Horizon 2020 Projects and its sister publication Pan European Networks: Science & Technology are proud to announce their function as media partners to the 6th EUCheMs Chemistry Congress in Sevilla, Spain.
Organised by EUCheMs and the National Chemists Association of Spain (ANQUE), this year’s event will run between 11 and 15 September with eight plenary lectures to be divided into three or four topics and delivered by prestigious speakers, world-class scientists and Nobel Laureates including Israeli scientists Ada Yonath (Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner 2009) and Aaron Ciechanover (winner 2004), UK scientist Harold Walter Kroto (winner 1996) and Gérad Férey (winner 2014).
Other keynote speakers include Elke Anklam of the European Commission’s JRC, Robert C Glen of Cambridge University, UK, and Rosario Fernández of the University of Sevilla.
EuCheMs is a Brussels-based, non-profit organisation founded in 1970 with the objective of promoting European co-operation in scientific and technical societies in chemistry and molecular sciences. With his majesty Felipe VI of Spain as honorary president of the congress, EuCheMs consists of 42 members representing more than 150,000 chemists in 31 European countries.
ANQUE is a Madrid-based prestigious association with over 10,000 members. Its objective is to be the Spanish voice of chemistry and chemical technology by defending both the interests and the image of the profession. By raising the scientific and professional profile and by achieving greater recognition through social awareness, ANQUE represents its members’ interdisciplinary network to public authorities.
Registration for the congress is open now and can be completed here.
The post EUCheMs Chemistry Congress in Sevilla appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
Projeler
The European Commission has announced two new Horizon 2020 prizes to support the development of clean engines which will reduce air pollution.
Horizon 2020 will allocate a €1.5m prize for the development of new devices that can be applied to existing diesel engines in order to reduce the pollutants that they emit, and a separate €3.5m prize for the development of a new clean engine which uses conventional fuels.
Carlos Moedas, European commissioner for research, science and innovation, said that he hoped the new investment would inspire scientists to tackle climate issues: “Prizes are a great way of rewarding and stimulating innovation, and clean engine technology is something we must support if we want to achieve our ambitious climate, energy and air quality goals. So today we’re launching two Horizon prizes worth a combined €5m to generate momentum and investment in cleaner engine technologies.”
Emissions from diesel engines cause many serious health issues in Europe. The European Environment Agency lists air pollution as the top environmental risk factor of premature death on the continent, and the European Commission has said that reducing such emissions is a priority in meeting its climate change targets. Current diesel engines must be tested to ensure that they reach EU standards, but emissions results in tests can vary greatly when compared to on-road driving, and so cleaner engines and retrofit devices are crucial in reducing pollution from emissions.
The post EC announces €5m for clean engines appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is calling for artists to take up an art and science residency position.
The ESA is partnering on the initiative with Ars Electronica, a cultural institution based in Austria, and is seeking submissions from artists in any medium, and from any country. The organisation hopes that it can ‘bridge the domains’ of space science and art, and create artworks that inspire and respond to further scientific exploration. The successful artist will spend up to six weeks at the European Space Research and Technology Centre and learn about ESA’s space science programme and gather inspiration, before spending a further month at Ars Electronica to develop their ideas and create the artwork.
Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor in ESA’s Directorate of Science, said that the project would initially stem from the crossover between the two disciplines: “Ultimately, science and art are different manifestations of the same human urge to enquire, explore, and understand our place in the Universe. In recent years, we’ve enjoyed working with artists, musicians, and other creative individuals inspired by our missions to help open wider engagement with the public.” This new project, he said, would take this collaboration to the “next level”.
The project is part of the European Digital Art and Science Network, which involves cultural institutions from around Europe, including Ars Electronica. It has also received funding from the EU’s Creative Europe programme. The deadline for submissions is 6 June 2016.
The post ESA offers artist residency position appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
As part of the European Commission’s Future Emerging Technology Platform, the Graphene Flagship (GF) is progressing towards its core function: the expansion of graphene from the laboratory into society.
The GF is the primary research initiative into graphene and graphene-related products in the world. A visionary, science-driven, academic-industrial partnership, GF addresses the scientific, societal and technological challenges that the ‘wonder material’ aims to contribute to.
GF’s vision includes the collaboration of Europe-wide scientists and engineers, all of whom share the ambition of the long-term realisation of this vision. Disruptive technology underpins the GF, which is expected to revolutionise many aspects in human society.
The progress to Core 1 follows years of preparation and pilot schemes. Beginning in October 2013 with an initial ramp-up phase involving just 76 academic and industrial partners in 17 countries, the GF is ready to advance with its now 152 partners in 23 countries, one-third of which represent industrial partners.
With a €1bn+ budget for over ten years, half of which is provided by the European Commission, the end of the €54m ramp-up phase, under the Horizon 2020 programme, can commence the first core phase with funding of €45m per year.
In the Core 1 phase the number of work packages will increase, with additional work packages focusing on the generation of energy, biomedical applications and wafer scale system integration, amongst others. The work packages are grouped into four divisions to enhance collaborations between different work packages. There will also be a fifth division housing the partnering projects.
Management of the flagship will be undertaken by a panel chaired by Professor Andrea C Ferrari (pictured) from the University of Cambridge, UK.
The post Graphene Flagship enters ‘Core 1’ appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
Israeli biotechnology company Evogene Ltd., a leader in the food, feed and biofuel industries, has announced its participation in Horizon 2020’s photosynthesis research consortium.
Based in Rehovot, Israel, and the only commercial representitive in the research consortium, Evogene will lead discovery efforts for pathway modulation whilst undertaking plant proof of concept validation and commercialisation. The consortium will receive a grant of ~€5m for the programme, of which €902,000 will be earmarked for Evogene’s contribution.
The academic members of the consortium include the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (Potsdam, Germany) and the Max Planck Institute of Terrestrial Microbiology (Marburg, Germany), the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot), and the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine (London, UK). The research programme aims for an innovative method in the modulation of photosynthesis-related pathways for the improvement of photosynthetic efficiency.
President and CEO of Evogene, Ofer Haviv, said: “Evogene is very proud to be a key member of this prestigious consortium, addressing a fundamental and critical aspect of ag-biology, further demonstrating the recognition of our expertise and ability to bring innovation to agriculture. This capability rests on our unique technology platform, combining proprietary scientific understanding and advanced computational technologies to utilise Big Data from agriculture. We are confident that our participation will both be of significant value to the research being undertaken by the consortium, and enable Evogene to establish novel expertise in photosynthesis as a means of yield improvement, thus adding to our world-leading scientific expertise in enhancing crop productivity.”
Evogene also participates in strategic collaborations with other world-leading agricultural companies such as BASF, Bayer, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta.
The post Evogene joins H2020 photosynthesis research consortium appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
EIT Digital, the leading European open innovation organisation, has appointed Dr Patrick Hartigan as its Head of the Master School.
Before joining EIT Digital, Hartigan founded Irish marine and environmental informatics R&D company Moher Technologies Ltd. He also created subsidiary companies in maritime training and online services. As well as directing and delivering professional education services, Hartigan has developed university courses on innovation and design in Ireland and Poland.
More recently, Hartigan co-ordinated and managed EU projects such as Standpoint, a wave energy Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) project, and CORE-Business, an action plan for renewable energy.
Speaking after his appointment, Hartigan said: “I look forward to joining the EIT Digital team and to delivering excellent entrepreneurial education programmes. It will be my goal to coach the next generation of technologists to apply innovation and entrepreneurship skills.”
EIT Digital CEO Willem Jonker added: “We are very pleased to welcome Patrick Hartigan to the EIT Digital team. His deep knowledge of ICT in combination with developing both educational programmes and business ventures will be an invaluable contribution to the continued high quality and strong growth of the EIT Digital Master School.”
As a Knowledge and Innovation Community for students, researchers, engineers, business developers and entrepreneurs, EIT Digital focuses on entrepreneurship, education, research and business by uniting these stakeholders as part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 framework programme.
Hartigan gained a PhD in satellite communications and is a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (MIET) based in Stevenage, UK.
The post EIT Digital makes new appointment appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
The European Commission has announced plans to create a European cloud storage service that will offer virtual infrastructure for Europe’s researchers and scientists.
Known as the European Open Science Cloud, the service will allow the storage and sharing of vaster quantities of data than ever before among European institutions and individuals. The service will initially be open to Europe’s scientific community, which according to commission estimates includes over 1.7 million researchers and 70 million science and technology professionals.
Commissioner for research, science and innovation Carlos Moedas spoke about how the new service would help to boost European science: “Our goal is to create a European Open Science Cloud to make science more efficient and productive and let millions of researchers share and analyse research data in a trusted environment across technologies, disciplines and borders. We listened to the scientific community’s plea for an infrastructure for open science and with this comprehensive plan we can get down to work. The benefits of open data for Europe’s science, economy and society will be enormous.”
The hope is that the Cloud will encourage broader access to reusable data, with the aim of streamlining research across disciplines and increasing European competitiveness. The commission intends to make all scientific data generated by Horizon 2020-funded projects open access by default starting in 2017, with further long-term goals also set.
The post Commission plans cloud storage service appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
The European Commission has announced its plans to digitise European industry, as part of its goal to create a digital single market.
The focus of the plan is to connect national initiatives to form a network of related services so that digitisation can occur near-simultaneously. The new measures also single out the development of 5G communication technologies, in the hope that this will accelerate research and development on the continent.
Commissioner for the digital economy and society Günther H Oettinger said that the plans are a crucial step to move European industry forward: “Europe has a very competitive industrial base and is a global leader in important sectors. But Europe will only be able to maintain its leading role if the digitisation of its industry is successful and reached fast. Our proposals aim to ensure that this happens. It requires a joint effort across Europe to attract the investments we need for growth in the digital economy.”
In their announcement of the new strategy, the commission highlighted that there has been a lack of uptake on the part of European industry to embrace digital opportunities, and argued that this needs to occur across sectors, particularly those areas such as SMEs and the construction industry, which are particularly lagging behind.
Among the additional plans are the construction of a new, pan-European network of innovation centres and the adoption of future-proof legislation to support technological developments. According to the commission’s figures, it is expected that more than €50bn of public and private investment will be mobilised by the measures.
The post EU announces path to digitisation appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
The ARTEMIS Industry Association has released its 2016 strategic research agenda, which focuses on digitisation in Europe.
The announcement comes in anticipation of an upcoming European Commission communication on digitisation, and offers several initiatives designed to move Europe towards the internet of things (IoT). Particularly, the agenda says, companies and institutions should begin to focus on the connections between technologies rather than considering them in isolation.
The organisation wishes to use the IoT to ensure greater automation of functionalities, and add more artificial intelligence into devices to facilitate this automation. The association argues that greater research focuses are needed on the ways machines can automate functions that were previously necessary for humans to undertake, and therefore to study and have machines mimic human behaviour, as well as process large amounts of varied and complex data, known as deep learning.
ARTEMIS has also developed a framework named Arrowhead, which promotes collaborative automation driven by software and distributed through the IoT. The framework has a dedicated Wiki where potential users can find architecture, code and working systems through which to implement IoT automation. The organisation reports good results from the framework so far, including the development of a smart rock bolt at Luleå University of Technology.
The rock bolt, which is used to stablise rock excavations in mines, can monitor seismic activity and generate optical alarms using LEDs and wireless alarms in mine control systems. ARTEMIS says that the technology has a wide variety of applications, and it hopes for more products to be developed using the framework in the future.
The post ARTEMIS-IA releases strategic research agenda appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
The 6th European Transport Research Conference began yesterday in Warsaw, Poland, with Pan European Networks attending.
European commissioner for transport Violeta Bulc took to the podium to congratulate the city of Warsaw and the event’s organisers on another successful opening session of the annual conference. Bulc also asked: “Why do we innovate in transport? To keep connecting people. This is my primary mission. To support the founding vision of the EU, which is to foster peace and a single market; that is why we are together, and to allow the planet to regenerate itself and provide a safe place for humans to co-exist with the rest of Nature for many centuries to come. This is what drives me.”
Bulc also met with Poland’s deputy prime minister and minister for development Mateusz Morawiecki to find that they shared ideas and goals on transport’s future. Morawiecki committed himself and his nation to co-operation and collaboration as a means to advance European transport.
Commissioner for research and development Carlos Moedas appeared via a videolink to explain how transport needs to evolve alongside Europe’s cities in the digital age: “Transport is still a significant contributor to CO2 emissions, producing a quarter of the EU’s greenhouse gas, so it’s time to get smart and sustainable. Through my open innovation priority I am working to create an innovation friendly environment, so that Europe can benefit from market-creating innovation in transport, and to help us achieve our energy goals. Later this year we will adopt a strategic transport research and innovation agenda.”
Ursula Zechner, the Austrian minister for transport, innovation and technology highlighted the necessity of cross-border travel and a real-time traffic information service, whilst her counterpart from the Czech Republic, Dan Tok, re-established his commitment to collaborate with Zechner regarding urban transport, by admitting that data was crucial to the future of the transport industry, and that software in this “new era” was soon to become more important than hardware.
The conference continues today with speakers including former Swedish minister for infrastructure and current chair of Sweden’s Programme Board Drive Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd, and chair of the Inland Transport Committee, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Jerzy Kleniewski.
You can follow the events as they happen through the hashtag #TRA2016.
The post TRA Conference begins in Warsaw appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.