European Union News - Research & Innovation

The online platform OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe) will provide a network of open repositories  providing free online access to knowledge produced by scientists receiving grants from the Seventh Framework programme (FP7) and European Research Council (ERC). Through this initiative the European Commission aims at bringing the results from EU funded research closer to the public, following some the objectives also promoted by the Digital Agenda for Europe and the Innovation Union initiatives.

Ecological restoration can curb environmental degradation but little is known about how cost effective the approaches are. Enter an EU-funded team of scientists from the UK and Latin America that investigated the cost-effectiveness of renewing a degraded, or even destroyed, ecosystem through human intervention.

EU patent system was again in the agenda of Competitiveness Council meeting held on 25 November, together with the new elements for a new industrial policy as well as the celebration of  the 7th Space Council, in partnership with the European Space Agency, in which ministers adopted a resolution on the challenges facing the European space systems.

Slumbering volcanoes keep scientists on their toes, as questions about if and when they will erupt never cease. Eyjafjallajökull, the Icelandic volcano that threw European aviation into a tailspin last spring, is a prime example of how volcanologists were aware that something was brewing inside the mountain that had lain dormant for two centuries. New research suggests that the culprit responsible for waking Eyjafjallajökull from its sleep was the magma flowing beneath it.

FP7 is on course and is clearly making a significant contribution to European science and the development of the European Research Area. This is one of the key messages to emerge from the interim evaluation of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), which includes some recommendations aimed at solving some of the problems identified such as simplification or coordination with other programmes.

A new scientific facility to develop measurement standards in challenging areas such as life sciences was inaugurated on 23 November at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Geel (Belgium). These research facilities will enable the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) to remain at the forefront of measurement science, by developing internationally-recognised measurement standards.

The Holocaust, the genocide of some 11 million Europeans, including Jews, Romani and homosexuals, during the Second World War will forever remain in all minds and history books as one of the most horrific events of modern world. Seeking to get a handle on the dispersed information available for Holocaust research across Europe and elsewhere, is a key objective for European researchers.

EU-funded scientists have tested a groundbreaking theory that sees robots learning to 'think' about the actions they can perform on an object. The upshot is that robots can teach themselves by learning from their observations and experiences.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has achieved its goals for 2010 and embarked on a new phase of activity which will see scientists probe the kind of matter that existed just after the Big Bang.