EmpoweriNg (European) SME business model InnovatiON

Reaching the ambitions of the Europe 2020 and the Innovation Union requires much more than just technological innovations. In the academic community, Business Model Innovation (BMI) has for a long time been recognized as the key to improved competitiveness and innovativeness. However, BMI does not reach SMEs yet nor is there knowledge on how SMEs conduct BMI in practice. Empowering SMEs to conduct BMI requires new approaches. By leveraging existing networks and communities, we will gather examples, best practices and insights into Business Models (BM) from case studies from each and every European region or industry, complemented with insights from other leading countries worldwide. The BM vortex will thus generate an enormous and rich library of business models patterns and managerial structures, provided on a platform,  to support SMEs in these communities. We will also develop innovative tooling and provide them on the platform to makes it easy for SMEs to develop, evaluate and plan new business models.  The ENVISION consortium covers Northern, Western, Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. In each region a top-ranked academic institution in the field of BMI is present as well as innovative businesses that deliver smart and tailored BMI tooling and reach out to SMEs. We build on over a decade of joint work on BMI and BM tooling. We will build and maintain regional and thematic communities. In the communities, support is delivered to help SMEs transform and improve their BMs.  The consortium also includes partners and associated partners that will realize our pan-European reach to SMEs: on a pan-European level (e.g., UAEPME and female entrepreneurs’ network), on a national and regional level (e.g., chambers of commerce, family business organizations and statistical offices). The consortium also has linkages to EIT/ICT Labs and the European Service Innovation Centre (ESIC).


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

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


VALSTYBINIS MOKSLINIU TYRIMU INSTITUTAS FIZINIU IR TECHNOLOGIJOS MOKSLU CENTRAS

Following decades of RD&D in support of the safe management and disposal of radioactive waste, and building on the preparatory work of the recent EC JOPRAD project, a European Joint Programme on Radioactive Waste Management (EURAD) is now proposed to coordinate activities on agreed priorities of common interest between European Waste Management Organisations (WMOs), Technical Support Organisations (TSOs) and Research Entities (REs).  Such Joint Programming will complement National RD&D Programmes, by jointly establishing and carrying out activities jointly where there is added value at the European level. It is the logical next step in deepening collaboration between European actors in the field of radioactive waste management (RWM). It builds on existing and emerging networks of European actors (IGD-TP, SITEX and REs network), preceding coordination and support actions (in particular, SecIGD2, SITEX-II project and JOPRAD).  The Joint Programme will generate and manage knowledge to support EU Member States with their implementation of the Directive 2011/70/Euratom (Waste Directive), taking into account the different magnitudes and stages of advancement of Member State National Programmes. This will encompass: • Supporting Member-States in developing and implementing their national RD&D programmes for the safe long-term management of their full range of different types of radioactive waste through participation in the RWM Joint Programme; in particular: • Consolidating existing knowledge for the safe start of operation of the first geological disposal facilities for spent fuel, high-level waste, and other long-lived radioactive waste, and supporting optimization linked with the stepwise implementation of geological disposal; and • Enhancing knowledge management and transfer between organisations, Member-States and generations.


EUROCONTROL’s 2013 Challenges of Growth Report “by 2035 more than 20 airports are operating at 80% or more of capacity for 6 or more hours per day … drives ATFCM airport delay up from around 1 minute/flight in 2012 to 5-6 minutes in 2035.” Whereas social, economic and environmental constraints impede building new runways, secondary airports are hindered by technical, infrastructure and meteorological limitations from absorbing additional traffic. EARTH unites key European aviation partners combining the right expertise and investment to address issues and drive deployment of operational and technical improvements to enhance infrastructure, increase traffic throughput whilst preserving safety and environment. Aligned with the ATM-Masterplan, EARTH focuses on separation and procedures to improve runway and airport throughput considering wake-vortex, weather, environment and noise whilst taking account of different traffic demand, future aircraft capability and airport configurations. Partners validate reduction of arrival/departure separations delivered through optimised runway delivery support tools and study new procedures designed to reduce environmental and noise impact whilst confirming increased runway throughput enabled by ground and on-board space-based augmented navigation systems including GBAS and SBAS. Partners investigate independent rotorcraft operations, fixed-wing and helicopter non-interfering simultaneous approaches, on-board and low-cost ground technology improving access to secondary airports in low visibility, optimising single and multi-runway operations in mixed-mode and dependent runway configurations and enhanced terminal airspace operations through curved approaches. EARTH supports the SESAR Deployment regulation and addresses European concerns on environmental sustainability, reduction of noise and fuel consumption and brings low cost improved access to regional airports making regions economically attractive with potential for new jobs.


Multiscaled Smart Metallic and Semiconductor Electrodes for Electrochemical Processing and Devices

Demand of “smart” electrodes/systems has recently increased due to significant role of various devices/equipment based on these electrodes - urgent needs of present and forthcoming human activities. The multi- and interdisciplinary project SMARTELECTRODES is proposing elaboration of advanced systems covered under umbrella of “smart” electrodes which will be involved and play significant roles in several important electrochemical/electrophysical applications as catalysis/electrocatalysis, sensoring, thermoelectrics, electrowinning, electrochemical machining and electrospark alloying. The development of multiscaled (from nano- to macro-; from nanodot to volumized 3D-) metallic and semiconductor electrodes and integration of them into working systems/equipment is the main target of SMARTELECTRODES. The project is well-balanced, highly innovative R&D training network, which aims:  To develop long lasting collaborations between four academic (Vilnius University, Lithuania; Institute of Applied Physics, Moldova; Northeastern University, USA; Research Institute for Physical Chemical Problems of BSU, Belarus) and two companies (JSC Topaz, Moldova and JSC “Electronics Treatment Technologies”, EPT, Lithuania);   To develop new electrodes (based on chalcogenides, iron group metals and “technological” electrodes) by well-established institutions;   To increase career perspectives of each participant that will lead to benefit of each member and partnership as a whole.  Partners will be complimentary involved into realization of the proposed research. The research tasks will be implemented through multidisciplinary Work Packages devoted to the fabrication, adapting and investigation of electrodes/materials, also they include the activities towards training and management. Namely, advanced training will be provided to the seconded staff through well-integrated programs, including workshops and conferences.


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


Multimodal, Functional Bio-Photonic Imaging

FBI fosters education of ESRs on an emerging, multimodal imaging platform and its translation into clinical and biological applications. In FBI, 15 ESRs are trained at world-leading European academic institutions and companies, thus forming strong interdisciplinary relations between industry, technical sciences and clinical end-users.  Optical imaging has huge potential to address unmet clinical needs by combining non-invasive and real-time capture of biomedical information; thus enabling earlier onset of treatment, reduced therapy costs, reduced recurrence rates, and improved clinical outcomes. Up to now, optical modalities were applied as standalone techniques each targeting one biomarker. Recently it has been shown that diagnosis is significantly improved by combining different contrast mechanisms simultaneously in a multimodal approach, i.e., staging and grading of lesions is feasible.  FBI proposes to combine a selection of modalities depending on the targeted disease. Suspicious lesions are analysed with optical coherence tomography, optoacoustic tomography, multi-photon tomography, and Raman spectroscopy to provide morphological, label-free microangiography, and intrinsic biochemical information, respectively. An important issue is the need for endoscopy: combining said modalities into endoscopes is challenging due to the integration of different imaging concepts, scanning and detection methods, and laser sources. Accordingly, there is a huge need for effectively translating these technical solutions to industry and clinics, which traditionally is restricted by lack of understanding of applications or limited knowledge of new technology.  All these barriers are addressed by FBI through research and development of novel photonic components and systems, through educating ESRs in understanding clinical, biological and commercial challenges, and through developing tailored technical solutions and efficient translation of technology within a strong network.


The need for European airports to become more operationally efficient is fundamental as Airport Council International forecasts that passenger numbers across the continent will rise an average of 3.3% per annum to reach 3.9 billion by 2036. PJ04-W2 will develop concepts, tools and procedures to increase the predictability and resilience of airport operations, improving the punctuality of flights in a safe and environmentally sustainable manner.  The aim will be to improve airport/network integration for large and medium/regional airports, improve airport airside/landside integration, reduce the impact of MET aspects on airport operations, make  further investigations about how environmental aspects could be monitored and managed in day-to-day airport operations.     This will be achieved through increasing the coordination between Airport and the Network, validating the concept of regional connected airports. On the airport side, the project will have a focus on the airport hypervision concept, and how airport operations could be better predicted with anticipated impact, managed in a pro-active way and synchronised in various situations. This includes the development of performance and role-based dashboards as well as what-if, prediction and impact assessment tools. Here data-driven airport operations management and digital technologies are required enablers, as connected, data-based, intelligent toolboxes supporting all airport stakeholders must be developed.  To ensure that full benefits are achieved and that the expected performance improvements are realised in the context of overall ATM Network, close coordination will take place with other projects, particularly those addressing network management, airport airside and runway throughput, enhanced arrivals and departures as well as the overall integration within the programme.


VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS ENERGETIKOS AGENTURA

Streamlining Energy Savings Calculations

streamSAVE will support Member States in harmonizing accurate, bottom-up energy savings calculations of technical priority actions under Article 7, as well as Article 3 of Member States’ EED reporting. The actions will be targeted to those measures with high energy saving potential and considered as priority issues by Member States. To understand Member States’ priorities, the consortium performed an online survey in May 2019 (explained below).  For each of the identified priority actions, streamSAVE is fostering transnational knowledge exchange between public authorities and other key-stakeholders along the following axes: -	Axis 1: Knowledge facility where Member States are guided through the status of energy saving methodologies in the EU28 and how they can streamline and improve their bottom-up energy savings calculations. -	Axis 2: Peer-to-peer dialogues among public authorities and other key-stakeholders to share experiences, reflect on and validate the streamlined calculation methodologies.  -	Axis 3: Capacity support facility assisting Member States in implementing streamlined energy savings calculations for specific requests to improve their obligations under Article 3 and Article 7 of the Energy Efficiency Directive  An online streamSAVE platform will be set-up to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences among Member States according to the three axes, which is illustrated in the next figure. The project would assist Member States to deliver rapidly scalable savings and hence maximize their chances of successfully meeting the EED energy savings targets. Methodologies developed in this way would be eligible for use on a voluntary basis, but would benefit from the pooling of European expertise and experience and thus support best practice while avoiding duplicative effort.


The proposal is an introduction to an innovative measurement device that can detect deficiency or excess of nutrients in plants by harnessing light spectra

The objective of the feasibility study is to create a strategy for introduction of the novel crop monitoring and diagnosing device into the global market and prepare a business plan for its commercialization. The device is capable to diagnose growing conditions of plants as well as to determine deficiency of main macro-elements (N, P, K) and micro-elements (Fe, B, Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo) during the plant vegetation period.  The spectrophotometer is an innovative crop monitoring and diagnosing device, that could initially be used by crop farmers in the European Union and subsequently in other countries worldwide. The spectrophotometer would be a complete novelty in the market and it would allow users to solve the following issues in their farming process: - Reduce over and under – fertilization of crop, by allowing to determine the lack of specific macro and micronutrients in the plants; -Significantly reduce expenditures needed for fertilizers and other supportive farming inputs; -Reduce contamination of arable land (by consistently applying the correct amounts of macro and micronutrients, the farmer will reduce unwanted effects of chemical elements on the soil); -Increase output yields and reduce food waste, creating a more environmentally friendly and self-sustainable farm in the future, less reliant on subsidies.

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


Smart ELECTrodeposited Alloys for environmentally sustainable applications: from advanced protective coatings to micro/nano-robotic platforms

SELECTA is a highly inter-disciplinary initiative which has the primary goal of training young researchers in the field of smart electrodeposited metallic alloys suitable for environmental / sustainable development applications. The Network encompasses the fabrication and in-depth characterization of: (i) innovative protective coatings, (ii) resilient micro/nano-electromechanical systems, and (iii) wirelessly actuated micro/nano-robotic platforms for cutting-edge environmental applications. The project will explore new types of electrodeposited alloys (based on Fe, Cu or Al; free from hazardous and scarce raw elements), with tunable structure (amorphous, nanocrystalline), morphology (dense, nanoporous) and geometry (films, micropillars, nanowires), to meet specific technological demands (high wear/corrosion resistance, superior magnetic properties or hydrophobicity). SELECTA aims to integrate technological progress with environmental sustainability concerns, which is one of the major “Societal Challenges” listed in the Horizon 2020 Work Programme. Several disciplines (Physics, Electrochemistry, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Biology and Robotics) converge together to provide a holistic approach to accomplish the SELECTA goals. The project brings together 10 Beneficiaries and 7 Partner Organizations (including 5 private companies), belonging to 10 EU Member States (plus Switzerland and Serbia). Special efforts will be devoted to bridge fundamental science with commercialisation of the research outcome. The complementarities among partners will render a high-level, multi-faceted educational programme. World-class research will be combined with unique training opportunities in soft skills, such as career planning, dissemination, intellectual property rights, entrepreneurship or management. The Network aims to provide highly-qualified specialists able to face future professional challenges in either Academia or Industry in an independent manner.


A global approach for recovery of arable land through improved phytoremediation coupled with advanced liquid biofuel production and climate friendly copper smelting process

Phy2Climate will validate 5 phytoremediation pilots in Spain (South Europe), Serbia (Balkan region), Lithuania (Baltic region), Argentina (South America) and India (South Asia) at TRL-5. The selected contaminated sites represent the most common soil contaminants worldwide. The phytoremediation pilots will produce energy crops with none indirect Land Use Change (iLUC) issues. The energy crops will feed a pilot biorefinery in Germany that combines cutting edge biomass processing technologies to produce 4 types of clean drop-in biofuels for the road and shipping transport sectors at TRL-5: EN 14214 biodiesel, ISO 8217 marine fuels, EN 590 diesel and EN 228 gasoline. Additionally, bio-coke will be also produced as substitution of petroleum coke in the metallurgical industry. A significant cost reduction in factor >5 for phytoremediation compared with common remediation techniques is target together with conversion costs of drop-in biofuel production <0,45 €/l. The global biofuel production potential of the Phy2Climate approach is estimated up to 137 million m3 per year. Furthermore, estimated specific Greenhouse Gas (GHG) mitigation of the produced drop-in biofuels is 149% compared with the fossil equivalents, resulting in a total saving potential of 500 Mega-tones CO2eq per year. The work programme is divided in 7 work packages that are specifically designed to achieve the objectives of the project as well as to contribute to the Mission Innovation Challenge 4 and to 16 UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Phy2Climate consortium unites 17 partners from 10 different countries with strong interdisciplinary expertise in the fields of project management, soil remediation & phytoremediation, advanced biofuel technologies, environmental and social sustainability, legal analysis, business development and communication &dissemination. Additionally 11 stakeholders from 8 countries and at EU level have already expressed their interest in the project by a letter of support.


GN4-2 Research and Education Networking - GÉANT

GN4-2 is the proposed project for the second Specific Grant Agreement under the 68-month Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) established between the GÉANT Consortium and the European Commission in April 2015.This second phase of implementing the FPA will raise European research to the next level by promoting scientific excellence, access and re-use of research data. It will also drive European-wide cost efficiencies in scientific infrastructure by promoting interoperability with other e-infrastructures on an unprecedented scale. The FPA objective for the GÉANT Partnership is to contribute to effective European research by making Europe the best-connected region in the world. GÉANT must offer European researchers the network, communications facilities and application access that ensure the digital continuum necessary to conduct world-class research in collaboration with their peers, regardless of geographical location. GÉANT will maintain the operational excellence of the established GÉANT services, while achieving economies on the costs of the backbone network. The reliable, secure and state-of-the-art network services offered to researchers and other network users across Europe will remain exceptional. Massive data-transfer capacities required by extreme-scale instruments and by the penetration of big data in many areas of science will be prototyped with due consideration to the specific security and deployment challenges.  Trust and identity is also prioritised with the introduction of a scalable operational model and with user requirements addressed in close concertation with the AARC and proposed AARC2 projects. GN4-2 developments are also guided by the vision of a future where a set of coherent and integrated European e-infrastructure services will offer convenient, seamless access for end-users through a common service catalogue, and facilitating the adoption of services offered by new e-infrastructure developments, such as the European Open Science Cloud.


LIETUVOS KIBERNETINIU NUSIKALTIMU KOMPETENCIJU IR TYRIMU CENTRAS

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

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

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


Lighthouse: Lighting the way for European scale-ups

Lighthouse sets a standard on developing cross border connections within and beyond Europe. The project lights the way for startups within Europe by organising 8 Deep Dive Weeks in 4 ecosystems: Berlin, Dublin, Lisbon and the Baltics – meeting over 1600 different ecosystem players in specific themes such as fintech, refugee tech, e-gov, IoT, etc - and culminating with a Top 10 Lighthouse Award in London each year. Lighthouse will support directly over 120 startups to meet key people (investors, corporates, technological experts, media, customers, talent, etc.) in each of these ecosystems through matchmaking, 1-on-1 mentoring, workshops and many other activities. Furthermore, the best of the best of the selected startups will receive the chance to take part in our Europass programme - taking them to 8 of the biggest European tech events; as well as 1 week scouting missions to Silicon Valley, New York and Israel to accelerate their positioning as global players. Lighthouse’s top-notch support activities prepare startups to take advantage of the opportunities in external markets as well as providing qualified introductions to key players in new ecosystems: which all contributes to increased market success. In concrete expected impact, the project will help selected startups to obtain +2000 investment, partnership or customers leads, 500 new international customer leads, develop +100 adapted products/services to new markets, raise collective turnover by 50%, create +500 new jobs, raise +€50m in total investment and many more direct and serendipitous results. Lighthouse does not happen in a vacuum - its structure enables perfect integration with all Startup Europe activities - especially within Deep Dive Weeks. This exploits synergies between Lighthouse, Startup Europe and all related stakeholders by pooling resources together – encouraging even more ecosystems to take part in its activities.

Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies (LEIT)


LIETUVOS RESPUBLIKOS SVEIKATOS APSAUGOS MINISTERIJA

X-eHealth: eXchanging electronic Health Records in a commom framework

X-eHealth’s project stands herein for a project of strategic relevance for tomorrow’s European eHealth Union. Assembling at the time of this proposal submission a shared commitment of 47 health actors, the underlying idea of this project is to develop the basis for a workable, interoperable, secure and cross border Electronic Health Record exchange Format in order to lay the foundation for the advance of eHealth sector while using the 3 pillars put forward by the EC as reference. Aimed at promoting a faster and sustainable EU digital transformation, this Cooperative and Support Action is made up of 8 Work Package in which 4 exclusively focus on technical-functional activities (WP4 to WP7). From Generic Aspects to System Architecture and Integration, passing by Functional and Technical Specifications, X-eHealth objective is to move towards a uniform interoperable data-sharing format framework. In addition, to enhance EU’s public health state of play, WP1 and WP8 are responsible for implementation studies, practicality and continuity of eHealth interoperability development. On this basis and building upon the already in place Patient Summary, X-eHealth purpose is to develop the foundations for a common framework for medical imaging, discharge letters, laboratory results and rare diseases to flow both alongside citizens care pathway and across health entities between EU Member States and Neighbour Countries.  Focus on cross-border services, this consortium aims to advance an interoperable Common European Health Data Space for citizens and health providers engagement in accordance with privacy and cybersecurity regulations. To achieve this end, X-eHealth gathers 36 consortium partners plus 5 collaborative partners and 6 eHealth skilled experts, eager to develop the abovementioned 4 domains, and distinguished by policy and political actors mixed with national competent authorities to indeed concretely plan, implement and maintain national eHealth infrastructures.

Health, demographic change and wellbeing


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


Integrated, Fail-Operational, Cognitive Perception, Planning and Control Systems for Highly Automated Vehicles

NewControl will develop virtualized platforms for vehicular subsystems that are essential to highly automated driving (realizing functions such as perception, cognition and control), so as to enable mobility-as-a-service for next generation highly automated vehicles.  Its overarching goal is to provide an industrially calibrated trajectory towards increased user-acceptance of automated control functions, through an approach that is centered on the premise of safety by design.   Newcontrol will deliver: 1.             Fail-operational platform for robust holistic perception through a combination of Lidar, Radar, and sensor fusion 2.             Generalized virtual platform for stable and efficient control of propulsion systems 3.             Cost- and power-efficient, high-performance embedded compute-platforms for in-vehicle perception, cognition, and control 4.             Robust approaches for implementing, verifying, and certifying automated control for safety-critical applications  Several (12) demonstrators will be built to showcase the project’s findings and their capability to facilitate perception, cognition and control of next generation highly automated vehicles.  The developments in NewControl will facilitate significant cost reductions for essential modules necessary for future automated vehicles. Concomitantly, these developments will improve the safety and reliability of automated systems to levels necessary for mass-market deployment. These innovations will leverage the expertise of industrial (OEMs, Tier-1, Tier-2 and technology providers) and research partners along the complete semiconductor, automotive, and aviation value chains, providing Europe with a competitive edge in a growing market.   Importantly, NewControl's innovations will improve the market penetration of safety-centric automation systems, contributing directly to the European goal of zero road fatalities by 2050.


Developing a new Network of Researchers on Contemporary European Motherhood

The overall aim of the MotherNet project is to enhance the scientific excellence and research capacity of Vilnius University (Lithuania) and raise the profile of its research staff and their institution by linking an emerging body of researchers working on motherhood to world-class centres for research on motherhood at Uppsala University (Sweden) and the National University of Ireland Maynooth (Ireland). The work plan envisions: joint design and implementation of collaborative research projects; the creation of targeted training and mentoring programmes; the organization of three international summer schools; extensive inter-institutional mobility; cooperative training of postgraduate students and early-career researchers; coordinated promotion of research outputs; collaboration on a number of major grant applications; and an ambitious programme of dissemination and communication measures. The expected impact of this 3-year programme is the creation of an innovative, interdisciplinary research network that will endure beyond the lifetime of the grant and will make a significant contribution to improving the quality of maternal care and support services in the three countries involved; influence policies relating to work/life balance; and increase public awareness about the changes in the social construction of motherhood in contemporary European society. Most importantly, through these activities, the MotherNet project will significantly enhance the networking channels of VU researchers and increase the visibility and international impact of their research.


Enable RPAS Insertion in Controlled Airspace

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) have positively impacted civil and military applications. RPAS access to non-segregated airspace is essential to exploit their full capabilities, offering new services to the community and enabling market opportunities with huge economy benefits. To make insertion of RPAS into the ATM system a success, key challenges have to be addressed: to design a harmonised way to operate in nominal and emergency conditions; that RPAS do not adversely impact operations of existing airspace users; to ensure interoperability with current safety nets; to develop common standards and procedures. ERICA will assess operational and technical capabilities to allow RPAS to safely operate (in nominal and emergency conditions) in controlled airspace (class A to C) and will develop and validate solutions without negative impacts on air traffic. A Detect and Avoid system for the “collision avoidance” and “remain well clear” functions will be developed. A framework for inserting RPAS into the non-segregated airspace will be developed in two streams: “Accommodation”, with platforms, missions and applications to meet the initial demand, exploiting existing capabilities, and “Integration”, to reach the final objective. The benefits expected from the project are: developing recognised European RPAS operations in non-segregated airspace; enabling civil and military RPAS, fixed and rotary wing aircraft, to operate mixed with the manned traffic under a single European sky; increasing RPAS access to the airspace and equity with conventional traffic; contributions to regulatory and standardisation bodies; assuring interoperability with ATM system within and outside Europe; Safety, Human Performance and Cyber Security KPAs will also be investigated. The ERICA partnership, which consists of expert ANSPs, Industry and R&D stakeholders, brings  the essential assets to deliver the RPAS integration with a common European view, the key for the success of the Project.


While the electrical grid is moving from being a fully centralized to a highly decentralized system, grid operators have to change their operative business to accommodate for faster reactions and adaptive exploitation of flexibility. The topic has been subject of several research projects in the past years and reached a maturity that allows now the consideration of a final level, proposing an integrated view on the grid operations beyond the traditional barriers. OneNet aims at performing this critical step creating the conditions for a new generation of grid services able to fully exploit demand response, storage and distributed generation while creating fair, transparent and open conditions for the consumer. As result, while creating one network of Europe, the project aims to build a customer centric approach to grid operation. This ambitious view is achieved by proposing new markets, products and services and by creating a unique IT architecture. While a single platform for Europe is not thinkable, OneNet proposes innovative mechanisms of platform federation which are the key technical enablers for the proposed vision. The project has also very ambitious exploitation goals aiming at creating consensus on the solution far beyond the limits of the consortium partners thanks to a variety of actions including a large-scale forum for discussion within the international energy community. The complete concept is also proven in 4 cluster demos creating an involvement of an unprecedented number of countries and their grid operators in a single project.  The consortium, in addition to a significant list of grid operators, includes also key IT players, leading research institutions and the two most relevant associations for grid operators, jointly providing a unique set of expertise in support to these challenging tasks.


Automotive Intelligence for/at Connected Shared Mobility

The European Green Deal defines 4 key elements for a sustainable mobility and automotive industry, namely: climate neutrality, zero pollution Europe, sustainable transport, and the transition to a circular economy. Digital technologies are a significant enabler for attaining the sustainability goals in mobility and transportation. The EC is taking initiatives to ensure that digital technologies such as AI, 5G, IoT and cloud/edge computing can accelerate the transition of the automotive industry  to electrical, autonomous, connected, and shared vehicles. The current COVID-19 situation accelerates this trend. The AI4CSM project will develop advanced electronic components and systems (ECS) and architectures for future mass-market ECAS vehicles. This fuels the digital transformation in the automotive sector to support the mobility trends and accelerate the transition towards a sustainable green and digital economy. Having assembled some of Europe’s best partners from industry, research and academia, AI4CSM will deliver key innovations in technical areas including: sensor fusion and perception platforms; efficient propulsion and energy modules; advanced connectivity for cooperative mobility applications; vehicle/edge/cloud computing integration concepts; new digital platforms for efficient and federated computing; and intelligent components based on trustworthy AI techniques and methods. ECAS vehicles enabled by embedded intelligence and functional integration for future mobility, becomes the pivotal factor for the automotive sector to address the Green Deal principles.  AI4CSM consists of  8 collaborative R&D clusters, gathering 41 partners from 10 countries. AI4CSM will reinforce user acceptance and affordability by convenience and services for the major transition to a diverse mobility. AI4CSM addresses the increasing demand of mobility, supporting future traffic concepts and strengthen the European automotive manufacturing base as a global industry leader.


LIETUVOS INZINERINES PRAMONES ASOCIACIJA LINPRA

A Multi-Sided Business Platform for Plug and Produce Industrial Product Service Systems

The objective of MARKET4.0 is to define, develop and validate an open multi-sided marketplace, based on a trusted P2P data sharing infrastructure for Industry 4.0, that brings together Industrial Product Service Systems (IPSS) providers (supply side) and OEMs as their customers (demand side). It will allow direct interaction among the different sides to improve the sales power of production equipment SMEs. MARKET4.0 will offer advanced web-presence of production equipment SMEs extended by functionalities such as simulations, VR/AR capabilities and a P2P (Industrial Data Space) offering smart user-services and a secure API to try and test the Digital Twin of the production equipment, on top supplier and customer data. This will  facilitate direct transactions between market peers (supplier-to-supplier, supplier-to-customer, customer-to-suppliers and more) during the entire B2B lifecycle, i.e. from equipment search to procurement and commissioning.  MARKET4.0 will create trust in the business transactions between SME production equipment manufacturers and their customers, as an integral element of the Industrial Data Space (IDS) reference architecture.  It includes technological trust (simulation before purchasing), financial trust (Blockchain distributed ledger technology for secure payment), delivery and (anonymized) feedback. In MARKET4.0 the supply side (mainly SMEs) may offer a) production equipment, b) services that extend the capabilities of the production equipment, c) production equipment as a service and d) collaborative engineering services.  The marketplace will generate additional value by providing engineering services and acting as a mediator between suppliers and customers.


VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS INOVACIJU CENTRAS

Designing the Service to Improve the Investor Readiness of Start-ups

The one of the main challenges for the start-ups is the lack of funding for their business ideas. And this situation forces them to seek funding from private sources and especially venture capital (VC) funds. Thus, start-ups seek to participate in Business to Investor (B2I) matchmaking events where they can meet investors and have the opportunity to present their business ideas and attract funding for their company through great presentation (“pitching”). Since the competition is very high, companies must prepare exhaustively their presence in such meetings. Start-ups tend to forget to present the important parts of the Executive summary, the presentation is missing crucial data, “elevator pitch” focuses on the wrong matters. Moreover, they need guidance from experienced consultants on how to present themselves better. To assist the start-ups, project partners aim to design a new service to facilitate investment readiness utilizing a new webtool for checking the company’s readiness and proposing an action plan for improvements.


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

Science with and for Society - Cross-theme


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

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


Within the project SURE (Novel Productivity Enhancement Concept for a Sustainable Utilization of a Geothermal Resource) the radial water jet drilling (RJD) technology will be investigated and tested as a method to increase inflow into insufficiently producing geothermal wells. Radial water jet drilling uses the power of a focused jet of fluids, applied to a rock through a coil inserted in an existing well. This technology is likely to provide much better control of the enhanced flow paths around a geothermal well and does not involve the amount of fluid as conventional hydraulic fracturing, reducing the risk of induced seismicity considerably. RJD shall be applied to access and connect high permeable zones within geothermal reservoirs to the main well with a higher degree of control compared to conventional stimulation technologies. A characterization of the parameters controlling the jet-ability of different rock formations, however, has not been performed for the equipment applied so far. SURE will investigate the technology for deep geothermal reservoir rocks at different geological settings such as deep sedimentary basins or magmatic regions at the micro-, meso- and macro-scale. Laboratory tests will include the determination of parameters such as elastic constants, permeability and cohesion of the rocks as well as jetting experiments into large samples in. Samples will be investigated in 3D with micro CT scanners and with standard microscopy approaches. In addition, advanced modelling will help understand the actual mechanism leading to the rock destruction at the tip of the water jet. Last but not least, experimental and modelling results will be validated by controlled experiments in a quarry (mesoscale) which allows precise monitoring of the process, and in two different geothermal wells. The consortium includes the only company in Europe offering the radial drilling service.


INfraStructure in Proton International REsearch

Proton beam therapy (PBT) is a radical new type of advanced radiotherapy, capable of delivering and conforming a targeted dose of radiation to the tumour while causing minimal damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. In the past 5 years there has been a huge investment in high energy PBT across Europe and eleven member states now either have PBT in operation or are developing this capability.  In addition, the two largest manufactures of PBT equipment have based their manufacturing in Europe. This integrating activity INSPIRE, aims to link these clinical PBT centres in eleven different countries together with two associated centres in USA.  It also brings in two of the worlds largest manufacturers of PBT equipment and an SME.  The trans-national access in INSPIRE will provide European researchers with access to “state of the art” research capabilities employing proton beams at clinical energies.  INSPIRE represents an integrating activity across Europe in a multi-disciplinary field that is growing exponentially.  Through its Networking, Transnational Access and Joint Research Activities,  INSPIRE seeks to provide the “state of the art” capabilities that are needed to address the key challenges in this rapidly developing field. INSPIRE has at its heart the principles of responsible research and innovation and will communicate its research and give access to its databases and software through an Open Access Gateway.  INSPIRE will contain a pipeline of innovation through its Innovation Gateway, to accelerate research for patient and commercial benefit.  INSPIRE will provide its researchers with an unrivalled research and training and opportunities to “discipline hop” into the industrial, clinical or industrial environment.  INSPIRE integrates activities across Europe in this rapidly growing area and offers European researchers unrivalled access to state of the art research capabilities in an area where there has already been significant government investment.


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.

Teaming of excellent research institutions and low performing RDI regions


VILNIAUS GEDIMINO TECHNIKOS UNIVERSITETAS

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

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


Innovation Networks for Scaling Active and Healthy Ageing

The project focuses on the engagements of existing and needed mechanisms to empower the EIP on AHA ecosystem and the cross-border scale-up of tested and ready-to-use applications towards healthcare. Project brings together supply and demand actors to create sustainable model for innovation scale-up, its integration with stakeholders and the needs for systemic change. Service providers as start-ups, SME-s and large industries need the support of ecosystem, incl. health clusters. Demand actors as health care institutions, health centres, local governments are responsible for service provision to ageing communities and elders. Well-designed cooperation mechanisms in frame of agreed model facilitate regular exchanges between the demand and supply sides as well as whole network, enable to identify the barriers and improve the innovation process in local as well EU level, incl. cross-border deployment of innovations. The role of the policy and whole ecosystem is to encourage innovators to step up with user-centred strategies and transformative solutions. This may lead to the need for change in ecosystem operations to gain the success with mHealth solutions for AHA, more smart age-friendly homes for longer independent living or chronic disease management. Our goal is to identify and support the most important innovation ecosystem elements and encourage the relations between functioning actors by addressing the challenges of innovators in market uptake, and expansion in the domestic and cross-border markets. To reach wider commitment to investment, leading to successful and cost-effective implementation of digitally-enabled, person-centred care solutions, co-creation among policy and ecosystem actors towards long-term investment strategy for more investments into cost-effective digitally-enabling healthcare solutions, is needed. Administrative capacity of regional authorities to support innovation through strict and clear procedures should correspond to supply and demand.


BALTIJOS PAZANGIU TECHNOLOGIJU INSTITUTAS

Detecting Document frauD and iDentity on the fly

The D4FLY project will augment the current capabilities and capacities of border authorities in countering emerging threats in document and identity verification (e.g., forged documents, impostor fraud, morphed faces) at manual and highly automated border control points and in the issuance process of genuine documents. The confluence of D4FLY set of tools and systems will improve the quality of verification and reduce major time sinks in the processes thus enabling real on-the-move border crossing experience for travelers. Novel sensor hardware based on advanced lightfield cameras and novel algorithms developed in the project will enhance verification accuracy and robustness via the combined usage of 2D+thermal face, 3D face, iris and somatotype biometrics. Analytical means to identify known criminals based on somatotype and 3D face data generated from mugshots and observation data will be developed. Various operational needs of end-users with different threat landscapes constitute the backbone of D4FLY development efforts. D4FLY will create a resilient document verification system that can verify a multitude of physical and electronic security features (e.g. Kinegrams®, MLIs, CLIs), detect complex forms of electronic fraud and advanced morphing, and identify fraud in breeder documents. The potential benefit of blockchain technology in identity verification will also be investigated. The D4FLY solution will consist of a border control kiosk geared with enhanced enrolment, verification and detection capabilities; smartphones applications for improved performance and verification capabilities; and a non-stop on-the-move system for biometric verification. The innovation will be validated against European societal values, fundamental rights, privacy, data protection and applicable legislation. Four different border control points and one document fraud expertise center will form the project’s testing and demonstration ground.


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.


Towards European Licencing of Small Modular Reactors

ELSMOR (towards European Lisencing of Small MOdular Reactors) aims to create methods and tools for the European stakeholders to assess and verify the safety of light water small modular reactors (LW-SMR) that would be deployed in Europe.  ELSMOR advances the understanding and technological solutions pertaining to light water SMRs on several fronts: •	Collection, analysis, and dissemination of the information on the potential and challenges of Small Modular Reactors to various stakeholders, including the public, decision makers and regulators. •	Development of the high level methods to assess the safety of LW-SMRs •	Improvement of the European experimental research infrastructure to assist in the evaluation of the novel safety features of the future LW-SMRs. •	Improvement of the European nuclear safety analysis codes to demonstrate the capability to assess the safety of the future LW-SMRs  Establishing education and training in the field of innovative nuclear reactors for young professionals is also emphasized.  The ELSMOR project is built upon the expertise of the consortium that consists of technical support organizations, technical research centres, industrial partners, and universities with the long experience in European nuclear safety analysis and the development and implementation of innovative nuclear technologies. The industrial partners include utilities, small medium sized enterprises as well as the consortium currently developing the French LW-SMR (F-SMR design). The developers of European safety analysis tools and other computer codes use their well-established paths for exploitation of the improved and validated simulation tools.   The licencing approaches and methods would be expected to be directly utilized by SMR designers like the French consortium. The outcomes should make the licensing process more fluid and comprehensive; this should also be true from the regulator point of view.


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.


Guided Waves for Structural Health Monitoring

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is essential to guarantee the safe and reliable operation of technical appliances and will be a key enabler to exploit emerging technologies such as remaining useful lifetime prognosis, condition-based maintenance, and digital twins. Particularly, SHM using ultrasonic guided waves is a promising approach for monitoring chemical plants, pipelines, transport systems and aeronautical structures. While substantial progress has been made in the development of SHM technology, current techniques are often realised only at lab-scale. Missing quantification of reliability hinders their practical application. The substantial effort for signal processing and of permanent transducer integration as well as the lack of efficient simulation tools to improve understanding of guided wave-structure interaction and to predict the capabilities of the system limit their widespread use. Training of PhD students specialised in SHM is limited and fragmented in Europe. The aim of this project is to combine for the first time efficient simulation and signal processing tools for SHM and to assess the reliability of the monitoring systems. The project will bring together partners from academia and industry and will train a new generation of researchers skilled in all aspects of SHM, enabling them to transform SHM research into practical applications. Focusing on aeronautics, petrochemistry and the automotive sector as initial pilot cases, we will develop SHM concept to assess the integrity of structures and create ready-to-use tools for industry and other SHM users. The strong collaboration between mathematicians, physicists and engineers aims to bring the capabilities and applicability of SHM methods to the next level. Our students will acquire multidisciplinary scientific expertise, complementary skills, and experience working in academia and industry. The outcome of the project will pave the way for integrating SHM into real-world engineering structures.


TIME4CS (Supporting sustainable Institutional Changes to promote Citizen Science in Science and Technology) aims at supporting and facilitating the implementation of sustainable Institutional Changes in Research Performing Organizations (RPOs) to promote Public Engagement (citizens and citizens associations) and Citizen Science in science and technology. TIME4CS has identified 4 Intervention Areas (IAs) that alone or combined can stimulate the Institutional Changes necessary to promote Public Engagement in R&I activities: i) Research; Education and Awareness; iii) Support resources and Infrastructure; iv) Policy and Assessment.  Institutional Changes should be: i) irreversible, ii) comprehensive, iii) inclusive and iv) contextualized. Bearing this in mind, TIME4CS will establish a knowledge transfer and mutual learning programme between Front-Runners (FRs) and Implementers (Is). The first ones are RPOs with a comprehensive expertise in Citizen Science and that have already undergone Institutional Changes. The latter are TIME4CS beneficiaries still in the early stages of the implementation of Institutional Changes to support Citizen Science, willing to face the challenge of introducing CS activities in their structures. The mutual learning programme will lead to the development of specific and tailored roadmaps for each implementing organisation inclyding a set of specific and detailed actions to follow (Grounding Actions). The whole process will be supported by two facilitator partners supporting the knowledge transfer and the definition of the Grounding Actions. TIME4CS will be carried out by a consortium integrating 11 partners from 8 EU Member States and 1 associated country. TIME4CS Consortium merges a variety of complementary expertise, and the proven partners’ skills, the experiences identified and their involvement in similar initiatives are strategic for matching TIME4CS objectives.


VALSTYBES IMONE KLAIPEDOS VALSTYBINIO JURU UOSTO DIREKCIJA

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

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


Pre-Operational Marine Service Continuity in Transition towards Copernicus

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


Combined Ultrasonic and Enzyme treatment of Lignocellulosic Feedstock as Substrate for Sugar Based Biotechnological Applications

US4GREENCHEM aims to design a biorefinery concept for the complete valorization of lignocellulosic biomass that is energy- and cost- efficient and based solely on green technologies. The concept combines mechanical pretreatment of the substrate with the aid of ultrasound to overcome its recalcitrance and disrupt inhibitors with mild CO2 hemicellulose degradation and with the enzymatic recovery of sugars and technologies for the valorization of the byproducts released in the process.  Aim of the Project -  Develop ultrasound (US) pretreatment that effectively disrupts the lignocellulosic matrix. - Further degrade lignocellulose with CO2 technologies to maximize release of sugars as main target products of the process. -  Develop purification and conversion strategies for lignin-based products, in order to maximize the material valorization of the biomass components. -  Valorize the solid residues of the product for energy. -  Optimize the yield and reduce by 50% the cost of enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose fibers. -  Test for fermentability of the sugar fraction -  Propose effective integration and upscaling to strategies pilot scale through the experienced industrial partners involved in the project. -  Perform a thorough analysis of the outcomes of the proposed combination of technologies to evaluate the potential economic and environmental impacts and compare the proposed concept to existing technologies on the market and being currently developed.


Strategic investments in European manufacturing to win global challenges

As a coordination and support measure this project is aimed to increase the efforts of the EC and the Member States in pursuing the strategic objective of Europe’s reindustrialization and growth during Luxembourg’s Presidency of the Council of the EU (June-December 2015) through the organization of the MANUFUTURE 2015 conference focused on options for strategic investments in European manufacturing.   The main objective of the conference is to identify and endorse new policy instruments, business models, support mechanisms and technologies that could help to strengthen and improve the manufacturing base in Europe given the existing regulatory framework and the constrains that EU manufacturers face on the global markets at this critical time.  More specifically, the conference aims to involve in the consultation process over 750 stakeholders (policy makers, business leaders, innovators and academics) representing all manufacturing sectors in the EU27. The conference is structured along three major themes, including the issues related to widening access to finance for reindustrialisation and growth, moving European industry to the higher end of value chains, and creating synergy of support initiatives at EU level and in Member States with increased participation of financial markets. For each theme a list of sub-issues to be addressed by speakers have been identified through a consultation process with the High Level Group of Manufuture and the Ministries of Economy and Higher Education and Research which have endorsed the initiative of LXI to host this event. The proposal addresses the work programme topic NMP-38-2014 which calls for organising an event of a major strategic nature during the EU presidency of Luxembourg that could contribute towards creating better synergies between public and private initiatives to the benefit of the coherence of the overall actions within the field of research and innovation for the manufacturing sector.


Industry 4.0 impact on management practices and economics

The objective of the IN4ACT project is to implement structural changes at the Kauno Technologijos Universitetas (KTU) School of Economics and Business through the opening of an ERA Chair in “Industry 4.0 Management and Economics” research, to increase research excellence, socio-economic impact, international reputation, and attractiveness to international talented researchers and students. An ERA Chair holder and a team will be recruited to 1/ Implement an ambitious research agenda on the impact of future manufacturing (Industry 4.0) on management practices and economics; 2/ Drive changes at the KTU School of Economics and Business related with research management and human resources, especially to comply with the ERA priorities; 3/ Improve the School's exploitation, dissemination, and communication capacities; 4/ Grow networks and increase links with stakeholders, especially to increase participation in Horizon 2020.


VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS ZEMES UKIO KONSULTAVIMO TARNYBA

European Knowledge repository for  best agricultural practices

EUREKA has brought together 21 multi-actors (MA) from 16 member states and 48 supporting organizations, to co-create a stronger and reinforced EU wide agricultural knowledge base by developing an open source e-platform, called the FarmBook. This two-sided market platform, like Facebook, will address the needs and improve the connections between two distinct user groups: MA project partners and MA end users (farmers, foresters, advisors, scientists, policy makers,…). To realize this, EUREKA will first analyze the MA project knowledge supply (outputs, activities, dissemination,…) to get a comprehensive data overview and distinguish do’s and don’ts on how to co-create and transfer knowledge in these projects. From this analysis best practices and recommendations will be formulated into a MA bible for the current MA community and for EIP-AGRI (+ SWG SCAR AKIS) to improve the design of future MA projects. Participatory activities with many MA projects during EUREKA will lay the foundation to build a more engaged MA project community. All available resources that can be used to share amongst the community and to shape and promote the EUREKA outputs will also be mapped. Second, EUREKA will analyze the knowledge demand from potential end users by profiling them and determining their needs, barriers and preferences across four macro-regions in Europe and across the different agricultural sectors. Third, EUREKA will integrate the results of the analysis on the knowledge supply & demand by consulting various expert working groups to co-create a ranking of MA projects and to select the most relevant and high impact agricultural MA project knowledge for the rural and scientific community. Fourth, the FarmBook will be built to present this knowledge in an accessible, standards-based, easily searchable and open source way. Fifth, the FarmBook will be optimized in several iterations with end-user feedback and will be promoted to end users and the MA project community across Europe.


Population Health Information Research Infrastructure

A structured European mechanism for COVID-19 exchange to organize and share information between countries is urgently needed, especially in the area of population health. Information on the broader impacts of COVID-19 on the health of populations is needed to facilitate multidisciplinary European research and underpin decision making. PHIRI aims to facilitate and support open, interconnected, and data-driven research through the sharing of cross-country COVID-19 population health information and exchange of best practices related to data collection, curation, processing, use and reuse following ELSI and FAIR principles. It has the objective: to provide a Health Information portal for COVID-19 with FAIR catalogues on health and health care data, to provide structured exchange between countries on COVID-19 best practices and expertise, and to promote interoperability and tackle health information inequalities. To this end, it builds with national nodes a Health Information portal (WP4) on data sources, population health studies, training material and courses, considering ethical and legal aspects. The portal is supported by WP7 that provides the technological substrate for the development of a federated research infrastructure. WP5 develops a consolidated framework to assess the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on population wellbeing, morbidity and mortality. WP6 will look at COVID-19 impacts in specific subgroups by conducting research through use cases of immediate relevance and facilitates research by making scalable, reproducible methods available within PHIRI. WP8, the Rapid Exchange Forum, provides swift responses to research and policy questions that are raised in countries to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. WP9 gains insights in possible future health impacts of the coronavirus outbreak by modelling scenarios for national situations. This will be carried out in close collaboration with different types of actors and initiatives across Europe (WP3).


NDTonAIR: Training Network in Non-Destructive Testing and Structural Health Monitoring of Aircraft structures

The “NDTonAIR” consortium involves Universities, Research Organisations and major European companies working on new Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) techniques for aerospace, of which both are key technologies. The goal is to train a new generation of scientists and engineers with a wide background of theoretical and experimental skills, capable of developing their research and entrepreneurial activities both in academy and industry and playing an active role in promoting the importance of quality inspection and structural monitoring in aerospace components.  The objective of the training programme is to provide the recruited researchers with an extensive and varied training on:  (1)  Fundamentals skills for NDT and SHM through participation in short-courses and seminars organized by the Consortium; (2) NDT and SHM Techniques for Aerospace through research training at host institutions and participation in Workshops and Conferences organized by the Consortium and major international research associations; (3) Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship through participation in short-courses and seminars organized by the Consortium. The objective of the research programme is to consolidate and innovate current NDT and SHM techniques for Aircraft inspection by (1) investigating new physical phenomena and sensors; (2) developing analytical and numerical models to correlate the results of inspection with material properties; (3) quantifying NDT techniques through their probability of detecting reference defects; (4) developing procedures for the automatic detection and classification of defects; (5) transferring these results to industry.  The members of the Consortium will work together for realizing this training programme and scientific collaboration will be stimulated by secondment of the recruited researchers and it will be aimed at improving the integration and comparison of different NDT techniques.


Heavy metal free emitters for new-generation light sources

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


FAIRshare. Farm Advisory digital Innovation tools Realised and Shared

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


The discussion on the modernisation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is in full progress and one element is how the CAP will benefit from and stimulate ongoing digitisation of the agricultural sector. Digitisation accelerates a cost-effective administration of CAP payments, the update of CAP instruments, stimulates data (re) use for monitoring the societal benefits of agriculture towards climate, environment and rural development and thus improves the sustainability and competitiveness of the sector. Administrative bodies from 9 EU Member States join forces to realise a new vision on the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) – the instrument for CAP governance – in this project called: “New IACS Vision in Action” (NIVA). The project is built on an iterative work plan. This ensures fast results, built-in flexibility and greater involvement of stakeholders. NIVA strives for maximum impact by involving all EU paying agencies and other relevant actors in the stakeholder board, by reserving a substantial budget for supporting third parties and the set-up of an innovation ecosystem that will continue after the project. NIVA manages cross cutting digital innovations as well as standardization issues in dedicated work packages as defining, accepting and defending common standards is exemplifying the desire for collaboration. The nine prime use cases are demonstrated in three waves, from national to multi-national to pan-European, hence underlining our ambition to make a significant contribution to improved digital competences, awareness and innovation at the European scale. The project’s results are a suite of digital innovations and a roadmap for IACS transformation. The project will speed up innovation, reduce administrative burden, sustain broader and deeper collaboration in an innovation ecosystem and provide methods to establish information flows to improve environmental performance.


SUN (Space hUb Network) aims to increase the commercialization of space enabled solutions and growth of European start-ups and scale-ups in space downstream and upstream sectors by implementing a multi-dimensional concept. To increase the number of space applications being developed as well as involve SMEs into space sector, project will organize 6 Hackathons  (involving at least 90 start-up teams) and 12 Roadshow events for SMEs (attended by 480 stakeholders). In order to complement (instead of competing) existing European initiatives, these events will target stakeholders of specific industries that can mostly benefit from space technologies, for example, telecom, mobility, agriculture. Space entrepreneurs (at pre-startup stage), start-ups and scale-ups will receive an opportunity to participate in mentorship programme. SUN will be implementing 3 types of mentorship programmes based on the IRL & TRL level of each participant. In total, 80 start-ups and scale-ups will participate in mentorship programmes. Main goal of it will be to help startups advance their IRL and get access to finance. SUN will also conduct extensive ecosystem mapping and will aim to build bridges among current local and international initiatives supporting space start-ups and scale-ups. SUN will complement the initiatives by  matching them with space entrepreneurs. Consortium has been formed to involve organizations specializing in space technologies and applications, incubation and business support, technical support, start-ups and community building.  Project activities will take place in 6 countries (Austria, Ireland, France, Lithuania, Poland, Romania) but will target start-ups and scale-ups on pan-European level.


High-performance low-cost modules with excellent environmental profiles for a competitive EU PV manufacturing industry

The HighLite project aims to substantially improve the competitiveness of the EU PV manufacturing industry by developing knowledge-based manufacturing solutions for high-performance low-cost modules with excellent environnment profiles (low CO2 footprint, enhanced durability, improved recyclability).  To achieve this, the HighLite project focuses on thin (down to 100 µm) high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells with passivating contacts and capitalizes on the learnings from previous large funded projects. In HighLite, a unique consortium of experienced industrial actors and leading institutes will work collectively to develop, optimize, and bring to high technology readiness levels (TRL 6-7) innovative solutions at both cell and module levels. In practice, HighLite will demonstrate high-efficiency ¼ size (or smaller) cut solar cells (silicon heterojunction cells with efficiency η ≥ 23.3%, interdigated back-contact cells with η ≥ 24.3%; only 0.2% less than full size cells) in pilot-line manufacturing. Industrial tools will be developed in the project for assembling these cut-cells into high-efficiency modules tailored for various distributed generation (DG) applications. More specifically, the following developments will take place: (1) building-applied PV modules with η ≥ 22% and a carbon footprint ≤ 250 kg-eq.CO2/kWp, (2) building-integrated PV modules with η ≥ 21% and improved shading tolerance, and (3) 3D-curved vehicle-integrated PV modules with η ≥ 20% and a weight ≤ 5 kg/m2. Finally, HighLite aims to show improved cost and performance (both through indoor testing and outdoor demonstrators) against state-of-the-art commercially available modules. Altogether, it is expected that the solutions developed in HighLite will: (1) create more demand in Europe and worldwide for such DG products, (2) significantly improve the competitiveness of industrial actors that are part of the consortium, and (3) trigger significant investment in the EU PV industry.


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.