EIT Digital has announced the first commercial application of its SIOTAD innovation activity, which is designed to support sustainable and efficient agriculture. Bilberry, a French start-up, signed a deal with Agrifac, an internationally operating manufacturer of crop protection sprayers and sugar beet harvesting technology. At the end of this year, the company will incorporate Bilberry’s weed detection solution in the sprayers sold on the Australian market, which will allow customers to determine in real time where it is necessary to treat, or not. CEO of Bilberry Guillaume Jourdain said: “This will allow farmers to save time and spray more effectively, reducing the amount of herbicides needed. Fighting weeds is a priority for Australian farmers, as [these] unwanted plants consume the resources of an already dry soil.” By the end of 2018, more than 10,000 hectares of Australian land are forecast to be scanned with the technology offered by Bilberry. The start-up initially intended to sell directly to farmers, however Jourdain added: “We quickly understood that was not the optimal solution; Agrifac’s sales network will allow us to reach many more customers in a shorter time.” Bilberry’s weed detection technology was developed in collaboration with Nokia, whose Innovation Platform was vital in providing a live development and trial environment, which enabled the start-up to access the sufficient computational power needed to train algorithms. EIT Digital is a business champion of Bilberry’s initiative. The post EIT Digital announces commercial application of SIOTAD appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.

The UK government has published a science and innovation paper which outlines its position on how the UK can develop its future relationship with the EU. The paper acknowledges key arguments from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) concerning the need to maintain a close relationship with the EU, whilst referencing the UK’s leading role in European research and innovation. Tom Thackray, CBI director of innovation, urged the government to seek bespoke association in any final deal to ensure that the UK would retain its position. In the paper, two points are articulated: the UK and EU should work together to seek an agreement and to establish a framework for future collaboration. Further, the paper outlines how the UK and the EU have benefitted from collaborations formed through the Horizon 2020 and through previous framework programmes. In negotiations, the government aims to develop the pre-existing relationship to inform what a future partnership could look like. A second emphasis is placed upon the importance of future agreements facilitating bilateral and multilateral research relationships and researcher mobility. The paper discusses the possibility of the UK maintaining links with individual member states post-Brexit, with access to high-level skills and the UK remaining as an attractive destination for international talent. The CBI will meet with stakeholders and policymakers to discuss options for the UK, and ways of ensuring that the UK can retain its participation in European innovation. The post Brexit: retaining the UK’s role in EU innovation appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.

Dr Yang Bai and co-workers from the Microelectronics Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland, have presented a perovskite-based ceramic material which is able to collect three ambient energy sources and convert them to electricity. Energies which are normally wasted can be collected and converted to electricity, and with this could potentially help to power portable and wearable devices, from biometric sensors to smart watches. This technology is called energy harvesting (EH). The research – funded by Horizon 2020 under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – discovered a single perovskite material called KNBNNO, which is able to harness three forms of energy simultaneously. KNBNNO is synthesised by doping a sufficient amount of BNNO – a perovskite with oxygen vacancies present in its microstructure – into KNN – a widely used lead-free material which exhibits positive piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties. Experiments revealed that KNBNNO has a narrow band gap which can induce positive photovoltaic properties which have the ability to harvest sunlight. KNBNNO’s 3-in-1 property has outweighed all other counterpart materials, including silicon-based solar cells and conventional piezoelectric/pyroelectric materials – PZT. The discovery is a large development in both fields of narrow band gap semiconductors and strong ferroelectric. A material was considered difficult to yield both good properties from them; however, it has now been proved practical. A future application of the material could be its use in supplementing the batteries of electronic devices, subsequently improving energy efficiency and reducing how often the batteries need to be recharged. Moreover, multi-energy harvesting may mean that in the future plug-in charging may no longer be required for gadgets, and therefore batteries for small devices could become obsolete. The post H2020 boosts energy harvesting appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.

Heart surgeons will have access to an innovative 3D visualisation of the cardiac conduction system. The Horizon 2020-funded technique could improve patient safety and improve the surgical outcomes of those suffering from heart disease. The 3D disposition of the human conduction system – which is responsible for generating a heartbeat – will provide detailed information to cardiologists, meaning that heart surgeries will be more informed. ‘High resolution 3-Dimensional imaging of the human cardiac conduction system from microanatomy to mathematical modelling’ was recently published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports by Robert Stephenson. The paper was released in collaboration with a team of researchers from Liverpool John Moores University, University of Manchester and Newcastle University, UK. Stephenson said: “We have generated the first 3D visualisation of the human conduction system; this has important implications for procedures in which cardiologists need to place a heart valve prosthesis just a few millimetres from the heart’s conduction system. These results show unprecedented details beyond those available using traditional methods.” Further, the researchers emphasise that it is not only clinicians and their patients who will benefit from 3D visualisation, but also students learning about the cardiac conduction system and its relationship with heart anatomy and function. Disrupted or disturbed activity in the conduction system can be caused by disease or injury, and consequently the heart could then operate at a marked increase or decreased pump function, and potentially irregular pumping patterns. In the long term, these abnormal conditions can result in less effective blood circulation in the body, system clots, and arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation. Professor Michael Pederson from the Comparative Medicine Lab, Department of Clinical Medicine, added: “Currently, the researchers have ‘only’ presented 3D data from a healthy human heart, but we will in future reveal the conduction system in diseased hearts, including those suffering from congenital heart diseases and in the aged population.” The study is financially supported by Alder Hey Children’s Charity, Liverpool, through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, alongside the British Heart Foundation. The post H2020 supports 3D visualisations of the heart appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.