Brussels, 18/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - Researchers will take part in a workshop organised by the European Commission in Brussels on 20 May to assess European projects that aim to provide early warning of earthquakes and tsunamis. The workshop, “Tsunami risk in Europe - Research Achievements and Future Perspectives”, will bring together the leaders of six projects being funded by the EU to the tune of €16.25 million. Representatives of the Commission's Joint Research Centre and the soon to be in place Emergency Response Team, will also attend. In a press release, Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn expressed her satisfaction that “EU research on earthquakes and tsunamis has already scored major successes”. She also highlighted, however, “the need to see how we can do even more to improve our capacity to anticipate and cope with these natural killers to minimise loss of human life and property”. Within this “doing more” is, for example, the SAFER research project which provides early warning of earthquakes using low-cost sensor technology based on car airbag systems. Similarly, DEWS, another EU-funded project, has paved the way for a warning system which has reduced the time needed to detect a seismic event that could trigger a tsunami and has developed a text-message alert system to maximise time for people top escape. (J.K./transl.rt)