The United Nations report, published in March 2023, is very clear, it says: “ (…) keeping warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors.”   In this episode we look at how biofuels can help us meet these imperatives. Using biomass as a source of energy is particularly elegant: you take waste that is all too often part of the problem when it comes to disposal, and you break it down to get gas which is then used as fuel.   Our guests are: Yeray Asensio, based at the Spanish water management company, Aqualia is interested in ways of making sewage sludge treatment to produce biogas, easier and cheaper for smaller communities. Cristina González is head of the Biotechnology Unit of the Madrid Institute for Advanced Study. She is particularly interested in recovering carbon from waste to produce biochemicals and biofuels within the idea of the circular economy.   Petteri Salonen is the CEO of Finrenes, a Finnish company that has developed a new way to turn wood and plant fibre waste into biomethane and fuel pellets, widening the range of fibres that can be used.

From satellites observing Earth, to roots and the microbes that surround them: Today we are looking at soil and how our food security depends on its health. Our ‘crop’ of guests, all of whom have been funded by the Horizon 2020 programme, are here to help us understand how waste, fertiliser, soil protection and remote monitoring all interconnect: A researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Tania Galindo-Castañeda’s focus is on how the root anatomy and architecture of maize affect the impact microbes in the soil have on the plant. Frank Rogalla is director of innovation at Aqualia, a private provider of water services supplying 45 million people in 17 countries. His focus is on not wasting one drop of water, to which end he fuels his car with waste water. Frank is interested in recovering fertilisers to grow food and avoid pollution. Juan Suarez is looking at how to make the most of Earth observation technologies, such as satellite imagery, to improve food security and sustainable development. Juan is a senior manager at the Spanish company GMV.

22 March is United Nations World Water Day, so this episode of CORDIScovery is on water: its quality and security of supply. We will travel from the high Himalayas, and delve into the secret lives of freshwater snails to explore water cycles and the latest techniques for monitoring pollution.   Walter Immerzeel, professor of Mountain Hydrology at Utrecht University, led the CAT project, which looked at the interface between climate change, glaciology and hydrology.   Research scientist at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture of the Spanish National Research Council, José A. Gómez combines a Background in agronomy and soil science. He helped coordinate the SHui project which bridged the gap between research findings and on-the-ground innovations in China and Europe.   Didier Neuzeret is the CEO of ViewPoint, a French company that has been involved in environmental research and animal behaviour analysis for 30 years. ViewPoint hosted ToxMate, which video-tracked the behaviours of certain invertebrates to check pollution levels in wastewater.

New technologies, existing technologies applied to new challenges, understanding the role of cross-cultural influences in eyewitnesses’ examinations; all ways in which EU projects are helping to make evidence more accessible. This episode of CORDIScovery investigates. Rape is a global scourge. Millions of unsolved rape cases fail in the absence of evidence found. Current technical barriers to the identification and analysis of sperm traces are one key reason. The Themis project has developed a new technique that can find traces which would be missed by conventional methods and analyses them more quickly and effectively. What happens when you take green screens, gaming technology, lidar and other cutting-edge imaging techniques and apply them to evidence long buried? The Dig-For-Arch project has developed ways these tools can clarify crime scenes that might currently be hard to interpret. Our globalised world means cultures are interrelating more than ever – what happens when eyewitnesses give evidence in cross-cultural contexts? How do we unravel information through a cultural filter? The WEIRD WITNESSES project has some interesting findings to share. This episode of CORDIScovery features three guests who are ideally placed to tell us about the latest advances that are helping to refine criminal investigations. Their projects have all been supported by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. Annelies Vredeveldt is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law at VU Amsterdam. She investigates psychology in the courtroom, from how eyewitnesses remember crimes to detecting lies in suspects’ statements. Dante Abate is an associate researcher at the Cyprus Institute. His various areas of interest include the application of digital and non-destructive technologies for the identification and documentation of historic crime scenes. Benjamin Corgier is currently the research and development director at AXO Science, a biotech company specialising in molecular biology and innovative technologies for forensics.

Enthusiasts, people with hobbies, with spare time or concerned about their environment – you and me: all of us are potential collectors of data and information that can add a dimension to research projects. How can participation empower volunteers? And what’s the benefit for scientists? Listen on to find out! Xavier Basagaña is associate research professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. Basagaña’s CitieS-Health project was interested in evaluating the health impacts of urban living. The project set out to encourage collaboration between researchers and volunteers, to generate solid, unbiased scientific evidence. Professor of Environmental History at the University of Stavanger in Norway, Finn Arne Jørgensen is the coordinator of the EnviroCitizen project. The team wanted to understand the ways in which citizen science projects can be used to cultivate new ways of thinking and acting in all aspects of life, to promote environmental, rather than national, citizenship. Kris Vanherle is a transport policy researcher, working at Transport & Mobility Leuven, a spin-off of the University of Leuven, Belgium. Vanherle was the coordinator of WeCount, which wanted to give people the tools they needed to monitor traffic, and to co-design solutions to tackle a variety of road transport challenges.