FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR THE RUBEDO CVM – INNOVATIVE OPTICAL COMPUTER VISION MODULE FOR UNMANNED VEHICLES

One of the major driving forces for the depth perception market is the increasing use of mobile robots and drones for multiple applications. Without reliable vision and particularly depth perception unmanned vehicles are unable to detect obstacles and adaptively plan motion paths. Moreover, the new generation of robotic machines strongly depend on the ability to acquire, organize, and interpret surrounding visual data in real-time in order to stay aware of the environmental situation and act adequately. Robot and autonomous vehicle manufacturers or system manufacturers do not have the necessary skills, knowledge and know-how for computer vision development, therefore they would much rather use a standard computer vision solution. Currently in the market there is no truly affordable standardized stand-alone COTS 3D computer vision solution, which is capable of high resolution low power long range real-time optical depth sense with deep learning based natural object perception capabilities out of box – something, that is universally appreciated by many mobile robotic system manufacturers and integrators. Rubedo Sistemos has already developed and successfully tested a prototype of CVM (computer vision module) – the first affordable, compact low power long-range high-resolution real-time depth sense technology for 3D perception at longer distances for mobile robotics. Rubedo CVM has been designed as a maintenance-free standalone product which provides high definition images, accurate measure of the environment depth, and can be trained to extract natural objects of interest in real-time. Thorough analysis of market and user needs as well as an elaboration of a business plan is needed in order to ensure successful commercialization of Rubedo CVM. This feasibility study will help validating the market in addition to providing a stepping-stone for future preparation of investor readiness as well as serve as a roadmap for market replication of the product.


Research and Development in support of the GEMINI Initiative

GEMINI+ project proposal will be submitted to the European Commission addressing the 2016 Euratom call for proposals (deadline October 5th, 2016). GEMINI+ project will provide a conceptual design for a high temperature nuclear cogeneration system for supply of process steam to industry, a framework for the licensing of such system and a business plan for a full scale demonstration . It will rely on modular High Temperature Gas cooled Reactor (HTGR) technology, which is a mature technology with several industrial prototypes that have been constructed and operated in the world. Therefore the time scale for the industrial deployment of such nuclear cogeneration systems is the decade. With available materials and technology, such a system can provide steam to industrial steam distribution networks presently operating on industrial sites up to 550˚C, simply substituting to fossil fuel fired cogeneration plants, without any need for adaptation of the steam distribution infrastructure or of the industrial applications. In the longer term, HTGR technology can be further developed to provide higher temperature process heat. Based on its huge thermal inertia, its refractory fuel and core structural materials, on the use of helium, which is chemically inert, as coolant, and of a specific design limited to a few hundred Megawatts, modular HTGRs have a unique intrinsic safety concept preventing in any circumstances significant degradation of the nuclear fuel and consecutive radioactive releases, with no need of any human intervention.  Beyond industrial cogeneration, the flexibility, robustness and simple design of modular HTGR will allow extending application of the system developed by GEMINI+ to small isolated electric grids, to electric grids with increasing proportion of intermittent renewables, to new nuclear countries, etc.


Transition metal oxides with metastable phases: a way towards superior ferroic properties

The main objective of the project is development of complex transition metal oxides with perovskite-like structure having improved and controllable (multi)ferroic properties. The mentioned materials are manganites and ferrites with optimal composition having distinct magnetization, polarization, (magneto)transport properties or magnetoelectric coupling. The idea of the project is to utilize reduced structural stability of these oxides which increases their sensitivity to external stimuli. Improved functional properties of these oxides can be controlled via modification of the chemical bond character, structural parameters, stoichiometry, defects etc. The reduced stability is associated with the metastable structural state formed in the vicinity of the phase boundaries, while this state presumably consists of coexistent nanoscale regions of the adjacent structural phases. There are two ideas to create metastable state: the first one – to design ceramics via chemical substitution and post-synthesis treatment by high pressure and/or thermal cycling in gases to induce nanoscale regions, the second one assumes chemical routes synthesis of films and ceramics. Besides the fundamental interest of the phase transitions and related phenomena affecting properties of the oxides the applicants consider them to be effective materials for electronic applications (as sensors, magnetic memory elements, filters etc.). Research of these oxides requires consolidative efforts of specialists in different scientific areas - Materials Science, Theoretical Physics, Solid State Physics etc. as well as an access to unique equipment and facilities. Another important objective of the project is a formation of interdisciplinary network of teams and specialists with different scientific backgrounds which will ensure effective transfer of actual knowledge and skills. Development of the transition metal oxides with controllable properties has promising commercial opportunities for the involved SME.


Methodologies for Researcher Led INnovations

MERLIN aims to support ICT researchers, SMEs and startups across to realise the full potential and impact of their research and development outputs by crafting them into innovations and achieving market validation using modern needs-first, market-led methodologies like Business Model Canvas, Customer Discovery, Lean Hardware, etc. The project will provide training, networking and follow-on support through 43 practical workshops, 4 webinars (on SME growth and PPP business models), 5 international conference workshops and 8 meetups with potential customers and commercial partners. MERLIN will have over 1250 attendees at in-person workshops and meetups across the four principal nodes of Madrid (ES), Vilnius (LT), Poznań (PL) and Cambridge (UK) and the secondary nodes of Berlin (DE), Warsaw (PL), Tallinn (EE), Bucharest (RO), international webinars and international ICT conferences in Europe. For sustainability, and to increase the participants’ success in bringing to market their innovation, MERLIN will integrate participants with existing national (e.g. Innovate UK, Enterprise Ireland, CDTI) and European initiatives (Startup Europe, ERDF, EFSI, etc.) designed to support early entrepreneurship, product development, market access, seed financing and microfinancing for continued support on their journey to market validation and company growth. The project will also identify and promote high-potential innovators through attendance at Startup Europe events to access other European startup ecosystems, entrepreneurs, investors and accelerators. These activities will see over 160 new business model canvases developed, 1040 individual 1-on-1s with potential commercial customers, serial entrepreneurs and business angels, 250 applications to regional, national and international support actions and the creation of 30 new ventures in the lifetime of the project with an anticipated further 60-100 in the following 3 years’ post project, creating over 1200 jobs in the medium-term.

Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies (LEIT)


European startups fail to scale, which often is the reason why they also fail in general. To avoid this, Startup ecosystems have to be connected and support the flow of startups from one ecosystem to another. Like nature‘s ecosystems, startups follow the path of least resistance or rather of the biggest opportunities, flowing like rivers downstream, from smaller ecosystems to the larger ones. Following such logic, this Project will connect smaller startup ecosystems to the larger ones through building awareness and capcaity for scaling and providing Soft-landing support. Soft-Landing Project will: (1) organize 40 1-week Startup Ecosystem Discovery Missions with 200 participants from 4 Consortium hubs to Germany, Netherlands, France, Lithuania, Silicon Valley, and India in order to build awareness about the ecosystems and build bridges between them; (2) organize 40 ecosystem discovery mission follow-up events; (3) support the exchange of 60 speakers/mentors for Consortium hubs‘ events; (4) send 96 startups and scaleups from the 4 Consortium hubs for 1-month Soft-landing stays in the Destination ecosystems; (5) organize the European Soft-landing conference on startup migration, connecting startup ecosystems and soft-landing support; (6) produce a White Paper with policy reocmmendations; (7) provide practical advice on scaling and the available soft-landing support on the project‘s website www.soft-landing.eu and build the community around it.  Consortium partners are veteran startup ecosystem development hubs, 3 of them have worked on the same Startup Europe projects before (Startup Scaleup, LIFE, Digistart) all of which have been succcessfuly implemented. The Consortium members understand the Call‘s objectives fully and drawing on their previous Startup Europe‘s project implementation experience have designed a practical, realistic and at the same time ambitious project that will connect European statup ecosystems and help startups and scaleups to scale.


LIETUVOS MISKO IR ZEMES SAVININKU ASOCIACIJA

Operational sustainable forestry with satellite-based remote sensing

Forests, cornerstone of the EU economy (42% of EU land) and source of multiple social and environmental benefits, need to be managed according to the sustainability principles as stated in EU Forest Strategy. However managers lack accurate / up-to-date data to support it. Traditional forest inventories characterize forests from the ecologic and dasometric perspective; but they are expensive and typically planned on a 5-10years basis. This periodicity is often much lower than required for planning forests´ commercial or recreational activities on the basis of these data. Forest change rates demand tools able to monitor, on annual basis, the forest extension, the attributes of available timber, or the different ecosystem services emerged.  MySustainableForest aims to develop a pre-commercial service and platform for forest stakeholders, compliant with open and standard interfaces, to integrate Earth Observation into the forest stakeholders’ decision making processes and operations. It will be implemented on the basis of GMV prototyped service, eoForest and will leverage on partners’ expertise on LiDAR and forest modelling. It engages relevant European public and private forest stakeholders: RAIZ (R&D branch of The Navigator Company), Croatian Forest Research Institute, Mendel University in Brno, Forest Owners Association of Navarra and Lithuania, Centre Nationale de la Propriété Forestière, European Forest Institute, and 2 innovative SMEs (MADERA+ and Föra).  Its added value will be demonstrated in 6 different bioclimatic zones from Portugal, Spain, France, Croatia, Czech Rep. and Lithuania, and across a variety of management protocols and forest usages. The economic viability of the service will be assessed and the associated business model validated. As a larger implication of MySustainableForest, it is expected that End-Users optimize their operations up to 10%, participating SMEs´ headcounts increase up to 20% and GMV market share in the sector is incremented up to 10%.


The European Training Network MAESTRO (MAking pErovskiteS TRuly explOitable) will generate new skills, knowledge and innovation in the exploitation of perovskite materials in solar power and efficient lighting through establishing exploitation paths for perovskite devices in an integrated unitary approach. MAESTRO is an intersectoral and multidisciplinary network of 10 academic and 7 industrial beneficiaries from 8 EU and Associated countries, including 2 countries in the EU-13. It focusses on perovskite semiconductors, a material shown in the last 4 years to have a major impact on solar power and potentially also in display technology. Our research aims to make perovskite based devices commercially viable.  MAESTRO offers broad skills development and experience of cross sector research to 15 Early Stage Researchers, ESRs. Training is provided in (i) science and technology across physics, chemistry, materials science, electrical engineering, in two major application areas, solar cells and light emitting diodes, and other uses such as lasers and photodiodes; (ii) exploitation from laboratory to fabrication; (iii) transferable skills of communication, information technology, organization, planning, teamwork, leadership; (iv) skills needed for innovation, such as understanding markets, product life cycles, business models, return on investment. Gender aspects are addressed through supervisors, mentors and training. The research undertaken by MAESTRO will teach the ESRs how to deal with complexities and uncertainties, making them very broad and highly adaptable. Their PhDs will position them to be comfortable in both corporate and academic worlds. They will be able to seek careers that are rewarding professionally and financially, through career paths in self-employment, finance, consultancy, contracting, engineering, computer science, production


LIETUVOS AGRARINIU IR MISKU MOKSLU CENTRAS

A thematic network to design the penetration PAth of Non-food Agricultural Crops into European Agriculture

Non-food Crops (NFC) are used to produce a wide range of bio-products and bioenergy. In spite of considerable investment in R&D and the increasing need of bio-based industries for feedstock, NFCs are not widespread in EU agriculture, mainly due to challenges in supply chains and gaps in policy framework and investment incentives. PANACEA aims to set up a thematic network to foster the effective exchange between research, industry and the farming community so that direct applicable solutions are widely disseminated and grassroots-level needs and innovative ideas thoroughly captured in order to design the penetration path of NFC into European agriculture. To achieve this goal, an inventory of long-term scientific results on the NFC sustainable production will be created building on the profound experience of the consortium, and the NFC close to implementation will be identified (WP1). Combining the farmers’ and bio-based industries’ needs and interests (WP2) with the NFC ready-to-practice potential the role of NFC in the rural renaissance will be analysed. A strong and interactive multi-actor forum will be established with actors from science, industry and agricultural practice to facilitate capturing and spreading of innovative ideas (WP3). Practice-oriented knowledge on specific value chains easily accessible and available in the long term will be assured through training courses and relevant educational material (WP4). Knowledge sharing on technical, economic and environmental aspects of NFC, extensive communication and networking, matching between the supply and demand sides will be facilitated by the PANACEA Platform (WP5). The project findings will be disseminated at large following an extended exploitation and dissemination plan that will be active during the project and beyond and ensure the sustainability of the ‘Thematic Network on Non-food Crops’ through its link with EU wide initiatives, the EIP-AGRI and its Operational Groups (WP6).

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


International cooperation for the development of cost-efficient kesterite/c-Si thin film next generation tandem solar cells

Photovoltaic (PV) is recognized as one of the main renewable energy solutions for fulfilling the targets defined by the EU Energy Roadmap 2050 and the SET Plan. Most of the current commercial PV devices are formed by single junctions, and more complex device concepts allowing a significant increase in device efficiency (well beyond the theoretical limit in the 30%-33% range) are still mostly limited to expensive III-V technologies. INFINITE-CELL proposes extending the very high efficiency tandem device concepts to emerging thin film PV technologies with high potential for reduction of costs and avoiding the use of critical raw materials. Within this context, the aim is to establish and consolidate an International and Intersectoral Cooperation between 6 EC/AC Academic Institutions (IREC, SINTEF AS, CNRS, UAM, IAP-ASM, HZB), 2 European Companies (SUNGA, MET), and 4 non EC/AC Academic Institutions (MASCIR, BSUIR, UM5, UWC), for the development of cost-efficient photovoltaic tandem devices based in the combination of wide band-gap kesterite absorbers (Cu2Zn(Si,Ge,Sn)(S,Se)4) as top cell, and low cost c-Si thin film as bottom cell. Thanks to the combination of the know-how generated in previous and successful FP7 projects (PVICOKEST (269167) and EUROSUNMED (608593)), INFINITE-CELL targets to develop stacked and monolithically integrated kesterite/c-Si thin film devices with efficiencies of 15% and 20% respectively, using only fully sustainable materials and processes.   This will be possible through de definition of a very impacting Research Plan and a very ambitious Plan of Secondments, where 293 PMs will be exchanged among the partners. The seconded researchers will be immersed in an International and Intersectoral environment for the development and improvement of their networking, scientific, writing, effective communication, and time management skills, warranting the consolidation of a high level scientific community in Advanced Tandem Solar Cell.


VIESOJI ISTAIGA VIESOSIOS POLITIKOSIR VADYBOS INSTITUTAS

Big DATA approaches FOR improved monitoring of research and innovation performance and assessment of the societal IMPACT in the Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing Societal Challenge

Recent technological developments in data mining, data treatment and data analysis have been rapid and far reaching, offering new dimensions and opportunities for performance analytics in various domains. The introduction of new technologies and initiatives, including open access mechanisms and social media/online media, has been generating increasing volumes of new data on the research domain. Data4Impact aims to capitalise on these developments and utilise big data approaches to improve the monitoring of research and innovation performance and assessment of the societal impact in the Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing Societal Challenge. The project has he following main objectives: a) define, develop, analyse and disseminate new indicators for assessing the performance of EU and national research and innovation systems; b) explore and collect “big” data on health-related societal challenges at input, throughput, output/result and impact levels; c) employ big data approaches to yield more data on the societal impact of national and EU funding on tackling health-related societal challenges; d) engage stakeholders in the project activities, validate the project results and develop new indicators and tools using a hands-on approach. It will do so by developing a robust conceptual model addressing all key stages of the innovation process; mining large volumes of data on research results and impacts; and analysis of these data using topic modelling, machine learning and other techniques aimed at natural language processing. The Data4Impact consortium possesses specialist knowledge of the health domain & indicator systems, and is uniquely placed to mine data and apply big data approaches thanks to the partner’s long-standing involvement in OA e-infrastructures and big data analytics. Through these objectives, activities and competences Data4Impact addresses both key issues described in the specific CO-CREATION-08-2016-2017 call.

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


VILNIAUS GEDIMINO TECHNIKOS UNIVERSITETAS

The overall objective of PARE (Perspectives for the Aeronautical Research in Europe) is to trigger collaboration between European stakeholders to support the achievement of the Flightpath 2050 goals, by providing yearly reports (and respective methodology) that assess the progress, gaps and barriers and propose suitable measures to close the remaining gap. The main outputs of PARE are three yearly reports on the “Perspectives for Aerospace Research in Europe” that use specific benchmarks to assess the progress towards each of the 23 Flightpath goals and the gap remaining. The assessment includes EU projects (Clean Sky, SESAR and others), national projects, academic and industrial research reports. Aspects like long-distance travelling and relevant emerging technologies from non-aeronautical sectors are focused, as well as greater participation from recent EU member states (e.g. in Eastern Europe) and associated countries (e.g Ukraine). The activities of Europe’s competitors (e.g. the U.S.) are also considered in PARE to assess: areas of EU leadership to be exploited; areas requiring specific effort in the EU to catch-up; areas of common interest for cooperation.  PARE will contribute to fulfil the “Mobility for Growth” workprogramme with an assessment of progress in aerospace research, gaps and bottlenecks. The comprehensive yearly report (RC), can originate a public version (RP) and specific versions for academy and research (RA), industry, airlines and airports (RB) and certification authorities, international and professional associations (RC). The wide dissemination of each report will allow to collect feedback to improve the next one thus establishing the final reporting procedure that could be extended beyond the end of the project. Also addressed is the attraction of young talent and the increase in the participation of woman in aerospace including the preparation of a newsletter on exciting and attractive developments in aeronautics.


VSI EUROPOS SOCIALINIS VERSLUMO UGDYMOIR INOVATYVIU STUDIJU INSTITUTAS

Entrepreneurial skills for young social innovators in an open digital world. A European Initiative

DOIT contributes to youth employment and to create new jobs in the social economy by nurturing in young pupils seeds for active social innovation: entrepreneurial mind-sets, knowhow and skills. The project empowers primary and secondary school pupils (6-16 years) alongside educators to apply open innovation methods, digital maker tools and collaboration skills to tackle societal problems. It will develop ground-breaking DOIT toolboxes for children as well facilitators, which provide complementary knowhow and support. They are designed for experiencing being a social innovator in mobile and fixed child-friendly makerspaces and are easily accessible at the interactive DOIT webplatform. Co-created with help of the Children’s Advisory Committee, DOIT novel resources cover inspirational experimentation, design, prototyping and basic business modelling knowhow needed for sustainable product and service innovation. The DOIT children’s social innovation and entrepreneurship programme is piloted and evaluated across 10 European countries (AT, BE, DE, DK, ES, FI, HR, NL, RS und SI), reaching 42.000 children and 20.000 facilitators in schools, innovation labs, maker spaces and social enterprises. It offers intergenerational workshops and training events targeted at different learner needs and learning settings. DOIT showcases how its child-friendly, intergenerational maker approach enables young people to acquire the manual, technological, intellectual and social skills they need to be active and initiate social good. DOIT’s online idea competition, open to all children in Europe, will inspire them to pursue an entrepreneurial career path. The project consortium comprises experienced actors across the social innovation value chain with links to related European initiatives fostering young entrepreneurship education. DOIT’s ambassador Network (currently more than 80 supporting institutions) and open educational resources will drive DOIT’s long-term sustainability and impact.


L4MS (Logistics For Manufacturing SMEs) will spark incremental (productivity increase of new users by a factor of 4 and system setup time reduction by a factor of 10) and disruptive innovation (batch size one & consumerization) for over 100,000 European Manufacturing SMEs & Mid-Caps, building on their intra-factory logistics challenge (50% of the production cost of an item) unleashing their digitalization potential by powering new robot systems that are more cost effective at lower lot sizes.  L4MS relies upon: • An open industrial IoT platform with enablers for rapid and efficient deployment of customized logistics solutions. • A suite of "Smartization services" including business modelling, technical support, mentoring, access to skills and to finance. • The L4MS Marketplace, a one-stop-shop, where European Manufacturing SMEs & Mid-Caps will access the L4MS services. • A portfolio of 23 cross-border Application Experiments by 50 SMEs selected through 2 competitive Open Calls, that will test more than 40 services & apps leveraging 10M€ of public funding across 12 established and emerging Digital Innovation Hubs. • A growing ecosystem that will foster Smart Specialization in each single region linked to L4MS.  L4MS will transform a pan-European ecosystem into a self-sustainable start-up operating an Open Platform for Innovations in Logistics (OPIL) and L4MS marketplace consisting of 21 members. Comprising 6 Competence Centres, 5 technology providers, 4 industry associations, 3 end-users and 3 business developers -currently engaged in I4MS (XS2I4MS, HORSE and BEinCPPS) and FIWARE- plus 6 Satellites Nodes. L4MS covers 14 EU countries, 15 regions with 8 of them from East Europe.  L4MS will help demonstrate that public funded research with a “Smartization” approach (accelerating Industry 4.0) can help manufacturing SMEs & Mid-Caps achieve digital excellence and global competitiveness through logistics automation become “entrepreneurial states and digital industries”.


Promoting and implementing joint programming at the international level to reinforce research on the development of scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services

Current knowledge and conventional awareness-raising have largely proven insufficient to tackle the issue of biodiversity and ecosystems degradation. In this context, scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ESS) can play a key role both in informing policy makers and practitioners and raising awareness on biodiversity issues for the general public, as it has been the case for climate change. By networking 27 funding agencies from 24 countries from Europe and other continents, BiodivScen aims to promote and support coordinated international research on scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services. It will strengthen research and research programmes coordination with the ultimate aim to provide policy makers and other stakeholders with adequate knowledge, tools and practical solutions to improve the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems. The BiodivScen objectives are to: - coordinate the research agendas of major European and interantional research funders to agree on shared research priorities related to scenarios of biodiversity & ESS - design and implement an ambitious joint call for research proposals focussed on the development of scenarios of biodiversity & ESS - promote and support research collaboration across national borders and across disciplinary boundaries, in order to build capacity, overcome fragmentation and have a lasting effect on the international research community and landscape - encourage and support dialogue and collaboration between academia and research stakeholders, and more particularly stakeholder engagement in the funded research projects, in order to increase the impact of research on policy and practice - ease rapid and efficient uptake of funded research results by the IPBES for its future assessments, and by other relevant initiatives - reinforce open access to data and data sharing - prepare a longer term collaboration between all BiodivScen partners in close relation to BiodivERsA and the Belmo

Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials


Solar PV on the Distribution Grid: Smart Integrated Solutions of Distributed Generation based on Solar PV, Energy Storage Devices and Active Demand Management

iDistributedPV´s aim is developing affordable integrated solutions to enhance the penetration of distributed solar PV (buildings) based on the effective integration of solar PV equipment, energy storage, monitoring and controlling strategies and procedures, active demand management, smart technologies and the integration of procedures in the power distribution system according to market criteria.  The project will develop the concept of “prosumer”: a player that consumes and produces electricity in his facilities (solar PV).  iDistributedPV will be the EU common place for enhancing the distributed solar PV: promoters, equipment manufacturers, DSOs, energy policy experts and R&D players will work together to develop affordable solutions, and produce business and management models for these solutions.  The most promising solutions will be validated according to technical and economic criteria (for every solution a cost-benefit analysis will be elaborated) in five different European real distribution grids (Greece, Lithuania, Spain, Poland and Germany) considering different climatic, regulatory and technical frameworks.  The validation process will be a relevant argument to convince the power stakeholders (DSOs, equipment manufacturers, energy authorities, policy makers, etc.) about the suitability of the most effective distributed solar PV solutions such as smart electricity supply. iDistributedPV will provide technical and regulatory recommendations, mainly focused on enhancing an effective and active renewable energy contribution and effective demand management to the security and reliability of the electricity networks: evolution from a power system with a centralized electricity generation to a new one that also includes production/demand units (prosumers) based on renewable energy and smart technologies.


Towards a learning building sector by setting up a large-scale and flexible qualification methodology integrating  technical, cross-craft and BIM related skills and competences

NZEB construction needs an enhanced systematic approach for the quality control of the entire process to reduce the gap between designed and actual performances of buildings. This requires a fully qualified and equipped workforce, capable to implement, execute and perform all the necessary labor actions with understanding of the responsibility of their own profession and actions, as well as the relation with the other involved professions and actions. BIMplement offers the trainers and the learners a range of tools that fit the objective of developing a fully qualified and equipped workforce, capable to implement, execute and perform all the necessary labour actions. Main aim is to achieve an improved quality for NZEB construction and renovation by setting up a large scale, training, CPD and qualification schemes, addressing the entire process phases in a cross-crafts and cross level multidisciplinary approach, strengthened with hands-on and BIM-enhanced workplace learning tools by following objectives: 1.	To improve the overall quality of renovations and new constructions, based on a BIM-enabled workplace learning, addressing the entire process phases in a cross-crafts multidisciplinary approach 2.	To create a new generation of professionals and craftsmen, equipped and enabled by BIM skills, to enhance the overall quality of construction and renovation across the entire process 3.	To foster interactions between different trades and professions enabled by a flexible qualification, certification and accreditation methodology for implementing BIM as a workplace learning environment 4.	To sustain the qualification and training schemes a replication and exploitation strategy will be developed and validated At the end of the 2 years project BIMplement has developed a transferable method based on the experience of previous BUS and H2020 Construction Skills projects and on experimentations in territories with craftsmen and small enterprises.


Single-cell temporal tracking of epigenetic DNA marks

Over the past decade, epigenetic phenomena have taken centre stage in our understanding of gene regulation, cellular differentiation and human disease. DNA methylation is a prevalent epigenetic modification in mammals, which is brought about by enzymatic transfer of methyl groups from the S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) cofactor by three known DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs). The most dramatic epigenomic reprogramming in mammalian development occurs after fertilization, whereby a global loss of DNA methylation is followed by massive reinstatement of new methylation patterns, different for each cell type. Although DNA methylation has been extensively investigated, key mechanistic aspects of these fascinating events remain obscure. The goal of this proposal is to bridge the gap in our understanding of how the genomic methylation patterns are established and how they govern cell plasticity and variability during differentiation and development. These questions could only be answered by precise determination of where and when methylation marks are deposited by the individual DNMTs, and how these methylation marks affect gene expression. To achieve this ambitious goal, we will metabolically engineer mouse cells to permit SAM analog-based chemical pulse-tagging of their methylation sites in vivo. We will then advance profiling of DNA modifications to the single cell level via innovative integration of microdroplet-based barcoding, precise genomic mapping and super-resolution imaging. Using this unique experimental system we will determine, with unprecedented detail and throughput, the dynamics and variability of DNA methylation and gene expression patterns during differentiation of mouse embryonic cells to neural and other lineages. This project will give a comprehensive, time-resolved view of the roles that the DNMTs play in mammalian development, which will open new horizons in epigenomic research and will advance our understanding of human development and disease.


Centre of Excellence for Cultural and Creative Innovations in Lithuania

The "innocult" Teaming Phase 1 project specifically aims to create a Centre of Excellence (CoE) of Creative and Cultural Innovations in Lithuania,  The new CoE is targeted to perform research and innovation actions in line with the challenges faced in our country and aimed at promoting participatory culture and socio-cultural engagement of diverse societies by supporting cultural and creative processes of integration and disruption. Investigation and measurement of cultural and creative capital value on the basis of developed methodological approach and means will disclose the wide social and economic role the cultural and creative industries play and, therefore, foster networking, entrepreneurship and innovation potential of cultural and creative sector creating conditions for estimating forthcoming model of participatory culture.   The main goal of the Centre of Excellence is to provoke innovative changes in participatory culture and provide a guidance of smart and sustainable changes for cultural and creative organizations and audiences within creative sector to operate in competitive environment for leading excellence based on investigated and measured cultural and creative processes.  Therefore, the CoE seeks to promote development of CCI institutions, formation of new institutional strategies leading towards inclusive and participatory culture taking into account the importance and shifts of the economical, communicative, technological and social factors, in order for the cultural institutions and network to start functioning as activating centres of social innovations, as hubs for involvement of new audiences (minorities, youth, seniors etc.) increasing competences of culture consumption in respect to the development of CCI.

Teaming of excellent research institutions and low performing RDI regions


ADVanced Inspection of Complex StructurEs

ADVISE aims to advance the ultrasonic inspection of complex structured materials, for which conventional ultrasonic techniques suffer from severe performance limitations due to the micro and/or macro-structure. The project relies on a multi-pronged strategy:  - Model-assisted inspection enhancement tools allow the iterative optimisation of customised transducers and associated excitation signals, to specify the most appropriate inspection approach. - Novel in-situ characterisation techniques acquire specific information about the structure to be inspected; then model-assisted optimisation tools fine-tune the inspection parameters in the field. - Model-assisted diagnostic tools take a-priori, model-predicted and in-situ obtained information into account to fully exploit the information contained in full matrix capture (FMC) acquisitions, using adaptive imaging methods, backscatter filtering and inversion strategies. The main output of the project is thus a step change improvement in performance in terms of inspectable depth, defect detection and characterisation accuracy. For austeno-ferritic cast components, an increase of the inspectable depth of 70 to 85 mm is aimed for. Equally importantly, the in-situ characterisation for specific inspections will provide the confidence needed to make safe decisions from measured indications without the significant conservatism that is needed in many cases currently.  ADVISE brings together leading experts and key stakeholders with long-term commitments to this subject, covering construction, operation, and all aspects of in-service inspection. They will collaborate for new nuclear power constructions, maintenance of ageing power stations and safe operation of plants at end of life, addressing both Western European and Russian designs. An Industrial Advisory Board will play a major role throughout the project to guarantee a focus on the key issues and thereby ensure rapid deployment of the ADVISE developed techniques and tools.


Centre of Excellence in IT Science and Technology

To address and promote growth in several technological sectors in Lithuania and encourage EU teaming in ICT-related research and innovation, the overall objective of the project is to create a new Centre of Excellence (CoE) in IT Science and Technology for the Internet of Things and Smart Living Systems, which will be referred to as “InnoITeam”.  The long-term vision for InnoITeam is to: ● Become the leading provider of innovative technologies for IoT and Big Data for the improvement of the growing technological personal and industry needs in Europe; ● Consolidate research and development, education and training, and networking and promotion resources activities in Information and Communications Technology (ICT);  ● Coordinate, integrate and support research excellence and innovation development in Lithuania, the Baltic Sea region, and Europe; ● Support researchers, academics, industry partners and entrepreneurs in the field of ICT, particularly in IoT, to produce innovations beneficial for the society and economy of Lithuania and beyond. To achieve this long-term vision, the CoE will leverage the knowledge, experience and resources of three Lithuanian institutions – KTU, VGTU and SECR- with the support of two advanced EU partners from Sweden – LiU and TII – in four strategic research and innovation (R&D) topics:  R&D Topic 1: User interfacing and interaction design approaches for Smart Environments based on IoT; R&D Topic 2: Cybersecurity aspects in the Smart Environments based on IoT; R&D Topic 3: Data analysis and visualization approaches for data intensive IoT environments; R&D Topic 4: Cognitive IoT technologies for Smart Home Environments. This project has the full support of the Lithuanian Government because it fits perfectly with several of the national priorities within the SMART Specialisation Strategy approved by the Government, and, will allow an enhanced usage and further growth of the recently upgraded infrastructure for ICT research in Lithuania.


LIETUVOS KIBERNETINIU NUSIKALTIMU KOMPETENCIJU IR TYRIMU CENTRAS

Innovation - Law Enforcement Agencies Dialogue

l-LEAD’s focus is on the incapability of groups of operational Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) practitioners defining their needs for innovation. This will be done in a methodological way, also with the help of the research & industrial partners supplemented by a broad range of committed stakeholders. I-LEAD will build the capacity to monitor the security research and technology market in order to ensure a better matching and uptake of innovations by law enforcement agencies with the overarching aim to make it a sustainable Pan-Europan LEA network. Earlier funded European research with a high technology readiness level as well as pipeline technologies will be closely monitored and assessed on its usefulness. Where possible a direct uptake from this research will be facilitated and implemented in the ENLETS and ENFSI networks supporting the action. I-LEAD will indicate priorities in five practitioner groups as well as aspects that needs (more) standardization and formulate recommendations how to incorporate these in procedures. As a final step, I-LEAD will advise the Member States through the existing EDBP-ESTP procurement group about how the outcomes of this project could be used in Pre-Commercial Procurement and Public Procurement of Innovation activities.

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


POLICIJOS DEPARTAMENTAS PRIE LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKOS VIDAUS REIKALU MINISTERIJOS


VIESOJI ISTAIGA SOCIALINIU INOVACIJU INSTITUTAS

Enhancing the Responsible and Sustainable Expansion of the Science Shops Ecosystem in Europe

Success of science shops is down to finding a topic that is of particular interest to a particular group of people because they need to engage throughout the science shops research process, participate in the brokering and challenge identification and take responsibility for the outcome of the process. SciShops aims at expanding and further building on the capacity of the science shops ecosystem in Europe and beyond. During the SciShops project timeframe, at least ten new university- and non-university-based science shops are being established in Europe by project partners. The non-university ones are affiliated to different types of organizations, such as SMEs, LEs, NGOs/NPOs and research institutes.  The project partners have extensive networks of science shops which are included in the SciShops Expert and Advisory Board and thus they can uptake first the solutions developed within the project: the SciShops Knowledge Exchange Roadmap, the SciShops Strategy for Community-Based Participatory Research and Science Shops Further Development, SciShops Guide for Establishment and Running of a Science Shop or the SciShops Web platform with its novel twining, matchmaking and awareness features. Through the use of the platform, organizations willing to establish a science shop are able to find a research organization which can support them with research services or they can be twinned with an experienced similar science shop which will help with the establishment and development of the new one.  The SciShops consortium has as a top priority to prove the benefits of starting a science shop for every type of organization, but also the advantages the civil society gains from collaborating with science shops in community-based participatory research. The participatory knowledge transfer and exchange events organized during the project timeline will raise awareness on this win-win concept.

Integrate society in science and innovation


The HUB for boosting the Responsibility and inclusiveness of ICT enabled Research and Innovation through constructive interactions with SSH research

The long term strategic objective of HubIT is to contribute to the high level of European research and innovation and ensure that H2020 funded and further ICT related innovation is responsible, inclusive and aimed at reversing inequalities.  The direct objective of HubIT is to build a hub that will activate and improve constructive and co-creating interactions between SSH and ICT disciplines in developing and implementing a shared vision of inclusive   HubIT will activate constructive interactions between the stakeholders forming the RRI-SSH eco-system via various network and engagement activities embedded intro the WP structure, that have the overall goal of developing a tangible European Framework Model for implementing responsible and inclusive ICT research and innovation. The Framework Model is a comprehensive set of jointly developed and used definitions, guidelines and tools for enforcing RRI and SSH issues in ICT research and innovation: • The concept of responsible R&I • Matrix of the key challenges • Tool for assessment of RRI and SSH perspectives in ICT within an organisation • Guidelines for responsible ICT R&I informed by SSH • Best Practice Repository • Fact Sheets and Policy briefs • Key measurable success indicators  • Policy Recommendations • Virtual Matching Catalogue • HubIT exploitation plan   The mechanisms for network building, engagement and awareness rising embedded in the WP structure are: • Advisory Board workshops • Expert Group workshops • Community building and knowledge sharing – national network events, thematic workshops, policy, SSH researchers and ICT industries workshops • Practical collaborations and experimentation - Common Ground Camps, Interactive ICT Labs, Inclusive Hackathons In total 35 network activities are implemented and in total 1140 participants. HubIT online platform will be the interactive environment, where the project tools and services can be accessed in modular, visually attractive and dynamic way.


Modular, scalable and high-performance DE-polymerization by MicrowavE TechnolOgy

Based on an internationally patented technology, the project foresees to bring at industrial level (through a completely functional pilot plant) the usage of microwaves as Process Intensification approach (through an electromagnetic catalytical effect) of the well-known alkaline hydrolysis depolymerization reaction. Such reaction was, up to know, economically unfeasible due to a certain number of technological constraints that DEMETO finally solves.  Coordinated by PROCESSI INNOVATIVI, R&D company of a large EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) group, but supported by a large basis of SMEs that will bring the most innovative aspects of the project technology, DEMETO's Consortium is composed by highly skilled members, which can guarantee the appropriate exploitation of the project business case, also thanks to the involvement of all the major commercial stakeholders of the PET value chain, including the most relevant Customer Segments.  In fact, having followed all previous steps from lab-level testing (TRL3) to industrial demonstration of the core reactor (TRL6), we are now in the position to further move the technology towards its market deployment, by building a pilot plant (containing a full reactive unit) that would act as industrial demonstration of the performances of DEMETO's de-polymerization approach to the market. One of the project major strengths is in fact that the market is ready to accept DEMETO's technology. The existing value chain of post-consumer recovery of PET plastic waste is perfectly apt to accept the introduction of a new "ring of the chain", that would close the loop into a circular economy model, acting either at the end of the chain (mechanical recyclers) or at its beginning (PET producers). This gives us a total addressable market of about 60 plants in Europe (270 worldwide), for a value of around €1.2bn (€5.4bn worldwide).


Recycling carbon dioxide in the cement industry to produce added-value additives: a step towards a CO2 circular economy

CO2 from the flue gases of a rotary kiln in a cement industry (CO2: 25 vol%) will be used for the production of value-added chemicals (acid additives for cement formulations) and materials (CaCO3 nanoparticles to be used as concrete fillers). A circular-economy-approach is enabled: the CO2 produced by cement manufacturing is re-used in a significant part within the plant itself to produce better cement-related products entailing less energy intensity and related CO2 emissions by a quadratic effect. Ionic liquids (bare or amine-functionalised) will be the key technological playground for the efficient and cost-effective (<30 €/ton) purification of CO2 to a purity grade sufficient for the above mentioned utilisation paths. A dedicated pilot plant (flue gas flow rate: 50 Nm3/h) will be developed, based on the knowledge-based selection of the best ionic-liquids composition and operating conditions. Within a final TRL 6 integrated system demo campaign, the thereby derived CO2 will be utilised in parallel to:  -) promote the precipitation of nano-CaCO3 powders which act as strength enhancer and accelerator of the hydration rate. -) synthesize through electrocatalytic and catalytic pathways formic acid, oxalic acid and glycine to be used as hardening acceleration promoters, grinding aids or ionic liquids additives, respectively.  Distinctive features of the RECODE approach are the high process intensification and scale-up-ability; the use of low-grade heat sources; the meaningful reduction of CO2 emissions (>20% accounting for direct and indirect means) and the good market potential of their products at a mass production scale. The first two years of the project will be focused on the development of key functional materials and process units at TRL 4-5, the third year on the assembly of single-process lines certified at TRL 5-6, and the fourth year on the assembly and testing at a cement manufacturing site (TITAN) of the TRL 6 integrated CO2 process.


Sentinels-based Agriculture Information Service Component

The current project will focus on development of an open-source Sentinels-based Agriculture Information Service (SAGRIS) software component integrated into operational open-source Farmos.org agricultural record keeping software powering a commercial FARMIER service (http://www.farmier.com). SAGRIS module will provide FARMIER service (and potentially other open-source projects) with operational monitoring updates on dynamics of solar irradiation and surface temperature, development of grassland and crops biomass, soil and vegetation wetness, vegetation age and stress indications, geo-location and mapping of “problematic” patches, assessment of drainage systems and operational, delivery of status updates. Our service is targeting small-to-medium-size traditional farms offering a low cost complex decision support service with on-line tools for record-keeping and analysis, planning of farming activities, measurements of physical conditions with inexpensive ground sensors, observation and conditioning of crops by satellite imagery and simple solutions for adapt standard hardware for smart-farming practices. FARMIER and SAGRIS open-source projects will offer benefits of freely available modern Earth observation data products to a large number of traditional farms in a simple and affordable, but appealing and practically useful form to support sustainable “smart farming” practices not only with statistical and geo-spatial information, but also best practice examples along with simple and affordable hardware solutions (sensors, extensions, etc.) to increase efficiency and profitability without investing into sophisticated precision farming solutions and raise competitiveness of many sustainable and ecological farms facing global challenges caused by industrial food production, turbulent markets and climate change. The service will be initially distributed in Europe and the US.


HERA Joint Research Programme Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe

The HERA Joint Research Programme European Public Space, Culture and Integration (HERA JRP PS) consortium will establish a 4th joint transnational programme for multi-disciplinary research. The HERA JRP PS involves the launch of a joint Call for Proposals and a commonly-agreed two-stage evaluation process involving an independent, international Review Panel. The consortium expects to fund about 20 transnational humanities centred projects of ~1 M EUR each.   The aim of the HERA “Public spaces” programme will be to deepen the theoretical and empirical cultural understanding of public spaces in a European context. The programme has been designed to facilitate a broad range of cultural approaches to conceptualising public space, its structural and processual formations, and its possible outcomes in terms of integration, exclusion, disintegration, fragmentation, hybridization, amalgamation or transmission.   Twenty-four organisations from 24 EU countries have pooled a substantial amount of their humanities research funding for this new HERA JRP increasing the efficiency and impact of public funding.   The HERA JRP PS consortium will also actively support knowledge exchange activities and stimulate wider dissemination about the valuable contributions of new humanities research. Furthermore, the HERA JRP PS will pursue additional activities aiming at international capacity-building in humanities research and explore and prepare new joint actions.


Network for Using BIM to Increase the Energy Performance

The building sector is the largest consumer of energy in Europe,  accounting for nearly 40% of the total consumption (EPBD 2010/31/EU). Furthermore the 2030 European Energy [COM(2014)16Final] and Energy Roadmap 2050 [COM(2011) 885 final], strongly requires more focus on the energy  efficiency on housing sector. Finally, the Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on public procurement, requires that all member states introduce electronic means to exchange information and communication in procurement procedures.  For these reasons we believe that the integrated approach of the Net-UBIEP project, based on Building information Modelling, integrated with energy  performance requirements, will be key to solve all the problems in a more effective and efficient manner. The project proposes BIM Qualification Models integrated with energy competences,  to  widespread a better comprehension of energy issues along all the value chain of building industry so that both existing and new building will have better energy performances.  Public Administrations, Professionals (Engineers /  Architects), Technicians (Installers / Maintainers) and Tenants will be therefore involved in the Net-UBIEP activities. The definition of the BIM Qualification Models will pass through the  identification of specific energy BIM competences for each of the above target needed to implement BIM models during the whole building life cycle.  During the project the “integrated” BIM Qualification Models will be validated by stakeholders thanks to the delivering of  different training activities (Seminars / Classrooms Courses /  E-Learning Courses) addressed to at least six BIM Professional Profiles: BIM Manager, BIM Evaluator, BIM Coordinator, BIM Expert, BIM facility manager, BIM user. Once the schemes will be validated, they will be proposed for standardization to find  a broader acceptance at European and international level through regulatory  organizations (CEN / ISO).


Mass-customisation of custom-made medical implants

Custom-Made Implants (CMIs) are considered to be a superior solution for the treatment of patients with rare and severe clinical conditions since they ensure better fit, lower surgical invasiveness, shorter surgery time, faster healing, reduce risks of infection, joint dislocation and revision surgeries leading to lower total pathology treatment costs. Also, they provide fuller restoration of patient’s physical performance and higher quality of life by reducing or avoiding side effects. Thus, CMIs provide added value for all - patients, surgeons, medical institutions and health insurance funds. However, CMIs currently fail to achieve large-scale commercial success due to high price, long lead times and dominated surgical approach oriented towards standard solutions. Currently CMIs in value account for only ~1.4% of implant market. Ortho Baltic has developed the technological infrastructure for CMIs design, manufacturing and validation. It consist of surgeon-manufacturer co-creation and communication tool MICE (Medical Implants Customization Engine) and factory floor management system MC Dynamics (Mass Customization Dynamics) that together provide a chance to proceed to mass customization of CMIs. This will lead to the significant decrease of manufacturing costs and lead times. Already today Ortho Baltic offers CMIs for a ~21% lower price than standard modular implants. However, with the successful implementation of the project it could offer CMIs twice cheaper (for an average price of €3260) by 2023 and with lead time < 2 weeks. The profit is expected to be around 1,5 million in 2023. To reach this, during Phase 2 project Ortho Baltic will expand the functionalities of both systems, transfer them to new technology platforms (MICE - to web based platform),pilot them as well as develop supporting tools for CMI application in surgical treatment (clinical decision support and training software MICE Trainer and international curriculum for medical students and surgeons).


VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS INOVACIJU CENTRAS

Peer Learning of Innovation Agencies for Services of Access to Finance for Innovative SMEs

Innovative SMEs are most likely to create new markets, achieve rapid growth, and help the economy recover. External finance may be particularly important for innovative SMEs, as they usually lack the internal resources to successfully commercialise innovations. However, innovative SMEs often find it the hardest to obtain finance because they tend to have riskier business models, which are important to create new markets but are also difficult for banks to value. Innovative SMEs are often more reliant on intangible assets, rather than physical property, but intangibles are difficult to value as they are context specific, and thus hard to use as collateral for lending. AccesSME project is dedicated to contribute tackling this issue. The objective of the project is to enable the participating innovation agencies to cooperate in a tangible and cost-effective manner so as to improve existing or create new concepts, methodologies and tools for SMEs on access to finance through mutual learning and exchange of good practices. The project aims to cover three kinds of access to finance options: 1) Business to business (B2B) matching for partnerships and investments 2) Horizon 2020 SME Instrument 3) crowdfunding platforms.


Fostering sustainable legume-based farming systems and agri-feed and food chains in the EU

The goal of LEGVALUE is to pave the road to develop sustainable and competitive legume-based farming systems and agri-feed and food chains in the EU. To this end, the project will assess both the economic and environmental benefits for the EU agro industry to widely produce and use legumes in a sustainable manner. Using a list of 20 value chains reflecting the market diversity, and a list of 20 farm networks covering the diversity of grain legumes and fodder legumes species, LEGVALUE will demonstrate the added value of various legumes value chains and will provide a range of solutions to improve the economic interest of each actor involved in the value chains to use legumes. The feature of LEGVALUE is an approach to research that takes stakeholder-driven objectives. The gap between research and practice will be overcome with close collaboration between non-academic actors and scientists. LEGVALUE will result in the first decision tool for farmers to choose the optimal legume species with their adapted crop management and to assess the economic and environmental benefits of legumes in the cropping and grassland systems. LEGVALUE will contribute to identifying the supply chains that are the most competitive to foster legumes crops so helping the EU to identify: i) the technological topics that must be supported in priority to enhance legumes development; ii) insights into how to support actors coordination for better added value sharing iii) the new standards that will help trade and process of legumes. LEGVALUE will provide accurate recommendations for the development of legumes in the EU. By removing current market opacity and the design of transition pathways, LEGVALUE will provide scientific support for EU and national policy-makers directed at increasing legume production, support technological innovation and organisational innovation in supply chains, meeting the EU Parliament 2011 motion on increasing self-sufficiency on protein rich plant materials.


The overall objective of the project is to develop and test the tools necessary for the assessment of the hydro-mechanical evolution of an installed bentonite barrier and its resulting performance. This will be achieved by cooperation between design and engineering, science and performance assessment. The evolution from an installed engineered system to a fully functioning barrier will be assessed. One of the challenges is to take into account initial heterogeneities introduced in the system by conception with a combination of block and pellets or due to the size of the bentonite component (several 100 m3). It will require a more detailed understanding of material properties, of the fundamental processes that lead to homogenisation, of the role of scale effects and improved capabilities for numerical modelling. The goal is to verify the performance of current designs for buffers, backfills, seals and plugs. The overall driver for the project is the assessment cases that will be defined at the onset of the project (WP1). The quantitative models currently available are not fully able to represent all the complexities of the evolution of an installed bentonite. A substantial effort is needed to improve both the conceptual approaches and the numerical solutions in the current models (WP3). The updated/newly developed models need to be tested and verified using available data (WP5).  There are some areas where fundamental data and the understanding of materials are incomplete. An efficient experimental programme will support model development and testing (WP4). There is already a large database from experiments performed within EC projects and national programmes, both laboratory and Underground Research Laboratory (URL) experiments. Many of the tests have been performed with other purposes in mind, but the results can be used in the Beacon project. The objective of WP2 is to collect the relevant information and process it to a level where it can be used in this project


Enabling Chemical Propulsion System for the Growing Small Satellite Market

The global satellite industry is experiencing a paradigm shift exhibited by the rapid expansion of the small satellite market. It is being driven by continuously advancing technological, design, manufacturing capabilities and decreasing launch costs. Despite the booming demand for and evident advantages of small satellites, one critical system – satellite propulsion – have fallen behind this recent miniaturization trend. At present, there are no market-ready small satellite green chemical propulsion systems available. Alternative propulsion systems are mostly based on hazardous chemicals, are expensive, difficult to integrate and offer low performance. NanoAvionics, a satellite manufacturer and integrator, developed EPSS (TRL 6) – low cost, high performance propulsion system for small satellites, making use of a non-toxic, environmentally-friendly propellant. The entry market size for this system is €1.75 bn in 2017-2020. Success in this market will permit later extension of the technology to the medium and large scale satellite market. To ensure successful commercialization, during SME Phase 2 project NanoAvionics aims to conduct final piloting and qualification of the technology, preparation of the production infrastructure, product commercialization, and increasing the investment readiness of the company. The project will raise the TRL of EPSS to 8 by integrating it into pilot partner’s satellite, and will contribute to reaching TRL 9 by launching partner’s satellites to space demonstrating EPSS in orbit. Using EPSS will enable pilot partner to offer unique services based on small satellite constellations. NanoAvionics has already signed the piloting agreement as well as 3 Memorandums of Understanding and 10 Letters of Intent with organizations that intend to integrate EPSS into their satellites. SME Phase 2 project will result in €14 M revenues and €4.4 M profit by 2020 and brake even reached in 2 years after the end of the project.


Thermal treatment for radioactive waste minimisation and hazard reduction

Safe management of radioactive waste is challenging to waste producers and waste management organisations. Deployment of thermal treatment in an optimised waste management lifecycle can provide significant volume reduction, waste passivation and organics destruction, with benefits for waste storage and safety cases for geological disposal. Relevant technologies include in-container vitrification, gasification, plasma treatment and hot isostatic pressing. THERAMIN aims in utilisation of all these methods.  THERAMIN will provide an EU-wide strategic review and assessment of the value of thermal technologies applicable to a broad range of waste streams (ion exchange media, soft operational wastes, sludge, organics and liquids). THERAMIN will compile an EU-wide database of thermally treatable wastes, will document the strategic benefits of thermal treatment, and will identify the opportunities, synergies, challenges, timescales and cost implications to improve radioactive waste management. THERAMIN will evaluate the applicability and achievable volume reduction of the technologies through ‘first-of-a-kind’ active and non-active full-scale demonstration tests, and will assess the disposability of residues.   The project benefits from the large investments made by partners in thermal treatment R&D facilities, which will be used to maximise the benefit across Member states. THERAMIN will benefit from close engagement with an End User Group (waste producers and waste management organisations). The partners will encourage the mobility and training of staff for the development of the next generation of engineers and scientists, and the proposal includes a technical training workshop, a scientific conference, and use of other dissemination tools. THERAMIN will establish a pan-European network of expertise on thermal treatment, will provide for cross-European technology transfer, and will identify prospects for sharing of facilities between countries facing similar problems.


Developing a feasibility study for the future commercialization of BranchyDOSE – an innovative accurate and simple brachytherapy measurements tool

High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy represents the increasingly popular internal radiation therapy method commonly used as an effective treatment for cervical, prostate, breast, skin cancer and tumors. While HDR brachytherapy is relatively fast, safe and highly beneficial, its results are often corrupted by human error. It is essential to measure the radiation dose delivered to ensure a safe and effective delivery of the treatment plan. The most accurate way of measurement is by comparing dosimetry results with the mathematic modeling results. Nonetheless, the use of dosimeters is not a standardized procedure so this is done only in hospitals and cancer clinics providing high-quality healthcare services. In turn, healthcare practitioners rely on modeling methods alone. Miscalculation and mistakes in dose calculation algorithms cause inaccuracy in treatment plan, which results in a continuously flawed treatment. This can induce insufficient amount of radiation, over radiation, secondary cancer and radiation burns. The widespread use of dosimeters would prevent these missteps as the treatment plan could be adjusted according to real dose measurements. Nonetheless, the currently available dosimetry solutions are inefficient and not fit to be used in everyday medical procedures (time consuming, expensive, complex). Sesi Partneriai, an innovative science SME, has developed an advanced material dosimeter system (TRL6) that is tailored to be used in everyday medical procedures – it is fast, easy to use and retains extremely high accuracy and reliability. With this solution the company seeks to standardize the use of dosimeters in HDR brachytherapy and further develop a universal dosimeter system that could be used in a wide range of radiotherapy procedures. The feasibility study will provide an essential stepping-stone towards these goals by allowing Sesi Partneriai to develop a comprehensive business plan ensuring perfect product market fit and smooth commercialization.


Innovative diagnostic and eHealth monitoring system for diabetic foot complications

In 2014 422 million adults in the world suffered from diabetes, and the increasingly sedentary ways of life will contribute to the “growth” of this disease. Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are one of the most common complications of diabetes, accounting for most of diabetic patients’ hospitalization, and being the direct cause for 50% of all non-traumatic amputations. This also implies substantial healthcare costs: compared with “healthy” diabetic patients, the cost of care for patients with a foot ulcer is 5.4 times higher, and across the EU, ulcer complications’ care adds 7- 10 € billion to direct yearly costs.  Early diagnosis can have a significant impact on decreasing the impact of DFUs. However, this is not a simple task, as current methods for the diagnosis of DFUs rely only on foot inspection by doctors and decades-old microbiological techniques. Therefore, there is an urgent need for technologies that enable early diagnosis of DFUs so as to minimise their consequences.  FeetWell™ is the response to this need: a user-friendly device based on the merging of different monitoring technologies (IR Thermography, Ultrasonography and Dermatoscopy) to facilitate early detection of microvascular and macrovascular foot complications. Moreover, as it is a simple to use device, it will empower patients, making them less reliant on doctor visits and increasing their engagement into their self-care.  Feetwell is a strategic project for our company, Metis Baltic, as it will enable us to bridge the gap between previous R&D projects and launch ourselves into the medical diagnostic tools’ market as the developers of the 1st automated diabetic foot inspection device on the market, by 2020 reaching revenues of €16.5 million by 2022, with a ROI of 2.2, and multiplying by 10 our staff. But Feetwell will not only benefit our company, but it will also contribute to reducing the impact of DFUs on EU healthcare systems.

Health, demographic change and wellbeing


Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities

ROCK aims to develop an innovative, collaborative and circular systemic approach for regeneration and adaptive reuse of historic city centres. Implementing a repertoire of successful heritage-led regeneration initiatives, it will test the replicability of the spatial approach and of successful models addressing the specific needs of historic city centres. ROCK will transfer the Role Models blueprint to the Replicators, adopting a cross-disciplinary mentoring process and defining common protocols and implementation guidelines. ROCK will deliver new ways to access and experience Cultural Heritage [CH] ensuring environmental sound solutions, city branding, bottom-up participation via living labs, while increasing liveability and safety in the involved areas. ICT sensors and tools will support the concrete application of the ROCK principles and the interoperable platform will enable new ways to collect and exchange data to facilitate networking and synergies. The added value is the combination of sustainable models, integrated management plans and associated funding mechanisms based on successful financial schemes and promoting the creation of industry-driven stakeholders’ ecosystems. A monitoring tool is set up from the beginning, running during two additional years after the project lifetime. Main expected impacts deal with the achievement of effective and shared policies able to: accelerate heritage led regeneration, improve accessibility and social cohesion, increase awareness and participation in local decision making process and wider civic engagement, foster businesses and new employment opportunities. Involving 10 cities, 7 Universities, 3 networks of enterprises, 2 networks of cities and several companies and development agencies, a foundation and a charity, ROCK is able to catalyse challenges and innovative pathways across EU and beyond, addressing CH as a production and competitiveness factor and a driver for sustainable growth.


VILNIAUS MIESTO SAVIVALDYBES ADMINISTRACIJA


Advancing fail-aware, fail-safe, and fail-operational electronic components, systems, and architectures for fully automated driving to make future mobility safer, affordable, and end-user acceptable.

Automated driving is a disruptive technology which opens the door to future multi-billion markets providing business opportunities to value chains in automotive and semiconductor industry.The European industry has leading competitive strength in the development and manufacturing of highly reliable electro-mechanical systems. In order to preserve this capability Europe needs to setup European standards for high level control such as real-time computing or big data processing. In order to respond on the global challenge AutoDrive has gathered Europe’s leading semiconductor companies, suppliers, OEMs, and research institutes committed to create a pan-European eco-system, which has the critical mass to initiate standards and provides the components and subsystems for automated driving. Currently, even the most sophisticated vehicle automation technology on the road is not able to surpass human driving capabilities – especially considering context awareness in any situation. Moreover, there is no common agreement on quantifiable dependability measures which hardware and embedded software have to achieve to allow safe automated driving for SAE Levels 3-5. AutoDrive aims for the design of (i) fail-aware (self-diagnostics), (ii) fail-safe, (iii) fail-operational (HW and SW redundancy) electronic components and systems architecture that enable the introduction of automated driving in all car categories. AutoDrive results will significantly contribute to safer and more efficient mobility. It will raise end-user acceptance and comfort by supporting drivers in highly challenging situations (active safety) as well as in regular driving situations. Combining both will reduce the number of road fatalities especially in rural scenarios and under adverse weather conditions. AutoDrive will contribute to Europe’s Vision Zero and to improved efficiency. This will sustain Leadership and even grow the market position of all AutoDrive partners.


Students Achieving Valuable Energy Savings 2 (SAVES2) will catalyse sustainable energy behaviours among over 219,000 university students in seven countries to help them reduce their exposure to fuel poverty. It incorporates two strands that engage with students living in university accommodation (Student Switch Off) and in the private-rented sector (SAVES).  Student Switch Off is an energy-saving competition that will reach 38,000 students living in 144 dormitories in 14 universities of the partner countries in each academic year from 2017/18 to 2019/20. By identifying and training student ambassadors in each dormitory, and by motivating the ambassadors to encourage their peers to save energy, we will create a race between students in dormitories, each competing to save the most energy and win prizes. It will tap into online student communities through social media, using engaging digital communications (quizzes, photo competitions) to raise awareness of how students can save energy in a fun way. The centrepiece of each competition will be an energy dashboard that updates students in near-real time on the performance and position of their dormitory in the competition – providing feedback and encouraging further action.  The private-rented sector engagement work (SAVES) will reach over 100,000 students when they are looking for, moving into and living in the private-rented sector. It will enable students to make better informed decisions at the point at which they are selecting a rental property – thereby routing purchase decisions towards higher efficiency properties. SAVES2 will incorporate national-level partnerships with smart meter delivery agencies to develop student-focused communication materials highlighting the benefits of smart meters. It will provide ongoing advice and support to students via energy-efficiency and bill management training, peer-to-peer advice sharing via video blogs and regular e-mail and social media communications.


Evaluation into Practice to Achieve Targets for Energy Efficiency

Directives on energy efficiency such as the EED or the EPBD trigger a great variety of policies throughout EU Member States. The effort put into developing and implementing these policies is well documented in existing NEEAPs. Soon, emphasis will be put on finding out how effective they were to create new policies that allow meeting current and future energy savings targets. Unfortunately, several barriers limit policy evaluation. This results in a lack of quantitative data, and impedes evidence-based analysis required to distinguish effective from ineffective policies.   EPATEE aims at tackling this problem by raising the capacity of policymakers and implementers to assist Members States to fulfil their obligation under energy related Directives. The project will provide them both with tools and with practical knowledge to make effective impact evaluation an integral part of the policy cycle. EPATEE makes use of existing evaluation experiences in a range of instruments, such as energy efficiency obligation schemes, regulations, financial incentives and voluntary agreements. Lessons learnt from other EU initiatives and good practices in how to successfully evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of such energy efficiency policies will provide the basis for the development of guidelines and good practice evaluation tools. A set of 20 to 30 tools enabling state-of-the-art evaluation will be developed and integrated into a smart online toolbox, which interactively assists users in picking the most relevant tool for their specific need.   This guidance material provides the basis for the most important aspect of EPATEE: target-oriented experience sharing and capacity building. Findings will be discussed together with policymakers through peer-learning workshops, webinars, direct consulting, and other means of communication and dissemination. All activities will strive at realizing synergies with other EU projects such as ODYSEEE-MURE, ENSPOL, MultEE and the CA EED.


LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKOS ENERGETIKOS MINISTERIJOS

Concerted Action EED - Support to Member States and participating countries for the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive

The objective of the 2nd Concerted Action for the Energy Efficiency Directive (CA-EED 2) is to foster exchange of information and experience among Member States and other participating countries (Norway)  with a view to facilitating to the implementation of the Directive 2012/27/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy efficiency (EED), including the implementation of the foreseen re-cast of this Directive. 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. •	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 all MS, as well as the transfer of good practices between countries.  The objectives of the CA-EED 2 will be achieved by organising information exchange via amongst others 8 structured plenary meetings for coverage of the various topics. The meetings will allow experts from implementing bodies and ministries in the MS to discuss and exchange views, and aim to achieve as much convergence of objectives and methodologies as appropriate, avoiding redundant efforts and maximizing the benefits that can be obtained from the work otherwise required from individual MS working on their own. A large part of the work in the CA-EED 2 will be done in the sessions during the plenary meetings, focussing on good practice examples, but also through Working Groups that interact between the meetings and exchange of information through the forum on the CA-EED website.  In order to structure the topics covered by the EED Expert Areas have been identified encompassing the main areas of the EED.


Sustainable Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Concrete (FRP-RC) Structures

The corrosion problem of steel reinforcement severely limits the life-cycle sustainability of conventional reinforced concrete structures. This proposal focuses on the use of corrosion-free fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcing bars in lieu of steel reinforcing bars in concrete structures. Due to the currently incomplete understanding of serviceability aspects of FRP reinforced concrete (FRP-RC) structures, the existing design guidelines are not comprehensive, and this restricts the applications of FRP-RC in real-life. The proposed project will investigate the fundamental issues of serviceability, fracture mechanics and time-dependent effects of FRP-RC to enable its practical usage. The objectives encompass experimental investigation of deformation characteristics of FRP-RC specimens, derivation of constitutive models and establishment of deformation capacity of FRP-RC members, formulation of design guidelines in serviceability and development of design aids for use by practising engineers. A number of first-time-in-the-world techniques initiated by the applicant researcher, Dr. Pui-Lam NG and the host supervisor, Prof. Gintaris KAKLAUSKAS of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) will be employed in the project. The expertise areas of the researcher and the host are highly complementary and there will be substantial two-way transfer of knowledge. The researcher and the host propose to undertake the project with partner organisations University of Minho led by Prof. Joaquim A.O. BARROS, and University of Cambridge led by Prof. Chris BURGOYNE, in 24 months duration. Measures to disseminate the research findings to the academic and engineering communities and communicate the results to the general public have been formulated. A detailed work plan of research activities, deployment of manpower and resources, contingency plan for risk mitigation, and availability of research infrastructure have been duly addressed to enable effective delivery of the project.


An ultrasonic non-destructive testing system for detection and quantification of early stage subsurface creep damage in the thermal power generation industry

Creep damage detection in pressurised steam line components is a major concern in the power generation industry. Currently, replica metallography is used to inspect these components. This method can only detect surface defects however evidence indicates that creep damage develops first inside the pipe wall and does not appear at the wall surface until the pipe is almost ready to fail. This results in catastrophic component failures which cost the industry more than €500,000 in lost revenue per day out of operation.  To combat this, we will commercialise the CreepUT system, which employs a proprietary Ultrasonic (UT) technique that enables the early detection of sub-surface creep damage. We are an industrially driven consortium with significant expertise in field inspection services and NDT product development. We have already tested and validated the capabilities of CreepUT in relevant environment but require about €2.5 million to evolve our system from TRL-6 to TRL-9 and speed-up the delivery of the CreepUT product into the market place. We plan to refine the hardware electronics and make our system more ergonomic to be used by technicians.   A major part of the project is focused on validating the performance of the system in an industrial power plant; in this effort, we are supported by PPC, one of Greece’s top energy companies. Activities will target towards certifying the CreepUT product, fine tuning our marketing plan, approaching new customers and setting-up our customer services department.  We will penetrate the fossil and nuclear power generation industry in UK, Greece, France, Saudi Arabia, India and China. We calculate total revenues of €14.59million by 2024, operating at a profit of €2.05 million and creating 42 new jobs. The power generation industry will benefit from reduced outage periods; hence the power plants will operate safer and for longer saving the industry about €32 million per year.


VALSTYBINIS MOKSLINIU TYRIMU INSTITUTAS FIZINIU IR TECHNOLOGIJOS MOKSLU CENTRAS

Graphene-Manganite Nanostructures for Novel Pulsed Magnetic Field Sensors

A two-way innovative approach of combining Graphene and novel La1-xSrxMn1-yCoyO3 manganite is proposed in this GRAMAS project in order to manufacture highly sensitive sensors, measuring pulsed magnetic field [0.5 – 60 T] independently on its direction (so-called B-scalar sensors). Firstly, the Co3+ cations will be introduced into the Mn3+ sites in order to achieve a novel, nanostructured La1-xSrxMn1-yCoyO3 layers deposited on various substrates by MOCVD technique. Secondly, the single/few-layers of Graphene will be transferred on the top of Co-doped manganite layers, since Graphene has a superior mobility of charge carriers which also increases the Magnetoresistance. In addition, Graphene layer will allow indication of magnetic field direction respectively to manganite B-scalar sensors‘s plane. Moreover, the combination of manganite/Graphene is expected to open new potentials for the discovery of superior magnetotransport properties even at room temperatures and increased sensitivity to magnetic field.  A full spectrum of investigations, including determination of composition and the crystallinity of the films, electrical and magnetotransport properties dependence on the chosen substrate, growth conditions, number of Graphene layers will be performed in order to achieve the highest magnetoresistance at room temperature for the development of highly sensitive B-scalar magnetic field sensors.


Next generation solar active facade element Solar ventilation air preheater SVAP

Buildings are responsible for 40% of the energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions in the EU. According to Directive 2010/31/EU, all new buildings in the EU should be nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB) by the end of 2020. The amount of the solar energy that is not collected from the facades contributes to CO¬2 emissions and the use of fossil fuel that could otherwise be avoided. Collecting solar energy from facades is a new and necessary trend in NZEB facades. As a result of our R&D efforts, Saulės vėjo aruodai (SVA) has developed the patented Solar Ventilation Air Preheater (SVAP). SVAP heat exchanger construction solve the following problems that persist in the state-of-the art products: (1) the regulation of the solar attack angle, (2) minimising the local and linear resistance of air movement inside the heat exchanger, (3) maximising the capture of solar radiation inside the heat exchanger, (4) allowing the design of transparent modules (because of the front and back slats’ construction), (5) integrate photovoltaic modules on the front slats and capture the reflection of long infrared rays from the crystalline silicon cells. Our product addresses a market that is worth over 10 BN EUR. This project will undertake a feasibility study, including a full business plan, to verify the technological, practical and economic viability of SVAP project in beachhead markets.


Feasibility study for Bendsai – world’s first standardised machine tending robot

Only 8% of European manufacturing companies had integrated robotic solutions in 2016 . Existing robotic solutions are unaffordable for SMEs and most still rely on ineffective traditional manufacturing devices. Machine tending robots can increase efficiency and safety of operations, but are only available custom made by robotic integrators and are expensive, hard to use and difficult to integrate.  There is a market demand for standardized machine tending robots that would be feasible and affordable for manufacturing SMEs. Currently, there are no such commercially available robots on the market.  Factobotics seeks to become the first robotic supplier focused on developing and commercialising standardised machine tending robots. To achieve this, Factobotics has developed the first standardised metal sheet bending machine tending robot Bendsai. It will disrupt the machine tending robot industry and provide a roadmap for future introduction of other standardised machine tending robots.   Bendsai (TRL 7) can be used to automate operation and feeding of any bending machine and will replace heavy human physical labor in metal sheet bending industry. Bendsai is user friendly, requires a short changeover time, is significantly cheaper than alternatives (40K vs 100K), requires zero integration costs, provides a quick ROI (up to 2 months),  is mobile, compact and can easily switch between assignments.  To ensure successful commercialisation, in Phase 1 of the SME Instrument, Factobotics intends to develop an elaborate feasibility study that would include: verification of technological and economic viability, redesign of the product, partnership development strategy, a business plan with an extensive financial, pricing, sales strategy and a roadmap for commercialisation of other standardised machine tending robots.


SMEs and non-profits are currently at a disadvantage due to high barriers to using outdoor advertising, which in principle could be one of the most effective advertising channel for small businesses: (1) running outdoor advertising campaigns currently requires significant investment (>€1000) and commitment and (2) outdoor advertising has limited targeting options and therefore low efficiency for local businesses having few physical locations and niche target groups.  Intenova addresses this challenge in a scalable way and uses strategy which aims to maximise the impact on the competitiveness of SMEs and non-profits. Intenova develops an outdoor advertising platform based on digital displays attached to cars. The content of the display is changing in real-time based on targeting preferences (car's location, time, audience, and budget limits) set by the advertiser through a bidding platform. The platform creates flexibility and opportunities for business model innovation for SMEs and non-profits who are now able to (1) deliver messages to exactly those communities that are relevant for their business and (2) organize outdoor advertising campaigns even with very limited budgets thanks to more precise targeting and low setup costs. Field testing has shown that compared to other outdoor advertising channels, SMEs were able to increase the number of received quotes by up to 150% and sales by up to 50% for the same budget.  Intenova has validated the business concept, run pilot projects using printed stickers, and is expecting revenues of €150 000 in 2016. The proprietary digital display technology was demonstrated in summer 2016 together with the first version of the software platform. For full-scale commercialization, Intenova needs to prepare for mass-production of the display, refine software modules and algorithms.  Intenova’s ambition to become one of the leading providers of digital outdoor solutions has potential to generate in excess of €1 billion annually.


MOKSLO INOVACIJU IR TECHNOLOGIJU AGENTURA

The overarching goal of the European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) is to generate knowledge to inform the safe management of chemicals and so protect human health. We will use human biomonitoring to understand human exposure to chemicals and resulting health impacts and will communicate with policy makers to ensure that our results are exploited in the design of new chemicals policies and the evaluation of existing measures.    Key objectives include: • Harmonizing procedures for human biomonitoring across 26 countries, to provide policy makers with comparable data on human internal exposure to chemicals and mixtures of chemicals at EU level;  • Linking data on internal exposure to chemicals to aggregate external exposure and identifying exposure pathways and upstream sources. Information on exposure pathways is critical to the design of targeted policy measures to reduce exposure; • Generating scientific evidence on the causal links between human exposure to chemicals and negative health outcomes; and • Adapting chemical risk assessment methodologies to use human biomonitoring data and account for the contribution of multiple external exposure pathways to the total chemical body burden. We will achieve these objectives by harmonizing human biomonitoring initiatives in 26 countries, drawing on existing expertise and building new capacities. By establishing National Hubs in each country to coordinate activities, we will create a robust Human Biomonitoring Platform at European level.  This initiative contributes directly to the improvement of health and well-being for all age groups, by investigating how exposure to chemicals affects the health of different groups, such as children, pregnant women, foetuses and workers. We will also investigate how factor such as behavior, lifestyle and socio-economic status influence internal exposure to chemicals across the EU population. This knowledge will support policy action to reduce chemical exposure and protect health.


VALSTYBINIS MOKSLINIU TYRIMU INSTITUTAS INOVATYVIOS MEDICINOS CENTRAS


NACIONALINE VISUOMENES SVEIKATOS PRIEZIUROS LABORATORIJA


LIETUVOS TRANSPORTO SAUGOS ADMINISTRACIJA

The “Once-Only” Principle Project (TOOP) explores and demonstrates the “once-only” principle through multiple sustainable pilots, using a federated architecture on a cross-border collaborative pan-European scale in order to identify drivers and barriers and to provide a basis for future implementations and wider use. Three pilots are implemented: (1) Cross-border e-Services for Business Mobility, (2) Updating Connected Company Data and (3) Online Ship and Crew Certificates. TOOP has the ambition to connect 59 information systems from 21 countries. The methodological approach of TOOP is based on an exploratory and agile pilot life-cycle approach to cross-border pilots, the planning and implementation of which is supported by the development of a generic federated architecture and building blocks, the identification and mitigation of barriers, including legal issues, and the evaluation of the results, with pro-active dissemination and sustainable exploitation of the results throughout the project. TOOP’s main technological innovation is a generic federated OOP architecture that supports the interconnection and interoperability of national registries at the EU level. The pilots planned are ambitious as they contain innovations and provide a basis for recommendations for future implementations and the wider use of the OOP. The project is an important learning environment for OOP in particular and European e-Government in general. The pilots are scalable and can be extended to all Member States in subsequent years. TOOP’s consortium of 51 organisations consists of 19 national administrations (or authorized thereby) from 19 different EU Member States and 2 Associated Countries. The public administrations provide effective piloting, research partners make sure that the key preconditions for effective piloting are met, and private entities support exploitation, all complementing each other in the whole range of activities and areas dealt with in TOOP.