With about 70% of the planet's surface covered by ocean, the EU Mission to restore our ocean and waters focuses on positive actions to restore marine ecosystems, eliminate pollution, and make our blue economy carbon neutral and circular.

An EU funded project – SmartCHP – is designing a new engine that can turn biomass into heat and electricity. The work involves modifying a diesel engine so that it can handle bio-oil instead of diesel, and engineers have been working on the nuts and bolts of the machine for the past two years.

Drought and desertification threatens to degrade land in Europe and around the world. We take a look at some new studies into how drought spreads and deserts develop.

Uncrewed aircraft responding to fire and medical emergencies will be used to save lives – if digitalised air traffic control can help them navigate safely in the skies over Europe.

The advance allows the particles to be placed deeper within biological tissue, which could aid with cancer diagnosis or monitoring.

Tested using a new brain tissue model, the particles may be able to deliver chemotherapy drugs for glioblastoma.