Pre-Operational Marine Service Continuity in Transition towards Copernicus

The main objective of the MyOcean Follow On project will be to operate a rigorous, robust and sustainable Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting component of the pre-operational Copernicus Marine Service  delivering ocean physical state and ecosystem information to intermediate and downstream users in the areas of marine safety, marine resources, marine and coastal environment and weather, climate and seasonal forecasting. This is highly consistent with the objective of the HORIZON 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015 establishing the need for interim continuity of the pre-operational services developed by MyOcean 2 before the fully operational services of Copernicus. The project proposes to sustain the current pre-operational marine activities until March 2015 in order to avoid any interruption in the critical handover phase between pre-operational and fully operational services. In effect, any significant interruption in these services could potentially jeopardize several important high-level policy objectives and undermine other related scientific activities. In the period from October 2014 to March 2015, MyOcean-FO will ensure a controlled continuation and extension of the services already implemented in MyOcean and MyOcean2 FP7 projects that have advanced the pre-operational marine service capabilities. To enable the move to full operations, MyOcean-FO is targeting the prototype operations, and developing the management and coordination to continue the provision of Copernicus Marine service products and the link with independent R&D activities. MyOcean-FO will produce and deliver services based upon the common-denominator ocean state variables that are required to help meet the needs for information for environmental and civil security policy making, assessment and implementation. MyOcean-FO is also expected to have a significant impact on the emergence of a technically robust and sustainable Copernicus Service infrastructure in Europe.


Bringing a breakthrough e-nose solution on global markets for portable and reliable food safety and quality control

Possibility for a reliable and effective food quality assessment at a consumer level would be of paramount importance both in industrialized and less developed countries as it will have tremendous implications in health (avoidance of food poisoning) and economic domains (avoidance of food waste). The issues of food poisoning and their consequences constitute a major social problem. According to the World Health Organization more than 200 diseases are spread through food. Furthermore, one person in three in industrialized countries may be affected by foodborne illness each year. The issue of proper assessment of food quality and whether it is still edible or already not is also of immense economic importance. According to the statistics of the European Commission, about 90 million tonnes of food is wasted annually in Europe.    Currently, there is no single, portable device available to consumers that would support them in ascertaining in a reliable way: a) whether a food product is fresh, b) whether it might be potentially hazardous to health, c) whether there is a risk of food poisoning, and d) whether it is still safe to be consumed.   Hence, the overall aim of this project is to provide a breakthrough solution to the above mentioned societal and economic challenges by delivering fully functional, market ready, unique and innovative at a world level electronic device (“electronic nose”) and mobile application to determine the quality and level of freshness of meat, poultry, fish and other grocery products.  The PERES prototype has been developed and demonstrated to work. The expected, targeted outcome of this innovation project is a commercially mature, enhanced PERES device that will be subsequently demonstrated on the global markets.

Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies (LEIT)


VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS INOVACIJU CENTRAS

CoachCom2020 – a coaching community enhancing impact of the H2020 SME Instrument

Objectives The overall aim of CoachCom2020 is to ensure the fast implementation of a consistent and comprehensive, professional coaching community to support European SMEs participating in the new dedicated SME instrument under Horizon 2020.   Workplan and relevance Based on a robust and tested system approach CoachCom2020 will put in place and implement a coaching community methodology and platform with embedded quality assurance measures, ready to tackle the pressing requirements of the first months following the start of the first SME Instrument projects in Fall 2014 and subsequently (WP1). The overall coaching scheme will include highly targeted recruitment communication and broad dissemination reach (WP2), state-of-the-art mechanism for peer-learning in professional communities both on- and offline, structured knowledge sharing under scientific supervision (WP3) and, finally, three classes of pre-validated management systems and tools for Commission and EEN stakeholders: a case tracking / monitoring system; an impacts evaluation / benchmarking system; and a virtual learning platform with both an informal social network dimension and a structured knowledge repository (WP4). An “open-knowledge” policy and open source software are at the heart of the project paving the way for long-term perspectives post-project.   Consortium The proposed concept is anchored firmly in the organizational experience and proven excellence of the innovation platform of Western Switzerland – which is coupled to and strongly leveraged by the comprehensive reach and crucial role of the EEN network. The effort is coordinated by a future “end-user” - an experienced, Danish SME coaching organization. Management of the project rests in the hands of seasoned experts. A lean organisation is streamlined for fast decision making and ongoing risk appraisal.


Establishing services enhancing the innovation management capacity of SME's in the Lithuanian Enterprise Europe Network consortia

The overall aim of SME CoachLT is to increase effectiveness and efficiency of investment in R&D and Innovation by enhancing innovation management capacity of Lithuanian SMEs -beneficiaries of the new dedicated SME instrument under Horizon 2020, and SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalisation.  Specifically, the project will support SMEs - beneficiaries of the SME instrument- in identifying project-specific barriers and weaknesses and gaps in their innovation capacities that hinder realization of growth opportunities, and pointing to suitable coaches to address the identified weaknesses. The second specific objective is supporting  SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential internationalization in enhancing their innovation management capacities. The Key Account Manager will support SMEs SME Instrument beneficiaries in identifying critical issues and gaps with regards to their innovation idea and guide them to relevant lead coach who will support the company throughout their innovation journey. The Key account Manager will use a holistic and dynamic business innovation model, supported by Business Innovation Roadmap Tool, available under Creative Commons License from smE-MPOWER network. Based on the systematic assessment logic embedded in the tool, the Key Account Manager will guide the company through a transparent and easy-to-use self-assessment process.  When supporting companies having innovation and internationalization potential, but not part of SME instrument, we will use IMP3rove Academy’s diagnostic tool which measures the performance of the company’s innovation management system. However taking into account the SME context, we intend to use action- based (and case-driven) learning approach to addressing identified gaps in the innovation system. smE-MPOWER tools can support the coaching process.


Nanoscale fabricated corneal implants for endogenous regeneration

Our long-term goal is the development a safe, off-the-shelf, endogenous-regenerating solution for corneal blindness in form of biosynthetic corneal implants that can serve as alternatives to the limited availability of human donor corneas and in some cases, are contraindicated. In NanoCornea, we shall demonstrate in a first-in-human, three-centre clinical study, the safety, tolerability and efficacy of collagen-like-peptides (CLP) templated on an inert polyethylene glycol (PEG) backbone, as cell-free corneal implants. These implants are designed to guide the patients’ own corneal stromal cells (known as keratocytes) to migrate into it, anchor and reconstitute a neo-cornea. The scaffolds will also encourage corneal epithelium coverage to reconstruct the ocular surface. We will produce implants under controlled, cleanroom conditions following Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). The implants will then be evaluated in clinical trials in three patient populations:  1) perforated corneas (to encourage healing and to mitigate the need for transplantation), 2) patients at risk for perforation, representing low-risk patients awaiting for donor corneal transplantation but who are not transplanted due to limited donor tissue availability, and 3) high-risk patients who are contraindicated for donor allografts. Our three SME partners are committed to commercialization of a CLP-PEG implant product pending a successful clinical proof of concept. CLP peptides are relatively inexpensive to produce and purify and, compared to recombinant human collagen that we previously successfully tested in clinical trials, allow for potential mass production. We will create a network between NanoCornea and major corneal transplant centres within Europe, in order to share the product development progress and outcomes made, thus forming the basis for gaining clinical acceptance for future clinical application and commercialization of the products. As such NanoCornea fulfils all criteria of the call

Health, demographic change and wellbeing