VIESOJI ISTAIGA LIETUVOS INOVACIJU CENTRAS

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

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


Earth Observation based services for Monitoring and Reporting of Ecological Status

EOMORES (Earth Observation-based Services for Monitoring and Reporting of Ecological Status) aims to develop new highly efficient commercial services for operational inland and coastal ecological water quality monitoring.  Inland and coastal water bodies constitute essential components of ecology and biodiversity, they buffer climate change and influence many aspects of economy (recreation, fisheries) and human welfare (e.g. drinking water supply). Knowledge about the state of these waters is therefore of great importance. This is recognized by the Water Framework Directive (WFD) requiring the EU member states to monitor and improve the status of these water bodies.  EOMORES will develop fully-automated commercial, reliable and sustainable services based on the integration of Earth observation (Sentinel 1, 2 and 3), in situ monitoring using optical in situ sensors with integrated GNSS positioning, and ecological modeling. The validated data from these components will be flexibly combined into higher-level products to fit the users’ information needs. Three service concepts are envisaged: 1) operational water quality monitoring and forecasting for operational water management, 2) implementation of validated EO-based water quality indicators for WFD and other reporting and 3) historic compilation of data for specific ecological analysis.  The target users of EOMORES are international, national and regional authorities responsible for monitoring and management of water quality and for WFD reporting. Additional targeted users are private entities dealing with water quality. Thirteen users from six countries have committed to collaborate with the consortium to define and evaluate the EOMORES services. The services are expected to result in lower operational costs, more reliable and more timely water quality datasets for water managers. By introducing these services into the worldwide market, an increase in annual turnover of €3.000.000 by 2020 is expected.

Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies (LEIT)


Fostering Innovation and Creativity in Europe through Public Administration Modernization towards Supplying and Exploiting Linked Open Statistical Data

The OpenGovIntelligence project aims at stimulating sustainable economic growth in Europe through fostering innovation in society and enterprises. Towards this end, OpenGovIntelligence suggests a holistic approach for the modernization of Public Administration (PA) by exploiting Linked Open Statistical Data (LOSD) technologies. This includes new business processes, policies, and tools that will enable the active participation of the society and enterprises in data sharing and in the co-production of innovative data-driven public services. The objectives of the OpenGovIntelligence project include: • The identification of challenges in opening up and exploiting LOSD for the co-production of innovative data-driven public services. • The creation of a framework comprising business processes, policies, and data infrastructure architectures. This framework specifies a user-centric LOSD Innovation Ecosystem that orchestrates the collaboration of society and PA for opening up and exploiting LOSD to address relevant challenges and facilitate the co-production of innovative data-driven public services. • The delivery of the OpenGovIntelligece ICT toolkit comprising easy-to-use and user-centric tools to facilitate realizing the LOSD Innovation Ecosystem.  • The OpenGovIntelligence pilots in six countries to validate and prove the usability and effectiveness of the LOSD Innovation Ecosystem. The pilots will develop services at both national and local level to tackle societal and PA challenges in various problem areas such as internal decision-making in PAs, enhancing e-services provided by Points of Single Contact in Europe, and improving policy-making in the areas of environment protection, economic growth, and unemployment.

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


COllaborative Consortium for the early detection of LIver CANcer

Hepatitis B (HBV) and C virus (HCV) are the most important etiologic agents of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is the second leading cause of tumour related death in the world. The burden of HCC in developing countries represents a major challenge in global public health for the oncoming decades. Clinically, HCC patients have a very poor prognosis and high 5-year mortality rate except when detected early. As a result, HCC early detection is a critical parameter to anticipate the initiation of a tumour process, but affordable and discriminant diagnostic tools are lacking.  A consortium of European and Third Countries institutions (Peru and Laos) gathered within the project COCLICAN proposes to tackle this issue through the analysis of metabolomics serum profiles of a large cohort of HBV-HBC infected patients to delineate a bunch of molecules predictive of the emergence of liver cancer. The performance of a low-cost and open-source echo-stethoscope connected to a smartphone will also be assessed, to allow early detection of tumorogenesis in health care underserved areas.  This will be possible, thanks to the construction of a sustainable scientific and academic network of engineers, researchers and clinicians mobilised to exchange expertise, skills, technologies, biological material, deployed in three continents: Europe, South America and Asia.  COCLICAN has been designed to improve research collaborations, to reinforce capacities, to enhance knowledge of partners and students involved in the project, but also to raise awareness of policy makers and to participate to the innovation potential improvement at the European and global levels. COCLICAN will therefore respond to the health needs of left behind populations, all around the world.


Hydropower solutions for developing and emerging countries

The renowned European hydropower industry and its know-how can foster the transition into a more sustainable energy system in parts of the world that still need support to develop the sector. While the European hydropower market does not allow huge developments, some countries present a big potential. HYPOSO will provide strategic support and tools for the European hydropower industry to boost their export of products and services to markets in Africa and Latin America, especially those with a high market potential hydro sector, i.e. Bolivia, Cameroon, Columbia, Ecuador and Uganda. The project will develop solutions which can be easily implemented for overcoming barriers to the broad deployment of hydropower solutions in these export markets. The consortium will bring representatives of the European hydropower industry together with their counterparts and politicians from Africa and Latin America. It will provide political, legal, technical and strategic advice while considering the regional specificities, socio-economic, spatial and environmental aspects all along the life-cycle of hydropower projects. Experts of the consortium will identify pilot hydropower projects and provide capacity building for local stakeholders and politicians. Communications activities such as brochures, events, and workshops highlighting European state-of-the-art technology will complement these measures. Moreover, a website will be created. It will serve as an information hub for the European hydropower industry and useful source of information for hydropower stakeholders worldwide. The outcome of the HYPOSO project will contribute to the promotion of the European hydropower industry, paving the way for better investment conditions in the targeted countries and increasing the share of renewable energy in these regions. It will support the development of policies, market supports and financial frameworks at the local, national and regional level for hydropower facilities.


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 cloud-based 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.


PJ.19 W2 Content Integration, Performance Management and Business Case Development

PJ19 W2 CI  is a transversal activity of the SESAR 2020 Programme in continuation of the SESAR Wave 1 PJ19 CI Content Integration project. It aims to integrate the SESAR Solutions into the integrated European ATM System in order to achieve the objectives set by the ATM Master Plan (MP). This integrated European ATM System provides the overall European ATM concept, the high-level architecture options, the services, the supporting solutions, and the performance achievements associated with them. As such, PJ.19 W2 does not create any specific ATM concept or solution but produces a set of deliverables which consolidate the SESAR 2020 Programme outcomes and provides yearly integrated reference material – the SESAR 2020 Architecture release (EATMA version) . This is done in close collaboration and coordination with all SESAR 2020 Solutions and the SJU through continuous, rolling and iterative content integration. PJ19-W2 allows the assessment of the overall performance of the SESAR Solutions compared with the performance improvements expected for the European ATM. Whilst the decisions are made by SJU management and SESAR governance, PJ.19 W2 activities support and guide the processes (e.g. safety, security assessment, human performance, performance assessment, cost benefit analysis (CBA), architecture, requirements) to bring the SESAR Solutions together and assess their maturity (completeness, consistency and coherency) from a holistic perspective represented in the SESAR 2020 Concept of Operations.  The PJ.19 W2 activities provide major inputs for the ATM MP production (ATM architecture information (e.g. data set), performance and CBA consolidation, business case production), which are further consolidated at the time of the ATM MP update campaign by the PJ.20 W2 ‘Master Planning’ project). PJ19-W2 provides support for the SJU/SESAR governance decision-making and programme execution monitoring and also contributes to the realisation of the ATM MP.


Capacity-building of the financial ecosystem and its participants for improving innovative SME´s access to alternative forms of finance in Europe with focus on SE and CEE

The objective of the project is to design, develop and implement a capacity-building strategy to increase the capacity of the financial ecosystem and its participants in South, Central and Eastern European countries for provision and absorption of alternative forms of financing (AF) for innovative SMEs Sub objectives and outputs: 1: To map and analyse the framework conditions and establish the capacity-building strategy and implementation plan • Capacity building strategy and implementation plan for South and Central and Eastern Europe, in particular PT, ES, IT, LT, PL, SK, HU, RO, UA (consortium presence), GR, LT, SLa, CZ, HR, BG, RS; BA, AL, MK (consortium outreach) • Validation with 120 participants • Adapted strategy and plan in line with assessment 2: To provide cross-European information architecture with materials, resources and online tools for capacity building and matching of innovative SMEs to AF schemes and their providers • ALTFInator web platform with interactive library and information, matching and data exchange tool set: 3: To engage and broaden the stakeholder community, complemented by equal increase of knowledge, capacity and partnerships in support of provision and absorption of AF for innovative SMEs • Awareness raising campaigns focusing on 3 600 key stakeholders • 8 national workshops with 240 participants • 2 international best practice workshops with 60 participants • 8 public roundtables with 40 participants each  • Policy makers hearing at the EuroParl with 30 participants. • MOOCs for AF providers with 500 participants • 4 webinars for group coaching of SMEs with 120 participants 4: To review the impact of the implementation and provide the evidence-base for adaption and sustainability of the scheme in the light of experience • KPI´s 5: To provide stakeholders at European and International level, with the information concerning the ALTFInator activities, events, achievements, respective web platform, material and tools • Outreach to 100.


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.


LIETUVOS KIBERNETINIU NUSIKALTIMU KOMPETENCIJU IR TYRIMU CENTRAS

End-to-end Security of the Digital Single Market’s E-commerce and Delivery Service Ecosystem

ENSURESEC is a sociotechnical solution for safeguarding the Digital Single Market’s e-commerce operations against cyber and physical threats. It combines an automatic, rigorous, distributed and open-source toolkit for protecting e-commerce, with monitoring of the impact of threats in physical space and a campaign for training SMEs and citizens aimed at creating awareness and trust. ENSURESEC addresses the whole gamut of modern e-commerce, from standard physical products purchased online and delivered via post, to entirely virtual products or services delivered online. It addresses threats ranging from maliciously modifying web e-commerce applications or rendering them unavailable to legitimate customers, to delivery issues or fraud committed by insiders or customers. It achieves this by focusing on the common software and physical sensor interfaces that sit along the e-commerce, payment and delivery ecosystem. At technical level, it integrates proven state-of-the-art inductive (machine learning) with deductive (formal methods) reasoning tools and techniques so that e-commerce operations are protected by design, as well as through continuous monitoring, response, recovery and mitigation measures at run-time. Importantly, trust of the infrastructure’s operations among its users is established, benefiting from distributed ledger technology ensuring transparency of the operations and that information has not been modified. Although ENSURESEC innovations are applicable to any critical infrastructure that relies and is monitored by networked software systems, its design and integration philosophy make it uniquely prepared to protect distributed and evolving e-commerce infrastructures with its various forms of payment and delivery (virtual, online and physical). ENSURESEC also enhances citizens’ resilience to threats and their trust in e-commerce companies, especially SMEs, thus contributing towards the vision of a reliable and trusted digital single market.

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


CITIZEN AND MULTI-ACTOR CONSULTATION ON HORIZON2020

CIMULACT has as a main objective to add to the relevance and accountability of European research and innovation – Horizon 2020 as well as national - by engaging citizens and stakeholders in co-creation of research agendas based on real and validated societal visions, needs and demands. The project will expand the outlook and debate on STI issues, increase scientific literacy in a broad sense, which includes the understanding of the societal role of Science, Technology and innovation (STI), and create shared understanding between scientific stakeholders, policy-makers and citizens. This multi-actor approach will embrace EU28 plus Norway and Switzerland.  The CIMULTACT builds on the principle/conviction that the collective intelligence of society gives Europe a competitive advantage, which may be activated to strengthen the relevance of the European science and technology system. By establishing genuine dialogue between citizens, stakeholders, scientists, and policymakers visions and scenarios for the desirable futures will be developed and debated, and transformed into recommendations and suggestions for research and innovation policies and topics.   In short, CIMULACT will ● Create vision and scenarios that connect societal needs with future expected advances in Science and their impact on technology, society, environment etc. in connection to the grand challenges ● Provide concrete input to Horizon 2020 through recommendations and policy options for R&I and simulated calls for the Horizon2020 Work Programmes. ● Engage citizens and stakeholders in a highly participatory debate/consultation/process on scenarios for desirable sustainable futures and research ● Build capacities in citizen and multi-actor engagement in R&I through development, experimentation, training and assessment of methods for engagement ● Facilitate dialogue and shared understanding between policymakers, citizens, and stakeholders ● Reveal  the relative merits of the citizen focussed consultations

Integrate society in science and innovation


Multi-Agent Systems for Pervasive Artificial Intelligence for assisting Humans in Modular Production Environments

European industry has been very competitive on the global markets by utilizing highly efficient Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and massively producing high quality products. The advent for mass customization has been stressing the capability of modularization and flexibility of production processes through the incorporation of AI technologies. However, the communication between the different automation systems has not been yet accomplished efficiently since they lack interoperability and are restricted to their own system of coordination. The MAS4AI proposal proposes a system that allows the deployment and synchronization of different AI agents in manufacturing for autonomous modular production and human assistance. The MAS4AI system will be heavily driven by large industrial cases and will aim towards digitalising European industry with AI tools according to the Industry 4.0 paradigm. MAS4AI will develop its overall ambition by the means of four Scientific and Technological objectives namely: a) Multi-Agents-System (MAS) for distributing AI components in different hierarchy layers, customers and suppliers for realising refurbishment activities, b) AI agents using Knowledge-based Representation with Semantic Web Technologies, c) AI Agents for hierarchical planning of production processes, d) model-based Machine Learning (ML) AI agent. MAS4AI research and technological activity will be strongly driven by a set of industrial use cases which will be then used as demonstrators. The demonstrators involve important industrial sectors of high value added for Europe, namely AI technologies used for automotive, contract manufacturing, bicycle industry, bearings production and wood processing industry.


Accelerating Digital Innovation in Schools through Regional Innovation Hubs and a Whole-School Mentoring Model

iHub4Schools will propose mechanisms to accelerate whole-school digital innovation in and across schools through establishment of Regional Innovation Hubs. Our aim is to support a minimum of 75 European schools and 600 teachers to implement project approaches by establishing regional innovation hubs as sites of establishing and multiplying school-to-school mentoring structures.  This will be achieved, firstly, through different support mechanisms that will focus on supporting the collaboration between digitally advanced and less advanced teachers and schools through a variety of peer learning approaches and engagement structures. Secondly, iHub4Schools will develop a whole-school mentoring model that is locally, methodologically and technologically adaptable. It embraces both inter- and intra-school levels, and integrates a continuous monitoring methodology by including novel evaluation approaches and the Learning Analytics Toolbox.   Regional Innovation Hubs will be established in 5 European countries and the mentoring model will be piloted with 600 teachers in 75 schools. Long-term sustainability will be ensured by a systematic stakeholder engagement strategy that will integrate initiatives and partners on a local level, such as local municipalities, school boards, teacher associations and network, for these activities to be carried out on the long term. Regional impact will be sustained by the upskilling of the teachers to implement technologies meaningfully to teaching and school heads to scale and sustain the innovation in and across the schools.


R4D will tackle urgent sustai 2021nability challenges faced by dairy producers by bringing together dairy farmers, farmers’ organisations, advisors, researchers and all relevant actors across 15 countries to close the divide between research and innovation within and across Europe. There were around 1.485 million farms at the last official census in 2013 (Eurostat) in the EU bovine dairy sector, yet no network focused solely on their needs has been established to date. Coordinated by Idele (F), R4D is built around the multi-actor approach to implement more intense cooperation between researchers, advisors, farmers and relevant actors to facilitate greater exchange and acceptance of co-created solutions. Following H2020 Eurodairy project, R4D draws on the EU, national and regional connections of the 17 consortium members to appropriate networks, on the three related key themes of economic and social resilience, technical efficiency and environment, animal welfare and society friendly production systems. Using the multi-actor approach, R4D will (i) capture and share innovative ideas and methods from practice across Europe and (ii) identify and conserve research findings that have not yet been widely adopted, enhancing their potential for integration into practice by assessing feasibility at demonstration farms. R4D’s strategic and targeted dissemination and communication actions are designed to raise awareness of the project’s innovation potential, and deliver engagement with farmers, their intermediaries and knowledge providers. Through driving effective cooperation between dairy producers, advisors and researchers, and utilising trusted gatekeepers, R4D will form a transnational ecosystem to stimulate knowledge exchange at international level in order to boost the economic viability and sustainability of the European dairy-producing sector while helping to inform policy of the needs of industry.

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


PERSPEKTYVINIU TECHNOLOGIJU TAIKOMUJU TYRIMU INSTITUTAS

EU routes for High pEnentration of solaR PV into lOcal nEtworkS

The overall aim of the project is to enable the continued development of community-owned PV by developing viable business models that address the concerns of network operators. The project will work with communities and network operators to develop approaches that will enable subsidy-free solar PV projects that have a neutral or positive impact on network management.  The project will:   1. Identify and develop social enterprise models that enable increased deployment of solar PV in grid-constrained areas. 2. Carry out cost-benefit analysis and economic feasibility assessment and develop business models that enable community groups to store, utilise, aggregate and trade solar electricity within localities as well as simply exporting excess energy to the grid. 3. Empower citizens to have greater ownership over their energy supply, through removing key barriers to community PV, democratising energy and recycling profits from energy generation into host communities.


VILNIAUS GEDIMINO TECHNIKOS UNIVERSITETAS

The proposal lies within priority research & innovation topics in EU-Mediterranean cooperation, as highlighted in several past projects and policies reccomendations, i.e. within the MOCO - Monitoring Committee for Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation in RTD. International Cluster Cooperation offers opportunities to scal up research and technological potential, enhance competitiveness, support the regional socio-economic development and reinforce the market placement of new, innovative products. These cooperation approaches often fail due to constraints on resources, capabilities, instruments and funding. On the other hand, over 2.000 Clusters only in the European Union covering all sectors and able to realize an intersectorial framework, as well as related clusters and networks in the southern Mediterranean countries, form a great potential for transnational clustering.   The EU’s framework for state aid defines innovative clusters as follows: “Innovation clusters mean grouping of indipendent and innovative start-ups, small, medium and large undertakings as well as research organizations operating in a particular sector and region, and designed to stimulate innovative activity by promoting intensive interactions, sharing of facilities and exchange of knowledge and expertise, and by contributing effectively to technology transfer, networking and information dissemination among the undertakings in the cluster”. Taking into account the current socio-economic situations ClusDevMed priority topics are, in particular: - Agribusiness, agro food, food security – Energy - Water    Core research areas is: Green Tech in the field of Clustering Activities


ISM VADYBOS IR EKONOMIKOS UNIVERSITETAS UAB

Collaborative production for the circular economy; a community approach

POP-MACHINA aims to demonstrate the power and potential of the maker movement and collaborative production for the EU circular economy. We draw from a number of cut-edge technologies (factory-of-the-future, blockchain) and disciplines (urban planning, architecture) to provide the support necessary to overcome scaling issues; a typical drawback of collaborative production; to find the areas more in need of our intervention and to reconfigure unused spaces. We put forth an elaborate community engagement program to network, incentivize and stimulate through maker faires and events existing and new maker communities in all our municipalities. We build upon the current informal curriculum for maker skills development by nurturing the social side and we put educators and makers together to exchange ideas on the training modalities. A particular focus on the skill development of women and vulnerable groups will aim to empower these (underrepresented) segments to partake actively in collaborative production. In every pilot area we will demonstrate business oriented collaborative production of feasible and sustainable concepts from secondary raw material or other sustainable inputs, based on the needs and preferences of the local stakeholders. A thorough impact assessment framework with increased scope (e.g. social) will be co-designed with stakeholders after short basic assessment trainings and will be used in the assessment of our pilot work. Based on the findings we will kick-start a series of policy events to discuss openly – without pushing our results – the tax and legal barriers that hamper collaborative production.

Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials


Evaluation of a patient-centred biopsychosocial blended collaborative care pathway for the treatment of multi-morbid elderly patients

ESCAPE will rethink current practice for treating multimorbidity in elderly patients and break down health care silos that impede integrated care and lead to adverse outcomes. We will coordinate and optimise care, prioritising integration of treatment for mental distress and disorders in the treatment of multimorbidity. Our interdisciplinary multinational consortium of experts from general and hospital medical practice and psychology, health economics, ICT development and social innovation as well as patient and informal carer representatives, will develop a holistic, patient-centred intervention based on the blended collaborative care (BCC) approach and enhanced by cutting-edge information and communication technologies. Trained Care Managers will work closely together with the patient’s general practitioner under supervision of a Clinical Specialist Team. They will use a meta-algorithm integrated in the interactive imergo® e-health Integrated Care Platform to customise patients’ treatment to their individual needs and preferences and liaise among providers. The platform will also empower patients and informal carers to increase their intrinsic capacities. ESCAPE as a social innovation will decrease disease burden for patients, informal carers and ultimately society and improve their quality of life (QoL), prioritised as the most important treatment outcome by patients, carers, and multimorbidity guidelines. ESCAPE will conduct for the first time a randomised controlled trial embedded in a comprehensive cohort study design to compare BCC and usual care. We will include patients with heart failure, ≥2 medical comorbidities and psychological distress. The primary effectiveness endpoint will be patients’ health-related QoL. Medical outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and several other patient-relevant outcomes will be secondary endpoints. We will apply an active dissemination and exploitation strategy to derive maximum impact from the new pathway for multimorbidity care.

Health, demographic change and wellbeing


KLAIPEDOS MIESTO SAVIVALDYBES ADMINISTRACIJA

Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning: Pathways and Links to Urban Systems

‘SUMP-PLUS’ is a three-year RIA, designed to address urban mobility related challenges and to exploit new opportunities, by developing a strong, rigorous evidence base through a co-created City Laboratories approach (to be demonstrated in different EU cities) building on the strengths of the existing SUMPs and SULPs. SUMP-PLUS will develop and apply transition pathways towards more sustainable cities taking into account the need to establish stronger links with other urban system components.   It has 4 primary policy objectives: 1.	To develop and apply a set of context-specific mobility transformation pathways that will enable cities to map out a practical implementation pathway. 2.	To demonstrate how cities can develop stronger links with other urban system components (education, health, retail, land use planning, etc.) - while taking into account disruptive technological and contextual developments - so that urban mobility and accessibility can be delivered more comprehensively, efficiently and effectively. 3.	To identify new solutions that will increase efficiency and sustainability, in both the freight and passenger sectors. 4.	To identify and demonstrate new partnerships and business models that enable various mobility objectives to be met cost-effectively through appropriate public/private sector partnerships  These objectives will be met and demonstrated through a programme of trials and comprehensive evaluation, in six co-created City Laboratories.  This requires achieving 4 operational objectives: developing appropriate urban governance arrangements and advanced analytics; extensive stakeholder engagement and co-creation of outputs; producing enhanced SUMP-PLUS guidance matching the different needs and maximising impact through a targeted range of dissemination, capacity building, knowledge transfer and legacy exploitation activities.


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


Smart Forwarder for sustainable and efficient forest operation and management

Forest biomass is currently one of the most important source of renewable energy and accounts for almost half of the EU’s total renewable energy consumption. In addition to raw materials, forests also provide a wide range of vital non-wood services that should be protected during wood extraction. The innovation project Forwarder2020 has the main aim of improving sustainability of wood production and delivery as well as operational forest management and planning through the development of specific modules for more efficient forwarders (wood extraction and transportation vehicles): • hydrostatic-mechanical power-split transmission  • hydro-pneumatic suspension of the forwarder  • hybrid hydraulic system for driving the crane with double recuperation of the potential energy  • bogie axle with three instead of two driven wheels at each side to be mounted under the timber load • monitoring system for transparency and documentation of process data like machine data, static and dynamic load over time and position  The combined effect of these five innovations applied to forwarders will have the following impact: • lowering of the dynamic wheel load by 25% over the same forwarder without suspension at same payload and speed.  • reduction of rut depths by 50%  • lowering fuel consumption while driving over the existing hydrostatic transmissions by 30%  • making long hauling distances more economic by the efficiency of the power-split transmission  • lowering fuel consumption while loading and unloading due to the double recuperation of the potential energy of the crane mass by 30%.  • more precise planning of the tracks and documentation of the loads carried on the specific part of the track  • supplying to the market a unique and modular system of high-end solutions above the competitors, where the customer can make his choice of equipment and bear no higher costs for the modules not chosen. • bring consortium partners and thus Europe to a strong position on markets


Twinning for Promoting Excellence, Ability and Knowledge to develop advanced waste gasification Solutions

The Lithuanian Energy Institute (LEI) and Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) plan to establish an association to foster the uptake of Waste-to-Energy (WtE) research and innovation in Lithuania and engage the country in pan-European collaborative efforts on this topic. To ensure its success, both institutions need to increase their research excellence in the topic of WtE and develop international networks. To this end, LEI and VMU propose TWIN-PEAKS, a Horizon 2020 Twinning project with the Technical University of Munich (Germany), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and WIP Renewable Energies GmbH & Co. KG (Germany). TWIN-PEAKS is based on the development of a joint-research strategy between the partners, the pooling of their research infrastructure, the transfer of scientific knowledge and know-how on WtE research and innovation, the building of academic and non-academic networks, the outreach to end-users of WtE solutions, and a plan for joint-applications for research grants to fund further research projects involving the consortium. It is expected that this Twinning collaboration will increase the research excellence of LEI and VMU, build capacities to form the critical mass of researchers in WtE in Lithuania, develop the international networks of LEI and VMU, increase the production and exploitation of intellectual property, grow the opportunities for collaborations with the industry, and allow LEI and VMU to contribute to national and international efforts for increasing the use of renewable energy through the WtE association to be create by LEI and VMU at the end of TWIN-PEAKS.


VSI EUROPOS SOCIALINIS VERSLUMO UGDYMOIR INOVATYVIU STUDIJU INSTITUTAS

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

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


BALTIJOS PAZANGIU TECHNOLOGIJU INSTITUTAS

Prediction and Visual Intelligence for Security Information

The mission of PREVISION is to empower the analysts and investigators of LEAs with tools and solutions not commercially available today, to handle and capitalize on the massive heterogeneous data streams that must be processed during complex crime investigations and threat risk assessments. With criminals being ever more determined to use new and advanced technology for their cause, the aim is to establish PREVISION as an open and future-proof platform for providing cutting-edge practical support to LEAs in their fight against terrorism, organised crime and cybercrime, which represent three major cross-border security challenges that are often interlinked. PREVISION provides advanced near-real-time analytical support for multiple big data streams (coming from online social networks, the open web, the Darknet, CCTV and video surveillance systems, traffic and financial data sources, and many more), subsequently allowing their semantic integration into dynamic and self-learning knowledge graphs that capture the structure, interrelations and trends of terrorist groups and individuals, cybercriminal organisations and organised crime groups, giving rise to enhanced situational awareness in these fields.  PREVISION has a pan-European engagement and support agenda for LEAs: ten (10) different LEAs and practitioners take part in its consortium, while additional ones (including Europol) have joined its external advisory board. A strong inter-disciplinary dimension, combining technological expertise with sociological, psychological, linguistic and data science models, will lead to a common strategic approach for predicting abnormal and deviant behaviour, radicalisation potential, threat risks for soft targets, and cybercrime trends at different timescales. PREVISION will conduct demonstrations on five representative and complementary use cases, under real-life operational conditions, in full compliance with fundamental rights and applicable legislation.


Promoting the internAtional competitiveness of European Remote Sensing companies through Cross-cluster collaboration

Emerging industries, as high-potential growth sectors in early stage development, can be effectively supported by cross-sectoral cluster-facilitated innovation towards the creation of new value chains and the opening up of new markets. Earth Observation-derived information has been widely proven to improve productivity (e.g. reduced fertiliser, pesticide, water, labour inputs in precision agriculture), outputs (e.g. solar farm yield), and eco-friendliness (e.g. carbon footprint monitoring of industrial activities) in the emerging food, energy and environment industries. In designing, developing and delivering sustainable services that meet the needs of these industries, European SMEs need to be supported in accessing knowledge, capital, technology and markets. Recognising this need, PARSEC aspires to build a cross-sectoral/cross-border ecosystem whereby SMEs and innovative start-ups will gain: Access to knowledge (provision of a holistic portfolio of support services, including market, technology and investment training/ information as well as tailored coaching support); Access to technology (through three large scale demonstrators, acting as enablers for the development of new EO-based products/services); Access to capital (an innovative selection and funding scheme to ensure selection of high-potential ideas); Access to market (incl. cross-border and cross-sectoral matchmaking, investment readiness, export promotion). By providing access to these resources, PARSEC will concretely contribute to the establishment of new value chains bustling with innovative SMEs that can translate the large public investments in the Copernicus programme and numerous sector specific initiatives (related to food, water, energy, climate change, biodiversity, etc.) into applications and services meeting user needs and market demands, for the benefit of European economy and society.


Establishing Citizen Science Hubs in European Research Performing and Funding Organisations to drive institutional change and ground Responsible Research and Innovation in society

Europe’s Research Performing and Funding Organisations (RPFOs) have a crucial role to play as agents of institutional change towards firmly grounding RRI in our society. The successful fulfilment of this challenging yet highly significant role calls for the values of RRI to be well-embedded into their governance as well as their operation with greater and more systematic participation of citizens and all R&I stakeholders. INCENTIVE is set on empowering European RPFOs to establish sustainable transdisciplinary hubs for stimulating and supporting excellent citizen science with engaged roles for all R&I stakeholders in line with RRI principles. To this end, we start by establishing and demonstrating the potential of such Citizen Science Hubs in 4 world class RPFOs covering all 4 MoRRI Country Clusters, including University of Twente (NL), Autonomous University of Barcelona (ES), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (EL) and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (LT). We tailor the governance and operating models of their hubs to their unique institutional specificities and regional ecosystems of R&I stakeholders, before putting them to the test to drive institutional change through a series of RRI-grounding actions conducted with and for society (citizen science, co-creation of public policies, R&I agenda setting, etc.). All in all, our Citizen Science Hubs, besides being a sustainable institutional change themselves, will serve as a vehicle for introducing substantial institutional changes in our RPFOs and their communities. We will closely monitor, evaluate and report the performance and outcomes of our Citizen Science Hubs and their actions, providing evidence of societal, democratic, economic and scientific impacts. Along the way, we will foster mutual learning and networking opportunities amongst RPFOs across Europe to share our experiences and develop practical tools to enable RPFOs to drive similar institutional changes in other contexts.

Science with and for Society - Cross-theme


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

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


VILNIAUS MIESTO SAVIVALDYBES ADMINISTRACIJA

MOST (Meaningful Open Schooling Connects Schools To Communities) supports European school students and citizens in developing science knowledge, transversal skills and competences in working scientifically. MOST enables and encourages its target groups to pursue scientific careers and long-term,  will raise the numbers of scientists in Europe. To achieve this, our Consortium of 23 partners from 10 European countries (higher education institutions, schools, non-formal education providers, ministries, municipalities and enterprises) proposes a powerful Open Schooling idea.  The project opens up formal science education and establishes partnerships between schools and their communities (families, science education providers, citizens, businesses, etc.) to work jointly on environmental school-community-projects (SCPs). These participatory projects directly respond to the needs and values of those involved, benefit the communities as a whole and make schools agents of community well-being. MOST’s learning impact is boosted through an educational research-based approach that raises interest in science, scientific literacy and environmental responsibility.  MOST works on a threefold geographical structure: within communities (schools as hubs), at regional level in our 10 partner countries (connecting all open schooling communities from one region) and, ‘creates a bigger picture’ by establishing an Open Schooling Network at the European level. MOST fairs in each partner region maximise impact and strengthen regional efficacy. A final MOST Conference connects all SCPs across Europe to a vibrant science-learning network that opens up to further countries and communities.  Planning and implementation involve all relevant actors: formal/non-formal education, research /practice, policy, innovation-driven businesses and society as both benefactor and innovation driver. This raises actors’ willingness to engage long-term and thus, helps ensure impact beyond project lifetime.


A Reconfigurable robot workCell for fast set-up of automated assembly processes in SMEs

ReconCell develops a new type of robot workcell, its required process infrastructures and the economic framework for automated robot assembly, especially designed for the needs of SMEs. SMEs would benefit from robotic automation, but often cannot use it due to set-up & maintenance complexity. This requires expert knowledge and time for configuration and programming, which is too costly for them. Robotic automation is, thus, normally economically infeasible for SMEs, especially for small batch sizes. ReconCell develops an easy to (re-)configure and (re-)program workcell, making robot solutions commercially viable even for small batch sizes (~1000 units) by reducing set-up & maintenance effort substantially.  Specifically, the ReconCell System is based on a layered concept where we start together with the customer with business modelling the planned product assembly based on the ReconCell System to assess its economic viability and provide decisive Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). On approval, the next layer of the ReconCell System implements assembly with automated testing in simulation. Here we use reconfigurable hardware elements to design the required workcell layout and assembly processes. After verification, product assembly takes place in the real workcell under machine vision-based monitoring and novel force-based control of execution to assure product quality using the KPIs. We demonstrate the capabilities of the layered ReconCell System on three real use cases provided by the SMEs of our consortium and two more use cases, established through an open call. In addition, the consortium has started to establish a network of potential ReconCell users to disseminate information about ReconCell technologies to all actors in the value chain, and to raise awareness about the possibilities of automated robot assembly in SMEs. The final aim is to establish a company that commercializes the workcell and associated technologies developed in the ReconCell project.


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

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


NanoPowder Plant – Metal nanopowders for a world of great opportunities

Current supply of metal nanopowders on the world market falls short on demand up to 15% , creating further obstacles to the technical progress in such industries as aerospace manufacturing, power machinery, engineered materials production, metal welding, heavy machinery, civil engineering and others. Metal nanopowders’ market is still only emerging due to low production capacities and insufficient purity, shape consistency and wide dispersion of nanoparticles produced, resulting in insufficient quality of such materials for key users. Nanopowder Plant (NPP), a Lithuanian based start-up, presents a revolutionary solution which has 8 times prevalence over other technologies in production capacity of metal nanopowders with the highest existing quality of the nanopowder produced. Moreover, it ensures low environmental pollution due to 80% energy efficiency of the solution and absence of need to use waste-generating chemical reagents during production process. Innovative production process, patented technology and experience team will help NPP to utilize market opportunity and obtain a strong position in the growing metal nanopowders market, which is projected to reach 60 bn USD in 2019 and accelerate further at 15-17% annual grows rate. NPP aims at global commercialization of its innovative solution to enable vast industrial application of metal nanopowder bringing superior value to end-customer and ensuring environmental protection. During the Phase 1 of SME Instrument feasibility study NPP wants to validate its market strategy through conducting thorough study of an emerging market and potential customers, strengthen IPR portfolio, modify existing commercialization strategy and develop an elaborate business plan.


Reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint by implementing Collect and Reflect(TM) blinds for solar energy collection and reflection (Collect and Reflect)

Rising energy bills is a relevant topic for households in the European Union. The share of household income spent on energy bills is growing and is impacting not only low-income households. Many of existing solutions for lowering energy bills for households are expensive and are targeted at home owners. They include new passive buildings, better insulation of existing buildings and/or generation of locally renewable energy (e.g. geo-thermic, solar, wind).  Even though many already proven solutions exist that aim to increase energy efficiency and energy production in buildings via walls and roofs, windows are usually considered as a subject of energy loss and not taken into account for sustainable energy production. Could we optimize certain features of windows, such as blinds, and how should we do it? We believe that in the future, window blinds could add additional warmth in the winter and help to keep rooms cool in the summer; become a source of light; produce electricity; and when needed, block or let light in. By working on the Collect & Reflect project, Saulės vėjo aruodai (SVA) is making first steps to realize this dream by inventing blinds that can heat and cool. SVA, an SME from Lithuania, invents, patents, makes and supplies solar energy transformation products. Recently SVA has invented a break-through solution, Collect & Reflect(TM) thermal blinds, which can help save energy and thus reduce energy bills and decrease the carbon footprint of households. These blinds have innovative technology and special coating that make rooms warmer during the winter and colder in the summer. They help to decrease the need to heat and cool rooms, which results in lower energy bills and lower CO2 emissions. Collect & Reflect(TM) thermal blinds have huge potential to affect the window treatment market worldwide and transform traditional blinds into an active energy saving tool accessible for any household.


Centre of Excellence for Cultural and Creative Innovations in Lithuania

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

Teaming of excellent research institutions and low performing RDI regions


Increase Friendly Integration of Reliable PV plants considering different market segments

TRUST-PV will demonstrate increase in performance and reliability of PV components (e.g. module O&M friendly design, inverter enabled O&M solutions, aftermarket coatings, extended testing beyond standard) and PV systems (e.g. more accurate yield models and assessment, data-driven mitigation measures from monitoring and advanced field inspection, reliability of novel system concepts such as floating PV) in large portfolios of distributed and/or utility scale PV. The TRUST-PV results will be tested and demonstrated from fab to field and all data gathered along the value chain will flow into a decision support system platform with enhanced decision-making using AI. The innovation at component level in TRUST-PV will be driven by the needs of stakeholders operating in a later stage of a PV project, i.e. Asset managers, EPC and O&M operators. TRUST-PV PV modules will thus become O&M friendly and inverter will enable rapid and cost-effective field inspection.  The innovation at system level will fully exploit the digitalisation of the PV sector by linking 3D design with BIM concepts, developing more accurate models for yield assessments, and closing the gap between performance and failure detection through monitoring and field inspection.  The innovation at the point of connection is based on the deployment of tailored strategies for the residential sector (better observability of performance with cost-effective monitoring solution, use of storage to enable renewable energy communities) and the utility sector (e.g. combination of advanced forecasting with storage and regulation through power plant controllers) with the final aim of improving the hosting capacity and increase stability. Finally, in TRUST-PV we envision a path of circular economy which enhances disposed components/material recovery for further use in the industry, to support progressive steps of plant repowering, aimed at increasing their production and lifetime without requiring additional land.


Circular business models for the solar power industry

Solar power generates nearly 4% (and still growing) of Europe’s electricity demand. In 2021, the 200 GW of capacity installed in Europe will result in saving of 219 million CO2 tons/year. By 2030, 8 mill tons of PV panels are expected.  Resource efficiency is a critical success factor for the solar power sustainable growth. Performance-based, third-party ownership Product-Service System (PSS) has been widely seen as a key circular economic model to stimulate resource efficiency and reduce waste generation. CIRCUSOL aims to establish solar power as a spearhead sector to demonstrate a path driven by PSS business models towards a circular economy in Europe.  Through a co-creative approach with end-users and the entire value chain, CIRCUSOL will develop two main blocks of a circular PSS model: circular product management with re-use/refurbish/remanufacture (“second-life”) paths in addition to recycling, and value-added new product-services for residential, commercial and utility end-users. Five large-scale, real-life demonstrators will be set up in these 3 market segments, in 3 European countries (FR, BE and CH) to validate market acceptance, business viability and resource efficiency benefits.  CIRCUSOL will deliver tangible innovation for the solar power industry with market-validated PSS business models, 2nd-life PV/battery labelling/certification protocols and cost/application analysis, and an info-sharing ICT platform. The results will be exploited in FR, BE and CH and prepared for replication in Europe (Letters of Support of stakeholders attached). CIRCUSOL will also deliver verified circular business innovation methodologies for broader use by other industries, sustainability professionals and academia; plus evidence-based knowledge in circular economy implementation for policy makers. All together, CIRCUSOL will contribute to a more resource efficient Europe, while reducing GHG emissions and creating new business opportunities and jobs.


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

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

Develop the governance for the advancement of responsible research and innovation


QuantERA II ERA-NET Cofund in Quantum Technologies

Quantum Technologies (QT) is a highly interdisciplinary, paradigm-changing area of research. European researchers have been at the forefront of these developments, delivering many groundbreaking scientific results and advancing technological exploitation. For the past four years, the QuantERA network has been successfully providing the research community with a coordinated Europe-wide approach to support cutting-edge research in QT. Building on this experience, with EU support, the QuantERA consortium (currently present in 30 countries) will continue its activities and develop them even further. The central objective of this proposal is to launch a transnational co-funded call with a planned budget of over €26M of national contributions. €15M of EU contribution is expected to support the co-funded call budget and project tasks. In accordance with the FET Work Programme 2018-2020, the scientific scope of the QuantERA II co-funded call will complement the Quantum Technologies Flagship activities. QuantERA II will seek to effectively liaise with the QT Flagship and other stakeholders in the field of QT research to make the best use of the collective European experience in QT research funding, as well as address the gender imbalance in QT research and spread the research excellence across European Research Area (ERA). A range of additional activities will be integrated into the launch of the co-funded call: strengthening the multilateral dialogue with policy makers regarding the design of future funding instruments, stimulation of networking and exchange of best practices, continuation of mapping of public QT policies in Europe, use of the Guidelines on Responsible Research and Innovation in QT developed in the first QuantERA programme. The QuantERA II proposal conforms to the specific challenges and scope of the Work Programme Horizon 2020-Future and Emerging Technologies by providing a structured framework to coordinate national and regional research programmes in QT.


Promoting & implementing joint programming to reinforce transnational research for the conservation and restoration of degraded ecosystems and their biodiversity, including a focus on aquatic systems

Many of the European and world's ecosystems undergo degradation of terrestrial, aquatic and transitional ecosystems with nMany of the European and world's ecosystems undergo degradation of terrestrial, aquatic and transitional ecosystems with negative impacts on biological diversity and people’s livelihoods. In this context, research actions are needed to ensure the protection and/or restoration of ecosystems and their biodiversity whilst meeting the socio-economic, political and cultural needs of current and future generations. By networking 34 funding agencies from 27 countries from Europe & other continents, BiodivRestore aims to promote coordinated international research on conservation and restoration of degraded ecosystems and their biodiversity, in all environments, including a focus on aquatic systems. It will strengthen research & research programmes coordination to support  science-based evidence for the implementation of a relatively wide range of European and International policy initiatives and therefore act for better management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems and their biodiversity. This will notably be achieved by launching two calls (one co-funded by the European Commission) for proposals, promoting research collaboration across national borders & disciplines and by supporting dialogue & collaboration between academia & stakeholders, and stakeholder engagement in research projects in order to increase the impact of research on policy & practice. BiodivRestore will also contribute to networking, clustering and capacity building activities for the research community in the field and enhanced synergy coordination between RDI funding programmes (national, EU, International) in the relevant research fields. Lastly, BiodivRestore will contribute to reinforce the links between BiodivERsA and the WATER JPI, to enhance their collaboration for issues at the crossroad of water resources, aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity sustainable management.


EOSC-Nordic aims to facilitate the coordination of EOSC relevant initiatives within the Nordic and Baltic countries and exploit synergies to achieve greater harmonisation at policy and service provisioning across these countries, in compliance with EOSC agreed standards and practices. By doing so, the project seeks to establish the Nordic and Baltic countries as frontrunners in the take-up of the EOSC concept, principles and approach. EOSC-Nordic brings together a strong consortium of 24 partners including e-Infrastructure providers, research performing organisations and expert networks, with national mandates with regards to the provision of research services and open science policy, and wide experience of engaging with the research community and mobilising national governments, funding agencies, international bodies and global initiatives and high-level experts on EOSC strategic matters.


Researchers' Night: It's Your Friday to Discover!

The LT2016 Researchers’ Night projects for 2016 and 2017 will take place in major Lithuanian cities, i.e. Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Siauliai and Moletai, as well as in rural areas. The project aims to enhance public recognition of researchers and their work through bringing scientists and public closer to one another and thus increasing an understanding of the impact of researchers' work on citizen's daily life as well as encouraging young people to choose careers in science and research. Both events will offer a broad range of varied activities addressing all categories of the public at large, regardless of age and scientific background, i.e. notably: Meetings and activities together with researchers; Lectures, discussions; Visits to open laboratories; Real life observations and experiments; European corners; Various contests, games, exhibitions, movie and online broadcast watching. All the activities planned will actively involve researchers and will offer a balanced combination of "serious" activities and funny ones to be attractive for the general public. Activities will be hosted in labs, lecture halls, meeting places, cafes, while in the rural areas they will take place in schools or public spaces. Some activities conducted in the main sites will be broadcasted online. Common concept for the Night in 2016 and 2017 will be Learning about Technology Futures. Therefore activities of Researchers’ Night projects in 2016 will be organised with focus on Virtual Reality thus building foundations for the Night in 2017 which will focus of "science futurity" or Futures of technologies. Both events will be finalised with the grand event unifying different fields - music, science and cinema. We expect at least 500.000 people made aware of the Researchers' Night and its objectives through the awareness campaign and 11.500 direct attendees to the various events planned in 2016 as well as in 2017.


REDUCTION OF RADIOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF DESIGN BASIS AND DESIGN EXTENDION ACCIDENTS

The Reduction of Radiological Consequences of design basis and extension Accidents (R2CA) project targets the development of harmonized methodologies and innovative management approach and safety devices for the evaluation and for the reduction of the consequences of DBA and DEC-A accidents in operating and foreseen nuclear power plants in Europe. For both purposes development of methodologies will be conducted with the goal of reassessing the safety margins using less conservative approaches and considering the new risks that rose from the original design or design extension phases. This will reinforce the confidence on these safety margins for conditions up to the extended design domain, will allow the identification of new accident management measures and devices and will support the optimization of the potential associated emergency population protection measures. Improvement of evaluations tools will be supported by the reassessment of the existing experimental and analytical databases. The efficiency of the approach will be demonstrated by comparing at start and then at the end of the project the results of the evaluation of a series of reactor cases selected by a senior expert group among two main categories: loss of coolant accidents and steam generator tube rupture accidents.   Detailed analyzes of these reactor cases simulations will suggest the development of harmonized evaluation methodologies.    The project will include also innovative actions to estimate the pros and cons of potential new accident management measures and devices, to explore the potential switch of prognosis evaluation tools to the diagnosis of on-going fuel cladding failure and to explore the potentiality for these accidental situations of advanced technological fuels.


According to EUROCONTROL’s 2013 Challenges of Growth Report, Air traffic in the ECAC region is forecast to increase by 50% between 2012-2035 (most-likely scenario). Air traffic diversity is expected to become even more complex with the emergence of Remotely Piloted aircraft Systems (RPAS) and the multi-task nature of military aerial missions. The extension of free route operations will also imply more complex and dynamic traffic patterns. Network Operations will have to become more flexible and adaptable, allowing effective balance between capacity, mission effectiveness, flight efficiency and environmental requirements on one hand, and the diversity of user requirements on the other. PJ08 Advanced Airspace Management (AAM) brings key European aviation industry partners combining the right expertise and investment to address this challenge. Aligned with the ATM Master Plan, AAM Partners focus on Dynamic Airspace Configurations (DAC) and Dynamic Mobile Areas (DMA).  Compared to today’s airspace scenarios, which by their nature are static, DAC/DMA enable flexible solutions that can be dynamically adapted to traffic demand to respond to different regional/local performance objectives, which may vary in time and place. AAM Partners will further elaborate the definition of DAC/DMA, the associated data models and operational processes, validate the operational feasibility and assess the performance impact. The readiness for integration of the DAC operational process in the DCB process will be as well addressed. Automated tools to generate optimum sector design and configurations, as well as DMA optimal location and volume to meet performance targets will be developed. AAM supports the SESAR Deployment regulation and addresses European concerns on economic (more efficient use of ATM Network resources) and environmental sustainability (reduced fuel burn and emissions) of Air Transport system giving Civil and Military Users the ability to optimise their operations.


Micro Quantum Dot-Light Emitting Diode and Organic Light Emitting Diode  Direct Patterning (MILEDI)

The project MiLEDI aims to realise micro-Light Emitting Diodes (mQDL) and micro -Organic Light Emitting Diodes (mQDO) using direct laser or electron beam patterning of nanometer-scale Quantum Dots (QDs) to write the Red-Green-Blue (RGB) arrays for display manufacturing. The main idea sustaining the project is to form the colored green-red light-emitting QDs directly over a matrix of blue emitting micro QDL/QDO arrays, so that the QDs act as frequency down-converters and constitute a RGB micro-display. Both direct-writing technologies will be thoroughly developed to optimize the QD light emission spectrum of the display and its stability. They are expected to provide patterning resolution at micrometric scales, depending on the laser spot areas and particle beam dimensions and operation.  These techniques together with the direct formation of QDs assure highly flexible and simpler manufacturing processes, in few steps and with low chemical impact The MiLEDI approach for both micro QDL and QDO RGB displays manufactured by direct laser/electron beam patterning of QDs, is  validated by the production of a final prototype of Rear Projection display through the existing supply chain of the project.


VALSTYBES IMONE IGNALINOS ATOMINE ELEKTRINE

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.


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

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


Lietuvos geologijos tarnyba prie Aplinkos ministerijos

Establishing the European Geological Surveys Research Area to deliver a Geological Service for Europe

The GeoERA proposal is put forward by the national and regional Geological Survey Organisations (GSO) of Europe. Its overall goal is to integrate the GSO’s information and knowledge on subsurface energy, water and raw material resources, to support sustainable use of the subsurface in addressing Europe’s grand challenges. The GeoERA consortium will organise and co-fund together with the EC a joint call for transnational research projects that address the development of 1) interoperable, pan-European data and information services on the distribution of geo-energy, groundwater and raw material resources; 2) common assessment frameworks and methodologies supporting better understanding and management of the water-energy-raw materials nexus and potential impacts and risks of subsurface use; 3) knowledge and services aimed at European, national and regional policy makers, industry and other stakeholders to support a more integrated and efficient management and more responsible and publicly accepted exploitation and use of the subsurface. The transnational projects selected in the call will be implemented by the consortium partners themselves, who provide their co-funding in-kind. GeoERA will contribute to the overall EU objective of building the ERA through enhanced cooperation and coordination of national and regional Geological Survey research programmes. GeoERA will also include forward looking activities, including the creation of opportunities for future collaborative research, and the feasibility assessment of an Article 185 initiative in Applied Geoscience as follow-up to the GeoERA ERA-NET towards the development of the ultimate goal of delivering a Geological Service for Europe.


For a completely working Digital Single Market, effectively enabling the cross-border exercise by citizens and businesses of their Single Market rights, Member States must address several challenges on delivering better services. DE4A is a Member State-driven pilot, aligned with strategic eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 and EIF Implementation Strategy and with full regulatory compliance (SDGR, GDPR, eIDAS, Services Directive…), establishing a culture of co-creation, transparency, accountability and trustworthiness. Its goal is facilitating migration towards European Digital Public Services co-delivered across borders, across sectors and with different participants, reinforcing trust in public institution, and unleashing multiple measurable positive impacts on efficiency gains and reduction of administrative burden and costs. Starting from needs and capacities of Member States, DE4A’s scalable, holistic, flexible approach focuses on high-quality fully online procedures accessible through the SDG by building on an extended interoperability Toolbox and on state-of-the-art. It enables an open and comprehensive environment and platform for collaboration and innovation, leveraging common eGov baseline patterns for secure, privacy-preserving and trustworthy realisation of essential Once-Only and Relevant-Only principles, and with re-use of existing and new building blocks and Digital Service Infrastructures at national and EU-wide levels. Innovative technologies like blockchain, machine learning, self-emerging ontologies and zero-knowledge proofs will be addressed for effective sharing of common services. Pilots involving secure access to key administrative procedures of real life and business events, shall highlight aspects of the technical ecosystem available for the SDG implementation, prove their technical viability and gauge the performance and degree in which non-functional requirements can be accommodated. DE4A includes 27 partners and has a duration of three year


LIETUVOS MISKO IR ZEMES SAVININKU ASOCIACIJA

Operational sustainable forestry with satellite-based remote sensing

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


Flexible robots for intelligent automation of precision agriculture operations

Agricultural robotics solutions can integrate a variety of robots for a variety of monitoring and targeted intervention tasks, to increase farm productivity, efficiency and sustainability through support of automated precision farming operations. Despite the rising farmer investment in farm/agricultural robots, most deployable robotic systems are meant to automate only specific tasks. The wide variety of tasks that need to be fulfilled in a single precision agriculture operation or mission makes it extremely unprofitable to address its automation with task-specific robots. These challenges result in a lack of flexibility of current heterogeneous multi-robot systems that poses low returns on investment and high risks for farmers. In order to become cost-effective, heterogeneous multi-robot systems needs to become more flexible by employing more versatile (e.g. multi-task) robots which collaborate to accomplish complex missions; ensuring scalable human oversight and intervention through adaptive mission control mechanisms (e.g. without information overload /overwhelming effort from the farmer); allowing the farmer to profit from robotics operational data. FlexiGroBots proposes a Platform for developing heterogeneous multi-robot systems and applications which allows for i) more versatility by using the same robots for different observation and intervention tasks, in different missions, throughout the crop life cycle, ii) more cooperation between heterogeneous (ground and aerial) robots to accomplish more complex missions; iii) more valuable data to generate accurate insights into the fields, crops and robotics operations by combining data from IoT sensors, satellites and data collected by the robots; iv) more autonomy for real-time adaptation of mission plans as well as robot behaviour at the crop level, given operational conditions and real-time insights; v) more precision to carry out specific tasks in a very localized way, gaining accuracy and lowering costs.


NACIONALINIS MAISTO IR VETERINARIJOS RIZIKOS VERTINIMO INSTITUTAS

A safe DIVA vaccine for African Swine Fever control and eradication

African Swine Fever (ASF) is one of the most important viral diseases affecting swine, with a serious socio-economic impact. It is present in more than 13 countries in Europe (10 in the EU), 28 sub-Saharan African countries, and 2 Asian countries, China and Mongolia. No vaccine is available and recent incursions in Europe and Asia are jeopardizing the pig industry worldwide. Control of ASF is based on early diagnosis and the implementation of strict sanitary measures. However, measures taken by affected countries have not been sufficient to stop spread.  The objective of VACDIVA is to solve the ASF problem in Europe and affected countries through innovation efforts. VACDIVA will provide (1) Three safe and effective pilot vaccines for wild boar and domestic pigs ready for registration; (2) validated companion DIVA tests and 3) cost-benefit and effective surveillance and control-vaccination strategies, with field trials in Lithuania and Kenia. Two world leader companies in vaccine production and ASF diagnostic kits will provide production of the new vaccines and DIVA tests. Epidemiological modelling of worldwide scenarios will be offered in a portfolio of services to help animal health authorities control and eradicate the disease. This project will provide policy makers valuable decision support tools to better prevent and control ASF.  VACDIVA counts with the expertise of two world ASF Reference Laboratories (OIE and FAO), the EU reference laboratory (EURL), six EU national Reference Laboratories (of 6 out of the 10 countries currently affected by ASF) and four prestigious ASF research institutions. Participation of Russian, Chinese and African laboratories will provide useful support, increasing acceptance of the vaccines. Active involvement of pig producers, agricultural associations and International agencies like FAO will enlarge the impact of communication, dissemination and training activities.


Improved Resilience and Sustainable Reconstruction of Cultural  Heritage Areas to cope with Climate Change and Other Hazards based on Innovative Algorithms and Modelling Tools

YADES aims to efficiently train a network of fellows on the field of the resilience of Cultural Heritage (CH) areas and historic cities against Climate Change (CC) and other types of hazards. Towards this direction, YADES aims to introduce a research framework for downscaling the created climate and atmospheric composition as well as associated risk maps down to the 1x1 km (historic area) scale, and specific damage functions for CH materials. Applying atmospheric modelling for specific CC scenarios at such refined spatial and time scales allows for an accurate quantitative and qualitative impact assessment of the estimated micro-climatic and atmospheric stressors. YADES will perform combined structural/geotechnical analysis of the CH sites and damage assessment under normal and changed conditions, based on the climatic zone, the micro-climate conditions, the petrographic and textural features of building materials, historic data for the structures, the effect of previous restoration processes and the environmental/physical characteristics of the surrounding environment. The data coming from installed monitoring system will be coupled with simulated data (under our cultural heritage resilience assessment platform-CHRAP) and will be further analysed through our data management system, while supporting communities’ participation and public awareness. The data from the monitoring system will feed the DSS so as to provide proper adaptation and mitigation strategies. The produced vulnerability map will be used by the local authorities to assess the threats of CC (and other natural hazards), visualize the built heritage and cultural landscape under future climate scenarios, model the effects of different adaptation strategies, and ultimately prioritize any rehabilitation actions to best allocate funds in both pre- and post-event environments. To train the fellows, the project will make use of extensive workshop and training sessions, as well organise summer schools.