The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) yesterday introduced important changes to its organisation and working methods. These changes are the result of an internal review launched in March 2011 by OLAF Director-General Giovanni Kessler who took office on 14 February 2011. The new organisational structure and investigative procedures aim at focusing resources on prioritised activities and increasing the efficiency and quality of OLAF's investigations.

“In times of economic difficulty, the protection of the financial interests of the EU and the activities of OLAF are more important than ever. OLAF is at the frontline in the fight against fraud and corruption, and our high level of ambition reflects the commitment of the EU institutions to address these issues. With the changes, we will shorten the average length of our investigations. The way we chose to open an investigation or not will become more transparent as we make public our investigative priorities. We will put more focus on the most important cases, not least those where the chances of recovering misused EU money are the highest,” said OLAF Director-General Giovanni Kessler.

The new organisation and investigative procedures of OLAF take into account opinions expressed by the Court of Auditors, the European Parliament, Member States and other stakeholders. It also takes into consideration important issues raised in the discussions on the reform of OLAF Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999, without pre-empting the results of the ongoing trilogue between the European Parliament, Council and the Commission.

The total number of OLAF staff remains the same in the new organisation, however a shift in resources from non-operational tasks to investigations together with a clearer allocation of responsibilities has increased the number of staff dedicated to investigations by around 30 percent.

The new investigative procedures are simpler, while maintaining high investigative standards and full respect for procedural guarantees. A new unit has been created that will assess all information received by OLAF containing allegations of fraud, and will select new cases according to coherent criteria and within a short timeframe. This will ensure a quick opening of investigations and overall consistency. Priority will be given to important cases where positive results are expected. The new unit will also perform quality and legality checks. The protection of fundamental rights and procedural guarantees will therefore be reinforced, and protection of the identity of sources will be given highest priority.

The anti-fraud policy activities of OLAF will be focused in one directorate. The aim is to improve the support OLAF offers Commission services in the development and implementation of fraud prevention and detection policies, to enhance the support given to Member States notably in the fight against smuggling, and to focus policy development on a number of priority initiatives such as the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Along with the organisational and procedural changes, OLAF has revamped its website: http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/

OLAF

The mission of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) is threefold: it protects the financial interests of the European Union by combating fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities; it protects the reputation of the European Institutions by investigating serious misconduct by their staff that could result in disciplinary or criminal proceedings; and it supports the European Commission in the development and implementation of fraud prevention and detection policies.

For further details:

Johan WULLT, Spokesperson (acting), European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Phone: +32 2 295 22 10

E-mail: olaf-media@ec.europa.eu, http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud

As indicated in the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe adopted last September, if we want to be able to meet our needs and maintain the same level of well-being in the future, companies will have to produce more added value with fewer inputs, and consumers will have to adopt more sustainable consumption patterns for products and services. With that in mind, the European Commission is currently reviewing its Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) actions, to ensure that they are helping Europe use its resources more efficiently, and setting it on a course to long-term sustainability.

As part of a review of its SCP policy, the Commission has launched a large public consultation on its actions in four major areas. For the next nine weeks, views are being sought on different options for a more ambitious future SCP Policy. This web-based consultation is part of a broader process of reflection that will feed into policy initiatives that are scheduled for adoption before the end of 2012.

The public consultation invites all interested parties to share their views on the best ways to improve the EU's policies on Sustainable Consumption and Production in four areas, with the aim of providing targeted feedback on:

• Policies regarding product design, recycling and waste management, etc;

• Green Public Procurement (encouraging public bodies to favour ecologically friendly solutions);

• Actions for improving the environmental performance of products (Product Environmental Footprint – PEF);

• Actions for improving the environmental performance of organisations (Environmental Footprint of Organization – OEF).

The consultation is a broad overview of EU policies, and therefore involves some 50 questions. About half of these are for the general public and the remainder target more specialised stakeholder groups such as governments, industry associations and private companies.

Background

Sustainable consumption and production has been a fundamental target for the European Union since the EU Treaty was signed in Maastricht in 1992. The core idea is to meet our own consumption needs in such a way that we do not deprive future generations’ ability to meet their own consumption needs. The Treaty calls for the inclusion of sustainability considerations and targets into all European policies, so that they can contribute in an integrated way to meeting economic, environmental and social objectives.

A first structured and synergic package of actions and proposals to improve the environmental performance of products and to stimulate the demand for more sustainable goods was included in the Action Plan on "Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy" published in 2008. Many initiatives have since been carried out in this framework, but more ambitious plans need to be developed to address the negative environmental impacts of consumption and to empower consumers to move to resource-efficient consumption.

The actual policy context for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) and Sustainable Industrial Policy (SIP) is the Europe 2020 Strategy, which sets out to deliver smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and is now Europe’s main strategy for generating growth and jobs. SCP policy also contributes to Europe 2020's Resource Efficiency Flagship Initiative by helping to translate macro-level objectives of the Resource Efficiency policy (decoupling economic growth from resource use and environmental degradation) to micro-level objectives, thereby driving individual economic actors to achieve the best environmental performance economically possible.

Further information:

The consultation can be filled in at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/consultations_en.htm

For more details on SCP policy see:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/escp_en.htm

The European Commission has published a call for proposals for ICT Call 9 under the work programme of the Seventh EC Framework Programme.

This call has the objective of improving the competitiveness of European industry and enabling Europe to master and shape future developments in information and communication technology (ICT) so that the demands of its society and economy are met.

Activities under this call will continue to strengthen Europe's scientific and technology base and ensure its global leadership in ICT, help drive and stimulate product, service and process innovation and creativity through ICT use and value creation in Europe, and ensure that ICT progress is rapidly transformed into benefits for Europe's citizens, businesses, industry and governments. These activities will also help reduce the digital divide and social exclusion.

A specific set of challenges are at the centre of this call for proposals:
- 'Cognitive systems and robotics';
- 'Technologies for digital content and languages- digital preservation';
- 'ICT for health, ageing well, inclusion and governance - virtual physiological human';
- 'ICT for learning and access to cultural resources';
- 'Future and emerging technologies - quantum ICT';
- 'Future and emerging technologies - fundamentals of collective adaptive systems';
- 'Future and emerging technologies - neuro-bio inspired systems';
- 'Future and emerging technologies - coordinating communities and identifying new research topics';
- 'Future and emerging technologies - proactive initiatives and fostering cetworking of national and regional research programmes';
- 'International cooperation'.

Contact person:To see the official call announcement, please consult:
OJ No C 15 of 18 January 2012 and the following link

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said: "Water pollution is one of the environmental worries most frequently cited by EU citizens. I welcome this advance as it is clearly answering people's expectations. These 15 additional chemicals need to be monitored and controlled to ensure they don't pose a risk to the environment or human health."

The update will be achieved through a revision of the Directive on priority substances in the field of water quality. The newly proposed substances are the outcome of a review that considered the risks posed by some 2000 substances according to their levels in surface waters, and their hazardousness, production and use. For six of the 15 new priority substances the classification proposed would require their emissions to water to be phased out within 20 years. The proposal also includes stricter standards for four currently controlled substances, and a requirement to phase out the emissions of two others already on the list.

The proposed 15 additional priority substances are:

Pharmaceuticals are proposed for the first time. The proposal does not put into question the medicinal value of these substances, but addresses the potential harmful effects of their presence in the aquatic environment. Concentrations above the proposed standards can affect fish health, reducing successful reproduction, for example, and harming other living organisms. Our awareness of the impact of pharmaceuticals in the environment has grown considerably in recent years, and the proposal is based on the latest scientific knowledge.

The Commission also proposes improvements to the monitoring and reporting of chemical pollutants in water, as well as a mechanism to obtain better information on the concentrations of other pollutants that might need to be controlled in the future at EU level. The Commission proposal is accompanied by a report to the European Parliament and Council on the outcome of the review of the existing list of controlled substances.

Next Steps

The Commission is proposing the revised list as part of a Directive amending the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Environmental Quality Standards Directive (EQSD). The proposal will pass to the Council and the Parliament for discussion and adoption.

As a rule, Member States must meet environmental quality standards for new Priority Substances by 2021 (the deadline of the 2nd River Basin Management Plan). Longer timelines are possible in specific cases if the conditions for exemptions set out in the WFD are applicable.

Background

The main aim of EU water policy is to ensure that throughout the EU a sufficient quantity of good quality water is available and used more efficiently for the needs of people and businesses, as well as for the protection of the environment. In 2000 the Water Framework Directive (WFD) established a legal basis to protect and restore clean water across Europe and ensure its long-term, sustainable use. The general objective of the WFD is to get all water – for example, lakes, rivers, streams and groundwater aquifers – into a healthy state by 2015.

Article 16 of the WFD sets out "Strategies against pollution of water" outlining the steps to be taken. The first step was the establishment of a first list of priority substances in 2001, which became Annex X of the WFD.

The review of the list as required by the WFD and EQSD has taken more than three years because of the extensive technical analysis involved in identifying possible new Priority Substances and setting environmental quality standards (EQS) for them.

Of the additional 15 substances, the following are proposed as Priority Hazardous Substances: Dicofol, Quinoxyfen, PFOS, Heptachlor, HBCDD, Dioxin and Dioxin-Like PCBs. The substances already on the list but which would be subject to stricter standards are: Brominated diphenylethers, Fluoranthene, Nickel, Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). The two existing substances which would become Priority Hazardous Substances are Diethylhexylphthalate and Trifluralin.

Further information:

Proposal for a revised directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on priority substances in the field of water quality: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-dangersub/pri_substances.htm

See also MEMO/12/59

See also:

Chemicals in water (Europa site)

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-dangersub/pri_substances.htm

List of current priority substances:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32001D2455:EN:NOT

Current Directive on Priority Substances (Directive 2008/105/EC)

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32008L0105:EN:NOT

One of Barack Obama’s key aides will head the line-up for the Scottish Government’s 2012 National Food and Drink Conference.

Dr Janey Thornton, the US Department of Agriculture’s Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Service, will discuss the benefits of collaborative working for both Scotland and America at the event in Perth on March 7.

Also joining Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead on the conference platform will be Dr Joao Breda from the World Health Organization. He will assess how Scotland is progressing in relation to some of the world’s top food and drink issues.

Completing the line-up at the event - which celebrates Scotland’s high quality food and drink sector and its many innovative businesses and producers - will be one of Scotland’s top chefs, Nick Nairn, as well as entrepreneur Fraser Doherty of SuperJam, who turned his teenage hobby into a successful business.

Mr Lochhead, who will open the event, said: “Scotland has a natural larder that is second to none and this conference is an ideal opportunity for us to celebrate our many successes and build for the future.

“With exports at a record high, our food and drink is becoming increasingly sought after on foreign dining tables and exports from this sector have a crucial role to play in helping us grow our economy.

“I’m delighted that we have attracted such illustrious speakers to our National Food and Drink Conference and I’m sure it will be both fascinating and inspiring to hear the different perspectives they will bring.

”As well as showcasing what has already been achieved by our food and drink industry, this conference allows us to share expertise and ideas which will allow this flourishing sector to continue to thrive.

“Scotland’s food and drink industry can truly hold its own on the world stage so it seems appropriate that this conference should have an international flavour. Whether at home or overseas, our fine natural produce is recognised as being of the highest quality and this is an asset which gives us a tremendous advantage in this competitive sector.”

Scotland’s National Food and Drink Conference takes place in Perth Concert Hall on March 7. Key themes of the conference will be education and innovation within Scotland’s food and drink industry. Delegates will have the opportunity to hear about projects currently underway, as well as listening to a debate by school pupils on food advertising to young people.

Dr Janey Thornton was appointed by President Barack Obama as Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services in April 2009. She is responsible for improving the health and well-being of Americans by developing and promoting science-based dietary guidance and administering USDA's 15 nutrition assistance programs. Most recently she has lead the implementation of the new Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act which will help improve the meals offered to kids in school.

Dr Joao Breda is the programme manager for nutrition, physical activity and obesity with the World Health Organization. He previously worked as a Public Health Nutritionist at the General Health Directorate in the Portuguese Ministry of Health and is a former Professor of Nutrition at the University Atlântica and Head of Department of Nutrition.

Related information

The Internet has become part of our everyday lives, in ways we would never have imagined 30 years ago, but how often do we pause and think about the how and why of getting online? A team of EU-funded Spanish researchers are doing exactly that.

IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), the protocol that every device uses to connect to the Internet, has just encountered a major stumbling block: because of the Internet's continuous spiralling growth, all of its addresses have recently run out. It is hoped that IPv6, a protocol currently in the early days of implementation, will eventually replace IPv4; unfortunately, however the two protocols are not compatible.

Now researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have developed a solution to the problem.

They set out to make it possible for machines of the future to connect to the Internet using IPv6 addresses, and at the same time access earlier content in IPv4 format. They have successfully defined translators that permit understanding between contents in both protocols by means of a technology called NAT64 and DNS64. This is a standard used by the major manufacturers of routers, such as Cisco or Juniper, and the major sellers of the Domain Name System (DNS), such as Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) or Microsoft.

'We have designed and standardised these transition tools, which have been adopted by the industry and which are now available commercially,' states Professor Marcelo Bagnulo from UC3M. 'It is relatively easy to invent a new protocol, but it is extremely difficult to design one that is then really introduced and used, since standardisation is an important step toward the future use of a technology.'

This research has been carried out as part of the 'Trilogy' project which received the most recent award for the best project in the Future Internet Award prizes; these are awarded as part of the Seventh Framework Programme's (FP7) CEFIMS ('Coordination of the European future internet forum of Member States of the European Union') initiative. The aim of CEFIMS, which is boosted by EUR 409977 of EU funding under the 'Information and communication technologies' (ICT) Theme of FP7, is to improve the quality of the flow of information and the internal workings of the Internet.

The Internet is basically characterised by the interrelation of two systems: the first (routing) defines the route, and the second (congestion control) determines the quantity and volume of data that flow.

Professor Bagnulo explains that at the moment these two systems function independently of each other, as 'the mechanism that decides where the data will flow through does not take into consideration how much other data are flowing through that same path'. This means that when there is congestion, the new data do not take this into consideration and choose an alternate path.

To understand this in layman terms, the Spanish researchers offer up an everyday metaphor: without illuminated signs or notices sent by radio to warn of upcoming delays, drivers cannot change their itinerary and thereby avoid the traffic jam.

One of the main objectives of Trilogy is to ensure that these systems can function in a more coordinated manner. To do this, they propose various technologies that control and redirect data flow from the congested routes (as can occur in the case of peer-to-peer applications) to other less congested parts of the network. They have designed, implemented and standardised the Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which allows a connection of this type to flow through multiple paths. For a smartphone that is connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi for example, communication is lost when the user leaves the area with coverage, and a new connection must be made. However, using this new MPTCP, it is possible to pass this communication to the alternate interface, so that the connection can be maintained, in addition to increasing the speed of the data transfer.

As well as researchers from UC3M, Trilogy brings together 9 other partners from academia and industry: Deutsche Telekom, NEC Europe Ltd, Nokia, Roke Manor Research, Athens University of Economics and Business, University College of London, Catholic University of Louvain and Stanford University, EURESCOM (European Institute for Research and Strategic Studies in Telecommunications GmbH), and British Telecommunications (BT).

Receiving the Future Internet Award Phil Eardley from BT said: 'It is an honour both to be selected as the winning entry, and to have had worked with so many brilliant people on the Trilogy project.'

For more information, please visit:

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid: http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/home

Natural food does not always mean safe food. EU-funded researchers have discovered that the compounds found in some botanicals and botanical preparations, such as plant food supplements, may be detrimental to one's health. Presented in the journal Food and Nutrition Sciences, the study was funded in part by the PLANTLIBRA ('Plant food supplements: levels of intake, benefit and risk assessment') project, which is backed with nearly EUR 6 million under the 'Food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology' (KBBE) Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

A past study found that alkenylbenzenes contribute to higher incidences of liver cancer in animals. In their latest study, researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Università degli Studi di Milano in Italy found that many plant food supplements levels of these compounds are so low that they are of no concern. However, there are some plant food supplements currently on shelves that contain alkenylbenzenes at levels comparable to those increasing cancer cases in experimental tests. They suggest that improved regulation and quality control of plant food supplements containing alkenylbenzenes is needed.

Many Europeans use botanicals and botanical preparations such as plant food supplements. The researchers said the market volume for such products is growing. To get a better handle on understanding the safety of plant food supplements used in the EU, the researchers selected and assessed 30 botanical compounds in plant food supplements that could potentially play havoc with human health. The main concern was to determine how these compounds affect genetic material and whether they are carcinogenic.

Most of these compounds belong to the group of the alkenylbenzenes or the group of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Regulatory officials recognise how these compounds impact human health. As a result, the use of pyrrolizidine alkaloid-containing botanicals in food and plant food supplements is prohibited in most EU Member States for precautionary health protection reasons. The alkenylbenzenes estragole, methyleugenol, safrole or beta-asarone as flavouring agents in food are also banned within the EU, but no restrictions have yet been made concerning the presence of alkenylbenzenes in plant food supplements.

The team assessed various plant food supplements containing basil, fennel, nutmeg, sassafras, cinnamon or calamus, or their essential oils as the main ingredient. According to them, some of these products contain relatively high levels of alkenylbenzenes. The use of such plant food supplements could play a role in affecting human health, they suggest, adding that it is important that risk management actions be implemented.

The researchers noted that while more research is needed, better regulation and quality control of plant food supplements containing alkenylbenzenes are needed.

For more information, please visit:

PLANTLIBRA: http://www.plantlibra.eu/web/

Wageningen University: http://www.wur.nl/uk/

‘Scotland The World Over’ will be unveiled by Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop ahead of a debate in the Scottish Parliament on the Year of Creative Scotland 2012.

The film is a social media collaboration involving more than 1,500 people from all over the globe, and was created using 715 images with a Saltire in the centre of the frame taken between St Andrew’s Day and Burns Night. It will go live on the Scotland.org website at 9am on Wednesday February 1, 2012.

The initiative to celebrate Scotland’s international relationships is hosted by BAFTA Award-winning online community Blipfoto.com - which shares over 1.5 million images from over 170 countries, each representing a single day in someone's life - in partnership with Scotland.org.

The Culture Secretary said:

"Scotland is a creative and innovative nation, rich in culture and heritage, and renowned for the warm welcome we extend to all our friends from across the world. ‘Scotland the World Over’ is a fantastic showcase of Scottish creativity on the global stage which has captured the imagination of more than 1,500 people at home and abroad.

"As well as a stunning compilation of iconic images, the finished film is a visual celebration of Scotland’s contribution to the world, and I am delighted that so many Scots and Scots at heart have taken part in this exciting collaboration."

Joe Tree, CEO and founder of Blipfoto, said:

"From a Chinese school to an Inuit village, and from Times Square to Bondi Beach, people around the globe have come together to help create an iconic, quirky and captivating short film that celebrates a love of Scotland.

"Blipfoto was born and bred here, but what started as a small, local phenomenon has exploded and spread the world over. We're very proud of our roots, so we were excited to help create something amazing to celebrate Scotland's worldwide reach."

Related information:

• Scotland The World Over 
• The film will also be viewable through Scotland The World Over iPhone App, which is available to download for free from the App store.
• The film will be shown at a special red carpet screening at Edinburgh’s Festival Square on Sunday February 5, 2012 with special guests Clanadonia playing the official soundtrack live from 2pm.
• The Year of Creative Scotland began on January 1, 2012 and will spotlight and celebrate Scotland’s cultural and creative strengths on a world stage. Through a dynamic and exciting year-long programme of activity celebrating our world-class events, festivals, culture and heritage, the year puts Scotland’s culture and creativity in the international spotlight with a focus on cultural tourism and developing the events industry and creative sector in Scotland.

A new £20 million re-cycling plant will create 70 jobs and process 200,000 tonnes of waste a year when it is fully operational.

In the first three quarters of 2011, 362 seals were shot – 27 per cent of the permitted maximum under licence – considerably lower than estimates by environmental groups of over 3,000 seals each year prior to the new system. The measures are in place to control the removal of specific seals around fisheries and fish farm cages as a last resort measure.

Licences for 2012 will set a maximum of 1,100 seals, down 15 per cent on the total allowed in 2011. Around half of the licences granted are for fish farms and half for wild salmon rod and line or net fisheries.

Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said:

“Scotland’s seals are an iconic species and that’s why we introduced a raft of new measures through the Marine Act 2010 to give seals extra protection, including the creation of seal conservation areas and moves to increase protection at seal haul-out sites.

“For the first time it was made illegal to shoot a seal unless a licence has been granted under very strict conditions. I’m pleased that the right balance between seal conservation and support for  important wild fisheries and our fish farming industry is being struck, with available data showing only around one quarter of the permitted seals under licence being removed.

“Marine Scotland assess all applicants before granting a licence to ensure appropriate alternative deterrents are in place first.  With a further fall in permitted totals for 2012, I’m confident that the guiding principle of last resort will continue to be closely adhered to.”

For 2012, 58 separate licences have been granted, with the maximum number of seals set at 1,100. In 2011 68 licences were granted with a total maximum of 1,340 seals. Marine Scotland assesses all applicants before a licence is given. Appropriate non-lethal alternatives must be considered first, which may include tensioned and predator nets, acoustic deterrents and seal blinds, or a combination of these.

Alongside seal licensing, the Scottish Government has introduced new seal conservation areas – in the Western Isles, Northern Isles, Moray Firth and along the East Coast. The Scottish Government is also taking progressing measures to increase protection for seals at designated 'haul out' sites – where they leave the water to breed, rest and socialise.

Related information

Seal licencing system 2012

Seals in Scotland

1. transportation and refuelling infrastructure (26M€)
2. hydrogen production and distribution (8.75M€)
3. stationary power generation (27M€)
4. early markets (10.25M€) (portable, micro applications or handling vehicles)
5. cross-cutting isues (5.5M€) development of life cycle assessment, codes and standards, socio-economic research, public awareness, training.

Nearly 70% of the funding will support transport and refuelling infrastructure and stationary applications topics.

A Public Information Session and Brokerage event 2012 will take place on 9th February 2012. More
information can be found at http://www.fch-ju.eu/
 

The official opening ceremony will take place this evening (from 18:00) at the Centre for Fine Arts (Bozar) in Brussels. Commissioner Vassiliou and Minister Cai Wu will deliver the opening speeches, together with Uffe Elbæk, the Danish Minister of Culture, representing the EU Presidency, and Crescenzio Rivellini, President of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with China. The Chinese GuangDong Modern Dance Company and Rosas, the world-renowned ensemble created by Belgian choreographer Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker, will perform for the VIPs and other invited guests from the cultural sector, public authorities and diplomatic circles.

A conference launching the Year will take place on 2 February and focus on prospects for strengthening EU-China cooperation. European and Chinese speakers will highlight a variety of projects supported by the European Commission to promote mutual understanding between the EU and China. The conference will gather policymakers, artists, intellectuals and representatives of cultural institutions from EU Member States and China.

Full Story at Europa

The South Korean industrial giant Samsung Heavy Industries is to establish its first European offshore wind base in Scotland, developing the world’s largest ever offshore wind turbines. 

The company’s decision to develop the pioneering technology at the Fife Energy Park at Methil is expected to eventually be worth £100 million in inward investment and lead to the creation of 500 jobs in the area.

The massive potential investment was announced by First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday on the opening day of the Scottish Offshore Wind Conference in Aberdeen, the largest ever held by the booming sector.

The giant turbines will be tested off the Fife coast and in South Korea before a manufacturing base is established at the Methil site. The gearbox systems for the next generation offshore wind turbines will be supplied under a multi-million-pound deal with East Kilbride-based David Brown Gear Systems, a division of engineering company Clyde Blowers.

Mr Salmond said the Samsung announcement was a major boost for Fife and Scotland and would “substantially reinforce” Scotland’s growing reputation as the prime place in Europe for the offshore renewable industry to locate and develop.

He said: “Samsung Heavy Industries are one of the great industrial combines in the world and they are committing to develop a seven megawatt turbine here in Scotland at the Fife Energy Park. It is a fantastic announcement and it points up the great potential of Scotland as the key energy provider of the European continent.”

Insik Roh, the chief executive of Samsung Heavy Industries, who also attended the opening day of the two-day conference, said: “We recognised that Scotland has the best conditions and environment for the offshore wind business and also we have great faith in the government support.”

He added: “We are pleased to be participating in the development of the Energy Park at Methil at such an exciting time for the Scottish renewable energy industry. The testing of the new seven megawatt offshore wind turbine at the Fife Energy Park signifies a milestone in the development of Samsung’s new wind turbine generator system.

“We hope to contribute to the Scottish economy through successful testing and certification of our cutting edge offshore wind turbine and ultimately through establishment of our manufacturing facility here in Methil.”

Jim McColl, chairman and chief executive of Clyde Blowers Capital, said: “This is a huge vote of confidence by a major and well respected global business in the UK supply chain and ultimately a boost for employment and future job creation.”

Councillor Peter Grant, the leader of Fife Council, also welcomed the investment announcement. He said: “It’s a huge boost for Fife – potentially 500 jobs in the longer term in an area with high unemployment.”

He continued: “This is an important milestone for Fife in its ambition to become the leading green council in Scotland, and is another great success for the Invest in Fife partnership which brings together Fife Council, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International.”

Erasmus, the world's most successful student exchange programme, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Nearly three million students have benefited from a study period or work placement abroad since the creation of the Erasmus programme in 1987. Under the slogan, 'Erasmus: changing lives, opening minds for 25 years', the silver anniversary celebrations will be launched today by Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. Erasmus mobility is at the heart of the Commission's strategy to combat youth unemployment by focusing more on skills development – an issue which will be discussed by heads of state and government at yesterday's Informal European Council.

“The impact of Erasmus has been tremendous, not only for individual students, but for the European economy as a whole. Through its support for high-quality teaching and a modern higher education system, with closer links between academia and employers, it is helping us to tackle the skills mismatch. It also gives young people the confidence and ability to work in other countries, where the right jobs might be available, and not to be trapped by a geographic mismatch," said President Barroso.

Commissioner Vassiliou added: "Erasmus is one of the great success stories of the European Union: it is our best known and most popular programme. Erasmus exchanges enable students to improve their knowledge of foreign languages and to develop skills such as adaptability which improve their job prospects. It also provides opportunities for teachers and other staff to see how higher education works in other countries and to bring the best ideas home. Demand for places strongly exceeds the resources available in many countries – one of the reasons why we plan to expand opportunities for study and training abroad under our proposed new education, training and youth programme, Erasmus for All."

In the 2011/2012 academic year, more than 250 000 students will benefit from the Erasmus programme. The most popular destinations for students are expected to be Spain, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, while the countries sending the most students abroad are expected to be Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland. The EU has allocated around € 3 billion for Erasmus for the period 2007-13.

Erasmus for All would bring together all the current EU and international schemes for education, training, youth and sport, replacing seven existing programmes with one. This will increase efficiency, make it easier to apply for grants, as well as reducing duplication and fragmentation. Under the new programme, the aim is for up to 5 million people, almost twice as many as now, to get the chance to study, train or teach abroad. The Commission's proposal is currently being discussed by the Member States and the European Parliament, which decide the future budget.

Events marking the celebration

The celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the Erasmus programme will be launched in Brussels yesterday with a conference which will evaluate the programme's impact and discuss its future. Denmark, which holds the EU Presidency in the first half of 2012, together with the European Commission, will also organise a follow-up conference in Copenhagen on 9 May. The anniversary will also be celebrated at events organised in the Member States.

"Erasmus ambassadors" from the 33 countries participating in the scheme will be present at many of these events. The ambassadors, one student and one staff member, have been chosen to represent each country, based on the impact that Erasmus has had on their professional and private lives; their role is to encourage other students and staff to take advantage of the opportunities it offers to change lives and open minds. During the conference in Copenhagen in May, they will present the 'Erasmus Manifesto' which will set out their vision of how the scheme can develop in future.

Background

The Erasmus programme was launched in 1987 with 3 244 young, adventurous students who took part in learning experiences in one of the 11 countries which initially participated in the programme. Now, 33 countries take part in the scheme - the 27 EU member states, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.

In the past 25 years, the programme has seen a constant rise in both the number of students and in the quality and diversity of the proposed activities. Teachers and other staff, such as university international relations officers who are often the first point of contact for potential Erasmus students, can also benefit from EU support to teach or train abroad – nearly 40 000 did so in 2010/2011.

Work placements in companies abroad have been supported through Erasmus since 2007 and are increasingly popular. Up to now, grants have already been awarded to nearly 150 000 students for this purpose. In 2009/10, 35 000 students (one in six of the total) chose a work placement, which was a 17% increase on the previous year.

For more information:

See also the memo on Frequently Asked Questions: Erasmus Programme (MEMO/11/54)

More about the Erasmus programme http://ec.europa.eu/education/erasmus

Video interviews with Erasmus Ambassadors:

http://ec.europa.eu/education/erasmus/ambassadors_en.htm :

Tomás Sánchez López (lead systems engineer at EADS)

Piroska Bakos (Hungarian TV news presenter)

Maurizio Oliviero (Professor at the University of Perugia, member of the group drafting the Palestinian constitution; assisting in the reform of the judicial system in Afghanistan)

Elena Luptak (contemporary dance teacher and Erasmus coordinator, Konservatorium Wien University)

Contacts :

Dennis Abbott (+32 2 295 92 58)

Dina Avraam (+32 2 295 96 67)

Europe is ageing and as people live longer they are fighting diseases while maintaining a quality of life. The latest technological tools are helping them sustain their health while staying at home. That is because a helping hand is now just a few clicks away.

Three people reflect on how computer technology is helping them to cope with disease due to ageing.

“I was working and felt completely exhausted. I just couldn’t breath and was suffocating. I was taken to a clinic,” said Antonio Guillón Barros.

“We moved from the countryside to this apartment. My husband suffers from Parkinson’s. We can’t go out that often. But we still try to be active,” explained Irma Widman.

“My mother started losing the keys, her bag. She forgets names and skills, all these things,” said Marishol Bahi Samalde.

Sixty-nine-year-old Antonio Guillón Barros lives in Cadiz in Southern Spain. He suffers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD); his respiratory system can narrow so much that he starts to suffocate. Every day Antonio writes the answers on a tablet computer to different questions about his health and records sounds from his respiratory system.

The aim is to prevent and deal with an eventual respiratory crisis without Antonio having to be rushed to hospital.

“Being taken to casualty is mad. I waste a couple of days there having radiography and blood tests. What for? I have already had radiography thousands of times, and I am running dry of blood. They know what my disease is. So this computer tells my doctor if a crisis is about to start. He can advise me what I can do. It is like having a doctor at home.”

Daily data is sent online to the hospital. Each patient has a figure for their average health state. Their daily answers and sounds make that number increase or decrease.

If it increases radically, doctors will intervene to head off a fresh crisis.

“In future we’ll be able to predict the start of a crisis. We’ll adopt tailor-made treatment that we’ll send online or over the phone to the patient, who will be able to take care of himself better without necessarily having to go to hospital,” explained Antonio León, Respiratory physician, Puerta del Mar University Hospital.

The same system has been tested with older, more dependent patients in a retirement home, also in Cádiz, in this case with the help of social workers.

“When patients don’t breath normally, even if it is not a huge crisis, they think they are about to die; they panic, and suffer from anxiety and depression. This system provides them with more security,” pointed out María Luisa Rodríguez, a social worker, with the provincial council in Cádiz.

Both the software and hardware were developed by scientists at a European Union Research Project.

The different prototypes evolved over time, to include scientific advances and took into account the preferences of the final users when it came to adjust the shape or interfaces of the devices.

First test results are promising according to Luis Felipe Crespo, the Coordinator of the AMICA project

“When a respiratory crisis strikes a patient they could spend up to 45 days in hospital. This system cuts that time in half so they maybe just have to spend 20-25 days in hospital. That means they spend more time at home, not in hospital and that is a huge boost to their quality of life.”

The problem is different in Northern Sweden. Researchers there are finding ways to prevent social isolation. In Irma’s living room, when the prototype curtains turn green it tells her and her husband a new e-mail has arrived; red means a reply is needed urgently.

A special platform with facial recognition software has been developed to identify the users mood, whether they feel happy, stable or sad.

The information is automatically sent to social and family networks.

“This platform has helped me to be much more active socially. New technologies and social networks, are not just for younger generations. We elderly people can also take advantage of the huge possibilities,” said Irma Widman, research project volunteer.

Irma and her husband are often invited to focus groups to hear about new devices like coloured spheres. The colours remind older people to get in touch with family, friends or social workers online or on the phone.

An easy way to break their feeling of isolation which can cause depression and anxiety, said John Waterworth the AGNES project coordinator

“You will still respond to the fact that is going dark outside, you will know that it means that is night time even if you lose the ability to read a digital clock; something that some old people will. So it is that kind of approach. The idea is that by changing something in the environment, you can make somebody aware that they need to respond in a certain way. These kind of media, they don’t say what the content is, they don’t say whose trying to reach, they don’t say what kind of appointments you have missed, they don’t say what the emergency is.”

Close to downtown lives Barcelona 82-year-old Victoria who has been suffering from mixed dementia since 2005.

She has, for instance, forgotten many of her cooking skills and often finds herself disoriented.

Together with her daughter, her principal carer, they have volunteered to test an online platform aimed at informing her doctors how she is each day.

“These exercises have helped her to structure her days. And they have allowed us to stay in a closer contact with her doctors. So we do the gym exercises, the music exercises and very often the memory games. All this depends on her mood. Sometimes, when she is tired, we prefer music to memory games; but the whole computer platform has been quite useful for her,” explained Marisol Bahi Sumalde.

Her mother said: “I want to say something. Everyday I go to their house… Oh, I just forgot what I wanted to say”.

Data from the exercises is then analysed by the patient’s clinical team. They can make live checks on how the patient is doing, and answer the carer’s questions, doubts or anxieties as pointed out by María José Ciudad, Neuropsychologist, Badalona Health Services, BSA

“We can check if the principal carer feels overwhelmed, or if she needs some help, or if she is doing OK, and we don’t need to intervene. With the patients, we can check the blood pressure, mobility, cognitive levels and if they feel more or less disoriented.”

Geriatricians consider the platform a great advance for dementia sufferers, as long as it does not replace the face-to-face consultations.

“I don’t want these devices to de-humanise the relationship we have with the patients. I don’t want them to become just a number, a word on a computer page. But I think these technologies are really effective in helping us to know more about our patients, staying in touch with them more often and providing them with a more accurate response to their needs,” stressed Ignasi Sáez, a geriatrician with Badalona Health Services.

And some new online users say they are finding the computers a useful tool to enjoy, while also learning to know themselves better.

“The sky is always blue when I go fishing and that is not down to chance. Now I first check the weather online at my favourite fishing spot,” said Henning Johnsson, a research project volunteer

Francisco García who is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patient, said, “Before I just didn’t drink enough water. The computer said it was dangerous not to. So now I drink much more water.”

Victoria Sumalde a mixed dementia patient explained: “When I have no time for the computer, my daughter calls and asks me what I had for lunch. Usually I don’t remember, so I first go to the kitchen, check to see what I had and then tell her, I cheat on her. Cheating on the computer is far more difficult.”

A GP who ran from John O’Groats to the Sahara Desert in just 77 days is teaming up with the Scottish Government to promote the importance of physical activity.

Ultra marathon runner Dr Andrew Murray, of Edinburgh, will highlight the benefits of being active on a six-month secondment at the Scottish Government starting next week.

He will explore new opportunities to promote physical activity including looking at the role of GPs and other health professionals, and will promote the clear, simple message that getting and staying active will help people stay healthy, and is for everyone.

The 31-year-old who has previously run in the Himalayas and at the North Pole accomplished an incredible feat last year, running 2,659 miles – averaging over 34 miles a day – from Scotland to the Sahara.

He ran to raise money for the Yamaa Trust, which aims to improve conditions for people living in South Gobi, Mongolia and to raise awareness of the benefits of staying active.  More than 1,300 people jogged with him during parts of the run.

Shona Robison, Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport, said:

“We want to make Scotland a fitter and healthier nation. By increasing levels of physical activity we can make serious inroads into tackling some of the serious challenges facing Scotland’s population - not least the health implications that arise from being inactive.

“Andrew’s ultra run to the Sahara desert was inspirational and I’m absolutely delighted that he has agreed to become our Physical Activity Champion, working in the Scottish Government for six months to promote the importance of Scots being active for life.”

Dr Murray said:

“I’m delighted to work in the Scottish Government on what I think is the fundamental health challenge of our age. Becoming, or staying active is the single best thing you can do for your health. Research has shown that having a low level of fitness is equivalent in risk to having diabetes, smoking, and being obese combined.

“The benefits of staying active are amazing, with evidence consistently showing those that are active live longer, function better, and have a much better quality of life.  The Scottish Government have been very proactive in moving this forward working to help Scots become and stay active. The key message is to find something you enjoy, it doesn’t have to be running. Walking, cycling, dancing, football are just as good, and 30 minutes five times a week is a good start.

“Running to the Sahara was tough. I’m not a natural runner and even got overtaken by a donkey one day so anyone can get fit.  The first few days are the hardest but there is so much to gain.”

Related  information

Dr Murray is doing a six-month secondment with the Scottish Government from the NHS as part of his Sports and Exercise Medicine training.  This is one of the newest medical specialities and was created specifically to deliver a healthier nation.  Sports and Exercise Medicine doctors promote good health in the population by encouraging physical activity, treating musculoskeletal/soft tissue injuries, and treating medical problems relating to exercise and sport.

A new National Indicator on increasing physical activity was added to Scotland Performs in December 2011 and measures the proportion of adults completing 30 minutes of at least moderate exercise five days a week.  The proportion of adults achieving this increased from 37 per cent in 2009 to 39 per cent in 2010 (Scottish Health Survey data).

A team of EU-funded researchers has successfully identified a gene that triggers a skin disorder in dogs - and the findings could have implications for humans who also suffer from the condition. Whether it manifests in golden retrievers or in humans, the disease ichthyosis has the same common genetic basis; therefore, any new bounds made in understanding the condition in dogs are applicable to humans too. No molecular cause for ichthyosis has previously been identified.

Humans and dogs tend to suffer from the same conditions. We live together in the same environments and the dogs' genetic make-up could hold the key to better understanding the genetic origins of cancer, epilepsy, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

The team, from France, Belgium and Germany, received a funding boost from the LUPA ('Unravelling the molecular basis of common complex human disorders using the dog as a model system') project, which is funded in part by a EUR 12 million grant under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

The main aim of the LUPA project, which started in 2008 and ran until the end of 2011, was to bring together veterinary practitioners and scientists, and collect deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) samples from large numbers of dogs suffering from a range of diseases to which humans are also susceptible. Identifying susceptibility genes for common human diseases is always tricky due to the complexity of the underlying causes, but dogs' diseases are genetically a lot simpler.

In this new study which presents the latest findings carried out with support from LUPA, the team identified an eighth gene for an ichthyosis type in humans called autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis (ARCI). They also serve up evidence for the involvement of its gene product in the cutaneous barrier, a feat that has never been achieved before.

Writing in the journal Nature Genetics, the team outline how this ichthyosis type belonging to ARCI results in generalised scaling of the skin, diagnosed at birth. Although the disease is rare in humans, it is occurs frequently in golden retrievers due to inbreeding, and because it has not been counter-selected.

The team took advantage of the unique breeding history of dog populations to identify the genetic alterations responsible for this skin disorder in golden retrievers.. These new findings highlight a unique mutation in the PNPLA1 gene, perfectly segregating on a recessive transmission mode.

Once they had identified the gene in dogs, they analysed the corresponding human gene in selection of individuals affected by the condition. These results showed that six affected individuals belonging to two families carry distinct mutations, both affecting the catalytic domain of the protein. Further experiments involving electronic microscopy, immunolocalisation by confocal microscopy and biochemistry analyses, helped identify the precise role of the protein. PNPLA1 lipase is located in-between the upper epidermal and the lower layers of the cornified layer, and is required for the correct keratinocyte differentiation. It belongs to the PNPLA family of proteins (PNPLA1 to PNPLA5), key elements in the lipid metabolism of the cutaneous barrier.

Previous studies supported by LUPA have identified a new epilepsy gene in Lagotto Romagnolo, a breed of dogs known for their gift for truffle hunting. This could be a new candidate gene for human childhood epilepsies characterised by seizure remission. The team also discovered a novel gene that triggers primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), a rare genetic respiratory disease found in both humans and dogs.

Contact person:For more information, please visit:


LUPA EU-project website:
http://www.eurolupa.org

Another £1.75 million of Government funding has been committed to the V&A at Dundee over the next three years.

It brings the total Scottish Government support for the project to more than £18 million, including the £15 million capital investment already confirmed.

The new revenue funding was announced by Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop today on a visit to Dundee’s waterfront where the new museum will be built. Preparatory work at the site began on Monday.

The Culture Secretary said:

"The V&A at Dundee is an international cultural project which has the potential to bring great benefits to the city and the whole of Scotland. It will attract visitors from all over the world and presents an opportunity to strengthen Dundee’s reputation as a centre for the creative industries.

"In the Year of Creative Scotland 2012, I am delighted to confirm the Scottish Government is making a further £1.75 million available to the V&A at Dundee. These additional funds will be used to support key activities associated with the project including programming exhibitions, developing education programmes, working with designers and creative practitioners, and fundraising.

"Our significant financial contribution will enable the V&A at Dundee – with its iconic waterfront building – to work towards opening in 2015, placing the project at the centre of Dundee’s regeneration.

"It is fantastic to see investigative work underway to prepare the site for construction. With employment in that sector in Scotland predicted to grow at nearly twice the UK average over the next few years, it is clear this Government’s decision to continue investing in capital projects such as this is paying dividends for jobs and the economy."

Philip Long, Director of the V&A at Dundee, said:

'We intend that V&A at Dundee will be an international centre of design for the widest public, housed in a world-class building at the heart of Dundee's developing waterfront. The Culture Secretary's announcement today assures that work can continue on the development of V&A at Dundee, from planning through to implementation and opening.

"V&A at Dundee will show major exhibitions of international design, celebrate our own design heritage, inspire and help develop contemporary talent, and encourage design innovation for the future. We are delighted to have the Scottish Government's continuing wholehearted support for this vision."

Following the 2011 spending review, the Scottish Government confirmed it is making a total of £15 million capital available to the V&A at Dundee project towards the £45 million construction cost. In addition, £1.75 million revenue funding has been allocated from 2012-15. The V&A in Dundee has already received £1.511 interim support from the Scottish Government since 2010 – making a total of £18.261.

The V&A at Dundee is being delivered by Design Dundee Ltd, a ground-breaking partnership between the Victoria and Albert Museum - the world’s greatest museum of art and design - and Dundee City Council, the Universities of Dundee and Abertay Dundee, and Scottish Enterprise. The building is being designed by a team led by architects Kengo Kuma & Associates.

Related information:

• Year of Creative Scotland
• Year of Creative Scotland - toolkit

Researchers at CIC Biogune have found a strong relationship between high levels of Hu antigen R (HuR) protein and the malignancy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma , through a novel molecular process in the investigation of this pathology and known as neddylation.

Researchers at CIC Biogune, the Cooperative Centre for Research into Biosciences and led by Dr. Maria Luz Martinez Chantar, have found a strong relationship between high levels of Hu antigen R (HuR) protein and the malignancy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, through a novel molecular process in the investigation of this pathology and known as neddylation. The project provides new opportunities for making advances in the quest for personalised therapeutic applications in the treatment for Hepatocarcinoma.
Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is the cause of most liver cancers, the fifth most frequent cancer worldwide and the third after lung and gastric cancers. HCC is a tumour with a poor prognosis, even in developed countries; its incidence is similar to its death rate, most patients dying within months of diagnosis, despite diagnostic and therapeutic advances. It is a highly heterogeneous tumour and so the scientific community is redoubling its efforts to establish personalised and highly specific therapeutic targets.
Researchers from the Metabolomic Unit at CIC bioGUNE and led by Dr. Martinez, have gone one step further with this type of tumour and have revealed a hitherto unknown molecular mechanism that is involved in the development of CHC, showing that the malignancy of this illness may be linked to the overexpression of the HuR protein.
The research work, published in the Hepatology journal, and which has obtained a mention in the Cancer section of the prestigious Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology journal, showed the relation between high levels of HuR protein and the malignancy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by means of a molecular mechanism – neddylation - totally novel in these kinds of tumour and effectively opens up new opportunities for the future development of potential therapeutic applications for patients with this pathology. The route also proved to have an application in cancer of the colon, given the high correlation between both types of tumour.
“Neddylation is an enzymatic reaction which, in the biological context, avoids the degradation of the protein modified with the NEDD8 molecule. Just as the ubiquitination marks the proteins to order them to be degraded, neddylation marks them in order to stabilise them and, in theory, these proteins are important for the tumour to proliferate and develop”, explained Dr Martínez, lead researcher in the project.
In this way, the strategy followed has been to maintain the HuR protein at high levels of expression through its modification by neddylation, thus encouraging its proliferation and the malignancy of the HCC, in such a way that, “when we block the neddylation action or regulate the levels of HuR protein in liver tumours and in in vitro and in vivo hepatoma lines, cell death is induced and tumour regression takes place”, stated Dr Martínez.
The options of conventional oncological treatment for Hepatocellular Carcinoma are limited, given that it is a highly chemoresistant tumour, usually arising from a cirrhotic liver. Approximately 40% of the patients diagnosed with HCC are in at an advanced stage and whose short-term prognosis produces a survival rate of 1 year in 29% of cases and of 2 years in 16%. This neoplasia is a unique situation in oncology and, despite its high incidence and poor prognosis, has not had an effective therapeutic option to date. A possible explanation for this is the wide-ranging heterogeneity in the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of this tumour.
The following step in this long and complex process of research is to find a potential therapeutic application for the formula found. This is why Dr Martínez has come to an agreement with the pharmaceutical Millenium: the Takeda Oncology Company to apply new neddylation inhibitors, marketed by this company and currently being tested in other types of tumours, to in vivo Hepatocellular Carcinoma models (mice), in order to explore this new therapeutic solution.
“Now that we have discovered that neddylation can play an important role in the development and progress of HCC, the next step is to undertake an in-depth study of possible therapeutic applications”, concluded Dr Martínez.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potoènik said: "Water pollution is one of the environmental worries most frequently cited by EU citizens. I welcome this advance as it is clearly answering people's expectations. These 15 additional chemicals need to be monitored and controlled to ensure they don't pose a risk to the environment or human health."

The update will be achieved through a revision of the Directive on priority substances in the field of water quality. The newly proposed substances are the outcome of a review that considered the risks posed by some 2000 substances according to their levels in surface waters, and their hazardousness, production and use. For six of the 15 new priority substances the classification proposed would require their emissions to water to be phased out within 20 years. The proposal also includes stricter standards for four currently controlled substances, and a requirement to phase out the emissions of two others already on the list.

The proposed 15 additional priority substances are:

Plant protection product substances: Aclonifen, Bifenox, Cypermethrin, Dicofol, Heptachlor, Quinoxyfen

Substances used in biocidal products: Cybutryne, Dichlorvos, Terbutryn

Industrial chemicals: Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD)

Combustion by-products: Dioxin and Dioxin-Like PCBs

Pharmaceutical substances: 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2), 17 beta-estradiol (E2), Diclofenac

Pharmaceuticals are proposed for the first time. The proposal does not put into question the medicinal value of these substances, but addresses the potential harmful effects of their presence in the aquatic environment. Concentrations above the proposed standards can affect fish health, reducing successful reproduction, for example, and harming other living organisms. Our awareness of the impact of pharmaceuticals in the environment has grown considerably in recent years, and the proposal is based on the latest scientific knowledge.

The Commission also proposes improvements to the monitoring and reporting of chemical pollutants in water, as well as a mechanism to obtain better information on the concentrations of other pollutants that might need to be controlled in the future at EU level. The Commission proposal is accompanied by a report to the European Parliament and Council on the outcome of the review of the existing list of controlled substances.

Full Story on Europa

In 2011, Samsung sought injunctive relief in various Member States' courts against competing mobile device makers based on alleged infringements of certain of its patent rights which it has declared essential to implement European mobile telephony standards. The Commission will investigate, in particular, whether in doing so Samsung has failed to honour its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The Commission will examine whether such behaviour amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU).

In line with the Commission's Guidelines on standardisation agreements, standard setting organisations, including ETSI, require the owners of patents that are essential for the implementation of a standard to commit to license these patents on FRAND terms. This commitment serves to ensure effective access to the standardised technology. Such commitments were given to ETSI by many patent holders, including Samsung, when the third generation ("3G") mobile and wireless telecommunications system standards were adopted in Europe.

In order to guarantee undistorted competition and to reap the positive economic effects of standardisation it is important that FRAND commitments be fully honoured by the concerned undertakings.

Full story on Europa

It transformed Glasgow into Philadelphia, let loose hundreds of zombies on to its streets, and brought Hollywood royalty to the Merchant City.

Now it has been revealed that World War Z, the epic tale of the undead that was filmed last year, also injected millions of pounds into the local economy.

The movie, starring Brad Pitt, brought £3.33 million to the city's economy last year, according to new figures compiled by the city council's Glasgow Film Office (GFO).

Overall, the zombie epic was part of a collection of film, broadcast and advertising productions that brought in £20.15 million to the city's economy in 2011.

World War Z was one of a clutch of high-profile Holly- wood movies that were shot in Scotland last year, bringing Halle Berry and Scarlett Johansson to parts of Glasgow and the Highlands.

Pitt's movie was the most high-profile, shooting on location in the city centre for 17 days, with a cast and crew of around 1200 people.

The film shoot transformed several streets, with yellow taxi cabs, American street signs and Philadelphian adverts added to the cityscape.

The various costs of filming in Glasgow covered hotel stays, more than 8500 bednights, local extras and location costs, such as turning the city centre into downtown Philadelphia.

The filming itself became a media event.

Pitt's wife and fellow Hollywood star Angelina Jolie joined her husband in Scotland with the couple's six children during filming, after arriving on a private train. World War Z, which will be released at Christmas this year, is based on the 2006 novel by Max Brooks and is set in the aftermath of a war between humans and zombies.

Other productions that had a notable economic impact on Glasgow during 2011 included Cloud Atlas, starring Berry; Under The Skin, starring Johansson; and the television production, Young James. Together these three productions generated almost £5.5 million for the city's economy.

A further £2.2 million was spent by what the film office calls "low impact productions", which are one or two-day shoots.

These short productions make up the majority of shoots the GFO deals with.

Councillor Gordon Matheson, leader of Glasgow City Council, said: "Alongside the great deal of excitement and enjoyment that films such as World War Z and Cloud Atlas brought was a tremendous economic boost for the city.

"The hard work of Glasgow Film Office and all the other council staff involved with the productions that come to our city has most certainly paid off, with over £20m coming into our economy.

"Such a figure underlines the financial importance of attracting film, broadcast and advertising productions to Glasgow." Jeremy Kleiner, the producer of World War Z, said: "The co-operation we had from the Glasgow Film Office and indeed from across the city council made it all possible, and the people of Glasgow were incredibly welcoming.

"It's been a very successful shoot here."

The GFO is the city's film commission, offering a free service to all productions – features, television, commercials, short films and music videos –wanting to film in Glasgow.

Glasgow is currently home to the shooting of Irvine Welsh's Filth, starring James McAvoy, and recently hosted Peter Mullan's Neds, Perfect Sense –starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green – and The Decoy Bride with David Tennant.

Glasgow's distinctive Victorian architecture and "grid" street design, similar to many American cities, has proved attractive to movie-makers over the years, with World War Z and Cloud Atlas following other films such as House of Mirth.

GFO recorded 726 filming days in 2011, of which 53% were from indigenous productions.

It received 311 location enquiries in 2011, which resulted in 225 productions being shot in the city.

Of these, 46% were TV projects, 7% features, 14% commercials, 6% short films and 26% miscellaneous projects, ranging from corporate videos to stills or photographic shoots.

Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said: "With Europe crying out for growth, ERA can't wait any longer. We can’t continue with a situation where research funding is not always allocated competitively, where positions are not always filled on merit, where researchers can’t take their grants across borders, where large parts of Europe are not even in the game, where there is a scandalous waste of female talent and where our brightest and best are leaving never to return. I want an entirely new ERA-partnership, with stronger role for key stakeholders, and much tougher monitoring of Member States' progress. I will not hesitate to "name and shame" those who perform badly against ERA objectives."

The European Commission received 590 responses to the on-line questionnaire and 101 ad hoc position papers by national and European research organisations and governments. Respondents to the online survey indicated deficiencies in research careers and mobility as the most urgent priority. This was followed by problems relating to research infrastructures, knowledge transfer and cross-border collaboration. A broad majority of respondents also highlighted that a higher involvement of women in science will contribute to European socio-economic growth. In position papers, cross-border collaboration, international cooperation, as well as open access to publications and data were on a similar footing to researcher-related issues.

One of the main messages from the research community is the need to attract and retain more leading researchers in Europe and to provide researchers with better and especially business-relevant skills. The global attractiveness of Europe as a location for researchers and private R&D investment should also be increased by reducing the fragmentation of the European market, and by improving employment and career prospects for researchers. The lack of open and transparent recruitment procedures is regarded as one of the main barriers to internationally mobile researchers. It is also necessary to coordinate research at transnational level to raise research quality, reduce costs and tackle global challenges.

Full Story on Europa

A new EU-funded project that aims to deliver green traffic management systems in European cities and towns has just kicked off. The three-year project, titled THE ISSUE ('Traffic- Health- Environment. Intelligent Solutions Sustaining Urban Economies'), brings together research clusters from five European regions - the East Midlands in the United Kingdom, the Molise region in Italy, the Midi-Pyrenees and Aquitaine regions in France and the Mazovia region in Poland.

With a EUR 2.7 million boost as part of the 'Regions of knowledge' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the project partners will support scientists, engineers and development agencies from the different regions to work together and develop more effective methods of easing road congestion and improving the urban environment.

Traffic management systems use information and communication technologies (ICT) applied to both transport infrastructure and vehicles in order to improve life on the roads for everyone. This can be in terms of safety, reliability or even productivity. Increasingly, traffic management systems are also addressing the need to tackle environmental factors.

The ultimate aim is to influence future policy so that traffic management systems that benefit public health and safety are widely implemented. The main trouble areas when it comes to traffic management are how transport impacts on urban mobility, how green our transport system is, and the health, safety and security of citizens.

In THE ISSUE project diverse technologies and research applications will be used to tackle these traffic management issues. One such example is the integration of computer intelligence solutions and real-time satellite navigation data into existing operational urban traffic management systems. Two other practical approaches are space and in situ measurements to help mitigate risk to citizens' health from traffic-induced air pollution, and technology demonstration and pre-operational real-time trials of a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car operating in a city environment.

The project is being headed up by researchers from the University of Leicester and Leicester City Council in the United Kingdom.

Councillor Rory Palmer from Leicester City Council spoke about the project: 'Making Leicester a low carbon city is one of our main priorities and this kind of research will be essential to helping tackle issues around congestion and air quality in the future. I am proud that the city council can help make this work possible.'

Project leader Professor Alan Wells from the University of Leicester's Space Research Centre said: 'With the EU funding we have secured, we can now coordinate different research activities in the same general areas of traffic and the environment that are being carried out by partners from across Europe. These sort of outcomes have never been brought together in this way before.'

The main objective of the 'Regions of Knowledge' Theme of the FP7 is to promote knowledge exchange and cooperation between European regions so as to stimulate economic growth and job creation. THE ISSUE project aims to create vibrant partnerships between different regional research clusters to bring together and coordinate existing and forthcoming research and technological development (RTD) programmes relevant to traffic, health and the environment.

The idea is that by holding consultations, participating regional and local authorities can identify economic priorities specific to certain regions, and ensure that their research priorities are in line with their traffic, health and environment policies.

'The scientific teams at the heart of the project will be working closely with the bodies responsible for managing traffic, transport and air quality in the UK and European regions to explore how this research can be of value to them,' says Professor Alan Wells. 'Our aim is to draw on the strengths of industry and academics working in partnership. We have to be mindful at all stages of the connection between research, policy and how what we are developing can make a difference to the quality of people's lives.'

For more information, please visit:

University of Leicester: http://www2.le.ac.uk/

• 2 out of 3 Europeans are worried that companies share their personal data without their permission
• 9 out of 10 want the same data protection rights across Europe.

To address these concerns, the Commission is proposing to update the EU’s data protection law. The changes would introduce a single set of rules on data protection, valid across the EU.

Click here for more information...
 

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A new EU-funded study by a team of Austrian, French and Norwegian researchers has found that rising temperatures as a result of climate change will have differing genetic consequences within single Arctic plant species. It is hoped that these new results will help focus future conservation efforts in the region and help scientists prioritise which species are important to conserve.

While researchers expect that most plant species will lose part of their current habitat as a result of climate change, this new study shows that within a plant species not all plants will experience the same genetic consequences.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, was funded in part by the ECOCHANGE ('Challenges in assessing and forecasting biodiversity and ecosystem changes in Europe') project which received a EUR 6,999,998 boost of funding as part of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

As time goes on, climate change will have an increasingly major impact on biological diversity, and nowhere more so than in Arctic and alpine environments, which are exposed to the most extreme climate changes. Therefore, it is vital to investigate the genetic consequences that warming climes have on biological diversity. The team looked at 10,000 samples from 27 plant species in the Arctic and certain alpine environments in Central Europe.

Although there exists a plethora of previous studies that have focused their work on exploring the consequences of climate change on biological diversity, very few have taken into account genetic variations within a specific species, focusing instead on a species as a whole. The results show that species that utilise wind and birds to disperse their seeds will lose less of their genetic diversity in a warmer climate than species that have very localised seed dispersal.

Lead study author Inger Greve Alsos from The University Centre in Svalbard, Norway says: 'This study is the first to use empirical data to estimate loss of genetic diversity by loss of habitat for several plant species under different climate scenarios. Genetic variation is crucial for species to adapt to changing climate. If a species with limited seed dispersal perishes from an area, it means that this species as a whole will experience an irrevocable loss of genetic diversity.'

One example of this is the Glacier crowfoot (Ranunculus glacialis). This species grows only on mountain tops and has little gene flow between populations and is therefore expected to lose a large part of its genetic diversity in a warmer climate. The Dwarf birch (Betula nana) on the other hand, will adapt better to a warmer climate as this species disperses its seeds with the wind and has a long lifespan, it can live for over 100 years. The Dwarf birch doesn't need to worry too much as there is sufficient gene flow between populations.

Species' growth form is also important; as trees and shrubs are usually taller and have a longer lifespan than herbs, they disperse and preserve their genes better than many herb species. Some species can experience a reduction of up to 80% of their habitat, yet still retain over 90% of their genetic diversity. Other species might just lose half of their genetic diversity if their habitat is reduced by 65%.

Many advanced modelling approaches have been used so far to assess the impact of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystems. Among these assessments there are advanced socioeconomic scenarios and yield projections of the distribution of species, communities and biomes, and of the functioning of ecosystems.

However, these approaches have their limitations. Firstly, knowledge and data of past species' distribution is still limited, yet necessary for testing them in the past before projecting them for the future. We need sound estimates of species' long-distance migration rates to assess whether species will be able to keep pace with rapid global change. In addition, some key assumptions of models, such as niche stability over time and/or space, are not well tested. Researchers also believe we need more reliable estimates of uncertainties in model predictions.

The overall aim of ECOCHANGE, which kicked off in 2007 and will wrap up in March 2012, is to address these limitations by integrating different modelling approaches currently in use (niche-based, dynamic, dispersal, etc.), and by developing robust methodologies to estimate uncertainties associated with these projections.

For more information, please visit:

The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS): http://www.unis.no/

The European Commission has published a call for proposals under the Euratom Framework Programme for Nuclear Research and Training Activities.

The call falls under the Nuclear Fission, Safety and Radiation Protection section of the Euratom Framework Programme for Nuclear Research and Training Activities.

The overall objective of the Nuclear Fission, Safety and Radiation Protection section is to establish a sound scientific and technical basis in order to accelerate practical developments for the safer management of long-lived radioactive waste, to enhance in particular the safety while contributing to the resource efficiency and cost effectiveness of nuclear energy, and to ensure a robust and socially acceptable system of protection of man and the environment against the effects of ionising radiation.

Topics covered under this call include:
- technical feasibility and long-term performance of repository components - full-scale demonstration of plugs and seals;
- support to the technical secretariat of the Implementing Geological Disposal Technology Platform;
- simulation Platform for Nuclear Reactor Safety;
- impact of the nuclear accident in Japan on severe accident management;
- consequences of combination of extreme external events on the safety of nuclear power plants;
- research and development activities in support of the implementation of the Strategic Research Agenda of the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNE-TP);
- non-research activities in support of the implementation of the Strategic Research Agenda of SNE-TP;
- contribution to low-dose risk research in Europe;
- update of emergency management and rehabilitation strategies and expertise in Europe;
- transnational access to large infrastructures;
- Euratom Fission Training Schemes (EFTS) in 'Nuclear Fission, Safety and Radiation Protection';
- actions supporting programme implementation and other activities;
- widening involvement in the 'Fission, Safety and Radiation Protection' Programme.

Depending on the strategic nature of the research, the expected impact may be defined at the level of the activity, area or specific topic. Usually a maximum of one project will be considered for funding per topic. Where more than one project per topic may be considered for funding, the funding scheme(s) for that topic is/are indicated in the plural. In some specific cases, a larger maximum number of projects to be retained for funding under one topic may also be mentioned.

To see the official call announcement, please consult: OJ:C:2012:17

 Figures from investment firm Whisky Highland show that some portfolios’ value has risen by almost 300 per cent in the last year.

Three-year figures reveal that an investment in the 100 best-performing whiskies in 2008 would have risen by 163 per cent in 2011, while gold – which has soared due to the recession – rose 146 per cent. Diamonds rose by just 10 per cent, while shares and crude oil stock values fell.

Arthur Motley, buyer at Royal Mile Whiskies, said: “Collectors used to be interested in whisky as a drink and wanted a good bottle as part of their collection. Increasingly, people are buying as they see prices rising on eBay or at auctions. It is simply seen as an investment.”

Former banker Andy Simpson, who founded Whisky Highland after leaving Bank of Scotland, said investors are only just starting to become aware of the value of whisky.

“It is expanding quite rapidly,” he said. “A few years ago, you might have seen the odd bottle tagged on the end of a wine auction. Now there are a lot of specific whisky auctions held all over the country.”

A total of 8,500 bottles of single malt – the most valuable form – were last year sold at auction, compared to 1,500 four years ago. The value of the auction market is estimated at £3.6 million and expected to rise to £17m by 2020.

Worldwide, investor and collector bottle retail sales are thought to total 85,000 – worth £44 million a year. The most expensive bottle of whisky so far is a bottle of limited-edition Dalmore, bought last year for £135,000 by a Chinese businessman in Singapore.

Another high-performing investment bottle, the Glenfiddich Foundation Reserve, went on sale in a limited-edition 500 bottle run last May for £50 and is now worth about £250.

David Robertson, Dalmore’s rare whiskies director, said: “People see whisky as an asset and with stocks and shares being so tough and interest from bank accounts so low, investors have been starting to look for other opportunities.”

Robertson said Dalmore regularly received calls – including from investors and whisky retailers in Asia and Africa – enquiring about specific bottles.

Mahesh Patel, 45, a British civil engineer who lives and works in the US, began collecting in his early 20s.

“My first serious bottles were bought 20 years ago on the Royal Mile – a Black Bowmore and an Ardbeg Provenance – which cost about £200 and are probably worth about £4,000 to £5,000 now. I have about 2,500 to 3,000 bottles, but I like to see it as quality, not quantity. My family used to think it was a mad obsession. Now they can see the benefit.”

Scotland's renewables sector will continue to grow in value in 2012 despite economic uncertainty, an industry analyst has said.

The growth will follow a worldwide trend that has seen the value of mergers in wind, solar and biomass technologies rise by 40%.

A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that deal values rose from $38.2bn (£24.3bn) in 2010 to a record level of $53.5bn (£34.04bn) in 2011.

In Europe, the volume of deals declined by 6%, but the overall value rose from $16.7bn (£10.62bn) to $30bn (£19.09bn).

Jason Morris, partner and energy and renewable analyst at PwC, said: "As the renewable and clean energy sector continues to mature we are seeing evidence of more dealmaking activity, not only on the global stage but in Scotland and the UK, a trend that will continue in the medium term.

"Scotland has nailed its colours to the mast in terms of the renewable sector and energy efficiency, both in terms of Scottish Government policy and ongoing lobbying to bring the Green Investment Bank to Edinburgh, and the benefits are trickling through."

Mr Morris said that the approval last week of £7bn of investment by Scottish and Southern Energy and Scottish Power to upgrade its network infrastructure to support the renewable sector was evidence of the confidence in the industry.

The PwC global report found that the green energy industry has benefited from a reluctance in many countries to rely on nuclear energy after the Fukushima emergency in Japan.

However, the windpower sector could decrease in size, according to the report, as firms merge in order to create the large reserves of funds needed to invest in new projects.

Mr Morris said: "As offshore wind projects increase in size, the need for a strong balance sheet to support the technology and investment required becomes more important.

“The entry of Repsol to the Scottish offshore wind market after acquiring the stakes in Round Three Wind Farms held by Sea Energy demonstrates the type of transaction this will drive.

"Many of the power companies will continue to sell down their stakes in both new and existing projects to free up balance sheet capacity for future investment."

It's safe to say that Europeans love their bread. Whether it's Germany's dark pumpernickel or France's baguette, Europeans enjoy consuming this starchy food. A team of researchers led by Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania believes that Europeans are now baking their own, or buying it from their local bakeries. The results are part of the FERMFOOD ('Fermented products by using lactic acid bacteria with antimicrobial activity for bread production') project, which is supported under EUREKA, the European platform for research and development (R&D).

Professor Grazina Juodeikiene of Kaunas University of Technology suggests that people are looking for the flavour and texture that most industrial bread makers omit from their products. According to Professor Juodeikiene, the results of the study may provide the means for bread to retain the taste consumers crave while safely remaining on the shelves for longer periods of time.

When a foreign company visited Lithuania to teach local bakers how to bake different types of bread, Professor Juodeikiene decided to investigate how bread can be made to be both delicious and long-lasting. 'It was excellent, but the next day you could play baseball with it,' she says. 'My idea was to develop bread with what I now call the big 5: longer shelf life, better flavour, better texture, with more dietary fibre and fewer additives.'

The study obtained some interesting results including ways to meet the demands of today's consumers by drawing on an ancient bread-making technique. Lithuanians, along with Estonians and Latvians, eat sourdough bread, made using a natural leavening method that some experts believe dates back to the time of ancient Egypt.

Most nations replaced this leavening technique by industrially processed yeast and food additives. Sourdough bread, however, continues to be a main staple in the Baltic and other parts of the globe. The key ingredient in sourdough is a 'starter' or 'mother' of flour and water that ferments when a lactobacillus culture is added. This starter is what gives lightness to the dough. Bakers feed and preserve this living culture in order to use it in successive loaves.

Lithuanian bakers depended on starters made abroad. So Professor Juodeikiene believed it was time for Lithuanians to develop their own starter dough. For the purposes of this study, the FERMFOOD team collected samples of the lactobacillus cultures from bakeries across Lithuania.

The researchers from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania evaluated the various forms of cultures; they explored what factors impacted the sourdough bread and when it would go mouldy. The bread's texture was tested with sophisticated equipment. Thanks to acoustic waves, the team were able to repeat tests on the same slice of bread because it didn't fall to pieces.

The team developed more effective cultures to generate better long-lasting bread, with some loaves lasting three weeks and being free of mould.

Government representatives from abroad have already expressed an interest in the results of the FERMFOOD project. The Japanese embassy at Vilnius has requested more information about the outcome of the bread-making technique.

'The next big challenge is how we feed a growing world population,' Professor Juodeikiene says. 'We have no option but to intensify crop production. What was so nice about FERMFOOD is how practical it was, and that I see such a future in this research.'

For more information, please visit:

FERMFOOD: http://www.eurekanetwork.org/project/-/id/3966

EUREKA: http://www.eurekanetwork.org/

By collecting larger quantities of recyclable waste materials together in one place or joining together to contract one waste manager to provide collections, small businesses could stand to make financial savings, increase their recycling rates and reduce their environmental impact by working together.

Up to four projects will receive funding in the pilot phase of the fund. Marking an initial investment of up to £50,000, Zero Waste Scotland says further funding could become available at a later date if the pilot projects prove to be successful.

New Zero Waste Regulations proposed by the Scottish Government will require all Scottish businesses to sort and present key recyclable materials for separate collection by 2013. This includes separate collections for paper and card, plastics, metals, and glass.

For businesses in food retail, production or preparation, a separate food waste collection will also be required by 2013 for businesses with over 50 employees. By 2015, businesses with fewer employees will be asked to follow suit.

Applications to the fund can be made on the Zero Waste Scotland website.  Zero Waste Scotland requests initial expressions of interest are made by emailing Lesley McMurtrie before Friday 3 February 2012. 

The new fund is just one part of Zero Waste Scotland’s business support programme, which aims to help businesses make the most of their resources in the first place as well as providing advice to help businesses recycle more and to a higher standard.  

An online training course, On Course for Zero Waste, to help SME's identify, appropriately manage and reduce the waste they generate, and the resources they use is also available.

Zero Waste Scotland also offers free and confidential reviews to businesses in the food and drink sector focusing on waste associated with products and packaging, in order to identify opportunities to cut costs and improve efficiencies.

Source: EurActiv.com

The European Commission unveiled a new website yesterday (26 January) for the European Citizens' Initiative and detailed the procedure for their acceptance. 

Work is under way on a Dark Sky Observatory at the Galloway Forest Park in south west Scotland.

Enterprise Minister Fergus Ewing took part in the groundbreaking ceremony at Dalmellington in Ayrshire.

The new facility, which has received £94,000 in funding from the Scottish government, will be used by schools, colleges and universities.

Ministers said they also hoped to capitalise on the recent popularity of the BBC's Stargazing Live programme.

The Galloway Forest Park straddles the regions of East Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway.

It received Dark Sky Park recognition in 2009, and is the only such site in Britain.

The new observatory, costing almost £700,000 in total, aims to build on the park's status and will offer visitors a chance to observe the Northern Lights, the Milky Way, planets, comets and shooting stars.

Mr Ewing said: "Scotland has made an immense contribution to shaping the modern world through science and research excellence, and this new observatory builds on our reputation as a hotbed of innovation and ideas.

"The creation of a state-of-the-art, first of its kind in Britain, observatory will attract stargazers and astronomers from near and far.

"The Galloway Forest Park area enjoys some of the darkest skies in the world and this new facility will showcase the area's stunning natural scenery and resources to attract new visitors and investment to Ayrshire."

Observatory manager Cath Seeds said it had taken two years to "generate the enthusiasm and raise funds for this project".

She paid tribute to the wide range of organisations funding the scheme.

"Often, the science can feel overwhelming, so we want the observatory to break down these barriers by bringing together astronomy, nocturnal natural history and arts and crafts inspired by the night sky," she said.

"We also want to play a key role in the future development of this area.

"Great things are occurring and great talent is abundant.

"Our role is to improve science in our community, whether by inspiring the next generation of scientists or providing the spark needed by an inventor to produce something truly remarkable."

Depute leader of East Ayrshire Council, Iain Linton, said it would be a "huge asset" to the area.

"It will hopefully attract not only local visitors, but many tourists and keen stargazers from around the world who I'm sure will be extremely impressed with the new facility," he said.

"This in turn will act as a catalyst for the regeneration of the area and will really put East Ayrshire on the map."

By innovatively combining two research fields - quantum physics and nanophysics - EU-funded Danish researchers have discovered a new method for laser cooling semiconductor membranes. Semiconductors are vital components in many electronic goods such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and it is important to be able to cool these components for the future development of quantum computers and ultrasensitive sensors.

However, despite being called a cooling method, the technique the physicists employ works by doing exactly the opposite - heating up the material. Writing in the journal Nature Physics, the team, from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, explains how they developed the use of lasers that were able to cool the membrane fluctuations to minus 269 degrees Celsius.

Their study received a EUR 4 700 000 funding boost as part of the Q-ESSENCE ('Quantum interfaces, sensors and communication based on entanglement') project, funded under the 'ICT' (Information and Communication Technologies) Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

Lead author of the study, Koji Usamiv. explains: 'In experiments, we have succeeded in achieving a new and efficient cooling of a solid material by using lasers. We have produced a semiconductor membrane with a thickness of 160 nanometres and an unprecedented surface area of 1 by 1 millimetre. In the experiments, we let the membrane interact with the laser light in such a way that its mechanical movements affected the light that hit it. We carefully examined the physics and discovered that a certain oscillation mode of the membrane cooled from room temperature down to minus 269 degrees Celsius, which was a result of the complex and fascinating interplay between the movement of the membrane, the properties of the semiconductor and the optical resonances.'

The Danish team have long been perfecting their laser cooling of atoms technique, and have previously managed to cool gas clouds of caesium atoms down to near absolute zero, minus 273 degrees Celsius, using focused lasers. They managed to create entanglement between two atomic systems. This occurs when the atomic spin becomes entangled and the two gas clouds forge a link, due to quantum mechanics. Using quantum optical techniques, they measured the quantum fluctuations of the atomic spin.
'For some time we have wanted to examine how far you can extend the limits of quantum mechanics - does it also apply to macroscopic materials? It would mean entirely new possibilities for what is called optomechanics, which is the interaction between optical radiation, i.e. light, and a mechanical motion,' explains another study author, Professor Eugene Polzik.

But before they could see if their theories worked in practice, they needed to check they had the right materials for the job.

It all began back in 2009 when one member of the study team, Peter Lodahl, gave a lecture at the Niels Bohr Institute: he showcased a special photonic crystal membrane that was made of the semiconducting material gallium arsenide (GaAs). After hearing the lecture, Professor Polzik immediately thought that this nanomembrane would have many advantageous electronic and optical properties. He suggested that they use this kind of membrane for experiments with optomechanics, and after a year of experimenting with different dimensions, the team succeeded in making a suitable one.

The researchers managed to produce a nanomembrane that is only 160 nanometres thick, and with an area of more than 1 square millimetre.

In the experiment, they shone the laser light onto the nanomembrane in a vacuum chamber. When the laser light hit the semiconductor membrane, some of the light was reflected, and the light was reflected back again via a mirror in the experiment, so that the light flew back and forth in this space, forming an optical resonator. Some of the light was absorbed by the membrane and released free electrons. The electrons decayed and thereby heated the membrane, producing a thermal expansion. In this way, the distance between the membrane and the mirror was constantly changed in the form of a fluctuation.

One of the study authors, Koji Usami, explains further: 'Changing the distance between the membrane and the mirror leads to a complex and fascinating interplay between the movement of the membrane, the properties of the semiconductor and the optical resonances, and you can control the system so as to cool the temperature of the membrane fluctuations. This is a new optomechanical mechanism, which is central to the new discovery. The paradox is that even though the membrane as a whole is getting a little bit warmer, the membrane is cooled at a certain oscillation and the cooling can be controlled with laser light. So it is cooling by warming! We managed to cool the membrane fluctuations to minus 269 degrees Celsius.'

These findings could lead to the development of cooling components for quantum computers. A quantum computer is a device for computation that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform operations on data.

The main objectives of the Q-ESSENCE project are to develop quantum interfaces capable of high-fidelity mapping of quantum information between different quantum systems, the generation of quantum entanglement at new scales and distances as a resource to carry out quantum information tasks, and the engineering of multipartite entanglement in specific topologies of elementary systems.

This project also supports researchers from Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Due to run until 2013, it will create opportunities in quantum information technologies that can be developed into realistic and complete schemes for executing ICT tasks.

For more information, please visit:

Niels Bohr Institute: http://www.nbi.ku.dk/english/

European Charlemagne Youth Prize 2012 - new deadline for the submission of applications.

The deadline for the submission of applications for the Charlemagne Youth Prize has been postponed to 13th February. This will give more candidates the opportunity to participate in the fifth edition of the Prize. The procedure for the submission of applications is simple and straightforward.

Role models for young Europeans

The Charlemagne Youth Prize, which is jointly organised by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen, is awarded to projects undertaken by people between 16 and 30 years old and helping to promote understanding between peoples of different European countries.  The winning projects should serve as role models for young people living in Europe and offer practical examples of Europeans living together as one community. Youth exchange programmes, artistic and Internet projects with a European dimension are amongst the projects selected.

Total prize money of 10,000 Euros

The three winning projects will be awarded funding of €5,000, €3,000, and €2,000 respectively. They will also be invited to visit the European Parliament. Representatives of the best projects from each of the 27 EU Member States will be invited to Aachen, in Germany, on 15th May 2012, to participate in the award ceremony.

2011 winners

In 2011, the UK online lifestyle magazine "Europe & Me" created by young Europeans for young Europeans in 2007 was awarded the first prize in the European Charlemagne Youth Prize competition. The second and third prize went to "Balkans Beyond Borders", a short-film project from Greece, and to the "Escena Erasmus Project" (Spain), a project addressed mainly to Erasmus students, encouraging cultural and linguistic exchanges, respectively.

Application forms, which are easily filled in,  are available in 22 languages on the European Parliament's Charlemagne Youth Prize website

Role models for young Europeans

The Charlemagne Youth Prize, which is jointly organised by the European Parliament and the Foundation of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen, is awarded to projects undertaken by people between 16 and 30 years old and helping to promote understanding between peoples of different European countries.  The winning projects should serve as role models for young people living in Europe and offer practical examples of Europeans living together as one community. Youth exchange programmes, artistic and Internet projects with a European dimension are amongst the projects selected.

Total prize money of 10,000 Euros

The three winning projects will be awarded funding of €5,000, €3,000, and €2,000 respectively. They will also be invited to visit the European Parliament. Representatives of the best projects from each of the 27 EU Member States will be invited to Aachen, in Germany, on 15th May 2012, to participate in the award ceremony.

2011 winners

In 2011, the UK online lifestyle magazine "Europe & Me" created by young Europeans for young Europeans in 2007 was awarded the first prize in the European Charlemagne Youth Prize competition. The second and third prize went to "Balkans Beyond Borders", a short-film project from Greece, and to the "Escena Erasmus Project" (Spain), a project addressed mainly to Erasmus students, encouraging cultural and linguistic exchanges, respectively.

Application forms, which are easily filled in,  are available in 22 languages on the European Parliament's Charlemagne Youth Prize website

Scientists in Finland have discovered how a biochemical signature can potentially predict progression to Alzheimer's disease. The study is funded in part by the PREDICTAD ('From patient data to personalised healthcare in Alzheimer's disease') project, which received almost EUR 2.9 million under the 'Information and communication technologies' (ICT) Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Results suggest that this neurological disorder is preceded by a molecular signature indicative of hypoxia and an upregulated pentose phosphate pathway. The study, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, could lead to the development of methods for early disease detection.

Led by Professor Matej Oresic, the VTT Technical Research Centre scientists say it is possible to use a simple biochemical assay from a serum sample months or even years before initial symptoms of Alzheimer's emerge, to analyse this indicator. Using this type of assay in a medical setting helps doctors perform neurocognitive assessments, and it can also be applied in identifying patients who are at increased risk of suffering from this disease, and who need further comprehensive follow-up.

The healthcare systems of Western countries are making every effort to beat Alzheimer's, a growing problem for the millions of patients diagnosed with this disease. Experts say more and more numbers of new cases emerge each year, as populations get older.

It should be noted that the progression of Alzheimer's is gradual, with the subclinical stage of illness thought to span many decades. Experts say the pre-dementia stage, which is also called 'mild cognitive impairment (MCI)', is characterised by subtle symptoms that could potentially impact complex daily activities. It is believed that MCI is a transition phase between normal ageing and Alzheimer's. According to the researchers, there is a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's when MCI is present. But the state is heterogeneous with a number of outcomes, including a return back to normal cognition.

Investigating the molecular changes and processes that define MCI patients at risk of developing Alzheimer's was high on the researchers' agenda. They used metabolomics, a high-throughput method for detecting small metabolites, to generate profiles of the serum metabolites linked to the progression to Alzheimer's. They identified which patients diagnosed with MCI at baseline later progressed to Alzheimer's. They also pinpointed the molecular signature able to identify such patients at baseline.

While no therapy currently exists for the prevention of Alzheimer's, early disease detection is important both for delaying the onset of the disease - via pharmacological treatment and/or changes in the patient's lifestyle - and for evaluating the effectiveness of potential Alzheimer's therapeutic agents.

For more information, please visit:

ICT Research in FP7: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/

PREDICTAD: http://www.predictad.eu/

Source: Herald Scotland

A Scottish company is today launching a revolutionary new product for treating acne.

The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre is a £150 million venture by Vattenfall, Technip and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group.

US tycoon Donald Trump has said he will abandon his plans for a hotel and houses at his golf resort on the Menie Estate if the project is approved.

The infrastructure services committee was being asked to back the plan.

A "no to turbines" protest was held outside the meeting.

A planning application for the wind farm off Aberdeen Bay, 2km (1.2 miles) from the golf course, was submitted to Marine Scotland in August last year.

The marine consortium applying to build the wind farm has said that 11 next-generation wind turbines would be constructed as a testing ground for future developments.

It is expected it would create jobs and economic benefit by attracting scientists, researchers, engineers and offshore wind supply chain companies.

A final decision on the wind farm plans is expected by Scottish ministers later in the year.

Irn Bru maker AG Barr has reported strong sales of both its core and exotic brands as it looks to expand its production capacity into the south of Britain.

In a trading update, the Cumbernauld-based company said it expected 6% year-on-year growth for the financial year.

Barr said all of its core brands had grown this year, while exotic brands Rubicon and LA had performed strongly.

It expects overall margins to be in line with expectations.

This was despite continuing volatility in a number of key input costs such as sugar, packaging materials and energy.

Barr said it was continuing to develop its investment plans for a new production site with canning capacity in the south of the UK, but has yet to specify its precise location.

The firm expects the additional facility to come on stream in 2012-13.

In its trading update, Barr said its performance in the final quarter reflected "well executed sales plans, a less demanding comparative trading position and excellent consumer demand behind our core brands".

The firm said it expected see continued pressure on consumers' disposable incomes and further input cost inflation, as well as an increasingly competitive market place over the course of the next financial year.

It added: "However, we do see sales growth opportunities across our core brands as we continue to drive our product distribution and innovation activities.

"We will maintain our focus on costs throughout our total operation to ensure our margins are protected."

The ninth Global Connections Survey estimates that manufacturing and service sector exports are worth £22 billion to the Scottish economy. The survey highlights a rise in overall exports of £355 million since 2009, mostly accounted for by a rise in manufacturing exports of £595 million offset by a decrease in service exports of £305 million. 

The top five exporting industries in 2010 – which accounted for around 60 per cent of total exports - were food and beverages (£4 billion), chemicals (£3 billion), business services (£2.5 billion), electrical and instrument engineering (£1.9 billion) and the mechanical engineering sector (£1.6 billion). 

The USA remains Scotland’s top export destination with an estimated £3.5 billion of exports in 2010, an increase of £365 millio since 2009. This is followed by Netherlands (£2.4 billion), France (£1.5 billion) and Germany (£1.3 billion). 

Exports to the rest of the UK in 2010 are estimated at £44.9 billion with £24 billion attributable to service sector companies and £13 billion to manufacturing sector companies. 

The Scottish Government’s engagement with other countries is driven by its overarching purpose of increasing sustainable economic growth. In September 2011 the Scottish Government published a refreshed Government Economic Strategy, which set a target to deliver a 50 per cent increase in the value of international exports by 2017. 

Finance Secretary John Swinney said: “The Scottish Government and its enterprise agencies are working tirelessly to strengthen Scotland’s economic links in overseas markets. The latest Global Connections Survey demonstrates that work by Scottish Development International, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise is having a positive impact on our economy, with Scottish exports increasing by an estimated value of £355 million to £22 billion in 2010. 

Chief Executive of Scottish Development International Anne MacColl said: "Now more than ever, we are operating in a global economy. Scottish Development International is committed to working with our partners to continue to raise Scotland's international aspirations and develop a more global perspective in order to drive long-term sustainable growth. " 

Read the full Global Connections Survey 2011.

The money will be committed over the next three years.

It brings total Scottish government support for the project to more than £18m, including £15m of capital investment already confirmed.

The extra funding was announced by Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop on a visit to the waterfront, where preparatory work began on Monday.

The £45 million museum, which is located at Craig Harbour on the banks of the River Tay, is due to open in 2015.

Ms Hyslop said the new cash would be used to support key activities associated with the project, including fundraising, programming exhibitions, developing education programmes and working with designers and creative practitioners.

'Great benefits'

She continued: "The V&A at Dundee is an international cultural project which has the potential to bring great benefits to the city and the whole of Scotland.

"It will attract visitors from all over the world and presents an opportunity to strengthen Dundee's reputation as a centre for the creative industries.

"Our significant financial contribution will enable the V&A at Dundee - with its iconic waterfront building - to work towards opening in 2015, placing the project at the centre of Dundee's regeneration."

V&A director Philip Long said: "The culture secretary's announcement today assures that work can continue on the development of V&A at Dundee, from planning through to implementation and opening.

"V&A at Dundee will show major exhibitions of international design, celebrate our own design heritage, inspire and help develop contemporary talent, and encourage design innovation for the future. We are delighted to have the Scottish government's continuing wholehearted support for this vision."

The museum is being built in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Local partners in the project include the University of Dundee, the University of Abertay, Dundee City Council and Scottish Enterprise.

The museum is part of the £1bn Dundee waterfront project, which encompasses 240 hectares of development land stretching 8km along the River Tay.

In the Year of Creative Scotland 2012, a new poll has revealed that Tam o'Shanter is Scotland's favourite poem by our national Bard for Burns Night.

The You Gov survey asked adults across the country to select their favourite Robert Burns poem for Burns Night from a list of options. Almost a quarter (23 per cent) chose the verse written by Burns in 1790, which tells the story of a man who witnessed a disturbing vision on his way home from a public house.

A Man's a Man for A' That came second, with 17 per cent of respondents rating the poem - famous for its liberal ideas of society in the 19th century - as their number one choice.  Following closely in third place is the Address to a Haggis, which 16 per cent of Scots have rated as their favourite for the annual celebration of our national Bard.

Speaking ahead of this year's Burns Night celebrations, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop said: "Robert Burns is Scotland's greatest cultural icon, recognised and celebrated all around the world. The results from this poll show that our national Bard still holds a special place in the nation's heart.

"The favourite, Tam o'Shanter, is considered by many as one of the best examples of narrative poem, while no Burns Supper would be complete without its vital ingredient - the Address to a Haggis.

"My personal favourite is Mary Morrison, a simple yet very romantic poem about longing.  It was the poem I recited during my final year at Alloway Primary School to win the Burns Recital Prize.  That was a great honour and to this day I still find the poem very moving."

Scotland's Makar Liz Lochhead joined the debate citing To a Mouse as her favourite Burns poem. Noting its strong and vivid imagery that continues to resonate, she said: "Impossible choice. So here's my first favourite, best and dearest. At eight, I already loved that wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie being told, with perfect plain sincerity, 'I'm truly sorry Man's Dominion/ has broken Nature's social union'. A tiny trembling creature standing in for our whole laid-waste and abused planet."      

Among the events to celebrate our national Bard, traditional Burns Suppers are taking place across the country this week including at The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Ayrshire and the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, while the 2012 Big Burns Supper festival will see over 2,000 performers light up venues across Dumfries.

Ms Hyslop continued: "Burns remains the people's poet and his legacy is of immense value to Scotland and the country's image abroad. His vast collection of work has inspired generations across the globe and the Year of Creative Scotland 2012 is the perfect time to celebrate all that is great about our culture and creativity both past and present.

"Wherever you are you can learn about Burns through the most modern of ways. Our Burns Facebook page has attracted over 12,000 friends from across the globe, with over 5,500 people sharing and discussing their plans to celebrate. Or you can download our Burns app which includes Burns poems, facts about his life and a helpful guide to hosting your very own Burns Supper.

"Burns Night is the culmination of Scotland's Winter Festivals and celebratory events will be taking place across the country. Scotland's friends the world over will also be joining in the fun with Burns Night celebrations from Cardiff to Canada and Melbourne to Mexico City, there really will be something for everyone to enjoy."

More information about Burns, including ideas for hosting your own Burns Supper and fun interactive games and quizzes to encourage people around the world to get involved with virtual celebrations can be found at www.scotland.org/winter.

Links

• www.Scotland.org
• Download the iTunes Burns app
• Download the Android Burns app
• The Year of Creative Scotland

Related information

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 1011 adults.  Fieldwork was undertaken between January 17 and 19, 2012.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all Scottish adults (aged 18+).

Respondents were asked to choose their favourite poem for Burns Night from a list of some of Robert Burns' best known works which included My Luve is Like a Red, Red Rose, Tam o'Shanter, Address to a Haggis, A Man's a Man for A' That and The Cotter's Saturday Night.

The Scottish Government, via EventScotland, is funding four events for Burns Night from the Winter Festivals budget - Big Burns Supper in Dumfries; Burnsfest at the Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh; Celtic Connections Burns Related Events; and National Museum of Scotland series of Burns events.

The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) have a programme of events for Burns Night with many events taking place at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum.

Scotland's Winter Festivals begin with St Andrew's Day on 30th November and includes Christmas celebrations, Scotland's Hogmanay celebrations on 31st December, culminating with Burns Night on 25th January.

The Year of Creative Scotland began on January 1, 2012 and will spotlight and celebrate Scotland's cultural and creative strengths on a world stage. Through a dynamic and exciting year-long programme of activity celebrating our world-class events, festivals, culture and heritage, the year puts Scotland's culture and creativity in the international spotlight with a focus on cultural tourism and developing the events industry and creative sector in Scotland.

The Year of Creative Scotland is a Scottish Government initiative led in partnership by EventScotland, VisitScotland, Creative Scotland and VOCAL.

Source: Herald Scotland

Pinnacle Telecom has clinched one of its biggest contracts by agreeing a deal to provide communications infrastructure for the London Olympics.

Birds more commonly seen in southern Europe and Africa have made a rare appearance in Scotland. 

Six glossy ibis have been seen on the island of Eigg, one of the Small Isles south of Skye. 

The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) said it was the first time the waders had been recorded on the island. 

SWT ranger John Chester said it was mystery where the birds had come from. He said one of the ibis had a ring on its leg, which may provide clues. 

 The split hazelnut shell found by Lewis Pate Mr Chester said: "We're not sure as yet where these birds originated from, though it seems that it could be Spain or France. 

"However, as one of them is ringed we'll hopefully be able to obtain more information on this. 

"Why exactly they've turned up on Eigg, especially in such a wild and wet winter, is a real mystery but they certainly seem to be having no trouble finding food in the heavily-flooded marshes." 

Meanwhile, the John Muir Trust said red squirrels may have moved into a part of the Highlands where they had not been seen previously. 

The trust's Nevis conservation officer Lewis Pate found a hazelnut shell with tell-tale signs it had been split by a squirrel in Steall Gorge in Glen Nevis. 

He said: "The only animal that can do this is a red squirrel and, while we have never observed any reds in the gorge, it is reasonable evidence of their presence despite the habitat not being particularly suited to them. 

"Reds will feed on birch catkins but they tend to prefer cone bearing trees such as Scots pine, of which there are a few scattered about, although not very many for a sustainable population of squirrels."

A new company has been formed to commercialise a process for producing biofuel made from whisky by-products.

Edinburgh Napier University's Celtic Renewables Ltd will initially focus on Scotland's £4bn malt whisky industry to develop biobutanol and other chemicals.

The company said biobutanol could be used as a direct substitute for fossil-derived fuel.

It said the process also had "huge global potential" to be adapted to other biological by-products.

Celtic Renewables is now working with Scottish Enterprise to produce the biofuel from sustainable resources on an industrial scale.

Its fermentation process uses the two main by-products of whisky production - 'pot ale', which is the residue left in copper stills, and 'draff', the spent grains.

Each year the industry produces 1,600 million litres of pot ale and 500,000 tonnes of draff.

Research has suggested biobutanol provides 25% more power output than the traditional bioethanol.

In contrast to ethanol, butanol can run in unmodified engines with petrol and may also be blended with diesel and biodiesel.

'Ripe Resource'

Prof Martin Tangney, founder of Celtic Renewables and director of Napier University's Biofuel Research Centre, said: "The Scottish malt whisky industry is a ripe resource for developing biobutanol.

"The pot ale and draff could be converted into biofuel as a direct substitute for fossil-derived fuel, which would reduce oil consumption and CO2 emissions while also providing energy security - particularly in the rural and remote homelands of the whisky industry."

Doug Ward, founder of biofuel producer Argent Energy, has been appointed as chairman of the start-up, which has secured private investment from Adelphi Distillery co-owner Donald Houston.

Celtic Renewables is being officially launched at Napier's Sighthill Campus by Energy Minister Fergus Ewing.

Mr Ewing said: "Turning our whisky industry's by-products into raw materials for sustainable biofuels which can be used to power ordinary family cars is an example of the sort of innovative thinking Scotland excels in."

The initial Napier research project received £267,000 of support from Scottish Enterprise.

Celtic Renewables has since benefited from a separate £70,000 Scottish Enterprise grant to assist in technology scale-up and commercial feasibility.

The Theseus research programme brings scientists together to work on finding the best ways to protect Europe's coastal environment.

Little by little, our coastlines are coming under pressure from rising tides that are a symptom of climate change.

Often fragile ecosystems are threatened by increased flooding and erosion.

Finding a way to protect them in the long term is a major challenge.

Barbara Zanuttigh, Theseus project coordinator said: "One of the key things that the environment now demands of us is sustainability, so we have to develop defences that are not only useful, but also environmentally friendly."

Scientists have now launched a European Union research programme called Theseus to investigate how our coastlines should be managed.

As they begin work the oceans continue to rise.

Fernando J Méndez, Associate Professor, University of Cantabria explains: "The sea level is going up. Recent data from satellites have confirmed for us that at the moment the mean sea level is rising at a speed of 3.3 to 3.5 milimetres per year, and this is a fundamental fact."

Venice, the sinking city, is a classic case study in coastal protection and management.

For centuries Venetians have been digging channels, redirecting rivers and shoring up low-lying islands to keep the lagoon from either silting up, or being washed away by the sea tides.

Pierparolo Campostrini, Director of CORILA, a Venice-based group of scientific researchers:

"The Venice lagoon has many problems, the best known problem is flooding of the city. But the lagoon is a delicate geological system, almost ephemeral, so if you didn't have specific measures it would already have disappeared."

The full challenge of coastal protection can best be seen from the air.

From above it is possible to see the work of the MOSE project ("Moses" in Italian) to create a huge tidal barrier for Venice, due for completion in a few years' time.

Pierpaolo's research is on more natural ways of preserving the lagoon, including building new sandbanks and submerged breakwaters.

Pierparolo Campostrini, Director, CORILA:

"The submerged breakwaters are part of the protection system that we set up when we built the beach to limit erosion and to help the coastal defences. So the submerged dykes were built in order to protect, but in recent years we have seen how they have also become a haven for biodiversity."

A maze of coastal waterways and islets is a vital reserve for marine and bird life.

A huge challenge is finding a way to protect the delicate sandbanks from the waves emanating from ships' bows.

As part of the project Pierpaolo's team is evaluating a number of systems, including these floating barriers.

Pierparolo Campostrini explained: "At this experimental site we're testing the effectiveness of the Ondarail floating barrier to resist the fairly large volume of traffic we have in this channel with the frequent passage of quite large boats."

Different sandbanks require different solutions.

Some use fixed barriers, many others semi-permeable bags of rocks or shells.

Scientists have developed sophisticated theoretical models to understand these sandbanks, and in so doing found that it was neccessary to leave breaks in the barriers to let oxygenated water flow into the sand.

Pierparolo Campostrini again: "Very complicated maths helps us to understand the processes. They are processes that has been studied using fractal equations. So we are recreating a natural environment to understand it better, and so help engineers to better rebuild a piece of nature that we were losing."

A second port of call is Santander, where coastal engineer Fernando Mendez is studying how climate change could alter wave size and direction.

His role in the Theseus project is to understand how wave patterns alter our coasts.

Fernando J Méndez, Associate Professor, University of Cantabria: "To evaluate the beach platform what we need is a conceptual model in which waves approach the shore, waves break, and at the moment when the waves break they act like a hammer, smashing sediment into suspension. And in function of the longitudinal currents or rip-currents the sediment is transported, inducing areas of accumulation and erosion. If the average direction of the waves changes then we would have a change in the form of the beach, there will be a shift. This rotation will produce areas of accumulation and erosion of sediment."

A traditional wooden sailing ship is a great way to get a clear view of Santander bay.

Alongside Fernando is Jose Juanes, another member of the Theseus team, evaluating how to handle climate change.

He will examine the impact of rising sea levels on the dunes that dominate one side of the bay.

Behind the dunes are homes – meaning the sand cannot just push back inland.

José A Juanes, Associate Professor, University of Cantabria: "Some dunes don't have much room for movement. If the sea level rise is enough they could be broken. And apart from the sea level rise, other effects of climate change could be a modification of rain patterns or flooding and this could mean that in some areas dunes are broken or even disappear."

Increased erosion and flooding are the two main effects of rising sea levels. The researchers embarking on this project already know that a combination of techniques and modifications will be needed to protect our coastlines.

Fernando J Méédez, Associate Professor, University of Cantabria: "For example one solution might be to raise the sea wall by a metre to avoid flooding, that could be a mitigation solution. Or another solution could be the regeneration or replenishing of a beach, that is another option for mitigation."

Barbara Zanuttigh, Coordinator, Theseus project: "Traditional defence methods have not only shown their limits but sometimes they have had a negative impact, so of course we have to work on the coastlines but also preserve the quality of our environment, and we have to reach a consensus with the population because they need to feel safe on the one hand and on the other hand they need to see the environment in which they live preserved."

The key is to find that balance by working with nature rather than against it.

It takes the highest levels of concentration for emergency workers to fight their way through smoke-filled buildings wearing breathing apparatus and protective suits. What is the location of the casualties? Where is the nearest exit, in case the crews need to get to safety?

Up to now, they have used ropes to retrace their steps, but these can get caught up or wrap themselves around obstacles. Chalk is used to mark which rooms have already been searched, but these markings are often difficult to see through the smoke. What is needed are new technologies such as sensor-based systems to support the emergency crews during operations where visibility is limited. But such systems, too, carry their own risks: having too much information to hand might confuse crews and be a hindrance. That is why researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT in Sankt Agustin have now developed a set of special simulation methods and tools. These will allow emergency services to test technologies in a realistic environment while they are still in the development phase, so they can tailor them to their specific requirements long before they are needed in earnest. It also gives crews the chance to get used to unfamiliar sources of information while on safe ground. The FireSim method kit is made up of four simulation modules.

The first comprises a role-playing board game which emergency workers can use to play out operations. Players move around on a map of the emergency scene, and the new technologies are represented by special tokens. This allows crews to try out new ideas with a minimum of effort.

The second module is like a computer game. Various firefighters each sit at a PC, and on the screen they see the emergency scene from a first-person perspective. The players move through virtual space, opening doors and rescuing the injured, and trying out virtual prototypes of novel support systems – such as sensor nodes that mark out the paths that have already been followed and which rooms have been searched. “These simulations allow us to make rapid changes to prototypes and put them to the test in complex deployment scenarios. Since we want to take the whole hierarchy into account, we recreate all communication and coordination processes in the simulation as far as we can,” says FIT project manager Markus Valle-Klann.

The third simulation module blends the virtual and the real, with emergency crews playing out a scenario in a real environment, for instance to rescue someone from a smoke-filled building. They carry with them a system that is integrated into their suit, such as a display in their helmet or on their arm, and provides details of their location and bearings. Meanwhile, a virtual simulation runs in parallel, with helpers reenacting all the emergency workers’ real actions. New technologies such as the sensor nodes are simulated and the results sent by radio to the firefighters’ displays. In this way, systems of which no physical prototype has yet been built can already be tested in a real environment.

But to evaluate new technologies in a major fire event involving many emergency workers and bystanders, these methods will not suffice, so the researchers have developed a further module. “We take the behavior of individuals as our starting point. How does a firefighter behave, and how about members of the public? We convert these into behavioral models – or agents – and then a computer calculates how a major emergency operation will play out, taking these behavioral models into account,” explains Valle-Klann. Emergency workers can validate the results by taking part in these simulations. Some of them direct an avatar on a PC, while others move around in the real fire scene.

The FIT researchers will be presenting the modular methods kit at the CeBIT trade fair in Hannover from March 6 -10, 2012 (Hall 9, Booth E 02).

Aviation safety is a worldwide concern. European researchers want to prevent further catastrophes with the help of textiles tested in explosive ways. At a British research centre experiments are being conducted into the effects of bomb blasts.

Researchers have developed a textile container designed to prevent the effects of small bombs hidden inside luggage which is then carried in aircraft cargo holds.

Donato Zangani, coordinator of the "Fly-Bag" project explains: "In our first test we want to measure how effective our prototype is in containing the explosion and the fragments it will emit, along with the subsequent expansion of gases."

Jim Warren is a blast engineer for Blastech: "In a typical suitcase that people take on to aeroplanes for their holidays there are usually lots of clothes and things. Inside we put a small explosive charge enough to bring down a plane. The case then goes in the container."

The first explosion barely affected the prototype which has been developed under a European Union research project called Fly-Bag.

"The container has been constructed with a combination of different layers of technical textiles," said Donato Zangani. "Each has its own characteristics. Some textiles have been positioned in different places to withstand the penetration of fragments flying out during the explosion. Some other textiles have been designed to be able to expand in a controlled way so the container can stretch without tearing itself apart.

"Besides that, we have produced an internal coating with two aims. The first is to contain the gases generated during the explosion. The second is to strengthen the resistance of the whole structure, so that the coating becomes a sort of flexible composite inside the container."

Damaged luggage is then taken out of the Fly-Bag and new baggage put inside for the next test in which the amount of explosive has been increased by 50 percent. But again the bag holds tight.

Civil engineer Tord Gustafsson describes the test: "The explosion inside the luggage raises the whole container up in the air. And then comes the (gas) pressure from the explosion and blows the container up. The luggage falls down again inside the container. And the air pressure that has blown up the container leaks out. A small fire starts inside the luggage. Some smoke comes out through the zip. But this will just be for a very short while because inside the bag there is almost no oxygen, so the luggage is not burning for long at all."

A further, more powerful explosive charge, will provide the ultimate test.

But first, in Sardinia, Italy, inside a maintenance hangar at Olbia airport, scientists have been trying to understand the realities of routine baggage handling. A Fly-Bag has already been installed inside a commercial plane.

Donato Zangani again: "This is truly an applied research project. We really wanted to produce a prototype that could allow airlines to test the effective implementation of the whole system. So we've produced a full-scale prototype and tested how useful it could be to airlines, that is can it be easily loaded with baggage and can it be easily operated, without the need for particular skills."

Airline companies will be the main end-users of the textile container, and the local carrier has played its role in developing the prototype.

Fabio Caronti of Meridiana Maintenance said his company wanted to offer travellers a new tool to guarantee their safety.

Meanwhile back in the UK, the ultimate test -double the original explosive charge is set off and the bag still holds.

Jim Warren commented: "Obviously we would not seek to protect against the maximum amount of explosive that you could possibly get into a bag. That would be around 20 kilos, which would certainly be enough to bring down an aircraft and many domestic buildings in fact. So we have to balance how much explosive we could protect against, against how much weight you are allowed to carry into the aircraft. The Lockerbie attack was less than half a kilo, that brought down a (Boeing) 747. And recently the DHL attempted attacks were a few hundred grams. This container would seem to be able to protect against that kind of attack."

Researchers say the successful testing is a first step to ensuring that bomb-proof textiles could soon really improve aviation safety in our increasingly crowded skies.

Dalvik, in the north of Iceland, is a fishing port which supplies fish to destinations all over Europe including France. We follow a batch of cod which was caught well above the Arctic Circle.

Gudmundur I. Gudmundsson is a fisherman, working on the boat which caught the fish. He said: "The weather was awful up there, really stormy. And wind was from the southwest, the worst direction for cod fishing. But we finally managed to catch around 40 tons of cod".

There are scientists as well as fishermen working in the fisheries in Iceland. They are part of a European Union research project to assess - in real time - the freshness of this cod until it is consumed - some 2,700 kms away from here.

Sigurdur Bogason, a food scientist at the University of Iceland explained: "Whatever happens, any rise of temperature will reduce the shelf life of this fish. And what fresh fish is about is to bring a maximum of freshness and quality to the consumer. And to achieve that, you have to manage each step of the transportation chain. If there is one step you don't know anything about, and where you have abuse of temperature, it may affect the total quality of the fish, and possibly also the safety of the product."

At the processing factory, where around 3 tons of cod are filleted, chilled and dispatched every day, Italian researcher Luca Zanella installs temperature sensors inside and outside the boxes, and connects them to cellular networks.

He told us: "A biosensor sends information about the temperature inside and outside the fish box, and the time it was taken. It can record temperature every minute, every 10 minutes, every hour - and then it sends this data to a central system by a cellular network."

The cod will travel to Europe by road and ferry, which is slower but also cheaper than going by plane. The temperature of the cod should never exceed 4°C - or it will start to deteriorate.

With antennae and GPS installed, real-time temperature measuring can start.

Tomas Haflidason, an industrial engineer from the University of Iceland said: "We have low ambient temperature inside the truck. We have also a good low temperature in the fish. So the system is telling us that by now everything is OK."

Meanwhile, samples of the same fish have been sent to a lab in Reykjavik where it is cooked and tasted by volunteers. Combined with microbiology analyses, these tastings help scientists understand how fresh fish deteriorates overtime.

Emilía Martinsdóttir, a chemical engineer with Matis explained: "Right after the death of the fish, the number of microbes starts to increase. These microbes form spoilage compounds of nitrogen and sulphure. Most people don't like the taste of these chemical compounds. That's why at the end, when the fish is no longer fresh, it becomes disgusting."

Meanwhile, the chilled cod has crossed Iceland and is now on a ferry. After a stopover in the Faroe Islands, it arrives in Denmark where it is loaded onto another lorry. Nine days after the cod was caught, the truck arrives in France.

It is six o'clock in the morning and scientists are already supervising both the fish and the measuring equipment.

Tomas Haflidason: "The journey was quite long. We sailed first from Iceland to Faroe Islands, then we came to Denmark. Then yesterday we drove all the way from Denmark to Belgium, and then we have just arrived here to Boulogne-sur-Mer."

The temperature of the fish is around 1°C, and it has remained stable during almost the whole trip.

Tomas Haflidason: "In the east of Iceland, for approximately half an hour the temperature of the fish rose to about 5°C. But the weather conditions in Iceland were quite cool, so that short temperature abuse did not matter very much."

These cod samples will be sent to a laboratory near the harbour for further microbiological studies.

The equipment has also helped to assess the quality of the cod in difficult conditions, including extreme humidity.

And that is good news, says the project's co-ordinator.

Matthias Kück, co-ordinator of the Chill-On Project: "There is a clear commercial interest in achieving commercial exploitable results of all this equipment. This starts from ICT solutions like supplying chain management software to individual techniques to determine bacterial load to predict market life of the food product, up to recording time history by using time temperature indicators."

As a last step in this research effort, scientists take the monitored Icelandic cod to a local fishmonger, who agrees to store it.

Customers say they want fresh fish at good prices.

Says Philippe Legrand, a French fishmonger: "If the fish isn't fresh, people won't buy it. When it's shiny, good quality, not sticky... then they come back."

Back in Iceland, scientists hope real-time temperature monitoring will also help to promote sustainable fishing, as less fish will be wasted.

Says Sigurdur Bogason: "If you lose quality, you lose market value. And eventually, if you lose all the quality, you lose all the market value. And the fish is wasted in the market place; basically the dustbin behind the supermarket will get this fish, not the consumer."

Sigurdur Bogason summed up: "I'm not sure that this project will be the end of the story. Technology is coming along. Electronics are coming along. ICT solutions are coming along. The computer age is here. We can master different things than we did five years ago. So five years from now, we may have a new idea, and a new barrier to break. It is a neverending story, really. But that is what science is about: breaking barriers."

More information here .CHILL-ON project

Researchers from Germany and the United States suggest that the European conquest triggered the loss of more than half the Native American population. The results of their study provide new insight into the demise of the indigenous population. Experts recognise that Native Americans died while at war or due to diseases when Europeans first arrived in the Americas; the question this latest study addresses is how the overall population was impacted by the conquest. Extensive genetic analysis proved that a transient contradiction in population sizes by some 50% occurred approximately 500 years ago. The findings substantiate historical records indicating how the European settlers impacted the peoples of North and South America: diseases, wars, famine and slavery all played a part. 

Using the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of Native American women in North and South America, a two-man research team from the Göttingen University in Germany and the University of Washington in the United States drew up a family tree of contemporary and ancient Native peoples.

Overall, 137 mitochondrial genomes and 63 old subsequences of this genome were assessed. The researchers pointed out that the mitochondrial genome is passed on through the maternal lineage. Sophisticated bioinformational methods indicated how the Native American population peaked around 5 000 years ago and then remained constant for millennia. About 500 years ago later, the population shrank by half.

'These losses were not limited to specific regions, but rather distributed across both American continents, with the severest impacts occurring in the most densely populated regions,' said Dr Lars Fehren-Schmitz of the Göttingen University. This decline did not last very long; the indigenous population started to grow again quite quickly. 'This new population growth suggests that the cause of the decline can only be attributable to fast- and short-acting factors, for example, from diseases brought over by the Europeans in combination with war and famine, and was not due to centuries-long processes, as is commonly assumed,' he added.

Said Brendan O'Fallon of the University of Washington: 'We really saw a big, sudden decrease in population among the Native Americans about 500 years ago. That's, of course, right when the Europeans first arrived. It was sort of a new line of evidence that, really, confirmed, I think, what a lot of people’s previous suspicions were but maybe hadn't really been documented in this one area.

'The basic idea behind that is that when a population size is fairly small, lots of people tend to share the same ancestors at about the same time. The bigger the population size, the longer it takes everyone to find a common ancestor. So, the tree is just overall bigger.'

The duo also spatially reconstructed the historical population trends on North and South America by mapping the quick spread along the coastlines and across the continents of the first humans to settle in America. Approximately 15 000 to 17 000 years ago, these peoples migrated from Asia by crossing the Bering Strait, which today lies below sea level. But it was only later, after the individual groups had acclimatised to their new environments, that the population sizes grew substantially, according to the duo.

More information here Göttingen University , PNAS

A team of EU-funded British and French researchers has identified the 'nourishing gene' in charge of transferring nutrients from plants to seeds. This new discovery, presented in the journal Current Biology, could help increase global food production while it also has implications for food security.

For the first time the researchers were able to identify the gene, named Meg1, which regulates the optimum amount of nutrients flowing from mother to offspring in maize plants.

The study was funded in part by the European Commission through the 'Harnessing plant reproduction for crop improvement' action of the Food and Agriculture domain of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) framework. COST coordinates different national research programmes at the European level; it is supported by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. The main aim is to reduce fragmentation in European research investments and open the European Research Area (ERA) up to worldwide cooperation.

Meg1, unlike the majority of genes that are expressed from both maternal and paternal chromosomes, is expressed only from the maternal chromosomes. This unusual form of uniparental gene expression, called imprinting, is not restricted to plants; it also occurs in some human genes known to regulate the development of the placenta to control the supply of maternal nutrients during foetal growth.

Although scientists have known for a while of the existence of such imprinted genes in humans and other mammals, this is the first time a parallel gene to regulate nutrient provisioning during seed development has been identified in the plant world.

The results from this new study mean that scientists can now focus on using the gene and understanding the mechanism by which it is expressed to increase seed size and productivity in major crop plants.

One of the study authors, Dr Jose Gutierrez-Marcos from the University of Warwick, said: 'These findings have significant implications for global agriculture and food security, as scientists now have the molecular know-how to manipulate this gene by traditional plant breeding or through other methods to improve seed traits, such as increased seed biomass yield. This understanding of how maize seeds and other cereal grains develop - for example in rice and wheat - is vital as the global population relies on these staple products for sustenance. To meet the demands of the world's growing population in years to come, scientists and breeders must work together to safeguard and increase agricultural production.'

Another study author, Professor Hugh Dickinson from Oxford University, comments: 'While the identification of MEG1 is an important discovery in its own right, it also represents a real breakthrough in unravelling the complex gene pathways that regulate the provisioning and nutritional content of seeds.'

Although most desirable crop traits are polygenic, no plant breeding tools exist that allow the efficient fixation of multigenic traits over successive generations. Among several reproductive system-related strategies for fixation of desirable agronomic traits, one of the best choices is clonal seed production. This enables the instantaneous fixation of the complete genome of the best plants.

The overall goal of COST is to allow for a synergy of interrelated European and international expertise to better understand the mechanisms of sexual/apomictic plant reproduction and to facilitate the application of this increased knowledge in the development of new approaches for agriculture and food industry, in order to increase crop productivity.

For more information, please visit:

University of Warwick:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/

Bluefin Tuna is disappearing from the sea. Demand keeps prices high - which means people will keep fishing Bluefin Tuna until there is none left. Obviously this is an unsustainable situation. In Cartagena, in southern Spain, scientists from the EU's Selfdott research project are researching how to farm Bluefin Tuna. So every night in July they take a boat and go out to collect eggs from two cages containing 60 Bluefin Tuna.

Says Fernando de la Gándara, the coordinator of the project: "This project aims to make it possible to produce Bluefin Tuna in the same way as we already produce sea bream, sea bass, turbot and salmon: using aquaculture. But this doesn't mean the end of the Bluefin Tuna fishing, aquaculture will be a complement of fishing."

In Malta, the day starts very early for Robert Vassallo-Agius, a biologist at the Malta Aquaculture Research centre. He is also working on the Selfdott project. Every morning in July he goes to the Bluefin cages to look for eggs, but last year he wasn't as lucky as his colleagues. There weren't any eggs, so this year, he's made some changes: "This year we brought the cages into a cove, into a small bay were we hoped to have less currents, but this year again we had few eggs compared to Spain probably because temperature didn't rise quick enough. This year was a quite cold year for sea water temperature and during what we think is the best eggs-laying period for tuna in captivity, we had cold temperatures."

Bluefin Tuna use light and temperature to know when to reproduce. They are also very sensitive to water-quality. But that's not all. Robert Vassallo-Agius continues: "Bluefin Tuna poses another problem; it is a very big and delicate fish. So because of its size we can't handle it, we can't check it, we can't see what maturation stage it is at, like we do with sea bream, for example. And for this reason it causes another problem which is logistics; how to collect the eggs."

Harvesting even small quantities of farmed eggs is really hard because Bluefin Tuna need special care all year round. So these scientists are being helped by private companies that were working with tuna even before this project started.

Says Antonio Belmonte, a biologist at Caladeros del Mediterráneo: "We ensure that the fish have perfect living conditions. Also we ensure that every care is taken to avoid any kind of problem during the eggs-laying period."

Some of these eggs stay in Spain, and others go to France, Greece and Israel. Scientists use them to learn how to produce a full-grown fish, which is the next step of this project. Germany, Italy and Norway are also taking part in the project.

Says Fernando de la Gándara: "There were fewer eggs being laid in Malta than here in Cartagena, but we have achieved the reproduction of Bluefin Tuna in captivity. So now that we have shown that is possible, the next hurdle is breeding Bluefin Tuna larvae, and that will require a special effort."

The challenge is ensuring the survival of the larvae. Last year scientists managed to keep some of them alive for more than 70 days. Now they are hoping that some of them will grow to at least a kilo, which is really hard to achieve with Bluefin Tuna. There are all sorts of complex problems like stress and cannibalism, but they hope that with the right feeding, the problems will be solved.

Says Aurelio Ortega, another biologist, from the Instituto Español de Oceanografía: "Bluefin Tuna grows very fast. This is why tuna have very high nutritional requirements. It needs a lot of energy, much more than other species that we are farming. So we have to give them very high-energy food compared with the food that we give to sea bream or seabass, for example. But this is also a fish that lays eggs in salt water rather than fresh, so it needs very high quality water with high concentrations of oxygen."

Scientists are optimistic about this project because in the past they have succeeded in breeding wild species in captivity.

Fernando de la Gândara: "Bonito, which belongs to the same family as Tuna, is smaller so it's easier to handle and with this species we had a huge achievement: for the first time in the world we closed the biologic cycle of bonito in captivity. That means that we get fish in captivity from parents that were born also in captivity."

In Malta, Robert's team succeeded in breeding amberjack, which also fetched high prices on the open market. These achievements show the way for the Bluefin Tuna. It's time to take them out of the sea. Robert Vassallo-Agius: "The immediate next step is to improve the larvae's survival. But at the same time in parallel we have to run towards producing a land-based facility where Bluefin Tuna brood stock can be held in captivity, so they can bring eggs in a better way than they do in the cages."

The land-based facility for Bluefin Tuna will look like the amberjack farm in Malta. Here, the light and the water temperature can be controlled, so that the fish live in ideal conditions for reproduction, which is crucial if farming them is to become a reality.

Fernando de la Gándara: "We know the origins of farmed fish, we know what we are eating, and this is traceability. We know everything about a farmed fish. Also, farmed fish are of standard quality, so consumers who buys it know exactly what they are buying."

Scientists have also been holding a series of blind tastings: the results are surprising. 50% preferred the taste of wild tuna, and 50% prefer the taste of wild tuna. This is good news because the only way to supply markets with as much Bluefin Tuna as they want is via aquaculture, as it is done now with salmon or shell-fish.

Robert Vassallo-Agius: "With all the effort that are taking place now on Bluefin Tuna, with everybody's input, and there are some very good experiments going on with the eggs that are now produced from Spain, I think we will have some progress and maybe there will be some tuna aquaculture production in the near, not so distant future."

The hope is that farming Bluefin Tuna will take the pressure off wild stocks – allowing them to breed in peace so that Bluefin Tuna doesn't disappear from our seas forever.

A special tartan commissioned to mark the arrival of two pandas in the UK has been unveiled at Edinburgh Zoo. 

Tian Tian and Yang Guang jetted into the capital on a specially chartered flight from China on 4 December 2011. 

Edinburgh Zoo asked local company Kinloch Anderson to create tartan in their honour. 

The design features black, white and a little grey to reflect the colour of the pandas' fur, green for bamboo and three red lines to represent China. 

It was unveiled at the zoo to tie in with Burns Night on Wednesday and Chinese New Year on Monday. 

Meaningful background 

Deirdre Kinloch Anderson, senior director at the tartan firm, said: "Tartan is one of Scotland's greatest icons. 

"Careful attention was given to create a tartan with a meaningful background, with relevance both to the zoo and also to China - and importantly a tartan that people find attractive. 

She said the three red lines are at the heart of the design to indicate that the pandas are in the hearts and minds of the Scottish and Chinese people, while three is China's lucky number. 

The design is also based on the Gillespie tartan as the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which operates the zoo, was founded by the Edinburgh lawyer Thomas Gillespie in 1909. 

The tartan has been approved by the Scottish Registrar of Tartans.

 Hugh Roberts, chief executive of Edinburgh Zoo, said: "This significant and highly exciting project symbolically demonstrates the coming together of Scotland and China's heritage and culture - making it the perfect way to commemorate the gift of two giant pandas that China bestowed upon Scotland.

 "Its unveiling on the overlap of two separate culturally significant days for both China and Scotland feels very appropriate and auspicious timing."

 The pandas, an eight-year-old breeding pair, will stay in Edinburgh for at least 10 years.

Planning consent has been granted for a change to the electricity grid that will allow new renewables developments to be connected to the grid.

Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has approved a change to the route of the existing Anglo-Scottish Interconnector 400 kilo Volt (kV) overhead electricity transmission line at Bearholm near Moffat.

The change will move 1.8km of the existing line to connect the Moffat substation at Bearholm to the transmission grid. The substation will provide a connection for renewables developments in the Moffat area including the Harestanes (Forest of Ae) wind farm. Five existing 46 metre high towers will be replaced with five new towers of the same height.

Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said:

“The new route of the Anglo-Scottish interconnector will allow new renewable energy developments to connect to the grid.

“These developments will produce jobs for the local area, save thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide and power thousands of homes.

“In consenting this application I have put conditions in place which will protect local communities and wildlife. I am confident that this change to the interconnector will enable renewable energy developments which will provide great benefits to the local community and play an important part in helping Scotland reach its target of the equivalent of 100 per cent of electricity demand generated from renewables.”

Developers SP Transmission Ltd applied to the Scottish  Government in June 2007 for a change to the existing Anglo-Scottish Interconnector 400kV overhead electricity transmission line. One representation was received from a member of the public, who objected because at the time of the application, the Harestanes wind farm had not received consent. It was consented on September 10, 2007.

Related information:

• The Scottish Government's target is to meet the equivalent of 100 per cent of electricity demand from renewables by 2020. In 2010, 24.1 per cent of electricity demand came from renewables. There is around 7 Gigawatts (GW) of renewables capacity installed, under construction or consented around Scotland, which will take Scotland beyond the interim target of 31 per cent of Scotland's electricity demand from renewables by 2011
• The Scottish Government has determined 57 energy applications, including approval for 48 new renewable and 4 non-renewable projects since May 2007. Another 35 applications (29 onshore wind, 2 hydro, 4 bio/thermal, 1 coal) are currently being processed

Up to 50% of edible and healthy food gets wasted in EU households, supermarkets, restaurants and along the food supply chain each year, while 79 million EU citizens live beneath the poverty line and 16 million depend on food aid from charitable institutions. Parliament called in a resolution adopted on Thursday for urgent measures to halve food waste by 2025 and to improve access to food for needy EU citizens.

Since food is wasted at all stages - by producers, processors, retailers, caterers and consumers, MEPs call for a co-ordinated strategy, combining EU-wide and national measures, to improve the efficiency of food supply and consumption chains sector by sector and to tackle food wastage as a matter of urgency. If nothing is done, food wastage will grow 40% by 2020, says a study published by the Commission.

The most important problem in the future will be to tackle increased demand for food, as it will outstrip supply. We can no longer afford to stand idly by while perfectly edible food is being wasted. This is an ethical but also an economic and social problem, with huge implications for the environment, said rapporteur Salvatore Caronna (S&D, IT), prior to the vote. He also emphasized that "the ball is now in the Commission's court. We expect nothing less than a convincing EU strategy that will steer all 27 Member States to systematically tackle the issue."

Better education to avoid excessive waste

To drastically reduce food wastage by 2025, new awareness campaigns should be run at both EU and national levels to inform the public how to avoid wasting food, says the resolution. Member States should introduce school and college courses explaining how to store, cook and dispose of food and also exchange best practices to this end. To promote the idea of using food sustainably, MEPs called for 2014 to be designated as "European year against food waste".

Proper labelling and packaging

To avoid situations in which retailers offer food too close to its expiry date and thus increasing the potential for wastage, dual-date labelling could be introduced to show until when food may be sold (sell-by date) and until when it may consumed (use-by date), says the resolution.

It adds that the European Commission and Member States should nonetheless first ensure that customers understand the difference between labels currently used within the EU, such as the quality-related "best before" and safety-related "use by" dates.

To enable consumers to buy just the amounts they need, food packaging should be offered in a range of sizes and designed to conserve food better. Foods close to their expiry dates and damaged food products should be sold at discounted prices, to make them more accessible to people in need, MEPs say.

Public institutions should favour responsible caterers

Public procurement rules for catering and hospitality should be updated to ensure that where possible, contracts are awarded to catering companies that use local produce and give away or redistribute leftover food to poorer people or food banks free of charge, rather than just disposing of it.

EU-level support measures such as distributing food to least-favoured citizens or programmes encouraging consumption of fruit and milk in schools should also be retargeted with a view to preventing food waste, adds the resolution.

MEPs also welcomed existing initiatives in some Member States to recover unsold food and offer it to needy citizens and called on retailers to take part in such programmes.

Food wastage figures

Current wastage in EU27: 89 million tonnes per annum (i.e. 179 kg per capita)

Projection for 2020 (if no action is taken): 126 million tonnes (i.e. a 40% increase)

Responsibility for food waste:

- households: 42% (60% of which is avoidable)

- manufacturers: 39%

- retailers: 5%

- catering sector: 14%

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The aim is to improve the sharing of data and information. Both parties hope that this will contribute to the quality and timeliness of assessments of environmental impacts on human health, both for the European region as a whole and the Arctic region in particular.

In the agreement, signatories note that “Europe leaves a footprint in the Greenlandic and Arctic environment with known, as well as suspected, effects on human health”. Pollutants can be transported across the Atlantic by ocean currents and atmospheric deposition, and may accumulate in certain foods in Greenland.
 

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A consolidated list of references of harmonised standards under Directive 94/25/EC relating to recreational craft was published in the Official Journal C 1 on 4 January 2012 . The references of EN ISO 6185-4:2011 were published for the first time in the Official Journal.

Click here for more information. . .

The Scottish whisky industry is set for a multi-million-pound investment boost from India as demand for the tipple grows unrelentingly on the subcontinent.

Scottish Development International (SDI) has confirmed that a major drinks industry firm in India is planning to build a new distillery in Scotland in order to supply the growing middle-class thirst there for genuine Scotch.

And while India’s biggest whisky maker, United Beverages, which owns Scotland’s Whyte & Mackay, has ruled out building a new distillery in Scotland for the time being, the firm has pledged to invest in the expansion of two of its Scottish-based distilleries in coming months.

Mark Dolan, manager of India for SDI, said a “very serious beverage company” that has “been around for over 100 years” was looking at making an investment in a distillery.

Dolan said: “We see interest in India for investment in Scottish distilleries, and [a company] that wants to build a greenfield distillery.” However, he declined to name the interested firm.

He added: “Whisky was once seen as the drink of the elite class [in India]. But the middle class is growing by 100,000 more on a yearly basis so demand for Scotch and malts is growing.”

Meanwhile, industry insiders believe Whyte & Mackay’s Invergordon plant in Easter Ross is ripe for investment.

A spokesman for Whyte & Mackay, which produces single malt labels including Dalmore, Fettercairn and Jura, said the firm is “looking at potential expansion of two distilleries in Scotland” but added that it was “far, far away” from being able to build a new distillery.

Vijay Mallya, who many label as India’s Richard Branson, bought Whyte & Mackay for £595 million in 2007 for his United Breweries Group (UB).

And while the firm last week reported a 63.78 per cent fall in net profit, dragged down by a cost increase in raw materials and higher duties in certain Indian states, UB received the nod from shareholders to raise up to $225 million (about £145 million), through foreign currency convertible bonds.

Click here for more information . . .
 

A pizza making company founded by former Edinburgh restaurateur Cosmo Tamburro has completed a deal to sell gluten and wheat-free focaccia bread in its founder’s Italian homeland.

 Tamburro welcomed stars including Sir Sean Connery, Ronnie Corbett and Burt Lancaster to his pizzeria in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle throughout the 1970s and 1980s, before selling the bistro in 1993 to concentrate on his pizza and pasta production.

Now Newtongrange-based Cosmo Products – which is run by his son, managing director Cosmo Tamburro Jnr – has signed a deal to supply Italian firm Dr Schär with around 200,000 pieces of focaccia bread each year.

Dr Schär already buys about 500,000 gluten- and wheat-free frozen pizzas a year from the Scots firm and sells them in Germany and Italy.

While exporting pizza and focaccia bread to Italy may at first seem like a case of “selling coals to Newcastle”, Tamburro said: “Dr Schär buy pizzas from us because of the way we produce the wheat-free bases.

“Most wheat-free products are stodgy but we manage to get a lot of air into our bases, which makes them lighter and more likely traditional wheat-based pizzas.”

News of the latest contract comes after supermarket giant Morrisons last week began stocking Cosmo Products’ haggis pizzas and two other lines, just in time for Burns Night.

Tamburro has teamed up with well known brands to make the toppings for his pizzas, including McSweens haggis, Simon Howie’s dry-cured smoked bacon and McLelland’s Orkney and Seriously Strong cheeses.

Signing the deal with Morrisons should add £200,000 a year to Cosmo Products’ £2.7 million turnover and completes its line-up of supermarket customers, which includes Asda, Sainsbury’s, Scotmid, Tesco and Waitrose.

About 70 per cent of the company’s revenues come through the retail market under its Cosmo fresh pizza brand, with the remainder made up from sales to the food services industry.

The firm supplies 22 of Scotland’s local councils with pizzas, reaching plates in about half of the country’s schools.Some 7,500 pizzas are produced by the company each day but Tamburro Jnr hopes to ramp up production to 10,000 a day.

He already has about 50 staff and plans to take on an extra three as the firm expands. Tamburro Snr now concentrates on “research and development” in his role as the company’s chairman, while his son runs the family business.

Having helped launch the Osteria restaurant in North Berwick and La Bruschetta in Edinburgh’s Haymarket, Tamburro Snr stepped away from his food outlets last year to focus on Cosmo Products.

The next step for the company is a joint venture with Eat Balanced, a spin-out company from Glasgow University. The pair are developing “nutritionally balanced pizzas”. Cosmo Products has been working on the project with Professor Mike Lean, chair of human nutrition at Glasgow University and chairman of the nutrition committee at medical charity Diabetes UK for the past ten years.

Click here for more information. . .

For more information click here. . .

Birds are finding it increasingly difficult to adapt to Europe's warming climes. That is the warning from a pan-European group of researchers in a major new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The study, which received funding from four different EU-funded projects, brings together scientists from the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Over the past two decades, Europe's climate has been getting steadily warmer, and set temperatures have shifted northwards by 250 km, making life unbearable for species of bird and butterfly which thrive in cool temperatures. Yet the study finds that the bird and butterfly communities have not moved at the same rate as the temperatures.

For the study, birds were divided into two groups, depending on whether they thrive in slightly 'colder' or 'warmer' climates. For example, chaffinches and reed buntings are 'colder' species, while blackcaps and goldfinches are 'warmer' species.

The study was funded as part of the EU's STEP ('Status and trends of European pollinators') project, which was boosted by a grant of some EUR 3.5 million under the 'Environment' Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Funding also came from the CLIMIT ('Climate change impacts on insects and their mitigation') project, part of the ERA-Net BiodivERsA2 network, funded in part by almost EUR 2 million under FP7's 'Coordination' Theme.

The study also received a boost from two Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) projects: ALARM ('Assessing large-scale environmental risks with tested methods') which received just under EUR 13 million of EU funding under the programme's 'Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems' Thematic area; and MACIS ('Minimisation of and adaptation to climate change: Impacts on biodiversity') which was funded to the tune of EUR 900 000 under the 'Research for policy support' Thematic area.

After analysing 20 years' worth of data on birds, butterflies, and summer temperatures, the team concluded that some birds and butterflies have difficulty adapting quickly enough to the warmer climate. For many of these species, attempts at moving further north have for the most part been unsuccessful.

One of the study authors, Professor Åke Lindström from Lund University, Sweden, comments: 'Both butterflies and birds respond to climate change, but not fast enough to keep up with an increasingly warm climate. We don't know what the long-term ecological effects of this will be.'

Butterflies have adapted more quickly to the changing temperatures, and have moved on average 114 km north, whereas birds have only moved 37 km. The researchers suspect that this difference can be attributed to the butterflies' shorter lifespans that make it easier for them to adapt quickly to climate change. As birds like to return to the same breeding ground year in year out, they show more resistance to changing behaviour patterns.

However, this two-tier adaptation process could pose problems for birds, as Professor Lindström explains: 'A worrying aspect of this is if birds fall out of step with butterflies, because caterpillars and insects in general represent an important source of food for many birds.'

The team were able to measure which birds were moving where by looking at which 'colder' and 'warmer' birds appear in which areas. They quantified the yearly change in community composition in response to climate change for 9 490 bird and 2 130 butterfly communities distributed across Europe.

'Over the past 50 years, the main factors affecting bird and butterfly numbers and distribution have been agriculture, forestry and urbanisation. Climate change is now emerging as an increasingly important factor in the development of biodiversity,' says Professor Lindström.

For more information, please visit: Lund University: http://www.lu.se/

Yesterday the European Commission launched an on-line public consultation on possible measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships. All interested stakeholders can send their contributions until 12 April 2012.

The EU committed itself to reducing total greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 by at least 20% across all sectors. The 2008 legislation provides that if no international agreement was approved which included international maritime emissions before the end of 2011, the Commission should make a proposal to include these in the EU reduction commitment.

Despite significant efforts in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), there has been only limited progress to date on the necessary technical, operational and market-based measures for new and existing ships. The European Commission will continue to support further works in these organisations for the development of global measures. The European Parliament and the Member States have therefore repeatedly called on the European Commission to take action if there is no international agreement.

International maritime transport emissions already account for approximately 3% of global CO2 emissions and they are expected to more than double by 2050 if no additional action is taken. The introduction of measures to cut emissions will also limit fuel consumption – reducing ships fuel bills by many billions of euros each year – and hence bring down transport costs. Such action will also stimulate demand for 'low carbon' maritime equipment and services.

Read more:

Public consultation on addressing greenhouse gas emissions:

http://ec.europa.eu/clima/consultations/0014/index_en.htm

Shipping and climate change:

http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/shipping/index_en.htm

With nearly 99% of the votes counted, 66% of voters backed the membership. About 33% were against. 

But officials expressed disappointment at the low turnout of about 44%. 

Croatia signed an EU accession treaty last year and should join in July 2013, once all 27 existing members of the union have ratified the deal. 

It would come more than 20 years after Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia, which triggered a 1991-95 war to secure its independence. 

'Historic decision'

On Sunday, voters in Croatia were asked "Do you support the Republic of Croatia's membership of the European Union?" 

A simple majority was required for membership to be approved. There was no minimum threshold in order for the poll to be valid. 

All the major political parties in Croatia favour joining the EU, despite the financial crisis engulfing the organisation. 

"It is a historic decision... possibly a turning point in our history," Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said after the vote. 

EU supporters say membership is the best option for the country in the long term. 

Opponents of the "yes" vote - non-parliamentary, nationalist and army veteran groups - earlier warned of a loss of sovereignty, just two decades after Croatia became an independent state. 

"The turnout shows that Croatia has turned its back on the EU," said war veteran Zeljko Sacic, one of the leaders of the "no" campaign. 

Croatia itself is currently suffering from high unemployment and other economic problems. 

"Croatia will not lose its sovereignty or natural resources, nor will it be ruled by the EU," President Ivo Josipovic said in a written statement. 

"Europe will not solve all our problems, but it's a great opportunity." 

The EU described the result as good news for the Balkan region. 

"The upcoming accession of Croatia sends a clear signal to the whole region of south-eastern Europe. It shows that through political courage and determined reforms, EU membership is within reach," the EU said in a statement. 

National hero

Enthusiasm in Croatia for EU membership has waned from a high point several years ago, the BBC's Central Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe says. 

However, not only do all the main parliamentary parties support the move, but most of the minority Serbs do too, he adds. 

And in a surprise move, Croatia's wartime military commander Ante Gotovina - currently serving a long sentence abroad for war crimes against Serbs - earlier sent a message to his compatriots urging them to vote "yes" in the referendum. 

Gotovina's flight from a war crimes indictment by The Hague - and Zagreb's perceived half-heartedness in tracking him and other war crimes suspects down - delayed Croatia's EU bid. 

His conviction in 2011 sparked a surge of anti-European sentiment in Croatia, where he is viewed by many as a national hero.

Financial services company FNZ said yesterday it would recruit more graduates to staff its new Scottish headquarters. 

The firm, which supplies IT and administration services to wealth managers, will take on 20 graduates in the first three months of this year, after hiring more than 200 in Edinburgh in the past two years.

Director Christian Dougal said: “Despite reports of the worst economic slowdown in decades, at FNZ we’re seeing tremendous growth.”

He said that financial firms were increasingly turning to web-based, paper-free systems both to manage investments and to market products to clients. A system designed for Standard Life to offer products to financial advisors had been quickly adopted by other FNZ customers, he added.

Dougal said: “We’re looking forward to a very busy 2012, completing the roll-out of a number of platforms we have in development and growing our presence in the wealth management space.”

The company, which began life in New Zealand in 2003, moved to Edinburgh two years later. Growth in demand for its products means it now employs some 600 people, while assets managed on its platforms grew by 40 per cent last year to more than £20 billion. It also has offices in Australia, New Zealand and the Czech Republic.

Dougal said Edinburgh was “the place to be” for the company because of its supply of IT graduates and financial services expertise.

The firm recently moved into larger offices at Tanfield, bringing all its Edinburgh staff under one roof and declaring the site its global headquarters.

Officially opening the office yesterday, First Minister Alex Salmond said: “Scotland is a fantastic place to do business.

“It is unrivalled in the quality of graduates that come through our universities and are available for companies to employ.”

A £3.3million expansion of a Moray manufacturing business will see 25 new jobs created.

Forsyths is set to make their largest ever investment to expand local manufacturing facilities at Buckie and Rothes.

The total project cost of £3.3million is being invested to support the Buckie and Rothes based company in meeting significantly increased international interest with an order book reaching as far ahead as 2014.

The family-run business will be supported in their expansion by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) who will provide almost £500,000.

Richard Forsyth, Chairman of Forsyths Ltd, said: “This will be the single largest investment in the company's history with a total project cost of £3.3 million.

“The development will be vital in allowing us to continue to meet the needs of our existing client bank as well as being able to introduce new customers.”

The group’s main markets are in the oil, gas and distillation industries with growing opportunities in renewables. Construction work alone for the planned expansion will boost the Moray economy by more than £1 million.

Presently employing 285 people, the company is at the very heart of the local community. Following the expansion around 70% of the additional output from the company is expected to be in the existing oil and gas market.

A traditional coppersmith since 1880, the company is likely to see an increase in business in the distillation sector.

Speaking for Highlands and Islands Enterprise, David Reid said: “HIE is delighted to support this exciting investment by one of Moray’s leading manufacturing businesses.

“As an agency HIE works closely with the business to continually plan for its growth and to identify new markets in the UK and internationally.

“As well as being recognised locally as a key employer, Forsyths Ltd’s specialist skills and services for both the oil and gas and distillation sectors are globally recognised.”

Work has already begun in building and adapting a range of buildings at the company’s Rothes site where further specialist equipment will be installed.

Chinese visitors to Scotland are outspending those from India and Russia for the first time, according to the national tourism agency. 

VisitScotland has revealed China has become the most lucrative emerging market for the country per head.

Around 11,000 Chinese visitors are coming to Scotland every year, with the average visitor spending £770 while on the trip – compared to £708 from India and £546 from Russia.

Although the number of visitors is still relatively small, tourism leaders believe there is a huge untapped potential in the Chinese market – particularly in the face of the wider economic downturn.

The number of overseas visitors to Scotland fell by 4 per cent during the first nine months of 2010, with the amount they spent down by 6.2 per cent.

Most Chinese visitors still only come to the UK as part of organised tours or on business trips. Those who do make the trip are spending more per head than American visitors, who make up the bulk of Scotland’s overseas market, with 275,000 visitors a year on average over the past three years.

While American visitors spend £700.20 per head on average in Scotland, compared to £770.53 from China, the American market is worth an estimated £275 million to Scotland, compared to the relatively small £7m from China.

Mike Cantlay, chairman of VisitScotland, said: “It is very interesting that Chinese visitors are the highest spenders, as this is very much a new market for Scotland. A lot of Chinese people still do not leave the country, but it is now one of our key emerging markets, along with India and Russia.

“While our Chinese visitors are interested in our stunning scenery and our castles, they also tend to be big spenders, interested in big brands and designer clothes. Many wealthy visitors also want to come to Scotland to play golf and buy luxury items such as whisky.”

VisitScotland has been ploughing more resources into China over recent years, producing a special “toolkit” for businesses on what to expect for typical Chinese visitors, who tend to be well-educated, predominantly male and part of a large group travelling together.

Last year, it emerged 550 travel agents across China had signed up to become “ambassadors” for travel to Scotland. First Minister Alex Salmond even travelled to China to help promote the “SCOTSagent” programme, which educates travel operators on aspects of Scotland, including geography, customs, culture and public transport systems.

New business and cultural links between Scotland and China, involving bodies such as Historic Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival, were signed ahead of the transfer of the two giant pandas from Beijing to Edinburgh Zoo before Christmas.

Researchers from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom recently discovered that supplementing young Tanzanian children with zinc, whether using single or multi-nutrient combination doses, has no protective effect against malaria. The study's findings were published in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Zinc plays a key role in the human body, helping keep the immune system healthy and in good working order. Past research has also suggested that zinc helps reduce diarrhoea. Researchers from Gambia, the Netherlands, Tanzania and the United Kingdom set out to probe whether zinc supplementation can help fight malaria, particularly as zinc deficiency plagues a majority of African children. If zinc supplementation were feasible, it would help cut malaria deaths in Africa, where 91% of the cases occur, according to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO also state that an estimated 655 000 persons died worldwide from malaria in 2010 and that of these deaths 86% were children under 5 years of age.

But Dr Hans Verhoef of Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom, in cooperation with colleagues, has discovered that zinc has no impact on malaria protection for young children in Africa. The study carried out four trials - in Burkina Faso, Gambia, Papua New Guinea and Peru - to determine whether it would work.

For the purposes of this study, children were randomly assigned to one of four groups: 1) zinc; 2) zinc and multi-nutrients; 3) multi-nutrients without zinc; or 4) placebo. Of 1 029 children enrolled in the study, 612 children between 6 months and 5 years were eligible to participate. They received daily oral supplements containing one of the four dosages.

The results showed no evidence of a significant effect of either zinc or multi-nutrients alone on the incidence of malaria versus placebo, despite that the occurrence of zinc deficiency was cut by zinc supplementation in the trial. The study also found that multi-nutrient supplementation could have an adverse impact because it increased the risk of malaria in children suffering from iron deficiency. According to the researchers, the incidence rate of malaria in all four intervention groups was very similar, equal to about three episodes a year.

'Despite a high prevalence of zinc deficiency, excellent compliance, and few drop-outs, we found no evidence from this trial that preventive zinc supplementation, alone or with multi-nutrients, reduced rates of febrile attacks of malaria,' write the authors of the study. 'We have presented evidence that multi-nutrient supplementation may increase the risk of malaria in children with iron deficiency, strengthening earlier concerns about the safety of multi-nutrient supplementation in malaria-endemic areas, even in settings with good access to health care and appropriate treatment. When results from all trials are considered together, there is no evidence that zinc interventions can reduce the burden of malaria in African children.'

Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body these parasites multiply in the liver before infecting red blood cells. Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite occurred. If it is not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening as it disrupts blood supply to vital organs. In many parts of the world, the parasites have developed resistance to a number of malaria medicines.

Strategies used to control malaria include prompt and effective treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies, the use of insecticidal nets in high-risk areas, and indoor residual spraying with insecticide to control the vector mosquitoes.

For more information, please visit:

Wageningen University: http://www.wageningenuniversity.nl/UK/

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/

PLoS Medicine: http://www.plosmedicine.org/home.action

Details of a £50 million fund to promote sustainable transport over the next four years have been announced.

Transport Minister Keith Brown recently met with pupils at Wardie Primary School in Edinburgh who are currently taking part in a Sustrans’ I-bike project, one of a range of initiatives which will benefit from this funding.

He said:

"The Scottish Government is committed to promoting sustainable and active travel. The Future Transport Fund provides opportunities to invest further in low-carbon transport, working with a range of delivery bodies across the country.

"One of our key priorities now is to create the conditions for change, and in Scotland at the current time that means a focus on sustainable economic growth. These investments will support that goal through the opportunities for Scottish businesses, as well as the wider benefits to society.

"Through this capital investment package totalling £11 million over 2012/13 and 2013/14, Transport Scotland will take forward a range of sustainable transport initiatives, including cycling infrastructure, freight modal shift and low carbon vehicles, and reduce the impact of transport on our environment.

"While current budget constraints mean some projects will be delivered in the longer term, we are committed to increasing the funds available from Future Transport Fund over the next few years. This initial £11 million provides a platform on which to build further developments in these different areas of sustainable transport."

John Lauder, National Director of Sustrans Scotland, said:

"We’re delighted that the Minister has chosen to launch the Future Transport Fund at a school that Sustrans is working with to successfully increase the number of children walking and cycling to school.  It’s a strong endorsement of the role of active travel in the government’s plans for delivering sustainable transport.

"Active travel schemes deliver a real return on investment and I hope the government will continue to fund such projects. Funding active travel initiatives, such as those within government’s own Cycling Action Plan for Scotland, provide they key to low-cost solutions for dealing with Scotland’s obesity crisis and meeting our ambitious carbon targets."

An announcement will be made early in 2013 about the allocation of an additional £18.75 million in 2014/15 which will continue the development of these areas of low-carbon investment. The total budget available to the Fund will be £20.25 million in 2015/16

These allocations will also draw in additional resources from local government and the UK government, as well as the private sector, enabling significant enhancement of the benefits it will bring.

Transport Scotland will work with stakeholders and partners to plan and deliver projects across the four years of the Fund to make the most effective use of this investment in supporting the transition to low-carbon transport. The allocation of the first £11 million under the Future Transport Fund for 2012-13 and 2013-14 are:

Cycling Infrastructure - 2012-13,£1.5 million - 2013-14,£1.25 million - Total,£2.75 million

Freight Modal Shift - 2012/13,£0.75 million - 2013/14 £2 million - Total,£2.75 million

Low Carbon Vehicles, including Green Buses - 2012/13,£1.0 million - 2013-14, £4.5 million - Total,£5.5 million 

Total - 2012/13,£3.25 million - 2013/14,£7.75 million - Total,£11.0 million

These allocations will support delivery work in the following areas of activity:

• Work to support the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, particularly through our participation in the Plugged-in Places programme.
• Work by Sustrans, in partnership with local authorities, to continue the approach developed to date to implement priority infrastructure projects across Scotland, focusing on short community links to encourage more people to cycle and walk for their local everyday journeys, as well as work on our National Cycle Network.
• A third round of the Scottish Green Bus Fund in 2013/14, to build on the achievements of the 2011 fund and enable operators to include more routes serviced by low carbon vehicles.
• The continuation of Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) - a capital grant scheme which encourages the transfer of freight from road to rail or where the road option is cheaper.

Transport Scotland is the Scottish Government’s national transport agency responsible for; aviation, bus, freight and taxi policy;  coordinating the National Transport Strategy for Scotland; ferries, ports and harbours; impartial travel services; liaising with regional transport partnerships, including monitoring of funding; local roads policy; major public transport projects; national concessionary travel schemes; rail and trunk road networks; sustainable transport, road safety and accessibility; the Blue Badge Scheme. Transport Scotland is an Executive agency accountable to Scottish Ministers.

Sustrans work with schools in Scotland has seen the number of children cycling to school almost double, with nearly 20 per cent of students at Sustrans schools now cycling at least once a week.

Related Information: Transport Scotland

By engaging with Enterprise Europe Network, Magnus has been able to expand his business and net valuable new business all over the continent.

Based in the North-east of Scotland close to the picturesque Cromarty Firth, Coast & Glen has access to some of Scotland’s best seafood bounty and associated fishing ports.

Coast & Glen initially sold its catch to an external buyer – a Scottish firm exporting to Spain – but this involved an 80-mile daily round trip for deliveries, cutting deep into Magnus’s profit margins.

After around six months, he began selling his seafood directly to the restaurant trade around the north east, which meant he gained valuable intelligence on local demand and seasonal preferences.

Fortunately, it also led the fisherman to Enterprise Europe Network’s Highland offices, located above one of his restaurant clients.

Ross Thomson from the Enterprise Europe Network Highland team recalls his first meeting with Magnus. He said: “The day Magnus first came to speak to us coincided with the start of the European Seafood Exposition (ESE) in Brussels.

“ESE was one of the first things we discussed and Magnus was really keen to travel over and get involved with the event.

“He immediately packed a bag and organised a Eurostar ticket, which proved how keen he was to improve his knowledge of the wider industry and move Coast & Glen forward beyond UK shores.”

Having heard about the event too late to create an online profile for Coast & Glen prior to ESE, Magnus sought contacts from the EEN team and subsequently met a representative from Seafood Scotland during the show. This signalled the dawn of new opportunities for Coast & Glen and opened up a new network of European contacts.

This first experience of the European Seafood Exposition spurred Magnus on with his ambitions to export shellfish directly to Europe but also made him realise the importance of creating a clear business plan. Working with Ross, and also his colleague Michelle Wemyss, he received support with Coast & Glen’s strategic planning and was given help to set up the company website.

He was also given the guidance he needed to obtain the necessary funding from the Princes’ Trust to buy a forklift truck and refrigerated van, while an introduction to a local seafood distributor led to Magnus being able to rent vital cold store premises with a specialised wet room facility.

Magnus said: “Things have moved really quickly since I met the Enterprise Europe Network team.

“They’ve been really understanding and easy to deal with throughout the whole process – if they don’t know the answer, they always find out.

“I’m an incredibly determined person and working with the Network teams in Scotland and Spain as well as a local French sales agent has given me access to new markets and allowed me to find some great contacts.

“I dispatched my first export to France two weeks before Christmas and will be exporting regularly as of next month.

“It’s quite exciting to think that about 50 restaurants in France were serving up fresh Scottish shellfish caught by me during the busy festive season.”

With this year’s ESE fast approaching, Michelle and the team are hard at work to help Magnus make the most of his opportunities to connect with potential wholesalers and agents to make 2012 another profitable year for Coast & Glen.       

These get-togethers help organisations exchange knowledge, meet potential customers, suppliers and business partners, as well as arrange more structured, one-to-one meetings.

So, pens at the ready - here are the first 2012 dates for your diary.

Find out what’s hot in sustainable energy

Sustainable Energy: Challenges and Opportunities for the Supply Chain is the focus for this year’s sustainable energy event on 20 and 21 March at Edinburgh’s Napier University. SMEs with green interests at heart can connect with like-minded companies at the industry-led brokerage event.

Participants are urged to create an online profile prior to the event to maximise the chance of finding their perfect business match. The free event will provide a platform for Scottish companies to meet international contactS to talk about their innovative products and services. Participants are urged to create an online profile prior to the event to highlight their capabilities and find relevant business contact.

For more information or to register for the brokerage event please visit the website.

Fish around the global seafood market

SMEs within the food and drink industry are already cooking up their plans for the largest seafood trade fair in the world, the European Seafood Exposition, which takes place 24 to 26 April in Brussels.

Again this year the Enterprise Europe Network team will be hosting a matchmaming event. Last year’s event attracted 104 organisations - from sole traders to multinationals - from countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and Iceland.

To find out more or to register please visit the ESE Brokerage Event website.

Tap into the latest technology advances

The Scottish Technology Showcase consistently brings together some of Europe’s top industry minds. Technology leaders will flock to Glasgow on 12 June to take part, offering a chance to network with over 1,500 like-minded experts.

Enterprise Europe Network is keen for Scottish companies to make the most of the associated matchmaking event and forge potential partnerships and business links. Keynote speakers will also discuss the latest technology developments and how these can impact on your business.

For more information or to register please visit the matchmaking webite. 

Elizabeth McNeil of Enterprise Europe Network said: “There are so many events taking place this year which could be vital to Scottish companies who are looking to boost their operations and market success – both here and overseas.

“Scotland has a rich history in innovation and these events are the perfect place for SMEs to become inspired and meet like-minded businesses.”

For more information on events during 2012, contact the team at Enterprise Europe Network on +44 (0)141 228 2797 or info@enterprise-europe-scotland.com.

She has battled Britain’s toughest boss. 

Now Apprentice contestant Sharon McAllister is planning to use her experience to find Scotland’s next Lord Sugar – in a Lothian college.

The entrepreneur has devised a six-month course which replaces traditional classroom teaching with business breakfasts and contact-building.

Twelve apprentices, aged between 16 and 19, will be selected for the “Scotland’s Next Millionaire” course, run by Jewel and Esk College, which starts next month.

By the end of the six months, it is hoped they will leave the college with successful businesses.

Ms McAllister, who made it to the final stages in series two of The Apprentice, said: “Rather than going into the classrooms and being taught business, we are trying to make it more entrepreneurial and classes will be business breakfasts and meetings instead.

“We want the students to take an idea from conception and try and get it up and running.

“We will weave the course work into this so that not only are they going to come out with a qualification, but they will have work experience and hopefully a business.”

Jewel and Esk is now recruiting its first set of applicants for the pilot project.

Ms McAllister, who is head of centre for enterprise and entrepreneurship at the college, said: “What I’m looking for is commitment and a hunger to succeed.

“Maybe it will be people who decided that school wasn’t for them, or working in an office wasn’t for them. If we can get them on the right track and inspire them, hopefully they can be the next generation of Tom Hunters and Tom Farmers and Michelle Mones.”

As well as having Ms McAllister as their mentor, the budding entrepreneurs will also be helped with their ideas by other local businessmen and women.

For those struggling to come up with their own ideas, the college has two business ideas to allow them to “hit the ground running” – one being a social media company providing marketing services and the second a concierge service for members of the on-campus gym.

The course is being run in conjunction with the city council’s Edinburgh Guarantee, which was launched in response to rising levels of youth unemployment.

Council chief executive Sue Bruce said: “This new course will provide an excellent opportunity for young people to develop entrepreneurial skills which will enable them to achieve success and Jewel and Esk College is to be congratulated on this initiative.”

2012 may also be the beginning of your relationship with us. If so, you may be asking yourself how we can help you fulfil your business resolutions and achieve your 2012 ambitions.

Enterprise Europe Network provides information and support to Scottish SMEs who have the potential to expand, innovate or improve their operations in Europe.

In a nutshell, EEN is dedicated to discovering the best of Europe and identifying the most suitable business matches across the continent who can come together to collaborate on everything from innovative research projects to technology partnerships and sourcing agents or manufacturers.

Enterprise Europe Network’s team of experts examine each business to get to the root of their needs before drawing up plans for European success. Advisors work closely with each SME to create business profiles and establish conncections based around the following services:

Making connections in Europe

Enterprise Europe Network links innovative businesses across Europe, opening up new opportunities for Scottish SMEs – whether that means finding foreign manufacturers or distributors, connecting with European subcontractors or selecting partners for joint ventures.

Working with over 4,000 Network colleagues across the continent, the team proactively explores partnering options across all sectors. SMEs throughout the Network are already benefitting, engaging with like-minded companies to develop and licence new products and share expertise.

Enterprise Europe Network also hosts and promotes sector-specific brokerage events, where company representatives meet in person to discuss potential partnerships. More informal networking punctuates these business speed-dating style events, potentially leading to more healthy business relationships.

Accessing European funding

While the Network isn’t a bank we can signpost you to where the European cash is. We can also tell you what you need to do to stand the best chance of accessing these funds.

The Enterprise Europe Network website and this monthly e-zine are both your best sources for finding out about the best upcoming calls for funding.

Investigating new markets

When it comes to taking the plunge into new markets, you can be forgiven for having some early nerves.

After all, there’s a lot to take in - there are different policies and legislation, trading standards and practices, not to mention competitors who are there already.

Enterprise Europe Network hosts a bank of resources to get SMEs off on the right foot and make sure they’re fully prepared for any new markets.

The EEN team is also equipped to carry out more bespoke investigations on request, illuminating potential growth areas and offering advice on their findings.

Securing funding for innovation 

With billions of Euros up for grabs, it is little wonder FP7 is Europe’s top R&D funding programme.

Enterprise Europe Network works in partnership with Scotland Europa to support those hot-shot Scottish businesses and organisations looking to access FP7 cash.

The team provides information and guidance on the application process, including finding suitable partners and weighing up the potential for expanding into new markets and developing smart new products.

Understanding public procurement

Demystifying the process of tendering for public contracts in the UK and Europe is another of Enterprise Europe Network’s specialties.

If you’re looking for advice and information on procedures, timescales, and thresholds, the EEN team should be your first port of call.

Enterprise Europe Network is also working with Supplier Development Programme (SDP) to deliver events focusing on how to diversify and succeed through public procurement.

Having your say in Europe

With 98% of all European businesses being SMEs, it can only be a good thing that the European Commission is seeking to create new legislation which makes it easier for small companies to do business. 

However, companies in Scotland can be forgiven for wondering how they can make their voices heard to ensure any legislative changes made are the right ones.

Thankfully, the EEN team is directly involved in the European Commission’s platform for small businesses and gathers feedback from SMEs across all sectors, channelling these views back to the decision makers.

Make your business heard – contact the team to offer your thoughts or make use of Enterprise Europe Network’s extensive suite of services: info@enterprise-europe-scotland.com or +44 (0)141 228 2797.

For a look back at a successful 2011 for the Enterprise Europe Network team, check out our latest podcast which offers a run-down of the five most popular podcasts from last year.

It’s also worth tuning in to hear more about Eurostars funding, learn how to go Dutch in the Netherlands and find out our top ten tips for engaging on Twitter.

We have some great ideas on how your company can take advantage of EU opportunities in 2012 coming up, so listen out for our fortnightly podcasts. 

To find out what the Enterprise Europe Network team are working on right now, take a look at our blog: the Common Sense Approach to Europe.

Want to get to know the team? Join our LinkedIn group to find out details about our members and participate in our regular discussions.

You can also find us on Twitter, @stairwaytoseven, where we’ll be tweeting links to interesting news articles and updates on our upcoming events.

We want to hear from you...

Is there anything you would like to learn more about in our monthly e-bulletins? Do you have any comments on how we can improve our service? If so, please contact the team on: +44 (0)141 228 2797 or info@enterprise-europe-scotland.com  and let us know. 

The European Union has some of the world's best research facilities and most accomplished researchers. Harnessing their full potential will help turn novel ideas into jobs, green growth and social progress. To facilitate this, the European Commission finances, either wholly or partially, a wide range of individual research and technology development projects. Details about many of these can be found on the Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) - the primary information source for EU-funded projects.

A new Projects Service, launched on 16 January 2012, will enhance the role of CORDIS. Designed not only to be a comprehensive reference point for project participants, coordinators and stakeholders, the service will also make information and data available to wider audiences.

CORDIS has project records covering a myriad of science, technology and research-related fields and topics. Dating from before 1986 to the present, they relate to not only the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), but also previous Framework Programmes. The new service will use the breadth of the CORDIS repository as a base to bring together a wide variety of information related to individual projects, including:
- project details such as description, funding, programme;
- project results such as documents, reports, summaries;
- links;
- publications;
- multimedia;
- information and details on project participants.

The new Projects Service will unlock content, standardise the presentation of project information, and help users to find out more.

Project records are added to the database once they are made available to CORDIS by the Commission service responsible. The new service provides tools and pointers that can help filter and facilitate search queries.

Even when a project has finished, specific project information can help with result development, the planning of new initiatives, the indication of new research avenues and more.

For more information, go to http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/

An EU-funded team of researchers in Finland is studying how climate change impacts nature and the various spheres that depend on it, namely agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism. The study is funded under the VACCIA ('Vulnerability assessment of ecosystem services for climate change impacts and adaptation') project, which is supported by the EU LIFE+ programme. The results of the study will help decision-makers, industry and the general public, and give Finland the support it needs to adapt to a changing climate.

Nearly 100 experts from the Finnish Environment Institute, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, and the Universities of Helsinki, Jyväskylä and Oulu are contributing to this study. They predict the climate in Finland will warm more during the winter season instead of the summer season.

During the summer months, Finns will have to deal with more hot days and longer hot periods. Thermal winter, which is the period as determined on the basis of temperature, will become shorter. In their study, the team has put a number of cities, including Helsinki and Lahti, as well as tourist centres like Kuusamo and Sotkamo, in the spotlight. They have also been probing the effects of climate change and the possibilities for change in various environments within the forest, agricultural and water areas. The researchers point out that the tourism sector will have to adapt to the lack of snow and ice across the region.

'Changing rainfall, shorter and warmer winters, as well as a considerable decrease in snow cover could considerably change the preconditions for nature-based tourism in northern Finland,' says Professor Hannu I. Heikkinen of the University of Oulu in Finland, the leader of the project's tourism section. 'Tourism centres in the north, such as Vuokatti in Sotkamo, are already giving thought to whether uncertainties surrounding the winter weather could be reduced by expanding various covered solutions, such as ski tunnels or ice stadiums,' he adds.

'There are plans to produce the energy needed for an artificial winter locally, using ground source heat and bio energy. Another obvious adaptation would be to develop year-round tourism and programme options. This would also improve the tourism sector's efficiency while evening out stress on the environment and society.'

The team also suggests that as the climate warms, it will be easier to grow higher-yielding species and varieties that need a more extensive growing period. The results of the study will shed light on how climate change is affecting commercial crop selection, production sectors, the use of fertilisers and pesticides, among others.

'Changing weather conditions increase the vulnerability of agriculture,' explains Professor Juha Helenius from the Department of Agronomy at the University of Helsinki. 'Farms have always had to adapt to changing weather conditions but, among farmers, an increase in the variability of growing periods and in the frequency of extreme weather events require increasing financial adaptability to large variations in crops and crop quality.'

Modelling estimates also show how forestry and fishing will be significantly impacted by the changing conditions.

For more information, please visit:

%EU LIFE+: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/

VACCIA: http://thule.oulu.fi/vaccia/

The European Commission has launched a Europe-wide public debate on corporate restructuring and anticipating change. The consultation will run until 30 March 2012. The aim is to identify successful practices and policies in the field of restructuring and adapting to change. The results will feed into the upcoming employment package and should help to improve further cooperation between workers and employers' representatives, government, local and regional authorities and the EU institutions. The consultation will also help identify specific restructuring measures that could help deal with employment and social challenges, and help European companies improve competitiveness through innovation and a fast, but smooth adaptation to change.

Restructuring is part of business life and one of the important ways of helping a company stay competitive. The economic and financial crisis has put an extra strain on business: from 2002 to 2010, over 11,000 cases of restructuring were recorded by the European Restructuring Monitor, with a ratio of almost two jobs lost for every one created (1.8:1). Between 2008/2010, this ratio has increased to 2.5:1. Many companies and their workers have developed innovative arrangements to limit job losses. Here, social partners have played a key role. These initiatives have varied from working hours, to more social dialogue, to adjustment measures or the intervention of public employment services. However, these may be less effective in a context of persistently weak demand.

László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion presented the new Green Paper saying: 'To be able to react better in the future, we have to understand the reasons behind the success of some measures in some countries, or sectors during the crisis. We have to look at how measures, like for example short-time work, can be used to deal with the challenges we are likely to face in the coming period". He added "We also want to see how we can best anticipate the employment and skills needs of the future, especially in the light of new challenges and growing social inequalities across Member States. And last, but not least, we want to see how the social impact of restructuring can be limited.'

The Commissioner also stressed how the EU stands ready to help and support Member States through the cohesion policy in particular the European Social Fund as well as the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund.

Content of the Green Paper:

The Green Paper includes several questions. In particular, it addresses the following issues:

• Lessons from the crisis – are existing policy measures and practices adequate? What are the success factors and future challenges? How have short time working schemes functioned during the crisis and how have they coped with a persistently weak demand?

• Economic and industrial adjustment – what are the relevant framework conditions and existing good practices on access to finance, to accompany structural adjustment?

• Adaptability of business and employability of workers – an anticipative approach best? Is there a possible need to update existing guidelines on restructuring and the means to ensure their implementation?

• Creating synergies in the process of industrial change – how to improve the synergies between companies, local authorities and other local actors? How to develop training as a permanent feature of human resources management?

• Role of regional and local authorities – how to encourage a supporting role of public authorities taking into account different national traditions?

• Impact of restructuring operations - what can be done by companies and employees to minimise the employment and social impact of restructuring operations and what role can public policies play in facilitating these changes?

The Green Paper is supported by the staff working document "Restructuring in Europe 2011" Restructuring in Europe 2011, which draws on the main lessons learned in recent years on anticipation and management of change and restructuring.

The consultation period will run until 30 March 2012. During this period, anyone with an interest in the subject can submit their views via email or by post.

Background

Restructuring has been raised by the European Commission in its industrial policy flagship of October 2010, the flagship initiative 'An Agenda for new skills and jobs', as well as the Single Market Act. The Commission wishes to renew the debate on restructuring in the light of the lessons learned from recent experience.

The outcome of this consultation will feed into the upcoming employment package and the revived flexicurity agenda. It could lead to a renewed debate at EU level on a possible new framework for restructuring.

For more information:

Green Paper : restructuring and anticipation of change : what lessons from the economic crisis: http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=7310&langId=en

Commission Staff Working Document: Restructuring in Europe 2011 :

http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=7311&langId=en

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=333&langId=en

Consultation on restructuring and anticipation of change : http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=699&consultId=9&furtherConsult=yes

The mini country reports had the objective to furnish three analytical reports with country specific information: a trend report on innovation policy in the EU, an overview report on innovation funding in the EU and an analytical thematic report that will be elaborated per year under INNO Policy TrendChart.

The mini country reports are available here.

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is investing millions of pounds in collaborative research and development projects involving fuel cells and hydrogen energy systems.

To help accelerate the commercialisation of these products and link them with other technologies to form complete low-carbon solutions, the TSB has launched a £7.5 million competition and has invited smart technology companies to come together to develop fuel cells and hydrogen systems which will overcome current system integration challenges.

Companies interested in taking part should register their interest by 15 February.

Low carbon technology is also at the heart of the forthcoming TSB collaborative competition into clean transport.

With sales of low emissions vehicles set to reach over 1.7 million in 2012, the market for low carbon vehicles has never been higher.

The TSB is launching a £25 million collaborative R&D competition to find demonstration projects which will accelerate the commercialisation of low carbon vehicles. 

Aims of the competition are to encourage a reduction of costs in the supply base and speed up adoption of these new technologies on the UK’s roads.

The competition opens for expressions of interest on 20 February and applicants have until 28 March to submit their bids.

Companies involved in manufacturing have two further opportunities to access TSB funding.

Applicants have until 22 February to record their interest in being part of the £6 million collaborative research and development competition which seeks to stimulate innovation in manufacturing.

Those businesses pioneering new technologies which have the potential to underpin new production processes for a wide range of industrial applications and market sectors are invited to take part.

Meanwhile, £5 million is up for grabs for those companies keen to demonstrate their innovation in sustainability in the process industry.

This includes the bulk and fine chemical, pharmaceutical and biotech, agrochemical, coatings and lubricant, food and drink, home and personal care, mining, water, construction materials, and oil and fuel sectors.

The competition opens on 27 February and the deadline for applications is on 25 April.

Enterprise Europe Network has pledged to help any businesses keen to get involved find the partners they need to strengthen their bid.

Anis Mourad of Enterprise Europe Network Scotland said: “Millions of pounds of research funding is available through the Technology Strategy Board and it is vital Scottish businesses seize this opportunity to get involved.

“It would give the Scottish economy a tremendous boost if 2012 was the year that we turned some of the fantastic research being conducted in Scotland into viable products and processes.

“Enterprise Europe Network Scotland is working closely with the TSB to ensure the highest quality bids are submitted and we are here to help interested businesses find the collaboration partners they need to give their applications the best possible chance of success.”

More information and details of how to apply are available from the competitions section of the TSB website.

Information on how you can match with potential partners can be obtained by contacting Anis Mourad at Enterprise Europe Network Scotland at anis.mourad@scotent.co.uk or +44 (0)141 228 2797.

The IEE Programme aims to tackle non-technological barriers to the uptake of energy efficiency measures and renewables.

The IEE programme tackles non-technological barriers to the spread of efficient use of energy and encourages greater use of new and renewable energy sources through funding activities:

• to foster energy efficiency and the rational use of energy resources
• to promote new and renewable energy sources and to support energy diversification; and
• to promote energy efficiency and the use of new and renewable energy sources in transport.

The IEE programme supports three types of activity:

1. Promotion and Dissemination projects
2. Project development support for large-scale sustainable energy investment projects
3. Support activities and tenders

The programme cannot fund technological research and demonstration activity.  A factsheet that sets out the key requirements for IEE proposals is here.

More information on the Programme including examples of funded projects can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/index_en.html

The UK Information Day on the IEE Programme 2012 Call for Proposals will take place in London on Wednesday 1^st February 2012.  The event will start at 10am and will finish by 2.30pm.

The presentations at the UK Information Day will cover topics including:

•          the 2012 Call priorities
•          the administrative and financial arrangements
•          tips on how to prepare a successful proposal

The UK Information Day is free to attend, is funded by DECC and organised by the EU Energy Focus team.  You can register now by visiting http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/IEEInfoDay2012

The Scottish government is giving an extra £300,000 to promote the export of Scottish beef and lamb in Europe.

The additional funding will be used by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) to boost growth in key European markets.

It includes support for new export market managers and trade development advisers for France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg.

The move came as a study suggested Scotch Beef was the biggest selling Scots food and drink brand in the UK.

Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead, who announced the extra funding at the QMS marketing conference in South Queensferry, said: "The Scotch label is recognised the world over as a high quality, premium brand.

"This reputation puts us in a great position to maximise our exports - particularly in the key European market, which accounts for 90% of Scotland's red meat exports.

"The current economic landscape in Europe is certainly a very challenging market to operate in. However it's very encouraging that despite these difficulties our beef and lamb export sales grew during 2011 to around £100m."

'Biggest seller'

The funding announcement came as research suggested Scotch Beef was the biggest selling Scottish food and drink brand in Great Britain.

Market research company Kantar Worldpanel indicated British sales now totalled more than £247m.

QMS chairman Jim McLaren said: "This is a great achievement by our industry and underlines the importance of Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork production to the Scottish economy and to Scotland's reputation as a land of food and drink.

"Scotch Beef is an iconic brand and one that even in these financially gloomy times, people still desire and are willing to cut other costs to continue eating."

The development of electronic commerce and online services offers enormous potential for beneficial economic, social and societal change. The Internet economy creates 2.6 jobs for every "off-line" job lost, and offers a better choice to consumers, including those in rural and isolated areas. The gains brought by lower online prices and a wider choice of available products and services are estimated at EUR 11.7 billion, equivalent to 0.12 % of European GDP. If 15 % of retail sales were e-commerce and the obstacles to the internal market were removed, the gains for consumers might be as much as EUR 204 billion, or 1.7 % of European GDP. The European Commission finds, however, that there are many obstacles preventing consumers and businesses from investing fully in online services: ignorance or uncertainty about the applicable rules, offers that lack transparency and are hard to compare, and payments and modes of delivery that are often expensive and unsuitable.

That is why, as part of the Digital Agenda and the Single Market Act and in response to the request from the European Council to submit a roadmap for the completion of the Digital Single Market by 2012, the Commission has today adopted a Communication presenting 16 targeted initiatives aimed at doubling the share of e-commerce in retail sales (currently 3.4 %) and that of the Internet sector in European GDP (currently less than 3 %) by 2015. By that year online trade and services could account for more than 20 % of growth and net job creation in some Member States (such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden).

Michel Barnier, Commissioner for the Internal Market, Neelie Kroes, Commission Vice-President responsible for the Digital Agenda, and John Dalli, Commissioner for Consumer Policy, expressed their ambitious objective in these terms: “In the difficult circumstances facing Europe we must seize every source of activity and new jobs as a matter of urgency. The action plan we are presenting today will create new opportunities for citizens and businesses and will bring Europe much-needed growth and employment. It aims to remove the obstacles which until now have frustrated the development of Europe's Internet economy."

Content of the communication

Under the Single Market Act and the Digital Agenda, the Communication puts forward an action plan which will facilitate cross-border access to online products and content, ultimately solve the problems of payment, delivery and consumer protection and information, and assist dispute resolution and the removal of illegal content, thus helping to develop an Internet that is more secure and more respectful of fundamental rights and freedoms. The aim is to create an environment more likely to foster a dynamic Digital Single Market by tackling the problems in its path, while promoting investment in wireless connectivity and new-generation fixed infrastructure and supporting the development of cloud computing.

The Communication identifies the potential of electronic commerce and online services to account for up to 20 % of employment and growth over the next five years. Access to goods and services will also be made easier for geographically isolated or vulnerable people, fostering cohesion across Europe.

The Communication goes on to list the obstacles to the development of the Internet economy: a legal cross-border supply shortage, inadequate information and protection for consumers, inefficient deliveries and payments, illegal content that is still too difficult to manage, and the dangers of the spread of cybercrime.

Background

Consumers often lack confidence in online trade or services and are concerned about whether their rights will be respected, especially when a problem arises. They are also often frustrated that certain services are not offered in their country or that they cannot buy in other Member States because, for instance, there are no deliveries to their country or foreign payment cards are not accepted. Lastly, they are sometimes deprived of access to broadband networks and faced with a rise in cybercrime.

The Electronic Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC) sets out rules which facilitate the provision of online services in the European Union and ensure that these services meet certain criteria. This text laid the foundations for cross-border online services. Because it is technologically neutral, it was recognised by the stakeholders at the public consultation held in 2010 6 as the cornerstone of the Digital Single Market. The aim is therefore to add to it, but not to amend it.

The Directive requires online service providers generally to observe the rules of the country in which they are established, and contains provisions on consumer protection. It requires service providers to indicate, for example, their contact details on their websites, guarantees that advertising is easily identifiable as such, and protects against spam. Under certain conditions the Directive also grants liability exemptions to intermediary providers if they host or transmit illegal content placed online by a third party.

See also MEMO/12/5

For further information:

http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/e-commerce/communication_2012_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_research/market_studies/e_commerce_study_en.htm

Full implementation of EU waste legislation would save €72 billion a year, increase the annual turnover of the EU waste management and recycling sector by €42 billion and create over 400,000 jobs by 2020 according to a European Commission study published today. Illegal waste operations in Member States are causing missed opportunities for economic growth, but stronger national inspections and better knowledge about waste management would bring major improvements.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said: "We need to see waste as a resource – and to bury that resource in the ground is worse than short-sighted. This report shows that waste management and recycling can make a big contribution to economic growth and job creation. If the existing legislation was implemented properly, we could avoid costly clean-up operations, pollution and health problems. And let's not forget that recycled materials are cheaper than virgin ones – and that they reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on imports."

Improved implementation leads to significant benefits

The study gives an in-depth analysis of the effects of better implementation and enforcement and shows that benefits would be significant. It analysed a number of case studies in Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands to demonstrate economic, financial and social benefits to Member States.

The EU's waste management and recycling sector is very dynamic, but still offers economic opportunities with vast potential for expansion. In 2008, its €145 billion turnover represented around 1% of the EU's GDP and 2 million jobs. Compliance with EU policy would help create a sector with 2.4 million jobs and a total annual turnover of €187 billion.

The underlying problem is that too many prices do not reflect the true cost of disposal of goods – if they did, this would help prevent waste in the first place. In addition, many Member States still lack adequate infrastructure for separate collection, recycling and recovery. An absence of systematic control and enforcement mechanisms is another hindrance, coupled with a lack of reliable data on waste management.

Four key conclusions

• The study concludes that we need to know more about waste. Better data and systematic monitoring of how the laws work in practice must be made available. There is progress here, with a specific Data Centre on Waste recently set up by Eurostat.

• Better use of the polluter pays principle, and wider use of economic instruments like raising the costs of disposal, could help ensure compliance and provide the necessary financial resources for waste management.

• Inspection and monitoring capabilities need to be strengthened in Member States. This could mean establishing an auditing capacity at EU level and, possibly, common inspection standards.

• One relatively cost-effective option to strengthen implementation monitoring at EU level could be to draw on the expertise and capabilities of the European Environment Agency (EEA). This option would carry lower administrative costs than creating a new agency dedicated to waste.

Next Steps

The study's conclusions will be discussed and analysed by the Commission. They will serve as grounds for developing a balanced mix of legal and economic instruments as suggested in the Roadmap for a Resource Efficient Europe and the Thematic Strategy on Waste Prevention. These strategies encourage economic and legal incentives such as landfill taxes or bans, extending "producer responsibility" schemes and introducing "pay as you throw" schemes.

Background

The EU's economy uses 16 tonnes of materials per person per year, of which 6 tonnes becomes waste, half of it going to landfill. Many Member States rely mainly on landfill as the preferred waste management option. This situation persists in spite of existing EU waste legislation and is unsustainable.

The Commission's Roadmap for Resource Efficiency sets out milestones for ensuring that waste is managed as a resource by 2020 including through the revision of prevention, re-use, recycling, recovery and landfill-diversion targets, and through the development of markets for secondary and recycled materials.

Further information

Implementing EU waste legislation for green growth (study) http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/index.htm

Comparative statistics on waste management operations in EU Member States: http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer/synthesis/synthesis/chapter4.xhtml

2011 Report on the Thematic Strategy on progress in waste prevention and recycling: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/strategy.htm

Anne Hedensted Steffenson was one of the first visitors to be welcomed to Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters by new chief executive David Birrell.

She was accompanied by Professor Stuart MacPherson, the new consul general for Denmark in Edinburgh, and the recently retired consul Norman Irons.

They discussed trade and business opportunities for chamber members and Danish firms.

Mr Birrell, who was joined by fellow chamber directors Liz McAreavey and Graham Birse, said: “Ms Steffenson agreed that there is much more potential for companies in Denmark and Scotland to partner in the renewable revolution, especially in on and offshore wind.”

Ms Steffenson said: “We’ve agreed today to work to develop stronger links between Scotland and Denmark for business and Danish participation in the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference.”

The fossils, lost for some 165 years, were found by chance in the vaults of the British Geological Survey HQ near Keyworth, UK.

They have now been photographed and are available to the public through a new online museum exhibit released today.

The find was made by the palaeontologist Dr Howard Falcon-Lang.

Dr Falcon-Lang, who is based in the department of earth sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, spotted some drawers in a cabinet marked "unregistered fossil plants".

"Inside the drawer were hundreds of beautiful glass slides made by polishing fossil plants into thin translucent sheets," Dr Falcon-Lang explained.

"This process allows them to be studied under the microscope. Almost the first slide I picked up was labelled 'C. Darwin Esq'."

The item turned out to be a piece of fossil wood collected by Darwin during his famous Voyage of the Beagle in 1834. This was the expedition on which he first started to develop his theory of evolution.

 Joseph Hooker failed to number the specimens before embarking on an expedition to the Himalayas In the course of his visit to Chiloe Island, Chile, Darwin encountered "many fragments of black lignite and silicified and pyritous wood, often embedded close together".

He had these shipped back to England where they were cut and ground into thin sections.

Joseph Hooker, a botanist and a close friend of Darwin, was responsible for assembling the "lost" collection while he briefly worked for the British Geological Survey in 1846.

The fossils became "lost" because Hooker failed to number them in the formal specimen register before setting out on an expedition to the Himalayas.

The collection was moved several times and gradually became forgotten.

Dr John Ludden, executive director of the Geological Survey said: "This is quite a remarkable discovery. It really makes one wonder what else might be hiding in our collections."

Source: Europa

The Mackendrick Film Fund – named after Alexander Mackendrick, the Scottish-American director of The Ladykillers and Whisky Galore – is seeking investment from companies or wealthy individuals to add to a £500,000 cash injection from Creative Scotland.

The fund, the first finance vehicle of its kind in the country, is backed by Aegis Film Fund and Prescience Film Finance, and is looking to make successful movies by Scots or in Scotland with budgets of between £3million and £6m.

It already has a film under consideration – Born To Be King, a romantic comedy with Ewan McGregor and Kate Hudson, written and directed by Peter Capaldi. The fund hopes to have £35m in funding available to offer to potential film makers.

Aegis was the largest single backer of The King's Speech – the £9m film that became the highest-grossing independent British film of all time, earning £45.7 million at UK cinemas and £266 million worldwide.

Claire Mundell, who leads Mackendrick Capital Funders, believes there is gap in the market for such a fund north of the Border.

It will bring together commercial investors to put money into "international, commercially minded films with a demonstrable Scottish emphasis and key Scottish elements, such as location, cast or creative talent."

The fund is now targeting investors and is also looking for scripts and ideas for the films, which it hopes to have identified by the summer of this year.

The Creative Scotland moneywill add to the investment pot, but only be used for Scottish producers.

"We are pushing at an open door as the world wants to come to Scotland," said Ms Mundell, a Glasgow-based producer. "We have great talent, great crews, we have fantastic locations, but ultimately we need money, and hopefully the Mackendrick Fund can contribute to that."

Scripts will be chosen by Ms Mundell, Prescience director Paul Brett, and Carole Sheridan, former head of talent at Scottish Screen.

Ms Mundell added: "It's about taking Scotland out to the film financing market and saying we have something to offer them.

"There are lots of high net worth individuals in Scotland, there are people that are passionate about Scotland who may want to try some form of film investment.

"Aegis and Prescience really liked the idea of taking their existing model and putting a Scottish emphasis on it. 

"The ambition for the fund is to make a range of films which are demonstrably commercial, a slate of films with very strict [financial] criteria to safeguard [investors'] money." 

Peter Nichols, founder of the Chancery Group and chairman of Prescience, and a partner in Mackendrick Capital Funders, said: "The Fund will nurture the development of the film industry in Scotland, and add to the Scottish economy by bringing projects to life taking advantage of the technical skills, screen talent and locations there. 

"The involvement of Creative Scotland is a very positive sign of commitment to strengthening the industry." 

Caroline Parkinson, director of creative development at Creative Scotland, said: "This fund is a significant move and is vital for developing of the talent base here at the same time as building Scotland's reputation as an attractive film destination bringing further economic and employment benefits." 

l Yesterday saw the publication of A Future for British Film, a review of the UK film industry by Lord Smith of Finsbury.

The lengthy document has 56 recommendations for a better film industry, including a programme to "bring film education into every school" and a scheme to bring projectors and screens to village and community halls. 

Novel light-source technology just got a big boost in Europe thanks to the OLED100.eu ('Organic LED (light-emitting diode) lighting in European dimensions') project which tackled the challenge to develop the techniques needed to form the basis for efficient OLED applications for the European general lighting industry. Backed with EUR 12.5 million under the 'Information and communication technologies') Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the OLED100.eu project partners have successfully increased the energy efficiency and lifetime of organic LEDs for large-area lighting applications.

Led by Philips Technologie GmbH in Germany, the OLED100.eu team has been working on OLEDs for the last three years. Over this 36-month period, the researchers resolved technical quirks and probed the acceptance levels and preferences of end users concerning this new lighting technology. They also developed a large-area OLED luminaire consisting of 9 OLED tiles of 33 x 33 square centimetres each.

The aims and objectives of the study were to boost the luminous efficacy, strengthen the lifetime, upscale the light-emitting area, optimise processes to slash production costs, and standardise measurement based on application research.

The OLED100.eu team succeeded in demonstrating high-efficiency OLEDs based on Novaled PIN OLED technology and out-coupling materials showing 60 lumens per watt (lm/W) which are more efficient than energy-saving lamps. They also secured long-lifetime OLEDs with Novaled know-how, showing 100 000 hours comparable to inorganic LED lifetime. The researchers performed perception case studies on taste and acceptance of OLEDs as light source, and they carried out industrialisation scenarios and cost calculation of production processes with a particular focus on cost-efficient technologies like screen-printing for substrate structuring. And they succeeded in devising standardisation of measurement procedures for OLEDs, which currently serve as the basis for work of the International Commission on Illumination (CIE).

'The OLED100.eu research consortium has played a vital part in ensuring that Europe will play a leading role in OLED technology for lighting applications also in the future,' says Dr Stefan Grabowski, senior scientist at Philips Research Laboratories in Aachen.

Commenting on the results of the project, Dr Karsten Diekmann of OSRAM GmbH in Germany says: 'The results of OLED100.eu will contribute to further increase the acceptance of OLED technology. In the project we gained a better understanding of end-user preferences, a better comparability through standardised measurement procedures, and better OLEDs.'

For his part, Dr Christian May, the head of Business Unit OLED Lighting says: 'The work to achieve the challenging goals of the OLED 100.eu project brought us to a higher level of our COMEDD pilot process line. We are really proud of the 33 x 33 cm2 large OLED panels, which are one of the largest worldwide and made at our pilot process line.'

OLEDs convert current into light, but are different from inorganic LEDs because they emit light over a large area. The thickness of the light-emitting area is just around 400 nanometres, which is about 100 times thinner than a human hair.

The OLED100.eu partners are from Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria and the United Kingdom.

For more information, please visit:

OLED100.eu: http://oled100.eu/homepage.asp

FP7 Research in ICT: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ict/index_en.htm

Please be aware that to ensure fair and equal treatment of all proposers the EACI has to limit its advisory role. Only general guidance will be provided. Specific hints, ideas on how to make a proposal better or recommendations for possible partners cannot be given.

Outlines should be sent to eaci-iee-enquiries@ec.europa.eu until 30 March 2012 - outlines coming in after this date will not be processed.

The subject of your e-mail should indicate:

• The number of the key action (see the Table of Contents on page 2 of the Call for Proposals 2012 http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/files/call_for_proposals/call_2012_en.pdf)
• An easily identifiable short title of your idea

To make the most of this facility, please submit your enquiry as soon as possible!

For more information on the EACI click here.

Can pregnant women help boost their children's brainpower by eating fish? The findings of a study, presented in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, show how children born to women who consumed more fish during their pregnancies demonstrated improved outcomes in tests for verbal intelligence, fine motor skills and prosocial behaviour. The results are an outcome of the NUTRIMENTHE ('Effect on diet on the mental performance of children') project, which is backed under the 'Food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology' (KBBE) Theme of the EU' Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of EUR 5.9 million.

Oily fish is the leading source of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a key structural component of cells and particularly the cell membranes of the brain. The European Commission supports health claims that DHA 'contributes to the normal brain development of the foetus and breastfed infants and to the normal development of the eye of the foetus and breastfed infants'. (EFSA Journal 2011;9(4):2078)

In the NUTRIMENTHE study, the researchers investigated how fish mediate the effect and genetic variation on brainpower. The project partners focused primarily on polymorphisms in the fatty acid desaturase (FADS) gene cluster that codes for the enzymes delta-5 and delta-6 desaturase involved in the synthesis of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Using blood samples taken from more than 2 000 women at 20 weeks of pregnancy and from the umbilical cord at birth, researchers assessed omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and the genotyping of 18 FADS single nucleotide polymorphisms. The team supplied omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids to the developing child by placental transfer via the umbilical cord. How maternal and child FADS genotypes impact the levels of these fatty acids had not been investigated until now.

Dr Eva Lattka from Helmholtz Zentrum München, the German Research Centre for Environmental Health and her team discovered how polymorphisms in the FADS gene cluster affect fatty acids in women during pregnancy. According to the researchers, the composition of fatty acids in cord blood needs maternal and child genotypes, such that maternal genotypes are primarily associated with omega-6 precursors, and that child genotypes are mainly linked to omega-6 products. They also found that the DHA amounts were equally associated with maternal and child genotypes.

'There is more contribution to omega-6 fatty acid synthesis by the foetus than previously expected; DHA levels are dependent on both maternal and child metabolism,' Dr Lattka says. 'DHA supplied by the mother might be very important.'

In a previous study, researchers had found that consumption of fish during pregnancy is associated with verbal intelligence quotient (IQ) at age 8, but what does fish have that mediates the effect? While the study identified how eating fish is associated with maternal levels of DHA, no data has emerged on whether maternal DHA levels are directly related to outcomes in children. The NUTRIMENTHE project, which is expected to end in 2013, will work at resolving this issue.

The NUTRIMENTHE partners hosted a symposium called 'Nutrition and Cognitive Function' at the European Nutrition Conference in Madrid in late October. Researchers from Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States are part of the NUTRIMENTHE consortium. (EFSA Journal 2011;9(4):2078)

More information : NUTRIMENTHE Research in KBBE

An EU-funded team of researchers has developed a robot able to help neurosurgeons in performing keyhole brain surgery. This robot is accurate in performance and has incredible memory, especially since it has 13 types of movement compared to the 4 available to human hands, as well as 'haptic' feedback - physical cues allowing physicians to assess tissue and perceive the amount of force applied during surgery. The ROBOCAST ('Robot and sensors integration as guidance for enhanced computer assisted surgery and therapy') project received EUR 3.45 million under the 'Information and communication technologies' (ICT) Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

Led by the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, the ROBOCAST partners targeted the development of ICT scientific methods and techniques for support in keyhole brain surgery. They developed a hardware experts call mechatronics, which constructs the robot's body and nervous system, as well as software that offers intelligence. The software comprises a multiple robot, an independent trajectory planner, an advanced controller and a set of field sensors.

The ROBOCAST consortium developed the mechatronic phase of the project as a modular system with two robots and one active biomimetic probe. These were integrated into a sensory motor framework to run as one unit.

The first robot has the ability to find its miniature companion robot through six degrees of freedom (DOF), and moves from left to right, up and down, and backward and forward. It also has three rotational movements, namely forward and backward, side to side, or left to right. These all work together to locate the robot's companion anywhere in a three-dimensional space. The robot, say the researchers, can also ease the tremor of a surgeon's hands by up to 10 times.

The miniature robot holds the probe that is used through the keyhole. The partners say optical trackers are located at the end of the probe, as well as on the patient. The force applied is managed by the robot, which also controls the position by applying a combination of sensors. This results in determining the trajectory of the surgical work.

The robot was tested for its accurate performance during keyhole surgery tests on dummies. The team believes this robot can be used to help physicians treat their patients for epilepsy, Tourette's syndrome and Parkinson's disease.

The researchers say the path the robot follows inside the brain is determined on the basis of a risk atlas as well as using the evaluation of preoperative diagnostic information.

Presenting a robot model earlier this year, the ROBOCAST team comprises experts from Germany, Israel, Italy and the United Kingdom. Future research plans include investigating robotic neurosurgery for patients who would remain conscious during their surgery.

For more information, please visit:

ROBOCAST: http://www.robocast.eu/

Politecnico di Milano: http://www.polimi.it/

The number of visitors to Scotland rose by 8% in the first nine months of last year as staycations grew in popularity, according to new figures.

The Great Britain Tourism Survey, compiled by national tourist boards, suggested a strong domestic market.

However, a separate Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey showed a 4% fall in the number of international visitors in the first three quarters.

This was despite an 18% rise in tourist numbers from North America.

Just over 12 million people visited Scotland between January and September.

Spending by visitors from Britain rose by 21% year-on-year to about £2.3bn, while expenditure by overseas tourists fell by 6% to just over £1.1bn.

Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing described the overall figures as "encouraging".

Mr Ewing said: "The staycation market is continuing to boost visitor numbers and average spend also rising. We will continue to invest in this market and the recently launched Year of Creative Scotland will help generate even more opportunities to do so.

"An 18% increase in visitors from North America is extremely welcome and evidence that this market is continuing to pick up after a tough time.

"This is offset by an overall fall of 4% in the number of international visitors to Scotland but we have to remember that tough times in the eurozone will have an impact."

'Opportunities' ahead

Mr Ewing added the Scottish government would work with tourism body VisitScotland to ensure the industry was "in the best possible shape" to make the most of opportunities in the next three years, including the Ryder Cup and the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Scottish Labour tourism spokeswoman Rhoda Grant said: "These figures show a welcome increase in staycations, but a disappointing drop in overseas visitors - we need both to increase if Scottish tourism is to thrive.

"Big events, like the Glasgow 2014 Games, offer a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase Scotland to the world. The SNP government must redouble its efforts to capitalise on events like this."

She added: "While there is a small increase in hotel stays, in areas where there is a high concentration of small businesses - such as B&B and self-catering accommodation - we are seeing a worrying drop in tourism.

"I urge VisitScotland to focus on doing all it can to support small businesses like these."

Professor John Brown, who was presented with one of world’s most prestigious scientific awards yesterday, praised the Scottish Government’s support for scientific research allowed groundbreaking work to be carried out in across Scotland.

He compared the Scottish administration’s approach with that of Westminster, which he claimed sidelined pure science in favour or producing “consumerist widgets” in the Far East.

Prof Brown, who received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, an award previously accepted by Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, said: “I think if we had a Scottish Government which was free to create its own science research agencies this would be a positive move for Scotland. Bigger funding could create scope for further space research.

“We have a government here which has more science awareness and is far more receptive to science than Westminster which tends to regard it as an appendage to the economy. But I’m well aware we need to have a strong enough economy to support pure science.

“Clyde Space in Glasgow, which builds satellites, is already showing what we can do. However, the vast majority of research money in terms of sizeable grants are dished out from London and we have don’t have a significant pot in Scotland.”

Professor Brown, who was appointed Scotland’s tenth Astronomer Royal in 1995, added: “I think that if in some ways a country feels disadvantaged and oppressed it fights back with vigour; there’s a sort of defiance here pushing our scientists on. Scotland has come near the top in a recent league table of astronomy and science research which is a great achievement compared to somewhere like the US which has more dollars per person.”

Professor Brown, 64, regius chair of astronomy at Glasgow University, who uses his skills as an amateur magician to engage young people with science, said he was “gobsmacked” at being honoured: “It came completely out of the blue. My name is now on a list with Einstein, but I don’t have any pretensions about that. Just like athletics, science has a spectrum of performers and abilities.”

Professor Roger Davies, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, which has been awarding medals annually for nearly 200 years, said: “The extraordinarily talented men and women who receive prizes, such as Professor Brown, are among the ranks of the leading astronomers, space scientists and geophysicists who continue to shape the way we think about both our own planet and the wider universe.”

The citation quotes Prof Brown’s work ranging from his landmark pioneering research as a 24-year-old student at the University of Glasgow identifying the mechanism of the production of X-rays by electrons in solar flares; his leading role working on Nasa’s award-winning RHESSI mission and his outreach work which has “inspired the astronomical passions of thousands of people across the UK and overseas”.

Professor Ian Robson, director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, said: “This is a fitting reward for an illustrious scientific career, not only because of his prowess in his fields of study but also though his dedication to outreach.”

Alasdair Allan, MSP, minister for science, said: “Scotland’s has a rich history of innovation in science and research. Prof Brown receiving such a prestigious award reflects not just upon his leadership in the field of astronomy, but Scotland’s seat at the top table of global scientific research. I would like to offer him my congratulations.”

• the quantity of jobs SMEs deliver, and how it has changed over time, with a focus on the recent crisis.
• the quality of jobs SMEs deliver, with a view to shed light on the nexus between the creation of jobs in Europe's SMEs and the simultaneous improvement of the competitiveness of the EU SME sector.

For further information click here.

These are the main results of a study on the essential contribution of SMEs on job creation presented by the European Commission today.

With 1% annually, the employment growth for SMEs was higher than for large enterprises with 0.5%. A clear exception is the trade sector, in which employment in SMEs increased by 0.7% annually, compared to 2.2% in large enterprises. This is due to the strong increase of large trade enterprises, in particular in sales, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles.

Within the SME size-class, micro firms (less than 10 employees) are responsible with 58% for the highest proportion of total net employment growth in the business economy.

Secondly new firms (younger than five years) are responsible for an overwhelming majority of the new jobs. New enterprises operating in business services create more than a quarter (27%) of the new jobs, while the new firms in transport and communication contribute least (6%).

Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani, responsible for Entrepreneurship and Industry said: "In this critical time for European economy, we see small enterprises delivering and confirming their role as main generators of new jobs. Their significant share in job creation highlights the greater than ever economic relevance of SMEs and the need to support them at all levels. The small and new enterprises are clearly the key for restoring economic growth".

• More information can be found on the webpage of the SME Performance Review.

Main effects of the crisis: smaller enterprises report negative impacts more often

According to the results of the survey, the economic crisis has left its mark on enterprises from all size-classes, with micro firms being particularly vulnerable. As a result of the 2009/2010 economic crisis the number of jobs in the SME-sector has on average decreased by 2.4% annually, as against 0.95% annually in the large enterprises sector. Employment developments are still negative in 2010, but expectations for 2011 were improving at the time the survey was held. The share of firms that expected to lay off employees in 2011 was smaller than the share of firms that actually laid off employees in 2010.

Besides the employment effects, by far the most important negative effect of the crisis on firms is the overall decline of total demand for their products and services (mentioned by 62% of companies), followed by the increase in customer payment terms (mentioned by 48% of firms) and finally the shortage of working capital, which affected 31% of the respondents.

Innovativeness is a weapon against the crisis

Innovation seems to have a positive effect: innovative enterprises, as well as enterprises from more innovative countries, more often report employment growth and have higher employment growth rates.

The survey underlines that innovative SMEs or companies operating in more innovative economies suffered less from the economic crisis. For example, while the decline in overall demand is mentioned by 70% of enterprises in countries that are considered modest innovators (2), the corresponding figure is 45% for countries which are innovation leaders.

Job quality in SMEs

The study distinguishes two broad dimensions of the job quality: employment quality and work quality. On average it is true that jobs in small enterprises are less productive, less remunerated, and less unionised than jobs in large enterprises. However, microenterprises report that they have a competitive advantage over their competitors as far as 'soft' aspects of the human resource aspects of an enterprise are concerned: working climate, work-life balance, working-time arrangements.

Background

The study is part of the SME Performance Review project and based on a survey of enterprises conducted at the end of 2010 and covering the 27 EU member states and 10 other countries participating in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, namely Albania, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, and Turkey.

• See MEMO/12/11

Already familiar characters in countless sci-fi movies, humanoid robots are well on the way towards stepping off the silver-screen and into daily life. But before they can move in as helpers and companions, man-shaped machines have to get a grip on the human world, learning to handle even the most fragile objects with care.

“This is the iCub – it’s a humanoid robot that has been developed by an European consortium. It’s the size of a child, and can be used to study cognitive tasks,” explained Alexander Schmitz, a Ph.D student at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa.

“We’ve built tactile sensors into the robot’s palms and fingertips, and this experiment makes use of them: the robot will take hold of a cup which is very fragile and can easily be destroyed, but with this type of sensor, it can grasp it gently.“

Using its new artificial skin, the iCub can measure and control the pressure exerted by the fingers - even though its hand is easily strong enough to crush the plastic cup.

The coordinator of the ROBOSKIN project, Giorgio Cannata, said: “Robots have been used for a long time, just in industrial applications where interaction with humans was not a task.

“Now we believe it’s time to think of robots that can interact with humans for different kinds of tasks where the roles of humans and robots are both important – like in the domestic environment or for therapeutic operations.

“The development of robot skin is fundamental to its interaction with the environment and humans… and it’s critical to ensure it operates safely.”

The iCubs, assembled in the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, are the guinea pigs in a European research project aimed at giving robots a sense of touch.

And a sense of touch goes hand-in-hand with a sense of feel.

At the University of Hertfordshire, just north of London, they have been teaching their robot to differentiate between the feel of a friendly pat and a hostile punch.

They hope it could help to treat autism.

“KASPAR is a minimally expressive robot, how we call it; what this means is that it’s a child-sized robot that is specifically designed for human-robot interaction, in particular more playful interaction,” explained Kerstin Dautenhahn, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the university.

“So the idea was to build a robot that people would be motivated to play with – similar to how they would play with a child. In the application area of autism therapy, for example, how can you use a robot in order to design games, to design scenarios and interaction of the children with the robot, that may satisfy some therapeutic objectives – like, for example, teaching children about appropriate tactile interaction? And that’s the key point in the ROBOSKIN project.”

Scientists believe autistic children who have trouble communicating with other people might feel more comfortable with a robot’s predictable reactions, leading to a better understanding of how interpersonal communication should work.

Ben Robins, senior research fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, said: “We want KASPAR to either encourage or discourage specific tactile behaviour of the children. When a child tickles it, he gets a positive reaction, but also if the child will be harsh on the robot (the reaction) will discourage him.”

The seemingly natural reactions to physical contact are triggered by patches of artificial skin embedded under KASPAR’s face and clothes.

The soft, flexible sensor elements are wired to the computer that constantly interprets pressure patterns, triggering his movements in response.

“On each of the patches you have 72 sensing points, and when you touch it you can see the pressure displayed on the screen,” said research fellow Ze Ji. “If you press harder you can see a higher intensity of the red colour. If you lift your hand it displays nothing because there is no pressure.”

Just how closely a socially-acceptable robot should mimic the appearance and behaviour of a living person is a controversial question that the scientists believe should still be closely researched.

Professor Dautenhahn said: “Many people predict that there’s a huge future for robots, and that’s why it’s important that people study the interactions with such machines, because what you don’t want is to have such machines on the market if they have never been properly tested with people, or during the design of the robot no one really asked people what they really want and how a robot should perform a certain task. So it’s very important to study human-robot interaction before these systems are really prevalent and millions and millions are in people’s homes or working environment.”

iCub and KASPAR owe their new-found abilities to these capacitive touch sensors. It is just one of several pressure-detecting technologies that are being tried and tested within the ROBOSKIN project.

Giorgio Metta, a senior researcher in the Cognitive Humanoids Lab at IIT in Genoa, demonstrated the system.

“This is a set of capacitive sensors that works very similarly to the touch screens in modern mobile phones,” he explained. “The difference here is that this skin needs to flex so it has to be made from pliable materials.”

It is easy to glue the mesh of triangular sensor elements over large areas of the robot’s body.

After being covered with silicone foam the capacitors can measure the pressure difference when the thickness of the soft layer changes.

But combine a sense of touch with others – like vision – and a robot’s capabilities can be multiplied many times over.

Playing ball might seem straightforward enough, but in fact it needs extremely complex hand to eye coordination.

But with some well placed sensors robots need not feel left out of the game.

Team leader in Genoa, Lorenzo Natale said: “This robot is using information about the colour and shape of the object, so it’s able to identify the ball and compute the position of its centre and size. With this information it determines the distance and directs its hand.

“In this experiment, we use the tactile feedback to decide when the fingers should stop grasping the ball.

It is simple behaviour for us humans, but very complicated for the robot.”

Robot skin might have a long way to go before it can match its ultra-complex human counterpart. But already electronic elements are providing machines with a halfway decent substitute for the human sense of touch.

And in the end, that should make it safer and easier for robots to take their place in an ever-changing human world.

For more information : Futuris, the European research programme - on Euronews.

With the help of the Eurostars programme, the first European funding and support programme specifically dedicated to R&D SMEs, an Israeli SME called Correlation Systems, in cooperation with Czech and Hungarian partners has developed a unique data mining engine that is able to understand the way geospatial entities, such as vehicles or individuals, move depending on several factors. “The amount of information to process in this area is growing exponentially, our company’s objective is to find the information that will provide added value to our clients, we find hidden information in the figures” says Erel Rosenberg, R&D director at Correlation Systems.


A Positive impact

“Finding patterns based on GPS data is a relatively easy task due to the truthfulness and homogeneity of the collected data” says Mr. Rosenberg. “Although some measurements may be imprecise, most GPS information is very accurate. This is not the case when handling geospatial data from other sensor types as we did during this project”. The Eurostars INSIDER project focussed on the development of a geospatial data mining engine that can handle different types of complex geographic information. “During the project we tested our engine on a geospatial database. The results were complex polygons with different accuracies and certainties and our engine was able to find routines and abnormalities using this data”.

The same appliance was used by Correlation Systems to maximize the efficiency of a taxi company in the Israeli city of Ashdod. Armed with two weeks of location data extracted from a taxi company's fleet management system, Correlation Systems analysed the movements of 150 taxis in an area of 60 km³. With those findings, taxi companies in Ashdod were able to considerably improve the efficiency of their services and, consequently, their profits. “Taxi drivers know their market very well, yet much of the information we received from Correlation Systems was quite surprising. We immediately began implementing it to improve our fleet deployment” says Mr. Shmulik, the manager of Hakenion Taxis, one of the taxi companies taking part in the experiment.


The Added value of Eurostars

Public funding is important for the company, helping it to better cope with the risk it is taking in developing new technologies. “The main reason for us to apply for public funding was the possibility to cooperate with other partners. For us participating in international programmes is a way to access new markets through them” says Rosenberg. “We also found out that there are better opportunities in Eastern Europe than in other parts of the continent. This is simply because clients there are more open to new ideas and innovative technologies”.

Correlation Systems' geospatial data mining engine is already marketed under licence agreements by several large international companies, but the company is continuously looking for new opportunities and new markets for its application.

More information here.

A 700-year-old letter believed to have once been in the possession of William Wallace has returned to Scotland.

The letter has been held in England since being discovered in the Tower of London in the 1830s. It is now on long-term loan to the National Records of Scotland after an agreement was reached with The National Archives in Kew.

Unveiling the fragile document in Edinburgh, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop confirmed it will go on display to the public this summer at the Scottish Parliament, alongside the famous Lübeck letter was sent in the name of William Wallace and Andrew De Moray shortly after the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 and informed European trading partners that Scottish ports were once again open for business.

Ms Hyslop said:

"I am delighted to welcome the Wallace letter back to Scotland. It is one of the few surviving artefacts with a direct link to William Wallace and a fascinating fragment of our nation's history. To have it here in Scotland, where it can be viewed by the Scottish public, is very significant indeed.

View an image of the Wallace letter

"This summer, the Wallace letter and the Lübeck letter will be displayed side by side in a once in a lifetime opportunity to view together the only two surviving documents directly connected to William Wallace. I am very much looking forward to the Scottish Parliament hosting this exhibition during the Year of Creative Scotland 2012."

George MacKenzie, head of National Records of Scotland added:

"This document is an enigma. It's a letter from the French king to his officials at the Vatican mentioning Wallace, but we don't know what his business was with the Pope. What we do know is that the document still fascinates, 700 years after it was written."

Oliver Morley, Keeper and Chief Executive of The National Archives in London, said:

"We are extremely pleased to have worked so closely with National Records of Scotland to enable another loan of this intriguing document to Scotland. In tandem with the Lübeck letter it gives the public a further opportunity to view both of these important documents relating to William Wallace together."

Duncan Fenton from the Society of William Wallace said:

"We have been campaigning for years for this letter to be returned to Scotland and this is a fantastic result - not just for us, but for the Scottish people who will be able to see this document with their own eyes and feel a connection to William Wallace. We do not have a lot of tangible links with Wallace as most of the documentation has been destroyed, so to have something that Wallace actually touched is a massive boost for Scotland."

Announcing the free exhibition, which will run from August 10 to 31, 2012 in the Main Hall of the Scottish Parliament, Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick MSP said:

"This unique exhibition will, alongside lectures and debates planned as part of our annual Festival of Politics, help visitors explore the documents' impact on Scottish history."

View an image of the Wallace letter

Many factors influence the spread of malaria, including climate, geography and human interventions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that the impact of climate change and climate variability on the spread of malaria will be mixed, i.e. the distribution of the disease is likely to contract in some areas, but will spread in other areas, such as highland locations, as found in East Africa
 

To read the full article click here.

FINANCE Secretary John Swinney is this week expected to breathe fresh life into an empty drug research plant at Newhouse, in Lanarkshire, by setting up an “incubator” centre for new biotech firms.

American drugs giant Merck closed its site next to the M8 in 2010 with the loss of 250 jobs following its £30 billion takeover of Schering-Plough.

A joint venture between Roslin Biocentre in Midlothian and BioCity Nottingham is understood to be planning to use the site as a base for start-up life science companies.

While Edinburgh has several “bio-incubators” – including at Roslin and the new Edinburgh BioQuarter development at Little France – such space is in short supply in Glasgow. Many small firms currently start life at the West of Scotland Science Park, a joint venture involving Scottish Enterprise and Glasgow and Strathclyde universities.

Space at the popular development at Roslin is in high-demand, while Nottingham has built a reputation as one of the top cities in the UK for life science companies. BioCity Nottingham itself is one of Europe’s largest bio- incubators, with 70 companies employing 600 staff.

The Newhouse factory dates back to 1948 and is best known for developing some of the UK’s first contraceptive pills during the 1960s under Dutch firm Organon.

Work carried out there under Schering-Plough and Merck included research into Alzheimer’s disease, mental illnesses, Parkinson’s disease and pain relief. Merck closed 16 sites in 2010, axing about 16,000 jobs.

You can find more information here.

The research demonstrated that close collaboration between land use planners and water planners, and between officials working at a local and a regional level, is vitally important if the WFD is to be successfully managed. However, it also highlighted that the various groups involved in planning do not always agree on the impact of the WFD in their region.

To date, few researchers have looked at the effects of the WFD on the planners and institutions that will be implementing the directive locally. To address this, a team of Swedish researchers chose to study the Oxunda Catchment in Sweden. Traditionally, Sweden has allowed strong local management of water issues. The introduction of the WFD changed that, however, as it shifted some responsibility for water planning from local agencies to a newly-formed regional body, the River Basin District Authority.
 

To read the full article click here.

Two European funding programmes opening in the first months of 2012 will support the implementation of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.

FP7 Health

Firstly, the call under the FP7 Health Programme is now open, with a closing date of 9 March 2012.

The call will cover three different types of action: (a) seed money for pilot projects on change of care delivery including chronic disease management; (b) support for a partnership approach towards change in care delivery; and (c) supporting older people's health.

ICT PSP

Another call, under the ICT Policy Support Programme as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme (CIP), will open shortly (1 February), with as closing date (tbc) of 15 May 2012.

The draft work programme is already available online (http://ec.europa.eu/ict_psp).

Within the work programme Theme 3 will cover topics related to most of the priority actions identified as part of the Strategic Implementation Plan of the EIP. A specific information day on Theme 3 will be organised in Brussels on 17 February. A general information will be organised on 3 February, also in Brussels.

More informaqtion is available here.

POPs are a group of chemical substances, which include some pesticides and industrial chemicals, known to pose human health and ecological risks. Their use is heavily restricted under the Stockholm Convention1 and the UN’s LRTAP Convention2. The EU ratified both treaties in 2004 and, under the Stockholm Convention, Member States must identify and conduct inventories of POP sources.

This study investigated concentrations of some POPs in European soils. Soil plays an important role in the fate and distribution of POPs and can act as a sink or a source. POPs can be transported around the world in the atmosphere, and deposited in soil at significant distances from their original source and, in turn, soil can re-emit POPs to the atmosphere and be moved on again. However, there remain uncertainties surrounding POP distribution, degradation and circulation between air and soil.
 

To read the full report click here.

Source: Herald Scotland

The largest businesses in Scotland saw their total profits soar almost 39% to £13.34 billion, according to new research.

The number of visitors to Scotland rose by 8% in the first nine months of last year as staycations grew in popularity, according to new figures.

The Great Britain Tourism Survey, compiled by national tourist boards, suggested a strong domestic market.

However, a separate Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey showed a 4% fall in the number of international visitors in the first three quarters.

This was despite an 18% rise in tourist numbers from North America.

Just over 12 million people visited Scotland between January and September.

Spending by visitors from Britain rose by 21% year-on-year to about £2.3bn, while expenditure by overseas tourists fell by 6% to just over £1.1bn.

Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing described the overall figures as "encouraging".

Mr Ewing said: "The staycation market is continuing to boost visitor numbers and average spend also rising. We will continue to invest in this market and the recently launched Year of Creative Scotland will help generate even more opportunities to do so.

"An 18% increase in visitors from North America is extremely welcome and evidence that this market is continuing to pick up after a tough time.

"This is offset by an overall fall of 4% in the number of international visitors to Scotland but we have to remember that tough times in the eurozone will have an impact."

'Opportunities' ahead

Mr Ewing added the Scottish government would work with tourism body VisitScotland to ensure the industry was "in the best possible shape" to make the most of opportunities in the next three years, including the Ryder Cup and the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Scottish Labour tourism spokeswoman Rhoda Grant said: "These figures show a welcome increase in staycations, but a disappointing drop in overseas visitors - we need both to increase if Scottish tourism is to thrive.

"Big events, like the Glasgow 2014 Games, offer a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase Scotland to the world. The SNP government must redouble its efforts to capitalise on events like this."

She added: "While there is a small increase in hotel stays, in areas where there is a high concentration of small businesses - such as B&B and self-catering accommodation - we are seeing a worrying drop in tourism.

"I urge VisitScotland to focus on doing all it can to support small businesses like these."

Environment Commissioner Janez Potoènik said: "We need to see waste as a resource – and to bury that resource in the ground is worse than short-sighted. This report shows that waste management and recycling can make a big contribution to economic growth and job creation. If the existing legislation was implemented properly, we could avoid costly clean-up operations, pollution and health problems. And let's not forget that recycled materials are cheaper than virgin ones – and that they reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on imports."

The study gives an in-depth analysis of the effects of better implementation and enforcement and shows that benefits would be significant. It analysed a number of case studies in Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands to demonstrate economic, financial and social benefits to Member States.

The EU's waste management and recycling sector is very dynamic, but still offers economic opportunities with vast potential for expansion. In 2008, its €145 billion turnover represented around 1% of the EU's GDP and 2 million jobs. Compliance with EU policy would help create a sector with 2.4 million jobs and a total annual turnover of €187 billion.

The underlying problem is that too many prices do not reflect the true cost of disposal of goods – if they did, this would help prevent waste in the first place. In addition, many Member States still lack adequate infrastructure for separate collection, recycling and recovery. An absence of systematic control and enforcement mechanisms is another hindrance, coupled with a lack of reliable data on waste management.

Four key conclusions

• The study concludes that we need to know more about waste. Better data and systematic monitoring of how the laws work in practice must be made available. There is progress here, with a specific Data Centre on Waste recently set up by Eurostat.

• Better use of the polluter pays principle, and wider use of economic instruments like raising the costs of disposal, could help ensure compliance and provide the necessary financial resources for waste management.

• Inspection and monitoring capabilities need to be strengthened in Member States. This could mean establishing an auditing capacity at EU level and, possibly, common inspection standards.

• One relatively cost-effective option to strengthen implementation monitoring at EU level could be to draw on the expertise and capabilities of the European Environment Agency (EEA). This option would carry lower administrative costs than creating a new agency dedicated to waste.

Full Story at Europa

Algirdas Šemeta, Commissioner for Taxation, Customs, Anti-fraud and Audit said: "The complexity of the current EU VAT system is an obstacle to doing business in the Single Market. The One Stop Shop will greatly facilitate cross border expansion of European start ups. This in turn will help to generate growth and jobs".

The recently adopted Communication on the future of VAT has stressed that a fully developed One Stop Shop (OSS) – a measure proposed in the Commission’s plan to reduce the administrative burdens − is a high priority.

The proposal today relates to aspects such as the scope of the scheme, reporting obligations, VAT returns, currency, payments, records and so on for which common rules are necessary. The implementation on 1st January 2015 of a mini One Stop Shop for the EU providers of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services to consumers will be a big step forward in simplifying VAT compliance rules in the EU. The One Stop Shop will allow businesses to declare and pay the VAT in the Member State where they are established rather than where their customer belongs. The One Stop Shop system that is currently limited to non-EU providers of electronic services is being extended to EU businesses and to broadcasting and telecom services. In the future the intention is to extend the One Stop Shop to even more activities, including supplies of goods. The proposal adopted today by the Commission is a first step in an extensive work programme which will lead to the timely and successful implementation of the new scheme. The Commission calls on all Member States to agree to these measures in 2012. A common approach is key to design the IT systems which will provide the necessary exchange of information between tax authorities in 27 Member States and to ensure its full implementation by 2015.

Full Story at Europa

Source: EurActiv.com

Germany could cover Lake Constance with the clear film applied each year to seal in freshness on food packaging. But what is good for flavour is not necessarily good for the environment.

The European Commission has moved to further integrate the 27-nation market for card, internet and mobile payments and stave off a lack of competition in that business.

Published jointly by Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier and Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia, the consultation paper - or so-called Green Paper - also aims to boost transparency, innovation and security in the single market.

Of the €59-billion worth of total retail payments made in the eurozone during 2009, there was very little integration across member states and platforms of payment, the Commission claims.

No viable business model yet agreed

The EU executive wants to rationalise the market and increase the playing field for new entrants.

The amount of online shopping in Europe accounted for €141 million in 2009 and is expected to rise to €190 million by 2014, the Green Paper says.

The move is being launched in parallel with today’s publication of a communication on e-commerce, geared to double the volume of online trade by 2015.

"The key market actors – mobile network operators, payment service providers, mobile phone manufacturers – have not yet agreed on a viable business model enabling interoperable payment solutions," the paper says.

It cites a "stalemate between mobile network operators (MNOs), traditional payment service providers (banks) and 'e-players', such as Google, Apple or RIM [Blackberry]," with MNOs "seeking to retain control of the business, at least in their role of security manager for the service."

Move complements single-payment area, e-commerce initiative

The paper warns there is a serious risk of “fragmentation through proprietary solutions”.

The Commission has been following with interest the battle between Google and Visa, which have both stepped up their offers of "digital wallet" services. The struggle to control the emerging mobile payments market took a new turn in May 2011 when Google launched its eWallet application for smartphones, in partnership with MasterCard.

Another issue flagged in the EU consultation document is the security of online and mobile payment systems.

Sensitive customer information should stay within a secure payment infrastructure, both in terms of processing and storing data, according to the EU executive.

Stakeholders have until 11 April to reply to the consultation document. The paper is also designed to complement the roadmap for rolling out the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) which will replace 32 separate payment regimes with a single one, enabling faster and cheaper cross-border payments throughout the EU.

The European Commission has published a call for proposals under the Erasmus Mundus 2009-2013 action programme. The submission deadline for Action 1A — Erasmus Mundus Master Courses (EMMCs) and Action 1B — Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorates (EMJDs) is 30 April 2012 at 12 noon, Central European Time.

The Erasmus Mundus programme's overall aim is to promote European higher education, to help improve and enhance the career prospects of students and to promote intercultural understanding through cooperation with third countries, in accordance with EU external policy objectives in order to contribute to the sustainable development of third countries in the field of higher education.

This call for proposals consists of three distinct areas:
- Erasmus Mundus joint programmes, which seeks to foster cooperation between higher education institutions and academic staff in Europe and third countries with a view to creating poles of excellence and providing highly trained human resources. It is composed of two sub-actions: Erasmus Mundus Master Courses (EMMCs), and Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorates (EMJDs).
- Erasmus Mundus partnerships, which aim to foster structured cooperation between European and third-country higher education institutions through the promotion of mobility at all levels of studies for students (undergraduate and masters), doctoral candidates, researchers, academic and administrative staff. This part of the call is divided into two strands which are covered by different European initiatives, such as the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, the European Development Fund, the Industrialised Countries Instrument, and others. (The funding and the subsequent award of project grants for these lots are subject to the adoption of the respective decisions by the European Commission. Additionally, not all regions and lots may include all types of mobility flow.)
- Promotion of European higher education, which seeks to promote European higher education through measures enhancing its attractiveness, profile, image, visibility and accessibility. This part of the call provides support to trans-national initiatives, studies, projects, events and other activities related to the international dimension of all aspects of higher education. Activities may take various forms (conferences, seminars, workshops, studies, analyses, pilot projects, prizes, international networks, production of material for publication, development of information, communication and technology tools) and may take place anywhere in the world.

To see the official call announcement, please consult:
OJ No C 381 of 30 December 2011

New figures show MRSA and MSSA infections are at their lowest level, with further reductions between the second and third quarter of 2011.

New figures show MRSA and MSSA infections are at their lowest level, with further reductions between the second and third quarter of 2011.

The figures from Health Protection Scotland show MRSA cases decreased from 52 to 48 (7.7 per cent), and compared with the same period last year (Q3) cases were down from 73 to 48 (34.3 per cent). This is a reduction of over 80.7 per cent compared with the first quarter (January - March) in 2007 (when 249 cases were reported).

The number of MSSA cases decreased from 345 to 335 (2.9 per cent) from the second to third quarter of 2011.

Clostridium difficile infections in patients aged 65 and over increased slightly from 378 cases in the second quarter to 387 cases in the third quarter of 2011 (2.4 per cent), although this is not considered by Health Protection Scotland to be statistically significant and represents a decrease from 575 cases (32.7 per cent) from the same period last year. This is the third lowest number of cases since surveillance began in 2006. When compared with the first quarter (January - March) in 2007 there is a decrease of 78.2 per cent - down from 1775 cases to 387 cases.

Clostridium difficile infections in patients aged 15 to 64 increased slightly from 160 to 164 between the second and third quarter of 2011 (2.5 per cent) - again, not considered by HPS to be statistically significant - and decreased from 204 cases in the same period last year (19.6 per cent).

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said:

"There have been further reductions in cases of MRSA and MSSA in Scotland - achieving the lowest ever level since records began in 2005.

"We are absolutely determined to tackle healthcare associated infections and have already invested more than £50 million over the past three years.

"But we need to maintain the pace of improvement to keep bringing the number of infections down.

"While there has been a small increase in Clostridium difficile cases, it is not statistically significant and the level is the third lowest since surveillance began in 2006. Significant reductions have been achieved in the last four years, with a 78.2 per cent decrease in cases compared to the first quarter in 2007."

MRSA (meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a common skin bacterium that is resistant to a range of antibiotics. MSSA (meticillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus) infections can be more easily treated by antibiotics.

Healthcare Protection Scotland statistics

From pre-packed Camembert to shrink-wrapped meat loaf – choosing the right packaging is a key issue in the food industry. Companies need to protect food products from oxygen, moisture and chemical and biological contamination while keeping them fresh for as long as possible. Transparent multilayer films, in which each layer offers specific benefits, are frequently used to protect food from contamination. To minimize the amount of oxygen that penetrates the packaging, companies typically use expensive, petrochemical-based polymers such as ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) copolymers as barrier materials. The German Society for Packaging Market Research (Gesellschaft für Verpackungsmarktforschung mbH) estimates that more than 640 square kilometers of composite materials employing EVOH as an oxygen barrier layer will be produced and used in Germany in 2014 – enough to completely cover Lake Constance. There is therefore a strong impetus to develop a sustainable packaging material which is both economical to produce and environmentally friendly. Researchers working on the EU’s “Wheylayer” project have been using whey protein instead of petrochemical-based polymers. The natural ingredients in the whey extend the shelf life of food products, and the whey protein layer is biodegradable. The results of the research are promising. “We’ve managed to develop a whey protein formulation that can be used as the raw material for a film barrier layer. And we have also developed an economically viable process which can be used to produce the multifunctional films on an industrial scale,” says Markus Schmid from the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV in Freising.

But how is it even possible to make a barrier layer from whey? The researchers from the IVV began by purifying sweet whey and sour whey and producing high purity whey protein isolates. They tested a range of different modification methods in order to obtain suitable proteins with outstanding film-forming properties. To enable these proteins to withstand the mechanical loads involved, they were subsequently mixed with differing concentrations of various softeners and other additives, which were also biobased. “All these additives are approved substances,” says Schmid. The search for the perfect formula was a tricky process for the Freising-based researchers. For example, use too many softeners and the barrier effect against water vapor and oxygen decreases, which means that the food is no longer adequately protected. In the end, the researchers not only found the optimum formula, but also came up with a suitable, economically viable and industrial-scale method of applying whey protein coatings to plastic films and combining these with other films using different technologies. The overall process produces multilayer structures with barrier functions which can be used to produce flexible, transparent food packaging materials. “Our work at the IVV to manufacture a multilayer film of this kind using a roll-to-roll method is a world’s first,” Schmid notes. Companies that choose to make the switch to whey proteins in the future will only need to make minor modifications to their plants. The researchers have already applied for a patent on their new technology.

The IVV researchers are so convinced of whey proteins’ future potential as an alternative packaging material that they have initiated their own project which goes one step further. According to a survey carried out by the German Society for Packaging Market Research, there is not only an increasing demand for composite films, but also an increasing need for thermoformable composites. Growing demand for prepared products in trays is expected to increase the volume of these composites from 76,497 tons in 2009 to 93,158 tons in 2014. The researchers are working hard to replace EVOH in thermoform composites with a barrier layer based on whey protein. This additional application for whey protein would likewise conserve resources and reduce the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Examples include the Empire State building, built as the Great Depression was under way, and the current world's tallest, the Burj Khalifa, built just before Dubai almost went bust.

China is currently the biggest builder of skyscrapers, the bank said.

India also has 14 skyscrapers under construction.

"Often the world's tallest buildings are simply the edifice of a broader skyscraper building boom, reflecting a widespread misallocation of capital and an impending economic correction," Barclays Capital analysts said.

The bank noted that the world's first skyscraper, the Equitable Life building in New York, was completed in 1873 and coincided with a five-year recession. It was demolished in 1912.

Other examples include Chicago's Willis Tower (which was formerly known as the Sears Tower) in 1974, just as there was an oil shock and the US dollar's peg to gold was abandoned.

And Malaysia's Petronas Towers in 1997, which coincided with the Asian financial crisis.

The findings might be a concern for Londoners, who are currently seeing the construction of what will be Western Europe's tallest building, the Shard.

That will be 1,017ft (310m) tall on completion.

China bubble?

The 27-storey home of one Indian family in Mumbai

Investors should be most concerned about China, which is currently building 53% of all the tall buildings in the world, the bank said.

A lending boom following the global financial crisis in 2008 pushed prices higher in the world's second largest economy.

In a separate report, JPMorgan Chase said that the Chinese property market could drop by as much as 20% in value in the country's major cities within the next 12 to 18 months.

In India, billionaire Mukesh Ambani built his own skyscraper in Mumbai - a 27-storey residence believed to be the world's most expensive home.

Local newspapers said the house required 600 members of staff to maintain it. Reports suggest the residence is worth more than $1bn (£630m).

"Today India has only two of the world's 276 skyscrapers over 240m in height, yet over the next five years it intends to complete 14 new skyscrapers," according to Barclays Capital.

Barclays Capital's Skyscraper Index has been published every year since 1999.

Electronic payments are essential for every consumer, either when buying something at the points-of-sale or while shopping on the internet. Throughout the EU, more than 700 million payment cards are in use, e-commerce is offering tremendous opportunities and the number of smart phones is increasing at a dramatic rate. The Green Paper analyses the obstacles which hinder European market integration in these promising payment technologies.

Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said: "Europe has an opportunity to be at the cutting edge of what ‘making a payment’ could mean in the future. However, we will not be able to reach this goal with the current level of market fragmentation. Secure, efficient, competitive and innovative electronic payments are crucial for consumers, retailers and companies to fully enjoy the benefits of the Single Market as well as to drive the growth of e-commerce. The consultation we are launching today is fully in line with the Commission's mandate focusing on growth and job creation and building on the achievements already made in the field of retail payments".

Vice President Joaquín Almunia added: "Inefficient payments systems within the European Union unduly raise transaction costs; undermine the global competitiveness of the European economy and limit its potential for growth. Europe's consumers, merchants and companies deserve payment services in tune with the 21st century: transparent, with genuine value-added and making the best use of our technologies."

Read the full story at Europa

Finance Secretary John Swinney yesterday met some of the young people benefitting from Forestry Commission employment programmes in Scotland.

Mr Swinney spent the morning with trainees who are gaining employability skills and experience by helping to improve one of Scotland's main cycle routes near Uddingston in South Lanarkshire. Sustrans National Route 75 of the National Cycle Network path is also part of the Clyde Walkway. The young people are strimming, tree thinning and pruning to help make the access route a more open and attractive place to use.

When the training is completed the participants will have qualifications in Health and Safety, tool operation and other industry related practices that may help them into employment.

Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney said:

"The Forestry Commission in Scotland is playing its part in helping tackle the problem of youth unemployment and it has been very useful to hear about the experiences of young people using their training programmes.

"This particular scheme also makes a valuable contribution to the local area, in both social and environmental terms.

"The Scottish Government knows that more needs to be done to improve prospects for our young people. We have allocated £30 million of new resources to boost youth employment and have appointed a Minister to deal solely with this issue.

"We have also introduced initiatives such as the record 25,000 Modern Apprenticeships per year, and 'Opportunities for All' to guarantee a training or learning place for all 16-19 year-olds - and we can build on these to ensure that no young person is left behind."

Forestry Commission Scotland Director Bob McIntosh said:

"As Scotland's largest land manager we are in a unique position to help young people to gain employment skills by working in and around the national forest estate. This year, through a variety of training programmes within the Central Scotland Green Network we are helping over 200 young people in this way and we aim to continue with further programmes during 2012."

Countless mice, rats and rabbits die every year in the name of science – and the situation is getting worse. While German laboratories used some 2.41 million animals for scientific research in 2005, by 2009 this number had grown to 2.79 million. One third were destined for fundamental biology research, and the majority were used for researching diseases and developing medical compounds and devices.

People demand medicines that are safe and therapies that are tolerable, but hardly anyone is happy to accept the need for animal testing. This is why scientists have spent years looking for methods that can replace them. Now researchers at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies EMFT in Munich have found an alternative: they hope to use novel nanosensors to reduce the number of experiments that are carried out on animals. “We’re basically using a test tube to study the effects of chemicals and their potential risks. What we do is take living cells, which were isolated from human and animal tissue and grown in cell cultures, and expose them to the substance under investigation,” explains Dr. Jennifer Schmidt of the EMFT. If a given concentration of the substance is poisonous to the cell, it will die. This change in “well-being” can be rendered visible by the sensor nanoparticles developed by Dr. Schmidt and her team.

Cells – the tiniest living things – that are healthy store energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). High levels of ATP are indicative of high levels of metabolic activity in cells. If a cell is severely damaged, it becomes less active, storing less energy and consequently producing less ATP. “Our nanosensors allow us to detect adenosine triphosphate and determine the state of health of cells. This makes it possible to assess the cell-damaging effects of medical compounds or chemicals,” says Schmidt.

In order for the nanoparticles to register the ATP, researchers give them two fluorescent dyes: a green indicator dye that is sensitive to ATP, and a red reference dye that does not change color. Next, the scientists introduce the particles to living cells and observe them under a fluorescence microscope. The degree to which the particles light up depends on the quantity of ATP present. The more yellow is visible in the overlay image, the more active are the cells. If their health were impaired, the overlay image would appear much redder. “We could in future use cancer cells to test the effectiveness of newly developed chemotherapy agents. If the nanosensors detect a low concentration of ATP in the cells, we’ll know that the new treatment is either inhibiting tumor cell growth or even killing them,” says Schmidt. “The most promising agents could then be studied further.”

The EMFT researchers’ nanoparticles are extremely well suited to the task at hand: they are not poisonous to cells, they can easily pass through cell membranes, and they can even be directed to particular points where the effect of the test substance is of most interest. But before this procedure can be applied, it must first be approved by the regulatory authorities – so the EMFT experts have a long journey ahead of them to gain approvals from various official bodies. This prospect has not, however, stopped the researchers from refining the technology and coming up with new applications for it – for instance to test the quality of packaged meat and its fitness for consumption. To this end they have developed nanosensors that can determine concentrations of oxygen and toxic amines.

The appointment of Prof. Anne Glover as the first EU Chief Scientific Advisor was announed by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso at the opening of the 2011 Innovation Convention in Brussels on 5 December. Prof. Glover will begin the new three-year position in January 2012 as independent adviser on scientific policy and will report directly to President Barroso.

With her appointment, Glover now becomes an ambassador for Europe’s high-profile focus on research and innovation to deliver both economic growth and solutions to broad social challenges. Mr Barroso said she will “act as a bridge with the scientific community” to ensure innovation contributes to growth, and help Europe communicate the scientific basis of the commission’s proposals. “We must communicate better; a good public understanding is key to guaranteeing social acceptance of innovation.”

A key challenge for Prof. Glover will be advising Europe on how to best to harness innovation and research to effectively tackle its newly defined “societal challenges,” including food security, energy security, healthy ageing and climate change mitigation.  There will also be tricky policy areas to tackle including the indirect environmental impact of biofuels, the safety of Europe’s nuclear reactors, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and EU funding for embryonic stem cell research. An important role of the Chief Scientific Advisor will be to provide authoritative guidance on the interpretation of scientific evidence in cases of uncertainty, and to be involved in strategic emergency planning.

Can pregnant women help boost their children's brainpower by eating fish? The findings of a study, presented in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, show how children born to women who consumed more fish during their pregnancies demonstrated improved outcomes in tests for verbal intelligence, fine motor skills and prosocial behaviour. The results are an outcome of the NUTRIMENTHE ('Effect on diet on the mental performance of children') project, which is backed under the 'Food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology' (KBBE) Theme of the EU' Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of EUR 5.9 million.

Oily fish is the leading source of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a key structural component of cells and particularly the cell membranes of the brain. The European Commission supports health claims that DHA 'contributes to the normal brain development of the foetus and breastfed infants and to the normal development of the eye of the foetus and breastfed infants'. (EFSA Journal 2011;9(4):2078)

In the NUTRIMENTHE study, the researchers investigated how fish mediate the effect and genetic variation on brainpower. The project partners focused primarily on polymorphisms in the fatty acid desaturase (FADS) gene cluster that codes for the enzymes delta-5 and delta-6 desaturase involved in the synthesis of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Using blood samples taken from more than 2 000 women at 20 weeks of pregnancy and from the umbilical cord at birth, researchers assessed omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and the genotyping of 18 FADS single nucleotide polymorphisms. The team supplied omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids to the developing child by placental transfer via the umbilical cord. How maternal and child FADS genotypes impact the levels of these fatty acids had not been investigated until now.

Dr Eva Lattka from Helmholtz Zentrum München, the German Research Centre for Environmental Health and her team discovered how polymorphisms in the FADS gene cluster affect fatty acids in women during pregnancy. According to the researchers, the composition of fatty acids in cord blood needs maternal and child genotypes, such that maternal genotypes are primarily associated with omega-6 precursors, and that child genotypes are mainly linked to omega-6 products. They also found that the DHA amounts were equally associated with maternal and child genotypes.

'There is more contribution to omega-6 fatty acid synthesis by the foetus than previously expected; DHA levels are dependent on both maternal and child metabolism,' Dr Lattka says. 'DHA supplied by the mother might be very important.'

In a previous study, researchers had found that consumption of fish during pregnancy is associated with verbal intelligence quotient (IQ) at age 8, but what does fish have that mediates the effect? While the study identified how eating fish is associated with maternal levels of DHA, no data has emerged on whether maternal DHA levels are directly related to outcomes in children. The NUTRIMENTHE project, which is expected to end in 2013, will work at resolving this issue.

The NUTRIMENTHE partners hosted a symposium called 'Nutrition and Cognitive Function' at the European Nutrition Conference in Madrid in late October. Researchers from Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States are part of the NUTRIMENTHE consortium. (EFSA Journal 2011;9(4):2078)

For more information, please visit:

NUTRIMENTHE: http://www.nutrimenthe.eu

Research in KBBE: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/kbbe/home_en.html

Climate change is taking a toll on creatures the world over, fish included. A new study from the United Kingdom shows how parasite worms that infect fish are playing havoc with fish reproduction, and how they are growing four times faster at higher temperatures. Presented in the journal Global Change Biology, the findings highlight how global warming has the capacity to unsettle the balance between parasite and host, and could jeopardise fish populations.

Researchers from the Department of Biology at the University of Leicester also found the infected fish behaved differently, probably a result of how the parasites are manipulating host behaviour, forcing them to move and seek out warmer temperatures. The study also reveals a slowing down of the host's growth rate, while the parasites grew faster in higher temperatures.

'What we witnessed was that fish infected with the largest worms showed a preference for warmer water, suggesting that these parasites also manipulate the behaviour of host fish in ways that benefit the parasites by maximising their growth rates,' explains Dr Iain Barber of the Department of Biology at the University of Leicester, who carried out the study alongside doctoral student Vicki Macnab.

Commenting on the results of the study, Ms Macnab says: 'The research shows a dramatic effect of increased environmental temperatures on the growth rates of parasites in fish hosts. The size these parasites attain in their fish hosts determines how severely fish reproduction is affected, so our results suggest that parasites will have a more serious effect on fish reproduction if temperatures rise.

'In addition, our paper documents behavioural changes in infected fish that suggest the parasites are manipulating host behaviour to make them seek out warmer temperatures, creating a positive feedback mechanism to exacerbate the effects of global warming. This research shows that global warming could shift the balance between parasites and their hosts, with potentially serious implications for fish populations.'

According to the duo, the parasitic worms infecting stickleback fish grew four times faster in sticklebacks that were infected in the lab and raised at 20°C compared with a 15°C temperature. It took longer for the fish to grow at the higher temperature. The researchers believe fish parasites are able to deal with the higher temperatures better than can the fish they infect.

'The results are important because the size these parasites attain in their fish hosts also determines their infectivity to fish-eating birds like kingfishers and herons - the next hosts in the parasite's life cycle - and also the number of parasite eggs that they will go on to produce,' says Dr Barber. 'Bigger larval parasites in the fish go on to become larger adult worms in birds, which produce more eggs. After the 8 weeks of the study, all of the worms infecting the fish held at 20°C were ready to infect fish-eating birds, whereas none of those held at the lower temperature had reached a size at which they were ready to be transmitted.'

In a follow-up study, the authors also observed that fish infected with the biggest worms preferred to be in warmer water. This finding adds weight to the theory that these parasites also influence the behaviour of host fish in ways that prove advantageous for parasites, and give their growth rates the biggest boost they can get.

This study offers us an initial glimpse into how rising environmental temperatures can trigger a shift in the delicate balance that exists between hosts and parasites.

For more information, please visit:

University of Leicester: http://www2.le.ac.uk/

Global Change Biology: http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=1354-1013

An international team of scientists has discovered that the Antarctic ice sheet was potentially formed by a decrease in the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). Presented in the journal Science, the study's findings highlight how this greenhouse gas was involved in the one of our planet's most significant climate events, and how it is contributing to the current and future climate scenario.

Scientists from Australia, China, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States evaluated molecules from ancient algae found in deep-sea core samples. They identified a threshold for low CO2 levels below which an ice sheet forms in the South Pole. However, why CO2 must rise before the ice sheet melts is not yet known.

Approximately 40% of CO2 dropped before and during the quick formation of a mile-thick ice sheet over the Antarctic some 34 million years ago, according to Professor Matthew Huber from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University in the United States.

'The evidence falls in line with what we would expect if CO2 is the main dial that governs global climate; if we crank it up or down there are dramatic changes,' co-author Professor Huber says. 'We went from a warm world without ice to a cooler world with an ice sheet overnight, in geologic terms, because of fluctuations in CO2 levels.'

The team points out how our planet was warm and wet before the cooling period emerged, at the end of the Eocene epoch. Mammals, amphibians and reptiles shared both the North and South Poles, which had subtropical climates. Then, over a 100 000-year period, temperatures dropped significantly, killing off various species, shrinking sea levels, and covering Antarctica with ice.

Sea ice and polar ice sheets influence the modern climate, as well as the global circulation of warm and cold air masses, says Yale University researcher and lead author Mark Pagani. They also impact precipitation patterns and wind strengths, and regulate global and regional temperature variability.

'The onset of Antarctic ice is the mother of all climate "tipping points,"' he says. 'Recognising the primary role CO2 change played in altering global climate is a fundamentally important observation.'

Professor Huber points out how the findings of this study provide key insight behind the sudden cooling event.

According to the team, the atmospheric CO2 levels for cooling that kick-start ice sheet formation are at about 600 parts per million. It would have been too warm for the ice sheet to form before the levels fell this low. The current level of around 390 parts per million helps maintain an ice sheet, but CO2 levels and temperatures are rising.

The scientists predict that the levels will reach between 550 and 1 000 parts per million by 2100.

'The system is not linear and there may be a different threshold for melting the ice sheet, but if we continue on our current path of warming we will eventually reach that tipping point,' Professor Huber explains. 'Of course after we cross that threshold, it will still take many thousands of years to melt an ice sheet.'

Commenting on the use of models to estimate the climates of the future, Professor Huber says: 'The models got it just about right and provided results that matched the information obtained from the core samples. This was an important validation of the models. If they are able to produce results that match the past, then we can have more confidence in their ability to predict future scenarios.'

Professor Huber plans to research the impact of an ice sheet on climate. 'It seems that the polar ice sheet shaped our modern climate, but we don't have much hard data on the specifics of how. It is important to know by how much it cools the planet and how much warmer the planet would get without an ice sheet,' he explains.

For more information, please visit:

Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/

Purdue University: http://www.purdue.edu/

Greenland is becoming greener again, a new international study shows. The year 2010 was hot, triggering accelerated ice loss in southern Greenland by 100 billion tonnes. The study results also reveal how large portions of the island's bedrock rock rose another quarter of an inch during this period. Ice weighs down bedrock, but the rocky coast rises as the ice melts away.

Scientists from Denmark, Luxembourg and the United States measured the natural response of the island's bedrock to the shrinking weight of ice above it. They used a network of almost 50 global positioning systems (GPSs) located across the coast of Greenland to get the data they needed for the Greenland GPS Network (GNET) project.

Leading the project, Professor Michael Bevis from the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State University in the United States said the Greenland Ice Sheet melts year after year, something that in turn allows the island's bedrock to emerge even more. According to the scientists, a number of the Greenland-based GPS stations detect a rise of 15 mm or more in the rocky coast each year. However, last year's rise in temperature raised the bedrock as high as 20 mm at several sites.

Speaking to an audience at the recent American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Professor Bevis said: 'Pulses of extra melting and uplift imply that we'll experience pulses of extra sea level rise. The process is not really a steady process.'

Professor Bevis and colleagues took advantage of the natural flexure of the island's bedrock to measure the weight of the ice sheet. He went on to say that the anomalous uplift that GNET detected in 2010 was brought on by the phenomenon of anomalous ice loss during that year. An 'anomaly' represents the number of extra melting days.

'Really, there is no other explanation,' Professor Bevis said. 'The uplift anomaly correlates with maps of the 2010 melting day anomaly. In locations where there were many extra days of melting in 2010, the uplift anomaly is highest.'

The measurements helped the team determine that as the ice melted away, the rocky coast emerged even higher. The researchers said the amount of uplift varied between every station, due to the proximity of each GPS station to areas where ice loss was greatest.

The data showed that southern Greenland stations located very close to zones of heavy ice loss increased by as much as 20 mm over a 5-month period. Stations situated far away rose at least 5 mm during the course of the 2010 melting season. It should be noted that stations located in northern Greenland hardly moved at all.

GNET installed GPS stations in the bedrock from 2007 to 2009, specifically in the rocky coast around the ice sheet margins. According to the scientists, GNET and related GPS networks across the globe can give researchers the means to measure ice loss after the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites are retired in 2015.

Researchers from the Danish Technical University in Copenhagen, the Space Institute in Denmark, the University of Luxembourg and the University of Colorado contributed to this study.

For more information, please visit:

GNET: http://www.polenet.org/projects/GNET/index.php

Ohio State University: http://www.osu.edu/

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