EU Research Project Research Articles

PRM73 - Mapping The Involvement Of Eunethta Participants In Eu Research Projects

The 10-year anniversary of the first EUnetHTA project initiation offers a suitable occasion to evaluate the accumulated experience of participating entities through EU research projects. This research aims to describe the involvement of former EUnetHTA participants in research projects under Framework Programme 7 (FP7) and Horizon 2020 (H2020) funding programmes of the European Union. An algorithm was created in R to carry out the data collection and analysis. FP7 and H2020 projects involving former EUnetHTA partner institutes were identified from the CORDIS datasets. Data was collected on major project characteristics, such as title, initiation date, description, participating members, and funding. Descriptive analysis techniques, such as network layouts and word clouds were used to provide an overview of the collected data. A total number of 31 institutes were identified as former EUnetHTA participants also involved in 734 different FP7/H2020 projects. These projects mainly concerned health or information and communication technology as primary topics. In approximately 10% of the projects, former EUnetHTA participants were listed as project coordinator, and with a few exceptions, all of them were universities. Network layouts showed universities dominating participation in community-funded projects, while also securing projects with higher EC contribution. Quantitative analysis of high-level data on FP7/H2020 projects can efficiently describe several attributes of participating entities. EUnetHTA participants are actively contributing to a noticeable number of community-funded projects of the European Union. Their involvement offers an opportunity to pursue research activities and potentially become centres of excellence through synergies, while also having significant influence on policy formulation.

Ba virtual and inter-organizational evolution: a case study from a EU research project

Purpose Taking Nonaka’s SECI model as the main reference, this paper aims to offer reflections on the virtual evolution of ba, the places for knowledge creation. Indeed, looking at the current scenario, widening the knowledge spiral to the inter-organizational epistemological level is inevitable. To this aim, information technology tools and virtual communities can establish effective interactions to exchange knowledge, making ba evolve congruently. Design/methodology/approach The paper takes the exemplary case of a platform developed during a European research project called “BIVEE: Business Innovation in Virtual Enterprise Environments”. The investigative approach chosen is participatory action research (PAR), with two researchers conducting PAR in real time, and two others involved ex post. Findings The paper shows that the virtual evolution of ba can lead the SECI model towards an inter-organizational level. Moreover, through a learning history, it describes how all the phases of the SECI process, even the Socialization one, can take place or be supported in virtual spaces. Research limitations/implications Taking into account just one single exemplary case study provides a rich, contextualized understanding of phenomena, while allowing only some theoretical generalizations. Originality/value This paper contextualizes the SECI model within a Web platform for open innovation, to investigate whether the knowledge creation process can take place entirely within a virtual environment linking subjects from different organizations. In so doing, it applies the SECI model to the phases of the innovation process, called waves.

Search Techniques for the Web of Things: A Taxonomy and Survey.

The Web of Things aims to make physical world objects and their data accessible through standard Web technologies to enable intelligent applications and sophisticated data analytics. Due to the amount and heterogeneity of the data, it is challenging to perform data analysis directly; especially when the data is captured from a large number of distributed sources. However, the size and scope of the data can be reduced and narrowed down with search techniques, so that only the most relevant and useful data items are selected according to the application requirements. Search is fundamental to the Web of Things while challenging by nature in this context, e.g., mobility of the objects, opportunistic presence and sensing, continuous data streams with changing spatial and temporal properties, efficient indexing for historical and real time data. The research community has developed numerous techniques and methods to tackle these problems as reported by a large body of literature in the last few years. A comprehensive investigation of the current and past studies is necessary to gain a clear view of the research landscape and to identify promising future directions. This survey reviews the state-of-the-art search methods for the Web of Things, which are classified according to three different viewpoints: basic principles, data/knowledge representation, and contents being searched. Experiences and lessons learned from the existing work and some EU research projects related to Web of Things are discussed, and an outlook to the future research is presented.

An analysis model of tourism academic networks: a Swedish case study triangulated with an EU research project

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this research is to investigate and develop an analysis model of a tourism department network using an explorative approach. Strategic stakeholders have been identified for the tourism department and organised into partner groups. An analysis model has been developed based on four network types: formal organisation, informal organisation, formal individual and informal individual. For every type, the following six network content dimensions were found relevant to analyse: stakeholders, reciprocal relations, relation exchange, network driving forces, network management and network purpose. The investigations have shown some focused network strengths such as network permanency, with corresponding weaknesses such as rigid relations. Some typical implications of the strengths and weaknesses for the department have been identified, and some network techniques to handle the implications have been proposed. An annual network development process for a tourism department is suggested. The resulting network is summarised as the Professional Tourism Academic Network (PTAN).

The Adaptiveness of IWRM: Analysing European IWRM research

The Adaptiveness of IWRM provides new insights and knowledge on the challenges and solutions that current water management faces in a situation of complexity and uncertainty. Drawing on the available results from a wide range of European research projects under several framework programmes, the book provides an overview of the state of the art in European research on Integrated Water Resources Management on the topics of Participation, Transboundary regimes, Economics, Vulnerability, Climate change, Advanced monitoring, Spatial planning, and the Social dimensions of water management. The achievements of EU research projects are considered in view of the extent to which IWRM responds to the current complexity and uncertainty water management is facing. These achievements are positioned in a wider context of worldwide developments in the respective topics which account for the future challenges. From this, the book concludes with the required focus of European research in the near future and promotes the concept of Adaptive Water Management as the preferred direction for the development of IWRM. The book presents the achievements of European IWRM research on a range of water management topics and offers conclusions and recommendations for research foci that will be invaluable to water managers, policy-makers and academic researchers working in the field of IWRM.

Life Cycle Assessment of Improved High Pressure Alkaline Electrolysis

This paper investigates environmental impacts of high pressure alkaline water electrolysis systems. An advanced system with membranes on polymer basis is compared to a state-of-the-art system with asbestos membranes using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. For the advanced system, a new improved membrane technology has been investigated within the EU research project “ELYGRID”. Results indicate that most environmental impacts are caused by the electricity supply necessary for operation. During the construction phase cell stacks are the main contributor to environmental impacts. New improved membranes have relatively small contributions to impacts caused by cell construction within the advanced systems. As main outcome the systems comparison illustrates a better ecological performance of the new developed system.

Modelling mobile app requirements for semantic traceability

The paper presents a modelling method aimed to support the definition and elicitation of requirements for mobile apps through an approach that enables semantic traceability for the requirements representation. Business process-centricity is employed in order to capture requirements in a knowledge structure that retains procedural knowledge from stakeholders and can be traversed by semantic queries in order to trace domain-specific contextual information for the modelled requirements. Consequently, instead of having requirements represented as natural language items that are documented by diagrammatic models, the communication channels are switched: semantically interlinked conceptual models become the requirements representation, while free text can be used for requirements annotations/metadata. Thus, the method establishes a knowledge externalization channel between business stakeholders and app developers, also tackling the Twin Peaks bridging challenge (between requirements and early designs). The method is presented using its modelling procedure as a guiding thread, with each step illustrated by case-based samples of the modelling language and auxiliary functionality. The design work is encompassed by an existing metamodelling framework and introduces a taxonomy for modelling relations, since the metamodel is the key enabler for the goal of semantic traceability. The research was driven by the ComVantage EU research project, concerned with mobile app support for collaborative business process execution. Therefore, the project provides context for the illustrating examples; however, generalization possibilities beyond the project scope will also be discussed, with respect to both motivation and outcome.

EINTERASIA Project: IT Transfer Concept for Adaptation and Dissemination of Innovative European Research Results in Central Asian Countries

Abstract The paper presents an overview of the eINTERASIA international project aimed at supporting international cooperation with Central Asian countries by transfer, adaptation and dissemination of European research results in the area of Information Technology and Applied Software. Information Technology Transfer Concept (TTC) based on InnoSPICE approach and Capability Maturity Model has been developed. The concept of showroom as part of the implementation of TTC has been introduced in the selected Central Asian countries. Technological platforms for demonstrators of Virtual Reality-Based scenarios from Fraunhofer IFF were adapted and installed in the region of Central Asia. Several EU research projects are selected for adaptation and validation in Central Asian countries. Special attention is devoted to demonstrate transfer and adaptation processes in the area of web-based transport logistics.

Pressure-controlled injection of guar gum stabilized microscale zerovalent iron for groundwater remediation

The paper reports a pilot injection test of microsized zerovalent iron (mZVI) dispersed in a guar gum shear thinning solution. The test was performed in the framework of the EU research project AQUAREHAB in a site in Belgium contaminated by chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs). The field application was aimed to overcome those critical aspects which hinder mZVI field injection, mainly due to the colloidal instability of ZVI-based suspensions. The iron slurry properties (iron particles size and concentration, polymeric stabilizer type and concentration, slurry viscosity) were designed in the laboratory based on several tests (reactivity tests towards contaminants, sedimentation tests and rheological measurements). The particles were delivered into the aquifer through an injection well specifically designed for controlled-pressure delivery (approximately 10 bars). The well characteristics and the critical pressure of the aquifer (i.e. the injection pressure above which fracturing occurs) were assessed via two innovative injection step rate tests, one performed with water and the other one with guar gum. Based on laboratory and field preliminary tests, a flow regime at the threshold between permeation and preferential flow was selected for mZVI delivery, as a compromise between the desired homogeneous distribution of the mZVI around the injection point (ensured by permeation flow) and the fast and effective injection of the slurry (guaranteed by high discharge rates and injection pressure, resulting in the generation of preferential flow paths). A monitoring setup was designed and installed for the real-time monitoring of relevant parameters during injection, and for a fast determination of the spatial mZVI distribution after injection via non-invasive magnetic susceptibility measurements.

Alternatives to Tobacco cultivation—Towards an evidence based approach

The discussion about alternatives for tobacco cultivation is a very conflicting issue as it strikes into the heart of the tobacco industry which is the tobacco leaf. The aim of the paper is to contribute to this discussion and support the policy makers. To this end, the paper provides an evidence based approach for modeling the phasing-out of tobacco which describes the possible effects on farm income, labor demand and environmental impacts. In the context of the EU Research Project DIVTOB a model was developed to study the impacts of tobacco phasing-out on a specific region approach. The methodological approach can support the policy makers to overcome constraints related with the future implementation of alternative livelihoods to tobacco cultivation on the basis of evidence. In the broader context of tobacco control, the paper presents a method for an effective implementation of articles 17 and 18 of the WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC). The paper also shows a transparent approach to overcome in an effective way the uncertainties spread by the tobacco industry and their allies about phasing-out of tobacco especially in low-income and middle-income countries. The application of the proposed model to four case studies in Greece and Spain achieves, under different scenarios, important results useful for policy makers and policy implications.

Četná mužská impéria. Rozhovor Ivy Šmídové s Jeffem Hearnem

Jeff Hearn je hostujícím profesorem genderových studií na Fakultě humanitních a společenských věd švédské Örebro University, profesorem sociologie na anglické University of Huddersfield, profesorem na finské Hanken School of Economics a členem britské Academy of Social Sciences. Publikoval řadu prací, zejména v těchto oblastech: sociologie, sociální politika, genderová studia, muži a maskulinity, sexualita, násilí, organizace, řízení, informační a komunikační technologie a kulturní studia. Jeho současné výzkumné zájmy zahrnují mužská studia, genderové vztahy, studia organizací a organizování, dále nadnárodní formy patriarchátu a související procesy, násilí nebo autoetnografii. Je jedním ze dvou hlavních editorů knižní série Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality a koeditorem časopisu NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies. Mezi jeho nejvýznačnější knižní publikace patří Gender of Oppression (1987), 'Sex' at 'Work' (spoluautorka Wendy Parkin, 1987/1995), Men in the Public Eye (1992), Men as Managers, Managers as Men (spolueditor David Collinson, 1996), The Violences of Men (1998), Gender, Sexuality and Violence in Organizations (spoluautorka Wendy Parkin, 2001), Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities (spolueditoři Michael Kimmel a Raewyn Connell, 2005), European Perspectives on Men and Masculinities (spoluautoři Keith Pringle a CROME, 2006), Sex, Violence and the Body (spolueditorka Viv Burr, 2008), The Limits of Gendered Citizenship (spolueditorky Elżbieta Oleksy a Dorota Golańska, 2011), Rethinking Transnational Men (spolueditorky Marina Blagojević a Katherine Harrison, 2013) a nejnověji Men of the World: Genders, Globalizations, Transnational Times (2015). Intenzivně se podílí na výzkumných a veřejněpolitických projektech jak v rámci EU, tak v rámci spolupráce mezi globálním Severem a Jihem, např. na studii EU Role of Men in Gender Equality (2013), aktuálně na projektu Engaging South African and Finnish youth towards new traditions of non-violence, equality and social well-being a na evropském projektu portálu o genderu ve vědě, technologiích a inovacích GenPORT.Jeff Hearn is Guest Research Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, based in Gender Studies, Örebro University, Sweden; professor of Sociology at the University of Huddersfield, UK; professor at Hanken School of Economics, Finland; and UK Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He has published extensively on such areas as sociology, social policy, gender, men and masculinities, sexuality, violence, organisations, management, ICTs, and cultural studies. His current research focuses on men, gender relations, organisations and organising, and transnational patriarchies and processes, along with violence and autoethnography. He is co-managing editor of the Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality book series, and co-editor of NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies. His many books include The Gender of Oppression (1987), 'Sex' at 'Work' (with Wendy Parkin, 1987/1995), Men in the Public Eye (1992), Men as Managers, Managers as Men (co-edited with David Collinson, 1996), The Violences of Men (1998), Gender, Sexuality and Violence in Organizations (with Wendy Parkin, 2001), Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities (co-edited with Michael Kimmel and Raewyn Connell, 2005), European Perspectives on Men and Masculinities (with Keith Pringle and CROME, 2006), Sex, Violence and the Body (co-edited with Viv Burr, 2008), The Limits of Gendered Citizenship (co-edited with Elżbieta Oleksy and Dorota Golańska, 2011), Rethinking Transnational Men (co-edited with Marina Blagojević and Katherine Harrison, 2013), and most recently Men of the World: Genders, Globalizations, Transnational Times (2015). He has been heavily involved in EU and North-South research and policy projects, for example, the EU Study on the Role of Men in Gender Equality (2013), and currently the Engaging South African and Finnish youth towards new traditions of non-violence, equality and social well-being project, and the EU GenPORT project developing a portal on gender in science, technology and innovation.

Structural monitoring and 8-year load test on Europe's first fibre-reinforced polymer highway bridge

In October 2002 the first all-fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite bridge on the public highway network in Europe, West Mill Bridge, UK, was installed. The design and construction of this bridge was the culmination of a 4-year EU research project called Asset, to develop a heavy-duty FRP bridge decking system for use in repairing, upgrading and new civil infrastructure. As part of this project, a monitoring system was installed on the bridge during fabrication. In addition to an initial controlled load test on installation of the bridge, further controlled load tests using a 30 t lorry have been undertaken after 3 years and 8 years. The results from these load tests confirmed the medium-term structural behaviour to be essentially unchanged from the original structural behaviour. In particular, a high level of composite action between the glass fibre reinforced polymer deck, FRP main beams, and concrete parapet beams was still present after 8 years of service.

Research and innovation in sustainable forestry: lessons learnt to inform the policy making community

From an already rich experience of cooperation between scientists and policy makers in the framework of international research institutions such as the International union of forest research organizations (IUFRO), the Center for international forest research (CIFOR) and the European Forest Institute (EFI), as well as through the promotion and development of EU research projects and programs, some lessons can be drawn considering the possible role of scientists at the science-policy interface. Today, on the example of the global change - and especially the climatic changes that policy makers are demanding about-, most of the researches to be carried out have to answer social questions the solutions of which require the support of science. This is especially the case in the forestry field, which is characterized by the particularly long term of cycles and the great number of stakeholders interested in. Whilst decision making processes are complex systems, science is not the only source of knowledge useful for taking decisions, so that in a democratic context, research results have to be confronted to other lessons learnt (for instance from technical expertise, or from traditional knowledge) in order to get accountability in terms of instrumentation. In scientific terms, it should certainly lead to multi-disciplinary approaches of the multifunctionality of forest and related techniques to be implemented. But this does not mean that research activities have to be assessed only against their instrumentality. However, research and public decision-making are very contrasting spheres, where the principles and professional types of behavior are basically different. This situation calls for a need for a clear separation of the respective roles. In addition, all scientific developments should not be driven from practical needs of decision-makers, since theoretical questions may indirectly build up the future reality.

BNCI Horizon 2020: towards a roadmap for the BCI community

The brain-computer interface (BCI) field has grown dramatically over the past few years, but there are still no coordinated efforts to ensure efficient communication and collaboration among key stakeholders. The European Commission (EC) has recently renewed their efforts to establish such a coordination effort by funding a coordination and support action for the BCI community called ‘BNCI Horizon 2020’ after the ‘Future BNCI’ project. Major goals of this new project include developing a roadmap for the next decade and beyond, encouraging discussion and collaboration within the BCI community, fostering communication with the general public, and the foundation of an international BCI Society. We present a short overview of current and past EU-funded BCI projects and provide evidence of a growing research and industrial community. Efficient communication also entails the establishment of clear terminology, which is a major goal of BNCI Horizon 2020. To this end, we give a brief overview of current BCI-related terms and definitions. A major networking activity in the project was the BNCI Horizon 2020 Retreat in Hallstatt, Austria. Over 60 experts participated in this event to discuss the future of the BCI field in a series of plenary talks, targeted discussions, and parallel focus sessions. A follow-up event was the EU BCI Day at the 6th International Brain-Computer Interface Conference in Graz, Austria. This networking event included plenary talks by eight companies and representatives from all seven ongoing EU research projects, poster presentations, demos, and discussions. Another goal of BNCI Horizon 2020 is the foundation of an official BCI Society. In this article, we summarize the current status of this process. Finally, we present visions for future BCI applications developed within BNCI Horizon 2020 using input from external BCI experts as well. We identify common themes and conclude with six exemplary use cases.

OSL Platform: A Link to Open-access Scientific Information and Structured Data

: 07 Jan 2015 K E Y W O R D S: Open Science Open Access to Scientific Data Semantic Search Life Sciences Pilot Services Evaluation of Science A B S T R A C T The rapidly growing wealth of published scientific work, produced by re-searchers and scholars, has resulted in a pressing need for more effective processes towards reviewing scientific articles and research data, organizing data journals, as well as for improved tools and techniques for bibliographic analysis and management of scientometrics. The ongoing EU research project OpenScienceLink aims to address these needs, as well as offer a wide range of opportunities for better collaboration between researchers, by introducing a web-based Platform which offers efficient and intelligent applications and services for exploiting open access scientific information in the biomedical domain. The Platform is empowered by the semantic and social networking capabilities of three leading edge background infrastructures, which have been adapted and integrated for the scope of the project. In this paper, we present the five pilot services that are provided by the OpenScienceLink project. All five services are integrated into the web-based OpenScienceLink platform that is publicly accessible at http://www.opensciencelink.org.

Embedded Systems Security: A Survey of EU Research Efforts

AbstractEmbedded systems security is a recurring theme in current research efforts, brought in the limelight by the wide adoption of ubiquitous devices. Significant funding has been allocated to various European projects on this subject area, in order to investigate and overcome the various security challenges. This paper provides an overview of recent EU research efforts pertaining to embedded systems security, where several prominent security issues and the respective proposed approaches are presented. Surveying relatively recent EU research projects, the authors identify 20 such projects that focus on embedded systems security aspects. The investigated technologies are categorised using a layered approach, to facilitate the presentation of the results; the categories comprise the node, network, and middleware and overlay layers, as well as architectures, frameworks and formal validation of the security of embedded systems. From this survey, certain patterns emerge regarding the issues investigated and the technologies researchers focus on, in order to address the said issues. Finally, the existing open issues are summarised, and directions for future research are given. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The fruits/exploitation of the FP7 EU Research project ECHO in Slovenia (research work in Austria, Denmark, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the UK, 2010-2014)

Issue/problem The main problem in the Slovenian healthcare setting is the lag in drawing policies mainly due to the lack of evidence. With the FP7 EU Research project Slovenia gained evidence to build the grounds for drawing policies for the financing of hospitals by addressing equity and access issues. This research project brought about the know-how, professional and technical expertise. It benchmarks Slovenian hospitals and regions with 5 other EU countries. ECHO set …

Overcoming Heterogeneity in Business Process Modeling with Rule-Based Semantic Mappings

The paper tackles the problem of notational heterogeneity in business process modeling. Heterogeneity is overcome with an approach that induces semantic homogeneity independent of notation, driven by commonalities and recurring semantics in various control flow-oriented modeling languages, with the goal of enabling process simulation on a generic level. Thus, hybrid process models (for end-to-end or decomposed processes) having different parts or subprocesses modeled with different languages become simulate-able, making it possible to derive quantitative measures (lead time, costs, or resource capacity) across notational heterogeneity. The result also contributes to a better understanding of the process structure, as it helps with identifying interface problems and process execution requirements, and can support a multitude of areas that benefit from step by step process simulation (e.g. process-oriented requirement analysis, user interface design, generation of business-related test cases, compilation of handbooks and training material derived from processes). A use case is presented in the context of the ComVantage EU research project, where notational heterogeneity is induced by: (a) the specificity and hybrid character of a process-centric modeling method designed for the project application domain, and (b) the collaborative nature of the modeling effort, with different modelers working with different notations for different layers of abstraction in a shared on-line tool and model repository.

Semantic Normalization and Query Abstraction Based on SNOMED-CT and HL7: Supporting Multicentric Clinical Trials.

Advances in the use of omic data and other biomarkers are increasing the number of variables in clinical research. Additional data have stratified the population of patients and require that current studies be performed among multiple institutions. Semantic interoperability and standardized data representation are a crucial task in the management of modern clinical trials. In the past few years, different efforts have focused on integrating biomedical information. Due to the complexity of this domain and the specific requirements of clinical research, the majority of data integration tasks are still performed manually. This paper presents a semantic normalization process and a query abstraction mechanism to facilitate data integration and retrieval. A process based on well-established standards from the biomedical domain and the latest semantic web technologies has been developed. Methods proposed in this paper have been tested within the EURECA EU research project, where clinical scenarios require the extraction of semantic knowledge from biomedical vocabularies. The aim of this paper is to provide a novel method to abstract from the data model and query syntax. The proposed approach has been compared with other initiatives in the field by storing the same dataset with each of those solutions. Results show an extended functionality and query capabilities at the cost of slightly worse performance in query execution. Implementations in real settings have shown that following this approach, usable interfaces can be developed to exploit clinical trial data outcomes.

Authentication of dried distilled grain with solubles (DDGS) by fatty acid and volatile profiling

Demand for ethanol substituted fuels from the utilisation of cereal based biofuel has resulted in an over production of dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) that are now readily available on the animal feed market. With this rapid emerging availability comes potential variability in the nutritional value of DDGS and possible risks of feed contaminants. Subsequently, the authentication and traceability of alternative animal feed sources is of high priority. In this study and as part of the EU research project “Quality and Safety of Feeds and Food for Europe (QSAFFE FP7-KBBE-2010-4) an attempt was made to classify the geographical origin of cereal grains used in the production of DDGS material. DDGS material of wheat and corn origin were obtained from Europe, China, and the USA. Fatty acid profiles and volatile fingerprints were assessed by gas chromatography flame ionisation (GC-FID) and rapid proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) respectively. Chemometric analysis of fatty acid profiles and volatile fingerprints allowed for promising classifications of cereals used in DDGS material by geographical and botanical origin and enabled visual representation of the data. This objective analytical approach could be adapted for routine verification of cereal grains used in the production of DDGS material.