PORTFASTFLU is a €3.8 million, European Union FP7 funded project which aims to develop and validate a rapid diagnostic system for influenza that will be used for surveillance and early detection of influenza, and as a point-of-care tool in developed and developing countries.

Three years ago, researchers at the EU-funded ElderGames project set out to create a high-tech play platform specifically for the elderly - the first designed to provide cognitive and social stimulation, and to allow early detection of cognitive decline.

The European Commission has released details of the first projects to receive support under the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Joint Technology Initiative (JTI). The 15 projects will share a EUR 246 million funding pot. EUR 110 million of this will come from the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), while the pharmaceutical industry will provide the remaining EUR 136 million through in kind contributions (e.g. staff, laboratory facilities, materials and clinical research).

The Living Human Digital Library Project (LHDL) is a grass-roots initiative aimed at developing an in silico model of the human neuromusculoskeletal system that can predict how mechanical forces are exchanged internally and externally, from the whole body down to the protein level, consistently with scope of the European Virtual Physiological Human initiative.

Europeans should be able to have control over smart chips, a worldwide market set to grow five times over in the next decade, while still being able to easily use them to make everyday life simpler. There are already over 6 billion smart chips, microelectronic devices that can be integrated into a variety of everyday objects from fridges to bus passes.

simon, developed as an open-source platform under the General Public License (GPL) has the aim to serve as an advanced and state of the art speech recognition system (SRC) for people with locomotor and cognitive dysfunctions.

Researchers in the EU-funded PERSONA (Perceptive spaces promoting independent aging) project are drawing on a range of advanced technologies to empower the elderly and support them in their efforts to maintain both their independence and a good quality of life.