European Union News - Research & Innovation

A team of Spanish researchers has developed a method that can determine the chemical composition of liquids and determining whether a suspicious device is explosive or not. With this method, police can declare a suspicious device safe or potentially explosive and judges can use conclusive scientific test results on the nature of dangerous liquids in court.

EU funded research developed a technique to produce real-time, high-resolution images of distant galaxies. The technique, called Electronic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (e-VLBI), allows multiple radio telescopes throughout the world to work together to simulate one giant telescope. This not only improves the quality of observation results but also helps to maximise the return on investment in radio telescopes.

French, German and Spanish scientists discovered how the U2AF protein enables the pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA), which serves as a template for protein synthesis in the body. The pre-mRNA must first be transcribed from the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). With this study the European team discovered a new human gene regulation mechanism.

A team of Joint Research Centre (JRC) scientists win a Data Fusion Contest 2011, organised by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which challenged scientists to use the same set of high resolution spatial imagery to show their technical advances.

According to the Report on the European Research Council's operations and realisation of the objectives set out in the Specific Programme Ideas in 2010 published by the European Commission, funding schemes put in place by the institutions have captured the interest of the European Research community. The report highlights that more than 20,000 applications have been presented under the first six calls.

An international team of astronomers has made the first detection of oxygen molecules in space. Until now no searches had turned up oxygen in its molecular form - two atoms of oxygen bonded together, but the team from Herschel Oxygen Project believes that this study would explain where some of the oxygen might be hiding.

A consortium of researchers from the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Finland and the United Kingdom set out to redesign engines, so that they could adapt to non-conventional fuels. They tackled the challenge by rethinking each component's finishing, as opposed to modifying their traditional structures. With this idea the team has come up with a solution that could eliminate the corrosive effect of biofuel and restore faith in biofuels.

British scientists say that plastic solar cells can be printed to create cling-film-like substances that can be 'spread' to make 'ultra-cheap solar energy panels for domestic and industrial use'. The cheap and efficient polymer solar cells that can cover huge areas could help move us into a new age of renewable energy, according the scientists.

According to the EU Survey on R&D Investment Business Trends, worldwide corporate investment in research and innovation proved resilient to the global recession in 2009. The data released by the Survey show that top companies based in the EU expect their global research and development investments to grow by 5% annually from 2011 to 2013, highlighting the
strategic importance that the largest corporate investors attach to R&D.