NACIONALINIS VISUOMENES SVEIKATOS CENTRAS PRIE SVEIKATOS APSAUGOS MINISTERIJOS

Demonstration of intelligent decision support for pandemic crisis prediction and management within and across European borders

STAMINA develops an intelligent decision support toolset for pandemic prediction and management and demonstrates its use by practitioners at national and regional levels within and across EU borders. The STAMINA toolset enables national planners and first responders to anticipate and respond to the the “known-unknowns” in their daily effort to enhance health security. Main functionality of the toolset includes:  •	Real-time web and social media analytics aiming at public trust monitoring and flagging possible disease outbreaks  •	POCT and smart wearable diagnostic devices for first line screening  •	Predictive modeling of pandemic outbreak and its impact, along with decision-making support in implementing mitigation strategies,  •	Early Warning System •	Crisis management tool defining the roles and actions of key actors during crisis management •	Scenario Generation tool for creation of training scenarios •	Common Operational Picture as the main interface of the solution enabling timely and coordinated response The toolset is accompanied by a set of Guidelines on effective implementation of risk communication principles and best practices in cross-organisational preparedness and response plans. The use of the STAMINA toolset will be demonstrated through 12 national and regional small-scale demonstrators and one large-scale cross-border simulation exercise involving all consortium partners.


LIETUVOS KIBERNETINIU NUSIKALTIMU KOMPETENCIJU IR TYRIMU CENTRAS

Strategic programs for advanced research and technology in Europe

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

Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies (LEIT)


Democratic governance in a turbulent age

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

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


National Competence Centres in the framework of EuroHPC

The EuroCC activity will bring together the necessary expertise to set up a network of National Competence Centres in HPC across Europe in 31 participating, member and associated states, to provide a broad service portfolio tailored to the respective national needs of industry, academia and public administrations. All of this to support and increase strongly the national strengths of High Performance Computing (HPC) competences as well as High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities and to close existing gaps to increase usability of these technologies in the different states and thus provide a European excellence baseline.


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

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

Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials


Natural evolution is a powerful process that has given rise to the functionally diverse set of proteins present in all living systems. Repetitive rounds of mutation, selection and amplification have optimised nature’s catalysts, the enzymes, to perform an enormous range of different reactions. However, natural evolution has driven the optimisation of enzymes subjected to living functions of microorganisms, according to ill-defined and fluctuating external conditions and is not suitable for industrial processes since it lacks of control of selection pressure. In EVOdrops, we will use directed evolution to overcome these limitations. It is a synthetic, man-made approach of evolution, aiming at improving living systems based on predefined needs, controlling the external selection pressure. While natural evolution took billions of years to optimise macromolecules, directed evolution – to be efficient in an industrial process – requires both the generation of genetic diversity and ultra-high throughput screening capabilities to recover the variants of interest. We will develop and optimise these tools using the ground-breaking potential of droplet-based microfluidics for high-throughput experimentation and the fine control of gene library construction. EVOdrops, a European training network, will bring together the leading research scientists, laboratories and industries in Europe with outstanding expertise in protein engineering and microfluidics and 13 early stage researchers. We will offer an extensive multi- and interdisciplinary training to ensure that they can solve these urgent and unmet challenges in biotechnology and biomedicine. We will use a multidisciplinary approach combining soft matter, microfluidics and chemical biology to design solutions for the selection of new enzymes of industrial and therapeutic interest. In the future, our approaches can be generalised to challenges involving high-throughput miniaturised biochemical or cell-based assays.


Why ? : Airport Operations Management in SESAR1 promoted enhanced situational awareness via the Airport Operations Plan (AOP) whilst reinforcing the collaborative decision making process through the Airport Operations Centre (APOC).  Validation activities stressed the need to further develop the Performance Monitoring and Management services promoting the evolution from a reactive (“firefighting”) approach toward one of pro-active collaborative decision making.  Impact : Includes the evolution toward a “performance-driven” airport through holistic monitoring of demand and capacity.  Decision making will be based on more reliable information with enhanced decision impact assessment.  Expected is an increase in the predictability, flexibility and efficiency of airport operations as well as increased resilience through shorter recovery to normal operations.   Focus : PJ04  is articulated around two ‘SESAR Solutions’, emphasising  all of the key airport processes. Integration of airports into the ATM network will be addressed through sharing information in a timely manner between the Network Operations Plan and the individual AOPs using SWIM technology.   Who ?: PJ04 unites key European aviation industry partners combining the right expertise to address these challenges and to drive deployment of  validated improvements.  Benefits : As clients of airport services, airlines will  benefit from enhanced operational efficiency. For passengers, benefits will be tangible. Information available will be of high quality and the more efficient use of airport resources will lead to enhanced service quality.  EU Strategic :  PJ04 will focus on  a range of different airport complexity levels developing scalable and cost-effective solutions, optimising both the local benefits and those for the European network. Societal concerns will be addressed by ensuring that environmental mitigation measures and impact are included in the airport performance "trade off".


Implementation of a CirculAr economy Based on Recycled, reused and recovered Indium, Silicon and Silver materials for photovoltaic and other applications

The main vision of CABRISS project is to develop a circular economy mainly for the photovoltaic, but also for electronic and glass industry. It will consist in the implementation of: (i) recycling technologies to recover In, Ag and Si for the sustainable PV technology and other applications; (ii) a solar cell processing roadmap, which will use Si waste for the high throughput, cost-effective manufacturing of hybrid Si based solar cells and will demonstrate the possibility for the re-usability and recyclability at the end of life of key PV materials. The developed Si solar cells will have the specificity to have a low environmental impact by the implementation of low carbon footprint technologies and as a consequence, the technology will present a low energy payback (about 1 year). The originality of the project relates to the cross-sectorial approach associating together different sectors like the Powder Metallurgy (fabrication of Si powder based low cost substrate), the PV industry (innovative PV Cells) and the industry of recycling (hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy) with a common aim : make use of recycled waste materials (Si, In and Ag). CABRISS focuses mainly on a photovoltaic production value chain, thus demonstrating the cross-sectorial industrial symbiosis with closed-loop processes.


Main idea is to allow individual users and urban communities in remote (isolated) areas to benefit from a local low carbon economy. The project will enable the communities and individual users to participate in the smart grid context, it will develop an intelligent storage solution optimizing the communities demand and supply. The solution will be scalable towards size of the community (30-10.000 households) and their capacity of renewable energy generation and available storage capacity (i.e. number of EV´s). It will:  Scale up of cheap and more environmental friendly storage solution for medium/ low voltages  It will mitigate on electricity poverty related to the intermittent generation of renewable electricity  Development of the business model between community and local and national renewable energy generation.   Flatten the peak demands to Distribution System Operators (DSO´s)/ Energy Service Companies (ESCo´s) network  Development of the local smart charging model (for the EV´s) for the community to reduce peak demands  (optional) Research on new needs of communication protocols between end users (smart meters, EV) with storage solution and / or retailer in line with Expert Group of the SMGT


Future-oriented Science EDucation to enhance Responsibility and engagement in the society of Acceleration and uncertainty

The relation between science and society is strongly influenced by the impressive acceleration of scientific and technological development. Within this society of acceleration (H. Rosa), the young are experiencing a sense of derangement and an alarming sense of loss of future and hope.  FEDORA will develop a future-oriented model to enable formal and informal science education to equip the young with thinking, foresight and action competence skills needed to grapple with the societal challenges.  In particular, the project aims to address three forms of misalignment that emerge from the difficulties of the educational systems to keep the pace of societal changes: a) the clash between, on one hand, the vertical and hyper-specialized organization of teaching in disciplines and, on the other, the inter-multi-transdisciplinary, multi-actor and open character of the new modus operandi of R&I; b) the mismatch between the formalized and exclusive languages used in schools and the needs for new languages to enhance imagination and the capacity to talk about the contemporary challenges; c) the clash between the a-temporal or historically oriented teaching approaches and the need to support the young to construct visions of the future that empower actions in the present. These forms of misalignment represent blind spots for science education that FEDORA will explore through a multi-layer (institutional, conceptual, cultural) research approach, an articulated structures of actions and a multiform set of research methodologies (qualitative and quantitative surveys, design-driven and Delphi Study methodologies,..).  The actions and results will feed into recommendations for anticipatory policies aimed to mobilise visionary attitudes on open-schooling and to orient concrete institutional transformations to nurture, in secondary school students, a new sense of trust and desire needed to support an aware, responsible and sustainable participation in science-related societal issues.

Integrate society in science and innovation


European Research Area on Sustainable Animal Production Systems

This proposal seeks funding under the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015 to establish an ERA-NET for joint European research coordination on Sustainable Animal Production (SusAn). The scope for this ERA-NET has been developed under the SCAR Collaborative Working Group on Sustainable Animal Production (CWG-SAP).  Funding organisations from 22 European countries initially seek to support one co-funded call followed by other joint activities including the development of a Common Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda on Sustainable Animal Production.  The animal production sector forms an important part of Europe’s (agricultural) economy and plays an essential role in the provision of Europe`s citizens with high quality animal products. Like other agriculture sectors, animal production faces many challenges from projected increases in global demand for food, climate change, competition for natural resources and economic volatility. The European animal production landscape is very complex, consisting of different species farmed within a wide range of different extensive, semi-intensive and intensive production systems using multiple resources to produce a diverse range of animal products and other services. Partners in this ERA-NET believe, however, that these challenges and complexities can be effectively addressed through joint European research within a framework which supports the three pillars of sustainability - economy, environment and society - and targets opportunities for innovative research spanning all areas of animal production such as health and welfare, feeding and nutrition, reproduction, breeding and genetics, housing, nutrient management and economics. Partners in ERA-NET SusAn endorse scientific excellence and recommend an integrated, interdisciplinary, cross-cutting and multi-actor approach to research and knowledge exchange which reflects the complexity of the research requirements for sustainable European animal production.

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


VILNIAUS PREKYBOS PRAMONES IR AMATU RUMAI

Advanced Manufacturing assistance and training for SME Transformation

The ADMA TranS4MErs will accelerate factories to become Factories of the Future embracing the ecological, digital, and societal challenges. This will be done via a smart combination of an all-connecting community platform in combination with toolboxes, virtual and physical training activities, assistance programs, tailor-made training content in all relevant technology areas and set of applications. All those services, tools, assistance, and service components pick up the SMEs at the right stage to start their own Trans4mation journey. The consortium is equipped with all necessary experience and professionalism and has a wide geographical reach, that we can almost guarantee to deliver the services at their doorstep or on their screen.


VILNIAUS GEDIMINO TECHNIKOS UNIVERSITETAS

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


A Cost-Effective Photonics-based Device for Early Prediction, Monitoring and Management of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Early prediction and management of Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFUs) is an important health factor of Europe. Recent clinical trials have concluded that NIR sensing captures oxy(deoxy)haemoglobin (HbO2, Hb) and peripheral/ tissue oxygen saturations (StO2, SpO2), thermal Infrared-IR detects hyperthermia, among Regions of Interest (ROIs) and Mid-IR contains rich information about the proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics (e.g., glucose). All these medical indices are important factors for early prediction of DFU. Current medical approaches are i) invasive (e.g., skin lesion biopsy), ii) requires consumables, and iii) being operated by certified physicians (e.g., ultrasound and/or biopsy). PHOOTONICS aims at developing a non-invasive, reliable and cost-effective photonics-driven device for DFU monitoring and management which can be applied for wide use. The project supports two versions: (i) the PHOOTONICS In-Home, used for DFU monitoring by patients and (ii) the PHOOTONICS PRO operated by physicians. Reliability is achieved by optimizing i) passive Hyperspectral (HIS) NIR photo-detector, with an active tuneable diode illuminator for detecting SpO2/StO2, HbO2 and Hb, ii) a thermal-IR sensor of detecting hyperthermia/hypothermia distributions in ROIs and iii) a passive Mid-IR sensing with a Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) optimized to capture additional tissue attributes such as proteomics (elastin, collagen) and metabolomics (glucose). Cost-effectiveness is achieved by introducing i) targeted photonics technologies for DFU, ii) implementing advanced signal processing/learning algorithms to increase the discrimination accuracy while maintaining hardware cost-benefit, (iii) developing a user-friendly framework operated by non-certified physicians, and even by patients (for the In-Home version), and (iv) minimising operational cost with our non-invasive device.  Clinical studies are performed to validate the reliability of the new cost-effective device in real-life settings.


SENIOR BIOMECHANICAL 3D MODELLING RESEARCHER

Aim of this project is to develop surgeon-friendly 3D biomechanical simulation functionality as integral part of 3D models-based pre-operational planning software for evaluation of implant positioning to the movement axis of the neighbouring joints and the load distribution in the bone / implant contact zones in a risk-free environment. Therefore, Ortho Baltic is looking for a researcher with competence in clinical and computational biomechanics to join the research team in the development of cutting-edge 3D model-based pre-surgery planning software with 3D user interface via Web browser.  Recruited innovation associate would work as part of Ortho Baltic R&D team developing state-of-the-art 3D model-based pre-surgery planning tools by integrating human musculoskeletal simulation and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) functionalities. Innovation associate would be Senior biomechanical researcher, who will work in multidisciplinary team of our R&D unit and in cooperation with Ortho Baltic academic partners, keeping direct contact with leading surgeons to mitigate fundamental research into fieldable technology and deployable products.


Developing and Implementing Sustainability-Based Solutions for Bio-Based Plastic Production and Use to Preserve Land and Sea Environmental Quality in Europe

The project BIO-PLASTICS EUROPE addresses the topic „Sustainable solutions for bio-based plastics on land and sea“ (Topic identifier: CE-BG-06-2019), within the focus area „Connecting economic and environmental gains - the Circular Econonmy (CE)“ and will focus on sustainability strategies and solutions for bio-based products to support the Plastics Strategy. This shall include innovative product design and business models facilitating efficient reuse and recycling strategies and solutions, including ensuring the safety of recycled materials when used for toys or packaging food stuffs. In line with the EU strategy on international cooperation in research and innovation and in order to encourage the further replication, the European consortium is complemented by a partner in Malaysia, providing an added value and helping them to address the many problems they face.


Recycling waste tyres into devulcanized rubber

Gumos Technologijos (GT) has developed a full-cycle waste rubber production line, based on a patented mechano-chemical technology for rubber devulcanization that ensures a high quality of the product and improved performance as raw material. By combining an existing technology for rubber recycling (i.e. devulcanization with ozone treatment) with a unique mechano-chemical method (using a patented chemical agent), waste tyres will be converted into higher value products than those obtained with current solutions on an industrial scale.  The market for waste tyres is tightly connected with the production of new tyre as eventually all the produced tyres need to be reclaimed. The tyre industry uses by 70% of all the natural rubber and estimates for the next 30 years predict that the consumption will double. This could mean that the availability of raw materials such as natural and synthetic rubbers may become problematic. Despite being Europe the second largest virgin rubber consumer in the world (with a tyre production estimated at 20% of the world production), EU has not established its own alternative for rubber materials recycling and production, being dependent on supply from South East Asia. RETYRE will increase the value of End-of-Life Tyres (ELTs) by improving the recycling efficiency and producing as output a high-value devulcanized rubber. This recycling option will increase EU´s global competitiveness and innovativeness by improving European recyclers’ market position and decreasing EU´s dependency on raw rubber materials. The unique selling points of RETYRE will be: (1) Lower equipment costs and operational costs, with 50% less energy consumption and equipment maintenance; (2) Full-cycle production units, recycling ELTs from tyres to crumbs, metals, fibre and devulcanized rubber on a single production line; and (3) High quality secondary raw rubber material, replacing 3.5 times more virgin materials in several applications.


Bringing together the Knowledge for Better Agriculture Monitoring

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


VIESOJI ISTAIGA VIESOSIOS POLITIKOSIR VADYBOS INSTITUTAS

Pioneering policies and practices tackling educational inequalities in Europe

The main objective of the RIA PIONEERED is to determine research-informed policy measures and identify pioneering policies and practices to mitigate (intersectional) inequalities in access to, uptake and completion of education, both in formal and informal educational settings. This involves a) mapping emerging and existing sources of educational inequalities over the course of educational careers from early childhood to tertiary education, b) mapping responses to inequalities as pioneering policies and practices from a comparative perspective, and c) synthesising the findings and identifying the most promising tools, pioneering policies and practices within and across European countries. This is achieved by an interdisciplinary and mixed-method strategy including multilevel, intersectional, and life course approaches. The research design relies on four key pillars: A first pillar aims at developing an innovative methodological framework and reviewing the state-of-research. A second pillar centres on a policy analysis on which inequalities and vulnerable groups are addressed by national (or regional) policies, and how polices attempt to reduce inequalities. A third pillar focuses on analyses of new and existing data to identify intersectional inequalities throughout educational careers and drivers of such advantages and disadvantages. A fourth pillar centres on practice research in schools and informal educational settings and analyses the ways through which educational inequalities are tackled by different actors. With these objectives and comprehensive research strategy, PIONEERED thoroughly addresses the challenges identified in the H2020 work programme Europe in a changing world – Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies by providing evidence-based and customised policy tools, specific to various stages of education and target groups in order to enhance access to education among vulnerable children and youth and to reduce educational inequalities.


MOKSLO INOVACIJU IR TECHNOLOGIJU AGENTURA

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN HORIZONS THROUGH TRANSNATIONAL COOPERATION OF ITS NCP SUPPORT STRUCTURES

The NCP systems are support structures established by MS and AC and recognized by the European Commission in order to help participants to access the different EU Programme opportunities. For Horizon 2020 (H2020) there are 21 NCP defined functions apart from the NCP coordinator, giving support to participants across the different parts of H2020. In order to ensure cooperation among NCPs from different countries, improve mutual learning between them and develop dedicated tools and services for participants, the European Commission has historically funded the NCPs through NCP networks CSA projects, in variable geometry of partners, covering typically one NCP “function” per project and renewing it, with a follow-on project, approximately at the middle of each Framework programme.  Taking advantage that the current H2020 NCP network projects finalize at the end of 2020 and the new NCP network projects will not start at least until Q3 of 2021, this project, under the leadership of the national NCP coordinators has a unique window of opportunity to lead the effective integration of the NCP systems into a coherent frame of work for Horizon Europe. Our project, Bridge2HE, is the agreed response of 22 NCP host organizations across Europe to the challenge of an efficient transition to Horizon Europe, both from the NCP systems’ perspective but also from the support to participants’ perspective. Our project does not only enable a degree of continuity to the current NCP structures and network coordination but also it goes a step further making a real integration of the NCP networks offer under a common portal, the Horizon Europe NCP Portal.  During this transition Bridge2HE will implement more than 20 training activities; tools and services for NCPs and applicants; 6 big brokerage events; 2 full proposal checks events; 2 NCPs Workshops for the continuous improvement of the NCP system and a number of special activities to push the low participant countries.


Single European Sky – the vision is clearly described in the European ATM Master Plan. Reaching the goals for the European Airspace is only possible with focused and extensive technical developments on European level. One of the major challenges is making sure every actor in ATM has the right information at the right time and in a consistent manner, as ATM information is the key to many concepts developed in SESAR. Extensive research was conducted in SESAR 1 under this topic called “System-Wide Information Management (SWIM)”.  Our project addresses the technical infrastructure of SWIM as an enabler to the other projects. It will build on the SESAR 1 research results by integrating the aircraft on the one hand and the military stakeholders on the other hand into the SWIM infrastructure. The aircraft is an essential provider of information with regard to the flight trajectory and an information user, e.g. for meteorological information, which ensures a more efficient flight progress. Integration with the military will contribute to a more complete picture of the traffic situation. Both aspects will improve trajectory based operations and thus improve the experience for the passengers. The common runtime registry will extend the capability of the SESAR 1 SWIM design-time (static) registry by acting as a real-time directory, used to dynamically discover and connect to deployed SWIM services, suited best for the current request during operation, like the internet’s Domain Name Service. This will provide the consumers with an efficient access to the SWIM services, thus facilitating cost-effective operation.  The companies involved in this project are the only ones that can deliver this kind of result. Not on their own – but as the unique cooperation between air navigation service providers and air and ground industry. This ensures the capabilities not only to come up with the concepts and develop prototypes, but also to provide sustainable results usable throughout Europe.


Distributed, integrated and harmonised forest  information for bioeconomy outlooks

Europe’s bioeconomy is expected to foster economic growth and to tackle significant societal challenges with less harmful environmental effects through innovative, sustainable and inclusive use of European forest resources. Increasing demand for biomass and other ecosystem goods and services calls for changes in forest-related policies at different levels and across different sectors. Accordingly, the recent Forest Strategy provides clear signals towards the need for harmonised information for mapping and assessing the dynamic state of forest ecosystems and their services. Building upon scientific advances in COST E4, 39, 43, USEWOOD, FORSYS, ORCHESTRA; the networks ENFIN, EFFIS, SOSIN; the FP7 EUFODOS, S2BIOM, INTEGRAL, SIMWOOD, FIRE PARADOX the project DIABOLO aims to:  i) strengthen the methodological framework towards more accurate, harmonised and timely forest information, e.g. on growing stock and stock changes, biomass, carbon, NWFP; enable the analysis of sustainable biomass supply derived from multipurpose and multisource national forest inventories; and facilitate near real-time forest disturbance monitoring, e.g. on forest fires, storm, drought, insect outbreaks; ii) support EU policy processes, international reporting obligations, forest administration and forest planning entities with new methodologies and EU-wide consistent forest information; iii) make innovative use of existing field-collected data and EC space-based applications of EO and satellite positioning systems with reference to INSPIRE and GEOSS, and global monitoring systems such as REDD+, FLEGT and UNFF. To deliver high impact, beyond state-of-the-art work within the ecological and socio-economic diversity in Europe, the trans-disciplinary DIABOLO involves experts in quantitative modelling, policy science and NFIs, from 26 European countries, committed to provide new methodologies and information for various end-uses, including EFDAC (FISE) at JRC, GLOBIOM at IIASA and work at FAO/UNECE.


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

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


INNOvative tools FOR dismantling of GRAPHite moderated nuclear reactors

The decommissioning of closed graphite moderated nuclear reactors worldwide is still in its early stages with the majority of reactors in “safe store” condition. For these reactors, there are still considerable industrial and technical challenges that remain to be tackled even after more than 30 years of operational shutdown of the first unit. Challenges related to the dimension and complexity of the structure as well as costs for decommissioning urge for novel, more performant, safer and cost-efficient solutions for dismantling operations. INNO4GRAPH aims at developing a set of physical and digital tools and methods to be used both upstream of dismantling operations (for material characterisation and decision-making) and during dismantling operations (for handling and cutting). Tools such as 3D modelling of dismantling scenarios, measurement tools for mechanical and physical properties, mock-ups of the graphite stack and laser-cutting during dismantling operations will be developed. To ensure the cost-efficiency of dismantling scenarios and tools, INNO4GRAPH partners will collect and compare existing cost data for tools, in reference with the different scenarios, to create a benchmarking database for a future decommissioning cost estimate. The launch by EDF of a full-scale graphite power plant demonstrator in Chinon, France, in 2022 will facilitate the uptake and further development of the tools developed during the project.  The participation of all European graphite reactor operators in the consortium will not only be the launch of a sector of excellence in the graphite reactor decommissioning field, but will also ensure a large uptake of results by the end-users and will contribute to achieve the highest impact both on scientific/technological, innovation and economic level.


Delivering next generation Transport Management System to European transport SMEs

State-of-the-art Transport Management Systems conceived in modular approaches do not provide an all-in-one solution to answer SME business-related needs more broadly. To own a holistic TMS requires a long and expensive integration and customization process which makes TMSs not affordable by SMEs who generally lack resources for it. Additionally, none of the current solutions are able to gather real time data to support real time optimization decisions. At Ruptela we are committed to developing a new, highly competitive and integrated platform providing all the necessary information to transport SMEs and representing an affordable solution for them: INTRANSYS. INTRANSYS will use our award-winning fleet tracking and management platform TrustTrack as a foundation to integrate continuously updated traffic data, tracking services, rich communication with driver and eco-driving tools into a single cloudbased application. This real-time integration will allow transport companies to optimize operations on the go 24/7. As we will offer the system as an “all-inclusive” solution, we will drastically reduce the customization and set-up process both in terms of time and costs. We will achieve this goals by providing a SaaS based pricing model adapted to SME size and usage. INTRANSYS’ ease of use, combined with our extremely competitive pricing strategy opens the door for the widespread commercial adoption by SME transport companies who dominates the European transport market. Note that we will allow massive savings on European transport SMEs (up to 19% of all transportation processes) while contributing to the EC’s goal of forcing the reduction of CO2 emissions of the transport industry.


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


FLEXIBLE COMBINED PRODUCTION OF POWER, HEAT AND TRANSPORT FUELS FROM RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

Seasonal solar energy potential and the need for heat and power do not match in Northern and Central European conditions. Consequently, large investments are needed for storing solar energy from summer season to dark winter time. The widely available combined heat and power plants and heating networks should be utilized effectively also in the future energy system. In addition to these challenges, decarbonisation of the transport sector requires massive production of renewable fuels especially for the heavy duty sector: air traffic, ships, heavy duty road vehicles. FLEXCHX project is aiming to present a cost-effective solution to tackle these challenges of the new European energy mix.  Principal ideas of the proposal are: -  A hybrid process that integrates electrolysis to biomass gasification and synthesis is developed and the key enabling technologies of this process are validated to reach TRL5. -  In summer season renewable fuel intermediate (FT-wax) is produced from biomass carbon boosted with solar energy driven electrolysis. A small amount of by-product heat is also produced to cover the summer-time demand for district heating. Biomass consumption is halved compared to the winter time operation and 50 % of the input energy comes from low-cost excess electricity. - In winter season the plant is operated without the electrolyzer in a way that biomass conversion to liquid fuel intermediate,  heat and electricity is maximized. - Most of the invested plant components are in full use throughout the year, only the electrolysis unit is operated seasonally  Behind FLEXCHX there is a multi-national consortium composed of RTD organizations, industry and SMEs representing the entire value chain.  The RTD partners have excellent synergistic competences, while the industrial partners represent lead industries covering the complete value chain from biomass gasification, gas cleaning and fuel synthesis component and plant manufacturers to service providers and end-users.


Feasibility Study for HUTI – the Human Traffic Assistance System

Currently passenger flow in airports is managed through a combination of advanced IT software solutions (data analysis, passenger flow analysis) and the use of physical barriers (wall-mounted retractable belts, post and panel barricades, swing gates, or portable stanchions). The deployment and management of physical barriers is a costly and time-consuming procedure that is slow to react to people flow changes and, relies on expensive and inefficient manual human labor. Staff needs to deploy and reposition the barriers at least a few times each day. Currently there are no commercially available crowd management solutions on the market that could replace the use of expensive and outdated physical barriers.   Huti (TRL 6), developed by Blue Ocean Robotics (BOR), is an intelligent swarm of robots that will replace the physical barriers and barrier management personnel by providing a better flow of people, enhancing experience for travelers and decreasing costs for airports. This solution reduces labour costs needed to manage large crowds, provides better experience for the traveller and allows to quickly address changes in passenger flow or temporary closures.  Huti was developed in collaboration with Vilnius International Airport, which showed interest and demand for such a solution. Blue Ocean Robotics is further working closely with the airport, which intends to be the first launching customer. The robot is the first innovative physical barrier that can work with minimal human intervention, providing queue management, guidance and entertainment functions. Huti robots creates a new market for robotic crowd management solutions.  To ensure successful commercialization, in Phase 1 of SME Instrument, Blue Ocean Robotics intends to develop an elaborate feasibility study for Huti robot commercialization  that would include: a thorough analysis of market and user needs, redesign of the product, and a business plan with an extensive financial, pricing, and IPR strategy.


VALSTYBINIS MOKSLINIU TYRIMU INSTITUTAS FIZINIU IR TECHNOLOGIJOS MOKSLU CENTRAS

Graphene-Manganite Nanostructures for Novel Pulsed Magnetic Field Sensors

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