In 2021 PROMICON set out to support the bioeconomy by harnessing the power of microbiomes. Bringing together researchers from 10 institutions across 7 European countries, the consortium studied microbial communities in diverse ecosystems and translated this knowledge into real-world applications, developing new biotechnological solutions for the production of bioplastics, butanol, hydrogen, and other bio-based products.

Four years later, PROMICON delivered over 30 scientific publications, five targeted policy briefs, and a range of educational videos and tools designed to inform researchers, industry representatives and policymakers. Explore the project’s legacy in the newly released booklet and video.

When Mary Seifu Tirfie graduated with a degree in biomedical engineering from Addis Ababa University in 2023, she wasn’t just earning a diploma — she was stepping into a global mission. Today as a global health fellow at Rice University’s Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, she’s part of a pioneering effort to design affordable medical technology for low-resource settings.

The Healthy Donor Cohort at the University of Alabama at Birmingham formed last year to find healthy participants who would donate a small amount of blood for clinical studies. The HDC today has 948 preregistered volunteers who respond in two days or less to blood requests. Now this cohort, ages 18 to 86, is starting to serve the research community more broadly, giving clinicians access to a large group of people who are willing to participate in other clinical research. The HDC sends out research descriptions to its largely healthy cohort. The cohort reads the description and, if interested, contacts the study to see if they meet requirements to enroll.

The Athens Prescribed Fire Science Laboratory of the USDA Forest Service is a mesoscale combustion facility dedicated to advancing prescribed fire science. The facility allows the team and their partners to make new discoveries about the basic physics of fire behavior, spread, and smoke. Making prescribed fires safer is a goal that brings participants together.

Lynne McLandsborough has been named director of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (CAFE) and will also serve as assistant vice chancellor for research and engagement. She brings to her new roles 30 years of experience at UMass Amherst, where she bridged the academic and applied sciences and gained deep expertise in working with the commonwealth’s UMass Extension program, which reaches into every corner of agricultural life in Massachusetts.

A test developed by the São Paulo state startup with support from FAPESP can distinguish benign nodules from malignant ones; the technology will be presented at one of the largest innovation events in France.

With support from FAPESP, the startup has developed a material containing human umbilical cord stem cells that speeds up the recovery of skin lesions; the technology will be presented at the VivaTech technology fair in France.

The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has ushered in a new era of automated robotics that are adaptive to their environments.   The field of robotics has made remarkable strides over the past few decades, yet it continues to face challenges that hinder the full utilisation of its potential. Traditional robots often rely on pre-programmed instructions and restricted configurations, limiting their ability to respond to unforeseen circumstances. AI technologies - encompassing cognition, analysis, inference, and decision-making-enable robots to operate intelligently, significantly enhancing their capabilities to assist and support humans.