Results

Periodic Report Summary - REDICT (Regional economic development by ICT / new media clusters)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

GEMEENTE AMSTERDAM
Project context and objectives: This project brings together 6 regions and clusters (18 partners), which share a strong Research and development (R&D) presence in the field of Information and communication technologies (ICT) and new media and the sense that this position has to be exploited for maximal economic and social benefit. They see that the factors that influence the transfer of knowledge to Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are complex and often badly understood and want to exchange experiences and best practices to better understand these factors and to make use of them to boost competitiveness and economic performance. The results are presented in joint action plans, business support measures packages, guidelines and recommendations for innovative research-driven clusters. Cities involved in REDICT are: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Dublin and Paris. The 18 partners in the project represent the three strands of the triple helix: government, enterprises, and knowledge institutions. The project consists of 5 Work packages (WPs). The first three providing the foundation (statistical information, inventory of strategic tools, inventory of business community needs) for WP4, the framework of reference and WP5, the integration, synthesis and conclusions of the project. The main objectives of REDICT were to: - map all the critical issues that are relevant for improving the innovation potential of the regions involved in the field of ICT / new media; - design best strategies and concrete actions based on this to strengthen the economic competitiveness of the region, with a clear focus on the role and potential of SMEs; - assess the effectiveness of existing mechanisms for boosting innovation and knowledge flow to SMEs in the different regions; - suggest practical, tailor-made strategies and action plans for research and technology development (RTD)-related measures, and ways in which these link to relevant economic development policies. Potential impact: To boost innovation in our digitised societies, there are common elements that need attention. There are also best practices in some of the regions that are worthwhile to emulate in other regions. In all regions there is the strong ambition to nurture the interaction between the strands of the triple helix, knowledge institutions, innovative (digital media) industry and regional authorities. All cite the knowledge paradox: an abundance of scientific research of often excellent quality, much new creative content, an excellent ICT-infrastructure but still disappointingly few new products and services brought to the market. In practically all regions therefore institutional initiatives exist to promote the interaction between the three strands of the helix. Special organisations are set up to act as innovation motors, trying to lower the threshold for the flow of research results to industry. Also the establishment of science parks is facilitated. These initiatives are particularly aimed at SMEs. Larger industries are better positioned to be involved in joint research projects with academic institutions. They have the structure and the capacity to participate in public-private, often nationally funded, research programmes. There are few examples of SMEs that are hatched under the wings of large companies, whereas this could be a potentially effective way of nurturing innovation to the point where it may have a large scale market impact. Entrepreneurial ambitions continue to be underdeveloped in the European academic communities. In some regions courses are organised in entrepreneurship and attempts are made to pair innovative talent with managerial talent. The effect of these initiatives still has to be seen. In countries like Romania, which only recently have made the transition towards a market economy, the situation is aggravated by the fact that the academic system has not evolved in a similar way. Old organisational and funding structures still prevail and for many reasons the interaction with industry is poorly developed. List of websites: www.redict.eu

Periodic Report Summary - NEXT-GTL (Innovative catalytic technologies and materials for next gas to liquid processes)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

CONSORZIO INTERUNIVERSITARIO NAZIONALE PER LA SCIENZA E TECNOLOGIA DEI MATERIALI
Project context and objectives: NEXT-GTL addresses main cost drivers and technical barriers of the conventional gas-to-liquid (GTL) process. The main objectives are to: - reduce the cost and energy consumption of syngas production, and overcome the stability related barriers in using catalysts in this process; - develop GTL technologies suitable for small-medium scale productions in remote NG areas; - develop processes for producing liquid fuels which can be blended in both gasoline and diesel pools, or which may be used for chemical purposes. Accordingly, three development lines are followed in this project: - Line 1: Advanced, low temperature route for catalytic syngas formation from natural gas, in which reaction steps are integrated with different types of membranes for O2, H2 and CO2 separation. - Line 2: Direct low temperature catalytic conversion of methane to methanol / DME, utilising several innovative concepts to overcome the drawbacks of previous approaches. - Line 3: Direct catalytic conversion of methane to aromatics under non-oxidative conditions followed by upgrading of the products by alkylation with ethane / propane. Line 1 aims at the improvement of the current GTL conversion chain by developing an improved technology for the most costly and energy-intensive step of syngas production. Lines 2 and 3 address alternative direct routes (i.e. not via syngas) of methane to liquid conversion to transportable fuels, suitable for both gasoline and diesel pools, and potentially for chemical uses; both oxidative and non-oxidative routes for methane conversion are explored to compare the two alternatives. The consortium partners comprise leading companies and research groups, with core competences in catalysis, membranes and reaction engineering, to ensure strong interdisciplinary work at the different stages of theory / modelling, material development and characterisation, testing, material / reactor engineering, and process development. The project is currently at the third of a total of four years. Project results: Line 1: The activities have been centred on two main aspects. The first regards the development and optimisation of a novel process scheme based on the multistage syngas production by integration Catalytic partial oxidation (CPO) and / or reforming reactors with H2 separation membranes. The novel process architecture allows to optimise the energy-efficiency and oxygen consumption in the process with a lowering of the overall process cost. The integration of O2 and CO2 membranes in the process scheme has been also evaluated. A pilot plant facility has been constructed on the basis of the selected optimised process scheme and will be shortly operative to tests the process scheme, the catalysts and membranes developed in comparison with semi-commercial ones. The second aspects investigated in this activity line regards the development of the CPO / reforming catalysts and of H2, O2 and CO2 membranes to be integrated in the novel process scheme. The experimental developments on the catalysts and membranes have been triggered from the indications deriving from the process engineering. Line 2: The activities have been centred on the development a catalytic system for direct low temperature conversion of methane to methanol. Despite considerable efforts in discovering new methane activation sites and multiple attempts to improve the efficiency of literature reported homogeneous or heterogeneous methane activation catalysts, the results of research activity carried out during M1-18 did not meet the expectations. The originally envisioned catalyst system based on organometallic centres to activate methane and HPA to complete the cycle on the basis of experimental results failed in closing the catalytic cycle. Consequently, the programme has been reoriented closing the activities concerning the development of heteropolyacids as oxidising agent and the use of ionic liquids as solvent of the latter. In the revised version of the program more efforts have been devoted to basic activity for the development of suitable methane activation sites. The focus of activities has been centred on Cu-zeolites, and the identification through a combination of techniques, including theoretical ones, of the nature of the active sites. The knowledge obtained has been then used for an engineering of the Cu-zeolites to improve the performances. Line 3: The activities have been centred on the following aspects: (i) development of novel active and stable catalysts for the aromatisation of methane, especially focused on hierarchically-organised structures, by using also theoretical calculations and advanced characterisations for a deeper understanding about active sites and the reaction mechanism of the direct aromatisation reaction as well as reasons for catalyst deactivation; (ii) evaluation of catalyst performance, in particular micro-kinetics, and the possibility to limit deactivation by co-feeding of small amounts of co-reactants; (iii) development (as extension of the activities in line 1) of H2-permselective membranes for separation of hydrogen coupled with aromatisation or benzene alkylation reactions; (iv) analysis of process integration and assessment; (v) development of a novel catalyst for the benzene alkylation using C2-C3 alkanes. After midterm assessment (end of year two) a slight revision of the work programme was made to better reflect the progress of the activities. All the activities are in line with the revised work programme, and the deliverables / milestones for the reporting period achieved. In addition to these core activities, a Work package (WP) is dedicated to foster the cross-integration between the partners, WP is dedicated to promote dissemination (non-confidential aspects of the projects) and exploitation of the results, in addition to a WP dedicated to project management and coordination. Potential Impact: NEXT-GTL aims to contribute to develop key knowledge for novel innovative catalytic routes to convert methane to liquid fuels. The three different routes have different level of advancement towards exploitation, in relation to the different challenges. In line 1, the final results will be pilot plant results on the new process scheme, which allow a techno-economic evaluation of the new process scheme. The specific outputs will be the basic process layout and assessment of the novel low temperature process for syngas production. In line 2 the expected final result will be the availability of an improved catalysts for direct methane to methanol with the data on performances, productivity, selectivity and short-term stability necessary for an estimation of the techno-economic feasibility of the new process, taking into account the increased interest on transforming directly methane to methanol due to shale gas availability which has break down cost parity between oil and natural gas, decreasing significantly the cost of the latter. In line 3 the expected final result will be the availability of an improved catalyst for methane aromatisation, with reaction conditions to minimise deactivation, and data on catalyst productivity, selectivity and stability necessary for an estimation of the techno-economic feasibility of the new process. Indication of the advantages and problems of integrating membranes in the process scheme, also with some new idea which is explored in the project, will be available. Data on the novel process of benzene alkylation using C2-C3 alkanes will be also available. A patent was issued which is actually exploited within the consortium. In addition to process data and advanced catalysts, new membranes for H2, O2 and CO2 separation will be available. The project strategic impact will be thus on the following main aspects: 1. contribute to the diversification of raw materials in refinery and petrochemistry; 2. use natural gas to reduce the dependence on raw oil; 3. produce higher quality fuels: (a) sulphur free, (b) high octane or cetane components for gasoline and diesel pools; 4. improve the efficiency of use of natural gas by: (a) enabling valorisation of NG which is flared or not used, (b) developing novel processes / technologies to use small-medium gas fields which cannot be economically exploited with current technologies; 5. improve the efficiency of natural gas subsequent processing by: (a) developing a novel process for low temperature syngas which is expected to increase the energetic efficiency of the process of 10 %; (b) developing direct (low temperature) oxidative routes of methane conversion which are expected to increase carbon efficiency of the process from the current 80-83 % to 85-90 % allowing thus a significant gain in the energy efficiency and reduction of the emissions, besides to process simplification and reduction of the risks; (c) developing direct (low-temperature) non-oxidative routes for NG conversion which have an intrinsic better energy efficiency for the coproduction of fuel AND H2 with respect the route via syngas and steam reforming. 6. benefit our environment, safety and health, and stability of energy resources for society and economy by: (a) reduction of CO2 emissions and energy consumption in transport and use of natural gas; (b) reduction of NG flares and associated impact on the environment; (c) use of NG resources actually not used to improve the stability of energy resources; (d) provide an alternative to pipelines and LNG for a better geo-strategic stability of energy resources; (e) creating new opportunities for using NG also in chemical production; (f) developing relevant market opportunities for monetisation of not-used NG resources; (g) developing membrane and advanced separation technologies for H2, O2 and CO2 which could be used in a variety of other refinery, petrochemistry, combustion and other non-chemical processes to increase their efficiency; (h) incentivising the introduction of new processes and technologies with increased competitiveness of companies with a positive impact on labour market. List of websites: http://www.next-gtl.eu

Periodic Report Summary - SPA (Support to precursor SSA services)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

EUROPEAN UNION SATELLITE CENTRE
Project context and objectives: The Support to Precursor SSA Services - SPA project is a Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) support action (grant agreement No. 262930, theme SPA.2010.2.3-2: Security of space assets from on-orbit collisions) managed by the European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC), under the full control of Member States. SPA started on the 1st of march 2011 with duration of eighteen months. the spa project aims to contribute to the technical definition of the governance and data policy for a european space Situational Awareness (SSA) capability by testing possible models in the EUSC?s operational and secure premises (located at the Torrejón Air Base in Spain near Madrid). Three preliminary services of relevance for civilian security and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and have been defined for assessment: - satellite conjunction warning (i.e. protecting operational satellites from collisions); - satellite Over-flight (i.e. the knowledge of satellites position with time); - space Debris Re-entry Prediction (i.e. warning of space objects re-entry to Earth's surface). The SPA project is structured into seven WPswith associated tasks and clearly identified milestones. Each Work package (WP) is led by an expert in the respective knowledge field and assisted by other EUSC staff. The seven SPA WPs are: - WP1 'Project management' ensures that the project is given a management level suitable to European Commission REA standards. - WP2 'SSA precursor service definition', characterises three SSA preliminary services related to the protection of space infrastructure having relevance to civilian security as well as the CSDP. - WP3 'Adaptation, integration and testing', provides a suitable secure environment to host a preliminary SSA system. WP4 - 'SSA prototype hosting', integrate an SSA prototype system based on European Space Agency (ESA) development an COTS suitable to be developed by ESA in order to implement preliminary SSA services. - WP5 'Precursor services testing', validates the requirements for preliminary services determined in WP2, being the core element of the SPA project. WP6 - 'Dissemination', conveys the experiences obtained during the development of the SPA project. WP7 - 'Support', provides technical coordination and support for the proper management of the SPA project. During its first nine months, SPA has achieved the following: In WP2-SSA 'Precursor service definition', three SSA preliminary services have been characterised. Those services are related to the protection of space infrastructure with special relevance to civilian security as well as the CSDP. Additionally, requirements for governance and data policy have been identified and outlined. Those services and requirements are the basis for the rest of the project and their outputs have been consequently used by WPs 3-6. The focus of WP3 lies on the provision of a secure environment to host a preliminary SSA system. In particular, the adaption of SPA's dedicated areas within the EUSC secure premises has been described, as well as a traceability matrix concerning the requirements set on WP2. In that sense, adaptation consists of the conditioning of a protected SPA office space which provides a routine working environment for the project and a dedicated server rack on the EUSC server room to hold all the additional equipment that will support the demonstrators. In parallel, the WP4-SSA has been focused on the definition, installation and validation of different software products for the SPA demonstrator platform. As a first achievement, access to ESA?s CRASS software at EUSC has been completed. Additionally, other COTS software, such as AGI STK, have been already identified, installed and used for the implementation of preliminary services, such as the overflight. Besides, coordination activities with ESA have started in order to install the software to be developed as part of the ESA SSA Preparatory programme (ESA SSA PP), mainly related to the CO-VIII (Core) and DC-II (Data Centre) activities. In WP5-Precursor Services Testing, the establishment of a preliminary SSA service workflow has been the major task. The workflow has been based on the output of WP2, the findings on requirements to CSDP and those on governance and data policy, and technical requirements. All the results obtained from WP2, WP3, WP4 and WP5 during the development of the first nine months of the project have been disseminated in WP6-Dissemination, and in particular through the first SPA Technical Workshop, the SPA Technical Forum, the SPA promotional video, different presentations and conferences. The next phase of SPA support action will be focused on the assessment of test cases suitable to provide technical inputs for the definition of models of governance and data policy for SSA and the validation of the identified SSA requirements for the described SSA-SST services using the software hosted at the EUSC. The final output of the SPA project will be a report summarising knowledge gained, lessons learned and recommendations for further development of SSA in Europe, particularly on the technical aspects of its Governance and data policy. Regarding the impact and benefits of the SPA project and considering in particular the communication from the European Commission towards a space strategy for the European Union that benefits its citizens? [RD-6], space is important for European economies and societies. Several European policies and resolutions, such as the European Space Policy (RD7), the fifth and seventh Space Council Resolutions (RD-8)(RD-9) and the draft code of conduct for outer Space activities [RD-10], have recognised the importance of an SSA capability in Europe, highlighting the significant consequences on security, safety and economic activities in case on any disruption in the availability and functioning of space-based systems. SSA capabilities support the protection of European space infrastructure and guarantee safe operations by providing alerts of potential hazards in a sufficient time to allow preventive actions to be taken. This way SSA is supporting all the benefits derived from space as well as underpinning direct benefits to society, economy and security. The EUSC, contributing through the SPA project to the current SSA activities in Europe, is supporting the socio-economic benefits attached to Space, also contributing to the protection of space assets which in turn will provide services needed to ensure the safety and the well-being of EU citizens. The SPA Web Page has been added to the EUSC Web Page (to maximise the number of possible contacts) and contains a presentation of the project activities and some other information for general public and interested users. Moreover people can contact the SPA Team using a dedicated email address to request more information about the SPA activities. The SPA email address is: spa@eusc.europa.eu The SPA Web Page is reachable at the following address: http://www.satcen.europa.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=84 Project results: Additionally, a transversal collaboration activity across WPs is done between the SPA project and ESA SSA PP team, including coordination meetings, involvement in external requirements reviews and key ESA SSA PP programme activities. WP2 - SSA preliminary services definition During the first half phase of the project, three preliminary indicative services have been identified and confirmed as relevant by consultation with key European SSA stakeholders. These services are satellite over-flight, satellite conjunction warning and Space re-entry prediction. The suitability, relevance and outline of these services have been discussed face to face during the 1st technical workshop. In that sense, background information from key European SSA entities, US, EU, ESA and national level has been studied and evaluated. Regarding the task 2.1) SSA services definition to support civilian crisis management and CSDP, the three services (Satellite Over-flight and satellite conjunction warning) have been defined, illustrated and outlined. The associated deliverable D2.1 findings on SSA requirements to support civilian security and CSDP, has been written and submitted on time on the 31 August 2011. Concerning the task 2.2) Governance data policy requirements, after the study and investigation of related documentation and resources, a number of possible architecture models which comply with the key requirements and needs of a future SSA-SST capability in Europe have been identified. Similarly, related to the data policy, key requirement sets and sources have been identified, analysed and documented. Main important issues and bases of the data policy have been outlined in D2.2 findings on SSA Precursor service requirements for governance and data policy. Regarding the task 2.3 technical requirements, technical needs for the SPA prototype and the required setup have been detailed. As a main requirement, SPA prototype must be flexible in terms of usage of different software packages (ESA and external). Additionally, the completion of this task has facilitated the advance of the setup of the identified technical infrastructure that will support the work of the coming WPs. The deliverable associated to this task, D2.3 'Technical requirements for prototype hosting', has been submitted on time on the 31 August 2011. WP3 - Adaptation, integration, validation and testing During the mid-term period of the project, a suitable secure environment to host a preliminary SSA system has been studied. In particular, the deliverable D3.1 'Acceptance of a SSA hosting area' describes the adaption of SPA dedicated areas within the EUSC secure premises, as well as a traceability matrix concerning the requirements set on D2.3 'Technical requirements for prototype hosting'. The adaptation is the conditioning of a protected SPA office space which provides a routine working environment for the project and a dedicated server rack on the EUSC server room to hold all the additional equipment that will support the demonstrators. WP4 -? Prototype hosting During the reporting period and based on the installed infrastructure result from WP3 activities, it has been started the activities of definition, installation and validation of different software products for the SPA demonstrator platform. As a first achievement, access to ESA's CRASS software at EUSC has been completed. Additionally, other COTS software, such as AGI STK, have been already identified, installed and used for the implementation of preliminary services, such as the overflight. Besides, coordination activities with ESA have been started in order to organise and have installed the software to be developed as part of the ESA SSA PP, mainly related to the CO-VIII and DC-II activities. The complete definition of the rest of COTS and ESA software to be used in the demonstrators is currently on-going. WP5 - Preliminary services testing During the first nine months of the project, the activities of WP5 have been started covering technical inputs for the definition of a governance and data policy for SSA through the implementation and evaluation of initial precursor SST services using the prototype system defined in WP3 and WP4. In particular, the task 5.1) definition of preliminary services work flow, that establishes a preliminary SSA service workflow based on previous work and the outputs of WP2. As a result of this task, the deliverable D5.1 Precursor service workflow has been written and submitted on 30 November 2011. To date the EUSC and the SPA project has data available from the Spanish Royal Navy Observatory ROA, (Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada), the Mallorca Observatory OAM (Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca), Spain, Rutherford Appleton laboratory, RAL Chilbolton Radar site (UK) and the GRAVES (Grand Réseau Adapté à la Veille Spatiale) instrument, France. Particularly, the SPA team has been involved in the formal ESA SSA PP external System Requirements Review (SRR) process that took place from September to November 2011. The EUSC has been one of the main participants providing inputs, improvements and recommendations to the existing system requirements. From the total of 197 Review item discrepancies (RIDs), 119 (60.5 %) have been provided by the EUSC, being almost all of them commented and agreed during the review. WP6 - Dissemination During the first nine months of the SPA´s project, valuable dissemination activities have been done. The SPA project has been presented to 33 events with different audiences (general public, EUSC?s visitors and key stakeholders) and 5 abstracts / articles have been accepted in international conferences and workshops. Additionally, two promotional videos have been realised to disseminate EUSC activities related with the SPA project. Moreover: - The SPA webpage, describing the SPA project, has been added to the existing EUSC website to reach the largest possible audience. The current version of the webpage is online at the following address: http://www.satcen.europa.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=84; - The SPA technical forum has been realised and is now open to selected contributors from EU MS, EC, EEAS, ESA and EDA. - The 1st SPA technical workshop has been held the 28th of June 2011 with ten participants from EUSC and ten external participants from MS, EC, EEAS, EDA and ESA. - The dissemination plan (IR6.0), the Summary Workshop Report (D6.1), the Promotional Video (D6.2), the Summary of communication actions (D6.5) have been realised and submitted to REA. During the reporting period, progress reports about the status of the SPA project in M3 (D7.1 Periodic Report 1) and M6 (D7.2 Periodic Report 2) have been submitted to the REA. Additionally, the Mid-Term Report and the Gender Issues Intermediate Report have been also written and submitted in M9. SPA Project management during the period The SPA project is on schedule (no deviations from the Work Plan) and within budget (330 889.05). The original SPA scope is fully valid. Initially identified risks have not been materialised (without any additional risks). During the reporting period (from 1 March 2011 to 30 November 2011), 12 (twelve) deliverables have been produced and submitted to the REA in accordance with the SPA Work Plan. Potential impact: Space assets are essential for the activities of modern societies. Communications, navigation, positioning and timing, meteorological and scientific services, geospatial information, understanding of Earth environment, civilian and Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) operations, to name just a few services, rely on space assets. Any disturbance of these activities could damage or completely disrupt services needed to ensure the safety and the well-being of European Union (EU) citizens. In September 2008, the 5th Space Council underlined the need for Europe to develop a capability for SSA, drawing on existing capabilities and infrastructures both at national and European level. SSA refers to the knowledge of location and function of space objects and the space environment, including operational satellites, space debris, near Earth objects and space weather. The 7th Space Council invited the European Commission and the EU Council, in close cooperation with ESA and Member States, to propose a Governance scheme and a Data Policy for a future European SSA capability. The development of a European SSA capability will underpin the exploitation of European space assets contributing to access (and utilisation) of space for Europe (as requested by the European Space Policy). This way the EU and its Member States will be able to better use space, strengthening their security and economy in accordance with the Europe 2020 Strategy. The SPA supporting action main objective is to perform a study summarising the gained knowledge, including lessons learned, on SSA during the execution of the SPA project, as well as recommendations in view of further developments of SSA in Europe, particularly on the technical aspects of its Governance and data policy. SPA is supporting SSA activities in Europe and consequently Space through: - the identification and characterisation of indicative services, such as the satellite conjunction alert, satellite over-flight and space re-entry prediction; - the contribution from a technical side to the definition of a European SSA governance and data policy; - the evaluation of SSA-SST use case scenarios in order to outline SSA-SST data policy and Governance technical inputs; - the identification of best practices and standards in security and data handling. The main benefits of SPA project for the EU, EU Member States, EU citizens and other SSA stakeholders are: EU and its MS - to support EU MS national security and sovereignty; - to support the secure and traceable information exchanges among all SSA elements; - to support SSA activities adding value in data policy issues; - to exploit the expertise of the EUSC in handling, analysing and disseminating data of both civilian; - and military origin with multiple levels of confidentiality in a secure environment; - to simulate indicative SSA scenarios using a demonstration platform and promote innovation through the definition of SSA services and products; - to facilitate the dialogue among key SSA stakeholders through the establishment of a technical forum and workshops. ESA - to bridge the gap with policy makers and technical developers; - to provide advice in handling, analysing and disseminating sensitive data and derived products within the highest security standards. EU citizens - to protect and add value to services needed for the well-being and safety of EU citizens; - to support the identification of new services needed for the well-being of EU citizens. Other SSA stakeholders - to support SSA activities, adding value in data policy issues from a technical point of view; - to guarantee interoperable information exchanges among all the SSA elements. Third parties - to communicate in order to reach a common understanding of space capabilities. Use and dissemination of foreground Results generated by FP7 projects are required to be disseminated and promoted as swiftly and effectively as possible to benefit the whole interested community. At the same time a dialogue with Institutions and SSA key stakeholders is needed to contribute effectively (with a pragmatic and focused approach) to the technical definition of European SSA Governance and data policy. To reach these objectives, selected key audiences have been reached with focused messages, validated by the different SSA actors. Different communication strategies have been implemented, based on appropriate tools and activities such as, a webpage (added to the EUSC website and containing a presentation of the project activities), an internal workspace (a secure site allowing the SPA team to exchange useful information internally at EUSC), a technical forum (a collaboration tool used to allow institutions and key stakeholders to cooperate actively to the SPA project and containing all the SPA deliverables submitted to EC / REA). SPA has been presented by the EUSC mainly to Institutions and key stakeholders (such as the ambassadors of EU MS in Spain, the EDA SSA PT, the EEAS, the ESA SSA PP Team, the EUSC board, and the EUSC expert users). Also interested parties and general public have been informed (mainly through the participation to some international conferences or workshops and the production of articles). The key messages disseminated by SPA (with the agreement of participants to the second stakeholders advisory board meetings) have been: - security IN space is critical to have security FROM space; - the development of a European SSA capability. - Will protect space assets and satellite-based services which in turn are protecting EU citizens and operations/missions and consequently will improve the sustainability of space. - Will be a key tool to achieve CFSP results supporting national security and sovereignty; The main challenge on Data Policy is to facilitate the optimisation of SSA resources usage including the contribution of EU MS capabilities and protecting EU, EU MS and allies interests through security requirements and regulations. - contributing to SSA activities, the EUSC (a CFSP agency linking space and security) is: - exploiting its expertise in secure data handling (highlighting security aspects); - contributing to the protection of space assets needed to perform its mission; - enhancing its know-how by studying SSA-SST services relevant to civilian security and CFSP; - increasing SSA awareness in EU (also spreading gained knowledge). The SPA FP7 support action is: - under the full control of EU MS benefiting from their support; - developed in the EUSC secure environment; - complementing current SSA activities in Europe from a technical side. All EU Member States have been invited to cooperate on the implementation of the SPA Study and the interested parties have been invited to participate to the SPA technical workshops; moreover representatives from EC, EDA, EEAS and ESA have been invited. More details on the dissemination activities of the SPA project are treated in the SPA deliverable D6.6 - Summary communications actions with SSA key stakeholders 2. Societal Implications According with the EC reporting guidelines, this section describes the societal implications of the SPA project filling out a questionnaire addressed in annex 1. Moreover, specific information about SPA project societal implications has been already addressed in the following deliverables: D7.6 - Gender issues intermediate report This deliverable reports on gender aspects within the SPA project. D6.5 -?Summary communications actions with ssa key stakeholders 1 and D6.6?-Summary communications actions with SSA key stakeholders 2. These deliverables describe the dissemination activities of the SPA project and they also address media and communication issues. List of websites: http://www.satcen.europa.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=84

Periodic Report Summary - CANCERALIA (Development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to improve patient outcome in lung and pancreatic tumours)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

FUNDACION CENTRO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES ONCOLOGICAS CARLOS III
Project context and objectives: Lung and pancreatic cancer represent major public health challenges in Europe and the western world. Tumours arising in the lung, mainly related to tobacco smoking, constitute a major cause of cancer death as a result of their late presentation and the lack of curative therapies in advanced tumours. Pancreatic tumours, namely Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are the fourth cause of cancer death because incidence is essentially identical to mortality, also as a result of late presentation and lack of active therapeutic agents. Importantly, in the last few years targeted therapy is beginning to offer some new opportunities for improved patient management. Signalling cascades involved in cell proliferation and protein synthesis have been extensively investigated in cancer models. However, the regulation of lipid biosynthesis - a process required for cell proliferation - has been analysed to a lesser extent. There is increasing evidence that the products of genes involved in lipid metabolism such as Fatty Acid Synthase (FAS) and Acyl-coA carboxylase (ACA) are overexpressed in cancer cells and play crucial roles in tumour growth. Choline kinase alpha is one of the major enzymes involved in the synthesis of phosphatidyl choline, the major membrane lipid, regulated by Rho family of GTPases. Therefore, this enzyme and the whole membrane lipid metabolism pathway constitute important novel targets for diagnosis and therapy in cancer. Several groups have provided strong evidence that choline kinase alpha expression has potential as a novel marker in Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and in bladder cancer. The study of the whole lipid synthesis pathway may provide specific signatures that are more predictive than the analysis of single genes on their own. Because membrane lipid biosynthesis is essential in general for cell growth it is also possible that molecular analysis of this pathway may also predict response to other therapies, including the standard chemotherapies used in lung and pancreatic cancer. Further to transcriptome signatures and protein expression, analysis of the lipid product profile of tumours and comparison with corresponding normal tissue also provides opportunities for biological knowledge and marker development. In addition, the uptake of choline as a marker of choline kinase activity and of the metabolic status of cells / tissues constitutes a potential approach for early diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of tumours using non-invasive technologies, such as Positron emission tomography (PET). Small molecule inhibitors of choline kinase alpha have already been developed and have reached early clinical trials, thus providing strong support to the notion that this enzyme and the whole pathway need to be thoroughly explored in order to identify novel therapeutic targets and to anticipate the mechanisms of drug resistance once activity is demonstrated in the clinical setting. To fulfil the needs of personalised medicine, it is also essential to identify genetic or tumour markers that may predict response to therapy. This should also accelerate drug development in patients. The general objective of the project is to develop improved strategies for the assessment of risk, diagnosis, and therapy of these two tumours, focusing on targets related to the biochemical pathways involved in lipid metabolism and small G proteins. The specific objectives of the project are to: 1. develop new tools to assess risk and for improved and early diagnosis; 2. identify novel germline and tumor markers for early diagnosis and establishment of prognosis; 3. identify molecular markers predictive of response to conventional therapy; 4. identify mechanisms involved in the generation of resistance to drugs targeting the lipid metabolism pathway; 5. design novel therapeutic strategies based on the knowledge generated in (4) using combinatorial treatments. Project results: To perform high quality translational research it is first essential to establish standardised operating procedures so that the results obtained in different laboratories are comparable. We have compared methods for Ribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction and transcript analysis used in the consortium laboratories, focusing on genes of interest, and have established their general validity. We have also developed common and standardised tools for collection of clinical data, collection and processing of clinical samples and laboratory information. We have collected close to 200 NSCLC frozen samples with clinical and pathological annotation and have extracted RNA to assess the expression of a panel of genes (CANCERALIA genes) and compare levels in tumour vs. normal, in different histological subtypes of NSCLC, and for lipidomics. The comparison of gene expression and lipidomic profiles has already been completed for 10 cases showing promising interesting results that will need to be confirmed in the larger series. Such studies have not been performed in the past in any large series of tumours. As of PDAC, the difficulties in tissue collection are well known: not only due to the low number of patients who get operated but also because of the difficulties in obtaining high-quality RNA. Based on pilot studies, we have chosen to use fine needle aspiration specimens for rea-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) transcript profiling. Lipidomics assays will not be possible in these samples but we will use other models (see below) to compare gene expression and lipid profiles. These samples are currently being analysed. To relate expression profiles from formalin-fixed paraggin-embedded tissues to clinical and pathological characteristics and to patient response to conventional therapy we have searched extensively for samples but recent changes in patient management, mainly in patients with NSCLC, render these studies difficult because of their need for patient molecular stratification. We have devised strategies to overcome these limitations. To assess the role of germline variants in CANCERALIA genes in risk and prognosis, we have selected genes and tag Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for genotyping. The selected SNPs have not shown association with risk but the findings are promising regarding prognosis and response to therapy. The efforts to recruit cases and controls for the risk studies have included retrospective series (mainly for NSCLC) and also prospective series (PDAC). Standard questionnaires, data collection forms, and databases have been created and implemented across the consortium groups. We have opted to concentrate first on the PDAC study while the lung cancer series are established. As of PDAC, close to 1600 cases have been recruited in a European-based study and for most of them germline Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) (blood or saliva) is available. Control recruitment is somewhat behind but is progressing steadily. This series will allow establishing training and validation sets. In addition, we have established collaborations with other Consortia for validation. Based on the results of PDAC the final strategy for NSCLC will be chosen. To develop models predictive of response to choline kinase alpha inhibitors we have generated primary cultures of NSCLC and have classified the tumours as resistant or sensitive and have performed gene expression analysis of both tumour types. Resistant tumours are characterised by expressing high levels of ASAH1, thus constituting a possible marker predictive of lack of response and a new possible therapeutic target. In PDAC we have concentrated on analysis of sensitivity of cell lines while short-term primary cultures are established. We have identified that there is a modest correlation between choline kinase alpha levels and sensitivity to inhibitors. Furthermore, gene / protein expression, response to inhibitor, and changes in lipidomics patterns have been analysed. In response to choline kinase inhibitor, selective modulation of lipid elongation and saturation has been identified. Methods for genetic inhibition of choline kinase have been established and are being used to assess how they affect sensitivity to inhibitors. Cell lines resistant to choline kinase inhibitors have been generated and RNA-Seq has been done (analysis ongoing) to assess gene expression profiles. Studies in NSCLC (with platinum) and PDAC (with gemcitabine) have shown in vitro potential for combination therapies. To develop choline-based non-invasive imaging strategies we have improved methods to synthesise and label precursor molecules with methods that are simpler to use in the clinical setting. NSCLC lines have been used to compare choline kinase expression, sensitivity to inhibitor (also in combination with cisplatin) and radioactive choline uptake in vitro and in vivo. These experiments are the basis for the design of a clinical trial to assess precursor uptake by PET in patients with NSCLC and the proposal is currently under evaluation by the regulatory authorities. Potential impact: Metabolism is emerging as a fundamental area for therapeutic development in oncology Our focus on the metabolism of membrane lipids is thus timely in this context. The consortium's main assets are its multidisciplinary component and its focus on experimental analyses leading to clinical translation. The Standard operating procedures (SOP) that we have developed in several Work packages (WPs) have potential for across-laboratory implementation. The questionnaires generated for recruitment and interview of NSCLC and PDAC patients, the SOPs for biological sample collection, and the databases established are also potentially useful to other groups and consortia. We have identified hurdles that will need to be overcome in order to develop gene profiles and drugs in patients with these two tumour types, both retrospectively and collectively. Through WP4 we will determine how genetic variation in the membrane lipid metabolism pathway contributes to cancer risk in these two tumours. The SNP signature should lead to re-sequencing studies of regions of interest using second-third generation sequencing that will identify the causal variants involved in risk whose functional role could be assessed in vitro. This is an essentially unexplored area where the project will provide strong background information. Through WP7 we are developing novel, close to the clinic, tools that allow to evaluate the activity of choline kinase in vivo through non-invasive PET technology. The development of novel precursors and novel labelling methods will improve on the clinical applicability. These tools should impact both on early diagnosis and in monitoring response to therapy (possibly both to choline kinase inhibitors and to other drugs, given the general role of membrane lipid synthesis in tumour proliferation). In addition, WP7 together with WP6 will provide important information on combinational therapies. Through WP2 we expect to establish a solid background of the relationship between gene expression signatures and lipidomics profiles and their association with histological subtypes, prognosis and response to therapy. We will identify a genetic expression signature to be validated in additional settings. The genes selected in the signature will constitute relevant target for antibody development in order to develop a diagnostic/prognostic kit that may be applicable to diagnostic samples (formalin-fixed) in the clinical setting. The correlation of mRNA, protein, and lipid patterns provides an integrated appraisal of lipid metabolism in tumor cells that can be compared to normal tissues and may herald clinical application. It will also point to additional therapeutic targets since our CANCERALIA list is heavily enriched in enzymes that are druggable. These studies will be complemented by results from WP3 that will provide information on the association between these genes and their products with prognosis and with response to conventional therapies. The work in WP5 and WP7 will be fundamental to identify markers predictive of response to choline kinase alpha inhibitors that could be applied in the clinical setting in combination with the signatures described above. In addition, the transcriptomic differences between sensitive and paired-resistant lines will allow to foresee which molecular mechanisms can be anticipated as relevant for acquired resistance to therapy (i.e. ASAH1), Importantly, such mechanisms may also be relevant for intrinsic resistance. In our preliminary experiments we have also identified novel enzymes that could cooperate with choline kinase alpha as targets for novel therapies. In addition to these scientific expected results, the work will lead to patents (one application already filed during the first half of the project) for diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic applications. We expect that the IP derived from the project will be substantially expanded during the second half of the project. Finally, we have established a comprehensive, dynamic, multidisciplinary team that has the potential for stable collaboration in this research area that is under-represented at the present time in Europe. The joint epidemiologic, clinical, molecular (genetic and biochemical), and imaging approaches involved in the project offer unprecedented opportunities in the field. List of websites: http://www.canceralia.eu/

Periodic Report Summary 2 - CASPER (Child advanced safety project for European roads)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

GIE DE RECHERCHES ET D'ETUDES PSA RENAULT
Project context and objectives: Considering the whole region of Europe, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that in 2008 the number of children 0 to 14 years old that died because of road traffic accidents was 4 408. Focussing on 20 European Union (EU) countries, in 2009, 747 road traffic fatalities of children 0 to 14 years old were counted (IRTAD). Based on these accident data, it is obvious that in spite of the significant improvements in recent years in vehicle safety, the current number of deaths and casualties added to the social and economic costs is still unacceptable. Fatalities and injuries shall be reduced by all the available ways: public regulation, prevention/education of road users, road infrastructure, compatibility between vehicles, active, passive and tertiary safety devices. The CASPER project has been based on these facts with the aim to improve the global protection of children in cars. This project fits into the continuing objective of further reducing the number of fatalities on the EU roads. The activities are mainly supported by research addressing many fields such as in depth road accidents data collection and analysis regarding children, the influence of the impact of societal behaviour of adults in transport situations and technological based solutions to improve the safety of children. It addresses many issues that are investigated in other research projects in relation to the adult occupants, such as accidentology, biomechanics, injury tolerances, dummy and human body modelling and virtual simulations, but which do not consider children. Very few child biomechanical data, directly usable for dummies, are currently available and existing regulations, test procedures and standards related to children are based overall on data that have been scaled down from adult data. It is vital that these issues have to change the base of procedure used for the evaluation of Child restraint system (CRS) performance. CASPER addresses two main aspects: - the improvement of the efficiency of child protection through the development of innovative tools in order to provide to CRS manufacturers the possibility to develop and test their products at a lower cost, with new methods, and at a same guarantee of efficiency; - the analysis of the reasons and consequences of misuse of CRS and of the influence of the conditions of transportation of children, as compared to the certification test procedures. The project is mobilising a large part of the European scientific and business expertise in the field of passive safety related to children: 7 European countries are involved, with 15 partners who have a long experience in child safety with complementary profiles. All of them are chosen for their high level of competence as regards the different matters, such as crash investigations, test performance, experience on dummies, injury biomechanics, computer modelling and virtual testing. The proposed consortium of CASPER does not involve any CRS manufacturer. It is significant to give the same level of information to all of them and with reference to the past European research projects CREST and CHILD, the preferred solution was to: - disseminate results in existing working groups in which a large number of CRS suppliers are involved; - organise regular workshops; - present results in international conferences. The work plan is made to use as much as possible existing data related to injuries of children and to collect the missing ones, which can help to find reliable solutions for an improved protection of children in road accidents. CRS and cars are continually evolving and injury studies are one way of determining if the developments made have been successful. It is therefore also vitally important, at the very least, to monitor the efficiency of CRS to ensure that changes in their design, in adult protection systems and standardised systems - such as ISOFIX - have not resulted in increased risk of child occupant injury. Project results: Some of the CASPER results are immediately transposable, to develop solutions safety of road transportation of children. It addresses many issues that are investigated in other research projects in relation to the adult occupants, such as accidentology, biomechanics, injury tolerances, dummy and human body modelling and virtual simulations, but which do not consider children. Field studies on the quality of use of restraint systems by children have been conducted in different locations and they all lead to the same conclusions: more than half of the children are not correctly restrained which means that they are not restrained at all, or not using the an appropriate restraint systems, or their restraint system is not correctly used, with sometimes a combination of the two last possibilities. Beside the risks on the road, a sociological analysis of habits and behaviour of people who are in charge to transport children in cars were studied in CASPER. Results underline the need expressed by parents to be better informed to behave properly. It seems that they are overestimating their driving behaviour, and that too many parents do not know if restraint systems are correctly installed. They are not aware of the possibility of having an accident when transporting their children and therefore do not always restraint them in an appropriate way (for example letting children use only the seatbelt for a short journey). On another hand, transporting children is considered by a very large majority as a source of distraction for the driver, including a possible cause of accident. It is clear that states department of transport, consumer organisations, CRS and car manufacturers, shops where CRS can be bought have a role to play in the advice of parents, on the appropriateness of the systems, and the importance of using it correctly. Child protection systems and cars are continually evolving and studying injury sustained in traffic accidents is a good way of determining the priorities for new regulatory test procedures. For example the development and validation of an abdominal sensor for the child dummies is one of the results that the CASPER project can be proud of: It corresponds to a real need in terms of injury for children older than 3 years of age and will be integrated in the proposal of procedures to estimate the protection offered by CRS. Other short comings of the child dummies have been studied and their global behaviour after the CASPER project has been globally improved. In addition the CASPER accident database contains a huge amount of data that are regularly analysed to feed working groups working in the child safety area. Through the process of physical accident reconstructions, CASPER has been able to update the set of injury criteria for children and to publish them, they will be integrating in test procedures. Based on development of new technologies, CASPER contributed to a new step toward the use of models. For dummies, further validations are necessary to make them usable for industrial applications, but some working groups are making consequent progress so car and CRS manufacturers will soon have such tools available to design and test their products. For human models, using full bodies in the industry is not possible for the moment as they are not validated and that tools for the positioning of the models into restraint systems is required. Nevertheless, works on specific body segments can be conducted using the child human models. CASPER has organised two dissemination workshops (December 2010 and March 2012) during which a large number of participants have exchanged knowledge and point of views with the partners from the Consortium. In addition, it is planned to have presentations in International conferences of the general results of the project but also of some specific topics for targeted audience such as CRS manufacturers, consumer organisations, national road safety institutes, car manufacturers. Potential impact: CASPER being based on results of previous European projects (CREST and CHILD), it was important to clearly define the needs and to harmonise data collection and storage process. Once done, analysis and development phases took place in the different areas of child safety covered by the project. The work has been organised around 5 technical work packages: WP1 is based on crash test dummies approach. Improvements of the bio fidelity and measurement capabilities have allowed proposing new protection criteria applicable the test procedures. Another priority was the development of numerical models of dummies that can be used for the conception of protecting devices, and for the conduction of parametric studies. The dummy models family has been completed with Q1 1/2 and Q6. These models need to have validations and improvements before being usable in industrial applications. During the extension of the CASPER project works on a Q10 model was initiated. WP2 objectives are to define and to develop relevant children human body segments and whole-body human models. Definitions per age based on injuries of children, improvement of geometrical and mechanical characteristics of existing models were done. In CASPER, All parts of all models have been validated separately and complete bodies have been meshed, numerical simulations have been performed to check that models are able to run. To validate these models it has been necessary to develop some generic CRS. Validation tests of complete human body models are necessary before any application for restraint system design and application of injury criteria. WP3 aims to understand the travelling conditions of children in cars and the main issues in terms of lack of protection in accidents. To have a picture of the situation in terms of injury pattern, car accidents with restrained children have been investigated in-depth. Studies of sociological aspects of child safety has allowed to determine habits, level of knowledge, needs and wishes of parents related to child safety in cars. Field data shows that misuse of CRS is still a major issue and that children are not using appropriate restraint systems in many cases. A dynamic testing programme has been performed including misuse situations, inappropriate use and postural effects: in every case the protection level is decreased. The collection of data of domestic, pedestrian and cyclist accidents involving injured children has been done to validate models. For the dummy models this method does not give satisfaction at least for the head segment. The method seems more promising for child human models. WP4 intends to provide applications of results, in terms of improvement of child protection. Update of test procedures has been conducted in collaboration with an ad-hoc group of GRSP in charge of the definition of a new regulation for CRS: the use of ISOFIX, of Q series dummies with injury criteria, protection of the abdomen, and the introduction of a side impact test are responding to the main priorities defined by CASPER. Technical data have been collected to link issues with solutions in terms of correct use of CRS, better car and CRS compatibility. Solutions have been rated according to the different approaches: very few solutions can be considered as good from all point of views. Additional analysis of successful communication and information campaigns was done as it is a major way of progress. WP5 ensures the dissemination and exploitation of the project results as well as network with other organisations involved in the field of child protection in road transport. The results have been presented in several international and national conferences and workshops and two specific workshops were dedicated to CASPER project results under COVER cluster. The CASPER website (http://www.casper-project.eu/) is regularly updated with results and linked to COVER website. List of websites: http://www.casper-project.eu/

Periodic Report Summary - CHANCE (Low-cost technologies and traditional ingredients for the production of affordable, nutritionally correct foods improving health in population groups at risk of pover

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Project context and objectives: Although consciousness of the relationship between diet and health is increasing among the general population, currently the food industry is responding to the concerns of consumers about optimal nutrition by producing a diverse range of expensive health-valued-added foods. The purchase and use of these foods has become a status symbol related to the high education and high economic purchasing power. This implies that, at present, health-valued-added foods are not dedicated to consumers at risk of poverty. Around 81 million European citizens are at risk of poverty (Eurostat 2010). These population groups are characterised not only by low purchasing power and low level of education, but also by a high risk of developing disease related to poor nutrition. The at risk of poverty indicator identifies all those (households or people) who fall below a certain income threshold, which in the European Union (EU) has been set at 60 % of the median income. CHANCE's aim is to address poor nutrition in populations at risk of poverty in Europe by developing attractive, affordable and nutritious food products using low-cost technologies and traditional ingredients. CHANCE has four main objectives: 1. identify the most significant population groups at risk of poverty, their nutritional problems, and barriers to healthy eating; 2. selection of ingredients and raw materials for the formulation of new food prototypes; 3. develop CHANCE foods using low cost technologies to improve their nutritional value, acceptability and shelf life; 4. produce CHANCE food prototypes in pilot / industrial scale to optimise diets of population groups at risk of poverty. Project results: List of deliverables achieved for each Work package (WP): D1.1: Report on identified population groups at risk of poverty report on identified population groups at risk of poverty. D1.2: Methodological guidelines to conduct focus groups. D1.3: Methodological guidelines to conduct survey interviews. D1.5: Methodological guidelines for agrifood industries and retailers interviews. D2.1: Report on harmonised information on existing knowledge of diet related problems amongst risk of poverty groups. D3.1: Collection of samples, standardisation of procedures for the acquisition of the spectra. D7.1: CHANCE communication plan 2011-2014. D7.2: CHANCE website development. D7.3: Production of dissemination materials: first project leaflet. D7.7: Production of dissemination materials: first article in EUFIC's multilingual newsletter, 'Food Today'. D7.10: Communication to the broader audience: a specific section will be created on www.eufic.org. D8.1: Quality management. D8.2: Minutes of the kick-off meeting. D8.3: First interim report. D8.4: Minutes of the steering committee meeting at M17. Potential impact: Expected final results and their potential impacts and use: The CHANCE will greatly increase the knowledge of the main nutritional criticalities and of the barrier that are dividing population at risk of poverty from an healthy nutrition. Determining the problematic issues behind the nutrition of such layers of populations will allow EU to act on several levels to obtain: 1. A reduction of health problems for at risk of poverty EU citizens and migrants, with a consequential reduction of the expenses related to diseases connected to poor or unsafe nutrition, reducing the burden of chronic associated diseases across EU; 2. The possibility to develop new products or implement traditional foods with healthier traits that can integrate and hence improve diets of population at risk of poverty, triggering the industrial interest into this new market sector. Optimisation of the use of traditional and low-cost ingredients and raw materials into different food types will lead to the development of new food products, increasing the competitiveness of the European food industry. As it is seen that risk of poverty population tends to reduce its expenditure by recurring to low-cost (even if nutritionally poor) foodstuff, project outcomes will contribute to the reduction of poorness associated social problems, allowing the larger population to gain the rights to an healthier, though cheaper, diet without sacrifice significant portions of their income. The CHANCE project will also impacts on the European food quality and safety regulations and standards by cross-linking strategic research priorities such as: - impact of food on health, by providing new formulations of healthy foods deriving from the optimisation of traditional low cost resources, raw materials and ingredients; - safer and environmentally friendly production methods of foods and of healthier foodstuffs, by the development of improved / integrated food production processes (in production, handling and packaging) relying on the valorisation of raw materials of different origins. While these can be seen as different subsequent steps in achieving impacts, they are rather perceived in the project as synergic actions towards the final aims. Accordingly to the main goals of CHANCE, the following impacts are expected: Goal: obtainment of social and nutritional data on feeding habits of European populations at risk of poverty, based on metabonomic analysis and surveys realised in several European areas. Expected impact: social, economic and nutritional data on EU habits useful for addressing communitarian policies on nutrition, health and social issues. Goal: obtainment of laboratory-scale experimental protocols, based on optimisation of current processes turning raw materials into newly affordable formulated foods, which will improve access to healthy nutrition and the currently poor valorisation of such ingredients. Expected impact: specifications on quality and safety will be identified and gathered in protocols describing the foods and employed food processing strategies / technologies and the role of factors that might affect their economic and environmental impacts and legislative follow up. Goal: integration of a robust scaffold of excellent and highly complementary European food expertise, where the competences of CHANCE EU members are exploited to contribute to address the topic requests. Expected impact: improved career development opportunities within the food sector for young scientists, thus establishing the basis for the effective cooperation on the long-term in the field of the food technologies. Goal: development of a knowledge-based bio-innovation. The interdisciplinary planned CHANCE protocols will imply the assessment of quality and safety of the new foods and feeds generated. Expected impact: synergic knowledge-based transnational innovation for the food industry will be generated. List of websites: www.chancefood.eu

Final Report Summary - DANIELA (Demonstration of anemometry instrument based on laser)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

THALES AVIONICS SA
Project context and objectives: The aim of the DANIELA project is to prepare the operational use of a flush mounted Air data system (ADS) built around a 3-axis Doppler Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) function as a primary air data channel on civil aircraft, and to assess optical concepts for the measurement of temperature and density to complete the ADS, in a second step. A current typical air data system is composed of probes and pressure sensors. It delivers parameters for the aircraft's flight, such as air speed, angle of attack and altitude. In order to ensure the system availability, the probes need de-icing protection, which requires high power consumption (typically 9 000 Watt for the 3 air data channels). They also need an efficient water drainage for which periodic maintenance operation are requested. The main issue before implementing the technology in the airplane programmes is to make sure that the system will provide the parameters in all adverse flight conditions. DANIELA will take advantage of the work performed in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) NESLIE project. DANIELA will allow a step further in the domain of LIDAR size, weight and cost reduction, thanks to the use of latest integrated optics technology (integration on substrate, guided optic) providing therefore high level of cost efficiency and reliability expected by civil air transportation. Project Results: The second flight test campaign (FT2) to Africa was successfully finished, after which the aircraft has been restored into its original configuration. DANIELA mock-up has been shipped to THAV for possible reuse in another European Commission project (HAIC). Flight test data has been recorded and distributed, together with explanations on contents and use of the data (D125-04). An elaborate overview of all test flights (both FT1 and FT2) has been given in D125-03. Post-flight analyses in latter deliverable shows that almost all required atmospheric phenomena have been encountered. The ones not encountered were simply not available during the flight test periods. Two flight test engineers from THAV took part in FT2. The recorded data (LIDAR and aircraft references, videos, in-flight notes (Pilots and DANIELA operator), meteo forecasts) have been analysed and the report D125-05 issued. The signal processing has been adapted and performance assessment is done. Potential impact: The use of laser technology is seen as an alternative solution to improve in the future the operation by the main airframers as it is not affected by icing/rain environment and no programmed maintenance operation is foreseen. Even if it is not able to provide all parameters at an early stage, a partial implementation using three axis velocity is envisaged, enabling to remove the most exposed external probes: AOA / SSA and PITOT.

Periodic Report Summary - NANODIARA (Development of novel nanotechnology based diagnostic systems for rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

EUROPÄISCHE AKADEMIE ZUR ERFORSCHUNG VON FOLGEN WISSENSCHAFTLICH-TECHNISCHER ENTWICKLUNGEN
Project context and objectives: NANODIARA, a research project funded under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) 'Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies' (NMP) theme, has the aim to generate the knowledge needed to combine nanoparticle and biomarker scientific approaches into a technology-based platform that can be used as marketable products by industry. The goal is to detect early molecular processes that cause the onset and progression of arthritis, which result in losses of joint structure, normally only detectable at a late stage. The project consortium consists of 15 well known European expert groups in the fields covering Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (SPION) research and development, micro and nanotechnology, array technology, biomarkers, diagnostic imaging and Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) clinical development. They are developing safe nanoparticle formulations for imaging purposes of inflammatory events in the musculoskeletal system, on a macro and molecular level (in vivo), and multiplex sensitive micro-immunoassay to detect the early onset of the disease in biofluids like urine or serum by using specific tissue biomarkers (ex vivo application). Specific and novel nanoparticle synthesis and functionalisation methods, the nanoparticles characterisation per se and especially their interactions with any living cell, tissue and organs (toxicity studies) on the pre-clinical level are the prerequisite for technology developments in early diagnostic and for secure, highly safe and reliable products. Newly identified tissue biomarkers are used to decorate SPION with binding moieties, which are specific to the biomarker(s) and can be used for both applications. This project is driven by the high clinical need to identify early arthritis and then segment RA and OA patients into progressors / responders or non-progressors / non-responders to various treatment options. Project results: The development of iron oxide nanoparticles has resulted in four generations of SPION to be used in vivo for the molecular imaging and the toxicology studies in animals and in vitro for development of assay technology. Applicable to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) research, the amino-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coated SPION have shown very encouraging results in view of efficient uptake specific to macrophage loading. They can be effectively used for demonstrating a reduction of the macrophage population in the joint after treatment with dexamethasone: the treatment protocol may have clinical applicability. Comparing the detection of SPION by MRI signal to that of a gadolinium chelate contrast agent, it could be shown that SPION uptake is different from gadolinium chelate and seems to be more specific. Finally, these detailed investigations of SPION uptake, with and without treatment, provided important information about macrophage involvement during arthritis development. Approximately 15 Standard operating procedures (SOPs) were established to enable conduct of all kind of in vitro tests at all partner institutes with the same level of accuracy and significance. Serious lack of methods and standards, from nanoparticle characterisation to nanoparticle interactions with any living cell, tissue and organ became obvious. Such methods - toxicology studies included - are the basis for all further investigations into the behaviour of these novel nanoparticles in animals and later on in humans, and are crucial for any decisions in a pharmaceutical company to further invest in such a technology. Preliminary cell and endotoxin tests were used to ensure that SPION delivered to partners did not show adverse effects. The many tests, involving incubation of amino-PVA SPION with various primary blood cells or Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) from normal individuals, investigating the influence of SPION on the viability and functionality of these specific cells, did not show any significant effects. Furthermore, analysis of the bioenergetics of CD4+ T cells revealed that it was unaffected by SPION. Further on, novel quantitative methods for SPION biodistribution helped to distinguish between iron of superparamagnetic SPION and endogenous iron, by measuring on one hand the iron susceptibility of tissue, and on the other hand the total amount of elemental iron by graphite furnace-atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS). So far, all investigations using either human cells or rodents, i.e. mice and rats, did not reveal any side effect generated by the various SPION generations used. This project has set new standards and requirements for the reliable development of nanoparticles and their transfer into industrial and pharmaceutical development. For the future development of array technology and molecular imaging of disease onset and activity, more sensitive and specific methods are still required. Therefore it was of great value to identify for the first time distinct differences in protein composition between different normal cartilages as well as large differences with depth from the articular surface. For imaging of cartilage, biomarkers in the surface layer are of special interest, as SPION may be limited in their ability to penetrate a dense matrix. With cartilage degeneration, this dense structure is more permeable and should be open to a deeper penetration of SPION. In this context, preliminary ELISAs have been developed that detect fibromodulin and collagen IX, cleavage sites (neoepitopes) and are being used in analyses of synovial fluids. By such assays increases in these neoepitopes could be detected in both RA and OA. A novel Cartilage intermediate layer protein 1 (CILP) expression has been detected in the cartilage of patients with OA, and CILP will be the third biomarker to be used for the array technology together with COMP and C2C. Much work has been done in collecting, categorising and characterising the various biosamples for assessment of these assays from the various cohorts (Charité, UTartu, ULund). The database of Charité (mainly RA patients) has been linked to the Electronic sample book (ESB). Functional studies with patients were performed whose results will be related to biomarker and imaging analyses of disease activity. Beside the 6 research Work packages (WPs), another 2 WPs are dedicated for scientific coordination and monitoring of the outcome by a novel electronic sample book developed in the project, the exchange with society and further education of over 30 young investigators as well as the dissemination and exploitation of the results. Ethical, social and legal aspects related to nanotechnology and nanomedicine are covered by another WP, which is a main task of the coordinator, as well as the financial and legal issues in the overall coordination of the project. Potential impact: The main objectives and tasks of the FP7 project NANODIARA are to develop: - superparamagnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles so that they are useful tools to improve the sensitivity and specificity of in vitro measurements (assays) of biomarkers in various body fluids; - superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in a way that they are of more value compared to already available nanoparticles as targeted contrast agents more sensitive, longer residence time, biocompatible and non-toxic; - a system to produce superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with various coatings and functionalisation for biomarker attachment for immunoassays and targeted imaging to serve (a) and (b), respectively, in a reliable and marketable way; - new biomarkers/antibodies for RA and OA as such to serve (a) and (b) to become more sensitive and specific for detection and measurement of specific pathological events; - an electronic system to facilitate use, documentation, knowledge exchange and distribution of all samples, results, and newly developed methods and to support collaboration between more than 40 investigators. As described in 1.2.2, the various in vitro and in vivo results with iron oxide nanoparticle formulations showed no adverse effects by the nanoparticles. No toxicity or safety risks could be shown. The comparison between detection of SPION by MRI signal to that of a gadolinium chelate contrast agent, showing that SPION uptake is different from gadolinium chelate and more specific, is encouraging to exploit these nanoparticles for further applications in MR diagnostics. The findings in novel tissue biomarker, revealing that they are different in their appearance from the distance of the surface, make it more feasible to find the most sensitive SPION-biomarker for MR molecular imaging. Measuring the impact of such SPION combination as novel contrast agent in drug development or for human diagnostics is unfortunately not possible within a four-year project. Much more effort and money has to be invested to go further in human trials and to get more information of the potential of such technologies used for in vivo applications. The pharmaceutical companies tend to take a more reserved position in weighting results than researchers as in consequence this may cause a many million decision and high personal investment. Researchers in Asia, especially Korea and China, are developing similar technologies and either publish very early results or have a simpler way than European researchers of protecting their results by patents. The impact of this competition is difficult to measure in regard of future exploitation of own results and the translation to industrial innovation. More opportunities may be achieved with the multiplex sensitive micro-immunoassay, on which minimum three different biomarkers in urine or serum can be tested in parallel with high selectivity and sensitivity. For all these investigations, it was highly important to work together with clinics and to get opportunities to work with human cells and biofluids. Databases and monitoring systems developed have shown their potential also for other research, and negotiations with other projects are ongoing. List of websites: www.nanodiara.eu

Periodic Report Summary - SAFELAND (Living with landslide risk in Europe: assessment, effects of global change, and risk management strategies)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

STIFTELSEN NORGES GEOTEKNISKEINSTITUTT
Project context and objectives: Landslides represent a major threat to human life, property and constructed facilities, infrastructure and natural environment in most mountainous and hilly regions of the world. According to statistics in the EM-DAT database of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), Europe has experienced the second highest number of fatalities and the highest economic losses caused by landslides compared to other continents during the 20th century. According to the CRED statistics, about 16 800 people have lost their lives because of landslides and the material losses amounted to over USD 3 100 million in Europe in the period 1900-2009. The actual casualty figures are likely to be greatly underestimated as because events with less than 10 persons killed are not reported in EM-DAT. Furthermore, fatalities are only reported for the trigger of the event that caused the landslide events. Hence, the casualties caused by landslides that are triggered by earthquakes or extreme precipitation during storms are not included in these statistics. The number of people affected by landslides is much larger than the reported fatalities. For example in Italy, while about 500 people have been killed by landslides over the past 25 years, the total number of persons impacted is 50 times that number. As a consequence of climate change and increase in exposure in many parts of the world, the risk associated with landslides is growing. In areas with high demographic density, protection works often cannot be built because of economic or environmental constraints, and is it not always possible to evacuate people because of societal reasons. The growing hazard and risk, the need to protect people and property, the expected climate change and the reality for society in Europe to live with hazard and risk and the need to manage risk are the reasons for the SAFELAND research. The SAFELAND project has three main objectives: 1. to provide policy-makers, public administrators, researchers, scientists, educators and other stakeholders with improved harmonised framework and methodology for the assessment and quantification of landslide risk in Europe's regions; 2. evaluate the changes in risk pattern caused by climate change, human activity and policy changes; 3. provide guidelines for choosing the most appropriate risk management strategies, including risk mitigation and prevention measures. To achieve these objectives, the research in SAFELAND focuses on: 1. improving the understanding of landslide triggers and run-out and the ability to estimate landslide hazards and risks; 2. developing a framework for Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) for different landslide mechanisms and different scales and intensity of sliding; 3. developing risk management tools and guidelines for choosing the appropriate risk mitigation strategy by involving the stakeholders. Project results: In addition to separate Work packages (WPs) on 'Case studies' (WP6), 'Dissemination' (WP7) and 'Project management' (WP8), the SAFELAND project is organised into five Work Areas: Area 1: Improving knowledge on landslide hazard, especially the triggering and run-out model. Area 2: QRA. Area 3: Quantifying global change scenarios (climatic and anthropogenic) and their impact on landslide hazard and risk in the future. Area 4: Development of monitoring technology, especially early warning systems and remote sensing techniques, and applications. Area 5: Risk management, including toolbox or appropriate hazard and risk mitigation measures and stakeholder process for risk management. SAFELAND has achieved its objectives as set out in annex I of the grant agreement with only minor deviations. Main results achieved include: - Development of an empirical model for assessing the changes in landslide frequency (hazard) as a function of changes in the demography and population density. - Development and testing of several empirical methods for predicting the characteristics of threshold rainfall events for triggering of precipitation-induced landslides. - Hotspots of landslide hazard and risk were identified by an objective Geographical information system (GIS)-based analysis for Europe. The results show clearly where landslide hazard is significant in Europe and the objective approach allows a ranking of the countries by exposed area and population. - Different regional climate model simulations over Europe (from the EU FP6 project ENSEMBLES) at a spatial resolution of 25 ? 25 km2 have been used to perform an extreme value analysis for trends in heavy precipitation events. In winter a general trend towards more heavy precipitation events across all analysed regional climate model simulations is found. For summer, a slight increase of heavy precipitation in Northern Europe and a general decrease in southern Europe is found in all regional climate model simulations. - The prototype of a web-based 'toolbox' of innovative and technically appropriate prevention and mitigation measures was developed. The toolbox does a preliminary assessment and ranking of up to 60 structural and non-structural landslide risk mitigation options. The evaluation is based on technology, experience and expert judgment in Europe and abroad, and factors such as cost-effectiveness, maturity and applicability of technology, aesthetics, and other user-defined criteria are considered. - Case histories and 'hotspots' of European Landslides have been collected and documented. Data for 47 potential case study sites have been compiled and summarised. These comprise 45 sites in Europe located in Italy, France, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Andorra, and Romania; as well as one site in Canada and one in India. Almost every type of landslide and every type of movement is represented in these sites. Specifically in the 2nd period of SafeLand, the following results were achieved: - Various guidelines related to landslide triggering processes and run-out modelling. - Development and testing of several empirical methods for predicting the characteristics of threshold rainfall events for triggering of precipitation-induced landslides, and development of an empirical model for assessing the changes in landslide frequency (hazard) as a function of changes in the demography and population density. - Guideline for landslide susceptibility, hazard and risk assessment and zoning. - New methodologies for physical and societal vulnerability assessment. - Identification of landslide hazard and risk hotspots for Europe. The results show clearly where areas with the largest landslide risk are located in Europe and the objective approach allows a ranking of the countries by exposed area and population. - Different regional and local climate model simulations over selected regions of Europe at spatial resolutions of 10x10 km and 2.8x2.8 km. These simulations were used to perform an extreme value analysis for trends in heavy precipitation events, and subsequent effects on landslide hazard and risk trends. - Guidelines for use of remote sensing techniques, monitoring and early warning systems. - Development of a prototype web-based toolbox of innovative and technically appropriate prevention and mitigation measures. The toolbox does a preliminary assessment and ranking of up to 60 structural and non-structural landslide risk mitigation options. - Case histories and 'hotspots' of European Landslides have been collected and documented. Data for close to fifty potential case study sites have been compiled and summarised. Most of the case study sites are located in Europe (Italy, France, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Andorra, and Romania); but they also include one site in Canada and one in India. Almost every type of landslide and every type of movement is represented in these sites. - Research on stakeholder workshops and participatory processes to involve the population exposed to landslide risk in the decision-making process for choosing the most appropriate risk mitigation measure(s). Potential impact: The final results of the SAFELAND project are expected to have impact on the protection and safety of population and material property in Europe at several levels: technology for dealing with landslides is improved, new and more reliable hazard and exposure maps are available and procedures for putting public awareness on the agenda in a systematic manner have been developed. Dialogue and understanding among scientists and experts is now more natural and early warning systems for landslides will be ready for implementation using the latest technologies. Stakeholders, end-users and authorities have now improved access to a risk management system for increased safety and cost-effectiveness. The project deliverables are expected to help provide the basis for future European directives in relation to natural hazards. The SAFELAND project brought together leading European research centres and technologically advanced Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with highly developed experience in their specialised fields, such as GIS, remote sensing, modelling, risk assessment and management and decision-support, to allow a leap forward in pre-disaster planning and mitigation in Europe and worldwide. Examples of specific impacts are: - The inventory (synthesis) of landslide 'hotspots' in Europe is a significant contribution to a proposal for a soil framework directive that asks Member States to identify areas at risk to landslides on the basis of a common methodology. Identifying sensitive areas and / or contexts in Europe where changes in landslide frequency may be expected constitutes a roadmap for actions required and level of urgency for improving safety and reducing risk associated with landslides. - The guidelines for landslide susceptibility, hazard and risk assessment will contribute not only to the development of the common risk assessment methodology but also to systematic quantification of landslide risk. QRA outputs provide guidance to stakeholders in where to direct research and development efforts and to allocate resources where uncertainties need to be reduced or where cost-effectiveness can be increased. - The methodology for landslide risk assessment due to global change, both climate change and anthropogenic changes, at the European level will help policy-setters and decision-makers to optimise the urban development and infrastructure planning. SAFELAND has already started to have some impact through its dissemination activities. The achievements of the project were presented to PhD candidates working on landslide-related issues at the LARAM School in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and special sessions at the LARAM Workshop in Salerno in September 2010 and at the Mountain Risks Conference in Florence in November 2010 were dedicated to SAFELAND. In 2011 a new LARAM initiative started at Chengdu Technical University in China with the aim to establish an annual 2-weeks high level course for PhD students from Asian countries and elsewhere. Many of the researchers involved in the SAFELAND project contributed to LARAM Asia 2011 and some of the sessions where dedicated to the SAFELAND project. Some of the SAFELAND end users attended the first annual meeting of the project in Naples and the project workshop on QRA in Barcelona. The methodology developed in SAFELAND for large-scale landslide hazard and risk mapping is used in the upcoming global assessment report of UNISDR to estimate the number of people affected by landslides world-wide. During the 2nd World Landslide Forum (WLF) in Rome, Italy, in November 2011, the SAFELAND project was awarded the best project by the international consortium of landslides, the arranging partner of WLF. The final dissemination activity of SAFELAND during the project period was at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) general assembly annual meeting in Vienna in April 2012, where a special session was dedicated to the SAFELAND project. However, the dissemination of SAFELAND achievements continues beyond 1 May 2012, witnessed by the invited keynote lecture at the 11th International symposium on landslides (ISL) and the second northern American symposium on landslides in Banff, Canada in June 2012. List of websites: www.safeland-fp7.eu

Periodic Report Summary - SIAM (Security impact assessment measure - A decision support system for security technology investments)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT BERLIN
Project context and objectives: The objective of the SIAM project is to develop a multi-dimensional assessment support system that helps to increase reflexivity and inclusiveness of security technology assessments for airports and public transportation systems. The assessment support system will comprise data from four case studies (airports in Berlin and Tel Aviv, public transport in London and Torino) and comprehensive literature reviews of the state of the art. The assumption driving the development is that technologies are not given, but the result of many in process assessments of different actors with different assessment perspectives. Over the time, these assessment activities lead to irreversibility where it gets increasingly difficult to change the once chosen way. In order to avoid that, SIAM aims to ensure a multi-dimensional assessment of Security measures and technologies (SMT) during the whole acquisition process by considering the Security, trust, efficiency and privacy (STEP) perspectives, which are associated with different stakeholders. The assessment support system will allow users to specify particular problem scenarios, systematically collecting and storing information related to the STEP perspectives and making this information accessible in way that helps them to solve a problem or reach an investment decision. In order to provide information SIAM analyses beside the technological functionalities and economic requirements, methods and criteria to assess the effectiveness in countering threats and reducing risks, regulative issues, freedom infringements, cultural issues, accountability and acceptance of SMT. Furthermore, guidelines and methodologies are provided by the system that allows the user to plan and conduct a comprehensive security technology assessment. Project results: To define the relational data model and the underlying assessment process for the assessment support system, first of all partners analysed in WP2 the decision making process of SMTs in the four case studies including the participating actors, their interests and assessment criteria as well as typical problems and obstacles during the innovation journey. The decision making process was dived in four phases where it gets increasingly difficult to change the once chosen way. The process starts with a current need or idea for a new SMT, going on with the testing and developing phase where problems are identified and solved, to end up with the adaption and implementation of the SMT which might become a new standard. In order to reconstruct the innovation journey numerous in-depth interviews were conducted and analysed. The results are a stakeholder overview of relevant actors that take part in the assessment process, the definition of an idealised assessment process including the identification of typical problems and the categorisation of assessment criteria according to the four assessment perspectives: security, trust, efficiency, and privacy. Beside the case studies partners conducted complementary reviews of the state of the art and classified the results of the research in a typology of SMTs. The results of WP2 provided the basis to start with the work in WP11 and WP12 defining the users, the assessment process and the relational data base model for the assessment support system. The developed STEP approach helps to categorise the different assessment perspectives actors can have. Our assumption is thereby that each actor favours a certain assessment perspective and uses certain assessment criteria in order to evaluate the SMTs. The assessment criteria can be measured by Key performance indicators (KPI), which can be quantitative or qualitative. In order to qualify the KPIs, questions related to assessment criteria are gathered, which need to be considered to make a multi-dimensional assessment. In other words, the questions will gather information from the user that allows him / her to populate KPIs and make an evaluation statement whether the associated assessment criterion has been fulfilled or not. At the moment, partners are requested to deliver more information from the work packages about actors, KPIs and questions that are necessary to build the assessment support system. Finally, the consortium started to develop a methodology handbook encompassing guidelines how to measure freedom infringements, threats, legal framework etc. The handbook will be further developed until the end of the project. Besides WP11,12, further WPs have been conducted that deliver more data for the assessment support system data base. One of the work packages is WP4, where a typology of Counter infringement technologies (CIT) is developed and typical areas where infringements occur and certain groups of individuals are suffering freedom infringement will be identified. Furthermore, a methodology is developed and tested in numerous workshops within the case studies that allows defining freedom infringements and possible CITs. In WP5, an analysis of data related to currently existing SMTs have been conducted in order to sport technologies evolution paths in the next security systems with particular focus on freedom infringements. Furthermore, assessment criteria that will be used in the next future have been described as well as future scenarios on the basis of existing known prototypes that are currently under development. Finally, the identified future SMTs led to the revision of the SMT typology. In WP6, the partners have produced in depth-reviews of recent scenarios relevant for airport and public transport covering five major security challenges. The result was a list of threat scenarios and a sixth security challenge dealing with order disruptions. Furthermore, a guideline for strategic threat assessment was developed and validated through case study workshops. The guideline is built around three strands of strategic thinking: 'How might the security challenges come to impact on a mass transportation setting'?, 'How might we cooperate to deal with threat scenario challenges and consequences'? and 'What role can and should SMTs play in these strategies '. In addition to WP6, WP7 started with the objective to identify current crimes and locate them within security areas at airports and public transport. Potential impact: The work packages that have the objective to build the assessment support system (WPs 11,12) started in January 2012. An input-paper written by the coordinator provided the basis to initiate a discussion about integration of the work packages in the SIAM data base and the targeted scope of the assessment support system. The first findings showed that that the roles that stakeholders play in assessments, the implicit and explicit criteria that are used are too heterogeneous to be represented in a generalised tool. Thus, the outcome of SIAM will be rather guidelines and an inclusive set of questions than readymade answers. The assumption behind is that the user of the assessment support systems can answer the best the questions that are generated by the tool. The empirical analysis of the innovation journey reports (WP2) provided the relevant information in order to further define the Assessment Support System. The first results of the discussion how to construct the system are described in the following. Who could be the users? Basically, anyone who might be an actor in a technology acquisition process of a new SMT might be a user. Based on the definition of KU two different user types have been identified for the system. On the one hand we have the group of policy setter such as watchdogs and transport and civil aviation authorities that are responsible for example for the compliance with legal requirements, the realisation of policies, maintaining passenger rights and identification of freedom infringements. On the other hand the policy implementers encompassing actors such as facility managers or police and contracted providers who are operating a transport facility within a business context. How should the assessment process be structured? Starting from an idealised assessment process, that includes both the timely involvement of all relevant actors and a negotiation and qualification process of assessment criteria before an investment decision is made, the Assessment Support System aims to provide information regarding the four assessment perspectives: security, trust, efficiency, privacy. The information will be presented in terms of questions that have to be asked in order to guarantee a multi-dimensional assessment and guidelines as well as methodologies that support the user answering the questions. The assumption behind is that each actor has a certain perspective and interest within the assessment process that does not include all relevant aspects. The presented questions of the assessment support system should serve to gather the information that is necessary to qualify the assessment criteria. In the case that a question cannot be answered, the system should be capable of indicating references to individuals or other sources of information. Amongst others, the system will provide certain methodologies that are developed and tested in the SIAM project. Examples are guidelines how to analyse threats or freedom infringements as well as the identification of appropriate counter infringement measures. The output of the assessment process should be a report, summarising the information collected and an overview of issues that still have to be addressed. How could the systems architecture look like? The prototype of the assessment support system will comprise a modular software platform which has a technology assessment support application at its core unit, which in turn connects the SIAM database. The database will consist of various kinds of assessment information such as about actors in the acquisition process, their particular roles, the assessment criteria related to the roles, and the questions that need to be asked to qualify these criteria. At the moment the consortium works on a conceptual mapping of actors, roles and assessment criteria as well as related questions. The exact specific of the mapping still has to be defined in further discussions and development activities involving all partners. Furthermore, all partners have to provide the information regarding actors, questions and assessment criteria consisting of the local knowledge of the case studies, as well as of the global knowledge of experts in the field. The objective is to build a first dummy of the assessment support system until November, which will be presented to potential users in four local user forums in order to test the structure of the assessment process. Afterwards, the system will be refined and tested again in a secondary user forum in 2013. List of websites: www.siam-project.eu

Final Report Summary - CRETEHEPCOSMO (Crete centre for particle physics and cosmology)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

PANEPISTIMIO KRITIS (UNIVERSITY OF CRETE)
Executive summary: The main purpose of the project CRETEHEPCOSMO is to provide a substantial boost to the Crete Centre of Theoretical Physics, a scientifically promising research institution in Heraklion, Crete, Greece in order to arrive at the level of leading European institutions. This was planned to be achieved by: - establishing a strong long-term research team of core researchers that are at European level, establish a computational unit and upgrading the hosting facilities for incoming researchers; - importing new research expertise in key research directions of interest for the Centre via the hiring of experienced researchers; - being in tune with top research directions and top European groups by exchanging visits and by the organisation of specially targeted research meetings in Crete; - establish an advisory and evaluation committee that will review the Centre's strategy and activities. During the project these issues were addressed successfully and in due time. In particular: 1. Several high quality researchers were hired from top world-wide institutions. They contributed significantly to the enhancement of the research potential. 2. Many visits to and from the partner institutions were made. Strong research and educational ties were built to these institutions, and 6 MoUs of cooperation were agreed and signed. 3. The organisation of important number of high quality and extremely succesful international meetings provided an important visbility boost for the Centre. 4. The Centre has been evaluated and advised from the beginning to the end of the projects by three world class scientists (C. Callan (Princeton), J. Iliopoulos (ENS), G. Veneziano (CERN and College de France)). The final evaluation was very positive. Several indicators suggest that the impact of the project on the Centre was central and will be long lasting. Project context and objectives: The main purpose of the project CRETEHEPCOSMO is to provide a substantial boost to the Crete Centre of Theoretical Physics, a scientifically promising research institution in Heraklion, Crete, Greece in order to arrive at the level of leading European institutions. This was planned to be achieved by: - establishing a strong long-term research team of core researchers that are at European level, establish a computational unit and upgrading the hosting facilities for incoming researchers; - importing new research expertise in key research directions of interest for the Centre via the hiring of experienced researchers; - being in tune with top research directions and top European groups by exchanging visits and by the organisation of specially targeted research meetings in Crete; - establish an advisory and evaluation committee that will review the Centre's strategy and activities. Project results: A senior postdoctoral researcher was hired (Vassilis Niarchos, PhD Chicago, from Ecole Polytechnique, France) in order to boost the scientific activities of the centre and lead his own research. Niarchos established himself at CCTP, and performed as expected , producing important scientific work, guiding younger researchers both doctoral and postdoctoral, participating in the organisation of the Centre, and organising a very successful July 2012 workshop in Heraklion. Several other young researchers were hired after a prominent international campaign which attracted about 400 qualified candidates in the field on two occasions. In the last year, the analogue of 6-7 man-months of postdoctoral fellowships was distributed to a few young researchers that were selected following again an international campaign. In the meantime a small computational facility was created in order to accommodate the numerical work done by Centre members. The hosting infrastructure was also improved in order to handle the incoming researchers and visitors of the programme. In order to increase the competitiveness of the Centre, links with nine prominent European institutions are cultivated. Numerous visits and common activities were planned and executed by Centre members to these institutions of related meeting. A vigorous incoming visitor program was also instituted averaging one to two visitors per week that visit the Centre, give seminars on their work and interact with Centre members. With 6 of the above institutions, namely LPTENS, APC, Arnold Sommerfeld Institute Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam, Theory group, Imperial College, London and Israel Centre of Excellence, specific agreements for cooperation on research and education were signed, setting the guidelines for further cooperation. Along a different line the opening of the Centre to the physics community abroad was also cultivated by the organisation of workshops and conferences. So far a workshop has been organised in Heraklion focused on major open problems in cosmology linking theory to observations. Some of the top experts in the field attended and directed presentations and discussions. A conference was also organised in Kolymbari, Crete focusing on the broad subject of gauge theories and the structure of space-time. A second workshop was organised in Heraklion in July 2012, focusing on the gravity theories and their avatars. Finally, the Centre coorganised the sixth Crete regional meeting on string theory in collaboration with the Israel Centre of Excellence, as well as the 6th Aegean School that focused in Quantum Gravity and Quantum Cosmology. All were very successful events. The Scientists visited the Centre in 2009, at the beginning steps of the project and assessed various aspects of the Centre and its Strategy. The committee visited again the Centre in July 2012 and assessed the implementation of the project, and the results. The first report and the final report can be found at the Centre Website. Overall all the objectives of the project were achieved to a superlative degree. The science done during this period at the Centre was diverse, interesting and with impact: 1. AdS / CFT and applications 1.1 Finite density and condensed matter applications This is a novel topic developed in the last 3-4 years at which the Centre has become one of the world players producing good quality work. There is a lot of expertise on this topic at the Centre. Some of the topics that were addressed in papers are: The holography of Schrodinger symmetric systems, with particular focus on finite temperature transport. An intriguing model for strange metal transport at ultralow temperatures has also been constructed that is very close to recent transport and magnetotransport experimental data. The study of holographic Fermi surfaces in the dilatonic (EMD) backgrounds with and without bulk dipole couplings. The holographic study of Hall-effect-like physics in D-brane models. It was pioneered by M Lippert and the Technion group, and involved the construction of stable models, by turning on internal fluxes, the study of excitations both standard and magnetic rotons, and the study of stripped instabilities. The proposal and study in several papers of the Effective Holographic Theory asymptotics in order to classify and study low-temperature holographic physics. It involved a parametrisation of the gravitational theories (EMD), finding near-extremal solutions, and studying their thermodynamics and transport. In this direction, the most general quantum critical geometries with hyperscaling violation have been classified in the U(1) unbroken phase, and the classification in the broken phase is underway. The calculation of the refractive index in holographic superconductors (which sometimes is negative). The development of the parity-violating hydrodynamic equations for a charged fluid in 2+1 dimensions to first order in derivatives. There are special terms that were not known before, and were uncovered using holography. In this same direction, the use of action techniques to bypass the derivation of constraints emerging from the entropy current in relativistic hydrodynamics. The study of holographic fluids with vorticity in 2+1 dimensions based on the TaUb-Nut and Kerr solutions, and their potential application to rotating cold strongly coupled atom gases. The development of techniques to calculate the quantum effective potential holographically at finite temperature and density. This allows the analytic study of phase transitions in scaling regimes, and the numerical study in any regime. The procedure is currently extended to the rest of the effective action. A new setup for constructing and studying couplings of holographic QFTs analytically using multitrace deformations. This leads to a new setup for Josephson junctions of holographic superconductors that allows direct calculation of their properties and provides relativistic generalisations of the Gross-Pitaevsky equation. Many solutions here have chaotic behaviour. Applications to QCD and Heavy-Ion physics The use of improved holographic QCD, the holographic model developed locally, to compute transport coefficients for the quark gluon plasma, most importantly the bulk viscosity. The construction and study of simple holographic models for the meson sector, by implementing the characteristics of tachyon condensation from the Sen action to describe chiral symmetry breaking. The models are used in the quenched approximation and are remarkably similar to the real world both at zero and finite temperature. The natural continuation is to study models in the Veneziano limit. The whole phase diagram emerges with a conformal window, a QCD phase and a BKT / Mirasky conformal transition in between. The thermodynamics and spectra are rich and currently under study. The correct and improved description of U-shaped brane configurations (relevant for chiral symmetry breaking) using a tachyon action was proposed and tested in the hairpin branes in NS5 backgrounds. This sets up the proper framework for discussing the dynamics of chiral symmetry breaking in SS-like models. The study of energy loss by heavy quarks in a strongly coupled plasma, by modeling the quarks by strings. The non-conformal characteristics of this energy loss were developed and surprises were found for the Langevin evolution of such heavy quarks at LHC conditions. Technical improvements turned out to be necessary in order to include these calculations into the Monte-Carlo's used in the ALICE experiment. The study of heavy quark motion in a magnetic field, gave a new perspective on energy loss, and a simple model of time-dependent horizons that can be studied further. The study of black-hole formation during high energy collisions in non-conformal holographic theories. Trapped surfaces are used to obtain multiplicity estimates together with simplifications for the scale invariance from higher energies. The main tendencies in the energy dependence of the total multiplicity have been explored a model has been proposed that agrees with EHIC data and predicted correctly the data of the first LHC run. Similar computations have been made in theories with compact internal dimensions. The use of a holography-derived matrix model to describe multi-nucleon bound-states (nuclei), based on the SS model instantons and the investigation of the relevant physics. The study of 4D YM theory at large N compactified to two dimensions. The phase diagram on anisotropic tori is matched between 2 and four dimensions both using QFT and holographic descriptions. Further the 5D SYM theory was studied, and the expected holographic confinement-deconfinement transition was debunked. A new proposal was made based on the Gregory-Laflamme instability for the transition which gives a new view for the restoration of chiral symmetry in the SS model. AdS4 / CFT3 The F-maximization principle was analysed in a non-trivial model with N equal to 2 supersymmetry in 3d and new non-trivial checks of the F-theorem were performed. A new criterion for spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in 3d was proposed using localisation techniques and the three-sphere partition function. Superconformal indices have been used to connect Seiberg dualities in 4 dimensions to analogous ones in 3d. A direct link between holography and stochastic quantisation was proposed. A new class of three-dimensional vector models, ( the subdeterminant models) was introduced whose effective potentials exhibit non-standard large-N behaviour. It was argued that the models are relevant for obtaining the effective actions of M2 and M5 branes. Two dimensional large-N CFTs were analysed and several lessons were learned: they provide examples with a gravity description in AdS3, have an analogue of the reduction of the degrees of freedom at strong coupling and bulk states with multiplicity that is larger than the Cardy entropy. Gravity and Cosmology High-energy gravitational scattering Elastic scattering and gravitational radiation in particle collisions at ultraplanckian energies have been studied. The purpose is to clarify the nature of gravity in the ultraplanckian regime, especially in relation to the gravity "classicalisation" conjecture and also to the black-hole production cross-section. For the elastic process a straightforward computation of classical scattering of two massive point particles in GR was carried out and reproduced in the ultra-relativistic regime the result obtained by other authors with different techniques, namely shock wave scattering ('t Hooft), or leading eikonal approximation in the context of quantum gravity (by Giudice, Rattazzi, Wells), or string theory. The same pedestrian classical approach was used to compute scalar, vector, or gravitational radiation emitted in ultraplanckian collisions of particles interacting gravitationally. The preliminary result was that in collisions of massive particles and for impact parameter ?? Schwarczshild radius, for large enough collision energy practically all available energy is emitted away. This result is currently under intensive scrutiny and extension in various directions. Gravitational backreaction and quantum effects in inflation A detailed study of the phenomenological consequences of the quantum gravitational back-reaction to inflation was done. This resulted in the construction of cosmological models with novel features, like the enhancement of very high frequency primordial gravitational waves. A further study of the "Feynman rules" for the graviton in de Sitter spacetime was also performed. This resulted in the construction of the graviton propagator for general invariant gauges. Black holes and blackfolds Black brane solutions in higher dimensional theories of gravity play a key role in our general understanding of gravitational theories and gauge-gravity dualities. Niarchos has developed (together with Emparan, Harmark and Obers) a general effective field theory description of the long-wavelength dynamics of black branes known as the blackfold approach. This general hydrodynamic formalism of black holes has been extended recently to describe black brane intersections in generic (super)gravity theories and has been applied to a perturbative construction of new extremal and non-extremal black holes with exotic horizons, multiple charges and dipoles in string / M-theory. An innovative use of the blackfold formalism to the M2-M5 intersection in M-theory has produced a remarkable result: the first ever calculation of the central charge of the second CFT at the M2-M5 intersection. The physics of Lorentz violation Gravity theories of the Hoava-Lifshitz type This class of gravity theories have broken part of the diff invariance, and a Lifshitz scaling ultraviolet physics. They were proposed as renormalisable alternatives to standard gravity. An analysis of the HL cosmology has been done, and it was pointed out the the UV scaling symmetry provides several ingredients that make inflation unnecessary. There is no horizon problem, the flatness problem is much milder, and there is a natural source of scale invariant cosmological perturbations. Spherically symmetric solutions were analysed in the original HL gravity theory, and the most general such solution was found. Although generic solutions have 1 / r tails, several special ones are different, including the one with detailed balance. The modified geodesics in such solutions were formulated and shown that they have no horizons. Spherically symmetric solutions were analysed in the modified HL gravity theory proposed by Blas et al. This is a more complicated theory that is however in agreement with existing data. The solutions have generic 1/r tails except when the cosmological constant is present. These solutions are identical to those of 'Einstein-Aether' theory. Lorentz violation in strongly coupled QFTs Study of the energy loss / disipation in LV contexts due to Cerenkov radiation. Employing recent results from holographic LV scaling geometries in condensed matter contexts a general study of energy loss is made and the possibilities have been classified. String Phenomenology The subject of mass hierarchies in orientifold vacua was addressed by studying the U(1) symmetries associated with SM embeddings. These together with symmetry breaking and string instantons, classify the patterns of hierarchies. Several such patterns were found that agree with what we have in the SM. The Yukawa couplings in orientifold realising SU(5) unified gauge symmetry were analysed generically. It was found that instanton effects that are necessary in order to generate top quark masses generate also unacceptable operators that mediate fast proton decay. Other Studies of technicolor theories at finite temperature and a calculation of the correlation between f and Tc for chiral symmetry restoration. Studying the phenomenological signatures of technicolor theories at LHC and linear colliders. Calculation of Hilbert series of N equal to 1 sQCD with SU(N) gauge group. A proposal for holography in the Einstein framework with cosmological constant. An analysis of gauge theory holographic physics and confinement criteria in FRW cosmological geometries. Distinctions Distinguished professor D. Christodoulou was awarded the Shaw prize for the Mathematical Sciences, shared with Prof. R. S. Hamilton. The prize was given for their highly innovative works on nonlinear partial differential equations in Lorentzian and Riemannian geometry and their applications to general relativity and topology. CCTP Postdoctoral researcher T. Morita, was awarded the 'Young Scientist Award of the Physical Society of Japan' for his work on the phase structure of compactified YM. The paper Int.J.Mod.Phys. D20 (2011) 2847-2851 by Tsamis and Woodard received an honourable mention from the Gravity Research Foundation. - The paper arXiv:1204.2029 [hep-th] by Zhang+Wu+Tiang, received an honourable mention from the Gravity Research Foundation. The paper Class.Quant.Grav.26:105006,2009 by Tsamis+Woodard has been highlighted in 2009 by the Journal of Classical and Quantum Gravity The paper Nucl.Phys.B821:467-480,2009 by Kiritsis+Kofinas was among the 50 most cited papers in 2009. Today it has 249 citations in SPIRES. The papers Phys.Rev.Lett.101:181601,2008 and Nucl.Phys.B820:148-177,2009 by Gursoy+Kiritsis+Mazzanti+Nitti were highlighted in Physical Review Focus on the occasion of a recent high-precision lattice calculation in Large N gauge theory. Potential impact: 1. An important enhancement of the capacity of the Crete Centre for Theoretical Physics to do cutting-edge research at a level comparable with high quality Universities in the EU and elsewhere. 2. An important enhancement in the visibility of the Centre vis a vis the scientific community. In particular CCTP has the ability now to attract top researchers from abroad, to come and do research at the Centre. 3. An important enhancement in the organisation of the Centre and its services that compensate the complete non-man's-land that exists in Greece when it comes to hosting long term foreign researchers. This structure has been diffused to the whole of the University of Crete. 4. An important enhancement of the outreach activities of the Centre, geared towards high-school students, their teachers and the public at large. Such results put CCTP a model institutions in the country and provide a visible benchmark for institutions locally and nationwide, especially in a period where the country is suffering from many serious problems. Scientific attractiveness of the Centre We do have in the last 3 years an increased number of postdoctoral applicants: 5 years ago (although we were accepting applications via the Leuven European site) we had a small number of people that would put us as their first choice. This has increased dramatically in the last 3 years, with the exception of this year, for which the only plausible interpretation is the impact of the Greek crisis in the minds of young researchers. We do have a fair number of postdocs who contact us to make Marie Curie applications to come to Crete. 5-8 years ago this number was 1-2 per year. Now we have 10-20 people every year who ask and we have to choose. We started having postdocs who would like to come to CCTP with their own funding. One Italian (Also Cotrone) and one Spaniard (Daniel Arean). Eventually, they have obtained standard postdoctoral positions with much higher salary in other good places and they preferred to go there. The number of foreign applicants for PhD has moved up from 0-6 years ago to about 20 now. We have had the ability very recently to hire from the top of our short lists something that was not the case before when we nneded to go as far down as 10th place. The scientific output of the CCTP has increased in the last 3 years. In terms of papers, there are so far: 2008: 19 papers by core CCTP members (12 by core faculty members). - 2009: 19 papers by core members (14 by core faculty members), and 25 by adjuct members. - 2010: 31 papers by core members and (17 by core faculty members), 27 by adjuct members. - 2011: 45 papers by core members (17 by core faculty members) and 34 by adjuct members. - 2012: 19 papers by core members up to May (10 by core faculty members). There is a correlation with total personnel, however the numbers of core faculty papers are however indicative of the progress. We have more invitations to conferences and workshops. These are the coordinators? data below (plenary talks in conferences or workshop presentations). - 2012 (10 conferences / workshops). - 2011 (5 conferences / workshops). 2010 (11 conferences / workshops). - 2009 (7 conferences / workshops). - 2008 (9 conferences / workshops). - 2007 (7 conferences / workshops). - 2006 (8 conferences / workshops). - 2005 (9 conferences / workshops). - 2004 (3 conferences / workshops). - 2003 (5 conferences / workshops). The numbers are steadily increasing, but an important difference between 2003 and 2012, is that E.Kiritsis in 2003 accepted all such invitations while in 2012, he accepted only one in three invitations on average. The progress is clear. In the last 3 years, Centre members were invited to co-organise meetings elsewhere. This did not happen before with one exception. There was an enhanced effort in the last 3 years to prepare and submit FP7 and other proposals: - 4 ERC proposals (1 partly successful, funded by GREECE). - 14 Marie Curie fellow proposals (5 successful) and 6 under current review. - 2 Marie Curie network proposals (none successful, the topic, string theory was ?blacklisted? by the appropriate pannel). - 1 COST proposal (in progress, passed original marks). - 1 ESF proposal (successful overall but no money from Greece). - Outreach: We have set up our website, and we communicated it to all high schools in Greece last October 2011. Since then, we have about 1000 people approximately that read it. Our CCTP website was monitored since the last year: - from May 2011 to end 2011 we obtained 5526 hits and 4185 visitors out of which 1628 were new; - from January 2012-August 2012 we obtained 6474 hits and 5031 visitors out of which 2035 were new. List of websites: http://hep.physics.uoc.gr/CRETEHEPCOSMO/CRETEHEPCOSMO.shtml

Periodic Report Summary - BIKE INTERMODAL (The intermodal bike - Multi-modal integration of cycling mobility through product and process innovations in bicycle design)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

TRILIX SRL
Project context and objectives: Object of this work is to provide - by means of product and process innovations - an advanced compactable bicycle, making it practical to carry along a bicycle aboard public transportation, easily, safely and for a large number of passengers. The ultimate goal is a synergic, intermodal integration of public transport and cycling, expanding the share of both modalities in the urban mobility. Bicycling is very efficient in the short range, but not so on longer distances. Re-introducing it into daily travel to handle the trips end portions, could improve the effectiveness of other modalities through an additive effect, re-balancing in a cost-effective way the modal mix in favour of micro-mobility and public transport. The state of the art does not allow a collective, pervasive use of the folding bikes in intermodal duty, because of excessive weight and volume when collapsed - often exceeding the baggage limits of city bus and metros - discouraging their use out of practicality and safety on board. The proposed research aims at providing a solution, developing a fully engineered, production-ready, new bike typology, based on an innovative concept for a bike frame. The advantage over the state of the art is an unprecedented compactness (factor 6 over common folders) and low weight (factor 2 or 3) obtained combining a collapsible, pre-tensioned space-frame with a modern industrial process derived from the automotive sector. The process innovation will also allow low cost, quality control, opening-closing automation, electric power assistance and last, but not least in a design-conscious world, aesthetic value. The work programme will develop a new supply-chain, assembling several application-specific know-how modules of mature and well known technologies, all commonly and economically available. Project results: In the first part of the project, the consortium has concentrated on the development of 'module technologies' needed to transform the 'background' input - that is a structural scheme embodied in a ridable mock-up - into the full-fledged bicycle. One of the crucial aspects of the 'intermodal bike' is that if maximum folded compactness -and also 'elegant compactness' - is to be achieved, it is impossible to use ready-made components belonging to the classic bicycle supply chain. This in one sense seems an handicap for the project. But if one sees this issue from a different point of view, one realizes that there are also many advantages. First of all the quality control. Almost all bicycles mount a few no-name components. In our case all the components will either be designed o designed and manufactured in house. A corollary of quality is the possibility of a strong brand development, crucial to ensure - with commercial success- the envisioned mobility goals. Another advantage of the ad-hoc components, fully proprietary or developed in partnership, is the economy of means. The component performance is well tuned to the 'intermodal bike' optimal requirements, something that readymade developed for the mainstream cycling industry could not possibly achieve. Potential impact: The project is expected to produce the expected results, that is a final prototype, engineered for production, of the ultra-folding, ultra-lightweight bicycle intended for 'intermodal use'. The consortium has reason to believe that the vehicle will have an interesting impact on the urban dwellers that currently are NOT using the bicycle for their daily movements in town. In 'marketing' terms that means relating to the overall bicycle market, rather than trying to erode market quotas of the 'folding' sub-segment. The project is aiming to produce a 'bicycle', tout court, not a 'folding bicycle'. This specific case, we believe, is very important, as we aim at increasing the net count of 'biking citizens' rather than just migrating regular bike-users to the 'intermodal biking'. The new 'modal mixing' possibility of biking, bus or metro riding, car-switching at exchange parkings appears to be only a part of the advantages that a super-compacting bicycle can bring. A very common - and unexpected - comment has been that such a small and easy to handle product could make using, and ultimately 'owning' a bicycle much less complex than with normal bicycles or even normal 'folders'. List of websites: www.bike-intermodal.eu

Periodic Report Summary - PCUBE (Infrastructure for protein production platforms)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

UNIVERSITAET ZUERICH
Project context and objectives: P-CUBE is a collaborative project and coordination and support action project, funded by the European Union (EU) within the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). It therefore brings together research, networking and service activities. It therefore aims to: 1. offer and granting access to European scientists to all currently available and essential technologies in structural biology such as cloning, expression, protein characterisation and crystallisation; and 2. further improve such technologies and to optimising and standardising procedures by sharing expertise and exchange information between the different partners. Thus, P-CUBE ensures the highest possible standards for protein production and high-throughput crystallisation technologies available in the European Community. In order to enhance the quality and capacity of the platforms available for transnational access, P-CUBE has allocated three Work packages (WPs) to joint research activities that in combination with the transnational access activities guarantee the fastest possible implementation of new methods and therefore help optimising the protocols and technologies. Project results: Substantial progress has been reported for WP6, which aims at the automation of screening methods. P-CUBE partners have been able to set up a protocol for a robotic concept for ribosome display selection that allows a higher throughput of selection and thus ensures an increased capacity of the platform. To evaluate and characterise the targets of the ribosome display selections a protocol for growing cultures and handling many Enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA) samples in parallel has been established which is being refined. Significant progress was achieved for the automation of the European strategic programme for research and development in information technologies (ESPRIT) library construction: the microfluidic caliper system was introduced and a protocol for Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and protein analysis could be tested and optimised. To increase the throughput of ESPRIT a genetic selection to eliminate out-of-frame DNA constructs was incorporated, tested and proved to be robust and unbiased. However, the efficiency has not yet reached the demands and thus needs to be investigated further. The ESPRIT technology in combination with crystallisation methods was also fundamental for obtaining first results in the determination of crystallisation propensities rapidly. The EMBL in Hamburg has successfully developed and implemented a protocol to test the output of ESPRIT directly in high-throughput crystallisation experiments. A rapid screen to identify optimal configuration of both donor and acceptor vectors for maximum FRET signal has still to be provided, thus the deliverable has been postponed. The work in WP7 is progressing well and on schedule. The development of a DNA vector suite and standardised robotics scripts for automated multigene assembly has been successfully completed and, moreover, rolled out to distribution to the community via a commercial supplier. Initial experiments for implementing and bench marking Fluorescence (cross-)correlation spectroscopy (FCCS) in yeast cells have been completed and look very promising. The robotic platform in Oxford is fully functional, has been integrated into the OUXF infrastructure and, importantly, has been validated already by two access visits. The caliper machine is extensively used for microscale analytics. The FCCS platform at EMBL HDG has matured and is operational, and provided already in a proof-of-concept experiment valuable data on TFIIIC multiprotein complex. Progress is also reported for the development of crystallisation technologies. A new type of counter diffusion crystallisation plate (CrystalHarpTM) has been designed, developed and further optimised. The CrystalHarpTM and two already established crystallisation devices (Greiner X-ray plate and DC10 Fluidigm chip) have been implemented into an automated imaging system. All three devices are fully integrated in the protein information system for crystallisation (xtalPims) and can be additionally used for in situ diffraction measurement of crystals using the PXscanner. Furthermore, crystals grown in the CrystalHarpTM were subjected to in-situ diffraction measurement at a synchrotron source (SLS, Villigen, Switzerland). The CrystalHarp and a CrystalHarp-kit are commercially available via different distributors and can be used for crystallisation screening and optimisation. The second big pillar of P-CUBE besides research is transnational access. P-CUBE aims at offering and granting access to all currently available and essential technologies in structural biology such as cloning, expression, protein characterisation and crystallisation to European scientist and provides facilities as well as the expertise and knowhow of experts in the field. So far 8 units of access have been accomplished at the DARP in selection facility in Zurich, 355 at the High-Throughput Crystallisation facility in Oxford, 35.5 units could be implemented at the mammalian expression facility in Oxford and 16.6 at the bacterial expression platform. At the EMBL in Grenoble, the MultiBac-EMBL facility hosted 30, whereas the ESPRIT facility conducted 15 projects. The HTX platform in Grenoble implemented 1398 plates, the platform in Hamburg 866. At the EMBL in Heidelberg, 18 projects were executed at the Advanced Light Microscopy platform. Overall, TNA is widely known and happily accepted within the European community. The HTX facility in Heidelberg used 49 plates for transnational access, the HTX facility in Zurich used 37 units. P-CUBE, its activities and its aims have been widely advertised and introduced to the scientific community using different means such as a P-CUBE flyer, advertisements in journals and presentations at meetings. The public web page gives an overview of the project. It presents the visitor the main ideas and objectives of the project, explains the scientific approaches, introduces the partners of P-CUBE and provides information on the different platforms offered within the project and on the application procedure. To further reach out to new users, to exchange information, and to introduce and disseminate newly developed techniques a first user meeting for platforms users, as well as platform operators was organised. Another means to reach out to the scientific community, to complement the training and to widen the expertise of former and prospective users, training courses and co-sponsored courses have been organised. Potential impact: P-CUBE has become a model for bringing together key technologies in cutting edge structural biology research and making these technologies available to the European scientific community in the field. By driving forward technological innovation, providing high precision instrumentation and thus setting up a benchmark in structural biology, P-CUBE has challenged European industry to improve their capabilities and strengthen the European competitiveness. It furthermore has developed synergies and complementary capabilities in a co-ordinated approach to infrastructure access. List of websites: www.p-cube.eu

Periodic Report Summary - GLYCOBIOM (Tools for the detection of novel glycobiomarkers)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Project context and objectives: Glycosylation patterns on glycoproteins and glycolipids are involved in the regulation of inter- and intracellular recognition events and alteration of such glycosylation has been observed in many diseases, notably in a variety of cancers. The increasing number of reports in the scientific literature on specific alterations in glycosylation with diseases suggests that a systematic, large scale investigation in this area will provide a rich spectrum of novel and structurally diverse carbohydrate-based biomarkers. It is becoming clear that no single biomarker is sensitive or specific enough to meet the current clinical needs for diagnosis, especially for autoimmune diseases and cancer. The availability of sensitive quantitative tools for glycan analysis is opening up the possibility of discovering useful leads by analysing total glycomes or disease associated glycans on individual glycoproteins, either isolated or excised from two-dimensional (2D) gels. Disease markers are required for many reasons, for example to achieve an initial diagnosis, stage a disease process and determine the response to medication. Glycan processing of glycoproteins and glycolipids have been noted in many if not most diseases and combinations of glycan changes are now being tested alongside panels of protein and genomic changes. Many diseases are multi-systemic and the most effective markers will be discovered through an in-depth understanding of the disease processes. Moreover, in order to control medication and understand disease progression it will also become critical to understand how these processes relate to each other within the patient by adopting a systems biology approach. The bottleneck to such investigation has been the lack of robust high-throughput screening techniques for carbohydrate analysis, carbohydrate-binding proteins and glycoenzymes and a lack of diagnostic tools for carbohydrate-based biomarkers that can be used in the clinic. Recently, a number of new analytical techniques for carbohydrates have been developed by us and others and brought to proof-of-concept stage. The aim of this project will be to advance these technologies to the next stage by developing an integrated multidisciplinary approach to glycobiomarker screening and analysis based on current state of the art. We will bring together a number of complementary screening techniques developed in the individual partner laboratories, notably high-throughput quantitative High-performance liquid chromatography (HPCL) analysis of carbohydrates, lectins / human glycoreceptors for carbohydrate recognition and carbohydrate arrays, to develop an overall workflow for the multiplex analysis of biomarkers. Such carbohydrate-targeted methods will involve Ribonucleic acid / Deoxyribonucleic acid (RNA / DNA) and protein analysis combining high-throughput glycomics with genomics (multimodality biomarker analysis). It will be important to test the workflow against serum and tissue samples of healthy volunteer / cancer patients. In addition, we envisage that the project will generate new analytical tools that can be used in routine analysis of glycobiomarkers in the clinic, including diagnostic imaging (high-throughput molecular diagnostic imaging). Some of the tools developed in this programme (lectins conjugated to nanoparticles, quantitative HPLC) should also be useful for finding new quantitative imaging biomarkers for monitoring therapeutic effects and safety in cancer. The involvement of three Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) partners will ensure that the technology will be developed and validated in a format that will be suitable for commercial applications. Project results: - The GLYCOBIOM project is centred upon developing the tools for the identification and the detection of biomarkers in clinical samples and patients. An interdisciplinary and collaborative approach has been set out to achieve these goals and considerable progress has already been achieved. Notably, a potential biomarker in colorectal cancer has been discovered and indicates a number of promising candidates for prognostic and diagnostic markers. Furthermore, the tools for detection of these biomarkers are increasing in sophistication in order to produce high-throughput analyses. This involves both a multimodal and quantitative approach which is underpinned by a bioinformatics pipeline. Highlights - Levels of collaborations between all partners continue to expand above those set out in the original grant agreement. - UNIMAN have developed a general protocol for the successful selective capture and Matrix-assisted laser desorption / ionisation - time of flight (MALDI-TOF) Mass spectrometry (MS) analysis of pure and crude mixtures of plant lectins on a glycan array using a gold-coated MALDI plate. This is the first time a glycan array has been used to capture and analyse non-tagged carbohydrate-binding proteins. - UNIMAN have identified plant lectin ConA by in-situ sequencing and MALDI-TOF MS analysis on the target gold-coated MALDI plate. This is the first time a known lectin has been identified using complete on-target digestion from a glycan array on gold. - UCPH have established a sensitive antibody capture microarray platform with tumour cell line model system designed to express and secrete CA-125 and CA-15.3 with STn and Tn glycoforms. - In a pilot study, UCPH selected CA125 positive patients (100-300 IU / ml) and demonstrated that ST and STn O-glycoforms are specifically detected on circulating MUC16 in ovarian cancer and not in benign controls. - The generation of labelled glycoreceptors for glycoarrays and far western blot analysis as imaging tools for cells and tissues has been developed by UKE. - UKE have detected specific glycostructures on the cell surface of cancer cell lines using flow cytometry and in formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissues. - A database platform for glycan retention time has been compiled by NIBRT. - NIBRT have developed a Liquid chromatography MS (LC-MS) platform for online quantitative glycan and peptide detection using reversed phase liquid chromatography and electrospray ionisation using a single quadrupole mass analyser. This is the first time a single quadrupole mass analyser has been used to detect glycans and has been used to detect a glycan biomarker in a pool of N-glycans released from normal human serum. - Analyses of the associations between plasma glycans and different elements of the metabolic syndrome have enabled the identification of potential new biomarkers. Genos have identified these biomarkers in populations originating from both China and Europe; indicating their universal applicability. - Genos have developed a high-throughput method of isolation and glycosylation analysis of IgG. Using this method, Genos have analysed glycosylation of IgG and for the first time obtained data about variability and heritability of IgG glycosylation in human population. Furthermore, a study of IgG glycosylation as a potential biomarker in colorectal cancer has been piloted and indicates a number of promising candidates for prognostic and diagnostic markers. This study will be extended to 2 000 individuals. - Galab have streamlined the cultivation, production and purification of recombinant proteins with optimised conditions for Hek293 cell lines. - Galab have purified DcSign, DcSign Related, CD301 and CLEC11A using affinity chromatography. Galab have also attempted the purification of two novel recombinant lectins namely, DDB27 & KLRF1. - D1.1 has been completed within the specified time period (reporting period 1). - D3.1 has been amended to incorporate phenotyped and genotyped human tissue / serum samples from 2 000 colorectal cancer patients with the corresponding matching controls. These samples will be of great importance for the analysis of the genetic component of glycosylation variability and health and cancer. For these reasons D3.1 has been updated and the deadline for completion extended until the end of reporting period 2. Potential impact: Glycosylation patterns on glycoproteins and glycolipids are involved in the regulation of inter- and intracellular recognition events and alteration of such glycosylation has been observed in many diseases, notably in a variety of cancers. We propose that a systematic, large scale investigation in this area will provide a rich spectrum of novel and structurally diverse carbohydrate-based highly specific biomarkers. The aim of this project will be to address current bottlenecks in analytical techniques by developing an integrated multidisciplinary approach to glycobiomarker screening and analysis based on current state of the art. We will bring together a number of complementary screening techniques developed in the individual partner laboratories, notably high-throughput LC-MS analysis of carbohydrates, lectins and carbohydrate arrays, to develop an overall workflow for the multiplex analysis of glycobiomarkers. Such carbohydrate-targeted methods will be combined with RNA / DNA and analysis (combining high-throughput glycomics with genomics). It will be important to test the workflow against serum and tissue samples of healthy volunteer / cancer patients. In addition, we envisage that the project will generate new analytical tools that can be used in routine analysis of glycobiomarkers in the clinic, including diagnostic imaging. Some of the tools developed in this programme (lectins conjugated to nanoparticles) should also be useful for new quantitative imaging biomarkers for monitoring therapeutic effects and safety in cancer. The involvement of three SME partners will ensure that the technology is compatible with commercial applications.

Periodic Report Summary - CRETEHEPCOSMO (Crete centre for particle physics and cosmology)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT

PANEPISTIMIO KRITIS (UNIVERSITY OF CRETE)
Project context and objectives: The main purpose of the project CRETEHEPCOSMO is to provide a substantial boost to the Crete Centre of Theoretical Physics, a scientifically promising research institution in Heraklion, Crete, Greece in order to arrive at the level of leading European institutions. This was planned to be achieved by: - establishing a strong long-term research team of core researchers that are at European level, establish a computational unit and upgrading the hosting facilities for incoming researchers; - import new research expertise in key research directions of interest for the Centre via the hiring of experienced researchers; - be in tune with top research directions and top European groups by exchanging visits and by the organization of specially targeted research meetings in Crete; - organising conferences and workshops that will bring in expertise and will make the Centre and its work known; - establishing an advisory and evaluation committee that will review the centre's strategy and activities. During the project these issues were addressed successfully and in due time. Project results: The results achieved are as follows: A senior postdoctoral researcher was hired (Vassilis Niarchos, PhD Chicago, from Ecole Polytechnique, France) in order to boost the scientific activities of the centre and lead his own research. Niarchos established himself at Crete Centre for Theoretical Physics (CCTP), and performed as expected , producing important scientific work, guiding younger researchers both doctoral and postdoctoral, participating in the organization of the Centre, and organizing a very successful workshop in Heraklion at July 2012 . Several other young researchers were hired after a prominent international campaign which attracted about 400 qualified candidates in the field on two occasions. In the last year, the analogue of 6-7 man-months of postdoctoral fellowships was distributed to a few young researchers that were selected following again an international campaign. In the meantime a small computational facility was created in order to accommodate the numerical work done by centre members. The hosting infrastructure was also improved in order to handle the incoming researchers and visitors of the programme. In order to increase the competitiveness of the centre, links with nine prominent European institutions are cultivated. Numerous visits and common activities were planned and executed by centre members to these institutions of related meeting. A vigorous incoming visitor program was also instituted averaging one to two visitors per week that visit the Centre, give seminars on their work and interact with centre members. With 6 of the above institutions, namely LPTENS, APC, Arnold Sommerfeld Institute Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam, Theory group, Imperial College, London and Israel Centre of Excellence, specific agreements for cooperation on research and education were signed, setting the guidelines for further cooperation. Along a different line the opening of the centre to the physics community abroad was also cultivated by the organization of workshops and conferences. So far, a workshop has been organised in Heraklion focused on major open problems in cosmology linking theory to observations. Some of the top experts in the field attended and directed presentations and discussions. A conference was also organized in Kolymbari, Crete focusing on the broad subject of gauge theories and the structure of space-time. A second workshop was organized in Heraklion in July 2012, focusing on the gravity theories and their avatars. Finally, the centre co-organised the sixth Crete regional meeting on string theory in collaboration with the Israel Centre of Excellence, as well as the Sixth Aegean School that focused in quantum gravity and quantum cosmology. All were very successful events. An evaluation and advisory committee was established from three prominent scientists of the field The scientists visited the centre in 2009, at the beginning steps of the project and assessed various aspects of the centre and its strategy. The committee visited again the centre in July 2012 and assessed the implementation of the project, and the results. The first report and the final reports can be found at the centre website. Overall all the objectives of the project were achieved to a superlative degree. Potential impact: The final results were presented before. The potentials impacts are the following: 1. An important enhancement of the capacity of the CCTP to do cutting-edge research at a level comparable with high quality Universities in the EU and elsewhere. 2. An important enhancement in the visibility of the Centre vis a vis the scientific community. In particular CCTP has the ability now to attract top researchers from abroad, to come and do research at the centre. 3. An important enhancement in the organization of the centre and its services that compensate the complete non-man land that exists in Greece when it comes to hosting long- term foreign researchers. This structure has been diffused to the whole of the University of Crete. 4. An important enhancement of the outreach activities of the centre, geared towards high-school students, their teachers and the public at large. Such results put CCTP a model institutions in the country and provide a visible benchmark for institutions locally and nationwide, especially in a period where the country is suffering from many serious problems. List of websites: http://hep.physics.uoc.gr/cretehepcosmo/cretehepcosmo.shtml