EU-funded research is developing advanced modelling tools to help assess the full extent of the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans and how it is affecting the marine environment. The tools will help policymakers design targeted measures to address a big and growing issue.
How does the past inform the lives of children and young people? A global team of EU-funded researchers is examining this issue by assessing how stories from classical antiquity impact on popular culture and society. The project’s results and outputs will provide valuable resources for scholars and teachers.
The EU-funded SWEETOOLS project aims to improve our understanding of the role of sugars in human biology. Exploring optimised versions of biosynthesised proteins combined with chemically synthesised drugs could help the development of novel biomedicines and vaccines targeting, for example, influenza.
Headscarves, mosques and halal shops - many EU citizens are Muslims, but visible signs of their faith are often viewed with distrust. What some Europeans see as a right to express their identity, others regard as a threat to societal core values. Insights from ERC-funded research into emblematic controversies may help to find a way forward.
From wireless medical imaging devices to a camera for a telescope, an EU-funded cross-disciplinary network of physicists and engineers has advanced pioneering signal and data processing solutions while training the next generation of researchers in frontier areas of fundamental and applied science.
EU-funded researchers are carrying out a comprehensive analysis of urban food-sharing schemes, examining how they embrace modern technologies like the internet and smart phones. The worldwide study could help people living in cities make more sustainable use of food resources.
When war displaces large populations, refugees and their descendants form diasporas. They are far from home and spread across countries, but many remain involved in homeland politics. In a comparative study of diasporas and contested sovereignty from the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East, EU researchers reveal how diasporas can both mitigate and aggravate conflicts.
Comprehensive new databases of migration flows and policy data since World War II highlight how some policy choices have had unintended effects.
Catalysts are essential for a lot of chemical production processes, accelerating and enhancing chemical reactions to produce plastics, medicines and fuels more efficiently. Now, thanks to EU-funded research, catalysts are being made more precise and effective with potentially significant benefits for industry and the environment, not least through the development of ultra-clean fuels.
