Eight new scientific networks launched

The European Science Foundation (ESF) has announced the launch of eight new scientific networks on topics ranging from the biosphere of the deep sub-sea floor to the properties and production of silk. The networks will run for the next three years and bring European scientists together to share information and results and foster collaboration. The networks are:

Exploring the deep sub-seafloor biosphere

The recent discovery of extensive microbial populations beneath the deep ocean floor has far reaching implications not just for our immediate understanding of the biosphere, but also for many other branches of science as well as industrial processes and biotechnology. The presence of bacteria in this extreme environment may prove to have important future applications, including gas hydrates as a possible plentiful and clean fuel of the future, in the deep burial of toxic wastes and as a unique source of bacteria for biotechnology. European scientists have been at the forefront of this discovery, and this network aims to build on this by stimulating the collaborative programmes and helping develop the facilities needed for more extensive deep sub sea-floor biosphere research.

Silk: properties and production

Silks still surpass even the very best man-made materials for mechanical properties such as elasticity and fibre strength to weight ratio. They are protein complexes with an intriguing biopolymer structure that has evolved independently in a range of arthropods. Spider webs have particularly amazing properties, and since the advent of biotechnology researchers have been trying, without much success so far, to produce comparable synthetic materials. More research is needed, and, within this network, silks and related proteins such as elastins, resilins and collagens will be subjected to biometric analysis with the aim of ultimately exploiting the structures in commercial products.

Field-responsive polymers, composite organic materials and gels with controlled supramolecular structure

Materials science is being revolutionised by so called "smart" polymer systems whose behaviour or molecular configuration can be modified by small local electromagnetic changes, for example in electric or magnetic fields, or in exposure to light. This field has already yielded liquid crystal (LCD) displays, but this is just the tip of a huge iceberg, and there is great potential for a wide variety of applications waiting to be tapped, for example in memory devices, membranes with regulated permeability, super-sensitive optical sensors, and new generations of display systems. The objective of this network is to study the organic high molecular mass compounds that are considered promising raw ingredients for this emerging materials science of the 21st century.

Elementary steps of layer growth in the fabrication of novel materials by atomic layer epitaxy

Advances in nanotechnology have made it possible to fabricate objects using single atoms as building blocks in the laboratory. Although such single atom manipulation is still a long way from being practical for commercial applications, it is much closer if the process is restricted to just one dimension, in other words building materials using single layers just one atom thick as building blocks. Such methods are described as atomic layer epitaxy (ALE), and have a vast array of practical applications, for example in micro-electronics, because it becomes possible to construct materials whose surfaces are laid out with atomic precision. However, greater understanding of the underlying processes and potential fabrication techniques is needed before commercial applications can be considered, and this network has been set up to develop a co-ordinated approach linking existing research groups.

Genetic susceptibility to environmental toxicants – impacts on human health

Environmental toxicants play a major role in many diseases of modern industrialised societies, including cancer and heart disease. Many factors are involved, but it is the interplay between genes and the environment that is of particular importance in determining an individual’s risk of disease. Studies of such gene-environment interactions have emerged as an important component of epidemiological research, and this network has been set up to establish a European forum for collaboration between the various groups of researchers involved. This will then help with the primary objective of developing a better scientific basis for identifying the groups and types of individual at risk from particular environmental toxicants.

Demographic and labour force participation trends in Europe and their implications for social protection expenditure

Over the last 20 years, expenditure on social protection programmes has been one of the fastest growing components of GDP in most European countries. Ageing populations, falling male labour force participation rates and rising levels of youth unemployment have now raised serious concerns over the long-run sustainability of such programmes. The network will promote comparative research on the patterns of social protection expenditure across Europe and their relationship to demographic and labour market trends. In particular, researchers will look at current old-age pension systems as part of an intergenerational social contract which, on the one hand, supports the elderly after retirement and, on the other hand, sustains human capital accumulation via public education financing. Such an approach is hoped to provide a positive theory of how old-age social insurance has evolved, as well as a unified framework for a quantitative assessment of the efficiency gains or losses it generates.

Mass response to changes in Central and Eastern Europe

A core question for social science research lies in the identification of behaviour patterns and coping strategies of people faced with great social upheavals. This network will use nation-wide representative sample surveys to examine the mass responses to the dramatic disruptions in Central and Eastern Europe that began with the collapse of the Communist system. The primary data sources have already been collected together into the New Democracies Barometer and the New Baltic Barometer covering 13 Central and East European countries. ESF support will finance a series of workshops at which researchers will exchange results of their analyses of the common data base.

European trade study group

Research in the area of international trade has advanced rapidly in recent years. Notable advances have been made in the theory of the location of industry, the modern theory of international development, economic takeoffs and agglomeration, and the theory of multinational enterprises. However, much of this research is concentrated at a geographically limited number of well-funded institutions. This network aims to link these core research centres with economists operating in smaller, more peripheral institutions.

Ends

Press contact :

Andrew Smith
Head of Communication and Information, ESF
+33 (0)3 88 76 71 32

For further information contact: Andrew Smith

Category: Media Centre, Press Releases 1997