Big challenges can encourage big solutions, and at the end of last year there was no challenge bigger than Europe’s response to the economic turmoil caused by the global credit crisis.

Environmental scientists face many challenges in monitoring and understanding our planet’s changing climate.

In May 2009, a Brussels seminar examined the potential of computers to save energy – and the obstacles to realising that potential.

Software tools that help researchers to study the role of forests in climate change could make it easier to understand a wide variety of natural and artificial complex systems.

Is a European Innovation Act what’s needed to make Europe more innovative and strengthen growth and competitiveness in the EU? Policymakers, analysts and businesses are currently debating that very question as the EU considers what to do post-Lisbon.

Peer Bork, who heads a team of bioinformatic researchers at the Heidelberg, Germany- based European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), has been recognised for his outstanding contributions to the field by winning the fourth annual Royal Society and Académie des Sciences Microsoft Award

On 16 June 2009, the King of Belgium, Albert II, visited one of Belgium’s innovation hotspots, the Digital Innovation Valley in Mons. During the visit the King, Walloon Minister for Economy Jean-Claude Marcourt and Mons mayor Elio Di Rupo stopped by the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Mons.

When the new Commission is appointed, it will find a raft of proposals waiting for it – all aimed at putting research, development and innovation at the heart of policy.

Fifty-five researchers met in Trento, Italy, in October to look for collaborative solutions to the limitations that are emerging in the way that models of complex biological systems are created and managed.

Inspired by biology, Klaus-Peter Zauner is working on a radically new kind of computer.

Microsoft’s first European “mega data centre”, which opened recently on the western outskirts of Dublin, uses 50 per cent less energy than a traditional data centre built some three years ago.

A new research group in Paris aims to use optimisation theory to find answers to the challenges of ensuring an efficient and sustainable future.

The EU’s education commissioner, Ján Figel’, is pushing for change in European universities – to the economic benefit of all.

As concerns about global warming grow, scientists are turning to sophisticated computational models to better understand and ultimately predict the impact of climate change and human activity on biodiversity.

The European Commission has called on national governments and companies to apply information and communications technology (ICT) solutions to improve their energy efficiency.

We are all thinking more carefully about our impact on the environment, and this applies to one of the biggest sources of CO2 emissions in particular – the traffic on our streets. Different approaches show how traffic flows can be improved, and all have in common the application of information and communication technologies to the benefit of the environment.

Small computing devices, such as enhanced cameras, are becoming smarter and more capable: not only do they record visual input (video) but they are starting to interpret it.

The European Environment Agency is pleased with users’ responses to its water quality site and plans to expand environmental features in the coming months.

Cost-effective face-recognition software has been the springboard for success for one company spun out from the Politecnico di Milano. It has also won the company's founders an inaugural ACES award for academic enterprise.

Is this the ultimate challenge: to use computational techniques to construct a model of how the human body works? Nuala Moran takes a look.

From conception to birth, death and beyond, the human body is all about change. Thus, a key issue in modelling any aspect of the body is to move beyond static images of what any element looks like at any particular point, and factor in the fourth dimension of time.

It's a simple idea – digitise the results of microscopy and accelerate the healthcare process. One university hospital researcher decided to turn the idea into reality.

Microsoft’s SenseCam helps advance the study of neuroscience by enabling memory recall and opening the pathway for the development of new rehabilitation treatments.

A joint venture between Microsoft Research and the British Library is looking to address the needs of researchers as ‘extreme information users'.

Youssef Hamadi: applied mathematics researcher and top-flight scientist, directing research projects in Cambridge and Orsay. It's an extraordinary story of a son of Berber immigrants, driven by the thirst for freedom.

Frances's premier institute for computer science is now developing joint laboratories with international companies, including Microsoft, to tackle some of the key challenges in the field.

Search is increasingly becoming the main way in which people interact with information online, no matter what form it takes or where it is stored – be it on an intranet or on the Web. According to information technology analysts Gartner, by the end of 2012 more than 75 per cent of applications will use a “search/explore” field as a primary user interface.

“The phone has a unique role. While the PC is the most powerful device, the phone is the most popular device… How do we bring all the business experiences and entertainment experiences of the other devices to the phone in an appropriate way? … That's a great opportunity for innovation from Microsoft.”- Steve Ballmer, CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment conference, October 2007

In February 2008, Microsoft launched the Microsoft Embedded Systems Development Centre (MESDC) in Aachen, Germany. The MESDC was created to foster product development in Europe by addressing the needs of industry partners and customers. Products developed at the MESDC are intended to tackle challenges faced by European customers, but also demonstrate applicability throughout the globe. Bill Dunlap,...

Microsoft's European Growth and Innovation Day brought together policymakers and software developers in Brussels to see how the IT industry can help drive innovation in Europe.

How do you get a Silicon Valley - or three of them - in Europe? And what can policy makers do to help? These were the themes of an innovative round of discussions that took place earlier this year.

Even as part of the largest industry computer science research organisation, Microsoft Research does not have a monopoly of talent or ideas, making collaboration an essential part of how we do research. Collaboration takes many forms: collaborations with industry partners, collaborations with university partners, collaborations through formal programmes, collaborations founded on an ad hoc basis.

One of Europe's leading pioneers in the field of medical image analysis has been awarded the €250,000 Royal Society and Académie des sciences Microsoft award to apply computational techniques to build composite three-dimensional images of hearts, brains and other organs from the 2D slices obtained with MRI and PET.

The European Microsoft Innovation Centre (EMIC), in Aachen, Germany, opened five years ago. Since then, it has created an impressive track record in collaborative applied technology research and product development in several interesting domains. There are indeed many reasons for saying ‘Congratulations EMIC!'

Computer technologies have suffused the world we live in. They have created change and continue to create change. This is manifest not only on our desktops and in our hands, but in virtually all aspects of our lives, in our communities and in the wider society.

We spoke with Richard Harper, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge about the HCI 2020 ‘Being Human’ report.

Computing has come a long way since the invention of the diminutive mouse. Unlike the keyboard, which was an adaptation of old technology, the mouse was the first purpose built approach to interacting with computers to catch on with consumers.

Microsoft, via its European Microsoft Innovation Centre (EMIC) in Aachen, Germany, is engaged in the ARTEMIS Joint Technology Initiative on scaleable, distributed embedded systems - a top priority for both Europe and Microsoft.

As computers become more prevalent in our offices and homes, not only as PCs but also in media and entertainment devices and embedded in appliances, so-called home networks can connect these computers and offer new convenience to users.

For most consumers, the amount of energy that each electrical appliance in a household consumes is hidden.

Are we prepared for the next generation of embedded and mobile computing devices?

One of the gigs at this year's Roskilde Festival, the largest music festival in Europe, didn't take place on the stage but in the trash. Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen joined forces with its trusted partner Tegos, a solution provider for the recycling and waste management industry, to implement an innovative solution for “Garbage Information Gathering” (GIG) that simply cleared the...

Handheld computers for issuing tickets, reading meters, recording environmental data or taking orders are commonplace. Now attention has shifted to adapting computers so that rather than being held and operated by hand they can be worn on users' bodies, or integrated into their clothing.

FUTURES spoke with Jordi Ribas, head of the new Microsoft Search Technology Center.

European Environment Agency and Microsoft Eye on Earth Observatory bring Europaan beach quality into sharp focus

Paris-based startup Miyowa enlisted the support of European Union Grants Advisor (EUGA) and successfully applied for government funding to develop next-generation solutions for mobile instant messaging.

It’s a familiar story: invented in Europe, commercialised abroad.

Research and development in highly complex fields – such as embedded computer systems – relies heavily on partnerships in which the strengths of the partners complement each other and the different partners fill the various roles that lead to successful innovation.

Computing pervades everyday life: whether used in business or leisure, by individuals or communities, it offers opportunities for new ways of living and working together. It is also having a profound impact on human behaviour and thinking, and on interactions between people and with technology.

In an era of continual Internet innovation, one of the biggest trends is the Internet’s rapid growth as a platform for rich, high-definition content such as graphics, animation, video and film.

Just when you thought there was nothing new in pictures, along comes HD View and explodes all your preconceptions about what photography can do.

The Photosynth experience justifies the use of the old truism: it has to be seen to be believed.

Earlier this year Microsoft Research Cambridge, in partnership with Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio team, Lionhead Studios and Rare Ltd, brought together finalists from the international games development contest, ‘Silicon Minds’.

Programming an industrial robot is still an annoying task that requires too many details and expert knowledge. Each robot unit needs to be installed and prepared for a particular task, which makes the introduction of robots an expensive and risky decision.

One of the current projects of the Socio-Digital Systems Group atMicrosoft Research in Cambridge is ‘Family Archive’. This work arose from the team’s fascination with the things that households keep - the objects, both physical and digital, that are meaningful and special to people in the home.

As more and more people share data and opinions over the Internet, geographic and location information is becoming an increasingly important dimension of the way people intuitively organise, view and analyse data.

New geoweb applications such as Microsoft’s Virtual Earth are at the confluence of two massive innovation trends – user-generated content and smart environments. To browse what the augmented reality of where virtual worlds collide with the real one, you need a good map.

Football supporters and other visitors to this summer's Euro2008 football championships in Austria and Switzerland can enjoy a new experience as they log onto websites in search of information to plan their trip.

Imagine a search engine capable of recognising the details of paintings rather than words. This is the challenge facing a joint Microsoft/INRIA research project to recreate, in 3D virtual form, a two thousand year old house in Pompeii.

Few research issues are as significant as trying to work out how climate change might affect the environment. Unlike many scientific experiments, this isn't something that we can try in a laboratory several times to see how things pan out under different conditions. Nor do we have the luxury of being able to wait to see which of the many theories on offer is the most scientifically complete. This is why...

“When I'm making plans for my spare time, the most convenient way to do it is to ask for the location and places of restaurants, tourist sites and service stations,” says Dragan Tomic, Principal Development Lead at the Microsoft Development Center Serbia in Belgrade. “But even when it's not obvious that I'm asking for location information, I'm probably interested in that information,...

On 18 January 2008, Microsoft and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) announced the creation of the BSC – Microsoft Research Centre, which focuses on the way microprocessors and software for the mobile and desktop market segments will be designed and interact over the next 10 years and beyond.

“Mathematics must make a great leap forward”: this is the challenge that Georges Gonthier has set himself.

It is a fact universally acknowledged: the pharmaceutical industry needs a new drug development paradigm. Systems biology promises the ability to place drug targets in the overall physiological context - offering a possible route out of the destructive cycle of spiralling R&D costs and low productivity that is hitting the pharmaceutical industry – but it will take new tools and programming...

Computing and communication technologies have already had a massive impact on today's healthcare system. Even so, there is great potential for these technologies to not only improve, but profoundly change healthcare in several ways.

The free lunch is over For the past 20 years the computer industry has grown on the back of ever-increasing clock rates. In line with Moore's law, coined by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, advances in chip design have allowed performance to double every 18 months or so.

You can't capture the thrill and excitement of a football match by describing the individual players. Similarly, it is not possible to understand biological processes and pathways by looking just at the component parts.

In the global village, goes the standard economic theory, every region should have its own set of specialised skills to trade with the rest of the world – an inventory of talents and resources at which it excels and earns its keep. So what is Europe's niche?

“EUROPE has a team of star players, but it is not a star team.” That frank assessment of EUROPE's weaknesses and strengths in research was how Dr Janez Potocnik, the EU Science and Research Commissioner, opened a campaign earlier this year to reform how R&D is governed in EUROPE. His effort is the most-sweeping look at EU research policy in years, and is expected to result in a series of new...

Implementation of the Directive by member states is essential to the paradigm of ‘brain circulation' and the development of the European Research Area.

Merely a concept at the start of the century, Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) has already completed the first stage of its growth, moving from an idea to a real service that has now achieved a broad market penetration across many European countries.

Driven by computer and network technologies, TV is undergoing a paradigm shift that is not only changing TV itself but also how people consume media and make it an integral part of their daily lives.

Year by year, the flood of content is rising all around us: television channels, books, music and the Internet - where not only traditional media but millions of individuals are adding content. So, in this flood, how do you find the content that matters to you? How do you discover multimedia information and entertainment in ways that suit you personally? Isn't there an easier way?

Back in 2001, Matteo Berlucchi, an Italian entrepreneur and academic, was ploughing through his email inbox trying to sort out the important messages from the spam, when a simple idea struck him. Create a dedicated priority communication channel that could work outside of email and could be used for sending important and time critical messages straight to the desktop.

Today, the efficient and innovative distribution and processing of information is at the core of all business activity – so the effects of new technologies on company growth opportunities, and as a result, on investment decisions, are significant.

Global Research Library 2020 (GRL 2020) is an initiative of the University of Washington Libraries and Microsoft Corporation to bring together global leaders from different sectors to shape a roadmap for research libraries for the decades ahead.

The Tablet PC has broadened our concept of how we use a personal computer: a mobile computer with a screen that allows for inputs via a pen or fingertips instead of a keyboard or a mouse device. With a Tablet PC, users can capture handwritten notes on screen, which can then be converted into text in the required languages. Bodin Dresevic, Product Unit Manager, Microsoft Development Center Serbia

The folks at RARE, one of the iconic pioneers in computer gaming, like to joke that the quiet surrounds of their headquarters, deep in the UK countryside in Warwickshire, is the reason for their company's consistently strong record in innovation. “From the early days it was intentional to be outside the city,” says Nick Burton, a Senior Software Engineer at RARE. “Being somewhere quiet...

What if you could get assistance for your complicated business decisions by simply going through various What-If scenarios and having them visualised instantly in 3D, with key metrics and resulting outcomes calculated on the fly?

The phenomenal growth of online advertising is driving demand for smarter tools to track results: enabling advertisers to see clearly how many people have accessed the website in question, how many people have bought something and how much they have spent.

Thanks to a unique partnership between the public, private and academic sectors in Portugal and Brazil, the decommissioned pyrite mine in Lousal, in the Alentjo region of Portugal, has become the site of the first large-scale immersive Virtual Reality system ever installed in Portugal. Today, the Lousal Live Science Centre provides an interactive learning experience about mining, as well as facilities for...