Our cities are home to the vast majority of Europeans, but they are under pressure from the complexities of climate change and rapid urbanisation. The EU-funded CURE project leveraged the power of Earth Observation satellites to address these issues, aiming to create safer, more sustainable cities for EU citizens.
Increasing demand for data has pushed the GÉANT research and education network to its limits. In response, the EU-funded GN4-3N project undertook the most significant restructuring of the backbone network in a decade. As a result, citizens in Europe and beyond are benefiting from faster and more reliable connectivity.
When internet routers fail, the consequences are wide-ranging. The EU-funded SafeNet project has released the first publicly available open-source tool to detect and fix router bugs. This together with commercial software to optimise data centre networks are helping to protect the communications infrastructure European citizens rely on.
Earth Observation data is information about Earth’s physical, chemical and biological systems, often coming from satellites. The EU-funded openEO project developed a new interface to help users access, process and compare data from different providers. This is an important step towards allowing communication between platforms from different providers, benefiting researchers and citizens.
The development of autonomous driving systems is currently a focus of research for the automotive industry. An EU-funded project has moved work forward in this area by developing an advanced driver-assistance system that can work safely and reliably in all weathers.
Plug-and-play smart cities? An open source platform jointly developed by Japanese and EU-funded researchers is facilitating the deployment of smart city technologies in urban centres worldwide to tackle urban challenges ranging from air quality and energy use to traffic congestion and infrastructure upkeep.
When disaster strikes, it is crucial to locate and rescue trapped victims as quickly as possible. EU-funded research is helping to optimise the use of new technologies by urban search-and-rescue teams to minimise loss of life.
When an American researcher imagined a new way to bolster internet privacy (an online system built on 'mix-nets' that would block eavesdroppers from accessing information about who was communicating with whom, and what they were saying), his vision remained on the fringe for decades. But now, an EU-funded project has invented a way to use his idea to protect Europeans' data online.
EU-funded researchers have developed a hands-free, voice-controlled system for smart homes to facilitate and improve the day-to-day lives of seniors and the disabled, enabling them to operate appliances and go online without ever touching a device.
An EU-funded project has produced award-winning research on the way people naturally avoid arguments in conversation, with researchers hoping that better understanding could help social media platforms foster more positive discussions online.
