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Spotlight on research in Belgium

06 May 2017
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Horizon has pulled together a list of articles on research and innovation in Belgium. Image credit: iStock/ Santiago Rodriguez Fonto
Horizon has pulled together a list of articles on research and innovation in Belgium. Image credit: iStock/ Santiago Rodriguez Fonto

From alternative currencies in Limburg to virus-hunters tracking down the next pandemic, there’s plenty of cutting-edge research and innovation in Belgium. For the open day of European institutions in Brussels, Horizon has gone into its archives and pulled together a list of its top articles featuring scientists in the northern European country.

Three of the seven planets could have oceans. Credit: ESO/ N. Bartmann/ spaceengine.org
space
23 February 2017

EU researchers spot seven earth-size planets orbiting dwarf star

European researchers have used telescopes around the world to spot a cluster of seven planets orbiting a Jupiter-sized ultra-cool star 40 light-years from earth, increasing the chances of discovering evidence of life on distant worlds.

The Bristol Pound is an alternative currency designed to support independent businesses in the southwestern UK city. Image credit: ‘Bristolpound’ by Ratoncito Perez is licensed under CC0 1.0
social sciences
24 January 2017

Alternative currencies in rapid growth phase – researchers

In the province of Limburg, in northeastern Belgium, residents earn points by helping out in the community which they can spend on cinema tickets or trips to the local swimming pool.

Adding bacteria to the roots of poplar trees could help clean contaminated soil. Image credit: Flickr/ Ekaterina Sotova
environment | bioeconomy
14 November 2016

Bacteria turn trees into pollution-eating machines

Hacking trees by adding bacteria to their roots could help scrub contaminated soil clean of chemicals and metals from industrial spillages and fallouts, a process known as gentle remediation. 

Health inspectors checked passengers on planes during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Image credit: Flickr/ Kyle Simourd
health
05 October 2016

Virus hunters tracking down the next pandemic

Genetic detectives have used big data to map early HIV epidemics – now they hope that new technologies can help doctors respond to outbreaks of Ebola, Zika and flu in real time. 

In order to ease demands on Europe’s power grids, researchers in the SCANERGY project suggest using an online currency to boost local trade between energy producers and consumers. Image credit: flickr/ Inderjit Nijjer
energy | open innovation
25 April 2016

Virtual currency for ‘prosumers’ could save EU power grids

A Bitcoin-style virtual currency could save Europe’s power grids from reaching breaking point as more and more ‘prosumers’ come on line – consumers who also put energy back into the network from domestic wind turbines and solar panels.

Drones can detect landmines faster than people with metal detectors. Image courtesy of TIRAMISU
security | open to the world
08 March 2016

How to speed up landmine clearance

A surveying device that spotted a group of children playing just 50 metres from a landmine is part of a new suite of tools that could help improve and speed up the mine-clearing process.

There have been more regional trade pacts in recent years but global deals are still important, according to researchers. Source: Pixabay/ WikimediaImages
social sciences | open to the world
01 February 2016

Globalisation means worldwide trade pacts needed

Much of the focus in trade talks around the world at present is on regional deals, rather than global agreements. But researchers say the goal of multilateral pacts will remain in the medium and longer term, given the pressures of globalisation.

In the science fiction movie The Martian, an astronaut is accidently left on Mars yet manages to survive. Image credit: Aidan Monaghan - TM & © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
space
09 December 2015

Researchers tackle The Martian’s science fiction

Despite Matt Damon’s heroics in The Martian, where he overcomes the odds to survive after being left behind during a mission to the Red Planet, EU-funded researchers reveal that we don’t have the technology yet to get there alive and survive.

Prof. Nathan Clumeck has seen the treatment of HIV improve over the past 20 years, with patients now expecting to have similar lifespans to healthy people. Image courtesy of Nathan Clumeck
health | interview
01 December 2015

AIDS stigma will spread the disease - Prof. Nathan Clumeck

The stigma associated with AIDS and homophobia has made the pandemic even more destructive as in many countries it drives people away from modern treatment that could let them live a normal life, according to Prof. Nathan Clumeck, a leading member of the European AIDS treatment Network (NEAT) with St Pierre University Hospital in Brussels, Belgium.