With the aid of tiny silicon tubes and one of Europe's most sophisticated centres for microscopy, scientists have been able for the first time to observe directly bacteria in chronic infections. Researchers can now see precisely how bacteria and the immune system interact in living tissue.

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is calling experts to join forces and tackle two challenges which are of major importance to public health. Measuring the combined benefits and risks of vaccines and assessing the effectiveness of new medications in the real world setting are the focus of the Call for proposals that IMI has launched.

One of the greatest challenges facing the EU is how best to design and adapt cities into smart intelligent and sustainable environments. Almost three quarters of Europeans live in cities, consuming 70% of the EU's energy. Congestion costs Europe about 1% of its GDP every year; most of it is located in urban areas.

The European Commission has announced the final and biggest ever set of calls for proposals for research under its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). In total, €8.1 billion will support projects and ideas that will boost Europe's competitiveness and tackle issues such as human health, protecting the environment and finding new solutions to growing challenges linked to urbanisation and managing waste.

Efforts to increase the healthy lifespan of EU citizens by two years received a major boost as 261 projects were submitted for inclusion in the European Innovation Partnership for active and healthy ageing. The partnership brings together more than 50 regions, technology companies and health providers to deliver solutions for:

University of Granada researchers have developed an artificial cerebellum (a biologically-inspired adaptive microcircuit) that controls a robotic arm with human-like precision. The cerebellum is the part of the human brain that controls the locomotor system and coordinates body movements.

For people with long term conditions, telehealth can reduce deaths and help patients avoid the need for emergency hospital care, finds a study published on bmj.com. However, the estimated scale of hospital cost savings is modest and may not be sufficient to offset the cost of the technology, say the authors.