Two University of Barcelona projects have been selected by the European Innovation Council to develop cutting-edge technologies within the 2024 Pathfinder Open call. Marta Estrader and Josep Puigmartí Luis, researchers from the UB's Faculty of Chemistry, lead two consortia to promote advances in the remote detection of aquatic pollution and cell alignment in tissue bioprinting, respectively. 
Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry Marta Estrader, a member of the UB's Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IN2UB), coordinates the WATERsense project, funded with three million euros over four years. The aim is to "remotely detect the presence of pollutants in water at any time", explains Estrader. "Therefore, we will develop magneto-optical nanosensors that will be able to encapsulate certain pollutants (from pesticides to products derived from the chemical and pharmaceutical industry) on the previously functionalized surface. These substances can be identified using vibrational Raman spectroscopy", she adds.
The innovation of the WATERsense technology lies in the fact that "through a small device that will be installed in rivers, lakes or any point of water, it will be possible to quickly detect the presence of contamination, and the results will be sent immediately via the internet, which will reduce the overall cost compared to the methodology used today", says Estrader.
Eventually, WATERsense will make it possible to carry out careful analyses of variations in water quality in relation to changes in socio-economic activity or in the demography of a certain place or region. The project involves researchers from the University of Vigo, the Austrian Institute of Technology, the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Hydrodynamics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Lightnovo.
