Luxembourg participation in European research and innovation projects

Luxembourg participation in European research and innovation projects

Research in Luxembourg – a remarkable breakthrough

By Georges BINGEN

Over the past few years, public investment in research in Luxembourg has taken an enormous step forward. In parallel, the quality of Luxembourg research has increased considerably. This is demonstrated by Luxembourg’s participation in European research programmes, which has almost doubled since 2007: 223 project participations in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) during 2007-2013, compared to 104 during FP6 in 2002-2007. The competition between research teams is such that simply being selected for funding is synonymous with excellence.

Participation in European research programmes has allowed the Grand Duchy’s research organisations to create or strengthen international collaborations, and thus to contribute to enhancing the recognition of their researchers.

International cooperation is a basic requirement for European funding, and represents the greatest benefit for participants.

The funding programmes, in place since 1984, have substantially stimulated international cooperation in the research field and enabled the best institutes to collaborate in order to achieve results they never could have obtained on their own at national level.

For a country such as Luxembourg with a young research sector, participation in this type of international collaborations has been essential. It was also crucial for other participants to recognise Luxembourg research institutes as equal partners providing added value to projects. The remarkable increase in the number of projects financed indicates that this quality test has been passed.

This brochure presents a range of projects co-funded by the European Union in which Luxembourg organisations participate. Both the quality of the research conducted and the results obtained hold much promise for the future.

As the European Commission’s representative in Luxembourg and with my background as a researcher, I would like to wish the Luxembourg institutes every success for the new European research framework programme, Horizon 2020, which will cover the period 2014-2020.

Georges Bingen is the European Commission’s representative in Luxembourg

AMST

Advanced Multi-physics Simulation Technology

Through the AMST project, the University of Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

Multi-physics – the great unknown A large number of engineering applications involve granular material or a particulate phase in combination with a gaseous or liquid phase. Applications for this kind of materials mix can be found in diverse fields such as the pharmaceutical industry, the food and processing industry, energy production or systems biology.

Everyday products such as coffee, corn flakes, nuts or fertiliser all depend on this field of knowledge known as multi-physics.

Common to these applications is that much of the underlying physics is unknown and, to date, processing is still dominated more by experience than solid knowledge. This is because controlled experiments often involve inaccessible or hostile environments, such as the combustion of hazardous waste. These “natural barriers” have so far prevented scientists from gaining deeper knowledge that could be used to improve design and production processes.

New software to predict multi-physics outcomes In order to overcome this obstacle, the AMST project is developing a new generation of software. AMST stands for Advanced Multi-physics Simulation Technology, a type of software that can be used for a wide range of such complex processes. Besides its versatile use, the software’s main advantage is its independence from any experimental conditions. Despite this, it has proven its ability to predict very detailed results. Scientists and engineers then analyse the data obtained in great detail in order to unveil the underlying physics of the processes involved. With these theoretical insights complementing the

AMST was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement 323526.

empirical knowledge, our understanding of multi-physics has been considerably broadened.

Improved industrial design thanks to software-backed insight There are many different application domains for the software. A first investigation deals with gasification of wood.

Figure 1: Predicted conversion rates of individual particles during pyrolysis in a packed bed in conjunction with the tar distribution in the gas phase

The predicted results include both the pyrolysis process of individual particles and the tar concentration in the gas as a response to the interaction between hot air and wood particles. These results enable the operation to be estimated for a particular reactor and allow access to details that could not have been gained through measurements alone. A detailed analysis of results enables engineers to improve reactor design for higher energy efficiency. Such reactors not only improve operating conditions, but also allow for a more sustainable use of resources.

A strong international partnership for innovative engineering These outstanding results were possible thanks to a partnership between Prof. Bernhard Peters as the principal investigator at the University of Luxembourg, and the German SME inuTech with its complementary expertise in designing software for multi-physics applications.

Strategic partners from the academic and industrial sectors, namely FLSmidth (Germany), the Lithuanian Energy Institute (Lithuania) and Paul Wurth (Luxembourg), also made significant contributions thanks to the expertise and industry-relevant applications that they brought on board. This enabled the AMST project to close a large technological gap for research and industry, and will contribute significantly to multi-physics research in Europe. It will make a strong impact on innovative engineering, sustainable inter-sectorial collaboration and, above all, improve European competitiveness.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: University of Luxembourg FP7 Project No.: 323526 € 444,216 Total costs: EU contribution: € 444,216 Duration: 48 months (01/01/2013-31/12/2016) Website: http://inutech.de/amst/

CASyM

Coordinating Action Systems Medicine – Implementation of Systems Medicine across Europe

Through the CASyM project, the University of Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

Establishing a systems medicine approach Imagine you are ill and see the doctor. After a brief examination and blood analysis, you receive an efficient, personalised treatment that is adjusted to both your personal physiological makeup and your lifestyle. What sounds like science fiction today could soon come closer to reality with the help of the FP7 project CASyM, funded by the European Union.

Within CASyM, clinicians, researchers, companies and funding organisations from across Europe work together to bring basic life science research and everyday clinical practice together. Their effort is based on the rapid development of a young scientific field called Systems Biology, which analyses and describes biological entities such as cells, organs and whole organisms in an all-encompassing or systems level.

CASyM’s ultimate goal is the efficient application of Systems Biology approaches in medical research and practice leading to what is called Systems Medicine. To achieve this goal, the CASyM partners are developing a road map, which is planned to guide the European efforts in establishing Systems Medicine for the benefit of public health. CASyM was started at the end of 2012 involving 22 international partners.

It is not a stand-alone project but aims to incorporate and complement existing Systems Medicine initiatives across Europe and to integrate new partners during its four-year funding period.

CASyM was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement 305033.

Translating innovation Within Luxembourg, two partners are involved in CASyM: the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg and the National Research Fund (FNR), Luxembourg’s national research funding body.

CASyM is not a conventional research project but deals with the challenges of coordinating the integration of different stakeholders’ interests such as: Teaching of and training in Systems Medicine to produce a new generation of medical doctors and scientists having interdisciplinary thinking; Translation of innovation into devices, services and products usable in clinical practice by specifically engaging small and medium-sized enterprises; Triggering national funding bodies to develop proactive policies in support of a subsequent research and technology development phase; and Building and maintaining a solid networking structure among different stakeholder groups to disseminate broadly the achievements of CASyM’s strategic concepts and results.

Systems Medicine actions at European level The LCSB and FNR are mainly involved in the latter three activities promoting best practice, innovation and the analysis of existing research programmes and setting up pan-European activities in Systems Medicine.

The extensive knowledge on Systems Biomedicine as one of the central pillars of Luxembourg’s research landscape is a key component that led to participation of the LCSB as a founding partner of CASyM. Luxembourg is in fact one of the few countries in Europe that already have a scientific programme on Systems Medicine in place. Through CASyM, the Grand Duchy benefits from gaining visibility and helping shape the future direction of the European efforts in the field of Systems Medicine. What is a central goal of the CASyM project for the whole of Europe is already taking place for the partners within the project: in addition to discussing the scientific and clinical challenges of Systems Medicine, exchange about common funding schemes is taking place; here, Luxembourg is recognised as a specifically active and ambitious player in Systems Medicine.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: University of Luxembourg FP7 Project No.: 305033 € 204,645 Total costs: EU contribution: € 180,707 Duration: 48 months (01/11/2012-31/10/2016) Website: www.casym.eu

CONTRAST

An individually adaptable, BNCI-based, remote controlled Cognitive Enhancement Training for successful rehabilitation after stroke including home support and monitoring

Through the CONTRAST project, the University of Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

Regaining autonomy after a stroke – a major health challenge Stroke is the most common neurological disease. It is also the most common cause of life-long impairment in adulthood and of institutionalisation, implying a change from a self-determined, independent life to extensive or complete dependence on others. The CONTRAST project aims to bridge the gap between the institutional rehabilitation and the continuous training and monitoring of the impaired function and health parameters at home for stroke patients.

The incidence of stroke increases with age, and from age 55 to beyond 85 in men and 65 to beyond 85 in women, the incidence increases proportionately with every decade of age. In the year 2000, 16% of Germany’s population was older than 65. Due to demographic changes, this percentage is expected to rise to 33% by the year 2030. These figures are similar in other western European countries and pose a challenge to all health systems and institutional care. It is thus evident that improving daily functioning after stroke, which includes the improvement of cognitive functions and the monitoring of health and social parameters, is a timely and critical task. These improvements will help stroke patients enjoy a life that is as independent as possible in their home environments.

After a stroke, most patients are confronted with two important types of impairment. Firstly, they may experience severe cognitive problems, such as difficulties with attention, memory, language, learning, reasoning, problem solving or decision-making; and secondly, they may have to deal with severe motor impairment.

Both aspects may increase their dependence on other people, prompting feelings of lost autonomy and helplessness, and this often accelerates the development of depression. Early interventions to maintain or restore independence, which is linked to better well-being and overall management of daily life, is therefore of paramount importance.

Providing efficient and innovative rehabilitation at home Unfortunately, a huge gap exists between institutionalised rehabilitation and management of strokeaffected people in their home environments. Rehabilitation efforts mostly terminate abruptly when patients are discharged from hospitals, and so do efforts to monitor any changes in motor and cognitive functions, daily life activities in social integration, health parameters (e.g. heart rate, blood pressure) and quality of life.

CONTRAST bridges this gap by developing easy-to-use auto-adaptive human-machine interfaces (HCI) for better cognitive function and psychological well-being, which can be used in the sub-acute rehabilitation phase and at the patients’ home. This is achieved by so-called neurofeedback training. Neurofeedback training involves the recording of the neuronal activity of the brain with EEG (electroencephalography) and feeding it back to the user in real time. This allows a person to learn how to alter their EEG, which then can improve cognitive functioning. Training modules are tailored to the individual and remote data processing and support systems are now designed to allow for continuous monitoring of health parameters to evaluate individual progress and for shared patient-expert decision-making.

CONTRAST’s core interventions to improve the recovery after stroke are training modules, which address attention and memory. Nevertheless, psychological well-being is also an important target of intervention, since depression is frequent after stroke and hampers cognitive functions and functioning in daily life.

Therefore, CONTRAST provides accurate, adaptive, individually tailored interventions to improve both cognitive functions and affective states.

An inter-disciplinary project consortium CONTRAST is a collaborative scientific project supported by the European Union for the “Cognitive Enhancement Training for Successful Rehabilitation After Stroke”. Consortium partners include academic and clinical experts from disciplines such as clinical psychology, neuropsychology, neurology and psychophysiology. By bringing together a multidisciplinary team including universities, companies, hospitals, rehabilitation centres and user groups, CONTRAST combines the expertise from all relevant stake-holders, i.e. academics, clinicians and patient organisations.

The members of the team are uniquely qualified to achieve the aims of this project as they have long-standing expertise in key research areas such as neuropsychological assessment, bio- and neurofeedback, cognitive training with patients after stroke, telemonitoring, supervision, home support, product development and dissemination practice, which are necessary for the success of CONTRAST. In addition, they represent a cross-section of EU countries with partners in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Spain and Italy. This ensures input from countries with different healthcare systems, which will help to contribute to a more harmonised, cutting-edge approach to rehabilitation after stroke.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: University of Luxembourg FP7 Project No.: 287320 € 628,073 Total costs: EU contribution: € 472,654 Duration: 36 months (01/11/2011-31/10/2014) Website: www.contrast-project.eu

COPHES (FP7) and DEMOCOPHES (LIFE+) COPHES - European coordination action on human biomonitoring DEMOCOPHES - Demonstration of a study to coordinate and perform human biomonitoring on a European scale

Through the COPHES project, CRP Gabriel Lippmann has benefited from European research funding.

Comparing biomarkers across Europe In our daily lives, we are constantly exposed to chemical substances. Thanks to human biomonitoring (HBM), we can assess whether and to what extent these substances enter our bodies. By measuring the concentration of chemicals in body fluids or tissues, biomonitoring can provide valuable information on environmental health effects and, in some cases, even help address potential health risks. The DEMOCOPHES project makes it possible to compare specific biomarkers in 17 European countries.

In the FP7-funded project COPHES, “Consortium to Perform Human Biomonitoring on a European Scale”, a common European approach for human biomonitoring surveys was developed that was tested for its feasibility in the Life+ funded project DEMOCOPHES in 17 European countries. DEMOCOPHES looked at biomarkers for mercury, cadmium and phthalates as well as environmental tobacco smoke in human hair and urine. Luxembourg was one of six countries that also measured bisphenol A. The chemicals were chosen because it is important to understand how much we are exposed to them in our daily lives. The information can help us understand patterns of exposure and reduce it where necessary. The participating institutions produced data on the distribution of specific biomarkers and related lifestyle data among defined study populations which, for the first time, are comparable on a European scale. These comparable data are an important step towards European reference values.

Unique Luxembourg participation The Luxembourg participation in the two sister projects was unique among the participating countries since it comprised a public research centre (CRP – Gabriel Lippmann), a state laboratory (Laboratoire National de Santé, LNS) and an NGO (Initiativ Lievensufank – IL). The Environment and Agrobiotechnologies (EVA) department of CRP – Gabriel Lippmann participated in both projects and was responsible for coordination, method development, statistics and reporting. LNS analysed the hair and

LIFE Project No.: LIFE09 ENV/BE/000410 COPHES was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement No. 244237.

urine samples from 60 mother-child pairs for mercury respectively for cadmium, creatinine and cotinine.

The Analytical chemistry Platform of EVA performed the analysis of the urine samples for bisphenol A, parabens and triclosan. IL was responsible for the field work. An additional asset in Luxembourg was the interest in these studies expressed by the Minister of Health, Mars Di Bartolomeo: “I can ensure the political interest in performing HBM studies on a national scale in Luxembourg also in the future.”

Cohort and quality control The study covered children aged 6-11 years and their mothers aged 45 years and under. Fieldworkers collected hair and urine samples from a total of 120 volunteers. Mothers provided details on their living environment, nutrition, smoking behaviour, and other information that could help to explain the levels of the biomarkers measured in hair and urine.

“Organising the field work was demanding. Our field workers had to show a lot of flexibility to make appointments when the mother-child pairs were available at home for the extensive interviews and sample collection. The key to success was that we had no drop-outs or refusals to participate,” says Maryse Arendt at IL who coordinated the field work in Luxembourg.

The laboratories analysing the samples were selected through a strict quality assurance process.

Statistical analysis and interpretation of the results was performed in each country as well as at EU level.

Results In Luxembourg, the results were presented to the participants in a workshop in the presence of the Minister of Health. During the project period, broad press attention raised the awareness of the general public for human biomonitoring. Overall, no biomarker values measured in samples from Luxembourg exceeded established health guidance values for any of the biomarkers.

On a larger scale, DEMOCOPHES mercury results from all of Europe were used in a publication issued in January 2013. The monetary benefits of controlling mercury pollution were estimated to be €8 to 9 billion per year for the entire EU. “When we started we had no idea where this endeavour would lead us,” says Arno Gutleb, project coordinator in Luxembourg, “but looking back we have achieved a lot in respect of human biomonitoring.

We have also built up trust between the persons and institutions involved in Luxembourg.”

Now that the feasibility of an EU-harmonised approach has been demonstrated, policy-makers can start to envisage a European survey programme using the lessons learned.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: Centre de Recherche Public Gabriel Lippmann FP7 Project No.: 244237 € 29,383 Total costs: EU contribution: € 24,000 Duration: 36 months (01/12/2009-30/11/2012) www.eu-hbm.info Website:

CUbRIK

Human-enhanced time-aware multimedia search

Through the CUBRIK project, CVCE has benefited from European research funding.

Searching in the age of multimedia infobesity: when human and social intelligence works hand in hand with computational power In today’s society we are surrounded by a vast sea of information — we find ourselves constantly bombarded by a bewildering array of messages via different platforms from media organisations, advertising agencies, and even from our friends and families. The ability to search for specific information amongst image, video and audio material is therefore becoming crucial for many industrial and social activities. The CUbRIK project provides an open solution that combines human intelligence and machine processing capabilities to offer new prospects for multimedia search in the digital era.

Today’s search engines are powerful, complex tools but they are monolithic, offering no possibility for technology and content providers or applications integrators to design and deploy tailor-made solutions that generate relevant results at a reasonable cost and in an environment that promotes reuse and economies of scale. The CUbRIK project, which is the culmination of almost ten years of research, aims to develop an entirely new category of products. As the project’s scientific leaders are fond of saying: “The CUbRIK project follows in the footsteps of Stanley Kubrick, one of cinema’s most creative directors who was never afraid to challenge stereotypes, in that it aims to deliver real innovation to multimedia search.”

Complementary actions The project activities can be broken down into three complementary strands. The first one focuses on technological development. This aspect leverages scientific and technical progress in various areas, including architectures that can be used to harness human expertise and large quantities of content; multimodal search techniques; and the analysis of social and human data. To put it simply, CUbRIK allows you to build your own search engine using different components that you can put together like Lego bricks.

The CUbRIK project has received research funding from the European Union, grant FP7-287704.

The second strand integrates human and social aspects and aims to combine machine computing capabilities with human capabilities to enhance the precision of the results obtained. CUbRIK uses techniques such as crowdsourcing and microtasking to channel human sensitivity, rationality and cooperation skills within an architecture that draws on both processors and human brain cells.

The final, third strand is the deployment of a relevant marketing strategy. The marketing strategy developed for CUbRIK involves creating an open space where innovators can test the features of the system and confirm the relevance of the combined use of machine, human and social data. Communities of practice will be set up to enable external players to develop multimedia search and extraction applications.

External contributors from various spheres, including search application developers, content owners, technology providers, software integrators, social and community network managers, researchers and SMEs, will be invited to start testing the platform.

CUbRIK has developed two applications that showcase the platform’s capabilities and illustrate the generative power of the concepts implemented within the project. The first application is geared towards research in history and digital humanities; the second is aimed at the world of fashion.

Building the social graph of European integration history through audiovisual archives Historical research has traditionally focused on mainly text-based primary or secondary sources. But with the widespread adoption of new information and communication technologies, images and videos are becoming increasingly important sources for the humanities. CUbRIK has developed an application within the field of European integration history that can be used to explore the relationships between political figures whose faces appear together in a broad corpus of audiovisual material. This application combines automatic face recognition with interaction and validation tools involving groups of experts. As Dr Lars Wieneke, a researcher in CVCE’s Digital Humanities Lab, explains: “This is a heuristic tool which will be built up through the contributions made by its users — it does not impose a preconceived reality.”

Helping European SMEs spot fashion trends The fashion world is always on the lookout for new ideas and innovations that can be used to develop new products or launch new collections. CUbRIK has developed a fashion-based application that will allow garment producers and distributors to engage in a permanent dialogue with their clients so that they can identify their preferences and pinpoint the latest market trends by analysing interactions on social media. The project provides small and medium-sized companies with tools that were previously only available to larger-scale enterprises. Companies can also use the application to launch open innovation processes with their clients so that they can work together to develop new trends.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) FP7 Project No.: 287704 € 314,480 Total costs: EU contribution: € 250,560 Duration: 36 months (01/10/2011 - 30/09/2014) Website: www.cubrikproject.eu

DECanBio

Novel MS-based strategies to Discover and Evaluate Cancer Biomarkers in urine: Application to Diagnosis of Bladder Cancer

Through the DECanBio project, CRP-SantĂŠ has benefited from European research funding.

Defining biomarkers to spot bladder cancer The European FP7 project DECanBio brought together a consortium of clinicians and researchers in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics to identify and validate biomarkers that hint at a recurring bladder cancer. The Centre de Recherche de la SantĂŠ (CRP-SantĂŠ) joined forces with researchers and clinicians from France, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, and Germany to develop a simple test to spot this.

Bladder cancer is a common cancer in Western Europe, and although in general treatments are initially quite effective, there is a very high recurrence rate (some 50% of the patients may develop a new cancer in the two years following the treatment). To detect patients with a high recurrence potential, the development of a simple diagnostics test that can be performed routinely using urine samples instead of periodical cystoscopy would constitute a major benefit for the patients. It would also have a positive effect on the overall costs of the treatment.

Identifying biomarkers In this context, the project aimed in the first phase to perform an extensive discovery study including a genomics approach of bladder cancer tissue samples and a proteomic analysis of urine samples of patients diagnosed with bladder cancer in different stages and the corresponding controls. In addition, extensive literature mining was performed to include the relevant information available for this disease.

The combined results of these investigations resulted in an extended list of nearly two hundred candidate proteins that represented the basis of the verification studies performed in Luxembourg.

DECanBio was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement 201333.

The Luxembourg Proteomics Clinical Center (LCP) is headed by Bruno Domon. Together with a group of scientists, Professor Domon was intensively involved in the second phase of the project to validate the discovery results for potential routine clinical tests, i.e. to detect proteins differentially expressed in tissue samples. The hypothesis is that such proteins will be shed from the bladder tumour into the urine, and thus be detectable in urine samples. Major efforts were devoted to design mass spectrometry based assays to measure peptides representative of the proteins of interest and hence could be used as biomarkers.

Collaboration with the private sector In brief, the Luxembourg Proteomics Center has developed a platform based on mass spectrometry, an analytical technique that allows precise quantifying of molecules in complex biological samples. The laboratory has built expertise in this field, leveraging recent technology developments which are based on high-resolution instruments. Through a collaboration with the company ThermoFisher, one of the world leaders in bio-analytics, the centre had early access to these technologies, which has allowed the implementation of clinical applications such as measuring protein biomarkers in urine samples. LCP has a well-established collaboration with ThermoFisher Scientific in Bremen (Germany) and San Jose (USA) with the aim of applying new mass spectrometry techniques to clinical applications.

The European project on bladder cancer has resulted in determining over forty differentially expressed proteins, which have been examined in a study to define a small panel of markers (ideally 5 or 6) that could be used routinely in clinical practice.

This last step is still on-going as is the final assay, and its approval as a diagnostic test needs extensive validation in a large population to assess its specificity and selectivity. Such a study has to be part of a follow-up project to valorise the findings of a pure research programme. However, the practical implementation of clinical tests requires a large-scale study and prior regulatory approval. Such largescale follow-up projects could typically be conducted in collaboration with industrial partners such as diagnostics companies, or with publicly funded EU projects.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: Centre de Recherche Public de la Santé FP7 Project No.: 20133 Total costs: € 528,780 EU contribution: € 399,600 Duration: 53 months (01/03/2008 - 31/07/2012) Website: www.decanbio.eu

DECIDE

Diagnostic Enhancement of Confidence by an International Distributed Environment

Through the DECIDE project, Alzheimer Europe has benefited from European research funding.

Enabling earlier diagnosis of dementia DECIDE stands for “Diagnostic Enhancement of Confidence by an International Distributed Environment”. This FP7 project brought together 13 partners from five European countries, with the Italian GARR Institute as leading partner. Its aim was to develop and launch an e-service that allows the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

From the end-user perspective, the main advantages of the service developed by DECIDE are its reliability and user-friendliness. The treating physician needs only a computer with a web connection and a standard Internet browser to use the service. This is possible thanks to the so-called grid and cloud computational resources made available by the European Grid Initiative (EGI) and the high-bandwidth network connectivity provided by the European GEANT network, as well as other national research and higher education networks.

Comparing scans to thousands of cases in a matter of minutes The resources developed by this project fit into the everyday routine of doctors attending to patients affected by Alzheimer’s disease. To give a simple illustration, a neurologist can upload a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan of a patient who is showing signs of mild cognitive impairment. The DECIDE system then compares this scan with thousands of existing images in the system. Less than half an hour later, the neurologist receives a report comparing dozens of indicators of dementia within the scan. The physician is then able to make a more timely and accurate diagnosis than would have been

DECIDE was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement RI-261593.

possible without this service. Patients also benefit, as early diagnosis means earlier access to therapy, including more appropriate inclusion in clinical trials.

Principal Investigator Dr Fulvio Galeazzi comments: “DECIDE enables a physician at any remote hospital to analyse an MRI or a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan in a few minutes, whereas the same task on a single computer might take weeks or months.”

Alzheimer Europe – connecting science and society Even though Luxembourg-based Alzheimer Europe did not contribute to the scientific development per se, its equally important role was to communicate the project outcomes to relevant parties in society. It is important to patients with Alzheimer’s disease and to their caregivers and families to learn about new treatment methods in their domain and to have access to this crucial information in a language they can understand. But science communication and the dissemination of research results are also endeavours close to the European policymakers’ hearts.

Thanks to the contribution of project partners such as Alzheimer Europe, a wider non-scientific audience can be reached. Jean Georges, Executive Director of Alzheimer Europe, says: “We are pleased that our participation in FP7 projects has provided a new link between the scientists who seek a better understanding of dementia and the people who live with Alzheimer’s disease and all other forms of dementia.”

DECIDE to set the scene for a wider commercial roll-out Even though DECIDE ended in March 2013, the service will continue to operate. However, a proven track record is often needed by the medical community before it embraces a new technology such as DECIDE. Therefore, a commercial roll-out would now require a follow-up project. The Italian Ministry of Health has already approved funding for several such follow-up projects involving DECIDE technology. In addition, a group of leading European memory clinics has been approached as potential DECIDE users and the use of the service in other FP7 projects is also being studied.

Alzheimer Europe is also involved in other EU-funded projects in the field of dementia and neurodegenerative diseases, such as NILVAD and PACE, two FP7 projects, PharmaCog, EMIF and AETIONOMY, all funded under the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: Alzheimer Europe FP7 Project No.: 261593 € 94,680 Total costs: EU contribution: € 84,423 Duration: 30 months (01/01/2011-30/06/2013) Website: www.eu-decide.eu

DIAMONDS

Development and Industrial Application of Multi-Domain-Security Testing Technologies

Through the DIAMONDS project, itrust consulting has benefited from European research funding.

Developing technologies for IT security testing Over 90% of software security incidents are caused by attackers exploiting known software defects. The DIAMONDS project was focused on addressing the increasing need to develop efficient and automated techniques and tools for systematic testing of highly secure IT systems in various fields such as banking, transport and telecommunication. The project was part of the ITEA2 programme and involved industrial and research partners from six different European countries, including Luxembourg-based itrust consulting.

One method for evaluating computing and network security used in the DIAMONDS project was penetration testing, or pentesting, which is based on simulating an external or internal software attack.

“The DIAMONDS project allowed itrust to hire its first researcher and expert in pentesting in 2011,” explains Carlo Harpes, itrust’s managing director and DIAMONDS project manager. “His mission was to develop tools for collecting and analysing malware and accelerating penetration tests, and finally to design a security management tool.” The scale of activity has expanded since the launch of the project, and today itrust’s Pentesting Team consists of six people and is expecting to have a turnover of €450,000 in 2013.

New security tools From November 2010 to autumn 2013, itrust spent a total of €305,000 on the research performed within DIAMONDS. 60% of these costs were funded by the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy

DIAMONDS

and Foreign Trade. The company developed an innovative information sharing platform called ISIS (Information Security Improvement System) whose aim is to improve risk analysis and to measure the maturity of security by integrating test results in the risk assessment. DIAMONDS also enabled itrust to develop new ethical pentesting methodologies and implement new features in its pentesting tool TRICK Tester. Thanks to these developments, certain tasks can now be automated and performed without the physical presence of a pentester.

In addition, itrust designed an efficient tool for reverse engineering called malwasm, which allows the analysis of unknown codes. “By using malwasm, clients get a view of the malware their systems have been infected with,” explains Stéphane Emma, who developed this open source tool. “The tool enables clients to look at a malware in the same way as a film with a video player; they can go forwards and backwards in the execution and discover the criminal activity which is generally well-hidden among innocent computer operations.”

“The importance of participating in research and development projects is evident, as many of the tools and techniques developed in projects such as DIAMONDS are now used for providing services to itrust’s customers,” says Matthieu Aubigny, itrust’s head of research and development. “To conduct efficient malware research, we need a set of samples to analyse. As this data is the key knowledge of all antivirus tools, the providers don’t make samples available for researchers. DIAMONDS made it possible for us to collect 3 million malware samples in 3 months and make them available for researchers via the website malware.lu.”

Luxembourg’s first private CERT The methods developed within DIAMONDS gave itrust the possibility to establish the first private Computer Security Incident Response Team in Luxembourg (CSIRT, synonym for CERT). As a result, the company’s service Malware.lu CERT is operable and assists clients from the private and governmental sectors that have been attacked by malware.

“Malware.lu CERT has been listed as ‘trusted introducer’, which means that other CERTs trust us to share information on attacks. In addition to incident response, we offer an On-Demand Malware Analysis Service (ODMAS), reverse engineering and malware analysis training,” Paul Rascagnères, Service Manager of malware.lu CERT, concludes.

The ITEA2 programme is part of EUREKA, a European intergovernmental initiative launched in 1985 that supports research and technological development (R&D) projects. By promoting R&D projects run by enterprises in transnational collaboration in all technology areas, EUREKA aims to strengthen the productivity and competitiveness of European industry.

Participant: itrust consulting Project No.: ITEA 2 Call 4 09018 Total costs (for participant): € 305,000 National contribution (to participant): € 183,000 Duration: 32 months (01/10/2010-31/05/2013) Website: www.itea2-diamonds.org

ENERCOM

Polygeneration of energy, fuels and fertilisers from biomass residues and sewage sludge

Through the ENERCOM project, Soil-Concept SA has benefited from European research funding.

Treating sewage sludge intelligently EU Member States have the obligation to collect and treat domestic and industrial wastewater from urban areas under the Urban Wastewater Directive. This mandatory treatment is very costly, thus it is important to re-use the by-products.

Soil-Concept has developed a range of innovative ways to deal with the problem of sewage sludge. From pioneering a new, improved process to produce compost out of sludge and green waste, the Diekirch-based company has recently progressed to taking the same base materials and using them to generate heat, electricity and biomass fuel pellets, in addition to compost.

Soil-Concept has always been a visionary leader in terms of innovative wastewater treatment solutions, pushing the limits of R&D further. One of Soil-Concept´s best-known R&D projects is named ENERCOM. The purpose of this ₏5.2 million project, with funding from the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7), was to develop a process in which multiple energy products would be created from sewage sludge and green waste. Known as polygeneration, the process would result in the production of electricity, thermal energy and solid fuels in the form of biomass pellets, as well as compost and fertiliser.

From sewage sludge to renewable energy Unknown long-term effects of substances such as PCB, AOX, heavy metals or hormones combined with high transport costs for compost have led to a growing rejection of this type of use. The end result of ENERCOM was to be a new, safe, environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to dispose of sewage sludge while maximising energy output and reducing greenhouse gases. The new gasification process converts organic materials into a synthetic gas called syngas. Syngas is itself a fuel and is more

ENERCOM was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement 218916.

efficient than combusting the original fuel, e.g. green waste. It is considered to be a form of renewable energy and can be used to generate electricity.

Partners from all over Europe gathered for this project: Soil-Concept and L.E.E from Luxembourg, IfaS and B.A.U.M from Germany, Kuhbier from Belgium and Kaunas Technological University from Lithuania. However, the main contribution came from Luxembourg since the different components of this innovative polygeneration demonstration plant are all situated in Diekirch at the composting site owned by Soil-Concept. Luxembourg engineering and environmental knowledge has been used in every single step of the project.

Spin-off creation An important output of ENERCOM was the creation of the spin-off company Synerco by three of its partners – BISANZ Anlagenbau GmbH, LEE s.àr.l. and Soil-Concept S.A. Synerco offers comprehensive project services in power plants using fuels that include biomass, refuse-derived fuel (RDF), coal and sewage sludge.

The main challenge in the beginning of this project concerned communication, but the consortium rapidly found solutions after a few meetings. “Organisation and exchange of information/data or results may sometimes require special attention when working with different partners because the dependence on each other’s performances is strong,” Thorsten Klaes of Soil-Concept explains.

A contribution to wastewater treatment in the EU The technology that has been developed during the project could potentially be applied to any sludge and organic matter treatment plant in the European Union. This would represent more than 3,000 existing plants and the equivalent of 70 TWh in terms of recoverable energy. Considering population growth worldwide, demand for energy-efficient wastewater treatment will increase steadily over the coming years. This flexible technology thus has a bright future ahead and can be implemented everywhere on existing systems as well as future ones.

At the EU level, the development and use of this technology for treating wastewater residues could be useful to help implement the EU regulatory framework on water (in particular the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, but also the Water Framework Directive).

Project developers are grateful to the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade as well as to Luxinnovation, the National Agency for Innovation and Research, for their support throughout the project. “ENERCOM will bring a greener future and the unconditional support of all actors was crucial for its completion,” Mr Klaes concludes.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: Soil-Concept S.A. FP7 Project No.: 218916 € 3,500,000 Total costs: EU contribution: € 1,200,000 Duration: 60 months (03/11/2008-02/11/2013) Website: www.soil-concept.lu

EpiPGX

Epilepsy Pharmacogenomics: delivering biomarkers for clinical use

Through the CONTRAST project, the University of Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

A vision of personalising medicine for epilepsy patients EpiPGX is a FP7-funded project that brings together clinical researchers, geneticists and computational biologists from leading centres across Europe to link genomics and treatment outcomes for patients suffering from epileptic seizures. The University of Luxembourg leads the projects’ efforts in systems biology modelling and data integration. The project, led by Prof. Sanjay Sisodiya from the University College London, UK and running over four years, aims to ultimately contribute to a personalised medicine strategy for epilepsy patients.

Seizures affect 3% of all people across their lifespan and are the most common severe neurological condition. Epilepsy is an umbrella term for a variety of conditions characterised by seizures. Besides brain lesions, tumours and traumatic head injury as causes there is also a strong genetic component involved.

Unfortunately, treatment options are still limited. While some patients respond immediately to available drugs, about one quarter are not helped by any medication and only face the adverse drug reactions, such as weight gain, liver dysfunctions or psychiatric conditions. Specific genes have been linked to adverse drug reactions in the form of a severe rash, a life-threating condition called Steven-Johnson-syndrome.

Unravelling the interactions of drugs and genetics EpiPGX aims to understand why only some patients can be treated successfully. It is therefore investigating how the genetic makeup influences the response to different existing medications. Unravelling the interactions of drugs and genetics could in the long run personalise treatment and reduce ill-effects of anti-epileptic drugs.

Although seizures occur frequently in the population, epilepsy is not one singular condition. It describes

a wide range of seizure types, frequency and severity, all of which are known to influence the therapeutic outcome. The FP7 framework is essential for achieving this goal since only such a pan-European project allows gathering a significant number of epilepsy patients. Combining efforts within EpiPGX, with its total funding volume of €6 million, allows statistically significant numbers of patients, for several patient groups, to be brought together.

Interpreting genome data EpiPGX has established common standards to extract the relevant data from existing clinical reports.

Patient data is shared in depersonalised form so that only the treating clinician knows the patient who has consented to the study.

The role of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), one of the interdisciplinary centres of the University of Luxembourg, is primarily in systems biology and the interpretation of the genome data. To build resources for the extract of 20,000 patient histories from a collection of existing records as well as new cases that serves as a front-end for the 12 participating clinical centres, a database was built in conjunction with DeCODE Genetics, a leading genetics company located in Reykjavik, Iceland. The LCSB is driving the design and oversees the data integration using the resources of its Bioinformatics Core, a team led by Dr Reinhard Schneider focusing on data management and analysis.

The real challenge lies in the interpretation: reading the sequence of a genome leads to a large number of variants between any two individuals – in the order of 30,000 positions between two unrelated Europeans.

A “disease gene” – a gross simplification anyway – cannot be identified by reading the sequence alone.

Identifying a singular gene leading to a change in e.g. drug metabolism requires the utilisation of knowledge from biomedical and biological literature, a special focus of the LCSB’s Bioinformatics Core.

An individual variant of a gene might predispose for a particular reaction to drug treatment but genes do not work alone. All genes interact in multiple ways in living organisms. These interactions might be disturbed and lead to conditions such as epilepsy. Detecting the combination of variants that influence each other is challenging on all levels from computation to experimental validation and methods for identifying them are in constant development which several groups at the LCSB contribute to with expert knowledge in statistics, machine learning and biological data analysis.

EpiPGX joins the forces of scientists and clinicians across Europe to enhance the treatments of epilepsy using modern genetics methods. Overcoming language differences between the scientific disciplines requires more effort than those between scientists from different countries. In the second year of the project, the consortium is well underway to perform the first analyses with the aggregated data.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: University of Luxembourg FP7 Project No.: 279062-2 € 398,336 Total costs: EU contribution: € 298,752 Duration: 48 months (01/11/2011-31/10/2015) Website: www.epipgx.eu

EUBORDERSCAPES

Bordering, Political Landscapes and Social Arenas: Potentials and Challenges of Evolving Border Concepts in a post-Cold War World

Through the EUBORDERSCAPES project, CEPS/INSTEAD has benefited from European research funding.

We can’t escape borders!

The EUBORDERSCAPES is a European research project co-financed by the EU’s 7th Framework Programme. Launched in June 2012, the project tracks and interprets conceptual change in the study of borders. The central objective is to analyse the evolving concept of borders in relation to fundamental social, economic, cultural and geopolitical transformations that have taken place in the past decades. The major research task lies in understanding the complex construction of borders and their impacts in Europe.

Researchers from CEPS/INSTEAD have the lead of a work package which focuses on the bordering and cross-border integration processes within cross-border urban regions. Eight additional partners are involved: the University of Eastern Finland, the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, the Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Gda sk, the Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning, the social science research laboratory Pacte (CNRS), and the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

This international research consortium aims to investigate how economic interactions and cross-border governance networks – that have emerged as a result of European integration and globalisation – have influenced political, social and institutional points of view, and concepts relative to borders in Europe and elsewhere.

Researching the influence of cross-border integration The principal objective of the work package led by CEPS/INSTEAD is to examine how the process of cross-border integration can modify our understanding of state borders and how it has affected notions of borders at different levels. On this basis, three main research questions have been identified. The first area

EUROBORDERSCAPES was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement n°290775.

of research concerns the significance of borders and deals with the attitudes and perceptions of local and regional actors involved in the territorial restructuring of twin cities and cross-border metropolitan regions.

The second area of research highlights the process of cross-border integration that occurs within the cross-border urban spaces under scrutiny. The objective is to analyse the forms and types of crossborder urban integration, and the drivers and hindrances that shape this process.

The third and final area of research seeks to tackle the functioning and the meaning of specific crossborder urban regimes at work in Europe. The aim is to develop a more integrated and comprehensive approach which gives room for the different dimensions analysed in the first two areas of research (i.e. the functions attributed to borders and the degree of integration) and investigates the modes of governance associated with these processes.

Research strategy A joint conceptual framework for all the case studies selected has been defined with input from the partners with their various disciplinary backgrounds. In order to conduct empirically grounded research on the aforementioned research questions, an eclectic and pragmatic working method has been adopted. It includes an inductive approach which uses qualitative methods (mainly through interviews with local and regional actors), and a deductive approach based on theoretical frameworks which aims to test hypotheses in order to validate the theoretical models. The combination of these two approaches will allow researchers to collectively frame their research and will facilitate the comparison of their results.

Using Luxembourg as a case study The cross-border metropolitan region of Luxembourg will be one of the twelve case studies selected in order to cover a diverse range of geopolitical contexts, various urban dimensions and different levels and nature of cross-border integration (see Map 1). In the first months of the project, the overall approach and research questions related to the work package have been presented and validated by all partners. The next points will consist of the preparation of the intensive research phase (design of the questionnaire and selection of the actors to be interviewed) and the fieldwork which will start in 2014.

Map 1 - Location of case studies

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: CEPS/INSTEAD FP7 Project No.: 290775 € 442,800 Total costs: EU contribution: € 343,500 Duration: 48 months (01/06/2012 - 01/05/2016) Website: www.euborderscapes.eu

EAwareness

Europeana Awareness

Through the EUROPEANA project, the Bibliothèque Nationale du Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

Facilitating access to digital works to boost the knowledge economy With 27 million works accessible free of charge on the web, Europeana is Europe’s major digital library. The National Library of Luxembourg is the main partner of this project in Luxembourg. By working on the issues of the rights and metadata related to these works, the BnL is facilitating the exchange of digital works and knowledge via this catalyst for innovation.

Access to digital knowledge is a key factor in enabling research and innovation to take shape more rapidly and effectively. The cultural sector is reinventing itself to take advantage of the new opportunities arising from these technological developments such as in “Digital Humanities”. However, to allow access to existing digital works on a European scale, certain obstacles need to be cleared. It was with this in mind that the European Commission set up the Europeana project, in which the National Library of Luxembourg (BnL) has been actively participating since 2009. Europeana is, in the eyes of the public, first and foremost a search engine which contains links to some 27 million digital works, available from thousands of Europeana institutions. These works include text, video and audio files, digital images, etc.

Digitising the heritage The BnL contributes to the resources of Europeana some 65,000 digital works from its digitisation projects. It has set up a vast digitisation programme, starting with newspapers and journals accessible on the web (www.eluxemburgensia.lu), on the iPad (“BnL-elux” application) and in the new discovery tool www.a-z.lu. The works provided by the various Luxembourg contributors, of whom the main ones apart from the BnL are the National Archives of Luxembourg, the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe, Plurio.net and the National Museum of Natural History, could pass the 100,000 mark this year.

Picture caption: the Minister for Culture, Octavie Modert, during the presentation of the Europeana Licensing Framework on 28 November 2011

Crossing the barriers “Europeana aims to be a catalyst for the cultural sector, helping it to adapt to the needs of the knowledge society and to innovate more”, says Patrick Peiffer, head of the Europeana project at the BnL. “Together with the network of European libraries, museums, archives, publishers, collective management organisms and IT companies, we are working to implement the Europeana strategy.”

The free exchange of metadata (data about works) related to the works is already a reality and Europeana is a leading “open data” project since mid-2012. But certain obstacles are still preventing digitisation as such of works in several European member states. These obstacles vary in size but the first and without doubt the biggest is copyright, not in its essence, but due to its slow adaptation to the new state of affairs created by the digitisation of our past, analogue, culture.

Rights questions The BnL, first through the Europeana Connect project, then by joining the Europeana Awareness project, has been working on the questions related to licenses and rights in works. “Until now, all the works available and accessible via Europeana come from the public domain. These are works in which copyright has expired. But a work does not come into the public domain until 70 years after the death of the author”, notes Mr Peiffer. This means that the majority of works produced in the 20th century cannot, today, be put online and risk being forgotten forever.

“For many works, the so-called ‘orphan works’, it is not possible to identify or locate the author or, if relevant, to identify or locate their heirs”, Mr Peiffer explains. The recent European Directive on orphan works will partially solve this problem, but it requires a diligent search for each and every work. For mass digitisation with millions of works, alternative mechanisms are therefore required and have been implemented in many countries, for example in France and Germany.

The new virtual frontiers The heart of the current project is to bring together in the same analytical grid the national transpositions of the Directive on orphan works and the alternative mechanisms for rights clearance for mass-digitisation, in order to analyse their potential for interoperability and possibly propose a system operating on a European scale. For the majority of alternative mechanisms are limited to national territories, endangering the very goal of Europeana.

Clearing the obstacles to the sharing of knowledge in a rational way, which respects the economic interests of the various parties, represents a sizeable challenge for the project. The history of the media is studded with technological revolutions which lead to new niches and adaptation of the legal framework. Achieving the objectives of Europeana is essential for the development of a Europe of knowledge, our shared digital future.

Photo: Bibliothèque nationale

The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) supported innovation activities, provided better access to finance and delivered business support services in the regions. It helped to develop the information society and promoted the increased use of renewable energies and energy efficiency. Covering the period from 2007 to 2013, CIP was endowed with an overall budget of € 3621 million.

Participant: Bibliothèque Nationale du Luxembourg Ministère de la Culture CIP Project No.: 297261 Total costs (for participant): € 93,096 EU contribution (to participant): € 74,476 36 months Duration: (01/01/2012-31/12/2014) Website: www.europeana.eu, www.pro.europeana.eu

FREESIC

Free Secure Interoperability Communications

Through the FREESIC project, the University of Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

Communication interoperability in crisis management In this modern day and age with all its complexities and inter-actions, emergency services and civil protection agencies across Europe are faced with growing challenges that require effective coordination and interoperability across several organisations when responding to and managing major incidents. Within this context, the aim of the FREESIC project was to create a solution that would allow highly secure and cost-effective interoperability between communication infrastructures all over Europe.

Interoperability barriers in relation to communication systems still exist at regional, national and European levels between Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) organisations. Such barriers often have an impact on the effectiveness of PPDR agency responses, especially during a crisis. They also limit the data flow in dayto-day operations where access to such shared information considerably improves situation awareness.

Coordination across borders and cultures The need for effective coordination and interoperability can cross state boundaries and involve the deployment of specialist resources from one country to another. To achieve optimum effectiveness between agencies, good communications systems that enable seamless and reliable information exchange are necessary. It is also important to take into account the fact that different agencies, whether in the same or in different countries, use different processes, procedures and protocols and also have different hierarchical governance structures, cultures and indeed organisational aims and objectives.

The FREESIC project has developed a cost-effective innovative solution addressing technological, organisational and legal issues. It builds effective and secure interoperability systems for emergency response organisations so that communications and information exchange can be carried out in the most challenging of circumstances. The solution has been elaborated by a transnational partnership involving organisations from the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and the United

FREESIC was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement 285205.

Kingdom. The University of Luxembourg has led the work in the fields of acceptance and scenario testing by users as well as dissemination and exploitation of the project results.

Developing a universal gateway The vision of the FREESIC partners was to develop a solution that would allow the interconnection of responder agency communication systems without major investment and close to zero operational costs, while making it possible to continue using existing communication systems. The solution developed is based on a universal gateway with customisable adapters that enable third party infrastructures to be connected to the FREESIC Unified Communication Network. End-users will handle network management tasks through the collaboration site based on web 2.0 components that allow users to configure their own interoperability attributes.

PPDR organisations connected to FREESIC will then be able to exchange required information with partner agencies regardless of state borders via the FREESIC Gateway. Agencies can even ask their system integrators to develop an adapter to the FREESIC Gateway that connect their own communication system with the FREESIC platform. Any kind of communication system can be easily integrated at minor costs.

Thanks to the FREESIC collaboration web, the interoperability platform is operated in a decentralised way based on web 2.0 principles. This is done in accordance with transparent interoperability rules enabling the interconnection of an organisation´s communication system.

Considering actual user behaviour to spur solution acceptance FREESIC focuses on potential end-user expectations, habits and constrains with a special emphasis on nontechnical barriers that first responder organisations in Europe face when attempting to set up interoperability with partner agencies. FREESIC project partners have consulted on such non-technical barriers with over 50 stakeholder organisations across 10 EU states. Furthermore, involvement with a wide range of end users has resulted in a series of suggested solutions to these identified barriers. This interaction also enables the user interface of the FREESIC collaboration web to be adapted to end-users’ expectations, habits and vocabulary, and provides an interoperability tool with which they can quickly become familiar.

The first FREESIC test and evaluation was conducted in Slovakia in May 2013. The first prototype was used as the main communication channel for first responders during a civil protection exercise called “FREESIC Nitra 2013”. The main task was to create near real conditions for emergency teams handling crisis situations. The FREESIC partners received feedback from real end-users and evaluated the developed communication platform.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: University of Luxembourg FP7 Project No.: 285205 € 595,200 Total costs: EU contribution: € 480,400 Duration: 30 months (01/02/2012-31/07/2014) Website: www.freesic.eu

FSI-HARVEST

Numerical Modelling of smart energy harvesting devices driven by flow-induced vibrations

Through the FSI-HARVEST project, the University of Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

Developing independent energy supply for micro-devices The aim of energy harvesting is to scavenge energy from the environment in order to power electrical devices, such as sensors placed at remote locations without external power supply. Targeted sensor applications include meteorological, geophysical and engineering monitoring instruments but also future medical devices operating inside the human body when electrical energy can be extracted from a surrounding flow – air, water, or even blood.

The project FSI-HARVEST is investigating a new class of “piezo-electric energy harvesting devices” for renewable energy resources. The research conducted by project coordinator Andreas Zilian at the University of Luxembourg is funded by an individual Career Integration Grant (CIG) from the European Commission’s Marie Curie programme. The project’s European dimension is based on existing as well as new collaborations with complementary research groups in France and Germany.

Mr Zilian moved his scientific activities to the University of Luxembourg in 2011. Prior to this, he established a research team in the field of Computational Mechanics at the University of Braunschweig in Germany, where he also contributed as Director and Dean of Studies of the international and interdisciplinary MSc programme “Computational Sciences in Engineering”.

FSI-HARVEST was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement PCIG11-GA-2012-322151.

Generating power with smart materials and clever interactions The galloping of bridges and cables or the flutter of aircraft wings generated by surrounding flows is what engineers call structural excitation. They have been striving to suppress these harmful movements in different ways. A dramatic example of the effects of so-called flow-induced vibrations is the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, which boosted modern research in aeroelasticity and general fluid-structure interaction.

The key idea of the smart devices developed in FSI-HARVEST is to invert the traditional ambition to avoid the potentially dangerous interaction of structure and the surrounding fluid, and instead harness the available flow energy through controlled aero/hydro-elasticity effects. In this way, potentially harmful fluctuations are used to provide independent power supply to small electrical devices.

Possible applications are numerous. They include micro electro-mechanical systems, monitoring sensors at remote locations or even in-vivo medical devices. With these devices being “smarter”, they depend less on local energy storage and also require less effort to maintain them.

Modelling and experimentation, complementing each other This energy converter technology simultaneously involves the interaction of the structure and the surrounding fluid, the electric charge accumulated in the material (piezo-elasticity) and a controlling electrical circuit. In order to understand the observable properties of such future devices and to increase their robustness and performance, the project will develop a mathematical and numerical model of the complex physical system and further use it for systematic computational analyses. Experimental investigations complement the simulation approach and are used to validate the mathematical model and the simulation framework.

These numerical and experimental investigations into the overall system enable scientists to determine the optimal design of these “smart energy harvesters” by taking into account electric power supply under varying exterior conditions. “Computer simulations of such complex physical systems allow us to look into details that are not directly available through experiments”, Dr Zilian explains. “They make it possible to identify and understand the phenomena involved which are necessary to optimise engineering designs.”

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: University of Luxembourg FP7 Project No.: 322151 € 500,000 Total costs: EU contribution: € 100,000 Duration: 48 months (01/09/2012-31/08/2016) Website: www.uni.lu

HeERO2 Harmonised eCall European Pilot – Phase 2

Through the HeERO2 project, POST Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

Developing a pan-European in-vehicle emergency call service eCall is a vehicle safety system that will automatically call 112, the EU’s single emergency number, in case of an accident. By transmitting a pre-defined set of data that includes the exact geographic location and vehicle type, the system ensures that emergency services arrive at the accident site faster. POST Luxembourg is one of the Luxembourg partners participating in the European Union funded project HeERO2, which aims to prepare, carry out, coordinate and test pan-European eCalls. eCall is a system that will allow your car to call the emergency services for you if you have an accident or even an incidence of ill health while driving. The in-vehicle emergency call can be generated either manually by the vehicle‘s occupants or automatically via the activation of in-vehicle sensors (such as the deployment of the car’s airbags). Once activated, the in-vehicle system establishes a voice connection directly with the relevant Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). At the same time, details about the car (type, possible number of passengers) and its GPS location will be sent to the PSAP operator who receives the voice call via a data connection.

A wide-range partnership eCall is developed within the framework of two consecutive European projects: HeERO1 and HeERO2.

The first phase, HeERO1, began in January 2011 with nine partners from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden who started to work on an interoperable and harmonised in-vehicle emergency call system.

Luxembourg joined the second phase of the HeERO project – HeERO2 – in January 2013. HeRO2 is scheduled to run until the end of 2014 and includes the roll-out of pilot tests across Europe in order to ensure the success of eCall when it goes live in January 2015. Partners from six additional countries – Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey – joined the second project phase.

Implementing eCall requires the collaboration of all the actors in the eCall chain: in-vehicle system

manufacturers, programmers, engineers, telecommunications operators and emergency services.

The Luxembourg project partners of the HeERO2 project are the national project coordinator, HITEC Luxembourg S.A., a public authority, the “Administration des Services de Secours”, a telecommunications service provider, POST Luxembourg, three vehicle electronics providers, Fujitsu TEN, NXP, FICOSA and ISMB who contributes to the testing of the localisation accuracy.

The initial preparation of the project, from its submission to the acceptance of Luxembourg as a project partner, was a joint effort between the project partners and the initiators of the HeERO project. It was completed with the help and support of Luxinnovation, Luxembourg’s National Agency for Innovation and Research.

Gearing up national networks to handle eCalls smoothly It is very important to test eCall in each country to ensure that the country specific environment is taken into account as well as the wider European aspects. POST Luxembourg has an important role to play in ensuring that the national network will be able to handle the unique format of eCalls so that their delivery can be ensured and we are upgrading our systems accordingly.

Integrating dangerous goods services In addition to the overall project objective, each participating country also has a specific area of eCall to consider and particular skills to bring to the project. Luxembourg is giving special attention to the handling of dangerous goods transportation and the integration of transporters. The Luxembourg partners are already working together with the European Space Agency (ESA) on another project called DG-Trac that establishes a tracking and tracing service for specific types of dangerous goods transports. Luxembourg plans to integrate this project into the HeERO2 eCall procedures to add heavy transport vehicles to the potential list of vehicles covered by eCall.

How the proposed eCall/DG-Trac integration will work For the test phase, several transporters and cars from HITEC Luxembourg and POST Luxembourg have been equipped with special IVS systems provided by Fujitsu TEN, NXP and FICOSA. Several field tests were planned where the eCall was simulated both automatically and manually by operating the in-car device controls.

Kate Yeadon from POST Luxembourg says: “At first we thought the tests would run smoothly as there didn’t seem to be that many parameters to manage. But this idea was quickly nipped in the bud! The testing showed the value of working together with all partners from inside and outside Luxembourg, as we were able to resolve unforeseeable issues more quickly as a team.”

The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) supported innovation activities, provided better access to finance and delivered business support services in the regions. It helped to develop the information society and promoted the increased use of renewable energies and energy efficiency. Covering the period from 2007 to 2013, CIP was endowed with an overall budget of € 3621 million.

Participant: POST Luxembourg FP7 Project No.: 325075 € 6,090,000 Total costs: EU contribution: € 3,000,000 24 months Duration: (01/01/2013-31/12/2014) www.heero-pilot.eu Website:

HNPS

Heterogeneous Networks for Public Safety

Through the HNPS project, HITEC Luxembourg has benefited from European and national research funding.

Integrating communication networks for public safety When a major disaster strikes, a number of public safety organisations need to intervene – the police, ambulance staff and the fire brigade, for example.

Generally, each organisation uses its own communication system. The aim of the HNPS project was to develop a heterogeneous network concept for future European Public Safety communications. This was based on the integration of different networks, including ad hoc deployable systems. The project consortium focused on the integration of existing communication systems, including professional mobile radio systems, and took the latest developments in the area of next-generation network architectures and network management into consideration.

“Although communication networks are available nearly everywhere, public safety organisations struggle with interoperability issues. This situation provided the initial motivation to begin the project,” explains Harold Linke, Manager Research & Technology Projects at HITEC Luxembourg. “In the case of a large emergency involving multiple participating organisations, it is very likely that these entities will use different communication technologies as well as services. This means that in a worst case scenario, they will not be able to communicate and/or work together.”

A public-private partnership to ensure innovative results When the HNPS project started in July 2008, 14 project partners from industry and public research teamed up to respond to this challenge. The consortium was led by HITEC Luxembourg S.A. and

Celtic-Plus is an industry-driven European research initiative to define, implement and provide public and private funding to common research projects in the area of telecommunications, new media, future Internet, and applications and services focusing on a new “Smart Connected World” paradigm. Celtic-Plus is a EUREKA ICT cluster and is part of the inter-governmental EUREKA network.

It is open to any type of company covering the Celtic-Plus research areas, large industry as well as small companies or universities and research organisations.

included partners from France, Germany and Spain as well as three additional Luxembourg partners: POST Luxembourg, Lion Systems and the Ministry of State – Government Communications Centre. The Luxembourg participants were supported by the Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade.

The heterogeneous network concept developed by the HNPS project allowed the rapid integration of available communication resources in the event of a crisis or disaster. It also supported the daily operations of public safety agencies by optimising resource allocation and providing a set of advanced digital services.

A “living lab” approach with the end-user in mind HNPS was conceived to be a user-centred project. This means that the project consortium organised five demonstrations, with four of them being public to present intermediary results to the end-user community and gather early feedback.

The main requirement for developing the project’s innovative concept was the integration of different solutions and networks. The project integrated multiple communication networks such as fixed radio networks (TETRAPOL, TETRA, WiFi, WiMAX, UMTS, and satellite communication for long distance connections with backhaul) as well as rapidly deployable networks for intervention sites (WiMAX, Wireless Meshed Network (WMN), and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN).

In addition, the project consortium developed new and integrated applications to enable end-users to communicate efficiently and to share information independently from their organisational entity. Solutions for video and image sharing and analysis were integrated and dedicated headquarter applications deployed. HITEC Luxembourg provided, for example, a web 2.0 portal solution for information sharing in a temporary headquarters and a mobile application to allow end-users in the field to gather and communicate essential information in near-to-real time.

“The project paved the way for new solutions, which are already, or will soon be, available to the European public safety community. The input of the HNPS project has been used in several public safety solutions, e.g. emergency.lu (www.emergency.lu) and Alpine Search and Rescue for Italy and Slovenia (AlpSAR – www.alpsar.eu)”, Mr Linke points out.

Excellence award HNPS was carried out within the framework of Celtic-Plus, an ICT “cluster” which belongs to the intergovernmental EUREKA network. The impressive project results were recognised when the consortium received the Celtic Excellence Award in Bronze in 2012, in recognition of its valuable contribution to the European public safety community.

Created in 1985, EUREKA is an intergovernmental organisation for marketdriven industrial research and development.

It coordinates national funding on innovation with the aim to boost European industrial productivity and competitiveness. Having passed EUREKA’s stringent assessment procedures, a project is conferred the wellknown EUREKA label.

Participant: Hitec Luxembourg SA Project No.: CP5-010 Total costs (for participant): € 779,217 EU contribution (to participant): € 441,000 Duration: 4 2 months

(01/07/2008 - 31/12/2011) Website: www.celtic-initiative.org

OUTSMART

Provisioning of urban/regional smart services and business models enabled by the Future Internet

Through the OUTSMART project, the University of Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

Developing Future Internet platforms for efficient supply in cities New ways of transmitting information over the Internet are appearing constantly: computers are becoming more powerful, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are widely used, and other objects – vehicles, building automation systems and factory equipment, for example – are also hooked up to the Internet. Wifi and cellular networks allow users to be connected to the network in a variety of places. While this leads to many advantages, such as the development of innovative “smart” services that are tailor-made to suit users’ needs and contexts, there are also severe shortcomings in terms of privacy, security, performance and reliability for the transmission of sometimes sensitive information over the Internet. The University of Luxembourg participated in the OUTSMART project in order to help develop a reliable framework for the Internet of the future.

The Future Internet (FI) context can best be summarised as “everything always connected everywhere”.

The Future Internet initiative deals with the design, evaluation and deployment of technologies in order to adapt the network to current and future needs arising from the Internet’s omnipresence.

Optimising supply and access in urban areas Within this context, the goal of the OUTSMART project was to harness the Future Internet by developing five innovation eco-systems. These eco-systems, covering smart transportation, waste management, water and sewage, street lighting and smart metering, will facilitate the creation of a wide range of pilot services and technologies that contribute to optimising supply and access to services and resources in urban areas.

The eco-system for waste management, for example, monitors fill level (and contents) of public waste

OUTSMART was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement 285038.

baskets. Its aim is to optimise routes of refuse collection vehicles, increase the general sense of duty for public cleanliness and raise citizens’ awareness by indicating overloaded waste baskets and “muck corners”. The aim of the water and sewage eco-system is to monitor water quality and sewers, including an early-warning system.

Intelligent street lighting and smart metering allows dynamic adaptations of the lighting depending on the presence of human beings and the level of darkness. These systems also include almost real-time monitoring and reporting of the energy consumption. The smart transportation eco-systems will compile all data on the current traffic situation in a city – including both public transport such as buses or trains and private vehicles – to help users choose the best paths to rapidly arrive at a destination and avoid being blocked in traffic jams.

The overall aim of these innovation eco-systems is to contribute to a more sustainable utility provision and, through increased efficiency, lower the strain on resources and on the environment. In order to develop such advanced services and technologies, an industry-driven approach works best, involving the whole value chain, from city authorities, utilities operators and ICT companies to academia. OUTSMART services and technologies are based on an open and standardised infrastructure as envisioned by the FI Private Public Partnership (FI PPP) and provided by a service framework designed to facilitate provisioning, development and access.

Security expertise from Luxembourg OUTSMART brought together a consortium of successful and innovative companies, research and academic institutions, end-user centric service providers and business experts from eight European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Serbia, Spain and the United Kingdom. An international team at the University of Luxembourg, headed by Prof. Dr Thomas Engel, contributed with its expertise in security and privacy handling in distributed environments to the OUTSMART innovation eco-systems.

The contribution of the Luxembourg team involved investigating domain management, as well as the dependability and trust requirements of the OUTSMART architecture, with a particular focus on identifying suitable Quality of Service (QoS) and security mechanisms. It developed a framework for analysing a large collection of network traffic by combining data mining techniques and cloud-based solutions (i.e.

Hadoop/Map-Reduce). The tool developed enables the real-time traffic of a real operator in Luxembourg to be analysed in order to figure out botnet communications.

Participation in the OUTSMART project has given the University of Luxembourg the opportunity to establish cooperations that set the scene for further innovative and promising EU projects.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: FP7 Project No.: Total costs: EU contribution: Duration: Website:

University of Luxembourg 285038 € 342,080 € 256,560 24 months (01/04/2011-31/03/2013) www.fi-ppp-outsmart.eu

QFT-2-MOT & 3-FOLDS

From Quantum Field Theory to Motives and 3-manifolds

Through the QFT-2-MOT & 3-FOLDS project, the University of Luxembourg has benefited from European research funding.

Arithmetical surprises from the quantum universe The classical notion of trajectory in physics has its foundation in common sense: the position and the velocity of an object can be predicted by computations and measured at a given time. As opposed to the classical universe, the behaviour of elementary particles is elusive. Only the probabilities of physical events can be predicted.

These probabilities are sums of all possible trajectories of the quantum system from the initial to the final state.

The Quantum Field Theory (QFT) aims to predict the probabilities of the interactions of elementary particles. Its predictions have been put through the test many times, and have come through unscathed.

Almost 50 years ago, QFT predicted the existence of the Higgs particle to explain why fundamental particles have mass. The CERN particle accelerator in Switzerland/France made headlines last year when it finally confirmed the existence of this particle.

Despite its very precise theoretical predictions that have been confirmed time and again in experiments, the mathematical aspects of QFT have been surprising researchers. The FP7 project “From QFT to motives and 3-manifolds�, in which the University of Luxembourg is involved, targets one of these intriguing mathematical problems arising from QFT.

QFT-2-MOT & 3-FOLDS was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) Marie Curie Actions under Grant Agreement PCIG11GA-2012-322154.

Some numbers are more equal than others, according to the quantum universe The numbers arising from the computations of probabilities in general are not particularly notable. They can be fractions of natural numbers or transcendental numbers, and their decimal representations can have any number of digits including infinity.

While considering the quantum events, however, the known computations in quantum field theory result in a very particular class of numbers, which are known as multiple -values. These numbers are of great interest in number theory. Even though they are transcendental in general, they are described by finite data, in other words, they are not as generic as transcendental numbers are expected to be.

The multiple -values are nested sums where arguments are integers.

A priori, there is no reason for obtaining these numbers. Their presence hints at new arithmetic structures of the quantum system that we were not aware of. Up until recent progress had been made with the project, it was not known whether these particular numbers, multiple -values, must always be present or whether it is just a coincidence for the computations that we are capable of realising today.

Geometry behind the numbers The area of a triangle whose base length and height are rational numbers can only be a rational number.

On the other hand, the area of a circle with the rational radius r is π r2, i.e., it must be a multiple of the most famous transcendental number, π = 3.1415926…

The “From QFT to motives and 3-manifolds” project investigates the geometry behind the elementary particle physics to uncover the mystery behind the persistence of multiple -values. The idea behind the solution to the puzzle is not more sophisticated than the elementary computations of the area of geometric shapes. Together with Professor Matilde Marcolli from Caltech, the project consortium has started an ambitious programme aimed at reformulating the problem in a suitable geometric setting. This approach proved successful in explaining the puzzle of numbers in the quantum universe.

The arithmetic properties investigated in the project suggest that the quantum universe has some additional symmetries that we cannot completely formulate yet. The advances in this research area, and this project in particular, represent interesting progress towards a better understanding of the quantum universe.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: University of Luxembourg FP7 Project No.: 322154 € 100,000 Total costs: EU contribution: € 100,000 Duration: 48 months (01/11/2012-31/10/2016) Website: www.uni.lu

STIMULATE

Sustainable e-mobility services for elderly people

Through the STIMULATE project, CRP Henri Tudor has benefited from European and national research funding.

New travel planning platform to meet the needs of seniors Elderly people enjoy taking trips but, owing to a loss of independence due to mobility or health constraints and apprehension about the use of new technologies, they can feel a lack of confidence when travelling. STIMULATE, an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) project initiated and coordinated by Dr Djamel Khadraoui at CRP Henri Tudor, has developed an online web platform that allows the elderly to plan their trips according to their individual constraints and preferences, and a complementary mobile application to provide assistance while on the move. Already tested by seniors on four group trips in different locations around Europe, the platform will soon be made available for wider use.

Complementary web and mobile multi-modal trip-planning services The platform consists of two parts: a web application for planning trips accessible via desktop computer and mobile devices, and a hybrid mobile application to provide assistance during travel. Three main travel packages, developed by project partner Cybercultus, are available: “Special offer”, which includes package offers, “Tailored travel”, which generates a customised offer based on criteria selected by users, and “Do it yourself”, a bespoke offer that allows elderly users to select a set of criteria and put together their entire holiday package. As Damien Nicolas, STIMULATE project manager at CRP Henri Tudor, explains, “STIMULATE provides a platform for booking holidays that takes into account seniors’ preferences and needs, helping them to feel comfortable while travelling.”

The hybrid mobile application developed by CRP Henri Tudor provides on-the-move travel assistance,

STIMULATE was funded by the European Commission within the Ambient Assistant Living Programme under Grant Agreement aal-2010-3-044.

including a daily schedule of activities and their descriptions, and real-time multi-modal route planning between activities, accommodation, and the nearest health services. This calculates the best route between two locations, combining appropriate forms of transport that can include car, public transport and/or walking, depending on the user’s mobility needs. In addition, users can call local emergency services directly from the application. “We applied our expertise to optimise multi-modal route planning, enabling the application to determine the best mix of transport options for seniors based on their individual mobility constraints,” Damien Nicolas explains further. Based on feedback from early users, the app will also provide extensive offline information and an easy-to-read user interface.

Providing tailored activity recommendations An important focus of the project was to develop a profile-based recommendation system. Activities offered should be interesting to users but, again, take into account their individual physical capabilities.

Four types of key criteria were identified: level of physical health, autonomy, vision and hearing. By matching different criteria contained in a user’s profile with criteria describing the difficulty level of activities, the system provides a list of suggested activities, ordered by degree of suitability for the individual.

However, the choice remains with the user. As Damien Nicolas emphasises, “It is important to avoid stigmatising seniors who face mobility or other constraints. We make recommendations by ranking the activities, but we still display the full list of options so that all users can freely choose which activities they want to do.”

Promising tool for Europe-wide travel planning Currently in the closing stages of the project, STIMULATE will organise a final pilot trip, this time in partnership with the Luxembourg seniors’ organisation RBS – Center fir Altersfroen A.s.b.l. The platform will be transferred to a service provider that will aggregate travel information from many sources, providing information on offers from different tour operators as well as details about different destinations, and act as a central point of contact during travel.

The senior travel market is large and growing, with over 33 million European travellers over 65 having made four or more overnight trips in 2011. Despite the recent proliferation of travel applications, STIMULATE is well positioned on the market by meeting the specific needs of seniors both before and during travel. STIMULATE will help to improve their travel experience by enabling them to be sure that their assistance, health and mobility needs will be met during their trip, giving them the peace of mind and confidence to flexibly explore their destination.

The Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme (AALJP) promotes market and user driven activity and funds applied projects that will be two to three years from market at project completion. Systematic involvement of end-users improves market acceptability.

The AAL Programme supports social, technological and business innovation for the benefit of older adults.

Participant: Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor € 1,748,019 Total costs: National contribution: € 572,000 Duration: 26 months (01/09/2011-31/10/2013) Website: www.tudor.lu/en/projects/stimulate www.stimulate-aal.eu

STORE

Sustaining access to Tissue and data from Radiobiological Experiments

Through the STORE project, IBBL has benefited from European research funding.

Sustaining access to tissue and data from radiobiological experiments In 2012, IBBL (Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg) participated in a European Seventh Framework (FP7) project that aimed to sustain access to tissue samples that were exposed to radioactivity. IBBL scientists assessed the robustness and reproducibility of laboratory methods that were proposed by the project’s consortium.

When combined with new genetic and molecular technologies, archives of data and biological tissue from radiation experiments carried out up to 60 years ago could provide new insights into the impact of radiation exposure on a person’s health. Over the last three years, a framework project supported by the European Union within the FP7 Euratom programme has set up an international platform to share data, biomaterials and methods from past, current and future radiobiological experiments. The project entitled STORE (for Sustaining access to Tissue and data frOm Radiobiological Experiments) is coordinated by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (Bfs) in Germany and involved 8 European partners, including IBBL (Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg).

An ideal biobanking partner This was the first project funded by the European Commission for which the recently established biobank was selected. A fact that pleased Catherine Larue, PhD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IBBL, who comments: “It is fantastic to have been part of a European-wide project and we hope to become a partner in many other framework programmes in the future. Luxembourg’s location in the heart of Europe

STORE was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement 232628.

and its growing reputation as a hub for biomedical research should further attract international attention, collaboration and funding. I believe that our advanced and integrated infrastructure as well as our high quality services and staff make us an ideal biobanking partner for EU research consortia.”

Validation is key for consortium standard operating procedures (SOPs) Apart from setting up infrastructure for the physical storage of samples and data, the STORE consortium also developed the necessary standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the evaluation of the archived tissue samples. This includes protocols for the isolation of DNA, RNA and proteins from tissue samples stored in the form of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks.

As a partner of this FP7 project, the IBBL Biospecimen Research team has tested and verified all methods proposed by the STORE consortium for the isolation of DNA, RNA and proteins from FFPE tissue. The team used tissue samples provided by STORE and IBBL’s own reference material to assess critical factors such as inter-operator reproducibility and robustness of the methods with regards to fixation, source and age of the sample. Olga Kofanova, PhD, the Biospecimen Research Scientist at IBBL who led the work, comments on the results: “The validation work demonstrated that good quality RNA, DNA and proteins can be recovered from FFPE tissue and the STORE SOPs are reproducible and robust.”

In addition to confirming the suitability of the consortium’s methods, the results support the use of quality control methods by biobanks to assess the quality of molecular derivatives extracted from such tissue samples. All validated methods are now proposed by the store consortium as standard SOPs which can be used by the international biobanking community.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg (IBBL) FP7 Project No.: 232628 Total costs: € 1,309,223 EU contribution: € 983,987 Duration: 42 months (01/04/2009 – 30/09/2012) www.rbstore.eu Website:

TCMCANCER

Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Postgenomic era: identifying lead therapeutic compounds against cancer

Through the TCMCANCER project, CRP-Santé has benefited from European research funding.

Using novel plant compounds for cancer treatment Even though advanced therapies are available, cancer is still one of the leading causes of death in humans. The biggest concerns with current therapies include serious side effects the drugs cause in the human body as well as drug resistance which often appears upon prolonged treatment. The main aim of the TCMCANCER project was to identify and characterise novel lead therapeutic compounds against cancer based on current knowledge from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Most modern medicines are derived from plant compounds, and plants are still considered to be an inexhaustible source of bioactive molecules that can be used to treat human diseases. In the TCMCANCER project, CRP-Santé joined forces with three research laboratories from Europe and China: the University of Bergen, Norway, the Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine (affiliated with the Second Military Medical University) in Shanghai and the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development Beijing (affiliated with Peking Union Medical College). The partners were selected for their complementary expertise in molecular and cell biology, plant biochemistry, pharmacology, and oncology.

The project, which was coordinated by CRP-Santé, was supported by the International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) of FP7.

The partners screened over 900 purified compounds from medicinal plants for anti-cancer activities and to purify and identify additional compounds from plant extracts. The mechanism of action of five selected active compounds was further studied at the molecular and cellular levels.

Researcher exchange The four-year project included personnel exchanges between the two European and the Chinese partners totalling 90 months. Sixteen young Chinese scientists visited CRP-Santé and the University of Bergen between March 2009 and February 2013, with an average stay of 3 months. They participated in the screening of purified compounds for anti-cancer activities as well as in studies on the molecular mechanisms of five selected purified compounds. Nine scientists from Europe visited the Chinese partner labs to acquire skills in compound purification and identification. Exchanges, research activities and results were discussed at workshops in Shanghai (2009), Luxembourg (2011), Beijing (2012) and Bergen (2013).

Drug discovery research With the new competences, researchers from CRP-Santé have embarked on drug discovery research, a field with great potential for novel therapeutic applications. Two former exchange scientists from China have joined CRP-Santé to reinforce the research team. The research focuses on bioactive plant compounds not only with anti-cancer but also with antiviral activities.

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: Centre de Recherche Public de la Santé FP7 Project No.: 230232 Total costs: € 237,600 EU contribution: € 237,600 Duration: 48 months (01/03/2009-28/02/2013) Website: www.crp-sante.lu

V-FEATHER

InnoVative Flexible Electric Transport

Through the V-FEATHER project, CRP Henri Tudor has benefited from European research funding.

Bringing sustainable freight delivery to urban centres The demand for urban freight delivery is increasing across Europe. Despite the widespread focus on reducing CO2 emissions in cities and adopting more sustainable modes of transportation, this need continues to be met through the use of traditional delivery vans and trucks, which adds to existing congestion and pollution in urban centres. V-Feather is an FP7 project initiated by industrial partners interested in finding a sustainable, flexible solution for urban last mile delivery. It is developing a completely new modular electric light duty vehicle, from initial concept to working prototype.

The V-Feather vehicle is based on a modular building block concept that uses active, adaptive structural architecture. This means that it consists of multiple connected modules: a cab module where the driver sits, and one or more freight modules of different sizes and types. These can be added or removed over the course of the delivery route based on real-time requirements to increase capacity, improve agility, or transport special freight such as refrigerated goods. This enables better flexibility and cost reductions. As project manager Wassila Mtalaa, researcher at CRP Henri Tudor, explains: “It is expensive for a company to buy five delivery vans, but with this vehicle they can buy, for example, two cabin modules and six freight modules, and adapt the configuration based on changing order sizes.”

Agile vehicle to meet real-time delivery needs CRP Henri Tudor is participating in the V-Feather project within the context of its MOBILITY innovation programme. The Centre is responsible for providing recommendations for the eco-design of the vehicle as

V-FEATHER was funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under Grant Agreement n° 285727.

well as developing a new system for last mile delivery known as Deposit Rapid Recharge and Recollect (D3R), a method that allows vehicles to drop off modules at delivery points and continue in a smaller configuration.

A key advantage of this system is that it extends the range of electric vehicles. “The problem with electric vehicles is that they have limited range, so cities are only using them for residential mobility,” Dr Mtalaa explains. The V-Feather vehicle, on the other hand, will be optimised for last mile delivery. “Due to the vehicle’s modularity,” she says, “we can deliver all around the city, leaving modules to recharge at different locations and picking them up again later to provide battery power to the rest of the vehicle.”

From concept to working vehicle V-Feather brings together industrial and research partners from Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, around the ambitious goal of designing the new electric modular vehicle from the ground up. It will define the vehicle specifications, develop and simulate the modular vehicle and fleet management concept, manufacture a working prototype and, finally, test it in a real environment. The resulting vehicle will benefit both delivery providers, who will be able to increase their agility, and cities, which will benefit from cleaner air and better traffic flow.

The vehicle’s development comes at the right time, coinciding with the increasing focus on electric mobility in Luxembourg. As Dr Mtalaa points out, “It’s in line with national objectives to promote electric vehicles.

The planned installation of electric charging stations across the country will not only benefit private cars, but also make it easier to introduce electric freight vehicles, such as V-Feather, onto the market.”

The Seventh European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) was the European Union’s main financial instrument to support European research during the 2007-2013 period. The funding programme continues under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, supporting a wide range of research domains with a budget of € 79 billion (2014-2020).

Participant: Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor FP7 Project No.: 285727 € 240,304 Total costs: EU contribution: € 180,228 Duration: 40 months (01/07/2012-31/10/2015) Website: www.green-cars-initiative.eu/ projects/v-feather

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