VUB B-PHOT and ETRO are hiring 4 ESRs to start an Industrial PhD within the Marie Sklodowska-Curie ITN. The Marie Sklodowska-Curie ITN project xCLASS starts a training through research programme to address the severe shortage of expertise among European industrial graduates and PhDs aiming to fulfill the complete technology supply chain for the development of optical spectrometer systems. An expanding demand for sensorial information in application domains such as healthcare, agriculture, waste management and food sorting urges for novel and cost-effective methods to sense the desired analytes with high sensitivity, high reliability and a small mobile device.

At the 28th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) in Athens, Jasper presented his work on "Gelatin Functionalization Strategies Enhance Biofabrication Versatility on the Micro and Macro-Scale." The Award Committee rewarded the scientific excellence of Jasper Van Hoorick with the Biointerphases poster award.

Prof. Sandra Van Vlierberghe, professor at both VUB B-PHOT and PBM Gent, has contributed to the knowledge in the field of biomaterials by elaborating innovative hydrogel crosslinking strategies that combine excellent biocompatibility with processing versatility. In addition to advancing biopolymers in the biomaterials field, she also introduced the solid state crosslinking capability of synthetic hydrogels, a finding which was patented jointly with industry.

Thanks to recent progress, Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) is becoming the norm in many countries, and the significant increase of bandwidth allows the emergence of new services and technologies. Tactile internet, telemedicine and real-time 3-D content generation are now realistic and probably represent the onset of the next wave of innovation.