Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WING of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre tasked with promoting non-animal tests for the chemical and cosmetics industries has been restructured to take account of recently agreed reforms to European Union (EU) vivisection laws. The European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) has now been divided into 11 key work sections, directly targeting animal tests which need replacing with alternative methods.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A FORMAL call for proposals for collaborative research projects into sustainable energy systems funded by a Euro 3 million pot from the EU sixth framework programme has been made by the European Commission. It wants to fund studies securing a leading role for Europe in sustainable energy systems, such as hydrogen energy technology, “which are affordable and clean.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has given the European Commission authority to conclude a RURATOM nuclear energy cooperation agreement with Uzbekistan. The deal would focus on cooperation in research projects into nuclear electricity generation operations, actions to improve the safety of power plants, the trade in nuclear materials and the provision of nuclear fuel cycle services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH European Union ministers poised to choose their preferred site to host the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER), an independent EU assessment of the two key EU contenders has officially concluded that both the French site Cadarache, and the Spain’s Vandellós “would be likely to win the international site selection”.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is providing Euro 850,000 to fund a study into whether the use of mobile phones causes deafness. The GUARD project, which involves teams from seven countries including the UK, will report in December. No scientific evidence yet exists to suggest mobile phones affect hearing but this will be the first extensive study on humans.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called on European Union member countries – including Britain – to draw up a list of diseases and illnesses for which workers should be compensated if they contracted them at work.

In a formal ‘recommendation on the schedule of occupational diseases,’ Brussels calls on governments “to introduce as soon as possible” rules covering “compensation and preventative measures” for such medical conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ACTION plan designed to further spur growth in the key broadband and third-generation (3G) mobile sectors has been unveiled by the European Commission and will be presented to the European Union’s (EU) spring summit in Brussels next month.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WITH European Union ministers poised this autumn to choose their preferred site to host the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER), an independent EU assessment of the two key EU contenders has officially concluded that both the French site Cadarache, and the Spain’s Vandellós “would be likely to win the international site selection”.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE CANADIAN asbestos industry is redoubling its efforts to persuade the European Union to reverse its ban on chrysotile asbestos using the findings of a new study, which backs arguments that the mineral is safer for human use than some alternative materials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY, Sweden and Denmark must do more to prevent water run-off from their rivers and coasts adding excess nutrients to the western Baltic Sea, said an international research project into the deaths of marine wildlife in 2002. The Helsinki Commission – tasked with investigating the natural disaster – concluded higher levels of nutrients from agriculture, urban wastewater and air pollution poured into the sea after heavy rain and snow.…