The Innovation Radar, an initiative to identify high-potential innovations and innovators in EU-funded projects, has deemed two key inventions of Norwegian nanosensor technology company Lifecare ready for commercialisation. Part of the EU-funded FORGETDIABETES project, Lifecare and its partners from Germany, France and Italy are developing an immuno-optimised, fully implantable and automated bionic invisible pancreas (BIP) that could drastically improve quality of life for people with type 1 diabetes.
The Commission has decided to register a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) entitled ‘Call to achieve a tobacco-free environment and the first European tobacco-free generation by 2030'. The organisers of the initiative call on the Commission to propose legislation to save new generations from falling into tobacco addiction, to act against related environmental dangers and against smoking. More specifically, they ask the Commission to propose legal acts to end the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to citizens born in 2010 onwards. The initiative also calls on specific measures to achieve tobacco-free and cigarette butt-free beaches and riverbanks and to eliminate tobacco advertising and its presence in audiovisual productions and social media, between others.
Biological cells are subjected to mechanical stress from their surrounding substrates all the time, which affects how they behave. To study cellular behaviour, researchers supported by the EU-funded 4D-BIOMAP project have now developed a novel method based on magneto-active polymers. The new experimental-computational method allows researchers to non-invasively control complex deformation modes in cellular substrates in real time. Thanks to this system, scientists can instantaneously evaluate the mechanical effects on cells and the effect on different biological responses.
With the support of the Commission, EU associations, companies, organisations, trade unions, universities, training providers and national federations set up a new partnership for skills in the digital ecosystem. This new partnership will enable the upskilling and reskilling of workers and attract more people to the digital industry. The partnership will help people and businesses acquire necessary digital skills, which will contribute to the objectives of the digital and green transitions of Europe's economy.
The mission of the EU-funded PANACEA project has been to develop technical solutions to detect and manage risks in complex IT environments such as hospitals. The project brought together multidisciplinary expertise for the design of a toolkit that addresses IT weaknesses and offers an essential service in healthcare.
People with a compromised immune system often suffer from chronic, non-healing wounds, making them particularly susceptible to infection. To better protect these patients, the EU-funded MIMESIS project is working to create a biomaterial-based wound dressing that draws its inspiration from plant polyesters and is thus able to mimic the skin’s antimicrobial and regeneration properties.
Extreme events such as heatwaves are having a negative impact on human health, even resulting in death. However, few of us are aware of how another challenging aspect of climate change, namely erratic temperatures, affects our health. Supported in part by the EU-funded EXHAUSTION project, a study reveals the annual number of deaths associated with unstable temperatures, which is over 1.75 million.
Armed with innovations in IT and training, PANDEM-2, an EU-backed project is better preparing Europe for future pandemics. Its new Advisory Board members, the Irish Defence Forces, are helping to further this goal with their expertise in major emergency management.
The EU-funded TBMED (A testing bed for the development of high-risk medical devices) project has been tasked with creating and implementing an Open Innovation Test Bed to support SMEs that specialise in the development of high-risk medical devices such as heart valves and hip replacements. TBMED’s guiding philosophy is centred on the ‘Quality-by-Design’ (QbD) concept that introduces quality assessment as early as possible in a product’s development life cycle.
SAFE-N-MEDTECH, an EU-funded project, is designing an open access platform to foster the development of next-generation nanotechnology-based health products. The objective of the project is to provide a wide variety of technical, clinical, legal and support services to companies, especially SMEs, which will be the fundamental pillar of a diverse and cutting-edge European nanomedicine sector.
In brain research today, the neuroimaging and brain modelling workflows used to analyse large data require processing power and storage beyond what personal computers can offer. A new open-source software for simulating and analysing brain network models is lowering the barriers to brain research, through brain simulation as a cloud service.
Arthritis of the thumb base is a debilitating condition that affects a large proportion of the population, especially in later years. A new thumb joint implant designed by an EU-funded project could alleviate suffering for millions of people.
