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Research indicates that increasing the temperature of tumour tissue can stimulate increased activity within tumour cells, due to a higher blood flow. When a tumour reaches hyperthermic state, the uptake of cancer treatment, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy, would be greater. Therefore, integrating hyperthermia into a cancer treatment plan would allow medical practitioners to decrease the dosage of these therapies, making the treatment safer and more tolerable for patients.
Normal body temperature is 36 - 37 °C and by using controlled microwave energy, similar to that used in a microwave oven to heat food, it is possible to increase the temperature of specific tissues.
At the Electromagnetics research group within the Department of Physics, researchers are developing a Microwave hyperthermia system as part of a project funded by Xjenza Malta, Hyper4B and also thanks to the…
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Do not miss to revisit these webinars organised by GOOS. For marine scientists, enthusiasts, educators, students, researchers and persons involved in marine observations, this series of GOOS webinars shares knowledge and presents innovative approaches for biodiversity monitoring, and a coordinated and standardised marine biology and ecosystem data collection and management system. The sessions provide an introduction to each BioEco EOV and their importance for monitoring biodiversity, enabling ecological forecasting, and supporting science, management and decision making.
The last two webinars delivered this month were:
Benthic invertebrates abundance and distribution | Sea turtles abundance and distribution
and
Seabirds abundance and distribution | Marine mammal abundance and distribution…
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The NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize has been established to reward innovative research by young investigators working on the functional attributes of the microbiota of any organism that has potential to contribute to our understanding of human or veterinary health and disease or to guide therapeutic interventions.
Grand Prize winner receives:
Each Grand Prize winner will be awarded a cash prize in the amount of US$25,000 and travel and accommodation for the prize ceremony.
The Grand Prize winner will also receive a free five (5) year digital subscription to Science, and will have their winning essay published in Science (print and online).
Runner(s) Up receives:
Each Runner up will receive an award plaque and travel and accommodation for the prize ceremony.
The Runner(s) Up will also receive a free one (1) year digital subscription to Science, and will have their winning essay published in…
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The INNO4CFIs Acceleration Program is calling on innovative Green tech SMEs and startups from selected European regions to foster their market uptake and validate their technologies! This Acceleration program offers equity-free support to 40 promising solutions/initiatives demonstrating strong market potential and a minimum technological readiness level (TRL of 6).
Participants will benefit from a 4-month tailored acceleration program, designed to refine their market and technology validation strategies and advance their solutions (up to TRL 9). Expert guidance will ensure compliance with Circular Economy and Regulatory Compliance Standards (CRCS) and the European Carbon Removal Certification Framework.
INNO4CFIs Acceleration Program is now accepting applications, through the third Open Call process, providing a unique opportunity for up to 15 eligible SMEs and startups to join this…
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The University of Malta’s Rocketry team is the first Maltese team to enrol in the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC). The competition, held in Portugal, hosted 29 teams, drawn from universities across Europe.
Their challenge is to launch their rocket to three or nine kilometres, depending on the category.
Led by co-founder Ryan Grech, Malta’s team spent about six months getting the completely student-made rocket ready for the competition.
Being the team’s first attempt at this competition, they were up against heavyweight teams established decades ago with budgets amounting to over €100,000.
The Maltese team had to compete as novices with a conservative budget of €4,000, the smallest budget of all the teams.
The day before they were supposed to head off for the competition, the team…
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What if our youngest learners grew up with a holistic understanding of the sea and its environment? Supporting Early chiLdhood education in Blue skills with generative artificial Intelligence (SELBI) is a nationally-funded research project at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) designed to help make that possible. Its ambitious purpose is to equip Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) educators with the knowledge, tools and professional confidence to teach young children about the marine environment, sustainable living and the ethical use of natural resources, supported by trustworthy artificial intelligence. This work is aligned with Malta’s Vision 2050 and with the National Strategy for Sustainable Development, which both place long-term environmental responsibility and sustainable economic transition at the centre of national policy.
SELBI responds to a strategic national concern. Malta’s…
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Offshore Freshened Groundwater (OFG) is a potentially strategic resource for coastal water security. Despite its discovery in the 1960s and estimates of substantial global volumes, OFG remains poorly understood. Existing data are sparse and largely incidental, originating from offshore hydrocarbon drilling. Research efforts so far have lacked coordinated approaches to assess OFG’s potential for sustainable use.
Advancing the understanding of OFG systems requires research into their emplacement history and age, as well as recharge and discharge mechanisms. Investigations into permeability, porosity, and fluid flow pathways will improve predictions of OFG behaviour under natural conditions and potential utilisation scenarios. Fluid flow processes, hydraulic properties, and connectivity between onshore and offshore aquifers must be studied to assess long-term viability and estimate the sustainable yield of an OFG reservoir.…
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The Euro-Mediterranean Hub for Research & Innovation (R&I) is live connecting researchers, policymakers, institutions, and funders across the Euro-Med region.
The Euro-Med Hub serves as a one-stop platform to explore research outcomes, best practices, policy papers, and collaboration opportunities, including funding calls, networks, and clusters.
This initiative supports the implementation of the UfM Regional Platform on Research and Innovation Roadmaps, strengthening Mediterranean cooperation in key areas such as health, renewable energy, and climate change.
Why join the Hub?
• Centralised resources – Access research, best practices, policy documents, and funding…
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MindOnly has developed an Artificial Intelligence tool that can assess your attachment style. This Malta-based research project, supported by Xjenza, has created a platform that reads non-verbal cues to better understand users. This may prove to be a useful personal development tool and, crucially, a valuable resource for mental health practitioners.
We are a product of our upbringing. Our relationships with our parents, or the lack thereof, can be pivotal in shaping expectations for each subsequent relationship. This process begins within a year of our birth, through pre-verbal bonds with primary caregivers. If these formative attachments are traumatising, they disorder how we connect with others. Our understanding of this is in its own infancy. Attachment theory is less…
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About this initiative:
This ‘call for evidence’ targets all stakeholders from national and regional administrations and research and innovation communities, including higher education, vocational education, and training institutions, research performing organisations, research and scientific communities, private-sector businesses including SMEs, technology centres, research and technology infrastructures, scientific advice and technology assessment structures and organisations, scientific publishers, and the general public.
This public consultation is first published in English. Translations into other 23 EU official languages will be available shortly. The consultation will remain open for 12 weeks after all translations become available.
Topic: Employment and social affairs, Research and innovation, Single market
Type of act:…
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Xjenza Malta invites experts to express their interest to participate in the scientific evaluation within the upcoming Horizon Europe Partnership on Brain Health (EP BrainHealth). This initiative brings together 53 partners from 31 countries to bolster scientific collaboration for better brain health across Europe and beyond.
Who we are looking for
We seek internationally recognized scientists to participate in the scientific evaluation of project proposals under the BrainHealth Joint Calls 2026. Evaluators should have expertise in one or both of the following call topics:
Call topic 1: Biological, social and environmental factors…
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Metal 3D printing, or additive manufacturing (AM), has revolutionized industries by enabling the creation of complex components with unparalleled design freedom. However, a persistent challenge has been achieving smooth surface finishes, particularly in techniques like Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (EB-PBF). Enter the GLAM project, a collaborative endeavour between the University of Malta and the University of Shandong (China), addresses this challenge. GLAM, short for Green Laser Post-Processing in Additive Manufacturing, aimed to refine the surfaces of EB-PBF printed parts, ultimately enhancing their performance and broadening their applications.
EB-PBF, while offering advantages in material efficiency and design complexity, tends to produce rough surfaces due to the high temperatures involved. This roughness can negatively impact crucial properties like fatigue life and wear resistance. These…
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The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, a European Partnership under the European Commission’s Research & Innovation Framework Programme Horizon Europe, is pleased to announce its first Thematic Portfolio Call for Interest. This call aims to connect ongoing projects to create and boost networking activities for a 2-year period, from early 2026 to early 2028.
Two active networking portfolios will be established, composed of projects granted by the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership as well as by a range of national, regional and EU funding streams on these two topics:
- Topic 1: Innovations and digitalisation for low-impact sustainable small-scale fisheries management in EU sea-basins
- Topic 2: Innovations for boosting sustainability in marine algae cultivations and circularity in the blue bioeconomy
The Thematic Portfolios of projects will be connected and will define their…
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The Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Malta is part of DIVERSICROP (COST Action CA22146), a global research network studying consumer interest in underutilized crops. Malta is contributing to this international effort with the study: “Consumer Attitudes and Interest in Underutilized Crops.”
This research explores how cultural and traditional dietary habits in Maltese adults influence awareness, acceptance, and use of these lesser-known crops. You're invited to take part by completing a short, anonymous survey — it takes about 10 minutes.
Participation is entirely voluntary
You are free to accept or refuse to participate, without needing to give a reason.
You are free…
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A fascinating fact I first encountered during my undergraduate studies involved people who, years ago, claimed to hear voices in their heads. The culprit wasn’t the supernatural, it was radiation. Metal fillings in their teeth were acting like tiny antennas, picking up radio waves from broadcasting towers.
That was my first glimpse into how parts of the human body could interact with electromagnetic radiation from the outside world. Today, my research takes this idea further but instead of radio waves, I work with microwaves, and instead of dental fillings, my focus is on tumours. This is a crucial step towards improving treatment and survival outcomes for cancer patients.
Heating Tumours to Heal
Microwave hyperthermia is a treatment that uses temperatures slightly higher than normal to damage and weaken tumour cells. A set…
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While awaiting the publication of the official notice in the Official Gazette, the following documents are now available online:
The text of Public Call No. 2/2025 for the submission of cooperation project proposals under the INTERREG VI-A Italy-Malta Programme;
The related selection criteria for operations, approved by the Programme Monitoring Committee on 29/07/2025.
The text of the call and the selection criteria are published for informational purposes only and may be subject to minor changes. They do not have legal value until their publication in the Official Gazette of the Region of Sicily.
Visit the below link to download the full documentation.
Information and logo source:
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This funding guide was developed in response to requests from the Japanese research community and brings together, in a single document, information on funding opportunities available in both the EU and Japan.
The guide is organised around key stages and interests in a research career, from doctoral training and postdoctoral research to independent research, international mobility, collaborative or consortium-based projects, and even the commercialisation of research results. For each area, it outlines relevant funding opportunities on both the EU and Japanese sides.
Information and image source:
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fundamentally transforming the scientific process across all stages, from hypothesis generation and experimental design to data analysis, peer review and dissemination of results. In many research fields, such as the examined protein structure prediction, materials discovery and computational humanities, AI accelerates discovery, fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and enhances reproducibility, while improving access to advanced analytical and computational capabilities. These developments align with the European Union (EU)’s vision to make AI tools and infrastructure more accessible, strengthening research in areas of strategic importance such as climate change, health, and clean technologies. However, this progress introduces new challenges, including concerns about algorithmic bias, the proliferation of hallucinations and fabricated data, and the potential erosion of critical thinking skills. AI Adoption remains…
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The widespread use of synthetic glass and carbon fibres in the composite manufacturing industry offers strength and rigidity but poses environmental challenges. Synthetic fibres and resins are derived from petrochemicals, are difficult to recycle, and may pose environmental or health risks during production. Natural fibres, such as sisal and flax, present a more sustainable alternative, especially when paired with biodegradable resins. Flax derived from the Linseed plant, has strong mechanical properties but is costly to cultivate, while Sisal extracted from the Agave Sisalana plant is cheaper and easier to grow but harder to process. Hybrid composites using both fibres can enhance performance, lower costs, and improving sustainability. The project ECO-Composite developed Hybrid Flax/…
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Imagine the ability to produce a critical spare part—such as a precision bracket used to securely mount components—within hours rather than weeks. This is the transformative potential of metal additive manufacturing, commonly known as metal 3D printing. This innovative technology is currently being researched at the University of Malta.
While metal 3D printing offers incredible rapid production turnaround and design flexibility, one key limitation persists: surface quality. Parts produced by powder bed fusion and other AM techniques typically exhibit high roughness due to incomplete powder melting and due to the so-called staircase effect, which results from the inherit layered nature of the process. These surface defects can compromise the mechanical and tribological performance of fabricated parts when compared to their conventionally manufactured counterparts. To address this challenge, the Green Laser…
