Law, Science and Technology Joint Doctorate: Rights of the Internet of Everything

Internet of Everything (IoE) is one of the major technological trends, going beyond the ongoing Internet of Things era focused only on connecting devices. IoE looks at the connection of devices, persons and data via processes: “IoE connects the unconnected with ever-smarter technology. It brings people together with process, data, and things.” If on the one hand it is considered as a huge opportunity estimated at 19b$ it presents new complexities and risks for our life and economy. The big data is an essential pillar of the IoE . Thus, including more explicitly persons and data concerning them, IoE cannot be limited to engineering and computer science, but is a topic that needs to be investigated with scientific interdisciplinary researches under different perspectives: technical, legal, economical, ethical, philosophical point of view: it “involves a complex and evolving set of technological, social, and policy considerations across a diverse set of stakeholders.” Privacy, Intellectual Proprietary Rights, Data Ownership, Super-control of people behavior, Fundamental Rights, Ethical principles are critical issues that could determine the success of IoE in the market . Algorithms which are at the core of the devices all around us, expected to be tens of billions in 2020, must be governed. IoE is already entering the H2020 work programme even if only the IoT is mentioned in the calls. The attention to nontechnological aspects is reflected in the H2020 objectives ICT-35-2016 of LEIT and REV-INEQUAL-09-2017 of SC5 focus on the need of including SSH sciences for a critical analysis of the problems raised by pervasive technologies. However, if research projects are a way to face these problems, the needed competences are lacking, since they are highly interdisciplinary and, from the legal point of view, they require an international perspective. For these reasons we present a MSCA-ITN European Joint Doctorate proposal.


VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS INOVACIJU CENTRAS


LIETUVOS KIBERNETINIU NUSIKALTIMU KOMPETENCIJU IR TYRIMU CENTRAS

Strategic programs for advanced research and technology in Europe

In the domain of Cybersecurity Research and innovation, European scientists hold pioneering positions in fields such as cryptography, formal methods, or secure components.  Yet this excellence on focused domains does not translate into larger-scale, system-level advantages. Too often, scattered and small teams fall short of critical mass capabilities, despite demonstrating world-class talent and results. Europe’s strength is in its diversity, but that strength is only materialised if we cooperate, combine, and develop common lines of research. Given today’s societal challenges, this has become more than an advantage – an urgent necessity. Various approaches are being developed to enhance collaboration at many levels. Europe’s framework programs have sprung projects in cybersecurity over the past thirty years, encouraging international cooperation and funding support actions. More recently, the Cybersecurity PPP has brought together public institutions and industrial actors around common roadmaps and projects. While encouraging, these efforts have highlighted the need to break the mould, to step up investments and intensify coordination.  The SPARTA proposal brings together a unique set of actors at the intersection of scientific excellence, technological innovation, and societal sciences in cybersecurity. Strongly guided by concrete and risky challenges, it will setup unique collaboration means, leading the way in building transformative capabilities and forming world-leading expertise centres. Through innovative governance, ambitious demonstration cases, and active community engagement, SPARTA aims at re-thinking the way cybersecurity research is performed in Europe across domains and expertise, from foundations to applications, in academia and industry.

Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies (LEIT)


GENEROLO JONO ZEMAICIO LIETUVOS KARO AKADEMIJA


A FINancial supervision and TECHnology compliance training programme

Financial Technology (Fin Tech) means "Technology enabled financial innovations". There is a strong need to improve the competitiveness of the European Fin Tech sector, creating a common regulatory field across all countries which, while encouraging innovations in Big Data analytics, Artificial  Intelligence, and Blockchain technologies, can correctly measure their risks. Europe is a broad mosaic of regulatory landscapes. Policy makers and regulators must move quickly to establish a new regulatory framework for emerging fintechs, without stifling their economic potential.  The FIN-TECH project, under the EU's Horizon2020 funding scheme, aims to create a European training programme, aimed at providing shared risk management solutions that automatize compliance of Fintech companies (RegTech) and, at the same time, increases the efficiency of supervisory activities (SupTech). In other words, we aim at connecting FINancial supervision with TECHnological compliance, from which the acronym of the project: FIN-TECH.  The project  programme will be built jointly by 24 university and fntech partners that are established experts in fintech risk management,  that will share knowledge with with  regulators, supervisors and fintech associations and hubs from all 28 European Union countries, plus Switzerland.   The  goals of the project will be achieved through research activity in risk management models for Big data analytics, AI and Blockchain applications to finance, discussed in three different research workshops; two levels of knowledge exchange sessions: a training level, run at the location of the involved supervisor in each of the 29 countries, to achieve uniformity across Europe; a coding level,  centralised at the location of six different fintech hubs. The project will be simultaneously disseminated and validated through a dedicated web site, social network activity, users feedback and validation by established bank, insurance and investment funds.


A Pan‐European Network of Robotics DIHs for Agile Production

DIH^2 is a network of 26 DIHs, with a target to reach over 170 DIHs. The sole aim of the network is to spark incremental (cut 50% cost of advance robotics solutions, double the growth of robotics market) and disruptive (maximum productivity & optimum agility) innovations in over 300,000 Manufacturing SMEs and Mid-Caps. It will support SMEs in their Agile Production challenge (50% increase in productivity) and unleash their digitalization potential by enabling robot solutions that are more cost effective at lower lot sizes.  DIH^2 relies on: • A Common Open Platform Reference Architecture for Agile Production (COPRA-AP) -based on Industrial Data Space Reference Architecture Model and FIWARE technologies- to serve the needs of SMEs by means of a continuously growing set of Robotic-based Open Standard Enablers (ROSE-AP). • A marketplace as one-stop-shop for SMEs to access essential services for digital transformation including business modelling, technical support, access to skills and finance. • 2 competitive Open Calls to launch an ambitious Technology Transfer Program with 260 Agility Audits, 26 cross-border Technology Transfer Experiments and 26 ROSE-AP, leveraging over 26M€ of public & private funding in advance robotics solutions for Agile Production. • Members deeply rooted in their regional Smart Specialization Strategy (bringing €5M additional funding on top of EU funds), ensuring ‘working distance’ services for every SME in Europe - whichever the sector, wherever the location, whatever the size. • A Corporate Sponsorship Program from equipment and automation suppliers committed with the network to get access to wider market and latest research in robotics.  DIH^2 will transform this network into a self-sustainable non-profit association with members all over Europe. DIH^2  will demonstrate that public funded research can help SMEs & Mid-Caps achieve digital excellence and global competitiveness through adopting advanced robotics solutions in Agile Production.


Horizon 2020: H2020-SGA-INFRA-GEANT-2018 Topic [b] Increase of Long-Term Backbone Capacity

The GN4 Phase 3 Network (GN4-3N) proposal for part b of the third Specific Grant Agreement (SGA3(b) is made in response to the H2020-SGA-INFRA-GEANT-2018 (Topic [b] Research and Education Networking) call, received 17 October 2018, under the 68-month Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) established between the GÉANT Consortium and the European Commission in April 2015.  It is  proposed to last 48 months to implement, as the call requests, a very ambitious restructuring of the backbone network operated by GÉANT in order to provide equal access to clouds and other e-infrastructure services in the European research area and beyond.  It will improve the overall resilience and reliability of the GÉANT network significantly and offer a base for future improvements in access, transmission speeds and capacity wherever needed. The outcome of GN4-3N project will offer uniform network access and choice of services to many more partners, eliminating the "digital divide" wherever technically and economically feasible.  This project proposal is based on technical and economic studies carried out during 2017-2018 in the GN4-2 project which have given the Consortium clarity on the resourcing, financial and effort, needed to realise the huge ambition of this undertaking.  It exclusively covers the engineering, procurement, acquisition and installation of the new backbone network. The day-to-day network operations as the elements of it is commissioned is the responsibility of the teams described in accompanying the GN4-3 project. The GN4-3 and GN4-3N proposals are intimately connected through common teams and the technical, management and procurement expertise built-up over previous GN projects. This is what makes this ambitious proposal realistic. GN4-3N and GN4-3 have simply had to be proposed as distinct projects, due to the different funding model (with no depreciation) to be used in GN4-3N project.


VALSTYBINIS MOKSLINIU TYRIMU INSTITUTAS FIZINIU IR TECHNOLOGIJOS MOKSLU CENTRAS

in-built Triggered Enzymes to Recycle Multi-layers: an INnovation for USes in plastic-packaging

TERMINUS addresses the challenge of unlocking recycling and reuse of flexible multi-layer and multi-compounds packaging materials used for food, beverages, cosmetics, pet food, fertilisers, any perishable goods in general. It will develop a range of smart enzyme-containing polymers with triggered intrinsic self-biodegradation properties, acting as adhesives or tie layers in the design and manufacturing of multi-layer plastics for food and non-food applications. The technology will be applied to biodegradable PUR-based adhesives for adhesive lamination and extrusion coating lamination, and polymers and tie layers (PBS, PLA, PPC or PCL) in blown extrusion.   TERMINUS will base its innovative and challenging objectives on a cross-disciplinary team of renowned organizations with expertise in enzymatic biodegradation of polymers, thermal protection of enzymes using nm organosilica and layered double hydroxide, cyclodextrins, UV and water triggered enzymatic activity, formulation of advanced polymers, manufacturing of multilayer plastic packaging, plastics recycling.   TERMINUS is based on TRL3 technologies and will reach TRL5. It will result in major market opportunities for European industrials in several well established markets ready for market opportunities: plastic packaging (TPPS, STTP), industrial enzyme applications (BIOPOX), PUR adhesives (COVESTRO), biodegradable plastics (IPC), biotech plants (OWS), mechanical recycling (SIGMA). At least 15% of improvement of economic efficiency vs. current solutions (landfilling, incineration) are expected.  A reduction of landfilling for multi-layer plastic packaging over 80% together with a reduction of overall plastic landfilling by 55%  will be achieved with a minimum decrease by 65% of the overall CO2 footprint.  TERMINUS will be a breakthrough in reaching the 2030 European Commission objective to recycle 100% plastic packaging.


Heavy metal free emitters for new-generation light sources

Organic heavy metal free fluorescent materials show exceptional potential for use in new-generation light sources, such as organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) and organic lasers. It is anticipated that these new materials will enable organic electronic devices to be constructed with higher efficiency, simpler device structures, lower fabrication costs, and reduced environmental impact.  Amongst the different types of materials currently being investigated, two show particular promise:  • Fluorescence materials exhibiting thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) for use in OLEDs in displays and  lighting devices . • Fluorescent materials with low thresholds for amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) for use in organic lasers in spectroscopy and telecommunication .  However, in order to develop these materials for commercial industrial use, several challenges still remain to be overcome, including:  • Theories explaining TADF and ASE are still in their infancy. • Organic material samples need to be extremely pure (>99.5%). Consequently, new synthesis routes need to be developed. • TADF emitters for OLEDs have lifetimes that fall well short of industry requirements. • Fluorescence emitters for lasers need high available optical gain, solution processability and narrow emission spectra with high efficiency. • Properties of TADF and lasing materials are very sensitive to structural changes.  Thus, the overall goal of the MEGA project is to help develop organic heavy metal free fluorescent materials for commercial use by tackling these challenges. In order to develop the new materials, the following S&T objectives will be targeted:  • Objective 1: Screen compounds with TADF or lasing properties by means of molecular modelling • Objective 2: Synthesise most promising compounds with TADF or lasing properties • Objective 3: Characterise most promising compounds with TADF or lasing properties • Objective 4: Test materials in device structures to meet industry requirement


Horizon 2020: H2020-SGA-INFRA-GEANT-2018 (Topic [a] Research and Education Networking)

The GN4-3 is the proposed project for the third Specific Grant Agreement under the 68-month Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) established between the GÉANT Consortium and the European Commission in April 2015. This third phase of implementing the FPA is proposed to last 48 months and is a natural continuation of the work in GN4-2, building on the results and maintaining the overall objective of helping to raise European research to the next level, promoting scientific excellence, access and re-use of research data.  GÉANT’s world-class, high-speed backbone provides seamless and secure connectivity with 42 National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), reaching over 50 million users in 10,000 institutions across Europe, and more than 100 countries worldwide through links with other regions. The core backbone is capable of multiple 100 Gbps transmission over each fibre link, and Terabit connectivity can be achieved by a single node. The safe and rapid connection of users to each other, to the increasing amounts of data generated by research, and to the high-performance computing capacity required by collaborative research form the foundation of the GÉANT partnership. GÉANT services offer convenient, fast and reliable access to European High Performance Computing facilities, cloud services for the research and education community, access to scientific data and publications and other services from the European e-infrastructure providers, whenever and wherever needed.  The structure of the present proposal emphasises updating existing services in line with requirements of the user community. This complements the proposed companion project GN4-3N, an ambitious programme increasing the footprint of the backbone network at the same time as improving its capacity, resilience and flexibility with the aim of offering 100Gbps network access to many more GÉANT partners and significantly diminish the digital divide.


VALSTYBINE VAISTU KONTROLES TARNYBAPRIE LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKOS SVEIKATOS APSAUGOS MINISTERIJOS

Strengthening training of academia in regulatory sciences and supporting regulatory scientific advice (STARS)

Lack of specific relevant know-how in regulatory science delays the development of new treatment strategies or limits the chances that promising innovations will reach patients. STARS aims to improve the direct regulatory impact of results obtained in medical research. Seventeen European countries are represented in the consortium through their national competent authorities, alongside academic and industry representatives, and associations with relevant experience. The work plan includes the development of a Comprehensive Inventory of existing support activities based on a detailed analysis of the currently established programmes. This analysis is also the basis for development of a Common Strategy to strengthen regulatory sciences and two curricula, the Core Curriculum specifying essential knowledge for the professional training of clinical scientists and the Comprehensive Curriculum defining relevant knowledge for specific post-graduate programmes. Three pilot projects aim (i) to transfer an identified best practice example for training programmes to other EEA countries, (ii) to implement a new support activity addressing a gap in regulatory knowledge of significant relevance and (iii) to implement the Comprehensive Curriculum. STARS will deliver consensual recommendations ensuring sustainable support of academic research and will propose additional support mechanisms based on a comprehensive analysis of needs.  STARS has the objective and the potential to complement, coordinate and harmonise regulatory efforts among Member States and at European level to support academic health research for the benefit of patients. The aim is to reach academic researchers very early in the planning of relevant grant applications. A further aim is to strengthen regulatory knowledge in general by reaching clinical scientists during professional training and qualification.

Health, demographic change and wellbeing


VIESOJI ISTAIGA VILNIAUS UNIVERSITETO LIGONINE SANTAROS KLINIKOS

COMMON ACTION AGAINST HIV/TB/HCV ACROSS THE REGIONS OF EUROPE

CARE brings together distinguished scientists and highly representative networks in the European region, including Russia, in the fight against HIV/TB/HCV. CARE research objectives are based on already established European cohort networks with extensive and longitudinal data and/or sample collections. Together with new data and sample collections and cohorts created during the project, CARE will produce high-level researchoutputs during the two years of the project timeframe. The specific short term objectives are to: ● Discover and validate novel soluble biomarkers of MDR-TB treatment success and of pulmonary TB. ● Explore host genetic mechanisms of susceptibility to extrapulmonary TB. ● Analyse genotype to phenotype correlations in MDR-TB and develop a decision making support tool. ● Define epidemiology and pathways of drug-resistant HIV, including their relationship with HIV subtypes and TB coinfection to support an evidence-based introduction of INSTIs as part of first line antiretroviral therapy. ● Discover and validate host genomic variants influencing susceptibility to contracting AIDS and serious non-AIDS clinical events and adverse reactions to drugs. ● Derive best practice recommendations for DAA prioritisation strategies for HCV treatment. The longer-term objective of CARE is to implement a research infrastructure that allows the expansion of activities beyond the funding frame, permitting the partners to share technology, protocols, structured data collections and knowledge. Finally, CARE activities include realization of recommendations and intervention plans, communication to the stakeholders, dissemination and training activities in order to develop and distribute the highest expertise and competence  throughout the European region for the containment of the epidemics.CARE is fully in line with the call topic and addresses all its subtopics. It involves a recognised Russian partner coordinating 5 top level institutions covering the regions of Russia.


The Platform for Sharing, Initiating, and Learning Citizen Science in Europe

Citizen Science is a rapidly expanding and diversifying field of innovation with significant implications for, and potential benefits to, society, policy, and various academic research areas. This heterogeneity leads currently to a fragmented and not fully coordinated European Citizen Science landscape.  The ambition of EU-Citizen.Science is to build, fill, and promote a sustainable platform and mutual learning space providing different tools, best practice examples and relevant scientific outcomes that are collected, curated, and made accessible to different stakeholders, ranging from interested citizens over scientific institutions up to politicians and public media in order to mainstream Citizen Science in Europe. This breakthrough will be pursued through three interconnected lines of activity: (i) coordination of citizen science actions and leveraging of existing resources in the presently fragmented landscape of Citizen Science in Europe, (ii) engagement of quadruple helix stakeholders at all levels (local, national and European), and (iii) creation of a mutual learning space and a set of comprehensive co-designed training modules for the different target audiences. Moreover, following a transparent, open and inclusive approach, EU-Citizen.Science will promote interdisciplinary, cross-border, cross-sector collaboration, and give rise to significant social innovation and new business models through the creation of new partnerships and the provision of novel sustainability-supporting tools.  The EU.Citizen.Science project involves 14 partners and 9 third parties, representing 14 European Member States and a variety of stakeholders ranging from universities, NGOs, local authorities, CSOs and natural history museums, along with several other project supporters. Many of the partners are already engaged in other SwafS projects related to RRI, co-creation and citizen science, as well as numerous initiatives at national or local level.

Integrate society in science and innovation


Supporting and Implementing Plans for Gender Equality in Academia and Research

SPEAR will initiate institutional change in nine European research performing organizations (RPOs) by implementing gender equality plans. Despite numerous EU-wide projects aimed at improving gender equality (GE) in academia, challenges persist, and GE practitioners and change agents experience fatigue and lack of support structures. SPEAR offers supportive structures through its interconnected Community of Learning (CoL) and Community of Practice (CoP). CoL will provide learning platforms while CoP provides an arena for experience exchanges. Both are crucial to successful and sustainable implementation of gender equality plans (GEPs), a key instrument to improving GE. SPEAR’s central objective is to support and implement GEPs, based on a step-by-step guide to GEP implementation devised by the European Institute for Gender Equality, through following a methodological path committed to creative, open, mitigating, processual, accountable, SMART and sustainable changes (SPEAR’s COMPASS). Integral to SPEAR’s project design is an enhanced impartial evaluation scheme to boost the feedback and learning of participants throughout the project. SPEAR employs strategic dissemination to boost its central sustainability commitment during and after SPEAR.  SPEAR’s consortium numbers eleven partners, three of which have some experience with GE work while six have little or no experience. The first three will coordinate sessions during CoL and provide crucial support and best-practice guidance during structured interactions in CoP. Two task partners handle evaluation and dissemination. An advisory group representing key GE-stakeholders is affiliated.  SPEAR aims to foster sustainability in GE-practices in academia through a range of measures and outcomes, including ties to other EU-based GE projects, network and community building within and beyond SPEAR, and formulation of practicable policy recommendations.

Promote gender equality in research and innovation


Functional surface treatments using ultra-short pulse laser system FemtoSurf

The tremendous success of lasers in industry resulted in massive demand for photonics-based solutions. At the moment lasers are inseparable part of fields like communications, medicine, science and heavy industry. This is due to outstanding versatility of light, as it can be used as means for both measurement and direct processing. One of the newest developments in the field is advent of ultra-fast femtosecond (fs) lasers. Alongside all the standard laser properties, these lasers add capability to control temporal and thermal characteristics of light-matter interaction as well as eliminate any material related restrictions due ultra-high light intensities achievable. For these reasons fs lasers are predicated to play pivotal role in 4th industrial revolution with ultrafast laser marked projected to grow up to 7.1 billion dollars by 2021. Direct surface treatment is one of the key areas where fs lasers proved highly promising. Specific light-matter interaction regimes enabled by fs pulses allow to create surface patterns in scales ranging from nanoripples to millimetre-sized grooves. Such surface features could be made into either repelling or adhering. As it is direct process applicable for any kind of surface metal patterning is especially interesting, as it could find use if fields like medicine, aerospace, maritime and tool manufacturing, replacing various coatings, lubricants or enabling entirely new properties. The main objective of FemtoSurf is to exploit the newest advances in laser development for creation of industrial-grade 2-3 kW-level fs laser that would be integrated in propose-built optical chain enabling multi-beam processing (up to 100 simultaneous beams) with individually controlled spatial distributions in each laser spot, integrated into a fully automated processing setup for efficient patterning arbitrary shaped metal components with sizes exceeding several meters while retaining micrometre level precision.


Digital Technologies, Advanced Robotics and increased Cyber-security for Agile Production in Future European Manufacturing Ecosystems

The main objective of TRINITY is to create a network of multidisciplinary and synergistic local digital innovation hubs (DIHs) composed of research centers, companies, and university groups that cover a wide range of topics that can contribute to agile production: advanced robotics as the driving force and digital tools, data privacy and cyber security technologies to support the introduction of advanced robotic systems in the production processes. The result will be a one-stop shop for methods and tools to achieve highly intelligent, agile and reconfigurable production, which will ensure Europe’s welfare in the future.  The network will start its operation by developing demonstrators in the areas of robotics we identified as the most promising to advance agile production, e.g. collaborative robotics including sensory systems to ensure safety, effective user interfaces based on augmented reality and speech, reconfigurable robot workcells and peripheral equipment (fixtures, jigs, grippers, …), programming by demonstration, IoT, secure wireless networks, etc. These demonstrators will serve as reference implementation for two rounds of open calls for application experiments, where companies with agile production needs and sound business plans will be supported by TRINITY DIHs to advance their manufacturing processes. Besides technology-centered services, primarily laboratories with advanced robot technologies and know-how to develop innovative application experiments, TRINITY network of DIHS will also offer training and consulting services, including support for business planning and access to financing. Services of participating DIHs and dissemination of information to wider public will be provided through a digital access point that will be developed in the project. Another important activity of the project will be the preparation of a business plan to sustain the network after the end of the project funding.


KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT AND ENHANCING INNOVATION MANAGEMENT CAPACITY SERVICES FOR LITHUNIAN SMEs

The aim of SME Coach LT 2018 is to increase effectiveness and efficiency of investment in R&D and Innovation by enhancing innovation management capacity of the Lithuanian beneficiaries of the funding schemes SME Instrument, Fast Track to Innovation ( FTI) and Future and emerging technologies (FET Open) under H2020 and SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalisation.   Specifically, the project will support 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 point to suitable coaches to address the identified weaknesses. 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. To identify SMEs challenges, 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. The second specific objective aims at SMEs that have significant innovation activities and a high potential but lagging innovation management capacities. To assess the performance of their innovation management system, we will use IMP3rove Academy’s diagnostic tool or similar tools. Further action plan will be developed.  In supporting SMEs we will use action- based (and case-driven) learning approach to addressing identified gaps in the innovation system. smE-MPOWER tools will help support the coaching process.


A European standardization framework for data integration and data-driven in silico models for personalized medicine

The capacity to generate data in Life Sciences and health research with modern omics and imaging technologies has increased many orders of magnitude in the last decade. In combination with patient/personal derived data such as electronic health records, patient registries and -databases, as well as life style information this Big Data holds an immense potential for clinical applications, especially for in silico personalized medicine approaches. However, and despite the ever progressing technological advances in producing data, the exploitation of Big Data information to generate new knowledge for medical benefits, while guaranteeing data privacy and security, is lacking behind its full potential. A reason for this obstacle is the inherent heterogeneity of Big Data and the lack of broadly accepted standards that allow interoperable integration of heterogeneous health data to perform analysis and interpretation for predictive in silico modelling approaches in health research such as personalized medicine. Further obstacles are legal issues surrounding the use of personal data. To overcome these obstacles, we will establish a pan-European Expert forum with two main objectives: (i) to assess and evaluate national standardization strategies for interoperable health data integration (such as omics-, disease-focused-, clinical-/treatment- or healthcare- and socioeconomic-/lifestyle-data) as well as data-driven in silico modelling approaches and (ii) to harmonize and develop universal (cross-border) standards as well as recommendations for in silico methodologies applied in personalized medicine approaches. This pan-European Expert Forum —the EU-STANDS4PM consortium— has the overarching aim to bundle transnational standardization guidelines for in silico methodologies in transnational and clinical research to unfold the potential of personalized medicine.


European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases

As recognized by the Council Recommendation 2009/C 151/02, rare diseases (RD) are a prime example of a research area that can strongly profit from coordination on a European and international scale. RD research should be improved to overcome fragmentation, leading to efficacious use of data and resources, faster scientific progress and competitiveness, and most importantly to decrease unnecessary hardship and prolonged suffering of RD patients. In the specific context of the massive generation, need for reuse and efficient interpretation of data, introduction of omics into care practice and the structuration of RD care centers in European Reference Networks, it appears crucial and timely to maximize the potential of already funded tools and programmes by supporting them further, scaling up, linking, and most importantly, adapting them to the needs of end-users through implementation tests in real settings. Such a concerted effort is necessary to develop a sustainable ecosystem allowing a virtuous circle between RD care, research and medical innovation. To achieve this goal, the European Joint Programme on RD (EJP RD) has two major objectives: (i) To improve the integration, the efficacy, the production and the social impact of research on RD through the development, demonstration and promotion of Europe/world-wide sharing of research and clinical data, materials, processes, knowledge and know-how; (ii) To implement and further develop an efficient model of financial support for all types of research on RD (fundamental, clinical, epidemiological, social, economic, health service) coupled with accelerated exploitation of research results for benefit of patients. To this end, the EJP RD actions will be organized within four major Pillars assisted by the central coordination: (P1): Funding of research; (P2): Coordinated access to data and services; (P3) Capacity building; (P4): Accelerated translation of research projects and improvement outcomes of clinical studies.


Enabling proteins with RNA recognition motifs for synthetic biology and bio-analytics.

RNAct creates an integrated and multidisciplinary training and research programme for 10 broadly employable ESRs with versatile computational and experimental skills. The RNAct research aim is the design of novel RNA recognition motif (RRM) proteins for exploitation in synthetic biology and bio-analytics. This is achieved through a design cycle that starts with computational approaches at the sequence and structure levels of proteins and RNA, in order to select amino acid positions and mutations for large-scale phage display experiments with RNA screening. Viable RRMs will be further investigated at the atomic level with integrative structural biology approaches, and will be applied in synthetic biology, to post-transcriptionally regulate fatty acid processing via RRMs, and in bio-analytics, to detect RNA in-cell and design RNA biochips. The RNAct training will provide ESR-tailored research and education-based training in both topical content and transversal skills. All ESRs will experience both academic and industrial environments, and will be exposed to both computation and experiment at the peer level via an ESR 'buddy' system. The ESRs will be actively involved in, and responsible for, information dissemination and communication for the RNAct project, and will have to opportunity to participate in innovation activities. This will enable the ESRs to constructively contribute to the European bio-economy in both academic and industrial settings.


INTEGRITY: empowering students through evidence-based, scaffolded learning of Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR)

INTEGRITY’s  innovative approach aims to empower students in responsible research: using RCR INTEGRITY will build a teaching philosophy that underpins comprehensive research integrity training. RCR will incorporate the conventional concerns of FFP (Fraud, Falsification and Plagiarism) and questionable research practices (QRC), yet use a new orientation, namely the empowerment of students. This is vital and innovative because today’s students will encounter dilemmas that current practice cannot yet foresee but need equipment for. INTEGRITY will develop an interactive curriculum with compelling and effective tools that will be co-created with students, using key values, namely Transparency, Honesty and Responsibility. It will include innovative training and mentoring for influencers and will experiment with nudging techniques for effectiveness. INTEGRITY will build capacity in a scaffolded manner, targeting different student group levels, and will deploy training in formal, non-formal and informal contexts and cover the full range of scholarly disciplines, including computer sciences technical studies, social sciences and humanities.

Develop the governance for the advancement of responsible research and innovation


Citizen Science for Urban Environment and Health

Scientific evidence about the negative health effects of urban environmental exposures is mounting. Yet key scientific gaps exist. Surveys show that citizens are increasingly concerned about the consequences of these exposures on their own health, and are engaged in data collection and activism efforts around problems such as urban mobility and air and noise pollution. These concerns, along with the availability of affordable crowd-sensing and data processing technologies that allow citizens to measure environmental and health parameters, make environmental epidemiology studies an ideal, yet underexplored opportunity to develop citizen science projects. Enabling collaboration between researchers and citizens to generate solid, unbiased scientific evidence of local relevance can reduce existing information gaps. It can empower people to contribute to novel and bottom-up research agendas, interventions and co-creation of public policies. The aim of the Citizen Science Project on Urban Environment and Health (CitieS-Health) is to develop an effective citizen science model at the maximum collaboration level. The project will develop citizen science projects in five diverse European cities (Barcelona, Kaunas, Ljubljana, Amsterdam, Lucca), assessing urban air and noise pollution, wood burning, urban design and mobility at local levels. An innovative aspect of CitieS-Health is studying the link between these exposures and health impacts. Citizens will participate in defining research questions, designing and implementing studies, and analysing, interpreting and communicating results. The projects will inform the first open toolkit for the development and promotion of citizen science projects in urban environment and health. The project will also co-design a set of governance principles and procedures to allow participants control over project data and outcomes, and will contribute indicators to assess the project's impacts on different sectors.


FLAG-ERA, the Flagship ERA-NET, gathers national and regional funding organisation with the goal of supporting, together with the European Commission, the FET Flagship initiatives and more generally the FET Flagship programme. Most funding organisations in Europe participate, either directly or as associated members. FLAG-ERA contributes to the construction of the two Flagship initiatives on Graphene and Human Brain research, through a range of activities such as the launch of joint calls supporting transnational projects in synergy with the Flagships, contribution to the Flagship partnering framework, identification of potential partnering projects, information on funding opportunities for the Flagships, and networking events. The activities in FLAG-ERA are organised around periodic events gathering all stakeholders and structured in sessions dedicated to the various objectives and related tasks of the project. FLAG-ERA is implemented as a sequence of ERA-NET projects. FLAG-ERA III is the third ERA-NET project, starting in December 2018 for a period of 6 years, and covering the FLAG-ERA Joint Transnational Calls (JTC) 2019 and JTC 2021.


Democratic governance in a turbulent age

Democratic politics and governance in Europe are facing turbulent times. This not only affects the institutions of government, but the wider structures and processes that make democratic societies work. In order to respond to them, we require an understanding of the nature, causes and consequences of these challenges, as well as assessments of how governments, political parties, interest groups and other societal actors can effectively address them.  With this proposal for a research programme on the topic of governance, NORFACE offers a timely investigation of the precise nature of the turbulence, but also how European states can negotiate it and develop strategies to enhance the quality of democratic politics and governance. The proposed programme will focus on themes derived from five critical challenges to democratic governance and the responses to them: inequality and redistribution, the evolving politics of threat, democratisation of information, shifting identities and representation, and the changing authority of institutions. Through collaborative cross-disciplinary research based on cross-national, historical and/or longitudinal comparison, the programme will develop theoretically ambitious and empirically founded insights to enrich the knowledge base upon which to build new institutions, policies and practices and reshape existing ones for a reflective, inclusive and innovative society.  NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe) is a collaborative partnership of national research funding agencies in the area of social and behavioural sciences. Since 2004, NORFACE has been committed to leading and developing opportunities for social scientists in Europe by developing thematic joint research programmes; building capacity for transnational and interdisciplinary research; advocating for the societal value of the social sciences; and sharing excellence in research management practices and procedures.

Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective Societies


Women face higher risks and burdens than men in transport, due to unequal access to resources, education, job opportunities and entrenched socio-cultural norms. The TInnGO project will develop a framework and mechanisms for a sustainable game change in European transport using the transformative strategy of gender and diversity sensitive smart mobility. It will address gender related contemporary challenges in the transport ecosystem and women’s mobility needs, creating a route for Gender Sensitive Smart Mobility in European Transport, which considers diversity of different groups. Intersectional analysis, with gender aligned to socio cultural dimensions, will be applied to different types of transport data, assessment tools, modelling of new mobility policies, planning and services to show prevalence of transport poverty in traditionally hard to reach groups. TInnGO will show how inequalities are created and address gendered practices of education, employment, technological innovations and entrepreneurship as arenas for change and inclusion of gendered innovations. A Pan European observatory for gender smart transport innovation (TInnGO) will provide a nexus for data collection, analysis, dissemination of gender mainstreaming tools and open innovation.  TInnGO's emphasis on diverse and specific transport needs is shown in its unique comparative approach enabling contributions from, and influence of 13-member states in 10 hubs. These will employ qualitative, quantitative and design research methods, combining hands-on knowledge, concrete actions and best practices to develop gender and diversity sensitive smart mobilities and solutions through associated ideas factories (TInnGIdLabs).  No former EU funded project has applied an intersectional gender approach to smartening transport. TInnGO will therefore lead research into a new era and use the knowledge to achieve impacts on Social, Economic, Environmental and European ambitions of growth, wealth and innovation.


VILNIAUS GEDIMINO TECHNIKOS UNIVERSITETAS

Measuring, monitoring and data handling for railway assets; bridges, tunnels, tracks and safety systems

Assets4Rail shares the Shift2Rail view of having an ageing European railway infrastructure that needs to cope with the expected increased traffics in the future. Likewise, reliable rolling stock will be required to crystallize the desired modal shift to rail. Both goals relay on a proactive and cost-effective maintenance and intervention system in the assets. Assets4Rail aims to contribute to this modal shift by exploring, adapting and testing cutting-edge technologies for railway asset monitoring and maintenance. To achieve that, Assets4Rail follows a twofold approach, including infrastructure (tunnel, bridges, track geometry, and safety systems) and vehicles. A dedicated information model (BIM) will be the keystone of the infrastructure part of the project. This model with integrated algorithms will gather and analyze the information collected by specific sensors which will monitor subsurface tunnel defects, fatigue consumption, noise and vibrations of bridges as well as track geometry. On the other hand, train monitoring will include the installation of track-side and underframe imaging automated system to collect data for detecting specific types of defects that have non-negligible impacts on infrastructure. The additional use of the RFID technology will enable the smooth identification of trains and single elements, associated with the identified rolling stock failures. The combination of mentioned real-time collected data with existing data along the implementation of deep learning techniques for assessing large data volumes will pave the way towards a cost-effective and proactive maintenance process of infrastructure and rolling stock. In addition, two innovative intervention methods, noise rail dampers and the cleaning of long tunnel drainage pipes, will be validated on field. Assets4Rail will benefit from a strong multidisciplinary consortium committed to concrete exploitation activities aligned towards the achievement of the challenging project objectives.


Democratic Efficacy and the Varieties of Populism in Europe

DEMOS is built on the assumption that populism is symptomatic of a disconnect between how democratic polities operate and how citizens perceive their own aspirations, needs and identities within the political system. As such, DEMOS explores the practical value of ’democratic efficacy’ as the condition of political engagement needed to address the challenge of populism. The concept combines attitudinal features (political efficacy), political skills, knowledge, and democratic opportunity structures.  In order to better understand populism DEMOS addresses its hitherto under-researched aspects at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels: its socio-psychological roots, social actors’ responses to the populist challenge, and populism’s effects on governance. DEMOS focuses not only on the polity, but equally on citizens’ perspectives: how they are affected by, and how they react to, populism. Politically underrepresented groups and those targeted by populist politics are a particular focus, e.g. youth, women, and migrants. As populism has varying socially embedded manifestations, DEMOS aims at contextualising it through comparative analysis on the variety of populisms across Europe, including their historical, cultural, and socioeconomic roots, manifestations, and impacts. DEMOS develops indicators and predictors of populism and elaborates scenarios on the interactions of populism with social actors and institutions both at the national and the EU levels.  Unifying 15 partners from 10 disciplines, DEMOS combines in-depth research on populism and democratic efficacy with action research and pilot projects in order to develop lasting tools and timely policy recommendations; project methods include experiments, deliberative polling, text mining, surveys, and legal analysis. DEMOS places strong emphasis on communication and productive interactions with a variety of stakeholders throughout the project, including policymakers, journalists, students, and the general public.


VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS ZEMES UKIO KONSULTAVIMO TARNYBA

FAIRshare. Farm Advisory digital Innovation tools Realised and Shared

Electronic data generation, analytics and communication technologies potentially enable more accurate, faster and better decision-making on farms, with huge potential to improve agricultural sustainability. There is a major focus on digitisation by EU and national/regional policy-makers to ensure that digital innovation in agriculture keeps pace with other sectors and the benefits of digitisation are available to the wider farming community. However, there is a danger that digitisation and future innovations will be hampered unless the rural advisory community is mobilised to take ownership of digital tools and to advocate at the user interface.  This CSA will engage, enable and empower the independent farm advisor community,  through sharing of tools, expertise and motivations. FAIRshare has two main programmes. Firstly, WPs 1, 2 and 3 will gather an evidence base of the digital tools and services used internationally, leveraging the social networks of partner institutions that span  EU and non-EU countries. The inventory of tools will be accessible to end-users on an intuitively navigable online interface that has been co-designed using a multi-actor approach. Accompanying the tools in the online inventory  will be information, for instance short ‘good practice’ vignettes, on how the tools may be used/adapted for use. Secondly, WPs 4, 5 and 6 will generate and resource a participatory ‘living laboratory’, empowering advisor peers from across the EU to interact with the online inventory and, in a series of workshops, to exchange, co-adapt, co-design and apply digital tools. The FAIRshare 'living lab’ will enable advisors to address challenges to embedding digital tools in different advisory and farming contexts across the EU. Special focus will be on  co-designing powerful communication and engagement approaches for advisors to advocate and inspire their peers and farmer clients, driving a social movement for the wider and better use of digital tools.

Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research


VALSTYBES IMONE KLAIPEDOS VALSTYBINIO JURU UOSTO DIREKCIJA

Development and demonstration of a long-endurance sea surveying autonomous unmanned vehicle with gliding capability powered by hydrogen fuel cell

Battery-powered AUVs have been used to study the seabed without the requirement of a human operator. Their operational endurance is limited by the available battery charge. Gliders, an AUV subclass, use small changes in their buoyancy to move like a profiling float. By using their wings, gliders can convert the vertical motion to horizontal, propelling themselves forward with very low power consumption. Hence, mission duration can be extended to months and to thousands of kilometers. However, gliders are suited for a particular set of missions involving relatively basic measurements and seabed mapping cannot be performed due to their inherent inability to cruise in a straight line.  A surface support vessel is standard practice for launch and recovery of AUVs. The requirement to have a support vessel adds to the overall mission cost. Therefore higher endurance is needed in AUV platforms in order to bring mission costs down and improve the ocean exploration capability. The ENDURUNS project will deliver a step-change in AUV technology by implementing a novel hybrid design power by hydrogen fuel cell. An Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) will support the operation of the AUV, providing geotagging and data transmission capability to and from the Control Centre on shore.


Bringing together the Knowledge for Better Agriculture Monitoring

The main objective of EO4AGRI is to catalyze the evolution of the European capacity for improving operational agriculture monitoring from local to global levels based on information derived from Copernicus satellite observation data and through exploitation of associated geospatial and socio-economic information services. EO4AGRI assists the implementation of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with special attention to the CAP2020 reform, to requirements of Paying Agencies, and for the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) processes. EO4AGRI works with farmers, farmer associations and agro-food industry on specifications of data-driven farming services with focus on increasing the utilization of EC investments into Copernicus Data and Information Services (DIAS). EO4AGRI addresses global food security challenges coordinated within the G20 Global Agricultural Monitoring initiative (GEOGLAM) capitalizing on Copernicus Open Data as input to the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEW-NET). EO4AGRI assesses information about land-use and agricultural service needs and offers to financial investors and insurances and the potential added value of fueling those services with Copernicus information. The EO4AGRI team consists of 11 organizations, complementary in their roles and expertise, covering a good part of the value-chain with a significant relevant networking capital as documented in numerous project affiliations and the formal support declarations collected for EO4AGRI. All partners show large records of activities either in Copernicus RTD, governmental functions, or downstream service operations. The Coordinator of EO4AGRI is a major industrial player with proven capacities to lead H2020 projects. The EO4AGRI project methodology is a combination of community building; service gap analysis; technology watch; strategic research agenda design and policy recommendations; dissemination (incl. organization of hackathons).


LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKOS ENERGETIKOS MINISTERIJOS

The objective of the 3rd Concerted Action on the Energy Efficiency Directive (CA EED3) is to foster exchange of information and experience among Member States and other participating countries (Norway) with a view to facilitating the implementation of the Directive of 2018/2002 amending Directive 2012/27/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy efficiency (EED), including the implementation of the foreseen recast of this Directive . The Action follows on from the CA ESD, CA EED and CA-EED 2 which has helped MS with the interpretation of the legislation, the implementation options and support via detailed information and access to experts on mature policies and practices. The specific objectives of the Action are: •	To enhance and structure the sharing of information and experiences from national implementation whilst promoting good practice concepts in activities to improve and strengthen MS implementation of the EED. •	To encourage dialogue between MS on common approaches for the effective implementation of particular parts of the EED and synergies with RED and EPBD. •	To complement the work of the EED Committee assisting the European Commission. The expected impact of the Action consists of a more harmonized approach and improved implementation of the EED in MS, as well as the transfer of good practices between countries and strengthened cross fertilisation with CA EPBD and CA RES. The CA EED3 brings together a unique group of experts and policy makers, it is the only informal group with full representation of all Member States and Norway and by its very nature provides MS, DG Energy and CINEA with a unique opportunity to communicate in an informal way on a technical level with relevant experts. The Concerted Action community has developed during the course of the CA ESD, CA EED and CA-EED 2 making it easy to find entry points in MS where without the Action contacts would be difficult. In turn the road is paved for bilateral cooperation.


Systemic Innovations Towards a Zero Food Waste Supply Chain

ZeroW has set the ambitious target of playing a key role in the transition of current food systems towards halving Food Loss & Waste (FLW) by 2030 and reaching near-zero FLW by 2050.  ZeroW provides significant impacts through the demonstration of innovations in nine real-life food chains, by employing a systemic innovation approach, to effectively address the multidimensional issue of FLW. This involves:  (i) pre-identifying systemic innovations, that incorporate multiple interlinked dimensions (process, organisational, strategy, marketing, product, technological, governance, etc.), which are tested and demonstrated;  (ii) steering the evolution of innovations towards higher levels of systemic readiness and impact, using a Living Lab co-creation and multi-actor collective learning approach; (iii) enhancing the Living Lab actors’ innovation advancement capability with shared resources facilitating new ways and means of cooperating and co-developing innovations;  (iv) developing context-specific trajectories for the systemic innovations (from ideation to scaling-up and commercialisation) leading to the provision of currently missing end products and services that align with consumer attitudes, food actor needs and policy trends.  Moreover, ZeroW establishes a clear ‘FLW impact trajectory’, from demonstrator results (2025), scaled up to meet the F2F 2030 goals, and steered through a ‘just transition pathway’ towards a near-zero FLW in 2050.


LIETUVOS MAISTO EKSPORTUOTOJU ASOCIACIJA (LITMEA)


LIETUVOS AGRARINIU IR MISKU MOKSLU CENTRAS

A Holistic Fire Management Ecosystem for Prevention, Detection and Restoration of Environmental Disasters

Considering the socio-ecological transition of Europe 2030, and towards a more resilient and informed community, focusing on the forests that are near wildfire risk, DRYADS aims to build upon state-of-the-art high TRL products and unite them in a holistic  Fire Management platform that optimize and reuse per phase the available Socio-technological Resources in all three main phases of Wildfires. For the prevention and preparedness DRYADS propose the use of  a real-time risk evaluation tool that can receive multiple classification inputs and work with a new proposed neural network-powered Risk factor indicator. To create a model of Fire adapted communities (FAC) in parallel to insurance incentives, DRYADS will use alkali activated construction materials (AAM) integrating post-wildfires wood ashes (PWA) for fire-resilient buildings and infrastructure. DRYADS also uses a variety of technological solutions such as the Copernicus infrastructure, and a swarm of small drones customized for accurate forest supervision. In the area of Detection DRYADS propose a variety of toolsets that will accommodate most needs. Stemming from Virtual reality for the training, wearables for the protective equipment of the emergency responders. to UAV (drones), UAG and airships for improving capacity in temporal and spatial analysis as well as to increase the inspected area coverage.. Last, DRYADS will build a new land and field-based restoration initiative that will use all modern techniques such as agroforestry, drones for seed spread, Internet of things sensors that will be able to adapt the seeding process based on the ground needs and on the same time with the help of AI to determine post-fire risks factors. DRYADS solution will be demonstrated and validated under real operating conditions. Demonstration will involve Eight complex pilot implementations executed in seven EU  countries and in Taiwan.

Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials


KOVOS SU PREKYBA ZMONEMIS IR ISNAUDOJIMU CENTRAS VSI

Novel Strategies to Fight Child Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking Crimes and Protect their Victims

Trafficking of human beings (THB) and child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSA/CSE) are two big problems in our society. Inadvertently, new information and communication technologies (ICTs) have provided a space for these problems to develop and take new forms, made worse by the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, technical and legal tools available to stakeholders that prevent, investigate, and assist victims – such as law enforcement agencies (LEAs), prosecutors, judges, and civil society organisations (CSOs) – fail to keep up with the pace at which criminals use new technologies to continue their abhorrent acts. Furthermore, assistance to victims of THB and CSA/CSE is often limited by the lack of coordination among these stakeholders. In this sense, there is a clear and vital need for joint work methodologies and the development of new strategies for approaching and assisting victims. In addition, due to the cross-border nature of these crimes, harmonisation of legal frameworks from each of the affected countries is necessary for creating bridges of communication and coordination among all those stakeholders to help victims and reduce the occurrence of these horrendous crimes. To address these challenges, the HEROES project comes up with an ambitious, interdisciplinary, international, and victim-centred approach. The HEROES project is structured as a comprehensive solution that encompasses three main components: Prevention, Investigation and Victim Assistance. Through these components, our solution aims to establish a coordinated contribution with LEAs by developing an appropriate, victim-centred approach that is capable of addressing specific needs and providing protection. The HEROES project’s main objective is to use technology to improve the way in which help and support can be provided to victims of THB and CSA/CSE.

Secure societies - Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens


LIETUVOS SVEIKATOS MOKSLU UNIVERSITETO LIGONINE KAUNO KLINIKOS

Predicting the Impact of Monoclonal Antibodies & Vaccines on Antimicrobial Resistance

Antibiotic resistance (AMR), a major threat to human health, is increasing in all bacteria through antibiotic-induced selection, cross-species transfer of genetic mobile elements harbouring resistance genes, global transport and environmental waste. With an almost empty antibiotic pipeline, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and vaccines are increasingly recognized as important tools against AMR. Yet, available resources cannot finance all potential interventions, and choices need to be made according to costs of mAbs and vaccines, impact on the burden of AMR and prevention of its economic consequences. The PrIMAVeRa consortium will develop a web-based platform that combines advanced mathematical models with a comprehensive epidemiological repository. Systematic reviews will generate data to inform the model structure and parametrisation and select the most appropriate models for determining the AMR burden by pathogen, infection and target population. Deterministic continuous time models (ordinary differential equations [ODE]) and stochastic discrete time individual-based models with multiple modules will cover all relevant aspects of AMR, while Bayesian approaches will be used for cost-effectiveness analysis. The models will be calibrated in 8 EU countries based on the data coming from health information systems. The PrIMAVeRa consortium comprises a prominent collection of European research groups with expertise in AMR, vaccines, mAbs, mathematical and economical modelling. The proposal builds on established research collaborations and existing research infrastructures from EU- and IMI-funded research projects, such as EPI-Net (COMBACTE-MAGNET) and CLIN-Net and LAB-Net (COMBACTE-NET). The major deliverable will be an open access web-based user interface that will allow the wider scientific community to freely access and apply the models. This platform will also help healthcare authorities to make data-driven decisions on which vaccines and mAbs should be prioritised.


VALSTYBES SIENOS APSAUGOS TARNYBA PRIE VIDAUS REIKALU MINISTERIJOS

aN Enhanced pre-frontier intelligence picture to Safeguard The EurOpean boRders

For the past few years, Europe has experienced some major changes at its surrounding territories and in adjacent countries which provoked serious issues at different levels. The European Community faces a number of challenges both at a political and at a tactical level. Irregular migration flows exerting significant pressure to the relevant authorities and agencies that operate at border territories. Armed conflicts, climate pressure and unpredictable factors occurring at the EU external borders, have increased the number of the reported transnational crimes. Smuggling activity is a major concern for Eastern EU Borders particularly, as monitoring the routes used by smugglers is being hindered by mountainous, densely forested areas and rough lands aside with sea or river areas. Due to the severity and the abrupt emergence of events, the relevant authorities operate for a long-time interval, under harsh conditions, 24 hours a day. NESTOR aims to demonstrate a fully functional next generation holistic border surveillance system providing pre-frontier situational awareness beyond maritime and land border areas following the concept of the European Integrated Border Management. NESTOR long-range and wide area surveillance capabilities for detection, recognition classification and tracking of moving targets (e.g. persons, vessels, vehicles, drones etc.) is based on optical, thermal imaging and Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum analysis technologies fed by an interoperable sensors network including stationary installations and mobile manned or unmanned vehicles (aerial, ground, water, underwater) capable of functioning both as standalone, tethered and in swarms. NESTOR BC3i system will fuse in real-time border surveillance data combined with web and social media information, creating and sharing a pre-frontier intelligent picture to local, regional and national command centers in AR environment being interoperable with CISE and EUROSUR.


imPROved Maritime awarENess by means of AI and BD mEthods

Maritime Domain Awareness is the combination of activities, events and threats in the maritime environment that could have impact on marine activities and EU territory. During the past decades, advances in Information and Communication Technologies have provided better means to monitor and analyse vessel activity. Today private and public source of data such the Automatic Identification System or space related data can be combined with Vessel Traffic Services, Vessel Traffic Management Systems and Vessel Traffic Monitoring & Information Systems data enabling the development of value added information resulted by the combination of such data. European waters are navigated daily by some 12,000 vessels, which share their positions to avoid collisions, generating a huge number of positional messages every month. It is important that this overabundance of information will not overwhelm the marine operator in charge for decision-making. The challenge is twofold: on one side encourage the exchange of heterogeneous data among administration valorising the CISE network currently in place, on the other exploit at the best these datasets by means of automated processing in a way to minimise false alert that might results by an incorrect processing or interpretation of the results. PROMENADE will improve solutions for the vessel tracking, behaviour analysis and automatic anomaly detection by means of the application Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data (BD) technologies, and to promote collaborative exchange of information between maritime surveillance authorities, shortening the time to market and assuring the compliance with legal and ethical regulations.  An open, service-based toolkit implementing “state of art” AI / BD techniques also benefiting of HPC (High Performance Computing) platform is the core activity of the project. The project’s developments will be demonstrated and evaluated in 3 operational scenarios and 1 simulated defined by Border Guards Authorities.


BALTIJOS PAZANGIU TECHNOLOGIJU INSTITUTAS


Transform4Europe (T4E) is a university alliance of proven excellence in strategic collaboration. It has been awarded European funding to pursue joint strategies in education and mobility, focussing on collaboration between the universities and a wealth of non-university stakeholders from the surrounding regions in a multi-actor knowledge and innovation ecosystem. For the T4E universities, the logical next step is to capitalise on this ecosystem to transform their achievements in research and innovation. Together, the diverse actors in the T4E ecosystem can serve as powerful engines for the mutual development of innovation and performance capacities, jointly fostering both research of excellence and impact, and smarter, sustainable, competitive regions.  Transform 4 European Research and Innovation (T4ERI) will devise new strategies to harness this untapped potential, with the focus mission digital and environmental transformation for smart, sustainable and inclusive regions. It will develop a joint agenda for research and innovation, a joint strategy for attracting and retaining outstanding researchers, and a joint strategy to open science to all members of the T4E ecosystem. True to the essence of the alliance, T4ERI will systematically collaborate with regional stakeholders from business and industry, culture, politics and civil society at every step of the process. By 2024, T4ERI will have significantly increased collaboration in research and innovation across all disciplines, will have enabled joint access to key research infrastructure across the alliance, and will have targeted joint action plans to launch one or more major joint research centres relating to its focus mission, to attract and retain excellent junior and established researchers, and to foster engagement and involvement of civil society in research and innovation, further paving the way towards the European University of the future.

Science with and for Society - Cross-theme


European food chain supply to reduce GHG emissions by 2050

The ENOUGH project will provide technologies, tools and methods to contribute to the EU Farm to Fork strategy to achieve climate neutral food businesses. The ENOUGH objectives are: i) Reducing GHG-emissions by at least 50% by 2050 ii) Reducing energy use and increasing energy efficiency by 2030. iii) Increasing the overall sustainability of food systems iv) Providing selected innovative technological systemic solutions and their potential for uptake at EU. The partnership draws together 29 partners from 11 EU nations and the UK with expertise across the whole food chain. The ENOUGH project is constructed around 9 work packages (WP): WP1 will identify 1990 and 2020 baselines for GHG emissions and will then forecast how emissions will change moving forward to 2030 and 2050. In WP2, we will identify what are the energy efficient measures and new technologies that are vital to achieve the maximum reductions in emissions. In WP4 we will use all the information and models from WP1 and 2 to develop a web-based tool that will identify the benefits of thermal integration heating and cooling and provide information on potential global emission reductions across the whole food chain. In WP5, data from food process and the food supply chain will be used to optimize and better control operations and technologies to minimize emissions. In WP3 and 7 we will examine how social behaviour, policy and finance can add to the GHG reductions target. In WP6, the more relevant and promising technologies will be demonstrated. A set of the most promising technologies TRL (5-7) have been pre-selected for demonstration based on their relevance and readiness. Additional technologies/operational adaptations will be added during the project and will be selected using a robust process managed by the coordinator and demonstrated in real life. Work from the ENOUGH project will be widely disseminated with an ambitious communication plan in WP8. WP9 includes all project management.


High-throughput droplet-based single-cell small RNA sequencing technology

Droplet-based single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies have penetrated almost all branches of life sciences and have significantly advanced our understanding of cellular processes and organism development. However, despite their astonishing impact, most of the scRNA-seq technologies reported to date rely on poly(A) tail capture and thus are mainly restricted to the protein-coding RNAs, while neglecting a substantial proportion of the transcriptome, including small non-coding RNAs. As a result, very little is known about the non-coding RNA expression and function in individual cells, and especially their role in the establishment of cellular phenotypic diversity. Small RNAs contain a variety of classes, of which miRNAs are the most common and these act as regulatory molecules by suppressing translation of mRNAs. In addition, loss-of-function studies of miRNAs uncovered their involvement in development of nearly all tissues, including hematopoiesis. However, most studies exploring miRNA dynamics reported to date relied on bulk cell assays, thus disregarding the individual cell types and their heterogeneity. In the scope of this proposal, we aim to develop a high-throughput droplet-based single-cell small RNA-seq (droplet-small-seq) for simultaneous miRNA and mRNA capture and sequencing. We will apply this newly developed technique to investigate the regulatory roles of miRNAs in cell fate decision during hematopoietic development at a single-cell level.


Sustainable Autonomy and Resilience for LEAs using AI against High priority Threats

The increasing complexity of security challenges combined with the accumulation of significant amounts of digital data calls for better and more widespread use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities for law enforcement agencies (LEAs). AI can provide benefits to LEAs at all levels given the right understanding, tools, data and protection while increased awareness of criminal misuse is providing an immediate and concerning threat that must be tackled rapidly. Furthermore, a community that brings together LEAs, researchers, industry, security practitioners and other actors in the security ecosystem under a coordinated and strategic effort is essential for the realisation of these efforts into operational practices.   STARLIGHT presents an inclusive and sustainable vision for increasing the awareness, capability, adoption and long-term impact of AI in Europe for LEAs. Five strategic goals underpin STARLIGHT’s approach: (1) Improve the widespread UNDERSTANDing of AI across LEAs to reinforce their investigative and cybersecurity operations and the need to uphold legal, ethical and societal values; (2) Provide opportunities to LEAs to EXPLOIT AI tools and solutions in their operational work that are trustworthy, transparent and human-centric; (3) Ensure that LEAs can PROTECT their own AI systems through privacy- and security-by-design approaches, better cybersecurity tools and knowledge; (4) Raise LEAs’ expertise and capacity to COMBAT the misuse of AI-supported crime and terrorism; and (5) BOOST AI for LEAs in Europe through high-quality datasets, an interoperable and standardised framework for long term sustainability of solutions, and the creation of an AI hub for LEAs that supports a strong AI security industry and enhances the EU’s strategic autonomy in AI.  STARLIGHT will ensure European LEAs lead the way in AI innovation, autonomy and resilience, addressing the challenges of now and the future, prioritising the safety and security of Europe for all.


Understanding microbiomes of the ruminant holobiont

Sustainability of ruminant production is of concern to society because of its implications for the environment, the economy and food security. Microbiomes associated with the host play a key role in health, welfare and environmental efficiency in ruminant production systems. However, despite the information already available, we lack the insights to precisely link the causes and mechanisms of microbial influence on ruminant phenotypes. This is because the interconnection and communication between the animal and its different microbiomes have never been studied in a deep, integrated way.  The goal of the project is to elucidate the role of ruminant-associated microbiomes and their interplay with the host in early life and throughout fundamental life events. HoloRuminant will use a holistic multi-omics approach to characterise the acquisition and evolution of microbiomes from different body sites, their inheritability and their influence on the host’s resistance to disease and environmental efficiency of production. Specifically we will: determine microbiomes’ functions by combining multi-level information for microbes, host and their interaction; define microbiomes’ roles during challenging life periods such as perinatal, weaning, and after exposure to pathogens; and evaluate the effect of ruminant microbiomes on critical phenotypes for sustainable production, health and welfare. This will allow the identification of novel microbial markers for monitoring, predicting and selecting phenotypes of interest. By engaging actors from the livestock value chain, we will evaluate the socio-economic impact and acceptability of the innovations proposed among stakeholders and the public. HoloRuminant will provide highly innovative, standardized methodologies that will radically advance our understanding of the ruminant holobiont. This knowledge and the tools created will allow the use of microbiome-based diagnostics and solutions for improving ruminant sustainabilty.


TERRITORIAL CIRCULAR SYSTEMIC SOLUTION FOR THE UPCYCLING OF RESIDUES FROM THE AGRIFOOD SECTOR

Agro2Circular (A2C) project is focused on the implementation of the first territorial systemic solution for the upcycling of most relevant residues in the agrifood sector (fruits& vegetables and plastic multilayers) into high added value products, powered by a digital tool and constructed upon a systemic approach with high replicable/scalable potential. Through this solution, A2C will face important industrial, economic & social challenges in the agrifood sector: 1) The fruits & vegetables (F&V) are the group of major contribution to food waste along the food supply chain rising up to > 40% of waste, and are as excellent source of natural bioactives.  However, these F&V wastes are not exploited. A2C will valorise them by green routes to obtain these bioactives for the production of nutraceuticals, functional foods, and cosmetics.  3) Multilayer plastic films are widely used as industrial packaging for the protection of food and agriculture for crops due to their unique barrier properties. However, there is a lack of sorting and recycling technologies for an economic and environmentally sustainable valorisation of these multilayer structures. A2C will develop the first recycling value chain for post-industrial multilayer films based on a synergistic approach combining innovative sorting, physical delamination, enzymatic depolymerisation, decontamination & mechanical recycling. 3) There is a lack of digitalisation in the agrifood sector. A2C will implement a Data Integration System (DIS) as a digital tool for ensuring traceability and as Predictive Decision Tool in the agrifood sector. A2C will be a demonstrated in the Regi?n de Murcia (Spain) and replicable systemic solution throughout Europe for the territorial deployment of the circular economy.


New industrial value chain for Safe, sECure and Resilient cIties and Territories

The security sector is considerably evolving, by adapting the offer to the risk and threats and by permanently aggregating emerging innovations. The digital is disrupting this industry, by adding new capacities and new threats. The security sector is very fragmented. SecurIT aims to create a new global competitive security industrial (product & service) value chain by supporting a better integration of innovative security systems, with a cross-sectoral and European approach, to support the time to market optimization, the integration of privacy and security by design at all steps of maturity, with a cross-border collaboration between SMEs and other RDI actors.   This vision is supported by a 4 step-approach:  #1: : Analysis of the demand-side, mobilizing 40 integrators/end-users to identify their needs and 42 potential demonstrators including major actors as large industry, cities, critical infrastructures operators that will join SecurIT as user group, experiment hosting or supportive partners (26 support letters in annex - AIRBUS, THALES, ATOS, COESS, ECSO, cities, EEN etc.).  #2&3: Involving supply sides (SMEs), aiming to get 300 EoI to participate in SecurIT and attracting +1000 SMEs to get part through outreach actions (15 letters of SMEs in annex).  #4: Select and Support 63 innovation projects involving 126 SMEs with over 3,5M€ of FSTP through 2 Instruments of support from TRL5 to TRL9 (Prototyping and Demonstration/Pilot), and +700K€ in services provided by partners. Highquality experts will be involved in the SMEs selection process.  The consortium is as a whole, with 7 Security and complementary Clusters from France, Belgium, Lithuania, The Netherlands and Denmark, coming from most relevant security / cybersecurity Regional Innovation Hubs in Europe, and the SecurIT partners have experience in open call management at national and european level.


VIESOJI ISTAIGA KAUNO MOKSLO IR TECHNOLOGIJU PARKAS

Value chain innovations in emerging Health Tech, Smart City and Greentech industries addressing the challenges of smart urban environment

URBAN TECH will support the acceleration of competitive success of European SMEs through market launch of new or significantly improved products and services with higher value (with higher quality, increased access, eco-innovative, resource efficient and internationally scalable). In long term perspective (strategic objective), URBAN TECH will innovate and increase the competitiveness of European Health Tech, Smart City and Greentech industries globally. Value proposition:  •	Offering innovative solutions to cross-sectoral and cross-border challenges, either public or private. •	Bringing together different stakeholders of the industry value-chain to cooperate and innovate together. •	Supporting SMEs and start-ups in scaling their solutions and products globally. Advanced partnership of cluster and innovation support organisations from 9 countries, entrepreneurial and innovation support measures providers to SMEs and start-ups, mediators between the societal stakeholders needs and solution providers. Partners’ network bringing together 3 500 start-ups and SMEs and wider outreach to 20 000. The core outputs of the project: • 300 clustered challenges from 9 countries and beyond • Online Open Space, based on Virtual Library of Challenges structured around Health Tech, Greentech and Smart City industries • 320 collaborative innovation ideas for solutions by SMEs selected for industry hackathons through Open Call • 16 international industry hackathons, resulting in 80 cross-border and cross-sectoral innovation projects selected for incubation and 1st stage of support (in total, max up to 10 350 €) • ~30 projects selected for 2nd stage support (20-30 k €) for large scale testing and demonstration to deliver minimal viable products (MPVs) • 20 projects selected for Going Global stage support (up to 14 k €) • 20 tested and demonstrated products, partnerships and further public & private funding attracted through project business development and going global support in 3-5 years


High Efficiency wiReless CMOS transceiver boosted by artificial intelligencE for 6G bandS and beyond

The future of wireless communications will go beyond connecting people or things to connecting smart robots or unmanned vehicles without human intervention. Only sub-THz frequencies can offer the spectrum to achieve unprecedented communication throughput. Yet current technologies suffer from barriers that prevent mass-market operations, such as high cost, limited bandwidth or power-hungry hardware not compatible with autonomous systems. HERMES proposes the fusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep sub-micron CMOS technology to open a new generation of wireless transceivers. The project will focus on sub-THz frequencies between 140 and 160GHz, and will break new ground in the conversion of information from digital to THz using European CMOS technology to develop a highly integrated transceiver. For the first time, HERMES will deliver to the telecommunications industry a disruptive way of designing transceivers, with impact on production of billions of units that can be implemented in any autonomous system to communicate. This new wireless link will be a springboard for an innovation leap in the robotics and the security industry. Our ambitious and risky approach goes significantly beyond the SoA: we will demonstrate that the power of AI developed by computer sciences research and associated with an original electronics signal processing technique can push CMOS technology to release outstanding performances. The project will produce a chipset of a low-cost radio that exchanges tens of Gbps and will test it in use cases of unmanned vehicles applied to maritime border surveillance operated by civil authorities. The HERMES consortium brings together 6 partners from 5 European countries bridging the full value chain of academic research, technology transfer and industry.


An Interactive, Collaborative Digital Gamification Approach to Effective Experiential Training and Prediction of Criminal Actions

The aim of our project is to train police officers’ on the procedure, through gamification technologies in a safe and controlled virtual environment. Essential tasks during the creation of LAW-GAME serious game are to virtualise and accurately recreate the real world. We will introduce an attractive approach to the development of core competencies required for performing intelligence analysis, through a series of AI-assisted procedures for crime analysis and prediction of illegal acts, within the LAW-GAME game realm. Building upon an in-depth analysis of police officers’ learning needs, we will develop an advanced learning experience, embedded into 3 comprehensive “gaming modes” dedicated to train police officers and measure their proficiency in: 1. conducting forensic examination, through a one-player or multi-player cooperative gaming scenario, played through the role of a forensics expert. Developed AI tools for evidence recognition and CSI and car accident analysis, will provide guidance to the trainee.   2. effective questioning, threatening, cajoling, persuasion, or negotiation. The trainee will be exposed to the challenges of the police interview tactics and trained to increase her emotional intelligence by interviewing a highly-realistic 3D digital character, advanced with conversational AI.  3. recognizing and mitigating potential terrorist attacks. The trainees will impersonate an intelligence analyst tasked with preventing an impending terrorist attack under a didactic and exciting “bad and good” multiplayer and AI-assisted game experience.   The proposed learning experience focuses on the development of the key competences needed for successfully operating in diverse and distributed teams, as required by several cross-organisational and international cooperation situations. The learning methodology developed by the LAW-GAME consortium will be extensively validated by European end-users, in Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Moldavia and Spain.


VARTOTOJU ALJANSAS LITHUANIAN CONSUMERS ALLIANCE

CLEAR-X - Consumers Leading the EU’s Energy Ambition Response, Expansion - is an ambitious extension of a tried-and-tested methodology, designed and developed to address consumers’ needs. The overall objective is to enable consumers to lead the energy transition by investing in renewable energy and sustainable energy (RES) and energy efficient (EE) technologies. It aims to facilitate consumers’ access to household renewables at an affordable price, through the provision of trusted information, collective purchase schemes and an improved regulatory framework. By the conclusion of CLEAR-X, consumers will have improved the energy performance and comfort of their homes and reduced their energy bills in the long term.   The CLEAR-X project will engage 38,000 consumers in collective purchase campaigns in 6 target countries and will trigger over 27M EUR in installations of RES technologies. The project is expected to result in an additional 40 GWh of renewable energy production and trigger 2.15 GWh of primary energy savings within the project duration. Furthermore, the project will help inform a significant number of consumers in the target countries about potential benefits of EE and RES technologies and influence an additional 17,000 consumers to act and save energy.   Building on CLEAR (Intelligent Energy Europe) and CLEAR 2.0 (Horizon 2020), CLEAR-X will expand the proven collective purchase model, by engaging and supporting consumer organisations in Eastern and Southern Europe to launch schemes for their national consumers. Consumer organisations participating in CLEAR 2.0 developed considerable expertise in setting up and running collective purchase schemes and CLEAR-X will draw on this experience, both human and technological, to equip consumer organisations in the target countries with the necessary skills to run collective purchases.


Laser-plasma based source 3D Tomography for cargo inspection

Within the field of security, Customs and Border inspection have not had breakthrough technological developments in the last 20 years, since the introduction of X-ray screening. The limits of these current technologies are accentuated by the increasing diversity and novelty in trafficking materials, tools and methods. These limitations combined with the growing needs of inspection and control call for a disruptive innovative solution. Wanting to move a step up from the existing planar scanning methods with limited material identification results, several studies have identified potential solutions focused on: -	High energy 3D X-ray tomography -	Neutron interrogation/photofission -	Nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRR) While these show good results and performances, they also have several important drawbacks, which limits their possible uses. Moreover, these solutions do not have common technological bricks meaning they can only lead to separate disposals. The proposed MULTISCAN3D investigates a new all-in-one system whose purpose is to become simultaneously a user-friendly, flexible, relocatable solution offering high-quality information for: -	Fast high energy 3D X-rays tomography (as first line) -	Neutron interrogation/photofission (as second line) -	Narrow gamma ray beam based NRR (as second line) MULTISCAN3D will start by investigating and defining needs and requirements, in a technologically-neutral way, with Europe’s most prominent Customs Authorities which will be translated to technical specifications. The main body of the research will be focused on three parts, following which, lab validations and real-environment demonstration will be carried out. These three work areas are: -	Laser-plasma based accelerators as X-ray sources -	3D reconstruction for multi-view configurations and data processing -	Detectors and source monitoring At the same time complementary techniques with chemical and SNM identification capabilities will be investigated.


The project of the Sustainable Energy Investing and Financing Activation (SEIFA) will create incentives to increase private equity investing for the industrial decarbonisation of the built environment. The SEIFA project is focusing on investing and financing of deep renovation industrial projects, energy supply facilities and energy service companies. The investors-first approach will be held with an emphasis on the environmental impact in terms of decarbonisation rate and risk-adjusted rate of return. The new financial schemes to incentivise private individual and institutional investments to sustainable energy projects will be established. Innovative financing schemes will include sustainable energy investing risks metrics and benefits. The network of regional/national project aggregators will be established. Investment pooling and proposed investment vehicles will let achieve lower transaction costs. The financial software tools will be provided for the energy efficiency measurement, quantification and evaluation of additional benefits of sustainable energy investing including decarbonisation rate, increased asset value, impact on investor reputation, and for investment rating and ranking. The detailed methodology of the sustainable energy investment securitisation and detailed roadmap for the secondary market for sustainable energy investing will be created. Initial milestones of the secondary market for sustainable energy investing will be accomplished during the project duration. The planned project duration is 30 months. At least 500 million Eur for sustainable energy projects will be provided during the SEIFA project duration and it is expected that 5 billion Eur mark will be reached during the 5 years after the project completion. The SEIFA project platform will greatly increase the attractiveness for the financial sector to sustainable energy investing across Europe and beyond.


CONCERTED ACTION SUPPORTING THE TRANSPOSITION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF DIRECTIVE 2018/2001/EC ON THE PROMOTION OF THE USE OF ENERGY FROM RENEWABLE SOURCES (RECAST)

The Concerted Action supports the implementation of the RES directive. In particular, the Concerted Action facilitates sharing experience and good practice of implementation, finding common approaches as well as cross-learning and cooperation.  The work carried out within the CA-RES is designed to meet the needs of RES Directive implementing organisations. The action will provide added value compared with measures taken by each MS acting on its own. The Concerted Action will help make knowledge available to all participants through access to a network of national experts engaged in implementation of the Directive. The CA-RES4 will do this through a structured framework that will facilitate the exchange of information and experience through a series of meetings and other communication tools. It will provide participants with an opportunity to learn from others implementation process and policy approaches and build national policy capacity, but also to explore opportunities for bi-lateral or multi-lateral cooperation and identify areas for possible future convergence and harmonised approaches amongst participating countries.  The CA-RES4 builds upon the success and structures of the previous phases of the CA. The CA-RES community has developed during the course of the previous phases into a unique network of experts and will be strengthened. The objective is to provide participating countries with the most pertinent information that may lead them on the most efficient path towards an effective implementation of the RES Directive 2018/2001/EC in the EU. The expected impact of the Action consists of a more harmonized approach and improved implementation of the RED II in participating countries, a strengthened network of experts as well as the transfer of good practices between countries.


REVEALING THE ROLE OF GEOSS AS THE DEFAULT DIGITAL PORTAL FOR BUILDING CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION & MITIGATION APPLICATIONS

EIFFEL will offer the EO-based community the ground-breaking capacity of exploiting existing GEOSS and external datasets, with minimal new data collection activities. Added-value services interoperable with GEOSS will be designed, using cognitive search and metadata augmentation tools based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Natural Language Processing. These tools will leverage advanced cognitive features to extract meaningful information from and enrich GEOSS metadata. Moreover, novel methods (super resolution, data fusion) for augmenting the spatiotemporal resolution of explored EO data will be proposed, in order to address the needs of the diverse EIFFEL CC adaptation and mitigation applications. The latter will cover: (i) a set of five different GEO Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs), namely in Water and Land Use Management, Sustainable Agriculture, Transport Management, Sustainable Urban Development and Disaster Resilience domains; (ii) various EU geographical and climatic regions, at local, regional, national, cross-border and pan-European scales. Further, the value of using explainable AI techniques for improving the credibility and comprehensiveness of such CC applications, so that they can offer actionable insights to the decision makers, will be showcased. EIFFEL will foster the co-design of CC adaptation policies and mitigation strategies and monitor CC effects in the respective regions. The project, in line with EuroGEO’s emphasis on early engagement with stakeholders and their participation in the application design, has ensured that they are active consortium members. EIFFEL complies with the framework of results-Oriented GEOSS, to improve the delivery of applications tailored to decision making centres and will actively participate in the GEO Work Programme post-2019. Last, it provides tangible proof of the value of GEOSS data for creating CC applications and encourages projects and initiatives to offer their data through the portal.