Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL

JAPAN and the European Commission have signed an ‘Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy’, designed to underpin future commercial and investment cooperation in the nuclear sector. The deal will run for at least 30 years, providing for cooperation regarding the development of nuclear technology, nuclear reactors, nuclear safety, radiation protection, the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear safeguards.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

OBESITY is a becoming one off the most important public health concerns worldwide and as a result, the best brains of the biggest international organisations have been developing a spate of policy ideas to fight this problem. A key example is the recent European Commission green paper on the issue, which laments the spread of obesity and invites ideas to counter it.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LARGE research projects with potential benefits across the European Union (EU) could be eligible for additional national subsidies under revised state aid rules being considered by the European Commission. Its competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has revealed details of a shake up in research aid rules in a speech to the European Business Summit, in Brussels, and public consultation on draft proposals should begin by late April.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has published a two-volume manual detailing all the nuclear energy related research projects financed by the European Union’s (EU) sixth framework programme, which ends this year. Studies detailed include those covering radioactive waste management, radiation protection, safety, training and other issues, but not nuclear fusion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AIR fresheners may pose unknown health risks to consumers and their emissions should be subject to further research, a key European Union (EU) expert group has recommended. The ‘scientific committee on health and environmental risks’ has warned that "emissions from air fresheners contain many more compounds than those assessed" by an important study by the Bureau Européen des Consommateurs.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FACT BOX

Population of Iceland: 300,000

Number of students enrolled at university: 9,526

Percentage of university students who are Icelanders: 93%

Percentage of Icelandic population attending university: 5.8%

INTERVIEW

A LOT of people are fascinated by Iceland and it’s helped make the country’s university something of a lure for students across Europe and even America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INFLUENTIAL energy research group has called for carbon dioxide sequestered from coal and gas power plants to help boost oil well extraction to guarantee investment in carbon capture technology. Speaking at a hearing organised in Brussels by the European Parliament’s liberal and democrat group, the Bellona Foundation’s Marius Holm said without the profits derived from additional oil, carbon capture equipment would remain too expensive.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR something so small, nanotechnology is set to play a big role in the work of the environmental health officer. As it stretches across the entire field of science, from medicine and physics to engineering and chemistry, the areas that potentially encroach upon the work of the EH officer are considerable – not least because nanotechnology’s emerging uses are increasingly raising concern that it may harm workers, consumers or the environment and,

According to Dr Sally Tinkle of the US-based National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the key areas at issue – industrial, consumer and medical applications – each have their own concerns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has approved practical guidelines on licensing genetic healthcare inventions, to speed both research and assistance to patients. These principles and best practice suggestions advise businesses, researchers and health services entering into license agreements for genetic inventions to be liberal with use conditions and releasing confidential data.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) and Belgium’s Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) have agreed to cooperate on food and feed safety research, collating data, helping to plan EU food safety and quality programmes.…