Research*eu results magazine. N° 54, July 2016.
Date: 2016-07-25
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°54
JULY 2016

SPECIAL FEATURE

SEEDING IDEAS  
FOR PRESERVING 
OUR FORESTS

SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES
CREATING A COMMON  
EUROPEAN IDENTITY 
BY DIGITISING ITS 
CULTURAL HERITAGE
 PAGE 22

FOOD & AGRICULTURE
INSECT LARVAE AS AN 
ADDITIONAL SOURCE OF 
PROTEIN FOR EUROPE’S  
ANIMAL FEED
 PAGE 41

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

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ED ITOR IAL

by the editorial team

MANAGEMENT VS. COURSE  
OF NATURE: WHAT’S THE BEST 
PATH TO PRESERVE OUR 
FORESTS FROM CLIMATE 
CHANGE?

At first sight, Europe seems like a hospitable land for trees of all kinds. Forests cover some 33 % 
of Europe’s territory, and this area has increased by 17 million hectares since 1990. But it doesn’t 
mean the 14 million European forest owners and managers can rest on their laurels: the expansion 
of urban areas, the growing success of biomass for energy production, wildfires, high demand 
for wood products, increased land use, and climate change all contribute to putting increasing 
pressure on these ecosystems.

Whilst the absence of a common forestry policy in Europe prevents the EU from deciding on 
appropriate counter-measures, the EU does stress the importance of forests for biodiversity, soil 
and  water  protection,  carbon  sequestration, 
biofuels or timber production. But the question is, 
how can forestry make the most of our forests 
while gearing them up — and using them as a 
weapon — against climate change?

‘Economic needs and  
the lack of an absolute 
solution against climate 
change are forcing 
scientists to stretch 
their imagination.’

Deforestation and the results of overly selective 
breeding programmes might make us think that 
the best solution to protect forests is to leave 
them be. However, economic needs and the lack 
of an absolute solution against climate change 
are forcing scientists to stretch their imagination. 
If we are to create ‘super forests’ capable of fulfilling all of our needs, we first need to know more 
about their composition, genetics, evolution, potential for carbon sequestration and capacity to 
adapt to climate change, and to develop technological solutions to protect or extend them.

This issue of the research*eu results magazine is giving the floor to those scientists who are currently 
trying to fill all of these gaps. Ten of the most recent forest-related and EU-funded projects are presented 
and shed light on what future forests and future forest management strategies could look like.

This special feature is followed by the usual eight sections providing insights into biology and 
medicine,  social  sciences  and  humanities,  energy  and  transport,  environment,  IT  and 
telecommunications, industrial technologies, food and agriculture, and physics and mathematics, 
along with a list of upcoming events hosted by or involving EU-funded research projects.

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/news

research eu

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

NEXT
ISSUE

Focus on  
Dementia: 
investing against 
the trillion dollar 
disease

17

27

32

SPECIAL FEATURE

4 SEEDING IDEAS  
FOR PRESERVING  
OUR FORESTS

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ISSN 1977-4028

research eu

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

N°54
JULY 2016

SPECIAL FEATURE

SEEDING IDEAS  
FOR PRESERVING 
OUR FORESTS

SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES
CREATING A COMMON  
EUROPEAN IDENTITY 
BY DIGITISING ITS 
CULTURAL HERITAGE
 PAGE 22

FOOD & AGRICULTURE
INSECT LARVAE AS AN 
ADDITIONAL SOURCE OF 
PROTEIN FOR EUROPE’S  
ANIMAL FEED
 PAGE 41

4 
Filling knowledge gaps to sustain future forestry
6 
Accurately assessing global river-floodplain forest strategies
7  Novel forest fire-fighting technology allows all end users to 

contribute
Towards better management of forest genetic resources

8 
9  GNSS technology for better biomass mapping
10 
Innovative drone technology to tackle deforestation
11  LONGWOOD tells the story of human influence over 
Moravian forests from various scientific perspectives
13  Mitigating forest mismanagement with 3D mapping
14  Better forest management strategies for maximised mitigation 

potential

16  European forest trees show high levels of biodiversity within 

one tree species

17  BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
17  New tools to prevent the spread of high 
threat pathogens in transport hubs

18  A novel drug-delivery method
19  New devices advance breast cancer diagnosis
19  Two shots in one: Tackling HIV and Hepatitis C 

infections

20  Tumour microenvironment promotes cancer 

drug resistance

21  Breakthrough in diagnostic tools gives hope 

to heart patients

35  In-depth exploration of EU influence on the 

Arctic

35  How isolated species go extinct

36  IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
36  Moving mobile communication onto the 

cloud

37  Innovative tools for better social media 

marketing

37  The case for open-source software
38  A boost for optical network efficiency

17

22   SOCIAL SCIENCES  
AND HUMANITIES

22  Creating a common European identity  
by digitising its cultural heritage

23  The science of linguistics
23  Study reveals that a larger social circle 

increases pain tolerance

24  Innovative trust model to help journalists 

verify social media content

25  How immigrants manage biculturalism
26  How can we combat ageism?

27  ENERGY AND TRANSPORT
27  Variable-speed Pumped Storage Hydro 
Plants offer a new era of smarter 
energy management

28  Improved freight carriages and tracks
29  Self-shaping wings to redefine aviation 

in the future

31  Biogas from slaughterhouse waste
31  Novel materials for solar fuel technology

32  ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
32  EU-funded project evidences the value  

of ‘green mining’

33  New instrument explores role of organic 

aerosols

34  EU researchers discover how the Venus 
flytrap became a predatory plant

39  INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES
39  Spiders teach scientists how to create a 
completely novel liquid-solid material
40  Fewer defects by improving equipment reliability
40  Hermetically sealed aircraft electronics

41  FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
41  Insect larvae as an additional source  
of protein for Europe’s animal feed

42  Novel automated technology to better harvest 

asparagus

42  Sustainable fruit juice packaging from organic 

matter

43  New guidelines and tools to combat food 

waste

44  Trading common plant defences for metal 

accumulation

45  PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
45  How game theory can lead to energy-

efficient solutions

46  Lasers tame unpredictable electrical 

discharges

46  Uncertainty from the bottom up

47 EVENTS

22

27

32

36

39

41

45

 
4

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016

SPECIAL FEATURE
SEEDING IDEAS  
FOR PRESERVING  
OUR FORESTS

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I N T E R V I E W

FILLING KNOWLEDGE  
GAPS TO SUSTAIN FUTURE 
FORESTRY
Sustaining the growing demand for wood products and other forest 
services is becoming increasingly difficult due to the likes of climate 
change,  pests  and  diseases  affecting  European  forests.  The 
TREES4FUTURE project brought together 28 research organisations 
from  various  disciplines  to  provide  common  datasets  that  will 
eventually result in more trimmed forestry for the future.

Despite its continued efforts to support sustainable forest 

management, the forestry sector still has much learning 
to do when it comes to tree genetics and physical envi-
ronment,  basic  wood  properties  and  their  impact  on  end- 
product quality, as well as know-how to bring studies from 
individual to forest scale. Whilst the much needed data and 
expertise do exist, they are currently scattered across various 
disciplines with no effective means to cross-fertilise them. 

Starting in 2011, the EU-funded TREES4FUTURE (Designing 
Trees for the future) project aimed to bridge these gaps by 
providing  a  holistic  approach  to  forestry  that  integrates 

abiotic and biotic environmental aspects through biological 
responses, biomass production and industrial technology. 
Five years on, the project has brought each of its 11 work 
packages to a successful closure.

Among the project outcomes are: a common search inter-
face for genetic data; new standards and methodologies 
for the assessment of field traits and wood properties; and 
the  creation  of  three  thematic  networks  on  phenotypic 
plasticity, phenology and societal perception of forestry. 

On a purely research level, the close to EUR 7 million pro-
ject also developed: a suite of statistical tools for genetic 

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
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PROF. GERT-JAN NABUURS

evaluation; a molecular marker platform for fingerprinting 
and traceability of biological material; a site matching tool 
to match the current or projected climate at a site to any 
other  similar  place  in  Europe;  a  clearinghouse  with 
‘Geographic  information  system’  (GIS)  functionality  for 
research data; improved compatibility of existing modelling 
tools;  and  medium  to  high-throughput  phenotyping 
methods.

Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Professor of European Forest Resources 
at  Wageningen  University  and  vice-coordinator  of 
TREES4FUTURE, agreed to discuss these outcomes ahead of 
the publication of the project’s final report.

  Why do you think climate change requires a new 
approach from the wood products and services 
sector?

Gert-Jan Nabuurs: There are several reasons the wood 
products sector requires a new approach. First, the impacts 
of climate change will alter the state of the forests through-
out Europe. In the South, forests will be affected by droughts 
and fire. In Central Europe, new species will become more 
dominant, and in Northern Europe the forests will start to 
grow faster, especially the ones populated by pine.

On the other hand, the wood products sector can help 
mitigate climate change. Wood products require less energy 
to produce than the likes of steel and concrete. We foresee 
a  higher  demand  for  the  construction  sector.  Also  new 
demands for new products will arise: these include novel 
packaging for food or textile, or biorefined products. This 
will all change the sector dramatically. 

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016

5

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

very much needed. Thanks to TREES4FUTURE, access to data 
is also more secure.

  What are the other tools that you created? 
What’s their added value?

For example, we created a set of modelling tools that 
provides insights into how the sites will change under cli-
mate  change,  or  which  provenances  are  best  to  plant. 
Furthermore, we created a set of modelling tools to scale 
up genetic information (which is now scarce and local) to 
regional predictions of impacts.

  Why was it important to bring all stakeholders 
together for this project?

Eventually, the tree breeders will have to use the infor-
mation from TREES4FUTURE. The national partners in T4F 
have a task of further informing national breeders associ-
ations. And they will do that.

  Can you provide a notable example of a 
knowledge gap that has been filled thanks to 
TREES4FUTURE?

Access  to  provenance  trials  has  been  improved.  This 
may  sound  strange,  but  it  remains  a  challenge  to  have 
good  overviews  of  provenance  trials  from  the  past. 
Furthermore, high throughput phenotyping methods have 
been further developed and made available. This makes it 
possible to carry out many measurements and relate these 
to genetic information. Also, the upscaling of genetic infor-
mation in modelling tools is now possible. The latter shows 
that there is much resilience in tree populations, and that 
climate change impacts are dampened.

  The project was completed in April. Do you intend 
to keep maintaining and promoting the tools you 
developed?

Yes, the transnational access tools will remain available 
through the website. Also, the developed tools are open 
source.

  What could be, according to you, some examples 
of selection processes that would be facilitated by 
the project’s outcomes?

We now know much more about Douglas fir provenances 
and how they grow here in Europe in comparison to their 
native sites in the USA. This knowledge may alter the selec-
tion of provenances in the future. 

“In order to push breeding 
forward, the platform is very 
much needed.”

  One of the main project outcomes is a platform 
for analytical, statistical, genetic and molecular 
analysis. What are the benefits of using it for 
stakeholders?

Tree breeding stands at the basis of all above-mentioned 
changes. In order to push breeding forward, the platform is 

TREES4FUTURE

  Coordinated by INRA in France.
  Funded under FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/100959
 Project website:  

http://www.trees4future.eu/

 
 
6

ACCURATELY ASSESSING GLOBAL  
RIVER-FLOODPLAIN FOREST STRATEGIES

A Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (IOF) grant enabled a young European 
researcher  to  develop  a  global  perspective  on  river-floodplain  forest  restoration 
strategies and to put forward universal criteria to accurately assess project success.

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Riparian  (river-floodplain)  forests, 

which are unique sources of biodi-
versity,  food  and  raw  materials, 
are under increasing threat from urban, 
industrial  and  agricultural  develop-
ment. In order to ensure their survival, 
a number of restoration projects have 
been launched across the globe over 
the  past  few  decades  in  an  attempt  
to ensure compatibility between self- 
sustainable  and  healthy  river-flood-
plain forests with human activity. 

‘Many  restoration  projects  have 
sought to deal with a variety of envi-
ronmental problems that affect ripar-
ian  forests,’  explains  ESFFORES 
(Evaluating  Success  of  Floodplain 
Forest Restoration) project coordina-
tor Dr Eduardo González, who carried 
out  the  project  at  the  University  of 
Denver in the US and the Laboratoire 
d'Écologie 
et 
Environnement  in  Toulouse,  France. 
‘The sheer variety of these approaches, 
together  with  a  lack  of  funding  for 
proper monitoring, means that no sys-
tematic objective or standard criteria 
to  evaluate  their  success  or  failure 
has ever been put in place. This ulti-
mately jeopardises their impact.’ 

Fonctionnelle 

Measuring success

In order to address this, the ESFFORES 
project sought to assess the effective-
ness of various restoration projects in 
order to open up discussion on estab-
lishing universal criteria for declaring 
success. Data on environmental man-
agement  and  vegetation  variables 
was  recorded  at  a  variety  of  sites 
across  two  semi-arid  regions  of  the 
western US and southern Europe, with 
climatic  gradients  covering  different 
reaches  of  six  large  river  basins: 
Middle Rio Grande, Upper and Lower 
Colorado, Ebro, Duero and Garonne.

‘By concentrating our efforts on eval-
uating results — rather than on defin-
ing  goals  and 
implementation 
techniques — we were able to com-
bine  traditional  evaluations  using 
local and site-specific data with larger 
spatial evaluations over longer peri-
ods of time,’ says González. ‘The inclu-
sion  of  very  different  restoration 
strategies from around the world, at 
large spatial and long temporal scales, 
allowed us to identify some universal 
indicators  responsive  to  restoration 
and universal factors leading to suc-
cess or failure.’ 

The  project  found  that  similar  plant 
diversity metrics can be used to eval-
uate the success of very different res-
toration  approaches,  but  that  some 
metrics are more responsive to resto-
ration than others. Furthermore, res-
toration outcomes in floodplain forest 
restoration  resulting  from  different 
strategies can  be partially predicted 
by readily measurable environmental 
parameters, such as climate. 

‘Restoration approaches alone cannot 
restore  pre-disturbance  conditions, 
but can greatly influence vegetation 
successional  trajectories,’  says 
González. ‘This is important as it gives 
us room for manoeuvre to modify the 
ecosystem to satisfy our needs in a 
sustainable way. An unexpected result 
was that successful restoration was 
not necessarily more likely with active 
revegetation,  if  natural  processes 
such as flooding are restored.’

A global perspective 

The project was made possible by a 
Marie  Curie  International  Outgoing 
Fellowship (IOF) grant, which involved 
González spending two years in a non-
European  country  and  one  year  in 
Europe. Leading scientists in the field 
of riparian restoration ecology super-
vised the project in Europe and the US. 

‘This framework really suited me as a 
fundamental  aspect  of  my  project 
was to compare different restoration 
approaches  between  world  regions,’ 
explains González. ‘I was able to meet 
with some of the most reputed ripar-
ian  ecologists  in  North  America  and 
learn about their approaches to man-
aging invasions of exotic plants, which 
is the main motivation of floodplain 
forest  restoration  projects  in  the 
southwestern US.’

ESFFORES

  Coordinated by CNRS in France.
  Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/125460

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
 
7

NOVEL FOREST FIRE-FIGHTING TECHNOLOGY 
ALLOWS ALL END USERS TO CONTRIBUTE

Forest fire-fighting represents a yearly budget of EUR 2.235 million for EU governments 
and public agencies. This accounts for most European efforts, while the rest of the 
market is occupied by a myriad of small real estate owners and private companies 
owning assets they are often not able to protect efficiently. A Spanish SME is developing 
a Smart Fire Barrier which will allow all these stakeholders to step their game up.

Forest fires have become commonplace. Each year around 

summertime,  Spain,  Portugal,  France,  Greece  and  Italy 
combined see around 500 000 ha of their forests go up in 
smoke. This is caused notably by rural depopulation — as activ-
ities that were previously keeping forest fires under control are 
increasingly becoming a thing of the past — and is speeding up 
climate change. In fact, the local fires our ancestors used to deal 
with are now increasingly evolving into ‘mega-fires’.

The chink in our forests’ armour resides in ‘Wildland urban 
interface’ (WUI) areas, which are quickly expanding. ‘These 
areas are critical in this process, since they require special 
attention  from  the  emergency  forces  and  are  a  typical 
focus of fire ignition. WUI often lack the required fire pre-
vention countermeasures, due to their cost and their exe-
cution requirements in terms of land occupation, vegetation 
removal  and  infrastructures,’  explains  Joaquín  Catalá 
Lloret, CTO of Pyro Fire Extinction in Spain. 

Since it was founded in 2011, Pyro Fire Extinction has been 
contributing to the protection and preservation of forests 
by designing, engineering and producing innovative solu-
tions for the control and extinction of forest fires. In 2014, 
the company’s know-how granted it a place in the FP7-
funded  AF3  project  to  develop  technologies  that  would 
improve the efficiency of fire-fighting operations. One year 
later, the company received H2020 funding for the SMART 
FIRE  BARRIER  (Innovative  Forest  Fires  Prevention 
Infrastructure for Residential Areas, Forestry and Critical 
Infrastructures) project.

SMART FIRE BARRIER revolves around the Pyro Smart Fire 
Barrier,  a  completely  new  prevention  tool.  Composed  of 
extinguisher Nub-e capsules developed under AF3, the sys-
tem is able to extinguish incipient fires by itself and can be 
used in a mobile firebreak to support the action of fire bri-
gades and volunteers. 

‘Nub-e capsules are easy to transport and to install on the 
field, and once placed they remain operational for months,’ 
says Catalá. ‘The technology is purely based on the tem-
perature elevation generated by the fire, without the use of 
explosives or electronics. It makes it possible to deliver a 
safe, robust and easy to use product while reducing the 
need for maintenance. Once activated, each capsule sprays 
its content over the vegetation, protecting the defined area 
and preventing it from burning.’ No need to remove vege-
tation or modify the landscape: the Smart Fire Barrier is 
modular.  It  adapts  to  existing  infrastructure  and  terrain 
configuration in order to provide a cost-effective solution 
for small real estate owners.

From smart cities to smart landscape

Over the next five years, Pyro Fire Extinction wants its sys-
tem to disrupt the market by making it possible for every-
one  to  contribute  to  the  fight  against  forest  fires.  ‘We 

understand that we cannot be inhabitants of Smart Cities 
while being strangers outside them, and thus we propose 
to connect our cities with their environment, creating the 
Smart Landscape,’ says Catalá.

The first step to living up to this ambition was to conduct a 
feasibility  study  under  Phase  1  of  the  SME  Instrument. 
Thanks to EU fund-
ing,  the  company 
was able to design 
an effective market 
segmentation strat-
egy and a market-
ing strategy aimed 
at  both  specialists 
and laypeople. ‘As a 
company,  Phase  1 
has allowed us to reflect on how to successfully address tar-
get customer segments over time, in a way that is compat-
ible with the company’s growth strategy,’ explains Catalá.

“Once activated, each capsule 
sprays its content over the 
vegetation, protecting the 
defined area and preventing it 
from burning.”

‘We also conducted market prospection activities with fire 
fighters, neighbours, public administration managers, etc. 
in order to study different cases and to understand clearly 
what the situations in which the introduction of our Smart 

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 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
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research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016

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

Fire Barrier can make a difference are. Furthermore, as a 
result of having performed the feasibility study, we have 
now protected our technology by means of a patent appli-
cation, and we have published several articles in scientific 
media in order to let others know about our approach and 
experimental results.’ 

Next steps

Validation of the technology with end users is also well under 
way. ‘For us, this has been a priority in every stage of PYRO 
Smart Fire Barrier: we have extensively validated our tech-
nology with end-users and independent research institutions, 
which helps us define the best product, and we have engaged 
a relevant number of recognised experts for the prescription 
of Pyro Smart Fire Barrier in the sector,’ says Catalá. Most of 
this process took place under AF3 with support from the pub-
lic agencies involved in the project. ‘AF3 has made it possi-
ble for us to achieve technological milestones in a very short 
period of time, and to have a product tailored to their expec-
tations. However, this project is only based on technology 
demonstration, and we need to overcome this stage in order 
to bring our product to the market.’

This is where Phase 2 of SME Instrument funding will be crucial. 
Catalá and his team expect that this new phase will allow them 
to convert the technology into a tangible, marketable product, 
as well as reinforcing their team with business profiles.

‘Our main objective under SME Instrument Phase 2 is to 
perform pilot testing of Smart Fire Barrier with end-user 
specialists in order to obtain visible success cases. These 
cases will enable us to show our customers that what we 
offer will significantly increase their level of safety and 
even more: they will be granted the reward of contributing 
to  safeguarding  their  environment.  Achieving  a  suitable 
product certification from independent institutions is also 
an objective of Phase 2: it will help us to commercialise the 
product internationally,’ says Catalá enthusiastically.

SMART FIRE BARRIER

  Coordinated by Pyro Fire Extinction in Spain.
  Funded under H2020-SMEINST-1.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/197573
 Project website:  

http://www.pyro.es/ 

TOWARDS BETTER MANAGEMENT OF FOREST 
GENETIC RESOURCES
An EU-funded project has investigated the impact of changes in ‘Forest genetic resources’ (FGR) across 
Europe. The outcome is a panel of guidelines and policy briefs that should help stakeholders and policy 
makers in adopting FGR management strategies fit to withstand climate change. 

The  role  of  forests  in  the  fight 

against climate change needs no 
further evidence. But while plant-
ing  a  tree  is  indeed  a  solution  for 
removing CO₂ from the atmosphere, 
grabbing the first seed at hand won’t 
necessarily do the trick. Each tree has 
its  own  genetic  variations,  and  this 
diversity is precisely what allows for-
ests to adapt to a changing climate. 

The  good  news  is  that  European 
research  projects  have  already  com-
piled valuable information on FGR over 
recent decades. The bad news is that 
their  present  distribution  is  not  well 
documented, and this lack of informa-
tion is preventing the development of 
informed  management  strategies  by 
forest managers and policy makers. 

This  is  where  the  FORGER  (Towards 
the  Sustainable  Management  of 
Forest  Genetic  Resources  in  Europe) 
project  comes  into  play.  ‘Currently 
there is little or no FGR management 
of  European  forests,’  says  Dr  Koen 
Kramer  of  Alterra,  who  coordinated 
the  project.  ‘This  is  regrettable 
because FGRs are the basis of forest 
adaptation to environmental changes, 
brought  about  by  natural  processes 
(evolution) and/or artificial selection. 

FGRs  are  essential  to  tree  breeding 
and assisted migration, which is why 
we wanted to better understand their 
past, present and future.’

Completed in February 2016, FORGER 
provides guidelines and policy briefs 
to  help  stakeholders  come  up  with 
effective management strategies. 

Harvesting seeds and 
selecting reproductive 
material

Seed  harvesting  is  the  first  topic 
approached by the project, as it stresses 
that the method employed to harvest 
seeds significantly affects their genetic 
quality. ‘A genetically-sustainable seed 
harvest  should  optimize  the  genetic 
diversity  in  the  seeds  obtained  and 
minimize genetic differences between 
seed  harvest  and  the  seed  stand,’ 
reads the dedicated guidelines docu-
ment. The level of diversity needs to be 
balanced, so as to ensure that the for-
est will be able to cope with climate 
change  while  avoiding  the  sky-high 
costs  associated  with  harvesting  all 
available seeds.

The  dedicated  guidelines  include 
research findings along with global and 

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species-specific  recommendations. 
Among those is the fact that no fewer 
than 15 trees should be sampled, pro-
vided that seed samples per tree are 
large and that the species are charac-
terised by random mating. Seed harvest 
from directly neighbouring trees should 
also be avoided.

 
 
 
Along with seed harvesting methods 
comes the question of which ‘Forest 
reproductive material’ (FRM) should be 
favoured to maximise chances of sur-
vival in the face of climate change. The 
project provides further recommenda-
tions based on the nature of this change, 
which varies across regions. It strikes 
down  the  prejudice  that  local  prove-
nance is necessarily better, and points to 
the importance of phenotypic stability.

“Whilst a ‘no-management 
approach’ will often result in 
higher diversity — active 
management increases the 
chances of adaptation.”

Shaping future policies

Another key contribution of the project, 
closely related to the ones mentioned 
above, is a policy brief on the origins of 
FRM. As data is currently very scattered 
and EU legislation has failed to result in 
evaluations,  monitoring  or  guidance, 
FORGER contributes by examining seven 
tree species and assessing their move-
ment volume (302 million plants from 
2004 to 2014), direction and distance. 
‘The  results  generated  by  FORGER 

strongly indicate the need to strengthen 
the implementation of existing regula-
tions and to harmonise data on transfer 
of  FRM  across  EU  Member  States,’  
Dr Kramer says.

Regarding climate change, the project 
provides recommendations for policy 
makers based on field and modelling 
studies:  the  team  notes  the  impor-
tance of stable performance over vari-
ous environmental conditions, stresses 
the role of assisted migration to sus-
tain  healthy  and  productive  forests, 
and makes the case for the establish-
ment of new provenance trials. 

Among the most interesting observa-
tions is the fact that climate change 
might  outrun  genetic  adaptations  in 
the  monitored  species,  and  that  — 
whilst  a  ‘no-management  approach’ 
will often result in higher diversity — 
active  management  increases  the 
chances of adaptation.

‘FGRs  are  critical  to  having  forests 
adapted  to  future  climate.  Currently 
too  much  emphasis  is  being  put  on 
species change to adapt to future cli-
mate.  This  will  strongly  disrupt  the 
forest  ecosystem  and  forests  man-
agement, creating large uncertainties. 
Much can be attained with changes in 
provenances  while  using  the  same 
species,’ Dr Kramer notes. 

9

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

In  its  third  and  last  policy  brief, 
FORGER analyses the impact of in situ 
and  ex  situ  conservation  of  genetic 
resources. Using databases developed 
under the EUFGIS and EVOLTREE pro-
jects, the team found that few meas-
urements  of  genetic  diversity  were 
available from within the genetic con-
servation units. It identified conserva-
tion  gaps  —  locations  where  the 
species  examined  occur  in  climatic 
conditions that are distinct from the 
climatic  conditions  found  within  the 
genetic conservation units — and con-
cluded that genetic markers available 
to characterise the genetic diversity of 
tree species were not associated with 
their adaptive properties.

The  outcomes  of  the  project  are 
already  generating  interest  across 
Europe.  ‘The  guidelines  have  been 
translated to Hungarian, and will be 
translated  to  at  least  German  and 
French, and possibly Italian. Workshops 
have  also  been  held  to  disseminate 
the results in different partner coun-
tries,’ says Dr Kramer. 

 

FORGER
 Coordinated by Alterra in  
the Netherlands.

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

rcn/102045

GNSS TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER BIOMASS 
MAPPING
The  EU-funded  COREGAL  project  combines  traditional  positioning  technology  with  reflected  'Global 
navigation satellite system' (GNSS) signals to let land management professionals see through thick tree 
canopies and better understand what lies on the forest floor.

Not only is Brazil a large country but much of it is cov-

ered by the dense Amazon rainforest. Trying to man-
age such a rugged and isolated area using traditional 
mapping, surveying and land management tools is simply 
impossible. Here, a new land management technology is 
needed  —  and  that  technology  is  called  COREGAL 
(Combined Positioning-Reflectometry Galileo Code Receiver 
for Forest Management).

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The COREGAL project aims to harness the combined power 
of positioning and reflectometry technology in order to cre-
ate a low-cost, unmanned aerial platform for biomass map-
ping of the Brazilian Amazon forests. The innovative platform 
is the first of its kind — combining GNSS technology with 
drone, or 'Unmanned aerial vehicle' (UAV), systems. 

Traditionally, this sort of work has been completed using a 
combination of various sensor technologies and sources of 
information. COREGAL, however, disrupts this approach by 
bringing a new sensor to the market, one capable of pro-
viding  additional  data  to  further  improve  upon  existing 
products.  Thus,  on  the  one  hand,  COREGAL’s  UAVs  are 

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
10

equipped with a Galileo-enabled GNSS receiver that serves 
as the main sensor for positioning information and biomass 
estimation. However, as Galileo signals aren’t always able to 
reach  through  the  thick  canopies  of  Brazil’s  jungles,  the 
COREGAL platform combines this traditional receiver with 
reflected GNSS signals (GNSS-R) that are capable of cutting 
through the dense canopy environment. Combined together, 
the platform provides the end user with a high-accuracy, 
lower-cost  solution  for  land  management  and  biomass 
mapping. 

How does the system work?

“With this information in 
hand, local governments can 
mitigate against 
deforestation and forest 
degradation activities that 
could release harmful carbon 
gasses.”

In the COREGAL system, the GNSS satellite in space serves as 
the transmitter and the UAV works as the receiver. The trans-
mitted signal from the satellite is reflected off the ground, 
acquiring information 
about  the  surface’s 
characteristics  — 
including  obstacles 
— along the way. This 
reflected  signal  is 
then received by the 
UAV’s  biomass  sen-
sor, which extracts the 
the 
data  about 
reflected surface (i.e., 
the ground) from the 
reflected  signals. 
Specific to its application to biomass mapping, as the signal is 
reflected  back  up  through  the  tree  canopies,  branches  and 
leaves, important biomass data is captured, and subsequently 
extracted by the UAV receiver.

‘Integrating positioning and reflectometry in a single device 
within a UAV offers a unique value proposition,’ explains 
project  coordinator  Pedro  Freire  da  Silva.  ‘Furthermore, 
GNSS-R signal properties allow for a lower saturation level 
than traditional radar systems, providing the end user with 
greater sensitivity to a higher level of biomass density.’ 

Benefits and next steps

Understanding an area’s biomass is essential to being able 
to assess the economic, conservation and biofuel potential 
of a given land surface. Furthermore, this biomass data can 
be used to estimate the amount of carbon stored in a forest 
— which is important to understanding the potential envi-
ronmental and climate consequences that any planned land 
use could have. With this information in hand, local govern-
ments can mitigate against deforestation and forest degra-
dation activities that could release harmful carbon gasses. 

Currently, test campaigns to validate the COREGAL plat-
form are ongoing. Although the recently conducted first test 
flight was a success, Silva notes that there have been chal-
lenges  along  the  way.  For  example,  during  several  test 
campaigns, various interference sources were noted, mak-
ing  it  more  difficult  to  receive  the  Galileo  signal,  which 
relies on the E5 radio-frequency band. 

That being said, project coordinator remains upbeat: ‘We 
expect these tests to demonstrate the commercial viability 
of the COREGAL concept for biomass measurement,’ says 
Silva. ‘The key advantage of the platform is the substantial 
cost reduction and increase in biomass mapping accuracy 
it provides.’ Silva also notes the project is expected to help 
accelerate  the  adoption  of  Galileo-based  technology  in 
Brazil,  with  potential  trickledown  benefits  for  related 
European projects and business ventures.

COREGAL

  Coordinated by DEIMOS Engenharia in Portugal.
  Funded under H2020-GALILEO.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/125521
 Project website:  

http://www.coregalproject.com/



 http://bit.ly/1tvVZXr

INNOVATIVE DRONE TECHNOLOGY TO TACKLE 
DEFORESTATION
A UK start-up is developing a high tech concept that it believes will one day enable it to plant 1 billion 
trees every year, contributing to efforts to tackle global deforestation and contributing towards greater 
overall sustainability.

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Deforestation continues to signifi-

cantly outstrip our best conser-
vation  efforts.  Illegal  logging, 
land clearance and habitat destruction 
all  contribute  towards  a  net  global 
loss of around 6.6 billion trees each 
year. But while deforestation is a com-
plex issue with many causes and chal-
lenges, there is one concept that can 
easily  be  grasped  —  because  tree 
planting  is  a  labour-intensive  and 
expensive activity, replanting has sim-
ply not been able to keep pace with 
the speed of habitat loss. 

Taking this proposition as a starting 
point,  UK-based  start-up  BioCarbon 

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
 
 
Engineering  has  sought  to  harness 
cutting-edge technology to revolution-
ise the planting process, and thus help 
to  replenish  precious  habitats  and 
ensure a sustainable supply of forest-
based materials. This fits with the EU’s 
objective  of  moving  Europe  away 
from the traditional linear ‘take, make 
and dispose of’ model of production 
and consumption, towards a sustain-
able circular economy. 

The  company  received  an  EU  grant 
designed to boost the potential of small 
businesses  for  eco-innovation  and  a 
sustainable  supply  of  raw  materials. 
This helped to fund a Phase 1 project 
that focused on establishing a complete 
supply chain, a sound business model 
and a commercialisation strategy. The 
project also involved planning a large-
scale pilot for the automated planting 
solution, to be demonstrated in different 
ecosystems  throughout  Europe.  The 
four-month  BIOCARBON  (Rapid  tree-
planting  through  the  use  of  remote 
sensing and unmanned vehicle planting 
technologies for large scale reforesta-
tion) project was completed at the end 
of March 2016. 

The new planting system consists of a 
mapping  'Unmanned  aerial  vehicle' 
(UAV),  a  planting  UAV  and  machine 
learning  software.  The  technique  is 

fully automated and promises to be a 
significantly  cheaper  and  faster 
means of reforestation. The company 
estimates  that  10  seeds  can  be 
planted  per  UAV  per  minute.  Once 
scaled up, the company aims to plant 
1 billion seeds a year. 

In addition to cost and speed, the new 
technique  offers  a  number  of  other 
advantages.  Mapping  technology  is 
used to increase uptake rates and the 
likelihood of healthy forest develop-
ment. Given that the planting is car-
ried  out  by  an  aerial  vehicle,  terrain 
normally inaccessible by land-based 
approaches can now be reached. 

Pods are then fired into the ground by 
the drone, enabling the planting of a 
large number of trees in a short period 
of time. Each pod can be loaded with 
pre-germinated seeds and a nutritious 
hydro-gel,  giving  it  all  the  minerals 
and moisture it needs to get started. 

The technology represents a significant 
departure  from  current  tree-planting 
techniques, which include planting by 
hand and delivering dry seeds by air. 
Hand-planting is slow and expensive, 
while  spreading  dry  seeds  results  in 
low uptake rates. It also presents an 
opportunity  to  help  countries  meet 
their environmental obligations. At the 

11

UN Climate Summit in Paris, a commit-
ment was made to restore 350 million 
hectares of degraded and deforested 
land by 2030, and it is clear that tradi-
tional planting techniques will not be 
enough.

“The new planting system 
consists of a mapping 
'Unmanned aerial vehicle' 
(UAV), a planting UAV and 
machine learning software.”

Next steps include scaling up the inno-
vation,  continuing  to  fine-tune  the 
seed-pod  dispersal  technology,  and 
attracting further interest from poten-
tial  investors  and  collaborators  in 
order to bring the concept to market.

 

BIOCARBON
 Coordinated by Biocarbon Engineering 
in the United Kingdom.

  Funded under H2020-SMEINST-1.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/125479

 Project website:  

http://www.biocarbonengineering.com/



 http://bit.ly/21mcvUc

I N T E R V I E W
LONGWOOD TELLS THE STORY OF HUMAN 
INFLUENCE OVER MORAVIAN FORESTS  
FROM VARIOUS SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES
Knowing the evolution of European forests’ composition over the past few centuries or even millennia 
could prove highly valuable in shaping present management strategies. The LONGWOOD project brought 
experts and knowledge from various disciplines together to create common databases and prepare 
guidelines for better woodland management, with a focus on the Moravian Region in Central Europe.

How  did  humans’  management  strategies  influence 

Central Europe’s vegetation over time? How come we 
know so little about this process and how can this gap 
be  filled?  These  questions  were  at  the  centre  of  the 
LONGWOOD  (Long-term  woodland  dynamics  in  Central 
Europe: from estimations to a realistic model) project.

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A  few  months  before  its  completion,  Prof.  Péter  Szabó, 
coordinator of LONGWOOD, sheds light on the work done 
so far and discusses its potential for influencing future con-
servation schemes. 

  How do you explain that we knew so little about 
the evolution of forest composition before your 
project started?

Prof. Péter Szabó: In fact we knew a lot, but I found 
that the scientific disciplines generating this knowledge did 
not communicate with each other much. Each discipline has 

PROF. PÉTER SZABÓ

 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
12

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its own set of sources and tools and produces specific kinds 
of results. For example, pollen analysis can reconstruct for-
est composition in high detail but its geographical scope is 
limited.

In some respects, cooperation is indeed difficult because 
the temporal and spatial scales offered by various sources 
differ. However, in many other respects I saw no reason why 
the disciplines involved should not work together towards 
answering what appeared to be common questions. I felt 
that the moment was right to try to bring different meth-
ods together in a region that was large enough to be rep-
resentative of Central Europe at least and at the same time 
available for analysis in high resolution.

  How did you proceed to find past information on 
Central European forests’ composition?

We planned the research together with colleagues from 
various  disciplines.  This  was  a  key  stage  in  the  project, 
because we all knew we could do our own stuff but we had 
to find a spatio-temporal scale at which we could mean-
ingfully cooperate along with a platform that would hold all 
the  various  kinds  of  data  together.  For  me  it  was  also 
important to find top-notch experts in each field, because 
outdated methods in one field would have discredited the 
whole project. 

There are four types of data involved in our research: fos-
sil pollen, archival documents, current vegetation and archae-
ological data. All these different kinds of data are kept in 
‘Geographic  information  systems’  (GIS)  databases,  which 
makes them compat-
ible and comparable. 
Precisely  because  in 
our view there was a 
gap between detailed 
local  studies  and 
somewhat  specula-
tive large-scale mod-
els,  we  decided  to 
gather as much data 
for  a  larger  region 
(Moravia in the east-
ern Czech Republic, ca. 27 000 km2) as we felt was humanly 
possible. 

“Our results could contribute 
to a renewal of Czech forestry 
policy in terms of desirable 
tree species composition and 
the role of traditional forest 
management.”

Nearing the end of the project, we have thousands of per-
manent and resurveyed semi-permanent vegetation plots, 

dozens of palynological profiles, tens of thousands of historical 
records on tree species composition and forest management in 
addition to a complete database of all archaeological findings 
ever recorded in the area. This gives us a unique opportunity to 
look at forest development and the role of humans in a com-
plex manner since the end of the latest Ice Age. 

  What have you learned with regards to the 
evolution of forest composition in Central Europe?

We are actually in the middle of final analyses and syn-
theses, but I think first of all we learnt to be suspicious 
towards received wisdom. 

For example, it appears that the most important 20th 
century process that influenced those forests which are 
highly valued nowadays for their biodiversity was, at least 
in our region, the abandonment of traditional management. 
Nitrogen deposition and other factors also play a role of 
course, but if you stop managing a forest the way it has 
been managed for hundreds or maybe thousands of years, 
that changes practically everything from flowers to butter-
flies.  Our  historical  data  proved  that  no  forest  was  left 
unmanaged even in the Middle Ages and also that the eco-
logically most important factors are not necessarily the 
best  documented.  For  example,  litter  raking  in  forests, 
which was earlier sidelined as a ‘minor use’, was practised 
almost  everywhere  and  could  remove  as  much  nutrient 
from forests as tree cutting. 

Another important finding is that it is often impossible 
to separate human impact from natural processes in eco-
system development. The floristically most valuable oak-
wood  in  southern  Moravia  turned  out  to  have  few  oaks 
before people changed its management in the 14th cen-
tury. Does that make it less ‘natural’ in the eyes of nature 
conservation? 

On the other hand, not everything is about change. We 
also found elements of remarkable stability. In a combined 
palynological,  archaeological  and  palaeoclimatological 
model we found that open land covered a large part of the 
lowlands through the entire Holocene period, but again it is 
impossible to tell exactly to what extent this was caused by 
people and how much by climate.

  One main project outcome is a spatio-temporal 
forest landscape model. What would be typical uses 
for this model by stakeholders? 

The main sectors that can benefit from our results are 
nature conservation and forestry. Our results provide an 
opportunity to follow long-term changes and put current 
changes, including those triggered by climate change, into 
a millennial context. On a more concrete level, our data-
bases are intended to be open, so for example if a forestry 
unit wants to find out about tree species composition in 
their area in the past few hundred years to develop a bet-
ter management plan, they will be able to get this informa-
tion from us. 

We are also trying to reassess existing models of tree 
species’  native  ranges.  Furthermore,  we  cooperate  with 
nature conservation authorities in several places, where the 
consequences  of  the  reintroduction  of  traditional  forest 
management — partly guided by our research — will be 
monitored by us and also evaluated in the context of over-
all changes in the 20th century. In an ideal case, our results 
could contribute to a renewal of Czech forestry policy in 
terms of desirable tree species composition and the role of 
traditional forest management, most of which is currently 
banned outside specially designated areas.

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
  You also prepared guidelines for more congruous 
woodland conservation. What are your main 
recommendations?

I would advise against grand conservation schemes. It is 
all too easy to rely on a pre-existing classification to fit 
your local woodland into, but by doing so you run the risk 
of overlooking what makes your site special. For me, the 
interesting thing about a forest is not how it is similar to 
other forests but how it is different from any other forest. 

Furthermore, and this is something we are engaged in 
through our research, overarching conservation schemes 
and principles tend to turn into dogma and lose their abil-
ity to incorporate new knowledge. I would like to see site 
history  much  more  involved  in  woodland  conservation. 
Forests are not only natural but also cultural monuments, 
and  as  I  mentioned  above,  it  is  often  impossible  to  say 
where culture ends and nature begins. I do not see this as 
a problem but rather something we, especially in Europe, 
should  embrace.  Woods  are  extremely  complex,  so  we 

13

should  look  at  them  in  a  complex  manner  rather  than 
through a list of desirable species.

  Your work focused on the Moravia region. Do you 
hope that your methodology will help similar 
initiatives in other regions of Europe?

I do hope so. I would be happy if others found our work 
inspiring  in  the  sense  that  the  combination  of  different 
sources and methods can create synergetic results, more 
than the simple sum of individual components.

 

LONGWOOD
 Coordinated by the Institute of Botany of the CAS  
in the Czech Republic.

  Funded under FP7-IDEAS-ERC.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/101227
 Project website:  

http://longwood.cz 

MITIGATING FOREST MISMANAGEMENT  
WITH 3D MAPPING
The EU-funded SLOPE project is using satellite and 'Unmanned aerial vehicle' (UAV) imagery to improve 
the long-term sustainability of Europe’s mountain forests.

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35 % of Europe is covered by 

mountains, many of which 
are blanketed by dense for-
ests. For the many Europeans who live 
in these mountainous areas, the forest 
and the land are often the main sources 
of income, thus representing an impor-
tant economic resource. Unfortunately, 
these  same  regions  are  all-too-often 
victims of mismanagement and defor-
estation  —  with  significant  economic 
consequences for local communities. 

To  mitigate  against  this  trend,  the 
SLOPE  (Integrated  proceSsing  and 
controL systems fOr sustainable for-
est Production in mountain arEas) pro-
ject  aims  to  improve  the  long-term 
management  and  sustainability  of 
Europe’s  mountains  and  forests  by 
providing local communities and for-
est  administrations  more  precise 
knowledge about forest ecosystems. It 
intends  to  do  this  by  generating 
detailed,  virtual  3D  forest  models 

using  geospatial  information  that 
combines data gathered from tradi-
tional in-the-field laser scanning tech-
nology  with  new,  state-of-the-art 
UAV-based aerial surveying systems. 

Transformation through 
technology

‘With SLOPE, we intend to transform 
Europe’s  forestry  industry  from  one 
that has traditionally been resource-
intensive  to  one  that  is  knowledge-
based  and  sustainable,’  says  Senior 
Research  Manager  and  Project 
Coordinator  Daniele  Magliocchetti 
from GraphiTech, Italy. ‘And in doing 
so,  we  will  help  make  the  European 
timber industry more competitive at 
the global level.’

Like  many  research  projects,  SLOPE 
was born out of a perceived problem. 
Project researchers identified numer-
ous weaknesses in the forest produc-
tion  workflow.  For  example,  the 
forestry workflow lacks efficient ways 
for finding the best tree type for a par-
ticular  demand,  correctly  placing  a 
cable line to maximise harvesting and 
minimise  setup  time,  tracking  the 
amount of produced wood, and decid-
ing the best logistic solutions to opti-
mise costs. ‘All of these areas are ripe 
for improvement if the end user has 
the  necessary  information  readily 
available,’ says Magliocchetti.

 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
14

“The adoption of RFID tags 
serves as the starting point for 
the population of the Digital 
Forest Model — giving each 
tree marked by foresters a 
unique digital tracking number.”

SLOPE represents a new way of planning 
forest activities specifically designed for 
steep and sloped mountain areas, allow-
ing  the  user  to  ‘see’  the  forest’s  true 
characteristics via a 3D model. To create 
these models, the project uses UAVs and 
satellites to produce images, which serve 
as the source of the spatial information 
that the system then uses to determine 
the quality of a particular parcel of land 
and the position, height and species of 
each  tree.  From  here,  the  adoption  of 
'Radio-frequency identification system' 
(RFID) tags serves as the starting point 
for the population of the Digital Forest 
Model — giving each tree marked by for-
esters a unique digital tracking number. 
An  enhanced  cable  carriage  system 

updates each tree within the database 
with a harvesting stamp and every log 
produced  from  that  particular  tree, 
thanks  to  a  sensor-enabled  processor 
head, receives a specific RFID tag and 
quality grade, allowing it to be tracked 
along  the  entire  journey  to  the  end 
customer. 

Put this technology together and the 
SLOPE  'Forest  information  system' 
(FIS) is capable of aligning data origi-
nated  from  different  sources  into  a 
common forest data model visualised 
in 3D — providing the end user with a 
complete  picture  of  the  forest  sce-
nario.  ‘Using  the  SLOPE  FIS,  forest 
owners and operators can obtain more 
detailed data about a forest property, 
which  can  be  used  in  their  planning 
and inventory phase without the need 
to conduct direct, in-the-field exami-
nations  —  saving  time  and  costs,’ 
explains Magliocchetti. 

Big benefits

to SLOPE, many SMEs were unable to con-
duct the required surveying of mountain 
forests due to cost restrictions. ‘Because 
of SLOPE’s integration of a variety of inno-
vative, cost-effective methods and tools 
designed specifically for mountainous for-
est  management,  these  small  and 
medium-sized  companies  now  have 
access to unprecedented knowledge, giv-
ing them a unique "first mover" advantage 
in their markets,’ says Magliocchetti.

Magliocchetti also believes the system 
could play a role in increasing employ-
ment in less developed mountain areas. 
Furthermore, the project will help develop 
stronger relations between local popula-
tions and sustainable land use — show-
ing that with SLOPE, one truly can see the 
forest through the trees.

 

SLOPE
 Coordinated by Fondazione GraphiTech 
in Italy.

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

rcn/125519

SMEs  in  particular  are  set  to  benefit 
immensely from the SLOPE system. Prior 

 Project website:  

http://www.slopeproject.eu/

I N T E R V I E W
BETTER FOREST MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES 
FOR MAXIMISED MITIGATION POTENTIAL

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trade-offs, analyses the likely impact of climate change on 
European  forests,  and  delivers  management  options  and 
implementation strategies.

The project, which will come to an end in September 2016, 
is currently in its final phase. Prof. Dr Frits Mohren, coordi-
nator of FORMIT and Chair in Forest Ecology and Forest 
Management  at  Wageningen  University,  discusses  the 
added value of his research and its potential for shaping 
future European forest management strategies.

Forest  managers  are  often  puzzled  over  the  best 
compromise between carbon sequestration and biomass 
exploitation for energy production. The FORMIT project 
will soon be revealing the results of a multiple scenario 
analysis that should enable decision-makers from all 
across Europe to make more informed decisions. 

FORMIT (FORest management strategies to enhance the 

MITigation potential of European forests) was born from 
the need to better balance out different forest uses in 
Europe. It takes into account carbon storage, timber produc-
tion  and  biodiversity  conservation  as  well  as  possible 

  Why was it important to come up with new 
management strategies for carbon sequestration?

Prof. Dr Frits Mohren: Carbon sequestration is a rela-
tively new objective in forest management. The role that for-
ests play in the global carbon budget has been attracting 
attention only in recent decades, since the onset of concern 
about climate change and the need to mitigate this by reduc-
ing CO2 emissions and by increasing CO2 sequestration in ter-
restrial ecosystems, notably in forests. Forests store large 
amounts of carbon, and by adapting forest management this 
can be further increased, notably in managed forests such as 
those in Europe.

In addition to this, forests may play a role in reducing 
emissions of CO2 from fossil fuel use by contributing bio-
mass for energy production. Effectively, this may lead to an 
intensification of forest use, which in turn may lead to CO2 
emission through forest ecosystem disturbances.

Thus, the aims and objectives of forest management 
have to be reconsidered, along with its practical operations, 

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
in order to understand its role now and potentially in the 
future in the regional and global carbon balance.

Currently, the entire European forest area is accumulat-
ing biomass, as timber harvest is less than timber incre-
ment overall. As a result, the sequestration of carbon in 
forest ecosystems may amount to some 10 % of the total 
emissions of CO2 in Europe. As essentially all of these for-
ests are managed, we need to understand what drives this 
carbon sequestration, how long it may continue, and how it 
is influenced by forest management.

  What would you say is the main added value of 
FORMIT in this regard?

The  added  value  of  FORMIT  is  the  analysis  of  forest 
management strategies for the entire forest area in Europe. 
It distinguishes between geographical regions and forest 
types with respect to mitigation of emissions. It also takes 
into account other main forest functions such as timber 
production  and  biodiversity conservation, as  well as  the 
expected intensification of forest use as part of the devel-
opments associated with the increased emphasis on the 
bio-economy, under which the demand for timber resources 
is expected to increase significantly.

  Which European regions did you focus on and why?

We used the European regions found in Forest Europe 
reports: northern, west-central, east-central, west-southern 
and east-southern Europe. These are broad categories, but 
our basis is the National Forest Inventory data, expanded 
on the basis of remote sensing (MODIS) data to cover the 
entire  forest  area  of  Europe,  which  is  then  aggregated 
again for the broad regions being considered.

  What did you learn regarding the mitigation 
potential of European forests?

We are currently  in  the  middle of  the scenario analysis, 
hence I cannot give definitive answers at this point. But it is clear 
that the mitigation potential is large and significant, and that 
forest management is crucial in achieving this mitigation. 

As mentioned above, currently, carbon sequestration in 
forests accounts for 10 % of total emissions. This needs to 
be sustained and possibly even increased, but the trade-off 
with other forest functions, notably the expected intensifi-
cation of use under the bio-economy, is crucial and needs 
to be understood and quantified. We are making a signifi-
cant contribution to this with FORMIT.

  Would you say that a satisfying compromise can 
be found between carbon storage, timber 
production and other ecosystem services?

A compromise will always depend on site conditions, on 
societal demand for forest products and other ecosystem 
services. It will be different in different parts of Europe and 
under different socio-economic conditions. 

There are clear synergies between carbon storage and 
biodiversity conservation; but also in the case where there 
is intensive forest use, carbon storage can be enhanced. But 
society cannot have its cake and eat it too. The big advan-
tage of forests is the possibility of sustainable resource 
supply under close to nature conditions. Timber grows on 
timber, so the cake is growing back all the time. But still 
there are trade-offs and compromises which need to be 
negotiated.  Our  scenario  analysis  provides  scientifically 
sound information on possible options and the boundaries 
of the decision space within which policy makers will need 
to find compromises.

15

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PROF. DR FRITS MOHREN

  How do you hope to convince European regions 
of relying on your management options and 
implementation strategies?

First and foremost by providing sound scientific informa-
tion on the options and management strategies, and their 
consequences, that we can identify at this moment. We 
don’t want to be prescriptive, but we aim to provide policy-
relevant information in the form of realistic adaptive man-
agement strategies. The project will deliver management 
options and implementation strategies for European for-
ests, focusing on mitigation while safeguarding other for-
est functions, and accounting for regional differences in 
environmental  and  socio-economic  conditions.  These 
‘Representative  adaptation  and  mitigation  pathways’ 
(RAMPs) as we call them, will integrate and synthesise cur-
rent understanding, and provide guidance for policymakers 
and forest practitioners.

  The project will end in September. What are your 
plans after that?

Evidently this is ongoing work. The tools and techniques 
that we have developed will be further applied by the part-
ners to continue with more detailed national analysis, to also 
provide nationally-relevant guidance on possible mitigation 
strategies and adaptive management options for forestry. 
On the more fundamental side, the FORMIT project entails a 
number  of  advanced  PhD  studies  that  will  be  completed 
after the end of the project, and that will lead to follow-up 
projects, both methodological as well as more applied.

Also, we are looking into the possibility of establishing, 
with local and national stakeholders, demonstration pro-
jects to show and further document the available manage-
ment options. Evidently this will depend on further national 
and international support, but I trust that our results will 
stir up enough interest to enable us to pursue our research 
and support forest management in its challenging task of 
intensifying sustainable forest use, while continuing to con-
tribute significantly to climate mitigation.

FORMIT

  Coordinated by Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
  Funded under FP7-KBBE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/104508

 SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
16

EUROPEAN FOREST TREES SHOW 
HIGH LEVELS OF BIODIVERSITY WITHIN 
ONE TREE SPECIES
EU researchers have found that a single tree species may perform many different 
ecosystem activities, meaning that biodiversity is both between and within species.

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Discovering how forest tree ecosys-

tems  function  is  crucial  to  both 
predicting how they might respond 
to climate change and drawing up forest 
management plans. It is also key to the 
EU Forest Action Plan’s objective to main-
tain  and  enhance  biodiversity,  carbon 
absorption, and the health and resilience 
of forest ecosystems.

One  EU-funded  project,  DIVERFOR 
(Functional  implications  of  inter-  vs. 
intraspecific trait diversity in European 
forests),  has  focussed  on  European 
forests which, when compared to for-
est regions in other areas of the world, 
are considered to have a relatively low 
range of different species.

The project found that individual trees 
in a single tree species can have high 

“Our project shows that 
differences in certain 
characteristics among individual 
trees within a species can be as 
relevant as differences between 
different tree species in 
European forests.”

levels of functional biodiversity, mean-
ing they may perform a diverse range 
of ecosystem activities. These activities 
include nutrient cycling, climate regula-
tion,  timber  production,  protection 
against erosion, and recreation. 

Measuring tree 
characteristics

DIVERFOR assessed this diversity by 
measuring characteristics — or func-
tional  traits  —  such  as  leaf  tough-
ness, which is linked to its resistance 
to  herbivores.  It  also  assessed  the 
branching pattern of a tree which is 
linked  to  the  way  it  colonises  space 
and competes with other trees. Other 
traits measured included the levels of 
nitrogen in a leaf which is linked to a 
forest’s  nutrient  cycling  rate  and  a 
tree’s flowering time which is linked to 
the trees chances of reproducing.

‘Our project shows that differences in 
certain characteristics among individ-
ual trees within a species can be as rel-
evant as differences between different 
tree species in European forests. This is 
the  case  in  dominant  tree  species  in 
particular,’  says  Raquel  Benavides, 
DIVERFOR project researcher. 

‘DIVERFOR also found that trees can 
adjust their characteristics according 
to  the  environment  that  surrounds 
them. This includes adjusting to biotic 
factors such as the amount of differ-
ent trees species, and abiotic factors 
such as light, soil nutrients, water and 
climate,’ Benavides continues.

Both findings are significant since tree 
communities with higher levels of bio-
diversity  even  within  a  species  are 
expected to be more stable and have 
a higher resistance to climate change. 
‘This can be a good reason to preserve 
patches of forest with a high number 
of  species  within  areas  with  fewer 
species. For example, it is important to 
maintain an area dominated by pine 
trees  in  Finland  and  pine  forest  in 
Spain, as well as areas where pine is 
mixed  with  other  species,’  explains 
Benavides.

Three different forest types

DIVERFOR carried out research in three 
different European forests: a boreal for-
est in Finland, a temperate forest in the 
Carpathian Mountains in Romania and a 
Mediterranean  forest  in  Spain.  Within 
these forests, researchers focussed on 
plots with one dominant tree species, 
plots with two dominant species, and 
plots  with  three  or  four  dominant  
species.  In  total,  DIVERFOR  studied 
4 000  trees  and  collected  more  than 
15 000  leaves.  One  of  the  biggest  
challenges the project faced was collect-
ing leaves from trees up to 30 metres 
tall. This involved hiring climbers, hunt-
ers or using telescopic loppers.

The  project  officially  ended  in  May 
2016, but Benavides vows to continue 
the scientific research into biodiversity 
within  a  tree  species  with  a  view  to 
increasing understanding of how for-
est species and ecosystems adapt to 
current environmental changes.

 

DIVERFOR
 Coordinated by the Albert Ludwigs 
University of Freiburg in Germany.

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

rcn/125499

SPECIAL FEATUREresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
17

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

NEW TOOLS TO PREVENT 
THE SPREAD OF HIGH 
THREAT PATHOGENS  
IN TRANSPORT HUBS
EU researchers are helping national and regional transportation 
hubs to better mitigate the risks of the spread of transmissible 
pathogens.

In 2014 there were 3.3 billion flights around the world, 

44 % of which were long haul. Furthermore, the number 
of airline passengers is forecast to double over the course 
of the next 15 years, meaning the risk of the quick and — 
at times — uncontrollable spread of naturally or intention-
ally released person-to-person transmissible pathogens, 
such as Ebola and anthrax, will be on the rise. 

However,  although  air  travel  is  the  main  culprit  for  the 
global spreading of these pathogens, the risk is not limited 
to  the  skies.  The  high-density  mass  transport  systems 
found  in  many  European  cities  also  help  accelerate  the 
spread of infectious diseases. 

Proactive pathogen prevention 

PANDHUB  (Prevention  and  Management  of  High  Threat 
Pathogen  Incidents  in  Transport  Hubs),  an  EU-funded 
research project, has taken a proactive approach to patho-
gen prevention. The project has aimed to support transport 
operators and relevant stakeholders in developing pathogen 
preparedness and response plans for such transport hubs as 
airports, major metro interchanges and railway stations. 

As a starting point, PANDHUB set out to identify the so-called 
‘hotspots’ that exhibit a higher risk for the transmission of 

microbes via breathing, sneezing and touching. The project 
identified these hotspots by studying the potential routes by 
which infections are transmitted, passenger flows and the 
unique characteristics of transportation hubs. 

Based on this study, PANDHUB researchers discovered that 
the transmission of infectious diseases depends on many 
factors, including the route of transmission, virulence of the 
microbe and susceptibility of the exposed passenger. The 
good  news  is  that  in  normal  circumstances,  the  risk  of 
transmission on public transport is low and requires no spe-
cial action beyond basic personal hygiene. The bad news, 
however, is that those locations exhibiting an increased risk 
tend to be ill-prepared to handle an epidemic. 

Validated guidelines and toolboxes

To remedy this gap in preparedness, the project has devel-
oped validated pandemic guidelines and mobile, integrated 
toolboxes that contain modelling components to simulate 
the spread of diseases and to evaluate the effects of sug-
gested countermeasures. Based on the impact these simu-
lations  have,  the  project  is  developing  tailored  rapid 
response plans to mitigate risks, contain incidents and, ulti-
mately,  save  lives.  In  addition,  PANDHUB  is  producing 
detailed instructions on how to effectively cut off different 

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 
 
18

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

routes of transmission, along with guidelines for protecting, 
cleaning and decontaminating passengers and facilities. 

Liaison Group comprised of transport staff, experts, gov-
ernment authorities and end users. 

Due to the open borders of the EU and the fact that many 
transportation systems cross regional and national borders, 
the  risk  of  a  cross-border  incident  is  particularly  high  in 
Europe. For this reason, PANDHUB’s work pays special atten-
tion to cross-border cooperation, including the coordination 
of data collection and the collation of tools and information. 
As a result, the project facilitates a swift, coordinated cross-
border epidemiological investigation and response. 

The proposed toolbox is currently undergoing wide testing 
through field exercises and workshops, with feedback being 
taken into account for the validation and further develop-
ment of the tools. 

A team effort

Producing such complex, broad and multi-national guide-
lines and tools is challenging and thus demands a multidis-
ciplinary approach. As a result, all of PANDHUB’s tools are 
being developed in close collaboration with a Stakeholder 

PANDHUB

  Coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland.
  Funded under FP7-SECURITY.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/125279
 Project website:  

http://pandhub-fp7-security.eu/

A NOVEL DRUG-DELIVERY METHOD
A recent European study has advanced drug delivery for treating lung diseases by developing a novel 
method based on electrospray technology.

TAYLORMED  researchers  established 
methods  for  visualising  sprays  and 
determining the parameters that affect 
spray  quality.  They  examined  a  wide 
range  of  biological  buffers  for  their 
capacity to generate electrosprays and 
to deliver clinically relevant molecules 
such as DNA, RNA, proteins and small 
molecules. Novel electrospray emitters 
were designed and tested for different 
applications, including the delivery of 
whole  cells  for  regenerative  and  cell 
therapy purposes.

Overall,  the  TAYLORMED  study  
succeeded  in  increasing  our  under-
standing of the electrospray process  

and enabled it to be used in clinically 
relevant  applications.  The  systems 
and devices developed served to dem-
onstrate the capacity to deliver a wide 
range  of  biological  molecules  into 
cells and tissues, opening new roads 
for  drug  delivery.  Partners  are  also 
confident that the technology will be 
useful in diagnostics work.

 

TAYLORMED
 Coordinated by the National University 
of Ireland Maynooth in Ireland.

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

rcn/182825

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Electrospray is a process whereby 

a voltage is applied onto a fluid to 
generate a fine spray. When sub-
jected to an intense electric field, the 
fluid emitted breaks up into a spray of 
charged  droplets  that  fly  towards  a 
counter electrode.

Electrospray technology finds a vari-
ety  of  applications,  including  mass 
spectrometry, tissue engineering and 
protein microarrays. However, the fun-
damental parameters underlying elec-
trospray  formation  are  poorly 
understood,  limiting  full  exploitation 
of the potential of this phenomenon.

The scope of the EU-funded TAYLORMED 
(Electrospray-mediated delivery of bio-
logical molecules into mammalian cells) 
project was to utilise electrospray tech-
nology  to  deliver  biomolecule-based 
drugs into cells and tissues. The primary 
goal  was  to  develop  a  novel  drug- 
delivery method for treating lung dis-
eases. The consortium comprised indus-
trial  and  academic  members  with 
complementary expertise in biological 
drug delivery, mechanical and manufac-
turing engineering as well as microfluid-
ics technologies.

“Novel electrospray emitters 
were designed and tested 
for different applications, 
including the delivery of 
whole cells for regenerative 
and cell therapy purposes.”

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

19

NEW DEVICES ADVANCE BREAST  
CANCER DIAGNOSIS
Researchers in Europe have developed a series of innovative, antibody-like tools, enabling them to study 
breast cancer and discover new biomarkers.

The incidence rate of breast cancer in Europe is about 

430 000 cases every year. Tumours with increased lev-
els of the ‘Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2’ 
(HER2) are aggressive and associated with high mortality. 
HER2 is a potent oncoprotein that has become an estab-
lished target for adjuvant treatment of breast cancer.

Despite the efficacy of anti-HER2 monoclonal antibodies, 
tumours still progress due to innate or acquired resistance 
to the treatment. There is an immediate need to develop 
new, innovative, targeted agents for HER2-positive disease 
and to identify HER2-related biomarkers for disease predic-
tion, diagnosis and monitoring.

In a bid to address this, the EU-funded IMAGINT (HER Imaging 
and molecular interaction mapping in breast cancer) pro-
ject brought together an interdisciplinary team of research-
ers from across Europe. The scientific plan focused on the 
therapeutic  potential  of  the  antibody-like  proteins  — 
‘Designed  ankyrin  repeat  proteins’  (DARPins).  These  are 
small molecules based on human protein scaffolds that can 
bind specific targets with high affinity.

IMAGINT  developed  a  series  of  tools  for  synthesising  and 
manipulating DARPins to carry specific chemical modifications 
and generated DARPins against different HER receptors. They 
went on to study the subcellular HER2 distribution and pro-
posed this as a novel method for screening patient tissues.

Researchers discovered differences between breast cancer 
and corresponding healthy tissue using imaging cycler micros-
copy. Furthermore, they detected alterations in associating 
miRNAs/proteins in response to anti-HER2 therapy. They also 
identified a number of breast cancer prognostic biomarkers 
following bioinformatic analysis of gene expression.

One of the IMAGINT imaging assays for identification of 
HER heterodimers demonstrated clinical applicability and 
prognostic value. Using this assay, scientists validated a 
new mechanism of resistance to ‘anti-epidermal growth 
factor  receptor’  (anti-EGFR)  therapy  in  patients  with 

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triple-negative breast cancer. Furthermore, they developed 
a new agent that enables non-invasive whole body imag-
ing of HER2+ tumours, in doing so providing information on 
disease spread and stages.

The biomarkers identified would help in making tailored 
treatment decisions and assist in developing new drugs. For 
instance, early identification of patients at a high risk of 
metastatic  recurrence  can  help  clinicians  change  their 
treatment  strategy.  Collectively,  the  deliverables  of  the 
IMAGINT  study  enable  stratification  and  monitoring  of 
breast cancer for hopefully better patient outcomes.

 

IMAGINT
 Coordinated by University College London in  
the United Kingdom.

  Funded under FP7-HEALTH.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/91913
 Project website:  

http://www.imagint.eu/

TWO SHOTS IN ONE: TACKLING HIV  
AND HEPATITIS C INFECTIONS
Novel vaccines have been created to prevent co-infections of HIV and ‘Hepatitis C virus’ (HCV), a growing 
health problem in Europe.

The vaccines, developed by scien-

tists  working  on  the  ground-
breaking  EU-funded  project 
PEACHI  (Prevention  of  Hepatitis  C 
virus  (HCV)  and  HIV-1  co-infections 
through  induction  of  potent  T  cell 
responses  using  prime-boost  viral 
vector  vaccine  regimens),  combine 
antiretroviral therapies and vaccines 
that  stimulate  targeted  immune 
responses.  HCV,  which  can  lead  to 

chronic  liver  disease  and  cancer,  
is  a  leading  cause  of  death  in  HIV  
co-infected individuals. An estimated 
2.3  million  people  globally  are  co-
infected with HIV and HCV.

do not kill or cure the virus, they can pre-
vent the growth of the virus when taken 
in combination. When the virus is slowed 
down, the danger of further HIV compli-
cations is reduced.

PEACHI sought to address this challenge 
by building upon the success of antiret-
roviral therapies, which have led to a dra-
matic improvement in life expectancy for 
people with HIV infection. While the drugs 

In  order  to  specifically  address  co-
infections  of  HCV,  the  project  team 
sought to combine proven antiretrovi-
ral HIV drugs with modified vaccines 
targeted  at  HCV.  The  aim  of  these 

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
20

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

The success of the project means that a 
combined vaccination against HCV and 
HIV is now a step closer to commerciali-
sation, and the possibility of vaccinating a 
single  individual  against  both  diseases 
opens up huge possibilities for rolling back 
epidemics of disease and co-infection.

Whilst vaccination is the most effec-
tive way to prevent many infectious 
diseases,  developing  effective  vac-
cines against HIV and HCV has proved 
extremely  challenging.  One  of  the 
main reasons for this is the enormous 
variation in HCV and HIV types around 
the  world,  which  is  caused  by  the 
extraordinary ability of the viruses to 
modify their genes.

To begin with, PEACHI scientists focused 
on vaccine development and the optimi-
sation of clinical trial protocols, together 
with improving training in good clinical 
practice.  The  development  of  new 
immunology assays for analysing clini-
cal trial samples may open new ave-
nues for research into immune control 
of HIV-1 and HCV infections.

Following on from this, the safety and 
efficacy of vaccines were then tested 
in healthy individuals without HIV-1 or 
HCV  infections.  Single-cell  analyses 
were performed to assess the quality 
of vaccine-induced T-cell responses.

The  PEACHI  consortium  has  also  been 
working  on  novel  vaccine  technology  to 
improve the effectiveness of existing vac-
cines. This approach involves the use of 
vaccine-encoded  antigens  (molecules 
capable of inducing an immune response), 
which are fused to HCV proteins. The objec-
tive is to enhance HCV antigen presentation 
in the immune cells of HIV patients. 

The four-year PEACHI project is due for 
completion at the end of January 2017.

 

PEACHI
 Coordinated by the University  
of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

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

rcn/125361

 Project website:  

http://www.peachi.eu/

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vaccines  has  been  to  better  focus  the 
immune response of people living with 
HIV. 

Results have been positive. Findings pre-
sented at the International Liver Congress 
2016 in Barcelona, Spain, suggest that the 
approach being pioneered by the PEACHI 
project is indeed effective in boosting the 
immune  system  against  both  HCV  and 
HIV.  Furthermore,  the  co-administration  
of HCV and HIV components of the boost 
does not impair specific T-cell responses.

TUMOUR MICROENVIRONMENT PROMOTES 
CANCER DRUG RESISTANCE
The interaction of cancer cells with their immediate microenvironment is complex but essential for cancer 
evolution. A European study has investigated how the microenvironment may even be responsible for 
drug-resistant disease.

Targeting  oncogenic  kinases  such  as  ABL,  BRAF  and 

EGFR now constitutes anti-cancer therapy. However, 
these drugs are only efficacious against tumours with 
matching oncogenic mutations until genetically resistant 
cancer cells emerge. In the case of EGFR, these cells are 
present even before treatment and have a strong selective 
advantage during therapy.

Scientists in the EU-funded study IMAGEMELTHERAPYLRI 
(Single cell level intravital imaging of response, tolerance, 
and resistance to targeted therapies) set out to investigate 
the emergence of resistance in BRAF-mutant melanoma 
treated with BRAF inhibitors. Given the variability in the ini-
tial response to BRAF inhibition and the absence of resist-
ant cells before therapy, researchers believe that non-cell 
autonomous mechanisms involving the tumour microenvi-
ronment may drive resistance.

To comprehend how the genetically stable stroma could 
promote the emergence of BRAF treatment-resistant mel-
anoma, scientists employed intravital imaging techniques 
and  ‘Fluorescence  resonance  energy  transfer’  (FRET) 
microscopy. They observed that following an initial period 
of  response  to  treatment,  melanoma-associated  fibro-
blasts exhibited a reactivation of the ERK/MAPK pathway. 
In  turn,  this  led  to  matrix  protein  production  and  tissue 
remodelling that provided tolerance to the BRAF inhibitor in 
melanoma cells. When they abolished ERK pathway reacti-
vation, they obtained  a more effective  control  of  BRAF-
mutant melanoma.

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Study findings indicate that melanoma-associated fibro-
blasts provide a safe haven for melanoma cells to tolerate 
BRAF inhibition, facilitating the emergence of genetically 
resistant  cancer  cells.  The  work  carried  out  during  the 
IMAGEMELTHERAPYLRI  project  highlighted  the  need  to  
consider  how  targeted  anti-cancer  therapies  affect  the 
tumour microenvironment. Furthermore, it suggested that  
co-targeting of the tumour microenvironment might aug-
ment cancer therapy and improve its outcome.

 

IMAGEMELTHERAPYLRI
  Coordinated by the Francis Crick Institute in  
the United Kingdom.

  Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/182818

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
 
B I O L O G Y   A N D   M E D I C I N E

21

BREAKTHROUGH IN DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS GIVES 
HOPE TO HEART PATIENTS

EU-funded scientists have made key discoveries and developed more effective ways 
of diagnosing a heart condition that affects millions of Europeans.

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“New real-time automatic fibrillation 
analysis techniques, novel treatment 
options and non-invasive diagnostics 
tools have been developed.”

‘Atrial fibrillation’ (AF) — a con-

dition  that  causes  abnormal 
heart rhythm — affects up to 
2 % of the European population and 
increases the risk of stroke, heart fail-
ure and death. Europe’s ageing popu-
lation means that the prevalence of 
AF is expected to increase, which will 
put  further  pressure  on  Europe’s 
stretched health services. 

In order to address this, the EU-backed 
EUTRAF  (The  European  Network  for 
Translational  Research  in  Atrial 
Fibrillation)  project  has  sought  to 
develop  new  methods  for  ensuring 
earlier diagnoses of AF, thereby mak-
ing  clinical  interventions  easier  and 
more successful. As well as improving 
patient care through early diagnostics 
and treatment, the project, which was 
officially  completed  in  November 
2015, is expected to decrease the cost 
of current AF management.

The project has also been involved in 
some groundbreaking trials. One key 
finding  has  been  that  giving  daily 
doses of statins for a few days before 
and after heart surgery does not pre-
vent the development of AF and can 
actually increase the risk of develop-
ing kidney damage. The results of this 
trial, part funded by the EUTRAF pro-
ject, were published in May 2016 in 
the New England Journal of Medicine 
(NEJM). 

‘Statins  have  been  known  to  have 
rapid anti-inflammatory and antioxi-
dant  effects  for  many  years,’  says 
Professor  Barbara  Casadei,  who  led 
the  research  at  the  University  of 
Oxford in collaboration with the British 
Heart  Foundation.  ‘Although  guide-
lines currently recommend statins at 
the  time  of  heart  surgery  to  reduce 
complications, the evidence was not 
very strong. The results of our large 
randomised  placebo-controlled  trial 
conclusively prove that there are no 
benefits  to  taking  statins  shortly 
before  and  after  heart  surgery  to 
reduce  postoperative  complications 
but there is an adverse effect on kid-
ney function.’

This discovery could lead to a change 
in international guidelines on prevent-
ing AF and other complications follow-
ing heart surgery. The findings do not 
however  challenge  the  strong  evi-
dence showing that long-term treat-
ment with statins reduces heart attack 
and stroke risk. 

The  EUTRAF  project,  which  received 
nearly  EUR  12  million  in  EU  funding, 
began in 2010 by studying the causes, 
progression and treatment of AF. From 
this,  new  biomarkers  and  novel  ion 
channels  and  transporters  for  future 
therapies were identified. Research on 
animal  models  to  better  understand 
atrial blood flow regulation and possible 

genetic components of AF has also been 
carried out. 

From  this  initial  research,  new  real-
time  automatic  fibrillation  analysis 
techniques,  novel  treatment  options 
and  non-invasive  diagnostics  tools 
have been developed. In addition, the 
project has pioneered the development 
of a Clinical Decision Support module 
mobile app. EUTRAF has been a pioneer 
of  using  information  technology  to 
support the prediction and prevention 
of various consequences of AF, such as 
stroke and thromboembolism.

The  project  also  carried  out  pre- 
clinical  studies  into  new  ways  of 
measuring fibrosis and atrial fat infil-
tration,  and  demonstrated  that  
electrocardiogram-derived atrial com-
plexity parameters could be used to 
predict the outcome of various thera-
pies with increased accuracy.

 

EUTRAF
 Coordinated by St George’s Hospital 
Medical School in the United Kingdom.

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

rcn/125364

 Project website:  

http://www.eutraf.eu/

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
2222
22

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016

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

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

CREATING A COMMON 
EUROPEAN IDENTITY BY 
DIGITISING ITS CULTURAL 
HERITAGE
An EU-funded project is using new technology to rethink and reshape 
Europe’s cultural heritage for the digital age.

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When we hear about cultural herit-

age, we tend to think of art hang-
ing in a museum, watching a play 
in  the  theatre  or  reading  a  book  about 
ancient history. As such, ‘cultural history’ 
(CH) is something from the past that we can 
visit and view, but not live and interact with. 

The  RICHES  (Renewal,  Innovation  and 
Change: Heritage and European Society) 
project is rethinking this view of CH within 
the  context  of  today’s  digital-infused, 
multimedia-filled  world.  How  can 
CH-related  institutions  redefine  them-
selves to meet changing user needs? Can 
an  increasingly  diverse  society  identify 
with an often singular CH? Is it possible to 
bring CH closer to its audiences? 

To answer these questions and others, the 
RICHES project drew on the collective exper-
tise of 10 partners from six EU countries 
and Turkey. Its interdisciplinary team of cul-
tural  institutions,  public  and  national 
administrations, ‘Small and medium sized 
enterprises’  (SMEs)  and  representatives 
from the humanities and social sciences 
researched how European CH can evolve to 
better position itself within the digital age. 

A wider audience 

The RICHES project set out to investigate 
the context of change as it applies to CH. 
Specifically, it looked to design new ways 

that CH is performed and preserved and 
identify how to use digital technology to 
broadcast  CH  across  audiences  and 
generations. 

To put this work into perspective, consider 
the CH of dance. As a performance-based 
art, one cannot truly experience a dance 
recital  at  a  museum  or  in  a  book. 
Traditionally dance is only available to the 
limited  audience  who  can  physically 
attend  a  performance.  However,  the 
RICHES project is expanding the accessibil-
ity  of  such  performance-based  CH  by 
using audio-visual technology to record 
the  dance  and  creating  virtual  perfor-
mances that any user located anywhere 
can watch with just the click of a mouse. 

At the conclusion of its research, the project 
provided  relevant  stakeholders  with  evi-
dence-based  policy  recommendations, 
foresight studies, toolkits and best practice 
guidelines for establishing cooperative ini-
tiatives  —  all  of  which  are  available  to 
interested users via an intuitive website. 

performer and an end user, thus encour-
aging more users to engage deeper and 
directly with their CH. Likewise, the project 
shows how technology can stimulate inno-
vative interactions with cultural audiences 
and  users  and  lead  to  novel  learning 
opportunities for teaching CH in schools. 

But  of  all  its  results,  perhaps  the  most 
important is the use of digital CH to foster 
a common European identity made acces-
sible across Europe’s many diverse com-
munities. As the digital format promoted 
by the project’s research makes CH avail-
able to a wider audience, it helps bridge 
physical divides to connect communities 
by building understanding, creating cohe-
sion,  fostering  cultural  exchanges  and 
stressing similarities. 

In other words, the RICHES project has not only 
created new ways to engage with and experi-
ence CH but also positioned digital resources 
as a means of uniting the past with the pre-
sent, and the present with the future.

Uniting past, present and future

According  to  project  coordinators,  the 
RICHES project is expected to have a wide-
spread impact. For example, the project’s 
results  clearly  demonstrate  how  digital 
technology challenges the so-called demo-
cratic deficit that exists between a creator/

 

RICHES
 Coordinated by Coventry University  
in the United Kingdom.
  Funded under FP7-SSH.
  http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/125219

  Project website:  

http://resources.riches-project.eu/

 
 
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

THE SCIENCE OF LINGUISTICS
A novel concept of treating linguistics as the object of the history of science can help reveal linguists’ 
self-perception as scientists and shed new light on its historical and philosophical implications.

Linguistics is known as the scientific study of language. 

An  EU-funded  project  LINGUISTICSSCIENCE 
(Linguistics  as  a  science  —  a  historical 

philosophical study) explored the scientific 
analysis of natural languages, taking a 
multidisciplinary approach, combining 
strategies of perspectives from the 
history and philosophy of science.

One of the two angles used by the 
project  included  an  argument  for 
recounting the history of linguistics 
over the past 200 years from a sci-
entific perspective. By doing so, it can 
contribute to learning about its vari-
ous  developments.  The  second  angle 
claims that the methodology of the phi-
losophy of science can be useful for probing 
linguistic theories as well as their scientific and 
social aspects.

The  study  involved  the  various  schools  of  linguistics.  A 
review of the literature of the philosophy of science cen-
tred  on  the  rift  between  the  hard  sciences  and  the 

humanities. Studying reciprocal constructions and the vari-
ous theories related to them, such as verbal encod-
ing  reciprocity  and  the  directionality  of 
grammaticalisation, was also included.

Advancements were made in the study 
and several publications have subse-
quently  resulted.  Furthermore,  two 
additional topics were added to the 
study,  which  included  Datival 
Constructions  and  negation.  Both 
topics intersect with linguistics and 
philosophy.

Results will be useful not only in the 
field  of  linguistics  but  also  in  other 
fields, and may be of importance to the 

broader study of the history of science.

LINGUISTICSSCIENCE

  Coordinated by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.
  Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/182842

23

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STUDY REVEALS THAT A LARGER SOCIAL 
CIRCLE INCREASES PAIN TOLERANCE
Research funded by the EU has discovered that individuals with more friends have a higher pain tolerance.

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Researchers from the University of 

Oxford,  working  under 
the 
EU-funded RELNET (Psychology of 
Relationships, Networks and Community 
Cohesion) project, believe that the link 
between the number of friends and the 
ability to tolerate pain is due to a sys-
tem  in  the  brain  that  involves  endor-
phins, pain-killing chemicals that also 
trigger a sense of wellbeing.

Writing in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’, 
the team led by Professor Robin Dunbar 
and Katerina Johnson, a doctoral student, 

aimed  to  explore  the  theory  that  the 
brain’s  endorphin  system  may  have 
evolved to not only handle our response 
to physical discomfort and pain but also 
influence our experience of pleasure from 
social interactions. 

they only communicated with once a 
month. The personality of each partic-
ipant was also probed, looking at traits 
such as ‘agreeableness’. They also had to 
provide details on their levels of physical 
fitness and general levels of stress.

In particular, she was interested in the 
‘brain  opioid  theory  of  social  attach-
ment’, where social interactions trigger 
positive emotions when endorphins bind 
to opioid receptors in the brain, giving us 
a ‘feel-good factor’ when seeing close 
friends.  ‘Social  behaviour  and  being 
attached to other individuals is really 
important for our survival — whether 
that is staying close to our parents, or 
our offspring, or collaborating with oth-
ers to find food or to help defend our-
selves,’ commented Johnson.

Conducting the experiment

To test the theory, the research team 
examined  both  the  social  networks 
and the pain thresholds of 101 adults 
aged between 18 and 34. Each partic-
ipant completed a questionnaire that 
was designed to quiz them on friends 
they contacted once a week and those 

As  greater  endorphin  activity  in  the 
brain is linked to higher pain tolerance, 
each  participant  was  also  asked  to 
squat with their back against a wall 
and their knees at right-angles to their 
body, which is a simple yet uncomfort-
able exercise, for as long as they were 
able to. This provided the project team 
with  an  indirect  method  of  gauging 
endorphin activity in the brain.

“Participants who reported 
higher levels of fitness were 
able to endure the pain test 
for longer but generally had 
smaller friendship groups.”

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
 
 
 
24

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

Expected & unexpected 
results

The researchers found that equally for 
both  men  and  women,  larger  social 
networks were linked to greater pain 
tolerance. Most surprisingly, it was the 
number  of  friends  contacted  only 
monthly,  rather  than  weekly,  that 
appeared  to  be  the  most  important 
factor.  The  results,  when  controlling 
for stress, fitness and agreeableness, 
showed that an increase from seven 
to 12 friends in this second layer of 
personal contacts is predicted to boost 
pain  tolerance  from  one  minute  to 
four minutes on average. However, the 
project team did state that it was not 
clear  whether  the  link  was  due  to 
greater  social  activity  boosting  the 
release  of  endorphins  that  subse-
quently dampens pain, or whether indi-
viduals with a more active endorphin 
system  experience  greater  rewards 
from social activity and hence surround 
themselves with more friends.

There were also some other interest-
ing results from the study. Participants 
who reported higher levels of fitness 
were able to endure the pain test for 
longer  but  generally  had  smaller 
friendship groups. This could merely 
be a question of time — those who 
exercise  more  have  less  time  for 
socialising. However, another possibil-
ity is that those who experience higher 
endorphin  levels  from  exercising  do 
not need to seek a similar feeling from 
interacting with friends.

Additionally,  those  who  reported 
higher stress levels were also found to 
have  fewer  friends,  although  there 
was little correlation with pain toler-
ance. However, it is unclear if stress 
hinders  people  from  forming  mean-
ingful friendships, or whether having 
more friends allows individuals to bet-
ter cope with the pressures of modern 
life. ‘These results are also interesting 
because  recent  research  suggests 
that  the  endorphin  system  may  be 

disrupted  in  psychological  disorders 
such as depression. This may be part 
of the reason why depressed people 
often suffer from a lack of pleasure 
and become socially withdrawn,’ com-
mented Johnson.

Although the research results seem to 
support previous evidence that endor-
phin  activity  in  the  brain  might  be 
linked  to  social  interactions,  further 
research will be needed to ascertain 
what causes the differences between 
individuals,  with  genetic  variations 
that  impact  the  level  of  endorphin 
receptors in the brain being a possible 
avenue for future enquiry.

RELNET

 Coordinated by the University of 
Oxford in the United Kingdom.
 Funded under FP7-IDEAS-ERC.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/125260

INNOVATIVE TRUST MODEL TO HELP 
JOURNALISTS VERIFY SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT
Using  the  November  2015  Paris  terror  attacks  as  an  example,  the  EU-funded  REVEAL  project  has 
demonstrated novel solutions for assisting journalists in assessing the accuracy of eyewitness social 
media content during breaking news incidents.

With  a  large  majority  of  individuals  now  actively 

using platforms such as Facebook or Twitter every 
day,  social  media  has  increasingly  become  an 
important source for journalists. In a breaking news event, 
journalists are now able to pick up first-hand eyewitness 
reports that also often contain photos and/or video footage. 
However, whilst there is a lot of genuine information avail-
able, it is all too easy for a journalist to accidentally risk 
their reputation by publishing satire, propaganda or copy-
cat content instead of genuine content during a crisis or 
emergency news situation. 

The REVEAL (REVEALing hidden concepts in Social Media) pro-
ject has been focusing on developing methods that will allow 
journalists to quickly and accurately distinguish useful infor-
mation on social media from ‘the noise’ — useless or mislead-
ing information. They point out that often social media acts as 
an ‘echo chamber’, spreading rumours that often turn out to 
be false. This is not much of a problem for long-term news 
stories, as with time it becomes clear as to what really hap-
pened. However, in breaking news situations, it can be much 
more difficult to quickly distinguish fact from fiction.

Trust model for verifying content

Presenting at the Third Workshop of Social News on the 
Web in Montreal, Canada, in April 2016, REVEAL project 
researchers outlined their novel ‘trust model’ for partially 
automating the process of filtering useful information on 
social media by using trusted sources, helping journalists 
when they need to react quickly to a developing situation. 
The model allows journalists to maintain a list of their sources, 

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linking new content to authors. When tracking a news story on 
social media, content items are associated with authors and 
can be filtered using predefined lists. For each new content 
item, it becomes clear immediately whether it is in some way 
related to a source: if it has been posted by that source, men-
tions that source or is attributed to it.

The model additionally aims to help journalists quickly pick 
up new eyewitness content. This does not mean trending 
content from established news organisations or agencies, 
as the content is no longer breaking. Instead, this would be 

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
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

25

content that contains eyewitness images or video that is 
less than five minutes old since publication and is likely to 
still be unverified.

Paris as an example

“To showcase the model  
and its capabilities, the 
REVEAL team used the terror 
attacks that hit Paris on  
13 November 2015 as  
a case study.”

To showcase the model and its capabilities, the REVEAL team 
used the terror attacks that hit Paris on 13 November 2015 as 
a case study. Crawling through social media platforms, they 
used natural language 
processing techniques 
to identify named enti-
ties (such as ‘BBC’ and 
‘Le Monde’) in English 
and French and men-
tioned URLs. The data 
was  then  imported 
into  the  trust  model, 
which  already  con-
tained a sample list of trusted and untrusted sources. By doing 
this, all content written by, mentioning or attributed to a specific 
source could be retrieved.

The team then picked five pictures posted during the night of 
the Paris attacks, with three of them being genuine. They then 
identified URLs for copies of the posted image that might have 
been shared instead of the original image URL. They then que-
ried their database in 10-minute intervals during the first hour 
after  each  image  was  published  to  see  how  often  it  was 
shared (overall and by trusted/untrusted sources). In a second 
experiment, they sorted URLs by the number of mentions, and 
every five minutes compared the currently top ranking URLs 
that were being shared on social media and filtered the old 
ones out. By doing this, they tried to detect new eyewitness 
content to investigate before it went viral.

Analysing the results

When analysing eyewitness content, the team found that 
untrusted  sources  generally  share  images  earlier  than 
trusted sources. They also found that trusted sources are 
an indication that an image is authentic. Trusted sources 
that are related to user-generated content make it more 
likely to be genuine. This is typically the case 30 minutes 
after a photo has been published. Consequently, if a jour-
nalist is prepared to wait, it can point them in the right 
direction for conventional means of verification, such as 
factual  cross-checking  or  contacting  the  source  directly 
through social media channels.

The team also found that for the discovery of newsworthy eye-
witness content, it helps to filter old content. Using this method, 
the five images tested showed up in the top 6 % of all content 
crawled through during a time-window of five minutes. This 
means a journalist does not have to check potentially thou-
sands of social media URLs but can focus on the top URLs.

Although preliminary, these results look promising. The trust 
model pioneered by REVEAL could help journalists to become 
both faster and more efficient when sourcing content on 
breaking stories and publish content with more confidence 
that material sourced from social media is authentic.

REVEAL

  Coordinated by Intrasoft International in Luxembourg.
  Funded under FP7-ICT.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/125339
 Project website:  

http://revealproject.eu/

HOW IMMIGRANTS MANAGE BICULTURALISM
Immigrants usually find themselves torn between the norms, social pressures, behaviours and identities 
(cultural belongings) of both their ethnic heritage culture and the host majority culture. Research into how 
immigrants feel and what they think about this can be used to improve their adjustment, design adequate 
international policymaking and foster interethnic community relations.

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Researchers in the EU-backed pro-

ject BICULTURALISM (Biculturalism: 
Social  correlates  and  individual  
differences) studied first- and second-  
generation  immigrants  to  advance 
knowledge in the field. The study sought 
to answer questions related to how they 
manage their cultures cognitively and 
emotionally, what their social networks 
are like, and how all this affects their 
integration and adjustment.

First,  the  team  conducted  a  social  
network  study  in  Barcelona  of  222 
immigrants  (from  Ecuador,  Morocco, 

“The mixed-methods research 
design comprised a qualitative 
study of 100 self-identified 
bicultural individuals and a 
large psychometric study.”

Pakistan and Romania). This provided 
detailed information about their habit-
ual social networks (composition, den-
sity and clustering). They looked at key 
social and individual factors involved in 
the  development  and  management  
of  biculturalism/multiculturalism.  An 
additional focus was on how the immi-
grants’  personal  social  networks  and 
cultural  self-identification(s)  jointly 
predicted  psychological  and  socio- 
cultural adjustment.

Following this, BICULTURALISM exam-
ined variations in how bicultural indi-
viduals deal with the daily challenges 
of  negotiating  between  multiple  and 
often conflicting cultural identities and 
value systems — a construction known 
as ‘Bicultural identity integration’ (BII). 
The  mixed-methods  research  design 
comprised a qualitative study of 100 
self-identified  bicultural  individuals 
and a large psychometric study. This 

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
26

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016

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

second, quantitative component relied 
on the validation of the ‘Bicultural iden-
tity  integration  scale’  (BIIS-2)  with  an 
ethnically diverse sample of 1 000 bicul-
turals. Results from this project phase 
are presented in a study submitted to 
the journal ‘Psychological Assessment’.

European Context’ and publishing the 
‘Oxford  handbook  of  multi-cultural 
identity: Basic and applied psychologi-
cal perspectives’. A proposal for a spe-
cial issue to showcase work done at the 
conference has been submitted to the 
‘Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology’.

Training and dissemination activities 
included  organising  a  small-group 
conference in 2014 entitled ‘Culture 
and  Psychology:  Insights  from  the 

Project  findings  can  help  improve 
interethnic relations through improved 
policy  targeting  social  cohesion  and 
integration. Additionally, future research 

can build on the knowledge generated 
regarding individuals’ abilities to nego-
tiate  and  integrate  multiple  cultural 
belongings.

 

BICULTURALISM
 Coordinated by Pompeu Fabra 
University in Spain.

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

rcn/170427

HOW CAN WE COMBAT AGEISM?
Ageism is the stereotyping of and discrimination against a person or groups of individuals on the basis 
of their age. EU-funded research has delved into the cultural, socioeconomic and political context behind 
age discrimination to grasp the dynamics of the problem.

The project ELDERLY STEREOTYPES (Nice but incompetent? 

The elderly stereotype in Europe) adopted a multilevel per-
spective  in  investigating  the  contextual  and  personal 
underpinnings of age-related attitudes and older people’s age-
ing experiences.

Work  included  analysing  representative  data  from  the 
European  Social  Survey  (ESS)  module  ‘Age  Attitudes  and 
Experiences of Ageism’ (56 752 individuals from 29 coun-
tries). The team carried out five different studies that show 
how the societal context combines with individual-level vari-
ables in explaining ageist attitudes and ageing experiences.

A combination of socioeconomic factors and the employ-
ment rate of the elderly in society influences the way older 
people are perceived. Noteworthy findings point to more 
positive perceptions of the elderly in more modern countries 
that also have a higher employment rate of older people. 
Older people’s ill-health is greater in countries where income 
is distributed unevenly. Also, a major factor in how others 
view the elderly has to do with the latter group’s health and 
their own perceptions of their age.

In  a  second  phase,  researchers  conducted  a  series  of  
experimental and survey studies to better understand how 

malleable  age  stereotypes  are.  Findings  in  this  line  of 
inquiry highlight cultural differences in ageism. Furthermore, 
the stereotype that the elderly are nice but incompetent 
starts early. It is found in children as young as six years of 
age and remains there until adolescence. On the upside, the 
structured  and  theory-guided  imAGES  intervention  pro-
gramme can be used to change this ambivalent age stere-
otype. The results of an experimental study on the role of 
environmental  cues  support  the  idea  that  perceptions 
about older people are malleable.

Europe as a world region shows the greatest increase in the 
percentage of elderly people relative to its workforce. This 
research  project  advanced  knowledge  on  the  causes  of 
ageism,  which  can  be  used  to  inform  policy  and  design 
interventions  ensuring  fewer  older  people  miss  out  on 
opportunities.

ELDERLY STEREOTYPES

  Coordinated by CESIS in Portugal.
  Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/151273

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“A combination of 
socioeconomic factors and 
the employment rate of the 
elderly in society influences 
the way older people are 
perceived.”

 
 
 
research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016

27

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

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

VARIABLE-SPEED PUMPED 
STORAGE HYDRO PLANTS 
OFFER A NEW ERA OF SMARTER 
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
The EU-funded ESTORAGE project has presented a range of options for 
increasing energy storage capacity across Europe, whilst also building 
flexibility into grids to better integrate renewables.

The project recently made some of its 

first  results  public,  identifying  an 
impressive  2  291  GWh  of  energy 
storage  capacity  realisable  through 
‘Pumped  storage  hydro  plants’  (PSPs) 
across existing development-ready sites. 
This is more than seven times the currently 
installed PSP capacity across Europe.

The  sites  are  located  across  the  EU-15, 
along  with  Norway  and  Switzerland. 
Southern Norway alone was found to have 
54 % of the study’s total feasible pumped 
storage capacity with 1 242 GWh. The Alps 
were  found  to  have  13 %  or  303  GWh 
across  Austria, 
Italy,  France  and 
Switzerland, with 9 GWh in the German 
Alps. 5 % of the total potential capacity in 
the study area was found in the Pyrenees 
in France and Spain with 118 GWh.

Generating  electricity  by  transferring 
water  between  reservoirs  at  different 
elevations is posited as being the most 
cost-effective  and  flexible  means  for 
GWh-scale  storage  of  electricity.  PSPs 
are ideally suited to respond to frequent 
changes  between  electricity  shortages 
and surpluses by generating or absorb-
ing excess as required; with modern sys-
tems able to start the pumps or turbines 
from standstill in just 30 seconds. 

Potential  locations  for  new  PSPs  were 
identified in the study via a ‘Geographic 
information system’ (GIS) model which uti-
lised high-level non-country/region specific 
selection and only looked at existing water 
body pairs, due to the cost advantage of 
connecting  existing  water  bodies  rather 
than building new reservoirs. These loca-
tions were further scrutinised by national 
experts against specific country/regional 
criteria, resulting in a list of potential sites 
ranked with their total theoretical and real-
isable storage potential.

Addressing the challenge of 
integrating renewables

Whilst renewables, such as wind and solar, 
represent a growing share of the world’s 
power output, their unpredictability weak-
ens overall grid stability. The challenge for 
integrating  renewables  into  the  grid  is 
their intermittent nature coupled with the 
problem of storing surplus which can be 
used during periods of peak demand.

However,  whilst  PSPs  can  allow  more 
cost-effective  load  balancing  flexibility 
than traditional plants such as nuclear or 
coal powered, conventional PSPs are also 
limited  by  only  being  able  to  regulate 
power  in  generation  mode.  The  project 
ESTORAGE  (Solution  for  cost-effective 

integration  of  renewable  intermittent 
generation by demonstrating the feasibil-
ity of flexible large-scale energy storage 
with innovative market and grid control 
approach) is looking at the technical and 
economic  feasibility  of  upgrading  an 
existing  fixed-speed  PSP  to  variable-
speed  technology,  bringing  flexibility  to 
the pumping mode as well. 

Here, speed is varied through a frequency 
converter with a change in the discharge/
power. With fixed speed, there is only one 
operating point for a given head and so in 
effect they have limited operational flex-
ibility, with pumps either at full power or 
switched off. Variable-speed technology, 
already several years in use, particularly 
in Japan, caters well for the fast growth 
in renewable sources of power, compen-
sating for fluctuations.

The path to smarter European 
energy management

The  EU  electricity  grid  will  have  to 
undergo  unprecedented  changes  in 
capacity  to  meet  increasing  demand; 
and in the ability to integrate renewables 
to meet climate change targets. Indeed, 
the  EU’s  ‘Strategic  Energy  Technology 
Plan’  (SET)  outlines  the  vision  of  wind 
power contributing up to 20 %, and solar 

 
 
28

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

power up to 15 % of the EU’s total elec-
tricity supply by 2020. 

The  ESTORAGE  approach  to  retro- 
fitting PSPs avoids the costs associ-
ated with constructing new PSPs along 
with the eight to 10 years’ develop-
ment time required. This advantage is 
especially significant due to the pro-
ject’s  ambition  to  develop  solutions 
that could upgrade 75 % of European 
pumped  hydro  storage  to  variable 
speed. It has been estimated that up 

to  10  GW  of  additional  regulation 
capability  can  be  achieved  through 
significant upgrade and this with no 
environmental impact. 

The project, due to finish next year, is 
also  looking  at  supplementary  sys-
tems such as upgrading IT infrastruc-
ture  for  a  real-time  flexible  system 
management  across  national  sys-
tems.  Additionally,  the  project  will 
establish a viable business model that 
enables  EU-wide  deployment  by 

investigating current gaps and barri-
ers to flexible energy technologies in 
the market and regulatory regimes.

 

ESTORAGE
 Coordinated by Alstom Hydro  
in France.

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

rcn/125319

 Project website:  

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



 http://bit.ly/1rgrm6l 

IMPROVED FREIGHT CARRIAGES AND TRACKS
An EU consortium has aided the upgrade of Europe’s rail network via novel, lightweight freight carriages 
and new track infrastructure. Work involved cataloguing, assessing and testing candidate innovations, in 
addition to documenting new track designs.

Europe’s economy depends on an efficient rail freight 

system.  However,  in  recent  years,  the  use  of  other 
transport methods has overtaken rail. As a result, rail 

needs to evolve to regain its former dominance.

“The mixed-methods research 
design comprised a qualitative 
study of 100 self-identified 
bicultural individuals and a 
large psychometric study.”

The EU-funded project SUSTRAIL (The sustainable freight 
railway: Designing the freight vehicle — track system for 
higher delivered tonnage 
with improved availabil-
ity  at  reduced  cost) 
aimed  to  initiate  a  new 
rail  era  by  designing 
novel  freight  vehicles 
that  utilise  lightweight 
materials.  Secondly,  the 
group planned to develop 
new track infrastructure, 
involving optimised track geometry plus ground stabilisa-
tion and innovative monitoring techniques. The develop-
ments should improve rail freight efficiency and reliability 
while reducing maintenance frequency and costs.

requirements identified at the start of the project. The out-
comes were then made available for implementation as 
part of a sustainable and efficient rail freight network.

Researchers  later  conducted  substantial  dissemination 
work, particularly to the European Commission, other EU 
projects and interested stakeholders.

SUSTRAIL yielded innovative concepts for rail freight vehi-
cles and tracks. The developments should improve rail effi-
ciency and lower costs.

SUSTRAIL

  Coordinated by the Train Consortium in Italy.
  Funded under FP7-TRANSPORT.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/165132 
 Project website:  

http://www.sustrail.eu/



 http://bit.ly/1VoryM7 

Work towards the end of the project’s third year focused on 
identifying and assessing the proposed innovations. Initially, 
researchers benchmarked the technical and economic state 
of the current system. The team also prepared new track 
design specifications that match requirements and address 
the performance of future vehicles. The resulting descrip-
tion supports key decisions regarding future systems.

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The consortium reviewed four key train technology sectors. 
Candidate solutions were assessed and compared with ref-
erence  to  potential  implementation  in  the  SUSTRAIL 
prototype.

Team  members  also  investigated  a  sustainable  track 
design, intended to yield a low-maintenance track concept. 
They defined a set of critical parameters to help determine 
the track modifications necessary for new freight vehicles 
and increased freight traffic. Following a failure mode and 
effects analysis, a set of track innovations was selected.

The  final  phase  involved  demonstrating  the  innovations 
previously  identified.  Researchers  designed,  built  and 
tested a prototype vehicle on a special track, along with 
upgraded infrastructure. Testing also examined economic 
costs  and  benefits.  The  prototype  successfully  met  the 

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

29

SELF-SHAPING WINGS TO REDEFINE AVIATION 
IN THE FUTURE

Increasing the aerodynamics of an aeroplane by developing wings that change their 
shape could one day lead to faster, more fuel-efficient aircraft.

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The idea of building lighter, more 

efficient and more aerodynamic 
aircraft  is  crucial  for  saving  on 
energy costs and lowering the aviation 
industry’s  carbon  footprint.  The 
EU-funded  FUTUREWINGS  (Wings  of 
the future) project worked towards an 
aeroplane that could change its shape 
during  flight  —  e.g.  through  self-
shaping wings — in order to increase 
flight efficiency. It tested the viability 
of such a radical concept, focusing on 
developing a thin-walled beam whose 
shape  could  be  controlled  through 
piezo-electric actuators.

To  achieve  this,  the  project  team  
conducted  research  into  how  piezo- 
electric technology can manipulate the 
shape  of  beams  and  other  structural 
elements  involved  in  aerospace  engi-
neering. It built a novel electronic control 
system  required  to  activate  sets  of 
macro fibre composite components and 
established the numerical procedure for 
simulating hybrid structures.

A  key  project  achievement  involved 
the design and testing of torsion spec-
imens and bending specimens made 
up of hybrid composite active mate-
rial. The project team also verified the 
numerical analysis and the design of 
the Future-Wing concept.

FUTUREWINGS  then  compared  the 
aero-elasticity  of  the  aircraft  model 
designed  with  that  of  conventional 
aircraft and conducted flight simula-
tions to validate the aeromechanical 
behaviour  of  the  futuristic  aircraft 
concept.

In effect, the project furthered the use 
of smart material that transforms air-
craft  wings  and  tails  into  ‘living  tis-
sue’,  facilitating  aircraft  control  by 
changing  the  shape  of  its  surfaces 
and  aerodynamics.  The  research 
results  have  been  disseminated 
through workshops and publications, 
while the project partners have made 
plans to continue collaboration beyond 
the project’s end. Although still at an 
early stage of development, so-called 

“A key project achievement 
involved the design and 
testing of torsion specimens 
and bending specimens made 
up of hybrid composite active 
material.”

‘self-shaping structures’ could play an 
important  part  in  the  aviation  and 
engineering of the future.

 

FUTUREWINGS
 Coordinated by the University of  
Pisa in Italy.

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

rcn/182845

 Project website:  

http://www.futurewings.eu/ 

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
30

NOW ON CORDIS

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Over 450 000 enterprises and around 6.8 million jobs are dependent on Europe’s process 
industries, which include chemicals, engineering, minerals and ore, non-ferrous metals, steel and 
water. Consequently, the process industries, which generate more than EUR 1.6 billion  
in annual turnover and represent 20 % of the EU’s total industrial production, are absolutely 
vital to Europe’s economy and long-term industrial competitiveness.

However,  these  vital  industries  have  had  to  face  the  key  challenge  of  reducing  their  high  dependency  on 
resources.  Although  energy  efficiency  in  industry  across  the  EU  has  gradually  improved  (by  an  average  of  
1.8 % per year up until 2009), there is still much work that could and should be done to encourage the uptake of 
cleaner technologies, more efficient methods and better industrial procedures to reduce the industrial processing 
sector's’ environmental impact.

Achieving a better environmental footprint for the process industries is now even more pressing due to the EU’s 
target to cut its emissions to at least 40 % of 1990 levels as a part of its comprehensive 2030 climate and energy 
framework.  On  Friday  22  April  2016,  the  EU  also  formally  signed  the  Paris  Agreement  on  Climate  Change 
(COP21) that was agreed in December last year, formally committing the Union to fully embracing the transition 
to a low-carbon economy and society.

On 15 June 2016, CORDIS released a new Results Pack to showcase some of the EU-funded projects that 
have taken up the challenge of developing the novel methods and key enabling technologies that will serve to 
increase energy efficiency in industrial processes.

Please see the following link for more information:
http://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/400040-energy-efficient-process-industries-furthering-europes-ambitious-
environmental-targets_en.html

About CORDIS ResultsPacks

CORDIS ResultsPacks are a new set of products grouping EU-funded project results per topic and 
target audience. The aim is to disseminate information about new studies, scientific findings and 
technologies to the relevant target audience, in order to facilitate their exploitation across Europe.

Energy-efficient process industries  Furthering Europe’s ambitious environmental targetsresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
E N E R G Y   A N D   T R A N S P O R T

31

BIOGAS FROM SLAUGHTERHOUSE WASTE
Slaughterhouse waste can now be used to produce biogas thanks to an EU-funded initiative, thereby 
avoiding the need for incineration and landfill.

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Large amounts of solid wastes with a high lipid and pro-

tein  content  are  produced  by  slaughterhouses.  This 
gives the waste greater potential for methane produc-
tion than other feedstocks, such as energy crops or munici-
pal water. However, lipid-rich waste can inhibit the growth 
of microorganisms, reducing efficiency and creating prob-
lems in anaerobic digestion.

The ADAW (Saponification pre-treatment and biosensors 
based control system for slaughterhouse waste anaerobic 
digestion improvement) project set out to improve biogas 
production technology and treat lipid-rich waste from the 
slaughtering industry.

Project  partners  used  thermo-chemical  pre-treatment  to 
improve  biogas  yields  through  a  hot  hydrolysis  reaction 

between  a  fatty  acid  from  non-soluble  slaughterhouse 
waste and an alkali. The result was smaller, simpler mole-
cules  with  improved  contact  between  the  substrate  and 
microorganisms that enhanced anaerobic biodegradability.

Ultrasonic-dispersion was then used to break down com-
plex organic molecules and aid their digestion by bacteria 
during anaerobic digestion. Online sensors were developed 
to detect alkalinity and volatile fatty acids, thereby result-
ing in better control of the anaerobic digestion process for 
stable automated biogas process control.

ADAW was targeted at two main groups of end-users. The first 
was small- and medium-sized slaughterhouse operators who will 
benefit by integrating a small-scale biogas plant into their opera-
tions without the need for major investment. The second group 
included commercial biogas operators who will now be able to use 
slaughterhouse waste as a potential source of energy.

The technology developed by ADAW will mean that certain 
types of organic wastes with high protein and lipid content 
will be correctly managed and exploited through the use of 
anaerobic digestion processes. Furthermore, biogas plant 
operators will be able to feed their system with slaughter-
house waste. Until now, it has not been possible to carry out 
this treatment through anaerobic digestion.

ADAW

  Coordinated by Biogas Fuel Cell in Spain.
  Funded under FP7-SME.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/182824

NOVEL MATERIALS FOR SOLAR FUEL 
TECHNOLOGY
Researchers have identified cheap, non-toxic materials that could potentially form the basis of an efficient 
system to produce solar fuel.

The  creation  of  syngas  (consisting 

primarily of ‘hydrogen’ (H2) and car-
bon  monoxide)  from  water  and 
sunlight is the first step in the production 
of solar fuel, an alternative to fossil fuels. 
Researchers are searching for better cat-
alysts and light-absorbing materials for 
this reaction in order to assemble a via-
ble photosynthetic device on a useable 
scale.  Catalysts  made  from  abundant 
earth metals, rather than precious met-
als, and cheap materials that absorb light 
efficiently from the entire solar spectrum 
would be ideal.

The EU-funded CO2SF (Solar fuel chem-
istry: Design and development of novel 
Earth-abundant metal complexes for the 
photocatalytic reduction of carbon diox-
ide) project investigated two metal-free 
light-absorbing materials in combination 
with a water-soluble nickel catalyst used 
with an H2-producing enzyme.

The first material was carbon nitride, a 
non-toxic  and  cost-effective  carbon-
based material made by condensing mel-
amine.  It  proved  to  be  very  stable, 
remaining active for much longer than 
other  known  photosensitiser  systems, 
which  photobleach  or  degrade  over 
extended periods of irradiation. The sec-
ond material was carbon quantum dots, 
which can be synthesised from citric acid, 
a common, cheap and non-toxic starting 
material. It was active as a light absorber, 
and measurable H2 production occurred 
even under visible light irradiation.

Using hydrogenase enzymes as part of 
the  catalyst  was  also  novel,  with 
researchers gaining significant insights 
into  their  action  and  mechanism.  Four 
high-impact scientific publications have 
resulted from this investigation, and sev-
eral spin-off projects continue to make 
use of the project’s findings.

This  work  has  thus  helped  pave  the 
way for the development of solar fuel 
technology.  Ultimately,  the  capture, 
conversion and storage of solar energy 
in this way will help scientists develop 
carbon-neutral energy sources.

 

CO2SF
 Coordinated by the University  
of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

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

rcn/182822

“Four high-impact scientific 
publications have resulted 
from this investigation,  
and several spin-off projects 
continue to make use of the 
project’s findings.”

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
32

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016

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

EU-FUNDED PROJECT 
EVIDENCES THE VALUE  
OF ‘GREEN MINING’
The I²MINE project has demonstrated an integrated and green mining 
approach which helps meet consumer demand for mineral-dependent 
products, whilst boosting competitiveness and improving sustainability.

Many  everyday  consumer  prod-

ucts  depend  on  minerals 
extracted from the ground, and 
with 30 million jobs in the EU depend-
ing  on  their  supply,  much  European 
prosperity  rests  on  this.  Additionally, 
with ever increasing demand for these 
products, the mining industry now finds 
that it has to go deeper into the ground 
to  maintain  the  necessary  supply  of 
raw  materials.  Deep  mining  of  the 
future will require new innovations, and 
whilst this presents a challenge, it also 
creates an opportunity to develop new 
technologies and processes. 

A deep-mining approach 
balancing safety, efficiency 
& sustainability

Mining is sometimes perceived as being 
a dirty, highly unsustainable industry of 

“Looking at the entire mining cycle, 
the project sought to demonstrate 
the concept of an integrated deep 
mine (at depths greater than  
1 500 m) which is ‘invisible,  
safe and with zero impact'.”

the  past.  Against  this  backdrop,  the 
I²MINE  (Innovative  Technologies  and 
Concepts for the Intelligent Deep Mine 
of the Future) project bringing together 
European scientists and engineers was 
established.  According  to  the  Project 
Manager,  Dr  Horst  Hejny,  ‘The  overall 
objective of the project was the devel-
opment of innovative technologies and 
methods  for  sustainable  mining  at 
greater depths.’

Looking at the entire mining cycle, the 
project  sought  to  demonstrate  the 
concept  of  an  integrated  deep  mine 
(at  depths  greater  than  1 500  m) 
which is ‘invisible, safe and with zero 
impact’. ‘We have been addressing the 
sustainability of mining operations by 
increasing energy efficiency, reducing 
waste and starting the approach of an 
“invisible” mine that operates under-
ground to the extent possible. Ideally, 
only the final product will come out of 
the ground,’ Dr Hejny elaborated. 

A central focus of the project was on 
intelligent ‘selective exploitation’, for 
example  by  developing  new  sensor 
techniques  for  material  recognition 
and  boundary  layer  detection  and 
sorting.  Another  area  of  innovation 

was  in  the  field  of  extraction.  ‘We 
developed a new cutting head for con-
tinuously  cutting  hard  rock  of  more 
than 250 MPa compressive strengths. 
This new device would allow for con-
tinuous  operation  where  nowadays 
only  drilling  and  blasting  would  be 
feasible,’ Dr Hejny commented. 

Combined  with  improved  mass  flow 
management,  efficiency  was  further 
increased with the development of an 
ore pre-sorting device which could oper-
ate directly at, or very close to, the face. 
‘This  is  a  significant  step  to  improve 
sustainability  of  mining  operations 
through  keeping  waste  rock  directly 
underground and using it for backfill,’ as 
Dr Hejny stated. The underground oper-
ation also extended to the treatment of 
emissions, to the degree possible, fur-
ther reducing the environmental impact.

Another component of the project was 
to  maximise  the  use  of  autonomous 
machinery, for example by using under-
ground collision avoidance transporta-
tion systems. However, the project found 
that this was not possible in all opera-
tions and so also factored in increased 
worker safety. The project included the 
development of a spraying robot that 

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

33

created  concrete  liners,  resulting  in 
increased safety and efficiency. As Dr 
Hejny summarised: ‘These devices are a 
step  forward  in  the  direction  of  both 
automation and autonomy in mining.’

Securing Europe’s supply  
of raw materials and 
contributing to the green 
economy

As to what difference I²MINE or comple-
mentary projects such as SMIFU (Smart 
Mine of the Future) make to the lives of 
European citizens, Dr Hejny responded 
by saying: ‘The public will benefit by a 
higher security of raw materials provi-
sion  and  thus  maintaining  our  living 

standards.’ Securing supply will enable 
Europe to more effectively plan for the 
future, reducing dependency on imports, 
as well as increasing the competitive-
ness of the extraction industry and its 
allied technologies. 

The objectives of the I²MINE project 
also contribute to the wider drive for a 
green economy; an increasing priority 
within the EU as it features within the 
Europe  2020  Strategy,  the  Seventh 
Environment  Action  Programme  and 
Horizon 2020 to name but a few. With 
the eco-innovation market valued at 
around EUR 1 trillion per annum, and 
expected to triple by 2030, this repre-
sents a major opportunity. 

As the I²MINE project demonstrated a 
balance of technological, social, envi-
ronmental  and  economic  require-
ments, Dr Hejny concluded: ‘The most 
important next step is to implement 
the results of I²MINE into practice, and 
this has already started.’

I²MINE

  Coordinated by LKAB in Sweden.
  Funded under FP7-NMP.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/125261

 Project website:  

http://www.i2mine.eu/



 http://bit.ly/1UaqZVk 

NEW INSTRUMENT EXPLORES ROLE 
OF ORGANIC AEROSOLS

Scientists are only now beginning to understand the behaviour and influence of aerosols on atmospheric 
processes, such as gas-aerosol partitioning, chemical reactions and water uptake. An EU-funded initiative has 
developed a new instrument that will give a clearer picture of these processes at the single particle level.

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Organic aerosols play a major role in the chemistry and 

physics  of  the  atmosphere,  as  their  physical  and 
chemical  properties  are  of  profound  importance. 
They  come  from  both  natural  and  man-made  sources  
and serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei and sites of  
interfacial chemistry. They also scatter and absorb incident 
radiation.

Despite their ubiquity and importance in the environment, 
little is known about organic aerosols. Therefore, the BBOT 
(Characterizing the phase transitions of single organic aer-
osols in an optical trap) project was established to develop 
a new instrument for understanding aerosol behaviour, at 
the level of a single particle (600 – 5 000 nm in size), and 
its influence on various atmospheric processes.

Project  partners  constructed  an  instrument  that  can  be 
cooled down to 228 K (-50 °C) to mimic temperatures in 
the troposphere and stratosphere. It was used to explore 
aerosol phase transformations of a single aerosol particle 
and  combined  an  optical  trap  comprising  two  ‘Counter-
propagating Bessel beams’ (CPBBs), ‘relative humidity’ (RH) 
and temperature control. Proof of concept tests were con-
ducted, and involved freezing several supercooled test sub-
stances: water and long-chained hydrocarbons.

Researchers  conducted  the  first  reported  study  of  the 
freezing process of levitated single submicrometre-sized 
droplets in air using optical trapping techniques, including 
supercooled water droplets at 228 K. Project partners also 
explored the behaviour of organic (sucrose) aerosol drop-
lets  and  the  conditions  that  lead  to  glass  formation  of 
these aerosols at room temperature.

In addition, explorations into the freezing of long-chain ali-
phatic  hydrocarbons  and  the  response  of  ultra-viscous 
organic aerosols to changes in ambient RH increased under-
standing of the behaviour of aerosols in the atmosphere. 
Results suggest there is a link between chain-length and 
temperature dependence on the nucleation mechanism.

BBOT will provide a deeper understanding of the indirect 
effects of aerosols and their impact on global warming by 
supplying data for developing more accurate climate mod-
els, thereby improving their predictive ability. The results 
will also be used to inform science policy.

BBOT

  Coordinated by ETH Zurich in Switzerland.
  Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/182821
 Project website:  

http://aerosolopticaltrap.wordpress.com/

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
34

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

EU RESEARCHERS DISCOVER HOW THE VENUS 
FLYTRAP BECAME A PREDATORY PLANT

The EU-funded CARNIVOROM project has published research detailing how the Venus 
flytrap’s genome has allowed it to become an insect-feeding carnivorous plant.

Venus  flytraps  have  fascinated 

biologists  for  centuries  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  molecular 
underpinnings of its carnivorous evo-
lution have remained largely unknown. 
Publishing  in  the  journal  ‘Genome 
Research’, researchers from the pro-
ject CARNIVOROM (Molecular basis of 
carnivory Excitability, movement, and 
endocrinology  of  plant  traps)  have 
now cast light on this enduring biolog-
ical mystery.

The Venus flytrap is by no means the 
only carnivorous plant — the sundew 
plant  snares  prey  with  sticky  tenta-
cles, while pitcher plants use beckon-
ing pools of enzymes to attract their 
next  meal.  The  aggressive  feeding 
habits  of  carnivorous  plants  allow 

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“Many biologists have long 
suspected that this predatory 
behaviour evolved when the 
ancestors of today’s 
carnivorous plants turned 
typical defence mechanisms 
against insect pests into 
offensive weapons.”

them to survive in poor soil by giving 
them  a  new  source  of  nitrogen  and 
other nutrients. Many biologists have 
long  suspected  that  this  predatory 
behaviour evolved when the ancestors 
of today’s carnivorous plants turned 
typical defence mechanisms against 
insect pests into offensive weapons.

This hypothesis has now gained fur-
ther  support  following  a  detailed 
genetic study of Venus flytraps under-
taken  by  the  CARNIVOROM  team,  
led  by  biophysicist  Professor  Rainer 
Hedrich  and  bioinformatician 
Professor  Jorg  Schultz  from  Julius 
Maximilian  University  in  Wurzburg, 
Germany. 

Specifically, Venus flytraps recognise 
their  prey  by  using  touch-sensitive 
trigger  hairs  located  on  the  trap’s 
inner surface. When simulated, these 
hairs generate an electric signal that 

is transmitted to the plant. After the 
first stimulus, the trap remembers the 
signal but does not close; it is only after 
the  second  stimulus  that  the  trap 
snaps shut. Prey that is captured will 
repeatedly  activate  the  trigger  hairs 
leading to repetitive electrical signals 
that are ‘remembered’ by the plant.

To  date,  no  carnivory-specific  genes 
have  been  indentified  in  Venus  fly-
traps.  To  understand  the  molecular 
pathways involved in insect feeding, 
the  researchers  from  Germany  and 
their partners in Saudi Arabia gener-
ated genome-wide transcription pro-
files of traps before feeding and then 
again after they had snared a cricket 
and began to digest it alive. They then 
compared  these  genome  profiles  to 
other plant tissues. 

Non-stimulated  traps  have  gene 
expression patterns that largely resem-
ble a leaf base, supporting the com-
mon  assumption  that  traps  are 
modified leaves. However, the glands 
inside the trap, which promote insect 
digestion and are activated after a few 
hours to help it absorb nutrients from 
its meals, more closely resemble the 
genetic  expression  pattern  of  roots. 
These are of course essential for nutri-
ent  acquisition  for  non-carnivorous 
plants. 

The key to the Venus flytrap’s extraor-
dinary  evolution  appears  to  revolve 
around  chitinase,  an  enzyme  that 
digests chitin in insect exoskeletons. 
‘Contact  with  chitin  normally  means 
danger for a plant — that insects will 
eat  the  plant,’  Prof.  Hedrich  com-
mented.  ‘In  the  Venus  flytrap,  these 
defensive processes have been repro-
grammed during evolution. The plant 
now uses them to eat insects.’ 

The  researchers  also  used  electron 
microscopy to study the ultrastructure 
of the trap’s glands, finding special-
ised  cell  layers  involved  in  active 
secretion,  nutrient  transport,  lipid 
energy stores and protein biosynthe-
sis necessary for trap function.

Funded partly by the European Research 
Council (ERC), the CARNIVOROM project 
officially ended in February 2016 and 
received nearly EUR 2.5 million in EU 
funding.

 

CARNIVOROM
 Coordinated by the University  
of Würzburg in Germany.

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

rcn/125301

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
E N V I R O N M E N T   A N D   S O C I E T Y

35

IN-DEPTH EXPLORATION OF EU INFLUENCE 
ON THE ARCTIC
The EU lacks a roadmap that states what powers it 
has and how best to use them when it comes to 
protecting marine biodiversity in the Arctic region. 
An EU-funded initiative aimed to examine Europe’s 
capability in addressing such issues.

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In  recent  years,  several  EU  decision-making  bodies  have 

called for Europe to play a more active role in challenges and 
opportunities concerning the Arctic. However, there is very lit-
tle action being taken in terms of evaluating the EU’s present 
and future actions in this respect. On top of this, existing laws 
are fragmented and ineffective in implementing an ecosystem 
approach needed for preserving marine biodiversity.

With this in mind, the EURO-ARCTIC LAB (The European Union 
and the legal protection of marine biodiversity in the Arctic) 
project set out to determine how the EU can most effectively 
work towards achieving the objectives set out and implement-
ing strategic initiatives to protect Arctic marine biodiversity.

To achieve it aims, EURO-ARCTIC LAB mapped the state-of-play 
in Arctic marine biodiversity and existing legislation, gaps 
in law and actions the EU has taken within and beyond its 
jurisdiction with varying levels of success.

Project partners produced a policy brief focusing on the EU 
and the legal protection of Arctic marine biodiversity. It pro-
posed two central measures for the EU, namely promoting 
the establishment of marine protected areas and the imple-
mentation of the ecosystem approach or ecosystem-based 
management.  The  document  also  recommends  possible 
actions that the EU can carry out within and beyond its bor-
ders. These concern shipping, fisheries and offshore oil and 

,

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gas operations that have the potential to improve the inter-
national legal regime for the protection of marine biodiver-
sity in the Arctic. Findings were presented at top international 
conferences and published in leading journals.

EU policies in environment, climate change, energy, research, 
transport and fisheries have a direct impact on the Arctic. By 
contributing to the preservation of Arctic marine biodiversity, 
EURO-ARCTIC LAB will enable the EU to address challenges 
and opportunities in a coordinated and systematic manner 
together with Arctic states, territories and key actors.

 

EURO-ARCTIC LAB
 Coordinated by the University of Dundee in  
the United Kingdom.

  Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/182846

HOW ISOLATED SPECIES GO EXTINCT
Researchers have studied ‘ancient DNA’ (aDNA) from a long-extinct Mediterranean herbivore to understand 
how climate change influences the extinction of species isolated on islands.

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M yotragus  balearicus  was  a 

goat-like  herbivore  that  lived 
on two western Mediterranean 
islands  until  it  went  extinct  around 
5 000 years ago. Recent advances in 
genetic sequencing mean that scien-
tists can study the genetics of extinct 
animals like M. balearicus.

To  determine  if  climate  change  drove 
these creatures to extinction, researchers 

sequenced aDNA from M. balearicus 
fossils  for  the  EU-funded  project 
MEDITADNA (Ancient DNA and climatic 
change: New perspectives from insu-
lar environments).

M. balearicus is an ideal species for study-
ing the effects of past climates for several 
reasons. During its 5 million-year isolation 
on the Balearic Islands of Mallorca and 
Menorca, major climate changes occurred, 
however the animal was unable to escape 
from them. The many fossils present on 
these islands allowed the researchers to 
link genetic changes over time to these 
climatic events.

Researchers collected aDNA from fos-
silised bone and faeces of M. baleari-
cus and two rodent species that lived 
in  the  same  area  during  the  same 
period. They managed to obtain good-
quality aDNA from 16 M. balearicus 
bone samples, all of which came from 

caves located in the northern moun-
tains of Mallorca.

After compiling the genetic data into 
a more useful form, researchers com-
pared how populations differed over 
time, and how M. balearicus evolved 
during  climatic  changes.  They  also 
identified  plentiful  gut  bacteria  but 
limited plant species in the herbivore’s 
faecal samples, providing clues to the 
animal’s diet.

By  understanding  how  the  genetic 
diversity  of  M.  balearicus  changed 
over time as it slid towards extinction, 
MEDITADNA’s results will provide valu-
able  information  for  future  species 
conservation efforts.

MEDITADNA

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

rcn/165030

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
 
36363636

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016

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

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

MOVING MOBILE 
COMMUNICATION ONTO 
THE CLOUD
An EU project aims to ensure that European mobile tele-communication 
providers are not left behind as cloud computing becomes the norm.

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The  EU-funded  MOBILE  CLOUD  NETWORKING  (Future 

Communication Architecture for Mobile Cloud) project, 
which was officially completed at the end of April 2016, 
has effectively integrated domains, cloud computing services 
and mobile networks in order to provide the canvas upon which 
Europe’s future mobile network services can be run. This is 
vitally important. If European companies are to take advantage 
of the technologies offered by cloud computing, then commu-
nication networks must be appropriately re-designed. 

At the European Conference on Networks and Communications 
(EUCNC) last year, the project team unveiled some of their 
achievements, demonstrating the deployment of a ‘Mobile core 
network’ (MCN) on cloud infrastructure and showing how this 
can be utilised for developing typical mobile networking ser-
vices. Much of this work is now available for further exploitation 
and eventual commercialisation.

EU action in the telecommunications sector has in recent dec-
ades led to greater consumer choice, falling call costs and 
higher standards of service. However, mobile services have 
yet to fully tap the vast commercial potential offered by cloud 
computing, which is why the results of the MOBILE CLOUD 
NETWORKING project could be of great industry interest. 

By leveraging Europe’s excellence in mobile communications 
and extending this into the cloud arena — at present almost 
exclusively in the hands of US companies — the project will 
help European telecommunication companies remain glob-
ally competitive in an industry worth around EUR 300 billion 
in the EU alone. 

Cloud computing is about sharing computing resources rather 
than having local servers or personal devices handling each 

individual application. In this sense, ‘cloud’ is a metaphor for 
‘the internet’, where services — such as servers, storage and 
applications — are delivered to an organisation’s computers 
and  devices  through  the  internet.  This  means  that  high- 
performance computing’s power to perform tens of trillions of 
computations per second can be tapped into for consumer-
oriented applications. 

The  arrangement  pioneered  by  the  MOBILE  CLOUD 
NETWORKING project works like this. Instead of contracting 
mobile connectivity from one or several mobile operators, an 
organisation such as a utility provider with demand for mobile 
communication would sign a contract with an MCN provider. 
The MCN provider itself would maintain contracts with a set of 
cloud-ready mobile networks and data centre providers.

Furthermore, the proliferation of mobile internet access and 
services has driven huge increases in mobile data traffic. The 
internet now performs millions of tasks, from online banking 
to tsunami monitoring, and data traffic volumes are expected 
to grow 12-fold by 2018. Tapping the full potential of the 
cloud, as this EU-funded project has done, is a key way of 
reducing infrastructure expenditure, achieving efficiencies and 
creating space for further anticipated data growth.

MOBILE CLOUD NETWORKING
  Coordinated by SAP in Germany.
  Funded under FP7-ICT.
  http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/125300
  Project website:  

http://www.mobile-cloud-networking.eu/site/

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

37

INNOVATIVE TOOLS FOR BETTER SOCIAL 
MEDIA MARKETING
Social media has become an integral part of marketing strategies, but current tools for monitoring and 
analysis are proving ineffective in measuring campaign impact and return on investment. An EU initiative 
has created technology to improve the efficiency of social media campaigns.

Social networks produce hundreds 

of  millions  of  posts  every  day. 
This overwhelming flow of online 
activity is becoming increasingly diffi-
cult  to  measure,  leading  to  poorly 
defined  strategies  and  unsuccessful 
marketing campaigns. New monitor-
ing  solutions  are  needed  to  sort 
through  information  spread  across 
multiple social networks.

“After identifying end-user 
requirements, the system 
specifications and 
architecture were defined.”

To tackle such pressing social media 
marketing challenges, the EU-funded 
OPTIMIZR (Online analysis tool for the 
optimization  of  social  media  cam-
paigns) project aimed at understanding 

social network structure and its impact 
on information spreading.

marketing campaign and monitor its 
performance.

Project  partners  developed  a  novel 
tool and campaign optimisation sys-
tem  to  enhance  the  efficiency  and 
maximise the impact of social media 
marketing  campaigns  for  products, 
services and brands targeted at cus-
tomers.  After  identifying  end-user 
requirements,  the  system  specifica-
tions and architecture were defined.

The  technology  works  by  analysing 
the  transmission  of  content-based 
information and the structure of pop-
ular social network services. This helps 
to reveal who the influencers are in a 
given  space,  determine  the  most  
optimal online communities for a tar-
geted  campaign  and  forecast  the 
potential impact on social networks. 
Benchmarks  can  then  be  created  to 
measure  the  efficiency  of  an  online 

OPTIMIZR technology can help revolu-
tionise social network analysis, ena-
bling the marketing industry to carry 
out effective online marketing activi-
ties and to spend wisely on internet 
advertising.  By  encouraging  digital 
entrepreneurship, this project will also 
help support the EC’s Digital Agenda 
for Europe.

 

OPTIMIZR
 Coordinated by Ateknea Solutions 
Catalonia in Spain.

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

rcn/165047

 Project website:  

http://optimizr.eu/the-project/



 http://bit.ly/1RZbNpE 

THE CASE FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE
Studying the economics of open-source software and how it could supersede proprietary software could 
help Europe innovate, while offering cost-effective solutions to users.

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Amid the sea of software giants with costly products, 

‘Open-source software’ (OSS) is gaining popularity. 
Such  software  operates  under  specific  licensing 
agreements  —  e.g.  ‘General  public  license’  (GPL)  and 
‘European Union public licence’ (EUPL) — calling for care-
ful economic considerations to encourage innovation and 
development.  The  EU-funded  ECONOPENSOURCE 
(Economics of open source) project studied the economics 
of innovation through open-source development.

Proposing  a  new  method  for  investigating  open-source 
innovation, the project looked at how innovators act and 
what licensing they choose, if any. It also looked at social 
welfare gains emerging from an open-source model versus 
a  private-investment  model,  and  compared  competition 
between  both.  In  addition,  the  project  team  considered 
whether open-source production could overthrow proprie-
tary production, and whether it should be subsidised.

After closely examining the competition dynamics between 
two firms, one proprietary firm and one open-source firm, 
the  project  team  proposed  a  solution  for  the  dynamic 
duopolistic competition model. It identified whether or not 
open-source production could beat the proprietary firm in 
the long run and outlined the conditions necessary to bring 
this about.

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
38

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

One important finding in this respect is that there cannot be 
one  single  policy  recommendation  or  answer  regarding 
open-source production. In some cases, it may be beneficial 
for increasing the welfare of people, while in other cases it 
may not be as beneficial.

innovation in OSS. The project’s results will help enlighten the 
debate on OSS, promote cost effectiveness in developing and 
using software, and continue advancing research, development 
and innovation in the field.

On a more legal and cross-European level, the previous decade 
saw the EU outline many strategies regarding OSS, approving 
the EUPL in 2009. This represents a major achievement in fur-
thering  integrated  technology  in  Europe  and  encouraging 

ECONOPENSOURCE

  Coordinated by Boğaziçi University in Turkey.
  Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/175024

A BOOST FOR OPTICAL NETWORK  
EFFICIENCY
An EU team has developed ways to exploit the wasted capacity in optical fibre networks. Testing of an 
indoor combined radio/optical system demonstrated speeds of up to 5.0 Gb/s.

The  radio-spectrum  band  at  60 

GHz  is  licence-free,  and  offers 
reasonably  large  bandwidth  for 
certain applications. In such a context, 
several  ultra-broadband  standards 
have  been  defined  for  wireless  per-
sonal area networks.

Yet the optical fibre used to carry such 
networks leaves unused capacity. The 
EU-funded FIRMWARE (Multimode fiber 
radio  technology  for  cost-efficient 
indoor mm-wave remote antenna sys-
tems) project aimed to develop tech-
nologies  to  utilise  this  for  indoor 
networks. The research focused on a 
new photonic array receiver antenna. 
The purpose was to achieve fast opti-
cal networks over indoor distances up 

to 100 m. Such networks were intended 
to be low-cost and safe with a low-carbon 
footprint. Work involved re-purposing a 
particular standard optical fibre for wire-
less transmission.

Stages  included  a  proof-of-concept 
experiment  using  a  radio  over  fibre 
scheme, which addressed performance 
limitations. The resulting transmission of 
3.8 Gb/s exceeded the target.

Researchers proposed a converged fibre-
wireless  network  structure,  which  was 
expected  to  support  various  protocols. 
The idea was tested using ‘Ethernet pas-
sive optical network’ (E-PON) data.

The group designed and built suitable 
low-cost,  millimetre-wave  antennas. 

Another plus was the use of environ-
ment-friendly materials.

Work produced a new, spectrally effi-
cient,  division  multiplexing  scheme, 
based  on  radio-over-fibre  technology. 
The scheme addressed next-generation 
wireless data traffic demands.

The team also designed a network topol-
ogy utilising single mode fibre to multi-
mode fibre feeds. Further proof-of-concept 
experiments achieved 5.0 Gb/s.

Lastly,  the  consortium  addressed  a 
PON/mm-wave  converged  topology. 
Experiments  demonstrated  a  fast 
transmission rate of over 1 km.

To help share information and transfer 
knowledge about the project, a univer-
sity poster day, school open day and 
public events were held. One notable 
event  saw  projects  presented  to 
Britain’s  House  of  Parliament  and  a 
panel of expert judges.

The  FIRMWARE  project  achieved  its 
goal of developing technologies that 
maximise  the  utility  of  optical  net-
works.  The  work  looks  set  to  bring 
faster computer networks and more 
environment-friendly technologies.

 

FIRMWARE
 Coordinated by University College 
London in the United Kingdom.

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

rcn/182781

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“Work produced a new, 
spectrally efficient, division 
multiplexing scheme, based on 
radio-over-fibre technology.”

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
39

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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

SPIDERS TEACH SCIENTISTS 
HOW TO CREATE A 
COMPLETELY NOVEL  
LIQUID-SOLID MATERIAL
EU-funded scientists learn how to replicate a spider’s silk thread 
and its unique ability to always remain taut.

Look closely at an active spider’s web and you will notice 

that it always retains its shape. Even after trapping an 
insect,  a  spider’s  orb  web  can  reel  in  the  stretched 
thread  to  regain  the  web’s  tension.  This  phenomenon  is 
something that has fascinated scientists for decades. The 
tiny and seemingly incredible forces of physics at work in a 
spider’s web were baffling; only now are scientists begin-
ning to uncover the truth.

Fritz Vollrath, coordinator for the EU-funded SABIP (Silks as 
Biomimetic Ideals for Polymers) project has discovered that 
a web consists of both the silk spun by a spider and micro-
scopic glue droplets that sit on the silk thread. These drop-
lets are not made by the spider itself. Instead, the spider 
coats the thread with a thin layer of sticky material that 
then absorbs water from the atmosphere. The glue swells, 
becomes unstable, then it forms droplets, Vollrath explains.

The droplets are mainly used to capture prey, but they can 
also reel in the silk filament keeping the whole web under 
tension. One tiny droplet, which measures about a tenth of 
a millimetre across, can reel in over 20 cm of thread pack-
ing  it  tightly  inside  the  droplet.  The  thread  can  then  be 
reeled in and out again many times.

Remarkably, the silk-droplet combination behaves like both 
a solid and a liquid, leading the Oxford-based SABIP team 
and  its  collaborators  at  Paris’  Pierre  and  Marie  Curie 
University to baptise it ‘liquid wire’. ‘When the spider’s web 
thread  is  stretched  it’s  like  a  particularly  stretchy  solid 
owing to its molecular nanosprings, but when it is com-
pressed it switches its behaviour to that of a liquid, shrink-
ing with no apparent limit while exerting a constant tension,’ 
says Vollrath. 

‘This  really is a  novel class  of materials. A complex silk 
composite that people never thought possible,’ adds Herve 
Elettro, key researcher of the Paris team who focussed his 
PhD on this discovery.

Understanding this unique behaviour has led the team of 
researchers to create synthetic silk with the same proper-
ties as a spider’s web using a nylon thread and sugar solu-
tion. Moreover, this synthetic silk is produced at ambient 
temperatures, without any harsh chemicals and is easily 
recyclable. 

‘Now we are tackling the question of what we can do with 
this material. Can we upscale it? Does it have to be inte-
grated into something? The technology is so new and we’re 
at the phase of exploring the possibilities where such small 
forces could be used,’ Vollrath continues. 

A second PhD student is currently working in the Paris team 
on exploring ideas for novel devices based on this discov-
ery, funded principally by French Research funding.

‘EU  funding,  and  the  mixing  of  French  and  Anglo-Saxon 
academic cultures encouraged by the EU, was key to our 
fantastic  discovery  and  the  creation  of  synthetic  liquid-
wire,’ concludes Vollrath.

 

SABIP
 Coordinated by the University of Oxford in  
the United Kingdom.

  Funded under FP7-IDEAS-ERC.
  http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/125439

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIESresearch*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
40

I N D U S T R I A L   T E C H N O L O G I E S
FEWER DEFECTS BY IMPROVING 
EQUIPMENT RELIABILITY
An ambitious, EU-supported team 
of researchers has targeted near-
zero defect levels in manufacturing 
high-value parts, high-performance 
products  and  custom  design 
manufacturing  with  intelligent 
systems for process control.

These include a set of methods for real-
time  self-correcting  mechanisms  that 
ensure  immediate  effect  and,  for 
medium- and long-range optimisation, 
increase  the  overall  performance  and 
stability of manufacturing processes.

The  EU-funded  project  IFACOM 

(Intelligent fault correction and self 
optimizing manufacturing systems) 
aimed for near-zero defect levels in all 
kinds  of  manufacturing.  Fifteen  aca-
demic and industry partners joined forces 
to develop simulation methods and tools 
that can predict manufacturing system 
behaviour and process performance.

A key step was developing and demon-
strating new manufacturing strategies 
and methods in five real industrial cases. 
The methods work on three different lev-
els, namely closed-loop control of pro-
cess  parameters  based  on  real-time 
measurements,  medium-time  process 
tuning  and,  lastly,  long-range  perfor-
mance improvement.

At all three levels, intelligent sensing and 
advanced  signal  analysis  result  in  a 
defect diagnosis and prognosis system. 

The new technology relies on the moni-
toring of fluctuations in product and pro-
cess  parameters  through  equipment 
integrated into the machinery. Advanced 
computational intelligence methods for 
measurement  analysis  and  decision-
making  enable  more  predictable  and 
higher-level  product  quality.  Self-
adaptive  devices  optimise  process 
parameters to ensure a high level of sta-
bility at minimum manufacturing cost.

IFACOM team members demonstrated 
the  applicability  and  versatility  of  the 
new technology in applications for each 
of the five end-user partner organisa-
tions.  Specifically,  its  benefits  were 
proven  for  precision  manufacturing  of 
superalloys, tool status monitoring under 
extreme  conditions,  and  electrical  dis-
charge  machining.  Demonstrators  for 
polishing,  boring  and  milling  machine 
tools were also delivered.

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Researchers  have  developed  a  virtual 
demonstrator for simulations using fuzzy 
logic-based algorithms for predicting qual-
ity defects based on input process param-
eters.  The  end  of  the  project  saw  the 
process measurements extended from a 
few areas where they had been applied to 
a broad range of operations where there 
is a need to control key parameters.

It is well known that such a need exists in 
the manufacturing of automotive parts, aer-
ospace components, medical instruments, 
and electronic and other high-performance 
products. IFACOM’s self-optimising manu-
facturing  process  control  is,  therefore, 
expected to have a major impact on the 
competitiveness of numerous industries.

IFACOM

  Coordinated by NTNU in Norway.
  Funded under FP7-NMP.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/

rcn/92062

 Project website:  

http://www.ifacom.org/ 

HERMETICALLY SEALED AIRCRAFT ELECTRONICS
Demand for composite materials in structural parts of the latest aircraft is high, as these materials are 
designed to be both strong and light, thereby offering weight reductions and energy savings. Thanks to EU 
funding, composites are also making their mark on electronic equipment enclosures, generating savings of 
more than 30 % in weight compared to aluminium covers.

Advanced fibre-reinforced composite materials bring a host 

of advantages that are extremely useful in aerospace 
applications. Unlike their metallic counterparts, they are 
lighter in weight, offer the opportunity of tailoring lay-ups for 
optimum strength and stiffness, and have improved fatigue 
strength and corrosion resistance. With good design practice, 
they  also  reduce 
assembly costs as a 
result  of  having 
fewer detailed parts 
and fasteners.

“Researchers re-engineered  
the top and bottom covers  
to demonstrate the technical 
and economic viability of using 
composite materials for 
electronic housing.”

The  SEALEDBOX 
(Aerospace housing for 
extreme environments) 
project  successfully 
demonstrated the use 
of composite materials to protect electronic equipment located in 
unpressurised areas of aircraft. A motor control unit was selected 
to demonstrate the SEALEDBOX solution of a hermetically sealed, 
low-weight and low-cost enclosure.

carbon fibres together with aerospace grade infusion epoxy 
resin were selected as the main materials for producing the cov-
ers. Resin infusion was the ticket to keeping manufacturing 
costs low. The team conducted trials at sample level to explore 
the different material solutions.

Detailed analyses demonstrated that the covers could with-
stand the highly dynamic conditions. The laminate selected ful-
filled both weight and stiffness requirements, while the thermal 
results obtained were in line with the aluminium counterpart.

The composite structures manufactured successfully passed 
the electrical bonding and sand and dust tests. Optimisation 
work also helped prevent damage during painting.

Proper electronic enclosures protect electronics against harsh 
conditions, prevent heat dissipation and radio frequency inter-
ference, and provide electrostatic discharge protection. The use 
of composite materials that are inherently stronger has impor-
tant implications for more efficient power electronics.

Researchers re-engineered the top and bottom covers to dem-
onstrate the technical and economic viability of using compos-
ite materials for electronic housing. Standard high-strength 

SEALEDBOX

  Coordinated by Tecnalia in Spain.
  Funded under FP7-JTI.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/182796

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
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F O O D   A N D   A G R I C U L T U R E

41

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

INSECT LARVAE AS  
AN ADDITIONAL SOURCE  
OF PROTEIN FOR EUROPE’S 
ANIMAL FEED
The EU-funded PROTEINSECT project has recommended a comprehensive 
review of European legislation to allow for insect larvae to be used as 
a source of protein in animal feed.

Europe currently imports 70 % of its protein for animal feed, 

putting it at risk of ever-growing competition for feed protein 
from a global population that is set to exceed 9 billion by 
2050. Developing nations in particular are seeing a huge increase 
in demand for animal products, and there has been a five-fold 
increase in the total consumption of meat since the mid-1940s. 
The project PROTEINSECT (Enabling the exploitation of Insects as 
a  Sustainable  Source  of  Protein  for  Animal  Feed  and  Human 
Nutrition) believes that adapting European legislation to allow for 
the use of insect protein in animal feed will make a substantial 
contribution in addressing these challenges.

Benefits of insect protein

To address this growing challenge, PROTEINSECT experts from 
Europe, China and Africa have been investigating the use of two 
species of fly larvae in the diets of chickens, pigs and fish, carrying 
out feeding trials and analysing the quality and safety of rearing 
farmed flies on organic waste substrates such as manure. 

Insects are rich in protein and are a natural component of the diet 
of many fish and free-range poultry. The project argues that fly 
larvae can be reared on a wide range of wastes and by-products 
offering a way of recovering value from materials that may tra-
ditionally be disposed of by the agricultural and food industries. 

The biological reprocessing of organic waste was a key concept 
for PROTEINSECT, as not only would insect use for animal feed 
help to alleviate Europe’s protein deficit, but it would also facili-
tate significant reductions in waste volumes. The project found 
that fly larvae can reduce the mass of organic waste by up to 
60 % in just 10 days, contributing towards the realisation of a 
truly circular economy. The project’s research has also demon-
strated that the use of insect protein in animal feed to comple-
ment traditional plant sources could contribute to making more 
agricultural land available for crops to be consumed directly by 
the  human  population.  This  would  additionally  provide  for 
greater overall food security.

Fish, poultry and pig feeding trials were conducted by the project 
in 2015 in Belgium and the UK based on PROTEINSECT UK-derived 
insect protein. These trials evaluated weight gain and growth 
rates, as well as specific segment factors such as survival rates 
in Atlantic salmon. Overall, the project observed that there were 
no significant differences in the animals’ performance and even 
recorded improvements as a result of the insect feed. For exam-
ple, levels of good micro-organisms (Lactobacilli) were signifi-
cantly higher in the insect-fed piglets.

Next steps for the project

The project team believes that Europe could become a major 
global contributor to this alternative and additional source of 
protein, as well as provide innovative solutions for reducing 
organic waste. However, they argue that conservative and out-
dated European legislation concerning the use of insects in feed 
and food are a major barrier for potential investors, and conse-
quently market entry for insect-derived protein. Specifically, 
they argue for a review of two EU Regulations that currently 
prohibit the use of insects as a source of protein for animal feed 
for animals raised for human consumption, as well as the rear-
ing of insects on manure or catering waste.

Speaking during the event, the PROTEINSECT coordinator, Dr 
Elaine Fitches commented: ‘The protein gap in Europe is a very 
real risk to social, economic and environmental progress... As we 
seek sustainable European long-term solutions we must con-
sider the benefits that the introduction of insects — specifically 
fly larvae — could have on the content of animal feed.’

PROTEINSECT

  Coordinated by Fera Science in the United Kingdom.
  Funded under FP7-KBBE.
  http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/125262
  Project website:  

http://www.proteinsect.eu/

 

 http://bit.ly/1UkXKk0

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
42

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

NOVEL AUTOMATED TECHNOLOGY TO BETTER 
HARVEST ASPARAGUS 
Asparagus is currently harvested by hand. To reduce both dependence on labour and the production costs, 
an EU initiative has introduced an automated harvesting machine.

To address these issues, the EU-funded 
DASH (Demonstration of the AutoSpar 
harvesting machine used for white and 
violet  asparagus)  project  set  out  to 
develop a fully functional, reliable, auto-
matic asparagus harvesting machine.

Project partners had initially aimed to 
build on the automatic and selective 
harvesting machine prototype for white 
and violet asparagus created during a 
previous  EU  initiative  but  which  was 
not ready for commercial use. However, 
they decided to build a new prototype 
by  implementing  novel  technological 
solutions and technical improvements.

The prototype underwent rigorous test-
ing during the 2014 and 2015 harvest-
ing seasons. In terms of performance, 
80 % of existing or available asparagus 
stalks  were  successfully  harvested. 
Off-season demonstrations were also 
carried out at three exhibitions.

marketing plan that highlighted poten-
tial market barriers and competition.

DASH delivered an automatic aspara-
gus  harvesting  machine  that  is 
expected to go to market in the next 
two  years.  Asparagus  farmers  and 
producers  stand  to  benefit  from  a 
solution that no longer depends solely 
on manual labour and does not rely on 
the  time  of  day,  the  elements  and 
other external forces.

DASH

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

rcn/182849

 Project website:  

http://www.autospar.net/ 

A business plan focused on the com-
mercialisation of the prototype. It also 
contained an analysis of material costs 
and how to reduce them, along with a 

“80 % of existing or available 
asparagus stalks were 
successfully harvested.”

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Manual  harvesting  has  several 

drawbacks.  Cold  weather 
wreaks havoc on the harvest-
ing period, pushing the work of sea-
sonal  workers  either  forwards  or 
backwards. This results in hired per-
sonnel running up costs while waiting 
out the delay, or a lack of available 
workers  if  harvest  begins  too  early. 
Furthermore, harvesting can only be 
carried out during the day.

SUSTAINABLE FRUIT JUICE PACKAGING FROM 
ORGANIC MATTER
EU-funded researchers have created novel sustainable packaging materials using wastewater originating 
from the fruit juice industry.

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Over 67 million tonnes of packaging waste is generated 

annually in the EU, which corresponds to around one third 
of all municipal solid waste. In developed countries, food 
packaging represents 60 % of all packaging. As a result, food 
packaging has become the most obvious source of waste gen-
erated by the public. 

Additionally, the fruit juice industries consume large volumes of 
water, both for the cleaning of equipment and facilities, as well 
as for the washing of fruit before it is transformed into juice. In 
recent years, the global volume of wastewater production by 
the juice industries has increased to 34 200 million gallons 
when  considering  the  general  processing  of  fruits  such  as 
apples, apricots, cherries, citruses and peaches.

During a final workshop in Brussels on 18 April 2016, the FP7-
financed project PHBOTTLE (New sustainable, functionalized 
and competitive PHB material based in fruit by-products getting 
advanced solutions for packaging and non-packaging applica-
tions) gave an overview of its results and showcased the inno-
vative packaging it has developed, which it hopes will contribute 
towards alleviating these extremely high levels of waste.

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
 
 
 
Transforming organic matter

The prototype PHBOTTLE packaging was obtained from the 
transformation of organic matter (mainly fermentable sug-
ars such as glucose, fructose and maltose) present in the 
wastewater of the juice industry into a bioplastic material 
‘polyhydroxybutyrate’ (PHB). The concentration of ferment-
able sugars in juice processing wastewater can reach 70 % 
of the total organic load, containing almost 20 g/l of fer-
mentable  sugars, 
and  making  it  an 
abundant  source  of 
cheap  feedstock  for 
PHB bioproduction.

“This material was enhanced 
with antioxidants to increase 
the shelf life of the juice, as 
well as its resistance 
characteristic.”

This  material  was 
enhanced with anti-
oxidants to increase 
the shelf life of the juice, as well as its resistance charac-
teristic. Progress has been made possible by combining the 
latest advances in biotechnology, packaging and microen-
capsulation  technologies,  to  demonstrate  the  value  of 
organic waste from the juice industries as a raw material 
to produce packaging for their own products.

Contributing to a sustainable Circular Economy

Revealing a number of the PHB-based prototype bottles 
during the workshop, the project coordinator Dr Ana Valera 
outlined the added environmental value of the project. ‘Our 
innovative packaging contributes to reducing the damage 
caused by conventional plastic materials,’ she commented. 
‘Our packaging is environmentally friendly not only due to 
its natural origin (and not based on petroleum products) but 
also by the fact that the packaging production contributes 

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

43

to a decrease in the environmental impact of wastewater 
management in the juice industry.’

The PHBOTTLE project also uniquely contributes to the develop-
ment of the concept of a ‘Circular Economy’ in Europe in two 
ways. Firstly, food industry wastewater treatment is a costly 
process due to the energy needs in the aeration basin and the 
cost of waste sludge disposal. Recovering valuable materials 
from raw wastewater will therefore reduce treatment and dis-
posal costs. Second, the use of biodegradable food packaging 
material will reduce energy use, carbon dioxide emissions, and 
waste treatment costs.

Moreover, the PHBOTTLE team also believes that the material 
developed during the project can be utilised in other sectors aside 
from the packaging industries. One example highlighted by Dr 
Valera during the workshop was the material’s potential for use 
in the automotive sector for producing caps for car batteries.

With the concept of the ‘Circular Economy’ currently being 
a major policy issue at EU-level, the PHBOTTLE project has 
made an important contribution to the growth of ‘green 
chemistry’ solutions for developing products and processes 
that reduce environmental impacts and society’s depend-
ence on petroleum-based products.

The PHBOTTLE project was due for completion at the end of April 
2016 and received just under EUR 3 million in EU funding.

PHBOTTLE

  Coordinated by Ainia in Spain.
  Funded under FP7-NMP.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/125140
 Project website:  

http://www.phbottle.eu/



 http://bit.ly/1QTM4OS 

NEW GUIDELINES AND TOOLS TO COMBAT 
FOOD WASTE
An EU-funded project has used its 
final project meeting in Brussels to 
showcase its final results and inform 
policymakers  on  how  significantly 
reducing food waste can lead to a 
more resource-efficient Europe.

304 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, 6 % 
of the EU-28’s annual greenhouse gas 
emissions.

Policy analysis and social 
innovation pilots

instruments could be best utilised to sup-
port food waste initiatives and stimulate 
social innovation initiatives. They identi-
fied two distinct clusters, one emphasis-
ing subsidies and grants/tax credits, and 
the  second  emphasising  informational 
tools  addressing  food  waste  reduction 
and prevention — this includes general 
public awareness campaigns, voluntary 
agreements and marketing standards.

The FUSIONS (Food Use for Social 

Innovation  by  Optimising  waste 
prevention  Strategies)  project, 
due to finish in July 2016, was initi-
ated  with  the  aim  of  significantly 
reducing  food  waste  in  Europe 
throughout  the  entire  supply  chain. 
Food waste has been singled out as a 
major policy issue to address, particu-
larly due to the EU’s ambitious envi-
ronmental targets and commitment to 
the  development  of  a  truly  circular 
economy. The FUSIONS project team 
has estimated that current food waste 
levels  for  the  EU-28  amount  to 
approximately 88 million tonnes per 
year, which is the equivalent of 20 % 
of  all  food  produced  in  the  EU.  This 
comes at a cost of EUR 143 million and 

One of the first tasks that the project 
set itself was to conduct a detailed pol-
icy  analysis  of  existing  EU  legislation 
and  policies  that  had  implications  for 
food waste. They identified 53 acts that 
impacted on food waste in a variety of 
policy areas, including agriculture, fish-
eries, enterprise and industry, taxation, 
trade, health and consumers, and the 
environment. The project partners are 
also still in the process of finalising a 
similar  detailed  analysis  of  relevant 
national legislation in the EU-28, cover-
ing Member States both within and out-
side the FUSIONS consortium. 

Armed with such detailed knowledge of 
EU and national-level policies and legis-
lation, the project has developed a set of 
recommendations on which mark-based 

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44

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016
F O O D   A N D   A G R I C U L T U R E

FUSIONS  has  pioneered  seven  social 
innovation projects in six Member States 
with the capacity to inspire similar pro-
jects  across  the  EU-28.  The  projects 
were supported by FUSIONS consortium 
members  in  collaboration  with  local 
organisations. One project focused on 
schools, by providing a set of guidelines 
for teachers and households on how to 
lower food waste, as well as how to bet-
ter  inform  both  parents  and  children 
about  the  importance  of  food  waste 
prevention.  Another  project  compiled 
detailed recommendations on encour-
aging the development of ‘social super-
markets’, organisations which sell food, 
at least a part of which is sourced from 
surplus  food,  to  poorer  people  at  a 
reduced price. Social supermarkets are 
seen as bridging the gap between tradi-
tional food retailing and donation.

Food Waste Quantification 
Manual

Another  key  tool  developed  by  the 
FUSIONS team is a detailed Food Waste 
Quantification Manual, aimed specifically 
towards relevant national authorities in 
the EU Member States. The manual pro-
vides practical guidelines for a standard 
approach regarding how to quantify food 
waste  at  different  stages  of  the  food 

supply  chain.  These  guidelines  cover 
three  main  activities:  quantifying  food 
waste in each sector (i.e. ‘stage’) of the 
food chain; combining sectoral quantifi-
cations using a common framework at 
national level; and reporting the results of 
the  national  food  waste  quantification 
study at country level in a consistent and 
comparable manner. Member States are 
not obliged to use the manual, but if a 
Member State claims to have used the 
manual’s approach for quantifying and 
reporting  food  waste  at  national  level, 
then  it  needs  to  follow  certain  core 
requirements to ensure uniformity and 
consistency.

National representatives from Belgium 
(Flanders) and the United Kingdom pre-
sented  their  experience  of  using  the 
manual at the project’s final conference. 
They highlighted the manual’s common 
language and its good balance between 
harmonisation  and  flexibility,  allowing 
national authorities to utilise the data 
and strategies that they have already 
developed, rather than having to build 
entirely  new  methodologies  and  pro-
cesses  from  scratch.  However,  it  was 
suggested  that  the  integration  and 
interaction of the manual with Eurostat 
food waste monitoring could be further 
explored in the future.

Next steps

Overall, the FUSIONS team hopes that 
the project will make a significant contri-
bution to the EU taking the global lead in 
the quest to reduce food waste. The large 
collaborative  network  developed 
throughout the project’s lifespan is also 
likely to remain active and contribute to 
future projects and programmes.

More immediately, the project has submitted 
all of its findings and tools to the European 
Commission to be further developed, par-
ticularly  as  part  of  the  delivery  of  the 
Commission’s ‘Roadmap towards a Resource 
Efficient Europe’ and its target of achieving 
a 50 % reduction in food waste by 2020.

The FUSIONS project held its final con-
ference in Brussels on 19 May 2016 
and has received nearly EUR 4 million 
of EU funding.

 

FUSIONS
 Coordinated by Stichting Dienst 
Landbouwkundig Onderzoek in the 
Netherlands.

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

rcn/125379

 Project website:  

http://www.eu-fusions.org



 http://bit.ly/1UawMtW 

TRADING COMMON PLANT DEFENCES FOR 
METAL ACCUMULATION
New insights into the evolution of metal hyperaccumulation as a defence against diseases in plants could 
be useful for agricultural and bioremediation technologies.

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The Noccaea caerulescens plant is a hyperaccumulator 

of heavy metals, and seems to have evolved this trait 
to defend itself against pathogens. It also appears to 
have lost the ability to use defence mechanisms common to 
most plants, suggesting a trade-off.

The EU-funded TRADEOFF METAL (Trade-offs in immunity in the 
metal hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens) project aimed to 
study the processes involved in the gain in metal hyperaccumulation 
and loss of other defensive traits in N. caerulescens. The first step 
was to identify individual plants that exhibit signs of the trade-off.

Researchers exposed plants to high and low concentrations of 
zinc, as well as a pathogen. Individual plants were then classi-
fied according to their ability to accumulate zinc and to exhibit 
common defence responses to the pathogen, such as cell death.

They found that plants exposed to high levels of zinc were 
more resistant to pathogens, and those grown on low levels 
more susceptible. Plants with reliably reproducible differ-
ences were selected for further analysis.

This involved identifying the genes involved in the trade-off 
between metal hyperaccumulation and inducible defences. 
The  evolutionary  information  gained  is  useful  for  under-
standing how species adapt and persist in fragmented or 
damaged habitats such as industrial sites.

TRADEOFF METAL’s findings also shed light on how plant 
responses to biotic and abiotic stressors may be connected 
at the molecular level. Practically, this research can inform 
crop improvement strategies as well as efforts to clean up 
heavy metal pollution through phytoremediation.

 

TRADEOFF METAL
 Coordinated by the University of Oxford in  
the United Kingdom.

  Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/182826

 
 
research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016

45

P H Y S I C S   A N D   M A T H E M A T I C S

P H Y S I C S   A N D   M A T H E M A T I C S

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HOW GAME THEORY  
CAN LEAD TO ENERGY-
EFFICIENT SOLUTIONS
EU-funded researchers have applied game theory in order to develop new 
ways of efficiently controlling complex systems such as heating and power.

The  EU-funded  CASSTING  (Collective 

Adaptative  Systems  SynThesIs  with 
Non-zero-sum  Games)  project  has 
pioneered  an  effective  new  approach  to 
understanding and shaping what are known 
as collective adaptive systems. These com-
plex systems typically consist of numerous 
autonomous units, which can interact in a 
variety of ways. Examples include: the eco-
system;  the  brain;  manufacturing  busi-
nesses; and the internet.

By developing mathematical methods for 
identifying how optimal efficiencies might 
be achieved, researchers hope to be able to 
design  better  ordered  systems  and  ulti-
mately boost Europe’s high tech industry. 
Sectors  that  could  potentially  benefit 
include robotics, high tech appliances and 
medical diagnostics. 

The CASSTING project team began by char-
acterising  collective  adaptive  systems 
through  the  prism  of  game  theory.  This 
branch of mathematics has been success-
fully applied in various domains including 
economics, social sciences, biology, political 
sciences,  engineering  and  computer 
science. 

Game theory attempts to model strategic 
situations  where  several  individuals  are 
interacting,  and  tries  to  predict  what 

decisions individuals will take in a given sit-
uation,  assuming  rationality.  This  theory 
views components as players, their behav-
iour as strategies and specifications as win-
ning conditions. 

repeatedly optimal strategies for the near 
future. The tool was then built and demon-
strated. The results showed that the tool 
could control the house considerably better 
than conventional heating controllers.

The project’s overall objective has been to 
find ways of arranging components in such 
a  way  that  will  produce  the  best  results 
through the application of this mathemati-
cal theory. This of course is easier said than 
done. Collective adaptive systems contain 
components that interact continuously with 
each other and with their environments, and 
which  may  work  collaboratively  or  in  an 
adversarial capacity. Components of collec-
tive adaptive systems can also adapt over 
time and even disappear, if one thinks about 
how the ecosystem behaves.

Nonetheless, the application of game theory 
has helped the CASSTING project team to 
develop new algorithmic analysis methods 
for predicting the behaviour of complex sys-
tems. One project case study involved the 
development of a complex system for floor 
heating. Several novel ideas were put for-
ward  in  order  to  provide  fully  automatic 
communication with the hardware compo-
nents of the floor heating system. 

An adaptive, online synthesis algorithm was 
developed  and  is  capable  of  computing 

Another case study involved the analysis of 
a block of houses equipped with solar pan-
els connected to the electricity network. Each 
household consumes and produces energy, 
which they can therefore buy and sell. Game 
theory was applied to represent this situa-
tion:  each  household  is  a  player  whose 
actions consist of selling, buying and con-
suming energy. Algorithms were developed 
to  find  good  consumption  and  trading 
behaviours for each household in different 
contexts. 

The challenge now is to develop algorithms 
and programmable components for other 
complex  systems.  This  will  create  new 
opportunities for complex systems involved 
in, say, home automation, smart housing 
and efficient industrial manufacturing.

CASSTING

  Coordinated by CNRS in France.
  Funded under FP7-ICT.
  http://cordis.europa.eu/news/

rcn/125159

  Project website:  

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

 
 
 
46

P H Y S I C S   A N D   M A T H E M A T I C S
LASERS TAME UNPREDICTABLE ELECTRICAL 
DISCHARGES
Despite the ubiquity of electric discharges, only recently have EU-funded researchers been able to shape 
the exact path of electricity along a trajectory using laser beams.

Electrical  discharges  have  found  applications  in  welding, 

micromachining and fuel ignition, to name just a few exam-
ples. The tiny electrical spark that starts a combustion engine 
may look a lot different than lightning crackling through the sky, but 
they have something in common. They are both unpredictable.

Lightning can be drawn towards a lightning conductor, however 
it has for a long time proved impossible to predict the path it 
will take to get there. When an electric spark is created, engi-
neers hope it goes where they want it to go. However, research-
ers have recently discovered a way to control the path of a 
spark as it arcs between electrodes.

Technological  advances  and  research  carried  out  within  the 
EU-funded KOHERENT (Kerr based OPA for high energy infrared 
pulse generation) project set the stage for a spectacular demon-
stration, where an electric spark followed a smooth path.

Specifically, the researchers explored new routes for efficiently 
using mid-infrared pump lasers and producing long-wavelength 
radiation (up to 60 micrometres). Extensive investigations of 
photo-ionisation, induced in the air by the generation of long-
wavelength radiation, allowed them to generate pulses that 
propagate on curved trajectories.

For the demonstration, the researchers mixed and matched dif-
ferent types of laser beams. These were arranged by them so 
they could make an electric discharge move along a straight or 
parabolic trajectory. The path does not even have to be a simple 
one; it could follow curved trajectories, such as S-shaped ones.

Light can be concentrated along a line, as within a Bessel beam, 
or along a parabola, as within an Airy beam. However, both Bessel 
and Airy beams have the ability to ‘self-heal’. If blocked, these 

laser beams can reconstruct themselves on the other side of the 
obstacle.

The researchers wondered if this unusual beam property could 
be used for better guidance of electrical discharges. They placed 
an object between two electrodes and noticed how the electric 
discharge jumped over the ‘obstacle’ and made it to the next 
laser  beam,  without 
damaging the object.

“The researchers explored 
new routes for efficiently 
using mid-infrared pump 
lasers and producing  
long-wavelength radiation  
(up to 60 micrometres).”

The  discovery  of  how 
to make electrical dis-
charges  bend  around 
curves  was  made  at 
the  ‘Advanced  laser 
light  source’  (ALLS) 
facility  of  Canada’s 
national  scientific 
research institute (INRS). The researchers worked together with 
colleagues from Canada, China, France, the United Kingdom and 
the United States to achieve this breakthrough.

Electric discharges have previously been used in industrial weld-
ing and machining, combustion engines and lightning-protection 
systems. Systematic and precise control of high-voltage dis-
charges will open up an array of possibilities for both scientific 
research and applications.

 

KOHERENT
 Coordinated by Heriot-Watt University in  
the United Kingdom.

  Funded under FP7-PEOPLE.
 http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/182816
 Project website:  

http://www.koherent.eu/ 

UNCERTAINTY FROM THE BOTTOM UP

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A collaborative effort in studying 
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uncertainty  through  a  problem-
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based  approach  has  led  to  new 
insights into the role of uncertainty 
in rational decision-making.

i

Uncertainty  arises  when  people  lack 

information. People’s understanding 
of uncertainty can play a decisive role 
in decision-making associated with global 
issues such as the financial crisis and cli-
mate change policymaking.

An  EU-funded  project  RETHINKING 
(Rethinking uncertainty: A problem-based 
approach)  aimed  to  improve  the  under-
standing  of  uncertainty  through  a  set  of 
epistemological questions that arise with 

formal models of decision-making. Using an 
interdisciplinary approach, the work aimed 
at ways to resolve a fundamental problem 
in the field of uncertainty, namely how to 
identify an efficient compromise between 
foundational  robustness  and  expressive 
power in the quantification of uncertainty.

The  project  supports  the  Bayesian 
approach  to  second-order  uncertainty 
which arises when decision-makers can 
(partly)  model  the  parameters  of  their 
decision problems. The term Bayesian is 
derived from the 18th century mathema-
tician and theologian Thomas Bayes. The 
work  therefore  involved  choice-based 
semantics combined with real-valued log-
ics, while investigating how this is related 
to the notion of objective probability.

Objectives  included  using  mathematical 
models in the social sciences and especially 
in economic theory in order to resolve the 
problems  of  rethinking  uncertainty.  A 

novel algebraic approach was also inves-
tigated in terms of defining conditional 
events. Choice-based probabilities were 
characterised and defined, and an analy-
sis of their probability functions provided.

Also introduced was a general framework 
for defining non-probabilistic measures of 
uncertainty as well as the extension of the 
classical Bayesian framework. It defined 
the betting criteria which lead to impre-
cise and non-standard probabilities.

Results can have a direct impact on eco-
nomic theory, the foundations of probabil-
ity and statistical inference, and artificial 
intelligence.

 

RETHINKING
 Coordinated by the London School of 
Economics and Political Science in the 
United Kingdom.

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

rcn/182838

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
 
 
 
EVENTS

47

EVENTS

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

OCTOBER
11▶14

OCTOBER
11▶12

OCTOBER 
12

Troia (Setubal), PORTUGAL

Brussels, BELGIUM

Lavrion, GREECE

C O N F E R E N C E
SECOND INTERNATIONAL LEGUME 
SOCIETY CONFERENCE

C O N F E R E N C E
EDEN PROJECT AT CBRNE 
INNOVATION FAIR 2016

Several EU-funded projects will be present at 
the  Second  International  Legume  Society 
Conference taking place in Troia, Portugal, from 
11 to 14 October 2016.

The EU-funded EDEN project will be hosting its 
final conference as a part of the 2016 edition 
of  the  CBRNE  Innovation  Fair,  to  be  held  in 
Brussels, Belgium, from 11 to 12 October 2016.

The conference, which will focus on issues such 
as legume quality and nutrition, farming sys-
tems, abiotic and biotic stress responses and 
breeding, new ‘omics’ resources for legumes, 
and legume genetic resources, will also host the 
final meeting of the ABSTRESS project, as well 
as  the  annual  meetings  of  the  LEGATO  and 
EUROLEGUME projects. 

The health and environmental benefits, as well 
as the marketing of legumes will be transversal 
topics throughout the conference. Special atten-
tion will be given to fostering the interaction of 
researchers and research programmes with dif-
ferent  stakeholders,  including  farmers  and 
farmer  associations,  the  seed/feed  and  food 
industries, and consumers. 

For further information, please visit:
http://www.itqb.unl.pt/meetings-and-courses/
legumes-for-a-sustainable-world/
welcome#content

OCT.
17▶19

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C O N F E R E N C E
AMBASSADOR FINAL CONFERENCE

The  EU-funded  AMBASSADOR  project  will  be 
hosting its final conference in Lavrion, Greece, 
on 12 October 2016.

The goal of the AMBASSADOR final conference 
is  to  present  the  different  outputs  that  have 
been developed within the scope of the project 
in a technical session and to demonstrate their 
impacts  in  real  conditions  on  one  of  the 
AMBASSADOR test sites in Greek Lavrion. 

The  work  undertaken  with  the  AMBASSADOR 
District Energy Management and Information 
System  (DEMIS)  will  also  be  showcased. 
Different business aspects of smart districts, 
smart grids and smart cities will be discussed 
in a business session. 

Finally, the AMBASSADOR team would like to 
share  with  its  audience,  as  well  as  invited 
guests, the lessons they have learnt from this 
challenging four-year project.

During the event, the EDEN partners will pre-
sent their results and achievements obtained in 
terms of technology, procedures and methods 
for the management of CBRNE accidents. The 
EDEN Store and CBRNE equipment will be pre-
sented and the film footage from the validation 
exercises displayed.

Throughout the innovation fair, the industry’s top 
performing companies and end-user organisa-
tions, SMEs, suppliers and research institutes will 
exhibit their products and innovations. The event 
will also gather together decision-makers from 
government, operational units, industry, science 
and research in CBRNE and crisis management 
for networking and a number of open sessions.

For further information, please visit:
https://cbrne-fair2016.eu/

For further information, please visit:
http://ambassador-fp7.eu/finalconference/

Brussels, BELGIUM,

C O N F E R E N C E
THE EU-FUNDED DEVOTES PROJECT WILL BE HOLDING ITS  
FINAL CONFERENCE IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM,  
FROM 17 TO 19 OCTOBER 2016.
The three-day event is split into two distinct sections, with a stakeholders’ conference taking place on  
17 October, followed by a scientific conference from 18 to 19 October. During the conference, the organisers 
will outline the results of the four-year project and dedicate the discussion to the assessment of marine waters. 
Ricardo Serrao Santos, a Member of the European Parliament on the Fisheries (PECH) committee will speak 
during the conference.

The DEVOTES project has aimed to better understand the relationships between pressures from human 
activities and climate and their effects on marine ecosystems. The project supports the ecosystem approach 
to management, and has developed tools to achieve Good Environmental Status of marine waters, relating 
directly to the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive. 

For further information, please visit:  
http://www.devotes-project.eu/devotes-final-meeting/

research*eu results magazine N°54 / July 2016 
 
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Cybersecurity

MAKING THE EU’S ONLINE ENVIRONMENT MORE SECURE

A new CORDIS Results Pack will be released in October 2016 during the EU’s annual European 

Cybersecurity Month.

It follows the European Commission’s adoption in July 2016 of a set of measures to strengthen 
Europe's cyber resilience and boost the overall competitiveness of the cybersecurity industry, including 
a contractual public private partnership (cPPP) that will advance a cutting-edge European 
research and innovation agenda, with up to EUR 450 million of funding from Horizon 2020.

The CORDIS Results Pack will showcase some of the most promising EU-funded projects already 
engaged in developing novel solutions to combat an ever-increasing number of cybersecurity threats 
to Europe’s critical infrastructures. Be sure not to miss it!

Contact  CNECT-CYBERSECURITY@ec.europa.eu  to be alerted when the Results Pack goes online 
or find out more about the European Commission’s support for cybersecurity at: 

https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/cybersecurity and https://cybersecuritymonth.eu/

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