The European Commission is looking for new independent experts to assist with research and innovation assignments including the evaluation of proposals, monitoring of projects, and evaluation of programmes.
How does light affect people, plants and paintings? The EC project HILED is probing the effects of light on people’s health and circadian rhythm, the growth rate of plants, and the preservation and perception of paintings.
New lighting solutions such as LEDs, lasers, computer and TV displays, the fibre-optic cables that are the backbone of the internet and of telephone systems, cameras, sensors: These and many other applications in all fields, from medicine to communications, manufacturing and design, depend on Photonics. But even though Photonics is a key enabling technology and already part of everybody's life, it has a low visibility among non-experts. The EU is therefore funding three outreach projects
Window blinds that generate electricity while you are away at work and a tablet that is being recharged by light that is harvested by a sticker on its cover: these are just two applications that could result from the Sunflower project. It aims at making more efficient, cheaper, thinner and more durable solar cells so that solar energy can be introduced in everyday objects.
Starting from a "crazy" and risky research idea explored in a Future and Emerging Technologies project, a team successfully transferred the developed technology, now used for a wide set of applications (from better mobile phones images to medical imaging), to industry and to a start-up.
