Germany's top supercomputing centres have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which brings them together to form Europe's most powerful computing network, the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS).

The German Government, which has allocated funding of €30 million to the project, hopes the initiative will raise the visibility of the centres involved and improve their chances of playing a key role in the establishment of a European high-performance computer network.

A multi-million pound visionary medical project that will recruit 500,000 people across Britain to help find out much more about curing many life threatening and debilitating diseases gets underway in Manchester. UK Biobank will recruit people aged 40-69 and track their health over the course of the next 30 years or more.

The European Commission's Health & Consumer Protection and Enterprise & Industry Directorates General recently launched a public consultation process to discuss ways to provide a practical and sustainable improvement of the information available to patients on health and treatment-related issues.

The inventors of biodegradable plastics, DNA fingerprinting and a new HIV drug are among 12 individuals and groups nominated for the European Inventor of the Year Award 2007.

The award, which is now in its second year, was set up by the European Commission and the European Patent Office.

For the first time the European ICT Prize awards ceremony took place at CeBIT, the world's largest ICT trade fair in Hannover, Germany. "Information and communications technology opens up a world of new possibilities - new ways of working and new ways of living," said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding as she awarded the prizes.

The ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) aims at stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of ICT by citizens, governments and businesses.

The programme builds on the aims of the previous e-TEN, Modinis and e-Content programmes and will support the aims of the new integrated strategy i2010 - European Information Society 2010.

Whether you are learning a foreign language, training for the city marathon or want to lose five kilos – the digital motivator eCoach will help you to achieve your personal goals. The system runs on any cell phone or PDA and provides just the right amount of motivation.

Instead of the shrill sound of the alarm clock, your cell phone wakes you in the morning with a happy mp3 song.