to reproduce this same pat-

PROF. JAMIE TIMMONS

tern  of  failed  matrix  remodelling  that  you  see  in  humans  
who are non-responders for gains in aerobic capacity. The lat-
ter relates to alterations in SMAD signalling and matrix remod-
elling, just as we noted in human subjects. 

The question remains, why? Why no improvement in aer-
obic fitness, and what triggered the selection of this com-
mon ‘genetic’ phenotype in humans? We could speculate, 
for example, that they will also be poor at growing blood 
vessels in tumours and that may be advantageous. But that 
is currently speculation, which we can address once we pro-
duce good diagnostics for this phenotype. 

  What else did you learn from your studies on 
patient response to exercise?

The METAPREDICT project aimed to go far beyond the 
idea of ‘non-responders’ to aerobic capacity. In total we 
have studied three types of supervised exercise training 
(HIT, classic public health high-volume aerobic training and 
resistance  training)  and  this  has  involved  over  1 000 
people. 

We have also measured over 40 000 insulin samples in 
Prof. Rooyackers’ laboratory and we are building RNA diag-
nostics for muscle and liver insulin resistance as well as 
how each of the three modes of exercise training improve 
or fail to improve insulin sensitivity (as well as aerobic fit-
ness and blood pressure).

 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
8

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015

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

So far we have shown that, on average, HIT is highly 
effective  at  improving  cardiovascular  health  biomarkers 
with less than 15 minutes of actual exercise per week. It 
was  actually  more  effective  than  current  public  health 
guidelines, which suggest that people do more than 150 
minutes a week of moderate intensity training. 

  In a scenario where fitness is not a solution, how 
can diabetes be prevented?

A key concept in life-style risk factors is that each bio-
marker for health plays its own role in determining your 
long-term health. So, for example, you may not get any 
improvement in aerobic fitness but you may reduce your 
blood pressure and reduce your insulin resistance. However, 
which of the three types of exercise will work for you best? 
And how often should you do exercise to optimise improve-
ments? Answers to these questions are the long-term aims 
of the METAPREDICT project. Once we complete the devel-
opment of our RNA diagnostics, we will be able to begin 
studies allocating people to the programme best suited to 
their ‘genes’.

However,  a  small  percentage  (although  that’s  still  a 
rather high number of people worldwide!) will not improve 
their aerobic capacity, show no change in insulin sensitivity 
and may even get an increase in blood pressure from per-
forming exercise training three days a week. Should they 
then get prioritised for pharmacology treatment? This is 
quite  possible.  Should  they  try  training  less  often?  Also 
quite possibly. What we are talking about here is what the 
future of preventative health care will look like. 

  Were you successful in your efforts to find 
biomarkers that would help find the most suitable 
lifestyle for each patient?

We have been able to make prototype biomarkers from 
RNA using machine learning approaches for a number of 
clinical  phenotypes  and  we  will  progress  this  work  into 
2016. 

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  Was it a difficult process?

The project was very demanding, with a large number of 
logistical challenges. It was very difficult to ensure that all 
clinical centres remained motivated and engaged in the pro-
ject, and in the end a small number of people within the con-
sortium have continued to dedicate a great deal of time to 
the analysis process. I would definitely recommend that sim-
ilar projects, in the future, focus as many resources on data 
management and computing resources as possible, since the 
data-generation process can be overwhelming. Luckily we 
have made good progress now and will submit several pat-
ents and make several publications in 2016.

  What were the other main achievements of your 
project?

I think with such a project, it is a major achievement just 
to gather all the clinical data and have the laboratory anal-
ysis carried out properly. In this sense the major achieve-
ment was getting to the point of a fully QC-checked novel 
‘exercise’ database. In recent months we have developed 
the first predictors of metabolic status, and of course, when 
completed,  that  will  be  the  project’s  main  legacy  —  a  
21st century approach to metabolic physiology, if you like. 

  What are your plans now that the project has 
ended? 

We are focused on patent applications and producing the 
publications. In that sense the project will live on for a few 
more years and of course it needs to find new funding to 
keep it going. In the United States, the NIH has just announced 
a new USD 100 million funding package to initiate a six-year 
study that replicates the aims of METAPREDICT. It is clearly 
seen as a topic of major importance. 

  How do you see your research eventually 
benefiting patients?

The METAPREDICT project was both basic science and 
translational research and so we always focused on pro-
ducing something that was useful for patients or preventa-
tive medicine. 

Our approach has been radically different, we stopped 
looking  for  ‘master  regulators’  of  complex  physiological 
processes and trying to isolate mechanisms in cells or mice, 
and accepted that biology in out-bred humans is stochas-
tic;  that  molecular  markers  have  to  come  together  and 
make a ‘majority vote’ on any sort of physiological response. 
This means you are looking for variable molecules, mole-
cules  that  help  explain  differences  between  people,  not 
molecules that they all regulate in common.

At the moment we have a huge problem with Type 2 dia-
betes, partly driven by obesity, partly by inactivity but also 
by factors that I think remain unclear or which are non-
medical. A major component of diabetes is failure of the 
muscle and liver to respond to insulin, yet this parameter 
is rarely measured in real life because it’s too cumbersome 
and costly. We would hope to have a simple blood test that 
could provide an ‘early warning’ system for insulin resist-
ance as well as guidelines on how to best counter your dia-
betes risk factors within the next couple of years.

METAPREDICT

 Coordinated by Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.
 Funded under FP7-HEALTH.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/102238_en.html
Project website:  

http://metapredict.eu/ 

 
 
NOVEL THERAPEUTIC TARGETS FOR DIABETES
Identifying the mechanisms underlying  the pathogenesis of diabetes should help treat this modern 
epidemic.

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

9

‘Type 2 diabetes mellitus’ (T2DM) 

is a metabolic disorder associ-
ated with impaired insulin secre-
tion. Obesity and ageing are known to 
contribute to disease pathogenesis by 
rendering the pancreas unable to meet 
the metabolic demands of the associ-
ated  insulin  resistance.  However,  the 
underlying mechanism of beta cell loss 
and  dysfunction  in  T2DM  is  incom-
pletely understood.

Accumulating evidence underscores the 
role  of  various  ‘microRNAs’  (miRNAs)  
in  T2DM  pathogenesis.  miRNAs  are  
a  recently  discovered  class  of  small 
non-coding  RNAs  that  regulate  gene 
expression  at  the  post-transcriptional 
level.

As a result, scientists on the EU-funded 
project MIRT2DM (The role of microRNAs 
in pancreatic islet dysfunction in type 
2 diabetes mellitus) decided to study 
the role of specific miRNAs in beta cell 
function,  glucose  and  lipid  metabo-
lism, and overall aetiology of T2DM. 
For  this  purpose,  they  used  several 
mouse models of obesity and ageing 
to identify miRNAs, which are differ-
entially expressed in islets during obe-
sity and ageing.

To  understand  the  impact  of  these 
miRNAs  on  physiological  pancreatic 
function,  researchers  overexpressed 
them in islets to see if certain miRNAs 
stimulated  insulin  secretion.  When 

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beta  cells  overexpressing  these  
miRNAs were transplanted into mice, 
improved  glucose  homeostasis  and 
insulin secretion were observed when 
these animals switched to a high-fat 
diet.

Collectively, these observations clearly 
demonstrate the molecular nature of 
pancreatic cell function regulation. It 
remains to be determined how expres-
sion  of  these  miRNAs  gets  altered 
during diabetes and how they induce 

beta cell function and mass in T2DM. 
Nonetheless, the concept of miRNAs 
as  therapeutic  targets  for  T2DM  is 
novel and opens up new avenues for 
future research studies.

MIRT2DM

  Coordinated by the University Medical 
Center Groningen in the Netherlands.

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

rcn/166038_en.html

I N T E R V I E W

A STEP AHEAD IN THE RACE FOR AN ARTIFICIAL 
PANCREAS
Soon specialists will be able to provide their patients with an artificial pancreas that brings the promise of 
automated administration of insulin when monitored glucose levels are too high. A European consortium has 
created a device that goes a step further, and could provide Europe with a competitive edge on this new market.

If  there  is  one  obsession  people  with  diabetes  need  to 

learn to live with, it’s certainly that of their glucose level. 
The internet is overflowing with articles containing advice 
on how to best regulate it, yet the real solution that will put 
their minds at ease is still nowhere to be found. Instead, 
they have to maintain a healthy diet, do physical exercise 
and, when the diet isn’t enough, use a glucose-level meter 
or continuous monitor and injections or an insulin pump to 
eliminate any surplus. The only light at the end of the tun-
nel is the artificial pancreas, a technology that — when 
finally commercialised — would help them to automati-
cally regulate their glucose levels.

The EU-backed PCDIAB (A Portable Bihormonal Closed Loop 
for Diabetes) project is one of the most promising scientific 
ventures to create such an artificial pancreas and bring it 
to patients. Launched in 2011, the project has just been 
granted  a  nine-month  extension  by  the  European 
Commission  in  light  of  the  clear  potential  of  this  new 
device.  Unlike  other  upcoming  artificial  pancreases, 
PCDIAB’s is a bihormonal solution able to both raise and 
bring down glucose levels depending on information relayed 
by its sensors. Dr J. Hans DeVries, coordinator of the pro-
ject,  told  us  about  the  device’s  potential  and  his  future 
plans to bring it to market.

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
as compared to existing technology on the market, that is, 
insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors which are 
managed by the patient, the artificial pancreas takes over 
this control from the patient. 

  What were the main challenges you faced in the 
development of PCDIAB’s artificial pancreas?

There are two main challenges. The first was the assem-
bly of a miniaturised device, integrating two pumps, one for 
insulin and one for glucagon, together with two sensors and 
essential software implemented twice, once as a safety 
backup. This has now been completed, but took us longer 
than we hoped. The second challenge is to find a manufac-
turer for a stable glucagon solution or analogue. We are 
actively collaborating with companies with that capability, 
but this will take several years.

  One of your objectives was to provide Europe 
with a competitive edge in the field. Three years 
after the project started, would you say you 
succeeded?

It seems that there will be only a few European companies 
able to bring an artificial pancreas to the market. Recently, the 
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a US-based founda-
tion which is the largest funder of type 1 diabetes solutions 
worldwide, listed companies with potential to bring artificial 
pancreas systems to the market. It showed two large US com-
panies and one large EU company, two medium US compa-
nies, two small US companies and one small EU company, the 
latter being Inreda, the manufacturing partner in our PCDIAB 
project. So I would say that we should be able to succeed.

  Now that the project has reached its initial end 
date, do you have any plans for further developing 
this technology?

We are very happy that a nine-month extension was recently 
approved by the Commission. We certainly intend to bring a 
product to the market after the project, within a few years.

PCDIAB

  Coordinated by the Academic Medical Center  

in the Netherlands.

 Funded under FP7-HEALTH.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/105313_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.pcdiab.eu 

10

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DR JAN DE VRIES

“It seems that there will be only a few 
European companies able to bring an 
artificial pancreas to the market.”

  What are the benefits of PCDIAB’s artificial 
pancreas for patients?

Dr Jan de Vries: Patients with type 1 diabetes have to 
determine many times per day the appropriate dose for 
their insulin injections. To do so, they not only have to mon-
itor their blood glucose concentration with finger pricks, but 
also  have  to  consider  the  influence  of  meals,  exercise, 
stress  and  several  other  factors  on  their  glucose  level. 
Maintaining glucose levels in the normal range is essential 
for  preventing  diabetes-related  complications.  However, 
getting glucose levels to reach the target using insulin ther-
apy is limited by the occurrence of hypoglycaemic episodes. 
Therefore, guideline targets for glucose control are notori-
ously  difficult  to  attain  for  a  substantial  proportion  of 
patients.

With an artificial pancreas, the glucose control can be 
automated  to  achieve  near-normal  glucose  control  and 
avoidance of hypoglycaemia. It alleviates the burden of 
self-management. Glucose changes, including those fol-
lowing meals and exercise, are corrected without patient 
intervention.

  Is it easy to use?

In the first clinical trial, patients found the device easy 
to use. Appropriate interaction with the device is required 
to keep it functioning properly. The user interface will be 
further  developed  using  the  feedback  from  these  trial 
patients to make it more intuitive, so that it will be suitable 
for all kinds of patients. 

  How does this compare to current practices and 
technologies?

There are two notable points here. The first is that in 
comparison to other ‘insulin only’ artificial pancreas pro-
jects, PCDIAB uses both glucagon (to increase glucose if 
needed) and insulin (to lower glucose). The use of two hor-
mones opens the way for a fully reactive device. Secondly, 

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SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
 
 
 
11

UNDERSTANDING THE ACTIVATION  
OF BAT FOR IMPROVED DIABETES TREATMENT 

The DIABAT project has made a critical contribution to diabetes research by advancing 
our  understanding  of  the  in  vivo  activation  of  ‘Brown  adipose  tissue’  (BAT)  and 
developing better imaging technology for BAT analysis and diagnosis.

Research into diabetes and obesity 

has  made  some  huge  strides  in 
recent years. And one of the most 
promising  findings  is  related  to  the 
functioning of BAT, home to brown adi-
pocytes. BAT has been revealed to be a 
major site for lipid breakdown and glu-
cose uptake. In fact, the thermogenic 
capacity  of  even  small  amounts  of 
brown adipocytes has emerged as an 
attractive target for anti-diabesity (dia-
betes and obesity) therapies. 

That’s why, for the past four years, the 
EU-backed DIABAT (Recruitment and acti-
vation of brown adipocytes as preventive 
and curative therapy for type 2 diabetes) 
project team has been working to develop 
innovative,  energy-consuming,  BAT-
centred therapies for at-risk individuals 
and patients with type 2 diabetes. 

In  order  to  advance  BAT  knowledge 
toward the development of strategies 
and therapies, DIABAT explored the dif-
ferentiation, function, dysfunction and 
physiological regulation of brown adipo-
cytes. The team employed experimental 
cellular systems and animal models as 
well  as  studies  on  human  volunteers 
using BAT imaging methods for in situ 
functional  analysis.  This  means  that, 
crucially, the experimental findings are 
now primed for clinical exploitation. 

As DIABAT drew to a final close, project 
manager Dr Tobias Schafmeier from the 
German  Cancer  Research  Center  took 
some  time  out  to  speak  about  the 
impressive  advances  achieved:  ‘In  the 
past four years, the DIABAT consortium 
has made huge progress towards under-
standing the in vivo activation of BAT by 
endogenous,  nutritional  and  artificial 
compounds and has revealed important 
underlying  biological  mechanisms. 
Furthermore, better imaging technology 
has gained opportunities for functional 
analysis of BAT in humans and improved 
BAT-associated diagnostics.’

There is ongoing discussion in the scientific 
community about the quantitative contri-
bution of BAT to overall energy expenditure 
in humans. Nevertheless, work performed 
by DIABAT demonstrated that even in set-
tings where energy expenditure was not 
significantly increased, the metabolic sta-
tus of an organism potentially gets sub-

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stantially improved upon BAT activation.  
Dr Schafmeier comments, ‘This observa-
tion can be explained by the fact that BAT 
may act as a sink for glucose and lipids 
thereby ameliorating elevated serum levels 
of  these  nutrients  in  obese  conditions. 
Furthermore, BAT apparently has an endo-
crine function with an impact on remote 
tissues as it secretes bioactive substances 
(BATokines) into the circulation.’

Apart from the main findings on the in 
vivo activation of BAT, the research team 
also identified several molecular players 
that are key in adipocyte differentiation 
and the conversion of white adipocytes 
to a brown-like phenotype. ‘Furthermore,’ 
Dr Schafmeier adds, ‘great progress has 
been made in developing methodology 
and techniques for studying adipose tis-
sue. DIABAT research resulted in more 
than 100 peer reviewed publications and 
DIABAT researchers released a special 
issue of Biochimica et Biophysica Acta on 
brown and white fat.’

The outcomes of the project will cer-
tainly  primarily  be  of  interest  to 
researchers,  as  an  in-depth  under-
standing  of  adipocyte  differentiation 
and  BAT  activation  has  been  gained. 
However, according to Dr Schafmeier, 
other professionals dealing with obe-
sity and diabetes are also likely to take 
an  interest  in  DIABAT’s  results:  ‘The 
findings  are  also  relevant  for  physi-
cians  due  to  improved  BAT  imaging 
that  has  been  developed  during  the 
project. Additionally, the project results 
probably  will  have  high  impact  for 
nutritionists and manufacturers of die-
tary supplements, exemplified by the 
identification  of  novel  nutritional 

compounds that have the potential to 
induce white adipose tissue browning.’

Ultimately, says Dr Schafmeier, it will be 
patients with obesity-associated metabolic 
dysfunction including type 2 diabetes who 
stand to gain the most from DIABAT’s four-
year efforts: ‘Given the improvements in 
BAT imaging that have been made by the 
consortium, subjects could now be more 
efficiently  stratified  according  to  their 
amount  of  BAT,  and  targeted  therapies 
could be pursued at least in BAT-positive 
individuals. Food supplements that have 
been characterised in the project have the 
potential to improve whole-body metabo-
lism by inducing/activating BAT.’

As for the future, Dr Schafmeier is cer-
tain  that  the  strong  connections  that 
have  been  established  between  part-
ners during the project will endure: ‘The 
consortium partners agreed that they 
will  take  measures  to  preserve  the 
enthusiastic  and  productive  spirit  of 
DIABAT. Regular physical meetings will 
help to continue the network. Funding 
for networking activities will be acquired 
and future funding opportunities either 
for  the  consortium-as-a-whole  or  for 
smaller  subgroups  (for  example,  an 
application  for  a  Marie-Sklodowska-
Curie ETN) will be sought.’

DIABAT

  Coordinated by the German Cancer 

Research Center in Germany.

 Funded under FP7-HEALTH.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/

rcn/101092_en.html 

Project website:  

http://www.diabat.org/content/index_
eng.html 

 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
12

THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM IN DIABETES
Diabetes represents a major medical issue as it damages the cardiovascular system, causing disease. A 
European study set out to understand how diabetes alters the pathophysiology of blood vessels.

The  cardiovascular  system  allows  blood  to  circulate 

“Over 1 500 individuals with 
and without diabetes, aged 
between 40 and 75 years 
and living in the 
Netherlands, were recruited 
in an observational study.”

through the body delivering nutrients and oxygen, main-
taining  body  temperature  and  overall  homeostasis. 
Depending on the size 
of  the  vessels,  the 
cardiovascular system 
is divided into micro-
circulation and macro-
circulation,  which  
are  characterised  by 
distinct  autoregula-
tory  mechanisms  yet 
interconnected physi-
ology  and  anatomy. 
Additionally,  these  circuits  cross-talk  by  haemodynamic 
(pressure and flow) and neurohumoral factors.

In  case  of  pathology,  adaptive  mechanisms  are  in  place, 
which respond accordingly to avoid damage. If these mech-
anisms  fail,  then  pathological  signals  are  transduced 
between the two circuits, leading to extensive dysfunction.

The  primary  objective  of  the  EU-funded  MMC  (Micro-  and 
Macrocirculation Coupling: a cross sectional investigation of the 
cross-talk between the two circuits in insulin resistance states) 
project was to delineate the vascular and haemodynamic cross-
talk between the microcirculation and macrocirculation in dif-
ferent human tissues. Given the association of diabetes and 
cardiovascular disease, MMC researchers focused their work on 
individuals with insulin resistance.

Over  1 500  individuals  with  and  without  diabetes,  aged 
between 40 and 75 years and living in the Netherlands, 
were recruited in an observational study. Extensive pheno-
typing of their microcirculation and macrocirculation ves-
sels and attributes was performed.

The data from the MMC study alongside meta-analysis of 
other studies supported the coupling of the two vascular 
circuits. It further indicated that increased pressure pulsa-
tility is a sign of macrocirculation ageing due to physiologi-
cal or diabetes-related causes. In addition, macrocirculation 
dysfunctions are linked to damaged microcirculation in var-
ious organs. In diabetes, adaptive or maladaptive mecha-
nisms  cause  greater  arterial  stiffness  and  pressure 
pulsatility. Skin microvascular function was an exception to 
these  observations  as  it  remained  unaffected  by  large 
arteries’ stiffness or diabetes.

Delineating  the  mechanisms  by  which  vascular  circuits 
adapt to pathological signals is of utmost importance for 
understanding how cardiovascular disease develops. From 
a clinical perspective, the MMC information is anticipated 
to improve early prevention and management of cardiovas-
cular disease.

MMC

  Coordinated by the University of Maastricht  

in the Netherlands.

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/165007_en.html

I N T E R V I E W
FUNCTIONAL FOOD THAT TASTES GOOD
Since 2004, Emulsar has been making a place for itself on the emulsion food market with a technology 
that both is tasty and reduces the need for additives. Thanks to EU support under Horizon 2020, the 
company is now hoping to tap into the medical food sector to the benefit of patients suffering from 
obesity, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimers or malnutrition.

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‘Oral nutritional supplements’ (ONS) 

are one of the key weapons in the 
fight  against  disease-related 
malnutrition — an issue that represents a 
financial burden of EUR 120 to 170 billion 
for the EU. Among diabetes patients, for 
instance, 50 % take such supplements — 
but often not happily. Taste is one of the 
biggest challenges facing functional food, 
and  overcoming  it  could  drastically 
increase compliance with treatment.

Created in 2004, Emulsar has developed 
and patented a smart emulsion technol-
ogy called SENT©, which provides better 
protection, stability and controlled release 
of active substances without compromis-
ing on taste or relying heavily on addi-
tives.  SENT©  has  been  industrialised 
since 2012 and has now inspired a new 
concept  of  high-protein  ONS  which 
addresses taste issues while increasing 
efficiency. 

Frédéric Arnaud, co-founder of the com-
pany, details the future plans of the com-
pany  and  the  results  from  his  recently 
completed project GWAFH (Give the world 
appetite for health) funded under phase 1 
of the H2020 SME Instrument.

  Can you tell us more about your 
emulsion technology? What makes 
you think it has so much potential?

Frédéric Arnaud: Emulsar’s SENT© is 
based on a new technological and manu-
facturing paradigm for the production of 
emulsions, based on nano-porous mem-
brane emulsification. This process offers 
unique advantages over existing emulsion 
technologies: the droplets produced are 
10 times thinner, with better-controlled 
droplet size and improved homogeneity. 
Lower thermal and mechanical stresses 
also  mean  that  fewer  additives  are 
needed to produce stable emulsions.

FRÉDÉRIC AND CHRISTOPHE ARNAUD
FOUNDERS OF EMULSAR

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
  Market demand for food with 
fewer additives is indeed growing, 
but at the same time consumers 
refuse to compromise on taste. How 
do you meet these requirements?

Poor taste is one of the main criti-
cisms heard about functional food, and 
undoubtedly the major reason for poor 
consumption and observance of intake 
prescriptions.

SENT©  technology  has  already 
allowed us to bring Light Oil© to market 
— for better-tasting, low-fat dressings, 
sauces, spreads, butter and margarine. 
Water droplets are finely dispersed and 
concentrated  in  the  oil,  meaning  that 
they  are  literally  hidden  inside  the  oil 
phase  and  do  not  destabilise  in  the 
mouth (thus remaining unperceivable). 
When Emulsar Light Oil© is used in low-
fat dressings, for example, they have the 
same taste as full-fat dressings, without 
the pasty taste of the thickeners.

  What have you learned from the 
EU-funded feasibility study with 
regards to the market potential of 
your production process? 

Our phase 1 work revealed one spe-
cific area in the functional food market 
where SENT© can create extremely high 
disruptive  value:  medical  food,  and  in 
particular ONS. 

These formulated foods are designed 
to meet patients’ nutritional deficiencies 
during illness, but bad taste and the large 
portions  required  in  each  meal  induce 
very low levels of treatment compliance, 
dramatically limiting ONS effectiveness. 
Currently  the  market  can  only  rely  on 
techniques that make it difficult to add 
extra proteins without making the mixture 
unpalatable (texture becomes overly thick 
and proteins have an unpleasant taste). 

What we found out with phase 1 is 
that our technology applying water-in-oil 
emulsion could successfully be adapted 
to significantly increase protein density 
(thus effectively reducing volume by at 
least half) while masking the unpleasant 
taste and texture of proteins. The aim of 
our project is to bring to the market a 
disruptive protein ingredient — Protein 
Plus© — for ONS manufacturers, which 
overcomes this technology gap.

  What can the benefits of your 
products be for someone suffering 
from diabetes? Do you have 
scientific evidence of these 
benefits?

Current treatment recommendations 
for diabetes are based on lifestyle modi-
fications and incremental drug therapy. 
But these can be ineffective when diabe-
tes is compounded by malnutrition, which 
is highly prevalent in diabetic patients.

13

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To prevent this, patients with diabe-
tes  are  prescribed  ‘medical  foods’  or 
ONS, which have been proven to reduce 
mortality rates, shorten hospital stays 
and decrease hospital readmissions. But 
unlike in other types of ONS — that con-
tain sugar to mask the taste of the pro-
tein and can therefore contain more of it 
— manufacturers of ONS for diabetics 
have to replace sugar with sweeteners. 
The protein taste is more present, and its 
quantities have to be reduced to keep 
the product edible. So not only is there 
poor compliance due to taste, but these 
ONS are also less efficient. 

Our  technology  will  concentrate 
these  proteins  while  masking  their 
unpleasant taste. We have already dem-
onstrated,  at  lab  scale,  that  applying 
SENT© to proteins results in a protein-
dense ingredient that makes it possible 
to reduce current ONS volumes by half 
while maintaining the same protein con-
tent and masking its unpleasant taste 
and texture. At the end of 2016 we will 
start a clinical study to gather scientific 
evidence on the benefits of our approach.

  Have you already identified 
potential customers, notably 
overseas?

The  ONS  market  is  dominated  by 
European and American players: Nutricia 
(Danone),  Nestlé  Clinical  Nutrition, 
Fresenius Kabi and Abbott Nutrition, and 
thanks  to  the  interviews  conducted 
under phase 1 most of these companies 
have already requested to meet us.

  Can you tell us more about your 
strategy for the months and years 
to come?

For Emulsar, the prospect of switch-
ing  from  nice-to-have  applications  
(convenience food) to must-have appli-
cations (ONS) constitutes a huge market 

opportunity, creates commercial value 
and  boosts  our  growth.  We  will  move 
from a low-tech to a high-tech sector, 
from a mature and saturated market to 
one that is fast growing, and also from 
a  fragmented  market  to  one  that  is 
dominated by a small number of major 
players. By working with these compa-
nies we can see our ingredient rapidly 
deployed  across  a  huge  market  base 
covering multiple countries.

Beyond ONS, our ultimate aim is to 
target the wider functional food market 
(food with added health benefits) and 
the wider mass-market of general food 
products. This will be made possible by 
the fact that we will have been able to 
demonstrate  the  added  value  of  our 
technology within the most scientifically 
and  technologically  stringent  market, 
thereby generating interest from players 
across the food industry. 

  Did you apply for phase 2 
funding? If so, what will you try to 
achieve with this additional EU 
support?

We  completed  the  application  for 
phase 2 in September; now we cross our 
fingers. These European funds will enable 
us  to  maximise  the  potential  of  our 
Protein  Plus©  ingredient,  validate  the 
industrial process, establish clinical proof 
of improved ONS compliance and pre-
pare for our market launch.

GWAFH

 Coordinated by Emulsar in France.
 Funded under H2020-SME Instrument.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/

rcn/196211_en.html

Project website:  

http://www.emulsar.com/?lang=en

 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
14

MILLING INNOVATIONS HELP FOOD SECTOR 
TAP BARLEY’S HEALTH PROPERTIES
EU-funded researchers have developed techniques to help the food sector make the most of barley, 
improving health and creating new opportunities.

Barley, which is especially high in the healthy fibre com-

ponent beta-glucan, has been linked to a reduced risk 
of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and high blood pres-
sure. Increasing consumer awareness of these benefits has 
driven  demand  for  more  barley-based  products  however 
manufacturers have found it difficult to preserve beta-glucan 
in the grain during traditional milling procedures.

The EU-funded BARLEYBOOST (Boosted barley utilisation and 
consumption in the EU for better health) project, completed 
at the end of October 2015, sought to address this challenge 
by analysing the market potential of health-promoting prod-
ucts and optimising milling technology to create products 
with high beta-glucan content that would be attractive to 
consumers. A monitoring tool together with new milling tech-
niques have been developed in order to identify and isolate 
beta-glucan and create innovative new products that retain 
as much nutrition as possible. 

‘A key objective has been to increase profitability in various 
parts of the industry, while at the same time developing health-  
promoting products that consumers will actually want to buy,’ 
explains project coordinator Sveinung Grimsby from Nofima, 
Norway. ‘New online methods for measuring fibre content in 
milling fractions will be used together with milling and frac-
tionation equipment that has been put together in a new 
combination.’

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Grimsby describes the work carried out by the BARLEYBOOST 
team as a pioneering ‘technology push’ project. ‘There are 
probably not that many consumers asking for fibre-enriched 
barley products with EFSA-approved health claims attached 
to them,’ he suggests. ‘However, we still believe consumers 
will ask for it, though they don’t know it yet. Very few of us 
asked for an iPad 10 years ago either. There are not that 
many real radical innovations entering the food market today 
and BARLEYBOOST has aimed to challenge this.’

Consumers certainly stand to benefit from eating more bar-
ley. While the average consumption of fibre is 17 grams a 
day we should be eating between 25 and 35 grams, and 
EFSA  has  confirmed  a  number  of  barley-related  health 
claims. Between 3 and 4 grams of beta-glucan a day can 
help reduce cholesterol in the blood. 

There is also plenty of barley available. Some 52 million 
tonnes of the grain is produced in the EU every year but only 
0.6 % is used for food; most is used for animal feed and for 
producing alcohol.

A total of nine partners from seven European countries partic-
ipated in the project. Special emphasis was placed on research 
that benefits ‘Small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs), 
and it is hoped that the innovations developed will lead to 
health- promoting products that consumers will want to buy.

Such work has been painstaking. ‘Here is an example of how 
time consuming this R&D work has been,’ says Grimsby. ‘One 
young girl working at INRA in Montpellier dissected — by hand 
— one gram of barley fractions during most of 2014. This had 
to be done in order to calibrate the online equipment. She did 
have a nice “Spotify-play-list” running to cheer her up though.’

BARLEYBOOST

 Coordinated by Nofima in Norway.
 Funded under FP7-SME.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/124048_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.barleyboost.eu

I N T E R V I E W
FOOT-READING DEVICE FOR PERSONALISED 
FOOTWEAR
Personalised footwear to relieve patients from diabetes-related foot complications could soon become available, 
thanks to joint efforts under the DIABSMART project. 

Foot  complications  are  one  of  the 

main side-effects of diabetes, espe-
cially for patients who suffer from 
neuropathy. Symptoms start with tin-
gling, burning, stinging or overall weak-
ness of the foot, but can very quickly 
degenerate into skin changes, calluses, 
foot ulcers and even amputation caused 
by ‘Peripheral arterial disease’ (PAD). 

Relieving patients’ feet before getting to 
such extremes is one of the main chal-
lenges  facing  specialists.  Of  course 
patients  have  been  offered  ‘Diabetic 
shoes’ for decades, but are they really 
effective? While scientific studies tend to 
agree on their proactive benefits, varying 
results from one patient to another have 
highlighted the need to explore individual 

strategies,  which  is  what  the  team  in  
the  EU-backed  project  DIABSMART 
(Development  of  a  new  generation  of 
DIABetic footwear using an integrated 
approach  and  SMART  materials)  has 
been focusing on since 2011.

Completed  at  the  end  of  October, 
DIABSMART  has  developed  a  fully-  

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
15

fledged method that goes from inte-
grated sensor-based analysis of the 
foot to the development of personal-
ised footwear thanks to novel materi-
als.  Dr  Naemi  Roozbeh,  Associate 
Professor 
in  biomechanics  at 
Staffordshire  University,  agreed  to 
discuss the project’s findings — which 
promise to improve quality of life for 
diabetes  patients  while  generating 
tremendous  cost  savings  for  health 
services across Europe and beyond.

  What are the main benefits of 
the DIABSMART footwear for 
diabetes patients?

Dr Naemi Roozbeh: We have come 
up with a systematic approach to iden-
tify cushioning properties of the insole 
material  that  can  lead  to  a  more 
favourable pressure distribution under-
neath the foot. This approach includes 
a  smart  selection  of  insole  material 
based on a patient’s weight and walk-
ing  pattern  as  well  as  taking  into 
account the mechanical properties of 
the fat pad underneath the foot. 

  What does the foot 
assessment process consist in?

The foot assessment includes meas-
urements  such  as  pressure  and  load 
underneath  the  foot  during  daily  life 
activities  like  standing  and  walking. 
Furthermore  other  biomechanical 
measurements such as ankle strength, 
ankle and intersegmental foot range of 
motion as well as foot alignment are 
also evaluated during our assessment. 

  Can you tell us more about the 
design and development process? 
What were the main challenges 
you faced and how did you 
overcome them?

The main strategic challenge was 
to create a common ground between 
engineering,  manufacturing  and  the 
clinical sector. This was imposed as a 
result of the interdisciplinary nature of 
the  work  which  required  translating 
and combining knowledge from differ-
ent disciplines. This has been achieved 
via  knowledge  generation  and 
exchange  through  secondments 
between industry and academic part-
ners within the consortium. 

Another key aspect was the develop-
ment  of  an  integrated  system  for  foot 
assessment and footwear prescription, for 
which the measurement of biomechanical 
parameters  in  the  clinic  was  essential. 
However  due  to  the  severity  of  the  
condition, and the labour-intensive nature 
of  biomechanical  assessment,  it  was  
not possible to rely on a trial-and-error 
approach  to  identify  the  most 

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DR NAEMI ROOZBEH

appropriate  insole  material  for  each 
patient.  To  overcome  this  issue  we 
developed a combined use of experi-
mental  and  computational  tests, 
where numerical tests were used to 
identify the most relevant parameters 
and inform the insole design criteria 
for optimal cushioning. 

  What makes the material you 
developed stand out compared to 
current market offerings?

Currently  the  selection  of  the 
material is intuitive and is based on 
subjective assessment of the foot that 
is very much influenced by the experi-
ence of the practitioner. What we have 
developed, on the other hand, is a sci-
entific, objective and evidence-based 
method for finding optimal cushioning 
properties adapted to each individual. 
This  will  ensure  that  the  insole  pro-
vides the optimal pressure distribution 
underneath  the  foot  based  on  each 
individual’s  needs  and  movement 
characteristics  during  activities  of 
daily living.

  When do you expect your work 
to start benefitting patients?

We have completed a small-scale 
clinical trial, and are in the process of 
analysing  the  results.  We  are  now 
aiming to conduct a multi-centre clini-
cal trial within the coming years, after 
which  we  can  have  more  concrete  
evidence of the effectiveness of the 
system in reducing the ulceration risk 
in patients with diabetic neuropathy. 

  Do you already have plans for 
commercialisation?

We have worked with a number of 
companies throughout the project and 
hope to be able to use their experience 
in the commercialisation process. 

  Will you keep building on the 
project’s results in the future?

During the project we have devel-
oped  considerable  know-how  in  the 
area of diabetic foot assessment and 
footwear  prescription.  This  includes 
establishing a number of methods for 
the assessment of mechanical proper-
ties of the soft tissue of the foot and 
a systematic approach for identifying 
the optimal insole cushioning. 

Furthermore we pioneered the use 
and  application  of  clinically-viable 
biomechanical measures in a diabetic 
foot clinic, which proved to be useful 
in  identifying  the  patients  with  a 
higher risk of foot ulceration incident. 
As  I  mentioned  before  we  hope  to 
build further on these results through 
clinical trials that show the effective-
ness  of  such  systems  in  reducing 
ulceration  incident  in  high-risk  dia-
betic neuropathic patients. 

DIABSMART

  Coordinated by Staffordshire University 

in the United Kingdom.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/

rcn/101158_en.html 

Project website:  

http://www.diabsmart.eu

  http://bit.ly/1LtCvrL 

 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
1616

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CUTTING-EDGE VIDEO 
TECHNOLOGY BRINGS NEW 
ANTI-MALARIA CONCEPTS
Understanding what makes insecticide-treated bed nets so effective 
against  mosquitoes  could  lead  to  improved  products  and  new 
market opportunities.

The  EU-funded  AVECNET  (African 

Vector Control: New Tools) project, 
which was launched in 2011, has 
made  a  number  of  advances  in  this 
field. Initial results have demonstrated 
that insecticidal bed nets function as a 
highly efficient trap. They do not repel 
mosquitoes, but they do deliver insec-
ticide  very  rapidly  after  the  briefest 
contact. Indications suggest that mos-
quitoes do not realise a net is treated 
before they touch it.

The findings could influence how scien-
tists  test  mosquito  populations  for 
insecticide  resistance  and  lead  to 
improvements in the design of next gen-
eration  bed  nets.  Scientists  are  now 
exploring  a  number  of  novel  designs, 
which have already been patented as an 
outcome of AVECNET’s research. 

New insecticides for combating suscep-
tible and resistant mosquito populations 
are  also  being  evaluated,  while  new 
traps have been developed for collecting 
mosquitoes that display different rest-
ing  and  host-seeking  behaviours.  The 
AVECNET project is currently performing 
a clinical trial on a new combination bed 
net in Burkina Faso.

The AVECNET team has pioneered the 
use of infrared video tracking technol-
ogy. This technology uses a wavelength 

that is not perceived by mosquitoes so 
it does not change their natural behav-
iour. By following individual mosquitoes 
in flight, scientists have been able to 
measure and characterise in detail the 
behaviour of mosquitoes as they inter-
act with nets. 

This gave researchers for the first time 
a  clear  view  of  how  mosquitoes 
approach and handle protective barri-
ers. The tracking system was deployed 
in a swamp in Tanzania that is home to 
a  population  of  mosquitoes  where 
some are resistant to insecticide and 
others are not. The success of the pro-
ject has also underlined potential appli-
cations for the technology in capturing 
all sorts of data. 

‘There is a lot of interest in the analysis 
of so-called “big data” — here we have 
the  added  complexity  of  capturing 
information from the field with every-
thing powered from petrol fuelled gen-
erators  and  we  need  very  robust 
algorithms to be tolerant of the natural 
variability  in  behaviour  exhibited  by 
wild  mosquitoes,’  said  Prof.  David 
Towers,  an  engineering  researcher  at 
Warwick University.

Ultimately, the project results have the 
potential  to  save  lives.  While  some 

90 % of all malaria deaths still occur in 
Africa, significant improvements have 
been made in the region through the 
proliferation  of  safe  and  affordable 
insecticidal  bed  nets.  These  simple 
devices  have  played  a  huge  role  in 
reducing  malaria  deaths  in  Africa  by 
over 50 % since 2000, according to the 
World Health Organisation. 

Until the AVECNET project however, sci-
entists had been unsure of exactly how 
insecticidal  bed  nets  interacted  with 
mosquitoes. This limited their ability to 
improve  net  design.  Furthermore, 
malaria mosquitoes are becoming rap-
idly resistant to commonly used insec-
ticides,  which  has  made  the  need  to 
understand how nets work all the more 
urgent. The project is due for comple-
tion in January 2016.

AVECNET

  Coordinated by the Liverpool School 
of Tropical Medicine in the United 
Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-HEALTH.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/123908_en.html

 Project website: http://www.avecnet.eu/

   http://bit.ly/1MfRLVF 

BIOLOGY AND MEDICINEresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

17

MOLECULAR DETERMINANTS  
OF INFLAMMATION
European  researchers  have  worked  to  unveil  the  molecular  aetiology  of  inflammation-related  skin 
conditions such as psoriasis. The findings of the study have the potential to lead to novel treatments.

Psoriasis  is  a  common  immune-

mediated disease which affects 
about 1 % of the European popu-
lation. The disease presents with cuta-
neous  inflammation  caused  by 
aberrant  epidermal  differentiation. 
Currently there is no effective treat-
ment  for  psoriasis  and  the  visible 
marks of the disease greatly impact 
patients’  physical  and  psychosocial 
life style.

“They found that RhoA altered 
the expression of over  
60 genes including a few 
linked to psoriasis.”

Scientists on the EU-funded RHOA IN 
INFLAMMATION  (Role  of  a  small 
GTPase, RhoA,  in  skin inflammation) 
project  set  out  to  shed  light  on  the 
molecular  aetiology  of  the  disease. 
The work focused in particular on the 
role of the small GTPase RhoA, which 
has a central function in the organisa-
tion of the actin cytoskeleton.

Researchers obtained transgenic mice 
with  a  specific  deletion  of  RhoA  in 
keratinocytes  and  performed  gene 
expression analysis. They found that 
RhoA  altered  the  expression  of  over 
60  genes  including  a  few  linked  to 
psoriasis.  One  of  the  key  pathways 
affected  by  RhoA  was  retinoic  acid 
signalling  and  especially  the  first 
steps of retinol metabolism.

Retinoic  acid  signalling  is  known  to 
affect skin tumour formation. Hence, 
the consortium tested the incidence of 
skin  cancer  in  mice  with  a  keratino-
cyte-restricted  deletion  of  the  RhoA 
gene. As expected, they observed that 
skin  tumour  formation  was  strongly 
altered in these animals, underscoring 
the role of RhoA in skin homeostasis.

Taken  together,  the  activities  of  the 
RHOA IN INFLAMMATION project have 
provided significant knowledge on the 
regulation of skin sensitivity to inflam-
matory stress in vivo. The results have 
therapeutic implications and could be 
utilised  for  the  design  of  targeted 
interventions against psoriasis.

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RHOA IN INFLAMMATION
  Coordinated by the University  
of Copenhagen in Denmark.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/169867_en.html

EXPOSURE THERAPY FOR ANOREXIA NERVOSA 
EU-funded researchers at King’s College London have developed a new programme to reduce food-related 
anxiety in patients with severe and enduring ‘anorexia nervosa’ (AN). 

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AN has the highest rate of mortality amongst psychi-

atric  disorders.  About  25 %  of  patients  develop  a 
severe  and  enduring  form  of  the  illness,  which 
becomes resistant to treatment due to the neuroprogres-
sive changes associated with prolonged starvation.

The ET4AN (New technologies to support eating in anorexia 
nervosa:  A  neuroimaging  study)  project  recruited  16 
patients and 21 healthy controls and developed and deliv-
ered 12 sessions of gradual and guided exposure-based 
therapy over a three-month period.

Programme  effects  were  established  measuring  ‘Body 
mass index’ (BMI) and using self-reports to assess eating 
disorder symptoms, mood symptoms, rituals and disturb-
ing  thoughts  around  food.  A  brain  scan  measured  brain 
activations in response to the visual presentation of images 
of food before and after the intervention.

After the intervention, patients had higher BMI and reported 
significantly lower levels of eating-related concern and pre-
occupations. Lower levels of anxiety and increased confi-
dence to change were also found.

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
 
 
 
18

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

“After the intervention, 
patients had higher BMI and 
reported significantly lower 
levels of eating-related 
concern and preoccupations.”

Interestingly, the patients’ neural signatures indicated plas-
tic changes associated with the intervention. Compared to 
controls, they showed 
a  pronounced  reduc-
tion of activity in the 
precuneus,  a  region 
associated  with  pro-
cessing  of  personal 
phobic stimuli. In par-
allel, there was a sig-
nificant  increase  in 
neural  activity  in  the 
prefrontal cortex where planning of complex actions takes 
place. A previous study looking at recovered AN patients indi-
cated increased activity in the same area of the brain.

Findings from the ET4AN project indicate there is hope of 
reducing high levels of anxiety induced by exposure to food 
stimuli and inducing clinical changes in associated brain 
activity. The research group is currently investigating ways 
of  disseminating  details  of  this  intervention  globally  to 
train health professionals and carers as well as peer men-
tors. The results will be used in the future to plan a larger 
randomised  controlled  study  testing  this  therapeutic 
programme. 

ET4AN

 Coordinated by King’s College London in the United Kingdom.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/169737_en.html 

THE VALUE OF JUNK DNA
It seems that the so-called non-coding DNA is not so inactive after all. EU research has uncovered the 
molecular basis of its involvement in some cancers.

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More  than  98 %  of  the  human 

genome doesn’t code for pro-
teins. Recent research however 
supports the conclusion that over 90 % 
of our DNA is actually transcribed. The 
so-called ‘non-coding RNAs’ (ncRNAs) 
are  the  major  component  of  these 
transcripts. One type, ‘large interven-
ing  ncRNA’  (lincRNA),  appears  to  be 
involved  in  the  epigenetic  control  of 
gene transcription.

Dysregulation of lincRNAs has been linked 
to  cancer.  The  DECODER  (Deciphering  
the role of long non coding RNA in can-
cer)  project  researched  the  role  of  
lincRNAs in cellular transformation and 
differentiation. They used ‘Acute pro-
myelocytic leukemia’ (APL), a sub-type 
of  ‘Acute  myeloid  leukaemia’  (AML),  
as a model system.

identified  a  lincRNA  family,  including 
members which are significantly upreg-
ulated upon ATRA treatment of APL cells 
and during normal maturation of granu-
locytes.  This  indicates  that  these  
lincRNAs are likely to be an integral part 
of  the  genetic  programme  activated 
during myeloid differentiation.

The  lincRNA  family  identified  could 
also  be  a  potentially  valuable  bio-
marker  for  evaluating  response  to 
therapy in leukaemia. Overexpression 
of the corresponding gene (resulting 
in more lincRNA) halted cell division. 
The researchers noted that the same 
lincRNAs are also upregulated during 
ATRA therapy in AML samples.

“The lincRNA family identified 
could also be a potentially 
valuable biomarker for 
evaluating response to 
therapy in leukaemia.”

DECODER work should help to further 
clarify  the  mechanisms  behind  the 
epigenetic deregulation in cancer and 
the  functional  links  between  coding 
and non-coding DNA. Ultimately, this 
may lead to the development of novel 
therapies.

DECODER

  Coordinated by the University of Turin 

in Italy.

APL  is  characterised  by  a  reciprocal 
translocation involving the ‘Retinoic acid 
receptor  alpha’  (RAR-alpha)  and  the 
‘promyelocytic’  (PML)  gene.  ‘All-  
trans-retinoic-acid’ (ATRA) treatment is 
able  to  induce  complete  remission  in 
most patients by modulating the expres-
sion of thousands of genetic loci includ-
ing  many  lincRNAs.  The  treatment 
results in differentiation of APL blasts 
and epigenetic remodelling. Blast cells 
are the earliest and most immature cells 
that give rise to platelets as well as red 
and white blood cells. In the case of APL, 
there is an overproduction of abnormal 
promyelocytes and these are unable to 
develop into mature white cells.

The  DECODER  scientists  studied  the 
pattern of expression of lincRNAs during 
ATRA-induced APL differentiation. They 

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

rcn/151537_en.html 

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
 
B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

19

3D PRINTING OF BONE REPLACEMENTS
Bone is a complex natural composite material with amazing strength yet incredible lightness and 
impact resistance. Scientists have now developed a synthetic and printable polymer formulation that 
mimics those mechanical properties.

The amazing combination of properties exhibited by nat-

ural bone is largely due to a hierarchical arrangement of 
soft collagen protein and stiff hydroxyapatite mineral. 
Despite the important need for improved bone replacement 
materials, replicating the structure, function and properties of 
real bone is quite complicated. Doing so with materials that are 
not toxic to living tissue adds one more challenge to an already 
difficult task.

EU-funded researchers working on the VINDOBONA (Vinyl pho-
topolymer  development  of  bone  replacement  alternatives) 
project developed special materials meeting all needs and 
capable of being shaped by a 3D printer.

The team selected photoreactive vinyl carbonates and vinyl 
esters as the monomers for their exceptionally low cytotoxic-
ity compared to conventional acrylates. Their relatively low 
reactivity compared to the acrylates was overcome by the 
addition of thiols. Furthermore, their breakdown products are 
approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, making 
them excellent candidates for biomedical applications.

VINDOBONA  scientists  synthesised  new  vinyl  carbonates  
and vinyl esters. They then tested their reactivity both as 

homopolymers (consisting only of the vinyl compounds) 
and when polymerised in a one-step process exploiting 
their exceptional co-reactivity with alkyl thiols. Cytotoxicity 
tests using stem cells together with degradation tests on 
the homopolymers in vitro confirmed their biocompati-
bility and stability. The vinyl ester-thiol copolymer for-
mulations were optimised for impact resistance and 
elasticity, and rectangular samples were printed via the 
3D printing technology stereolithography.

The  newly  developed  3D  printable  material  exhibited 
mechanical properties similar to that of natural bone, and 
new  in  vivo  testing  models  are  expected  to  follow. 
Partnerships have been formed with several European small 
and medium-sized enterprises interested in commercialis-
ing the technology, paving the way to improved bone 
replacements at lower cost for millions of citizens.

VINDOBONA

 Coordinated by Vienna University of Technology in Austria.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/169808_en.html 

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A NOVEL BIOSENSOR FOR ENTERIC 
PATHOGENS
According to the World Health Organisation, it is estimated that in 2005 alone 1.8 million people died 
from diarrhoeal diseases. Improved diagnostic tools are thus necessary for acting promptly against these 
dismal statistics.

T he intestinal epithelium constitutes 

a major barrier against infections. It 
comprises a single layer of cells that 
line the stomach and colon. This restricts 
the entry of toxins and pathogens, while 
selectively absorbing nutrients that sus-
tain the body. However, pathogens have 
devised ways of destroying the integrity 
of  the  intestinal  epithelial  barrier  and 
compromising the normal absorption of 
water causing diarrhoea.

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To advance detection of enteric patho-
gens,  scientists  on  the  EU-funded 
CELLTOX  (Integration  of  living  cells 
with organic transistors for the rapid 
detection of toxins and enteric patho-
gens) project developed a novel type of 
biosensor. This innovative device was 
based on the principle of using live epi-
thelial cells grown on an ‘Organic elec-
trochemical transistor’ (OECT).

Partners exploited the ability of organic 
electronic materials to conduct both elec-
tronic and ionic carriers. During the pro-
ject,  scientists  demonstrated  the 
integration of human epithelial cell layers 
with OECTs as a means of assessing bar-
rier tissue integrity. When the cells get 
attacked  by  an  enteric  pathogen,  the 
monolayer is disrupted and ions migrate 
into the polymer, switching the transistor 
to the off state.

In comparison with existing diagnostic 
methods, the CELLTOX device exhibited 
markedly higher sensitivity in the detec-
tion of a variety of toxins and patho-
gens, including the food-borne pathogen 

Salmonella typhimurium. Through test-
ing in milk, they demonstrated the fea-
sibility for diagnostics in food and safety 
applications.

Low-cost fabrication of the OECT guar-
antees portable and inexpensive sen-
sors that can be used for high-throughput 
processing of samples. Despite the pro-
ject ending, the consortium is currently 
working on a prototype that will demon-
strate this principle.

Overall, the CELLTOX device constitutes 
a highly sensitive, dynamic sensor for in 
vitro diagnostics of pathogens and tox-
ins. Moreover, this device design can be 
adapted to suit various applications in 
medical  diagnostics,  agriculture  and 
environmental protection.

CELLTOX

  Coordinated by the Ecole Nationale 

Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne 
in France.

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

rcn/169869_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
 
 
 
202020

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 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

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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

ONLINE RESOURCE PROVIDES 
INSIGHTS INTO PERCEPTIONS 
OF POPULIST IDEAS
A  set  of  sophisticated  online  resources  covering  young  people’s 
attitudes  to  populist  ideologies  is  now  available  to  researchers, 
students and policy makers.

This is the key legacy of the recently 

completed  EU-funded  MYPLACE 
(Memory, Youth, Political Legacy And 
Civic  Engagement)  project,  which 
addressed  issues  of  class,  xenophobia, 
racism and trust in democratic processes. 
Online resources include free to access 
reports, videos and documentaries. 

A number of policy briefs are freely avail-
able. The third and final policy brief for 
example focuses on the project’s transna-
tional findings and their implications for 
important  European  policy  agendas.  It 
found that the family plays a key role in 
maintaining historical memory. 

Furthermore,  young  people  often  — 
though  not  universally  and  sometimes 
with ambivalence — trust family accounts 
more than cultural sources or official rep-
resentations. The research shows that his-
torical  narratives  of  the  ‘difficult  past’ 
remain influential in forming young peo-
ple’s attitudes, values and activities today. 
The two previous policy briefs profiled the 
research  being  undertaken  by  the 
MYPLACE project and reported on coun-
try-based findings. 

The project also produced five documen-
tary  films  targeted  at  students  and 
researchers working on young people and 

political engagement. One of these films 
entitled ‘Not MyPlace — Bridging the gap 
between  young  people  and  politics’ 
explores some of the key findings on politi-
cal  participation  with  a  group  of  young 
people who are active and engaged in local 
political  issues  and  youth  democracy. 
Further comment and insight is provided by 
elected politicians and practitioners.

Occupation of Latvia. This historic educa-
tional institution located in Riga, Latvia, 
was opened in 1993 to exhibit artefacts, 
archive documents and educate the pub-
lic about the 51-year period in the 20th 
century when Latvia was occupied. The 
video features educational work with stu-
dents  and  interactive  activities.  A  full 
report of this event is also downloadable.

These films are designed to show poten-
tial policy implications through the reflec-
tions of young people and policy makers, 
and to suggest some constructive ways 
forward  to  address  the  challenges  that 
the project’s findings present.

The  MYPLACE  website  also  contains 
uploaded  videos  of  various  themed 
events. Working with non-academic part-
ners  including  museums,  galleries  and 
NGOs, the project team focused on the 
transmission of memory and political her-
itage in these ‘sites of memory’, and on 
intergenerational  transmission.  Project 
teams in the UK, Slovakia, Russia, Latvia 
and Portugal organised museum-based 
events in order to showcase and dissemi-
nate MYPLACE research. The results are 
available online. 

For example, there is a video of the pro-
ject’s  work  at  the  Museum  of  the 

The  EUR  7.9  million  MYPLACE  project 
gathered first-hand data through focus 
groups, intergenerational interviews, sur-
veys and case studies in order to map the 
relationship  between  political  heritage, 
forms of civic and political engagement of 
young people and their potential receptiv-
ity to radical and populist political agen-
das. It involved partners from 14 countries 
and was officially completed in May 2015.

MYPLACE

  Coordinated by the University  

of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-SSH.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/123952_en.html 

 Project website:  

https://myplaceresearch.wordpress.
com/

   http://bit.ly/1GxXVOO 

 
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

EFFECTS OF TAXATION IN TIMES OF FINANCIAL 
DISTRESS
Recent financial crises have drawn increasing attention to how fiscal policies could help alleviate related 
hardships experienced by the majority of citizens. EU-funded researchers set out to develop a dynamic 
macroeconomic model incorporating progressive taxation and income distribution.

The project PROGTAX (Effects of progressive taxation 

on economic growth, labor supply and income inequal-
ity) has provided policy makers with key insights on 
distributional issues. Work was undertaken from a theoreti-
cal  perspective  and  sheds  light  on  critical  relationships 
among  progressive  income  taxes,  economic  growth  and 
income distribution.

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The researchers developed a baseline theoretical model to 
study the dynamic effects of tax policy changes. The model 
helped to produce insights regarding the nature of dynamic 
responses to the progressivity of tax policy by different 
income groups. It also generated knowledge on the aggre-
gate response of the economy.

A major finding was that, overall, an increase in progressiv-
ity involves a long-run trade-off between growth and ine-
quality. Project research showed, however, that tax schedule 
changes can be made in a way that maintains the initial 
growth rate and still reduces long-run inequality. Different 
income groups have sharply contrasting responses, and so 
a  focus  on  economy-wide  averages  does  not  provide  a 
complete picture.

A manuscript outlining this model is under review for pub-
lication in the Journal of Public Economic Theory.

The findings of one project study (using a version of the 
baseline model and focusing on Germany and the United 
States) suggest that the degree of progressivity is a major 
factor in explaining patterns of labour supply over time. 
Study  results  have  been  published  in  the  Journal  of 
Economic Dynamics & Control.

Another study applying the model looked at flat tax reforms 
and explored the effects of adopting two revenue-neutral 
tax reforms on equity, efficiency and societal welfare. Yet 

another version of the baseline model included productive 
government  spending  and  informal  production.  Including 
informality offers a more complete picture of the dynamic 
responses of households and a better understanding of the 
effects of tax policy in countries with large informal sectors 
(e.g. Greece, Italy, Turkey).

PROGTAX’s theoretical models and their applications can be 
used to analyse and assess aggregate and distributional 
effects of income tax policy with respect to major socio-
economic issues. They hold for both Europe and the United 
States  and  support  policy  decision-making  relevant  to 
trade-offs  among  progressive  income  taxes,  economic 
growth and distributional concerns.

PROGTAX

 Coordinated by Boğaziçi University in Turkey.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/169827_en.html

THE PLIGHT OF MIGRANT WORKERS

An EU team has studied the circumstances of migrant workers, recommending policy change. Industries 
in Greece and the United Kingdom that rely on agency workers are effectively unregulated, often operating 
illegally while exploiting and mistreating vulnerable people.

Large numbers of migrant workers 

are often available and willing to 
take low-status, low-pay jobs. Yet, 
such people’s movement towards and 
within  the  EU  labour  market  is 
restricted, hence social networks often 
create back-door pathways to entry.

The EU-funded JOBS TO RENT (Migration 
and temporary agency work in the EU 
welfare, tourist and agricultural sectors) 
project aimed to investigate the issues. 
The  study  documented  the  different 
forms that flexible migrant labour may 
take, plus factors affecting temporary 

agency work in certain economic sec-
tors. Data were taken from two coun-
tries very different in terms of legislation 
concerning agency work: Greece and the 
United Kingdom. A further goal was to 
produce  an  informed  policy  analysis. 
The  two-year  project  concluded  in 
September 2014.

Greek  firms  using  temporary  labour 
may  be  subjected  to  a  stricter  legal 
framework than their United Kingdom 
counterparts. Yet, the employment con-
ditions of agency workers were almost 
unregulated. Agencies often exploited 

workers, and created sector monopo-
lies for themselves despite laws.

In  the  United  Kingdom,  regulations 
have  been  largely  circumvented  by 
businesses and agencies, particularly in 
the  food  industry.  Companies  and 
agencies switched workers to contracts 

“Agencies often exploited 
workers, and created sector 
monopolies for themselves 
despite laws.”

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
22

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

offering worse pay and conditions, and 
routinely discharged employees before 
they  reached  the  12-week  equal  pay 
qualifying  period.  However,  in  certain 
sectors, including agriculture, employers 
used a greater number of non-agency 
workers. Nevertheless, the recruitment 
of such workers may still involve agen-
cies abroad and various illegal practices. 
The study concluded that in this coun-
try’s  case,  monitoring  may  be  more 
effective than further legislation.

Other  European  countries  demon-
strated social and financial support for 

agency workers, and illustrated the role 
of  collective  bargaining  above  the 
company level for worker protection.

The JOBS TO RENT project revealed the 
situation regarding labour migration in 
the  EU.  The  outcomes  have  policy 
implications,  and  the  project  team 
offered four recommendations.

JOBS TO RENT

  Coordinated by the University of Bath 

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

rcn/169853_en.html

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NEW CONSERVATION PRODUCTS FOR HISTORIC 
BUILDING MATERIALS 
The deterioration of historic buildings has become an increasingly urgent issue and consequently so has 
the need for more sustainable management of the built heritage. An EU initiative has developed complex 
new materials designed specifically to restore heritage materials.

in Bucharest). The impact on human health and the envi-
ronment was also tested.

Finally, the optimal processing parameters for industrial 
production  were  defined  and  an  economic  cost-benefit 
analysis of the new products performed. An exploitation 
plan mainly tailored to small and medium-sized enterprises 
was  also  produced.  This  led  to  a  business  model  that 
assesses their marketability and the possible risks during 
commercialisation.

By developing advanced and sustainable nano-structured 
materials  as  an  alternative  to  conventional  products, 
NANOMATCH will help reverse the decay of historic mate-
rials. The project will ultimately improve the preservation 
of Europe’s valuable built heritage. 

NANOMATCH 

 Coordinated by the National Council of Research in Italy.
 Funded under FP7-ENVIRONMENT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/92871_en.html
Project website:  

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

  http://bit.ly/1WPaQFv

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Natural weathering of historic surfaces is made worse 

by increased atmospheric pollution and accelerated 
climate change. Moreover, the use of inappropriate 
commercial preservatives has been identified as a major 
contributor to building deterioration. Therefore, there is a 
demand to improve the current restoration products and 
methodologies or to develop new, valid alternatives for the 
conservation  and 
preservation  of 
monuments,  safe-
guarding their cul-
tural  values  and 
their 
improving 
future usability.

“The new treatments were 
assessed on a variety of 
selected substrates in terms 
of workability, efficacy, 
compatibility and durability in 
comparison with a range of 
commercial products.”

The  EU-funded 
NANOMATCH (Nano-  
systems  for  the 
conservation  of 
immoveable and moveable polymaterial cultural heritage 
in a changing environment) project aimed to address this 
problem by creating complex, nano-structured materials 
that are specifically designed to preserve historic wood, 
stone, stone-like and glass materials.

Nano-suspensions of calcium alkoxides, precursors of the 
corresponding carbonate, were synthesised to increase the 
strength in stone and stone-like materials, as well as to 
provide alkaline supply in wooden substrates. Molecularly 
dispersed aluminium alkoxide, precursor of Al2O3, already 
developed in the EU project CONSTGLASS, was optimised 
to allow penetration in the smallest cracks (< 5μm) of cor-
roded glass.

The new treatments were assessed on a variety of selected 
substrates in terms of workability, efficacy, compatibility 
and durability in comparison with a range of commercial 
products. Treated model samples and degraded historical 
substrates were first analysed in the laboratory and then 
before and after one year of exposure in the field, through 
cases studies in places of worship in Germany (Cologne 
Cathedral),  Spain  (Oviedo  Cathedral),  Italy  (Santa  Croce 
Basilica in Florence) and Romania (Stavropoleos Monastery 

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
 
 
 
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E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

DEMO PLANTS SHOW 
POTENTIAL OF ALGAE AS 
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SOURCE
Results from an EU-funded project show that ethanol, biodiesel and  
bio-products can be sustainably and efficiently produced from algae on 
a large scale.

The  BIOFAT  (BIOfuel  From  Algae 

Technologies) project — which runs 
until  April  2016  —  has  confirmed 
algae’s potential as a sustainable source 
of  biofuel  and  bio-products  with  low 
greenhouse gas emissions. Pilot-scale pro-
cessing facilities, each half a hectare in 
size, were constructed in Italy and Portugal, 
and a scaled-up 10-hectare demonstra-
tion facility is currently being finalised. 

Sustainability  has  been  the  key  factor 
throughout the project, with consortium 
partners focusing on both environmental 
issues  (for  example  the  use  of  marine 
strains of algae to limit freshwater use) 
and economic issues (such as achieving 
low  energy  consumption).  These  plants 
have demonstrated exactly how generat-
ing biofuels from algae technologies will 
work from an economic standpoint, and 
shown  that  large-scale  microalgae  pro-
duction  platforms  can  be  operated 
efficiently. 

Green algae — a common garden pond 
nuisance — have immense potential as a 
new  sustainable  and  affordable  energy 
source. Key benefits include the fact that 
algae  are  among  the  fastest  growing 

photosynthetic organisms. They can dou-
ble their numbers every few hours and be 
harvested daily. They also have the poten-
tial to produce a volume of biomass and 
biofuel many times greater than that of 
our most productive crops.

Algae also store energy in the form of oils 
and carbohydrates, which, combined with 
their high productivity, means they can 
produce from 2 000 to as many as 5 000 
gallons  of  biofuels  per  acre  per  year. 
Algae produce oils that can be converted 
into biodiesel and carbohydrates, which 
can then be fermented into ethanol. 

After  oil  extraction,  the  remaining  algal 
biomass can be dried and ‘pelletised’ and 
then used as fuel that is burned in indus-
trial boilers and other power generation 
sources. Algae can also be cultivated to 
produce a variety of products for large to 
small  markets:  plastics,  chemical  feed-
stocks,  lubricants,  fertilisers  and  even 
cosmetics. 

BIOFAT is part of a concerted effort by the 
EU to tap into alternative forms of energy, 
in order to effectively address issues such 
as climate change and the impact of fuel 

crops  on  food  production  and  land  use 
change. The project is one of three large-
scale,  industry-led  initiatives  aimed  at 
demonstrating the production of algal bio-
fuels along the whole value chain, cover-
ing strain selection, algae cultivation and 
production, oil extraction, biofuel produc-
tion and biofuel testing in transportation 
applications.

Key findings from this so-called ‘Algae 
Cluster’  were  discussed  at  the  Third 
European  Workshop  on  LCA  (life  cycle 
assessments)  for  Algal  Biofuels  and 
Biomaterials  in  May  2015  in  Brussels, 
Belgium. The workshop addressed issues 
relating to up-scaling, a central concern 
of the BIOFAT project.

BIOFAT

  Coordinated by A4F Algafuel  

in Portugal.

 Funded under FP7-ENERGY.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/123956_en.html 

 Project website:  

http://www.biofatproject.eu/

ENERGY AND TRANSPORTresearch*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
24

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

ENERGY DENSE LITHIUM BATTERY 
FOR THE ELECTRIC CAR SECTOR
EU-funded researchers have developed a new energy dense lithium-sulphur battery 
with the potential to keep products running longer on a single charge.

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The innovation could have significant potential for the 

growing electric car market, where consumer appeal 
has been somewhat limited due to the need to recharge 
at  frequent  intervals.  New  battery  technology  being  pio-
neered by the EU-funded LISSEN (Lithium Sulfur Superbattery 
Exploitating  Nanotechnology)  project  addresses  this  by 
offering three times greater energy density and enabling 
longer driving distances, making electric cars more practical 
and attractive. For Europe’s burgeoning electric car industry, 
this means increased competitiveness. 

There are potential environmental benefits for Europe as 
well. Electric vehicles emit no tailpipe CO2 or other pollut-
ants such as NOx, NMHC and PM at the point of use. Broad 
adoption of renewable and carbon-free energy sources in 
the transport sector could help the EU meet its targets on 
CO2 emission reductions. Electric cars also provide quiet 
and smooth operation and consequently create less noise 
and vibration.

‘Market predictions foresee several million electric cars on 
the  road  by  the  year  2030,  with  “Plug-in  hybrid  electric 
vehicles” (PHEV) and electrical vehicles expected to account 
for 39 % of new sales by 2035,’ says project coordinator 
Riccardo Carelli from Consorzio Sapienza Innovazione, Italy. 
‘The success of this market however depends on the avail-
ability of efficient batteries to power these electric engines.’

There is significant potential for longer-lasting recharge-
able batteries in other applications as well, ranging from 
laptops and cameras to power tools. Even renewable source 
storage facilities make use of rechargeable batteries. The 
LISSEN project therefore taps into a market that is full of 
potential:  the  global  rechargeable  batteries  market  was 
worth  EUR  8  billion  in  2008  and  is  predicted  to  top  
EUR 28 billion by the end of 2015. 

‘Steady  growth  has  been  estimated  at  between  10  and 
20 % annually, mostly driven by “lithium” (Li)-ion batteries,’ 
adds Carelli. ‘The global market for Li-ion batteries in light 
duty vehicles is predicted to grow from EUR 1.2 billion in 
2012 to almost EUR 22 billion in 2020.’ 

The LISSEN project, which was completed at the end of 
August 2015, covered all aspects of battery production, 
from  investigating  new  materials  to  testing  large-scale 
prototypes. 3D geometric models were used to represent 
material properties. This revealed that the use of modified 
organic solutions and stable ionic liquid electrolytes could 
reduce environmental problems associated with sulphur 
cathode dissolution. Added to this, without lithium metal 
the batteries would be safer to use.

The new battery developed by LISSEN consists of a silicon-
carbon composite anode and a nano-structured lithium sul-
phide-carbon composite cathode. ‘Our efforts in this project 
were directed toward the replacement of all present bat-
tery components with materials that have higher perfor-
mance in terms of energy, power, reliability and safety,’ 
explains Carelli. Prototypes are currently under develop-
ment at the battery testing centres and industrial partners 
involved in the LISSEN consortium, where scalability issues 
and fabrication aspects are now being studied.

LISSEN

 Coordinated by Sapienza Innovazione in Italy.
 Funded under FP7-NMP.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/123986_en.html 
Project website:  

http://www.lissen.eu/

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

25

OMNIFLOW TECHNOLOGY COMBINES SOLAR 
AND WIND ENERGY
Omniflow’s novel technology combines a vertical axis wind turbine with photovoltaic 
panels. And now, thanks to EU funding, the company is on track to extend the range of 
applications of this revolutionary device.

Altogether, Omniflow promises energy 
bill reductions, higher energy produc-
tion than with standard turbines, low 
noise emissions, no nuisance for birds, 
no vibration transition to the mast and 
ground,  and  three  solar  zones  with 
independent  ‘Maximum  power  point 
tracking’ (MPPT) for reduced shading 
impact.  The  company  targets  house-
holds and commercial buildings alike, 
and advises potential customers on the 
best solution based on their location.

‘The  average  daily  production  really 
depends mostly on site conditions, like 
the average annual wind speed, but a 
good site can have a return on invest-
ment  within  five  to  eight  years,  a 
major part of this return depending on 
the local cost of energy,’ Ruão notes. 
‘That’s why we always need to ana-
lyse local conditions and after that we 
can decide what system to use.’

Unlimited applications

The company proposes three models 
for energy production and another one 
for Smart Street Lighting (Omnilight). 
Identifying high-potential markets for 
these solutions and other future offer-
ings was at the heart of the feasibility 
study funded under the Horizon 2020 
OMNIFLOW  (Next-generation  hybrid 
wind and solar power technology) pro-
ject, where Ruão and his team learned 
a great deal.

‘Our  feasibility  study  shows  that  the 
intended development of a rugged line of 

Omniflow products for harsh environments 
— extreme cold and windy locations, mari-
time  environments  (sea  buoys)  and  hot 
deserts — will surely be a source of suc-
cess.  It  will  create  new  markets  for  the 
application of Omniflow technology and 
contribute to possible technical improve-
ments to our regular line of products.’

One of the focuses of the company over 
the next few months will be drafting its 
phase 2 application, so that the Omniflow 
systems can be tested in the harsh envi-
ronments mentioned. The new systems 
could, notably, be used to power surveil-
lance  and  monitoring  systems,  mobile 
telecommunication towers, military and 
humanitarian base stations or sea buoys, 
and also provide off-grid street lighting 
— the company’s most recently discov-
ered application that has already grown 
to become its most important one.

Ruão concludes: ‘We are already work-
ing with large multinationals on this 
line of products, for which the market 
is  becoming  very  sensitive.  If  our 
phase 2 application gets the expected 
approval in early 2016, we expect to 
commercialise  Omniflow  NEXT  and 
our rugged line of products in 2018.’

OMNIFLOW

 Coordinated by Omniflow in Portugal.
 Funded under H2020-SME Instrument.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/123891_en.html 

Project website:  
http://omniflow.pt/

  http://bit.ly/1jclYgY 

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While wind and solar energy may 

well help decrease businesses’ 
and households’ carbon foot-
print and reduce energy costs, they also 
have  significant  shortcomings.  First, 
solar energy can only be collected dur-
ing  the  day,  while  wind  turbines  are 
much more efficient at night. Second, 
standard wind turbines’ unidirectional 
axis  performs  poorly  in  turbulent, 
changeable  urban  wind  conditions.  In 
other words, these energy sources need 
backup from standard electricity grids 
or powerful battery technology in order 
to sustain 24/7 electricity demand.

This is where Omniflow comes into play. 
The patented technology, which recently 
received EU support under phase 1 of 
Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument, solves 
all of these problems with a novel tur-
bine design harnessing both wind and 
solar energy simultaneously. ‘Because 
we  combine  two  sources  of  energy 
instead of just harnessing light or wind, 
we don’t need to resort to the big battery 
banks required by standard equipment. 
And  the  Omniflow  batteries  will  last 
longer because they discharge less and 
have fewer cycles over time,’ explains 
Pedro Ruão, CEO of Omniflow. ‘Also the 
fact  that  wind  usually  blows  stronger 
during the winter and that the sun shines 
longer  in  summertime  makes  these 
energy sources complementary, which is 
very convenient for the storage compo-
nents. This way we can have more sta-
ble and reliable systems, with batteries 
lasting 16  years or even longer.’

Trapping the wind wherever 
it comes from

Some  could  say  Omniflow  is  a  UFO  by 
today’s  renewable  energy  production 
standards, which coincidentally is precisely 
what  it  looks  like:  the  modular,  wing-
shaped airfoils combine in a circular device 
which  sits  on  a  mast  of  variable  size 
depending on the application. At its centre 
swirls a vertical axis turbine capturing and 
accelerating the wind from any direction, 
while the air passing above the turbine 
combines with the air stream coming from 
the turbine in a cyclonic updraft vortex 
flow. Icing on the cake, the surface of the 
device is covered by photovoltaic cells.

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
26

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

ENHANCING THE GLOBAL TRAVEL  
EXPERIENCE

Integrating  international,  multimodal  journey  planning  remains  a  challenge. 
Building on an earlier initiative in intermodal transport, an EU initiative designed 
an enhanced online and mobile platform enabling travellers to optimise their trips 
and travel more easily.

“Team members developed 
a set of algorithms for 
journey planning and 
re-planning and for 
specifying trip strategies.”

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The EU-funded ENHANCED WISETRIP (Enhancing inter-

modality  of  content,  personalised  information  and 
functionality of WISETRIP network of journey planning 
engines) project was set up to build on the results of its 
predecessor,  which  provided  personalised  multimodal 
travel information.

Project partners considered several criteria in planning a 
journey, namely carbon dioxide emissions, the needs and 
preferences of elderly, disabled, business and tourist trav-
ellers, time, cost and number of hops. To improve plan-
ning, they devised strategies that take into consideration 
different  unforeseen  events.  Dynamic  trip  re-planning 
based on real-time updates of the transport network was 
introduced.

The  team  addressed  door-to-door  journey  planning  and 
provided the option of integrated ticketing. It employed the 
most advanced web and mobile interfaces and handheld 
and  in-vehicle  devices  for  urban  and  interurban  journey 
planning services. Team members developed a set of algo-
rithms for journey planning and re-planning and for speci-
fying trip strategies.

Lastly, the consortium validated the unified journey plan-
ner system that addresses delays, cancellations and mis-
takes made by the traveller during the journey. It takes into 
consideration mobility constraints such as accessibility for 
various categories of users. Another advantage involves 
enabling passengers to choose among multimodal interna-
tional travel options. This also accounts for their perfor-
mance  in  terms  of  travel  time,  number  of  hops  and 
emissions. Other journey planners and real-time data pro-
viders can also be integrated into the system.

ENHANCED WISETRIP introduced a cutting-edge platform 
for  optimised  planning,  booking  and  travel  assistance. 
International travellers now have an indispensable tool at 
their fingertips that meets all their needs.

ENHANCED WISETRIP

   Coordinated by the Hellenic Telecommunications  
& Telematics Applications Company in Greece.

 Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/92973_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.wisetrip-eu.org/ 

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

27

INNOVATIVE DOCKING TOOL FOR CARGO 
SHIPPING
EU-funded researchers have developed a tool to help cargo ships dock safely, reducing 
the risk of accidents and spillages and speeding up operations.

The EU-backed DOCKINGMONITOR 

(Development of automated com-
bined berthing aid and drift moni-
toring  system  for 
large  ships, 
particularly oil and LNG gas tankers) 
project, which was completed in August 
2015,  has  improved  automated  port 
safety systems by combining a berth-
ing aid with a drift monitoring system. 
Drift  monitoring  involves  measuring 
the movement of a ship along a jetty 
during cargo transfer. 

“Data from the system can 
be transmitted to displays, 
PCs and handheld devices, 
while the integrated alarm 
system alerts jetty and ship 
crews if there is potential 
danger.”

The berthing aid uses high-end laser 
distance  measurement  and  image 
processing and sends an alarm signal 
in the event of collision danger. The 
ability  to  efficiently  and  accurately 
measure drift along the jetty during 
cargo transfer is a feature that is cur-
rently not directly available today.

Major  logistics  companies,  harbour 
operation  managers  and  oil  and  gas 
companies stand to benefit from this 
innovation. The berthing of large ships 
—  especially  those  laden  with  oil  or 
natural  gas  —  can  be  fraught  with 
danger. Excess speed upon approach to 
a jetty can cause damage to the struc-
ture, fenders and ship hull. Each year, a 
considerable amount of money is spent 
on repairing damaged ships and moor-
ing  facilities  due  to  ships  accidently 
running  into  the  jetty.  Furthermore, 
injuries from mooring accidents can be 
very serious and sometimes fatal.

The consequences of an oil spill during 
the loading and unloading of oil and 
natural gas, in most cases caused by 
excess  movement  of  the  ship  while 
moored,  can  also  be  serious.  These 
types of spills are responsible for many 
small and medium-sized oil spills that 
occur,  and  can  cost  the  oil  and  gas 

industry millions ever year. The reputa-
tion harm caused by oil spills is another 
significant burden on the sector. At the 
same  time,  the  number  of  oil  jetties 
around the world has increased, while 
demand for more jetties specifically for 
natural gas continues to grow. 

system and dummy hull. More realistic 
trials were also conducted at the Port of 
Oslo using a 3D scanner. The original 
aim — the measurement of longitudi-
nal movement of a moored ship with an 
uncertainty smaller than 10 millimetres 
a second — was achieved.

This implies a clear need to improve har-
bour operational safety, and also repre-
sents a business opportunity, as identified 
by the DOCKINGMONITOR consortium. 

The  project’s  combined  berthing  aid 
and drift monitoring system is based 
on high-end laser distance measure-
ment and image processing which sig-
nificantly 
improve  port  safety 
automation. Data from the system can 
be  transmitted  to  displays,  PCs  and 
handheld devices, while the integrated 
alarm  system  alerts  jetty  and  ship 
crews if there is potential danger.

In order to develop the new drift sys-
tem,  the  team  analysed  various 
motion  measuring  algorithms  and 
selected  the  most  suitable.  After 
acquiring  the  necessary  lighting  and 
optical  equipment,  researchers  con-
ducted performance tests with a robot 

The  DOCKINGMONITOR  project 
brought  together  expertise  from  a 
range of disciplines and sectors. Close 
cooperation  between  researchers 
involved in machine vision program-
ming, laser technology, control elec-
tronics  and  automation,  along  with 
jetty owners and shipping experts, will 
help  ensure  that  project  results  are 
brought to market.

DOCKINGMONITOR

  Coordinated by Teknologisk Institutt  

in Norway.

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

rcn/123984_en.html 

Project website:  

http://www.dockingmonitorproject.eu/

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research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
28

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015

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

CLEANER SKIES OVER ATHENS
The economic crisis in Greece has had an unexpected surprise for its 
capital. Athens is now registering much less pollution in its atmosphere.

The vibrant, dynamic Greek capital may indeed be a popu-

lar tourist hub with attractions such as the Acropolis, but 
it has generally been a magnet for pollution due to its 
sheer size. Athens’ geographical location in the Attica basin 
surrounded by mountains, including its proximity to the port 
city of Piraeus and nearby industrial area, has exacerbated this 
phenomenon. Among the more dangerous pollutants in the 
greater region’s atmosphere is ‘nitrogen dioxide’ (NO2) pro-
duced from industry and transport emissions, endangering the 
health of its 4 million inhabitants.

“The results from both  
sources showed a more than 
30 % drop in NO2 levels 
measured by the reduction in 
vertical NO2 columns.”

Specifically, NO2 is known to cause respiratory problems and is 
behind several EU laws that try to limit pollution. With this in 
mind,  the  EU-funded 
project  PARTHENO2N 
(Pollution  of  air  in  the 
extended  region  of 
Athens:  Space-based 
Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) 
observations and their 
c o m p a r i s o n   w i t h 
remote  and  ground-
based measurements and modeling simulations) assessed the 
seriousness of the threat. It studied NO2 levels in the city’s 
atmosphere and built computer models in order to assess the 
impact of the pollutant.

To achieve its aims, the project looked at satellite observations 
of NO2 levels from 2003 to 2012 over Greece and specifically 
Athens. It then examined NO2 levels as registered by ground-
based equipment from 2000 to 2012 to simulate NO2 concen-
trations as accurately as possible.

Interestingly, the results from both sources showed a more 
than 30 % drop in NO2 levels measured by the reduction in ver-
tical NO2 columns. This was attributed directly to the economic 
crisis as many inhabitants migrated to rural areas, businesses 
closed  down  and  the  high  fuel  prices  discouraged  private 
transport.

In all, PARTHENO2N demonstrated a novel approach to corrob-
orating ground and satellite data on pollution levels, giving pol-
icymakers  better  information  on  managing  pollution.  The 
results could help Athens seize this golden opportunity to keep 
pollution  levels  down  by  creating  a  more  sustainable  city 
post-crisis.

PARTHENO2N

 Coordinated by the Academy of Athens in Greece.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/169782_en.html

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

29

IMPROVED AND INCREASED TURBOT 
PRODUCTION
A team of EU scientists has worked to optimise conditions in turbot farming in 
order to provide a better quality fish product. The aim was not only to boost the 
turbot aquaculture industry, but also to safeguard the welfare of this rich food 
resource.

Turbot  (Scophthalmus  maximus) 

is  an  excellent  candidate  for 
marine aquaculture, but consum-
ers still consider it an exclusive fish. If 
it  is  to  be  more  widely  available  to 
consumers,  production  costs  will  
first  need  to  be  reduced,  without  
compromising sustainability or 
welfare.

Over  the  last  20  years, 
European production of 
turbot  has  increased 
from  around  100  to 
over  11 000  metric 
tonnes.  However, 
in 
order  to  further  expand 
the  production  beyond 
this  figure,  new  biological 
and technological solutions are 
required.

The aim of the MAXIMUS (Innovative 
rearing and stunning of farmed turbot 
and  sole  to  meet  future  challenges 
regarding  quality  of  production  and 
animal welfare) project was to opti-
mise conditions for farmed turbot. The 
consortium  worked  closely  with  fish 
farmers  to  ensure  that  the  entire 
value chain was improved, from the 
input  resources  required  through  to 
the final product.

Researchers  investigated  the  best 
lighting  and  feeding  conditions  to 
enhance fish development, yield and 
shelf life. They also assessed current 
vaccination strategies and the effect 
of  different  diets  on  fish  immune 
response.

Better slaughtering procedures such 
as live chilling or stunning with elec-
tricity were also studied. Researchers 
worked  closely  with  small  and 
medium-sized enterprises to develop 
an  electrical  stunner  for  turbot  
and sole, which is now commercially 
available.

An  important  aspect  of  the  project 
was ensuring that the welfare of the 
fish was properly monitored and con-
trolled during husbandry and slaugh-
ter.  To  this  end,  the  internationally 
recognised ‘Hazard analysis & critical 

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control points’ (HACCP) quality assur-
ance system was adapted to control 
food safety at the industrial and retail 
levels for selected fish species.

Implementation  of  the  project’s 
results will greatly contribute to the 
utilisation of turbot and other flatfish 
species  in  Europe.  This  will  promote 
growth  in  the  European  aquaculture 
industry  and  its  related  production 
chain,  thereby  generating  employ-
ment opportunities. It will also lead to 
a more diverse supply of high-quality 
aquaculture products throughout the 
year, encouraging more fish consump-
tion among European customers and 
contributing to increased demand for 
fish products.

With such a strong focus on fish wel-
fare, reduced production time, and cost 
and resource efficiency, MAXIMUS will 
significantly improve the competitive-
ness of European turbot aquaculture.

“Implementation of the 
project’s results will greatly 
contribute to the utilisation of 
turbot and other flatfish 
species in Europe.”

MAXIMUS

  Coordinated by Akvaplan-niva  

in Norway.

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

rcn/152056_en.html

Project website:  

http://maximusproject.com/no/ 

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
30

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

BEE MOVEMENTS CONTROL REPRODUCTION
Researchers have tracked thousands of individual honeybees in a hive to better understand how they 
communicate and transfer pathogens.

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The EU-funded BEESPATNET (Mapping spatial interaction 
networks in honeybee colonies) project aimed to track the 
movements of individual bees within the hive, focusing in 
particular on the movements of the queen bee.

BEESPATNET modified a tagging system used to track ants 
for use with bees. This involved attaching an electronic tag 
to the body of 1 000 newly hatched bees as well as the 
queen, and tracking those bees for 31 days. This period is 
the lifespan of an average worker bee.

The project recorded daily movements of each bee, as well 
as interactions between bees. From this data they created 
individual trajectories as well as contact networks, where 
nodes represented two bees meeting.

The project found that the queen’s movements (within a 
limited area of the nest) maximise the spread of ‘Queen 
mandibular pheromone’ (QMP). This is the signal by which 
the queen prevents workers from laying eggs and inhibits 
them from raising a new queen.

Researchers  also  investigated  how  worker  movement 
spreads QMP throughout the hive. This knowledge will help 
the  bee  industry  better  control  when  hives  create  new 
queens and split into two colonies.

Honeybees are under threat globally from the epidemic 

known as colony collapse disorder, caused by a num-
ber  of  pathogens,  insecticides  and  other,  unknown 
factors. Understanding how bees in a hive interact with one 
another can help scientists understand communication and 
disease transmission.

BEESPATNET

 Coordinated by the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/169899_en.html

PLANKTON MONITORING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
An EU project has collected data and improved models of plankton ecology in the Atlantic and Southern 
Oceans, with far-reaching effects on climate change modelling.

Plankton plays a crucial role in the 

marine ecosystem by assimilating 
‘carbon dioxide’ (CO2) and forming 
the base of the marine food web. To bet-
ter  understand  climate  change, 
researchers need a better grasp of how 
plankton influences ecological and bio-
chemical processes in global oceans.

To  achieve  this  goal,  the  GREENSEAS 
(Development  of  global  plankton  data 
base and model system for eco-climate 
early warning) project developed multiple 
simulation models of plankton ecology. 
Modelling included water colour meas-
urements,  nitrogen  uptake  and  geo-
graphical distribution of the plankton in 
the Atlantic and Southern Oceans.

“Minute changes in 
phytoplankton mass and 
distribution dictate significant 
changes in fish populations.”

The GREENSEAS project team first col-
lected historic data of plankton distri-
bution  in  the  Arctic,  Atlantic,  Nordic 
and Southern Oceans. The next step 
was  to  generate  a  database  of  the 
sea-air CO2 flux in the South Atlantic 
Ocean.  Finally,  they  collected  new 
data  characterising  the  physical-
chemical  environment  and  phyto-
plankton  community  structure  and 
productivity.

Modelling these parameters allowed 
scientists to generate simulations of 
phytoplankton behaviour in response 
to  environmental  changes.  Minute 
changes  in  phytoplankton  mass  and 
distribution dictate significant changes 
in fish populations. That in turn may 
require a major policy overhaul to pro-
tect fishing resources.

GREENSEAS developed new indicators 
for changes in planktonic ecosystems. 
Researchers  also  found  that  current 

proxies  for  productivity  in  plankton 
communities  are  not  very  accurate, 
suggesting  that  these  should  be 
recalculated.

Lastly, the project created a web portal 
for  researchers  and  policymakers  to 
access  data  and  analysis  on  plankton 
activity in these oceans. The GREENSEAS 
project may contribute to improved cli-
mate  change  monitoring,  which  will 
improve  decision  making  for  human 
health, the environment and marine life.

GREENSEAS

  Coordinated by the Nansen Center  

in Norway.

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

rcn/90730_en.html

Project website:  

http://www.greenseas.eu/

  http://bit.ly/1QaLBJX 

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
 
I T   A N D   T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

31

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TURNKEY SOLUTION  
FOR A CONNECTED  
SELF-SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
A few years after they made barcode readers available to their clients, 
shops and supermarkets across Europe are now getting ready for digital 
wallet services. But what they may not know is that, somewhere in 
Porto, a startup has already moved on to the next step: an app that lets 
customers manage their entire shopping experience, with no need for 
additional equipment.

‘YouBeep is the first mobile checkout solution to be made 

available to all retailers, instead of a custom product 
that needs to be highly modified to meet the require-
ments of each retailer’s existing equipment, requiring extensive 
development,’ explains João Rodrigues, co-founder and CEO of 
Xhockware.

The new app is the first product to be developed by the startup, 
set up in early 2014. The technology at its core has been pat-
ented by Rodrigues and his team, and the EU immediately saw 
its  potential:  in  February  2015,  the  company  was  granted  
EUR 50 000 of H2020 funding under the SME Instrument to 
conduct a feasibility study under the YOUBEEP (InStore mobile 
shopping and analytics) project.

‘The feasibility report from phase 1 helped us promote the app 
to retailers, demonstrate the viability of the business model, 
estimate its potential reach, and fine tune the pricing model,’ 
says Rodrigues. And he can clearly boast that YouBeep lived up 
to the hype: the app has been tested by three food retailers in 
Portugal, and by no means the smallest. The shortlist includes 
LIDL, the fifth largest food retailer in the world, and Pingo Doce, 
top retailer in Portugal. Trials have been running for an aver-
age four months now, and over 40 000 people have already 
downloaded and tested the app. According to a GFK study, 91 % 

of these customers said that they liked the system and that 
they systematically used it in their favourite store.

But what’s the recipe behind this growing success? Rodrigues 
explains: ‘When you consider a retail operation, the most valu-
able  piece  of software, that handles  all the revenue, is the 
“Point of sale” (POS). All alternatives to YouBeep require soft-
ware or APIs to be included in this POS. This leads to high costs, 
and takes a long time in analysis, development and testing 
before being available. With YouBeep, on the other hand, we 
propose a small pluggable device for which basic configuration 
can take as little as two hours, after which mobile checkout 
becomes available by integration with the existing system. All 
this with no software development, and a SaaS model lower-
ing the “Total cost of ownership” (TCO).’ Xhockware indicates 
that, with this process, checkout can be three times faster than 
with conventional technology. The shopping experience is more 
convenient for customers while reducing staff-related cost for 
retailers.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg. YouBeep goes beyond the 
mobile checkout solution by helping customers at all stages of 
their  shopping  experience.  They  can  create  and  share  their 
shopping list, receive coupons and promotions from retailers, 
be granted in-store rewards, share the best deals with their 
friends or find the nearest YouBeep-enabled store.

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
32

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

The way forward

One of the main things Xhockware learned from the phase 1 
feasibility  study  is  that  their  initial  estimates  for  the 
YouBeep share of transactions in equipped stores were too 
conservative.  ‘Reality  exceeded  our  expectations  by  far, 
with usage reaching 10 times our initial estimates,’ says 
Rodrigues. ‘At the same time the willingness to pay for the 
service was overestimated, which means our original rev-
enue model for transaction fees will need to be reviewed. 
So overall, the business potential is bigger than originally 
expected, thanks to a larger volume but with lower fees.’

While the startup has already established some partner-
ships,  mostly  with  technical  and  support  services,  other 
partnerships  for  business  development  have  been  post-
poned to a later stage. The focus of Rodrigues and his team 
is now on their recently filed application for phase 2 fund-
ing. If successful, this would allow them to speed up the 
time to market and the international growth of the com-
pany ‘by helping to finance the research and the hiring of 

all the talented people necessary to help us with the jour-
ney and challenges ahead.’

The developers are still at the very start of their technolog-
ical  roadmap,  with  in-app  features  being  worked  on  to 
improve the service, and provide ‘more fun’ and a more 
convenient shopping experience. But Rodrigues knows that 
the key ingredients to success are already there: ‘The most 
frequent comment on the app is to ask when the system 
will be available at other stores, so we are confident that 
we are on the right path.’

YOUBEEP

 Coordinated by Xhockware in Portugal.
 Funded under H2020-SME Instrument.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/123928_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.youbeep.com/

  http://bit.ly/1hstZNt 

EFFICIENT CONTROL SOFTWARE
An EU team has created novel embedded control software that more efficiently utilises resources. Work 
addressed interfaces for the system components, being potentially useful in fields such as robotics, 
aviation and industrial machines.

The  EU-funded  RSCS  (Automata 

based  interfaces  for  dynamic 
resource  scheduling  in  control 
systems) project addressed a need for 
efficient resource utilisation in embed-
ded control software. The plan was to 
combine control theory and schedul-
ing theory, thereby removing the need 
for strict requirements on hard dead-
lines for software components.

Yet, in addition, the proposal would not 
compromise the ability to use control 
system  components  in  safety-critical 
applications.  The  team  studied  inter-
faces for components of software con-
trol  systems  that  streamline  the 
integration  of  dynamic  scheduling 
mechanisms. Expected benefits included 
efficient resource allocation in critical 
control systems. The principle worked by 
feeding  information  from  the  control 
loop back to the scheduling algorithm, 
thus allowing adaptive adjustments to 
resource allocations. Potential applica-
tions include robots, aircraft and indus-
trial  machines.  The  four-year  project 
ended in August 2014.

RSCS expanded the scope of autom-
ata-based  interfaces.  Researchers 
also provided ways of using automata 
as  a  practical  interface  between 
scheduling and control. The develop-
ment  allowed  dynamic  scheduling, 
formal performance guarantees, and 
separation of concerns between soft-
ware and control engineers.

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The team also created practical mech-
anisms for dynamic resource alloca-
tion.  Results  included  a  lightweight 
decision-making  and  scheduling 
mechanism.  The  outcome  permitted 
control  strategies  that  dynamically 
change resource demands depending 
on conditions.

Another result was experimental tools 
for demonstrating the advantages of 
the  new  approach.  One  tool,  called 
GameComposer,  demonstrated  the 
applicability of the project’s vision via 
case studies.

Finally, the team contributed to formal 
methods and hybrid systems theories.

The RSCS project developed new control 
and design techniques, and contributed 
to  automata  theory,  with  outcomes 
including more flexible interfaces and 
more responsive control systems.

RSCS

  Coordinated by Ben-Gurion University 

of the Negev in Israel.

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

rcn/169864_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
I T   A N D   T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

33

SPYING OUT USER PREFERENCES
Although written information has been gathered since the beginning of recorded history, the rate of data 
acquisition has surged in today’s computer world, with no end in sight. EU-funded scientists have worked 
on tools for online resources to track and analyse usage patterns and preferences.

The World Wide Web was regarded by scientists working 

on the project EVALUATE (Theory and practice of algo-
rithms for analysis of people and data on the web) as 
the largest database available. This collection of data com-
ing  from  social  networks,  e-commerce  systems  and  e-  
government — just to name a few — is so broad and complex 
that it is difficult for users to find the desired information.

Adapting a search engine to cater to specific user needs is still 
an open research problem that the EVALUATE team sought to 
address. Users reveal their preferences through the choices 
they make. These choices may be for example the click on a 
particular  link  in  a  web  search  ranking.  Previous  studies 
employed  users’ 
explicit  feedback  to 
adapt  the  search 
engine ranking.

“In contrast to traditional 
(passive) learning, the new 
tools may collect a pool of 
instances and then choose a 
subset for which data are 
available.”

Users  are,  however, 
usually  unwilling  to 
give  explicit  feed-
back,  making  the 
feedback  received 
too limited to be rep-
resentative.  To  overcome  this  problem,  the  researchers 
developed active learning algorithms using implicit feed-
back data to optimise the ranking functions. In contrast to 

traditional (passive) learning, the new tools may collect a 
pool of instances and then choose a subset for which data 
are available.

EVALUATE researchers focused on two applications: learn-
ing to rank pairwise preferences and clustering with addi-
tional  information  coming  in  the  form  of  pairwise 
constraints. The goal was to order linearly elements from 
the most to the least preferred while disagreeing with as 
few pairwise preferences or constraints as possible. The 
new  techniques  were  proven  to  outperform  previous 
algorithms.

The  most  popular  online  applications,  including  search 
engines and social networks, depend on the ability to pro-
vide query results, ads and recommendations. Research 
work carried out during the EVALUATE project goes well 
beyond the traditional borders of computer science. The 
multidisciplinary  approach  adopted  to  resolve  problems 
relating to massive data promises to bring humans into the 
data analysis loop at all stages.

EVALUATE

 Coordinated by Technion in Israel.
 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/169881_en.html

AFFORDABLE IT SOLUTIONS TO HELP  
SME LOGISTICS FIRMS GET AHEAD
Affordable, reliable and trusted IT solutions have been developed by EU researchers to help SMEs operate 
effectively in the global logistics sector.

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Logistics  is  about  speed,  security 

and traceability. In a fast-changing 
marketplace, ‘Small and medium-
sized enterprises’  (SMEs) can have a 
hard time competing with major play-
ers who have the resources to adapt 
quickly to new technologies that offer 
ever-more enhanced efficiencies. 

The EU-funded LOGICON (Lean Secure 
and Reliable Logistic Connectivity for 
SMEs) project, which was completed in 
August 2015, sought to level the play-
ing field by testing and facilitating the 
adoption of low-cost, low-barrier tech-
nologies  specifically  targeted  at 
Europe’s smaller firms. These innova-
tive tools include: an easy-to-access 
communication  platform  for  inter-
modal  transport  collaboration;  apps 
and smart devices to support service 
information exchange; and an online 
marketplace  where  SMEs  can  offer 

their transport services to prospective 
clients. 

Project  activities  were  carried  out  in 
four countries addressing the key chal-
lenges  of:  enabling  connectivity  for 
SMEs  acting  in  the  logistics  market; 
engaging  communities  (either  cargo 
communities around port and inland ter-
minals or business networks); and pre-
paring for cooperation in a global freight 
ecosystem. 

In  Poland  for  example,  an  innovative 
communication platform for intermodal 
transport collaboration was established. 
This enables information sharing among 
all parties involved — logistics opera-
tors, rail carriers and container terminal 
managers.  Functionalities  include 
exchange  of  bookings  for  intermodal 
transport, allocation of bookings to rail 
wagons and exchange of loading and 
unloading  plans.  The  Polish  platform 

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
 
34

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

was developed  and  validated  at  the 
Baltic Container Terminal.

“The tools also enable larger 
transport and logistics 
companies to engage with 
SMEs, even those whose 
technology capabilities might 
only stretch to a smartphone.”

Project  partners  in  the  Netherlands 
focused on waterway transport and cre-
ated low-cost dedicated apps and services 
to enable flexible infrastructure planning 
and data sharing. The apps enable barge 
operators and lock operators to communi-
cate and connect to a system where real-
time  terminal  service  information  is 
available. The technology was used and 
tested by Combi Terminal Twente (CTT), 

which operates an inland terminal in the 
Netherlands and provides container ship-
ments to many European destinations. 

In Spain, apps and smart devices were 
developed  to  enable  truck  drivers  to 
exchange  information  such  as  truck 
departure and arrival times, and to create 
and send transport orders and invoices. 
The  tools  also  enable  larger  transport 
and logistics companies to engage with 
SMEs,  even  those  whose  technology 
capabilities might only stretch to a smart-
phone.  This  means  that  major  players 
can access an external fleet of smaller 
logistics specialists when needed, while 
providing the same added value services 
to final customers. 

Finally,  the  project’s  Italian  partners 
delivered a web-based transport mar-
ketplace where logistics providers can 
sell their services and make better use 
of  their  resources.  The  aim  of  this 

service is to reduce both the number 
of  ‘empty  miles’  logistics  providers 
waste and unnecessary emissions by 
ensuring that freight transport is as 
efficient as possible. 

The overall long-term goal of the project 
is  to  make  intermodal  transport  com-
mon practice in supply chain planning, 
and to encourage the adoption of inter-
modal transport as an environmentally-
friendly and energy-efficient approach 
to transportation.

LOGICON

  Coordinated by the Institute of 

Logistics and Warehousing in Poland.

 Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/123961_en.html

Project website:  

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

  http://bit.ly/1OnNxBl 

INCREASING PASSENGER COMFORT  
THANKS TO VIRTUAL REALITY
Air travel is frequently associated with discomfort due to issues with personal space as well as the ability 
to work, sleep or rest. An EU initiative has investigated how to maximise passenger comfort within the 
aircraft’s restricted physical space by changing the perception of self and space.

The EU-funded VR-HYPERSPACE (The innovative use of 

virtual and mixed reality to increase human comfort 
by changing the perception of self and space) project 
set out to increase aircraft passengers’ comfort in 2050 
and beyond.

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To achieve this, project partners combined research in neu-
roscience, the psychology of perception, ‘virtual reality’ (VR) 
and ‘mixed reality’ (MR) to engender ‘positive illusions’ of 
comfort regardless of variation in aircraft cabin interiors.

The team developed scenarios describing the passengers’ 
experiences of comfort and their interactions with others 
and their general environment. A literature review consid-
ered  self-embodiment  in  VR  and  human  perception  of 
space from different perspectives. This led to a vision of 
suitable aircraft cabin interiors for 2050 and beyond for 
several passenger scenarios.

To assess how VR can improve comfort, scientists tested 
the concept during a long-haul flight with headsets used on 
smartphones. They studied whether including VR technol-
ogy in the aircraft itself can enhance comfort.

Mock-ups  of  aeroplane  seating  arrangements  were 
designed and featured TV monitors on the floor and on seat 
backrests that project images onto the walls. The aircraft’s 
shell  and  the  seats  in  front  can  be  switched  to  a  ‘see-
through mode’ that displays aerial views of stunning land-
scapes. Findings indicate that altering body awareness can 
boost perceived levels of comfort and spaciousness.

Lastly, project members drew up a roadmap to support the 
competitiveness  and  sustainability  of  Europe’s  aerospace 
industry and to achieve a high level of comfort for passengers 

through emerging VR and MR technologies and advances 
in neuroscience and psychology.

By exploiting state-of-the-art VR technology, VR-HYPERSPACE 
is poised to transform airline passenger comfort in the second 
half of the century.

VR-HYPERSPACE

  Coordinated by the University of Nottingham  

in the United Kingdom.

 Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/92683_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.vr-hyperspace.eu

  http://bit.ly/1LojmTE

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015

35

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

ROBOTIC CO-WORKER  
FOR EUROPE’S SHIP 
SERVICES SECTOR
EU-funded researchers have developed an award-winning robot to 
carry out tricky manual operations in the challenging environment 
of shipbuilding.

Large semi-structured manufacturing 

spaces present serious challenges to 
robot mobility and reliability. This is 
certainly the case in modern shipbuilding, 
which makes considerable use of prefab-
ricated sections. Entire multi-deck seg-
ments of the hull or superstructure are 
built  in  shipyards,  transported  to  the 
building dock and then lifted into place. 

This is known as block construction, and 
involves arduous, repetitive and poten-
tially dangerous manual work. Introducing 
automation into complex working envi-
ronments such as shipbuilding has so far 
proved difficult to achieve. The CARLOS 
(CooperAtive  Robot  for  Large  Spaces 
manufacturing) project, which was offi-
cially completed in August 2015, aimed 
to address this by developing adaptable 
robotic solutions.

Preliminary  trials  have  shown  positive 
results.  The  robot  co-worker  prototype 
developed by CARLOS was shown to be 
able to carry out specific operations and 
perform  semi-autonomous  navigation 
inside  ship  blocks.  Using  information 
from a computer-aided design file, the 

robot  can  automatically  perform  stud 
welding and mark information on cabin 
walls  to  support  fit-out  operations  (to 
equip the cabin as needed) by personnel, 
using the selected manipulator and a com-
mercial welding gun attached to the wrist.

CARLOS’s  work  has  already  received 
industry recognition, recently winning first 
prize in the FreeBots competition held at 
the  Festival  Nacional  de  Robótica,  a 
Portuguese national robotics competition 
that aims to show off cutting-edge R&D. 

The breakthrough was achieved through 
the  application  of  recent  advances  in 
cooperative mobile robotics to complex 
industrial  scenarios,  and  through  
the  innovative  use  of  off-the-shelf  
technology.  Using  this  methodology, 
the CARLOS project successfully devel-
oped a final prototype capable of car-
rying  out  operations  inside  blocks  of 
ship  superstructures.  The  innovation 
promises to make modern shipbuilding 
safer and more efficient. 

The  robot  also  has  potential  applica-
tions in other industrial and civil con-
struction  sectors  that  use  metallic 
structures. In this way, the project will 
contribute to strengthening the market 
position of European SMEs that develop, 
supply and integrate mechatronic, sens-
ing  and  electronic  technologies  for 
industrial applications. 

Specific requirements on process sensing 
(such as accurate orientation of the tool) 
have been assessed, confirming the effec-
tiveness of the components selected for 
carrying  out  the  tasks.  By  successfully 
automating stud welding and marking in 
outfitting operations in shipbuilding, the 
CARLOS project hopes to increase produc-
tivity, reduce faults and increase the com-
petitiveness of European ship fit-out and 
other civil construction-based businesses.

CARLOS

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

rcn/123959_en.html 

 Project website:  

http://carlosproject.eu/

   http://bit.ly/1K3VQul 

 
36

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

NEW PACKAGING MATERIALS  
FROM CHEESE

Synthetic  oxygen  barriers  protect  foods,  pharmaceuticals  and  cosmetics  from 
detrimental contact with air and moisture. EU-funded scientists have developed novel 
bio-based barriers from cheese by-products for complete recyclability.

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Petroleum-based barriers have come under increasing 

legislative and consumer pressure due to their envi-
ronmental and potential health impacts. Such pres-
sures  provided  the  impetus  for  the  WHEYLAYER  2 
(WHEYLAYER2: Barrier biopolymers for sustainable packag-
ing) project, which developed plastic film coatings made 
from whey, a natural cheese by-product.

The consortium produced a whey protein barrier biopoly-
mer  that  can  replace  petroleum-based  plastics  and  be 
removed enzymatically for recyclability. Furthermore, the 
material will have better barrier properties than existing 
biopolymers.

A patent was filed and project partners are now working 
towards its full-scale industrialisation and commercialisa-
tion.  An  industrial 
coating  and  drying 
machine  was  built 
and  simulations  of 
the  coating  process 
tested.  Production 
trials  and  storage 
tests  were  carried 
out  on  tubes  and 
thermoformed  jars 
for the food and cosmetics industries as well as on blisters 
for the pharmaceutical industry.

“A patent was filed and 
project partners are now 
working towards its full-
scale industrialisation and 
commercialisation.”

Scientists also investigated the use of whey protein con-
centrate instead of pure ‘Whey protein isolates’ (WPIs) for 
a  more  cost-competitive  solution.  Substitution  was  suc-
cessful with the oxygen barrier properties very close to the 
best results with WPIs.

The  consortium  produced  coated  unplasticised  polyvinyl 
chloride trays with acceptable oxygen transmission rates 
for  modified  atmosphere  packaging.  The  trays  showed 
potential  for  printability  and  underwent  printing  trials. 
Certified food safety tests were conducted, and material 
safety data sheets and technical data sheets were created. 
Environmental data sheets were also prepared using peer-
reviewed life-cycle analysis.

WHEYLAYER  2  has  responded  to  consumer  demand  for 
environmentally friendly products and to the volatile price 
of petroleum. It has provided packaging manufacturers and 
end users with a biopolymer product that enables them to 
design recyclable multilayer packaging or fully composta-
ble solutions.

Furthermore, WHEYLAYER 2 will open the way to new appli-
cations for whey protein and help prevent environmentally 
hazardous  whey  from  ending  up  in  European  waste 
streams.  The  project  will  therefore  support  the  cheese-
making  industry  across  Europe  as  demand  for  whey 
increases. This in turn will have a positive impact on rural 
sustainability since the dairy industry is the backbone of 
many EU rural economies.

WHEYLAYER 2

 Coordinated by Lajovic Tuba in Slovenia.
 Funded under FP7-SME.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/93010_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.wheylayer.eu

  http://bit.ly/1G8LA8O 

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
I N D U S T R I A L   T E C H N O L O G I E S

37

SUSTAINABLE CHEMICAL PRODUCTION

Traditional industrial-scale chemical production is inefficient and unsuitable for the 
flexible and sustainable production of chemicals. An EU-funded project has recently 
worked to develop integrated catalytic continuous-flow processes for low-to-medium-
scale chemical production.

Project partners conducted six indus-
trial case studies, defined by certain 
industrial partners. The case studies 
represented  reaction  types  such  as 
C-N and C-C bond formation and stoi-
chiometric  reductions,  notorious  for 
waste  generation  and  inefficient 
resource and energy utilisation.

SYNFLOW provided guidelines on the 
commercial  viability,  safety,  eco-
friendliness and performance of the 
project’s  technologies.  Evidence  of 

superior  process  performance  was 
demonstrated  and  provides  distinct 
potential  business  advantages  in 
terms of continuous-flow processes.

SYNFLOW

  Coordinated by RWTH Aachen 

University in Germany. 
 Funded under FP7-NMP.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/86518_en.html

Project website:  

http://www.synflow.eu

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In  ideal  continuous-flow  processes, 

the substrates flow into the reactor 
and  come  into  contact  with  the 
immobilised  catalyst  to  undergo  a 
chemical transformation. The result-
ing product then leaves the reactor in 
a  pure  form,  ready  for  further  use 
without the need for additional sepa-
ration or purification steps.

“Project partners conducted 
six industrial case studies, 
defined by certain industrial 
partners.”

To achieve this ambitious goal, a team 
of 13 academic and six industrial part-
ners from all over Europe collaborated 
in  the  project  SYNFLOW  (Innovative 
synthesis in continuous-flow processes 
for  sustainable  chemical  production). 
They  integrated  molecular  catalysts, 
immobilisation strategies and reaction 
engineering.

The project developed a basis for new 
and  widely  applicable  sustainable 
technologies for low-to-medium-scale 
chemical and pharmaceutical produc-
tion.  The  vision  of  SYNFLOW  was  to 
realise  a  shift  from  batch-wise  pro-
cesses comprising many separate unit 
operations  to  highly  integrated  and 
flexible  catalytic  continuous-flow 
processing.

Scientists successfully demonstrated 
the concept of catalytic process design. 
Continuous-flow processes resulted in 
superior  performance,  advantageous 
for  small-to-medium-scale  chemical 
and  pharmaceutical  manufacturing. 
Sustainable process design methodol-
ogy was based on experimental results 
and conceptual insight.

The project targeted fine and specialty 
chemicals and pharmaceutical indus-
tries,  which  are  characterised  by  a 
large diversity of synthesised chemi-
cal  structures.  To  demonstrate  
the  broad  impact  of  the  SYNFLOW  
concept, the prototypical case studies 
served as examples for generic chal-
lenges in these fields.

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
38

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

LAUNDRY WITH LESS WATER  
AND LESS TIME
EU scientists have developed improved active ingredients for detergents and associated 
encapsulation technologies for timed release. The significantly more effective and 
sustainable detergents look set to have a major impact on a huge global market.

temperatures and shorter wash cycles, overcom-
ing the disadvantages of current encapsula-
tion  processes  and  reducing  energy 

consumption.

Seven  partners  from  industry 
together with academics carried 
out a fruitful and well-planned 
knowledge  and  personnel 
exchange  programme  to 
reach  objectives  for  sus-
tainable  detergency.  The 
project  combined  aca-
demic knowledge regard-
ing characterisation, wall 
materials, encapsulation 
processes  and  process 
modelling with industrial 
expertise covering encap-
sulation  techniques,  pro-
cess  up-scaling  and 
industrial requirements.

High-throughput screening of 
more than 100 actives and wall 
material combinations enhanced 
understanding  of  utility  for  con-
sumer goods applications. Traditional 
and microfluidics particle production pro-
cesses were developed and/or assessed to 
determine which processes were suitable for spe-
cific actives and shell materials. In addition, more than 
10  advanced  particle  characterisation  methods  were 
exploited and new analytical methods developed to assess 
properties such as the amount of active in the shell, the 
shell porosity and diffusion mechanisms.

All efforts were supported by the development of a holistic 
model to predict properties and life-cycle analysis to ensure 
overall sustainability. Establishment of success criteria for 
the combinations of active and shell materials not only 
supported the identification of optimal combinations for 
detergency, it also revealed new applications outside the 
field of fluid consumer goods.

CAP-IT! results have been published in peer-reviewed sci-
entific journals. The project’s success will support a knowl-
edge-based economy for Europe, sustainable detergency 
and a competitive position for the EU in an important global 
market.

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Coating  and  encapsulation  of 

“The advanced coating and 
encapsulation technologies 
support the reduced use of 
detergency and packaging 
materials and lower 
transportation costs and 
emissions.”

active ingredients such as bleach in detergents can 
significantly  improve  effectiveness.  Compaction  to 
produce  highly  concentrated  formulations  reduces  the 
amount of packaging 
material required, the 
load that needs to be 
transported 
(and 
associated  gasoline 
and  emissions)  and 
the space required on 
store  shelves.  An  EU 
consortium advanced 
the  state-of-the-art 
and  its  applications 
with the development 
of new technologies for stabilising and confining active flu-
ids  through  the  EU-backed  project  CAP-IT!  (Advanced 
encapsulation technology for sustainable detergency).

The team focused on targeted, timed delivery of improved 
actives without leakage, for effective release at the appro-
priate moment. The advanced coating and encapsulation 
technologies support the reduced use of detergency and 
packaging materials and lower transportation costs and 
emissions. Improved active chemistries enable lower wash 

CAP-IT!

  Coordinated by Procter & Gamble Services Company  

in Belgium.

 Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/169874_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
I N D U S T R I A L   T E C H N O L O G I E S

39

NEW LASERS FOR LOW-COST INDUSTRIAL 
PROCESSING
EU scientists have developed powerful fibre optic lasers that can cut industrial processing costs and open 
up new markets in surgery and imaging.

EU-funded  scientists  have  devel-

oped  efficient  new  fibre  optic 
lasers  that  deliver  short  wave-
lengths for accurate polymer material 
processing, at incredible strength and 
low cost. The consortium behind the 
new  innovations,  developed  through 
the ISLA (Integrated disruptive com-
ponentS for 2um fibre LAsers) project, 
is  now  in  the  process  of  marketing 
some of these cutting-edge devices. 

Polymers — which are lightweight yet 
strong — are used in numerous indus-
tries ranging from aerospace to chem-
icals. Industrial lasers are used to slice 
and shape polymer materials for use 
in  everything  from  laptops  to  solar 
panels. Global competition has placed 
increasing pressure on profit margins, 
pushing manufacturers to constantly 
innovate in areas of product perfor-
mance and production efficiency. 

It  is  this  industrial  need  that  ISLA 
sought  to  address.  The  new  fibre 
lasers developed by ISLA are just as 
powerful as devices currently on the 
market,  and  most  important  offer 
cost-competitive production. While the 
welding, cutting and marking of plas-
tics without the need for absorption-
enhancing additives present the most 
obvious commercial opportunities for 
these fibre lasers, the success of ISLA 
should  also  open  up  potential  new 
applications in other industrial sectors, 

such  as  surgery  and  ‘Optical  coher-
ence tomography’ (OCT) imaging.

include  optical  data  storage  and  eye 
surgery.

In surgery, light can be delivered through 
a flexible fibre and easily integrated into 
devices such as endoscopes and micro-
scopes. The targeted nature of the laser 
beam  is  also  attractive  to  many  sur-
geons, enabling them to access tricky 
areas of the body and deliver targeted 
cutting while minimising damage to sur-
rounding tissue. The treatment of vari-
cose  veins  and  tumour  resection  are 
two possible uses.

OCT imaging systems on the other hand 
are used in a diverse range of sectors, 
including art conservation and diagnos-
tic medicine. The imaging technique is 
used to uncover more detail in layers 
beneath oil paintings than is possible 
with shorter-wavelength sources. 

Recently, the technology has also begun 
to be used in interventional cardiology 
to  help  diagnose  coronary  artery  dis-
ease. While commercial fibre lasers are 
already  available  on  the  market,  the 
ground-breaking components delivered 
by ISLA mean that lasers may soon be 
much more cost competitive.

The ISLA consortium also successfully 
developed  a  new  graphene-based 
mode-locker.  Mode-locking  is  a  tech-
nique in optics by which a laser can be 
made  to  produce  pulses  of  light  of 
extremely  short  duration.  Potential 
applications  of  this  laser  technique 

Although the project was officially com-
pleted  in  June  2015,  characterisation 
work is ongoing. Once this is finished, 
the laser will be transferred for indus-
trial testing at an applications laboratory 
in Hamburg, Germany. ISLA consortium 
members will also take part in a special 
session at the LASE conference, part of 
SPIE’s  Photonics  West  event  in  San 
Francisco in February 2016.

ISLA

   Coordinated by Gooch & Housego  

in the United Kingdom.
 Funded under FP7-ICT.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/123924_en.html

Project website:  

http://isla-project.eu/

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SAFER AND GREENER FLAME RETARDANTS
Electric and electronic equipment now contains a large quantity of plastics that significantly increases 
fire hazards. An EU initiative has developed novel flame-retardant composites that offer improved fire 
protection without toxic gas production.

With EU directives discouraging the use of halogen-

ated flame retardants, effective alternatives must 
be found. The EU-funded NANOFRABS (Halogen-
free flame retardant 
ABS nanocomposites 
for electric and elec-
tronic  devices)  pro-
ject set out to deliver 
an alternative.

“Safety is improved by 
mitigating the risks of smoke 
inhalation caused by fire in 
public or private property.”

Designed for integra-
tion with ‘Acrylonitrile-
butadiene-styrene’  (ABS)  compounds  widely  used  in 
electronics,  it  is  based  on  an  intumescent  formulation 

consisting of nanofillers combined with phosphorous-based 
flame retardants.

Scientists  functionalised  nearly  40  different  nanofillers, 
characterised their thermal stabilities and evaluated about 
half of them for dispersion in an ABS matrix. They fabri-
cated and characterised the mechanical, thermal stability, 
dispersion and fire properties of more than 200 ABS com-
pounds. The team then assessed the effectiveness of the 
new ‘Halogen-free flame retardants’ (HFFRs) in ABS formu-
lations with respect to fire performance. As a result, two 
nanofillers were chosen for final validation.

The HFFRs and nanoparticles were tested in the lab prior to 
their manufacture. They were introduced in a commercial ABS 

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
40

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

compound in advance of market exploitation. The end prod-
ucts’ general and fire properties were also characterised.

negative  impact  on  the  environment  by  preventing  the 
release of toxic fire retardants.

Lastly, the recycling, mechanical and fire properties of the 
new HFFR ABS products were examined.

NANOFRABS demonstrated an improvement over conven-
tional  HFFRs  without  jeopardising  fire  performance.  The 
recyclable  and  environment-friendly  HFFR  ABS  solution 
reduces smoke and toxic gases. Safety is improved by mit-
igating the risks of smoke inhalation caused by fire in pub-
lic  or  private  property.  What  is  more,  it  can  reverse  the 

NANOFRABS

 Coordinated by Tecnalia in Spain.
 Funded under FP7-SME.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/150826_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.nanofrabs.eu/

NEW CERAMIC MATERIALS
EU researchers have developed a new family of hybrid, high-performance and lightweight structural 
materials. The new materials will be used in areas as diverse as energy, transportation and health care.

The  BISM  (Bio-inspired  structural 

materials)  project  froze  ceramic 
suspensions  using  a  technique 
known as freeze casting (or ice templat-
ing) to create strong ceramic-polymer 
materials  of  exceptional  toughness. 
These porous scaffolds were then filled 
with a metal or polymer to create com-
posites similar to nacre. Nacre is a nat-
ural  composite  that  exhibits  fracture 
toughness several orders of magnitude 
greater than its constituent parts.

Researchers also used the freeze cast-
ing process to fabricate highly porous 
graphene-based cellular networks. This 
process allowed scientists to manipu-
late the density, cell size and shape of 
the  structure,  thereby  influencing  its 
surface area, elasticity, specific strength, 
energy loss coefficient and conductivity. 

New applications for the process were 
explored, such as energy damping, com-
pression-tolerant  supercapacitors  or 
catalysers, and any application where 
separation,  absorption  or  filtration  is 
required.

The template approach was extended 
to ‘soft templates’, particularly emul-
sions,  to  create  complex  structures. 
The  result  was  responsive  ceramic 
particles  capable  of  assembling  or 
disassembling  in  an  emulsion  in 
response to an external stimulus. This 
technique can be used to build ceramic 
scaffolds  that  are  extremely  strong 
and rigid, yet highly porous, which can 
be manipulated to control pore size.

Project results have paved the way for 
large-scale fabrication of complex and 
lightweight  porous  structures  and 

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composites. The combination of mate-
rial selection and structural control has 
resulted in unique properties and cre-
ated new opportunities in a wide range 
of applications.

“Applications include filters, 
scaffolds or ceramic coatings 
for tissue engineering and 
thermal barrier ceramic 
coatings or temperature 
control membranes.”

These  applications  include  filters, 
scaffolds or ceramic coatings for tis-
sue engineering and thermal barrier 
ceramic coatings or temperature con-
trol membranes. BISM provided new 
data on the behaviour of colloidal sus-
pensions and emulsions, the growth of 
carbon fibres and the parameters that 
control  the  mechanical  response  of 
complex structures.

The project’s results will therefore be 
of great interest to those working in 
the fields of materials science, chem-
istry and biology. Particular attention 
will be given to the bone-like ceramic-
based materials that were created for 
use  in  orthopaedic  implants.  The 
ceramic-metal  hybrids  were  devel-
oped  for  use  at  very  high  tempera-
tures under extreme conditions.

BISM

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

rcn/169895_en.html

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015

41

S E C U R I T Y

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S E C U R I T Y

NEW DEVICES TO CONTAIN 
BLASTS ON AIRPLANES

FLY-BAG’s blast-resistant, textile-based luggage container has come a 
long way since it was unveiled in 2011. Thanks to EU funding under the 
FLY-BAG2 project, the team recently came up with three new blast 
containment devices which are now ready to launch on the market.

Drastic  security  measures  taken  by  airports  since  the  

11 September attacks are still far from foolproof. A 100 % 
detection rate cannot be guaranteed at security scans for 
explosive devices carried by passengers or hidden in luggage, 
which means that airlines have to be prepared for an in-flight 
explosion scenario. 

To overcome the cost and weight issues entailed in a systematic 
strengthening  of  airplane  structure  and  the  currently  available 
‘Hardened luggage containers’ (HULD), the FLY-BAG2 (Advanced 
technologies for bomb-proof cargo containers and blast contain-
ment units for the retrofitting of passenger airplanes) team devel-
oped  and  successfully  tested  three  novel  devices  based  on 
bomb-proof textiles combining three layers of flexible and light-
weight materials with one layer of Kevlar. These include a soft-shell 
container to be placed in the luggage compartments of narrow-body 
jets, one for wide-body airplanes and a smaller FlyBag to be placed 
in the cabin for scenarios where a passenger is found with a bomb. 

Trials took place in decommissioned A320 and B-747 aircrafts at 
the Cotswolds Airport in Gloucestershire, UK. ‘We’re delighted with 
the way the trials have gone,’ Dr Andy Tyas, specialist in explosives 
engineering at the University of Sheffield and director of the com-
pany Blastech, told BBC News last month after they witnessed one 
of the tests. The devices were previously tested in lab conditions 
but in the open air, and the team wasn’t sure what the impact of 
a blast inside an airplane would be: ‘We knew the bag expanded 
and the question was: how much did that expansion cause a prob-
lem for the airframe? Does that become the devastating transmit-
ter of energy itself? And what we’re seeing is, it’s not doing that.’ 

The BBC reports that there were no visible effects of the detona-
tion when using the FLY-BAG rucksack, whereas a blast of the 
same  intensity  without  any  containment  had  a  devastating 
impact on the airframe. The bag is flexible and strong enough to 
withstand  a  pressure  eruption  up  to  20 000  mph,  fireproof 

enough to resist incandescent gas temperatures of up to 3 000°C, 
expandable enough to resist quasi-static pressure from gases, 
and  resilient  enough  to  prevent  hard  parts  of  the  contained  
luggage from turning into shrapnel.

Project coordinator D’Appolonia believes that the devices are now 
ready for commercialisation, and one airline, Meridiana, has already 
shown  interest.  ‘An  exploitation  agreement  is  under  definition 
among the partners of the consortium for the commercialisation of 
the  FLY-BAG2  products,’  Alessandro  Bozzolo,  area  manager  of 
D’Appolonia and project coordinator of FLY-BAG2 told IHS Airport 
360. He noted that the cost of the solution would strongly depend 
on the number of units bought by a specific customer.

FLY-BAG2

 Coordinated by D’Appolonia in Italy.
 Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/123886_en.html
 Project website:  

http://www.fly-bag2.eu/

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S E C U R I T Y

NEW MODELLING TOOL FOR BETTER  
CRISIS MANAGEMENT

EU-funded researchers have developed an innovative simulation and modelling tool to 
help decision makers involved in large-scale crisis management.

Crisis managers and key decision 

makers routinely face situations 
that exceed the capacity of local 
response networks. Furthermore, natu-
ral and man-made disasters often do 
not respect regional or national bound-
aries, spilling out across borders and 
creating new unforeseen problems. For 
these reasons, decision makers need 
the  tools  to  better  understand  crisis 
impacts and have immediate access to 
multi-organisational  and  multi-
national expertise if and when required.

The EU-funded CRISMA (Modelling cri-
sis management for improved action 
and  preparedness)  project  sought  to 
address this pressing need through the 
development  of  an  adaptable  online 
simulation tool. This tool helps policy 
makers and those directly involved in 
crisis  management  to  prepare  for 
events  by  visualising  complex  crisis 
scenarios, which often require the inte-
gration of expertise from multiple sec-
tors  and  can  involve  significant 
financial and ethical concerns. 

End uses include land-use and infra-
structure  planning  on  a  long-term 
basis, the optimisation of operational 
crisis management plans and support 
for  the  preparation,  execution  and 
assessment of field exercises. The pro-
ject  consortium  also  believes  that 
potential exists for the private sector 
to use the simulation model. 

The CRISMA framework has been spe-
cifically designed to enable end-users 
to build up their own crisis scenarios 
and then integrate both new and leg-
acy models and tools into one simula-
tion  system.  The  adaptability  of  this 
architecture was achieved by following 
an open approach; much of the core 
framework functionality is served by 
open source software, which can eas-
ily be replaced if and when necessary. 

Furthermore, the CRISMA framework 
anticipates  future  technological 
changes and can accommodate sev-
eral types of web services. The modu-
lar design allows future developers to 
add new building blocks when needed, 
in either open source or closed source, 
in line with the end-user’s own busi-
ness model. Crisis managers and other 
decision makers can combine models, 

data  and  expertise  from  different 
sources in order to create a wider per-
ception of crisis scenarios. 

During the project, a number of pilot 
schemes were set up to cover a range 
of  different  crises.  These  included:  a 
winter storm event in northern Finland; 
the submersion of coastal defences in 
western  France;  an  accidental  con-
tainer spillage off the coast of Israel; 
an earthquake and forest fire in Italy; 
and a multi-hazard mass casualty inci-
dent  in  Germany.  Workshops  with 
potential end-users were organised to 
illustrate pilot scheme results and to 
highlight the potential of the new tool.

The  long-term  sustainability  and 
uptake of the CRISMA results will be 

assured  through  recommendations 
from  decision  makers  and  external 
high-level experts on the CRISMA advi-
sory board. The project was officially 
completed at the end of August 2015. 
A report on CRISMA’s final results was 
published  in  September  2015,  while 
key successes were shared at the pro-
ject’s final conference in June 2015.

CRISMA

 Coordinated by VTT in Finland.
 Funded under FP7-SECURITY.
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/123981_en.html

Project website:  

http://www.crismaproject.eu/

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“The CRISMA framework anticipates 
future technological changes and can 
accommodate several types of web 
services.”

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
43

S E C U R I T Y

CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY  
IN THE FIGHT AGAINST GLOBAL  
FINANCIAL CRIME

Institutions such as banks and insurance and credit card companies identify and report 
suspicious transactions, but are limited by conventional procedures and the international 
reach of financial crime. An EU initiative has taken the ‘money laundering’ (ML) fight 
to new heights.

Financial institutions are required to report suspicious 

activity through ‘Anti-money laundering’ (AML), a set 
of procedures, laws and regulations designed to stop 
the practice of generating income through illegal actions. 
Given the nature of ML, ‘Financial intelligence units’ (FIUs) 
and ‘Law enforcement authorities’ (LEAs) need to coop-
erate  and  exchange  financial  intelligence  around  the 
world.

The EU-funded HEMOLIA (Hybrid enhanced money laun-
dering intelligence, investigation, incrimination and alerts) 
project developed an innovative alert and investigation 
system  for  AML  that  enables  secure  networking  and 
global information sharing among FIUs and LEAs across 
Europe and globally.

In addition to financial information, the technology uses 
domestic  and  global  telecom  carriers,  satellites,  tele-
phone networks, mobile phones and the internet as new 
intelligence sources. By combining all financial and tele-
communications  data,  FIUs  and  LEAs  have  access  to 
enhanced alert, intelligence and investigation tools that 
significantly raise the level of prevention and detection 
while respecting privacy rights.

Work  began  by  defining  end-user  and  system  require-
ments.  This  was  followed  by  an  overview  of  the  legal 
framework at global, EU and national levels that will sup-
port the system’s use, an analysis of regulations relevant 
to  AML  data  exchange, 
and  guidelines  on  data 
exchange  and  use  for 
FIUs and LEAs.

“The technology uses 
domestic and global 
telecom carriers, satellites, 
telephone networks, mobile 
phones and the internet as 
new intelligence sources.”

Partners  defined  the 
system  architecture  by 
taking into consideration 
the  legal  framework. 
Software  components 
were  developed  and  algorithms  were  implemented  for 
linking, investigating and filing data from various sources. 
An alerts engine tool and a graphical user interface for 
investigation tools were designed and integrated using 
the software developed.

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The system was successfully demonstrated at an FIU in 
Bucharest. Two complex ML simulations were carried out 
and involved global information sharing between three 
countries.

With money transactions and telecommunications activ-
ity at their fingertips, FIUs and LEAs are able to cooper-
ate  seamlessly  in  fighting  financial  crime  around  the 
world.

HEMOLIA

 Coordinated by Verint Systems in Israel.
 Funded under FP7-SECURITY.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/154419_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.hemolia.eu/ 

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
 
44

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015

S P A C E

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S P A C E

ADVANCED PROTECTION 
FROM SOLAR STORMS
EU-funded researchers have introduced a prototype of an early 
warning system that can calculate whether and when a solar storm 
will impact Earth and forecast its expected impacts, with special 
emphasis on telecommunication and navigation systems.

Again  and  again,  the  Sun  hurls 

gigantic clouds of charged parti-
cles  towards  Earth.  When  they 
hit the Earth’s magnetic field, they can 
damage  satellites,  disturb  telecom-
munication  signals  and  accelerate 
electrons  in  the  near-Earth  environ-
ment that can produce strong electric 
currents  on  the  ground.  This  is  how 
solar storms can trigger interruptions 
or even blackouts in communication 
systems, power grids and satellites.

With EU funding, the AFFECTS (Advanced 
forecast for ensuring communications 
through space) project aimed to improve 
the forecasting of severe solar storms 
with special emphasis on their effects 

on telecommunication and navigation 
systems.  With  their  expected  impact 
estimated  with  the  highest  possible 
degree of reliability, measures to secure 
at-risk technology can be implemented 
in time.

Engineers already design communica-
tion  and  navigation  systems  with 
space weather in mind, using theoreti-
cal models to predict how they will be 
affected by solar storms.

Furthermore,  space  weather  is  far 
more  dynamic  than  models  predict, 
and there are many different ways that 
charged particles can wreak havoc on 
society’s modern technological infra-
structures. The biggest difficulty is that 

when  something  goes  wrong,  engi-
neers cannot analyse it to determine 
what happened.

To establish a better understanding of 
the space weather effects on satellite 
and ground-based communication sys-
tems, AFFECTS scientists analysed space 
weather data from multiple space mis-
sions. These included PROBA-2, STEREO, 
the  Solar  Dynamics  Observatory, 
Advanced  Composition  Explorer  and 
International Space Station.

The  analysis  in  real  time  allows 
researchers to derive properties such 
as  strength,  direction,  speed  and 
course of a solar storm. This informa-
tion is made publicly available, within 

 
 
“AFFECTS scientists analysed 
space weather data from 
multiple space missions. These 
included PROBA-2, STEREO, 
the Solar Dynamics 
Observatory, Advanced 
Composition Explorer and 
International Space Station.”

as little as 1-2 hours after the occur-
rence of a severe solar storm, through 
the project website.

Using an analysis of the properties of the 
Sun’s  corona  and  solar  wind,  AFFECTS 

scientists also estimate the time that a 
solar storm will arrive on Earth as well as 
its  potential  impact  on  the  near-Earth 
space  environment.  The  space  weather 
conditions can be predicted over a period 
of two weeks.

Using 3D maps of the distribution of 
charged  particles’  density  in  the 
Earth’s  upper  atmosphere,  space 
weather conditions and their impacts 
on telecommunication and navigation 
systems can be predicted.

The AFFECTS project has contributed 
significantly  to  bridging  the  gap 
between engineers and space weather 
forecasters. It is hoped that a better 
understanding of the drivers of space 

45

S P A C E

weather will lead to more robust sys-
tems  and  components  for  the  next 
generation of communications satel-
lites and affected space weather tech-
nological infrastructures in general.

AFFECTS

  Coordinated by the University  

of Göttingen in Germany.
 Funded under FP7-SPACE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/147135_en.html

Project website:  

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

  http://bit.ly/1rW8E3t 

CRYOGENIC SPACE EXPLORATION  
MISSIONS

For the next decade, the European Space Agency (ESA) has scheduled new missions for X-ray and far-infrared astronomy 
equipped with large detector arrays of high sensitivity. An EU-funded project aimed to speed up these developments by 
addressing the restricted amount of available power at low temperatures.

The  temperature  in  outer  space  is  as  low  as  -240 

degrees  Celsius  in  the  orbit  of  Pluto,  -125  degrees 
Celsius on Mars, and -50 degrees Celsius at an altitude 
of 570 km above Earth where the Hubble telescope cur-
rently is. At such low temperatures, conventional electron-
ics are of no use.

One idea proposed to enable the use of conventional elec-
tronics in space was the addition of a thermal source keep-
ing the devices at a temperature higher than the surrounding 
one. Nevertheless, this seems impractical as more power 
would be needed to run the thermal sources. This would 
also make electronic devices heavy, bulky and complex.

Recognising that existing cryoelectronic components had 
yet to be proven and a how-to manual was not available, 
CESAR  researchers  tested  off-the-shelf  components. 
Specifically, transistors based on Si germanium proved to 
outperform conventional Si-based transistors operating at 
a temperature higher than 100 Kelvins.

Within  the  EU-funded  CESAR  (Cryogenic  electronics  for 
space applications and research) project, researchers pio-
neered  a  technology  called  cryoelectronics.  With  higher 
thermal and electrical conductivity, lower operating power 
and better overall performance, cryoelectronics provides a 
better  solution  for  outer 
space missions.

“Further developments 
include miniaturisation, 
packaging possibilities and 
extended functionalities for 
cryoelectronics.”

Moderately cooled mag-
netometers  (measuring 
magnetic  fields)  provide 
a very high sensitivity for 
space  exploration.  X-ray 
detectors  can  reach  a 
spectral resolution two orders of magnitude better than 
‘silicon’ (Si) ones. In the infrared domain, observations with 
bolometers (measuring electromagnetic radiation) are lim-
ited only by the photon background of zodiacal light.

The use of these new detectors based on cryoelectronics 
was hampered by the restricted availability of power. The 
power budget would be largely consumed for transporting 
recorded signals to distant warmer electronics for process-
ing. CESAR researchers successfully undertook the chal-
lenge to design electronics to operate as close as possible 
to the detectors.

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research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
 
46

S P A C E

The next step was to determine how to create complex cir-
cuit  designs  using  current  complementary  metal-oxide 
semiconductor technology that works at temperatures as 
low as 4 Kelvins. The cryoelectronic circuits improved the 
performance of the detectors because they control ampli-
fication and filtering of signals recorded as well as the con-
version of digital signals into analogue, and vice versa.

Further  developments  include  miniaturisation,  packaging 
possibilities and extended functionalities for cryoelectronics. 
The CESAR project demonstrated how trying to unlock the 
secrets  of  the  Universe  requires  amazing  engineering  on 

Earth. The outcomes were shared through the project web-
site and a series of workshops aiming to explore opportuni-
ties in medical diagnostics and superconducting magnetic 
energy storage systems.

CESAR

 Coordinated by CEA in France.
 Funded under FP7-SPACE.
http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/91363_en.html
Project website:  

http://www.cesar-space.eu

PREPARE FOR LANDING ON PLANETS
Despite being an integral aspect of planetary exploration missions, the entry of spacecraft into planets’ 
atmospheres remains poorly understood. To simulate the heat induced as a spacecraft plunges into a 
planet’s atmosphere, EU-funded scientists have developed theoretical models and implemented a virtual 
wind tunnel.

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Each planet and moon in our solar 

system has different characteris-
tics and presents different chal-
lenges to the entry and descent stage. 
Differences  in  atmospheric  density 
features  all  play  a  part  in  safely 
approaching the surface. And without 
a successful landing, there can be no 
robotic mission even if the spacecraft 
succeeds in reaching the target planet.

“The PHYS4ENTRY database 
includes rates of elementary 
processes and physical 
properties of species relevant 
to (re-)entry into the 
atmospheres of Earth,  
Mars and Jupiter.”

The aim of the EU-funded PHYS4ENTRY 
(Planetary  entry  integrated  models) 
project was to study the physical pro-
cesses that play a role in the super-
sonic entry. When a spacecraft reaches 
the  atmosphere,  a  shock  wave  is 
formed ahead of the nose, heating the 
gas in this region to a very high tem-
perature. As it plunges deeper into the 
atmosphere, the spacecraft is heated 
by the surrounding atmosphere.

PHYS4ENTRY scientists developed theo-
retical models to describe elementary pro-
cesses taking place in the high-temperature 
mixtures of planetary atmospheres (Earth, 
Mars,  Jupiter).  Electron-molecule  colli-
sions,  atom-molecule  and  molecule-  
molecule  gas-phase  collisions,  atom-  
molecule surface interactions and photon-
induced processes were included in inves-
tigations of the expanding entry flow.

The impact of the overall heat flux on 
the spacecraft surface was estimated 
with  computational  fluid  dynamics 
simulations. The ability of theoretical 
models to predict the non-equilibrium 
kinetics of the high-temperature mix-
ture was assessed against experimen-
tal  measurements.  The  expanding 
flow conditions were examined in the 
induction coupled plasma wind tunnel 
of the von Karman Institute for Fluid 
Dynamics in Belgium.

The  PHYS4ENTRY  database  includes 
rates  of  elementary  processes  and 
physical properties of species relevant 
to (re-)entry into the atmospheres of 
Earth, Mars and Jupiter. Publicly avail-
able through the project website, it is 
expected to have a significant impact 
on  modelling  efforts  in  (re-)entry 
aerothermodynamics.

Through  a  detailed  analysis  of  the 
physical processes taking place during 
a  spacecraft’s  entry  into  planetary 
atmospheres, PHYS4ENTRY scientists 
improved crucial elements of model-
ling  flight  conditions.  Their  findings 
will contribute to more efficient heat 
shield designs with a profound impact 
on the success of planetary missions.

PHYS4ENTRY

  Coordinated by the University of Bari 

Aldo Moro in Italy.

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

rcn/90011_en.html

Project website:  

http://users.ba.cnr.it/imip/cscpal38/
phys4entry/

research*eu results magazine N°47 / November 2015 
 
EVENTS

NOVEMBER
26

DECEMBER
01▶02

DECEMBER
03

47

Brussels, BELGIUM

Cordoba, SPAIN

C O N F E R E N C E
MERMAID CONFERENCE 
ON MULTI-USE OFFSHORE 
PLATFORMS

M E E T I N G
LEGATO SECOND ANNUAL 
MEETING & SECOND 
STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP

The MERMAID Conference on Multi-Use 
Offshore  Platforms  will  take  place  on  
26 November in Brussels, Belgium.

The FP7-funded MERMAID project deals with 
the  integration  of  various  functionalities 
(energy  production,  aquaculture,  shipping, 
etc.) into multi-use offshore platforms. The 
upcoming MERMAID end user conference will 
provide an opportunity for the offshore pri-
vate sector, experts and other stakeholders 
to share ideas with the European science 
community.  Participants  can  discuss  and 
respond  to  the  latest  scientific  develop-
ments, tools and experiences on these plat-
forms from the MERMAID project and other 
related European projects such as TROPOS 
and H2OCEAN.

The results on multi-use offshore platforms 
will be presented in the plenary session. The 
afternoon break-out sessions allow a more 
face-to-face  discussion  with  project  part-
ners, where exchanges of ideas and inquiry 
on the regional challenges will be possible. A 
panel discussion will close the conference.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.mermaidproject.eu/
conference

The  FP7-funded  LEGATO  project  will  
hold  its  Second  Annual  Meeting  and 
Second Stakeholder Workshop from 1 to 
2 December in Cordoba, Spain.

The project is working to promote the culture 
of grain legumes in Europe by identifying pri-
ority issues currently limiting grain legume 
cultivation and devising solutions in terms of 
novel  varietal  development,  cultural  prac-
tices,  and  food  uses.  LEGATO  will  develop 
tools and resources to enable state-of-the-art 
breeding methodology and to exploit fully the 
breadth of genetic resources available.

The overall aim of LEGATO is to contribute to 
the increased sustainable reintroduction of 
grain  legumes  in  European  cropping  sys-
tems. Working on the major European grain 
legumes, pea, faba bean, and with specific 
objectives on white lupin and grass pea, the 
project focuses on the identification and test-
ing of novel legume breeding lines possess-
ing valuable characteristics such as disease 
and pest resistance and quality for human 
consumption. More information on the pro-
ject meeting and stakeholder workshop will 
soon be available on the project website. 

For further information, please visit:
http://www.legato-fp7.eu/index.html

DEC.
17▶18

Amsterdam,  
THE NETHERLANDS

C O N F E R E N C E
FINAL CLEANSEA 
SYMPOSIUM AND FILM 
PRESENTATION

The  Final  CLEANSEA  Symposium  will 
take place on 3 December in Amsterdam, 
the Netherlands.

CLEANSEA is a multidisciplinary and col-
laborative  research  project  addressing 
marine litter from different perspectives. 
Launched  in  January  2013,  the  project 
aims  at  providing  Member  States  and 
other stakeholders with improved knowl-
edge, methods and tools to be able to bet-
ter define, monitor and achieve a marine 
environment free of harmful litter levels.

The  CLEANSEA  symposium  will  explore 
marine litter science highlights and pre-
sent the project’s ‘Roadmap to litter-free 
seas’.  The  CLEANSEA  documentary  film 
will also be premiered during the event. 
The symposium is a public event which is 
open to all interested stakeholders, how-
ever registration is mandatory. 

For further information, please visit:
http://www.cleansea-project.eu/
drupal/index.php?q=en/
node/228#overlay-
context=en%3Fq%3Den

EVENTS

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

Brussels, BELGIUM

C O N F E R E N C E
THE ENCCA CLOSING CONFERENCE WILL TAKE PLACE 
FROM 17 TO 18 DECEMBER IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.

The FP7-funded ENCCA (European network for cancer research in children and adolescents) project 
aims to efficiently structure and enhance collaboration within the field of paediatric oncology in 
Europe.  To  this  end,  the  team  has  been  working  for  the  past  five  years  to  limit  knowledge 
fragmentation  and  improve  communication  channels  by  bringing  together  existing  informal 
paediatric and adolescent oncology clinical trial groups, and integrating relevant stakeholders, their 
expertise and viewpoints.

The conference will be the only occasion for partners to show the final results of their work performed 
within the project, to learn from each other and to jointly discuss plans for the future. 

For further information, please visit:  
http://www.encca.eu/Pages/NewsItem.aspx?NewsID=83

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