Brussels, 10/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - This year, the EU Descartes Prize for outstanding research through transnational co-operation is celebrating its fifth anniversary. The 2004 short-listed teams come from 20 countries and display scientific excellence in the fields of life sciences, engineering, information technologies, chemistry and physics. The two winners of this year's award - which is worth EUR 1 million, with EUR 500 000 for each winner - will be announced on 2 December in Prague.
The short-listed projects include:
Life sciences.
In the field of life sciences, a team of researchers co-ordinated by Prof. Francesco Blasi of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan (Italy), working in co-operation with a Denmark-based team, has made important discoveries in combating and curing cancer, and predicting its progress and effects. Also short-listed is the “local therapy” project co-ordinated by Prof. John Francis Martin of the University College of London, United Kingdom (Finland, Germany and Italy are partners in the project) and the “MBAD” project co-ordinated by Professor Howard Trevor Jacobs of the University of Tampere in Finland, with the participation of Italian, French, British and Swedish scientists. They are looking at mitochondria and their role in degenerative neural diseases and ageing.
Chemistry, nanosciences and engineering.
The “Dendrimers” project (dendrimmers are a new type of macromolecule) was short-listed for its contribution in the field of chemistry and nanoscience. Prof. Vincenzo Balzani of the University of Bologna (Italy) is the project leader of a team composed of German and Dutch scientists. In the engineering field, the “APLOMB” project co-ordinated by Prof. Peter Townsend of the University of Sussex in the UK, has been selected. The project includes the participation of Bulgarian, German, Italian, Slovenian and Spanish scientists.
Information sciences and physics.
The “MAFTIA” project was short-listed in the field of information sciences and aims to make large network infrastructures, such as the internet, “safer” for users. The project is co-ordinated by Dr Robert Stroud of Newcastle University in the UK, in co-operation with research teams from France, Portugal and Switzerland. In the field of physics, two projects were short-listed. The “IST-QuComm” project is co-ordinated by Prof. Anders Karlsson (Sweden), with partner teams coming from Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and US. The list of 2004 finalists is completed by the “CSNM” project co-ordinated by Prof. Peter Weinberger of the Austrian Centre for Computational Materials Science (Austria), with partner teams from the Czech Republic and Hungary.