European Union News - Research & Innovation

Researchers at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom have identified a specific protein generated by the brain in response to stress. Their findings could help boost understanding of stress-related psychiatric diseases in people, particularly in knowing how the human brain deals with stress and how it eases its impact.

A British team of researchers with EU funding from the European Research Council (ERC) has discovered more than 100 fortified farms and villages with castle-like structures and several towns, most dating from AD 1-500 in Libya’s south-western desert using satellites and air-photographs.

The European Medicines Agency hosted the first workshop on 27 and 28 October 2011 which assembled European and international experts to discuss the way forward in developing ophthalmology medicines. The participants also tackled the development of treatment in childhood eye disorders and they agreed that further discussion and research is needed before they can provide guidance in other areas such as trial designs and endpoints in inflammation of the eye.
 

The 2011 European Satellite Navigation Competition "GSA Special Topic Prize" for EGNOS goes to CATUAV, a small company in Catalonia that is developing a Mini-UAV Traffic Collision Avoidance System, harnessing the power of EGNOS to bring mini-UAVs into their own in civil aviation.

The second phase of a major EU-funded project, LAGUNA-LBNO project, focused on the construction of a next-generation neutrino observatory gets underway. The phase will run until 2014 and it will focus on assessing how feasible it is to create a pan-European research infrastructure able to host the very large volume, deep-underground neutrino observatory.

The RATHER project which investigates two specific difficult-to-treat subtypes of breast cancer, has shown so far that at least five subtypes exist, each of which requires different treatment. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in European women with an estimated incidence of 450,322 in 2008.

The TRILOGY project, an EU-funded project which could bring more powerful broadband connections, has received the Future Internet Award for its outstanding contribution to the Internet architecture and protocols, which could help provide Europeans with faster, more reliable Internet connections.

The text which contains the political agreement on the draft decision establishing the first radio spectrum policy programme 2012-2015 has been endorsed by the Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council. The document has been negotiated in trialogue meetings between the Polish presidency, the European Parliament and the European Commission.

Europe took a major step in its history by launching the first two operational Galileo satellites on Friday 21 October into orbit from the European Space Agency's (ESA) spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, with a Soyuz launcher to reach their orbit at 23.000 kilometres. The Galileo programme sets up an enhanced global satellite navigation system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service.

The Commission is preparing to finalise plans for the launch of a "people-to-people" dialogue with China covering education, culture, youth and research. Its aim is to deepen understanding and mutual trust by supporting exchanges between the two strategic partners.

The European Commission intends to achieve a common definition for nanomaterials in order to better protect citizens, clearly defining which materials need special treatment in specific legislation. The definition says that nanomaterials are materials whose main constituents have a dimension of between 1 and 100 billionth of a metre and is based, according to the European Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik, on scientific input and a broad consultation.