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| ,rcn,language,title,teaser,summary,workPerformed,finalResults,lastUpdateDate,country,projectID,projectAcronym,programme,topics,url | |
| 9073,186435,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PANIPLAST (Industrial Development of PANIPLAST Process Poly(aniline) Conductive Polymers),"Polyaniline has historically been one of the most promising conductive polymers from a cost/performance perspective, but processing issues have limited its uptake. Building upon seminal work on polyaniline performed at the CEA, RESCOLL (an independent research company based in...","Polyaniline has historically been one of the most promising conductive polymers from a cost/performance perspective, but processing issues have limited its uptake. Building upon seminal work on polyaniline performed at the CEA, RESCOLL (an independent research company based in France specialized in chemistry materials) has developed and patented a new electrically conductive polyaniline formulation under the trade name of PANIPLAST™. | |
| PANIPLAST polymers are safe-by-design, REACh compliant, low cost, easily produced materials which can be used to produce highly concentrated dispersions which exhibit very high electrical conductivities and improved stability. | |
| The unique and versatile nature of PANIPLAST technology opens up new opportunities to create a vast range of products based upon its excellent electrical conductivity such as conductive resins, conductive coatings, ultrathin films, inks etc. | |
| PANIPLAST is a material with great market potential and is an innovative response to many market needs for which there is no commercial solution available today for cost or performance reasons. | |
| Sensing a significant market interest, and that end-users are prepared to integrate technology into their products, RESCOLL purchased STILZ Chimie in 2015, a producer of paint and ink formulations, in order to acquire pilot and industrial scale production capability. | |
| The challenge is now to transfer the technology at the industrial scale in order to bridge the performance capabilities and cost of PANIPLAST conductive polymers with the increasing market demand for conductive materials.","The feasibility study performed in the frame of the Phase 1 SME Instrument allowed to demonstrate the economic viability of the PANIPLAST technology and strong market perspectives. We undertook a thorough analysis of the market opportunities and realities for PANIPLAST products, investigated several market segments and finally prioritized them as a function of their attractiveness and of the competitive advantages offered by PANIPLAST to build an ambitious but realistic commercialisation roadmap. | |
| It is estimated that a commercial readiness level (CRL) of 5 was achieved thanks to the Phase 1. | |
| Conditions and strategy for reaching the target markets were investigated; an initial assessment and quantification of the resources to be committed for accessing the market and undertaking market replication demonstrations was also carried out. | |
| Last but not least, contacts with several industrial players convinced of the added value of PANIPLAST solutions and ready to behave as pilot customers / partners for testing PANIPLAST products in a real life environment were also secured.","Based on this study, it is expected that in the four years following the Phase 2 project, STILZ Chimie will achieve an annual turnover of 12.24 M€ across the combined markets of construction, wind power, and composites, reaching annual production volumes of 275 tons of PANIPLAST polymers and formulated products.",2018-08-24 11:56:13,,683373,PANIPLAST,H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.2.1.2.,NMP-25-2015-1,http://www.stilz-chimie.com | |
| 8224,203368,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - X5 bitworker (X5 bitworker - The Copying System for the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0),"Problem/issue: Increasing digitalisation enables the settling of new features, the satisfying of (individual) customer needs (mass customisation) and competitive advantages provided by the integrated software. But it demands solutions for challenges like security issues...","Problem/issue: Increasing digitalisation enables the settling of new features, the satisfying of (individual) customer needs (mass customisation) and competitive advantages provided by the integrated software. But it demands solutions for challenges like security issues, remote support over the product life cycle, updates and upgrades of the products. Resulting of the trends towards Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things (IoT) and the increased importance of software, production companies need error free and secure recording processes to integrate software and data carriers into the final product. They further need to protect their software against data theft, industrial spy or hacking attacks throughout the whole life cycle of the product. | |
| Importance for society: It was proven that Internet-connected cars can be compromised, as well. That hackers can carry out any number of malicious activities, including taking control of the entertainment system, unlocking the doors or even shutting down the car in motion. Machinery only provides faulty operation, but the source of error cannot be identified and the machine owner finally has to give up, maybe even sell the whole company to a competitor. Manipulation, reproduction, misuse of remote support or unintentional access of the customer not only cause fault but may turn into threats to existence for the producing company. Security strategies that consider the production lines as well as the whole life cycle of products over long term periods are needed. | |
| Overall objective: X-Net Technology GmbH has developed X5 bitworker (X5) as a solution for secure, simple and error-free recording of customised mass data in form of 1:1 copies to assemble data carrier containing individual data into the products and to enable unique encryption during just-in-time production and over the whole product life cycle. X5 is therefore dedicated to protect software of products and know how of companies producing this software and to secure the production of data carrier containing these software components. Further on, X5 is designed to handle the complex requirements of producing companies and considers secured communication, authentication and encryption. Combination of software and hardware components allow individualisation of security strategies and enable the production of 1:1 copies in-line or outsourced to third party manufacturers and the integration of secure life cycle management strategies.","Potential partner companies for distribution and support of X5 were identified in the industrial sectors manufacturer of data carrier and microcontroller and provider of on demand solutions. As know how of the market, of processes in industrial environments and of IT security are necessary and integrations of solutions have to be realised, provider of on demand solutions were contacted first. Initial negotiations took place to proof potential collaboration and a first project was identified. Further preparation is ongoing to fix this strategic cooperation for distribution and support of X5. | |
| Economic viability was assessed through several activities: In a workshop, the strategic business fields were defined. Further on, the most relevant countries were segmented by means of 5 forces Porter analysis. According to the relevant company size, a desktop research was executed to rate and prove the identified branches and countries. Using Canvas Business Model, value proposition, customer segments and channels were identified as basis for further sales planing and to identify communication models and key partners. SWOT and competitor analysis were executed. As a result, the initial market entry, the distribution channels, the communications strategy including market awareness and the schedule for a roll-out according to the waterfall strategy were defined. A detailed sales and operations plan points out expectable revenues as well as needed skills and resources for fast market uptake. | |
| In the marketing and sales strategy, measures to reach full commercialisation were identified. Speeches held at federation of industries, cluster initiatives and networks helped to identify requirements and to support dissemination and exploitation of X5. X5 solutions will be presented at platforms, conferences and trade fairs dealing with IT security, Industry 4.0 and IoT and automation of production. The communication strategy will focus on security for producing companies. | |
| Within the sales planning the technological feasibility of concept was proven. The waterfall strategy for market entry was favoured over sprinkler strategy, as this enables an optimally adapted communication strategy and a standardised approach towards potential customers. Further on, growth can be handled easier as staff is continuously built up. Production and inventory strategies were achieved. | |
| The result of the performed work is a feasibility report including a business plan, which is available on the project website of X5 bitworker.","The core purpose of X5 is to provide solutions for secure, simple and error-free recording of customised mass data in form of 1:1 copies to assemble data carrier containing individual data into the products and to enable unique encryption and just in time production. During the work performed, this purpose turned out to be highly relevant for security in Industry of Things (IoT), meaning the product itself as well as the recording of the software needed for each product. Even though IoT products require security considerations, available solutions mainly consider single points of view. Encryption is e.g. standardised for a charge of products – if one gets hacked, all other products of the same charge can easily be accessed and rebuilt, too. At the same time, management fears high costs and changes of production when extensive security applications have to be installed and argues that others also use the same methods and are as insecure as the own products. They disregard that the integration of software affects not only the data itself but also the product and the production. A well-thought-out strategy for integrating data carrier in the product is needed that enables additional functionalities like the provision of product features enabled during the life cycle of the product. | |
| X5 not only enables unique encryption for each software part of a product through the automated execution of 1:1 copies integrated in production lines. It also provides added value through protected communication and data transfer from data sources to X5 and further on to flash media. The integration of authentication scenarios for safe and unambiguous assignment affects the communication of user with a device as well as machine-to-machine communication. Open source tools for encryption and standard cryptographic algorithms are used and give necessary transparency in the functionality. Combinations of software encryption with hardware characteristics avoid copying of contents. Commandeering a large number of internet-connected devices to serve as helpers for attacks are excluded as each device would have to be hacked separately. Individual components and the necessary key to decrypt during life span of the product are developed by product owner themselves. API security is essential for protecting the integrity of data transition between devices and back-end systems to ensure that only authorised devices, developers and applications are communicating with these APIs.",2018-08-28 17:16:17,,745114,X5 bitworker,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-01-2016-2017,https://www.x-net.at/explore-en/x5-bitworker | |
| 2318,251560,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INTEND (INtentify future Transport rEsearch NeeDs),"At a time of public budget constraints, major demographic changes and increasing global competition, Europe's competitiveness, the capacity to create millions of new jobs to replace those lost during the current economic and financial crisis and, overall, maintain our future...","At a time of public budget constraints, major demographic changes and increasing global competition, Europe's competitiveness, the capacity to create millions of new jobs to replace those lost during the current economic and financial crisis and, overall, maintain our future standard of living, depends on our ability to drive innovation. This is why innovation has been placed at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy. | |
| INTEND delivers an elaborated study of the research needs and priorities in the transport sector utilising a systematic data collection method. The overall objectives of INTEND are: | |
| - Define the transport research landscape | |
| - Define the Megatrends and their impact on research needs | |
| - To identify the main transport research needs and priorities","The conceptual path that INTEND followed, is divided in three stages based on the three main objectives of the project. | |
| Stage 1- Research and Analysis: Definition of the Landscape | |
| During the first stage of the project, a thorough investigation was conducted of studies produced at a European and international level which provided a comprehensive analysis of the knowledge produced with a focus on technological advances, political imperatives, future transport concepts and Megatrends | |
| The research on technological advances focused on European and International literature. 388 reports were analysed | |
| In the road transport sector, it has been identified that the most dominant technologies in terms of research were: electric and hybrid vehicles; autonomous vehicles; materials development; internal combustion engine design; alternative fuels and refuelling infrastructure; ADAS; CAE; Fuel cell vehicles; electric motor design and battery development. For the aviation sector aircraft design has been identified as the most dominant topic, with engine design and CAE in second place. Air traffic management, materials development and hybrid & electric propulsion ranked right below, while noise modelling and mitigation, alternative fuels and manufacturing processes were also technologies that will enable the sector. For the rail transport mode the most cited technology themes were satellite technologies and their integration with ERTMS and ETCS. Wagon design, non-destructive testing for infrastructure, CAE and future rail station design, including noise monitoring and mitigation solutions were all dominant themes. Finally, for the maritime transport mode the most dominant identified themes were electrified vessels followed by CAE, alternative fuels, multi-engine fuels, ship design, secondary energy converters and integrated emissions control. Autonomous ships and sensor technologies were also identified as potential future technologies for implementation | |
| To identify the transport concepts of the future, a literature review was conducted; 41 reports were analysed. The research revealed that the most dominant passenger transport-applicable concepts of the future were the following: automation, shared mobility, on-demand mobility, MaaS, electrification, seamless transport chains, personal air transportation, smart use of travel time, high-speed rail, superfast ground and underground transportation | |
| For freight transport: freight as a service – FaaS, seamless transport chains, automation, electrification , delivery drones, superfast ground and underground transport, freight consolidation hubs. | |
| The political imperatives were identified using a literature review of more than 130 European and International imperatives supported by the Altas.it software. Imperatives that, among other aspects, directly or indirectly have goals of reducing GHG emissions by supporting modal shift, substituting the source of energy (EV’s, alternative fuels) or using existing infrastructure more efficiently are in the majority. | |
| Finally, the identification process of Megatrends based on literature review revealed that the following four megatrends can be considered as the key among both groups of reviewed sources (transport-related and general foresight studies): | |
| • ageing society | |
| • environmental challenges | |
| • key resource scarcity | |
| • urbanization and megacities | |
| Stage 2- Validation and Analysis: Understanding the conditions | |
| Validation was carried out through the application of the Analytic network process (ANP). Experts from academia, policy-makers, and industry, were invited to participate in a survey session and ninety responses were received. | |
| The results of the Megatrends validation and their effect in the passenger transport have shown that for all interest groups the key Megatrends are 'Changing lifestyle' and 'Environmental challenges - climate changes', and then 'Energy demand and sources', 'Urbanization and Megacities' and 'Ageing society'. | |
| Fo","INTEND impacted on improving the competitiveness of the European transport sector. The project's main areas of impact are the following: | |
| -Provided a comprehensive picture and integrated analysis of existing forward-looking knowledge in the transport sector | |
| -Provided input for the elaboration of a transport research agenda in the medium term | |
| -Enhanced the competitiveness of the European transport sector & to help achieve the EU policy goals | |
| Furthermore, INTEND has a greater impact on the society as well: | |
| -Achieve a better society: Research gaps and underrepresented fields beyond the mainstream and research institutions perspective were identified. Thus, society benefits from at least partially shifting the focus from path dependant research traditions towards real world and societal problems. | |
| - Improved research capacities: INTEND identified new research opportunities in less considered fields of R&D which can lead not only to an increase of research activities but also a shift within the research fields. This will lead to new opportunities and allow a strengthening and expansion of research capacities within the economy and research institutions. | |
| -Improved industrial performance: The project provides new insights and knowledge for industry allowing for both identification of new business opportunities and focussing of innovation activities into promising fields. | |
| -Improved policy: INTEND results revealed both research needs continuing the solid European basis of research in the transportation fields as well as revealing new opportunities in research which can strengthen both society and the economy by providing valuable input for policy strategies and measures",2019-04-09 20:26:26,,769638,INTEND,H2020-EU.3.4.,MG-8-7-2017,http://www.intend-project.eu | |
| 5580,247827,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECOBREW (New eco-efficient and healthy professional espresso coffee machine),"Espresso coffee has always been closely associated with social culture and fashion in Europe, and one of the fastest growth segments in this market is the gourmet coffee shop market. Consumers are increasingly returning to drink coffee as a social activity. There is a growing...","Espresso coffee has always been closely associated with social culture and fashion in Europe, and one of the fastest growth segments in this market is the gourmet coffee shop market. | |
| Consumers are increasingly returning to drink coffee as a social activity. There is a growing number of coffee connoisseurs willing to pay a premium for coffee that is not only of high quality, but has also been professionally prepared and sourced in an environmentally and socially responsible way. However, current professional espresso coffee machines do not match this demand, as they are based on technologies that have barely evolved in 100 years. These machines are extremely energy inefficient whilst also, due to the materials used internally in the machine, generate unhealthy metal impurities which are then passed to the customer in the drink. This creates an anomaly, and IBERITAL has acknowledged the opportunity to move into this niche. | |
| The general objectives of the ECOBREW action were: | |
| i) to study the technical feasibility of the proposed solution, namely, a new professional espresso coffee machine fit for with two main requirements: low energy consumption and reduction of heavy metals passed to the coffee; | |
| ii) to analyze the business feasibility of the new product, by conducting a market research and drawing up a business plan based upon the production requirements and market evidence collected.","IBERITAL has accomplished the following activities: | |
| 1) Technical testing. A preliminary series of tests and analyses have proven the technical viability of the proposed solution, namely, that energy savings and heavy metal passed to the drink can be achieved through suitable machine configurations. The tests have also suggested further issues that need to be addressed in Phase 2, regarding e.g. stress tests with new materials, production engineering, upscaling and final user testing. | |
| 2) Market research and cool hunting forecasting have shown that ECOBREW delivers a value proposition that matches clear market trends that are expected to spread over the next years. The research also revealed that more technical, ergonomic and aesthetic features need to be included in the new machine, in accordance with what the target market is demanding. The market analysis, including stakeholders, distribution channels and marketing strategy has helped to learn about the market, the product definition and positioning, and the marketing strategy that needs to be developed for the product launch and promotion. Investment in marketing actions in Phases 2 and 3 will be key to a successful and quick uptake of the product. | |
| 3) The business plan is based on a conservative approach in terms of sales forecasts and cost assessment. The plan draws up a profit and loss statement for 5 years that evidences the economical feasibility of the new product.","""IBERITAL expects to launch the new healthy and eco-friendly ECOBREW espresso coffee machine into the premium market segment within 18 months. The marketing positioning for the launch will be based on a """"more value for a bit more"""" approach. The market research has evidenced that ECOBREW bridges a clear market gap with an unmet value proposition. | |
| IBERITAL plans to carry out the R&D to accomplish a final product that can be produced at IBERITAL's new factory in Barcelona. | |
| """,2019-02-14 12:22:34,,651039,ECOBREW,H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.3.2.,SFS-08-2014-1,http://www.iberital.com/ | |
| 6227,242620,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PLEIADES (Project to Lead Ecodesign Integration with Aerospace Development and Engineering Systems),"The primary industrial objective of the PLEIADES project is to enable an integrated approach for the eco-design of aerospace products.• Combining engineering, environmental, sustainability, and business considerations, particularly through the linking role of materials and...","The primary industrial objective of the PLEIADES project is to enable an integrated approach for the eco-design of aerospace products. | |
| • Combining engineering, environmental, sustainability, and business considerations, particularly through the linking role of materials and processes. | |
| • Integration and use of available primary and secondary data throughout the process. | |
| • Better consistency, interoperability, and understanding of uncertainty across different levels of LCA. | |
| • Integrating with engineering workflows to enable practical eco-design. | |
| A second objective is to enable Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to provide more useful input and guidance to the product development process. This includes using LCA to reduce uncertainties in early-stage eco design as well as to improve compliance with certain reporting requirements. A prerequisite for using LCA in this way is to improve its inter-operability with the development process. Therefore, PLEIADES will systematically remove the main barriers for cost-effective use of Full LCA in the product development process. | |
| The PLEIADES project directly addresses Topic JTI-CS2-2015-CFP02-ENG-03-01 ‘Industry focused eco-design’ which sits within the Engines ITD, with Rolls-Royce PLC as a key stakeholder in the project. The call topic specifically addresses the requirement for industry focused eco-design tools to enable the evaluation of the environmental and sustainability impacts of a product during its design. The delivery of industry focused software tools, knowledge infrastructures and workflows needed for industrial eco-design is the explicit focus of the PLEIADES project. | |
| The project sits at the intersection of the Engines ITD and the Eco-Design TA of the Clean Sky 2 Joint Technical Programme where eco-design activities are coordinated in order to create additional benefit for the Programme through increased coherence, common tools and methods as well as shared know-how for the life cycle optimization of technologies, components and vehicles. | |
| The project will create entirely new tools and data structures, building upon the existing commercially available solutions of the partners to deliver a more advanced eco-design capability for the aerospace sector to support the longer-term objectives of Rolls-Royce, ACARE, the Clean Sky 2 JTI and its stakeholders.","The project successfully completed Requirements Capture and Methodology Development stages and delivered the first working demonstrators. | |
| The work performed allowed the partners to participate at the following international events: | |
| - SETAC Europe, Brussels, 7th May 2017 | |
| - ISIE Conference, Chicago, 25th June 2017 | |
| - Life Cycle Management 2017, Brussels, 3rd-6th September 2017 | |
| - Aerotech Congress and Exhibition, Fort Worth, 26th-28th September 2017 | |
| - AIRTEC International Congress, Munich, 24th-26th October 2017 | |
| - 25th CIRP Conference, 30th April – 2nd May 2017, Copenhagen | |
| The outcome of the first 18 months can be summarized as follows: | |
| • Analysis of the requirements for generating and improving existing tools for eco-design and Full LCA to better fit aerospace industrial design workflows. A series of interviews and workshops with Rolls-Royce stakeholders assisted the identification and definition of the main actors of the design process, the data sources used and their current status of knowledge. This was instrumental for outlining the requirements for the subsequent methodology and software development; | |
| • The methods, data exchange and the assessment of uncertainty from data sources were investigated in via the creation of several case studies aiming at challenging the industrial stakeholders, providing insights into the real day-to-day activities that can effectively influence design decisions. In this context the data requirement definition to support the eco design was also finalized. Outcomes were translated into requirements to support software development in the ongoing tasks. | |
| • Software components for Demonstrator 1 were delivered incorporating proprietary data gathered from Rolls-Royce. A core focus of the demonstrator was the incorporation complex data structures representative of the manufacturing complexity observed in aerospace manufacturing and the support of supplier data. These will form an integral component of future demonstrators within the project. | |
| • “LCA on demand” capabilities, and the data transfer mechanisms between Granta Eco-design tools and Thinkstep Full LCA tools were explored and mechanisms agreed. Process and product model databases were also developed for specific case studies relevant to the project and will be expanded as the project progresses. | |
| • The consortium was active in the communication and exploitation activities, participating in 6 international conferences, 1 full scientific paper has been accepted for publication. The project outputs were also translated in a series of IPs as recorded in the dedicated register. These consist of a series of data schemas, exchange tools, sustainability and uncertainty assessment methodologies that will be exploited by the partners during the continuation of the project.","PLEIADES is working towards two main objectives, that are: | |
| • To enable an integrated approach to the industry focused eco-design of aerospace products as part of existing engineering development workflows. | |
| • To bridge the current disconnect between the tools used for eco-design and for extensive LCA. | |
| The project has delivered the first demonstrator showing prototype of tools, data schema and data exchange workflows to fulfil these objectives. The user stories, data structures and methodologies developed in the project will be delivered via demonstrator components: | |
| • Data importers and schema to manage supplier data according to the IPC1754 Standard. | |
| • Management of reference data for the early design stages assessing the uncertainty of the reference information at material selection phase. | |
| • Connecting eco-design to Full LCA data modules and tools via dedicated data export to trigger LCA on demand and Full LCA solutions. | |
| • Creation of a reference framework of solutions based on the existing industrial workflows and communication data systems. | |
| By the end of the project we expect to have developed a suite of demonstrator tools for industry focussed eco-design, including: | |
| • Combining engineering, environmental, sustainability, and business considerations, particularly through the linking role of materials and processes. | |
| • Integration and use of available primary and secondary data throughout the process. | |
| • Better consistency, interoperability, and understanding of uncertainty across different levels of LCA. | |
| • Integrating with engineering workflows to enable practical eco-design. | |
| We also expect to be able to demonstrate the effective removal of barriers to the use of Full LCA in the early design stages of product development through enhanced interoperability and data exchange between Granta and Thinkstep tools.",2018-11-30 09:44:59,,715775,PLEIADES,H2020-EU.3.4.5.5.,JTI-CS2-2015-CFP02-ENG-03-01,http://www.pleiades-cleansky.eu/ | |
| 7228,226985,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INCIPIT (INnovative Life sCIence Phd Programme in South ITaly),"The INCIPIT CO-FUND project aims to provide an innovative, multidisciplinary and intersectoral training in the field of Life and Biomaterial Sciences for Early Stage Researchers (ESR) and create a node of excellence in the South of Italy by pooling the different and...","The INCIPIT CO-FUND project aims to provide an innovative, multidisciplinary and intersectoral training in the field of Life and Biomaterial Sciences for Early Stage Researchers (ESR) and create a node of excellence in the South of Italy by pooling the different and complementary expertise of 8 research institutes of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), as well as the competencies of 3 Doctoral Schools and several academic, non-profit and industrial Organizations. | |
| The project deals with societal challenges related to health, which are a high priority for Europe 2020: cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, both being a strong burden for public health. In addition, INCIPIT addresses issues such as how to manage, integrate and analyse a considerable number of data resulting from high throughput analyses, including results from genetic and epigenetic studies, which are of growing importance and interest for science and for the benefit of its results on society. | |
| INCIPIT envisages the recruitment of 35 PhD students through transparent and equitable selection procedures, based on merit and equal opportunities. The calls are open to applicants from everywhere in the world. This contributes to create for the INCIPIT PhD students an international context and strengthen science diplomacy. On the other side, it provides critical mass and give an additional boost to the much-needed internationalization of the PhD research programmes in the South of Italy. | |
| The participation of different research institutes of CNR (IAC, IBB, IBP, ICAR, ICB, IEOS, IGB, IPCB), with different and complementary expertise (ranging from biology and genetics to mathematics, statistics, engineering, computer science, chemistry and medicine and offering well-equipped laboratories and cutting-edge technologies) ensures to the fellows the intersectoral exposure and the interdisciplinarity research options. The participation of private industries in some of the PhD activities and the specific training on transferable skills favour the strengthening of Academia-Industry links while providing the PhD students with tools useful to their employment/career and to the socio-economic growth of countries.","According to the INCIPIT programme, the following main activities have been carried out: a) Management of the programme; b) Launch of the Calls and Evaluation and Selection of PhD students; b) Implementation of training activities and research projects; c) Dissemination of the project opportunities and first project results. | |
| With reference to the first points, the MAC (Management Committee) and the SB (Supervisory Board) have been established. | |
| MAC ensured the launch of 35 calls dealing with: Structural Biology and Biocatalysis, Human disease and their mechanisms; Drugs design, discovering and delivery; Computational biology, Regenerative medicine and stem cell biology, Cancer treatment; Metabolism and inflammation. For each call one or two supervisors have been assigned. | |
| MAC acted as Help-desk, providing applicants with continuous support and information. | |
| For each call, a Scientific and Evaluation Committee has been set up. With the first round of calls, 314 applications were received by the MAC. The candidates came from 44 different Countries. At the end of the evaluation process, 14 PhD fellowships have been assigned with contracts starting from the 1st of November or the 1st of December 2016. | |
| With the second round of calls, 571 applications were received by the MAC. The candidates came from 53 different Countries. At the end of the evaluation process, 14 PhD fellowships have been assigned with contracts starting from the 1st of November 2017. | |
| Four candidates did not accept the position. MAC had the opportunity to replace only one of these fellows. | |
| Therefore, at the end of December 2017, INCIPIT had 28 fellows contractualized (9 from India, 2 from Portugal, 3 from Spain, 2 from Polland, 2 from Egypt, 2 from Iran, 1 from Mexico, 1 from Republic of China, 1 from Somalia, 1 from Cyprus, 1 from UK, 1 from Lebanon, 1 from Italy, 1 from France) with 61% of women and other 4 candidates to be contractualized at the beginning of the year 2018. PhD fellows contributed to increase international research activities in the South of Italy: their demand of internationalisation had a positive impact on the environment and the working team of the Host Institutes. On the other side, the Fellows declared to achieve the following first results: the possibility to experience intersectoral research team work, acquire a better approach towards scientific thinking, be involved in the publication of scientific papers and in project proposal drafting, attend international conferences and congresses useful for their career. | |
| MAC ensured the day-to-day management, including the recruitment of ESR and their enrolment into the PhD Doctoral Schools, the organization of their secondment, the submission of the Deliverables envisaged for the period, the reporting of the fellows data on the EC portal, the training on transferable skills (“How to write for biomedical journals and how to present scientific data”, 10.04.2017; “Management and Leadership for Young Scientists”, 18-19.07.2017), the training on “Animal experiments: Regulatory framework, ethical issues and 3Rs principle application” and the regular implementation of the theoretical courses run by Universities Doctoral Schools as well as the laboratory activities envisaged in the frame of the doctoral research projects. | |
| Apart the above mentioned training courses, ESR had the opportunity to work in team on specific research projects and attend training courses related to the main subject of their research. Moreover, they attended congresses (i.e. ABCD congress 2017, 59th Congress of the Italian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), summer schools (as 7th Neuron Technology SS). The first experiences and results have been drafted by the Fellows appointed with 2016 calls in occasion of the Mid-Term Meeting. A similar initiative will be done in 2018 for the Fellows appointed with 2017 calls. | |
| The calls and the aims of the project were disseminated through the INCIPIT web si","PhD fellows contributed to increase international research activities in the South of Italy: their demand of internationalization had a positive impact on the environment and the working team of the Host Institutes. On the other side, the Fellows declared to achieve the following first results: the possibility to experience intersectoral research team work, acquire a better approach towards scientific thinking, be involved in the publication of scientific papers and in project proposal drafting, attend international conferences and congresses useful for their career. | |
| The expected results and the potential impact on society are the following: contributing to research excellence; improving internationalization of research and of doctorate training programme; enhance research careers, by providing the PhD fellows with opportunities of research in Italy and abroad; contributing to socio-economic growth by investing on R&I dealing with global issues; increasing opportunities of employment and/or entrepreneurship; favouring science diplomacy.",2018-09-06 11:34:55,,665403,INCIPIT,H2020-EU.1.3.4.,MSCA-COFUND-2014-DP,http://www.igb.cnr.it/incipit | |
| 5665,247910,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CroDS (PiggyBaggy – the Uber of parcel delivery),"The feasibility study was started to test the PiggyBaggy crowdsourced delivery solution for home deliveries with a grocery retailer, a postal company, and a public library. The objectives were to identify a business model and technology features of a commercial solution...","The feasibility study was started to test the PiggyBaggy crowdsourced delivery solution for home deliveries with a grocery retailer, a postal company, and a public library. The objectives were to identify a business model and technology features of a commercial solution suitable for these partners in Finland and in Europe.","During the project, various challenges were discovered that prevented the joint development of the solution with the targeted partners. The reasons were mostly organization internal processes that were not designed for bringing unconventional external innovations to the corporations or the public sector. | |
| The challenges were addressed by starting collaborations with alternative partners in the retail and logistics sectors, directly with user communities, and with key public authorities. The negotiations and testing validated multiple user experience and business assumptions. The collaborations with public authorities identified a roadmap for achieving concrete public sector support for crowdsourced deliveries. The market study identified the accessible market for the solution and the key differentiation of the solution in the crowdsourced delivery space. | |
| The study identified adjustments in the approach required to develop the solution with the retail, logistics and public sector partners. It demonstrated the flexibility of the technical platform and the capability to rapidly change the service in response to user testing. It supported service differentiation and networking with a diverse group of stakeholders. | |
| The conclusion is to continue the development of the PiggyBaggy crowdsourced delivery solution. The basic concept is feasible in the light of the study findings and industry discussions, and has not been developed elsewhere. The development will opportunistically target business cases with progressive organizations committing to integrated end-to-end user experience. At the same time the maturity of a more generic solution is evolved in order to quickly target new collaboration opportunities with organizations reacting to the rapidly transforming market.","The targeted eventual impact continues to be the improvement of the transport system, consumer transport service availability, and the efficiency of the operations of larger partners in the retail, logistics and public sectors. However, based on the results of the study, these impacts are slower to achieve because of the organizational inertia of the partners.",2019-02-14 12:26:20,,652511,CroDS,H2020-EU.3.4.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,IT-1-2014-1,http://www.piggybaggy.com/en/ | |
| 620,198469,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - XCYCLE (Advanced measures to reduce cyclists' fatalities and increase comfort in the interaction with motorised vehicles),Cyclists are considered vulnerable road users because the human body is fragile and lacks protection in case of a crash. Despite the improvement in road safety in recent years they still suffer a disproportionate share of serious injuries and fatalities. According to the...,"Cyclists are considered vulnerable road users because the human body is fragile and lacks protection in case of a crash. Despite the improvement in road safety in recent years they still suffer a disproportionate share of serious injuries and fatalities. According to the European Commission in Europe 2,134 people riding bicycles were killed in traffic accidents in 2012 and this trend is slightly increasing in the last two years (2,027 fatalities in 2011, 2,043 fatalities in 2010). The most fatal crash type is a collision with a motorized vehicle. | |
| The main aim of XCYCLE is to deliver advanced technological systems, conceived to make a substantial improvement in cyclist safety in urban traffic, particularly in the interaction with passenger cars and heavy goods vehicles, thereby reducing the vulnerability of bicycle riders to serious and fatal injuries. XCYCLE systems are also intended to deliver a substantial enhancement in cyclist comfort by improving traffic signal responsiveness. XCYCLE will deliver the means to equalise the treatment of cyclists in traffic and thus to encourage cycling and to make cycling safer. The effectiveness of the developed systems will be tested in real-life conditions.","(WP2) We conducted an overview of accidents between motorized vehicles and bicycles, considering how specific these are for ten European countries, and an overview of the state-of-the-art technologies and available systems. In the first part, data for bicycle crashes were drawn from national and governmental databases, also identifying factors contributing to bicycle-motorized vehicle collisions through a systematic literature review. The scenarios, manoeuvres, and contributing factors identified as more relevant will serve as an input for truck simulations when testing human-machine interfaces within the project. | |
| (WP3) In-Vehicle and On-bike systems. The project partners worked to deploy and test both the in-vehicle and the on-bike safety systems. The in-vehicle cyclists detection system functions with satisfactory accuracy and covers adequate range. Results of laboratory evaluations of HMIs have identified warning modes that show improved fluidity of truck movement through the intersection and more frequent manoeuvres aimed at avoidance of collisions with cyclists. Also, the HMIs were perceived as acceptable and useful for the real-world traffic situations by the truck drivers. Tracking system performance and impact of HMIs on the cyclists’ behaviour was assessed in a field test with experimental design. Localization error was within acceptable limits, cyclists demonstrated safer behaviour in traffic and expressed acceptance of the system. Furthermore, integration of bike tag within the green wave system was tested. Results show satisfactory speed estimation errors, this shows that the bike tag can be used for green wave applications. | |
| (WP4) Infrastructure-based situation and threat assessment. The Traffic Control algorithm developed for Green wave system (developed and initially tested in simulation study in the first reporting period) was evaluated in virtual environment which simulated the field trial intersection in Groningen, the Netherlands, and included elements specific for this intersection (i. e. bus priority, pedestrian movement, and different sensor fields). Then the algorithm was presented to the local road operator, who granted permissions for field testing. | |
| (WP5) Integration, implementation and verification. Infrastructure-based system was successfully interfaced with SA/RA (Situation Assessment/Risk Assessment) algorithms and transmission of simulated messages between SA/RA and the in-vehicle system was verified. In-vehicle sensor system was equipped with a newly developed object detection sensor model replicating the right turn at the testing intersection in Braunschweig, Germany. The message transmission between this sensor system and the infrastructure system was simulated. Also, the in-vehicle system was tested in virtual environment, its HMI developed according to the HMI strategy described in D3.3 and assessed by truck drivers and HMI experts. The hardware of this system was then installed in a VOLVO FH truck. Integration of message transmission between the in-vehicle and infrastructure system was then completed. The Amber light hardware was successfully installed at the Braunschweig testing intersection as well and successfully integrated with systems on site. | |
| (WP6) Evaluation of the integration system. Two Willingness To Pay (WTP) studies were conducted for the on-bike system. Study 1 was carried out in Italy and revealed WTP by means of Contingent Valuation (CV) method in participants who have experienced the system. Study 2 used online questionnaire administered to 2417 participants in 6 EU countries and assessed WTP by means of both CV and Stated Preference (SP) methods. Data analysis is under way. Green wave system evaluation was done by means of a field study in which changes in cyclists’ behaviours were measured. On-bike system was studied in a semi-controlled field study in Braunschweig, Germany. Both video and trajectory data was colllected, as well as perceived safety and other subje","""XCYCLE will contribute to the promotion of cycling and will give particular attention to cyclists’ safety and comfort, developing safer infrastructure and advanced vehicle technologies. The crash costs of cycling are higher that than those of car driving while the total costs of cycling, including air pollution, traffic noise, and savings from reduced absence from work, are lower than those of driving a car. The expected impact of XCYCLE is to reduce the crash costs of cycling. On-bike, in-vehicle and infrastructure-based technology delivered within XCYCLE will help in reducing bicycle crashes in the interaction with motorized vehicles. Inattention, or failure to notice the cyclist, is a contributing factor frequently reported. XCYCLE will develop systems and technologies that can assist the driver or the cyclists to avoid collisions. XCYCLE will contribute to the Transport White Paper's """"Vision Zero"""" objectives because it will focus on vehicle-infrastructure interfaces and cooperative systems, paying attention to the specific needs of cyclists. The focus will be on provision of information to road users and improved detection of bicyclists.""",2019-04-25 16:43:19,,635975,XCYCLE,H2020-EU.3.4.,MG-3.4-2014,http://www.xcycle-h2020.eu/ | |
| 2931,263754,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MATERIALIZABLE (MATERIALIZABLE: Intelligent fabrication-oriented Computational Design and Modeling),"While access to 3D-printing technology becomes ubiquitous and provides revolutionary possibilities for fabricating complex, functional, multi-material objects with stunning properties, its potential impact is currently significantly limited due to the lack of efficient and...","While access to 3D-printing technology becomes ubiquitous and provides revolutionary possibilities for fabricating complex, functional, multi-material objects with stunning properties, its potential impact is currently significantly limited due to the lack of efficient and intuitive methods for content creation. Existing tools are usually restricted to expert users, have been developed based on the capabilities of traditional manufacturing processes, and do not sufficiently take fabrication constraints into account. Scientifically, we are facing the fundamental challenge that existing simulation techniques and design approaches for predicting the physical properties of materials and objects at the resolution of modern 3D printers are too slow and do not scale with increasing object complexity. The problem is extremely challenging because real world-materials exhibit extraordinary variety and complexity. | |
| To address these challenges, this project suggest a novel computational approach that facilitates intuitive design, accurate and fast simulation techniques, and a functional representation of 3D content. We propose a multi-scale representation of functional goals and hybrid models that describes the physical behavior at a coarse scale and the relationship to the underlying material composition at the resolution of the 3D printer. Our approach is to combine data-driven and physically-based modeling, providing both the required speed and accuracy through smart precomputations and tailored simulation techniques that operate on the data. Subsequently, we propose the fundamental re-thinking of the workflow, leading to solutions that allow synthesizing model instances optimized on-the-fly for a specific output device. The principal applicability will be evaluated for functional goals, such as appearance, deformation, and sensing capabilities. | |
| Linking computation, data, and new digital fabrication technologies may have as profound an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did. New theoretical insight and practical algorithms that extend the traditional content creation pipeline of computer graphics and computer-aided engineering will fundamentally change how functional objects are designed and personalized. Related areas such as robotics, industrial design, architecture, consumer goods creation, and bio printing will benefit because complex designs can be realized more quickly, more accurately, and in a way that was previously impossible. Due to this development, new business opportunities will evolve.","WP1) Modeling, simulation, and reproduction of appearance | |
| We made significant progress towards a computationally efficient model that allows us to simulate the appearance by taking into account lower-scale material phenomena. In contrast to pigment-based colors – where spectral components of incident light are absorbed by the pigment material – structural colorization arises from the interaction of light with micro- and nanostructures. Variations of the refractive index at the length scale of the light’s wavelength cause interference effects that lead to fascinating optical effects such as iridescence. Designing such colorization is challenging, however, since the wave nature of light has to be taken into account when simulating its interplay with nanostructures. Furthermore, realizing such structures requires elaborate methods from nanofabrication. Owning to these complications, linking computational methods and advanced manufacturing is essential for exploring structural colorization, but so far has received little attention from the scientific community. In the work of Auzinger et al. [2], we present a computational design tool for the creation of transparent nanostructures with feature sizes in the range of 100s of nm that realize simple colorization of light transmitted through them. The system is built around a full electromagnetic simulation of light in order to faithfully capture wave- and polarization-dependent effects that approximations to light transport cannot handle. We take fabrication constraints of multiphoton lithography into account to ensure the feasibility of fabricating the designs. | |
| On a larger scale, we also investigated the reproduction of colored textured objects using polyjet 3D printing technology. Color texture reproduction in 3D printing commonly ignores volumetric light transport (cross-talk) between surface points on a 3D print. Such light diffusion leads to significant blur of details and color bleeding, and is particularly severe for highly translucent resin-based print materials. In the work of Elek et al. [7], we counteract heterogeneous scattering to obtain the impression of a crisp albedo texture on top of the 3D print, by optimizing for a fully volumetric material distribution that preserves the target appearance. We evaluated our system using a commercial, five-tone 3D print process, demonstrating that our method preserves high-frequency features well without having to compromise on color gamut. | |
| WP2) Modeling, simulation, and reproduction of elastic behaviour | |
| Many functional objects in our everyday lives consist of elastic, deformable material, and the material properties are often inextricably linked to function. In this reporting period, we made important steps towards modeling systems for designing large, heterogeneous elastic objects with higher-level functional behavior. | |
| FlexMaps [1] is a novel framework we developed for fabricating smooth shapes out of flat, flexible panels with tailored mechanical properties. We start by mapping the 3D surface onto a 2D domain as in traditional UV mapping to design a set of deformable flat panels called FlexMaps. For these panels, we design and obtain specific mechanical properties such that, once they are assembled, the static equilibrium configuration matches the desired 3D shape. Closely connected to this work is self-actuated material and structure design. These types of structures are usually composed of an actuation mechanism and a deformation limiting mechanism that, when coupled together, produce the desired deformed shape. We have developed a computational approach for designing curvy shells that self-actuate from an initially flat state [9]. | |
| For reproducing digital objects, we developed a new technique through reusable elastic molds [4]. The molds are generated by casting liquid silicone into custom 3D printed containers called metamolds. Metamolds automatically define the cuts that are needed to extract the cast object fr","The main scientific result will be solid theoretical insights and novel algorithms that facilitate intelligent fabrication-oriented computational design and modeling. These will enable a new stage for functional digital content creation for 3D printers. The Materializable project will have significant impacts at several levels scientifically and economically. By closing the loop between the real and virtual world, we will be able to scientifically evaluate and improve the models that are currently used in simulation. This will lead to novel, accurate data-driven models that are applicable for analyzing, simulating, and solving various kinds of scientific and engineering problems, thereby having a wide scientific impact on the computer graphics community and beyond. Our theoretical insights and algorithmic foundations for representing functional models, design spaces, and the gamut of output devices will leverage the area of intuitive, functional content creation to a new stage, and we expect that the computer graphics, geometric modeling and processing, and science and engineering community will build future research on this fundament. By disseminating our results in an open-source framework, we will support the scientific and engineering community in this endeavor.",2019-04-01 15:12:13,,715767,MATERIALIZABLE,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-2016-STG,http://berndbickel.com/materializable | |
| 472,264297,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SURG-Africa (Scaling up Safe Surgery for District and Rural Populations in Africa),"Scaling up Safe Surgery for District and Rural Populations in Africa (SURG-Africa) is a 4 year implementation research project to scale up safe accessible surgery for district and rural populations in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. There is a huge need to improve surgical...","Scaling up Safe Surgery for District and Rural Populations in Africa (SURG-Africa) is a 4 year implementation research project to scale up safe accessible surgery for district and rural populations in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. There is a huge need to improve surgical services in rural Africa, where an estimated 95% of the population has no access to common general and life saving emergency surgery. | |
| SURG-Africa is testing a supervision model based on findings from an earlier EU FP7 funded study in Zambia and Malawi – COST-Africa 2011-16 (www.costafrica.eu). The model consists of in-service training and support to district hospital surgical teams through (a) periodic visits by surgical specialists to surgically active district hospitals; together with (b) mobile phone and online needs-based support of district surgical clinicians. | |
| The overall aim of SURG-Africa is: to implement surgical systems, that deliver safe, affordable and sustainable essential surgical services to rural populations in LMICs. The specific objectives are: | |
| 1. Strengthen national surgical systems to scale to national level, deliver – and monitor through a national surgical information system – emergency and common elective surgery in district hospitals in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia. | |
| 2. Train surgeon specialists to supervise, mentor and provide surgical systems in-service training – comprising clinical, management and systems skills – to district hospital staff. | |
| 3. Design and implement research studies, including observational, intervention and community studies, costing studies and economic analyses, to compare processes, outcomes, patient experiences, costs and cost-effectiveness of surgery between district and referral hospitals. | |
| 4. Design and implement participatory implementation research studies to identify and explore enablers and obstacles – at all levels, from community to national level – to accessing and delivering essential safe surgery at district hospitals. | |
| 5. Disseminate findings to national decision makers and support them in making policy decisions, including assessing budget impacts and appraising options for making safe surgery accessible. | |
| 6. Disseminate findings to seven countries in East Central and Southern Africa and support them in designing country-specific interventions for making safe surgery accessible. | |
| In the participating countries, SURG-Africa works under the guidance of the Ministries of Health in consultation with key local stakeholders such as professional associations and other groups supporting delivery of surgical services. A high level of support and engagement by national ministries of health has been achieved in the first 18 months of the study.","The work successfully undertaken in the first 18 months has enabled SURG-Africa to become recognised on the global arena of initiatives bringing innovative solutions to sub-Saharan Africa. SURG-Africa has precipitated a remarkably high level of interest and access to senior levels of the Ministry of Health (MoH), including meetings with Permanent Secretaries as well as national programme managers in all countries. In all countries the project fully align with strategic aims of local governments. SURG-Africa was successfully launched at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in March 2017. The event gathered representatives of the Tanzanian Ministry of Health, representatives of the local government, international experts in global surgery as well as all the members of the SURG-Africa consortium. The project was well endorsed by all key stakeholders and the full support for its aims was reconfirmed. | |
| In the initial implementation phase of the project an in-depth situation analysis was done in Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania converting 86 district level health facilities offering surgical care. As part of this research activity qualitative interviews and focus group discussion were held with key stakeholders in each of the countries. Initial mapping of surgical structures was also done by team researchers in each country. The findings of the in-depth situation analysis allowed to gain insight into the current obstacles and enablers to safe surgical care at all levels of care, with a particular focus on the situation at the district level. The findings guided the design of the country-specific, details SURG-Africa intervention. It became apparent that targeted interventions are needed in every country, because the challenges that SURG-Africa aims to address were not homogeneous. The supervision model has been designed taking into account local contexts and needs of individual hospitals participating in the study. Building on the initial concept to include general surgeons and anaesthesiologists in the core supervisory teams, the team has been extended to also include obstetricians and operating theatre nursing specialists. The situation analysis demonstrated a huge need to address gaps in basic maternal health surgical skills as well as in postoperative care of surgical patients. | |
| The final concept of the supervision and an action plan was presented to study participants, both the supervisors and the recipients of the intervention for final changes and approval. Extensive consultations with key stakeholders at all level resulted in adapting the final model of the intervention to the local contexts. Following that, the intervention was ready to kick-off. Starting from January 2018, it is now being tested in 31 district level hospitals in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania, with another 36 district level facilities monitored in terms of surgical outputs as control sites.","The project has been introduced to ministry officials in all three countries and received enthusiastic support. The importance of implementing continued supervision at district level has been quickly recognised by local authorities and the proposed model became one of the national priorities in Malawi and Zambia and Tanzania. The SURG-Africa proposed supervision model is perceived as one of the key elements needed in the national health service to allow access to quality-assured surgical services for rural and district populations. | |
| SURG-Africa with the its expertise and experience has contributed to important advances in the National Surgical, Obstetric and Anaesthesia plans in Zambia and Tanzania. The supervision model is included in both plans. These plans envisage a country-wide scale up of the SURG-Africa supervision model beyond the regions where the project operates in the forthcoming years. | |
| SURG-Africa supported the development of the Zambian surgical information system through providing technical expertise and resources to digitalise surgical data collection and implementation of quality control measures. | |
| Studies to estimate the costs of the evaluated supervision models at country level are ongoing and they will provide evidence to inform the budget allocations for scale up of the most cost-effective model. Fully evaluated and costed models will be presented to MsoH, and support will be offered them to roll out an agreed surgical supervision / mentoring model country-wide; and to consider how policy options can be sustained within available national budgets.",2019-04-25 14:52:06,,733391,SURG-Africa,H2020-EU.3.1.6.,SC1-PM-21-2016,http://www.surgafrica.eu | |
| 4096,193012,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RAIS (Scalable, point-of-care and label free microarray platform for rapid detection of Sepsis)","Sepsis is a potentially fatal whole-body inflammatory reaction caused by severe infection and, with a mortality of 35%, responsible for ∼20,000 deaths per day worldwide. The cost of Sepsis is high – and rising. In 2008, more than €10 billion was spent on hospitalizations...","Sepsis is a potentially fatal whole-body inflammatory reaction caused by severe infection and, with a mortality of 35%, responsible for ∼20,000 deaths per day worldwide. The cost of Sepsis is high – and rising. In 2008, more than €10 billion was spent on hospitalizations for Sepsis in Europe and the USA. Between 1997 and 2008, the total costs for treating patients hospitalized for Sepsis increased by an average of 11.9% per year, adjusted for inflation. The costs related to long-term damage resulting from Sepsis are unknown. In Germany, the cost of a typical episode of Sepsis has more than doubled over the past decade, from approximately €25,000 to €55,000 per patient, and the human cost of Sepsis is incalculable. | |
| Microarrays are a powerful set of technologies which are widely used for the detection of pathogenic micro-organisms, proteins and Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing, among others. Most commercial equipment relies on large readers (also called scanners) and labelled detection, whereas most of the advanced research-level portable and label-free designs suffer from one of more drawbacks, including insufficient sensitivity and specificity, high cost and sophisticated implementation and reduced scalability (number of spots). | |
| The overall objective of the RAIS project is to develop a new, point-of-care, label-free microarray platform based on a proprietary, interferometric, lens-less microscopy design and validate it for quantifying levels of specific Sepsis biomarkers within 30 minutes. The rapid detection of Sepsis, essential to increase the survival rate of the patient, is an ideal proof-of-concept to demonstrate the disruptive capability of the new proposed tool. However, it could also be extended to perform other types of disease screening or multiple simultaneous diagnoses, especially those requiring to rapidly screen a large number of biochemical targets on a single microarray. | |
| The specific objectives of the RAIS project include the development of: | |
| • An optical microarray reader, based on a novel design combining interferometric lens-free microscopy and proximity large-area charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensing, for high-throughput, label-free, rapid and sensitive detection of nucleic acids, proteins and pathogenic microorganisms. The proposed technology will have a small form factor and manufacturing cost less than €1000, very suitable for point-of-care applications. | |
| • A microarray plate consisting of a transparent slide with a novel nano-structured surface geometry to increase the optical interaction (i.e. detection sensitivity) and covered by specific receptors to capture the biomarkers. Once combined with the new reader, the engineered substrate will allow detection of biomarker levels of a few pg/mL, or even below. | |
| • A disposable cartridge combining the nano-structured microarray plate and microfluidics delivery, capable of detecting a number of Sepsis biomarkers using a few microliters of blood or serum samples. | |
| • The integration of the microarray reader and cartridge in a portable (point-of-care) instrument which can provide a result within 30 minutes, at a cost per patient of less than €50. | |
| The project also aims to assess the technology both in the laboratory and real settings (hospital) with human samples and develop specific testing and management protocols for the utilisation of the test results in the treatment of Sepsis. The collected data will form the basis for the subsequent clinical trials and CE marking validation of the platform, also in accordance to the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (European Medicines Agency) protocols and guidelines for medical diagnostic method development. | |
| The project is clearly driven by end-user needs and in this context the consortium aims at exploiting the technology through the existing industrial partners as well as possible spin-off activities by","At the beginning of the project, the system requirements were defined from the perspective of the end-user. From this, a full set of details system specifications were agreed by all partners. | |
| The most suitable biomarkers for detecting Sepsis in patient samples were selected at the beginning of the project. Selected biomarkers include four proteins (C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, MR-proadrenomedullin, and procalcitonin), two bacteria (Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus), and four micro-RNAs (miRNA146a, miRNA223, miRNA15a and miRNA16). The role in sepsis of these kinds of biomarkers is relatively new, and none of them are included in routine clinical diagnosis so far. | |
| Antibodies for the identification of four proteins and two bacteria were identified and tested using standard techniques (ELISA and CLIA). Experiments demonstrated the compatibility of these antibodies with conjugation techniques to be used in the microarray. An immunoassay protocol was set up for every protein demonstrating the feasibility of detecting these biomarkers in the concentration range requested to discriminate sepsis patients from healthy subjects. E. coli and S. aureus were not detected in the requested range because of the limitation of using ELISA methods. Therefore, these antibodies will be used with RAIS technology to evaluate their diagnostic potential. | |
| Appropriate biofunctionalization protocols have been developed, based on the formation of arrays of receptors compatible with the RAIS plate reader. Surface modification and immobilization of receptors has been carried out with glass-based substrates and also with gold-based substrates, mimicking in this latter case the material used for the nanostructured substrates for optical signal enhancement. | |
| The optical microarray reader has been developed. Initially, an alpha prototype instrument was developed. This has been used to test the technology and for initial experiments by some partners. A key achievement with this instrument was the optical detection of ultra-thin (2 nm) dielectric patterns and single protein (BSA) layers. | |
| Different designs of the disposable cartridge combining the nano-structured microarray plate and microfluidics delivery, have been developed and prototypes for testing by the partners produced. In parallel, a holder for the disposable cartridge has been designed which is compatible with the reader. This simplifies the handling of the cartridge for the user. | |
| Towards the end of the period, a beta prototype reader was developed with all necessary functionality including both reader improvements and advanced system integration. Improvements include a reduction in volume of 25 times and a significant reduction in the cost of materials. The size reduction has also been important to drastically improve the optical performance by minimizing the optical path in the reader. | |
| Software development is on-going but most of the required actions are implemented in the beta reader, although an improvement in efficiency of the read-out is still required. Post-processing software has been developed to simplify analysis by the partners. This will be the basis of the automated analysis software in the next period. | |
| In addition to the technology development detailed above, the RAIS project will need to assess the system in a real, clinical setting. For this reason, blood samples collected from patients with sepsis will be indispensable for this validation step. Moreover, such samples will be required for the evaluation of the diagnostic performance of the assay in WP3 and the optimization of the biofunctionalization protocol for each biomarker in human samples in WP5. | |
| In order to have available a representative number of blood samples and to obtain them in advance for proper shipment to the respective partners, ICS have created a Sepsis biobank. This is composed of blood samples from patients diagnosed with sepsis, and controls (samples from patients with non-infectious Systemic In","One Unique Selling Point of the RAIS reader is the time to obtain a measurement result, which is targeted at less than 30 minutes. The microarray reader development work performed in this period has further pushed the state of the art performance of lens-free microscopes. In particular, the functionality has been successfully demonstrated with the detection of monolayers of BSA proteins. | |
| With respect to the microfluidic cartridge, the latest design of the chip has shown promising performance: it took only ca. 10-15 seconds to fill the measurement chamber (water based ink) by driving the liquid through capillary forces, i.e. there are no pumps and metering sensors required, which helps to keep the reader system small and compact. Also there no valves integrated on the disposable cartridge which helps to keep the disposable costs low and maximize the future impact. | |
| As result of the RAIS R&D activities, DIESSE will commercialize the reagents and microarray plates which, together with the microfluidic cartridge from microTEC, are the main components of the disposable diagnostic test for Sepsis. The development of diagnostic kits for the biomarkers will result in new products to be added in DIESSE pipeline and will allow the entrance of DIESSE in a serology market segment different from the ones dedicated to the diagnosis of infectious and autoimmune diseases. | |
| The knowledge acquired by CSIC includes the development of biofunctionalization protocols using a spotting-based approach in order to obtain microarrayed substrates, the development of each individual assay for each biomarker and the final combination in a multiplexed format. This is highly relevant in the development of biosensors, microarrays and in the field of in vitro diagnostics. It involves valuable information capable of being exploited in these areas. The know-how related to the microarray spotting and covalent biofunctionalization of the bioreceptors can be further exploited for other clinical scenarios using the same reader platform developed in RAIS which requires the use of antibodies or DNA probes as capture receptors. The surface modification needed to avoid interferences coming from the serum is usually highly complex and succeeding in this aspect can represent an important milestone for the final goal of the project. The results obtained can also be further applied to other optical devices which also operate under label-free conditions. Moreover, especially exploitable is the combination of both microarray-spotted substrates and antifouling conditions for the direct detection in serum and plasma or in other complex environments (as urine or saliva). The achievement of this particular goal expands the potential for multiplexed analysis which is currently highly demanded in diagnostics. Overall the know-how related to these aspects will be thoroughly used by CSIC in establishing new collaborations with clinical and industrial partners by combining it either with associates developing biosensors or with our own proprietary optical devices. | |
| A major goal that ICS have achieved is the creation of the Sepsis Biobank. This is important to ensure proper handling and storage of the samples to be tested in the present study as well as availability when required. The major impact of this action is to have a collection of samples taken from sepsis patients, non-infectious SIRS patients and healthy controls, for further studies to be developed in the future, not only from our group but also from any other research group or company focused on this area. | |
| RAIS will have a significant impact in the healthcare arena and its outcomes will benefit European industries, making them more competitive in the point-of-care medical market for detection of Sepsis and other infectious diseases, as well as microarrays for DNA sequencing and proteins. Sepsis affects over 18 million people each year and is one of the 10 leading causes of death worldwide. Each hour of delayed treatment i",2019-03-26 10:04:02,,644956,RAIS,H2020-EU.2.1.1.6.,ICT-26-2014,http://www.rais-project.eu | |
| 1189,219951,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Strength2Food (Strengthening European Food Chain Sustainability by Quality and Procurement Policy),"Strength2Food is a five-year project to improve the effectiveness of EU agricultural products quality policy and Public Sector Food Procurement (PSFP), and stimulate the development of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC). Both EU agricultural products quality policy and PSFP have...","Strength2Food is a five-year project to improve the effectiveness of EU agricultural products quality policy and Public Sector Food Procurement (PSFP), and stimulate the development of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC). Both EU agricultural products quality policy and PSFP have witnessed recent reforms. The Quality Package (Regulation (EU) No. 1151/2012) seeks to improve and promote the operation of schemes to protect geographical indications (GIs) for agri-food products. The Regulation details the rationale for establishing/promoting GIs as a means to generate a fair return for farmers and producers for the qualities of particular goods, and enable consumers to make better-informed purchasing choices through effective labeling. The diversity and quality of EU agricultural and fisheries production is seen as one of its main strengths in both domestic and international markets. Supporting GIs is thus regarded as consistent with Europe 2020 policy priorities for ‘sustainable and inclusive growth’, which seek to achieve competitive, high employment economies delivering social and territorial cohesion. However, performance of the Food Quality Schemes (FQS) (e.g. PDO, PGI, TSG, organic) and individual GIs has been very variable. While some GIs support significant value-added production, with substantial benefits to producers, consumers and wider economies, many others have failed to become economically viable. Research on the economic, social and environmental impacts of GIs and the degree to which they can be harnessed to positively affect rural development, particularly in disadvantaged rural areas, is thus vital. The public procurement directive (2014/24/EU) has several implications for PSFP. Specifically, it alters policy by introducing the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) criterion (Article 67), requiring research to evaluate how MEAT is applied in practice and could be improved/more effectively applied in relation to PSFP and Strength2Food addresses this. | |
| The 4 specific objectives of Strength2Food are to: | |
| a) Aid policy makers and stakeholders in improving the effectiveness of food quality designations and PSFP to enhance their sustainability; | |
| b) Develop and deliver effective policies for improving the overall sustainability of agriculture and capacity for balanced nutrition; | |
| c) Demonstrate and validate how to stimulate the development of new quality markets and local food chains; | |
| d) Maximise the impact of the project’s activities and achievements through effective knowledge exchange and communication.","Progress has been made regarding all 4 objectives of Strength2Food: | |
| Objective A | |
| Work performed: Development of a methodological framework and indicators for evaluating the economic, social and environmental impacts of EU FQS and PSFP policies as well as the impacts of SFSC; Quantitative analysis of farmers’ current engagement with quality designations with on-going work relating to their impact on farm performance, price transmission and trade; Data collection is underway to evaluate the economic, environmental and social impacts of FQS, PSFP and SFSC. | |
| Main results achieved: Findings from the pilot studies suggest that generally (but not on all indicators) FQS products are more sustainable than non-designated equivalent reference products. For PSFP, a locally oriented / organic procurement model can have sustainability benefits in terms of local economic multiplier effects and social impacts, but to reduce carbon emissions, the focus should be on reducing meat in menus, and encouraging efficient, well-coordinated logistics; Analysis of Italian FADN data highlights the importance of, amongst other factors, age and higher education as determinants of engagement in FQS. | |
| Objective B | |
| Work performed: Pilot study regarding consumer confidence in, and willingness to purchase, products that are designated under FQS; Ethnographic fieldwork on consumers’ practices concerning FQS is underway; Pilot action on improving the quality of school meals is underway; Various pilot actions to stimulate development of FQS, SFSC and local food are underway. | |
| Main results achieved: Preliminary results up to date indicate that overall, consumer use and importance placed on FQS labels vary very significantly across Member States. Knowledge regarding the meaning of the labels is quite low. | |
| Objective C | |
| Work performed: Establishment of 6 pilot implementation and demonstration initiatives relating to school meals (PSFP), FQS, local/regional sourcing and SFSC. | |
| Main results achieved: Results to date are limited. | |
| Objective D | |
| Work performed: Production of a communications plan; Establishment of a Stakeholder Advisory Board; Creation of project identity and knowledge exchange platform; Hybrid forums for multi-actor communication established across seven countries; 3 trainings and workshops delivered; 1 information factsheet delivered and 1 currently being finalised. | |
| Main results achieved: Communications with stakeholder groups (consumers, schools, food supply chain practitioners, policy makers and academics).","Progress to date on how Strength2Food and its research WPs transcend the current state of the art: | |
| WP3: Conceptual framework and indicator development. Planned contribution: development of theoretical framework to guide subsequent WPs. Impact assessment measures road tested in pilot studies to verify practicality and usefulness. | |
| Progress to date: Methodological framework and set of indicators developed and pilot tested. | |
| WP4: Analysis of existing datasets. Planned contribution: Use of databases for a more comprehensive comparative economic assessment of outcomes of FQS/SFSC engagement. Unique and distinctive analysis of trade performance of FQS products as well as price transmission to highlight peculiar characteristics compared to traditional/industrial products. | |
| Progress to date: Econometric analysis underway. | |
| WP5: FQS assessment. Planned contribution: Holistic assessment, with consistent (across countries) methodologies of economic, environmental and social impacts of a large number of FQSs, which includes assessment of the impacts on the local economy in terms of social cohesion, rural development (LM3 methodology) and sustainability. | |
| Progress to date: Data collection underway. | |
| WP6: PSFP assessment. Planned contribution: Impact assessment conducted on a cross-national basis for contrasting models of PSFP, integrating analysis of nutritional outcomes with economic, environmental and social analysis. Assessment will account for food waste and child refusal rates. The project addresses impacts on local economies through application of LM3 approach. | |
| Progress to date: Data collection underway. | |
| WP7: SFSC assessment. Planned contribution: Integrated cross-national qualitative and quantitative assessment of economic, environmental and social impacts impact of SFSC on producers and wider rural territories. Cases will cover 3 main types of SFSC. | |
| Progress to date: Data collection underway. | |
| WP8: Consumer analysis. Planned contribution: Integrated Choice and Latent Variable modelling to estimate the impact of latent constructs on product choice. Novel ethnographic fieldwork focuses on the biography of family food consumption practices. | |
| Progress to date: ethnographic fieldwork underway. Two stages of quantitative consumer research with the first stage piloted and preliminary results presented.",2019-04-19 21:18:19,,678024,Strength2Food,H2020-EU.3.2.,SFS-20-2015,http://www.strength2food.eu/ | |
| 2322,251241,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CORUS (Concept of Operations for EuRopean UTM Systems),"The aim of CORUS is to develop a concept of operations (or ConOps ) for U-space, that is acceptable to a wide audience and makes to best use of available information. Many projects are developing UTM world-wide and CORUS tries to follow as many of these as possible. To this...","The aim of CORUS is to develop a concept of operations (or ConOps ) for U-space, that is acceptable to a wide audience and makes to best use of available information. Many projects are developing UTM world-wide and CORUS tries to follow as many of these as possible. To this end CORUS as established an advisory board, containing interested parties who have committed to support the CORUS work, and what we call the U-space Community Network, a large group of organisations and individuals who have expressed an interest in the CORUS work. | |
| CORUS is initially interested in what we call VLL or Very Low Level. VLL is the airspace below that normally used by visual flight rules (VFR) traffic. Initially CORUS focuses on the needs of small drones, typically used for inspection, photography or delivery. | |
| CORUS is concerned with “visual line of sight” (VLOS) operations where the remote pilot can see the aircraft and “beyond visual line of sight” (BVLOS) operations where the pilot cannot. CORUS is also looking to a time when the number of drone flights will be much higher than today. | |
| In particular, CORUS should develop a ConOps that could work in both the short term and the long term; to this scope, the first version of the CORUS ConOps contains a lot of thought about BVLOS flights, which are relatively rare today but are expected to be the normal way of operating for many commercial drone activities, such as delivery or infrastructure inspections. | |
| The first version of the ConOps was released it in July 2018. The CORUS ConOps can be downloaded from https://www.eurocontrol.int/sites/default/files/publication/files/corus-concept-of-operations-1.0.pdf. | |
| The CORUS team are collecting comments on the v1 ConOps to drive the development of the second version, expected in February 2019. | |
| Comments are welcome and should be sent to corus-info@eurocontrol.int.","In order to achieve the objectives detailed in the Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement, the CORUS project has performed the following actions: | |
| 1. Definition of an initial set of drone operations and the related UTM requirement. Operations in non-populated, sparsely populated and populated areas have been described in detail, as well airport related missions. The project has described the airspace and the rules of the air, the general and detailed operations, the involved stakeholders and their roles and an initial set of requirements for the U-space services and solutions. A wide variety of safety methods and methodologies have been explored, evaluated and combined in order to reach a safety assessment method tailored to CORUS’ needs (MEDUSA). | |
| 2. Initial assessment of the societal and institutional impact and proposed a set of indicators of societal acceptance, as well as the mechanisms to measure the selected societal acceptance indicators end evaluate possible trade-off between them. | |
| 3. Identification of possible missions near airports, on movement areas, on airport facilities and in departure or arrival paths. A number of possible partner airports for Use Case development has been identified. | |
| 4. Production an Initial CORUS ConOps document, presented to the stakeholders’ community during the CORUS Definition Workshop. The inputs of the stakeholders’ community have been collected and will constitute the basis for the preparation of the Intermediate ConOps. | |
| 5. Definition of an initial U-space architecture from a business and operational viewpoints and an overview of the service and system from an architectural viewpoint. Laying the foundations for the construction of a description of U-space extending EATMA (the European Air Traffic Management Architecture). | |
| 6. Organisation and conduct of two workshops: | |
| a. The Exploratory Workshop, conducted in January 2018 in Castelldefels, Spain, aiming to explore the most relevant Use Cases of drone operations and identify a set of supporting services for the U-space drone management system for Europe. Hosted by the “Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya”, the workshop saw the participation of around 90 experts from the drone and manned aviation community of stakeholders. The main scope of this first workshop was to define and cluster the possible VLL Operations and an initial airspace organisation. U-space solutions & services were also explored. | |
| b. The Definition Workshop conducted in June 2018, hosted by Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile (ENAC) in Toulouse, France, saw the participation of around 70 experts. Each of the three days saw a different audience attending the event: EASA, SJU and the other drone related SESAR projects on the first day, then the project’s Advisory Board experts and finally the U-space Community Network representing a large cross section of the stakeholders. After an initial plenary presentation introducing the content of the Initial CORUS ConOps the participants attended dedicated sessions covering in detail elements such as airspace classification, drone operation in airports, ways to minimise risks of conflicts, position transmission and tracking, and contingency, emergency and social aspects.","Currently, there is not a harmonized approach within Europe to integrate the emerging business sector of drones operating in very low level (VLL) airspace. As this market is growing and the number of use cases is increasing, a clear and complete integration concept is needed. | |
| The project is addressing several unanswered questions and found solutions, ranging from a clear definition of the VLL airspace and environment, how drones will need to be managed in that environment, how to deal with contingencies and emergencies and how to address the societal implications and concerns. | |
| Large scale drone operations may directly impact society at large from a number of different perspectives, which include such examples as noise, privacy and access to public/private spaces, as well as accident reporting. The project has started to identify which elements of the | |
| UTM concept could impact society in general and institutions and organisations in particular. The evaluation of those impacts, both positive and negative is generating the necessary constraints or modifications of the UTM concept to guarantee its long-term viability and smooth integration with Society. | |
| This innovation potential associated with the project are: | |
| • The CORUS ConOps will provide further momentum to the growth of drone applications in very different sectors, such as energy and infrastructure, agriculture, forestry and so on. These applications, in particular logistic and parcel delivery have an increasing interest in terms of market value, as can be inferred from the different research and development activities. | |
| • CORUS results will have relevant outcomes for the current (non-drone) airspace users operations in VLL (i.e. GA11, Gliders, Medivac/OAT12 flights,…). The benefits of the CORUS project, therefore, are not limited to drones but encompass also the other AUs domain, having the potential to provide innovation in both frameworks. | |
| • The CONOPS, by describing the possible architecture, solutions and services of UTM systems, will provide guidance for the raising industry of UTM service providers. The presence in the consortium of a UTM system company is ensuring the soundness of the architectural definition and the timely exploitation of the project findings. | |
| • The CORUS innovative concept elements are providing guidance to the other SESAR RPAS projects and demonstrations.",2019-04-09 17:13:22,,763551,CORUS,H2020-EU.3.4.7.,RPAS-01,https://www.sesarju.eu/projects/corus | |
| 9120,186256,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - eTAG (Thermoacoustic- based residential mCHP system),"The eTAG is a novel thermoacoustic engine which will be embedded inside an existing boiler, to form a quiet, durable and efficient mCHP system having very low emission levels. Each component has already demonstrated reasonable maturity, while the system level integration...","The eTAG is a novel thermoacoustic engine which will be embedded inside an existing boiler, to form a quiet, durable and efficient mCHP system having very low emission levels. Each component has already demonstrated reasonable maturity, while the system level integration, holds the promise for a game changing, highly reliable and efficient product. This assembly has not yet been fabricated on a system level; however, Qnergy is currently in final stages of commercializing its mCHP system, based on the innovative free piston Stirling engine, comprising several similar internal components, as well as comparable production technologies, related market segments, and dissemination objectives. Moreover, the extensive Stirling knowledge, with more than 30 years of production experience fully mastered by Ricor, assures a firm innovative basis and continuous support along the project R&D efforts, as the company focuses its growth path in a clear direction. | |
| The project scope includes a rapid development process for the eTAG within the SME instrument phases, based on the predicted key performance criteria, estimated according to the numerical modelling we have performed. In phase-1, the feasibility assessment was focused on a general business plan, leveraged by a detailed feasibility assessment and market study. The selected partners would be expected to collaborate in phase- 2 of this project, where a prototype of a 5 kWth embedded system will be demonstrated (having electrical power Pe ~ 1 kWe), tested and evaluated according to the specifications defined in phase-1. | |
| The eTAG will contribute to the reduction of GHGs, as well as lower the carbon footprint, to comply with EU environmental challenges, as well as providing a sustainable solution for residential heating and electricity generation in an environmentally efficient method, by using a broad range of available, renewable energy sources. The project final goal (in the proceeding stages) includes a complete- system ready for easy integration into a smart grid based on a distributed power generation scheme. The proposed system is planned for implementation in a significant market share, allowing the company to boost its unique manufacturing skills, leveraging our current position through scale up of our Stirling manufacturing expertise, at estimated annual production quantities > 200,000. | |
| The eTAG will include a novel thermoacoustic engine, employing a highly- reliable linear alternator to form a >90% efficient grid- quality electricity- generating system. Typically on its optimal operating point ~1 kWe electrical output power would be produced, intentionally on 110-220VAC @ 60-50Hz, thereby avoiding unnecessary electrical transformations while to complying with regulations and safety standards. Considering common compromises between efficiency and capital cost, our initial customer reviews project a three times improvement in terms of price/performance above current solutions values.","The valuable study executed during the last 10 months, had turned to be very useful, while emphasizing the main technical challenges, risks, regulatory considerations, market opportunities, and the viability of a complete eTAG system for most mCHP end- consumers. | |
| The specific details discussed in this report summarize our risk management strategy, followed by in-depth feasibility estimations and manufacturability considerations, resulting in a robust product specifications. Additionally, intellectual property survey had been performed to assure freedom to operate, while all relevant regulatory requirements had been reflected as well. During the wide-ranging market study, we have identified several optional partners, which further focused our attention on the prime economic aspects, such as ROI, BOP, channels to market and complementary costs. A resulting letter of intent from British Gas Company is attached as annex. | |
| Current mCHP costs are ~ €15,000, as some customers tend to be concerned more on installation costs (while in Germany customers would be willing to pay up to 25% higher prices, as in the Netherlands a 50% price drop seems essential for broad market dissemination), while others are more attracted by lower maintenance and operational costs. | |
| The European market has a potential for annual sales of ~ 50,000 units at these figures, while the global market could accommodate millions of units. | |
| We have been assured, by the collected data and work performed during this feasibility study, that a significant market for engines based on Stirling technology exists. However, the optimal strategy to access the main market still needs to be cultivated further. | |
| To maximize the chances for successful market implementation, by following a clear roadmap, the actual need for additional illuminating examination, focused on more concrete specification has been clearly identified. Thus, we plan to continue the ongoing process with the EASME coach, to solidify our strategy on how to reach the market. The developed business plan will be delivered in our SMEINST phase two proposal. | |
| This plan will include an optimized distribution channels to the EU market, and resolve expected revenues, specific sales, refined spec, performance mapping, validation test plan, prototyping schedule and company resource allocation. | |
| Although the most prevailing technology employed today in the mCHP market is internal combustion engines, Stirling engines are expected to dominate by 2020, and embrace the main market share. | |
| Apparently the mCHP system’s final product price has key influence on the decision making process of common customers. Furthermore, a lasting commitments is strongly influenced by installation aspects and payback duration. | |
| To ensure the maximum possible use of the project results, several exploitation activities are aimed at properly transferring technology to the targeted market niches through protection of our intellectual property rights. Contributions to standardization activities will be linked to technology transfer aiming at an efficient exploitation and re-use of technology. Strategic planning of the forthcoming exploitation actions would be periodically reviewed, to facilitate smooth continuity and fast uptake of the technology being developed. | |
| As far as we know, the proposed solution forms the best- in- class option in terms of actual $/W costs, reliability, and efficiency, making it a vital factor it the company's roadmap, allowing to leverage our business dramatically.","All of the expected deliverables, as well as the work packages intended for SMEINST phase one had been accomplished effectively, as extremely useful insights had been obtained. | |
| Considering the importance of the key factors, product cost, energy efficiency and reliability we strongly believe there is room for successful implementation of such product based on the proposed technology. | |
| The commercial business plan has been adapted to take full advantage of our production methodologies, particularly adequate for high volume manufacturing. We have clearly identified the main technical and operational challenges, and understand the necessary actions to mitigate, manage or control the risks identified. | |
| This approach is expected to maximize flexibilities, while helping accomplish the eTAG project goals in the proceeding stages, as we plan to follow the pre-production prototype with integration of the Stirling technology into a commercially successful product. | |
| Additionally, in the near future we will refine our business plan, to increase the chances of realizing the maximum available potential, increase the product value and reach the market more prepared. | |
| A comprehensive technical feasibility had been executed, through detailed numerical modeling, using two leading simulation packages, DeltaEC and Sage, while concurrently considering practical points, material limitations and mechanical restrictions. Because of the enhanced performance of FPSE, we will continue to pursue this option directly, and consider removing the displacer only in the stages ahead. In addition, complete product specifications have been designated, bearing in mind complete view, including technical aspects, customer value, production capabilities, schedule, costs, validation gates and manufacturing repeatability. | |
| The intended path is expected to considerably increase the product value, and allow extensive deployment of the eTAG in global markets in the short term. Periodic market updates by major installers, distributes, and energy utilities, will ensure we keep progressing in the right direction. In parallel, high volume manufacturing methods will be implemented by a robust proven process. | |
| Few independent inspections of intellectual property rights had been performed, to assure we have freedom to operate, while extensive study on required certifications, directives and regulations had been thoroughly considered. | |
| It had been undoubtedly stated that indeed we have the necessary rights to conduct R&D without risk of infringements, and smoothly comply with all required legislations. | |
| The market study accomplished focused on categorizing the competitive landscape, while addressing numerous factors, such as value propositions, policies, key drivers, and entry barriers. It had been concluded that the eTAG product has tremendous value, and remarkable prospective to quickly become the best in class, in a fast growing market. Moreover, the detailed financial assessment, including all production aspects, concludes with a very appealing ROI, below two years under many conditions. | |
| However, few areas that require deeper knowledge have been identified, as projected systematic investigation needs to focus on the energy industry particularities, while considering the diverse structure in different countries. | |
| Moreover, fresh perspective gained from the 3rd international workshop on thermoacoustics (October 26th 2015, The University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands) needs to be managed further, considering the practical viability of the eTAG for typical mCHP customers. Furthermore, few critical business variables needs to be further developed into a more tangible model, during a methodological process, which is currently taking place with the productive support of our EASME coach, through the business model canvas methodology. Formal SWOT analysis, value proposition alternatives and market implementation strategies are expected to better allocate the required res",2018-08-24 09:41:09,,662498,eTAG,H2020-EU.3.3.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SIE-01-2014-1,http://www.qnergy.com | |
| 6371,240729,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GIDDB (New practices of Grassroots Innovation for Demand Driven Businesses),"Youth unemployment across the European Union remains unacceptably high and the consequences for society will be, and already are, significant. According to Eurostat data, the youth unemployment rate in the EU-28 has still been close to 20% at the end of 2015, and the...","Youth unemployment across the European Union remains unacceptably high and the consequences for society will be, and already are, significant. According to Eurostat data, the youth unemployment rate in the EU-28 has still been close to 20% at the end of 2015, and the challenging labour market situation for European youth is also represented by the rising percentage of NEETs, whose share increased all over Europe in the wake of the economic and financial crisis. | |
| Especially the southern European countries continue to experience very high youth unemployment rates. However, in these territories, where even tertiary graduates’ employment rates can drop below 70%, a higher share of self-employment activities has gone hand in hand with limited access to the labour market and the lack of employment possibilities for young people in the past years. The young may be inexperienced when it comes to business creation but by taking their future into their own hands, they regain a sense of self-worth and of purpose. Instead of waiting for a job to come up, they attempt to create work for themselves and thus actively try to solve their situation before considering leaving their home region or mother nation. As entrepreneurs, they can also become an essential part of their home countries' economies and contribute to their territories' development and competitiveness and it is therefore of great importance that policy makers discuss and identify feasible and effective support measures for them. | |
| Often fledgling businesses are at risk of failure and the enthusiasm of young entrepreneurs can fade out if not supported by significant business skill developments and proper partnerships. Building on the innovative potential of young entrepreneurs and convinced of their capability to identify their own needs and propose fresh solutions for their own growth, the GIDDB Project tackles the use of grassroots approaches to support businesses founded and managed by young people from 18 to 35 years of age. It discusses the possibilities of empowering innovation in young start-ups through adopting a new approach for public support schemes in which the public institution becomes a facilitator and partner to the young entrepreneurs and becomes capable of applying less conventional methods of interventions. | |
| The project's main objective and final Deliverable regards the creation of a Design Options Paper describing recommendations and possibilities for interventions aimed at supporting bottom-up innovations and | |
| competitiveness in SMEs founded by the young.","The Partners implemented the full project within this reporting period. This first Periodic Report therefore also represents the project’s Final Report. | |
| During the project’s 9-months duration, the Partners have researched and reviewed practices, methodologies and experiences related to the implementation of grassroots youth policy instruments that target the support of SMEs founded and managed by young people (18-35 years of age). During the research phase, key experiences as well as primary characteristics for grassroots policies have been identified in order to develop generally applicable recommendations for interested policy makers. | |
| As a final result, the project has identified 5 design aspects that can be useful for the creation of such bottom-up policies. These aspects were presented during the project’s final meeting in Badajoz, Spain, on October 25th 2016 and are detailed in the project’s Deliverable, the GIDDB Design Options Paper “Grassroots support schemes for young SMEs”, which is available on the partners' websites and from the ERRIN and EURADA networks. It is published with Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 4.0 and freely available to all interested stakeholders.","The GIDDB project has developed recommendations for policy-makers interested in developing support schemes for young entrepreneurs using a grassroots approach. Even though many examples for bottom-up initiatives can be found in Europe, this type of approach is not much used on wider policy-making levels yet. | |
| The GIDDB Design Options Paper represents a synthesis of lessons learned both through direct implementation of experimental actions by the Partners and through the studying of other practices in the framework of the project. The project delivers a recommendation framework for stakeholders and policy makers interested in creating grassroots policy support measures for SMEs managed by young people. The final Design Options paper is structured in a way that it may be used both as a guidance document to set up a policy design or as a support instruments for individual topics/steps linked to grassroots innovation policies (e.g. participation, co-planning, etc.). The document is applicable for designs from scratch and for re-designing existing interventions with a grassroots approach.",2018-10-24 11:38:36,,699640,GIDDB,H2020-EU.2.3.2.,INNOSUP-5-2014,http://www.arti.puglia.it/progetti-internazionali/grassroots-innovation-for-demand-driven-businesses | |
| 3325,263297,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ImmuneHunter (Bioinformatics platform for profiling of health: allowing early and accurate detection of multiple diseases simultaneously),"ImmuneHunter aims to develop a cutting- edge solution - a state-of-the-art clinical analysis tools paired with ICT platform, to help change medicine into a data-driven competence. Widening our immunologic knowledge of diseases would allow to diagnose and intervene early and...","ImmuneHunter aims to develop a cutting- edge solution - a state-of-the-art clinical analysis tools paired with ICT platform, to help change medicine into a data-driven competence. Widening our immunologic knowledge of diseases would allow to diagnose and intervene early and offer the patients yet the unknown therapeutic possibilities. | |
| Chronic diseases (cancer, heart and mind diseases) are the leading cause of illness and death. Disease rate from these conditions is accelerating globally across all socioeconomic classes. By 2020 their contribution is expected to rise to 73% of all deaths (of which nearly half as premature) and 60% of the global burden of disease. To radically reduce the related healthcare spending and contribute to healthy ageing, it is important to diagnose chronic diseases as early and accurately as possible by analyzing biomarkers","The ImmuneHunter project aimed at enhancing the company’s current analytical and data handling and management capabilities for fast processing of each clinical sample according to the customized market needs. For that, our aim was to first, specify end-user requirements and use this information for required technical adjustments. As an outcome we could successfully target the other objectives that were to elaborate the business strategy and in conjunction with this also to assess the linked IP matters, identify the strategic partners and amend the business plan accordingly.","The key outcome was the development of a strategy that allows highly accurate and informative biomarker measurings for making better clinical decisions early in the disease process. The development of disease biomarker panels will allow patient stratification for the most optimal therapy, more detailed understanding of the progression of disease and fast diagnostic assessment on the response to treatment. Also avoid invasive or expensive procedures for diagnostic assessments. By completing ImmuneHunter we have made a small step closer to our ultimate goal what is to improve public health and health aging by supporting fast, low-cost and accurate health-audits.",2019-04-01 14:33:23,,791323,ImmuneHunter,H2020-EU.3.1.4.;H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.3.1.6.,SMEInst-06-2016-2017,http://www.protobios.com | |
| 10548,195085,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HEMACONN (ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP) SOLUTION INTERCONNECTING DEPARTMENTS’ SOFTWARE IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES),"Most healthcare software applications are incompatible with one another, which makes it extremely difficult to efficiently plan and distribute material and resources through ERP systems. Currently, there are no solutions capable to automatically integrate the input from all...","Most healthcare software applications are incompatible with one another, which makes it extremely difficult to efficiently plan and distribute material and resources through ERP systems. Currently, there are no solutions capable to automatically integrate the input from all software sources. This reduces the efficiency of the management process and increases the necessary time that highly specialized professionals have to invest in purely administrative tasks. | |
| HEMACONN will offer the first smart and ultra-compatible ERP system that is adapted to for the needs of the healthcare industry. It will feature an innovating engine to automatically manage data exchange with third party software. It will also use A.I. algorithms to anticipate the needs of the facilities, while also monitoring the consumption of resources through RFID connections with a complex IoT network. The goal is to anticipate the demands of every sector of the HCF, from the different medical departments to the pharmaceutical stock and medical equipment. Through these outstanding features, HEMACONN allows any HCF to reduce its costs by 50% and improve its administrative efficiency by 80%. HEMACONN will allow public administrations and private entities to redirect funds to the core needs of the sector, thereby optimizing healthcare spending and consequently improving the quality of the services provided for all citizens. | |
| During the Phase 1, we have performed a complete Feasibility Study, covering all the necessary technical tasks to bring HEMACONN from its current TRL6 to a final TRL9. We have also carefully defined the product’s Business Plan and financial forecast, covering also the best possible path to commercialization as well as the ensuing expansion strategy across the EU.","During the Phase 1 execution, we have defined a technical viability plan for all the distinctive features of our product (healthcare verticalization, “Plug-In-and-Go” architecture, AI and RFID features), including a complete risk analysis with mitigation and contingency measures. This technical viability also included a full study of the possible third party platforms and solutions that could support several of our features (e.g. IoT or AI). | |
| We have also detailed the commercialization plan, with a complete analysis of our entry and expansion strategy. This analysis covers segmentation, countries, commercial actions, resources, penetration and commercial risks across EU countries, according to different scenarios. We have also researched and shortlisted the possible partners both at a technical and functional level, for each targeted country. A Business Plan was elaborated to define out price and cost structure, the necessary investment and the expected return. | |
| Finally, a full Freedom-to-Operate study was also conducted in order to evaluate the corresponding IP risks and come up with the best IPR exploitation options for our developed software and features.","Through our ultra-compatible system, hospitals will reduce by 50% additional project expenses to connect the ERP management with individual data sources. By automating a large part of the administrative process, HEMACONN will also attenuate the risk of human errors and their corresponding financial costs. The optimized demand forecasting and smart stock management through AI and RFID monitoring will reduce the probability of shortages, improve the logistical process and finally contribute to reducing the operating costs of healthcare facilities. | |
| The automated data collection mechanisms will also convey a reduction of costs through an increased personnel efficiency. Administrative redundancies will be eliminated through the automatic communication of data between HEMACONN and other data sources. Remote data readings via IoT and RFID devices will also contribute to create a completely paperless system with minimum direct human interaction. Nurses and doctors will therefore no longer need to spend 15% of their time filling up lengthy forms regarding administrative and logistical issues, such as medicine consumption or clinical material usage. The efficiency gain on administrative tasks has been estimated to be in the 80% range. | |
| By automatically taking care of most administrative tasks, it will leave more time for direct patient care. This will directly impact the quality of the medical attention, the diagnostic process and the outcome of the treatments.",2017-04-11 16:18:21,,734733,HEMACONN,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-01-2016-2017, | |
| 9348,232103,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EMCOP9CRL (Structural basis of Cullin-RING ligase regulation by the COP9 signalosome),"The components of the Cullin-RING Ligase (CRLs) E3 ubiquitin ligase family play key roles in a wide range ofcellular processes including stress response, signal transduction, apoptosis and cell cycle progression, andaccordingly, defects in their function and/or regulation are...","The components of the Cullin-RING Ligase (CRLs) E3 ubiquitin ligase family play key roles in a wide range of | |
| cellular processes including stress response, signal transduction, apoptosis and cell cycle progression, and | |
| accordingly, defects in their function and/or regulation are prominent in many pathologies including cancer. The | |
| modular CRL architecture is centred upon one of seven different cullin scaffold proteins which associate on one | |
| side with a RING protein that acts as receptor for an E2 ligase and, on the opposite side, with a substrate receptor | |
| (SR) that confers specificity to the complex. The multiplicity of SRs allows the recognition of many different | |
| substrates by the same CRL catalytic core. CRL-mediated ubiquitination modulates the substrate´s biological | |
| activity and in many cases targets them for proteasomal degradation. The COP9 signalosome (CSN) complex plays | |
| a fundamental role in CRL regulation both by forming stable inhibitory complexes with the CRLs where the E2 | |
| ligase and substrate binding sites are occluded, and by enzymatically removing Nedd8 (a homologue of ubiquitin) | |
| from the cullin scaffold subunit, in a process termed deneddylation, that leads to inactivation of CRLs. CRL | |
| regulation by CSN is still an incompletely understood topic mostly because of the lack of high resolution | |
| CSN/CRL structures due to the challenge that the crystallization of multi-protein assemblies of such complexity | |
| represents. Fortunately, technological developments in another structural technique, cryoelectron | |
| microscopy, now allow structure determination of relatively small protein complexes (< 500kDa) to near-atomic | |
| resolution. The aim of this project is to use this powerful technique to reveal very high-resolution structures of several | |
| different CSN/CRL holocomplexes and shed light on the mechanistic aspects of their function.","The work reported here only covers activities from 12/10/2015 to 15/03/2016 due to early termination of the award. Work was initiated on | |
| WP1: month 1-6. Cloning of the CRL complexes. A MultiBac construct for wild type CSN and CSNΔCSN5H138A | |
| lacking deneddylating activity as well as a partial construct of the CRL1 (Cul1/Rbx1) was already available in the | |
| Morris Lab. Work therefore focussed on the cloning the remaining CRL complexes (CRL2: VHL/BC/Cul2/Rbx1; CRL3: | |
| Kctd5/Cul3/Rbx1) in MultiBac vectors. This was initiated but not completed during the period of this award. | |
| Work was also started on WP2: month 3-10. Expression, purification and reconstitution of the CSN/CRL holocomplexes. This stage | |
| included the purification of wtCSN and CSNΔCSN5H138A as stocks for downstream applications as well as the expression, | |
| purification and, where appropriate, in vitro neddylation5 of each CRL complex. This work was initiated but not completed during the period of the award. | |
| Other work packages were not due to start until after the date that the award terminated.",The work described above was taken forward by DR Morris and colleagues and a publication describing the results of this work has been submitted for publication and is currently under review.,2018-08-10 10:26:38,,655801,EMCOP9CRL,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,http://www.icr.ac.uk | |
| 1902,264052,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ERA-HDHL (ERA-NET Biomarkers for Nutrition and Health implementing the JPI HDHL objectives),There is a high burden of Non Communicated Diseases (NCDs) caused by unhealthy diet and lifestyle patterns. The Joint Programming Initiative Healthy Diet Healthy Life (JPI HDHL) deploys a strategic plan to foster the European research and competitiveness through national and...,"There is a high burden of Non Communicated Diseases (NCDs) caused by unhealthy diet and lifestyle patterns. The Joint Programming Initiative Healthy Diet Healthy Life (JPI HDHL) deploys a strategic plan to foster the European research and competitiveness through national and international programmes to lower the burden of NCDs cause by unhealthy diet and lifestyle patterns. The Members of the JPI HDHL agreed on the following vision: “by 2030 all citizens will have the motivation, ability and opportunity to consume a healthy diet from a variety of foods, have healthy levels of physical activity and that the incidence of diet-related diseases will have decreased significantly”. In that context, JPI HDHL adopted a Srategic Research Agenda (SRA) in 2012, updated in 2015. The SRA of the JPI HDHL is articulated around three thematic pillars (1) determinants of diet and physical activity, (2) diet and food production, (3) diet-related chronic diseases (see figure1). | |
| The promotion of healthy lifestyles with high quality diets and adequate physical activities is of utmost importance for public health and well-being. It has become clear that unhealthy diet and sedentary life-style choice are key determinants for the development of many non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs). Overweight and obesity are the predominant causes of NCDs. In addition to the effect on public health, NCDs have a dramatic impact on health systems as well as on the economy and the social structures of member states. ERA-HDHL, aims to provide a robust platform for implementing Joint Funding Activities that address some of the needs identified in the JPI HDHL SRA and to create a transnational network of researchers collaborating in the field. The ERA-NET cofund will allow new partners, not yet involved in the JPI HDHL, to join the planned activities (as Turkey), reducing the fragmentation of research funding and efficiently aligning the JPI HDHL activities among partners and beyond. In addition to the organization of JFAs, ERA-HDHL will also implement additional activities towards the creation of a transnational network of researchers collaborating in the field of Nutrition and Health. The first aim of ERA-HDHL is to support research in the field of Biomarkers for Nutrition and Health (BioNH) through a cofunded call. The main objective of the cofunded call, launched under ERA-HDHL in 2016, is to support multidisciplinary transnational research consortia that will use innovative and scientific approaches to increase knowledge on the development and validation of biomarkers for nutrition and health, including biomarkers for food intake and for the risk of diet-related disease. The cofunded call will encourage the development of improved methodologies, the collaboration of researchers with industrial partners and the use of existing research infrastructures, data and sample collections as well as cohorts. Networking between the funded research consortia through the ERA-HDHL cofunded call and the ones funded through the first JFA on BioNH 2014 will be promoted via the organisation of common meetings to facilitate methodology, data and knowledge exchanges. Additional activities, namely JFAs, of the ERA-HDHL will be based on the Implementation Plans of the JPI HDHL to fulfil the JPI HDHL objectives. All activities will support excellent research groups to work together and to share knowledge but also to contribute to the reduction of the fragmentation of research efforts and increase efficiency of invested funds.","In 2016, ERA-HDHL had implemented and launched a call, cofunded by ERA-HDHL partners and the European Commission. The scientific scope of the call, arising from the JPI HDHL SRA, was the identification and validation of biomarkers that are modulated by diet and that indicate a change in health status and/or the risk of developing diet-related diseases. In addition, the Biomarkers of physical activity could be considered alongside diet. 17 funding organisations from 14 countries were participating. The evaluation was a two-steps procedure. 74 pre-proposals were submitted at the first step and 22 consortia has been invited to submit a full proposal. At the second step of the evaluation, the scientific expert committee has recommended 12 full proposals. The ERA-HDHL partners made a lot of efforts to be able to fund the 12 recommended projects. This 12 research projects have been selected for funding involving 53 research teams from 13 countries and will be supported with a total budget of about 11.2 M€ including 1.9 M€ from the EC. 15 of the ERA-HDHL partners, could spend a part or the whole budget committed to the call. The topic and involved teams of the funded projects are available on ERA-HDHL web-site (http://healthydietforhealthylife.eu/index.php/era-net/era-hdhl/calls). | |
| ERA-HDHL consortium is now working on the next JFA, which will be on the establishment of a multi-disciplinary research network for the monitoring, benchmarking and evaluation of policies that affect dietary and physical activity as well as sedentary behavior with standardized protocols across Europe. This JFA arise from the first JFA implemented by JPI HDHL, DEDIPAC-KH, the Knowledge Hub on the Determinants of Diet and Physical Activity. The toolbox, generated, by DEDIPAC to develop, monitor and evaluate multi-component interventions related to dietary, physical activity and sedentary behaviours using natural experiments across European countries will be of used. The JFA will be launched on the 28th of February and the final results will be known by the end of 2017.","Consumer awareness and appropriate information is crucial to (1) change its behavior and consumption (2) influence the production of healthy food by food and drink industries. The combination of outcomes from ERA-HDHL funded project focusing on development of intake/exposure biomarkers correlated with its health and nutrition status (projects funded under the cofunded call) and results of the DEDIPAC KH project and the JFA, which will be launched in 2017 on the evaluation of policy, will help to understand the determinants for dietary behavior and the means of actions that have to be put in place to help the consumer to make healthier choices. The consumer is the main stakeholder influencing the development of innovation and new products in the food and drink industries. Therefore, research results on consumer behaviour and food / product choice should be of high interest to these industry sectors in order to improve not only product lines but also implement innovations. | |
| ERA-HDHL is further improving the linking, efficient integration and coordination of national programmes in the nutrition and health area. To insure the coordination and reduce the overlap and duplication of national and EU funding in the field of nutrition and health, ERA-HDHL is bringing together programme owners and funding bodies to fund research in this field. In addition, in 2016, the EC top-up funding was incentive for countries to increase their budgetary commitment and allowed the funding of all recommended project by the evaluation committee. Moreover, this EC top-up funding had also facilitated the compensation of funding gaps linked to possible insufficiency in earmarked budgets thus leading to higher success rates.",2019-04-10 13:13:21,,696295,ERA-HDHL,H2020-EU.3.2.,ISIB-12f-2015,http://healthydietforhealthylife.eu/index.php/era-net/era-hdhl | |
| 1228,238132,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MIROR (Methods in Research on Research),"A study published in 2009 estimated that 85% of research conducted is wasted. This waste represents tens of billions of Euros spent each year on studies that are redundant, flawed in their design, never published or poorly reported. The public is the main victim of this waste...","A study published in 2009 estimated that 85% of research conducted is wasted. This waste represents tens of billions of Euros spent each year on studies that are redundant, flawed in their design, never published or poorly reported. The public is the main victim of this waste. If clinical research is not adequately planned, conducted and reported, clinicians are prevented from using effective health interventions in practice and researchers from adequately prioritizing future research questions. This situation ultimately has a detrimental impact on patient care. Therefore, reducing waste and increasing value of research represents a major societal challenge. | |
| Our aim is to create an innovative and ambitious multidisciplinary intersectoral joint doctoral training programme in Europe dedicated to Methods in Research on Research (MiRoR) in the field of clinical research. “Research on Research (RoR)” is an emerging new scientific discipline that aims to reduce waste in research and increase research value. | |
| MiRoR brings together 7 world-class research teams in various disciplines (computer sciences, applied mathematics, biostatistics, bioinformatics, clinical epidemiology, psychology, social sciences and translational medicine) from 6 different European countries; 6 non-academic partners involved in diverse sectors, and 4 major academic partners. We tackle several steps of a clinical research project (planning, conduct, reporting and the peer-review); various study designs (observational studies, randomised trials, systematic reviews); and various study questions (therapeutic, diagnostic, and prognostic evaluation) using various methods (scoping reviews, meta-epidemiologic studies, qualitative studies, experimental studies, simulations etc). | |
| Our project involving 15 early-stage researchers aims to: 1) Prepare students for envisioning the future challenges in clinical research and find innovative solutions to face them; 2)Train students to go beyond the state-of-the-art in their research; 3) Help students think differently, taking advantage of the multidisciplinary expertise and intercultural diversity of the network; 4) Teach students how to move from research to action and convert knowledge and ideas into a product; 5) Help students develop skills to match the public and private sector needs and create new professional opportunities.","The project has overall progressed according to plan with full commitment from all the consortium members. | |
| The first months were mainly dedicated to administrative and management activities, such as the preparation and signature of the consortium agreement, administrative agreements to establish double doctorates and the organisation of the kick-off meeting. These first months were crucial as they were mostly dedicated to the recruitment of 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs). Selected candidates come from both EU and non-EU countries, with 13 different nationalities: Kenya, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Vietnam, Colombia, Italy, USA, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Germany and Spain. ESRs have been taking part in secondments and several training events and they have been involved in several innovative “Training through action” activities (collaborative learning opportunities in which they work in small teams to develop their interpersonal skills and reinforce their ability to develop interdisciplinary interactions): research speed-dating, journal clubs, internal peer-review and a common research project involving all ESRs. | |
| As part of dissemination and communication activities, we developed a project website and established Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts; we have sent out 3 newsletters to a growing network of people interested in our work; ESRs and supervisors have contributed with scientific talks and poster presentations to several international conferences in Europe, USA and South Africa. | |
| As for the scientific outputs, this first reporting period has been primarily dedicated to studying the background of the different research projects, finding and exploring data sources, developing the necessary methodology and setting up the protocols. The first research findings resulted in the publication of 1 research article, 3 study protocols, 3 letters to editors, 1 commentary and 5 conference papers, available in open access online. Our results showed that the planning, conduct and reporting of biomarkers clinical studies are questionable (ESR2); we explored a new concept, the concept of “spin” defined as a distorted presentation and interpretation of study results and we developed a classification of spin for specific study designs (ESR10) and algorithms of extraction of some supporting information to detect spin using NLP techniques (ESR11); we investigated a new form of research based on collective intelligence and developed a framework for applying it to the context of clinical trials (ESR5); we explored complex processes in research to improve its understanding particularly patient involvement in research (ESR3) and we laid the foundations for developing new methods and tools for research planning (ESR1, ESR4, ESR6), research analysis (ESR6, ESR8), synthesis (ESR7, ESR8, ESR12), reporting and peer-review (ESR9, ESR13, ESR14, ESR15).","Only a limited number of research teams in Europe and the world are addressing the topic of Research on Research. If we want to improve the research system in Europe, similar initiatives must be multiplied. MiRoR aims to create and strengthen a network to tackle this issue: many members of our consortium, both academic and non-academic partners, have been working together for several years. With this project we join forces to create a more structured network, bringing together internationally recognized experts and researchers in the different fields of planning, conduct and reporting of various study designs used in clinical research. | |
| We have created a joint doctoral training programme dedicated to Methods in Research on Research (MiRoR) in the field of clinical research with the idea of training the future generation of European researchers to develop creative solutions to transform clinical research practice and increase its value. We are enhancing interactions among these students and among participants in the whole network as much as possible, in order to develop strong links and favor the development of future collaborative, multidisciplinary, high-level projects in this field. | |
| We are paying special attention to adequately train students to generate new and innovative ideas, move from the idea to a funded project, lead and manage a project by favoring cooperative learning. This programme is an opportunity to create the cornerstone for a future innovative training programme that will be perpetuated in the long term and possibly expanded to other fields. In addition, we are paving the way for the establishment of joint degrees with most of the academic partners of the network, to permit a more flexible reciprocal exchange of students and a joint education at the doctoral level in the long term. | |
| Finally, by contributing to raise awareness among the whole research community of the necessity to systematically question research methods and practices, we strive to avoid, or at least drastically reduce, waste in research. Our efforts to increase the value of research and contribute to a better use of research funding will have an impact on the whole research system.",2019-04-19 20:02:36,,676207,MIROR,H2020-EU.1.3.1.,MSCA-ITN-2015-EJD,http://miror-ejd.eu/ | |
| 9737,185150,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DAFAP (Development of Advanced Functional Absorbent Products),"DAFAP overall innovation project aims at improving the performance of feminine hygiene items (i.e. sanitary pads, tampons and pantyliners) by adding specific elements with important preventive and/or therapeutic properties. To achieve this, DAFAP’s goal is to develop...","DAFAP overall innovation project aims at improving the performance of feminine hygiene items (i.e. sanitary pads, tampons and pantyliners) by adding specific elements with important preventive and/or therapeutic properties. To achieve this, DAFAP’s goal is to develop advanced manufacturing and industrialization processes that allow COHITECH to benefit from this business opportunity. | |
| DAFAP will introduce to the market a natural and ecological choice for their intimate hygiene. These new products will be competing against the conventional products, made with viscose, petroleum-based polymers and chemical additives, which can cause dangerous risks to the women who use them (as irritation, itching allergies or other more dangerous damages). DAFAP will be based on 100 % hypoallergenic and ecological pure cotton, and also will present functional features (Smell neutralization, Antimicrobial properties...). | |
| The goal of the overall project is to transform the prototype solution which is currently in a TRL6 development stage to TRL9 market commercial product by the end of Phase 2. Hence, COHITECH needs to develop a sustainable and efficient process to use this eco-friendly material, improving an internal technology, to produce a very complete range of products with strong benefits for women. These products will be sold released in international markets. | |
| The current feasibility assessment is decisive to anticipate all development constraints and identify possible market entry risks before Phase2.","The current feasibility study has analysed how to progress to a commercial profitable product. To do that, we have studied the feasibility of the development and we defined the reference Business Plan. | |
| During the project execution we have undertaken a deep analysis of the different related areas of the project, studying the technical, economic and commercial viability of the project. Concretely we have focused in: | |
| - Needs analysis: aimed at gathering key data about gaps, trends, needs and wants from the European sanitary protection market stakeholders. | |
| - Technical analysis: in which we studied the technical requirements of the DAFAP’s advanced manufacturing process as well as prototype’s redesign for reaching a commercial level. | |
| - Market & Competitive advantage analysis: where we studied the sanitary protection market, identifying the major market drivers, restraints, and opportunities, and to determine DAFAP’s Unique Selling Proposition. | |
| - Business Model feasibility: focused on evaluating the effectiveness of DAFAP for creating, delivering and capturing economic value. | |
| - Risk & Sensitivity studies: aimed at assessing the risks associated with DAFAP with their mitigation measures. | |
| - Economic and Financial analysis: in which we analysed the sustainability of the development of DAFAP and COHITECH’s projection. | |
| - Project implementation analysis: concerned at studying the Managerial and operational capacity of the company, the Innovation strategy plan and all issues related to improve DAFAP’s Impact.","The expected final results of the project are a series of feminine hygiene items (Sanitary Pads, Maternity Pads, Tampons, Panty Liners and Breast Pads), 100% natural, without any chemical product added, and achieving the same efficiency as the conventional, currently present in the World market. | |
| The resulting new products will also become more environmentally friendly than the current solutions due to they are based on biodegradable 100% pure cotton instead of viscose fiber, bleached with chlorine, and chemical additives. | |
| The current project directly addresses feminine hygiene problems that are global and the application has no geographical limitation. Moreover, the associated environmental benefits the project faces are of worldwide interest. | |
| The result of this project is fully aimed at sanitary products for feminine hygiene. However, in some cases, these results could be extrapolated to many other sectors hence enlarging the impact. These additional sectors are: baby diapers and specific medical devices for the incontinence affected men and diapers and panty liners for patients treated or being treated for urinary problems.",2018-07-25 18:13:40,,674192,DAFAP,H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.2.1.2.,NMP-25-2014-1,http://www.cohitech.net/en/ | |
| 10142,186455,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INNCAT (Enhancing INNovation management capacity of CATalan small and medium enterprises),"As part of the Horizon 2020 Innovation in SMEs Work Programme 2014–2015, the call “Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs” proposed the offering of assessment, mentoring and coaching services to SMEs with the objective of increasing and accelerating the...","As part of the Horizon 2020 Innovation in SMEs Work Programme 2014–2015, the call “Enhancing the innovation management capacity of SMEs” proposed the offering of assessment, mentoring and coaching services to SMEs with the objective of increasing and accelerating the economic returns from innovation. | |
| Through the project INNCAT, ACCIÓ (Catalan Agency for Business Competitiveness) has offered in 2014 the following innovation services in the region of Catalonia to 17 SMEs: | |
| • Key Account Management (KAM) to the beneficiaries of the first SME Instrument calls, offering support in the coach selection with the objective to empower the company to commercialise its innovation. | |
| • Innovation Management (EIMC) to SMEs with significant innovation activities and a high potential for internationalization, with the objective to enhance their innovation management capacities.","Key Account Management (KAM): | |
| Each SME beneficiary of the Horizon 2020 SME instrument has access to a free business innovation coaching service (3-days for Phase 1 beneficiaries and 12-days for Phase 2 beneficiaries) offered by the European Commission. These services are offered additionally to the grants received by the SMEs for their innovation project, with the main objective to help them overcome the challenge of bringing a new product or service to the market and, thus, bridge the so called innovation valley of death. | |
| It is the role of the KAM to help the SME make the most of the coaching service, offering them a short list of suitable coaches to collaborate with and supporting them through all process. In 2014, ACCIÓ offered through INNCAT KAM services to 7 Catalan SMEs beneficiaries of the very first SME Instrument cut-off (June 2014). | |
| KAM services offered by ACCIÓ followed an easy 4-step process where 1) the company was contacted by the KAM to exchange general information. Once the company accepted receiving the service, a business innovation need analysis was performed using an open-source tool developed under an European Project (sME-mPOWER). 2) The result of the analysis was used by the KAM to select 3 suitable coaches from the European Commission Database; 3) the company selected the coach and started the business coaching sessions; 4) the service was closed and KAM gathered feedback for improving forthcoming services. | |
| By the end of 2014, 6 SMEs reached the coach selection step and were ready to start receiving the coaching services. | |
| Innovation Management (EIMC): | |
| To help improve innovation management capacities in SMEs, ACCIÓ offered to Catalan SME assessment services using IMP3rove, a tool which demonstrates compliance to the innovation management standard CEN/TS 16555-1. The services were offered by highly qualified senior staff trained in using IMP3rove and with experience delivering innovation management services to SMEs. | |
| The EIMC service for SMEs followed a 4-step process where selected innovative SME with willingness to grow 1) received an assessment in Innovation Management capacity using the IMP3rove methodology; 2) based on the assessment needs/gap analysis results, an action plan was presented to the company; 3) the SME implemented the action plan and; 4) the case is closed and feedback was provided to ACCIÓ. | |
| Once finished the service, companies should be in a better position to manage its internal innovation processes in such a way that they were not only aligned with, but fully integrated into the company's overall business development and growth strategy. | |
| ACCIÓ delivered EIMC services to 12 SMEs, 11 of which finished the Innovation Management assessment (IMP3rove). Furthermore, by the end of 2014, 3 SMEs went through the needs and gap analysis, an action plan was agreed and they were ready to implement it.","KAM & EIMC services were offered as a pilot action in 2014 and will be continued in 2015, as an integral part of the Enterprise Europe Network services portfolio. Once coaching services will be provided (KAM) and innovation plans will be implemented (EIMC) it is expected that SMEs that received these services will improve their innovation projects’ results. Therefore, it is expected that thanks to INNCAT, 17 high growth innovative Catalan SMEs will be ready to compete worldwide offering innovative products and services.",2018-04-23 17:23:27,,643333,INNCAT,H2020-EU.2.3.,INNOSUP,http://accio.gencat.cat/horizon2020 | |
| 2514,198310,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - iSQAPER (Interactive Soil Quality Assessment in Europe and China for Agricultural Productivity and Environmental Resilience),"Given the importance of soils for crop and livestock production as well as for providing wider ecosystem services, maintaining the land in good condition is of vital importance. To manage the use of agricultural soils well, decision-makers need science-based, easy to apply and...","Given the importance of soils for crop and livestock production as well as for providing wider ecosystem services, maintaining the land in good condition is of vital importance. To manage the use of agricultural soils well, decision-makers need science-based, easy to apply and cost-effective tools to assess soil quality and function, accompanied by recommendations relevant to the land user at a given moment and location. Furthermore, policy decisions need to consider the management of agricultural soils in relation with trade-offs with other economic sectors, and ecosystem service impacts and contributions. | |
| iSQAPER aims to: | |
| 1) Integrate existing soil quality related information with characterisations of crop and livestock farming systems in various pedo-climatic zones across Europe and China; | |
| 2) Synthesize the evidence for agricultural management effects provided by long-term field trials across Europe and China on soil physical, chemical and biological properties, including interactions, and related ecosystem services such as agricultural productivity and yield stability; | |
| 3) Derive and identify innovative soil quality indicators that can be integrated into an easy-to-use interactive soil quality assessment tool, accounting for the effects of agricultural land management practices and related effects upon ecosystem services; | |
| 4) Develop, with input from a variety of stakeholders, a multilingual Soil Quality Application (SQAPP) for in-field soil quality assessment and monitoring as an example of social innovation that allows interaction between multilevel actors; | |
| 5) Test, refine, and roll out SQAPP across Europe and China as a new standard for holistic assessment of agricultural soil quality; | |
| 6) Use a trans-disciplinary, multi-actor approach to validate and support SQAPP and to become truly relevant for agricultural practice under a wide range of circumstances; | |
| 7) Develop scenarios of how widespread application of improved agricultural management practices can contribute to a lower soil environmental footprint at a continental scale (Europe and China), while maintaining or increasing crop productivity and yield stability; | |
| 8) Carry out an integrated assessment of existing soil and agriculture related EU and national (including China) policies and derive recommendations for improvement, i.e. through the post-2020 CAP; and | |
| 9) Disseminate project results using a variety of formats and media to inform and engage targeted stakeholders, ranging from land users to high-level policy makers and the general public.","Pedo-climatic zones were deliniated for Europe and China based on numerical approaches (e.g. Figure 1). Also, a classification of farming systems was made based on the most important land use types including plant and animal breeding. | |
| Existing field trials available to iSQAPER in Europe and China were documented and a database of existing long-term experiment (LTE) data was compiled. The effects of five management practices on six soil quality indicators was evaluated in a meta-analysis. The lack of a coherent dataset from all LTEs was identified as an important knowledge gap and addressed in a sampling campaign. | |
| A critical review of existing concepts of soil quality started by clarifying the important terminology and establishing linkages between soil functions, ecosystem services and soil threats. 49 soil quality concepts from around the world were reviewed, from their objectives and target users to the proposed indicators and evaluation, informing the cornerstones of a new soil quality concept. | |
| An interactive Soil Quality App (SQAPP) has been conceptualised by engaging with farmers, software developers and researchers to lay out the foundations of the SQAPP. Multiple sessions were organised to interact with different audiences to discuss ideas. | |
| For all 14 Case Study Sites a stakeholder inventory was conducted using a snowball sampling approach. In total 234 stakeholders were identified. A total of 155 plots/farms were identified covering 9 Climatic regions and the most common soil types within each region. Innovative agricultural management practices (AMPs) were identified in a transdisciplinary approach. Based on a prioritisation of AMPs for the most important soil threats in each area, 23 testing sites were preliminarily selected. | |
| Work on policy analysis has started with scoping meetings to define a shortlist of concepts and priorities upon which to focus. A systemic review of policies was made at EU level and national level in Europe that impact on the protection of soils on agricultural land. Training sessions were organised for project partners and topics for a series of five policy briefs each up to 10/15 pages in length were identified. | |
| The first version of the Plan for the Exploitation and Dissemination of Results has been written with key messages from each study site and WP provisionally identified for different target audiences. The iSQAPERiS website (www.iSQAPER-is.eu) has been set up with most of the necessary functionality and a provisional structure designed to enhance the communication of the research results.","While there is consensus that a set of chemical, biological and physical indicators is needed in combination to characterise soil quality, there is not yet a consensus on the best combination of properties to effectively assess how soil quality interacts with land use, soil type and climatic conditions to influence the biomass production (agronomic) function of soils. Furthermore, there is a lack of clarity about the effects agricultural management practices have on changing physical and chemical soil properties and also on the composition of the soil biological community. iSQAPER addresses these issues through analysis of ongoing long-term field trials supplemented by targeted lab and field experiments. | |
| There is also a research gap in easy-to-apply tools to assess soil quality at the plot, field, farm and regional level, which can be used by practitioners in the agricultural sector. The Soil Quality app (SQAPP) will advance the current state of the art by developing social soil quality mapping as a new two-way methodology of data collection and advice rendering, allowing tool recommendations to improve over time. | |
| iSQAPER expects the following five impacts: | |
| 1. Exploring, in more detail than currently available, the interactions between land management practices and changes in soil properties and function. | |
| 2. Development of a widely accessible and cost effective tool to assess and monitor the quality of agricultural soils based on integrating state-of-the-art soil physical, chemical and biological knowledge with site specific data, indicators, and modelling approaches. | |
| 3. Maintain and preferably increase crop productivity and yield stability through introduction and adoption of agricultural land management practices which ensure a certain level of soil quality. | |
| 4. Quantified relationship between soil quality, crop productivity and yield stability, and ecosystem services (among others) for agricultural activities deployed by land users in different farming systems across major pedo-climatic zones of Europe and China. | |
| 5. Offer insights into how best to use the opportunity of the on-going reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to improve the sector’s resource efficiency and environmental performance and reduce its impact on soil, water, air, biodiversity and landscape.",2019-04-05 09:41:18,,635750,iSQAPER,H2020-EU.3.2.,SFS-04-2014,http://www.isqaper-project.eu/ | |
| 417,192906,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MIA (Multidisciplinary Institute for Ageing),"MIA Teaming project is a partnership between the University of Coimbra, PT (partner in a low-performing country) and the University of Newcastle, UK (partner in a high-performing country) to create, in Coimbra, a new Centre of Excellence in Ageing Research - the...","MIA Teaming project is a partnership between the University of Coimbra, PT (partner in a low-performing country) and the University of Newcastle, UK (partner in a high-performing country) to create, in Coimbra, a new Centre of Excellence in Ageing Research - the Multidisciplinary Institute of Ageing (MIA). The creation of this new Centre of Excellence is being coordinated by the regional authority Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Centro, with the tight collaboration in the operational coordination by University of Coimbra. | |
| The overall objective of MIA is to perform world-class fundamental research in ageing and foster its translation into human interventions, improving health and wellbeing of an ageing population, inspired by the successful international example of the Newcastle University Institute for Ageing (NUIA, UK) and the European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA, The Netherlands). The institute will be based on a World-class research core on biology of ageing, with simultaneously peripheral services and social partnerships that will help to support and give a social meaning to the research. | |
| To understand a complex process like ageing, a multidisciplinary outlook and collaboration between a range of scientific domains will continue to be promoted amongst the partners of MIA Project, as well as inside each institution research groups to foster critical mass creation in the understanding this social critical problem. Additionally, the MIA project aims at converging scientific research and public, patient and local business engagement to bring together, to a Vitality Campus university, health care, volunteer sector and business activities so that this network supports the healthy ageing and independence-through life of the local population and promotes innovation in products and services. | |
| Within this context, the main goals and objectives of this MIA Project – Business plan creation were to: | |
| (1) to deeply study the local environment and plan adequate activities to implement MIA with the successful examples of the NUIA (United Kingdom) and ERIBA (The Netherlands) as role models; | |
| (2) to promote institutional engagement between the partners of the consortium to consolidate the future of MIA. | |
| In the second phase of the project, the main goals and objectives are to: | |
| (1) perform world-class research into the biology of ageing with the aim to detect and validate targets for health-prolonging interventions as well as to identify and validate potential biomarkers allowing early detection of diseases and enabling assessment of intervention efficiency; | |
| (2) translate research results into clinical intervention and towards innovation and technology transfer; | |
| (3) train young researchers in both fundamental and translational research; | |
| (4) engage the public in support and implementation of innovative good practices, pharmacological and lifestyle interventions.","At the closure of the CSA phase of the MIA Teaming project, all the initially proposed objectives have been achieved. Bellow follows a description per work package. | |
| Achievements from WP1 – “Management” | |
| Goal: “Building a provisional governance structure to assure the establishment of MIA in the CSA phase” | |
| Achieved: 25 deliverables produced; | |
| 15 milestones accomplished; | |
| >40 Million euro direct investment; | |
| >65 Million euro total investment; | |
| Installation Committee in place to ensure transition of MIA phase 1 to phase 2; | |
| Selection of 1 ERA Chair holder among 16 international applications following 2 open calls (top ranked candidate h factor 31; 3876 citations; papers in Nature Methods, Nature Communications, Cell Stem Cell, PNAS, and others, 6 Million euros attracted since 2008). | |
| Achievements from WP2 – “Create a constructive and sustainable partnership” | |
| Goals: “MIA business model and scientific development supported by an inspiring teaming partnership. Activities will support collaborative networks in the area of science, advanced teaching and innovation/entrepreneurship.” | |
| Achieved: >400 scientists participated in International Ageing Conferences (UC, UNEW and UMCG); | |
| >300 participants in the Regional Meeting Ageing@Coimbra; | |
| 6 scientists, MSc and PhD students involved in twinning collaboration; | |
| joint submission of 6 H2020 and EIT Health KIC projects; | |
| 2 PhD courses involving 20 lecturers from UC, UNEW and UMCG, 41 students; | |
| 1 summer school involving 24 lecturers and 21 students; | |
| 1 EIT Health Short Course approved (partnership with UNEW and UoC). | |
| Achievements from WP3 – “Preparation of the business plan” | |
| Goal: “Collaborative actions between team partners and working groups to identify resources, design science and business development strategies and elaborate a detailed business plan to support the creation and long-term sustainability of a science centre of international reputation” | |
| Achieved: 1 business plan for MIA-Portugal endorsed by 5 letters of commitment and support. | |
| Achievements from WP4 – “Engagement, communication and dissemination” | |
| Goal: “Engage with national and international stakeholders to create a “spirit of teaming”, ownership of responsibility for the success of a common mission, leverage the critical mass and excellence of strategy and outcomes.” | |
| Achieved: 1 advocacy committee (commitment of coordinator); | |
| 1 civic society group and charity “Friends of MIA” (commitment of coordinator); | |
| 1 MIA-Portugal web site and facebook; | |
| 1 Ageing@Coimbra portal; | |
| 2 short movies (youtube) on Ageing@Coimbra and 1 on MIA; | |
| web site and facebook visits > 62400; | |
| 1 high-level advocacy meeting at the national Parliament; | |
| 1 regional meeting Ageing@Coimbra, | |
| >300 participants, closing session with the President of Portuguese Republic; | |
| 3 high-level meetings in Brussels and Groningen; | |
| 1 news in a major national TV with a target audience 766,260 people and media market impact of 194.724 euros; | |
| >360 news published in printed and online regional and national media (Ageing@Coimbra, including MIA-Portugal project). | |
| For further information, please consult Deliverable D1.4 or the Technical Report.","MIA-Portugal presents itself as a vehicle to increase the socio-economic impact of Healthy Ageing Research in the Centro Region of Portugal. Indeed, throughout the past year several activities have been submitted/approved with a linkage to the Institute. More specifically: 3 for H2020/FP7 funding, 6 for European Structural Funds, and 8 to EIT Health projects in the different pillars of the Knowledge Triangle. | |
| As for its wider societal implications, MIA-Portugal will be set out in the Ageing@Coimbra Vitality Campus, with which partners it has already established strong partnerships as it is the case of Instituto Pedro Nunes and Biocant (both Teaming partners for the second stage of the project), the Coimbra Hospital and Universitary Centre, Cáritas Diocesana de Coimbra, among others. Altogether, the Vitality Campus will support interdisciplinary knowledge offers to elderly people, health-preserving prevention strategies, knowledge transfer, co-creation and co-development of technology and life-long learning, health and social integrated care. In the past year, different strategies have been aligned to implement in the Vitality Campus, namely in the areas of: innovation and technology transfer, translational and clinical research, the integration of MIA-Portugal, and its economic sustainability. | |
| To note that Ageing@Coimbra has been recognized as one of the most relevant Reference Sites of EIP-AHA with 3*** (2016 call), member of the Reference Site Collaborative Network and the Covenant on Demographic changes; under the umbrella of the Regional Authority CCDRC.",2019-04-29 09:27:06,,664629,MIA,H2020-EU.4.a.,WIDESPREAD-1-2014,http://www.miacoimbra.org/ | |
| 1512,218839,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NOVAMAG (NOVel, critical materials free, high Anisotropy phases for permanent MAGnets, by design.)",The demand for lower dependency on critical raw materials (CRM) such as rare earths (RE) is not only a European but a global problem that demands immediate action. The purpose of this proposal is to exploit advanced theoretical and computation methods together with...,"The demand for lower dependency on critical raw materials (CRM) such as rare earths (RE) is not only a European but a global problem that demands immediate action. The purpose of this proposal is to exploit advanced theoretical and computation methods together with state-of-the-art materials preparation and characterization techniques, to develop the next generation RE-free/lean permanent magnets (PM). The material design will be driven by automated large computational screening of new and novel intermetallic compounds with uniaxial structure in order to achieve high saturation magnetisation, magnetocrystalline anisotropy and Curie temperature. The simulations will be based on a primary screening detecting the mechanisms that give rise to distorted phases and stabilize them, by adding doping atoms as stabilizers. In a further computation on successfully synthetized compounds, micromagnetic calculations will be used in order to design the optimal microstructure for the given phases that will maximise the coercivity needed for a PM. Extensive experimental processing and characterisation of the selected phases will result in a first proof of principle of the feasibility of NOVAMAG PMs. A multidisciplinary team of magnet experts consisting of chemists, material scientists, physicists and engineers from academia, national labs and industry is assembled to undertake a concerted, systematic and innovative study to overcome the problems involved and develop the next generation RE-free/lean PMs. Currently the demand for these PMs is even higher with the emerging markets of hybrid/electric vehicles and wind mill power systems. The proposed research and development will provide the fundamental innovations and breakthroughs which will have a major impact in re-establishing the Europe as a leader in the science, technology and commercialization of this very important class of materials and help decrease our dependence on China, which will in turn improve the competitiveness of EU manufacturers.","AGA methodology was applied to massively explore the crystal phase space of Fe-rich and Mn-Al phases searching for new non-cubic structures with high stability (negative enthalpy of formation, ∆HF<0) and high saturation magnetization (µ0MS>1T). From this massive exploration,around 12.000 structures, finding more tan 100 which could fulfil the first screening: deltaHf < 0; u0Ms > 1T; structure=HEX, TET, ORT, RHO, ferromagnetic structures were calculated by an initial quick estimation so we could select several compounds for the calculation of magnetic properties. This procedure was implemented into the AGA search in an efficient way. The structure of the candidate phases was further optimized. | |
| The magnetic properties of the newly predicted phases and of known optimized phases identified in WP1 were studied by first principles methods. These magnetic properties comprise: magnetic moments, MAE, exchange coupling constants, Curie temperature, M(T), thermodynamics. Calculated magnetic properties of the new phases and known optimized phases, together with experimental data, are being included in a very comprehensive database that will be ready at the end of the project. We follow the European Material Modelling Ontology (EMMO) and construct the database taxonomy and ontology based on MODA. | |
| A very wide and comprehensive experimental screening of the predicted phases has been carried out by several techniques: combinatorial sputtering, reactive crucible melting and non-equilibrium techniques, such as melt spinning or mechanical alloying. Among all the samples that were produced, some were already discarded. Some compounds, with very promising properties, have not been produced so far, but further efforts will be done. | |
| The influence of the microstructure and temperature on the coercivity and maximum energy product were theoretically studied. Interface properties and grain boundary stability were studied by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. Promising candidate phases for rare-earth free permanent magnets were studied with respect to interfaces and grain boundaries. In addition, spin dynamics simulations were used to compute the temperature dependence of the intrinsic magnetic properties and to calculate the influence of local anisotropy variations next to interfaces on coercivity. | |
| The microstructure of a magnet is essential for developing coercivity. The influence of the microstructure on coercivity, remanence, and energy density product was studied using micromagnetic simulations. In these simulations synthetic microstructures were built and discretized with finite elements. Using numerical optimization tools, the structures were optimized, in order to maximize the coercive field or the energy density product. Structure optimization was performed for possible candidate phases. A study on the influence of thermal activation on the coercive field of permanent magnets made from candidate phases was also carried out. | |
| A full structural, thermodynamic and magnetic characterization has been carried out in samples produced in WP3. Different characterization techniques provide information complementary to each other. The experimental results are compared with the predictions obtained by theoretical groups, so that they can adjust the models and computing methods with our input, to get a better understanding of the real behavior, and improve further predictions.","The AGA method has been implemented for massive exploration of the structures, and validated against known stable phases of representative magnetic structures. A 100% of success rate was obtained for predicting well-known representative magnetic structures, comprising intermetallic alloys, oxides, interstitial compounds and systems containing rare-earth elements, for both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic ordering. | |
| TUDA performed systematic calculations on FeNi+X and FeCo+X (X=H, B, C and N) to study the induced tetragonal distortion. It has been observed that N tends to stabilize an enhanced tetragonal distortion of the FeNi lattice. Experimentally, NCRSD was able to obtain an important percentage of the tetragonal phase in bulk by flux melting with In. Actually, this important finding could be subject for a patent application, as industrial partners pointed in WP9. We expect to obtain an even larger percentage of the tetragonal phase by optimization of the synthesis techniques. | |
| In the following months, we expect to produce bonded (Nd-based nitrogenated 1:12 alloys) and sintered magnets (Sm-based 1:12 alloys) and also by additive manufacturing (Mn-Al-C alloys). The magnetic properties of these magnets will be measured and we expect to obtain results that would be interesting for industries to produce and use our magnets. If successful results are obtained for these magnets we would have achieved a large reduction of the RE-content in PM and so CRM-content. | |
| The database that we are currently designing and implementing would comprise very useful information for both theoreticians and experimentalists about not only structural but also magnetic properties of a very wide range of compounds. This database will be open for users so everyone can access and take advantage of our research.",2019-04-17 12:18:19,,686056,NOVAMAG,H2020-EU.2.1.3.,NMP-23-2015,https://www.novamag.eu | |
| 9877,192891,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Ada (Ada 2020 | Visual Reasoning Support for Healthcare Professionals),"400 million people around the world don’t have access to basic healthcare, and even in more developed health care systems, increased resource strain along with the growing complexity of medicine can often lead to incomplete information gathering, misdiagnosis and little...","400 million people around the world don’t have access to basic healthcare, and even in more developed health care systems, increased resource strain along with the growing complexity of medicine can often lead to incomplete information gathering, misdiagnosis and little consultation time left to spend with patients. | |
| In the US alone, over 12M patients are misdiagnosed each year, with half of those errors leading to serious harm. And in the EU, 23% of citizens claim to have been directly affected by a medical error, with 18% experiencing a serious medical error in a hospital and 11% being prescribed the wrong medication. | |
| Additionally, each year healthcare systems around the world lose billions of dollars due to misdiagnosis and unnecessary procedures. In the field of vertigo diseases, misdiagnoses and wrong treatments cost approximately 1B EUR per year in Germany, and in the US, a recent report by the Institute of Medicine disclosed that the U.S. health system wastes more than $750 billion a year -- or 30 percent of medical expenses -- in unnecessary, inefficient services. | |
| To address these problems, Ada has developed a bespoke probabilistic reasoning engine that supports diagnosis decision making for even the most complex cases in a robust and efficient way, and facilitates a more comprehensive digital record of important health information and history – medication, allergies and more – for users to share with their doctors or other healthcare professionals.","Ada has spent years of fundamental research and development in new reasoning techniques, culminating in an intelligent, visual reasoning tool that sits at the interface between patients and medical professionals, and benefits both. It is supported by a comprehensive medical knowledge base, curated by Ada’s team of medical experts over six years, and today covers hundreds of thousands of real medical cases, conditions, symptoms and findings. Ada’s reasoning technology reviews multiple pieces of data to arrive at the most probable health conditions, and because it incorporates a process of multiple feedback loops and continuous learning, it continues to grow more intelligent with every interaction. | |
| Ada’s 2020 Research team has also successfully helped integrate new data sources and pathophysiological information, including sensors, Apple Healthkit, transient manifestations of diseases, rare disease information and 23andMe into Ada’s reasoning engine. These enhancements contribute to improving the accuracy and personalisation of Ada’s health assessment, and have contributed important insights for the team’s research collaborations with the Hannover Medical School (MHH) Center for Rare Diseases and the HighMed Consortium. | |
| In 2016, Ada translated its existing technology and medical content into a patient-facing, conversational chat bot, available to everyone in the world, and launched additional telemedicine services enabling patients to receive medical advice from doctors. There are many opportunities in the healthcare industry for Ada to grow. Since Ada launched its full end-to-end platform of services, the team has received interest from a number of governments, health providers and other industry stakeholders, where there is a lot of potential for Ada to add value. | |
| The Ada2020 team has been actively communicating the project and its results through press interviews and digital channels- a website that carefully explains the project’s research and technology, a blog highlighting Ada team members, product updates and issues related to Ada’s global impact, and active social media channels. The Ada2020 Research team continues to work closely with stakeholders across Europe’s academic and digital health ecosystem, sharing results and new findings in publications and at health and medical conferences, among other channels.","According to the WHO, strategies to reduce the rate of adverse events (misdiagnosis and infrastructural inefficiencies) in the European Union, would lead to the prevention of more than 750,000 harm-inflicting medical errors per year, leading in turn to over 3.2 million fewer days of hospitalization, 260, 000 fewer incidents of permanent disability, and 95, 000 fewer deaths per year. A fundamental way to close this gap is to improve access of credible medical information and provide earlier, more comprehensive clinical decision making support. | |
| Along these lines, Ada is transforming the patient doctor-relationship by making it easier for patients to get relevant and personalised health information and advice, while arming medical professionals with actionable patient insights and a sophisticated, real-time decision-support system. Ada is improving the lives of millions of people around the world, with a new health assessment generated on Ada every 7 seconds, and medical specialists identifying cases where Ada’s decision support technology would’ve saved patients years of tests and missed diagnoses. | |
| Mobile technology, combined with ‘intelligent’ reasoning technology, can radically improve global healthcare access, and be transformative for clinical decision making and diagnostic analysis. Given the huge volumes of data in the healthcare sector, there is huge potential for technologies like Ada to help to organise and analyse it, providing health professionals with assistance in making informed decisions, designing treatment plans and managing medication to name a few. On a community health level, the speed and volume at which AI can help process hundreds of thousands of conditions and diseases will also enable medical scientists to identify patterns of disease, identify and track global health issues and trends, and understand and detect conditions on a whole new level. | |
| Each year tens of thousands of deaths could be averted through better care, with innovative health assessment and decision support technologies like Ada helping to reduce the personal suffering of the patients, while generating tremendous cost savings simultaneously.",2018-07-27 17:18:35,,674459,Ada,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,ICT-37-2014,https://ada.com/ada2020/ | |
| 7644,230766,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IMMUNOALZHEIMER (The role of immune cells in Alzheimer's disease),"""Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and it affects more than 35 million people worldwide. Based on statistical studies on the aging population, it is estimated that by 2030 nearly 66 million people will have Alzheimer’s disease and by 2050 Alzheimer's...","""Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and it affects more than 35 million people worldwide. Based on statistical studies on the aging population, it is estimated that by 2030 nearly 66 million people will have Alzheimer’s disease and by 2050 Alzheimer's will be a global epidemic with rates exceeding 115 million individuals. Alzheimer’s disease drives to death within 3 to 9 years after diagnosis and THERE IS NO CURE FOR THE DISEASE. Current drugs provide symptomatic benefit for up to 1 year, but there are no disease-modifying therapies. | |
| Alzheimer's disease is characterized by a progressive deterioration of cognitive functions, and the neuropathological features include amyloid beta deposition, aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau protein, and the loss of neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). Research efforts in the past decades have been focused on neurons and other CNS resident cells, but this """"neurocentric"""" view has not resulted in disease-modifying therapies. | |
| Growing evidence suggests that inflammation mechanisms are involved in Alzheimer's disease and the project team has recently shown an unexpected role for neutrophils in Alzheimer's disease, supporting the innovative idea that circulating leukocytes contribute to disease pathogenesis. | |
| The MAIN GOAL of IMMUNOALZHEIMER is to study the role of circulating immune cells in animal models of Alzheimer's disease, focusing on neutrophils and T cells. We will study leukocyte-endothelial interactions in CNS microcirculation in intravital microscopy experiments. Leukocyte trafficking will be also studied inside the brain parenchyma by using two-photon microscopy, which will allow us to characterize leukocyte dynamic behaviour and the crosstalk between migrating leukocytes and CNS cells. The effect of therapeutic blockade of leukocyte-dependent inflammation mechanisms will be determined in animal models of Alzheimer's disease. Finally, the presence of neutrophils and T cells will be studied on brain samples from Alzheimer's disease patients and we will correlate leukocyte accumulation and microenvironmental positioning to disease severity. | |
| Overall, IMMUNOALZHEIMER will generate fundamental knowledge to the understanding of the role of immune cells in neurodegeneration and will unveil novel therapeutic strategies to address Alzheimer’s disease. | |
| ""","The MAIN GOAL of our project is to study the role of immune cells in the pathogenesis of animal models of Alzheimer’s disease and to identify novel potential therapeutic targets for this disease. | |
| During the first 18 months, at OBJECTIVE I we characterized neutrophil-driven inflammation and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. Particularly, we investigated neutrophil accumulation in models of Alzheimer’s disease and characterized the molecular mechanisms controlling neutrophil-endothelial interactions in intravital microscopy studies in brain microcirculation. We also characterized neutrophil intraparenchymal dynamics including the interactions with neural cells and identified the previously unknown existence of cell-cell interactions in animals with Alzheimer’s-like disease. We demonstrated the impact of blockade of trafficking mechanisms on disease and our data showed that therapeutic inhibition of key migration mechanisms improves memory and reduces microglial activation, amyloid deposition and tau hyperphosphorylation (Pietronigro et al., manuscript submitted; Zenaro et al., manuscript in preparation). Finally, at Objective I we started the characterization of neutrophil accumulation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease to correlate disease severity to neutrophil infiltration. | |
| During the first 18 months, at OBJECTIVE II we determined the impact of T cells on cognitive decline and neuropatological changes in mice with Alzheimer’s-like disease. Notably, we found a previously unknown role for specific T cell subpopulations in disease pathogenesis. Moreover, we found that early inhibition of T cell function blocks disease development and improves memory in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease (Ghasemi et al., manuscript in preparation; Iannoto et al., manuscript in preparation). We also characterized the molecular mechanisms controlling the interactions between inflamed brain endothelium and T cells and studied the motility behavior and interactions between T cells and neural cells. We found a role for specific integrins in activated T cell motility inside inflamed central nervous system, suggesting these molecules may represent novel therapeutic targets in Alzheimer’s disease (Dusi et al., manuscript submitted; Rossi et al., manuscript in preparation). | |
| During the first financial reporting period we also characterized the molecular mechanisms controlling T cell trafficking mechanisms in the Alzheimer’s disease brain and the contacts between migrating leukocytes and neural cells. All these microscopy studies, which represent a large part of the project, were initially planned to be performed exclusively in vivo. Indeed, animal models are invaluable to address critical questions regarding the pathogenesis of human diseases and are essential for testing new therapeutic strategies. However, animal models are also very costly, may lack sufficient sensitivity in imaging experiments, are time consuming and present several ethical issues. | |
| In recent years new powerful and groundbreaking approaches have emerged in the context of tissue and organ 3D cultures, coupling co-culture of many cells of different origins to microfluidic devices, allowing the building of increasingly complex in vitro micro environments recapitulating, at least partially, the complexity of in vivo conditions. These 3D cutting-edge approaches, globally called organoids, organ chips or lab on chips, hold the promise to revolutionize bio-medical research having many unquestionable advantages, including a level of complexity reasonably resembling the in vivo counterpart, better standardized and reproducible experimental contexts, higher sensitivity of imaging experiments, possibility to study fine molecular mechanisms under dynamic conditions, opportunity of technological scale up, containment of costs and less ethical issues to address compared to in vivo studies (Pamploni et al., Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2007 Oct;8(10):839-45; Kraehenbuehl e","Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia affecting more than 35 million people worldwide and its prevalence is projected to nearly double every 20 years with tremendous social and economic impact on the society. There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease and current drugs only temporarily improve disease symptoms. | |
| The research activities proposed in IMMUNOALZHEIMER are therefore in the context an important challenge for the society: the Alzheimer's disease global epidemic. Our project goes beyond the state-of-the-art of the amyloid hypothesis and “neurocentric” views in Alzheimer’s disease proposing a role for circulating immune cells in disease pathogenesis. | |
| IMMUNOALZHEIMER is an INTERDISCIPLINARY project based on the innovative idea of a role for circulating leukocytes in AD pathogenesis. Our expertise in immunology, leukocyte trafficking and neuroinflammation as well as our skills in advanced microscopy and animal models of Alzheimer’s disease place us at the leading edge for the study of the circulating immune cells in this disease. We will also use a cutting-edge 3D system, to provide more insight into the molecular mechanisms responsible for leukocyte-mediated damage in Alzheimer’s disease, facilitating the achievement of project objectives and reducing the number of laboratory animals. | |
| THE IMMUNOALZHEIMER’s team is therefore in the unique position to bring innovative ideas in the field leading to a more comprehensive picture of disease pathogenesis in which the role of immune cells has the potential to take the stage. | |
| Overall the studies proposed in IMMUNOALZHEIMER are pioneering and we expect to identify novel disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets in Alzheimer’s disease.",2018-08-29 16:49:22,,695714,IMMUNOALZHEIMER,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-ADG-2015, | |
| 988,198705,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - selfBACK (A decision support system for self-management of low back pain),"The recent global burden of disease study showed that low back pain (LBP) is the most significant contributor to disability in Europe. Most individuals seen in primary care with LBP have non-specific LBP (≥85%), i.e., pain that cannot reliably be attributed to a specific...","The recent global burden of disease study showed that low back pain (LBP) is the most significant contributor to disability in Europe. Most individuals seen in primary care with LBP have non-specific LBP (≥85%), i.e., pain that cannot reliably be attributed to a specific disease or pathology. LBP is the fourth most common diagnosis seen in primary care (after upper respiratory infection, hypertension, and coughing). Self-management in the form of physical activity and exercise programs constitutes the core component in the management of non-specific LBP; however, adherence to a self-management plan is challenging for most individuals due to lack of feedback and reinforcement. In this project, we have developed a decision support system (DSS) - SELFBACK - to be used by the individual him/herself to facilitate, improve and reinforce self-management of LBP. Specifically, SELFBACK is designed to assist the individual in deciding and reinforcing the appropriate actions to manage own LBP after consulting a health care professional. The decision support is conveyed to the individual via a smartphone app in the form of advice for self-management. The advice is tailored according to symptom state, symptom progression, the individual’s goal-setting, and a range of person characteristics including information from a physical activity-detecting wristband worn by the individual. The second part of the project is evaluating the effectiveness of SELFBACK in an international multi-centre randomized controlled trial (RCT) using pain-related disability as primary outcome. The RCT targets care-seeking individuals in primary care with non-specific LBP as their main health problem. Process evaluation will be carried out as an integrated part of the trial to document the implementation and map the individuals’ satisfaction with SELFBACK. A business plan with a targeted commercialization strategy is being developed to transfer the SELFBACK technology into the market.","The first milestone of the project – completion of the design phase of the SELFBACK app – was set and achieved in month 6. This milestone included a literature review, collecting relevant data from external resources, and the user interface design. Moreover, the project infrastructure has been set up and the first version of the data management plan is completed. In the reporting period, the beneficiaries started working towards the second milestone that is due in month 18. For this milestone the basic integration infrastructure is in place and the first completed components are available, including a model for physical activity recognition, a feature extraction algorithm, similarity measures as part of the case-based reasoning system, specification for the mobile app, demonstration of the web-based questionnaire. In the period from month 18 to month 30, the focus has been on implementing the decision support system and the accompanying app. This work included documentation on the case structure, a report on scaleable query processing, a definition of the user intervention modelling framework, a demonstrator of the integrated case-based reasoning system, a software component demonstration of the explanation engine, an application programming interface guide for back-end communication, a first version of smartphone SELFBACK application on iOS, a demonstration of the final connected SELFBACK mobile application on iOS and Android, a demonstration of web and mobile software interacting with connected devices such as a wristband that monitors patient activities, and a demonstration of localized software in multiple languages. Furthermore, the planning of the pilot and randomized controlled trials has started, and a complete protocol has been developed. The necessary ethics approvals for the feasibility studies, pilot study and the randomised controlled trial has been obtained. Finally, a business plan for exploitation of selected results has been developed.","The SELFBACK project targets the most common musculoskeletal disorder and the most significant contributor to disability in Europe. In a randomised controlled trial, we envisage that patients who use SELFBACK will have about 10% reduction in pain-related disability at 3 months’ follow-up compared to patients receiving treatment as usual. To achieve this, the SELFBACK system will be developed and designed to improve the participation of the patient in the care process, thereby enhancing motivation and the perception of ‘usefulness’ by the patient. The self-management plan will be tailored to each patient by integrating case-based reasoning and a machine-learning component into the SELFBACK system. Case-based reasoning is a technology that uses information about successful past cases of similar patients to optimize advice for self-management for new patients. The use of case-based reasoning and machine learning will enable us to develop predictive models that can be used to tailor self-management plans for each individual patient. By providing tailored feedback, decision support and improved understanding of own LBP, SELFBACK will empower the patient to improve self-management and thereby reduce the risk of long-term disability. With SELFBACK, the patient will be equipped with a tool that is far beyond the state-of-the-art to facilitate, improve and reinforce self-management of non-specific LBP. Although the effectiveness of SELFBACK remains to be proven, the potential cost-benefit is without doubt substantial. We estimate that the total cost of using SELFBACK will range between 120-150 EUR per patient, including the app, the activity-detecting wristband, and brief education to enable safe use of SELFBACK. SELFBACK does not require direct medical supervision and can easily be made available for a large number of people, thereby resulting in a highly cost-effective use of resources.",2019-04-23 13:00:42,,689043,selfBACK,H2020-EU.3.1.4.,PHC-28-2015,http://selfback.eu/ | |
| 1224,238458,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AutoPilot-Dx (Fast tracking market adoption of a novel immune-based diagnostic for improving antibiotic stewardship: automation, piloting and health economics)","A major driver of antibiotic misuse is the difficulty to clinically discriminate bacterial from viral infections. Antibiotic misuse leads to ineffective treatment, emergence of resistant strains of bacteria, and is estimated to cost healthcare systems worldwide tens of...","A major driver of antibiotic misuse is the difficulty to clinically discriminate bacterial from viral infections. Antibiotic misuse leads to ineffective treatment, emergence of resistant strains of bacteria, and is estimated to cost healthcare systems worldwide tens of billions of dollars annually (Fauci and Marston, JAMA, 2014). ImmunoXpert™ is an innovative in-vitro diagnostic test that leverages the world’s most accurate diagnostic system for differentiating bacteria from viruses, crafted by nature, the body’s immune system. This test measures three proprietary blood-borne immune proteins, including a novel viral-induced protein called TRAIL, which was not previously in clinical use, and employs pattern recognition algorithms to compute viral and bacterial likelihood scores. ImmunoXpert™ was developed and clinically validated in a large-scale multicenter prospective study (`Curiosity`), enrolling over 1000 patients between 2009 and 2013 (Oved et al. 2015, Eden et al. 2016). The assay was further evaluated in a series of double-blinded external clinical studies (van Houten et al 2016, Srugo et al. 2017). ImmunoXpert™ is approved for clinical use in the EU (CE-IVD certified). AutoPilot-Dx is a European consortium funded under Horizon 2020, The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot. AutoPilot-Dx is a cross sector effort (industry, KOLs, outcome researchers) aimed to drive clinical adoption of the new immune-based diagnostics - ImmunoXpert™. The project outlines a trans-disciplinary approach that includes assay automation, piloting in real-world clinical settings, utility validation and health economics. AutoPilot-Dx far-reaching goal is to improve antibiotic stewardship, providing better, personalized, care for febrile children, and help fight antibiotic resistance – a global health threat.","During the first reporting period three main activities were performed - | |
| 1) Automation - Manual ELISA ImmunoXpert™ assay was successfully transitioned to the automated EVO 75 workstation using a dedicated script protocol. Analytical verification of automated protocol was executed according to acceptable standards. Manual ELISA and automated assays were found to be highly correlated when tested on recombinant proteins as well as on clinical samples (for both TRAIL and IP-10). | |
| 2) Piloting - The diagnostic performance and clinical utility of ImmunoXpert™ is assessed as part of the AutoPilot clinical study. The study will enroll up to 1,200 pediatric patients presenting to the ED with respiratory tract infections (RTI) and fever without source (FWS), in leading medical centers in Germany and Italy. The study is active and patient recruitment is ongoing. In the first reporting period the clinical protocol was generated and approved by the Institutional Review Boards (IRB), and over 350 patients were prospectively recruited. Medical records were formulated into eCRFs to assist in establishing the patient reference diagnosis (bacterial or viral) by a panel of three experts. | |
| 3) Health economics and reimbursement - A health economic model, associating the diagnostic pathway followed for lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) with clinical outcomes and costs was generated. This model compares disease outcomes, costs, and patients’ quality of life in a scenario when ImmunoXpert™ is applied versus the current standard practices. An excel based interface was generated to enable model flexibility and result analysis. Additional modules that simulate the potential impact of ImmunoXpert™ test on antimicrobial resistance from different perspectives (e.g., societal, payer, hospital) are now being developed and are added to the model. A desk research in five European target countries was conducted to identify relevant the stakeholders and reimbursement processes; diagnostic and procedural codes; and the DRGs related to the reimbursement of diagnostic work and/or the treatment for respiratory tract infections.","AutoPilot-Dx will result in an automated and validated diagnostic test for distinguishing between viral and bacterial infection in pediatric patients with respiratory tract infections (RTI) and fever without source (FWS). Specifically, ImmunoXpert™ will be transitioned to the robotic platform EVO 75 and its clinical utility and health economics will be established in real world settings. Successful attainment of the project’s objectives (automation, piloting and health economic analysis) will be enabled by a pan-European, multi-disciplinary team, and will drive market adoption of ImmunoXpert™ such that RTI and FWS patients receive the right treatment, at the time and place where it matters most. Fast tracking of ImmunoXpert™’s market adoption is expected to improve RTI and FWS patient outcomes (morbidity/mortality), reverse the worrying trend of increasing hospitalization, contribute to curbing antibiotic misuse (underuse and overuse), and reduce the health and economic burden of these diseases. The underlying novel premise of the proposed approach to improving antibiotic stewardship, which differentiates it from solutions that attempt to identify pathogens directly, is that ImmunoXpert™ builds on an exquisitely informative system crafted over millions of years by nature – the human immune system.",2019-04-20 12:01:38,,701088,AutoPilot-Dx,H2020-EU.3.;H2020-EU.2.,FTIPilot-1-2015,https://www.autopilotdx.org/ | |
| 7285,228434,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GTHREG (Differential regulation of gonadotropins),"As wild fisheries catches are declining, they can no longer sustain the world needs and aquaculture is becoming a more prominent supplier of fish for human consumption. In the last three decades global fish production from aquaculture has expanded by almost 12 fold at an...","As wild fisheries catches are declining, they can no longer sustain the world needs and aquaculture is becoming a more prominent supplier of fish for human consumption. In the last three decades global fish production from aquaculture has expanded by almost 12 fold at an average annual rate of almost 9%, making aquaculture one of the fastest growing sectors worldwide. Aquaculture is set to remain one of the fastest-growing animal food-producing sectors and, in the next decade, total production from both capture and aquaculture will exceed that of beef, pork or poultry. Despite these global trends, European aquaculture accounts for only 18% of total European fish production. One of the major bottlenecks in captive rearing of fish is the control of their reproductive biology and in many foodfish species this concerns remains the main challenge hindering their production. As most aquacultured species are teleosts, comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the factors regulating the teleost reproductive axis is paramount for enabling the future growth of fish production through aquaculture. | |
| Our research focuses on the key regulators of reproduction in vertebrates, namely the hypothalamic peptide gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and its pituitary targets, the gonadotropins luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). The zebrafish genetic toolbox and the anatomy of the fish hypothlamo-pituitary (HP) axis provide a unique, accessible and relevant model to dissect out the mechanisms underlying gonadotropin release. Using the zebrafish toolbox we aim to better understand how the GnRH system develops in fish and how it affects the secretion of the two gonadotropins in the adult pituitary. These insights are expected to increase our ability to control and manipulate reproduction in commercially important species.","Our work focused on two main aspects: 1. The migration of the GnRH neurons during early development. 2. The regulation of gonadotropin secretion from the adult fish pituitary. | |
| GnRH migration: The migration of GnRH neurons from the olfactory placode into the brain is a hallmark of GnRH neurons in all studied vertebrates. We use in vivo calcium imaging and electrophysiology in conscious fish to analyze activity patterns of migrating GnRH neurons. Our findings reveal highly synchronized activity of GnRH cells both within and between the two brain hemispheres that is driven by internal electrical activity. We used single-cell genetic labeling, electrophysiology and genetically-encoded lectin tracing to show that this synchronization is mediated within the GnRH circuit rather than by synchronized inputs. By genetically-targeted silencing of individual GnRH cells we show that the electrical and calcium activity of GnRH neurons is critical for their migration. Finally, by knocking down GnRH expression we are able to un-synchronize the activity of the cells, leading to perturbed and non-controlled migration. Together, our data suggests that the synchronized activity of GnRH cells plays an important role in controlling their migration. Furthermore, the GnRH circuit develops in a largely autonomous and isolated manner, thus contributing to its developmental robustness that is paramount for guaranteeing its function as a main regulator of reproduction. | |
| Regulation of gonadotropin secretion: Using transgenic zebrafish lines that express genetically-encoded calcium indicators in their gonadotropes we monitored the activity of gonadotropes and the mechanisms controlling those hormones. By measuring calcium activity in whole brain and pituitary tissue, we found that calcium events in the gonadotropes always showed a rapid rise and were correlated in time across cells, suggesting that the cells share information and synchronize the timing of secretion. By employing this advanced live-imaging techniques in fish we are able to visualize the activity of those cell and to better understand the mechanisms controlling LH and FSH release.","During the course of the current project we have shown, for the first time in a living, conscious vertebrate, synchronized activity of migrating GnRH neurons. These studies, impossible to perform in mammals, reveal a completely new form of communication between migrating GnRH cells and suggest a new pathway for the regulation of GnRH circuit development. This synchronization is extremely robust and is present both within the GnRH cells in a single hemisphere as well as between the cells of the two hemispheres. Moreover, instead of being driven by external inputs, the observed synchronization is mediated within the GnRH circuit. Perturbing the synchronization (generally, by expressing botulinum toxin in GnRH cells, or by knocking-down GnRH expression) causes significant migration defects. This notion of an independent, isolated, self-regulated circuit contributes to the evolutionary robustness of the circuit that controls the critical process of reproduction. | |
| By monitoring calcium dynamics in zebrafish gonadotropes we have succeded, for the first time in any organism, to simultaneously record spontaneous and stimulated activity patterns of FSH and LH cells in situ. We describe different spontaneous activity patterns and coupling dynamics between the two types of gonadotropes that underlie their differential mode of their secretion. | |
| Due to the promising initial results, we have decided to continue the project beyond the current funding period. The study now concentrates on identifying the molecular signals that are used by the GnRH cells to communicate and identifying the reproductive consequences of impaired GnRH migration in fish. In gonadotropes we are concentrating on understanding how different GnRH patterns elicit LH or FSH-specific responses. | |
| Our results pave the way for the development of new tools to control reproduction in fish through manipulating GnRH neuronal migration and deepen our understanding of the secretion patterns of LH and FSH in fish. These insights will be used in the future to design better strategies for controlling and manipulating reproduction in commercially important species. In addition, we revealed a new mechanism for the regulation of GnRH cell migration that sheds light on the evolution of the reproductive axis in vertebrates.",2018-09-06 12:40:06,,656763,GTHREG,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,https://www.igf.cnrs.fr | |
| 3750,262637,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REAP (Real-time diagnostics for Enabling Advanced laser-based roll to roll materials Processing),"Problem to be addressed.Europe needs versatile and sustainable manufacturing processes –where small to medium size enterprises can use light efficiently to make, monitor, and measure on high value-added manufacturing platforms. The development of scalable processes...","Problem to be addressed. | |
| Europe needs versatile and sustainable manufacturing processes –where small to medium size enterprises can use light efficiently to make, monitor, and measure on high value-added manufacturing platforms. | |
| The development of scalable processes, incorporating multiple key enabling technologies, remains a key priority for Europe. This projects addresses this challenge of enabling precision laser processes, enabled by real time diagnostics, for applications in large area micro and nano electronics. | |
| Most key technologies to emerge in recent years are based on thin film hetero-structures that are produced on large, sheet to sheet or roll to roll, production systems. These manufacturing platforms are ideally suited to laser processing. The research training project seeks to develop new ultra-short laser processes by investigating real time or in-line process diagnostics. | |
| The project addressed by this research training project is the transformation of a specialist in photonics diagnostics to become an expert in advanced laser structuring of materials by the demonstration of new scalable process and diagnostic technologies. | |
| Importance for society | |
| Europe desperately needs new manufacturing technologies to support high value employment in an increasingly globalised world. The realisation of reconfigurable manufacturing tools, employing cross cutting key enabling technologies such as photonics, advanced materials, and nanotechnology, offer SMEs an opportunities for SMEs to innovate and sustainably compete throughout the European regions thereby ensuring balanced regional development. | |
| The ability of these advanced reconfigurable and scalable manufacturing tools have the potential to realise competitive advantage for manufacturing enterprises pursuing high potential applications. | |
| This project addresses the future use of reconfigurable and scalable ultrashort laser processes applied to the large area electronics sector. It demonstrates how new diagnostic concepts can be applied to develop novel selective laser patterning or laser induced crystallisation processes at the ultimate precision to realise new flexible display technologies for next generation printed electronics. | |
| The overall objectives of this project were: | |
| • To provide strategic training to the Fellow in short pulse laser structuring and camera based diagnostics. | |
| • To develop real time diagnostics at the host laboratory for short pulse lasers. | |
| • To develop new process concepts from applying process diagnostics. | |
| • To apply two process diagnostics to next generation roll to roll or sheet to sheet manufacturing platforms. | |
| • To communicate and disseminate new research findings efficiently, throughout teams in Host and partner sites, and through industrial/ scientific communities.","Work in this project began with a technology review; Two maps for value chains were developed for laser micromachining and camera based diagnostics. These stakeholder maps familiarised the Fellow with the current challenge of laser-enabled printed electronics and confirmed the technical workprogramme for the project. | |
| The development of process diagnostics for monitoring the laser structuring processes, based on optical emission (laser induced breakdown spectroscopy -LIBS) and Raman Scattering were demonstrated using three case studies based on indium tin oxide ablation, selective pattering of metallic hetero-structures, and selective removal of silver nanowires and graphene from glass substrates. The deployment of these diagnostics identified new improved processes for precision photomechanical structuring of thin films, glasses and the crystallisation of materials. Finally the project applied process concepts for selectively patterning indium tin oxide for colour filter liquid crystal and OLED displays.","The project has progressed the state of the art by the creation of a new proprietary crystallisation process relevant to thin film transistors (TFTs). This offers the potential to increase the electronic conductivity, thereby optimising their performance. | |
| The project has demonstrated the ability to create new sub-micron gratings on glass and thin film materials in a reconfigurable, single step, scalable process. This has the potential to create new functionalities for diffractive optics based on roll to roll or sheet to sheet processes. | |
| The project has demonstrated the importance of nano-structured enabled coupling of laser energy to materials with nano-scale precision. It has highlighted the potential to structure materials using photomechanical fracture, with minimal damage to the sub-surface adjacent material. | |
| The project has identified the significant scope for use of an in-line Raman Scattering probe to monitor the surface post laser structuring.",2019-04-01 11:55:16,,659454,REAP,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,http://www.nuigalway.ie/research-sites/ncla/projects/reap/ | |
| 6178,192998,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DISIRE (Integrated Process Control based on Distributed In-Situ Sensors into Raw Material and Energy Feedstock),"DISIRE has been inspired by the real existing needs of multiple industrial sectors, including the world leading partners in the non-ferrous, ferrous, chemical and steel industries that are highly connected and affiliated with the SPIRE PPP and its objectives. The primary clear...","DISIRE has been inspired by the real existing needs of multiple industrial sectors, including the world leading partners in the non-ferrous, ferrous, chemical and steel industries that are highly connected and affiliated with the SPIRE PPP and its objectives. The primary clear and measurable objective of DISIRE is to evolve the existing industrial processes by advancing the European Sustainable Process Industry through an overall resource and energy efficiency paradigm based on the technological breakthroughs and concepts of the DISIRE technological platform in the field of Industrial Process Control. | |
| DISIRE is focusing in an overall improvement of the product quality, a reduction in the consumed energy and a corresponding reduction on the environmental impact. This problem is addressed by the application of the DISIRE that has the vision to insert in the production processes novel concepts on modeling, control and big data processing. | |
| Overall the aim of DISIRE is to create novel sensors that will be able to follow the stages of the process or the products through the supply chain or the processing stages and measure specific characteristics of the products or the processes. In a secondary stage these sensory readings will be integrated with the current and vast amount of previously logged data from all the processes in order to be uploaded in a cloud infrastructure. The cloud will make use of the bid data analytics concept in order to process in real time this vast amount of information and to create conclusions towards the process model improvements and the overall control scheme. This process will be analyzed in the sequel by advanced cloud based control schemes that will result in a final reconfiguration of the local controllers’ tuning variables. The described DISIRE enabled processes will have the ability to be continuously updated with the most realistic status of the process, while will enable a better utilization of the energy consumption and the knowledge of the processes internal dynamics and thus produce products of better quality and more greener. | |
| The industrial sectors that DISIRE is focusing are all characterized as heavy energy consumption processes and thus the successful execution of DISIRE and the application of the findings in the existing industrial processes will have a direct impact on the consumed energy, the quality of the products and the impact on the environment. As an example, for only the DCI North facilities, the consumption of the fuel gas is reaching up to 250K Ton/year and thus it is evident that small improvements will result into a very big impact in the field, thus 1% improvement of the DCI’s cracking furnaces, based on the DISIRE technology, will result in 2K Ton/year savings. | |
| For achieving these visions, DISIRE has the following technological objectives: | |
| O1. Develop miniaturized PAT technologies capable of being inserted into flows of raw materials and thus enabling the concept of “Intelligent Raw materials” and delivering a PAT based Swarm Sensing and Data Analysis | |
| O2. Introduce Multi-objective In line Sensor Technology for Real Time Sensing & Networking in Industrial Environments | |
| O5. The focus of DISIRE in the non-ferrous processes includes cross-sectorial processes in Mines, Processing Plants, Mining, Machine Producers, etc. A key objective for the DISIRE project is to improve efficiency and competitiveness related to the copper production. A way to progress towards this objective is to decompose the whole production process into many sub-processes and their identification and better understanding. | |
| O6. The focus of DISIRE in the Ferrous Processes lies on demonstrations and experiments in real industrial environments in order to establish a rugged sensor platform capable of withstanding the harsh industrial conditions of ferrous mineral processing, constituting of abrasive wear and high temperatures. Ferrous mineral processing presents several challenges that have to","The up to now work performed in DISIRE is presented in the sequel with respect to the corresponding WPs. | |
| WP1 - Application Scenarios, Impact Goals and Benchmarking | |
| WP1 has been the base for all the developments in DISIRE since it contained all the specifications and the plans that all the technological WP2-4 and the demonstration WPs WP5-8 should follow. In this WP the initial and end-user specifications for the sensing, controlling and data analyzing techniques have been specified, while the targeted demonstration processes in WP5-8 have been also defined. Specific focus was maid in highlighting the current status of the industrial processes and the way that DISIRE will evolve and impact. Overall, the DISIRE demonstration actions will be categorized in open loop processes (WP5 and WP6) and closed loop processes (WP7 and WP8). Finally in this WP, specific and realistic end-user driven measurable key performance indices for the DISIRE developments have been produced in order to maximize the impact of the project. | |
| WP2 - Process Modeling and Control | |
| In this WP there have been produced novel methodologies for the analysis, modelling and control of industrial systems, with a special focus on the industrial processes of DISIRE. A fast online modelling algorithm (operating on a stream of data coming from the process) has been introduced, which turned out to be one order of magnitude faster than other existing approaches. Furthermore, a Newtonian algorithm has been introduced for the fast solution of the identification problems for piecewise affine dynamics where we simultaneously identify the polyhedral partition and the individual system dynamics. This algorithm can also operate on a stream of data. Additionally, WP2 presented an algorithm for the selection of a (sparse) controller configuration based on the system's relative gain array and a stochastic model predictive control scheme using scenario trees. | |
| WP2 then focused on the three case studies of DISIRE, namely, the walking beam furnace of MEFOS, the ethylene/LPG cracking furnace of Dow Chemical and the network of conveyor belts at the mines of KGHM. In particular, for the walking beam furnace we provide a complete analysis starting from dynamical modeling of the involved uncertainties using scenario trees, modelling of the combustion quality using machine learning techniques and the formulation of a control problem with relevant closed-loop simulations under uncertainty. For the cracking furnace of Dow Chemical we identified dynamical models using process data. For the network of conveyor belts we provided a description of the system characteristics and specifications and a problem statement, we used models based on cellular automata to describe the flow of mass inside the ore bunkers and we present a probabilistic analysis of the ore mass moving on the conveyor belts and the pertinent waiting times (in terms of their probability density functions). The ore flow with continuous charging from the retention bunkers was also modelled using time series models. | |
| WP3 – Sensor and Electronics | |
| WP3 created the inline sensing technologies of DISIRE. More specifically, positioning RFID tags have been developed for tracing the iron ore, with corresponding RFID readers, where the position was measured both using 13.56 MHz RFID as well as using 125 kHz beacon technology, with the aim to continue the work with other sensor technologies towards oxygen sensing. Furthermore, in WP2 studies were performed towards the applications of the positing measurement in transportation chains in the underground transport system in KGHM. For the experimental blast furnace and the walking beam furnace specific sensor inline modules have been developed that can be inserted in the hot processes, transmit data and retain their operation up to 900 Degs. For the batch sensor development, WP3 has investigated possible solutions for the batch processes, including spatial temperature distribution and s","The DISIRE results up to the M18 month of reporting have lead to the following progress beyond the sate of the art and with the corresponding expected potential impact. | |
| Mineral Processing | |
| In the hot side, the up to now activities of DISIRE have increased the knowledge about the heating products in the grate zones and the logistics to the customer. Also the ability of inline sensing has created a real potential for reducing the environmental impact, while increasing the energy efficiency and the throughput, with a corresponding reduction of the waste products. The developed sensing technologies regarding the blast furnace although still cannot survive in extremely high temperatures, are in position to provide important data sets for the first time ever in the corresponding industry and to further improve the knowledge of the process. This information will be combined in the current stages of DISIRE in order to investigate potential IPC solutions for investigating the further optimization of the process. The hot stage of the mineral processing at LKAB is the largest consumer of energy. With the embedded sensors measuring temperature inside of the material, rather than measuring the surface temperature, it will be possible to optimize the combustion process. | |
| The up to M18 envisioned impact in the hot side of DISIRE is including the generation of a better knowledge of the heating process inside the LKAB’s ovens that will produce further possibilities to reduce the energy consumption. As an example it should be stated that a 2% decrease in energy consumption or reduction of oil of 0.1l/ton produced pellet could save up to 50K to 100K Euros per pelletizing plant. Furthermore, more precise temperature control will improve the product quality and will reduce the slag residues. By knowing each sensor’s position, the throughput of the different experimental batches will be increased. | |
| Similarly, in the cold side, before any modifications of the hot process are possible the transportation conditions of the final product should be mapped since a large amount of the material is damaged and the strength of the pellets are directly correlated to the amount of heat added in the grate and kiln. During transportation with rail from the mine site in Kiruna to the harbour in Narvik a considerable amount (in order of several per cent) of the product is damaged and has to be sieved from the premium product that are shipped to the customers. Considering that the annual production is about 25 million tones this corresponds to a significant amount and improved tracing and mapping of the transport conditions using embedded sensors that could considerably improve the competitiveness of the business. Every reduction in the percentage not sieved off before shipping reduces energy consumption by the same amount, and more if the losses due to transportation is considered. DISIRE has performed extended real life trials in this direction and the consortium is working in demonstrating the capabilities of this technology in the remaining time of the project. | |
| The up to M18 identified impact of DISIRE in the cold side considers the creation of a better understanding of how a large number of pellets is spread out in the transport chain and how this is affecting the creation of virtual product batches within the continuous flow of the iron ore pellets. With a simulation model, LKAB is able to handle production batches that are produced outside the specifications in a more efficient approach, within the existing transportation systems, otherwise these batches will need to be handled in a separate approach, a fact that will significantly increase the production cost. Thus, it is expected that if LKAB meets the potential of a reduction of separate handling by 50% this would directly mean that around 250000-350000 euros per pelletizing plant in saving per year, while the establishment of the virtual batches will have a direct effect on improving the handling",2018-07-19 18:16:06,,636834,DISIRE,H2020-EU.2.1.5.3.,SPIRE-01-2014,https://www.spire2030.eu/disire/ | |
| 4599,220213,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ShaleSafe (Development of a monitoring system for inspection of soil and aquifer contamination by shalegas and fracking chemicals),"A frequently expressed concern associated with shale gas exploration and extraction is that the underground water can become polluted by methane gas, contaminated flow back liquids, or the chemicals used during the fracking process. This can occur through subsurface pathways...","A frequently expressed concern associated with shale gas exploration and extraction is that the underground water can become polluted by methane gas, contaminated flow back liquids, or the chemicals used during the fracking process. This can occur through subsurface pathways from the fractured shale layer or as a result of a loss of integrity of the wellbore. There is also the potential for contamination if the flow back water leaks from the surface due to it not being properly contained prior to disposal. | |
| The oil and gas industry must demonstrate, and guarantee, safe exploration and exploitation by meeting monitoring requirements set by environmental regulators. There is, therefore, a clear industry wide need to develop and implement a new in-situ technology that can continuously, reliably and cost effectively monitor the underground water and soil quality for contamination specific to shale oil and gas sub-surface activities. | |
| The ShaleSafe proposal aims to tackle the aforementioned issue by developing an instrumentation system, which allows multiple sensor probes to be deployed in hydrological monitoring wells around the wellsite to provide automated continuous in-situ monitoring of a broad range of targeted contaminants.","In terms of the project implementation, ShaleSafe has 6 work packages, all of which are undergoing. WP1 involves the management and coordination. In WP2, modifications and adjustment on the pre-commercial ShaleSafe system to meet wider customers need and initial business planning for the different commercial components of the ShaleSafe system will be carried out. WP3 uses the results compiled in WP2 to finalise and validate the development of ShaleSafe into a commercial product, while WP4 deals with the verification of its physical components and the fine tuning and optimisation of the system so that it is ready for installation in a real operating environment. WP5 is dedicated to the certification of ShaleSafe, which has to conform to international quality control standards. This includes the European CE mark and ISO standards as well as the Environment Agency certification MCERTS. Lastly, WP6 involves an effective communication and dissemination of project results to the appropriate audience based on the exploitation plan to ensure impact. | |
| The highlights of what has been achieved so far are: | |
| • Completion and analysis of the market research. The exploration and exploitation of shale gas from the perspective of the developed ShaleSafe technology, the market, regulatory environment, value proposition and the commercialisation were achieved. The analysis performed provided information about the stakeholder segmentation and the target audience. | |
| • Profiling the project and shaping the image. Promotional materials such as the launch flyer and a brochure were produced to promote the objectives of the project. Media amplification was achieved via the project website, LinkedIn, twitter the release of two PRs and publication of an article in Petro Industry News magazine (with a worldwide audience of 30,099 readers plus another 22,396 digitally). | |
| • Application of the Lean Canvas approach. This approach was used in order to address the following important points: the problem in focus, the problem owners (target customers), the solution with its unique value proposition and the intent of creating value. Applying the Lean Canvas approach to ShaleSafe is considered as a first step for developing its exploitation strategy. | |
| • Technical development of the pre-commercial system. The overall design of ShaleSafe system was achieved to meet the new business and technical requirements defined. Technical development of the Sensor Package (being the most critical part of the system) is ongoing with appropriate sensors and membrane selected and tested according to ShaleSafe test plan. The Sensor package housing was designed and manufactured.","ROBUST project aims to progress beyond the state of art in environmental technologies to offer a monitoring solution for aquifers. The innovation potential of the project is: | |
| • In-situ environmental monitoring technology, which is more frequent, more accurate and more efficient. | |
| • Automated deployment for long term monitoring focused on requirements as per the Oil & Gas Regulations. | |
| • Faster response from site owners if pollution is detected. | |
| The expected results are: | |
| 1. Completion and analysis of the market research. This is necessary so that the right technology is developed, a business plan is developed to license or commercialise the developed technology and a communication strategy supporting the commercialisation is implemented. | |
| 2. Finalisation of the pre-commercial system. | |
| 3. Completion and qualification/certification of ShaleSafe system. The system will be trialled in hydrogeological monitoring wells near shale gas drilling site for long-term deployment. | |
| 4. Automated ShaleSafe deployment procedure. The unique characteristic of ShaleSafe is its complete automated deployment, without any manual intervention during the sampling and analysis operations. | |
| 5. Production of quality dissemination materials, profiling and marketing the project. | |
| 6. Development of a full commercialisation roadmap for ShaleSafe. | |
| 7. Commercialisation and licensing. This will be achieved by engaging with Tier 1 customers during the final phases of the action to secure contracts for ShaleSafe. | |
| In terms of expected impacts, a successful unconventional gas industry in Europe would create jobs, contribute to domestic energy security, have a small surface footprint and boost local communities through extra investment in road networks, skills and labour. For instance, recovering 15% of the “risked” shale gas resources can translate to the following benefits for Europe: | |
| • Average reduction in wholesale electricity prices of 3% resulting in average annual savings of €12bn by 2015 and €28bn in 2050 with a cumulative wholesale energy savings of €765bn. | |
| • Lower household spending on energy costs by up to 8% and over the period between 2020 and 2050 sums up to cumulative savings of €245bn. | |
| • Reduce gas import dependency to 78% by 2035 resulting in total balance of trade benefits of €484bn. | |
| • Reduce GHG emissions as a result of reduction of coal burnt in electricity generation as long as investment in renewables continues as normal. | |
| • Increase GDP and net job creation driven by an increase in domestic gas production (and a corresponding reduction in imports) generating additional demand in the domestic supply chain and relative reduction in gas prices benefiting consumers and industry. | |
| However, the exploration of shale oil and gas is not without risk. One of the main environmental impact in relation to this industry is the underground water contamination and the most imminent challenge for the oil and gas industry in Europe is to be able to guarantee safe shale gas exploration and extraction in order to address the environmental concerns. | |
| In this respect, the ShaleSafe project aims to provide shale gas exploration companies with a system that will enable them to meet the requirements of compulsory environmental impact assessment regulations in respect of sub-surface operations. The technology at the heart of this project can identify the underground water held in aquifers that has been contaminated and act as a “First Alert” system for safer shale oil and gas extraction.",2019-03-12 09:39:30,,691527,ShaleSafe,H2020-EU.3.;H2020-EU.2.,FTIPilot-1-2015,http://www.shale-safe.com/ | |
| 3001,263967,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FREYA (Forecasting RangE dYnamics of Alien species under climate change.),"Humans are redistributing the world’s biodiversity both indirectly by changing habitats and the climate, and directly by transporting species across natural biogeographical boundaries. Predicting how species will respond to such changes is paramount for formulating effective...","Humans are redistributing the world’s biodiversity both indirectly by changing habitats and the climate, and directly by transporting species across natural biogeographical boundaries. Predicting how species will respond to such changes is paramount for formulating effective conservation measures aimed at protecting native biodiversity, economy and human health. Indeed, introduced species can become invasive, and be a main threat to biodiversity and also impose large costs to the economy. Unfortunately, our capacity to accurately predict under which environmental conditions that introduced species will become invasive remains limited. This may be at least partly due to the fact that forecasts of invasion risk typically result from relatively simple correlative models, which integrate information on where a species currently occurs with the dominant climate at these occurrence locations. While this approach generally works well when making forecasts within the area where a species is native, correlations between climate and species occurrence tend to break down when attempting predictions to other areas and time-frames – i.e. when trying to forecast invasion risk under changing climates. Robust predictions of invasion risk may be formulated based on more fundamental, physiologically-informed distribution models. Such mechanistic models do not rely on correlations but use species’ functional traits to characterize the range of environmental conditions tolerable by species. Yet, both real and perceived difficulties in obtaining sufficiently detailed information on species’ ecology and life-history have held back research success in this area. Therefore, FREYA had two overarching Objectives, namely (1) to evaluate predictions of range dynamics derived from correlative versus mechanistic niche modelling techniques, using a multi-species approach, and (2) to assess how ecological and evolutionary processes influence forecasts of invasion risk, using a well-known avian invader as model species. The first objective focusses on a large number of non-native invasive birds while for the second objective, the project concentrates on the ring-necked parakeet. Main conclusions are that overall, mechanistic-physiological model predictive accuracy was moderate to low, as our invasion risk forecasts were prone to both omission and commission errors. Sensitivity analyses revealed a set of key functional traits strongly influencing model accuracy. For comparatively larger avian invaders, estimates of basal metabolic rates, body temperate and body mass are crucial while for smaller birds, feather characteristics such as feather length and plumage depth are important as well. The research on ring-necked parakeets showed that introduced populations were of predominantly Asian ancestry, with differentiation of African native populations occurring through historical evolutionary processes. Within Europe, we identified linear correlations between allele frequencies and environmental variables across a climate spectrum, suggesting rapid selection in response to climatic change within introduced ring-necked parakeet populations, further complicating the modelling of invasion risk. Indeed, mechanistic-physiological models based on European parakeet data (as opposed to native range, Asian data) result in generally more accurate predictions of the current European distribution of this prominent invader. Together, results obtained indicate that complex and parameter hungry mechanistic modelling approaches such as the one applied here may be better suited to uncover processes driving species invasions, rather than for obtaining highly accurate spatial predictions of where invaders are likely to establish and spread.","The work performed can be subdivided into (1) collection of occurrence data on invasive bird species. Data was gathered from wide range of sources to optimally characterize species distributions both in their native and invasive areas. The bulk of the data is integrated from online open-access repositories such as GBIF and eBird, yet much effort was invested in reviewing both grey and published literature in order to collect additional occurrence data and verify the reliability of the data (i.e. do reported data indicate an established population or temporary, local escapes); (2) collecting species physiological and life-history data. Much information needed for physiological modelling is not readily available, and has therefore been measured on a set of museum specimens available from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science. This includes data on bird feather lengths and depths, feather solar reflectivity (to quantify the amount of heat captured from the sun), and the lengths and widths of bird head, neck, torso and legs. Data that could not be collected empirically were obtained through a wide-reaching literature review. This includes key physiological data such as metabolic rates, metabolic activity multipliers, body fat percentages and life-history data such timing of breeding and moulting; (3) creating open-access modelling scripts. Physiological niche models can be run using the patented NicheMapper software, and while this software package is indeed elegant and flexible, it does operate as a difficult to handle ‘black box’ (i.e. a set of Fortran codes embedded in Windows.exe files). Much time and effort was invested in creating a set of R scripts (R is the most commonly used statistical modelling framework in ecology), allowing to flexible and transparently run mechanistic models from within R; (4) actual modelling of species. Very computer-intensive analyses have been conducted, mainly to carry out sensitivity analyses aimed at finding out (a) which variables that are most important for mechanistic-physiological models and (b) to establish optimal modelling strategies (e.g. selection of background area to correctly evaluate model performance); (5) for ring-necked parakeets, based on information from genomic analyses indicated possible rapid adaptation to colder European climates, bespoke mechanistic models using European parakeet data were implemented.","Mechanistic niche models are often proposed as a promising avenue for obtaining reliable forecasts of species distributions under changing climates and for invasive species colonizing novel areas. Several applications of this methodology have indeed suggested that predictions based on physiology may be able to help where traditional, easier-to-implement correlative models fail. We have confirmed that physiological models can indeed adequately characterize the set of environmental conditions under which species can persist, yet we show that it is very difficult to correctly quantify or estimate relevant parameter values for the large number of variables needed by these methods. Using a thorough sensitivity analyses, we found that the parameter space is vast and wide. Even a conservative range estimates for key parameter estimates can result in widely varying model predictions on invasion risk. This finding indicates that (1) mechanistic models are able to supplement, not replace, correlative models of invasion risk and offer a way forward to explicitly test which fundamental life-history traits that underlie species invasion success, and (2) gathering more basic data on species’ behavioural, morphological and physiological traits is a prerequisite for further advancing predictive ecology.",2019-04-01 15:17:01,,706318,FREYA,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2015-EF, | |
| 9531,193022,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CEZAMAT-Environment (CEZAMAT-Environment - Self-Organizing Networks for Real-Time, Wireless Monitoring ofNatural Environment)","The CEZAMAT-Environment project is a response to European Commission call WIDESPREAD-1-2014: Teaming, of the call H2020-WIDESPREAD-2014. This project responds to the work program “Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation”, which aims to reduce internal research and...","The CEZAMAT-Environment project is a response to European Commission call WIDESPREAD-1-2014: Teaming, of the call H2020-WIDESPREAD-2014. This project responds to the work program “Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation”, which aims to reduce internal research and innovation disparities within the European Union by supporting research and innovation activities and systems in low performing countries. The project addresses a specific challenge defined by the work program – namely, the presence of substantial disparities in the European Research and Innovation landscape. | |
| Since last decade EC has observed increasing differences among Member States in terms of research and innovation performance. Among many reasons for those disparities lack of critical mass of science and insufficient number of scientific institutions on high level of excellence seemed to be the most urgent problem to be solved. | |
| As a respond to those problems European Commission decided to start “Teaming for Excellence” competition. The aim of the call was to create high level Centre of Excellence in those countries which innovativeness level is not satisfactionary. | |
| It was stated that by increasing number of Centres of Excellence with high scientific potential in those countries that has low factor of innovation may result in achieving slow but sustain innovative growth. | |
| Moreover, spreading scientific excellence from more advanced countries to member states that struggle with low innovation of their economy may help those countries to overcome financial crisis that may happen in Europe. This will help those regions to become more competitive in national and international markets. | |
| In the first phase of the competition beneficiaries in partnership with Partners of Excellence had to prepare high quality business plan for the new Centre of Excellence. This report is about realisation phase one of the project CEZAMAT-Environment.","The project was realized by the partnership of 4 entities: NCBR from Poland, CEZAMAT Sp. Z o.o also from Poland, CEA-Tech from France and FhG from Germany. The action was coordinated by National Centre for Research and Development, CEZAMAT Sp. Z o.o played a role of the leader, and CEA-Tech and FhG was sharing their experience as a Partners of Excellence. Together Consortium members finalized the first phase of Teaming for Excellence competition, created professional business plan and submit the proposal for the second ToE phase. | |
| All the partners were in constant contact by e-mail and phone but main progress in project realisation was conducted during project meetings when partners could discuss final shape of the business plan and exchange their experience and good practices. During the period of project realisation 6 meeting was held: Warsaw – Kick-off meeting (2nd June), Warsaw (22nd October), Grenoble (27th-28th January), Dresden (14th-15th May), Płock (11th-12th May), Grenoble (24th-25th May). | |
| All the partners workout and signed Consortium Agreement in which all the tasks and responsibility for the work packages were evenly distributed between consortium members. | |
| NCBR was designated to the project consortium as a government body that will ensure governmental support for the new CoE. NCBR’s role in the project was to provide compliance with grant and consortium agreements, ensure that all deliverables submitted to EC are highest possible quality, serve as a communication point with EC. However NCBR was not directly involved in each technical tasks (apart of several exceptions, stated in the proposal and confirmed in SGA). | |
| From NCBR project coordinators were assigned. The first coordinator was Ms. Joanna Misiewicz, responsible for submitting the proposal for “Teaming” phase 1, preparing grant agreement with European Commission and working out consortium agreement between partners. For the first few months of the first phase of project Ms. Misiewicz organised the management structure in consortium and the first kick-off meetings. | |
| In December 2015 she was replaced by Mr. Jan Osiński. Mr. Osiński continued project progress by organising consortium meetings and conducting discussion between partners. He was responsible for final shape of the business plan and proposal for the second stage of the “Teaming for Excellence” competition. | |
| During project realisation it was also decided that the NCBR will remain project partner in the 1st stage. Once the project is successful in the 2nd stage, the NCBR will withdraw its participation from the consortium. | |
| CEZAMAT Sp. z o.o was the main beneficiary of the consortium and leading entity. The Project leaders were assigned from this institution. First project leader was Prof. Bartosz Grzybowski. According to his vison and his team, the first proposal for the teaming phase 1 was created and successfully passed evaluation. Together with partners, they were responsible for preparation work packages and Gant table. Despite his engagement in project realization during the meeting in Warsaw it was said that according to his obligation in his current office in Korea he is unable to commit to the project in satisfactory level. After long talks with Partners of Excellence about future consortium shape the Steering Committee made a decision to engage into the project Prof. Tomasz Woliński – Head of Optics and Photonics Division of the Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology, who was involved in the initial activities of the teaming phase 1 cooperating with CEZAMAT. The change of the project leader significantly influenced on its final shape. A new vision of the project was presented to partners during the first meeting in Grenoble in January 2016. All partners accepted Prof. Woliński as the new project leader and approved his new vision of CEZAMAT-Environment. Prof. Woliński and his team were responsible for adopting changes into project, preparation of the rest of","In the long-term perspective, the Center will implement within its own structure and then promote to the entire region of Mazovia the best practices in research, innovation and management resulting in significant improvement of this Region’s research and innovation culture. Special attention will be paid to technology transfer and research commercialization, which have been identified as weak points of low performing countries, and particularly of Poland. | |
| The Environmental Internet we propose to develop will entail large-scale team effort – in other words, the challenge cannot be tackled by any individual research group or even by several groups but working independently. The achieve the Center’s objectives a critical mass of scientists and engineers must be unified around one common goal – this is precisely how we envision the Center to operate, under one roof, in a highly collaborative fashion, and with cross-fertilization between multiple disciplines. | |
| The project results will engage Mazovia and Poland on a unique path of innovative growth. As well as technical innovations will give rise to a family of hi-tech products that are unique, we assume to impose scientific-business relations allowing to establish first in Poland unit for excellence that will cooperate and support industry in wide scale. With every technology that is both innovative and unique, there is a strong possibility for commercialization, for creating a cluster of spin-offs, and for expending the original know-how into a technology in which a given country/region specializes. Through our research, we aim to position Mazovia and Poland on a global map as a leader of environmental monitoring for the 21st century. Our technologies will provide the first example of a technology that originated from Poland to gain world pre-eminence. | |
| To achieve these ambitious goals and to foster Mazovia’s economic growth, CEZAMAT-Environment will from its inception | |
| (i) protect the intellectual property it generates; | |
| (ii) popularize its inventions through both professional and popular press/media; | |
| (iii) seek institutional and private/VC investors for establishing spin-off companies and | |
| (iv) sign licensing agreements with external organizations. | |
| It is through these spin-offs originating from our Center and licensing agreements that various modalities of the Environmental Internet will ultimately be commercialized establishing a significant number of high-tech jobs located in Mazovia and, ultimately, also sustaining the Center financially beyond the five-year period of EU funding (details of the commercialization strategy are described in the Business Plan part of the Proposal). | |
| The vision and the mission of our Center are well aligned with the EU-promulgated Smart Specialization Strategy of the Mazovian region (http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu). The Strategy selects five industrial sectors (chemistry, medicine, agriculture, energy, IT) and five leading technologies (biotechnology, nanotechnology, IT, photonics, electronics) as the focal points of Mazovia’s innovation-based economy of the future. Our proposal responds to four of these technologies (chemistry, agriculture, IT, photonics) and all lead-technologies. Furthermore, the Strategy delineates four Specialization Areas of which three are directly related to CEZAMAT-Environment activities: “Safe Foods,” “Intelligent Management Systems” (including “smart networks” and “resource-efficient systems”) and “Quality of Life” (including “Human Health”). Indeed, the Environmental Internet we propose to develop will be a smart network continuously monitoring Mazovia’s soil, forests, and orchards to detect and counter any threats that could adversely impact quality of food and/or human health. | |
| Additionaly realisation of the project bring additional value if it comes to increase level of cooperation beatween Polish scientific institution and institutions from more advance in terms of innovative",2018-07-31 09:25:09,,664470,CEZAMAT-Environment,H2020-EU.4.a.,WIDESPREAD-1-2014,http://environment.cezamat.eu/ | |
| 8550,195150,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FUSION2NIGHT (Follow your scientific passion and join us tonight on Researchers’ Night.),"Objectives• To provide the public at large, regardless of age, social or scientific background, with the opportunity to interact with researchers and gain an insight into the research and innovation activities, with a view to enhance public recognition of researchers’...","Objectives | |
| • To provide the public at large, regardless of age, social or scientific background, with the opportunity to interact with researchers and gain an insight into the research and innovation activities, with a view to enhance public recognition of researchers’ work, facilitate the understanding of the crucial role of research in people’s everyday lives, and inspire young people to embark on career in science. | |
| • To illustrate how every aspect of citizens' life - work, travel, shop, socialize, eat and play is possible because of scientific influences and innovations; | |
| • To dispel negative stereotypes around scientists and present them as ordinary people with an extraordinary job, having a fascinating personality and a balanced life; | |
| • To stress the importance of increasing the number of researchers in Europe for citizens' wellbeing and prosperity, through an array of hands-on, student-centred approach to instruction designed particularly for young people facing career choice, showing them how exciting and rewarding research work is and encouraging them to consider their future in science. | |
| • To advocate a more favourable attitude towards public funding of research, thanks to witnesses from scientists who benefitted from Horizon 2020 and showcasing of EU projects pointing to the their crucial role for economic growth and social prosperity. | |
| The project reached its objectives and proved to be extremely successful.","Awareness campaign | |
| o Conception, realisation of promotional material, such as posters, roll ups, programmes invitations, leaflets, popular science folders; | |
| o Public advertising (billboards, city lights, swing signs, posters), and display of promotional material in streets, and promotional campaign on public transport (busses and trams, including one promotional bus taps with ERN ad), dissemination of announcements on notification columns in the City centre, shopping points; | |
| o Display of promotional material to most frequented public spots, housing areas and schools; | |
| o Publication of articles, interviews, announcements, advertising in written press at both national and regional levels; | |
| o Direct invitations sent to President and Marshall of the City, Chief Education Officer, educational bodies, regional administration, B+R centres, industry representatives, science & technology parks, university of third age, schools, etc.; | |
| o Announcements during public events (such as Science Picnic in Olsztyn City Centre, Juvenalia Student Festival, Science Picnic of Copernicus Science Centre and Polish Radio, 14th Olsztyn Science and Art Days, Polish Academy of Kids, European Run, European Family Picnic at Olsztyn City Beach, institute’s Open Day; | |
| o Organisation of pre-events: | |
| o Institute’s Open Day; | |
| o Science Picnic “The Art of Science” at the heart of Olsztyn Old Town; | |
| o Series of hands-on workshops “Fusion Lab” for elementary and grammar students; | |
| o Scientists’ information action in the city centre; | |
| o Exhibitions: “Glass tissues”, “A perfect eye”, “Research that surrounds us”, Competitions: “Hot Bed of Young Talents”, Art Contest “My passion”; | |
| o Publication of numerous press releases; | |
| o Airing of announcements, advertising, programmes and interviews on local and regional radio and TV stations, including the biggest TV one; | |
| o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of project website www.nocnaukowcow.pan.olsztyn.pl; | |
| o Display of video materials depicting edutaining events during the Night on the Science channel of the Copernicus Internet TV; | |
| o 135 000 hits on project website , 43.000 unique visitors; | |
| o Revamping, constant updating and maintenance of social network profiles (Facebook, Twitter …); | |
| o 170.000 hits and likes on social networks, namely Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; | |
| o Publication of Internet advertising banners, announcements and promotion on researchers’ blogs, display of promotional videos on YouTube; | |
| o About 600.000 estimated to have been made aware of the European Researchers' night and its objectives. | |
| Activities during the night | |
| o Offer of the activities as described in the Grant Agreement Annex I part B, namely: | |
| o 180 diversified edutaining activities, dedicated to different target groups, e.g. kids, pupils and students, adults and seniors; | |
| o Hands-on experiments; | |
| o Demos; | |
| o Simulations; | |
| o Science shows; | |
| o Games); | |
| o Competitions; | |
| o Quizzes); | |
| o Lab visits; | |
| o Display of films; | |
| o Sports games; | |
| o Discussion; | |
| o Presentations; | |
| o Workshops; | |
| o Stand-up comedy; | |
| o Dating researchers; | |
| o Guided tours ; | |
| o Exhibitions; | |
| o Crime investigation; | |
| o Interactive installations; | |
| o Science-industry innovation corner; | |
| o European Corners; | |
| o Concerts and theatre, | |
| o 393 researchers actively involved in the activities, (namely 161 in 2016 and 232 in 2017), amongst whom: | |
| o 7 having benefitted from Marie Curie schemes; | |
| o 19 having benefitted from support under FP 7/HORIZON 2020 | |
| o About 28.100 visitors having taken part in the activities offered, namely 15.000 in 2016 and 13.100 in 2017.","Overview of the results | |
| o Collection, analysis and processing of feedbacks through: o 1.210 questionnaires addressing kids aged under 12 (closed and openended questions); o 1.121 questionnaires addressing pupils and students (20 closed-ended questions grouped in four main sections); o 1.012 questionnaires addressing adults, parents, seniors, teachers; o On-line questionnaires; o Internet and social networks; o 1.000 random face to face interviews; o Main conclusions: o Typology of visitors: o Kids: 69,5 % having already taken part in a previous Night, 30 % newcomers, 79 % coming from the city, the others coming mostly from Warmia and Mazury Voivodship; o Pupils and students: 81,3% aged 13-18 and 18% aged 19-26; o Adults, teachers etc.: 57, 5% women and 42,5% men), mainly living in the city (84.2%), mostly having a higher level of education (63.9%) stating that the government should provide financial support for research and innovation projects (78%); o Knowledge about the events: outdoor advertising (25%), project website (22%), social media (11%), TV, radio, newspapers (16%), pre-events in public spots (16%), and school (10%); o Overall positive feedback on the events themselves (activities, contacts with researchers, concrete organisation, scheduling, venues); | |
| o Stimulation of young people's interest for research careers (55 % children willing to become researchers, 66 % increased interest in science amongst children, 75 % increased interest for pupils and students, 41,6 % willing to become scientists), o Public perception of scientists: o Kids: increased favourable perception (72,4 % considering researcher as an interesting job, 35,9 as generating fame, frequently travelling, (38,9 %) and bringing fun (54,2 %), scientists considered as young, female, cool, close and interesting; o Pupils and students: fascinating job (60,4 %), hard work implying long hours (60,6 %), having many passions and a stable lifestyle (64,3%), broad removal of the stereotype of the elderly grey-haired, bespectacled man scientists (over 70%); o Most successful activities: workshops (about 95 %), scientific demos and competitions amongst all age categories; o Less successful activities: excursions (also due to the necessary limited number of attendees able to take part); o General will expressed to take part in future similar activities (95 % kids, 95,7 % pupils and students, 85,2 % average attendees and 98 % on-line responders).",2018-08-28 14:23:03,,722629,FUSION2NIGHT,H2020-EU.1.3.5.,MSCA-NIGHT-2016,http://nocnaukowcow.pan.olsztyn.pl | |
| 2362,204708,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Intimacy (Doing Intimacy: A Multi-sited Ethnography of Modern Chinese Family Life),"Over the last century industrialisation, urbanisation, the influence of the West and political interventions carried out by the Communist Party since 1949, have all contributed to profound changes in the Chinese family. Existing scholarship has shown how the structure and...","Over the last century industrialisation, urbanisation, the influence of the West and political interventions carried out by the Communist Party since 1949, have all contributed to profound changes in the Chinese family. Existing scholarship has shown how the structure and function of Chinese families adapted to changing political and economic circumstances but little is known about the changes in intimate spheres of Chinese families. This project will approach the subject of modern Chinese family life from an unconventional angle by analysing it as a process of practices and experiences. | |
| By setting a new agenda that moves from structures of family relationships to the quality of relationships, and through examining ‘doing intimacy’, this project takes a closer, fresher, critical look at the Chinese family dynamics as they are lived. Informed by the emerging literature on gender, intimacy and modernity, it will examine intergenerational relations as well as gender and sexual relations in the family. | |
| The project will seek to answer the following questions: Is there an intimate revolution taking place? To what extent can 'doing intimacy' be a site of empowerment/domination for women? What will the study of Chinese families tell us about agency and local/global change? | |
| Through a multi-sited ethnography (mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), this study will also compare practices of intimacy in various sites and examine whether or how they are by-products of particular socio-cultural configurations.","From October 2015 to September 2016, the PI, Dr Jieyu Liu, and two Postdoctoral Researchers, Dr Eona Bell and Dr Jiayu Zhang, carried out literature reviews of existing studies on Chinese families in Chinese and English, reviewed and analysed policy and institutional environments in East Asia, and analysed large survey datasets on Chinese families in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Two articles have been produced as a result of the first twelve months’ work. | |
| From October 2016, the project entered its fieldwork stage. The PI visited the fieldwork sites in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and gained useful information on the local context and research ethics from local researchers, and identified potential local users for the project’s findings. Two Postdoctoral Researchers began fieldwork in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The PI together with local Research Assistants started fieldwork in China. | |
| A small team of experts have been appointed to the project’s advisory board: Professor Deborah Davis, Yale University, USA; Professor John Holmwood, University of Nottingham, UK; Professor Stevi Jackson, University of York, UK; Professor William Jankowiak, University of Nevada, USA; Professor Ellen Judd, University of Manitoba, Canada; Professor Brenda Yeoh, National University of Singapore, Singapore; and Professor Yan Yunxiang, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. | |
| The PI was the keynote speaker at the International Symposium ‘Asian Intimacies in Comparative Perspective’ on 12th November 2015 at the Sussex Asia Centre, University of Sussex. The PI was also invited to speak at the seminar series ‘Family Dynamics, Health and Ageing in Contemporary China’ on 10th March 2016 held at the Oxford Institute of Ageing, University of Oxford.","The project will make a significant contribution to understanding the continuities and changes in Chinese family life through a new focus on ‘relationships’. This will represent an important step forward in our current understanding of Chinese family structure and function. | |
| Population ageing now characterises many societies in the West as well as in the East; and by emphasising the intergenerational dimension of intimate relationships, this project will show how ‘doing intimacy’ is becoming increasingly important to individuals’ wellbeing in later life. This project will be of relevance to scholars in sociology, social policy and social gerontology studying families. | |
| In addition to scientific impact, the research findings will be of considerable interest and value to audiences in East Asia and in Europe who are concerned about the implications of population ageing and family transitions. These include policy-makers, practitioners, media organisations and the general public.",2019-04-09 15:48:11,,640488,Intimacy,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-StG-2014,http://intimacy.soas.ac.uk/ | |
| 1985,263804,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OPTRASTOCH (Optimal Transport and Stochastic Dynamics),"The project deals with fundamental mathematical questions at the interface of analysis, probability theory, and geometry. At the core of the project is the problem of optimal transport, an old problem that deals with the optimal allocation of resources.In recent years, optimal...","The project deals with fundamental mathematical questions at the interface of analysis, probability theory, and geometry. | |
| At the core of the project is the problem of optimal transport, an old problem that deals with the optimal allocation of resources. | |
| In recent years, optimal transport has played a key role in important mathematical developments in areas such as non-smooth geometry, probability, and partial differential equations. | |
| The project consists of a wide research program that aims to extend the scope of optimal transport significantly, focusing on applications to discrete geometry, stochastic processes, and quantum dynamics.","In the first funding period significant results have been obtained in various areas of the project, and the groundwork has been laid for further progress. | |
| Among the main results obtained so far are results on the geometry of geodesics in discrete optimal transport, | |
| results on the asymptotic behavior of discrete optimal transport for large classes of meshes, and results on fluctuations in the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process.","The obtained results are significantly beyond the state of the art. | |
| Areas of research in the remaining parts of the project include variational structures for non-reversible stochastic dynamics, | |
| chemical reaction networks, and the geometry of non-commutative optimal transport and its applications to quantum dynamics.",2019-04-10 12:34:42,,716117,OPTRASTOCH,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-2016-STG,http://www.janmaas.org/erc-grant | |
| 1658,200918,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - UP-Drive (Automated Urban Parking and Driving),"The project UP-Drive aims at pushing the state of the art of automated driving and focuses on urban environments. Automotive experts expect the automated driving technology to radically improve the safety, comfort and affordability of individual mobility. Whilst many driver...","The project UP-Drive aims at pushing the state of the art of automated driving and focuses on urban environments. Automotive experts expect the automated driving technology to radically improve the safety, comfort and affordability of individual mobility. Whilst many driver assistance systems – addressing mainly highway-like environments – are being introduced into the market and successively propagated from the premium car segment down to economy vehicles, automation of urban traffic remains an open research topic. | |
| The main goal of UP-Drive is therefore to push forward the perception, localization and reasoning abilities of autonomous vehicles. In the course of the project, we will build a prototype car system capable of driverless operation in complex urban environments. Our focus will be placed on residential areas and speeds up to 30 km/h.","In its first 12 months, the project has focused on building the foundations for the envisioned system. The most visible achievement is the completion of the first vehicle platform. For that purpose a fully electric vehicle has been equipped with a rich sensor suite, a powerful computer system and a drive-by-wire interface. Less visible, but equally important was the design and implementation of the detailed software architecture spanning the core components of the system. Finally, project has collected first datasets, performed initial calibration of the sensor suite and performed first experiments.","Now that the test platform is operational and the software architecture is well defined, the project can move forward towards challenging the state of the art in the key fields of autonomous driving research: long-life localization and mapping, environment perception and scene understanding.",2019-04-15 13:20:38,,688652,UP-Drive,H2020-EU.2.1.1.,ICT-24-2015,http://up-drive.eu/ | |
| 9512,190266,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TRACKSCAN (A practical, portable and robust scanning system using infrastructure inspection radar (IIR) for the investigation of rail track substructure, ballast and tunnel infrastructure)",Railview Limited (RVL) is a high-tech SME based in the North-East of the UK. One of their innovative concepts is “TRACKSCAN” which is a development of a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system to be used within the rail industry to give greater clarity of sub-surface images...,"Railview Limited (RVL) is a high-tech SME based in the North-East of the UK. One of their innovative concepts is “TRACKSCAN” which is a development of a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system to be used within the rail industry to give greater clarity of sub-surface images related to defects within rail infrastructure. To take a step forward towards the production of a prototype, RVL successfully applied for EC/SME Phase 1 funding for a 6-month feasibility study to assess the viability of the TRACKSCAN concept. | |
| The overall objectives of the TRACKSCAN project/feasibility study were: | |
| • To prepare for commercialisation of the TRACKSCAN concept | |
| • To assess the practical application of the TRACKCAN technology to the rail environment | |
| • To prove the business concept with industry support | |
| • To assess the practical viability | |
| • Confirm the economic viability and further investigate the market potential in order to further elaborate a business model and plan. | |
| All of these objectives for the Phase 1 project have been successfully completed and further activity has been undertaken in light of the knowledge gained to change the initial focus of the next research step. One key target for supporting commercialisation was to determine market needs. The Phase 1 feasibility study carried out by RVL into TRACKSCAN has revealed a number of services emerging for market entry from the initial key priorities. This not only includes hazards stemming from track and substructure defects, but also those due to other problems occurring in the rail environment (such as landslides, retaining wall failures, animal activity and concrete delamination from tunnel surfaces). | |
| TRACKSCAN has been designed to detect and evaluate subsurface risk in their formation stages. The introduction of TRACKSCAN to an ageing rail network will be a valuable asset to infrastructure development and maintenance teams. TRACKSCAN’s 3d visual assessment software coupled with the ability to accurately diagnose issues and their extent and positioning along a track will allow rail workforces to plan essential repair work in a timely manner resulting in accurate budget forecast and minimal disruption to passenger and freight services.","Work began on the TRACKSCAN project with coordinators RVL assessing the User Needs for the TRACKSCAN concept. This involved targeting potential stakeholders to interview using an RVL designed Rail Infrastructure Questionnaire. Interviews were by telephone and face-to-face both giving the opportunity for additional qualitative comments. This research was carried out into month 5 of the project to gain the maximum amount of quantitative and qualitative information. A conclusion to the interviews was that the combination of seasonal weather, track vibration and rail weight, the structural integrity of rail culverts could be compromised possibly causing the surrounding area to erode beneath the structure causing a void or “sinkhole” not visible from the surface. These issues present many opportunities to use TRACKSCAN to identify any impending problems. For example, one particular area highlighted, as a constant concern with impacts to normal rail services was the effect wildlife has on infrastructure and culvert blockage, which incur financial penalties for delays in passenger and freight traffic. Responses from the interviews clearly show that that a TRACKSCAN device would be a valuable aid to a workforce, enabling an additional form of surveying primarily in the prevention of a situation occurring and this has now become a target area for RVL research. | |
| To facilitate business development, RVL were put in contact with Enterprise Europe Network North (EEN) based in the North-East of the UK as a result of the EC funding. The association was very fruitful and RVL were made aware of many opportunities concerning future Business Planning/Coaching. It was through this EC funding mechanism that RVL had the opportunity to meet with a European Business Coach to work together in understanding the basics of producing a commercial Business Plan to move a prototype closer to market as a company. | |
| Also at this time RVL began sourcing potential partners for a further large-scale project to make a prototype of the TRACKSCAN unit and take it to market. An important partner will be one who is able to interpret high volumes of data generated from the TRACKSCAN unit and turn these into 3d virtual reality images for interpretation. The initial TRACKSCAN prototype is for data acquisition only with the computer processing making the image from the prototype by software developers depending on the refinement of the hardware. This is a very specialised area and there is a local company in the North-East of the UK who are willing to take on this task and work together with RVL in future collaborations. | |
| It was established through the feasibility study that there was potential for further development in the TRACKSCAN system and that the most appropriate IPR protection method would be to apply for a Patent. The RVL Chief Scientist was charged with producing a summary document identifying the novelties to brief a Patent specialist. The Managing Director of RVL identified a Patent Attorney who could be used for submission of a TRACKSCAN Patent. In month 5 of the project, a vehicle mounted radar-scanning device was submitted for examination to the UK patent office. This was advised by a Patent Attorney as the Patent search had not revealed any existing Patents worldwide that had the same scope as the TRACKSCAN technology. The Patent is now “Pending”. | |
| The final month of the project, concentrated on maintaining a relationship with potential end users of TRACKSCAN as a result of the feasibility study in the UK as well in Europe. The RVL website has a page dedicated to TRACKSCAN which will continue to reflect the progress of the concept without compromising the IPR and Patent confidentiality - www.railview.co.uk/trackscan","There are a number of expected impacts from the development of the TRACKSCAN system and these are a benefit for the end-users. Railview Limited as a high-tech SME is well aware of the market for technologies that improve safety and efficiency in levels of rail related maintenance in the UK and wider European and International markets. | |
| Infrastructure owners and maintainers will be the beneficiaries of the commercialised TRACKSCAN system, which will be able to examine and evaluate the entire ballast, subgrade and adjacent subsurface regions as well as infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels. This will maintain and improve levels of safety on rail networks, while reducing maintenance time and costs, providing significant economic benefits. | |
| Railview Limited’s phase 1 feasibility study into TRACKSCAN has shown a number of services emerging for market entry. Interviews, questionnaires and market research conducted have shown the strongest areas for exploitation by TRACKSCANS capabilities: | |
| • The inspection of rail track Ballast. | |
| • Culvert Mapping, Inspection & Void Detection | |
| • Tunnel and Bridge Inspection | |
| • Earthwork and Retaining Wall Evaluation | |
| • Environmental impact | |
| This innovation project fits absolutely into the strategy of taking RVL into the implementation phase and bringing TRACKSCAN to the market. This will significantly assist in developing the company and work force alongside this exciting product.",2018-07-31 09:19:28,,700138,TRACKSCAN,H2020-EU.3.4.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,IT-1-2015-1,http://www.railview.co.uk | |
| 5985,220061,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Photovitamin Windows (Microprocessing photovitamin D3 using photo-high-T intensification.),"Vitamin D (VD3), “sunshine vitamin” is produced in human skin by using sunlight as energy source. VD3 is very scarce in food and, sunscreen are usually used breaking its production. All these hurdles make difficult to reach the daily recommended ingestion/production of...","Vitamin D (VD3), “sunshine vitamin” is produced in human skin by using sunlight as energy source. VD3 is very scarce in food and, sunscreen are usually used breaking its production. All these hurdles make difficult to reach the daily recommended ingestion/production of VD3, and this epidemic lack can only be balanced with artificial supplements. | |
| Framed in this background, a holistic process improvement was carried out focusing in three pillars: (i) VD3 synthesis, (ii) unreacted 7-dehydrocholesterol (7DHC) recovery after the synthesis, and (iii) direct VD3 crystallization. The environmental impact of all improvements was evaluated through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The novelty of the approach included, among others, the combination of thermal and UV-light intensification in the synthesis step. In this connection, UV-light was supplied using a mercury lamp and UV-laser pulses. The design was guided by productivity and efficiency rules, but also by sustainability, i.e. cost analysis and environmental impact through life-cycle assessment and green metrics (E-factor). This continuous micro-flow photo reactor was fully monitored using an ultrafast on-line sampler-analyser. | |
| As a training objectives and dissemination, Prof. Hessel contributed in improving my skills in several aspects described in the technical report, wchich were considered as essential in my scientific career development plan.","Pillar 1. Synthesis: The study was carried out using two UV-light energy sources: UV mercury lamp and UV laser. LED was finally not used because with the current technology, the pulses are in the order of microseconds which means longer than the living time of the transition state and thus no effect was expected. Then, UV mercury lamp was used in order to check the performance of the conventional UV-lamps when using high pressure and high temperature at the same time (photo-high-p,T) (Paper 1). The use of pulsed UV laser was approached for the first time together with high-p,T (Paper 2). Thus, in addition to the pulsed photo-innovation, the continuous micro-flow photo process offered excellent control over residence time, irradiation, and energy transfer. This study was carried out in collaboration with the Dutch Institute For Fundamental Energy Research. | |
| Pillar 2. Process Automation: An ultrafast on-line sampler-analyser (UHPLC) was coupled and tested with the photo-high-p,T setup. The sampler-analyser was also a prototype provided through an agreement with Agilent Technologies. The tests were performed sampling at different pressures and offered a process automation with easy sampling and short times analysis. | |
| The outcome of pillars 1 and 2 can be summarized in: | |
| + Paper 1: Micro-flow high-p,T intensification of Vitamin D3 synthesis using an ultraviolet lamp. | |
| + Paper 2: Laser mediated continuous photo-high-p,T intensification of Vitamin D3 synthesis. | |
| Pillar 3. Unreacted 7-dehydrocholesterol recovery: A procedure for recovering the unreacted 7DHC was designed. The new process gives 85% recovery of 7DHC with 99% crystal purity, without the need to evaporate the synthesis solvent and using friendly and cheap solvents, keeping the yield of VD3 in the same range. The output here will be: | |
| + Paper 3: Eco-friendly approach to continuously monitored photo-high-p,T production of Vitamin D3. | |
| Pillar 4. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): The Aspen process design is completed. The impact analysis will follow comparing the conventional process with the one resulted from this project. In this connection, DSM expressed its interest in this research and I visited their plant in Basel. Nevertheless, at the end DSM decided not to involve due to a low overall engagement in research collaboration and being already bound by some commitments. The LCA study highlights the improvements in terms of costs, but also in terms of safety and environment. It probes that high-p,T route follows the lines of Green Chemistry, contributing to energy with GWP and CED in 20-25 %/70-75 % fashion respectively. These results won the Poster Award of the Year 2016 of the International MicroNano Conference (see below). The output of this pillar is: | |
| + Paper 4: Life Cycle Assessment for continuous photo-high-p,T synthesis of Vitamin D3. | |
| + Paper 5: Green metrics and life cycle assessment for a new pathway for vitamin D3 synthesis. | |
| Pillar 5. Vitamin D3 crystallization: A direct purification module for the crystallization of VD3 was designed. The main novelty is the possibility to use an in-line solvent swap step coupled to the process before the cooling. This approach comes from the need to change the solvent in order to enhance the supersaturation due to the lower solubility of VD3 in the new solvent. The crystallization was first tested in batch using acetonitrile (Paper 6), and the conditions were set in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality (Paper 7). This study was carried out in collaboration with the Prof. Khinast research group at the Graz University of Technology. In-flow, VD3 particles flow continuously to the filtration step. ~50% (w/w) crystals of VD3 are directly obtained in one run in just one minute of cooling time achieving also process intensification. The polymorphic form as well as the crystals shape and size properties were also described (Paper 8). This crystallization step was also considered in paper 4, in order to give a holistic view of the wh","In the light of the outcome, this project gives a new perspective for the process of the synthesis of VD3. The more innovative paths are: (i) open the possibility to use flow chemistry in photo-high-p,T setups, (ii) the substitution of the mercury lamp by laser irradiation, (iii) the possibility to swap the solvent in-line and in-flow, (iv) a new pathway for a future production of VD3 with shorter times, with new kinds of control and monitoring, as well as (v) the possibility to use greener solvents according to the postulates of Green Chemistry. That strengthened the theoretical potential for shorter production time, meaning higher production capability, have higher selectivity, have higher energy efficiency, and also to get directly VD3 in crystalline shape. Even the crystallization of VD3 on its own had not been described before this project, even in batch, and thus is as such already beyond state of the art. All these issues could make this project very attractive for pharma companies and we expect to have the opportunity to follow-up the research progress in future. | |
| Initially the project was planned as a study of the reaction synthesis and a study of crystallization. The process complexity was increased (e.g. considering evaporation), when getting deeper into the topic. Thus, finally a large research program was undertaken which fits the holistic idea given already in the proposal.",2019-01-11 10:06:35,,659233,Photovitamin Windows,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,https://www.tue.nl/universiteit/faculteiten/scheikundige-technologie/onderzoek/onderzoeksgroepen/chemical-and-process-technology/chemical-reactor-engineering/research/micro-flow-chemistry-process-tech | |
| 6853,205375,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TMGSiP (THz Muti-Gb/s System in Package),"""The goal of """"THz Muti-Gb/s System in Package"""", i.e., """"TMGSiP"""" project is to develop a fully integrated 120GHz radio front-end for Multi-Gb/s radio links with state-of-the-art SiGe BiCMOS technology. This will be done with a completely new cross-cutting design methodology...","""The goal of """"THz Muti-Gb/s System in Package"""", i.e., """"TMGSiP"""" project is to develop a fully integrated 120GHz radio front-end for Multi-Gb/s radio links with state-of-the-art SiGe BiCMOS technology. This will be done with a completely new cross-cutting design methodology for silicon-MMIC, e.g. the development of wideband receiver and transmitter, including on-chip antenna and novel packaging concepts. This will enable a big improvement in the functionality (complexity of RF MMICs), performance (data rate), component size (fully-integrated compact MMIC with integrated antennas), power consumption and cost over existing III/V communication systems. | |
| The project’s ambition is to realize a sub-THz Si analog front-end with integrated antennas for a line of sight communication link with data rates even up to 40Gbps centered around 120GHz bandwidth of 20GHz and range up to a few meters. Due to the huge available bandwidth only simple low-order modulation schemes like QPSK will be considered. Due to the termination of the project only first building blocks of the wideband transmitter and receiver were designed, fabricated and characterized. Also some preliminary design work of the other building components has been carried out. | |
| ""","The goal of the project is to design a radio front-end operating at 120GHz frequency band. The MMIC will be realized in a standard SiGe Bi-CMOS technology provided by a European factory IHP (www.ihp-microelectronics.com). IHP offers technology node named SG13S which is a high-performance 0.13 µm BiCMOS technology with npn-HBTs up to fT / fmax= 250/340 GHz. The devices offered in this technology have appropriate performance to be used in the designs for the project. | |
| The project begun with the design of the most crucial components of the receiver and the transmitter which are the Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) and the Power Amplifier (PA). The broadband operation with on-chip antenna and proposed novel packaging concept required a dedicated design approach. | |
| In order to enable proposed packaging the active and passive structures of the LNA and PA have to be shielded by a ground plane. To make it possible a dedicated strip-line has been developed and used in the first brake-outs of the transmitter and receiver. All the parameters of the strip-line (width, spacing) have been optimized in electromagnetic (EM) simulations to achieve best possible performance of the circuits. | |
| The first circuit which was designed is the LNA. It comprises a three-stage cascode structure as shown in Figure 1. The circuit was optimized to achieve highest possible bandwidth and gain while minimizing the noise figure. The input and output matching have optimize to achieve match to 50 Ohm in the whole operation bandwidth. The goal of the project was to achieve 20GHz of bandwidth around 120GHz frequency of operation. The careful design and circuit optimization led to achievement of 30GHz of bandwidth centred around 125GHz. The middle of the bandwidth was shifted towards higher frequencies on purpose, since according to my experience the fabricated circuits tend to operate at lower frequencies than simulated due to some extra parasitic components. | |
| The simulated performance of the designed LNA is summarized in Table 1. The LNA achieves 17dB of peak gain and 30GHz of 3dB bandwidth. The simulated noise figure of the LNA exhibits minimum of 9.6dB at 122GHz. The circuits draws 19.6mA from a 3V supply. The simulated S-parameters, NF and linearity are plotted in Figure 2 (a-e) respectively. | |
| As the circuit design of the LNA was ready, the physical layout of the device was designed. It should be noted that the layout design and circuit design are complementary process since all the passive structures and interconnects between components have to be simulated in EM simulator. The design of a circuit operating at 120GHz is an iterative process which involves circuit simulations, careful layout design and layout modelling (using EM simulator). The final design of the LNA layout is depicted in Figure 3. The layout occupies the silicon area of 375um x 700um and it includes all necessary pads for future measurements. The size and distances between the pads are chosen in the way to guarantee that the MMIC can be measured in a HF test laboratory. The layout was also fully verified using Design Rule Check (DRC) and Layout Versus Schematic (LVS) procedures to guarantee manufacturability and topological match between simulation schematic and physical implementation. | |
| The next component designed in the first stage of the project was the power amplifier. The circuit diagram of the implemented amplifier is depicted in Figure 4. It is realized as a three stage cascode with transmission lines as load and inter-stage matching components. The amplifier was optimized to achieve desired bandwidth and maximum output power. | |
| The designed amplifier exhibits a peak gain of 16dB and a bandwidth of 30GHz. The output power at 1dB CP reaches 3.5dBm. The circuit drives 35.5mA from 3V supply resulting in 106.5mW power dissipation. | |
| The simulated S-parameters, linearity and transient output signals signals are plotted in Figure 2 (a-e) respectively. | |
| The physical layout of the PA was realized in simila","The two designed and fabricated test ICs showed the feasibility of the project. They confirmed that with novel design approach it is possible to realize a RF front-end circuits enabling multi-Gb/s wireless communication in silicon process technologies. Unfortunately, due to the termination of the project the further research on the topic was not continued.",2018-09-25 09:50:14,,658764,TMGSiP,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF, | |
| 806,263344,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Ground Truth 2.0 (Ground Truth 2.0 - Environmental knowledge discovery of human sensed data),Ground Truth 2.0 is delivering the demonstration and validation of six scaled up citizen observatories in real operational conditions both in the EU and in Africa. It is strengthening the full feedback-loop in the information chain from citizen-based data collection to...,"Ground Truth 2.0 is delivering the demonstration and validation of six scaled up citizen observatories in real operational conditions both in the EU and in Africa. It is strengthening the full feedback-loop in the information chain from citizen-based data collection to knowledge sharing for joint decision-making and cooperative planning. The project focuses on environmental indicators in urban and rural areas related to spatial planning issues, with a specific focus on flora and fauna as well as water availability and water quality for land and natural resources management. This is supported by an innovative web-based service for worldwide mapping and updating of land use. The overall objectives of Ground Truth 2.0 are to implement sustainable citizen observatories for the demonstration of their societal and economic benefits, and the global market uptake of the Ground Truth 2.0 concept and enabling technologies. The trans-disciplinary Ground Truth 2.0 approach consists of a multi-actor innovation process to combine the social dimensions of citizen observatories with enabling technologies so that their customisation and deployment is tailored to the envisaged societal and economic impacts of the observatories. The demonstration cases (4 EU and 2 African) cover the full 'spectrum’ of citizen-sensed data usage and citizen engagement, and therefore allow testing and validating of the concept and technologies, and evaluation of their impacts under a range of conditions. The combination of demonstration cases as well as the technologies, skills and networks of citizen associations involved via the GT2.0 consortium (a good mix of Industry, SME, NGO, Government, Research and Academia) presents a unique opportunity for positioning the European industry for the roll out and uptake of related technologies and services in the EU, in Africa as well as globally. The involvement of private sector partners and a business development expert ensure global uptake.","Based on carefully devised methods for stakeholder analysis, co-design and engagement, Ground Truth 2.0 has successfully completed the co-design of the six citizen observatories in its four European and two African Demo Cases, enabling local stakeholders to to design their citizen observatory (CO) focused on their local needs. All Demo Cases have identified the central challenge they are addressing as well as the specific objectives for their COs, along with identifies for their respective COs. A tailored methodology was developed for coordinating the developments in the six Demonstration Cases with the activities in the Work Packages. | |
| The platforms for five of the six observatories have been developed and are online, including different tools for the data collection. These technical solutions are based on the functional design resulting from the co-design process and on the technical design developed for each case. In addition, Ground Truth 2.0 has been working on validation and quality assurance methods and how to facilitate standard access for the CO data in order to make this information interoperable with other data sources. The initial version of each platform provides those functionalities that had been prioritised by the end users. Three observatories have already been launched to the general public at targeted and carefully prepared launch events and several data collection campaigns were held undertaken by two observatories. | |
| These activities were paralleled by research into the incentives and barriers for stakeholder participation in the observatories, the results of which fed into and guided the tailored engagement efforts in each Demo Case. A comprehensive impact assessment procedure was developed and implemented to trace social, institutional, economic and environmental changes triggered by the six observatories. | |
| Ground Truth 2.0 has been aligning its efforts for building a Land User Mapper with prototypes of project-external parties in order to (eventually) generate a robust Global Land Use Mapper, especially for areas where either OSM data is scarce or remote sensing acquisition is hampered by frequent cloud cover. The Ground Truth 2.0 homepage serves as a prominent place for the unique GT2.0 approach, the Demo Cases and the posts about the latest Demo Case activities.","The methodology for establishing sustainable, demand-driven COs that is being developed and validated by Ground Truth 2.0 until the end of the project extends beyond the current state of the art in the field of citizen observatories and citizen science by providing a holistic and comprehensive approach to the social, technological and economic aspects of developing such innovative initiatives. This will be accompanied by guidelines for initiatives that are striving for similar goals, lessons from the Ground Truth 2.0 approach and engagement practices, and the results of the technical, socio-economic and institutional impact assessments, as well as recommendations for policy makers. Appropriate business models will be generated for each of the six COs to support their sustainability beyond the lifetime of the project and for distinct GT2.0 products for commercialization purposes, including the land user mapper, the GT2.0 methodology and a tool for checking data quality in COs | |
| During the second half of the project, the platforms of all six COs will be enhanced with feedback and collaboration services. These will facilitate feedback and discussion of environmental issues related to the land-use (change) in local settings which can be used by decision makers for incorporation into their decision support tools. For the Belgian and Swedish Demo Cases, a serious game will be created that can be used for stakeholder participation in policy making. | |
| GT2.0 is aiming to become a reference implementation for a common set of interoperable standards for citizen observatories and strives for the integration of citizen sensed data into GEOSS at the same level as in-situ observations, ensuring sustainability of the data as well as the observatories. The interoperability and standardisation efforts will result in greater opportunities for the adoption and increased added-value of the CO technologies and data, thus contributing to improved market access for these products. | |
| The final project results (social and technological) from the 6 citizen observatories will be presented and showcased at various events, including a final GT2.0 event, in order to promote the global market uptake of the GT 2.0 concept and enabling technologies. Regional authorities will be provided with access to and training on the GT2.0 technologies, demonstration results, methods and guidelines developed in the project. | |
| All of the project efforts will contribute to the active participation and empowerment of citizens in planning, decision making and environmental governance in and beyond the six Ground Truth 2.0 Demonstration Cases.",2019-04-24 10:10:54,,689744,Ground Truth 2.0,H2020-EU.3.5.5.,SC5-17-2015,http://www.gt20.eu | |
| 4419,242589,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NGPaaS (Next Generation Platform as a Service),"With the promise of offering ultra-reliable, low-latency communications, high speed, 5G is expected to introduce a golden digital age of remote healthcare, autonomous cars and advanced robotics use-cases. This is due mainly from a set of drivers that are shaping our society...","With the promise of offering ultra-reliable, low-latency communications, high speed, 5G is expected to introduce a golden digital age of remote healthcare, autonomous cars and advanced robotics use-cases. This is due mainly from a set of drivers that are shaping our society. The first driver is the increase of population and the still growing globalization and physical and virtual mobility: more people (2 billion and a half in 1950, almost 7.5 billion today, half of them living in cities), and more interconnections among them. The second driver is the proliferation of new or improved applications and services that need network connectivity: video (high definition), IoT (metering, smart home, connected cars), industry 4.0 (or the fourth industrial revolution), low latency services (games, virtual reality, autonomous vehicles), advanced services (face recognition and speech translation, cognitive and expert systems, big data exploitation). So, we have more connected devices, with each requiring higher data rates, lower latency, and ubiquitous coverage, with very high densities of users possible. In addition, the importance of network connectivity and networked applications in our society and economy has the consequence of requiring significant improvements also in terms of: i) faster deployment of applications and services, so reducing their time to market and easing their evolution; ii) lower energy consumption; iii) enhanced security and privacy; iv) better reliability and dependability. Furthermore, processing needs will be exacerbated in high capacity, dense networks. | |
| But today's mobile networks are not set up in a way that can handle 5G requirements without needing extensive over-engineering. Current cloud computing solutions are not suitable for dynamic, real-time, high-bandwidth, low-latency applications because of issues such as granularity, localization and configurability; service processing nodes should be distributed and located close to users/EDGE. To make 5G a network of functions rather than network of entities, they'll need to borrow principles of the more scalable, flexible networks that deliver cloud-based services from IT companies like Amazon and Google. | |
| This transformation is called cloud native. For realizing this vision, another model than Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) must be adopted, a model derived from the cloud service providers themselves, a model made by the developers for the developers, and known as the Platform-As-A-Service (PaaS) concept. | |
| For building such a tool, we must ensure ascending compatibility with Cloud environment in order for 5G to be cloud-native. Our approach imports the best technologies from the cloud industry, essentially today the open source community, including micro-services, the de-facto cloud industrial standard, and the most crucial technical assets from 5G-PPP Phase 1 projects. | |
| The key innovative areas of the project are as follows: Components modularity and ‘Build-to-order’ PaaS principles, Carrier-grade enhancements and Unstructured cloud-computing stack.","We build a new 5G cloud-native stack cantered on a telco-grade PaaS, Dev-For-Operations processes supporting a multi-sided platform between operators, vendors and third-parties, and a revisited OSS model. We implement several “laser-focused” versions of NGPaaS for supporting Telco, vertical and combined scenarios (identified here as 5G). We deploy and validate these PaaSes iteratively, first in cloud using ‘virtual siblings’, then in the laboratory and finally over a live site at the Paris-Saclay campus. | |
| The main achievements of the project so far are listed below, together with related publication references, when available: | |
| 1. Selection and detailed description of use cases/scenarios for the NGPaaS | |
| 2. Definition of the NGPaaS architecture | |
| 3. Dev-For-Operations Model definition | |
| 4. First version of a Telco PaaS prototyped, presented in EuCNC and 5G-World Forum | |
| 5. First version of a 5G PaaS prototyped, presented in EuCNC and 5G-World Forum. | |
| 6. First version of an IoT PaaS prototyped, presented in SiDO 2018 event | |
| 7. Telco-grade features support in Kubernetes (the container management system) | |
| 8. Policy Framework and Network Policy prototype | |
| 9. Component upgrade strategy | |
| 10. Monitoring as a Service | |
| 11. FPGA virtualization | |
| 12. Multidomain SDN | |
| 13. Hybrid Cloud demonstration | |
| 14. Common platform set-up for the pilot | |
| 15. High availability support on cloud | |
| These results are published is a large number of publications in high quality conferences and journals, and also a number of contributions to both the opensource and standards communities. Project exploitable results and innovative ideas have been identified and partially developed in the context of the project innovation management.","NGPaaS is pushing the boundaries of the current SOTA of the PaaS which are currently tailored to Web and mobile applications to build the cloud native 5G platform de-structuring the current stack and implementation which lock you in their technological choice. By generalizing the RFB component concepts, we are able to ‘build-to-order’ platform composed with the right technology suited to the deployed use-case. | |
| In order to support the flexibility needs and speed imposed to the SDN/NFV processes, we design a telco-grade service platform that eases the adoption of Dev-for-Operations kinds of cycles, enhancing test, integration and quality assurance steps with the closer collaboration and trusted relationship between Vendor, Operator and Vertical Following Multi-Sided Platform and Provides a framework to handle the feedback from operator and contribute to automate of operation-aware testing, which is crucial to maintain high reliability with rapid and complex releases. | |
| For that NGPaaS aims at delivering efficient failure detection in the cloud. The goal is to go beyond the state of art, in particular, anomaly-based approaches can be used to detect new failures that have not been encoded as signatures yet. While failures are observed, they can be incrementally encoded into signatures that can be exploited to precisely detect additional occurrences of similar failures. A model-based MaaS (Monitoring as a Service) has been designed and integrated in the NGPaaS architecture.",2019-03-20 11:03:32,,761557,NGPaaS,H2020-EU.2.1.1.,ICT-08-2017,http://ngpaas.eu | |
| 5813,242241,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NuSiCC (Modelling the therapeutic potential of NUAK1 suppression in colorectal cancer),"""Colorectal cancer (CRC) kills up to 170,000 Europeans annually. Although 10-year survival rates have increased at a reasonably steady rate, resistance to therapy is an ongoing concern and new therapies are certainly needed. Colorectal cancer is somewhat unique in that the...","""Colorectal cancer (CRC) kills up to 170,000 Europeans annually. Although 10-year survival rates have increased at a reasonably steady rate, resistance to therapy is an ongoing concern and new therapies are certainly needed. Colorectal cancer is somewhat unique in that the mutations that commonly drive the disease coalesce around a limited number of well-defined genetic pathways, and the Cancer Genome Atlas project has shown that increased activity of the MYC oncogene in particular appears to be a unifying feature of the disease. MYC however is a poor target for direct pharmacological inhibition. We have therefore sought to identify indirect means of exploiting the consequences of MYC deregulation, rather than targeting MYC itself. The concept of """"synthetic lethality"""" offers one such approach: Synthetic lethality is said to exist when mutation in either one of a pair of genes is tolerable but simultaneous mutation of both kills the cell. Synthetic dosage lethality is conceptually similar, except that one of the genes may be overexpressed rather than mutated. Our previous work identified a synthetic dosage lethal interaction between MYC and a little-known kinase called NUAK1: we demonstrated that cancer cells overexpressing MYC are highly dependent upon co-expression of NUAK1 and thereby highly sensitive to suppression of NUAK1. Because NUAK1 appears to be an excellent target for small molecule inhibition, the implication is thus that it may be possible to kill tumour cells that overexpress MYC by inhibiting NUAK1. Inhibitors of NUAK1 are presently at an early stage of development that precludes directly testing this concept in vivo. We have therefore taken a genetic approach to examine the requirement for NUAK1 during tumour development in a genetically engineered mouse model of sporadic Beta-Catenin-driven CRC. Our preliminary results showed that NUAK1 is required for CR tumour initiation and, more importantly, that NUAK1 depletion shrinks pre-existing tumours, suggesting that NUAK1 is an excellent candidate target for treatment of CRC. Hence, the main objectives of the project were to thoroughly evaluate NUAK1 as a target for therapy in CRC and to use a combination of proteomic, phosphor-proteomic and metabolomic analysis to determine the mechanism by which NUAK1 suppression erodes tumour cell viability. | |
| ""","During the time-frame of the project we could show by using mouse models of colorectal cancer (CRC) that NUAK1 deletion inhibits colon tumour initiation, and acute genetically-mediated depletion of NUAK1 by shRNA in established tumours significantly reduces tumour burden after just 7 days of shRNA activation. Importantly, depletion of NUAK1 in mouse wildtype intestine had no impact on cell death, proliferation or differentiation, and wildtype 3D organoids were resistant to NUAK1 inhibition. Using human CRC cell lines and transformed 3D organoid cultures, we have confirmed that the NRF2 oxidative stress response is compromised in NUAK1 depleted cells, and treatment with a ROS scavenger can rescue the detrimental consequences of this in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo. Mechanistically, we found that NUAK1 is necessary for the nuclear accumulation of NRF2 by counteracting negative regulation of this process by GSK3β. | |
| In summary, we are proposing a new and conserved mechanism of redox signal transduction in which activation of NUAK1 coordinates PP1βMYPT1 inhibition, with AKT activation in order to suppress GSK3β-dependent inhibition of NRF2 nuclear import. Exploiting the heightened sensitivity of tumour cells to ROS is emerging as a plausible strategy for cancer therapy and is implicated in the resistance to chemotherapy. Therefore, inhibiting the anti-oxidant response via transient inhibition of NUAK1 may offer a new strategy for improving therapeutic outcomes in cancer. | |
| Results of this project were presented at several national and international conferences and a research article published (Cancer Discov. 2018 May;8(5):632-647). Furthermore, several datasets were published that were generated while working on the project.","The socio-economic impact of the project is manifold. The newly developed mouse model (Vil-CreER;Apcfl/+;DI-shNuak1) and antibody (p-NUAK1) will be available for other researchers to use and will make a further advancement of the role of NUAK1 and its potential utilization for anti-cancer therapy possible. In the longer term the finding that colorectal tumours require NUAK1 for protection from oxidative stress could be exploited as a novel therapeutic approach by inhibiting the anti-oxidant response via transient inhibition of NUAK1. Hence, colorectal cancer patients could potentially benefit from the development of new therapies resulting in prolonged survival combined with a better quality of life. Given the widespread deregulation of MYC across a broad spectrum of human cancer types, it is plausible to hope that the strategy of targeting NUAK1 will prove effective in many cancers beyond CRC. | |
| As a kinase, NUAK1 holds much promise as a target for small molecule inhibition and several tool compounds are already available, attesting to the feasibility of inhibiting NUAK1. Our pre-clinical data could potentially encourage investment in NUAK1-selective drug development, generating new sources of revenue and employment within the pharmaceutical sector. The University of Glasgow is benefiting a) from any commercial outputs arising from this work and b) from the prestige garnered as a result of the scientific advances made during this project.",2019-01-29 10:58:21,,705190,NuSiCC,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2015-EF,https://www.gla.ac.uk/researchinstitutes/cancersciences/staff/danielmurphy/ | |
| 7344,205140,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ChiC (Creating high impact for CAPS),"The issues being addressed within the CAPS (Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and social innovation) initiative, which ChIC is providing coordination and support to, are some of society’s biggest challenges: environmental preservation, reducing inequalities...","The issues being addressed within the CAPS (Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and social innovation) initiative, which ChIC is providing coordination and support to, are some of society’s biggest challenges: environmental preservation, reducing inequalities, fostering inclusion, putting in place sustainable economic models and what can be used to help people especially at the grass roots level, become engaged to solve these or related problems of direct interest to them. In order to help people make the most of this opportunity, a move needs to be made away from the current centralization of power by a small number of large tech companies and enable a much broader group of people and organisations to develop and share innovative digital solutions. Across Europe, a growing movement of people and organisations are exploring opportunities within the CAPS and the broader Digital Social Innovation (DSI) context, developing bottom-up solutions leveraging on participation, collaboration, decentralization, openness, multi-disciplinarity. However, this movement is still at a relatively small scale, because of the little public and private investment, the limited experience in large-scale take-up of collective solutions, and the relative lack of skills of DSI actors (civil society) compared to commercial stakeholders. In this perspective, the growth and sustainability of digital social innovations becomes a central concern which need to be addressed in order to make sure its potential to change and disrupt the European society at all levels can be realised. | |
| The importance of CAPS driven efforts to the society is seen in how social innovation processes can be used to contribute to the most important challenges that Europe is facing today by reinventing public services, often providing lower-cost models of addressing social needs, by supporting communities and how people live and collaborate together and by promoting business in ways that are better aligned with human needs. At the core, is how to put technologies at the service of social good and the human at the centre of Internet of the future in a way that can effect change for the common good of all. | |
| The overall objectives of the ChiC project are to support the various ongroing CAPS projects and ensure that the programme as a whole can grow as a unique and disruptive initiative. It is important to note that ChiC activities are geared both at promoting the outcomes and work of the project itself, but also at assisting and coordinating the efforts at the CAPS community level, serving all ongoing projects in amplifying their reach and increasing their impact. In addition, another core objective is providing support within the broader DSI context and embracing the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, which was launched by the EC a few months after the start of ChiC and that fosters the development of an Internet for people.","The ChiC project in Y1 has resulted in: targeted community building and stakeholders’ engagement activities, such as one-to-one interviews with all ongoing projects, the organization of the 1st edition of the DSI Fair (Rome, February 2017), 2 CAPSSI Community Workshops (Bratislava, September 2016 and Volos, July 2017), 1 dedicated policy workshop of which the outcome is the DSI Manifesto (Rimini, May 2016), the contribution and participation in 13 external events, an intense and continuous communication and promotional set of activities, including animation of the CAPS Twitter channel (@CAPSSI4EU), the creation and management of the CAPS portal (www.capssi.eu), the creation of the CAPSSI Community platform, the publication of 3 CAPSSI Bytes newsletters and multiple dissemination outreaches as viewed through press releases, social media activities, radio and TV interviews, the collection of best practices and outputs document (displayed on the CAPSSI web portal by end of August 2017 and in its soon to be downloadable e-book format by the end of July), roadmapping and policy-driven coordination across the CAPS and broader DSI context, in coordination with DSI4EU, for the creation of the DSI Manifesto as an instrument to give voice to the CAPS and pushing it forward, which entailed coordination with other related EC, and not only, initiatives such as NGI, IoT, FIRE, DSI4EU, DSI4AU, and SIC.","The expected impact of the CAPS/DSI initiative is to become a societal force for change and disruption in which great opportunities and ideas for social development and improvement in education, social services, environment, poverty reduction, gender equality, social integration, sustainable development, knowledge sharing and access to services can flourish leaving a long lasting impact. The increasing number of innovative and diverse players, including industry, academic local communities, grassroots activists, hackers, social entrepreneurs, students, citizens, creative industries and civil society organizations such as policy makers and public authorities represent all sectors of society. This inclusiveness is needed in order to effect change starting from the grassroots level on up. | |
| A set of policy making guideliness such as the DSI Manifesto, which covers financial support, promotion of pilots, the development of digital skills and multi-disciplinarity, democracy and decentralisation models, and openess of data and digital platforms is being presented to policy makers to drive the development of the European Digital Single Market to fulfill first and foremost societal and sustainability challenges (rather than short-lived economic interests), with the help and engagement of all citizens. | |
| In terms of socio-economic impact, there are many initiatives and success stories in areas of the environment, technology, mobility, agriculture, food, gamification, economy, physical disabilities, etc., in which communities and individuals have benefited from ideas from one of the many CAPS/DSI initiatives. This has in turn created a sustainable development for the entire society involving citizen engagement. | |
| Progress beyond the state of the art, is seen in one of the main ideas at the foundation of ChiC and that the current transition towards the NGI initiative should be turned into a concrete opportunity for all CAPS/DSI players. To build an Internet of the future centred on humans and reflecting the European social and ethical values of freedom, openness and interoperability, CAPS or CAPS-like efforts must be put at the foundation of it. This shall empower CAPS value creation for durable stakeholder engagement increasing the impact of DSI-focused efforts within H2020 and beyond until 2025, and strengthen liaisons to related EC initiatives, as well as selected national and international activities the ChiC is fostering and managing thanks to the uniquely positioned and extremely qualified consortium, in which all partners combine a strong CAPS experience with prominent involvement in a number of directly related domains such as Internet Science, IoT, NGI, FIRE, 5G PPP, Big Data.",2018-09-06 15:03:45,,687686,ChiC,H2020-EU.2.1.1.,ICT-10-2015,https://capssi.eu/ | |
| 6925,214457,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - miRTurnOver (Identifying genes involved in microRNA turnover in Arabidopsis),"The project with the acronym “miRTurnOver” aimed at the identification of genes involved in miRNA degradation or turnover in Arabidopsis. miRNAs are post-transcriptional regulators that control gene expression in plants, often responsive to environmental or developmental...","The project with the acronym “miRTurnOver” aimed at the identification of genes involved in miRNA degradation or turnover in Arabidopsis. miRNAs are post-transcriptional regulators that control gene expression in plants, often responsive to environmental or developmental changes. A lot is known about how miRNA molecules are transcribed and produced from their precursors but we know little about how they are turned over once the plants do not need them anymore. It is important to understand how miRNAs are degraded because it is part of the plants’ response to environmental changes and as such it is important for plant breeding. | |
| Using a system based on miR395, a sulfate deficiency induced miRNA, we screened EMS treated seeds of the transgenic SUC2::GFP-395 Arabidopsis line. This line expresses GFP in the phloem companion cells (from the SUC2 promoter) from a mRNA that carries a miR395 target site in its 3’prime untranslated region. When plants grow in low sulfate media MIR395 is switched on, GFP expression is blocked by miR395 but once sulfate is added to the media, miR395 transcription is switched off and the miRNA molecules already present will be turned over leading to GFP expression. We found that it takes a few days for this GFP recovery to occur in the non-mutant SUC2::GFP-395 plants (control). The scope of the screening was to identify putative EMS mutants that show GFP recovery earlier than the control and thus having accelerated miRNA degradation or later than the control and thus having slower miRNA degradation. Identification of these lines would allow us to discover what genes play a role in this pathway. We screened more than 13,000 EMS M2 seeds and identified 12 putative mutant plants. Seeds of these plants were planted to give the next generation (M3) that underwent the same screening. Until the end of the project, one putative mutant of early response (fast miRNA degradation) was further analysed and its fast response was confirmed in a time course experiment where the level of miR395 was measured by northern-blot during the recovery in the M3 generation. Plant tissue from M4 plants growing in the growth chamber along with control untreated SUC2::GFP-miR395 plants will be sent for RNA-sequencing in order to get an insight of the genes affected by the EMS and thus potentially involved in the fast degradation of the miRNAs observed in this mutant. This will inform us on how these small regulatory molecules that act as molecular switches are being degraded in Arabidopsis and will lay the foundations for the understanding of the degradation process in other plants.","Unexpected problems delayed the screen and initially more work was done to optimise the screen. Once that was completed we screened 13,200 seedlings (each was screened at 6 different time points, for details see technical report). Twelve mutant lines have been identified. Two of these were followed up where the level of miR396 was measured by northern blot in wild type and mutants plants in a time course experiment. The results of the project was displayed on a poster at a Small RNA conference.",We identified 12 mutants that display faster or delayed GFP recovery therefore miRNAs are potentially degraded faster or more slowly in these mutants. the impact is long term and indirect. Understanding how miRNAs are degraded may contribute to plant breeding programs to generate crops that are more tolerant to environmental changes.,2018-09-24 16:24:15,,657739,miRTurnOver,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,https://www.uea.ac.uk/biological-sciences/people/profile/t-dalmay | |
| 7332,228351,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BINGO (Bio-INspired GOld metamaterials),"The main aim of this research project was to develop nature inspired gold metamaterials. Such metamaterials could open new ways for designing novel devices in the field of imaging, electronics and sensing. The key novelty of the action was to use self-assembled cellulose...","The main aim of this research project was to develop nature inspired gold metamaterials. Such metamaterials could open new ways for designing novel devices in the field of imaging, electronics and sensing. The key novelty of the action was to use self-assembled cellulose nanocrystals as templates to fabricate gold morphologies with chiral periodic organization. The cellulose-assisted synthesis of gold metamaterials has a potential to open a new green pathway for fabrication of novel metamaterials and potentially can become a breakthrough technique in metamaterial engineering.","The main achievemnt of the fellowship was the development of a synthesis procedure toward nanoscale gold with chiral geometry. The tasks performed during the internship included: (i) extraction of cellulose nanocrystals from bulk cellulose, (II) their self-assembly to chiral nematic films, (III) wet-chemical synthesis of gold inside chiral cellulose templates. The proposed method allows tuning the dimensions of gold grains while retaining the structural properties of the scaffold. Further optimization of the procedure combined with the advanced optical characterization measurements can lead to the development of new metamaterial.","The main achievement of the fellowship was the development of a new synthesis concept for the gold synthesis inside chiral cellulose scaffolds. The preliminary experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is a very straightforward and powerful approach, because it allows tuning plasmonic properties of gold and structural coloration of cellulose independently from each other, which to the best of our knowledge, has not been reported yet. | |
| Exploiting natural materials can lead to a more sustainable use of resources, which is a key requirement for the sustainable development of modern society and industry. The development of metamaterials mimicking the natural self-organization of cellulose nanocrystals can open a new area in metamaterial design for super-resolution imaging, ultra-sensitive sensing and cloaking. The method developed in this action can be generalized to semiconductors and metallic materials, other than gold, which can potentially reveal new exciting applications in the fields of sustainable energy, medicine and electronics.",2018-09-06 11:42:02,,743543,BINGO,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2016,https://www.cam.ac.uk/ | |
| 1751,264299,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INSIGHT (ImplementatioN in real SOFC Systems of monItoring and diaGnostic tools using signal analysis to increase tHeir lifeTime),"The INSIGHT project aims at developing a Monitoring, Diagnostic and Lifetime Tool (MDLT) for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) stacks. The project will implement prediction methodologies and demonstrate their effectiveness by on-field tests on a real micro-Combined Heat and Power...","The INSIGHT project aims at developing a Monitoring, Diagnostic and Lifetime Tool (MDLT) for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) stacks. The project will implement prediction methodologies and demonstrate their effectiveness by on-field tests on a real micro-Combined Heat and Power system for residential applications. To achieve a cost-efficient and robust solution, 2 advanced complementary techniques will be exploited, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), in addition to conventional Stack Dynamic Signals Analysis (SDSA). | |
| SDSA have been conceived before, while THD and EIS have already demonstrated great effectiveness in PEM fuel cells diagnosis and are available. Thus, these methodologies will be smartly adapted to SOFC systems to improve their lifetime and therefore the reduction of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) that will make SOFC more competitive to penetrate the market. INSIGHT outcomes will open the perspective to decrease the costs of service and SOFC stack replacement by 50%, which would correspond to a reduction of TCO by 10%/kWh by prolonging SOFC lifetime by 5%, increasing availability by 1%. These, within the limit of adding 3% to the total SOFC system’s cost.","Obj 1: To implement an advanced Monitoring, Diagnostic and Lifetime Tool to prolong SOFC lifetime and increase availability. | |
| The most critical faults to be studied have been defined: fuel starvation, carbon deposition and gas leakage. A test protocol and the testing matrix have been defined, considering tests of short stacks, complemented by segmented cells to obtain local measurements. EIS associated to DRT (Distribution of relaxation time) analysis, THD and PRBS (pseudo random binary signal) measurements as well as conventional signals have been considered. | |
| Conventional signal can be considered for diagnostic use thanks to a statistical treatment. EIS is very valuable, supported by DRT analysis for a more accurate analysis. Nonlinear perturbations techniques (THD and PRBS) have been found to be quick analysis tools, with an answer consistent with conventional EIS measurements. However, some faults are easier to detect than others, and the averaging effect when monitoring the signal of a whole stack and not of its individual repeating units can complicate and even hinder the signal. | |
| First metrics have been identified for diagnostic and for degradation modelling. A diagnostic algorithm based on EIS for Detection and Isolation of faults has been considered. A new methodology to derive metrics from frequency data, excited with periodic broadband signals has been invented and a patent application is in progress. WP2 data have been analysed with a in-house developed routine to obtain DRT analysis. | |
| Obj 2: To develop the hardware for the implementation of advanced Monitoring, Diagnostic and Lifetime algorithms on real SOFC system with low cost (less than 3% of system cost). | |
| The board design has been done and the first release has been developed and tested. It has been also connected to the lab SOFC system for testing the voltage and current channels as well as to provide the first data to be processed off-line. A two levels firmware has been conceived and developed. | |
| To permit THD, EIS and PRBS measurements, works have been done to modify the DC/DC converter integrated in SOFC system. Communication’s board of modified DC/DC converter has been tested. | |
| Obj 3: To identify control actions able to mitigate the impact of both degradation mechanisms and faults on performance and durability of SOFC. | |
| Based on WP2 data a mitigation matrix has been designed to correlate the 3 faults with detection and mitigation variables. | |
| Regarding modelling of the degradation, a physically-based model for EIS has been validated for LSCF electrode, and inter-diffusion induced microstructural degradation on the oxygen electrode side has been studied to predict diffusion (composition) profiles and serial resistance increase during cell fabrication and long-term operation. An EIS model has been validated to reproduce the expected variation trend upon operating conditions variation. Thermo-mechanical degradation has also been studied through creep measurement and fracture strength on real samples. Finally, a fast-lumped model capable of reproducing the real system behaviour has been developed. | |
| Regarding algorithm for fault detection and isolation, a Preliminary Fault Signature Matrix (FSM) structure has been designed. A preliminary link between features extraction and detection process has been established.","CEA Expected results: Local current monitoring and model correlation, study the local conditions (current, fuel utilisation (FU)) to better understand their impact on cell degradation. | |
| Be able to get this information on classical cells without the need of special geometries/manufacturing. | |
| Results Y1: Measurement done on a classical SP cell using a current collector with 9 local voltage measurements; Good correlation between experiment and model; Large difference in terms of current density along the cell diameter: 2 times larger at the center than at the periphery in case of high FU (> 80%). | |
| DTU Expected results: Implemented set of diagnostic tools for stacks/systems into a practical device. | |
| Results Y1: With the aim to identify 'failure metrics' for early failure detection of fuel starvation, 2 possible starvation incidents were simulated. Signatures of conventional signals of both experiments were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. Via statistical treatment of the voltage output signal a time-domain pattern was found to allow identification of 'faulty' conditions. | |
| UNISA Expected results: Monitoring, Diagnostic, Lifetime, Mitigation tools and HW & firmware engineering for on-board use. | |
| Results Y1: Algorithm for fault diagnosis, degradation modelling and mitigation strategies. The high level (HL) software has been conceived to include extrnal code taking as input the acquired data for performing on board the diagnostic methods. To assure the correct data exchange and a proper hardware configuration, the HL software executes each diagnostic method as a call to the corresponding C function. | |
| EPFL Expected results: Addition of new diagnostic tools on existing instrumented advanced stack test benches for validation and Improved lifetime prediction tool calibrated with spatially resolved measurement data, e.g. signal response from a SRU with a known local defect introduced on purpose. | |
| Results Y1: EIS/DRT/resistances quantification. Measurement on 2-cell short stack with a segmented SP cell; Possibility to create spatial maps (current density); EIS combined with DRT to quantify elementary process’ contributions. | |
| IJS Expected results: PRBS-based diagnosis and prognosis | |
| Results Y1: work on a novel health assessment procedure using non-sinusoidal perturbation in terms of step-like PRBS. The time evolution of the related model parameters is modelled as a stochastic process, used to predict the future trend. | |
| BITRON Expected results: MDLT HW device. | |
| Results Y1: Main architecture defined and first release ok. | |
| SolidPower & HTC Expected results: Small size high efficiency micro-cogenerator SOFC based systems, for small commercial and residential markets. | |
| results Y1: Modified DC/DC converter for the project done and validated.",2019-04-10 14:00:22,,735918,INSIGHT,H2020-EU.3.3.8.1.,FCH-02-5-2016,http://insight-project.eu/ | |
| 1108,203318,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NFFA-Europe (NANOSCIENCE FOUNDRIES AND FINE ANALYSIS - EUROPE),NFFA-Europe research infrastructure (RI) (www.nffa.eu) is fully operational and has performed its planned actions in all activities. NFFA-Europe provides integrated access opportunities to a constantly updated and upgraded set of advanced tools and methods for nanoscience...,"NFFA-Europe research infrastructure (RI) (www.nffa.eu) is fully operational and has performed its planned actions in all activities. NFFA-Europe provides integrated access opportunities to a constantly updated and upgraded set of advanced tools and methods for nanoscience (www.nffa.eu/offer). An average 30 international groups per call (4 calls/year) were selected from a larger number of proposals on a purely scientific merit basis by an international access review panel (ARP), after interactive assessment of the feasibility by the Technical Liaison Network. A partial update of the access rules was done to favour SME (single technique access) and joint use of large-scale infrastructures (neutrons and synchrotron X-rays). The Second NFFA Summer School has reached a broad international participation. The smooth operation of the TA programme underwent a thorough analysis and revision after the mid-term internal review and a plan for the redistribution of resources has been developed to meet the effective demand by users. This has led to the submission of an amendment to extend the action until August 2020, to accomplish 4 full years of TA as planned. The JRAs led to the expected results with transfer to the user services of all-new methodologies and techniques. The time extension, without budgetary changes, will allow supporting the assistance to the implementation of the JRA-originated new facilities. The overall deliverable and milestone plans of the second period have been respected, or clear justification of delays has been submitted.","The NFFA-Europe nanolabs co-located with analytical large scale facilities (ALSFs) provide over 80 techniques (www.nffa.eu/offer) in the four installations now including the outcome of Joint Research Activities (JRA). A Single Entry Point (SEP) (www.nffa.eu/new-application) gives access to the catalogue and is supported by the user guide (www.nffa.eu/apply/) covering all eligibility criteria for academic and industrial proposals (recently updated to spur the participation of SMEs, theory applicants, proposals for joint synchrotron and neutron access). The Technical Liaison Network (TLNet) assesses the feasibility of the proposals and assigns the most suitable access node or optimum combination of nodes. An independent Access Review Panel ranks the scientific merit. Those successful proposals are granted TA with travel and subsistence covered within limits, upon acceptance of the access rules (https://nffa.eu/media/84241/user_declaration_to_be_signed_2017.pdf). Users and Transnational Access (TA) providers compile a report on every access. Nine calls have been evaluated to date, with an average of 33 proposals/call and 64% success rate. The TLNet is the backbone of NFFA-Europe, providing skills and technical information across the NFFA-Europe multidisciplinary and multi-site RI; its hub in Trieste coordinates the experts at each NFFA-Europe core sites. An ICT platform shares and updates information on all the technical aspects of user proposals, keeps updated the catalogue of the SEP, monitors the effective availability and booking of each instrument, and offers an e-forum for pre-access users-TLNet interaction. The JRAs have developed and matured prototypes and new installations with strong overlap to TAs. In parallel to this, a number of cross-JRAs meetings are organized to cross-fertilize ideas, as in the case of the ‘shrinking buckyballs’ outcome. JRAs in NFFA-Europe are developing a close and collaborative cooperation with EUDAT. The first Information and Data Management Repository Platform (IDRP) for nanoscience comprises metadata standards developed in strong collaboration of NA and WP8 (JRA3) and promoted within the Research Data Alliance. The web interface deployed by NFFA-Europe is online and accessible from a Virtual Private Network (VPN). NFFA was announced in more than 40 conferences via oral contributions, posters or stands. Supporting materials (poster, brochure, roll-ups, videos) help the outreach actions and consolidate NFFA branding and identity. Three issues of a Newsletter and a full-page advertisement on Physics World Focus on Nanotechnology of the Institute of Physics were published. Two summer training schools were held respectively at the UAB campus in Barcelona (July 2016) and at CNR-IOM and Elettra premises in the Basovizza Campus, Trieste, Italy (July 2018, 31 attendees from 13 countries). Dedicated actions has been undertaken in order to better engage with industry (European Analytical Research Infrastructure Village (EARIV)) for teaming up among Analytical research infrastructures to better serve the industrial community. Receiving the recommendations conveyed in occasion of the Mid-term Action assessment by the external reviewer, specific initiatives have been undertaken to approach the community of nano-safety and nano-toxicology, and to increase notoriety by the general public.","User research is expected to offer progress beyond the state of the art in their disciplines. The proposals received ranged from fundamental surface phenomena to energy related applications, advanced devices, processing in spintronics, optoelectronics and microelectronics. Material systems include nano-objects (nanofibers, nanorods, nanowires, nanoparticles, quantum wells…), 2D materials and thin films. Within this diversity, chalcogenides and dichalcogenides (as novel 2D materials in the wake of graphene) and resist materials for higher resolution lithography in nanoelectronics are examples of frontier research. The Industrial Liaison Network (ILNet) addresses the industry with the added value of the multi-platform approach. About 10% of applications were driven by industry (double of target). The industry and business development staff of the NFFA-Europe nodes works closely together with the TLNet to develop market understanding and efficient access and to implement an access feasibility programme. | |
| The Joint Research activities have developed and matured prototypes soon available for users (already introduced in the catalogue) enlarging further the broad platform of advanced techniques and methodologies available. The Information and Data Repository Platform (IDRP) has been developed and its beta testing campaign has been run. In JRA1, the Fast-scan module developed in the frame of Task 6.1 was proved to be applicable also to AFM. Combining high resolution imaging in X-ray microscopy and diffractive X-ray lenses by means of line-doubling (D6.3, D6.6, D6.7), Fresnel zone plates with a spatial resolution of 18 nm were commissioned and tested. Controlled and reproducible fabrication of structures has been pushed to structural sizes below 10 nm in JRA2. Upgrades of pump-probe setups and theory tools for ultrafast science have been put in place for users in JRA4, and modular nano-transfer routines to efficiently identify the nano-region of interest with nm precision, have been developed and tested in JRA5.",2019-04-23 10:11:04,,654360,NFFA-Europe,H2020-EU.1.4.1.2.,INFRAIA-1-2014-2015,http://www.nffa.eu/ | |
| 9425,190075,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ULTRAFISH (ULTRASOUND TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE OF FISHERY PRODUCTS),"SCANFISK is a Spanish company based in Zaragoza specialised in fish processing of fresh & frozen products. With three business areas (fresh, frozen and processed fish), we produce a wide range of products (over 50) in two formats, bulk and packaged, and deliver to national and...","SCANFISK is a Spanish company based in Zaragoza specialised in fish processing of fresh & frozen products. With three business areas (fresh, frozen and processed fish), we produce a wide range of products (over 50) in two formats, bulk and packaged, and deliver to national and European markets over 6K tonnes of fish products/year. With over 25 years’ experience in the fishing industry, our main objective is to continue improving the quality and quantity of fish products to cope with the increasing European demand for healthy fish products (average annual consumption of 23Kg/fish per capita) by developing ULTRAFISH: a novel technology based on the use of ultrasounds that will increase the commercial shelf life of fish products. The process is based on the application of a known technology, used in other technological areas, which are now transferred to the food sector. This technology has not been applied so far in fishery products (fish and seafood). Ultrasound is also environmentally and economically sustainable, significantly reducing the use of water and energy resources during fish processing as well as reducing waste generation. | |
| The aim of the project is to develop a new process that will deliver on the market fresh and processed fish products (frozen and rehydrated) with high sensory quality, longer commercial shelf life and will prevent or decrease the amount of additives needed, which will help to overcome all existing legislative barriers in some countries (like United Kingdom), and can thus penetrate new international markets. The proposed technology is an ecological process that not only will require less energy and water but also will efficiently use raw materials during the whole life cycle, which will benefit both fish processing companies and the end user.","The technical viability study has demonstrated that the application of ultrasound will reduce the processing times (from 3 days to 1 day) maintaining the quality of fish products. This will contribute to increase the production capacity by 38%. Using a lab scale technology (5L water capacity), ultrasound parameters were optimised to achieve the best results, which proves our technology readiness level (TRL). Moreover, we have identified the next steps required to implement the technology at industrial scale (work packages), and identified the key third parties that need to be involved in the process. | |
| The commercial viability plan has helped us to better define our target markets (Spain, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium), our main competitors and the key stakeholders that will be involved during the commercialisation plan (distributor channels and retailers). Results from the internal survey with current customers have also given us strategic insights about how to correctly promote our products based on their needs (mainly related to price increase concerns). | |
| As part of the risk assessment analysis, we have identified the potential risks at technical and commercial level that may arise during the implementation of ULTRAFISH. The patent search results shown that we have the freedom to operate, hence we have defined a specific IPR strategy for our innovation to protect the results. | |
| ULTRAFISH is aligned with the overall strategy of Scanfisk and our needs, which are increasing our profit margin by optimising our processes and improving the quality and quantity of our products. The innovation has the potential to boost the growth of Scanfisk, increasing our sales by almost 28% maintaining our current cost structure.","Ultrasound is a technology that is emerging as a ‘green and innovative’ technique in the Food sector. It is well-known that ultrasounds have significant effect on the rate of preservation, reducing the microbiological activity (99.9%), the processing times (80%) and costs (20%), eliminating post-treatment of water waste and consuming less energy (30%), but still not fully applied within the fish processing industry. Thus, ULTRAFISH will materialise this opportunity. Moreover, differently from other novel processing techniques as microwaves or gamma radiation, sound waves are considered safe, non-toxic and environment-friendly. In comparison with pasteurisation, ultrasounds can achieve similar antimicrobial effects but at low temperatures, which is perfect for fish products as they need to maintain freezing temperatures. The application of ultrasound to fish products can be then an advantage since its preservative effects allow more optimal use of fish products throughout the whole supply chain, increasing their quality and commercial shelf life up to 12 days. | |
| The main goals for ULTRAFISH are: | |
| Apply an environment-friendly technology: safe and non-toxic equipment, fully automated and reliable. | |
| Increase production capacity by 35%: processing times will be reduced by 3-4 days allowing 12 extra processing cycles. Fish products will be quicker processed and therefore purchased onto the market. | |
| Water will be reused at least 4 times, which in turn will save 6.5 million litres per year of water waste. | |
| Longer marketability time: shelf life will be increased from 7 days to 10-12 days, enabling better acces to new geographical markets at far distances (Asia, USA). | |
| Lower processing costs: energy and water consumption will be reduced between 30-50%, as well as the use of additives and extra disinfection treatments, which in turn will reduce the overall production cost of fish products by 20%. | |
| Finished product will have a clean label thanks to the reduction/elimination of additives. This will contribute to access markets with stricter regulations, like UK.",2018-07-31 09:07:38,,709452,ULTRAFISH,H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.3.2.,SFS-08-2015-1,http://www.scanfisk.com | |
| 3449,263906,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TRUESSEC.EU (TRUst-Enhancing certified Solutions for SEcurity and protection of Citizens’ rights in digital Europe),"TRUESSEC.EU is a Coordination and Support Action investigating the role of certification and labelling schemes in measuring the trustworthiness properties of ICT products. Within TRUESSEC.EU, trustworthiness metrics are investigated and defined from a multidisciplinary legal...","TRUESSEC.EU is a Coordination and Support Action investigating the role of certification and labelling schemes in measuring the trustworthiness properties of ICT products. Within TRUESSEC.EU, trustworthiness metrics are investigated and defined from a multidisciplinary legal, ethical, sociological, technical and business perspective. Emphasis is being devoted to human rights and explicit individuals desires, when metrics to measure trust for ICT services are defined and assessed. | |
| With this aim, TRUESSEC.EU works and results are sustained by three pillars: | |
| A StakeHolders' Online Platform (SHOP), where associated cluster projects and stakeholders from industry, academia, governments and civil society will gather, participate in debates, get informed, and provide their opinions and feedback on the topics of the project. | |
| A series of Support Analysis and Studies (SUPPA) from multidisciplinary perspectives on issues of trustworthiness certification and assurance, to study the situation of trust-enhancing labels, barriers/incentives to industry adoption and consumer acceptance. | |
| A set of Recommendations on European Trust-Enhancing Labels (ETEL) dealing with: methodological aspects of certification and assurance, a catalogue of criteria for labels and certifications, and regulatory aspects to foster their adoption, plus a strategic agenda. These recommendations will reflect the conclusions obtained from the support analysis and from the stakeholders engagement. | |
| Who is the project designed for? | |
| The project is designed to inform EU Commission on the required steps to increase trust in ICT products. It does so by connecting and engaging with different stakeholders in various sectors of the digital economy and to leverage their perspective on what are the barriers, the incentives and the needs to develop more trustworthy ICT products. TRUESSEC.EU is not considering only one specific vertical market but working horizontally across a number of them, however particular interest is devoted to digital health sector, where a number of issues related to privacy and trust of ICT products might arise. | |
| Why is it important for society? | |
| TRUESSEC.EU project aims to increase consumer trust in ICT products, having at its core consideration for human rights and working on how to digitally re-instantiate them into ICT products. By understanding and identifying recommendations on how to solve existing tensions between end-users and service providers, TRUESSEC.EU aims to inform a number of stakeholders, including EU Commission, policy makers and service providers on how more trustworthiness can be embedded into ICT services, for the benefit of individuals and their human rights.","Please briefly describe the results your project achieved so far | |
| TRUESSEC.EU has so far produced a number of multidisciplinary studies aiming at understanding current individuals desire for trust in ICT services and tensions from businesses to satisfy them. This resulted in a number of multidisciplinary support papers and a set of debates across different stakeholders taking place through the project stakeholders engagement platform SHOP. | |
| 6 sociological and ethical core values that should represent the pillar on how trustworthiness metrics should be developed have been identified, including: transparency, privacy, autonomy, anti-bias, respect and protection. | |
| In parallel, TRUESSEC.EU conducted investigation of existing technologies able to translate these core values into technical solutions for trustworthy ICT products, while current gaps have been also identified. On the other end, TRUESSEC partners have investigated businesses tensions to adopt these values and technologies in current ICT products. Legal requirements from ICT product legislation have been investigated to understand where opportunities between compliance and incentives to create more trustworthy ICT products reside.","The project will continue to engage with relevant stakeholders through the SHOP platform to validate and refine current findings and to translate them into a set of Recommendations on European Trust-Enhancing Labels (ETEL) dealing with: methodological aspects of certification and assurance, a catalogue of criteria for labels and certifications, and regulatory aspects to foster their adoption, plus a strategic agenda.",2019-04-01 15:19:50,,731711,TRUESSEC.EU,H2020-EU.3.7.;H2020-EU.2.1.1.,DS-01-2016,https://truessec.eu/ | |
| 2487,201962,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ICare (Integrating Technology into Mental Health Care Delivery in Europe),"Mental illness represents an enormous personal, social, and societal burden for European citizens. Existing models of mental health care delivery need to be expanded to reduce this burden. The need to move to novel models to reduce the mismatch between need and provision of...","Mental illness represents an enormous personal, social, and societal burden for European citizens. Existing models of mental health care delivery need to be expanded to reduce this burden. The need to move to novel models to reduce the mismatch between need and provision of mental health services has been recognized for decades, yet only recently have there been increasing calls for novel models of delivering mental health care, including technology-based models of health care delivery. | |
| The aim of ICare is to establish a novel, comprehensive model of mental health service delivery covering health promotion, risk detection, disease prevention, and self-help/treatment of common mental health disorders and related conditions delivered through an online platform. ICare will be integrated into different mental health services and other settings in Europe in collaboration with a network of established stakeholders. The feasibility, acceptance, efficacy and (cost-) effectiveness, reach, and dissemination of the included online interventions on the ICare platform will be compared in this project. | |
| The overall objectives of the project are: | |
| 1. To assess the specific needs of stakeholders for the implementation and dissemination of prioritized interventions/programs by a survey carried out in each of the participating countries and to assess needs for future programs to be developed, evaluated and disseminated. | |
| 2. To adapt and implement a comprehensive and economic (diagnostic and prognostic) online screening across multiple mental health domains (depression, anxiety, alcohol use, eating and adjustment disorders and obesity). | |
| 3. To provide the technology for a common platform for all included online interventions. | |
| 4. To adapt, disseminate, and implement evidence-based online interventions for health promotion, prevention, and treatment into health services of different EU countries and compare their acceptance, feasibility, ease of use/dissemination, adherence and efficacy/effectiveness within each country as well as across countries along the dimensions of the RE-AIM framework. | |
| 5. To reduce health economic burden of common mental health conditions and disorders in and across different European countries. | |
| 6. To identify how and for whom included interventions in and across countries are most (cost-) effective. | |
| The ICare consortium addresses these objectives by conducting 7 multi-country, clinical studies as well as work packages across clinical studies (health economic evaluation; evaluation of moderators, mediators and adherence). ICare involves 6 countries in Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Spain, UK), 8 universities, 4 research institutions and one SME.","A comprehensive stakeholder survey involving key players which are relevant across all interventions and settings (health systems, universities, schools) was conducted. This involved 36 focus groups, 75 interviews and an online survey with more than 443 respondents. | |
| 13 different online interventions targeting depression, anxiety, disordered eating, adjustment disorders or promoting resilience were developed or adapted for new or broader target groups and implemented on the online platform. This process involved designing and developing new intervention features based on stakeholder feedback, producing videos and audios to illustrate the interventions, translating the interventions into different languages and adapting them culturally. | |
| To evaluate the online interventions, preparations for seven clinical efficacy and effectiveness studies and two additional add-on-studies across the consortium were undertaken which included 1. agreeing on common measures across all studies, 2. planning and programming the assessments, 3. obtaining approval by 6 ethics committees, 4. study registration, 5. preparation and validation of randomization lists, 6. setting up data management scripts in order to generate analyzable datasets, 7. writing statistical analysis plans for each study and 8. agreeing on and preparing plans for data quality assurance and data protection for the whole consortium. | |
| The first participants were included in the trials in November 2016, recruitment will continue until May 2019. By the end of the reporting period, 4689 out of 8121 participants have already been allocated to the above mentioned interventions. Recruitment has been even been extended to additional, non-EU countries (Mexico, Argentina) in some trials to meet the target recruitment numbers.","This project will impact access to mental health interventions by offering interventions that are appropriately suited to peoples’ mental health needs across levels of mental health symptom profiles and risk conditions for these disorders. It aims to improve existing models of health services by creating independent, more cost-effective e-health services as adjunct to existing health services thus facilitating stepped-care models by integrating online interventions as first step in primary care. The integration of stakeholders from science and practice (e.g., health care providers, policy, community organizations, and non-profit organizations) will facilitate the dissemination of interventions in “real life”. The project will also provide information about the cost-effectiveness of implementing online prevention and treatment of mental health across different European countries for a range of health conditions, target group, countries, and disorder severity levels. Finally, the project will improve the theoretical conceptualization of risk and resilience by including interventions that focus on both risk and protective factors and assess interactions between both factors. This kind of research can be a keystone for the prevention and treatment of mental disorders. | |
| ICare addresses several main goals of EU health policy, as stated by the European Commission (within the release of the eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020 [7]: 1) Improve the quality of health care – before their implementation, interventions are evaluated concerning their efficacy and/or effectiveness; 2) Improve access to health care–ICare offers interventions that suit specific risk profiles, deploying online-interventions which can be used by large parts of Europe’s population, thus mitigating health inequalities; 3) Improve effectiveness and acceptance of eHealth tools–our planned research will contribute to advance the potency of such interventions regarding therapeutic, cost-effectiveness, and user-centered aspects. | |
| ICare addresses the need to lower the annual costs caused by mental disorders, which¬–at an estimate of 3-4% of the EU’s GDP–cause one of the largest portions of health costs and are expected to further increase, and to promote a shift to interventions that are primarily centered on prevention, health promotion, and early intervention. ICare also recognizes the need to improve current health care systems as an investment towards a strengthened prosperity in Europe in terms of societal and economical values, with public mental health being a critical precondition for these targets. Beyond barriers such as cost and access, stigma associated with mental disorders can impede help seeking behavior. Importantly, ICare will directly contribute to stigma reduction through engaging potential users and stakeholders to help frame and deliver online screening, feedback, and interventions in a normalizing and de-stigmatizing manner.",2019-04-05 09:36:37,,634757,ICare,H2020-EU.3.1.6.,PHC-23-2014,http://www.icare-online.eu | |
| 1748,264138,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RELOS (Reducing empiricism in luminescence geochronology: Understanding the origins of luminescence from individual sand grains),"Sediments preserve a history of the evolution of the Earth’s surface and its response to a changing climate – a history that can only be read reliably if we know the age of the sediments. Luminescence dating is widely used in quaternary geology and archaeology, and is...","Sediments preserve a history of the evolution of the Earth’s surface and its response to a changing climate – a history that can only be read reliably if we know the age of the sediments. Luminescence dating is widely used in quaternary geology and archaeology, and is applicable to almost all sediments from the last 0.5 Ma – it dates the last time the sediment grains were exposed to daylight. RELOS will improve the reliability of luminescence dating by determining the sources of unexpected spread (over-dispersion) in measured doses derived from sand-sized grains. New hypotheses concerning charge imbalance, charge transport and dose calibration of luminescence signals will be tested by: (i) quantifying the effect of grain size and irradiation geometry/quality on grain-to-grain dose dispersion, and particularly the importance of charge particle equilibrium at these scales; (ii) quantifying dispersion arising from grain-to-grain variations in environmental dose rate; (iii) developing measurement procedures giving the same luminescence response per unit dose as in nature; (iv) developing a dispersion budget and new conceptual/numerical models for luminescence production based on (i) to (iii); and (v) testing the results of these investigations using well-defined natural samples. This project investigates fundamental issues of charge (de)trapping and recombination at small scales that have been completely ignored in previous studies, and problems of luminescence response that are sidestepped in the literature, in part by the unsatisfactory approach of arbitrary data rejection. These studies will result in major improvements in our understanding of the small-scale dosimetry of mixed radiation fields and a step change in the reliability of single-grain luminescence ages. The project links these fundamental studies to clear outcomes of considerable potential value to a variety of fields including earth sciences, archaeology and palaeoanthropology.","Development of a new flexible, modular, optically stimulated exo-electron (OSE) detector capable of measuring exo-electrons from individual sand-sized quartz grains (Autzen et al., in prep) | |
| Fundamental assumptions of feldspar dosimetry are questioned (Buylaert et al., 2018, Radiat. Meas.; Hansen et al., 2018, Radiat. Meas.) | |
| Sedimentary record at the terrestrial global Quaternary stratotype is incomplete (Stevens et al., 2018, Nat. Commun.)",Available later,2019-04-10 13:43:49,,639904,RELOS,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-StG-2014, | |
| 9048,186291,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AIMS (Accessible, Impactful, Measurable and Socially responsible tutoring)","Growing competition for top schools and highly qualified roles has driven growth in demand for tutors in the EU and globally (FT, 2013). However, tutoring remains unregulated, without mechanisms to measure performance, with over-reliance on referrals (NESSE, 2011), and with...","Growing competition for top schools and highly qualified roles has driven growth in demand for tutors in the EU and globally (FT, 2013). However, tutoring remains unregulated, without mechanisms to measure performance, with over-reliance on referrals (NESSE, 2011), and with high transaction costs which price many schools and families out of the market. Tutorfair has proven the concept of an open, disruptive and innovative platform for the tutoring sector in EU28 that makes it Accessible, Impactful, Measurable and Socially Responsible (AIMS). | |
| AIMS makes it easier for tutors to start, build and develop their career, with opportunities for networking, training and observations; and for clients to find good tutors in a transparent and fair way, with lower intermediation costs. For the industry, AIMS opens up access to industry wide accreditation and collaboration; and for society, Tutorfair brings a one for one promise to give free tutoring to those who can't afford it. | |
| So far, Tutorfair has achieved TRL 7 with 18,000 registered users and has helped 2,916 students for free through the Tutorfair Foundation. Following successful application of the technology in Central and Greater London, the platform was trialed using a high touch model in one adjacent UK territory (Birmingham) and is being trialed using a low touch model in several adjacent UK territories, with analysis of results incorporated into subsequent development of core features and strategy, and fed back into Tutorfair’s proprietary tutor ranking algorithm.","With support from SME Instrument Phase 1, Tutorfair has demonstrated the technical feasibility and commercial viability of the AIMS platform across the largest six private tuition markets in the EU28. Phase 1 of the SME Instrument allowed us to undertake extensive validation of this technology to support our strategic exploitation plan and roadmap to commercialisation, validating market assumptions and anticipating regulatory, technical and commercial barriers to growth, developing a detailed business plan, assessing competitive and regulatory landscapes, providing an in depth risk assessment and mitigation strategy, and outlining strategies to protect IP and adapt the commercial offering as required to meet changing market needs. | |
| We now seek support from Phase 2 SME Instrument to complete development of this novel technology and support commercialisation in the EU28. Results of this project will meet objectives for the Open Disruptive Innovation theme by creating a new paradigm on the fast-growing private tuition market, lowering barriers to entry, empowering local tutors and widening access to tutoring for those who can’t afford it.","Estimated growth in the target markets (including ongoing growth of the underlying UK operations) will improve educational outcomes for hundreds of thousands of students whilst helping young people finance their Higher Education and creative careers. Tutorfair forecasts indicate that helping students could result in €1bn of social benefit in EU28 by 2018. Finally, Tutorfair’s one for one promise will help broaden access to tutoring services for hundreds of thousands of children who couldn’t have afford it.",2018-08-24 09:55:07,,673092,AIMS,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,ICT-37-2014-1,http://www.tutorfair.com | |
| 4568,226880,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IoTEE (Internet of Things Everywhere on Earth: a satellite based M2M solution),Terrestrial IoT solutions (e.g. LTE or LPWAN) are cost-efficient on the device side (a low cost connectivity module can easily be integrated in any device) but is expensive on the network side (a large number of Base Transceiver Stations supporting antennas and backhaul...,"Terrestrial IoT solutions (e.g. LTE or LPWAN) are cost-efficient on the device side (a low cost connectivity module can easily be integrated in any device) but is expensive on the network side (a large number of Base Transceiver Stations supporting antennas and backhaul connectivity is required). Therefore, terrestrial IoT will be primarily rolled out in the most densely populated areas, and this will limit IoT services adoption outside Smart Cities, particularly for those Industrial IoT applications (Industry 4.0) requiring large coverage areas or global seamless connectivity. | |
| Space IoT solutions have the potential to bridge this coverage/adoption gap. However, although it is cost effective on the network side (as one satellite can cover large geographical areas), it remains expensive on the device side. Satellite communications are traditionally oriented around high-bandwidth voice and data connections which require high transmit power, so there are few chipsets and devices operating at low data rates with long battery autonomy (>6 yrs). Personal Navigation Devices (based on GPS or Glonass) use simple data formats and provide only Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) data. Existing space IoT solutions work best with relatively large and costly terminals with very limited power autonomy aggregating local IoT networks. | |
| Space IoT has the potential to compete with terrestrial IoT in terms of cost, size and energy autonomy if it can develop an appropriate communications standard and truly autonomous small mobile sensors capable of communications via satellite. Based on market research (Northern Sky estimates a €2Bn market for 2.75M Space IoT enabled devices by 2022), the consortium has identified a large opportunity for a European space based solution for LPWA (Low Power Wide Area). | |
| To address this opportunity, the space technology transfer venture S4M was formed in 2014 to develop a novel technology platform, network and architecture for Space IoT called TELDASAT . TELDASAT leverages existing and planned European space technology infrastructure (such as the German Space Operations Center at DLR) and expertise to create a new approach to space IoT benefiting from an exclusive access to space and a distinct “first to market” advantage. This project seeks to develop the IoTEE sensor device, supporting any type of data that can be gathered and transported via the S4M short data messaging system: temperature, pressure, vibration, open/closed, leak indication, broken alarm, km counting, position, speed, among others. | |
| The project will enable a space-based solution to fill the IoT coverage/adoption gap, providing a unique opportunity for Europe to accelerate its IoT deployment, particularly in areas outside the “Smart City War” where most terrestrial IoT development is currently concentrated. The project will therefore enable accelerated IoT adoption across many key sectors – such as energy, transportation, security, agriculture, environment, and industrial automation – generating broad business and societal impacts. The project complements the Smart Cities approach with a “Smart Countryside”, addressing key EU societal challenges across sustainability, transportation, pollution reduction and climate change risk mitigation.","The IOTEE project has been kicked off with the ambition to develop the 1st ASIC in the world for LPWA communication over satellite (with EU support), using a unique network developed with ESA support. All the 6 WPs have started as planned and 2 amendments have been proposed and accepted during Y1. | |
| • 16 deliverables were due for Y1 and 17 deliverables for Y2 (2 for Dec. 2018 and 9 for Jan. 2019). For Y1, all WPs have started in parallel. The D4.1 has been submitted in due time on Feb. 2017 and the D4.2 (website: www.iot-everywhere.eu) in due time in April 17. The D1.1 (requirements specifications), the D2.1 (draft protocol), the D2.2 (system implementation plan) have been submitted in time as well in April. The D3.1 (trial plans) has been submitted in time, benefiting from active pilots’ involvement. A project quality handbook (D6.4) has been up-loaded. In July, the D1.4 (preliminary design) has been submitted as the D5.1 (draft commercialisation plan), progressing well with intensive marketing and pre-sales agreements. | |
| • In WP1 and WP2, the intention is to improve the design of the chipset using a very innovative (space based) IoT connectivity (LPWA), protocol/ITU international frequency and apply it to the pilot use cases to move to TRL8. A strong focus here is on the SoC design as that also forms the basis for the module and the terminal prototypes production as well as certification and testing. | |
| • The project has 4 critical milestones (Ms), to be passed in months 3, 6, 12 and 16 of the project. Each Ms tackles several tasks and deliverables relating to various WPs. | |
| • As for the tasks, it has been asked to delay the provision of D1.5 (CDR) and D1.6 (PRD) by 4 and 5 months respectively. | |
| • As for the resources, the WP1 and WP2 represent +42 % of the total effort spread over 16 months, the WP3 and WP5 represent +38% over 24 months, and WP4 and WP6 circa 20%. | |
| The expected impacts are more promising than ever. In 2017, Industrial IoT have “boomed” with many deployments (Lora, Weightless, NB IoT) as roll outs (Sigfox intends to cover 60 countries). This LPWA activity is noticeable in Europe. | |
| Space IoT is now a “blue ocean” market opportunity and it confirms SAT4M2M’s predictions (IOTEE proposal 2016). This trend is also confirmed by investors as by traditional space players. | |
| LPWA market is forecasted (TAM) to reach 622 M by 2021 and 3 Bn of devices by 2025, with a market share for Space IoT (SAM) estimated to reach from 5 to 10% of TAM. In this segment, SAT4M2M intends to serve 1,9 M units (Serviceable Obtainable Market: SOM). | |
| Huge benefits are foreseen and it requires continuous monitoring and mitigation plans to be able to serve clients in time.","The IoTEE receiver/emitter device is the key enabler of the TELDASAT Space IoT solution: | |
| • low energy consumption and a miniaturised design, enabling high autonomy and easy integration | |
| • backwards compatibility respective interoperability with existing and planned terrestrial and spaceborne systems, enabling integration into maximum variety of sensor systems as a standard telematics systems, leading to increased market impact, and decreased time to deployment and commercial risk | |
| • novel Low-Power (Ultra) Wide Area Network protocol (LP(U)WAN), enabling extension of LPWAN protocol over satellite links using unique approaches for advanced security and network agility. | |
| The anticipated IoTEE project results do not address one single aspect of societal challenges – rather they enable a space-based approach essential for a rapid rollout of IoT connectivity that doesn’t exist today, particularly outside cities, and thus acting as a catalyst to accelerate the introduction of the advantages of IoT in multiple application areas otherwise dependent on waiting many years for terrestrial coverage to catch up (if at all), or for other space-based services to come on the market later or sooner. | |
| As well as the interfaces with S4M’s TELDASAT project IoTEE contributes to other projects and initiatives, both from ESA and within the IoT community including the EC initiative Alliance for the Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI).",2019-03-12 15:43:47,,738483,IoTEE,H2020-EU.2.1.6.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-04-2016-2017,http://www.iot-everywhere.eu | |
| 10102,198106,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - KRG-250 (A fuel saving, emission reducing and cost effective Continuosuly Variable Transmission for European passenger vehicles)","The KRG250, is a fully patented cone ring CVT, which eliminates the need for hydraulic control through our novel ring adjustment system. The KRG250 is lighter and smaller than competition, this allows us to offer 30% production cost savings with users benefiting from 25%...","The KRG250, is a fully patented cone ring CVT, which eliminates the need for hydraulic control through our novel ring adjustment system. The KRG250 is lighter and smaller than competition, this allows us to offer 30% production cost savings with users benefiting from 25% improved efficiency and up to 30% reduced fuel consumption as well as CO2 savings. | |
| The automotive industry is highly competitive and has strict regulations on emissions. Thus, providing a vehicle that both adheres to these regulations and provides advanced fuel efficiencies gives vehicle manufacturers strong incentive to constantly improve and innovate. | |
| The overarching Feasibility Study objective was to conduct the necessary activity and collate the required information to strengthen the business case and prepare for further fundraising (Phase 2) and development of the GIF-E Technology. To achieve this, we have fulfilled the following objectives: | |
| • Technical and commercial risk assessed and mitigations identified | |
| • Business model and sales figures validated against market conditions | |
| • Innovation project work plan and budget | |
| • Marketing strategies developed | |
| • Five-year business model","During this Feasibility Study, a key action completed was to validate the business model and sales figures against market conditions, this was achieved by: using market reports and competitor analysis to determine potential market share and best and worst case sales scenarios. We have developed a sales model which has been validated by voice of customer interviews and surveys collected at our demonstrator day, at which many key OEMs and Tier 1’s attended. We have also: assessed technical and commercial risks and identified mitigations; validated the business model and sales figures against market conditions; produced our Phase 2 project work plan and budget; developed marketing strategies and produced a five-year business model. All of these outputs have enabled us to review our business strategy and refine our business plan. | |
| Having undertaken this Feasibility Study, we are now confident that the KRG 250 technology is commercially viable. Therefore, we are proceeding with our plans to reach market as soon as possible. To achieve this, we shall submit a Horizon 2020 Phase 2 application to enable us to complete the technology development to increase capability, to complete commercial trials to gain market reference and continue our current route for commercialisation.","The KRG is a friction CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) that uses a two-cone design connected by a ring with a unique ratio adjustment mechanism. Ratio adjustment is proactive, derived entirely using mechanical movement, calculated through position difference between ring and optimal position. This creates a stable system, with low energy losses, able to meet rapid ratio adjustment requirements. The benefits this innovation brings to vehicle manufacturers include: | |
| • 25% improved efficiency over existing CVT systems in real world driving – at 95% this meets the performance capability of a MT (Manual Transmission) system | |
| • Achieves fuel consumption reduction of up to 30% over conventional AT (Automatic Transmission) with an associated reduction in CO2 emissions | |
| • As there is no hydraulic requirement KRG is manufactured from few parts and so is very cost efficient, seeing up to 30% cost saving over AT, including new DCT (Double Clutch Transmission) systems.",2018-04-13 12:30:05,,744697,KRG-250,H2020-EU.3.4.;H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-10-2016-2017,http://www.gif-e.de/ | |
| 2353,215032,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MacroFuels (Developing the next generation Macro-Algae based biofuels for transportation via advanced bio-refinery processes),"MacroFuels aims to produce advanced biofuels from seaweed (i.e. macro-algae). The targeted biofuels are ethanol, butanol, furanics and biogas.MacroFuels will develop the novel year-round cultivation of macroalgae utilising 5 different sites in Scotland and Denmark. Local...","MacroFuels aims to produce advanced biofuels from seaweed (i.e. macro-algae). The targeted biofuels are ethanol, butanol, furanics and biogas. | |
| MacroFuels will develop the novel year-round cultivation of macroalgae utilising 5 different sites in Scotland and Denmark. Local varieties of the envisioned summer crops (Ulva, Palmaria, Fucus) will complement the better established winter crops (Saccharina and Alaria). Cultivation in the laboratory and at sea will use advanced textile substrates with a novel binder (Figure 1). New automated harvesting machines will be developed. Off-shore seaweed transportation storage tanks are developed concurrently. | |
| MacroFuels will develop year-round available algae-biomass by new storage methods like ensiling, freezing and drying or combinations hereof. MacroFuels will develop mild chemical pre-treatments and treatments with enzymes for hydrolysis of the algae-biomass to monosaccharides for fuel production. Enzymatic hydrolysis is enhanced by expressing seaweed specific enzymes in constructed meso- and thermo-philic bacteria strains, i.e. alginate lyases (for alginates), laminarinases (for laminarin) and auxiliary sulfatases. MacroFuels aims to convert all carbohydrates to fuels listed below and concurrently utilise all the protein and minerals for other applications: | |
| • Bioethanol and butanol with yeast and thermo- and meso-philic bacteria. | |
| • Furanic based fuels by thermochemical conversion routes. | |
| • Residues will be evaluated as feed (protein), fertiliser (minerals) and digestibility for bio-gas (C-containing). | |
| The envisioned fuels will be tested as X10 blends in stationary engine tests to reach the EU aim implementing 2.5% advanced biofuels in 2020. MacroFuels will assess the sustainability of the whole value-chain and products.","Seaweed cultivation seeding and harvesting processes: Best-practices were established for deployment time. Novel binders for seeding and automated coppicing methods were developed this period. Different substrate configurations (textile nets, ribbons, ropes) were deployed on different mainline positions (floating & submerged). Textile nets demonstrated 15 kg/m for Alaria. MacroFuels has achieved significant steps towards a universal and robust macro-algae cultivation. Further the development of recyclable or bio-degradable cultivation substrates is foreseen in year 2. MacroFuels initiated development of a state of the art automated seaweed harvester with established the design criteria. | |
| Conditioning of seaweed: Oven drying as conditioning methods has achieved less than 3% sugar loss. MacroFuels achieved the increase of dry matter from 15 to 30% by utilising a screw-press for all envisioned seaweed except Saccharina, likely due to its different surface texture. Further development/optimization of these screw-pressing procedures and composition mapping of the obtained “juice” and solid parts is on-going. | |
| Biological ensiling via lactic acid fermentation process, as a promising preservation method with low-energy input is being developed. Various lactic acid bacterial cultures (mixed and pure) were evaluated for their suitability to obtain a fast pH-drop and stable production of lactic acid from algae sugars for storage of the seaweed biomass. Process optimization including combination of biological and chemical ensiling is ongoing. | |
| Pretreatment for hydrolyses of seaweed sugars to fermentable substrates: Developed seaweed pretreatment processes include mild acid, alkaline and combined chemical-enzymatic hydrolysis, which have been tested. Efficiencies up to 85% monosaccharides have been achieved. A membrane filtration system for upgrading of the produced sugar hydrolysate (by purification salt removal and sugar concentration) has been established. Good separation efficiencies of the model system mannitol-KCl were demonstrated. | |
| Biochemical fuel production: Ethanol and ABE and IBE (acetone, butanol, ethanol, isopropanol) mixtures have been produced from a Laminaria digitata hydrolysate. In mesophilic yeast fermentation 3.5 g/L of ethanol were produced with a yield of 0.37 g per g of glucose (73% of theoretical). Improvement of substrate utilisation and a further increase of the ethanol titre will be explored by fermentation of mannitol and uronic acids from alginate with the thermophilic bacteria Thermoanaerobacter pentosaceus and Defluviitalea phaphylia. The thermophilic strain Thermoanaerobacterium sp. AK17 has been engineered to be an ethanol only producer. Further strain improvements are dedicated to utilization of the polymers laminarin and alginate utilising simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) processes. | |
| Thermochemical fuel production: Methods for the acid-catalysed conversion of xylose and rhamnose in water to their corresponding furans have been developed. A bi-phasic reaction system, in which an immiscible organic solvent is used to extract the formed furan from the aqueous reaction phase, resulted in substantially increased yields by preventing acid-catalysed degradation of furans. Overall, very promising yields of furans have been obtained from the seaweeds Palmaria palmata and Ulva lactuca. | |
| Model sugars (glucose, starch) were used to assess their suitability to produce novel furanic molecules, but the levels reported in literature results have not yet been reached. Unfortunately, the furfural yields from the pyrolytic conversion of alginic acid were low compared to analytical scale, likely due to the difference in heating rate at the 1 kg. scale. The conversion of the furanic intermediates to fuel additive requires additional steps to be validated. | |
| Techno-economic and sustainability assessment: MacroFuels will assess the benefits seaweed biofuels with a sustainability assessment.","MacroFuels has progressed well to go beyond the state of the art by: | |
| • Demonstrating high yields of the winter-crop in addition to cultivation summer crops | |
| • Demonstrating the initial steps towards desalting and concentrating the fermentation substrates. | |
| • Demonstrating high fermentative yields of fuels from seaweed | |
| • Demonstrating efficient 1 step thermochemical conversions of seaweed to furanics | |
| Thus making significant steps towards implementing our innovative seaweed to biofuels concept. | |
| The developed concepts are directly exploitable for other seaweed valorisation concepts. The utilisation of seaweed in the EU has gained significant traction and inter-project exchange is progressing well (e.g. Macrocascade, GeniAlg, Waste2Fuels, SOMOS and MAB4). Significant impacts for the society as a whole are expected later in the project, as new value chains with environmental, societal and economic advantages for biofuel production are developed.",2019-04-09 20:18:09,,654010,MacroFuels,H2020-EU.3.3.3.1.;H2020-EU.3.3.3.3.,LCE-11-2015,https://www.macrofuels.eu/ | |
| 5176,214540,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CPaaS.io (City Platform as a Service - Integrated and Open),"Data has been termed to be the „oil of the 21st century“. Data will also be what the smart city of the future runs on. To make this a reality, cities need a platform where data from a variety of sources – IoT and sensor data, open government data, social media, and other...","Data has been termed to be the „oil of the 21st century“. Data will also be what the smart city of the future runs on. To make this a reality, cities need a platform where data from a variety of sources – IoT and sensor data, open government data, social media, and other 3rd party data providers – can be processed, linked, and analysed in order to extract valuable information that in turn can also be provided as linked open data, and with which new types of services are created and provisioned. Both cities as well as private service providers can build novel applications and services on top of this platform; the platform thus becomes an economically valuable driver for Smart City Innovation. | |
| The main goal of this project is to develop such a City Platform as a Service (CPaaS) that can be federated to support regional or even global applications, and that forms the basis for a smart city data infrastructure. Technical challenges that need to be addressed include data provenance, data quality, adaptive privacy levels, policies and adaptive processes for distributing and deploying processing intelligence to the cloud or to the edge. Other important aspects include data governance, data management and the empowerment of the citizen to control access and sharing of data about her using a MyData approach. | |
| In addition to the development of the platform, several use cases in the domains of event and transport management, water management, and health emergency services will be implemented and validated with cities in Europe and Japan. Blue prints – both from a technical as well as from a process perspective – for these domains that can easily be transferred and adapted from one region to another will be developed. And finally, the results from the project are used to develop standardisation proposals in the related areas to ensure impact beyond the project. | |
| The project has the following objectives: | |
| Objective 1: Develop an Open Social City Platform | |
| Objective 2: Deploy the City Platform as a Service Solution | |
| Objective 3: Empower the citizen to her data | |
| Objective 4: Validate the platform with use cases providing public value | |
| Objective 5: Develop blue prints for the adaptation and transfer of solutions to other cities | |
| Objective 6: Create impact in cities","After 1 year of the project, we have defined the overall functional architecture of the platform as well as a mapping towards the two implementation architectures – one based on FIWARE Generic Enablers, one based on the u2 architecture. These implementation architectures have also been instantiated in Europe and Japan, and the agile process has been set up to develop the platform instantiations further in order to reach the full functionality of CPaaS.io. | |
| Regarding the use cases, first prototypes in the event management domain (concretely, Color Run and Sapporo Snow Festival) have been built and used in the respective events, and the water management use case is currently being set up.","Regarding the potential impact of the CPaaS.io project, the project will provide the technical foundation (through the platform) as well as methods for implementing (through the blue prints) for a city data infrastructure. Such an infrastructure provides data, data-related services, data-related guidelines, and model solutions for data reuse as an easily accessible service to all citizens as well as public and private organizations. As such, it allows the efficient sharing of data between providers and consumers, supports new business models, and is thus a key enabler for the digital economy and societal collaboration, fitting well with the European priority of a digital single market , the “Declaration to be the World’s Most Advanced IT Nation” of the Government of Japan, as well as national initiatives to establish national data infrastructures. Efficient and clearly regulated access to and sharing of data helps to further improve industry processes and allows to create new businesses based on newly available data. | |
| On a practical level, the project makes important contributions that can be exploited directly in the product and service offerings of the project participants. The results of CPaaS.io will be directly fed to the respective customer and might lead to larger scale efforts from cities and regions around the world. Also the other project participants in Europe and Japan have already offerings in the market that will directly profit from CPaaS.io | |
| . | |
| On a scientific level, the project contributes to the body of knowledge in the areas edge vs. cloud computing, context-aware adaptive and user-controlled data protection, integration of IoT with Open Government Data, and data quality – areas which are crucial not only when it comes to making the best out of recent technological progress related to big data, but also with regard to addressing present global challenges, as detailed above. And through the involved academic institutions it is ensured that this body of knowledge is also integrated into the teaching curricula. | |
| On the social level the direct involvement of citizens as well their ability to control their data will be verified in different use cases. Feedback from these experiments is especially interesting for the cross-cultural aspect of data governance and privacy. Respective results will be fed to government bodies, to the research community, as well as to industry.",2019-02-20 16:48:31,,723076,CPaaS.io,H2020-EU.2.1.1.,EUJ-02-2016,http://www.cpaas.io | |
| 5054,198276,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DESTinationRAIL (Decision Support Tool for Rail Infrastructure Managers),The Problem: European rail infrastructure managers (IMs) are managing ageing rail infrastructure with 95% of the network having been built before 1914. EU transport policy provides the challenge to IMs to increase the productivity of existing rail networks at a time when...,"The Problem: European rail infrastructure managers (IMs) are managing ageing rail infrastructure with 95% of the network having been built before 1914. EU transport policy provides the challenge to IMs to increase the productivity of existing rail networks at a time when budgets are restricted and challenges from natural hazards and extreme weather events are affecting all of Europe, See Figure 1. In order to deal effectively with this grand challenge, Europe will need to develop methods to manage its rail infrastructure across the single European railway area. Whilst decision support tools are widely applied across a range of domains they tend to concentrate on only one asset and inherently suffer from the following limitations, which will be addressed in the Destination Rail Project: | |
| 1. The data used to perform the risk assessment is mostly inadequate. An over-reliance on visual assessment and guestimates for condition monitoring are the norm rather than the exception. | |
| 2. They do not consider the effects of traffic flow. | |
| 3. They suffer from a lack of a system wide database of asset condition and performance. | |
| 4. They do not account for whole life cycle assessment in a probabilistic manner. | |
| The DESTination RAIL will develop a multi-asset Decision Support Tool that addresses all of these deficits in conjunction with SME’s and IM’s. | |
| Why is it important: The European Rail Agency (2013) reported that the total number of passenger fatalities on the European rail network was 196, making railway the safest mode of travel. Data on the number of fatalities per person kilometre traveled shows that the safety performance of the rail and air were equal and by far the safest sectors, with the road sector having a fatal accident rate twenty times higher. However, a significant number of non-passenger fatalities occur each year where the general public interacts with rail infrastructure, with 1284 people being killed at level crossings during the same time period. Despite the very encouraging safety record, a number of high profile failures of rail infrastructure have occurred in recent years, with the incidence appearing to increase in response to climate challenges and aging networks, among other factors. | |
| What are the overall objectives: The aim of DESTination RAIL is to provide solutions for a number of problems faced by EU infrastructure managers. Novel techniques for identifying, analysing and remediating critical rail infrastructure will be developed. These solutions will be implemented using a decision support tool, which allows rail infrastructure managers to make rational investment choices, based on reliable data, See Figure 2. The objective of this project (safer, reliable and efficient rail infrastructure) will be achieved through a holistic management tool based on the FACT (Find, Analyse, Classify, Treat) principle. | |
| Find – Improved techniques for the assessment of existing assets will be developed. | |
| Analyse – Advanced probabilistic models fed by performance statistics and using databases controlled by an information management system will be used to determine the level of safety of individual assets. | |
| Classify – The performance models will allow a step-change in risk assessment, moving from the current subjective (qualitative) basis to become fundamentally based on quantifiable data. A decision support tool will take risk ratings and assess the impact on the traffic flow and whole life cycle costs of the network. | |
| Treat –Novel and innovative maintenance and construction techniques for treating rail infrastructure including tracks, earthworks and structures will be developed and assessed by whole life cycle assessment and impact on the traffic flow.","The summary of the work performed to date: | |
| Find - Geophysical techniques have been applied at demonstration sites in Croatia and Norway to Rail network to locate weak points on the rail track. | |
| burrows, weak spots and voids and focussed additional testing is ongoing. GDG applied statistical techniques to historical data on landslides in Ireland to predict the location of the most vulnerable slopes on the rail network. Using field tests NGI have developed an approach for assessing the speed at which high-spreed trains cause damage in sift ground areas. UZ used drones to investigate rock and slope stability in Croatia. A landmark rail bridge in Ireland was instrumented by UT to measure its dynamic response. | |
| Analyse - New multi-modal techniques have been developed to allow the safety of slopes to a range of hazards to be assessed. Monitoring of the Boyne Bridge and subsequent filtering of the measured data to remove dynamic portions of stress signals, allowing quantification of the Assessment Dynamic Ratio was applied for the first-time to a real railway bridge. A 3-dimensional Finite Element model of the Boyne Viaduct was developed for dynamic simulation. Probabilistic fatigue analysis based on measured data was performed for the Boyne Viaduct. | |
| Classify - Following an extensive review of literature, the development of a draft Information Management System by UT and face to face discussions with infrastructure managers a schema-less document based database format was chosen as the information management system for the project. A high-level risk assessment frame. The development of the web based, decision support tool is well advanced. The graphical user interface has been established. This allows GIS based visualisation and selection of railway objects. Multi-criteria and multi-objective decision analysis can be undertaken at levels varying from an object to a network level. | |
| Treat - Laboratory testing of innovative light-weight fill materials has been performed by ZAG and NGI to develop constitutive models for these materials. A fully-instrumented Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil (GRS) system has been demonstrated in Slovenia. In the same area high-pressure grouting using novel polyurethane resins has been undertaken to strengthen marginal soils. A traffic flow model has been developed by OTRT for the Malahide to Dundalk line on which the Boyne Viaduct is located.","There has been significant progress beyond the state of the art in the first 18 months of the DESTination Rail project, across the various Work Packages. Some examples are summarised below along with expected progress over the next period and the expected impacts. | |
| Find - The use of drones to analyses rock and soil slopes has proven to be much more effective in terms of data collections, cheaper and safer than traditional inspection methods. | |
| Analyse - Methods used to update the statistical distributions used in Infrastructure assessment have been extended to the application of multi-modal probabilistic distributions to reliability assessment and particle-swarm-based techniques while considering monitoring data for slope stability analysis. The filtered monitoring data from the Boyne Viaduct suggest that dynamic effects are less than 5% of the values suggested in current design codes. | |
| Classify - The framework for the multi-asset decision support tool has been created and is being demonstrated on a central portion of the Irish Rail network in Central Dublin. | |
| Treat - A number of novel materials and remediation techniques have been demonstrated on live railway lines aimed at reducing disruption, increasing safety and minimising the effect on the environment.",2019-02-25 11:58:10,,636285,DESTinationRAIL,H2020-EU.3.4.,MG-2.1-2014,http://www.destinationrail.eu/ | |
| 7205,228413,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STIM-MC (Sacrificial Thermoplastic Injection Moulding platform for manufacturing small and complex metal and ceramic components),"Injection molding is ideal for volume production, but high costs and low flexibility are problematic in prototyping and scale-ups. This is especially true where tooling costs are high, as in metal and ceramic injection molding (MIM, CIM). MIM and CIM hold great potential in...","Injection molding is ideal for volume production, but high costs and low flexibility are problematic in prototyping and scale-ups. This is especially true where tooling costs are high, as in metal and ceramic injection molding (MIM, CIM). | |
| MIM and CIM hold great potential in e.g. the medical and automotive industries, as they allow the manufacturing of complex components in materials that are strong, durable and biocompatible. But high costs make MIM and CIM unsuitable for all but the most promising products. | |
| The objective of the STIM-MC project is to provide a low-cost platform (the STIM-MC platform) for low-volume MIM and CIM that support wider-spread use of these technologies. This platform must provide the freedom-of-design of 3D-printing, and must allow the processing of all the commercially available MIM and CIM feedstocks. Finally, it must be compatible with standard MIM and CIM injection molding equipment to ensure wide applicability and adoption.","During the feasibility study, we have interviewed several stakeholders. | |
| Together with our coach, we have deepened our analysis of the market and updated our business plan. | |
| Additionally, AddiFab has tested the applicability of the STIM-MC platform with a MIM feedstock (containing Inconel 625) and a CIM feedstock (containing zirconium oxide). The feedstocks were injected in 3D-printed STIM-MC molds with standard injection molding equipment, and were debound and sintered using standard debinding and sintering equipment. Results have been presented at the winter meeting of the Danish metallurgical society (Inconel) and disseminated in a research group (Zirconium).","Successful demonstration of the STIM-MC platform will lead to the creation of a new production paradigm. This paradigm will combine the geometrical freedom and low start-up costs of 3D-print with the scalability and versatility of injection molding to transform the way products are developed and brought to market. | |
| As a first result, costs and risks of development may be strongly reduced, which is critically important in e.g. the medical device industry, where escalating device development costs are driving up costs to society. | |
| As a second result, reshoring of work becomes attractive when development times are reduced. Outsourcing is based on economies-of-scale, but is inefficient if development and ramp-up is done in weeks instead of months | |
| As a third result, the competitiveness of EU SME’s is given a strong boost. The STIM-MC is well suited for collaborative production and shareconomies, and may be an important driver of industry 4.0 adoption due to the resulting need for distributed (digital) quality assurance",2018-09-06 12:38:28,,790850,STIM-MC,H2020-EU.2.1.5.;H2020-EU.2.1.3.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.2.1.2.,SMEInst-02-2016-2017,http://www.addifab.com | |
| 1444,198169,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Paragone (PARAGONE: vaccines for animal parasites),The problem being addressed is control of livestock multicellular parasites. These have a major impact on ruminant and poultry production worldwide. Control currently relies on a diminishing supply of antiparasitics but is not sustainable due to increasing resistance. PARAGONE...,"The problem being addressed is control of livestock multicellular parasites. These have a major impact on ruminant and poultry production worldwide. Control currently relies on a diminishing supply of antiparasitics but is not sustainable due to increasing resistance. PARAGONE is developing tools and knowledge to help control parasites in the face of resistance, including generating vaccines, designing tools to monitor immunity and training a team of scientists skilled in interdisciplinary skills to ensure the scientific community is equipped to address these intractable pathogens beyond the project lifetime. The vaccines targeted will prevent infections and promote biological efficiency without chemical residue issues. Making effective vaccines for multicellular parasites has been a major challenge, indicative of difficulties in generating immunity against complex organisms. The project has made significant progress so that the prospect of effective anti-parasite vaccines remains realistic. The objective is to build on the Consortium’s previous expertise to obtain/exploit knowledge on parasite biology and host/parasite interactions to develop vaccines for target parasites of major importance to the global livestock industry. Academics forged strong links with animal health industry partners and together implement a programme to address parasites selected on their economic impact worldwide. These are the nematodes, Cooperia oncophora, Ostertagia ostertagi and Teladorsagia circumcincta, liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, and mites, Psoroptes ovis and Dermanyssus gallinae. Lead/new vaccine candidates are tested in trials, alongside immunological studies to address variability in responses, including studies on correlates of protection using tools made in the project. There is a strong blend of training/dissemination opportunities to: | |
| 1. support early career scientists, | |
| 2. share knowledge and obtain feedback from end-users.","Research so far has progressed all prototypes/tools, alongside demonstration, dissemination and training activities encompassing industry partner review, research/lay publications, scientific/stakeholder seminars/workshops and a multi-national survey. The vaccines started at various stages in development. In order of most to least advanced; a T. circumcincta sub-unit vaccine for sheep, O. ostertagi and C. oncophora native antigen prototypes for cattle, a F. hepatica recombinant vaccine for ruminants, a P. ovis recombinant vaccine for cattle, a red poultry mite recombinant vaccine. Linked to trials are studies on formulating candidates and conventional adjuvants with particle coated microcrystals (PCMC) and Microbe-Associated Molecular Patterns (MAMP) to promote desired responses. Studies on poultry red mite tested novel delivery systems. A major objective focused on defining variation in host responsiveness with outcomes informing strategies to overcome previous failures with recombinant vaccines. The project has generated unique tools including much-needed ovine cytokine arrays. | |
| For O. ostertagi and C. oncophora vaccines, immunological studies and trials demonstrated the importance of antigen conformation in inducing protection. ASP antigens with optimized conformation will be tested in Period 3. The C. oncophora ASP vaccine was shown to protect cattle against a geographically-disparate isolate and other Cooperia species. The prototype did not protect sheep against C. curticei. Formulation of Ostertagia ASP with microcristals and MAMPs modulated immune responses but did not enhance protection against challenge infection. Vaccination with Ostertagia ASP did not protect calves against a natural challenge in a field trial. | |
| Work on T. circumcincta simplified a prototype shown previously to induce protection: 8 antigens were co-expressed in 3 systems. The co-expressed version did not induce immunity but a 2-protein prototype gave better responses than the original 8-protein version and is being taken to Demonstration studies. PCMC/MAMP formulations tested to examine if responses could be enhanced by co-delivery showed incorporation retained antigenicity but not responses. Two trials were completed in breeds shown to have differing resistance to worms. In 6 month-old 'resistant' sheep, resistance to worms was augmented by the vaccine. In a 'susceptible' breed, vaccination had a significant negative effect on worm development. A similar protective effect was observed in 3-month ‘resistant’ sheep but not in 3-month ‘susceptible’ lambs. Sequences encoding the vaccine antigens in worms from different regions showed low diversity in 7/8 proteins. | |
| Previously, fluke recombinant antigens were shown to afford protection but with variation. Here, partners tested lead candidates to examine if consistency was improved by combining antigens. Significant protection was observed in a sheep trial using 4 antigens+montanide; this was not repeated in a later study. Incorporation into PCMC retained antigenicity particularly with MAMP. Responses were dependent on adjuvant however the 4 proteins+montanide+PCMC+MAMP did not afford protection. A cattle trial using the 4 antigens was not successful. New antigens will be added in Period 3. Concurrent work on protection correlates showed IgG2 was lower in trials with no protection. Epitope analysis indicated selective recognition of cathepsin L epitopes in protected cattle. New work will target these epitopes. Large-scale RNA analysis revealed immune evasion pathways significantly changed in fluke infection. Likewise, a trial showed immunomodulation early in infection. Such immunomodulation will need to be addressed in vaccine development. Sequences of antigens in worms from different regions showed low diversity in all but one, due to complexity of the associated gene family. | |
| Work on a bovine prototype for P. ovis encompassed a trial using recombinants that had protected sheep. Although dif","Substantial progress has been made across the programme. A cohesive relationship between academic and animal health industry partners ensures that innovations coming out the research pipeline are aligned to aspirations for marketable products. PARAGONE has completed the following for each prototype; Target Product Profile, Probability of Regulatory & Technical Success and Technical Review Reports and a Commercialisation Plan for immunological tools. The group completed an international survey to inform vaccine design and stakeholder meetings to discuss how the vaccines might be used on-farm. Progress is exemplified by new data on a refined two-protein vaccine, critical data on protective mechanisms of bovine nematode ASPs and key insights into epitope recognition of a lead F. hepatica candidate. Successful workshops, training stays and formal post-graduate training ensures sustainability beyond the project.",2019-04-18 16:23:22,,635408,Paragone,H2020-EU.3.2.,SFS-01b-2014,http://www.paragoneh2020.eu/ | |
| 9490,193682,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INCH (INteractive CHarging),"When it charges its battery, electric vehicle (EV) is usually by far the largest consumer in the household or even in a small business or residential building. Uncontrolled charging without consideration of external conditions may have negative consequences on the safety of...","When it charges its battery, electric vehicle (EV) is usually by far the largest consumer in the household or even in a small business or residential building. Uncontrolled charging without consideration of external conditions may have negative consequences on the safety of building’s network operation, and on implementation and operation costs of charging system. In addition, EV charging, especially in areas with a high share of EVs, may cause operational problems in the public electrical grid. With increased number of EVs this problem will escalate and the control of EV charging according to the needs and requirements of public grid operators will become inevitable. | |
| The overall objective of the INCH project is to alleviate the stated problems and enable charging of an increasing number of EVs in a smart, safe, and sustainable manner. The specific objective of the INCH project is to introduce a new price-performance optimised low-voltage AC charger for charging of EVs at homes, offices, and car parks. | |
| Conclusions: | |
| The EV charging system developed within the INCH project represents a product that combines simple user interaction with complex control algorithms, local power management with operation of power grid and energy market, and quality materials and modern design with accessible price. The encouraging public response to new charging system indicates that the product’s properties address exactly the issues that prevented the potential EV users from buying an EV and charging it at home. | |
| INCH charging system enables interaction between operation of power grids and EV charging. It exploits the demand response capability of EV charging to elevate the role of EV charging from an uncontrollable load to an active component of smart grids. In this manner, the INCH charging system addresses one of the main concerns related to the upcoming increase of EVs, namely the ability of power system to distribute the increased amount of energy to final users in a safe and reliable way.","During the first year of the project the activities were focused on development of the technical solution that enables achievement of project’s goals. A detailed system architecture was defined which contains actors and components involved directly in charging, local actors and components, and external actors that communicate with the charging system. | |
| Due to its modular structure a new charger’s motherboard allows to equip the chargers with different components and modules adapted to the requirements of each individual user. The modularity also enables adapting the charger’s communication physical interfaces (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, PLC, or GSM) to the communication system already implemented on site. The newly developed charger’s casing enables easy installation and maintenance, bringing additional savings to the end customer. | |
| The implemented power management algorithms use information from the EV, from EV users, from the Load guard device that monitors the building’s internal network, and from previous charging sessions. The algorithms control the charging process to achieve different goals: prevention of overload of internal network, charging cost optimisation by shifting the charging load to the periods of low energy delivery tariffs, maximisation of consumption of locally produced energy, and distribution of total charging load to several chargers installed at the same location by strict consideration of individual users’ charging needs. In addition, the charging system is capable to communicate with grid and energy market actors in order to adapt the charging load to their needs. | |
| The charger’s physical user interface enables the user to enter the necessary information needed for management of charging load. It enables implementation of functionalities required for public charging, such as provision of information about charging price and support for different identification methods. The charger’s web interface allows the user to supervise the operation of the system and to monitor the efficiency of power management algorithms. | |
| The activities of the project’s second year were focused on testing the developed charging system. The lab tests enabled the developed product to be successfully implemented on the field and tested in different real-world environments. The continuous analysis of system operation under different conditions and above all the users’ feedback resulted in many ideas for improvement of functionalities that were successfully implemented already during the project. | |
| In parallel with testing activities, comprehensive communication and commercialisation activities were conducted in order to enable smooth transition of the product from development stage to market entrance. Different media and communication approaches were used to inform the interested community, the beneficiaries of the solution (EV users, grid operators, energy market actors), and current and potential dealers of Etrel’s products about the new charging system and its functionalities. The commercialisation activities were focused on designing the processes that will help in later establishment of network of dealers and other business partners that Etrel will cooperate with in sales, installation, maintenance, and customer support.","The INCH charging system goes far beyond achieving its primary goal: charging of EV’s battery. It brings the user experience of charging an EV at home to a new level by alleviating the deficiencies of charging that can strongly discourage end users from buying an EV. In addition, the INCH charging system is an enabler for implementation of complex charging configurations which connect one or more chargers into a charging cluster and further with other local and remote actors. In this way, the results of the INCH project present an enabling technology for integration of EV charging into smart grids and for provision of new services within electromobility. | |
| The improvements achieved by the project are reflected in increased safety in operation of grid user’s internal network and reduced total costs related to charging. Power management options help avoid additional costs for upgrade of connection of building’s network to the public grid. Flexible communication options allow to use existing local communication networks already operating at user’s premises. Charging cost optimisation algorithms shift the delivery of energy for charging to periods with lower energy delivery tariffs and higher production from local energy sources. | |
| Communication of charging system with grid and energy market actors enables incorporation of EV charging into demand response schemes that improve the operation conditions of public grid and contribute to energy balancing. Connection with actors in broader electromobility ecosystem allows implementation of possible business cases related to provision of services, which result in additional benefits for the grid user. | |
| The overall impact of the INCH project will be reflected in wider acceptance of electromobility by removing some deficiencies of presently implemented charging systems and by offering the users a cost-effective installation and use of charging system. Together with incorporation of EV charging into smart grid systems, the INCH project will allow to increase the number and use of EVs by charging them in a smart manner, which is the only way to optimise energy use in transport and reduce related greenhouse gas emissions.",2018-07-31 09:28:14,,699111,INCH,H2020-EU.3.3.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SIE-01-2015,http://etrel.com/products/interactivecharger/ | |
| 1489,220327,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RANGER (RANGER: RAdars for loNG distance maritime surveillancE and SaR opeRations),"Traditional watch-keeping methods including visual observation; the use of audible warnings such as foghorns, bridge-to-bridge Very High Frequency (VHF) radio communications and radar (including the Automatic Radar Plotting Aid) have all improved over the years but still...","Traditional watch-keeping methods including visual observation; the use of audible warnings such as foghorns, bridge-to-bridge Very High Frequency (VHF) radio communications and radar (including the Automatic Radar Plotting Aid) have all improved over the years but still suffer from lack of accuracy and time delays due to limited detection range. It is therefore imperative to exploit current and emerging technological advancements in view of providing the appropriate tools that, when combined with existing/legacy systems will be able to lead to significant reduction of the loss of lives at sea, a better control of irregular immigration entering the EU undetected, while safeguarding internal security by preventing cross-border crime such as trafficking and smuggling. | |
| The most important contribution of RANGER will be to significantly progress the accuracy and long distance detection, identification and recognition capacity thus drastically improving the response and intervention capacity of European SaR services and personnel, severely reducing the expected number of casualties in the Mediterranean basin, whether it is the Greek archipelago, the southern Atlantic or the open seas of Italy and France, while being cost-efficient both in terms of ownership but also in terms of operations and maintenance. | |
| RANGER innovates by combining novel and ground-breaking Radar technologies with innovative supporting technological solutions for early warning, in view of delivering a surveillance platform that will offer detection, recognition, and identification as well as tracking of suspicious vessels capabilities far beyond existing legacy radar systems, seamlessly fitting and contributing to the CISE framework through the provision of on-demand CISE compliant services.","Within the first 18 months the project has achieved the below results (the system is going to be updated periodically depending on the progress that it has been achieved): | |
| All deliverables of the 1st period have been submitted and Milestones have been met | |
| Smooth collaboration among partners and common RANGER vision established | |
| User requirements have been elicited and the first version of technical requirements have submitted | |
| administrative issues have been accomplished like pre-financing and quality management procedures. | |
| Successfully organized a kick-off meeting, 2 workshops for WP2, several coordination team meetings and we established the Security Advisory Board and the 1st SAB meeting. | |
| Set the procedures regarding Quality and Risk management. | |
| Project Advisory Board has been set up | |
| Independent Ethical Expert is on Board | |
| Set the procedures regarding classified information. | |
| Risk management and mitigation strategy have been created | |
| Analyzed current state of the European Border Surveillance System (case EUROSUR). EUROSUR has been assessed in the light of the RANGER project objectives in order to ensure that RANGER will contribute and maximise its impact. In addition it has been analysed EUROSUR roadmap in order to ensure that RANGER project is aligned with EUROSUR’s policies and practices. | |
| Analyzed current state of the European Border Surveillance System (case CISE). In addition it has been analysed CISE roadmap in order to ensure that RANGER project is aligned with CISE’s policies and practices. | |
| Analysed ethical and societal dimensions of the proposed RANGER solution, in order to be taken into account and to aid RANGER developers, maritime surveillance experts and end-users. | |
| Analyzed and summarized regulations and guidelines that must be taken into account regarding protection of the environment, HF radiofrequencies allocations and EMF public and worker radiofrequency exposure. | |
| Finalized the first version of the data management plan (D1.2) and are in progress 2 tasks OTH Radar simulator and MIMO Radar design | |
| Analyzed the drug trafficking and irregular immigration in the Mediterranean Sea and South Atlantic Sea. | |
| Set and organized the strategy regarding communication, awareness-raising and dissemination of results that will ensure long-term impact and exploitation of the project results. | |
| Created RANGER’s web page http://ranger-project.eu/, LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12014068, Twitter https://twitter.com/H2020Ranger and project’s internal repository “Redmine” | |
| Successfully elicited the operational user requirements after 2 workshops, questioners and extended discussions with the end users | |
| Participated in a workshop on Boarder Security related to EU funded projects organized by FRONTEX where RANGER was presented by EXUS | |
| 1st version of Architecture and interoperability layer have been submitted | |
| OTH radar simulator has been set up | |
| Antenna of the Greek pilot have been designed | |
| 1st version of PE-MIMO design has been submitted | |
| 1st small scale (4x4) prototype of MIMO radar has been deployed and tested | |
| Greek pilot sites have been identified | |
| 1st version of pilot scenarios and validation plan has been submitted | |
| Communication, Dissemination and Awareness Raising Strategies has been set up | |
| Details of the achieved results are going to be included in the technical periodic report (part B)","Project is running the 18 month of its life. Therefore progress beyond the state of the art, specific results and expected potential impact is foreseen for the next period",2019-04-17 15:14:53,,700478,RANGER,H2020-EU.3.7.,BES-01-2015,http://www.ranger-project.eu | |
| 8650,185995,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CLOUD DIAGNOSIS (Providing Predictive Maintenance for Wind Turbines Over Cloud),At least 3% of wind production downtime due to breakdowns and maintenance problems that can reach up to 40%. This leads to production losses of over €2.9 billion worldwide annually. Our current SmartCast remotely connects SCADA and sensor data with a virtual database to...,"At least 3% of wind production downtime due to breakdowns and maintenance problems that can reach up to 40%. This leads to production losses of over €2.9 billion worldwide annually. Our current SmartCast remotely connects SCADA and sensor data with a virtual database to monitor wind turbines. It involves algorithms based AI, cloud computing and data mining. The SmartGear product is a low cost Condition Monitoring System based on IoT technology which acquires raw data and connects with SmartCast Platform for further processing. The overall objective of the future Phase II Cloud Diagnosis project is to scale-up our SmartGear technology by introducing communication protocols that allow us to extract data from multiple devices allocated in the wind turbines and additional transducers. Additionally, SmartCast cloud diagnosis algorithms need to be improved. Our innovative solution will allow faster detection of wind turbine system failures through complex algorithms implementing intelligent sensor fusion, therefore, optimizing the performance of wind turbines. It does not require onsite visits but provides information online. In this way, our technology will be able to: Reduce wind turbine maintenance cost by 20%: €44 million annually in the Spanish market, €190 million per year in Europe and €440 million annually in the world market. Reduce wind turbine operation cost and component replacement of cost by 20%: A standard park of 50 MW (16 turbines) installation power working 2,100 hours per year faces production losses of at least €378,000 annually. Our system enables 20% savings of €75,600 (€4,725 per turbine). Currently, our SmartCast platform processes real-time data from SCADA and sensors by means of SVM (support vector machine) in 300 turbines. Our SmartGear Solution is present in two wind farms and is being rolled out in five more.","During the reporting period, we explained our innovative solution that combines our products SmartGear and SmartCast, allowing faster detection of turbine system failures through complex algorithms. We also described our producing including future improvements and new functionalities, proofing the techniques behind and its technological feasibility. A depth analysis of the market was performed and studied for a possible implementation. We expect to enter into the Polish, Spanish, Danish and German market due that those countries have mature exploitations. We had the opportunity to carry out a deep analysis of our solution in order to compare it with other existing solutions. We also developed a business model of the products that included the Porter fiver forces and SWOT analysis, canvas model, detection of the key stakeholders and the price model (accordingly with the product and services) and channel strategy (focussed on direct sales and trade agreements with the sales representatives). Any SMARTIVE solution will be protected by patent and design. As a patent strategy SMARTIVE starts with a European Patent, directly filed on the EPO office. | |
| Thanks to this study, we are encouraged to improve our product and introduce it to the European Market. We proof that our product goes a step further of the existing technology and that there is a niche market in Europe.","Wind energy releases no pollution into the air or water, and does not contribute to global warming. We offer a low cost solution for the wind turbines maintenance, addressed to companies engaged in wind farms management and maintenance. Our technology enables offer wind farms audit services and track assets status to investment companies, insurance companies and financial entities. Although the growing tendency of demand from EU electricity consumers, our preventive failure detection will contribute to improve the efficiency of wind farm will contribute in the reduction of their carbon footprint. | |
| This is a unique opportunity for SMARTIVE to expand our business by offering an innovative product to countries: turbine manufacturers, maintenance companies and individual park managers.",2018-08-28 10:56:05,,673137,CLOUD DIAGNOSIS,H2020-EU.3.3.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SIE-01-2014-1,http://smartive.eu/ | |
| 1134,262997,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PARADDISE (A Productive, Affordable and Reliable solution for large scale manufacturing of metallic components by combining laser-based ADDItive and Subtractive processes with high Efficiency)","Although there are already some hybrid machines available in the market, it is still a little mature technology and for its industrial application it requires a greater deepening in the development of auxiliary elements, programming systems, control, etc. So, the lack of...","Although there are already some hybrid machines available in the market, it is still a little mature technology and for its industrial application it requires a greater deepening in the development of auxiliary elements, programming systems, control, etc. So, the lack of maturity of the technology of LMD, together with a lack of quality of the components manufactured, can be a drag on the commercialization of hybrid equipment. | |
| In this sense, the PARADDISE project aims to make a quantitative and qualitative leap in laser-based additive manufacturing technology for metallic components, by increasing the reliability of the LMD process, its integration with subtractive processes, and by developing a set of tools and ad-hoc technologies that facilitate the integration of DML with consolidated conventional manufacturing methods. In this way, there will be scope for wider adoption of this technology in larger and more numerous market segments. With the aim of achieving this overall goal, the project will tackle the following technical objectives: | |
| 1) To develop a Knowledge-Based Expert Database integrating process and materials knowledge | |
| 2) To develop CAx technologies with embedded database about combined LMD and machining processes | |
| 3) To develop and implement an efficient monitoring and control system | |
| 4) To develop and integrate Smart components with integrated sensors | |
| 5) To develop and implement an integrated process-machine-tools package | |
| The solution will be integrated in the ‘ZVH45/1600 Add+Process’ hybrid machine from IBARMIA manufacturer (PARADDISE partner), which is already available in the market as well as at TECNALIA’s facilities (PARADDISE coordinator). Thus, the PARADDISE project will conceive a process-machine-tools solution (see figure 1).","Up to date, the most relevant results achieved have been: | |
| - In WP1 two use cases for the validation of PARADDISE concept have been defined: Extrusion screw (Michelin) and Low Pressure Turbine Case (GKN Aerospace). | |
| - In WP2 a LMD process database have been developed, which is composed by 12 technical tables containing the relevant information for the process. In addition, a HMI application (Human Machine Interface) is being developed in order to interact the end-user with the database. Regarding the characterization of the LMD process, several materials have been characterized in terms of productivity, geometry, powder efficiency and MDR (Material Deposition Rate) as a function of process parameters. On the other hand, the analysis of the effect of cutting fluid on the porosity formation during LMD process have been carried out. Finally, a system for integrating cameras based on the structured light technology into the ADD&PROCESS machine is being developed and calibrated. | |
| - In WP3, via API (Advanced Programming Interface) programming, new option has been added to the main menu in NX. This module was created programming a user-friendly interface and integrated with existing CAD and CAM modules. The new template combines both additive manufacturing and machining and is designed to define step by step all parameters, such us the nozzle or parameters and strategy used in each operation. The developed CAE module is based on previously developed model for laser cladding process simulation called LATHEM. On the basis of the LATHEM and using the Matlab environment, the model is modified and adapted for the LMD process. | |
| - In WP4, in a first step the monitoring of the LMD process has been developed applying different sensors, e.g. interferometric sensor unit (IDM), CCD camera, powder flow sensors. These LMD head integrated devices are applied for process monitoring of the track height, powder mass flow and melt pool characteristics. Beside quality analysis monitoring results are used as input for the process parameter database and simulation. Based on the analysis of the identified input parameters and the monitoring results, a process model which represents the process characteristics and is prerequisite for the closed loop control has been developed. To achieve a reliable process, closed loop control cycles are developed for building height, powder mass flow and melt pool temperature. Based on several experiments and the process model, the concepts for each of the control cycles and their interaction have been developed and partly tested on the SINUMERIK controlled machine.","""There is a high difficulty of commercialization of the existing hybrid machines in the market, still being a range of machines that has not accessed a significant part of the expected market. The reasons for the low sales of these machines can be diverse, but all experts agree in highlighting that the main obstacles to the industrialization of these systems are """"the lack of control and monitoring systems to reduce dispersion of results of the LMD process, the need for training for designers, the lack of programming systems and a priori verification of the process and the lack of industrial standards for Additive Manufacturing """". | |
| The main results expected in PARADDISE project are: | |
| 1) Monitoring and Closed loop control system for hybrid AM &SM manufacturing: | |
| 2) CAx Technologies for hybrid manufacturing | |
| 3) LMD Materials and process database | |
| 4) Measuring system integrated in machine for part detection and location based in structured light technology | |
| 5) Powder recycling system | |
| 6) Smart components: LMD Head and Powder Feeder | |
| 7) International standards on test methods and procedures for the characterization of Aerospace parts produced by AM technologies | |
| Thus, in view of the developments and progress being made, the PARADDISE project opportunity is focused on the development of solutions and technologies that accelerate the introduction of the LMD + machining process in the market. | |
| Social Impacts: | |
| PARADDISE will spread the AM within industrial partners and networks a view of PARADDISE AM Services as an evolution of conventional manufacturing, as a means for overcoming this socio-cultural limitation. | |
| Concerning the direct impact of PARADDlSE on job creation among key stakeholders of the manufacturing value chain, the main quantitative leap will come from the PARADDISE Services Ecosystem that will be created during the project life, and that will cover services along the life cycle of mechanical products of complex geometries. These services will start at their conception and design stage, offering services linked to optimally designing parts to take most profit for LMD+Machining operations as well as for optimally selecting the appropriate combination of operations. These services will also include the manufacturing stage, offering services such as appropriate tuning of machine parameters and maintenance services. Finally, there will be additional services such as training to employees interested in implementing the PARADDISE approach in their processes. | |
| On the other hand, there will be also remarkable job creation linked to the development of the PARADDISE results. This job creation will cover qualified profiles such as software engineers for the PARADDISE CAx technologies, design engineers for designing appropriate components and equipment for the combined LMD+Subtractive, production engineers for supporting customized and on-demand manufacturing of complex parts, lawyers for defining IPR for the new developments, etc. | |
| """,2019-04-20 15:21:27,,723440,PARADDISE,H2020-EU.2.1.1.,FOF-13-2016,http://www.paraddise.eu | |
| 5037,190330,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - VALUeHEALTH (Establishing the value and business model for sustainable eHealth services in Europe - VALUeHEALTH),"VeH was set up with the remit to develop a business model and business plan for the sustainability of cross-border eHealth services: for cross-border exchange of information between Member States, in relation to supporting the health of citizens who either cross borders and...","VeH was set up with the remit to develop a business model and business plan for the sustainability of cross-border eHealth services: for cross-border exchange of information between Member States, in relation to supporting the health of citizens who either cross borders and then need healthcare, or are deliberately referred to go across a national border to receive healthcare. This means exchanging patient-related data and supporting healthcare professionals to maintain some degree of continuity of care, in potentially multiple locations. | |
| VeH has therefore investigated how eHealth interoperability can create, deliver, and capture value for all stakeholders, to justify a sustainable market in scaling up cross-border interoperability. VeH comprised a rich multi-stakeholder consortium of experienced partners and funded experts, to bring together many essential viewpoints to undertake the work plan and to champion its results. Starting with the cross-border interoperability use cases already approved by the eHealth Network, the VeH partners engaged with multiple stakeholders though a robust methodology to prioritise use cases relevant to Member States for cross-border and also within border health service business needs. The project has examined the technical and organisational strategies needed to deliver these additional use cases, and the multi-stakeholder value chains that are needed to sustain the funding of these services. Finally, the project has integrated these perspectives into a recommended business plan for the immediate years following the existing period of public funding. | |
| VeH has now completed the development of an evidence-based business plan for sustainable interoperability, with sustainable revenue streams for developing and operating priority pan-European eHealth Services beyond 2020. | |
| The VeH project objectives were: | |
| 1. Develop a prioritised set of use cases reflecting Member State health business needs for cross-border and within-border digital services on a European scale. | |
| 2. Design an over-arching business model framework that encompasses and delivers customised value propositions across a wide range of relevant stakeholders, a Cost Benefit Assessment, risk assessments and sustainability strategies. | |
| 3. Develop a roadmap of scale-up adoption strategies, conditions for success including clinical documentation and care collaboration, and recommended incentives. | |
| 4. Develop an ICT and interoperability deployment roadmap, defining the digital infrastructure services that are needed to deliver the priority use cases, and the interoperability assets and platform services that will be needed to design, implement, deploy and maintain these services. | |
| 5. Deliver a Business Plan and Sustainability Plan which will identify sustainable streams of revenue to establish, operate and grow pan-European eHealth Services beyond 2020, when such services will need to be self-funding.","The VeH project partners worked with a wide range of European experts to undertake a careful analysis of scenarios that could add value to the existing unplanned care scenarios, by defining a list of additional business use cases which would be feasible to deliver and useful both within and across borders. A set of prioritisation criteria were developed to assess these use cases, and through a robust methodology two were prioritised, one of which was safe prescribing. | |
| The project convened a Business Modelling Task Force to examine in detail the actors who need to be involved and motivated to contribute to collective success, and what the value propositions would be for each. It further built on the work and ideas of this set of actors to develop value chains that showed how this value can be realised only when the actors are correctly aligned. | |
| The Business Model Canvas was used to model more formally the ways in which the value propositions could be realised: who are the customers that will pay, who are strategic partners to help co-create the solution and ensure its acceptance, and what are the main activities that need to be undertaken to deliver collective value. VeH elected to focus it on the physical or virtual entity or structure designated with the responsibility for managing and coordinating (or contracting out) the new pan-European shared cross-border eHealth services that will be established via the CEF. | |
| A cost effectiveness analysis from a health systems perspective was also carried out, in order to assess the value of eHealth interoperable solutions compared to current practices for the optimal management of patients with Type 1 diabetes, as the reference use case. The results of this cost-effectiveness analysis suggested that significant added-value could be generated from investing in such enhanced eHealth services, enabling more Type 1 diabetes patients to be optimally managed, and at lower costs, within and across borders in Europe. | |
| The information flows for the diabetes business use case and the interoperability assets and services needed to deliver them were also examined. The project found that much of what is needed in terms of the eHDSI is already in place. Additional investments would be needed only in so far as necessary to build on the existing unplanned care infrastructure. Indeed, the major implications of VeH’s proposals are to convey more information through the existing infrastructure and add incrementally additional needed services such as the HealthCare Encounter Report. VeH has proposed an EC project-like roadmap for how these additional components might be developed and deployed across MS and at a European level. | |
| Several kinds of organisational change are also needed to take advantage of these enhanced cross border services which should improve trust and accountability in sharing data and sharing care. For example, data quality challenges to ensure that accurate and complete enough patient summaries can be generated to adequately inform the recipient about the patient. VeH has in particular examined the strategies for improving data quality, working with a selected group of European hospitals. | |
| The final VeH business plan itself, brings the main findings of the project together as proposals to be considered by the eHealth Network and the E.C. This two-year Business Plan proposes the establishment of an EU eHealth Business Unit (EU eHBU) which is envisioned to play a central role in the sustainability of the eHDSI, post 2020, i.e. after the end of the CEF programme. It sets out the top five business plan objectives, as activities to be fulfilled by the EU eHBU during its first two years of operation, after being successfully set up and rendered operational. It outlines the financial scheme that is proposed through this plan, and a financial forecast, emphasising a mixed model of public funds, non-monetary (in-kind) contributions, and commercial revenues. | |
| The results of VeH have been disti",na,2019-02-25 15:35:49,,643847,VALUeHEALTH,H2020-EU.3.1.5.,PHC-34-2014,http://www.valuehealth.eu | |
| 6856,205364,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LentiFactory (MAGIC (MAnufacturing of Gene delivery tools for Industrial and Clinical applications)),"Founded in 2005, Vectalys is a biotech company that develops world leading gene delivery technologies for industrial and therapeutic applications. Vectalys has built a state-of-the-art proprietary lentiviral vectors (LV) production platform to provide its customers and...","Founded in 2005, Vectalys is a biotech company that develops world leading gene delivery technologies for industrial and therapeutic applications. Vectalys has built a state-of-the-art proprietary lentiviral vectors (LV) production platform to provide its customers and partners with the highest quality of LV. Based on 10 years of collaborative research, the resulting LV purity is now recognized as a key success factor for cutting-edge stable cell engineering on primary and stem cells. In parallel, thanks to its deep understanding of market needs, Vectalys has developed and patented a game-changing class of RNA carriers called LentiFlash (LF), a new generation of non-integrating LV dedicated to gene-editing applications requiring a transient expression. | |
| Based on recent results of early CAR-T cells clinical trials, mainly in the US, the market will now need an extensive scale-up capacity to produce GMP grade LV and LF. From a non-regulatory pre-clinical stage market, Vectalys has the capacity to move forward into the clinical stage market as a GMP grade value provider. For this reason, the planned steps of development plan are: | |
| - Phase I: to assess the technical feasibility and commercial potential of GMP production through the industrial process design, a market study, the intellectual property exploration and meet regulatory compliance demands. | |
| - Phase II: to set up a GMP pilot facility to move forward into the clinical stage market, by scaling-up the production line to a manufacturing level. | |
| During the LentiFactory project (SME Instrument Phase I), Vectalys’ objectives were therefore to perform a techno-economic feasibility study to define the strategic plan for the next years, for bringing cost-effective products to the market, and prepare industrial scaling-up. To prepare clinical grade solution suitable, the Phase I LentiFactory project has been dividing into 2 major sections: (i) an industrial strategy development plan, (ii) and an IP & market study and analysis. | |
| The company is now committed to producing these tools at a clinical grade in order to transform the lives of patients with severe genetic and rare diseases as well as untreated cancers.","The first part of the project was dedicated to industrial strategy development plan. | |
| Indeed, the objective was to define all operating steps required both to industrialize the process of production and to transfer the process into GMP. The goal was to review the whole manufacturing process, including incoming, in-process and final quality controls and the facilities design, with the specifications given by the regulatory requirements of the targeted applications. By developing a compliant manufacturing offer for clinical applications, both ex vivo and in vivo whatever the customer’s sequence of interest, Vectalys positions itself to cover most of the clinical lentiviral market. Thanks to this study, Vectalys’ drivers have been set to: (i) establish the next GMP production unit for producing lentiviral vector; (ii) increase production capacity to 30 mL or 60 mL batch size with 2 suites of virus production; (iii) establish a sterile process from cell culture to filling operation through transfection and purification operation; (iv) be compliant with European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations; (v) propose a flexible and efficient production unit allowing to adapt some technologies choice depending on closed or open processes selected or virus production equipment. This all study will be helpful to describe the next step regarding LentiFactory project development, especially regarding SME Instrument phase II implementation. | |
| During the industrial strategy development plan. Vectalys also worked on Quality Control (QC) to define which ones where necessaries for ex vivo and in vivo applications, in order to be able to dimension the cost according to the characteristics of the vectors produced to customer. On the other side, Vectalys obtained the confirmation of the HCB (“Haut Conseil des Biotechnologies” - public French organism in charge of GMO declaration) in a letter that specify that LentiFlash tool is not considered as GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms), which is a strategic and differentiating information that highlight the innovative vector and derived engineered cells. | |
| The second part of the project was dedicated to IP & Marketing study. | |
| Regarding IP strategy, the different studies performed since 2016 have shown that (i) Vectalys owns 5 patents that protect its innovative activities; (ii) Vectalys owns essential licences and sub-licenses for its proper functioning and activity; (iii) the IP strategy has been generated and validate by 3 different IP sub-contractors that confirm the current freedom to operate. | |
| Concerning the two market studies, one was to define a go-to-market strategy regarding LentiFlash technology. Based on analysis of clinical study and technological advancements, Vectalys identified own therapeutic programs and listed potential licensing partners for licensing agreements, based on a gateway and value indications study. | |
| The other market study objective was to analyse receptivity and economic potential of Vectalys’ GMP grade LV production offer, and to analyse the economic potential of LentiFlash applications based on the previous value and indication selected.","The results obtained during this study are confidentials. They will be exploited during the next step of the project, which will be subject to SME Instrument phase II call for proposals. Indeed, to pursue its project and lead as soon as possible its GMP grade production capacity to the market, Vectalys will now need: | |
| - to invest in the factory production line | |
| - pursue regulatory compliance to obtain GMP certificate as regard to its production process | |
| - work on dissemination and exploitation of the results/project to ensure market penetration and validate its financial projection. | |
| In addition to the technical content of the Phase 1 feasibility study, actions were performed to refine Vectalys’ strategy for next steps. Initial business plan presented in Phase 1 remains globally relevant, with slight adjustments and consolidations in terms of timing, production volumes and product pricing. | |
| Regarding economic model and expected potential impact, Vectalys changed its strategy by the creation of a new entity, FlashCell. Indeed, the different studies performed by Vectalys have led to the conclusion that: | |
| - Vectalys should be consider as a lentiviral tools manufacturing company, that is to say a manufacturing platform from R&D to GMP grades; | |
| - The development of LentiFlash technology should be driven by another entity that should be recognized as a therapeutic unit developing tools for therapeutic applications (FlashCell). | |
| FlashCell’s creation automatically involves changes in the exploitation of the results section. FlashCell is going to be an important lever in Vectalys’ development and a partner of choice regarding business activities. Every FlashCell’s sub-licencing and partnerships regarding R&D and clinical activities will involve Vectalys, as Vectalys is the dedicated manufacturer that will be attached to vector production, for each grade of the pre-clinical and clinical stage.",2018-09-25 09:47:30,,762368,LentiFactory,H2020-EU.3.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-05-2016-2017,https://www.vectalys.com/news/news-details/28-03-2017/lentifactory-horizon-2020-sme-instrument-phase-i-414 | |
| 6165,223867,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MetamorphChip (Dynamic Microfluidic Structures for Analysis of Single Cell Systems),"The interaction and communication between individual cells plays a central role in virtually all fields of biology, from the cooperative work of cells in the immune system, through the differentiation of stem cells, and to the proliferation of cancer cells. In recent years it...","The interaction and communication between individual cells plays a central role in virtually all fields of biology, from the cooperative work of cells in the immune system, through the differentiation of stem cells, and to the proliferation of cancer cells. In recent years it has been shown that these processes are fundamentally coupled to cell-to-cell heterogeneity and variability, which manifests itself in all cell functions, from the level of the genome, transcriptome, and proteome, to the level of proliferation, migration, differentiation and apoptosis. Studying cellular ensembles masks these differences, and may yield observations that are not representative of any individual cell type or subpopulation. Despite this, most current studies consider cell populations, largely due to technological limitations in the ability to dynamically compartmentalize, manipulate, and analyze single cells. Gaining further insight into the role of heterogeneity at the single cell level is an essential step towards developing new therapeutic approaches. Progress in this field requires a significantly improved ability to access and study cellular interaction at the single cell level, and to support quantitative modeling of such processes. | |
| In the past decade, there has been considerable development in high-throughput methods of single-cell analysis. Tools developed include various microfluidic chips for individual or paired cell capture and analysis, droplet microfluidics, digital microfluidics, FACS and microFACS. Particularly notable is the use of on-chip pneumatic valves enabling elaborate multi-step protocols to be performed. These tools have reduced time necessary for hands-on work, and allowed for work at previously unattainable single-cell scales, enabling fundamental discoveries in all aspects of biology. However, despite these advantages, many of the high-throughput single cell analysis technologies are still single-purpose “protocols on chips” rather than true “labs on chips”: they do not allow the flexibility and real-time experimental decision-making essential to scientific work. After carrying out a predetermined protocol, it is rarely possible to perform unplanned follow-up experiments on the same cells or on the same system, based on the obtained results. Rapid progress in research depends on the ability to make real-time experimental decisions, in which the observations from the current step direct subsequent steps in the experiment – a level of flexibility unattainable with current tools. | |
| In this project we aim to develop a new concept for a single-cell-level bioanalytical workspace that is dynamically configurable in real time. By using electrokinetically driven surface deformations, microfluidic structures may be created or destroyed in real-time allowing cells to be introduced, separated, reunited, or removed, and liquids to be selectively introduced to, removed from, or moved between specific cells, either based on a predetermined program or more importantly – on demand (by the researcher, or an image processing algorithm), based on the state of the experiment at any time point. This workspace will be implemented in a microfluidic chip format, which we term the MetamorphChip.","""We have essentially completed the theoretical aspect of the project, and have developed complete models for deformations of elastic sheets using electroomostic forces. The models have been generalized to allow introduction of alternative forces, and we have complete analytical and numerical solutions allowing us to design and predict deformation states. The work has been published in 3 peer-reviewed publications in the leading journals of the field, and a 4th publication combining the theory with experimental validation is currently under review. | |
| • Boyko E., Bercovici M., and Gat A., (2016), “Flow of Power-Law Liquids in a Hele-Shaw Cell Driven by Non-Uniform Electroosmotic Slip in the Case of Strong Depletion”, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 807, 235-257. | |
| • Rubin S., Tulchinsky A., Gat A., and Bercovici M., (2017), “Elastic deformations driven by non-uniform lubrication flows”, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 812, 841-865. | |
| • Boyko E., Bercovici M., and Gat A., (2017), “Viscous-elastic dynamics of power-law fluids within an elastic cylinder “, Physical Review Fluids 2, 73301. | |
| • Boyko E., Gat A., and Bercovici M., (2017) “Deformations of a prestretched thin elastic membrane driven by non-uniform electroosmotic flow”, in review. | |
| As planned, we have constructed a first working prototype demonstrating the physical principle of the Metamporph Chip . We are currently working on the next generation which would include a large number of control electrodes allowing higher resolution control. One critical sub-task which took longer than expected is the ability to measure the deformation the structures we’re creating. A long survey of devices and methods revealed that there are no off-the shelf solutions which fit our needs exactly. We therefore combined purchasing of a holographic microscope which suits well measurement over small fields of view, with development of our own method based on scanning beads deposited on the surface, which suits measurements over large field of view. | |
| The work was disseminated though presentation in numerous conferences: | |
| 1. E. Boyko, M. Bercovici, and A. D. Gat, """"Flow of power-law liquids in a Hele-Shaw cell driven by non-uniform electro-osmotic slip in the case of strong depletion"""", 69th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, Portland, Oregon, Nov 20-22, 2016. | |
| 2. A. D. Gat, E. Boyko, and M. Bercovici, “Viscous-elastic dynamics of power-law fluids within an elastic cylinder”, 69th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, Portland, Oregon, November 20-22, 2016. | |
| 3. M. Bercovici, E. Boyko, and A. D. Gat, """"Deformations of a pre-stretched elastic membrane driven by non-uniform electro-osmotic flow”, 69th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, Portland, Oregon, November20-22, 2016. | |
| 4. E. Boyko, S. Rubin, A.D. Gat, and M. Bercovici, ”Flow and deformation patterning with | |
| non-uniform electro-osmotic slip”, Basheva de Rothschild Seminar on Physics of Microfluidics, Sde Boker, January 3-8, 2017. | |
| 5. V. Frumkin, and M. Bercovici, “Elastic deformations driven by the thermocapillary effect”, Flow17 Micro and nanofluidics fundamentals and applications, Paris, France, July 3-5, 2017. | |
| 6. R. Eshel, E. Boyko, K. Gommed, and M. Bercovici, “Experimental study of elastic deformation driven by electro-osmotic flow”, Paris, France, July 3-5, 2017. | |
| 7. E. Boyko, A. Gat, and M. Bercovici, Deformations of a pre-stretched and lubricated finite elastic sheet”, Paris, France, July 3-5, 2017. | |
| 8. M. Bercovici, Lab on a Chip and Microfluidics World Congress, San-Diego, Oct 2-4, 2017. (invited keynote)""","All of our work done to date goes beyond the state of the art, and was published in leading pee-reviewed journals. | |
| By the end of the project, we expect to demonstrate a fully-configurable MetamorphChip, and apply to the manipulation of cells.",2018-09-04 16:37:06,,678734,MetamorphChip,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-StG-2015,https://www.microfluidic-technologies.com/erc-metamorph | |
| 3149,263771,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SCALAiR (Scaled Test Aircraft Preparation and Qualification),"In Clean Sky 2, Platform 1 of IADP Large Passenger Aircraft (LPA), WP1.3 aims at validating scaled flight testing as a viable means to de-risk disruptive aircraft technologies and aircraft configurations to a high technology readiness level. As part of LPA 1.3 the, LPA WP1.3.3...","In Clean Sky 2, Platform 1 of IADP Large Passenger Aircraft (LPA), WP1.3 aims at validating scaled flight testing as a viable means to de-risk disruptive aircraft technologies and aircraft configurations to a high technology readiness level. As part of LPA 1.3 the, LPA WP1.3.3 SCALAiR project will develop the demonstrator of a scaled reference aircraft to show that it can be used to obtain performance characteristics that are representative for the full-scale aircraft. Two versions of the Scaled Flight Demonstrator (SFD) will be developed: (1) a Scaled Flight Demonstrator (SFD) and (2) a Dynamically Scaled Flight Demonstrator (DSFD). The aim is to develop a geometrically scaled version of a reference aircraft. The aim is that using geometric scaling the transposition from the full scale to the scaled demonstrator can be correlated. | |
| The attached picture illustrates how scaled demonstrators could be a valuable intermediate step between the already existing experimental facilities and computational capabilities (left side) and the full scale development of disruptive configurations for transport aircraft (right side). | |
| Using a well-known reference aircraft (e.g. A320-200 with V2500 engine) shall enable LPA 1.3 to demonstrate the possibility to design and manufacture a scaled flight demonstrator having an overall behavior that is representative for the full-scale aircraft. Two flight demonstrators are planned: | |
| • Scaled Flight Demonstrator (SFD): The first demonstrator will have the full representation of the geometry and will be equipped with the complete arrangement of the flight and data-acquisition systems. The SFD will be a scaled version of the A320 with the exception of the aeroelastic behavior. The SFD will be used to check the flight control and data acquisition systems and can be used for static parameter identification. | |
| • Dynamically Scaled Flight Demonstrator (DSFD): The second demonstrator has the same outer geometry and flight control system, but will be designed to have identical aero dynamic behavior of the reference aircraft. The DSFD will be used to demonstrate the representativeness of the overall dynamic behavior of the full-scale aircraft.","The original proposal was to use the geometry of a reference aircraft for the Scaled Flight Demonstrator (SFD) design. Due to issues with the release of actual geometry data the decision was taken to develop the geometry for the SFD based on Open Source data and guidance form the reference aircraft OEM. The final SFD geometry is assessed against the reference aircraft by comparing the 3D models and by Computational Fluid Dynamics by a partner within LPA 1.3. In the first period of the SCALAiR project the 3D model of the SFD has been developed, starting with the design of the aerodynamic surfaces. At the same time work was performed to select the best scaling factor for the SFD. To be able to select the scaling factor a matlab tool was developed whereby the scaling factor can be optimized given scaling requirements and design constraints. 2D and 3D analysis techniques were used to verify that the SFD geometry can fly given the selected scaling factor. The final SFD geometry was approved within LPA 1.3 to start the further design. A figure of the final geometry is attached to report. The scaling factor and the 2D and 3D analysis results are used to calculate the aerodynamic loads, hinge moments of the control surfaces and basic performance parameters. These are drivers for the selection of components, e.g. actuators, engines and the structural design of the SFD. The design of the SFD structure has started and the aim is to have the SFD ready by the end of 2018. At that time the SFD will undergo a wind tunnel test to verify if the calculated values are correct and that there will be no surprises in the behavior of the SFD during flight. The fact that the SFD will undergo a wind tunnel test puts additional requirements on the structural design of the SFD. | |
| Partially independent of the SFD geometry is the design of the electrical system for the SFD. Using the Operational requirements defined within LPA 1.3 the high level architecture of the electrical system has been defined and the basis autopilot to be used has been selected. Work is in progress to select and design other components of the electrical system, e.g. datalink system, power supply, vehicle control unit, etc. | |
| Two projects in LPA 1.3 design components that need to be integrated in the SFD; the NOVAIR project that designs the Flight Test Instrumentation system used to monitor and measure specific parameters for the scaling analysis and the analysis of the SFD behavior and the HyperF project which designs the Guidance and Navigation Computer that will initiate and control the specific test maneuvers of the SFD. These systems have a close interface with the SCALAiR project both electrical interfaces and structural interfaces.","With an actual dynamically scaled model, based on an existing full scale vehicle, the viability for future applications can be investigated. With the methodology of scaling validated, with a proven set of rules and procedures, novel configurations can be subjected to scaled model testing as well. Besides regular dynamic stability and control models, aircraft simulators can be extended with dynamics outside the normal flight envelope. Pilots can be trained in post stall motions of which the knowledge results from scaled model testing. This project can lead towards a significant reduction in aircraft accidents. | |
| From a financial, operable as well as technical point of view there are opportunities for scaled flight testing, going beyond the state-of-the-art. In fact, considering scale models, at the moment Europe is not at the state-of-the-Art: United States companies are the major contributors. SCALAiR extends the scope by increasing the number of applications and uses an existing full-scale aircraft so that representativeness can be actually analyzed.",2019-04-01 15:12:00,,717183,SCALAiR,H2020-EU.3.4.5.1.,JTI-CS2-2015-CFP02-LPA-01-09, | |
| 9926,200848,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SPRInG (Short Period Superlattices for Rational (In,Ga)N)","The scientific mission of this project is to develop a novel (In,Ga)N alloy that offers completely new opportunities to tune bandgaps and piezoelectric fields in quantum structures for highly efficient optoelectronic devices. This novel “rational” (n InN/m GaN) alloy is...","The scientific mission of this project is to develop a novel (In,Ga)N alloy that offers completely new opportunities to tune bandgaps and piezoelectric fields in quantum structures for highly efficient optoelectronic devices. This novel “rational” (n InN/m GaN) alloy is based on short period superlattices that stack integer numbers of m (n) monolayers (MLs) of InN (GaN), i.e. heterostructures of pure InN MLs embedded in a GaN matrix. The development of fundamental knowledge on this rational (InN/GaN) alloy as established for other III-V compounds is envisioned as the base for such devices. To achieve this objective, we Forschungsverbund Berlin (FVB), as academic institution, and TopGaN sp.z.o.o. (TopGaN), as non-academic partner, have concerted our action in a bilateral collaboration. Besides, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) and the Institute of High- Pressure Physics – Polish Academy of Sciences (UNIPRESS) are alsoinvolved as external partner organizations to provide the academic structure necessary to the promotion of the early-stage researchers (ESRs) hired by the project. As a specific strength, within the project “Short Period Superlattices for Rational (In,Ga)N” (SPRInG) we are unifying a unique portfolio of experimental competencies with high-level resources and infrastructures. These create an ideal research environment that promotes an interdisciplinary collaboration and an international networking of ESRs. Within such a framework, the ESRs are developing professional qualification to to solve challenging and very exciting scientific questions of the potential III-nitride future technology for solid state lighting. A quality monitoring scheme ensures that the ESRs receive an optimized training, which is preparing and qualifying them for the research and development of future technologies in academic and non-academic organizations.","In framework of the present project “SPRInG” [Short Period superlattices (SPSLs) for Rational (In,Ga)N] we fabricated and characterized rational (In,Ga)N in the form of SPSLs. We reported on the study of the In content in ultra-thin QWs using several methods. We demonstrated that even slight modifications of the growth parameters are associated with significant changes in the resulting structures. During the first year we showed that although our samples (prepared using the growth sequences reported in literature) emit in the same range as the one formerly reported they are actually constituted by 3 to 10 MLs of (In,Ga)N with In content of only about 10%, instead of 1 single ML of pure InN. After improvement of the growth conditions, we obtain SPSLs with abrupt Interfaces with (In,Ga)N of 1 ML thickness and an In content of 0.29 and GaN QBs as thin as 6 MLs, that give rise to a PL band at about 3.16 eV coinciding with the theoretically predicted values. | |
| A key requirement for the realization of optoelectronic devices with desired properties is the understanding of the recombination mechanisms in (InN/GaN) SPSLs. Our data showed that the sub-ML (In,Ga)N under investigation act electronically as two-dimensional random alloys rather than ordered InGaN or InN ML islands. Within the project “SPRInG”, we proposed to utilize strain engineering by choosing or creating a substrate with a lattice constant more favorable than the one of GaN for higher In incorporation in order to overcome the In content limitation. Two different approaches are pursued: | |
| 1. The growth of InN on relaxed (In,Ga)N buffer on GaN substrates. Heteroepitaxial deposition of In-rich (In,Ga)N layers directly on GaN is complicated by the presence of a large lattice mismatch. The latter resulted in very rough surfaces and defected layers. However in particular growth conditions we could achieve almost full relaxation of the (In,Ga)N buffer layer that had very high In contents and in addition, still exhibited PL emission. | |
| 2. The growth of InN on ZnO substrates of both polarities. ZnO is attractive as it is isomorphic to GaN and lattice-matched to In0.2Ga0.8N. However, we had to circumvent the high chemical reactivity of Ga with ZnO by growing a very thin coherent InN buffer layer between (In,Ga)N and ZnO. For that purpose we investigated both ZnO polarities changing growth rate and thickness, while the substrate temperature was kept at 450°C. We identified a critical layer thickness for the relaxation of thin InN. On Zn-ZnO we achieved growth of an InN buffer layer thickness of 1 ML at the low supply rate of 0.18 ML/s in order to prevent relaxation. After the InN buffer growth we performed the growth of InN/GaN SPSLs with nominally 1 ML QWs and 2 ML GaN barriers.","Transparency Market Research, in its report 'GaN Industrial Devices Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 – 2021', forecasts the global GaN industrial devices market rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.1% from $482 millions in 2014 to $1315 millions in 2021. The market’s growth trend expected at the time of SPRInG submission is thus nowadays confirmed. The key drivers of this market are still on the one hand the development of new technologies and on the other the increasing application scope of the products. In this respect the digital (Ga,In)N/GaN alloys could bring a huge improvement in the actual optoelectronic technology, particularly when implemented in LDs as electron coolers. The global semiconductor laser market size is in fact expected to reach $9.52 billions by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc.. Moreover the emergence of new advantageous digital alloys may also be of interest for other electronic application areas. | |
| Within the SPRInG project the ESRs students share their work between two institutions, this enables them to gain exposure to both the academic and industrial sectors while growing and expanding their skill sets. For the ESRs the advantages turned out to be that they retain more talent because they foster different learning opportunities. They have got the chance to explore their interests and hidden potential. ESRs gain a fuller picture of how the business in both environments works. They are used to different attitudes, more business or more research driven, which benefits all involved ERSs for their future job seek. | |
| Not only ESRs’ skill sets have been broadened, but also employee networks have been established, further preparing the ESRs for future job. ESRs learn the different working styles and cultures, as well, which encourages their collaboration spirit. They also provide back the institutions with novel capabilities. | |
| Secondments of ESRs leaded at the beginning to the effect that the ESRs, in the need of learning more than in a single place, felt less productive in the short term as they changed. However, on the long terms they showed a very flexible working style and they adapted nicely to the steep learning curve. | |
| The concept of student mobility is now better accepted as students understand that knowledge gained at any point of time never goes waste. Examples like the ESRs trained in such projects like SPRInG will strongly contribute to enhance the impact of such funding programs. Important is however the structure of support, such as training and support by the supervisors. They actually guide and help ESRs at every step, correct ESRs whenever they are going wrong and getting deviated from the actual purpose of the SPRInG project.",2018-07-19 17:41:45,,642574,SPRInG,H2020-EU.1.3.1.,MSCA-ITN-2014-EID,http://www.spring-sls.eu/ | |
| 3553,262632,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - THISTLE (Transformation and the management of HIStorical foresT. Landscapes of the Eugaean Hill (Padua, Italy). Fresh perspectives through spatial analyses and dendro-anthracology)",This project focuses especially on forests that played a crucial role in the evolution of human societies. Forested landscapes represent the ecological inheritance of forest management across the centuries. We particularly study the evolution of historical forests in the...,"This project focuses especially on forests that played a crucial role in the evolution of human societies. Forested landscapes represent the ecological inheritance of forest management across the centuries. We particularly study the evolution of historical forests in the Euganean Hills (Padua, Italy) with a multidisciplinary approach (history, archaeology, geography, archaeobotany). No intensive research has been carried out on forest history in the territory so far. | |
| THISTLE programme was designed to better understand the place these forests occupy in the lives of the users while taking stock of the local knowledge on the forest history. At the same time, thanks to a regressive and pluridisciplinary approach, the aim of THISTLE programme is to examine the centuries-old relations between local people and forests. | |
| This dual approach has brought to light the virtual absence of local memory relating to forest history. Indeed, many inhabitants of this area ignore the ancient existence of ancient forests on the Euganean Hills. Thanks to historical cartography (Austrian land registers 1840) and the study of archaeological charcoal kilns we can attest of the ancientness of the forest, from the end of the 13th century. In addition, the comparison between archaeobotanical data (studies of charcoal) and current botanical inventories reinforce this hypothesis. Indeed, only the maintenance of these spaces in the forest allows the conservation of its large botanical biodiversity. | |
| The THISTLE project, which was carried out in close collaboration with the Park has highlighted the presence of ancient forests hitherto unknown. One of the main points of this project is to raise awareness of the strong heritage value of these forests and, thus, to better manage them in the future.","This work is based on a regressive approach, starting from the composition and structure of current forests and going back in time from different documentary collections (historical documents, ancient maps, archaeological and archaeobotanical remains). | |
| The current forest inventory was first drawn up on the basis of regional data and then refined during field surveys. It showed a high level of forest biodiversity in the area of Euganean Hills, with a clear dominance of Robinia and chestnut stands (Fig 1). | |
| The omnipresent Robinia stands in the territory correspond to a very recent history of spontaneous reforestation of old agricultural plots by an exotic taxon for the territory (imported in the 17th century). | |
| The chestnut coppices, located on the slopes of volcanic hills, are ageing and often sick. This type of forestry training bears witness to a much older history (very large strains indicate a coppices management for several generations). | |
| Through a sociological survey, we aim to understand how the population perceives these forests. This study shows a lack of knowledge of local forest history and that the attachment to these forest areas is mainly based on sports activities or other nature-communing activities. | |
| The sociological and ecological results emphasise certain contradictions. The local population speaks of recent forests, but the local biodiversity and forest structure bear witness to a long-standing forest history. | |
| Thanks to historical mapping the extension of the forest massifs has been restored (Fig 1). It has revealed a wide dominance of coppices in 19th century forests. Only two forest areas were managed in high forests to provide timber for the Venetian arsenal. | |
| A forest archaeology approach has also been used in order to complete these data. Walking and LIDAR surveys were carried out on the Monte Venda and Monte della Madonna massifs. Through this approach we identified vestiges witnessing forest presence in the past (charcoal platforms), and attesting to an opening of the environment (for example, agricultural terraces and habitats). Each vestige has been mapped to show whether the study area presented forest continuity. To date nearly 40 platforms of charcoal production have been identified (Fig 2). 10 platforms have been analysed. The six radiocarbon dates received date this charcoal production at least in the 14th century, and bear witness to an activity that continues over time, since some charcoal platforms date back to the 15th, 16th, 17th and 19th centuries. Only the depth horizons have been dated so far. Future analyses will focus on testing whether stratigraphy is still conserved on these remains and whether vegetation dynamics over time can be studied from the same platform (Fig 2). | |
| These studies show a very good correspondence between current and past vegetation. Species identified in anthracological assemblages are still present near the sampling sites (Fig 3). These observations attest to the forest continuity in these areas. However, some charcoal production places show some discrepancies between current and past vegetation (dominance of beech in the past and quasi absent today, evolution of wood diameters).","""This study was carried out in collaboration with the forest managers of the Regional Park and local associations. This approach is fundamental to better manage forest areas in a particularly complex context linked to the fragmentation of forest property. Part of this research has focused on a better understanding of the issues surrounding these forest areas, by proposing a survey not only on forest owners and managers, but also on the local population as a whole and the occasional users of these areas. This analysis, which is still ongoing, highlights some interesting results. The example of the Robinia tree illustrates the complexity of the situation. Indeed, while botanists, ecologists and forest managers consider this taxon as an invasive and endangering type of local biodiversity, on the contrary, a part of the local population appreciates this tree for the quality of its wood and for its aesthetic aspect. | |
| Our work on the history of this forest provides valuable elements for discussion on forest policies to be implemented in the coming years. In addition, the actions initiated in collaboration with the local associations and the inhabitants of the Regional Park seem especially promising to raise awareness of the current forest landscape origin and to care for these areas, which are too often considered as """"natural"""". While making an experimental charcoal kiln in October 2017, the processes of transformation of forest areas by past human activities were explained to more than 150 people. The positive feedback from those in charge of the Park and local associations suggests that these areas should be better taken into account in the territorial policies. The conference led to the end of the THISTLE project and the dissemination of the video made during the experimental charcoal kiln highlighted the importance of a profession which is almost forgotten today, though being crucial in the forest history of the territory. | |
| """,2019-04-01 11:56:02,,656397,THISTLE,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,https://www.facebook.com/profile.php | |
| 2677,242258,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - UNEXPECTED (Uncovering targets for ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells to enhance cell therapies of blood disorders),"While stem cells with high regenerative potential exist in many organs, their clinical use in tissue regeneration has been limited as retrieving and successfully delivering the stem cells poses a great challenge in most tissue types. The inherent ability of intravenously...","While stem cells with high regenerative potential exist in many organs, their clinical use in tissue regeneration has been limited as retrieving and successfully delivering the stem cells poses a great challenge in most tissue types. The inherent ability of intravenously infused hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to seed and engraft their tissue, the bone marrow, is an exception in this regard and forms the basis for a more than four decades long clinical application of bone marrow transplantation (BMT). BMT is a conceptual and elegant example of stem cell therapy, used successfully in life-saving treatment of malignant and inherited hematological disorders. However, a significant proportion of patients who would benefit from BMT cannot receive treatment due to insufficient numbers of stem cells for so called autologous transfers when the patients own cells are used, or a lack of suitable matched donors for so called allogeneic transplantation (where donor cells are required). Umbilical cord blood is (UCB) a very promising stem cell resource, which can be easily and safely harvested from the umbilical cord of newborn babies. Initiatives have been taken all over the world to bank large quantities of cord blood, providing a rich repertoire of donor cells for transplantation. However, the stem cell numbers in UCB harvests are typically too low for efficient transplantation in adult patients. Insufficient stem cell numbers are, therefore, significant constraints in settings of both autologous and allogeneic transplantation. To tackle this problem, intense efforts are being made to find strategies that would enable the expansion and amplification of the stem cells outside the body (i.e. ex vivo), prior to transplantation but to date these efforts have been met with very limited success. Ex vivo stem cell expansion is therefore one of the most desired, yet elusive goals in experimental hematology and transplantation medicine. Successful development of strategies for expansion of HSCs from cord blood samples would implement cord blood as an accessible and sufficient source of HSCs for large numbers of patients with hematological malignancies currently non-eligible for potentially curable allogeneic transplantation therapy. | |
| Our work is focused on understanding the genes and pathways that regulate blood stem cells in order to be able to develop novel strategies for ex vivo stem cell expansion. We are particl´ularly interested in the basic mechanisms that are responsible for the ability of stem cells to self-renew, i.e. to make new copies of themselves. If we were able to mimic the process of stem cell self-renewal that normally takes place in the bone marrow environment, in a culture dish, we should also be able to amplify the number of stem cells prior to transplantation. My research team has developed several new approaches to study hematopoiesis and stem cells from human sources. Rather than studying one gene or one factor at the time we have developed methods that allow the screening of thousands of genes in parallel for their ability to functionally influence the stem cells. This is achieved by specially designed viruses that can enter into the stem cells and deliver molecules (RNAi or CRISPR/Cas9) that specifically silence any given gene. Using these screens, our aim is to identify the most significant regulators that could be relevant to target in order to achieve stem cell expansion.","During the project we have used very large numbers of human HSCs derived from umbilical cord blood we to screen a large fraction of all genes in our genome by applying RNA interference. Among our top-ranked genes (top 0.5%), we found no less than 4 out of 5 components of the so called cohesin protein complex. Our findings implicate a direct role for the cohesin complex in balancing the critical decision of whether a stem cell should self-renew and multiply, or differentiate into mature blood cells (Galeev et al, Cell Reports 2016). Understanding the precise details of how this decision is made may hold the key to successful expansion of HSCs. Another gene, CYTH1, that we recently identified in our screens represents a new molecular target that may be considered in therapeutic strategies to influence the localization of HSCs following transplantation (Rak et al, Blood 2017). | |
| We have further used our new knowledge from the screens to systematically develop better culture conditions for expansion. Indeed, our first screens have identified several highly promising ”druggable” candidates such as the NFkB signaling pathway. We have now found that NFkB inhibition by specific drugs, dramatically enhances the stem cell numbers of cultured cord blood HSCs, compared to our previous “best” culture conditions (submitted).","A major focus in my laboratory is now to further assess these novel findings to develop expansion conditions that will be suitable in clinical settings. We will identify suitable patients and prepare for clinical trials using expanded stem cells with the aim of treating the first patients with expanded stem cells during the next 5 years. In parallel we will extend and further develop our screens using the recently discovered gene editing technology (the CRISPR/Cas9 system) that allows for precise silencing or activation of genes. In this manner we hope to identify other, and more potent stem cell regulators.",2019-04-02 11:14:52,,648894,UNEXPECTED,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-CoG-2014,http://www.lu.se | |
| 7637,231013,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TERRE (Training Engineers and Researchers to Rethink geotechnical Engineering for a low carbon future),The construction sector is one of the main sectors responsible for carbon emissions and accounts for 10% of the carbon footprint globally. This sector will play an important role in the EU's long term objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% by 2050. Energy and...,"The construction sector is one of the main sectors responsible for carbon emissions and accounts for 10% of the carbon footprint globally. This sector will play an important role in the EU's long term objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% by 2050. Energy and environmental issues are increasingly becoming key factors in market competition. As a result, technological innovation aimed at reducing carbon emissions can be viewed as a major strategy to boost competitiveness of the European construction industry, within and outside Europe. This is the rationale behind the project TERRE, which aims to train a new generation of engineers and scientists in carbon efficient design of civil infrastructure. | |
| TERRE targets the geotechnical construction industry, a major component of the overall construction sector, which is strategically important in infrastructure development (transportation, flood and landslide protection, building foundations, waste disposal). This project explores novel design concepts for low-carbon geotechnical infrastructure through 15 PhD projects carried out by ESRs who will be ‘trained through Research’ in low-carbon design. Design concepts include eco-reinforced geomaterials, binders ‘recycled’ from waste, ‘engineered’ vegetated and bare interfaces, shallow geothermal energy, and shallow soil carbon sequestration. | |
| Each individual PhD research project is oriented towards a potential technological application in its later stage by involving industrial full and associated partners. This synergy between industry and academia will ensure that the research remains problem-driven and that the fundamental research has a tangible social, environmental, and economic impact. | |
| TERRE recognises that fundamental concepts concerning greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration and, more generally, sustainable development are often not addressed in higher education in civil engineering. TERRE addresses this knowledge gap by organizing annual Schools, mainly designed for early-stage researchers but expected to be of equal benefit to established researchers and practitioners in the civil engineering field, to help rethink civil engineering design.","The TERRE project is structured in four Work Packages, which address different aspects of low-carbon design in geotechnical engineering. | |
| NOVEL MATERIALS FOR CARBON-EFFICIENT GEOSTRUCTURES | |
| a) Feasibility study to investigate the use of alkaline-activated fly ash as binder for soil stabilisation has been completed successfully. | |
| b) Field scale experiments have been designed to investigate the use of timber sheet pile walls in combination with riparian vegetation to stabilise river and canal banks. | |
| c) Preliminary tests to investigate the feasibility of bio cementation to stabilise earthen construction materials (using biopolymers and enzyme-induced calcite precipitation) have been completed successfully. | |
| DEVISING INTERFACES FOR CARBON-EFFICIENT GEOSTRUCTURES | |
| d) Two field trials in Italy and Spain have been set up to investigate vegetation effects on natural and man-made slopes respectively. In addition, a new techniques to monitor xylem water potential (as an indicator of the efficiency of evapotranspiration in generating suction) has been developed | |
| e) A mock-up scale laboratory experiment has been designed and constructed to investigate the use of engineered soil-atmosphere ‘sandwiched’ physical interfaces to generate suction in the ground. | |
| f) A study has been completed on the role of environmental factors (i.e. temperature and soil moisture) on growth of fungal mycelia (to protect riverbanks and flood embankments from erosion). A tensile test for determining shear characteristics of soils strengthened by fungal mycelia has been developed. | |
| GEOSTRUCTURES FOR ENERGY/CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE | |
| g) Design criteria for shallow geothermal structures have been developed based on the analysis of the case study of a metro tunnel with station with walls and raft are equipped with geothermal pipes. | |
| h) Mock-up scale experiments to investigate different Carbon input in soils (depending on different plant species used in earth embankments) have been developed. Data on the relationship between root dynamics and Carbon stored in different fractions of soil have been obtained. | |
| OPERATIONAL AND DESIGN TOOLS | |
| i) Criteria for Life Cycle analysis to assess economic and environmental impact have been defined for suction-reinforced geo-structures. | |
| j) An optimisation algorithm was developed to be implemented in ultimate limit state design software for minimum energy/carbon.","PROGRESS BEYOND THE STATE OF THE ART | |
| The construction sector has been investing significantly in research to produce innovative low-carbon technologies, including low carbon concrete, low carbon steel, and energy building efficiency. However, there has been little innovation in the geo-infrastructure field, which is lagging behind other sectors of the construction industry. TERRE aims at closing this gap by creating a multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral network to impact the way of thinking of geotechnical engineers. This network is unique in the area of geo-infrastructure and will be complementary to several other networks funded by the European Commission under FP7 on low-carbon infrastructure. | |
| EXPECTED RESULTS UNTIL THE END OF THE PROJECT | |
| - Methods for low-impact stabilisation of geo-materials based on alkaline activation of fly ash (for efficient use of marginal soils) | |
| - Methods for designing bio-based soil reinforcement to stabilise man-made slopes (without the use of concrete or steel) | |
| - Methods for manufacturing bio-based earthen construction materials (stabilised using bio-polymers or enzyme-induced calcite precipitation) | |
| - Methods for stabilising geo-infrastructure using engineered bio-interfaces (including plants and fungal mycelia) | |
| - Criteria to design engineered soil-atmosphere sandwiched interfaces for ‘climate enhanced’ geo-infrastructure | |
| - Criteria for the design of geothermal energy exchanger embedded into conventional shallow geotechnical structures | |
| - Methods for enhancing carbon sequestration and storage by vegetation in new earthfills | |
| - Procedures for carbon footprint assessment of geotechnical construction | |
| - Software for ultimate limit state design of geo-infrastructure incorporating optimisation tool for minimum energy/carbon | |
| POTENTIAL IMPACTS | |
| There is still a gap between research and practice in low-carbon design, particularly in civil engineering. By the end of the project, all recruited researchers will have received excellent training at the interface between Industry and Academia. Collaboration between industrial and academic partners is embedded within the project through the mechanism of ‘Industrial’ PhDs and, for the ESRs involved in ‘Joint-award’ PhDs, through the programme of secondments to industrial partner organisations. It is therefore expected that the ESRs will be able to secure jobs where the interplay between Academia and Industry is the key focus. | |
| TERRE aims to create a permanent school on ‘Low carbon design of geo-infrastructure’, driven by the ESRs recruited by the project. The ESR would be expected to administer the School scientifically and financially with the additional option of delivering CPD courses at individual professional institutions in Europe.",2018-08-29 17:03:22,,675762,TERRE,H2020-EU.1.3.1.,MSCA-ITN-2015-ETN,http://www.terre-etn.com/ | |
| 9403,238574,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ZC (Torsion units of integral group rings),"The problem studied in this project was the so-called Zassenhaus Conjecture. Hans Julius Zassenhaus (1912-1991) made important contributions to algebra. Group rings were introduced in the late 19th century as a tool to study symmetries, matrices and other algebraic objects...","The problem studied in this project was the so-called Zassenhaus Conjecture. Hans Julius Zassenhaus (1912-1991) made important contributions to algebra. Group rings were introduced in the late 19th century as a tool to study symmetries, matrices and other algebraic objects. The group ring RG of a group G over a ring R can be defined as a vector space over R where the base is given by the elements of the group G. This provides an additive structure and the multiplicative structure on RG is given by extending the multiplications on G and R and declaring elements of G and R to commute. | |
| From the middle of the 20th century the group ring became an object of interest in itself. It can be seen as a structure joining in an elegant manner the algebraic theories on rings and group. When R=Z, the ring of integers number theory enters the picture and makes the closest connection to the group base G, since it keeps the arithmetic information which would be lost when one is allowed to divide by some primes. The first to study particularly the unit group of the integral group ring was Graham Higman in his PhD thesis in 1940 who proved that for abelian G the units of finite order in ZG are, up to sign, exactly the elements of the group base G. This gave support to a conjecture that was probably mentioned by the specialist during that years and that was publised formally by Zassenhaus in 1974. This conjecture stated that if G is a finite group then a unit of finite order in ZG should be should be conjugate in the rational group algebra, up to sign, to an element of the group base. This conjecture inspired many research carried out during the following decade and it became one of the central problems in the study of integral group rings. | |
| The impact of mathematics on society is manifold and often comes at a later stage in a very surprising manner. For example the ideal of groups rings now play a role in cryptography, but were originally studied as an object of pure scientific interest. It is hence impossible to predict, as mostly with fundamental research, which could be the consequences and practically useful implementations of this research. | |
| Concretely the objectives of this project were to study the Zassenhaus Conjeture for several new classes of groups, which were more concretely the class of metabelian groups and the projective special linear groups PSL(2,q). Also the project included the study of a weaker version of the Zassenhaus Conjeture, the so-called Prime Graph Question, introduced by Wolfgang Kimmerle in 2006.","We were able to achieve far reaching results regarding the Zassehaus Conjecture and in the end even to give a general negative answer to the conjecture by providing a specific counterexample to it. | |
| In a project in collaboration with Andreas Bächle (VUB, Belgium), Allen Herman and Gurmail Singh (University of Regina, Canada) and Alexander Konovalov (University of St Andrews, UK) we proved the conjecture for groups of order at most 143. We studied the conjecture for metabelian groups using ideas inspired by research of Cliff and Weiss and Hertweck to obtain the exact limits of what was possible using our methods. It then turned out that these limits correspond quite closely to the limits of the validity of the conjecture in this class of groups, as found in the research constituting the counterexample for the Zassenhaus Conjecture in collaboration with Florian Eisele (City University, London, UK). | |
| Regarding non-solvable groups we proved the conjecture for the projective special linear groups PSL(2,p), if p is a Fermat or Mersenne prime. This was done in collaboration with the local PhD student Mariano Serrano who then continued to prove the conjecture for the special linear groups SL(2,p), for any prime p, thus obtaining more mathematical independence. | |
| Regarding the Prime Graph Question it was studied for alternating and symmetric groups in collaboration with Andreas Bächle and Mauricio Caicedo (VUB, Belgium) and Eugenio Giannelli (Technical University, Kaiserslautern, Germany/ University of Cambridge, UK). Moreover it was studied for sporadic simple groups. | |
| In collaboration with Ofir Schnabel (University of Stuttgart, Germany) twisted group rings were investigated and a new line of research was started. | |
| We provide a full list of publications related to the project below. Most of them are still in the process of being peer-reviewed, but they appeared already in an OpenSource repository. | |
| The results of this project were also at various stages presented to specialized audiences at conferences and in seminars. The experienced researcher gave 8 talks, the supervisor and his PhD student 6 talks and other collaborators of the project 7 talks. The project was presented to the general public at two occasions during the European Research Night in Murcia. | |
| - A. Bächle, A. Herman, A. Konovalov, L. Margolis, and G. Singh, The status of the | |
| Zassenhaus conjecture for small groups, Experimental Mathematics (2017), 6 pages, | |
| doi:10.1080/10586458.2017.1306814. | |
| - A. Bächle, W. Kimmerle, and L. Margolis, Algorithmic aspects of units in group | |
| rings, to be published in a proceedings volume of the DFG priorety program 1489, | |
| arxiv.org/abs/1612.06171 (2016), 21 pages. | |
| - A. Bächle and L. Margolis, On the Prime Graph Question for Integral Group Rings of | |
| 4-primary groups II, preprint, arxiv.org/abs/1606.01506 (2016), 17 pages. | |
| - A. Bächle and L. Margolis, On the prime graph question for integral group rings | |
| of 4-primary groups I, Internat. J. Algebra Comput. 27 (2017), no. 6, 731–767. | |
| - F. Eisele and L Margolis, A counterexample to the first zassenhaus conjecture, | |
| http://arxiv.org/abs/1710.08780 (2017), 32 pages. | |
| - L. Margolis, A Theorem of Hertweck on p-adic conjugacy, | |
| http://arxiv.org/abs/1706.02117 (2017), 11 pages. | |
| - L. Margolis and Á. del Río, An algorithm to construct candidates to counterexamples to the Zassenhaus Conjecture | |
| of integral group rings, preprint, arxiv.org/abs/1710.05629 (2017), 21 pages. | |
| - L. Margolis and Á. del Río, Cliff-Weiss inequalities and the Zassenhaus Conjecture, preprint, | |
| arxiv.org/abs/1706.02483 (2017), 21 pages. | |
| - L. Margolis and Á. del Río, Partial augmentations power property: A Zassenhaus Conjecture related problem, | |
| preprint, arxiv.org/abs/1706.04787 (2017), 13 pages. | |
| - L. Margolis, Á. del Río, and M. Serrano, Zassenhaus conjecture on torsion units holds for | |
| PSL(2, p) with p a Fermat or Mersenne prime, preprint, arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1608.05797 (2016), 32 pages. | |
| - L. Margolis and O. Sc","All work mentioned above goes beyond the state of art, mostly because a relevant conjecture that was asked formally in 1974 has been answered negatively. | |
| The conjecture pretended to decide how are the torsion units of an integral group ring. The fact that we now know that the conjecture is false opens new possibilities for the correct answer which should be analyze in future work. | |
| On the other hand the answer suggests ideas to to decide when the conjecture holds. This will give insize on what should be the correct answer to the main question. | |
| By the nature of the project one cannot expect short term socio-economic and societal implications of the project but as it usually happens in mathematics the implications on long term are difficult to predict.",2018-08-02 17:43:02,,705112,ZC,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2015-EF,http://www.igt.uni-stuttgart.de/LstDiffgeo/Margolis/ | |
| 8356,198105,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PerfectDashboard 2.0 (First single platform for efficient and security aware management of CMS based websites),Perfect Dashboard 2.0 addresses the very up-to-date challenge in the domain of cyber security which affects today thousands of websites administrators worldwide – necessity to efficiently introduce updates to popular website engines and extensions to CMS platforms such as...,"Perfect Dashboard 2.0 addresses the very up-to-date challenge in the domain of cyber security which affects today thousands of websites administrators worldwide – necessity to efficiently introduce updates to popular website engines and extensions to CMS platforms such as WordPress and Joomla. It contributes to the cyber security providing a tool to prevent potential attacks on majority of web pages managed with CMS platforms. By doing so, it helps eliminate and minimise significant number of potential acts of cyber exploiting vulnerabilities of majority of web sites.","The conducted technology and market analysis demonstrated the viability of the technology to reach the market. Extensive consultation with representatives of IT industry, freelancers, experts from Berkeley University, and CMS communities influencers confirmed that it truly contributes to the cyber security providing a tool for web administrators to prevent potential attacks on majority of web pages managed with CMS such as Joomla and WordPress. We elaborated Feasibility Study conducting both technological and market related assessment of the planned development identifying necessary steps, resources and risks linked to bringing our solution to the market. Its viability has been also confirmed by the several letters of interest signed by existing and possible customers. We conducted IPR analysis with assistance of external law office, performed analysis of competitive solutions, and identified collaborators for the pilot trials to be performed as continuation of the Phase 1 project within planned Phase 2.","Our solution can increase safety in the Internet by helping web page managers be far more effective in their daily routines primarily focused on updating web pages commonly developed with popular CMS platforms in order to remove identified vulnerabilities and thus prevent or mitigate hackers’ activities. With our application already proven by individual web admins one may not only introduce necessary changes in the code mitigating the risk of a security breach much faster than ever before, but can ensure the final effect does not impact on the web page layout and its contents. Through conducted surveys within Phase 1 we confirmed on specific features highly needed by corporate users in media, technology and entertainment sectors. With our solution, they can ensure their web services are provided in an undisturbed and secure way avoiding potential loss of reputation due to web page being hacked.",2018-08-28 15:16:43,,744397,PerfectDashboard 2.0,H2020-EU.3.7.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-13-2016-2017,https://perfectdashboard.com/ | |
| 10012,193712,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INsPIRE (Chip-scale INtegrated Photonics for the mid-Infra REd),"Mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopy is a nearly universal way to identify chemical and biological substances, as most of the molecules have their vibrational and rotational resonances in the mid-IR wavelength range. Commercially available mid-IR systems are based on bulky and...","Mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopy is a nearly universal way to identify chemical and biological substances, as most of the molecules have their vibrational and rotational resonances in the mid-IR wavelength range. Commercially available mid-IR systems are based on bulky and expensive equipment, while lots of efforts are now devoted to the reduction of their size down to chip-scale dimensions. The demonstration of mid-IR photonic circuits on silicon chips will benefit from reliable and high-volume fabrication to offer high performance, low cost, compact, low weight and power consumption photonic circuits, which is particularly interesting for mid-IR spectroscopic sensing systems that need to be portable and low cost. In this context, the INsPIRE project addresses a new route towards key advances in the development of chip-scale integrated circuits on silicon for the mid-IR wavelength range. The original idea is to combine the wide transparency window of Ge to provide wideband low-losses optical waveguide, with active devices using non-linear effects in Ge-rich SiGe materials. The objectives of the project are far beyond the state of the art, by targeting the monolithic integration of passive and active devices for operation in the 3 to 15 µm wavelength range. As a main cornerstone we will demonstrate an optical photonic circuit relying on a mid-IR light emitter combined with a mid-IR spectrometer and a detector array. The integration will be performed using Ge-rich-SiGe waveguides allowing the extension of the wavelength range up to 15 µm. Such demonstration, which will constitute a breakthrough for establishing chip-scale circuits for the mid-IR photonics, requires a deep knowledge and understanding of Ge/SiGe optical properties. In particular, second- and third-order nonlinear optical properties of Ge/SiGe structures will be investigated in a wide spectral range from 3 to 15 µm.","The first objective of the project was to characterize the loss of Ge-rich SiGe alloys in the mid-IR, as only few data have been reported in the literature regarding the loss of these materials in this wavelength range. As a main achievement we demonstrated low-loss Ge-rich SiGe (with 80% of germanium) waveguides on graded SiGe substrates operating in the mid-infrared wavelength range. Propagation losses as low as (1.5 ± 0.5) dB/cm and (2 ± 0.5) dB/cm were first measured at λ = 4.6 µm for the quasi-TE and quasi–TM polarizations, respectively [1]. A flat propagation loss characteristic of (2±1) dB/cm was then demonstrated over a wavelength span from λ = 5.5 µm to 8.5 µm [2]. Broadband mid-IR Mach–Zehnder interferometers were then demonstrating, working from 5.5 to 8.5 µm wavelength (the wavelength range is only limited by the characterization set-up)[3]. It has been shown that the wideband operation originates from the refractive index gradient in the structures, which is a key advantage of the platform developed with INsPIRE project. | |
| As a second objective, we explored non-linear (NL) effects in Ge-rich SiGe materials, as no experimental values were reported on SiGe alloys at the beginning of the project. The first 3rd order NL experimental characterization of Ge-rich Si1-xGex waveguides has thus been performed, with Ge concentrations x ranging from 0.7 to 0.9. The characterization performed using a bi-directional top hat D-Scan method, at 1580 nm has been used to model NL properties of Ge-rich SiGe materials in the mid-IR. [4] A strong increase of the non-linear refractive index when the Ge concentration is larger than 80% is thus obtained, confirming the opportunity of using Ge-rich SiGe materials for efficient non-linear devices. To exploit the this NL effects for efficient devices such as broadband supercontinuum, the waveguide design has then been optimized to obtain simultaneously a good mode overlap with the Ge-rich region and a broadband flat anomalous dispersion over a wide wavelength range from λ = 3 µm to 8 µm. From these results it has been possible to estimate the NL parameter (γeff) of such waveguides, suggesting a promising performance for broadband supercontinuum generation [5]. | |
| [1] J.M. Ramirez et al, Optics Letters 42 (1) 105 (2017). | |
| [2] J.M. Ramirez, et al, Under submission | |
| [3] V. Vakarin, et al, Optics Letters Vol. 42 n°17, 3482-3485 (2017) | |
| [4]S. Serna, et al Scientific report, 7, 14692 (2017) | |
| [5] J.M. Ramirez, Optics Express 25 (6) 6561 (2017).","Mid-IR spectroscopy is a nearly universal way to identify chemical and biological substances. In the so-called “fingerprint” region, most molecules have their vibrational and rotational resonances. Mid-IR spectroscopy thus provides powerful informations for performing non-intrusive diagnostics of composite systems. The mid-IR region also contains two important windows (3-5µm and 8-13 µm) in which the atmosphere is relatively transparent. These wavelength ranges can be exploited to detect small traces of environmental and toxic vapours in a variety of applications including defense, security and industrial solutions. In this context the INsPIRE project already made key advances, beyond the state of the art for operation from 3 to 15 µm wavelength. In the first period of the project a new and unique mid-IR set-up was created to characterize photonic integrated circuits (PIC), and the first demonstrations of ultra-wideband operation already put forward the potential of the graded Ge-rich SiGe waveguides as fundamental blocks for mid-infrared photonic integrated circuits. The demonstration of broadband mid-IR Mach–Zehnder interferometers paves the way for further realization of complete mid-IR integrated spectrometers. In parallel, the investigation of NL effect, suggesting a promising performance for broadband supercontinuum generation, allow to consider the demonstration of complete mid-IR photonic integrated circuits by the end of the project. Among the key challenges, integrated resonators and sensing part will be the next building blocks to be developed in the coming period. | |
| As a long term perspective, the integration of the mid-IR systems on silicon chips will benefit from high-volume and low-cost fabrication in microelectronic. High performance, low cost, small size, low weight and low power consumption systems are thus expected.",2018-07-19 18:22:25,,639107,INsPIRE,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-StG-2014,http://silicon-photonics.ief.u-psud.fr/ | |
| 6914,220049,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NANOLIPID (Understanding key factors for the use of bioactive lipid nanoparticles to modulate the functionality of complex food systems),The use of lipid nanoparticles as carriers of lipophilic functional compounds is emerging as a promising way to efficiently deliver food ingredients. Recent studies report that the unique properties of loading bioactive compounds within lipid nanoparticles would involve an...,"The use of lipid nanoparticles as carriers of lipophilic functional compounds is emerging as a promising way to efficiently deliver food ingredients. Recent studies report that the unique properties of loading bioactive compounds within lipid nanoparticles would involve an enhancement of their functional properties after digestion due to their small particle size, increasing their nutritional value in the human gut. However, the incorporation of active nanosized ingredients in foods remains a challenge for the food sector. Lipid nanoparticles may interact with the food matrix components causing destabilization phenomena or binding, which in turn might decrease their biological activity. Moreover, food processing operations used after the incorporation of the active lipid nanoparticles may have an impact on their properties. In this context, NANOLIPID, aims to contribute to the design, characterization and application of active lipid nanoparticles into real food systems towards a more rational and optimal use of food ingredients. For that purpose, the major goal of the current proposal is to obtain stable lipid nanoparticles loaded with carotenoids, incorporate them in complex food systems and assess their digestibility and nutritional value under simulated digestion conditions. Thus, NANOLIPID aims at identifying the key aspects for lipid nanoparticle formulation and at elucidating the interaction between nanoparticles and food matrix components that may compromise their fate during digestion. NANOLIPID is a multidisciplinary project covering the formulation of lipid nanoparticles and use of state of the art techniques for nanomaterial characterization, food processing, and analysis of simulated digestion protocols.","During the realization of the project, the main key aspects for the production and stabilization of lipid nanoparticles loaded with carotenoids were systematically studied, being the particle size, surfactant type and concentration, lipid state (solid or liquid) and oil saturation degree. The implications of the formulation characteristics of lipid nanoparticles on the lipid digestion rate and extent (kinetics) and the subsequent formation of lipid digestion products was studied under simulated digestive conditions. Overall, the oil droplet size and surfactant type were found as the most determining factors affecting lipid digestion rate during the simulation of small intestine conditions. The smaller the particle size the faster the lipid digestion due to a higher surface active area for lipid digestion enzymes to adsorb. Moreover, the surfactant type determined the emulsion stability during digestion conditions. In this regard, stable small oil droplets after simulated gastric conditions were obtained by small-molecule non-ionic surfactants, and those were more efficiently digested during intestinal conditions. | |
| Moreover, as a second phase of the project, the interactions between lipid nanoparticles and food components from vegetable origin, mainly pectin, were evaluated and their implications on the lipid digestibility were studied. It was observed that pectin from carrot or broccoli purées did not significantly affect lipid digestion. Also when emulsions were produced within vegetable purées, lipid digestion kinetics was not significantly affected in comparison to their respective model emulsion systems. However, a lower incorporation of lipid digestion products into mixed micelles was observed in emulsions formed within complex food matrices, which suggests that interaction between food components and lipid digestion products occurred. | |
| Ultimately, it was consistently observed along the realization of the present project that there is a direct relationship between the lipolysis degree, micelle formation and the carotenoid bioaccessibility. It was identified that emulsion digestion kinetics is the rate limiting step for both releasing the carotenoids from the oil core and generating lipid digestion species that will contribute to increase the solubilisation capacity of mixed micelles. These two processes are crucial in the carotenoid bioaccessibility kinetics under intestinal conditions and are determined by emulsion characteristics and the presence of other food components.","NANOLIPID contributed in elucidating the key aspects that determine lipolysis rate and extent during digestion of lipid nanoparticles that can act as carriers of lipophilic bioactive compounds, such as carotenoids. Moreover, the relationship between lipid digestion, micelle formation and carotenoid micellarization was unraveled. The effect of lipid droplets-food matrix interactions with special focus of plant-origin biopolymers and its implications on lipolysis kinetics has been explained. This will contribute to consumers’ awareness of the potential nutritional value of formulated food products from plant origin, but also to increase the information available for food producers in order to develop foods with optimal digestibility and functionality.",2018-09-24 16:27:15,,654924,NANOLIPID,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,https://www.biw.kuleuven.be/m2s/clmt/lmt/research/fellowships/archive/mc_laura | |
| 10095,198095,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CROPTI (The disruptive management software that turns agricultural traceability information into actionablebusiness data),"EU has a common legislative framework (CAP) regulating agriculture practices, subsidies & food safety standards (including traceability) across all member states. These obligations are the most demanding in the world, driven by European citizen’s awareness of the global...","EU has a common legislative framework (CAP) regulating agriculture practices, subsidies & food safety standards (including traceability) across all member states. These obligations are the most demanding in the world, driven by European citizen’s awareness of the global impact on environment of agriculture and the need for safer products. As a consequence, this framework imposes the obligation to carry out a very extensive and detailed registry of all activities (field notebooks) performed by farmers within the scope of their operations (e.g. purchase of fertilizers, date of sow & harvest, obtained output etc.). Nevertheless, up to 50% of farmers admit to using paper notebooks or non-standardized Excel files, while the remaining does not even keep such records. Additionally, professionals that fulfil their field notebooks are not able to turn this vast accumulation of data into actionable information, as formularies required by public administrations are intended solely at ensuring compliance with CAP defined practices (e.g. allowed pesticides, maximum nitrate levels, etc.) and traditional methods of farming are still prevalent in most EU regions. | |
| Cropti has developed a revolutionary product, based on its own methodology and capabilities, to efficiently gather, manage and process traceability data. Through its web application, Cropti supports farmers and agricultural advisors in efficiently carrying out the field notebook, while using this data to generate business intelligence. This, support farmers and their advisors in three ways. Firstly, it saves time in fulfilling paperwork, secondly it turns this data into actionable information by providing a multiplatform dashboard which covers all KPIs of farming (expected profitability, detailed cost per activity, local efficiency benchmarks, etc.), and thirdly it provides a channel for communication of the different stakeholders surrounding a farming operation (owners, management team, operators, suppliers, etc.)","During the Grant Agreement period Cropti has been able to carry out and draw conclusions from the following three main actions: market study and research on different target countries, thus allowing Cropti to focus and optimize its resources; develop and attempt diverse marketing actions, which generate vital internal knowledge about market channels; pursue partnerships with key players to improve Cropti’s position in the market. | |
| All of the above, tied to robust customer feedback that Cropti gathered, has allowed for the initial product (the Field Notebook) to evolve into a full management system with distinct functionalities such as remote sensing imagery. This, together with a cost-accounting module, geographic information system (GIS) features and sensor input will provide for a stronger value proposition in the market. On a financial highlight, Cropti has managed to close its biggest contracts up to date with big corporations and is currently working towards the closing of a financing round.","Thanks to the learnings and key takeaways obtained during the period, as well as an assembled team, initial investor demand and early commercial traction, Cropti’s market viability is ensured for the coming years. This will allow for further innovation on the agricultural field, as the market keeps demanding for digitization solutions and for higher operational efficiency.",2018-04-13 12:30:39,,735687,CROPTI,H2020-EU.3.2.4.;H2020-EU.3.2.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.3.2.2.,SMEInst-07-2016-2017,https://cropti.com/ | |
| 1020,263737,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TopoCold (Manipulation of topological phases with cold atoms),"Topological states of matter constitute one of the hottest disciplines in quantum physics, demonstrating a remarkable fusion between elegant mathematical theories and technological applications. However, solid-state experiments only provide a limited set of physical systems...","Topological states of matter constitute one of the hottest disciplines in quantum physics, demonstrating a remarkable fusion between elegant mathematical theories and technological applications. However, solid-state experiments only provide a limited set of physical systems and probes that can reveal non-trivial topological order. It is thus appealing to seek for alternative setups exhibiting topological properties. Cold atoms in optical lattices constitute an instructive and complementary toolbox, being extremely versatile, clean and controllable. In fact, cold-atom theorists and experimentalists have recently developed new tools providing the building blocks for the exploitation of topological atomic gases. | |
| TopoCold will propose realistic optical-lattice setups hosting novel topologically-ordered phases, based on those technologies that are currently developed in cold-atom experiments. The central goal of the project consists in identifying unambiguous manifestations of topological properties that are specific to the cold-atom framework. We will establish concrete methods to experimentally visualize these signatures, elaborating efficient schemes to detect the unique features of topological phases using available manipulation and imaging techniques. This central part of the TopoCold project will deepen our understanding of topological phenomena and guide ongoing experiments. We also plan to elaborate simple protocols to exploit topological excitations, based on the great controllability of atom-light coupling methods. Moreover, by tailoring the geometry and laser-coupling of optical-lattice setups, we will explore topological systems that are not accessible in solid-state devices. Finally, we will study the properties of topological phases that arise in the strongly-correlated regime of atomic gases. TopoCold will build a bridge between several communities, deepening our knowledge of topological phases from an original and interdisciplinary perspective.","The general objectives of the TopoCold project can be listed as follows: | |
| (A) Realization of topological properties in quantum-engineered systems (cold-atoms and photonics); | |
| (B) Identification of novel topological phenomena and probes in ultracold atoms; | |
| (C) Study the possibility of manipulating topological excitations in ultracold topological matter; | |
| (D) Exploration of the classification of topological matter and higher-dimensional states; | |
| (E) Stabilization and characterization of topological systems in the presence of interactions. | |
| The works performed so far, which have all contributed to one or several of these topics, are indicated below: | |
| (1) Analysis of instabilities in ultracold periodically-driven (Floquet-engineered) bosonic matter [Objectives A and E]: | |
| - Parametric Instability Rates in Periodically-Driven Band Systems, | |
| S. Lellouch, M. Bukov, E. Demler and N. Goldman, | |
| Phys. Rev. X 7, 021015 (2017) | |
| - Parametric Instabilities in Resonantly-Driven Bose-Einstein Condensates, | |
| S. Lellouch and N. Goldman, | |
| Quantum Sci. Technol. 3 024011 (2018) | |
| - Parametric instabilities of interacting bosons in periodically-driven 1D optical lattices, | |
| J. Näger, K. Wintersperger, M. Bukov, S. Lellouch, E. Demler, U. Schneider, I. Bloch, N. Goldman and M. Aidelsburger, | |
| arXiv:1808.07462 (2018) | |
| | |
| - Parametric instabilities in a 2D periodically-driven bosonic system: Beyond the weakly-interacting regime, | |
| T. Boulier, J. Maslek, M. Bukov, C. Bracamontes, E. Magnan, S. Lellouch, E. Demler, N. Goldman and J. V. Porto, | |
| arXiv:1808.07637 (2018) | |
| (2) Artificial gauge fields and topology in periodically-driven photonic lattices [Objective A]: | |
| - Experimental observation of anomalous topological edge modes in a slowly-driven photonic lattice, | |
| S. Mukherjee, A. Spracklen, M. Valiente, E. Andersson, P. Ohberg, N. Goldman and R. R. Thomson, | |
| Nature Communications 8,13918 (2017) | |
| - Experimental observation of Aharonov-Bohm cages in photonic lattices, | |
| S. Mukherjee, M. Di Liberto, P. Öhberg, R. R. Thomson, and N. Goldman, | |
| Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 075502 (2018) | |
| - State-recycling and time-resolved imaging in topological photonic lattices, | |
| S. Mukherjee, H. K. Chandrasekharan, P. Ohberg, N. Goldman and R. R. Thomson, | |
| arXiv:1712.08145 (2018); to appear in Nature Communications | |
| (3) Analysis of adiabatic loading into Floquet bands in view of probing topological transport properties [Objectives A and B]: | |
| - Loading Ultracold Gases in Topological Floquet Bands: Current and Center-of-Mass Responses, | |
| A. Dauphin, D.-T. Tran, M. Lewenstein and N. Goldman, | |
| 2D Materials 4, 024010 (2017) | |
| (4) Novel methods for probing the geometry and topology of many-body quantum systems based on excitation-rate measurements (including experimental validation) [Objective B]: | |
| - Probing topology by “heating”: Quantized circular dichroism in ultracold atoms, | |
| D. T. Tran, A. Dauphin, A. G. Grushin, P. Zoller and N. Goldman, | |
| Science Advances 3, e1701207 (2017) | |
| - Extracting the quantum metric tensor through periodic driving, | |
| T. Ozawa and N. Goldman, | |
| Phys. Rev. B 97, 201117(R) (2018) | |
| - Quantized Rabi Oscillations and Circular Dichroism in Quantum Hall Systems, | |
| D. T. Tran, N. R. Cooper, and N. Goldman, | |
| Phys. Rev. A 97, 061602(R) (2018) | |
| - Measuring quantized circular dichroism in ultracold topological matter, | |
| L. Asteria, D. T. Tran, T. Ozawa, M. Tarnowski, B. S. Rem, N. Fläschner, K. Sengstock, N. Goldman and C. Weitenberg, arXiv:1805.11077 (2018) | |
| (5) Study of quench dynamics in strongly-interacting topological matter [Objectives B and C] | |
| - Quenched dynamics and spin-charge separation in an interacting topological lattice, | |
| L. Barbiero, L. Santos, and N. Goldman, | |
| Phys. Rev. B 97, 201115(R) (2018) | |
| (6) Study of artificial gauge fields in 3D (Weyl) semimetals, in view of optical-lattice implementations [Objectives A and D]: | |
| - Tunable axial gauge fields in engineered Weyl semimetals: Semiclassical analysis and optical lattice implementations, | |
| S. Roy, M. Kolodrubetz, N. Goldman and A. G.","The aim of the project is to identify novel manifestations of topology in condensed-matter and quantum-engineered quantum matter. The results obtained so far have already demonstrated novel schemes by which topological matter can be realized and probed. Until the end of the project, we expect to validate a series of theoretical predictions, but also, to further deepen our understanding of (interacting) topological systems based on quantum-engineered systems.",2019-04-21 10:11:02,,716908,TopoCold,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-2016-STG,https://www.nathan-goldman-physics.com | |
| 8664,190359,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MastCloud (Cost-efficient, 35 seconds, comprehensive mastitis management system for dairy farmers and veterinarians)","MastCloud provides real-time Animal Health and Milk Quality data on a Cloud-based analysis and sharing platform for mastitis control for Dairy Farmers, Veterinarians and other players in the dairy supply chain. On dairy farms, mastitis or udder inflammation often is the most...","MastCloud provides real-time Animal Health and Milk Quality data on a Cloud-based analysis and sharing platform for mastitis control for Dairy Farmers, Veterinarians and other players in the dairy supply chain. On dairy farms, mastitis or udder inflammation often is the most common disease and the major reason for antibiotics use. | |
| Bulteh-2000 Ltd. focusses since 19 years on milk analysis via its range of popular Ekomilk instruments while its partner AMPI Ltd leads the development of Cloud-based automation solutions. As explained in the business plan elaborated during phase 1, MastCloud can create around 30 full-time positions inside our companies besides around 800 indirect jobs in the dairy eco-system in Europe and similar on other continents. | |
| MastCloud consists of: | |
| • a mini-lab which performs the milk analysis measurement via combining sensor modules. Less than 0.03 euro/test and with a high correlation coefficient as proven during phase 1. | |
| • a Cloud-based solution with data collection module, automated dashboards and remote diagnosis module, combining data from databases, instruments and touchscreen inputs. | |
| • peripherals for automation and integration: an automatic sample feeder, RFID and barcode reader integration for cow and sample vial identification, an external keyboard and a milk weighing scale integration unit. | |
| During phase 1 we defined the 5 relevant market segments and their specific requirements. Based on these segments we developed a product roadmap with 3 main product models. The market potential is actually larger than we initially estimated. We received a dozen Letters of Intent from reliable channel partners with purchasing estimates which clearly exceed our first year sales projections. | |
| Our Business Model is based on own manufacturing and equipment sales via an online platform (eCommerce) and local channel partners. Our company already invested a significant amount to date in MastCloud. With 1.8M€ of financial support in phase 2, MastCloud will reach a high maturity level (TRL8 or 9) in all relevant market segments. Phase 2 will allow our companies to become a market leader in the growing markets of animal health and milk quality management. With a realistic cumulative EBITDA over 4M€ and an ROI easily over 0.5, with the partners and end-users pushing us to get prototypes and the potential to create many jobs in the ecosystem, we have to invest further and take this project to the next level via phase 2.","We assessed the economic viability of the proposed project “Cost-efficient and Effective Tools for Mastitis Monitoring | |
| for Dairy Farms” (around 35 seconds, €0.03/test) including: Market, Organizational and Technological and Ergonomic Feasibility. | |
| We elaborated a business plan including tactics and strategies (operations plans, marketing strategies, | |
| management team and in-depth financial projections) to be implemented later (phase 2) in order to grow the project. | |
| The tasks performed are: | |
| We established the project work group including the | |
| commercial manager of the company, consultants and internal | |
| persons. | |
| In-depth interviews and survey with national or regional labs; | |
| national (or regional, depending on the country) farmer | |
| associations, national (or regional, depending on the country) | |
| vet associations, direct vets or vet cabinet contacts, direct | |
| farmer contacts. | |
| In-depth interviews and collaboration exploration with | |
| experts, consultants, universities and complementary | |
| companies as potential business partners and suppliers. | |
| In-depth collaboration with a design expert to assess | |
| ergonomic aspect of instrument and software. | |
| The intuitiveness and smoothness of the UI has several points to improve, we learnt. In that context we decided to limit the current versions to common tablet sizes instead of small smartphone screens. | |
| The most essential result was to match our product roadmap with the relevant market segments requirements. Many technical lab tests were performed; we observed again that liquids and pumps can behave in counter-intuitive ways. | |
| Tested the preliminary system prototype on more field trials in real work | |
| conditions (midsize dairies). | |
| Performed a feasibility study to assess the economic viability as a | |
| whole. | |
| Finally we elaborated the feasibility report including business | |
| plan.","""MastCoud combines various technologies so that not only somatic cells and mastitis management are possible at €0.03/test. Also milk composition is measured i.e. fat content, protein content, solids, pH, conductivity and certain adulteration can be detected. With the open data collection and collaboration platform in the Cloud, MastCloud and Ekomilk will also facilitate exchange of data in the dairy supply chain, beyond Ekomilk, beyond MastCloud. | |
| Our innovation is relevant for most of the dairy producers: small farms, mid-size and large farms; bovine, ovine, caprine or other; mixed farms or pure dairy farms. Our innovation is crucial and even disruptive for bovine dairy farms, which are confronted with sizeable economic consequences of (sub) clinical mastitis: from reduced milk production and discarded milk to treatment and labour costs and the loss of milk quality bonuses (or penalties) besides clinical mastitis costs. As an example (excerpt, UK figures): | |
| “[…] in recent years there is strong evidence that clinical mastitis has been rising. The rate is currently estimated at between 50 and 70 mastitis cases per 100 cows per year. […]""""The average cost of a clinical case of mastitis is €250 to €400,"""" … """" | |
| http://www.dairyco.org.uk/technical-information/animal-health-welfare/mastitis/recordstools/target-scc-improving-milk-quality/ | |
| That means mastitis costs the average 100 cow herd €14,000 a year for clinical cases alone. There will also be additional losses from sub-clinical effects such as SCC penalties, yield loss and secondary health effects. Mastitis continues to cost the industry millions of pounds each year and creates real animal welfare issues.”5 | |
| “Dairy production losses across Europe are estimated to be € 1.1 billion annually. In the US, mastitis is estimated to cost US dairy farmers US $1.7 billion annually, or approximately US $200 per cow.” | |
| http://www.go2intl.com/mastitis.html | |
| Most studies yield similar conclusions about the costs of mastitis and the potential benefits of proper mastitis prevention and management on EU farms. All this indicates that for a large proportion of farms and other stakeholders there are many avoidable losses. The payback period for our product will be short, ranging from a few months to one year depending on the size of the farm and the mastitis incidence rate. | |
| We can change the way the dairy ecosystem works – toward a more sustainable, profitable and CO2-neutral approach. | |
| In well developed economies, central, often government-dependent milk quality labs play an important role in the dairy eco-system. These stakeholders mostly rely on capital intensive central lab equipment for mastitis detection, which in turn requires regular CO2- and cost-intensive milk sample collection from all farms and cows. Therefore, there is a drive to less frequent analysis in milk quality labs (e.g. in DHI, LKV, controle laitier passing from 4 to 8 weeks between samplings). However this has far reaching consequences for mastitis detection and udder-health. For all these reasons, reliable and cost-effective solutions are needed to compensate by allowing additional cell count measurements outside of the official milk recording. Moreover, our inter-stakeholder collaboration modules will allow bi-directionnal exchange of data with central labs but also with DHI,LKV, controle laitier data bases. Both, central labs and DHI, LKV, controle laitier organisations can become our business partners. Currently dairy cattle breeding companies are setting up collaborator-herds to obtain precise phenotypes of genotyped reference herds. Our instrument can play a major role in selective breeding for mastitis resistence. Therefore also breeding companies can become our business partners, as excellent data recording is required for them, especially in the era of genomic selection.""",2018-08-28 12:17:26,,718730,MastCloud,H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.3.2.,SFS-08-2015-1,http://www.ekomilk.eu/products/ekomilk-horizon | |
| 393,190311,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Do CHANGE (Do Cardiac Health: Advanced New Generation Ecosystem),"Do CHANGE is a research & innovation project with European and Taiwanese partners, co-funded by the European Commission and the Taiwanese Government. It will last from early 2015 to early 2018. The primary objective of Do CHANGE is to develop a health ecosystem for integrated...","Do CHANGE is a research & innovation project with European and Taiwanese partners, co-funded by the European Commission and the Taiwanese Government. It will last from early 2015 to early 2018. The primary objective of Do CHANGE is to develop a health ecosystem for integrated disease management of patients with ischemic heart disease and heart failure. The system will give them access to a set of personalized health services in a near real-time fashion. This disruptive system will incorporate the behaviour change method “Do Something Different”, in conjunction with new innovative wearable/portable tools that will give indications of salt and fluid intake, monitor behaviour and clinical parameters in normal living situations. The total ecosystem will provide guidance to the patients themselves, their families, informal carers, and patient's social environments for disease management. Also, clinical diagnosis by various health care professionals (dietician, psychologist, cardiologist, cardiology nurse practitioner, GP, case manager) will be supported, but only after they have been given authorised access to these data by the patients.","In the second year of the project, the second cycle of the co-design process has been completed. It was focussed on investigating the integration of Do CHANGE in the cardiac patient population via the privacy study, the app study, pre-EDL (Experiential Design Landscape) and the extended-EDL, which will give more insight in how to develop the responsive Do's and what the effects might be. From the patient interviews, different views on the topic of privacy within the health context have been revealed. This raises the challenge of flexibility within the design of a health ecosystem: it should be adoptable for different contexts and cultures and provide opportunities for different implementations. | |
| During year 2 the innovative COOKiT sensor was developed based on chemical impedance. In the applied methodology, the sinusoidal signal is generated by the electronics which have been integrated in the COOKiT device. Many experiments were performed to create the analytical models and to test their repeatability, reliability and accuracy. Mid-fidelity prototypes of the FLUiT were included in a study with 40 renal patients. Fundamentals and measurement principles of the method developed for the liquids estimation have not changed in the final high fidelity version. Regarding complete meal scanning the development of the computer vision with the deep learning methodology of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) was introduced for feasibility and affordability in the pilots. At the first stage of the development, manual calibration was used to improve the accuracy and to train the CNN module. A web application and smartphone application have been developed for the uploading and tagging of training data. | |
| A new technical architecture consisting of distributed systems has been defined, with the high-level interfaces between them being specified and developed. The architecture will support the coordination of identity and privacy preferences between the distributed systems, such that information associated with an individual that is distributed between these systems can be shared in accordance with their preferences. The architecture will also support the sharing of pseudonymised information for individual analysis and “big data” analytics. A data model has been developed, based on data encapsulation using HL7 FHIR employing existing data coding schemes where available and a Do CHANGE project specific coding scheme where no suitable scheme exists. A data analytics framework has been set-up, which will be incorporated within the Do CHANGE architecture, processing collated data from the pseudonymised database with the aim of optimising the health outcomes of patients. It integrates relevant clinical data from some data sources, such as electronic health records and clinical notes, and non-clinical data obtained from mobile applications and questionnaires. For generating responsive Do’s the following parameters are calculated: those that reflect participants’ habits and behaviour in regards to their physical activity (Activity), the likelihood of engaging in social interactions (Social Opportunity) and the variety of experiences and activities in their days (Variety). After a baseline assessment, the system evaluates whether todays levels of Activity, Social Connectivity and Variety are above, equal to or below the participant average levels. When any of the parameters drop below baseline for several days, a “Responsive Do” is sent to encourage corrective action by the recipient. | |
| The clinical evaluation has been split in Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials: | |
| - Phase 1, planned to start on November 1, 2016, but effectively started per 15 Jan. 2017, both in Badalona and Tilburg; | |
| - Phase 2, planned to start on 1 May 2017 in Badalona, 1 June in Dalin and Hsinchu, 1 July in Tilburg. | |
| Both phases will continue for 6 months: each patient will get core Do’s during a 3-month period and then 3 months will be used to follow up the possible effects and","A new sensor has been developed to measure NaCl in a substance, based on chemical impedance. In the applied methodology, the sinusoidal signal is generated by the electronics which have been integrated in the COOKiT device. Regarding complete meal scanning the development of the computer vision with the deep learning methodology of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has been developed. | |
| For combining data from different sources and granting acess to these data by the individual, a new technical architecture consisting of distributed systems has been defined, with the high-level interfaces between them being specified and developed. The architecture will support the coordination of identity and privacy preferences between the distributed systems, such that information associated with an individual that is distributed between these systems can be shared in accordance with the preferences of the individual. | |
| The Do CHANGE ecosystem could have considerable impact economically, socially and medically if it can be deployed in part or in full in healthcare. The emphasis on behaviour change, however, is a fundamental element of the ecosystem. There are major human and economic benefits to be had in tackling the behavioural risk factors in disease and the Do CHANGE ecosystem could be used in many other health areas. There seems little doubt that many lives would be saved and healthcare costs reduced by changes in lifestyle of the kind being targeted in Do CHANGE.",2019-04-29 08:13:19,,643735,Do CHANGE,H2020-EU.3.1.4.,PHC-26-2014,http://www.do-change.eu | |
| 9646,186387,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FASTPRK-2 (Enhanced on-street parking management system),"Smart on-street parking systems enhance current regulated parking spots with occupancy sensors that permit to provide additional features and services reducing CO2 emissions thanks to the reduction of traffic in cities, while improving user experience and parking area...","Smart on-street parking systems enhance current regulated parking spots with occupancy sensors that permit to provide additional features and services reducing CO2 emissions thanks to the reduction of traffic in cities, while improving user experience and parking area management. However, current commercial solutions achieve these benefits in a limited way, and in most of the cases are far from attractive for the decision makers and local authorities who are demanding reliable solutions for traffic management (related to parking areas), including fraud control and automatic enforcement, variable pricing and automatic billing, and other added-value services for citizenslike guidance, recommendations or reservations. | |
| The aim of FASTPRK-2 has been to assess the potential market penetration of a new smart on-street parking solutions, by the introduction of certified 100% accuracy occupancy detection systems with advance services for cities and citizens. | |
| Current FastPrk solution (sensors + network + services) is one of the most competitive ones in the market, consisting on a flush or surface mount magneto-resistive device powered with batteries, which communicates occupancy data through a proprietary high range low consumption wireless network to a central management server providing services for assets management, streaming of raw real-time information, business intelligence (multiple dashboards and data processing), network management and Service Level Agreement management. | |
| FASTPRK-2 has explored the extension of current functionalities by improving: | |
| - Sensors: Increase current parking sensors accuracy up to 100%, integrate vehicle/user identification solutions (RFID, Bluetooth, etc.), reduce maintenance costs by 20%, increase product lifespan (currently limited by batteries) and reduce energy consumption by 50%. | |
| - Network: Improve data security and encryption for automatic enforcement and billing. | |
| - Services: Extension of current data processing and Business Intelligence for real-time fraud prevention and automatic enforcement, variable pricing and automatic billing, occupancy forecast and recommendation, parking spot guidance and reservation, enhanced accuracy for occupancy detection (crossed sensors measurements), and user experience (UX). | |
| - System: Improve system robustness, reliability, availability, scalability, compatibility/connectivity, by means of specific system design, selection of components and development of specific tools like self-checking and new APIs (Application Programming Interface), minimize installation by means of design strategies and updated procedures; minimize maintenance costs by means of preventive/predictive maintenance. | |
| In parallel, Worldsensing has validated the technical and economic viability of the new product (FASTPRK-2) by means of a feasibility study, including a business plan for the commercialization of the system.","FastPRK-2 has pursued the improvement of the current commercial version of the product by implementing a full smart on-street parking management system. This feasibility study has been developed with the following objectives in mind: | |
| - Objective 1: Technical study (validation of the new ideas supporting the product improvments). The tangible results have been: | |
| 1) A first version of the new platform to be complemented by innovative tools such as a Decision Support System (DSS) in the next future; | |
| 2) New detection technologies analysed in laboratory and real environment conditions. Detection accuracy of almost 100% achieved; | |
| 3) Energy harvesting solutions successfully tested in laboratory experiments; | |
| 4) By interpreting the historical data owned by Worldsensing a list of key parameters have been identified. They will set-up the basis for defining innovative services on the context of parking management (prediction maintenance, etc.) | |
| - Objective 2: Market study. The tangible results have been: | |
| 1) A market assessment report has been completed for understanding the attractiveness and the dynamics of the IoT sector within the smart city context. This work provides a clear roadmap that FastPrk-2 should follow for attracting customers and involving new end-users; | |
| 2) This first analysis has been enriched with a top-down approach at two levels: an overview of the European market on the transportation sector and a look on the “on-street smart parking” vertical; | |
| 3) Worldsensing has also conducted a market risk and competitors assessment, allowing a detailed SWOT analysis for FastPrk-2 opportunity. | |
| - Objective 3: Economical feasibility study. The tangible results have been: | |
| 1) Identification of new business opportunities in unexplored countries by Worldsensing; | |
| 2) Detailed cost analysis for the complete architecture considering both levels: hardware and related services; | |
| 3)Taking into account the abovementioned points, Worldsensing has assessed the potential project impact with three key indicators: (i) Total Revenues, (ii) Revenues Growth % and (iii) Total staff. Three scenarios have been introduced: low/medium/high-impact.","FastPrk-2 will represent a solution that addresses some H2020 objectives as follows: | |
| 1) Efficiency and Flexibility: step forward in the operational efficiency of transport services (public and private), in terms of: (i) identification of better route alternatives; and (ii) clever organisation and use of available resources. FastPrk-2 will allow collecting real-time information from the parking spots merging it with those data coming from other Worldsensing’s products in a cloud platform to foster interoperability. The proposed solution is scalable with the users’ needs. | |
| 2) Safety: the main factors influencing road injuries are: (i) exposure (total travel time), accident rate (accident risk per unit of exposure), and accident severity (injuries per accident). Given all these factors, FastPrk-2 will offer solutions that reduce exposure and risk of accident. | |
| 3) Sustainability: FastPrk-2 will offer solutions to (i) improve traffic conditions and (ii) guarantee environmental-friendly mobility. | |
| On the other hand and from an economic impact point of view, FastPRK-2 development is a critical milestone to increase Worldsensing value by boosting the impact of this SME in the smart parking market at global level.",2018-07-27 14:23:21,,685196,FASTPRK-2,H2020-EU.3.4.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,IT-1-2015-1,https://www.youtube.com/watch | |
| 5740,247914,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SMEphase1 (Go to market strategy and technology roadmap towards development of a new license product based upon Onomondo's (form. Hello World Mobile) innovative telecommunications software technology),This report is the culmination of the work performed during the first half of 2015 to investigate and identify the feasibility of the market potential for a new product; a license software solution of our roaming elimination solution for operators. The title of this SME...,"This report is the culmination of the work performed during the first half of 2015 to investigate and identify the feasibility of the market potential for a new product; a license software solution of our roaming elimination solution for operators. The title of this SME Instrument Phase 1 project is: | |
| Go to market strategy and technology roadmap towards development of a new license product based upon Hello World Mobile’s innovative telecommunications software technology. | |
| In November 2014 after submission of the project proposal, our company name changed to Onomondo. | |
| Since mid February 2015 Onomondo has performed a long range of tasks in line with the project, and this report will describe the work tasks performed and sum up the findings, and as such functions as a form of overall summary of it all.","Tasks performed (from the project proposal): | |
| a. Initial market identification. | |
| b. Comprehensive market research towards the identified markets. | |
| c. Initial customer identification. | |
| d. Customer surveys for the identified customer groups to identify technology challenges and product needs. | |
| e. Initial technology compatibility investigation of existing network systems. | |
| f. Technology adaptation analysis to prepare technology roadmap. | |
| g. Business plan writing to describe go to market strategy and technology roadmap towards building a license product.","Conclusion (from the report) | |
| At Onomondo we have spent since mid February 2015 investigating the feasibility of bringing a new product to market; an innovative software product aimed at eliminating roaming between MNO networks in order to benefit the MNO themselves as customers. | |
| On the technical side we have managed to overcome most of the challenges, including developing a completely redesigned solution based upon our existing solution, that answers the obstacles we have come across. Although there will still be many challenges on the technical side, the main challenges moving forward with this business proposal towards the MNOs is of a commercial nature. | |
| As we have shown, in order to continue pursuing this vast financial opportunity while keeping our vision of bridging the gap between telephony across markets intact, we most likely will have to reevaluate and rethink models for partnerships, distribution and possibly even customer segments - and of course further funding.",2019-02-14 12:26:01,,652574,SMEphase1,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,ICT-37-2014-1,http://www.onomondo.com | |
| 1311,198347,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AUGGMED (Automated Serious Game Scenario Generator for Mixed Reality Training),"Terrorism remains a real and major threat to human life and critical infrastructure in Europe. Terrorists and perpetrators of organised crime are continually inventing new and unpredictable methods to carry out attacks, which are increasingly unfamiliar to security forces and...","Terrorism remains a real and major threat to human life and critical infrastructure in Europe. Terrorists and perpetrators of organised crime are continually inventing new and unpredictable methods to carry out attacks, which are increasingly unfamiliar to security forces and therefore difficult to predict, prepare and defend against. Currently, security forces are trained using traditional methods such as desktop exercises or live role-play. The latter type of training can be very costly and time-consuming; in addition, it can only offer a limited number of scenarios. Moreover, it is difficult to maintain uniform levels of skill, judgement and preparedness across teams. | |
| The aim of AUGGMED is to develop a serious gaming platform to train law enforcement agencies, first responders and operators of critical infrastructure in their response to terrorist and organised crime attacks. | |
| The AUGGMED platform enables both single ‘player’ and team-based training. It fosters the acquisition of emotional management, analytical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills. The game scenarios include reality-based simulations of operational environments, crowd behaviour and threats (including fire and explosions); it is delivered through a number of different methods including a conventional desktop computer game, immersive VR and Augmented Reality (AR) with multimodal interfaces. | |
| The final AUGGMED platform delivers highly realistic training scenarios and advanced interactivity while encouraging infrastructure security staff and first responders to engage and actively participate in the training process.","AUGGMED has developped a serious gaming platform to train law enforcement agencies, first responders and operators of critical infrastructure, supporting both single ‘player’ and team-based training. The development work was based on the end user requirements collected at the beginning of the project; immersiveness and ease of use were the guiding design principles. | |
| AUGGMED has developed and tested three versions its prototype system: | |
| - A conventional desktop game. This was tested in the first Pilot demonstration by firearms police officers in a number of weapons attacks in a (fictitious) UK airport in 2016. | |
| - An immersive virtual reality version. This was tested in the second Pilot (2017) using in a 3D model of Muntaner train station (Barcelona) and featuring suspicious object and post-explosion triage scenarios, aimed at railway staff and paramedics, respectively; | |
| - An augmented reality version. This version was set in a cruise ship terminal in the Port of Piraeus, and featuring a range of post-explosion and weapons attack scenarios. The Hellenic coast guard participated as end users in the third Pilot (March 2018). | |
| In addition, AUGGMED has developed a haptic/thermal feedback vest which is fully integrated into the VR system and is intended to intensify the sense of realism and immersion for players. | |
| The AUGGMED system was demonstrated at a large number of conferences and workshops, including the Security and Counter Terror Expo (London, 3-4 May 2017). In addition, the project was covered on the BBC's science programme 'Click' in 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlDZWFXtYmU). A number of scientific papers have been written or are in preparation, including detailed technical work on the haptic feedback vest as well as the use of virtual reality environments in first responder training. | |
| Exploitation efforts are ongoing and will continue beyond the end of the project.","There are several 3D simulation tools on the market that can be used for the training of soldiers, police officers or paramedical staff. While they are capable of rendering a convincing illusion of the real world, they all share one feature: complex processes like crowd behaviour or the spreading of fire and smoke are not (or only to a very limited degree) based on realistic, physical models and instead modelled ‘by hand’ to create a mere impression of realism. For a tool that is meant to prepare first responders for real-life disasters, this is a serious short-coming as their training is reliant not upon hard evidence but ultimately on an artist’s view of reality. AUGGMED addresses this issue by linking a 3D games engine to a state-of-the-art evacuation modelling tool (EXODUS), which in turn is using powerful fire simulation software (SMARTFIRE) to realistically model the evolution of a disaster scenario. Likewise, the effects of explosions (in particular the number of casualties, their spatial distribution and the severity of their injuries) is based on the best available evidence, thus providing users with the confidence that the rendered scenarios are as close to reality as is currently possible. To the best of the consortium's knowledge, no other currently available training system provides this functionality. | |
| Moreover, the AUGGMED serious game allows players to directly interact with crowd agents via hand gestures or spoken commands, thus allowing them to take control of a situation in a way that closely resembles a real-life scenario. In particular, players can interact with other players which enhances team work and/or collaboration with members of other organisations. The immersion of players into this type of realistically simulated environment will allow them to train their decision making skills and to experience (to a certain degree) emotional reactions that are inextricably linked to crisis scenarios. | |
| In addition, AUGGMED makes use of a range of external devices (like VR headsets and thermal/haptic feedback vests) to enhance the experience of immersion for the players. | |
| The AUGGMED serious game was developed in three stages: the first mode provides basic VR (in the form of a conventional desktop computer game), whereas the second and third mode add head-mounted devices and haptic vests to provide a fully immersive VR and/or AR environment. | |
| Each of the three prototypes was tested in a Pilot demonstrator which included a wide range of potential end users: police firearms officers, railway staff, paramedics, coast guard and port police. The feedback received from the end users was very positive; participants in the pilots appreciated the realism of the simulation and considered the AUGGMED system to be a useful potential addition to their training regime. | |
| Moreover, the AUGGMED consortium has undertaken a study comparing the effects of consolidation training in VR or in live role-plays. This study included 80 trainee police officers who acted out a number of suspicious object scenarios (either in VR or in a live role-play or a combination of the two). The analysis of the results is ongoing and will continue past the end of the project; the aim is to quantify the effects of consolidation training in VR and to investigate to which degree this approach can be a viable alternative to live role-play in first responder training.",2019-04-18 22:15:09,,653590,AUGGMED,H2020-EU.3.7.,FCT-07-2014,http://www.auggmed-project.eu/ | |
| 5085,247510,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LNGCOLD (Improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions by utilization of ultra-cold energy from the regasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG)),"Cost-efficient and environment friendly provision of cold for industry, food handling, shipbuilding, and LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) fuelled trucks is a rapidly growing market opportunity. Electrical refrigeration and air-conditioning consume almost 25% of the electrical...","Cost-efficient and environment friendly provision of cold for industry, food handling, shipbuilding, and LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) fuelled trucks is a rapidly growing market opportunity. Electrical refrigeration and air-conditioning consume almost 25% of the electrical energy in Europe, a tremendous saving potential and attractive business opportunity for new technologies. Eco ice Kälte GmbH develops technologies to exploit this attractive market potential, to generate significant growth and with this contribute to achieving the climate targets. One very promising approach results from the globally rising use of LNG as energy source, since a huge cold capacity at -162°C is stored in LNG, which is hitherto completely wasted during the regasification by heat exchange with ambient air or sea water at port terminals and LNG end user’s sites, respectively. Eco ice has developed and patented an innovative technology (TRL6) in various output classes to recover this highly valuable cold capacity without additional electrical power or gas consumption and provide it very cost-efficiently to the market. | |
| The Eco ice technology has the potential, without any self-consumption of natural gas, to create electrical power savings of 5.000 MW, i.e. to replace the fossil fuels for several large power stations. The cold market is increasingly looking for such cost-efficient and eco-friendly alternatives, as confirmed by customer feedback. Even in a conservative business scenario, which assumes a technology conversion rate of only 5%, a profitable short term growth up to a high two digit million € revenue value can be expected, as confirmed by ongoing negotiations with potential launching customers and business partners. The feasibility study did result in completing the market study, concretising the business plan and developing an optimised business model and sales plan based on already initiated business partnerships.","A feasibility study has been implemented on technical and primarily economic aspects. Relevant IP and market data has been analysed. The aim to get detailed customer feedback on the existing prototype has been achieved. Novel fields of application have been identified. The market analysis, which has been implemented, confirms the USPs claimed against the competitors and the growing market potential of LNG cold recovery on a global scale. | |
| In the feasibility study the following topics are covered: | |
| • Innovative Technology | |
| • Market environment, possibilities of application and market potentials | |
| • Relevant trends, drivers and opportunities | |
| • Fields of application of the overall system | |
| • Market potential, characteristics of selected geographical targets | |
| • Competition analysis and patent research | |
| • Market entry strategy | |
| • New business areas for international scaling of the LNG cold recovery technology | |
| • Sales activities | |
| • Sales targets, cost development, investments | |
| As main result it can be stated that the commercialisation of the innovation project of Eco ice Kälte GmbH is feasible.","The project will have a positive impact on the market position of Eco ice Kälte GmbH. Through the envisaged commercialisation a new technological solution with improved product features can be offered to existing and new customers. The topic of energy efficiency and reduction of carbon emissions in the field of cold and deep cold recovery from LNG ensures a USP to the company due to its importance in many different fields of application. In doing so Eco ice is able to enlarge its customer base additionally and contributes to a significant increase in sales, further growth of the company and to securing and creation of jobs in the region of Leipzig and worldwide. Hence, this provides the opportunity to not only respond to market developments but to shape the market by own capacity. The innovation leads to securing and expanding of the market position gained so far as well as further market shares. In addition competitiveness and the significance of the innovative capacity will be strengthened in the company. | |
| The commercialisation of the future technology for LNG cold recovery will not only extend business divisions at Eco ice but also exploit the full potential of innovation management and new product demonstration in the field of highly efficient refrigeration technology within the company and in the region as well.",2019-02-21 14:10:54,,808814,LNGCOLD,H2020-EU.3.3.;H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-09-2016-2017,http://www.eco-ice.net/en/ | |
| 5504,251233,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PROZE (Using a protein approach with Waddlia chondrophila and zebrafish as model organisms to conquer the female tubal factor subfertility market),"Worldwide 10-15% of couples are struggling to conceive, and approximately 25% of women will experience at least one miscarriage during their life. Early pregnancy loss and infertility are of a large emotional burden for the women and their partners, and diagnostic work-up and...","Worldwide 10-15% of couples are struggling to conceive, and approximately 25% of women will experience at least one miscarriage during their life. Early pregnancy loss and infertility are of a large emotional burden for the women and their partners, and diagnostic work-up and treatment requires hospital facilities and financial resources from the society. | |
| Intracellular bacteria, such as Chlamydia trachomatis, may cause infection of the upper genital tract, leading to tubal pathology and infertility. Recently, several studies identified Waddlia chondrophila, an zoonotic emerging intracellular bacterium belonging to the order of Chlamydiales, to be associated with adverse pregnancy outcome and infertility problems such as tubal factor infertility. | |
| At the moment, the diagnostics of W. chondrophila is performed by PCR, microimmunofluorescence (MIF) and an ELISA based on Waddlia whole outer membrane proteins. The PCR only detects an ongoing active infection as bacterial DNA still needs to be present in the samples. The MIF is time consuming and requires assessment of 2 independent reviewers. The whole outer membrane protein ELISA needs calibration prior each run and preparation of the outer membrane proteins is very time consuming and leads to differences in batch production. In conclusion, there is a need for an easy-to-use diagnostic serology test for W. chondrophila. | |
| The aim of TubaScan is to develop an easy-to-use diagnostic test to measure antibodies against W. chondrophila in human serum. The ELISA will be based on W. chondrophila specific peptides, which makes the production easier and results in less cross reaction with other Chlamydiales.","The one-year PROZE project consisted of four different aims, which are described below. | |
| 1. Waddlia chondrophila culture and protein techniques. | |
| At the start of the project the protocols and techniques to culture W. chondrophila were not present at TubaScan. During the PROZE project, we successfully set-up the W. chondrophila culture, this includes the culturing of Acanthamoeba castellanii in which W. chondrophila grows. Stocks of amoeba and W. chondrophila are stored for future usage and protocols are available within TubaScan. | |
| 2. Peptide selection | |
| The selection of the peptides started with the usage of a database from our collaborator in Lausanne (Switzerland). This database contains the genomes of 77 Chlamydiales and it is possible to compare these genes and find similarities and differences. In addition, the results from a paper by dr. Julia Lienard were used as well, as she determined among others which outer membrane protein were able to react with human sera (including W. chondrophila positive serum). The combination of these two sources led to the selection of six promising proteins. | |
| Those six proteins were ran through BLASTp. BLAST is an online program that compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and calculates the statistical significance of matches. After this step, two proteins were excluded because they showed more homology with related Chlamydiales. At TubaScan, we do not have the expertise to identify the peptides which are most immunogenic, therefore we send the sequence of the four proteins of interest to GenScript who provided us with the immunogenic regions of each protein. Again, we used Blastp to select the most promising peptide regions, which led to the final selection of 12 peptides. These 12 peptides were produced by GenScript with a purity of >95%. | |
| 3. Sensitivity and specificity of the outer membrane ELISA versus the peptide ELISA | |
| After the selection and production of the peptides, we used them to develop the peptide ELISA. The peptides were used in different combinations to coat the ELISA plates. Based on the results obtained from several experiments we concluded that the peptide combination of these four peptides do not influence the results. We did found out that a sample dilution of 1:50 and detection antibody concentration of 1:5000 were optimal. | |
| If we make combinations (max 8 peptides per coating) of all peptides, we can see differences in OD value (the final outcome of the ELISA) between Waddlia negative/ doubtful samples and Waddlia positive serum samples. However, we only observe these differences when we preselect samples with a well-defined status (negative, doubtful or positive). Once we measure a larger batch of samples we do not observe these differences anymore, and we cannot clearly distinguish between the three different groups. | |
| We came across several challenges for the WaddliaSCAN: | |
| a. Better distinguish between negative, doubtful and positive samples | |
| b. Determine cross-reaction with relevant Chlamydiales | |
| c. Validation of peptide ELISA with a second sample cohort | |
| d. Need for a positive control | |
| 4. Zebrafish model and CRISPR/Cas9 | |
| The associate was trained by the zebrafish expert from the MMI at the VUmc in a 2-week zebrafish course. In addition, there is a postdoc in TubaScan with extensive zebrafish experience. She has learned both the Innovative Associate and a junior researcher how to perform infections. All protocols needed to perform zebrafish injections (medium preparation, W. chondrophila preparation, and injections) are prepared and stored in TubaScan’s protocol database. | |
| We decided to use the CRISPR/Cas9 system to make a Toll-like-receptor 2 (TLR2) knock-out. TLR2 is one of the important immune receptors which recognize bacteria. All needed primers, guide RNA and Cas9 protein are ordered and tested using a housekeeping gene. All materials to make the TLR2 knock out zebrafish are present and injections has started in September.","Based on the limited number of people working on W. chondrophila, of which almost all in an academic research only setting, and the questionable clinical relevance and pathogenicity of W. chondrophila we decided that the development of a commercial WaddliaSCAN is not realistic. The costs to develop an official CE-IVD approved diagnostic test, which can be used in both research and diagnostics, are too high in relation to the demand of the market. | |
| Together with our collaborator in Lausanne (Switzerland), we aim to continue to work on the Waddlia peptide ELISA. However, the focus will be to develop the assay for research only. We do feel, that there is a clinical relevance for W. chondrophila, and the possibility to perform more and better research with an new available peptide ELISA would be of great interest. | |
| The W. chondrophila expertise of the associate have led to many new collaborations, and the start and continuation of projects. So far, the PROZE project has led to: | |
| - Improved and stronger collaborations in both the diagnostic, human and veterinary field | |
| - More awareness and knowledge creation on W. chondrophila through presentations at two conferences | |
| - Start of new projects which focus on OneHealth | |
| All of these above points will increase the visibility of W. chondrophila, and it will lead to more research. The results of these new and ongoing projects will lead to more societal implications. Questions can be answered in relation of W. chondrophila and female reproductive health. In addition, our intended research will also provide information for individuals who work in close contact with farm animals and the association with W. chondrophila infection. Lastly, we aim to investigate W. chondrophila in the environment, such as in drinking and well water.",2019-02-18 11:12:26,,739679,PROZE,H2020-EU.2.3.2.2.,INNOSUP-02-2016,https://www.tubascan.eu/ | |
| 10099,198271,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WISH (Wearable Integrated System for Early Detection of Preterm Labour),"Over 15 million babies are born preterm each year, and over 1 million children die each year due to complications of preterm birth (PTB), thus constituting the leading cause of neonatal mortality. In Europe, about 75% of all neonatal deaths and 60% of all infant deaths occur...","Over 15 million babies are born preterm each year, and over 1 million children die each year due to complications of preterm birth (PTB), thus constituting the leading cause of neonatal mortality. In Europe, about 75% of all neonatal deaths and 60% of all infant deaths occur to infants born preterm. Premature babies are also prone to serious long-term illnesses, lifelong disabilities and poor quality of life. PTB causes a great suffering, concern and psychological stress to parents. Preterm birth is therefore a global health problem with significant social and economic impact and within one of the priority areas in the health policies of the EU, as is women and children health. PTB occurs across all countries and income levels and has a significant global economic impact, with an average preterm birth rate in the EU between 6% and 12%. Recent studies suggest that PTB could cost the EU healthcare system up to €30 billion per year. | |
| Bloomlife will reduce this burden by offering a disruptive solution: WISH, a complete, technology-enabled and clinically validated solution to predict and detect labor. WISH is user-friendly and intuitive and integrates seamlessly into any expectant woman’s routine. WISH is composed of Bloomlife’s award-winning patch and wearable sensor, a consumer facing app and a web-based dashboard for the care-giver integrated with software available at healthcare institutions. WISH focuses heavily on the early detection of preterm labor based on physiological indicators and behavioral patterns. WISH uses our advanced signal processing of the sensor’s data, combined with data analytics triggers and cross-checks, to build a real-time comprehensive index score on the probability of labor. This score provides a straightforward measure of the risk of PTB and the most appropriate responses. | |
| As a result of an early and accurate detection of preterm labor, WISH will facilitate preventive actions and timely interventions in pregnancies to reduce the economical and psychological burden of PTB. WISH will be useful for both consumers and healthcare providers and will allow a more efficient prenatal care in EU, provide an essential tool for high-risk pregnancies and reassure and guide all pregnant women.","On the technical front, we studied different methods to investigate key data behavior differences between pregnancy and labor. We first analyzed manually selected contraction data and explored feature differences during contractions between the two conditions. Then, we investigated the possibility to use automatic contraction detection methods through data analytics to isolate contractions and single out feature differences. Finally, we analyzed our previous pilot data over longer periods of time to extract features statistically representative of labor without requiring manual data segmentation or contraction detection. As a result of this process, we isolated several data processing and analysis methods particularly adapted for this purpose and achieved an already outstanding labor prediction accuracy of 87%, while also envisaging further adaptations into our existing sensor prototype to improve the quality and value of the measurements. | |
| On the commercial front, we performed a complete market analysis, including comprehensive market, segment and competitor research, we investigated the current and future trends in the field of consumer health, we perfected our strategy regarding both direct and indirect dissemination and commercialization channels, we prepared for the necessary requirements for commercialization (CE marking, operational agreements with hospitals), we performed a detailed price sensitivity analysis, and perfected our Business Plan, including the identification of potential risks and barriers. | |
| On the regulatory and IPR front, we identified the key aspects regarding current standards and regulations for medical devices and carried out an exhaustive Freedom-to-Operate analysis that concluded with a favorable IP landscape for the future development and commercialization of WISH. | |
| Finally, on the operational front, we carefully planned the necessary Work Plan for the ensuing Phase II project that will allow us to finish the development, testing and certification process to achieve a TRL9 and prepare for large scale commercialization.","Currently, we have already developed a wearable contraction monitoring system, including an advanced version of the sensor and patch, as well as early versions of a WISH mobile app and a WISH cloud-based platform to be used by both expectant women and healthcare professionals. Our prototype is able to measure uterine electrical activity longitudinally, either in a clinical environment or at home, and has already been tested in several clinical pilot studies in hospitals, where it was validated against reference data from Cardiotocography (CTG), which is the reference method for labor monitoring, and against actual delivery dates. As a result of our early pilot studies, our initial labor detection algorithms were already able to predict labor with an accuracy of almost 90%. | |
| According to our estimates, the expected social, economic and clinical impact of WISH term will already be significant on the medium term and allow further clinical research on the long term: | |
| - WISH is designed to reduce global healthcare risks and costs associated to preterm birth. The adoption of WISH by expectant women and the use of its data by healthcare professionals will result in an important shift in gestational age at delivery, thus facilitating reductions of PTB. According to studies by Frost & Sullivan, regular self-monitoring systems during pregnancy could avoid 74% of mother and infant mortalities. | |
| - Through the advanced monitoring app and insightful and entertaining features, we will be able to improve behavior compliance from expectant women, which will also result in a general reduction of pregnancy risks. | |
| - By integrating it as an option for their clients, WISH will provide a competitive advantage to insurance and healthcare companies willing to offer differentiated and innovative technological solutions. | |
| - WISH will also contribute to the well-being of expectant women through the reduction of stress linked to PTB risks. Our pilot studies with WISH prototypes already demonstrate a 15% reduction in labor-related anxiety. | |
| - WISH will position our company as a global reference in the field of prenatal monitoring solutions. WISH will combine the user-friendliness of our current products with outstanding and proven clinical accuracy, thus allowing us to become market first comers and boosting our growth in Europe and abroad.",2018-04-13 15:39:25,,744157,WISH,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-01-2016-2017,https://bloomlife.com/ | |
| 2936,263458,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - scMODULES (Cinematographic story-telling, super-zoom, x-ray, infrared (IR) ultraviolet (UV) gigapixel enriched content and cross-museum digital content licensing platform enhancing EU museums competitiveness)","In recent years, digitisation and improving/enhancing/complementing the visitor experience has become a priority for museums. It is critical for museums to increase attendance and for increasing attendance it is critical to enhance the user experience via technology and...","In recent years, digitisation and improving/enhancing/complementing the visitor experience has become a priority for museums. It is critical for museums to increase attendance and for increasing attendance it is critical to enhance the user experience via technology and bringing the museum to people who may never visit it. Institutions that can better implement the transition to the digital museum experience are going to survive and thrive in the 21st century. | |
| But becoming a digital museum is not similar to only digitise artworks. Becoming a digital museum implies responding to some challenges among which the most critical ones are: | |
| • Enhancing the user experience via technology. | |
| • Connect the physical and the digital, the in-person and the online. | |
| • Bringing the museum to people who may never visit it (Expanding the concept of visitor). | |
| • Cross-museum collaboration: Increasing the collaboration that takes place between museums and turn it into more revenues. | |
| • Focusing on the power of big data analytics to optimize museum operations. | |
| The need for going digital has been already massively assumed by museums; the main problem is that not all the museums can assume necessary investments. It has been perceived that small and medium museums are lagging behind in this digital race. EU needs disruptive and innovative but cost-efficient solutions affordable by small and medium museums to get rid of the idea that only large institutions can implement these innovative activities.","From the technology point of view, during the first period the initial complete beta version of scMODULES has been developed and tested with the alpha testing groups composed by 10 museums. This version includes the following functionalities: | |
| Convert the digital images of their collection into a browsable and “zoomable” format. | |
| Enrich those “browsable” images with multimedia content and interactive narratives. | |
| Publish the result on multiple online mediums (internally called “projects). | |
| Publish a selection of these enriched images on scMarketplace (aka scNetwork). | |
| Create different user profiles. | |
| Analyse data gathered from visitors and users interactions with content (scANALYTICS). | |
| From the market positioning point of view, Madpixel has engaged already 39 museums in the beta testing group and many more are in the negotiation pipeline, meeting the initial objective of creating the first beta testing group with 25 museums. | |
| From the communication point of view, Madpixel has been very active in events attendance, highlighting the following events: Pittsburgh (MCN Conference), México City (El Museo Digital - Conferencia), Aarhus/Sharing is Caring Conference), Copenhagen (SMK app launching), London and Paris (business development)","Thanks to Second Canvas Modules (scMODULES from now on) Madpixel intends to change the way people visit museums while at the same time creates a new and disruptive market for inter-museum cross-licensing digital content. scMODULES allows museums to access a suite of multiple advanced services at a very low cost. Some of the services include: | |
| - Efficient production of enriched gigapixel images out of their artworks including additional information layers such as X-Ray, Infrared and ultraviolet view and attractive capabilities such as SuperZoom (scIMAGES) or cinematographic storytelling throughout the digital object. | |
| - Once this enriched content has been generated by scMODULES the platform allows museums to easily publish, re-use and exploit it. | |
| o Publish it in multi-format multi-device thanks to services such as scAPPs and scMADGAZINE. | |
| o Safely license the content to other museum allowing digital exhibitions (scMARKETPLACE). | |
| - Analyse data gathered from visitors and users interactions with content both during physical and virtual visits to the museum and optimise strategies, routes and other added value services with scANALYTICS. | |
| Therefore, scMODULES is designed to respond clear needs from end users (Museums). scMODULES offers an extremely cost-effective solution to become a “digital museum” and benefit from digital technologies and the new digital channels to reach the visitor and provide them a seamless enhanced experience.",2019-04-01 15:03:50,,778609,scMODULES,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-01-2016-2017,https://www.secondcanvas.net/scmodules/ | |
| 1057,262780,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IN2TRACK (Research into enhanced tracks, switches and structures)",TThe research in In2Track is concentrated in three technical areas:- The thirst area has a focus on switches and crossings. Switches and crossings are one of the components in track that’s cause a lot of disturbances. The component is not only expensive in investments terms...,"TThe research in In2Track is concentrated in three technical areas: | |
| - The thirst area has a focus on switches and crossings. Switches and crossings are one of the components in track that’s cause a lot of disturbances. The component is not only expensive in investments terms it is also expensive in terms of maintenance during its life time. The work is focusing on improve the operational performance for the switches and crossings. The project will deliver new subsystems with enhanced reliability and better availability. The subsystems will also have a better maintainability and include sensor systems for monitoring. Some components will have a self-adjusting capability and have better noise and vibration performance. The whole switches and crossings system and its component will present a better life-cycle cost. | |
| - The second area will focus on the track construction. The track design will be deeply monitored and examined in the project. Innovative solutions will be explored in the form of better products. To come to higher levels of reliability and to have a consider savings of life-cycle cost will the project not only come out with better product but also better processes and procedures. The solutions will be well harmonised with current solutions and regulations. The aim is to deliver medium-term solutions. | |
| - The third area is focusing on bridges and tunnels. New and improved inspection methods will be one out come from this part of the project. New and refined technics for maintain the structures will be a focusing area of the project outcome. To reduce noise and vibrations are also one prioritised part of the project. The project is focusing of reducing the life-time cost for bridges and tunnels one way to do that are to extend the life for the bridges and tunnels. | |
| The project will have a holistic and whole system approach. Which is defined as the system boundaries extending from dynamic wheel-rail interaction through to degradation of the switches and crossings, subsystems, individual components and underlying track foundation. | |
| In2Track addresses each of the areas identified in the H2020-S2RJU-2016-01 call and is fully aligned with Shift2Rail IP3 in its objectives, approach and ambitions addressing early enhancements and innovative opportunities.","The project has now been working for approximately 16 months. We have so far produced the “Quality Assurance Plan” and the “Project Management Plan” on time. The templates and a brochure are also ready. Under 2017 have we had three SC and TMT meetings and a lot of meetings in the different working projects. A conference together with the other on going IP3 projects has been successfully prepared during the period. . The meetings were held in Paris at the UIC premises and about 100 people attended the conference. and the other projects were S-Code with is an open call and In2Smart that’s a member project. | |
| The main project focus is now especially for the SC and TMS to follow the progress of the deliverables. One of the main risks in the whole project is that more or less all deliverables will be in the end of the period. We have established deliverable monitoring procedures and we are following the progress of each deliverable step by step in order to make sure that everything will be ready on time and with a high grade of quality.",Nothing to report for this period.,2019-04-20 21:23:16,,730841,IN2TRACK,H2020-EU.3.4.8.3.,S2R-CFM-IP3-01-2016,http://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip3_n.aspx | |
| 6837,205372,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CitizenLab (CitizenLab),CitizenLab is a cloud-based Software as a Service platform on which citizens co-create their city. The platform facilitates a two-way communication between the city and its citizens by matching the right urban challenges with the right citizens based on their expertise and/or...,"CitizenLab is a cloud-based Software as a Service platform on which citizens co-create their city. The platform facilitates a two-way communication between the city and its citizens by matching the right urban challenges with the right citizens based on their expertise and/or interests. By automatically analysing citizens’ feedback and opinions, the platform helps cities tap into the collective intelligence of citizens, whilst enabling them to reach out to more citizens and saving them resources. | |
| Whilst the facilitation of digital interactions between governments and citizens has been identified as a clear priority at the highest level, today there are very limited digital means to do so, in an easy accessible way. This is reflected in the fact that today, over 78% of citizens reports that current communication channels used by government deemed are deemed unfit. | |
| Consequently, 83% of citizens amongst millennials feeling that municipal governments are not responsive to their citizens' needs, as they cannot easily reach them effectively. City governments are on a tight budget, and need ready- to-use and customizable solutions to bridge this communication gap with their citizens. CitizenLab enables its government to reach out to more and younger citizens, faster, with minimal efforts and at low ‘cost per engaged citizen’. | |
| CitizenLab relates the topic “ODI Scheme” offering its disruptive solution to governmental authorities. The preliminary pilots conducted with its current customers demonstrate that CitizenLab will impact European and | |
| global public authorities and citizens alike, as significant demonstrated traction in only 2 year of operations with 45 deployments in 4 countries, and with high international growth potential as demonstrated by the interest from cities from all across the world.","The feasibility study helped CitizenLab validate the business model and test real world conditions while helping assess prospects for wider deployment and market uptake. In six month’s time, CitizenLab has successfully grown its customer base from 15 cities in Belgium to 45 cities across three European countries. Some of these customers include the Dutch city of The Hague, the Belgian cities of Liège, Mons and Ostend, the Flemish and Waloon Governments, Brussels Region, and the Danish Government. | |
| Next to the commercial validation, CitizenLab used four of its paying cities as test beds for renewed civic engagement. CitizenLab organised a Living Lab research during which it co-created its product by incorporating the feedback from all stakeholders, including citizens, civil servants, and policy-makers. The key findings were that citizens want to engage on an open e-democracy, one on which there is sufficient transparency about the decision-making process, and that is made relevant for the user through personalisation of the interface. City administrators, on the other hand, explained that the processing of citizen feedback is their biggest pain today, as it is a recurring task that takes a significant amount of time.","CitizenLab plans to move beyond the state of the art with an automated workflow to process all citizen input, thereby liberating resources for governments, which are under fierce budget pressure today. Besides, CitizenLab aims to deploy its solution in all North-western European countries in the coming five years, in order to realise its mission to build the digital infrastructure on which local democracies can thrive. By doing so, it will reconnect local governments to their community of citizens and increase citizen engagement by tearing down all barriers for citizens to easily participate in local decision-making processes.",2018-09-25 09:49:18,,763307,CitizenLab,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-01-2016-2017,https://www.citizenlab.co | |
| 4379,204713,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GRACE (Resource Bounded Graph Query Answering),"Graphs are a ubiquitous model to represent objects and their relations, such as social networks, transportation networks, telecommunication networks, the World Wide Web, biological networks, transportation systems, epidemic networks, chemical networks, knowledge bases, and...","Graphs are a ubiquitous model to represent objects and their relations, such as social networks, transportation networks, telecommunication networks, the World Wide Web, biological networks, transportation systems, epidemic networks, chemical networks, knowledge bases, and hidden terrorist networks . The need for querying big graphs is evident in social media marketing, knowledge discovery, route planning, mobile network analysis, computer vision, the study of adolescent drug use, and intelligence analysis for identifying terrorist organizations, among other things. | |
| Querying big graphs has introduced a number of challenges, from fundamental problems to practical techniques. It demands a departure from the traditional query evaluation paradigm. Vital to any systems for querying big graphs are a number of technical questions. What graph patterns should we support to query big graphs? How can we identify associations of entities in real-life graphs? What queries are BD-tractable, i.e., “tractable” on big graphs? What queries are parallel scalable, i.e., guarantee to reduce running time when more resources (processors) are used? How can we make queries BD-tractable? What parallel model should we use to query big graphs? When exact query answers are beyond reach in big graphs under constrained resources, can we compute approximate answers with accuracy guarantees? Is it possible to support all these techniques in a query system? What emerging applications can the system help? Can we extend the techniques to big relations, beyond graph queries? | |
| In response to the challenges, this project aims to extend the conventional query paradigm, establish methodological and algorithmic foundations, and provide effective resource-constrained techniques for efficiently querying big real-life graphs and relations.","The ERC project has been fruitful in the past 30 months. We have (1) made encouraging progress | |
| on all of its 6 work packages (WPs), (2) published 26 papers in international database conferences and | |
| journals, all refereed, including 7 invited papers; (3) received three awards: (a) the Best Paper Award | |
| for SIGMOD 2017, the premier international database systems conference; (b) the Best Demo Award | |
| for VLDB 2017, the leading international all-round database conference; and (c) 2017 ACM SIGMOD | |
| Research Highlight Award; and (4) developed two functional prototype systems as proof of concept; both | |
| systems have been evaluated in industry and have proven effective. | |
| We have made progress on each and every of its six work packages (WPs), summarized as follows | |
| please see detailed report). | |
| 1. WP1: (1) a language for graph pattern queries that supports first-order logic and counting quantifiers [21], | |
| (2) an extension of association rules from relations to graphs [20], (3) dependency languages for specifying | |
| the semantics of graph-structured data, extending classical functional dependencies and keys from relations | |
| for graphs [11, 17, 22]; and (4) an extension of graph functional dependencies [22] by supporting built-in | |
| comparison predicates and linear arithmetic expressions [16], to catch numeric inconsistencies in graph-structured data. | |
| 2. WP2: (1) a theory of bounded evaluation for achieving BD-tractability [1, 3, 4]; (2) two characterizations | |
| of the effectiveness of incremental graph computations [14], to make big graphs small, (3) several | |
| parallel scalable algorithms for big graph analytics [11, 20, 21, 22, 16]; (4) axiom systems and complexity | |
| bounds for analyzing graph dependencies [16, 17]; and (5) parallel algorithms for discovering and | |
| reasoning about graph functional dependencies [13, 15], for optimizing graph queries, among others. | |
| 3. WP3: (1) an effective syntax of relational algebra as a principled approach toward bounded evaluability [1], | |
| (2) techniques for bounded query evaluation using views, for both big relations [3, 4] and | |
| graphs [19], and (3) a new programming model for parallel graph computations [10, 23, 25], and (4) a | |
| new parallel model for querying big graphs [18], which subsumes the state-of-the-art synchronous (e.g., | |
| BSP) and asynchronous parallel models (e.g., ASP) as special cases. | |
| 4. WP4: a new data-driven approximation schema for querying big relations with bounded resources, the | |
| first one that guarantees a deterministic accuracy bound for unpredictable SQL queries [2]. | |
| 5. WP5: (1) GRAPE, a functional prototype system for querying graphs [24] based on the programming | |
| model and parallel model of WP3; and applications of querying big graphs in (2) social media marketing [20, 21], | |
| (3) knowledge base enrichment [11], (4) inconsistency and spam detection [16, 22], and | |
| (5) virtual network mapping [5]. | |
| 6. WP6: (1) BEAS, a functional prototype system for querying big relations [6, 7] based on the bounded | |
| evaluation theory of WP2, and (2) techniques for improving the quality of big relations [8, 26]. | |
| The project has generated 26 publications so far, among which 20 are in top-ranked journals or major | |
| international database conferences, 7 are invited papers, and 3 received awards, the premier international | |
| database systems conference. | |
| We list the publications below, all refereed | |
| • Thirteen journal publications [2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19, 20, 23, 26], including 2 in TODS [4, 8], 2 in | |
| TKDE [19, 26], and 3 in PVLDB [2, 11, 20]. Among these 7 are invited papers [4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 19]. | |
| • Thirteen papers in the proceedings of major international database theory and system conferences, | |
| including 9 papers in SIGMOD [1, 6, 13, 14, 16, 18, 21, 22, 25] (8 research papers and 1 demo), 2 in | |
| PODS [3, 17], 1 in ICDE [15], and 1 VLDB demo [24]. | |
| • In particular, the output from the project has received three awards: the Best Paper Award for SIG- | |
| MOD 2017, the premier international database systems co","We have proposed a new parallel model for graph computations [25]. It allows one to plug in existing sequential graph algorithms and automatically parallelizes the computation, without recasting the algorithms into a new model. This makes parallel graph computations accessible to a large group of users. Moreover, it guarantees convergence at correct answers as long as the sequential algorithms plugged in are correct. The work received the Best Paper Award for SIGMOD 2017, the premier international database systems conference. | |
| As a proof of concept, we have developed GRAPE, a parallel GRAPh Engine for graph computations, based on our programming and parallel models developed in [25]. A preliminary implementation of GRAPE was demonstrated at VLDB 2017 [24], a leading all-round international database conference, and received the Best Demo Award, given by a committee consisting of mostly industry people. | |
| The work was selected to receive 2017 ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight Award. | |
| In addition, BEAS [6], another our prototype system we have developed for querying big relations, has been deployed and evaluated at Huawei Technologies, the largest telecommunications equipment and services provider in the world. It has been verified that our bounded evaluation techniques improve the performance of Huaweis query engines by orders of magnitude. As a consequence, Huawei has invested in a joint research lab at Edinburgh, at the level exceeding 1M euro per annum. This is the first research lab funded by Huawei that is dedicated to open research. See | |
| https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2017/huawei-deal-to-advance-expertise-in-data-science",2019-03-21 16:14:08,,652976,GRACE,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-ADG-2014,http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/wenfei/GRACE.html | |
| 7251,226885,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - KRF-CY (The Kaehler-Ricci flow and Singular Calabi-Yau manifolds),"""One of the most important problems in Kähler geometry is to search for canonical metrics on a given Kähler manifold X, where the word """"canonical"""" stands for extremal/costant scalar curvature (cscK for short)/twisted cscK or Kähler-Einstein (KE).It was conjectured by...","""One of the most important problems in Kähler geometry is to search for canonical metrics on a given Kähler manifold X, where the word """"canonical"""" stands for extremal/costant scalar curvature (cscK for short)/twisted cscK or Kähler-Einstein (KE). | |
| It was conjectured by Calabi and then proved by Yau and Aubin in the late 70's that when the first Chern class of the manifold is identically zero or negative there always exists a unique Kähler-Einstein metric. The Fano case (i.e. positive first Chern class) turned out to be much more difficult because in this case KE metrics do not always exist. The obstruction to their existence is encoded in the notion of K-stability. Only recently was it proved that on a Fano manifold X there exists a KE metric if and only if X is K-stable. | |
| The Minimal Model Program is part of the birational classification of algebraic varieties, leads to work with singular varieties. In the last few years, Eyssidieux, Guedj and Zeriahi have established the existence of a unique singular Kähler-Ricci flat metric on a very wide class of Calabi-Yau varieties. Their work reduces to study a degenerate complex Monge-Ampère equation and it establishes the existence of such singular Kähler-Ricci flat metric. Nevertheless, it does not establish the asymptotic behavior near the singular points. The main goal of this proposal is to study the asymptotic behavior and the regularity properties of these metrics/potentials near singularities. More generally, given a Kähler-Einstein metric on a singular variety, it is interesting to understand how we can relate the asymptotic behavior of such a metric to the singularities of the variety. | |
| The above problem is of great interest in theoretical physics. Indeed, since the seminal paper of Candelas and de la Ossa in the 90's, physicists have guessed that Calabi-Yau 3-folds with the simplest isolated singularities should admit incomplete Kähler-Ricci flat metrics which near each singularity look like the conifold metric. If this were denied by some devolopments in this area, physicists should change their vision to """"see things"""". | |
| The analytic approach to the Minimal Model Program, proposed by Song and Tian in 2007, consists in reaching the """"minimal model"""" of a given variety via the Kähler-Ricci flow. In order to do so one needs to start the flow from a degenerate initial data. One of the objectives of the proposal is to start the flow from a singular data and to investigate the regularity properties of the Kähler-Ricci flow running from an arbitrary positive closed current. | |
| ""","I started working on the regularity properties of the Kähler-Ricci flow. On a compact Kähler manifold the Kähler-Ricci flow detects special metrics: in the case of non-negative curvature for example, the flow, starting from any Kähler form as initial data, converges to the unique Kähler-Einstein metric. The question is then to understand what happens when the initial data is not anymore a Kähler form but a singular object, i.e. a positive current. With a collaborator of mine, Chinh Lu, we prove that one can run the flow with any positive current as initial data. Moreover we prove that the flow has regularizing properties: after some time the metric that is evolving along the flow becomes smooth. | |
| We also have some partial results regarding the uniqueness of the flow starting from a degenerate initial data. The problem of uniqueness in full generality is still open. | |
| These results obtained a lot of interest: I was invited to communicate them in the weekly seminar of several University, such as Cambridge and in international conferences (for example in Banff and at MSRI). | |
| I then exploited the singular behaviour of singular solutions of degenerate elliptic complex Monge-Ampère equations on compact Kähler manifolds. With Chinh Lu and Tamas Darvas we studied the singularity type of full mass positive currents in big cohomology classes. The motivation to work with such objects comes from the need to study singular special metrics (Kähler-Einstein metrics for example) on a compact normal Kähler space. The existence of such metrics reduces indeed to a degenerate complex Monge-Ampère equation (DCMAE for short). The first step is then to look for a weak solution (a priori singular) of a DCMAE. Such weak solutions belong to energy classes, called Monge-Ampère energy classes. In the work with Lu and Darvas we studied the first energy class in this singular setting: the class E. In particular we characterised in a precise way the singularity type of potentials in the class E. As a corollary of our result we have give a positive answer to an open question in pluripotential theory. | |
| The collaboration with Lu and Darvas then led also to the study of complex Monge-Ampère equations with prescribed singularities. We obtained existence of singular Kähler-Einstein metrics with prescribed singularity type on Kähler manifolds of general type and Calabi-Yau. | |
| In the last 20 years there have been a lot of work in order to study the space of Kähler metrics on compact Kähler manifold. The motivation for this was give by Donaldson and was related to the uniqueness of constant scalar curvature Kähler metrics. As one can imagine, the properties of such a space are strictly related to geodesics. The study of geodesics joining two Kähler potential is again related a DCMAE on a compact Kähler manifold with boundary. In a paper in collaboration with Vincent Guedj we studied the geometry and topology of the space of Kähler metrics, on singular variety and we generalised most of the results that are valid in the smooth case. | |
| I communicate the result of this work in several seminar and in international institutions such as the Simon's Center.","""As I already discussed above, during the project my collaborators and I succeeded in having a better understanding of the singular behaviour of solutions of degenerate (elliptic and parabolic) complex Monge-Ampère equations on compact Kähler manifolds. | |
| These kind of results are interesting also in relation to the Minimal Model Program (MMP). The MMP is a part of the birational classification of algebraic varieties. Its goal is to construct a birational model of any complex projective variety which is as simple as possible, the so-called """"minimal model"""". The Italian school investigated the case of surfaces. The situation in higher dimension is much more complicated since a smooth minimal model does not always exist: this is why one has to allow singularities. | |
| Searching for a Kähler-Einstein metric on a singular variety is then equivalent to study a degenerate complex Monge-Ampère equations on a smooth resolution. | |
| With my collaborators, Chinh Lu and Tamas Darvas we are also currently studying the geometry of the space of singularity types. A singularity type is roughly speaking an equivalence class of quasi-plurisubharmonic functions on a compact Kähler manifold: two potentials are in the same class if and only if the have the same asymptotic behaviour at minus infinity. This is a project in progress that it will not be finished by the end of the project but whose developments are going to clarify the type of singularities that may occur. | |
| This is why we think that there is no doubt that our results in the singular setting will play a leading role in subsequent applications and will impact the community working in differential/complex geometry. | |
| At this point, there is no obvious potential for commercial exploitation.""",2018-09-06 11:23:48,,660940,KRF-CY,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/e.di-nezza | |
| 3114,263777,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY (Migration, religion and work in comparative perspective. Evangelical ‘ethnic churches’ in Southern Europe)",MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY investigated how Evangelical migrant men and women from Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America make use of a minority religion in negotiating their social and economic integration in Europe. The research tackled two broad questions: 1) the role of religion in...,"MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY investigated how Evangelical migrant men and women from Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America make use of a minority religion in negotiating their social and economic integration in Europe. The research tackled two broad questions: 1) the role of religion in migrants’ integration or marginalisation; and 2) how migration is reconfiguring European societies through the production of new understandings of Christianity, more specifically in Catholic countries, where Protestantism is eager to access public recognition. I investigated how migrants develop strategies of integration through their participation in native mainline Protestant churches, and how such strategies are shaped by ethnicity, class, gender and age. I also looked at how native historical Protestant churches act as ‘brokers’ of integration, with reference to a wider social positioning of the migrant as a ‘minority Christian’. The project contributed to our understanding of the role of religion in migrants’ integration or marginalisation and of how migration is reconfiguring the Italian and Spanish societies through the production of new understandings of Christianity: the migration-driven expansion of Evangelicalism in Europe challenges the Catholic majority religion as well as dominant views of migrant religion as Islam only. | |
| The MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY project thus involved theoretical and empirical research to produce new knowledge both at the academic and policy level, and engaged different publics, including churches, faith and inter-faith organisations and local, national and EU level authorities in the field of integration and religious pluralism. In terms of its potential impact on European policy objectives, the project contributed to informing policies on migrants’ integration, more specifically on the positive role which religious institutions can play in the process but also pointing to its limitations.","The MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY project involved comparative qualitative fieldwork (life histories, semi-structured interviews, observations, and documentary data). | |
| The main findings of the MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY project are summarised below: | |
| • international migration questions dominant understandings and practices of Protestantism, and more broadly, Christianity, in Europe, pushing historical native churches to come to terms with Eurocentric/racialising implicit assumptions underpinning their material and symbolic organisation; | |
| • religious participation is empowering in different ways: migrant believers use religion and religious networks to negotiate settlement in immigration contexts and to resist racialisation; but they also engage in transnational religious (as well as socio-economic and political) practices and networks; migrants do not simply reproduce identities and practices from their churches in the home countries, but renegotiate them, forging new meanings and experiences of Protestantism in the immigration context or in the diaspora; | |
| • age/generation significantly shapes church participation among migrants and their attitude vis-à-vis their inclusion into established native churches; | |
| • Protestant migrants use religion to negotiate the transnational families they live in and the challenges which these raise in terms of gender norms and of changing practices and understandings of femininity/masculinity, motherhood/fatherhood; | |
| • Ecuadorian and Ghanaian migrants’ have distinctive experiences of religion influenced by their specific socio-economic conditions. While the latter are more established, the former tend to have an unstable migration status and precarious jobs ; further, Ghanaians are the target of stronger and more overt discrimination while Ecuadorians are perceived as ‘culturally closer’ to Europeans; | |
| • in Italy and Spain, the mainline Protestant communities are challenged by the spectacular expansion of the Evangelical and Pentecostal ‘reverse mission’ coming from the Global South. As the native membership is shrinking, immigration provides an opportunity for membership growth. However the relationships between the native mainline Protestant leaderships and migrant believers are fraught with suspicion and fear that the migrants’ ‘unorthodox’ rituals (for instance, Evangelical/Pentecostal practices such as healing practices and speaking in tongues) might undermine the public legitimacy of a minority faith such as Italian/Spanish Protestantism. In addition to expressing specific needs in terms of liturgy, the migrant believers hold theological positions which often differ from those of mainline Italian/Spanish Protestants. | |
| The MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY project achieved a series of training objectives: | |
| • the fellow expanded her expertise to a new field of study - religion; | |
| • she developed her skills in outreach communication; | |
| • she consolidated her management skills; | |
| • she acquired new language skills (Spanish), which she used for the purpose of fieldwork and desk-based research. | |
| • she further developed her skills in writing large funding applications | |
| The MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY project’s findings were disseminated through a total of 23 outputs targeting both academic and non-academic users.","The MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY project was innovative in relation to several aspects: | |
| • it produced new knowledge on Christian migrants, who are still largely ‘invisible’ in scholarly and public debates on migration and religion in Europe; these Christian racialised Others provide a mirror in which the dominant European narrative on secularisation and Eurocentric/androcentric definitions of Christianity can be examined; | |
| • it contributed to developing a field which is under-researched in Europe and dominated by US scholarship; the research engaged with US debates on ‘multicultural/ethnic churches’; | |
| • it provided insight into the significance of religion in other social spheres beyond institutionalised religious spaces such as work relations; | |
| • it produced knowledge on the understudied relationship between migration, religion and gender. | |
| The societal impact of the project relates to the challenges encountered by historical native churches in accommodating migrant members in their congregations. Today, European Protestant churches and faith organisations are actively engaged in exchanging ‘best practices’ and debating how native churches can integrate migrant believers of different origins, accommodating their spiritual needs and their diverse liturgical and theological expectations. The project showed how, in some cases, the issue of sexuality was highly controversial in the Protestant communities, dividing native and migrant members but also different native churches. While the issue of homosexuality has emerged in recent heated debates in the Protestant communities of both countries, the Christians-Muslims encounter is more rarely tackled. This is a potentially divisive issue for the congregations because of the widespread fears around the integration of Muslims in European societies, which increasingly affect church-goers; further, some migrant members of the congregations express fear or even, in some cases, hostility towards Islam. Hostility or fear of Islam among Christian migrants are mainly linked to the emphasis which migrant Protestants, unlike their native fellow church members, put on evangelism and converting the other migrants and the natives.",2019-04-01 15:11:37,,652925,MIGRANTCHRISTIANITY,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,http://www.mwpweb.eu/FrancescaScrinzi/ | |
| 4005,262107,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DRESSFORMER (Virtual 3D fitting room for online shopping),"In the clothing industry, there is an increasing need for accurate virtual fittings as online shoppers lose purchasing confidence without the assurance of looks, style and fit. Dressformer’s innovative business project aims to significantly contribute to the uptake of...","In the clothing industry, there is an increasing need for accurate virtual fittings as online shoppers lose purchasing confidence without the assurance of looks, style and fit. Dressformer’s innovative business project aims to significantly contribute to the uptake of information and communication technology for a wider digital growth and economy for key stakeholders, end users and online retailers. Dressformer has undertaken initial testing with two clients obtaining positive feedback for the integration of the plugin and from the end users. The expected outcome of the project is to start full commercialisation of Dressformer’s technology at the end of the Phase 2 as a reliable innovation validated by the relevant clients, online retailers, and end-users, online shoppers.","Dressformer undertook deep analysis of both the technical and business feasibility of the virtual fitting room establishing early on in the Phase 1 project that the target market of sports apparel would be a suitable strategy. Dressformer analysed its current level of development to realise the necessary optimisation of technology required and review the overall project objectives. A suitable risk analysis was carried out, with software failure emerging as the highest risk, and necessary mitigation strategies prepared. Within the business feasibility, Dressformer addressed its value chain identifying strategic partnerships that will be fundamental to both the successful delivery of the Phase 2 project and through commercialisation. During the PH1 project Dressformer has defined a minimum viable service, established engineering and industrialisation plans, and as well prepared the IP strategy and 3 year financial projections.","The expected outcome of the project is to start full commercialisation of Dressformer’s virtual fitting room technology at the end of Phase 2 as a reliable innovation validated by the relevant clients and end users. The Dressformer solution will enable global proliferation of fashion e-commerce with in-store rates of conversion and product return. Dressformer brings to the market, a unique technology that can be easily integrated with existing online stores to enhance the user experience, and in turn increase profitability and growth performance of SMEs. Dressformer’s technology will strongly contribute to the Europe 2020 Strategy ‘The Digital Agenda’, considering the potential to foster innovation, economic growth and progress in Europe and particularly the European e-commerce industry.",2019-03-29 17:48:46,,663113,DRESSFORMER,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,ICT-37-2014-1,http://www.dressformer.com | |
| 1792,264085,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CLASS (CLear Air Situation for uaS: Maturing ground based technologies for a real-time Unmanned Aerial System Traffic Management System (UTMS) to monitor and separate Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) traffic),"The emerging traffic of drones is twofold. On one hand, drones offer a great opportunity for the industry, including agriculture and a large range of innovative businesses. On the other hand, drone traffic could be perceived as a threat, both physically to aircraft, people and...","The emerging traffic of drones is twofold. On one hand, drones offer a great opportunity for the industry, including agriculture and a large range of innovative businesses. On the other hand, drone traffic could be perceived as a threat, both physically to aircraft, people and properties on the ground as well as digitally with regards to privacy. | |
| In order for drone business to thrive, these threats need to be mitigated. Together with the other SESAR Exploratory Research projects, CLASS aims at exploring the tools and services needed to safely integrate drones into the airspace, among the existing airspace users. | |
| This set of services is called U-space and it aims at opening a fair and safe access to the airspace for all air-users. | |
| CLASS aims to help define and constrain what U-space services are. | |
| More specifically, CLASS focuses on drone tracking, including data fusion, traffic monitoring and tactical deconfliction. | |
| Drone tracking is based on two complementary systems: a cooperative tracker and a non-cooperative tracker. A cooperative tracker is a dedicated electronic device which broadcasts its position. A non-cooperative tracker is a radar which can track targets as small as drones (and even small birds!). Of course, the radar detects the cooperative drones too. This is why data fusion techniques need to be investigated to fuse the two plots, combining the data from the cooperative tracker and the radar corresponding to the same object into one single plot. | |
| Tracking cooperative drones (those that are carrying trackers) and non-cooperative drones (those that are not) opens the field of other services such as: | |
| - protection of sensitive sites, such as airports. The combination of the radar and the embarked tracker will help sort out if a drone is authorised or not. This will improve safety and security. | |
| - building the air situation. By locating all flying objects, the drone pilot or operator can avoid incoming aircraft. | |
| - tactical deconfliction: automatic tools consider the drone's mission and current and past positions to check that no drone is in conflict. A conflict here means that they are likely to collide. The system suggests new trajectories consistent with traffic, so no new conflicts arise by solving the first one. | |
| - monitoring. This service checks that the actual drone flights are consistent with the planned flights they were authorised for, and that no rules, like trespassing no drone-zones, are infringed.","The project CLASS revolves around 5 main actions. | |
| First of all, CLASS will define to how drones will be operated in the European sky. This is part of the Concept of Operations, shortened into CONOPS. As such, CLASS is strongly connected to all relevant stakeholders, not only from the drone community but from the air traffic management (ATM) community and the civil aviation authorities as well. The French School of Civil Aviation, ENAC, is in charge of maintaining the link between CLASS and the drone and ATM community. ENAC organised the first CLASS worskhop which aimed at gathering the requirements from the stakeholders. This workshop lead to the definition of 6 designed scenarios and key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs will help the CLASS partners to assess the efficiency and relevancy of the CLASS services in the frame of the U-space concept. CLASS is a part of the SESAR community . As such, CLASS gets inspiration from the latest updates of the ATM Master Plan. Finally, CLASS partners collaborate with other SESAR projects, mainly with the project CORUS which aims to define the European CONOPS. | |
| Second, CLASS partners set up the systems to perform drone tracking. Airbus has in-house technology primarily devoted to the IoT business to drone tracking. This technology was adapted to create Drone-it!, the Drone Identifier and Tracker. Considering the defined scenarios, architecture and requirements have been proposed to track cooperative drones in the frame of live experiments. Aveillant optimised and trained the Gamekeeper, a holographic radar which can detect and track small drones. The CLASS scenarios were successfully flown with the ENAC's drones at the Aveillant facilites at Deenethorpe, UK. These flights created valuable data that were recorded for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) to tune the data fusion algorithm, which has been selected among several candidates. | |
| Third, Unifly worked on the definition of the real-time air situation display and proposed an architecture that is able to cope with highly demanding requirements in terms of latency, real-time messaging and scalability. Unifly started to implement the interfaces between the Gamekeeper, Drone-it! and the real time display. Then, Airbus teams investigated deconfliction by adapting available algorithms from manned aviation. The traffic simulator and the conflict detection have been tuned to drone characteristics. | |
| Fourth, a demonstrator, based on a drone simulator, has been deemed necessary to build to more easily enable the assessment of KPIs than field measurements. | |
| Finally, the CLASS partners disseminate actions and results, not only towards the manned and unmanned communities (via events such as the World ATM Congress, Paris Air Show, ICAO) but also to the general public (webpage and press releases)","The next steps for CLASS are related to the definition of U-space services. CLASS is advanced enough to be able to really help in settling the definitions of the tracking, monitoring and deconfliction services. The live experiment that will take place in October will illustrate the tracking and monitoring from the drone detection up to the display through the data fusion, in real-time. Completing the demonstrator make it possible to provide useful data to the next generation of SESAR U-space projects. | |
| Now that most of the pieces of CLASS are in place, the focus will be on dissemination and communication to share the CLASS results.",2019-04-10 13:25:54,,763719,CLASS,H2020-EU.3.4.7.,RPAS-04,http://class.aero | |
| 8164,203481,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RoleOfNEinPerception (The role of noradrenaline in human perception: from single neuron to whole brain and behavior),"""An identical sensory stimulus might lead to a different chain of neuronal responses and perceptual experience, depending on the behavioral state of the organism and on cognitive factors such as vigilance, attention and intention. Perhaps the most dramatic illustration of this...","""An identical sensory stimulus might lead to a different chain of neuronal responses and perceptual experience, depending on the behavioral state of the organism and on cognitive factors such as vigilance, attention and intention. Perhaps the most dramatic illustration of this phenomenon is provided by sleep, where perceptual awareness is strikingly """"disconnected"""" from the external world. This disconnection, which we all experience every night, remains a major puzzle since it can occur along with robust early neuronal responses to external stimuli, and while we are conscious – but in the form of dreams – that are rarely affected by external stimuli. While cortical electrophysiology and metabolism can be grossly similar across wakefulness (when we are ‘connected’ to the external world) and sleep (when we are largely ‘disconnected’), the neuromodulatory milieu is fundamentally altered. Therefore, we reasoned that neuromodulation might play a key role in determining the neural and perceptual fate of sensory events. In particular, several lines of evidence suggest that noradrenaline (NE) may play a key role in sensory processing, and that its reduced activity throughout sleep may mediate disconnection from the external environment. Thus we hypothesized that even during wakefulness, reducing NE levels will impair sensory perception, i.e. lead to a mild form of “waking sensory disconnection” and conversely, that boosting NE signaling may lead to improved sensory perception. While previous human NE studies focused on high-level cognition including memory, emotion, attention, motivation, decision-making and metacognition, studies investigating the causal role of NE in basic sensory processing are still missing. In the course of this project, we investigated this by pharmacologically and bi-directionally manipulating NE levels in healthy volunteers, while they were performing simple visual detection and discrimination tasks. We measured how reduced or enhanced NE signaling affected behavior, EEG, fMRI, pupil size, as well as peripheral and subjective measures of arousal, thereby taking advantages of the full-range of neuroscientific methods available to study human cognition and brain activity. We found that while reduced NE signaling impaired detection and discrimination abilities and lead to delayed and reduced late neural response, enhanced NE signaling lead to the opposite results. These results establish that NE indeed has a causal role in modulating sensory perception, and its reduced signaling in sleep likely plays a key role in mediating the “sensory disconnection” that we experience throughout sleep. The results have been presented in several conferences and are now summarized in a manuscript entitled “Noradrenaline causally modulates visual perception and late visually-evoked activity”, that we plan to submit within the next month.""","During the two-year period of the project we ran and analyzed two experiments – an EEG experiment with 18 subjects, and an fMRI experiment with six subjects. Each subject participated in three different sessions conducted a week apart. In each session we administered Clonidine (to decrease NE signaling), Reboxetine (to boost NE signaling) or Placebo, using a double-blind within-subject design. Subjects performed visual detection and discrimination tasks before and after drug administration while behavior and neural activity (EEG or fMRI) were measured. We found that detection and discrimination abilities and subjective visibility deteriorated with reduced NE signaling and improved with enhanced NE signaling. In addition, the NE manipulation casually affected late visual responses in EEG (around 200ms) and in fMRI (in high-order visual cortex), known to correlate well with perceptual awareness. Taken together, these results establish for the first time that neuromodulation, and noradrenaline in particular, constitutes a crucial enabling factor in linking visual awareness to external world events. These results have been presented in several national and international conferences and are summarized now in a manuscript that will be submitted within the next month. | |
| I addition we have built a setup for combining eye-tracking with human single neuron recordings in epilepsy patients, in order to investigate the relationship between endogenous fluctuations in NE levels (using an established marker of NE levels – the size of the pupil) and responses to sensory stimuli at the level of single neurons, and obtained preliminary results from one patient. We are also in the course of investigating the relationship between endogenous fluctuations in NE levels (measured by the pupil) and behavioral and neural measures during the Placebo session of the abovementioned EEG experiment, with some promising preliminary results. | |
| Finally we also pursued a related research direction that pertains to the same question of the neuronal basis of conscious perception, but from a different angle. There we followed the activity of human medial temporal and frontal neurons during internal switches in the content of conscious perception in the absence of change in the external world. We found a medial fronto-temporal network whose activity precede the internal change in perception by almost two seconds, attesting to its involvement in the process that lead to the formation of the percept. These results are now summarized in a manuscript that was submitted for publication. Results from both projects have been presented in several conferences, workshops and outreach activities.","Noradrenaline has been implicated in high-level cognition including memory, emotion, attention, motivation, decision-making and metacognition, but its role in perception per se has not been investigated. Our results show that NE indeed plays an enabling causal role in basic sensory processing and perceptual awareness. While this is a basic science study with no immediate implications for society, it does shed new light on the mechanisms that underlie sensory awareness and sensory disconnection. As such it might pave the way for improved anesthesia techniques that will reduce cases of intraoperative awareness, and aid in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with disorders of consciousness.",2018-08-29 09:37:21,,659759,RoleOfNEinPerception,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,http://medicine.mytau.org/nir/ | |
| 3591,262536,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CHROMIC (effiCient mineral processing and Hydrometallurgical RecOvery of by-product Metals from low-grade metal contaIning seCondary raw materials),"The CHROMIC project is developing new recovery processes for chromium, niobium, molybdenum and vanadium. These four metals are crucial for the European industry, but they are sourced mainly from outside Europe. Europe does have large stocks of industrial by-products, such as...","The CHROMIC project is developing new recovery processes for chromium, niobium, molybdenum and vanadium. These four metals are crucial for the European industry, but they are sourced mainly from outside Europe. Europe does have large stocks of industrial by-products, such as steel, stainless steel and ferrochrome slags, which contain significant amounts of these four elements that are currently not fully exploited. These slags are used mainly as aggregates in the construction industry, with small fractions of some slags even being landfilled. In these applications, the entrapped valuable elements are not used to their full value. The CHROMIC project aims to unlock the potential of these resources, by developing new sustainable ways of metal recovery, leading to a zero-waste recycling of the entire slag materials. Smart combinations of existing methods and new technological innovations will be developed, tested and validated to extract valuable and critical raw materials from the slags in the most sustainable way. The candidate technologies cover the entire recovery process, from pre-treatment (size reduction, beneficiation) over selective leaching up to metal recovery. | |
| CHROMIC is an inclusive project. Among its key goals is to involve relevant local and pro-fessional communities in devising a new value chain for critical raw materials, based on the circular economy context. Through participatory events, CHROMIC will collect the views and expectations of European citizens about the occupational, environmental and health aspects of met¬al production and recovery. This knowledge will help to prepare a path for successful market application of the technologies devel¬oped by the project.","In the past period, the individual process steps have been investigated at laboratory scale in separate dedicated work packages (WP2: pretreatment, WP3: leaching and WP4: metal recovery). Frequent interaction between the work packages ensures that a feasible flowsheet is developed. | |
| In WP2, representative samples of the three model streams (various size fractions carbon steel slags, ferrochrome slags, stainless steel slags) were thoroughly characterized to identify the metal distribution in the slags. The involved analytics included state-of-the-art methods for both spatially resolved and bulk results. The results showed that the majority of Cr is contained within spinel phases. Mineral Liberation Analysis data further deepened the understanding of the liberation degree and grain size distribution of all phases. Initial tests were performed on Microwave and High Voltage Pulses pretreatment, with the aim to induce cracks at grain boundaries to reduce the energy demand for comminution and improve mineral liberation. Magnetic separation trials demonstrated potential for up-concentration of Cr in the magnetic fraction. | |
| In WP3, first tests have been performed for the different leaching processes. The best results so far were obtained with microwave assisted leaching, where 44% of Cr can be selectively leached without dissolution of the matrix elements (Al, Ca, Fe). Roasting with NaOH was shown to increase Cr leaching by 30%. | |
| WP4 started work on synthetic solutions. Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with different composition were synthesized and preliminary tests indicate a sorption capacity of ~60mg Cr/g. First experiments were done for solvent extraction experiments using alkaline single element solutions as aqueous phase and quaternary amines dissolved in kerosene as organic phase. For the separation of mixed metal solutions through selective precipitation, a flow sheet was developed including nanofiltration. Further processing of synthetic solutions has started to be investigated by electrocoagulation. | |
| The technology development is supported and evaluated by the overarching value chain assessment in WP1. This assessment is performed in an iterative way to ensure compliance of the developed technology with market demand and economic, environmental, health&safety and legal requirements. In the past period, the value chain assessment for the metals was completed. The methodology for the integrated assessment, including the questionnaire, was developed and a first iteration initiated in January 2018. | |
| In WP6, The project’s visual identity and communication material was prepared. The project website and social media profiles were launched and regularly updated. A 5’ project video and a series of audio contents were realized. The first issue of a periodical email newsletter was sent to relevant stakeholders. The project was presented at the main sector events in Europe. The first wave of focus groups was organized and analysed, and organization of the second wave is currently underway.","The final goal of CHROMIC is to recover maximal value from secondary resources, in line with the requirements of the circular economy and with market demand. By turning valuable compounds which are left in the slag into metal, Europe’s raw materials supply source can be diversified. At the same time, fractions of primary materials are recovered that can be reused as input flows in production processes. This will improve the sustainability and reduce the environmental impact of the metal industry. Furthermore, in some cases a more efficient use of resources can free up land currently used for landfilling or intermediary stocks, alleviating the burden for future generations.To unlock the potential of slags as low grade metal resources, a radically new approach to metal recovery must be deployed. Crucial factor within this new value chain is the zero-waste approach, which captures not only the contained metals but also valorises the residual matrix (often >95% of the bulk material). Such an approach requires the development of innovative, highly selective metal recovery technologies that fully capture the metal-value without impairing the properties of the residual matrix material for valorisation. Technical advances studied in CHROMIC are: | |
| •Material-specific comminution techniques (electrofragmentation, microwave-induced liberation) to obtain a high degree of metal and mineral liberation and avoid overmilling. | |
| •Tailored physical separation schemes to divide the input streams into metal concentrates on the one hand and metal-depleted residue matrix materials on the other hand. The applied separation techniques (enhanced magnetic separation, electrostatic separation, enhanced gravity separators) will need to be adapted for use on fine grained materials (i.e. < 2 mm). | |
| •Innovative leaching technologies based on selective dissolution of transition metal oxyanions in alkaline media without dissolution of the matrix, and with high efficiency (> 90%) due to the introduction of dielectric or ultrasonic energy, as well as oxidation by roasting or use of strong oxidants. | |
| •Highly selective metal recovery techniques that recover individual major and by-product metals from complex alkaline solutions, even at low concentrations, by a combination of selective precipitation, novel LDH-based sorbents and solvent extraction | |
| The optimized flowsheet will be validated at demonstration scale. The know-how gained will increase the flexibility and broaden the range of suitable input streams for many minerals processing, metallurgical and recycling processes. Through replication, the potential impact can be multiplied.",2019-04-01 11:48:29,,730471,CHROMIC,H2020-EU.3.5.3.,SC5-13-2016-2017,http://www.chromic.eu | |
| 4389,251677,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HairGen (Genetics of human hair form diversity),We are all enthralled by the human diversity existing around us. Much of what makes us different from each other is our genes. The irony however is that there is not one switch on and off mechanism that makes us distinct but a number of these switches. Studying genes and...,"We are all enthralled by the human diversity existing around us. Much of what makes us different from each other is our genes. The irony however is that there is not one switch on and off mechanism that makes us distinct but a number of these switches. Studying genes and understanding their complex interactions is important – firstly to unravel the biological adaptations that have occurred in the past and secondly to harness the information for the betterment of public health today and in the future. For this, there is a vital need to carry forward the existing information available from the genome-wide association studies to understand gene function, related biology and influence on disease phenotypes. | |
| Human hair shape varies across geographically distinct populations in its shape, color, texture and growth patterns. It is indeed very intriguing to know why we have different hair shapes across the world, which genes and variants are responsible for this diversity, how they work and whether they influence differences in disease incidence in modern populations with different ancestries. The main objectives of the current project were firstly to perform the downstream elucidation of one of the identified variant in a gene coding for serine protease to gain insight on its role in human hair diversity. Secondly, to perform phenotypic assessment for the skin and gland phenotypes to identify other effects of the variant. Thirdly, to elucidate the molecular mechanism of the gene; by studying its expression and interaction with candidate molecular pathways. | |
| The main advantage of the project that makes it progressive in the state-of-the-art is that it uses the powerful tool of genome editing in generation of mouse models and the fact that this gene is conserved in mice allows us to undertake the functional follow-up of the variant effectively. The team uses integrated approach of functional genomics, molecular biology, developmental biology and population genetics to contribute towards better understanding of the genetic architecture of the human hair shape.","One of the variants in PRSS53 (Serine protease 53) was found to be associated with hair straightness in Latin Americans and ubiquitously present in East Asians leading to about 76% of the individuals carrying this variant. The tests carried out also attested that this variant and its effect was advantageous for the population. Hence, the above facts presented a strong case for the functional follow-up of the variant using mouse models. | |
| We generated two modified Prss53 mouse lines, one representing the exact variant as in humans and the other representing a non-functional form (null) of the gene. Our results showed altered hair phenotype (both for hair coat and whiskers) for the null form of the gene. However, the exact variant did not show any readily identifiable external feature. On extensive analysis, we found that the latter showed a subtler effect on body hair. Both these results together confirmed the role of the gene towards hair shape variation. | |
| Since there was an evidence for the particular variant contributing to its high frequency in East Asians, an obvious question next was to decipher if the modified mouse models also pointed towards any other wide-ranging effects on the body, which could be tested turn in humans. The hypothesis for this was mainly the fact that other hair variants have been associated with multiple traits. For this, skin and gland related features were studied. This led to an important finding of one of the novel phenotypes. Our cell-based experiments to test the interaction of PRSS53 with one of the candidate genes also contributing to hair straightness in East Asians (Ectodysplasin A receptor - EDAR) shows that it is unlikely that their functions intersect, thereby suggesting both of these genes contribute to straight hair phenotype through independent pathways.","This project will help us to illustrate the biological pathways directly influencing the hair shape and texture enabling further understanding of hair biology. The new knowledge generated can be also useful in understanding various human hair and skin disorders. Since, the project confirms the role of the gene in hair shape this variant and is commonly found in East Asians, it can be an important part of hair shape marker set. This can provide new dimensions in forensic science in the context of ancestry and personal identification of individuals. There has been also evidence for the involvement of gene in psoriasis and inter-population variation in the prevalence of the disease. Hence the findings of the project can be further useful in understanding the progression of the disease and its population dynamics. Also, PRSS53 being a serine protease represents a druggable enzyme target approachable through topical means, hence reflecting the potential to contribute towards novel therapeutic targets. | |
| To summarize, in-depth analysis of the population-specific variant using mouse models gives us insight about its effect on hair and beyond and is vital for designing approaches for the betterment of public health. | |
| Societal impact- | |
| HairGen deals with a very important aspect of one’s identity- hair. With the low sequencing costs and the facilities available there has been increasing awareness among people to explore one’s genome to understand their origin, why they appear different, what potential disease risks can they have. Projects like these act as proof of concept to understand why we have different forms of genes existing in different populations and why they are important. These kinds of projects are integral towards understanding human diversity, the adaptations of human populations in the past and mechanism of related diseases. Infact, these kinds of studies form the crux of the upcoming field of personalized genomics. Better knowledge of the mechanism that controls curliness or straightness can be useful for the hair care industry by offering new treatments and hair care products for hair management, useful to people.",2019-03-20 10:41:33,,706429,HairGen,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2015-EF, | |
| 9144,186409,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BIGWHEAT (An innovative approach to boost wheat yields),The main objective of BigWheat project is to place a new products and related services on international market that will be applicable in international wheat breeding R&D and business sectors of both private and public seed companies. This approach directly contributes to the...,"The main objective of BigWheat project is to place a new products and related services on international market that will be applicable in international wheat breeding R&D and business sectors of both private and public seed companies. This approach directly contributes to the broadening of wheat genetic diversity, without which breeding cannot be successfully conducted, especially for the wide range of European agro climatic conditions. Desirable novel gene recombinants in wheat will offer new opportunities for further yield improvement, in order to overcome the problem of stagnating yields which pestered the production over the last 20 years and provide a sustainable supply of wheat, as a strategic raw material, in the coming decades. Presently, many international seed companies focus their attention on the new EU and non-EU wheat markets in Southern and Eastern Europe, Russian federation, former Soviet Republics, as well as on the very promising Middle East markets such as Turkey and Iran. Most of these companies do not have adapted genetic materials for millions of hectares in these regions while it is very expensive and time consuming to develop new varieties starting from scratch - by creating de novo desirable wheat genetic variability. BigWheat offers a part of the solution for them as well as for many other smaller companies. Application potential of the concept is outstanding since due to complexity of the wheat genome and many genetic recombination events which occur during hybridization and the first two generations of growing, it is practically impossible for different customers to select the same genetic material in consequent wheat breeding generations. This is important since the potential customers will not be competitors when buying our crosses, but they will be competitors in how these crosses are exploited. This is a desirable and positive market advantage for future commercialization, enabling sales of a single product and/or service to estimated 1,000 wheat breeding programs in EU and worldwide. Biogranum has full technical capacity to run the project. Personnel possess all necessary expertise needed, and the equipment is adequate.","TASK 1. VALIDATION OF THE CONCEPT: In order to validate the BigWheat concept Biogranum produced a total of 2,500 crosses so far, using the most promising parents from the existing collections, proving the targeted number of crosses is achievable. It is concluded that the capacity for production of crosses can be significantly increased and Biogranum can produce up to 7,000 crosses annually. In order to examine the competition and competing solutions together with user demands and willingness to purchase innovative products and services, Biogranum performed various activities, including person to person contacts with key potential customers, e-mail campaigns, and a questionnaire/survey posted on the company web site. Conclusion drawn from all interactions with individuals from both private and public breeding and seed companies is that BigWheat product represents a brand new idea on the market and there is a great need for novel wheat genetic variability in both breeding and seed industry sectors. Biogranum is convinced that presently there are no comparable wheat crosses selling commercial solutions available at EU and world markets. | |
| TASK 2. TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY: Technical feasibility covered a detailed analysis of the production process with identification of five milestones in project realization: field preparation and planting, nursing I, crossing, nursing II and harvest, trashing and packaging. In its essence the concept requires skilled personnel through the whole production process, not only during crossing, but in all other stages. To find the best possible location, Biogranum placed production on three geographically distinct locations, and determined the most appropriate one for production. There are two types of equipment needed for realization of the project excellence - basic agricultural machinery and specialized machines for breeding purposes. Biogranum already has access to both. Weather conditions can be a major threat to the production process, but with vast experience of Biogranum experts, such threats are anticipated and possible solutions are defined. Crossing stage is the most sensitive and crucial stage of the production process. Biogranum employees, together with several available technicians who can be employed during the crossing stage, ensure hybridization can be successfully completed. The technology used is able to comprehensively fulfill the intended production potentials, and assure project excellence. Diverse wheat collection comprised of more than 3000 wheat genotypes provides new possibilities for Biogranum to choose the best resources for further improvement of this concept. In further stages of the project it will be necessary to employ additional management and administrative workers in order to fully meet technology, finance, IPR and marketing challenges. Storage capacities are sufficient in this moment, but additional infrastructure investment is needed to provide an appropriate facility for preserving the long-term seed viability of both produced crosses and wheat genetic resources. | |
| TASK 3. FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY: Biogranum conducted a financial analysis including start-up and available capital, identification of sources of finance, production and operating costs, prices of products and services, payback period and cash flow estimation, economic impact regarding potential for job creation, salaries of employees and sourcing local suppliers. Conclusion is that prospect for stable and continuous financing of BigWheat project is good, however until stable revenue streams are established, some challenges exist. Our assumption from the initial BigWheat proposal, that the investment will be returned in two years while Biogranum will make profit in the third year of the project, is fully confirmed by the feasibility study. | |
| TASK 4. SWOT ANALYSIS: Based on SWOT analysis it is clear Biogranum has to challenge financial sustainability, improve brand visibility and promote its advantages compared to","""Numerous encounters with potential customers and discussions about BigWheat lead us to believe that there is not only an enormous demand for wheat crosses with heterosis, but also for novel wheat crosses production, valued for its genetic variability, and also for providing cross breeding as a service to breeding sector worldwide. In accordance, we expanded the BigWheat idea into a new business platform called """"Wheat Of Change"""" (WOC), that rests on three main pillars: BWH (BigWheat heterosis) – the search for heterosis; G4G (Grain for gain) – enhancing winter cereal yields by introduction of novel genetic variability; CCB (cereals cross breeding) – cross breeding by order. Even though breeding and production in Serbia is a low cost process compared to western Europe and can present a blow to the competition, one of the greatest advantages of WOC platform is the time saving component. Our competitors are actually our intended customers, so it is not our intent to put our competitors out of business, but to help them evolve their breeding programs and improve the genetic variability of their material. The intention of Biogranum is to become European leading supplier of this product and services thus enabling significant local employment. Biogranum can reach up to 30 employees in next 4-6 years. The huge economic impact on local level can be achieved, especially for the developing countries like Serbia. BigWheat project will stimulate local economy and will contribute to EU agricultural, industrial, economic and social prosperity.""",2018-08-24 11:55:39,,672990,BIGWHEAT,H2020-EU.3.5.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SC5-20-2014-1,http://www.biogranum.com/ | |
| 6396,204884,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NOTID (Novel treatment of inflammatory diseases),"The global challenge concerns non-functioning drugs and problems followed by that. The innovation address three major problems related to society, economy and industrialization. For society as well as individuals there is health problem that we deal with. Our initial survey...","The global challenge concerns non-functioning drugs and problems followed by that. The innovation address three major problems related to society, economy and industrialization. For society as well as individuals there is health problem that we deal with. Our initial survey has revealed that for the treatment of RA there is an immediate need for drugs that act according to new and novel mechanisms. This is because today’s most efficient treatment by the so called TNFα inhibitors also show a large ratio of non-responders. In addition, these drugs suppress the immune system which means that combinations can not be used without a risk for adverse effects. Our innovation will act on a new target and according to a novel mechanism and has potential as a stand-alone or complementary drug for inflammatory diseases. The economic problem that we deal with is the fight against increasing costs for drugs. If drugs are more efficient, less drugs will be used, which should decrease the costs for RA drugs. Furthermore, if the right kind of efficient drug is used as early as possible for a patient the costs of treatment and cost for society will decrease. A major problem in commercializing our innovation is to be able to finance the further steps of development and to find the right partners for that process. | |
| The overall objective is to develop a new biological candidate drug for safe and effective treatment of patients suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases, e.g. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). The approach is a therapeutic antibody that by a novel mechanism of action blocks the function of bile salt-stimulated lipase (BSSL), and thereby inhibits the inflammatory process and prevents joint destruction. The objective of the proposed innovation project as a whole (SME-instrument phase 1-3) is to plan, develop, secure and bring our innovation towards commercialization on the global market and to get to a Clinical Phase I proof of concept. In measurable terms we aim to document and reach the following results: | |
| Functional effects | |
| • A biological drug that passed toxicology and safety studies ready for Phase I clinical trials. | |
| • A cell line for production of the biological drug. | |
| Medical effects | |
| • Provide a truely novel and complementary treatment to anti-TNFα and other biologicals. | |
| • Offer a new mechanism that does not suppress the patients immune system. | |
| • Inhibit and reverse the progress of the disease to minimise disability. | |
| Economic effects | |
| • Improve RA patients ability to work and reduce sick-leave. | |
| • Reduce patients need for treatment at hospital.","The feasibility study comprised 5 tasks. | |
| Task 1 concerned the elaboration of a Drug Development Plan. This task included the evaluation of partners for production of a pre-candidate drug. The task also prepared for the design of the drug development. Task 2 elaborated a financial plan and included an investigation of different business models for financing of the exploitation phase. Task 3 elaborated a strategy for intellectual property rights. | |
| The task also handled branding issues and the future communication strategy. Task 4 focused on a strategic evaluation of an orphan drug designation. Finally we put together the results from the first four tasks and produced an updated business innovation plan. | |
| Results achieved include the elaboration of a Drug Development Plan (task 1). We have investigated and met potential partners for production, but we have not yet decided who the partner will be. We have several good candidates. We have elaborated a financial plan (task 2) which described the financial needs over a period of four years. In the current analysis of funding needs the total sum is €13 million to reach clinical proof of concept i.e. it has been tested in humans. We have filed for a divisional patent for Inflammatory Bowel Disease as a result of Task 3. We have increased our knowledge about orphan drug designation through dialogue and we have established a clinical plan for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA).","The expected potential impact includes the potential of generating of 20 new jobs. Employment creation will follow the development of sales and will consist of sales staff, administration and R&D staff. Realistically 20 jobs will be created within LipUm the first three years of commercial operation. Most probably we will need a partner company for marketing and sales and depending on the markets to be launchned a realistic forecast for job creation in the partner company would be 50 employees for the European market and 100 employees for the US market. | |
| The wider societal implication is that more patients will be treated. Costs for treatment will decrease and unnecessary treatment can be avoided. Human suffering will decrease.",2018-10-05 10:52:56,,744248,NOTID,H2020-EU.3.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-05-2016-2017,http://www.lipum.se | |
| 4881,190149,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DIVERSIFOOD (Embedding crop diversity and networking for local high quality food systems),"DIVERSIFOOD is evaluating and enriching the diversity of cultivated plants within diverse agroecosystems to increase their performance, resilience and quality. By developing new breeding approaches to increase diversity and by re-discovering genetic resources of a dozen...","DIVERSIFOOD is evaluating and enriching the diversity of cultivated plants within diverse agroecosystems to increase their performance, resilience and quality. By developing new breeding approaches to increase diversity and by re-discovering genetic resources of a dozen underutilized and forgotten plant species for organic and low-input agriculture or marginal/specific conditions, DIVERSIFOOD is developing new healthy and tasty produce. Through multi-actor approaches and relevant cases, DIVERSIFOOD aims to develop: | |
| -Relevant, locally developed innovations | |
| -New biodiversity management models | |
| -New approaches to plant breeding and management | |
| -New crops, diverse varieties or populations | |
| -Diverse healthy and tasty food products and market valorisation | |
| -Original experimental and communication tools to connect activities and people. | |
| DIVERSIFOOD is facilitating cooperation between multi-actor and participatory research networks to connect formal and informal seed systems. To that end, partners are suggesting a framework for the implementation of Farmers’ rights and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as set up in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). Key lessons based on the diverse experiences of partners are shared to support on-farm seed production networks guaranteeing high quality seed. DIVERSIFOOD is demonstrating the socio-economic value of innovative biodiversity management systems, increasing food and environmental awareness at local policy levels in regional food chains. DIVERSIFOOD is also developing concepts and practices to support the spreading of a new culture of food based on biodiversity.","-WP1 ensures connexion between WPs and disciplines. During review period 2, definitions of 9 project key-words were published in a four-page leaflet. To understand how to combine different ways of thinking, partners have described the linkage of paradigms, methodologies, methods and tools in their case studies. Then, a toolkit has been initiated to connect methods from the biological and social sciences to optimise multi-actor approaches. | |
| -In WP2, existing knowledge on several underutilised genetic resources has been collected into an available inventory. This also includes a working definition of “underutilised crop”, developed around three processes: (i) the reintroduction of old, forgotten species; (ii) shifting cultivation areas and (iii) supporting the use of underutilised genetic resources of common species. Experimental activities are exploring collections from farm-saved seeds, local and institutional collections and seedbanks. | |
| -Several new populations have been co-designed in WP3 with farmers for different crops (tomato, broccoli, carrots, onion, bread and durum wheat, einkorn, barley, maize, white lupin, faba bean and buckwheat) and then multiplied. These populations were obtained as progenies of single or double crosses, by crossing more parents over several generations (synthetic populations), by mixing all binary crosses among 5, 6 or more parents, by mixing chosen genetic resources and growing the mixture over several generations. | |
| -For both WP2 and 3, the evaluation of populations is carried out on-farm under an inclusive multi-actor approach, in which the type of actors involved varies, including breeders, farmers, processors and consumers, but also cookers / chefs. The range of traits considered is very broad, ranging from agronomic to nutritional, organoleptic and culinary aspects. Statistical methods adapted to decentralized/on farm trials have been developed as well as the databases, adapted for the management of data from PPB. | |
| -In WP4, a survey that targeted social actors working on community biodiversity management showed that all organizations are affected by national and international laws as they consider themselves as a part of ITPGRFA system and the Nagoya protocol. The Community Seed Banks survey reached 85 communities and identified several groups according to links to actors of local farming systems. Specific agreements on joint activities have been developed with other EU projects (CAPSELLA), Bioversity International, ECPGR and the Secretariat of the ITPGRFA. | |
| -In WP5, a preliminary analysis of data from case studies from eight EU countries, has allowed the emergence of many insights in relation to the valorisation strategies of diverse products. Based on the first inventory of labels/trademarks for newly bred lines of PPB or underutilized crops, five different labelling concepts were evaluated. To further develop the valorisation strategies, a consumer survey was conducted in August 2017 in Italy, Spain, France and Switzerland. | |
| -Partners have intensified communication activities (newsletters, publications); one booklet, “9 key concepts for food diversity” is available in 7 languages on the project website, as well as 4 Innovation Factsheets and 8 short videos. During the past 18 months, partners managed about 100 public events involving more than 2 000 stakeholders, to involve efficiently new actors in research. Many partners submitted papers and/or presented the project and results in more than 20 international scientific conferences.","At the end of the project we will have holistic key-concepts that integrate knowledge from the biological and social sciences, a toolkit with methods for multi-actor approaches and an overarching interdisciplinary methodological framework for new projects similar to DIVERSIFOOD. | |
| A wide range of populations, from ex-situ collections, is currently being grown in on farm contexts and characterised with farmers and other actors from the value chain. Existing knowledge has been gathered on several species to be included in potential innovation processes. On-farm plant breeding has already contributed to significantly increase crop diversity available for and used by PPB programmes to provide diversified food products with higher nutritional and organoleptic quality. The populations have not yet been distributed to a wider range of users, as they are still in the process of breeding that are supported by improved methods for statistical analyses and data mining relevant for decentralized approaches. Most partners involved have already used or will use the optimized designs and/or methods proposed. | |
| At legislative level, various partners worked at national, EU and international level for improving the current legal situation on varietal diversity, e.g. certification schemes of heterogeneous populations. DIVERSIFOOD stimulated sharing experiences not only at European level, inviting Community Seed Banks (CSB) that emerged worldwide to the workshops in Rome in September 2017). The issue of CSB is becoming more and more relevant for the dynamic management of agricultural diversity and for food sovereignty, as demonstrates the collaboration with the ITPGRFA Secretariat on that and the side event that will be organised by DIVERSIFOOD on CSB during the next Governing Body in Kigali (October 2017). | |
| The outcomes of the different case studies will produce recommendations and guidelines for marketing and valorisation strategies of biodiverse food products and get more recognition for the networks and initiatives involved in keeping and enhancing the diversity. For the consumers, trust in the products could be established based on personal contacts, farm visits and investment in relations along the supply chain.",2019-03-07 11:33:35,,633571,DIVERSIFOOD,H2020-EU.3.2.,SFS-07a-2014,http://www.diversifood.eu/ | |
| 157,214407,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ComMUnion (Net-shape joining technology to manufacture 3D multi-materials components based on metal alloys and thermoplastic composites),"ComMUnion aims to enable productive and cost-effective manufacturing of 3D metal/ Carbon Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastic (CFRT) multi-material components. Thus, it will develop a novel solution combining tape placement of CFRTs with controlled laser-assisted heating in a...","ComMUnion aims to enable productive and cost-effective manufacturing of 3D metal/ Carbon Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastic (CFRT) multi-material components. Thus, it will develop a novel solution combining tape placement of CFRTs with controlled laser-assisted heating in a multi-stage robot solution. High-speed laser texturing and cleaning will overcome the limitations of current joining technologies to provide great performance joints. ComMUnion will rely on a robot-based approach enabling on-line inspection for layer-to-layer self-adjustment of the process. Moreover, tools for multi-scale modelling, parametric offline programming, quality diagnosis and decision support will be developed under a cognitive approach to ensure interoperability and usability. ComMUnion will address the following key innovations: | |
| - Texturing and cleaning based on high speed laser scanning for surface condition. | |
| - High-speed spatially resolved control of surface temperature profile. | |
| - Multi-scale metal/CFRP modelling, self-adaptive process control, and quality diagnosis based on multimodal active imaging.","During this 1st period the work performed in ComMUnion contributed, mainly, to the fulfilment of four out of the eight main objectives. The objectives together with the main achievements of the period are listed below; | |
| O1: Developing a new multi-stage joining robotic solution | |
| - Laboratory tape-laying system and laboratory texturing head have been designed | |
| Industrial tape placement heads have been designed | |
| - Definition of the communication protocol standard for data exchange between modelling software and joining process control. | |
| - XML structured has been performed | |
| - Cell lay-out for subsystem integration has been defined | |
| O2: High efficient and flexible surface condition solution | |
| - Industrial polygon scanning texturing head has been designed | |
| - Process window has been adjusted and, accordingly, the dataset of laser parameters has been obtained for the different metallic materials of the study cases | |
| - Structured surfaces screening has been performed for the different metallic materials of the study cases | |
| O3: Developing a multi-scale modelling system | |
| - Macroscopic simulation of the two pilot cases have been performed | |
| - Multi-scale analysis of hybrid joint performance has been attained and the required models has been developed | |
| - Process simulation at a multi-scale level. Models for tape laying, laser texturing and VCSEL heating has been developed | |
| O4: Implementing an embedded flexible control of the laser-assisted heating profile | |
| - VCSEL system development | |
| - Design and prototype development of a high- speed camera (10kHz framerate) | |
| - Preliminary software for RT control of the system | |
| O5: Developing QDS in a multi-stage manufacturing approach based on active imaging techniques | |
| - The hardware configuration of the speckle-pattern inspection system and the corresponding algorithms have been developed | |
| - Active thermography system for defect detection, while laying the composite tapes, has been accomplished | |
| O6: Self-adjustment of process parameters | |
| O7: Demonstration of recycling/reuse by direct heating of the metal | |
| O8: Demonstration of a fully automated 3D joining multi-material technology applied to automotive and aeronautics | |
| - End-user requirements has been specified and two study cases has been identified | |
| - ComMUnion system’s requirements have been defined, which implies the definition of the functional requirements of the different subsystems involved.","1) A new texturing system was successfully assembled, adjusted and characterised for multi-pass texturing of lines with undercut with scanning speed of 20 m/s | |
| 2) An uncooled imaging Focal Plane Array IR camera with spatially resolved temperature distribution measurement capabilities has been designed with a high framerate (i.e. 10 kHz). Also this includes the development of a new and improved sensor with better capabilities, more resolution and higher sensitivity, able to acquire images at lower temperature than previous model. | |
| 3) New and flexible customize VCSEL modules have been developed, which allow to attain adjustable heating profiles useful to modify power densities distribution to different joint geometries.",2019-04-30 19:43:54,,680567,ComMUnion,H2020-EU.2.1.5.1.,FoF-12-2015,http://communionproject.eu/ | |
| 3725,263170,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REHAP (Systemic approach to Reduce Energy demand and CO2 emissions of processesthat transform agroforestry waste into High Added value Products.),"""Problem/Issue: Europe's position in the production of biopolymers from biomass and by-products is limited to a few polymers, while the demand for them is among the largest in the world, which means that they have to be imported, mainly from Asia and South America...","""Problem/Issue: Europe's position in the production of biopolymers from biomass and by-products is limited to a few polymers, while the demand for them is among the largest in the world, which means that they have to be imported, mainly from Asia and South America. Surprisingly, Europe has a lot of world leader chemical companies, with a particular strength and great potential in the field of fine chemicals and building blocks. The development of chemicals and materials from lignocellulosic biomass is a particularly important area in terms of research. However, the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into a real chemical platform is not trivial and today it has still little commercial viability. For instance, several processes have been studied at R&D level, but none have been industrially implemented yet. | |
| Objectives: The main objective of REHAP is the transformation of agro-forestry residues into new sustainable and eco-efficient derivatives, which comprise building blocks (2,3- and 1,4-BDO), high-performance additives (superplasticizers and flame retardants) and biobased polymeric resins (biophenolics and NIPUs), through innovative cost-effective processes to demonstrate their potential use in several products at an industrial level and their application in sectors like Construction. | |
| All the processes, materials and products will be demonstrated at industrial scale and finally will be used for making a prototype of a feasible industrialized constructive system, proof of concept for """"green buildings"""" technologies (TRL 7). Sustainability and economic feasibility will be evaluated using life-cycle assessment and cost-benefit and market analysis. Other objectives of the project are: | |
| •Environmental: Utilisation of fossil resources to be reduced between 80 and 100%. 30-50% reduction in energy use in the process industry and 25-50% reduction in CO2 emissions | |
| •Economics: Cost reduction of biophenolic resins and BDO up to 20% compared to commercial competing materials Strengthen industrial competitiveness and growth of companies across Europe. Possibility for replication of the processes and creation of new market opportunities | |
| •Social: Creation of almost 400 new Jobs.""","WP1: Identification of most relevant agroforestry input sources with respect to the European arisings and the biochemical composition Literature and database review concerning the state-of-the-art of agroforestry waste management. Publication of a paper entitled “Assessment of agroforestry residue potentials for the bioeconomy in the European Union” in the International Journal of Cleaner Production. Development of a forecasting model for the future arisings of biomass for all NUTS 1 regions in Europe. Analysis results of the selected biomass samples for REHAP (TAPPI, NERL and TGA methods). Predictive Kinetic Models (based on TGA) to determine the fractional weight composition of cellulose-hemicellulose-lignin-tannin in agroforestry biomass. | |
| WP2: Optimization of the purification processes to obtain lignin, tannins and sugars from softwood bark. | |
| Analysis of the fermentability of the 2nd generation sugars (2G). | |
| Optimization of the process to obtain bioethanol for the production of lignin rich residues from straw and woody biomass. | |
| Development of fractionation/purification of lignins from the PROESA process residue and directly from raw materials. Study of the hydrolysis of carbohydrates fraction to obtain fermentable sugar stream from the PROESA process residue. | |
| Upscaling of the protocols developed at lab scale to kgs-Tns scale. The required materials for WP3 have been produced at lab scale for the first developments and will be produced at pilot-industrial scale for October 2018. | |
| WP3: Definition of requirements for 1k and 2k adhesives, phenolic resins and superplasticizers. | |
| The following developments are partially achieved: | |
| Preparation of NiPUs based on 2,3 BDO produced in WP2. Modification of tannins and lignins for phenolic resins. Modification of polyols for the preparation of fire retardants. Preparation of polyesterpolyols from bio raw materials. Modification of comercial lignins by alternative routes to obtain superplaticizers. Development of an aerobic fermentation process of lignocellulosic sugars obtained in WP2 and a 2,3-BDO recovery procedure from the fermentation broth. | |
| WP6: Identification of the processes on which the E-LCA, the LCCA and the resource efficiency analyses will be focused. Preparation of the preliminary block flow diagrams of the targeted processes. Market analysis (D6.4) of the main products developed in the project (PU foams and adhesives, phenolic resins, plasticizers for concrete and fire retardants). | |
| WP7: Creation of the Website (D7.1, www.rehap.eu) and video with the project idea. Design of elements for project branding and development of printed materials. Participation in several conferences and meetings (EUBCE, WCCE10, ECAB4, Biotech 2017, ICBBM17, LCM 2017.","Expected results and progress beyond state of the art: | |
| R1: Extraction and purification of Tannin/sugars: REHAP has optimized and up-scaled the process to obtain Tannins from European softwood species (Norway spruce). | |
| R2: Extraction and purification of lignin from the hydrolysis residue: The process to obtain pure lignin from the residue has been developed with yields between 35-50% depending of the raw material. | |
| R3: Bio2,3-BDO/1,4-BDO and polymers based on sugars: Demonstration of the production of 1,4-BDO and 2,3-BDO from 2G sugars (Agroforestry residues). In this period, the fermentability has been demonstrated at lab scale and the work is ongoing for the upscaling. | |
| R4: Biophenolic resins: The purification of tannins and lignin has been implemented. The formulation of the resins with these products is ongoing. | |
| R5: Lignin modification for improved plasticizing of cement and concrete: The developed method for the purification of lignin form Poplar, conducted to a very pure and defined starting material for the modifications. Sequent chemical reactions will optimise the plasticizing properties to suit green concrete for precast elements. | |
| R6: Fire performance of biowaste derivatives: The first results with comercial sugars have been obtained. | |
| R7: BioPUR foams: The first polyesterpoliols from bioderivatives have been produced in this period. | |
| Expected IMPACTs: | |
| 1. Reduction of fossil based materials (in thousand tons): Biophenolic resins for wood panels (1,177), Superplasticizers for cements (500), Rigid bio-PU insulation (4,675), Adhesives for construction sector (2,000), Butanediol intermediate chemical (>2,000). | |
| 2. Reduction of energy use and CO2 emissions (in %): Biophenolic resins for wood panels (40/50), Superplasticizers for cements (30/50), Rigid bio-PU insulation (50/25), Adhesives for construction sector (50/25), Butanediol intermediate chemical (30/50). | |
| 3. Demonstration of the economical viability of the developed processes and products: Biophenolic resins for wood panels (cost savings of 19%), Superplasticizers for cements (price range should be 2.4-4.8 €/m3), Rigid bio-PU insulation (price reduction of 6%), Adhesives for construction sector (additional outlay willing to pay by customers is 5%), Butanediol intermediate chemical (price range should be 1,630-1,745 €/ton). | |
| 4. Direct new jobs in the involved companies of the project (70) and indirect new jobs due to the activities of the project (>300).",2019-04-01 12:09:26,,723670,REHAP,H2020-EU.2.1.5.3.,SPIRE-03-2016,http://www.rehap.eu/ | |
| 7830,218926,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AlbaSolar (Developing perovskite-based solar panels),"The Albacomp RI Ltd. development, Albasolar technology is a perovskite-based 110 and 200W solar panel the efficiency level of which is comparable to the competitors, and increasing in a very rapid pace, allowing us to offer a nearly the same performance panel for a much...","The Albacomp RI Ltd. development, Albasolar technology is a perovskite-based 110 and 200W solar panel the efficiency level of which is comparable to the competitors, and increasing in a very rapid pace, allowing us to offer a nearly the same performance panel for a much cheaper price. During Phase 1 of this grant proposal, a detailed feasibility study has been worked out in order to specify the needed new modules/features to elevate the current technological readiness level (TRL 6) to industrial readiness and identified how to prepare for the first business period. In Phase 1, we have modeled the innovation of the Phase2 project as well as the first business period related to our developments, potential market channels, applied business models, pricing, utilizations and risks.","The study consists of 4 main chapters describing our achievements: | |
| Technical viability: Possible development alternatives and technical solutions were investigated with respect to the aimed TRL level (TRL9). Further developments contain 4 main objectives to accomplish TRL9. We listed the main competetive advantages against of the competing technological solutions. Besides this we have analysed the risks concerning the R&D actitivies and technological barriers to be solved during the implementation period. | |
| IP evaluation: The freedom to operate search has been carried out with the following results: the analysis of patent documents led to the conclusion that there can be interference with the claims of the recognized patents but our invention concept targets the still open possibilities, therefore we have enough wiggle-room to develop a novelty and to claim its IP rights concerning key solutions. | |
| Phase2 project plan: Based on the feasibility and technical viability checks, a professional detailed project plan has been established utilizing international professional methods. We used agile project planning method. A 2.72 millon EUR project was developed with the aim of developing TRL9 market ready perovskite-based solar panel. | |
| Market research and business plan: Primary and secondary market research have been conducted in support of our business model calculations. Our elaborated business plan has been compiled in harmony with results of the primary market research and the freedom-to-operate analyses.","Results of our efforts during Phase 1 and upon successful completion of the remaining phases, a market-ready novel perovskite-based solar panel will be finalized to meet the targeted users’ needs and social challenges. With developed prevoskite-based modules the manufacturing technology of which is significantly more economic (due to the lower temperature and therefore energy required) and as a consequence, tremendously cheaper to produce and generates less environmental load than the currently dominant silicon based ones while being competitive with the silicon based counterparts in terms of efficiency and lifespan. | |
| Energy security and reducing the share of fossil energy sources in energy consumption and so reducing greenhouse gas emission are goals that carry strategic importance not only for Europe but also for humanity. It is an EU priority to increase the share of renewables to 20% by 2020 and to 30% by 2030 and the goals of this project fit perfectly into these directives. The AlbaSolar technology is significantly cheaper and takes less environmental load (less energy required). The technology to be developed can aid in supplying electricity to the regions of the world currently not connected to any kind of grid.",2018-08-29 18:07:31,,774686,AlbaSolar,H2020-EU.3.3.;H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-09-2016-2017,https://www.albacomp.hu/horizon-2020-sme-instrument-h2020-smeinst-2016-2017 | |
| 6635,231057,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AgroPestAlert (High Tech and Disruptive Prices Global Solution for Real Time Alerts on Agrifood Pest, based on wing beat, unique features on insects biometric)","The AgroPestAlert Project led by Tecnologías y Servicios Tiempo Real S.L. was approved within the call for SME Instrument H2020, Topic SME-instrument SMEInst-07-2016-2017: Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for sustainable and competitive agriculture, forestry...","The AgroPestAlert Project led by Tecnologías y Servicios Tiempo Real S.L. was approved within the call for SME Instrument H2020, Topic SME-instrument SMEInst-07-2016-2017: Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for sustainable and competitive agriculture, forestry, agri-food and bio-based sectors, Call 2017-03-07. | |
| The Project has been developed as planned, in terms of deadlines, budgets, actions, and results obtained. | |
| The approval of The AgroPestAlert Project in Phase 1 of the SME Instrument program has been a catalyst for the company in the obtaining of new alliances and financing. | |
| The promoters expect to demonstrate that Tecnologías y Servicios Tiempo Real S.L. will soon be an internationally recognized company within the field of Global Solution for Real-Time Alerts on Agrifood. We expect to generate in the future a significant number of highly qualified jobs, as well as important economic surpluses.","The AgroPestAlert Project under Phase 1 of the SME Instrument has been developed as planned, in terms of deadlines, budgets, actions, and results obtained. The project has enabled, through activity No.1, | |
| the identification, planning and developing of 6 pilot projects. Through Activity No.2 we have been able to study the current legislation affecting the sector and its impact; the business model has been designed employing the Canvas methodology, the global company strategy and the policy of alliances have also been designed. | |
| The development of activity No.3 has allowed us to work and validate the strategy of protection of intellectual property. At the same time, we have designed a technology-product-market roadmap, identifying the main R&D programs, their financial needs and potential sources of funding, which will be the basis of the Proposal for Phase II. Finally, we have outlined a global business plan, with general and area-specific strategies, and we have enhanced economic and financial projections for the period 2018-2021, specifying the needs and potential sources of funding. Activity No. 4 has resulted in a complete Business Plan. | |
| The approval of the AgroPestAlert Project in Phase 1 of the SME Instrument program has been a catalyst for the company in the obtaining of new financing. | |
| The promoters expect to demonstrate that Tecnologías y Servicios Tiempo Real S.L. will soon be an internationally recognized company in the field of integrated pest management that provides accessible, economical and continuously evolving knowledge, technology, and solutions and services, and becoming a strategic partner for reducing environmental impacts and improving the profitability of agricultural farms. We expect to generate in the future a significant number of high qualified jobs, as well as important economic surpluses.","Within the framework of the Feasibility Study, we have developed a Road Map of Technology-Products-Markets. We have planned and launched 6 different project pilots. We have identified three strategic R&D projects to be developed from 2018 to 2021. | |
| To date, we have proved by more than 6 different pilots at the laboratory and operational level that our solutions works. | |
| Because the success of the pilot we have received the first orders of the AgroPestAlert Solution. | |
| Currently, we must complete new tasks aimed at improving our solution, integrating aspects related to the platform, miniaturizing our tramp, and reducing costs, before the commercial launch, which will take place in the third quarter of 2019. We will do it been supported by our technological partners, who have been obtained through the development of the current feasibility study. An important technological roadmap has been designed which could increase the general and specific capabilities of the AgroPestAlert solution and extend the range for around 30 different species of pest. | |
| We have a strong intellectual property strategy, having obtained the FTO, and currently working to apply for our first PCT, and planning to obtain 2 more patents related to the matter in a 2 year ahead period. | |
| The use of the AgroPestAlert solution will generate significant environmental impacts. | |
| The company hopes a significant high level sales due to the technical and economic competitiveness of the system. On the other hand, we plan to create about 23 direct jobs by 2022 and generate in an induced way in the manufacture and installation of traps, microelectronics, and pest company services, another 40/60 job. | |
| The promoters expect to demonstrate that AgroPestAlert will soon be an internationally recognized company.",2018-10-03 14:47:02,,781259,AgroPestAlert,H2020-EU.3.2.4.;H2020-EU.3.2.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.3.2.2.,SMEInst-07-2016-2017,http://agropestalert.azurewebsites.net/ | |
| 9390,234312,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Crosstag (Unravelling cross-presentation pathways using a chemical biology approach),"Immune therapies are therefore currently being pursued to reinvigorate the immune reaction against tumours. This is not trivial, as the right cytotoxic T-cells must be activated against a tumour-specific antigen to get the right response; all in the face of a tumour attempting...","Immune therapies are therefore currently being pursued to reinvigorate the immune reaction against tumours. This is not trivial, as the right cytotoxic T-cells must be activated against a tumour-specific antigen to get the right response; all in the face of a tumour attempting to switch the resulting immune response back off. | |
| One method for enhancing the cytotoxic anti-tumour response is by targeting receptors on certain immune cells that can result in the enhanced activation of these cytotoxic T-cells. One of these is the mannose receptor. However, this glycoprotein-binding receptor appears to have two functions: it can either potently enhance cytotoxic T-cell activation, or, in certain cases, reduce the activation of these T-cells when a vaccine is targeted towards it. Current tools, such as anti-MR antibodies and randomly glycosylated ligands fail to selectively enhance cytotoxic T-cell activation, as it appears that the receptor can distinguish between subtle differences in sugar coatings on the proteins it enhances. | |
| The main aim of this proposal is to determine what structural parameters of the glycoprotein antigen result in this enhanced cytotoxic T-cell activation. Furthermore, using new imaging techniques based on super resolution microscopy, it is the aim of the proposal to look at how the cells activating the cytotoxic T-cells treat vaccines differently in case of these different vaccines. | |
| The outcome of this proposal will hopefully be an improved understanding of how we can enhance this cytotoxic T-cell response. This, in the face of the recent breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapy, will lead to better, cheaper immunotherapies for cancer.","The aim of the project is therefor two-fold: | |
| On the one hand a library of biologically traceable single glycoform ligands are being synthesised that target different aspects of the biology of the mannose receptor. - with controlled variation in glycan nature, stoichiometry and positioning - for the MR and study differences in uptake, routing and antigen presentation. | |
| So far we have made a series of different antigens that contain bioorthogonal groups for imaging. We have made some cancer long peptide vaccines, as well as model protein antigens, and proteins related to auto-immune emergence. We have also made a series of carbohydrates targeting different binding domains of the carbohydrate receptors and constructs of these antigens modified with some of these sugars. We are now evaluating the immunological properties of these constructs. | |
| The 2nd aim is to develop a new imaging technique that will allow the subcellular tracking of the antigens as it being handled differently by the receptors. For this we have now developed an approach that allows the super-positioning of a super-resolution microscopy image of the bioorthogonal antigens on an 75 nanometer thin section of a cell and place it on top of an electron microscopy image of this same thin section. This way we can get the most information on the location of antigen as it is being processed in the cell.","We have progressed beyond the state of the art and the proposal w.r.t. the imaging method. The initial plan was to only look at super-resolution images of the antigen. However, by now being able to combine it with electron microscopy, we not only obtain information on the antigen, even as it is being degraded, we can place it in the context of the organelles in the cells where these antigens are found. | |
| By the end of the project, I hope to have met all goals, and imaged the different routes that antigens take depending on the glycan-mannose receptor interaction; both for cancer vaccine antigens, as well as for auto-immune antigens.",2018-08-10 09:54:49,,639005,Crosstag,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-StG-2014,https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/sander-van-kasteren | |
| 1470,186697,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - OpenAIRE2020 (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe 2020),"OpenAIRE has been working on establishing an open and sustainable scholarly communication infrastructure responsible for the overall management, analysis, manipulation, provision, monitoring and cross-linking of all research outcomes (publications, related datasets, software...","OpenAIRE has been working on establishing an open and sustainable scholarly communication infrastructure responsible for the overall management, analysis, manipulation, provision, monitoring and cross-linking of all research outcomes (publications, related datasets, software and services) across existing, planned and future repositories. Promote the discoverability and reuse of data-driven research results, across scientific disciplines and thematic domains. | |
| Towards its objective OpenAire2020 is moving gradually in forming a Legal Entity. The steps toward the legal entity are: | |
| o First, to establish a non-profit legal entity set up in one of the MS and with the explicit provision that other legal entities may be part of the OpenAIRE LE. The choice of jurisdiction should reflect the most favorable for the LE tax regime with the lowest possible cost with regards to formalities and paperwork. | |
| o Second, to start working on the establishment of the Open Science Partnership as a landmark initiative by the community with the support of the EC in order to secure the involvement and commitment of the Member States. | |
| o Third, 12 months after the OSP and the original OpenAIRE LE have been established, to initiate a process for establishing an OpenAIRE ERIC, having taken care of the operational, organizational and governance needs of the OpenAIRE community. | |
| OpenAire has the mandate for the FP7 Post Grant OA Pilot | |
| As of early December 2016, the FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilot has already funded over 550 Open Access publications arising from more than 530 finished FP7 projects (real time progress report can be found in the OpenAIREPost-grant FP7 Pilot portal). Five months away from its Apr 30th, 2017 end-date, the uptake for this post-grant funding initiative keeps steadily increasing and the awareness among eligible researchers and project coordinators is higher than ever before. This is a direct result of the intensive dissemination campaign for the initiative, that has included presentations at many of the National OpenAIRE Workshops held in different countries in the past few months. This outreach activity critically also covers direct communication with authors within the joint work with publishers for the implementation of the pre-payment agreements. | |
| Besides the standard APC/BPC funding mechanism, a parallel work line has been initiated for the implementation of the Alternative Funding Mechanism for APC-free Open Access journals and platforms. Eleven (11) bids from ten different European countries were selected for funding and are now working on the technical enhancement of their platforms with features such as OpenAIRE compliance, automatic collection of funder information in the article metadata or ORCID implementation among others. A mid-December workshop for the funded bidders was held in The Hague to enable a face-to-face discussion to explore synergies across frequently overlapping technical work.","Network Operation | |
| The monthly newsletter continue to go from strength to strength as instruments for NOAD engagement, allowing NOADs to contribute stories from their regions and informing the network of key developments in Open Science in Europe. | |
| The ‘NOAD Guide’ was revised for 2016 and was distributed early in the year to give update NOADs of the tasks ahead and set out all actions in more detail. | |
| Dissemination | |
| 6 factsheets have been created and updated for specific stakeholders, on specific themes, and have been downloaded from our site. The OpenAIRE blog continues to be a big success. 2016 saw more than 75 blog articles published (up from 52 in 2015) on a great range of themes related to OpenAIRE, Open Access and Open Science, including national updates, conference reports and updates on the progress of project tasks. The blog is open to direct editing by all project partners, and is a great engagement tool, especially for the NOADs, making the OpenAIRE blog a wide-ranging and important source of news about Open Access and Open Science from across Europe.me was delivered, adding further resources to the training package (video recordings, slides). | |
| Training and Support | |
| Activities were centered on the gathering, creating and disseminating support and training material. The team developed or revised a set of support tools:guides, FAQs, helpdesk, factsheets, information & dissemination material, copyright issues update and briefing papers. In parallel, an intensive webinar program | |
| Technical Activities | |
| OpenAIRE maintains four technical infrastructures including the production, beta, testing and development environments, each with its own backend and frontend. These include dedicated servers for individual services as well as separate Hadoop clusters for compute intensive tasks (again for testing, production, and a dedicated cluster for inference operations), adequate storage (separate for backups) hosted at ICM data centre facilities. A new cluster setup running on Cloudera Hadoop version 5 (CDH5) has been set up, configured and tuned for optimum performance to support the SPARK environment, the new system underlying the IIS.","Research Impact | |
| Going beyond the EC we have initiated collaborations with national funding agencies to provide the same funding extraction services. This will is an ongoing activity throughout the project life time and will result in the Funder Monitoring Dashboard, currently under design.The table below illustrates the progress on differentfunders, run on full texts. | |
| Based on OpenAIRE data for FP7, OpenAire has produced a first draft report to correlate OA EC’s publications with citation analysis metrics. The final report will be published in May 2017, to allow synching of FP7 publications from OpenAIRE with the (annual) release of Web of Science to produce the most relevant and complete possible analysis. | |
| The first draft study already delivers an interesting perspective on the European research landscape, the successful teams when it comes to EU funding from the FP7 programme, and the way these teams published in open access journals or not. Compared to other studies, we found that these teams do reach relative high impact scores on their open access format published research outputs. Yet another interesting finding was that in particular the East European member States seem to be relatively more successful in publishing in open access journals, as compared to their Western European partners/and/or competitors. More specifically, universities or research institutes in the engineering domains are quite successful in open access publishing.",2019-04-18 18:29:10,,643410,OpenAIRE2020,H2020-EU.1.4.1.3.,EINFRA-2-2014,https://www.openaire.eu/ | |
| 6454,214532,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BEYOND (Building EGNSS capacitY On EU Neighbouring multimodal Domains.),"The project’s aim consists of building capacity in the field of multimodal applications, especially focused on aviation using EGNSS (EGNOS and Galileo) in different Eastern European and Mediterranean countries. Capitalising on the lessons learnt and the knowledge acquired...","The project’s aim consists of building capacity in the field of multimodal applications, especially focused on aviation using EGNSS (EGNOS and Galileo) in different Eastern European and Mediterranean countries. | |
| Capitalising on the lessons learnt and the knowledge acquired through past and on-going projects, BEYOND continues what was already initiated in the target countries/regions, and puts in place an intensive/extensive programme of activities/actions, tailored on the specific needs/maturity and addressing both aviation and non-aviation domains. | |
| With relation to the call’s objectives, the ultimate goal of BEYOND is threefold: | |
| 1. Promoting the use of EGNSS and growing the interest towards EGNSS outside EU and thus possibly stimulating investments in relation to EGNSS | |
| 2. Preparing them towards an optimal adoption of EGNSS, and thus contributing to the growing of know-how, capacity and knowledge in relation to EGNSS outside EU | |
| 3. Supporting networking and liaisons between EU and non-EU players (from different sectors industry, institutions/authorities and research/academia/university – and communities - aviation and non-aviation), thus creating the basis for cooperation, the establishment of relationships possibly evolving into business opportunities. | |
| BEYOND’ consortium is purposely set-up to include an integrated team of EU and non-EU partners, led by the ESSP (European Satellite Services Provider) and involving different domains and communities (authorities, regulators, users, Service Providers, industries, researchers, ANSPs, consultants) throughout the target regions. | |
| BEYOND project represents an important asset in supporting the GSA in the implementation of EGNSS applications in the wider Europe.","WP1000 led by the ESSP and is dedicated to the management of the project. | |
| The core of the activities is developed in WP2000 and WP3000; while WP4000 has been key in the dissemination and communication of the project together with the organisation and celebration for the Final User Forum (FUF). | |
| WP2000 - BHANSA participated as external trainee in sWP2500, executing the three steps of the capacity building methodology: | |
| o PBN Strategy on GNSS | |
| o LPV Procedure Design | |
| The work was presented during the FUF. | |
| WP2000 activities thus achieved all the planned milestones. | |
| WP3000 - The second reporting period covered the finalisation of sWP3200, sWP3400 & sWP3500 (TPZ leader, ENAV, TMoT, Helios, Bites as contributors). | |
| The work performed by ENAV together with Albcontrol on sWP3200 consisted of: | |
| • design and validation of RNP APCH for Tirana airport; local safety assessment; flight trials. | |
| • feasibility study for RNP APCH on a new location based on an existing airport | |
| • development of a PBN strategy in support to the national PBN Plan to be developed with the NSA. | |
| The flight validation demonstrated RNP APCH flyability at Tirana airport constituting a valid backup to ILS outage. | |
| Albcontrol will require: | |
| - the legal base in place (EWA for non EU countries) | |
| - the PBN national strategy (developed in Beyond) | |
| sWP3400 focused on the identification and tailoring of the Turkish specific needs, aimed at empowering its capacity and preparing the country for an optimal adoption of E-GNSS. | |
| These activities included preparation, organization and execution of the BEYOND Workshop for Turkey, “EGNSS Applications of interest and Roadmap for Turkey (Event 2)” and follow-up. | |
| The Workshop (Ankara - May), raised awareness on E-GNSS and its applications offering the opportunity to interact and exchange information with the main Turkish stakeholders and institutions. | |
| Support by the ESSP was given to this Event directly. | |
| The Workshop presented Turkey’s needs and potential applications benefiting from E-GNSS: | |
| • Road – Tolling and Emergency Management services | |
| • Rail – Signalling systems | |
| • Maritime – Transport | |
| sWP3500 activities focused on Turkey through the development of its EGNSS Roadmap. | |
| A detailed analysis of E-GNSS applications was carried out to derive specific user needs and identify key applications in each domain: | |
| • feedback was collected from Turkish Stakeholders on the roadmap; | |
| • a Cost Benefit Analysis was produced. | |
| The reference roadmap detailed infrastructure and service needs, identified opportunities and priorities, defined actions/actors and timeline to support applications' development. | |
| The overall analysis and final results were assembled in an enhanced Roadmap. | |
| ________________________________________ | |
| The main companies involved in WP4000 (ESSP, TPZ, INECO, GMV) developed the activities bearing in mind the importance of communicating the project’s achievements through the different channels available to the Project: publications, papers, articles, project webpage and social media. | |
| The main activities performed by the BEYOND project inside WP4000 in the second period include: | |
| 1) News update of the webpage and classroom tailoring for BHANSA | |
| 2) Presentation of results (papers @ENC2017, Switzerland). | |
| 3) Support to internal events (i.e. Event 2 in Ankara, Turkey) | |
| 4) Deliverables (Project Public Letter and Presentation, Contact List and Final User Forum Report) | |
| 5) Preparation, organisation and execution of the FUF (June - Tallinn, ESTONIA), where most of the endeavour went. | |
| The FUF organised and led by the ESSP, supported by GMV, TPZ, INECO and the rest of the Partners, was a key milestone for the Project, demonstrating the good results obtained and showing to external invitees and the GSA the achievements made. | |
| The emphasis was given to the presentation of the project’s main achievements and lessons learnt during the project, especially from WP2000 & WP3000 involved partners. The feedba","For the second reporting period, the potential impact of the capacity building activity (mainly WP2500 and WP3200) was appreciated at three different levels, mimicking the results of the previous period: | |
| • Personal level | |
| • Organization level | |
| • Country level | |
| ________________________________________ | |
| Results from WP3000 and the multimodal domain have shown strong interest for E-GNSS in the Euromed and East European countries and specifically to applications fulfilling the countries’ specific necessities. | |
| Specifically the project has identified: | |
| • Recommendations for improving sites and capabilities of GNSS stations; accessibility and availability of raw data; expand use of GNSS sources to applications of major interest for the involved countries/sub-regions. | |
| • The specific analysis showed that Israel and Turkey have very dense networks allowing these countries to implement GNSS performance monitoring services. In addition, their neighbouring countries could “take advantage” of the extension of said networks. | |
| The feedback to the Roadmap and the CBA report showed TMoT's and other stakeholders’ high interest in GNSS integration in infrastructure development plans. | |
| The BEYOND project has posed the basis for developing new initiatives and a future collaboration between EU and Turkey on EGNSS.",2018-10-16 12:38:37,,641607,BEYOND,H2020-EU.2.1.6.,GALILEO-4-2014,http://www.beyondproject.eu | |
| 9399,185744,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INNOEM (Innovative energy management technology for smart energy decisions),"The key challenge for energy efficiency in Europe is to enable individuals to make smart energy decisions in their homes based on tools and methods that are easy to deploy and operate. Indeed, the analyses show that the largest cost-effective energy savings potential lies in...","The key challenge for energy efficiency in Europe is to enable individuals to make smart energy decisions in their homes based on tools and methods that are easy to deploy and operate. Indeed, the analyses show that the largest cost-effective energy savings potential lies in the residential (households) and commercial (tertiary) buildings sectors, with savings potentials of 27 % and 30 % respectively. However, this potential for savings largely remains untapped as energy users do not have the information needed to make informed decisions about their energy investments. Watty has developed an innovative solution that will give households an easily accessible and at the same time detailed picture of their energy use per appliance, and therefore enable them to take control of their overall energy consumption. | |
| The objective of the present project was to assess the commercial feasibility of a market introduction of the innovation in Europe and to draw up a first business plan and strategy for its commercialisation, taking into account the needs and expectations of the users.",The project activities focused on a strategic business review including an investigation of the user groups and their needs; an overall analysis of the market trends and conditions; an assessment of the competitive landscape and an analysis of the economics of the business. A thorough mapping of the needs of users has been conducted and the value propositions towards end-users and customers in the utility sector have been defined. A benchmarking study against competitors was undertaken with positive results that highlight our competitive advantage. The business model has been outlined and a first strategy to reach the targeted users was drawn up.,"The study provided a positive confirmation of the technical and commercial feasibility of the business innovation project. The project also paved the way for the next step in the further development and commercialisation of the innovation, which will consist of a larger demonstration project in three national markets across Europe. The expected outcome of the innovation business project is to develop an innovative energy management system that enables households to transform the energy saving potential into concrete action in their homes and thereby contributes to reduced energy consumption and lower carbon footprint of the European households",2018-08-07 15:16:25,,673998,INNOEM,H2020-EU.3.3.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SIE-01-2014-1,http://watty.io/ | |
| 213,200963,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - eHERITAGE (Expanding the Research and Innovation Capacity in Cultural Heritage Virtual Reality Applications),eHERITAGE (‘Expanding the Research and Innovation Capacity in Cultural Heritage Virtual Reality Applications’) is a Coordination and Support project which addresses the “twinning” challenges described in the topic H2020-TWINN-2015 of the Work programme. eHERITAGE's...,"eHERITAGE (‘Expanding the Research and Innovation Capacity in Cultural Heritage Virtual Reality Applications’) is a Coordination and Support project which addresses the “twinning” challenges described in the topic H2020-TWINN-2015 of the Work programme. eHERITAGE's coordinating institution University Transilvania of Brasov (UTBv) will achieve excellence in the field of virtual heritage by twinning with other 2 research centers, Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) from Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna from Pisa, Italy. | |
| Given the high touristic potential of Brasov, UTBv’s initiative fits perfectly in the regional innovation strategy for economic growth and prosperity. eHERITAGE participants will collaborate with local authorities for exploiting and disseminating virtual applications in cultural heritage conservation. The measures foreseen in eHERITAGE project will influence the social, economic and cultural environment at regional level, in a multiplicative way, making room for strategic partnerships with other research institutes or with commercial agents. | |
| The general objective of eHERITAGE project is to increase the capacity, quality and extent of the research staff of Transilvania University of Brasov, by establishing strong and sustainable research cooperation schemes with the partners, based on close scientific and social interaction. | |
| In order to achieve this strategic objective, three major operational goals are set: | |
| - INCREASED SCOPE AND COMPETITIVE RESEARCH - UTBv personnel will specialize in a new research field. | |
| - TRAINING and MOBILITY of researchers - UTBv personnel will be involved in events and short exchanges. | |
| - CONTINUOUS R&I EXTENDING - eHERITAGE will create sustainable strategic partnerships with other centers of excellence.","In the first 15 months of the project, eHERITAGE consortium managed to target all 3 objectives. Considerable efforts were spent on achieving all the milestones set for this period: | |
| - MS1 - Project website completed and online | |
| eHERITAGE.org was built as a key component of the project. The website holds both public and private information, separated by password protected areas. | |
| - MS2 - Quality, ethics and security forms | |
| The project achieved this milestone by completing the correspondent deliverables (D5.3 Quality assurance plan, D5.4 Ethics assurance plan and D5.5 Security assurance plan). | |
| - MS3 - Improved research profile in the first year | |
| In the last 21 months of the project, eHERITAGE consortium managed to target all 3 objectives and to complete all milestones set for this period: | |
| - MS5 - ASI programme | |
| - MS6 - Improved research profile in the second year | |
| - MS7 - Stage one in the improved partnership profile | |
| - MS8 - Stage two in the improved partnership profile | |
| - MS9 - Improved research profile in the third year | |
| Participating at numerous national and international events, the eHERITAGE project has had an important impact on all participants due to the novelty and importance of our results. Young participants and non-traditional audiences had the chance to see first-hand some of the systems developed by our team during the following events: | |
| - EU Open Day (2018) in Brussels, Belgium (over 5000 participants) | |
| - European Researchers’ Night (2017 and 2018) in Brașov, Romania (over 10000 participants) | |
| - Internet Festival (2017) in Pisa, Italy (over 6000 participants) | |
| - ICIF (2018) in Shenzen, China (over 10000 participants) | |
| Additionally, the project received local and national TV coverage and was presented in various online and offline national and international newspapers.","At the beginning of the project, UTBv had only 3 publications related to the subject of digital heritage. After the first 15 months of the project, members of UTBv participated in several conferences and workshops, interacted with local museums for organizing exhibitions and summer schools and even submitted a new H2020 proposal. Even though the project hasn’t even reach half of its period, quantifiable results can already be seen in the research profile of UTBv. eHERITAGE plans to attract large public and to raise awareness on the selected field of study. Romania's cultural heritage is vast and diverse. However, UNESCO’s World Heritage list on Romania includes only 7 cultural properties: the Churches of Moldavia, the Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains, the Historic Centre of Sighişoara, the Monastery of Horezu, the Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania and the Wooden Churches of Maramureş. Aside from these, there are many other cultural and touristic objectives which would greatly benefit from eHERITAGE’s results. From small children to university students, VR equipment and applications present a high attraction degree which in term raises the curiosity and the interest of the users. By creating applications for cultural heritage sites, eHERITAGE contributes to the spread of knowledge in the fields of history and arts, and having a department specialized in these techniques which is based in Romania if the first step in consolidating this research field in the eastern Europe. | |
| During the last two years of the project, we have conducted a several studies in the field of cultural heritage, a few of them being associated with various 3rd party institutions involved in the cultural heritage domain. They became partners with us for future studies and also for future research projects in this domain. | |
| Among the institutions which interacted with eHERITAGE we can list the History Museum of Brașov, the Evangelical Church of Prejmer (UNESCO monument), National College “Andrei Șaguna”, County Library “George Barițiu”, the University “Ovidius” of Constanța, the Museum of History and Archeology of Constanța, the Museum of Archeology from Cecina, the Museum Capitolini of Rome, the Museo di Roma, the National Gallery of Slovenia and the University of Padova. | |
| eHERITAGE also became member of several networks of excellence, associations and organizations such as Europa Nostra, European Association for Digital Humanities (EADH), Future for Religious Heritage (FRH) and the European Network on Cultural Management and Policy (ENCATC). The project was featured in regional, national and international media outlets. Moreover, it was presented as a successful story on the portal of the European Union.",2019-04-30 22:54:30,,692103,eHERITAGE,H2020-EU.4.b.,H2020-TWINN-2015,http://www.eheritage.org/ | |
| 4926,214588,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NEWCORT (Novel Processes and Equipment in Composite Repair Technology),"The main objective of NEWCORT is to develop and validate novel processes and equipment for the repair of advanced composite airframes. To this end, “Composite Repair Heating and Polymerization Process Monitoring” has been identified as being the most critical issue while...","The main objective of NEWCORT is to develop and validate novel processes and equipment for the repair of advanced composite airframes. To this end, “Composite Repair Heating and Polymerization Process Monitoring” has been identified as being the most critical issue while having the highest potential for further developments. Novel heating processes and equipment will focus on the polymerization of new types of resins (e.g. starting from M20/M21 variables ranging at curing at 120-140oC), possibly including thermoplastic materials, through application of innovative instruments and methods: | |
| • Design of range of GMI heating blankets adapted to most frequent internal structural configuration specificities (i.e. according to internal heat sinks due to structural elements etc.), | |
| • Sensing mats with embedded thermocouples and dielectric sensors, for resin curing progress and viscosity monitoring, | |
| • New power supply and control logic of heating consoles for optimized performance and for “driving” the novel heating blankets and sensing mats, | |
| • Development of heating simulation software for selection of blankets and Thermocouples installation topology, | |
| • Introduction of the CONDUCTOR* blanket logic (i.e. consumable heating blankets) to target repair configurations. | |
| • Development of Quick Composite Repair (QCR) kits for most frequent aircraft repair cases. | |
| In addition, “Composite Repair Associated Procedures”, namely material removal & surface preparation, NDT and positive pressure application for improved compaction of patch layers, will be similarly addressed: | |
| • For material removal, main developments include process optimization to enable close tolerance applications for curved thick composite structures. This will be potentially combined with scarfed pre-cured patches, examination of simplifications in stepping requirements and adaptation of material removal equipment to most frequent repair geometries (e.g. fuselage curvature). | |
| • The development of positive pressure application equipment for flat / curved structures will be examined, together with optimized pressure measurement devices and control software, mountable to most frequent repair cases (e.g. composite fuselage curvature). | |
| • Finally, in terms of NDT, optimization of existing U/S NDT application procedures will be studied, together with the development of repair specific calibration specimens. Moreover, the development of an NDI / quality assurance process as an alternative to Process Control Specimen will be attempted.","The following activities have been performed during the 1st Reporting Period: | |
| • Determination of all parameters and constraints related to the operation of equipment, software and procedures. Issue of corresponding Deliverable 1.1 | |
| • Preliminary analysis and design of the novel equipment and issue of corresponding Deliverable 1.2 | |
| • Definition of the demonstration cases and the exact validation plan for the project technologies, in order to issue the corresponding Deliverable 1.3. | |
| • Technical work for the development of innovative solutions contained in WP2-WP3, as described in detail within the corresponding Tasks. | |
| • Further to the Kick-Off meeting (January 2016) implementation of visits to the Topic Manager's premises (December 2016 and April 2017) corresponding to several project Tasks, focusing on thermal equipment and methodologies.","The overall concept of the NEWCORT is to provide the Topic Manager with a “toolset” of novel processes and associated equipment, so as to enable the development of tailored solutions to address typical damages to be repaired by the whole range of stakeholders of the aeronautical industry (aircraft manufacturers, airlines, MROs etc.), such as lightning strike and accidental impact. As detailed in the following Paragraphs of the NEWCORT proposal, this “toolset”, which covers the whole range of the bonded composite repair procedure, (e.g. damage removal, NDT, repair patch polymerization, etc) is comprised of: | |
| - State-of-the-art solutions, currently available to the aeronautical market by GMI Aero (i.e. TRL-9), which will be tailored to Topic Manager’s requirements within NEWCORT. | |
| - Innovative solutions developed in previous FP7/Transport and Cleansky projects in cooperation with NEWCORT partners (TRL5-6), which will be further matured within NEWCORT. | |
| To this end, structure configurations will be selected by the Topic Manager and the composite repair processes and associated equipment will be commonly selected between the Topic Manager and the NEWCORT Consortium, so that the “toolset” solutions are tailored to those configurations. The selected processes will be characterized, as per a test matrix defined by the Topic manager, against time saving vs. state of the art repair process, mechanical properties of the repair patch, NDI capability of the repair patch, resistance to aggressive media, electrical properties etc. Based on a defined qualification process applicable in aeronautical context, a full testing and validation process of innovative solutions and equipment will be performed, according to requirements defined by the Topic Manager, in order to demonstrate the different repair process compatibility with surface coatings generally used in aeronautics, typical ageing with temperature and humidity cycling corresponding to normal use of aircraft. | |
| Socio-economic impact: The major socio-economic impact of the NEWCORT project will be the reinforcement of the competitiveness of Europe’s aircraft industry and European aircraft operators. In the year 2011, the European aerospace industry employed 479.600 persons; Europe’s airline industry employed approximately 390.000 persons. Both the aircraft production and airline operation industries are active on the most globalized markets; therefore the conservation and future expansion of employment will necessitate a highly increased competitiveness. The project results will play a key role in addressing this issue, both by generating added product value for aircraft manufacturers and reduced cost and time investments for production and ground operations. Additionally the NEWCORT project will assist the development of high technology SMEs, where job opportunities will be developed for the final industrialization of composite repair and OOA manufacturing techniques as well as future market entry within Europe. Another important aspect will be the increased safety resulting from more reliable components and processes. This is one of the major criteria for the European aerospace industry to belong to the market leaders within this business sector. | |
| Technical impact: The innovations aimed at within NEWCORT will have strong technical impacts regarding the knowledge about highly integrated lightweight CFRP structures in all aerospace applications and necessary certification. Due to the development of reliable repair techniques and equipment, the increased integration of innovative materials will be enabled. Novel light-weight design of CFRP structural components will be possible and will lead to weight savings (up to 15%) of the aircraft. Even further weight saving are expected for CFRP integration in interior design and system components. Additionally the delivery of new, reliable bonded composite repair processes and equipment improves the safety and operational capability",2019-02-28 12:09:23,,686701,NEWCORT,H2020-EU.3.4.5.4.,JTI-CS2-2014-CFP01-AIR-02-05, | |
| 5220,198566,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - U2PIA (Universal application 2 conduct Privacy Impact Assessment analysis and reports),"Nier Soluzioni Informatiche is an innovative software company that operates since 2002 in the fields of security compliance, privacy compliance, and counselling on the protection of personal information in collaboration with law firms. We have a strong history and capacity to...","Nier Soluzioni Informatiche is an innovative software company that operates since 2002 in the fields of security compliance, privacy compliance, and counselling on the protection of personal information in collaboration with law firms. We have a strong history and capacity to develop new products and services (~10% revenue growth), ~€4,1M turnover in 2015 with currently 80 employees, with established commercialization channels, and a big customer base of both private companies and public entities. | |
| With the support of Orlandi & Partners Studio Legale, renowned legal experts focused on privacy and data protection that bring their deep expertise in legal privacy matters, we are launching U2PIA, a disruptive cloud platform designed to enable creation of in-depth analysis of the risks to which Personal Data are subject through a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA). Our platform will address the requirements of the mandatory European regulation (approved on 2016/04/14, all EU member countries must have transposed it by 2018-05-06, and it shall apply from 2018-05-25), to avoid the huge penalties and severe sanctions that they could suffer if not executing properly this action (failure to comply exhibit manager to sanction a risk up to 20 million euros or, if higher, up to 4% of annual worldwide turnover).","To assess the technical viability of U2PIA, we have: | |
| • Established a development and testing methodology that maximises reliability and user engagement. | |
| • Deployed a development and testing infrastructure following the agile development methodology. | |
| • Plan our future DEVOPS infrastructure (development operations) architecture that will allow us to maintain 3 different versions of our solution in 3 different sites: (1) production site; (2) internal testing site; and (3) internal development site. | |
| • Defined the final version of our multi-tenant architecture. | |
| • Advance in the development of each of the layers of our solution and prepare next steps, identifying both the resources and the development time to complete our solution, including a preliminary budget. | |
| • Identified the main development risks and defined mitigation measures and contingency strategies. | |
| • Finally, we have defined our needs in regards with the recruitment process to strengthen our team and implement the devised developments to finalise U2PIA. | |
| To assess the commercial and financial viability, we have: | |
| • Carried out a thorough market study, and established both our total available market (TAM), our potential market and the primary segments to focus on during the first 5-years of business. | |
| • Run a market survey among a set of representative end-users of each of the targeted primary segments to further adapt our tool to each user profile and well-adapt to real users’ needs. | |
| • Recruited the support of a set of representative end-users that will help us test our solution and validate the final commercial version. | |
| • Defined a strategy that maximises our strengths to fully leverage the immense opportunity coming from this EU-wide need to realise PIAs. | |
| • Built a preliminary commercialization and marketing plan (including SEO/SEM actions), accurately determining margin, price strategy, distribution channels, partnerships, including a preliminary estimation of the budget for commercialisation and exploitation actions. | |
| • We have defined our IPR strategy and carried out freedom to operate studies, executing several measures to protect our IP rights and guarantee full freedom to commercialise U2PIA. | |
| • Finally, we have identified the main commercialisation risks, setting mitigation measures and contingency strategies. | |
| To assess the financial viability of our project, we have: | |
| • Elaborated trading projections for different scenarios (worst-case and realistic), paying attention to a well-defined cost-structure that validate both the financial and the business viability of U2PIA even in the worst-case scenario. | |
| • Elaborated the overall budget for executing both Phase-2 and the subsequent Phase-3 (commercialisation), and validated that we count with all necessary human and material resources.","U2PIA addresses the EU goal of accelerating the realisation of PIAs with a simple, didactic and affordable cloud-based tool that has no competitors as of today, pushing small and medium enterprises towards compliancy with the new EU directive. Moreover, we address effectively the demand coming from more than 20 million SMEs in Europe in the need of such tool with a wide portfolio of solutions that perfectly adapts to each targeted segment (DPOs/Consultants, SMEs, Public Instances) considering their specific needs and budget limitations. | |
| U2PIA business opportunity will let us monetize our knowledge in ICT risk and privacy assessments through a full portfolio of B2B services customised for each segment. An opportunity that we value in a European Total Available Market of 200,000+ public instances, 250,000+ consultants and DPOs (Data Protection Officers) and 21 million private companies, all of them in the need of affordable and educational ICT risk assessment tools valid to perform the mandatory PIA.",2019-02-20 17:25:47,,743996,U2PIA,H2020-EU.3.7.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-13-2016-2017,http://www.u2pia.eu | |
| 7874,218786,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GREENTOP (GREENTOP - Gamification of cRowdcomputing to ENhance EarTh Observation data Processing),"GREENTOP – Gamification of cRowdcomputing to ENhance EarTh Observation data Processing is feasibility study performed by one of the leading eGovernment software providers in Romania, aiming to diversify its portfolio with Earth Observation (Copernicus) specific services...","GREENTOP – Gamification of cRowdcomputing to ENhance EarTh Observation data Processing is feasibility study performed by one of the leading eGovernment software providers in Romania, aiming to diversify its portfolio with Earth Observation (Copernicus) specific services (data processing). Mainly targeting the company’s expert area, new services for public authorities are first to be provided, followed by downstream applications for Environment NGO’s, supporting the processing of EO Big Data. The goal is to promote usage of space technologies (i.e. space imagery) amongst large masses of users and produce processed data in near-real-time, thanks to large community involvement, whilst developing a new business model for the company. | |
| The GREENTOP work aims to identify market opportunities and barriers against implementing a gamification process that brings (free) ESA Earth Observation data and its processing closer to End-users. The approach for the feasibility study is to identify markets, assess technical specifications for the technology, define the gamification process and create an action plan or business plan. The impact of the Phase 1 work on the company is described in the end of the deliverable. | |
| The initial business plan for GREENTOP was to create a simple browser plugin that users install and which uses their spare processing power to seamlessly process Sentinel 1 and 2 data, to achieve land use monitoring. | |
| The purpose is involving masses (communities) in EO Data Processing and creating crowdprocessed databases of landuse. | |
| The importance for society comes from the main market issues in Europe concerning Earth Observation Data Usage: | |
| The European Market for Earth Observation (and Satellite Data in general) is very fragmented. The most important clients are still in the public sector (>50% market share). SME’s offer limited solutions in Space Research and Development due to several factors, such as data costs, low resolution of free available data, aggressive competitiveness with large companies such as Google, Esri or Microsoft, which provide high resolution data for free (although not relevant in scientific environments). | |
| Free satellite data (mainly from Copernicus) is useful for prototyping, but high accuracy products such as consumer-oriented applications, building management, urban planning and landscaping, etc. require higher resolution to be competitive. | |
| The expected prices drop for high resolution data in the following years and constant increase in satellite constellations will enable SME’s in Europe to create small-scale applications and consumer-driven tools. | |
| Therefore, the period 2017-2020 is the best period to invest in EO data R&D and product design. | |
| Another issue of the EO Data Market is the lack of awareness, both amongst public administrations (especially, but not limited to Eastern Europe), universities and SME’s, which, in turn, generates a limited number of data scientists and ICT experts capable of creating and delivering applications. | |
| Earth Observation Data Processing is the final objective of GREENTOP. Via community efforts, vast amounts of data can be observed, analyzed, processed and validated. Data processing can be performed both via automatic processing and semiautomatic processing. Automatic processing has a lower degree of accuracy, but requires practically no human effort, while semiautomatic processing implies that human contributors input some reference points that artificial intelligence algorithms use to classify EO data. Hybrid solutions are the best road to take. | |
| The project’s objectives (correlated with the work programme) are to | |
| • engage small and medium enterprises in space research and development, especially those not traditionally involved in it | |
| • cover any aspect of the Specific Programme for Space […] especially in connection to the flagship programmes Galileo and Copernicus | |
| • produce processed data in near-real-time, thanks to large commun","The team worked on identifying market opportunities and barriers, assessing corresponding ethical issues (mostly regarding the Privacy Personal Data Protection and „Cookies” ), developing technical specifications, developing a gamification plan, creating an action/business plan. | |
| The general Earth Observation market was analyzed from two perspectives: General issues and opportunities and the company's main business/clients. | |
| Furthermore, the Market from the GREENTOP perspective consists of Enthusiasts, Public Authorities, Climate Change and Natural Sites Protection NGOs, The European Space Agency and business partners (Startup communities, Clusters, companies). | |
| The technical specifications assessment has identified some technical bottlenecks that need to be tackled before GREENTOP can become a product. The issues are related to web application development. | |
| The practical approach for crowdcomputing was assessed via a Facebook campaign and direct contact to NGOs. | |
| A working prototype (TRL4) was created for IoT devices based on Raspberry Pi, which is capable of automatically downloading Sentinel2 Data for a given area, merging it into one picture (taking care of overlaps), dividing the complete image into smaller pieces, sending bands and algorithms for processing to Raspberry Pi microcomputers or devices and receiving the classified map. Data is then uploaded to the ESA funded EO Clim Lab platform on which GREENTOP leverages. | |
| The gamification process was divided into 4 approaches, targeting different communities: Enthusiasts, Municipalities (local communities), Climate Change Mitigation and Natural Protection Stakeholders and Education, of which two were detailed: the Smart Natural Reserve (a Smart City derivation for self-sustainable natural protected sites) and the Application Development Framework (a toolkit for rapid prototyping and web/mobile application development using EO data). | |
| The infrastructure necessary for the gamification process was defined, as well as the reward system of both virtual, real and motivational rewards. | |
| The European Space Agency was contacted and the work performed for GREENTOP will be presented to a ESA organized conference on Satelite Data analysis. | |
| The business plan, or rather Action plan was refined, with a practical approach, considering the company's relevant existing pool of customers and market mature products that can be enhanced by the usage of EO data.","Gamification is one of the best tools to engage large numbers of people in performing some activity. The Game needs to be very well designed, both from the user interface perspective and the gameplay (scenario activities, user choices, relevance and fun) perspective. Badges, IoT devices, leaderboards, are the first level of rewards, but for the game to flourish up, it needs to do more. Thereby, involving large communities and NGO’s is crucial. Users efforts (data validation, data input) should be rewarded by supporting a cause or NGO related to climate change mitigation. | |
| Crowdcomputing was originally designed as a browser plugin that runs in the background while users surf the web. Due to technical issues that need several additional steps before such plugin can be created, the original idea was shifted towards using IoT devices capable of multitasking. Wildlife monitoring or traffic cameras, air quality or weather stations, or even vacuum cleaners can be built using Raspberry Pi microcomputers. While performing their normal activities or while resting, those devices can use the processing power to analyze EO data inside the GREENTOP network, while their owner is rewarded via the gamification process. | |
| Return of Investment - The work conducted in the Phase 1 produced several benefits for the company. It defined a velar pathway for delivering better products to its customers and generated commercial agreements already. | |
| • The GREENTOP prototype – TRL 4 – is used to automatically download Sentinel 2 data, merge it into one image, split data processing tasks to IoT devices (we used wildlife monitoring cameras and independent Raspberry Pi devices) and, rebuild the processed image (landuse – 4 classes) and publish it to EO Clim Lab Platform. | |
| • The company signed a new commercial contract for an EO based solution that uses GREENTOP algorithms and capabilities to process commercial data and identify urban green areas. | |
| • New partnerships were created and existing partnerships were enhanced | |
| • Company products have been analyzed and 2 products are to be enhanced with EO data in the following 1-3 years | |
| • Image boost due to invitation to Events and positive press releases, as well as the formidable Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Champion branding. | |
| • Due to the Company’s main revenue stream (building software for the local governments in Romania), and mature products, the company has the opportunity to become a data provider, consolidate its market position and go upstream into the data processors (and resellers) category, where the added value is significantly more important. | |
| Social Return of Investment | |
| EO data provides tremendous opportunities for companies to give back to society. NGO partnerships and support, educating students (via internship programmes), organizing hackathons or just creating awareness regarding opportunities related to EO data are sufficient examples for Social Return. | |
| Thanks to GREENTOP, 50 students in the Cluj Napoca Technical University - North University Centre Baia Mare had the opportunity of making their first contact with EO data, satellites and ESA’s Copernicus programme. One of the students decided and is supported by the company in creating his bachelor studies diploma paper on EO software development. | |
| Municipalities in Romania were made aware of opportunities presented by ESA free data.",2018-08-29 17:49:08,,773660,GREENTOP,H2020-EU.2.1.6.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-04-2016-2017,http://www.greentop.space | |
| 4976,215038,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PRENET (Social Networking and Raw Material Selectivity in Early Prehistoric Mediterranean Seascapes),The PRENET aimed at investigating the extent and directions of social communication in the early prehistory of the Eastern Mediterranean seascape and the cognitive/behavioural factors behind the observed patterns.The specific scientific objectives of the proposal were: 1) the...,"The PRENET aimed at investigating the extent and directions of social communication in the early prehistory of the Eastern Mediterranean seascape and the cognitive/behavioural factors behind the observed patterns. | |
| The specific scientific objectives of the proposal were: 1) the investigation of social interactions in Eastern Mediterranean through the examination of raw material movement in early prehistoric Cyprus and, 2) the determination of cognitive/behavioural elements behind our ancestors’ choices of specific raw materials, through the study of raw material selectivity. | |
| Misconceptions abound with regards to the eastern part of the Mediterranean, and especially the island of Cyprus, with current notions seeing the sea as a barrier to early human presence. However, given its geographical location and its complex ecology and habitats, this lack of human presence in Cyprus seems to be research–related rather than factual. The new data that PRENET generated contribute significantly to this debate by establishing the presence of long-distance, continuous and multi-directional social interactions between Cyprus and the mainland during the Early Holocene contrary to what was previously believed. | |
| The research conducted within the framework of PRENET advanced archaeological science beyond the state-of-the-art by 1) the documenting human mobility (social networking) in eastern Mediterranean in the Early Holocene, 2) defining the nature, underlying factors and patterns of raw material selectivity in the chosen region and, 3) arguing that the conventional view, which sees the inhabitants of the Mediterranean islands living in comparative isolation with ‘impoverished’ adaptations and limited cognitive/social skills, is firmly challenged by new data. | |
| By addressing these issues PRENET has had a significant impact on European society as it is prepared and proposed in times of pan-European financial recollection and austerity, which greatly affect research and innovation in general, and particularly Social Sciences and Humanities. PRENET aimed to achieve a research-driven advancement in the field of Social Sciences & Humanities, which will promote gender balance, excellence and skills development within the ERA and particularly within one of the less prevalent areas of the EU. At the same time Europe will also benefit, as the project helped foster a sense of European identity among the younger generation of researchers. PRENET’s outreach activities aim at raising awareness about the importance of developing active citizenship that is open to the world, respects cultural diversity a cultural diversity and reflects the basic values of the EU. The programme took into account the richness of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Mediterranean area and considers it a crucial element of human development strategies as well as an essential tool of cultural diversity as the main condition of intercultural dialogue. PRENET with its research focus on the Mediterranean region and work-base in a politically, geographically and historically significant part of the Mediterranean world, i.e. Cyprus, has significantly contributed to the development and promotion of the Euro-Mediterranean cultural heritage.","""PRENET was divided in six work packages each pertaining to a specific set of activities for the timely implementation of the project. Specifically, scientific training on analytical techniques for geochemical characterisation of artefacts, geospatial and statistical analysis, petrography and geology of Cyprus. Complimentary skills were also targeted, including teaching, grant and peer-reviewed paper writing, management skills, reviewer skils, conference organisation, as well as research integrity and health and safety. The research comprised of a literature review component, including archives and museum collections and the geochemical analysis of 1000 artefacts (obsidian, carnelian and picrolite) located at various museums within Cyprus, followed by the geochemical/geological surveying of in situ picrolite outcrops on Cyprus. National and international conferences were targeted for the dissemination of the project's results and outcomes with oral and poster presentations as well as peer-reviewed papers in international journals and conference proceedings. The wider public was targeted with a series of outreach activities that involved participation in events, such as """"Researcher's Night 2016"""" and public talks and seminars, as well as through social media, including a website dedicated to PRENET, and press releases/articles in public newspapers.""","The scientific activities of PRENET have progressed the study of Cypriot prehistory well beyond the state-of-the-art and generated data with wider implications to the broader field of Eastern Mediterranean archaeology. In the course of the project, nearly a thousand artefacts were geochemically analysed (the first large scale analysis of lithic collections ever to be conducted in the broader region) - this is all the obsidian, carnelian and picrolite artefacts from Early Holocene Cyprus. The new data resulted in the elemental (geochemical) characterisation of archaeological material and their fingerprinting to sources of origin. This enabled the reconstruction of social interactions/networks within and between Cyprus and the mainland in a precise and secure manner. Analytically, PRENET provided also the first results on the elemental characterisation of carnelian and picrolite, two materials very important in eastern Mediterranean prehistory, albeit very little studied using cutting-edge technologies. | |
| The project’s dissemination and outreach activities raised awareness in Palaeolithic Archaeology and the ancient technology of stone tool making in university students with a new full-term course offered to University of Cyprus students but also to school children of all ages with workshops/events and hands-on experimentation in flint-knapping. The feedback has been extremely positive with children being very excited and happy to learn while “playing” with rocks. This opens up new opportunities for introducing the wider society in new and fun ways of learning about their past. It is expected that the wider public’s interest in such activities could potentially have a socio-economic impact on Cyprus by renewing the public’s interest in educational tourism, e.g. visiting prehistoric archaeological sites around the island or even by establishing open days where the public can join specialists, for example the project’s Experienced Researcher and others, in learning about ancient technologies and the field of Archaeology in general through games and hands-on experiments.",2019-02-27 09:33:36,,656148,PRENET,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,http://www.ucy.ac.cy/prenet/ | |
| 409,191332,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FINEST TWINS (FINEST TWINS),The core aim of the FINEST Twins first stage project is to prepare a business plan for the second stage. The detailed and competitive business plan was submitted 31.05.2016 and is briefly summarised below. The FINEST Twins will build a Smart City Center of Excellence (CoE)...,"The core aim of the FINEST Twins first stage project is to prepare a business plan for the second stage. The detailed and competitive business plan was submitted 31.05.2016 and is briefly summarised below. | |
| The FINEST Twins will build a Smart City Center of Excellence (CoE) based in Estonia capable of mobilising all leading actors and stakeholders in Estonia and establish a solid long term partnership with their Helsinki region counterparts, | |
| capitalising on the macro region’s scientific knowledge, innovativeness and entrepreneurship. The Helsinki region and Estonia are top-performers in the fields of smart city and e-government, the CoE will build on this strong leadership. | |
| The FINEST Twins will match regional smart specialisation strategies and key global challenges in the times of fast urbanisation. Therefore, the smart-city CoE will focus on mobility, energy and built environment glued together by | |
| governance and urban analytics. The aim of the CoE is to match leading smart-city research centers globally by 2024 (e.g. UCL’s CASA, MIT’s Senseable City Lab and others). | |
| Innovation activities will be built on top of CoE's excellent research, which will ensure the applicability of the research outputs and directly impact the competitiveness of the local industry and the lives of millions of citizens and commuters between the two regions. The CoE develops the EU cross-border knowledge transfer infrastructure, the Urban OS, which will work as a magnet for attracting international expertise and investment as well as a springboard for the exportation of Finnish-Estonian knowledge and combined service solutions on a global scale. | |
| The CoE combines a strong partnership between the academia (TUT, Aalto and UT), the public sector (Helsinki City and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia) and companies as associated partners (F-Secure, | |
| TeliaSonera, Tieto and Siemens). The knowledge transfer will be evaluated by the Fraunhofer Institute. The CoE is financially sustainable in the long run and increases Estonia’s Research and Innovation funding by 2% annually and will | |
| have a strong spill-over to the economy as well.","During the one year period, the following activities were conducted: | |
| June 15: The Project kick-off was in June 15 where all the roles were described in depth. The Project Manager participated the teaming Coordinators day in Brussels June 19 and this was an important input for the team. In addition, we started analysing the legal form of Center of Excellence, having first meetings with the law-firm Sorainen. Plus, two partners had to finalise the recruitment process. | |
| July 16: There was a joint workshop with University Of Tartu (Human Geography Department). July 27 was the next team meeting in Helsinki that was focused on the vision of the future CoE. The Consortium Agreement deliverable was submitted. | |
| August 15. Joint workshop on Internet of Things, an important concept for Smart Cities. The FINEST Twins team consulted the public authorities of Estonia and Finland to initiate the joint two port project, namely FINEST Ports. The teaming project was discussed and supported in the Estonian Research and Science Board, led by Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas – an important step to guarantee the government co-financing. The deliverable Project Handbook was submitted. | |
| September 15. MKM and Forum Virium finalised the recruitments and starting from September, the team has been fully operational. Starting from Sept 7, there are weekly telco meetings every Monday from 10-11 (12) in order to discuss everyday work. The project website was opened (smarttwincity.eu) jointly with identity and social media channels. Sept 11 was the first public kick-off seminar for the Estonian-Finnish Audience (see http://smarttwincity.eu/events/11-september-ee-fi-urban-innovation-seminar). By the end of September, the Communications and Disseminations Plan deliverable was submitted. | |
| October 15. We started interviewing relevant stakeholders in Estonia. Late October, there was a research seminar in Aalto, attended by 40-50 researchers interested in the field (see http://smarttwincity.eu/events/27-october-seminar-smart-city-in-research-concept-and-content). The gap analysis and Smart City Strategy deliverable was handed over. The law firm Sorainen handed over the Articles of Association in order to establish an independent legal form of CoE. This has to be processed through and agreed upon all four partners. | |
| November 15. The team decided to have two telcos a week. On Monday, there is a administrative session (jointly organise new events) and on Wednesday, there is a deliverable-related session. The team participated Smart City Expo in Barcelona to promote the project. In addition, there was a Finest Twins presentation, organised by the World Bank (CITISENSE). | |
| December 15. High-level smart city seminar opened by Prof Rudolf Giffinger (Vienna University of Technology). See here: http://smarttwincity.eu/events/11-december-seminar. Smart City Demo Lab PPP Strategy deliverable was submitted. | |
| January 16. High-level seminar opened by Prof. Micheal Batty (UCL) and MP Anne Sulling. (former Minister for Entrepreurship). During the seminar, Project Officer also introduced Finest Twins Project to the wider audience. See here: http://smarttwincity.eu/events/25-january-seminar. Innovative Business Analysis deliverable was submitted. We initiated an agreement with Prof Michael Batty to consult us on the research part of the business plan (Tallinn meeting and London meetings). In addition, we stated to negotiate with Fraunhofer MOEZ and University of Tartu to add them as partners for the second round. | |
| February 16. We hosted a seminar with MEP Kaja Kallas (voted as the most digital-minded MEP in the European Parliament). See here: http://smarttwincity.eu/events/09-veebruar-kaja-kallas-ttus-euroopa-digitaliseerub-mis-juhtub-tookohtadega (only in Estonian). Preparation of memorandum for the Estonian Government meeting on Finest Twins. The Project Manager had a meeting with Project Officer in Brussels followed by teaming info day organised by REA. We started to work","The dissemination of the FINEST Twins results is crucial in achieving large-scale goals on the societal impact (in improving public services and consequently the lives of citizens). In the preparatory phase, we have started to organise seminars and events to bring research on smart cities closer to the stakeholders (cities, companies, NGOs and also citizens), see more on our website (www.smartcitylab.eu) . A selection of seminars is also broadcast on the Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIo8AWMG9HwYSepvCFkA6DA). | |
| ● During the first year, we organised 6+ high-level interactive international seminars (each over 50 participants); a few examples can be seen on our Youtube channel | |
| ● For the first stage, we have created a mailing list with over 250 subscribers for disseminating information to already engaged and interested stakeholders. Our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/smarttwincity/?fref=ts) has over 200 followers. The newsletter is sent also to Twitter (https://twitter.com/smarttwincity). | |
| ● In stage one, our initiative reached the news on the national broadcast (in Estonian) and on the biggest news daily, Postimees (http://arvamus.postimees.ee/3706223/ralf-martin-soe-kuidas-parandada-teadlaste-ja-ettevotete-koostood ; in Estonian), among other media coverage in Estonia (e.g. Sirp http://www.sirp.ee/s1-artiklid/arhitektuur/kas-vaikelinn-on-rumal-linn). We were also invited to participate in the TedX Toompea, organised by the Government Office of Estonia which took place in the Parliament of Estonia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr-3KVDIvFg; in Estonian). | |
| ● On the international level, the FINEST Twins was covered on the Dutch HEYU! Urbans broadcasting channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMbaqM-BatQ&feature=youtu.be), on the Research in Estonia portal (http://researchinestonia.eu/2015/12/smartovkas-finest-twin-citieshow-estonia-creating-smart-cities) and on the German Topos magazine (no. 94, “City Visions”, article on “Parallel Cities” about Digital Urbanism in Tallinn and Helsinki; https://www.toposmagazine.com). | |
| The FINEST Twins collaboration also contributed to the kick off of next innovation projects. As an example of these, the following two projects were decided to be funded from the Central Baltic Interreg ERDF on 14.6.2016, starting 1.9.2016: | |
| ● FinEstSmartMobility (1,8M€, 2016-2019)), which will plan and procure 4 smart (ICT-based) solutions to improve the traffic flows that go through Helsinki and Tallinn via the ferry and airplane connection. | |
| ● FinEst Link (http://finestlink.fi/en; 2016-2019, feasibility study € 1.3 mln), which will execute planning towards a fixed link (“the railway tunnel” or another connectivity link) between Helsinki and Tallinn. This project is expected to lead to a very large-scale transport investment project (e.g. CEF; the pre-feasibility study estimates an investment size of 14B€ between 2020 and 2030; http://www.hel.fi/static/kanslia/Julkaisut/2015/TALSINKIFIX_Final_Report.pdf).",2019-04-29 09:40:31,,664655,FINEST TWINS,H2020-EU.4.a.,WIDESPREAD-1-2014,http://www.smarttwincity.eu | |
| 9325,238888,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Playmoss (Playmoss Pro: The music fan club 2.0),"According to the IFPI, the income obtained through copyright by music artists worldwide, such as music sales or streaming, have been halved in the last 15 years. However, in the last 5 years, the same artists have gained billions of fans through social media channels. If just...","According to the IFPI, the income obtained through copyright by music artists worldwide, such as music sales or streaming, have been halved in the last 15 years. However, in the last 5 years, the same artists have gained billions of fans through social media channels. If just 1% of fans were to pay 2 to 3 € a month, the artist would earn four times what they are currently getting through streaming. Playmoss has developed Playmoss Pro, a new service that allows artists to create groups of fans 2.0 and share exclusive content with them, such as pre-releases of new songs and music videos, pre-announcements, discounts on tickets and merchandising. In exchange, the superfan will pay 2-3 € to access such content. | |
| This new service has been created to solve a problem: music lovers have access to more and more music and content at a lower price; record labels and promoters increase their sales year after year, but the majority of artists and professional musicians can not live off their music unless they invest most of their time in doing tours. | |
| Although Playmoss Pro has already begun to generate revenue thanks to some smaller artists that have shown interest, the objectives of this project were: | |
| — Conduct pilot tests with larger artists | |
| — Publicise the project among important players in the music industry such as record labels, distributors, artists, managers and promoters to get feedback and so they can help us to detect potential competitors, stakeholders and partners. | |
| — Obtain an estimation of potential market size for this service with the help of a specialised consultant. | |
| — Determine the best acquisition channels for artists and fans. | |
| — Evaluate potential conflicts in terms of intellectual property. | |
| — Set the working standards for subsequent phases. | |
| Our conclusions: Playmoss Pro is of interest, but as it has not been commercially validated with medium-sized and larger artists, there is a lot of friction to attract these types of artists. Furthermore, Playmoss is not large enough; as well as tools to monetise, many artists look for tools and channels to promote. | |
| We have proven, together with a specialised consultant, that the market is very large and could represent a multi-million business. | |
| Objectives going forward: Modify the platform with the feedback obtained, finalise collaboration with record label and small and medium-sized artists and increase our user base to offer artists an interesting promotion channel as well as a tool.","One of the main challenges in the validation process of the Pro model was to see whether we could close pilot tests with some artists who have a follower base of between 500k and 10m on social networks. To do this we contacted people from record labels (Universal Music, Atlantic Records, Mad Decent), management agencies (Career Artist Management, Three Six Zero) and music festivals and arranged meetings with them. | |
| The conclusion after these meetings is that in order to attract new artists, festivals and record labels to the Pro service, Playmoss must grow as a platform. In this way, artists, festivals and record labels will be able to use Playmoss to attract users to their Pro profile and will see Playmoss as a sales channel as well as a promotional tool. | |
| Additionally, we should integrate to our app the Pro service, now only available through our mobile web and our web. Simultaneously, we should also reach a deal with a medium-sized artist that allows us to make the leap to major artists. | |
| Besides that, we commissioned a study from Media Insight Consulting, a consultancy specialized in the music sector based in London and run by Chris Carey, a well-known consultant, former analyst of Universal Music Group and with clients such as Sony Music, Spotify, O2 and BMG. Their conclusions were although there are variable factors such as the conversion rate or the speed of market growth, the music market is growing and the verticals that have been studied are large enough to be interesting from a business standpoint. In short, it seems that the opportunity and space to create a multi-million dollar business exist. | |
| During this phase we have also carried out a study on intellectual property rights for the Playmoss Pro model. The conclusions were that because “non-independent” artists do not own the rights to their own songs, it is more effective to act in one way or another depending on whether the artist is independent or, on the contrary, has signed with a major or a subsidiary of a major. Independent artists seem to be the best option to start and non independent artists, which should be reached through their record labels, look like the best way of acquiring artists fast. | |
| Media Insight Consulting studied the competitive landscape, and competitors should not be a problem when it comes to penetrating the market. During the assessment, we have detected some interesting partners and stakeholders. | |
| Development: Following the recommendations received from record labels and artists, we have started to change the architecture of Playmoss Pro. We will continue performing development iterations so that the product fits within the market as much as possible.","Although the results have not been completely as expected, we are going to keep striving to achieve our goal: to create a service with Playmoss that allows artists to achieve financial results that go beyond the tools that currently exist, such as the sale of albums, streaming, concerts and collaborations with brands. | |
| We want to demonstrate that it is possible to create a tool that allows each artist to create their own community to interact with fans, sell products, exclusives and launches and where the artist has, as well as exhaustive knowledge of information regarding their fans, data that has been non-transparent until now on the large social platforms. | |
| It is difficult to predict whether the expected results can be achieved, but if they are, the implementation of this service could mean a change in the paradigm of the music industry: music artists would have the control and power that they deserve and would achieve fairer rewards for their music and their activity as artists. In the case of larger artists, it would reduce their dependency on channels such as Spotify or the ‘Majors’, and in the case of the smaller ones, they would have a tool to promote themselves, retain fans and monetise, which would help them achieve financial sustainability. In turn, it would make it possible for more and more artists to be involved in musical production, with the resulting benefit this would have for European and worldwide culture, unblocking a potential market that could reach €4.5 billion by 2030.",2018-08-16 14:29:09,,775892,Playmoss,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,SMEInst-01-2016-2017,http://www.playmoss.com | |
| 6176,194978,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IRENA (International Re-Entry demoNstrator Action),"In January 2014, the ISEF participants insisted on the importance of “fostering international cooperation for additional space exploration projects”. The partners of IRENA (International Re-Entry demoNstrator Action), including major space agencies involved in ISEF and...","In January 2014, the ISEF participants insisted on the importance of “fostering international cooperation for additional space exploration projects”. The partners of IRENA (International Re-Entry demoNstrator Action), including major space agencies involved in ISEF and ISECG, are convinced of the need for demonstrators in atmosphere entry/re-entry and of the potential for international cooperation in this area. | |
| IRENA mainly aimed at: | |
| • creating a cluster of European and international stakeholders to study two types of demonstrators aimed at developing entry/re-entry technologies and suitable for other enabling technologies | |
| • jointly defining two technology demonstrator projects relevant for international cooperation | |
| • contributing to a European position for ISEF and | |
| • disseminating the results and preparing the next steps. | |
| To achieve these objectives, IRENA built upon an international and complementary team: four major European and international space agencies (CNES, DLR, JAXA as well as NASA as an observer), the two European industry leaders in entry/re-entry and space exploration (Airbus Defence and Space, Thales Alenia Space) and a research institute expert in dissemination and exploitation (Demokritos). IRENA relied on a cooperative approach to jointly define the projects, for the feasibility and cost assessment studies and for the implementation assessment studies (governance, funding, international cooperation). Four workshops including one in Japan and one based on Concurrent Engineering were organised to support the work and disseminate the results of the project. | |
| IRENA’s objectives have been chosen to explicitly meet the main work programme's requirements i.e. to be in line with ISEF recommendations, to involve international countries active in space exploration, to create a cluster around several demonstrator projects, to define these projects and discuss how to build them, to target enabling technologies and to include workshops and information events.","Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report | |
| This report covers the period from the beginning of the project (January 2015) until the end (April 2016). Therefore, the report covers every task from WP1, WP2, WP3 and WP4. | |
| Main results | |
| • Common demonstration needs for entry/re-entry technologies between Europe, Japan and the USA were identified | |
| • Four technology demonstrators were selected and studied for their technical feasibility and cost: | |
| 3 flight demonstrators: The “Aerodynamic Decelerator Demonstrator”, the “Earth Aerocapture Demonstrator” & the “Mars Aerocapture Demonstrator” | |
| 1 ground demonstrator: The “Adaptive and Versatile Front shield Test bed” | |
| • Two technology demonstration projects were defined including a roadmap: | |
| The “Aerodynamic Decelerator Demonstrator” project | |
| The “Earth Aerocapture Demonstrator” project | |
| • Creation of a cluster of international stakeholders willing to implement the two demonstration projects | |
| • Dissemination of the project outcomes to the ISECG members (esp. ESA, NASA, JAXA, CNES and DLR), the EC DG Grow Policy and Space Research unit and the research community | |
| • Four workshops organised including one in Japan, two Concurrent Engineering sessions and generally associated with an Open Session for dissemination purposes. | |
| • Presentation at more than ten major space events | |
| • A website: www.irena-project.eu | |
| • A joint proposal to ESA and NASA for a demonstrator on the first Orion SLS flight in 2018","Progress beyond the state of the art | |
| • Common demonstration needs for entry/re-entry technologies between Europe, Japan and the USA have been identified | |
| • New demonstrators were defined and assessed (e.g. “Aerodynamic Decelerator Demonstrator”) | |
| • Collaborative projects on entry/re-entry technologies between Europe, Japan and the USA have been defined | |
| Expected potential impact | |
| IRENA is expected to lead to the implementation of the two projects in the frame of an international cooperation through EC’s Horizon 2020 2018-2020 work programme or ESA’s M2 new programme candidate for the exploration of Mars and the Moon.",2018-07-19 18:32:19,,640277,IRENA,H2020-EU.2.1.6.4.,COMPET-09-2014,http://www.irena-project.eu/ | |
| 2737,218901,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MODCOMP (Modified cost effective fibre based structures with improved multi-functionality and performance),"What is the problem/issue being addressed:The challenges that MODCOMP addresses are the following:New approaches to improve functionality are importantFibre based material for high value, high–performance products at reasonable prices withimproved functionality and safety...","What is the problem/issue being addressed: | |
| The challenges that MODCOMP addresses are the following: | |
| New approaches to improve functionality are important | |
| Fibre based material for high value, high–performance products at reasonable prices with | |
| improved functionality and safety, represent a challenge for materials science and engineering | |
| Sustainability, recyclability, safety, energy | |
| Cost effectiveness and commercial potential of innovativeness compared to state-of-art | |
| Market needs for composite materials | |
| Why is it important for society? | |
| MODCOMP will increase the competitiveness and sustainability of EU multiple sectors industry through innovative high value products and manufacturing processes. Moreover, it will offer employment and training through engagement in cutting edge technologies in various sectors, e.g. transport, construction, sport and leisure etc. | |
| Specifically, MODCOMP's demonstators, such as the SecureShel designed by GSG will have societal impacts. SecureShel (Humanitarian Assistance) and manufacturing process also could develop onsite manufacture right in the heart of the affected territories using containerized factories. This will allow a sustainable programme of production using local labour, local resources where available and therefore stimulating local economic activity. With a predicted life expectancy in excess of twenty five years, the SecureShel concept is a unique, long term and re-usable transitional secure shelter system option. It has evolved to incorporate core values of affordability, easy installation, comfort and security for the end-user, ease of maintenance, resistance to adverse weather conditions, cost efficient transportation and trouble free storage. | |
| Another societal impact comes from the memory devices developed by THALES. With the growing volume of global trade and travel, government and international agencies have to respond to the proliferation of new types of risks and threats, such as illegal immigration, cybercrime and terrorism. The new standards define security features, electronic components and biometric data formats to ensure the interoperability that is a basic requirement in a more connected world. Governments rebuilding their institutions after conflicts or major disaster see identity management programmes as an opportunity to prepare for the future by issuing new ID documents and developing their identity databases. At the same time, governments have a duty to protect the privacy of their citizens by guaranteeing the security of the systems used to issue and control a whole range of documents including national identity cards, e-ID cards, voter registration cards, passports, e-passports, visas and driving licences. In addition, since ID documents are increasingly used to bring citizens access to basic rights and services (elections, employment, banking, etc.), identity management programmes have come to play a critical role in social and economic development. The emergency of new technologies to improve the security of ID card, and of smart card in general, in an interconnected world is a priority and will impact our everyday life guaranteeing our personal security, safety and protecting our identity. | |
| What are the overall objectives: | |
| MODCOMP aims to develop novel engineered fibre-based materials for technical, high value, high performance products for nonclothing applications at realistic cost, with improved functionality and safety. Demonstrators will be designed to fulfill scalability towards industrial needs and focus on TRL5/TRL6. End users from a wide range of industrial sectors (transport, construction, leisure and electronics) will adapt the knowledge gained from the project and test the innovative high added value demonstrators. An in-depth and broad analysis of material development, coupled with dedicated multi-scale modelling, recycling and safety studies will be conducted in parallel for two types of materials (concepts): | |
| CF-based structures with increase","• A continuous EPD prototype was designed, manufactured and verified, which can be patented (process has started at SICOMP) and up-scaled for production of CNTs (or other conductive nanomaterials such as CNFs, graphene, metal nanoparticles) functionalized carbon reinforcement and resulting composites reaching TRL 5-6 | |
| • A methodology – modelling of CNT concentration as a function of viscosity, to measure the concentration of CNT suspension during EPD was developed in order to maintain the suspension concentration in continuous EPD process, which can significantly reduce the cost due to the disposal of CNT suspension and environmental impact. | |
| • Combinations of MWCNTs/GnPs give rise to CFRP composites having higher electrical and mechanical performance | |
| • Treatments such as electrochemical and electropolymerization appear to convey increased surface roughness of the fibre with respect to associated plasma treatments. | |
| • Characterisation of single fibre treatments has identified a number of candidates offering optimised results in terms of wettability and tensile stress testing. | |
| • CFRP composites have been successfully manufactured by using CNT coated CF fabrics via EPD method. | |
| • Unmodified and modified CFRP composites have been successfully prepared by impregnation strategy. | |
| • MODA fiches prepared for all the models covered by WP4. | |
| • Different mechanical and thermal properties have been characterized from the MD simulations for the carbon fillers, the polymer matrix (neat resin) and the nanocomposites. Effects of different parameters (sensibility analysis) as CNTs lengths, diameters, cross-linking degree, type of hardener, etc, have been investigated. | |
| • Generation of a brochure and distribution to all MODCOMP partners, including general guidelines of Safety issues, regarding the use of CF based materials and nanomaterials. | |
| • Distribution of a questionnaire for safety issues from the use of nanomaterials in the innovation processes of MODCOMP. | |
| • Development and distribution of surveys regarding safety risks and hazards (HAZOP).","Current technological demands are increasingly stretching the properties of traditional materials to expand their applications to more severe or extreme conditions, whilst simultaneously seeking cost-effective production processes and final products. The aim of this project is to demonstrate the influence of different surface enhancing and modification techniques on carbon fibre (CF)-based materials for high value and high performance applications. These materials are a route to further exploiting advanced materials, using enabling technologies for additional functionalities, without compromising structural integrity. CF based materials have particular advantages due to their lightweight, good mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. Current generation CFs have extensively been used in a multitude of applications, taking advantage of their valuable properties to provide solutions in complex problems of materials science and technology. The limits of the current capability of such materials, however, have now been reached. MODCOMP will develop the next generation of CF-based materials for structural and electronics applications. The benefits of fibre-based materials have clearly been shown in aerospace applications which require lightweight, high strength, high stiffness, and high fatigue-resistant materials.",2019-04-02 12:26:11,,685844,MODCOMP,H2020-EU.2.1.3.,NMP-22-2015,http://modcomp-project.eu/ | |
| 1886,263846,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RABYD-VAX (Development of a Next-Generation, Dual-Target Rabies/Flavivirus Infectious DNA (iDNA) Vaccine)","Rabies is a devastating and massively neglected disease, for which the mortality rate and burden per capita falls disproportionately upon the poorest regions of the world. Rabies is a viral disease that is largely transmitted to humans via a bite by infected animals. Once the...","Rabies is a devastating and massively neglected disease, for which the mortality rate and burden per capita falls disproportionately upon the poorest regions of the world. Rabies is a viral disease that is largely transmitted to humans via a bite by infected animals. Once the first clinical symptoms (such as hydrophobia) have developed, the disease is uniformly lethal, and patients, if not put into an artificial coma, die in great agony. Worldwide, rabies causes approximately 58.000 deaths, from which the majority are young children. A vaccine exists but is associated with several drawbacks such as the need for a cold chain (kept at cool temperature), high costs, multiple dosing regimen with concomitant visits to health care facilities etc., due to which the coverage remains unacceptably low. | |
| The yellow fever virus (YFV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, causes severe and life-threatening infections with jaundice, systemic bleeding, shock and multi-organ failure. An estimated 900 million people living in 45 endemic countries of Africa and Latin America are at high risk of infection. Although safe and highly efficient live-attenuated prophylactic vaccines [YFV-17D, Stamaril® and YF-Vax®] are available, an estimated 200,000 cases of yellow fever still occur annually, resulting in ~30,000 deaths (www.who.int) because of inadequate supplies, the need for trained staff for administration and a cold chain. | |
| The Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), also a mosquito-borne flavivirus, causes viral encephalitis in many countries of Asia, with an estimated 68,000 clinical cases every year. The case-fatality rate among the patients that develop encephalitis is up to 30%, permanent neurologic or psychiatric sequelae is reported in 30-50%. As for rabies, it is primarily a children’s disease. More than 3 billion people are at risk of infection. | |
| During the course of the RABYD-VAX project, five European research institutes are combining their expertise to develop and validate a new vaccine that protects against both rabies and yellow fever/Japanese encephalitis virus. This vaccine will be based on a novel proprietary vaccine technology, which has been developed by the team of the project coordinator (KU Leuven) and which has several advantages over the currently used commercial vaccines. Ultimately, this vaccine could be given as a prophylactic childhood vaccine after incorporation in the standard childhood vaccination schedule of endemic regions and this, side-by-side, with domestic and wildlife animal vaccination programs to eradicate rabies. At the end of the project, this vaccine candidate should be ready to enter the non-clinical development phase.","Briefly, during the first 18 months of the RABYD-VAX project the following was achieved: (i) A series of PLLAV constructs expressing rabies antigen (RabG) from the yellow fever virus (YFV) backbone has been engineered following several optimized cloning strategies. Finally, one construct has been selected as best vaccine candidate as it displays the most optimal stability and immune profile. (ii) The superior thermal stability of PLLAV vaccines has been confirmed by head-to-head comparison with the licensed YFV vaccine Stamaril®. (iii) Preliminary results show a markedly reduced or even lack of neurovirulence of the PLLAV-based vaccine in mice as compared to the commercial vaccine Stamaril®. (iv) Several MHC class I and II epitopes of the RabG-protein, against which cellular immune responses are induced in mice, were identified. (v) A dual and specific anti-YFV and anti-RABV humoral immune response could be demonstrated for the first generation constructs, studies are ongoing for the optimized vaccine candidate. (vi) Preliminary evidence was obtained for successful immunization in the presence of pre-existing vector immunity. (vii) A detailed literature study, has been concluded. This document summarizes the regulatory guidelines which may apply to this novel platform technology (PLLAV); it sums up approved rabies, yellow fever and DNA vaccines; and outlines a nonclinical development plan. (viii) Several dissemination activities have been pursued and established, i.e. a project website, press releases, 2 publications, IP, a MOOC on vaccines (to be released soon). The PLLAV technology, including the dual vaccine being developed within RABYD-VAX has been presented at a number of international meetings.","The team of the project coordinator developed a novel vaccine platform technology, named PLLAV, i.e. plasmid-launched live-attenuated vaccine [patent WO/2014/174078, inventors K. Dallmeier & J. Neyts]. In essence, the technology consists of a proprietary Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) shuttle vector in which the genome of the yellow fever virus vaccine YFV-17D, which is a live-attenuated vaccine (LAV), has been cloned. Once this recombinant DNA plasmid is introduced in an eukaryotic cell, the LAV is expressed and immunity triggered. Hence, this approach combines, (i) the high efficacy of LAVs for inducing protective immunity and (ii) the physical and genetic stability of classical DNA vaccines, bypassing the manufacturing problems and need for a cold chain. Moreover, this approach allows to conveniently design and rapidly produce vaccines against other pathogens (i.e. rabies) as well. The PLLAV technology presents numerous key advantages over the currently available vaccines, i.e. (i) it can be produced at high quantities in fermenters without the need for cell cultures or embryonated chicken eggs; (ii) it’s genetically stable; (iii) no cold-chain is needed and (iv) it can be administered needle-free. | |
| In fact, the PLLAV technology addresses the need for good vaccines for the developing world as articulated by Médecins Sans Frontières “developing vaccines that are better adapted to reach children in remote or unstable locations – vaccines that do not require refrigeration, do not require needles, and that can be given in fewer doses […], paying enough attention to getting vaccine prices down”.",2019-04-10 12:49:29,,733176,RABYD-VAX,H2020-EU.3.1.2.,SC1-PM-06-2016,https://rabyd-vax.eu/ | |
| 7511,214590,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ABC DJ (Artist-to-Business-to-Business-to-Consumer Audio Branding System),"The EU H2020 project ABC_DJ (Artist-to-Business-to-Business-to-Consumer Audio Branding System) will provide new tools for European creative agencies which are active in the field of audio branding, i.e., the exploitation of the power of music in various commercial contexts. It...","The EU H2020 project ABC_DJ (Artist-to-Business-to-Business-to-Consumer Audio Branding System) will provide new tools for European creative agencies which are active in the field of audio branding, i.e., the exploitation of the power of music in various commercial contexts. It will actively include creators of music, (independent) labels as well as respective multipliers into the audio branding value chains. A major research aim of the project is to predict the perceived musical expression in the branding context via acoustic and musical features. To measure the perceived expression of music among different target groups, another major scientific challenge is the creation of a suitable list of attributes that is both able to describe the perceived expressive qualities of music from the consumer perspective and useful for describing intended brand identities in the context of audio branding. Thus, the research in the ABC_DJ project lays the groundwork for an important new application domain of future music recommendation systems. | |
| Several ICT tools are under development designed to enhance and facilitate the full gamut of audio branding process stages. As the core entity of the ABC_DJ system architecture functions the Music Library Manager which manages and stores music file metadata and standardises the communication methods and formats between all three other tools. These are namely: a) The Audio Branding Tool - an interactive browser application with the purpose of visualising criteria of a music selection to non-music-experts like marketing staff, and to make this music audible for communication processes, b) the Playlist Generator - enabling professional users to plan, manage and create sophisticated playlists, and c) The Cockpit Unit - enabling the branding agency personnel to control and manage in-store players remotely and from one single interface. | |
| Besides the development of novel tools and services, continuous monitoring and regular market trends research is done on creative and commercial business fields regarding existing tools, applications, products and services. The project further entails an analysis of a range of legal aspects, of the landscape of European music creators and their respective multipliers in an audio branding and in-store music context and will offer novel monetising schemes for stakeholders. | |
| Overall, ABC_DJ will offer suitable means to include the high number of European creative micro-businesses and SMEs into a value chain where many audio branding agencies are able to serve the diverse needs of many brands, as opposed to the current 'one-sound-fits-all' situation. By doing so, it will significantly increase the pool of music which is exploitable for branding services. To guarantee the maximum impact of the project, final project results will be disseminated and communicated to public, scientific, commercial, and artistic audiences.","""Work of the coordinator TU Berlin has so far focused on the development of a general vocabulary to describe the expressive content of music and to establish first drafts of a prediction model for the recommendation of brand fitting in-store music. Therefore, in the first step, international experts from the respective fields were invited to a music branding expert workshop to develop a comprehensive list of words being relevant to describe music in the branding context (Egermann et al., 2017). After shortening this list in the course of an online survey with international marketing experts, two large-scale online listening experiments with over 10000 participants from three different countries (UK, Spain, Germany), age cohorts, and educational backgrounds, and both genders were carried out to generate a so-called ground truth about how people perceive the expressive content of music based on their socio-demographic background. The 500 music titles used in the experiment stemmed from 10 different major genres and 61 subgenres of the HearDis! music library. Findings from the first online experiment suggest a 4-factor structure of our vocabulary (GMBI) describing the dimensions Easy-Goingness, Joyfulness, Authenticity, and Progressiveness (Herzog et al., 2017). Preliminary results further reveal significant effects of country, education, and gender on people’s ratings (Steffens et al. ,2017). | |
| A second area of research, carried out by IRCAM, concentrated on the development of new audio features to predict the perceived musical expression as well as to characterise the audio quality of music tracks (Fourer & Peeters, 2017) and to improve music mixes (Cohen-Hadria & Peeters, 2017). These features have either been derived from previously estimated higher-level concepts (such as structure, key or succession of chords) or by developing new signal processing algorithms. First prediction models based on pre-existing IRCAM audio features have already been computed. These regression models explain up to 30% in the variation of the musical expression as perceived by the participants of the first online experiment (Herzog et al., 2017). (cf. http://abcdj.eu/publications) | |
| The majority of investigations regarding legal frameworks in the context of audio branding as well as entailed stakeholders, which are conducted by the partner Lovemonk, have been accomplished. Among other things, all 91 EU-based Collective Management Societies have been included in a survey which for the first time gives a comprehensive overview on the various different methods and payment schemes in place to date (cf. http://abcdj.eu/publications/#public-deliverables). | |
| On the implementation side, first mock-ups of the Audio Branding Tool, the Playlist Generator (both developed by the partner HearDis!) and the Cockpit Unit (developed by the partner FINCONS) have been developed and evaluated. A final architecture of the whole system has been defined. The first prototypes of the Audio Branding Tool and Playlist Generator have been released in September 2017 (final prototypes of all three tools will be available by June 2018). | |
| ""","On a scientific level the project progresses beyond state of the art with the definition of a) a standardised methodology for audio branding processes and b) a vocabulary of human emotions and values, which constitutes a commercially applicable music description scheme for branding. In combination with MIR methods this allows for the creation of completely novel supporting tools on the implementation level. The final prediction model will rely on novel random forest and multi-level regression analyses taking into account socio-demographics and the milieu membership of a listener. | |
| The final Playlist Generator will incorporate an innovative algorithm capable of arranging audio tracks according to dramaturgic(!) rules set by a professional user like a music consultant. These rules refer to the appertaining metadata and enable desirable combinations of features or restrictions of combinations. The final Audio Branding Tool will allow users to visualise various features of a music selection, like hard (low-level, e.g., BPM) and soft (high-level, e.g., instrumentation, semantic annotations according to the GMBI) features associated with a particular song. The tool can further indicate dominate features as well as interrelations within the selection. | |
| As a result professional users can generate music playlists with a brand fit of unprecedented accuracy, in a fraction of the time.",2018-09-04 10:14:28,,688122,ABC DJ,H2020-EU.2.1.1.,ICT-19-2015,http://abcdj.eu/ | |
| 4131,260983,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EDUHEALTH (Educating for Equitable Health Outcomes- the Promise of School Health and Physical Education),"School Health and Physical Education (HPE) has the potential to make a unique contribution to the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of young people. The world summit on HPE in 1999 stated that this school subject can provide the most effective means of...","School Health and Physical Education (HPE) has the potential to make a unique contribution to the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of young people. The world summit on HPE in 1999 stated that this school subject can provide the most effective means of providing all young people, regardless of their ability, disability, sex, age, culture, race, ethnicity, religion, or social background, with the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and understanding for lifelong health and well-being. Despite such potential, the way HPE is currently taught and conceptualised in some schools and countries does not provide all students with equal opportunities to achieve these goals. Indeed, research worldwide continues to show how certain HPE practices reward students based on gender, sexuality, bodies, ethnicity and religion, and contribute to inequality and discrimination by putting students into either privileged or marginalised positions. | |
| The overall goal of the ‘Education for Equitable Health Outcomes - The Promise of School Health and Physical Education’ (EDUHEALTH) project is to make a meaningful contribution to promote physical activity and health for all citizens. EDUHEALTH is a collaboration between three universities in Sweden, Norway and New Zealand focusing on social justice in HPE. Sweden, Norway and New Zealand are somewhat unique in that socially-critical perspectives and social justice issues foreground each country’s contemporary HPE curricula.","The first year of the EDUHEALTH project focused on knowledge sharing and first-hand experiences of the three different countries’ contexts via exchanges by the central members of the project team. During these exchanges the visiting research team members familiarised themselves with the different research contexts. The research team involved in these exchanges consisted of five female and four male PE teacher educators, most of whom are experienced HPE teachers in their respective countries, with between 5 and 15 years research experience in the fields of PETE and HPE. | |
| New knowledge and data in this first year was generated through: exchanges, presentations, school visits, observations, informal teacher/student interviews, reflective journaling and discussions. | |
| The exchanges in all three countries included several school visits. For these initial school visits, care was taken to include a diverse range of schools and HPE classes. In total eight schools were visited. In New Zealand, three different secondary schools were visited: a single-sex public girls’ and religious semi-private boys’ school in affluent areas of Auckland and a co-educational school in a lower socio-economic area of Auckland. In Sweden, three schools were also visited, including two urban schools and one rural school in the South of Sweden - all secondary, co-educational and public. In Norway, the visits involved one primary and one secondary urban school, both co-educational, public and located in the East of Norway. During these visits the research team varied between working in pairs and small groups but always ensuring that researchers from at least two countries were present. | |
| The school visits were designed to provide a shared knowledge and greater understanding of each other’s specific context. | |
| The researchers made reflective journal notes after each visit. This way the visits were followed by extended discussions within the research team about the school visits, observations and interviews that had been done. These discussions generated a deeper understanding of the different national contexts, for instance, that social justice might mean different things both between and within different countries. | |
| The EDUHEALTH project team carried out several pilot studies in their own countries. The data and insights generated from these pilot studies were crucial in refining the methodology and methods for the main data collection activities taking place during 2018 across the three different countries. The secondment in New Zealand during March/April 2018 involved four of the Swedish and two of the Norwegian EDUHEALTH researchers being seconded to and participating in the data collection across schools in Auckland. | |
| In September the EDUHEALTH project team presented their ongoing work at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Bolzano, Italy, September 3-7, where the conference theme this year was ‘Inclusion and Exclusion, Resources for Educational Research’. As part of Network 18 ‘Research in Sport Pedagogy’ the EDUHEALTH team hosted a symposium titled ‘Researching Social Justice and Health (in)Equality across different School Health and Physical Education’ consisting of three papers. | |
| After the ECER conference the New Zealand EDUHEALTH researchers travelled to Sweden and Norway to participate in the data collection in school HPE alongside their Swedish and Norwegian colleagues. In total seven different secondary schools in Sweden and Norway were involved, and data was collected from observations of twelve HPE lessons and subsequent interviews with seven HPE teachers. The schools and HPE lessons observed varied both in terms of cultural and ethnic diversity as well as socioeconomic status amongst the students. | |
| As the EDUHEALTH project is moving into its final year in 2019 the work continues with representing and analysing the collected data. Next exchange will take place in New Zealand March 2019 followed by an","In order to to promote physical activity and health for all EU:s citizens the EDUHEALTH project has identified school HPE teaching practices that promote social justice and more equitable health outcomes across the three different participating countries. The findings from first two years of the project show good examples of practice, of how to teach for and/or about social justice in HPE and what needs be taught/experienced during PETE. The exchanges in New Zealand, Sweden, and Norway have highlighted different social justice issues in HPE and the enabling and constraining policies and practices of our different societies. As we carry on implementing our EDUHEALTH project we hope to provide further insights into practices that privilege social justice in HPE contexts, and rich descriptions of the | |
| In order to make a meaningful contribution to the European Union (EU) strategies to promote physical activity and health for all its citizens we have focused on the importance of looking beyond HPE to see what the societal structures that enable and support health equity goals and more equitable health outcomes are. HPE does not take place in a ‘vacuum’ but is shaped by the surrounding educational, socio-historical and political milieu, a milieu that can worsen or improve the fertile ground for those seeds planted during HPE to grow.",2019-03-25 11:30:27,,734928,EDUHEALTH,H2020-EU.1.3.3.,MSCA-RISE-2016,https://lnu.se/en/eduhealth | |
| 6585,194856,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HECTOR (HARDWARE ENABLED CRYPTO AND RANDOMNESS),Security has become a critical requirement for most applications. Robust security typically requires strong hardware foundations. HECTOR’s objective is to bridge the gap between the mathematical heaven of theoretically secure cryptographic algorithms and challenges to...,"Security has become a critical requirement for most applications. Robust security typically requires strong hardware foundations. HECTOR’s objective is to bridge the gap between the mathematical heaven of theoretically secure cryptographic algorithms and challenges to implement them securely and efficiently into hardware. The project focuses on how to improve the hardware friendliness, efficiency and robustness of 3 elementary security building blocks, namely implementations of crypto algorithms, random numbers generators, and physically unclonable functions, as well as potential efficiency gains when looking at how these interact together instead of considering them separately. | |
| For true random number generators (TRNGs), the requirement is to fulfil demanding security requirements such as specified by the AIS20/31 standard in order to guarantee the generation of enough entropy, and/or detect and report when this is no longer the case. From a design point of view, besides the efficiency of the TRNG cell, the main ambition is to propose a process allowing to meet the requirements while minimizing the necessary expertise, design-iterations, and efforts. | |
| For physically unclonable functions (PUFs), the first objective is to obtain hardware designs allowing to achieve proper entropy, robustness, and security. Compared to TRNGs, so far there is no AIS20/31-like framework for PUFs. The other objective is to research if such an approach could be proposed. | |
| Cryptography relies on good random numbers for keys, protocols and side-channels protection. On one hand, the project is assuming the availability of good random numbers, and researching more hardware-efficient crypto approaches. Efficiency is addressed both from the design-process point of view, researching how to minimize the path towards a validated, protected crypto implementation, as well as from a crypto building block and system efficiency point of view, with research on authenticated encryption and hardware-friendlier crypto algorithms. The project is also investigating if there are efficiency gains to be made by relaxing TRNG quality requirements, and through more random-tolerant crypto designs.","The project is structured around six work packages. | |
| WP1 was about capturing, studying and specifying requirements for the work to be performed within the technical work packages: | |
| 1) A common evaluation platform has been defined. It includes an FPGA-based motherboard with low-noise and adjustable voltage regulators and features to ease security characterization. A range of lower-cost daughter modules will allow evaluating HECTOR primitives implemented in different FPGA families and ASICs. | |
| 2) Demonstration scenarios have been refined. This allowed defining the TRNG, PUF and Crypto building blocks that will need to be delivered by the related work packages to the demonstration work package, as well as the hardware platforms that will need to be developed. | |
| 3) Opportunities, requirements and constraints from the consortium’s commercial partners have been studied and documented, in order to minimize adoption barriers, maximize alignment of efforts, and ease future commercial exploitation of results. | |
| The evaluation platforms have been designed, manufactured, and distributed, together with sample firmware and FPGA-designs. | |
| WP2 is focusing on TRNG and PUFs. A set of candidate principles for FPGA and ASIC implementations have been proposed. Comparison and evaluation criteria have been defined. Preliminary implementations have been performed and provided objective data to help compare and rank the candidates against the identified criteria. The relative importance of the criteria and best candidates actually depend on technology (FPGA family, ASIC), application and market constraints. | |
| The next objective will be to implement and evaluate at least one of the selected TRNG and PUF principles into FPGAs and ASICs. Compared to the initial FPGA evaluations, these designs should include dedicated embedded tests and post-processing. These efforts have started. An ASIC test chip has been designed in order to tackle design-reproducibility challenges encountered with one of the selected TRNG principles and understand if and how ASIC technology can allow achieving proper control. | |
| WP3 is focusing on cryptographic algorithms and countermeasures. Since these rely heavily on random numbers (cryptographic keys, random IVs, masking), a first line of research is to study the effect of non-ideal randomness on the cryptographic primitives and the effectiveness of countermeasures. Known-key and related-key attacks have been studied. To test the effect of weak random numbers on commonly used side-channel countermeasures, Matlab scripts to generate standardized sets of degraded random numbers have been developed. Each data set has an isolated defect that can be tested as described in AIS20/31, without ‘contamination’ of other types of defects. | |
| The second objective of WP3 is to develop efficient implementations of cryptographic algorithms and countermeasures. The consortium has been very active in the CAESAR competition on authentication encryption, and 5 of the 15 round 3 candiates have been proposed by the consortium. An important improvement in the usage of the sponge construction for Authenticated Encryption has been introduced, which eases the interface between a TRNG/PUF, its cryptograhic post processing and the cryptographic algorithm itself. In HECTOR there is also a strong focus on the evaluation of side-channel protection of HW implementations at design time. Different approaches, both bottom-up as top-down, are being studied and compared. | |
| WP4 which hadn’t started during the reporting period will focus on demonstrating how the technical developments from WP2 and WP3 can be combined to achieve efficient implementations in relevant applicative use cases. | |
| WP5 is focused on dissemination, communication, exploitation, standardization and training. So far the project generated 15 articles and publications, participated to 9 conferences and workshops, and 25 dissemination-related activities. The project also participated to key cryptography and","HECTOR intends to enable stronger European knowledge integration through collaboration among key complementary security and value chain actors. More specifically: | |
| - Capitalizing on Europe’s AIS31 leadership, we aim to ease the design of TRNGs with provable entropy guarantees and robustness to physical attacks, paving the way for more robust products and lower cost security certifications. | |
| - Researching how an approach similar to AIS31 could be proposed for PUFs, addressing one of the remaining obstacles towards adoption, increasing end-products security and capitalizing on the related R&D efforts. | |
| - Capitalizing on the strong crypto expertise within the consortium (AES, SHA-3 inventors), pursuing promising ideas in the field of resource-efficient and highly-secure hardware crypto. For example for through sponge based Authenticated-Encryption schemes. | |
| - Illustrating how HECTOR primitives could be combined to achieve highly efficient and secure implementations of European-relevant use cases. | |
| Over time, successful adoptions of HECTOR results into products of partners covering very complementary applicative domains should provide a first way to propagate the benefits to a wide range of applications and actors of the respective value chains. | |
| Dissemination of HECTOR results through teaching, publications and other dissemination events or contributions to standardization should allow to extend the propagation of those benefits beyond the project’s commercial partners’ respective value chains. | |
| So far the project generated 15 scientific articles and publications, participated to 9 conferences and workshops, and 25 dissemination-related activities. The project participated to key cryptography and TRNG related standardization events, most notably the CAESAR authenticated encryption competition and the NIST TRNG workshop. The consortium is in close contact with key TRNG, PUF and cryptography standardization actors and initiatives.",2018-10-08 11:13:35,,644052,HECTOR,H2020-EU.2.1.1.,ICT-32-2014,https://hector-project.eu/ | |
| 5610,247504,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MEMBio (Application of Microbial Fuel Cells for waste water treatment),"We need water for everything: for our personal use, to grow food, and to produce virtually all the goods required for our survival. Although water covers about 70% of the Earth’s crust, we can rely on only 10% of all rainfall available for personal, agricultural and...","We need water for everything: for our personal use, to grow food, and to produce virtually all the goods required for our survival. Although water covers about 70% of the Earth’s crust, we can rely on only 10% of all rainfall available for personal, agricultural and industrial use. Globally, the water demand per capita has increased over the last 25 years to 19,804 m3/person per year and it is projected to increase by 55% globally by 2050, which is higher than total currently available water supplies in the respective catchment areas. In this context, the reuse of wastewater could overcome this challenge satisfying the growing global water demand. Nowadays, only an 11% of the global freshwater withdrawals, released into the environment as wastewater, is submitted to an adequate treatment for reuse. The MEMBIO project arises as a result of many years work, experimenting and developing a new revolutionary membrane technology for wastewater treatment. Our company presents a technology based on microbial fuel cells (MFC), which emerges as a strong candidate to satisfy sustainably the water requirements, where the current technology in water treatment underperform. The operational and financial feasibility assessment have allowed us to fix a price of 180 € per unit and an investment needed to reach a go-to-market stage for MEMBIO project of € 1.5 Mil. The water and wastewater treatment market, was valued at € 534 bn in 2016 and it is expected to growth at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2017 to 2025 driven by the rising demand of freshwater for drinking, industrialization and agriculture. In this context, MEMBIO will play an essential role based on its potential cost reductions and improved performance versus the current treatment systems. We have evaluated three possible economic scenarios for our financial projections, considering different combinations of commercialization through our company or a distributor. Our MFC will be profitable even under the most pessimistic scenario we have analysed. The more realistic case will provide a ROI of 325% in 3 years. Hence, the positive feedback obtained from the feasibility study have encouraged us to apply for EC funding through Phase 2, which is aimed at completing the large-scale industrial production plan, MFC prototype construction and testing stages required before we are able to sell our solution to costumers within the wastewater treatment sector at international level.","The summary of the main achievements after perform the feasibility study of MEMBIO are detailed below: | |
| TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY RESULTS | |
| The technical feasibility assessment performed has enabled us to define the tasks and the roadmap to consider in our technical development plan for the next 2 years in order to develop for the final MFC prototype construction. The work performed during this Phase 1 has allowed us to perform an in-depth regulation standards related to water and wastewater treatment. Finally, we have identified the most suitable suppliers to achieve the large-scale manufacturing of our MFC. | |
| COMMERCIAL FEASIBILITY RESULTS | |
| We have explored the market opportunity of our technology within the market by analysing the water treatment sector, especially the water treatment segment, where our solution could take full advantage of its potential. After asses the market strategy for the commercialization of our solution, we have decided to divide it into three phases: MEMBIO development, market entrance and international expansion. Finally, our FTO analysis showed that there is no public patent that represent a risk for our business plan and we have decided to protect MEMBIO by means of secret. | |
| With a total value of more than € 534 bn in 2016, of which € 46 is coming from water treatment systems, is evident the great potential of the water market. This observation sustains the significant business opportunities for the MEMBIO project, especially within the water treatment segment, the one we aim to enter and so the one to which we will devote the next technical and commercial efforts. | |
| FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY RESULTS | |
| Once we have carefully analysed during the financial feasibility analysis, we conclude that our project will be highly profitable under any described scenario we have analysed as the more realistic scenario provides a ROI of 325% in 3 years. Based on our commercialization strategy we have fixed a price of 180 € in developed countries and 140 € for developing countries. We have established the total funding requirements for the execution of the MEMBIO project in € 1,502,946.","ÆNEAM S.L. has developed a membrane technology, whose manufacturing process is based on a sequential slip-casting and freeze templating techniques. We were progressing constantly to reach its current concept and its evolution was based on findings from laboratory scale testing and a need to perform even under highly challenging tasks, such as lindane elimination. The implementation of our technology in the current water treatment systems will allow to obtain reusable water at a cost of less than 0.5 €/ m3, since it is a very simple and extremely low energy demanding, while generating low sludge content, this reducing the environmental problems and avoiding further treatment.",2019-02-12 14:00:34,,816085,MEMBio,H2020-EU.3.;H2020-EU.2.3.;H2020-EU.2.1.,EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020,http://www.aeneam.com/ | |
| 9230,196453,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ShowerPod (ShowerPod),"""The project adress the problem of hygiene for vulnerable people. Nowadays there are many people who can not manage to take care of their own hygiene because of physical disabilities. These people need and get help from healthcare personal with some basic daily routines...","""The project adress the problem of hygiene for vulnerable people. Nowadays there are many people who can not manage to take care of their own hygiene because of physical disabilities. These people need and get help from healthcare personal with some basic daily routines including to take a shower. Depending on the person's disability, one or two persons are needed for assistance. Needing help from others for basic things like personal hygiene can be felt like an uncomfortable intrusion in the patient privacy and integrity, beyond the feeling of being unable to fend for yourself. For healthcare staff, this part of their work duty means a lot of heavy carrying, lifting, pulling and holding. Assisting a disable or vulnerable person with a shower comes with issues such as difficult postures that put a strain on backs and necks, often in confined spaces, physical and mental strength needed to do this work with several patients on a daily basis as well as intrusion in another person’s privacy, integrity and intimacy. The proposed innovation is a solution to these problems. | |
| In addition to the patient and staff experiences, there are specific costs that accompanies the hygiene routine for the care provider e.g. salary costs for 1 or 2 healthcare staff needed to help 1 patient when showering and costs related to accidents and injuries resulting from the heavy lifting, carrying and moving of the patient. The proposed innovation project can considerably reduce the total amount of falling accidents in the healthcare sector all around Europe. | |
| The innovation is a unique shower robot that gives vulnerable people the opportunity to manage their hygiene care themselves, while maintaining security, comfort and privacy through the showering process. The novelty of the innovation is that, as of today, this type of innovative solution will be the first of its kind in the world when introduced in the market. In collaboration with Awapatent AB we have conducted research regarding """"State of the Art and Freedom to Operate"""", and we have not found anything similar in Europe, or anywhere else in the world. | |
| The overall objective of the proposed innovation project is to plan, develop, secure and bring our innovation “POSEIDON” to the global market. During the innovation process before market introduction we will also prepare for full scale production and deliver a first launch event of the innovation (both in phase 2). In measurable terms, related to the functionality of the innovation, we aim to document and reach the following results: | |
| • Increased perception of integrity by the user at showering | |
| • Increased perception of independence of the user at showering | |
| • Decreased risk for falling accidents connected to showering | |
| • Enable showering every day for patients at hospitals and elderly care institutions and save up to 10 minutes per day per patient for showering | |
| The purpose of the phase 1 project is to get the viability of the innovation confirmed and if shown feasible in a phase 2 project demonstrate the functionalities and properties of the shower robot, its benefits on hygiene, safety and integrity as well as economic gains. | |
| ""","The project has one work package with 10 tasks. All together they will contribute to a Feasibility report, including a business plan delivered at the end of the project life-cycle. The tasks executed are: | |
| Task 1. Map where demonstrations actions can be made with varying conditions and geographical location which links to market potential and technological challenges. Task 1 will select demonstration partners for phase 2. Partners are primarily sought within advanced homecare, elderly homes and hospitals. The chosen demonstration partner(s) will be highly involved in order to make an optimal plan of phase 2 on the scope of the project, targets, measurements and execution. This includes an analysis of the needs and demands each partner places on the innovation. The needs may differ due to what is the actual problem to handle at the demonstration site. | |
| Task 2. Investigate potential knowledge partners for phase 2. The task will include to select and negotiate contracts with the knowledge partners needed to implement and evaluate phase 2. | |
| Task 3. Market studies will be performed which will give us deeper market intelligence and that will define the European dimension considering needs, potential clients, competition, market size and commercialization process on targeted potential clients in Europe and globally. This will clarify the primary target groups in phase 2 and 3 as well as surveying potential competitors and potential resellers and partners. The survey will also document the development trends in the market. All together this will be parameters that will shape the exploitation strategy (which will be further elaborated in task 6). | |
| Task 4 A willingness to pay study (WTP) will measures the user benefits of Poseidon. We will use a WTP methodology where we construct a hypothetical market and ask people to state their WTP for the product. WTP is based on empiric and theoretical research about individual economic behaviour and has been used for a long time in welfare economics. Information on user preferences will be collected by the use of questionnaires. This includes follow up questions to identify protesters and to check for scale and scope bias. Relatives to the elderly person may be involved too. | |
| Task 5. Development of a communication strategy to be used during phase 2 with definition of target groups, messages to be communicated and possible tools and channels. Phase 2 will be designed with the ambition of creating maximum impact for the innovation. | |
| Task 6. Elaborate an exploitation plan including a strategy for pricing, financing and organisational changes needed especially for the organisation of sales, marketing and distribution. | |
| Task 7. Elaboration of an IPR strategy, continued monitoring of freedom to operate and legal appliance analysis | |
| Task 8. Preparing the innovation for demonstration (to be made in phase 2) including CE-marking of the innovation to enable demonstration in medical clinics | |
| Task 9. In this task we will put together The Business Innovation Plan 1 that takes into account the results of task 1-8 and will present the predicted business- and market opportunities. | |
| Task 10 Project coordination | |
| Through the various tasks in phase 1 we have served the purpose of the phase 1 project i.e. is to get the viability of the innovation confirmed. The innovation is feasible to bring to phase 2. There we will demonstrate the functionalities and properties of the shower robot, its benefits on hygiene, safety and integrity as well as economic gains together with potential clients and end-users in real environment. A major result is that we have further proofs of the demand for the innovation and we have also pinpointed better the willingness to pay of the customer. This has led to a change of business perspective where we communicate that we will deliver an automatic shower service rather then delivering a shower robot. This has an effect on pricing and financing for both the customer and for the company. The plan","Progress beyond the state of the art includes new knowledge related to combinatorty challenges of various technologies e.g. low-voltage exposure to water and solvent in close contact to the human body and material of the shower robot. This is related to the high requirements of safety for the user according to the stipulated specifications for medical technical products in EU. The innovation has been developed according to the new knowledge gained in the project and the innovation is well prepared for phase 2 tests with clients. | |
| The socio economic impact expected is linked to job creation which in turn is linked to the business strategy of the company. We will continue preparing for full scale production during the phase 2 project and before those arrangements are secured it is a bit uncertain of where new jobs will be created that is related to the production. Production, however, will occur within the European Union and most likely not within Robotics Care but with contracted suppliers. Nevertheless, we expect to generate new jobs during the first 5 years of sales that amount to 30 workers. Within Robotics Care we foresee to generate 25 new jobs related to functions such as product development, sales, marketing, management, administration, distribution, regulatory and legal affairs, IPR and after sales services. Local maintenance and sales are calculated to 5 employees per geographical market. That could be within subsidiaries owned by Robotics Care, but it could also be with joint ventures with local companies. Within 5 years the innovation could generate at least 80 new jobs in Europe. | |
| The wider societal implication of the project includes increased safety, personal hygiene, self-esteem, working environment for health-care staff, attractiveness at health care workplace and health economic efficiency.",2018-08-22 14:26:25,,735067,ShowerPod,H2020-EU.3.1.4.;H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.;H2020-EU.3.1.6.,SMEInst-06-2016-2017,http://www.roboticscare.com | |
| 6868,230097,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ANISOGEL (Injectable anisotropic microgel-in-hydrogel matrices for spinal cord repair),"In many tissues of the human body, such as nerve tissue, the spatial organization of cells plays an important role. Nerve cells and their long protrusions assemble into nerve tracts and transport information throughout the body. When such a tissue is injured, an accurate...","In many tissues of the human body, such as nerve tissue, the spatial organization of cells plays an important role. Nerve cells and their long protrusions assemble into nerve tracts and transport information throughout the body. When such a tissue is injured, an accurate spatial orientation of the cells facilitates the healing process. In Anisogel, we developed an injectable gel, which can act as a guidance system for nerve cells. Inside the body, an extracellular matrix surrounds the cells. It provides mechanical support and promotes spatial tissue organization. In order to regenerate damaged tissue, an artificial matrix can temporally replace the natural extracellular matrix. This matrix needs to mimic the natural cell environment in order to efficiently stimulate the regenerative potential of the surrounding tissue. Solid implants, however, may impair remaining healthy tissue whereas soft, injectable materials allow for a minimal invasive therapy, which is particularly beneficial for sensitive tissues, such as the spinal cord. Unfortunately, up to now, artificial soft materials did not yet reproduce the complex structures and spatial properties of natural tissues. | |
| The newly developed minimal invasive material is termed ‚Anisogel‘. If you aim to enhance the regeneration of damaged spinal cord tissue, you need to come up with a new material concept. We use micrometer-sized building blocks and assemble them into 3D hierarchically organized structures. Anisogel consists of two gel components. Many, microscopically small, soft rod-shaped gels, incorporated with a low amount of magnetic nanoparticles, are the first component. Using a weak magnetic field, scientists can orient the gel rods, after which a very soft surrounding gel matrix is crosslinked, forming the structural guidance system. The gel rods, being stabilized by the gel matrix, maintain their orientation, even after removal of the magnetic field. Using cell culture experiments, we demonstrate that cells can easily migrate through this gel matrix, and that nerve cells and fibroblasts orient along the paths provided by this guidance system. A low amount of one percent gel rods inside the entire Anisogel volume is proven to be sufficient to induce linear nerve growth. The material is the first injectable biomaterial, which assembles into a controlled oriented structure after injection and provides a functional guidance system for cells.","During this period in Anisogel, we have developed the methods to fabricate rod-shaped microgels with different dimensions, aspect ratios, stiffness, and biochemical modification. Depending on the amount of magnetic particles loaded inside, we achieve magnetically responsive microgels, which orient in low milli tesla magnetic fields. The microgels are sufficiently small that they can be injected in combination with a master hydrogel, which can crosslink around the aligned microgels to fix their orientation after removal of the magnetic field. A synthetic poly (ethylene based) master hydrogel was synthesized with bioactive domains to support cell attachment and growth, degradable domains that can be cleaved by the cells, and domains with the ability to bind growth factors to stimulate cell growth. In addition, a natural fibrin gel has been applied to study the guiding effect of the Anisogel. Both master hydrogels crosslink according to the same blot clotting mechanism. | |
| Cell culture experiments revealed that cells and nerves feel the physical and mechanical anisotropy of the Anisogel, resulting in unidirectional growth. Only a minimal amount of rod-shaped guiding elements was required, all the way down to 1 vol% in the case of nerve cells. This work was recently published in the journal Nano Letters (June 2017, front cover). | |
| Later, the effect of biofunctional molecules attached to the microgels was investigated and demonstrated that introducing cell adhesiveness of the microgels enhanced fibroblast attachment and alignment. Interestingly, modifying the microgels with cell-adhesive peptides, such as RGD, reduced the need of the cells to produce their own extracellular proteins, as a significan reduction of fibronectin was observed. This shows that the microgels nicely mimicked the natural ECM proteins available for the cells to attach to. As the produced fibronectin is also aligned, a positive feedback is presented for the cells, where the natural proteins can over time take over the function of the degradable microgels.","Due to the success of the Anisogel, an alternative method to produce rod-shaped, magneto-responsive guiding objects was established. Here, cell adhesive short fibers are applied in a crosslinked precursor solution. The micron-scale fibers are prepared by an effective high-throughput electrospinning/microcutting technique with tailorable dimensions. Encapsulation of low iron oxide nanoparticles during the spinning process also leads to magneto-responsive behavior in the presence of an external magnetic field in the milli Tesla range.The simplicity and versatility of this approach also enables the formation of unidirectional, oriented structures in situ with controlled features that stimulate fibroblasts and functional nerve cells to grow in a linear manner. The fiber-based Anisogel supports spontaneous electrical activity of the neurons, proving neuronal functionality and importantly, electrical signals that propagate along the anisotropy axis of the material. This is a crucial function for applications in linearly oriented neuronal tissues, such as spinal cord. This elegant, high-throughout fiber fabrication method and low invasiveness of this technology can enhance the clinical outcome for patients without risking further damage. | |
| Based on this work, one additional paper was published open access in Small (September 2017, front cover plus an additional video abstract (featured on the Wiley website and https://youtu.be/136xwXsLWGg)). | |
| In the second half of Anisogel, we will study the effect of microgel dimensions and aspect ratios on the rate of magnetic orientation and directed cell growth inside the Anisogel. We will also further modify the microgels with different peptides to affect specific cell types. Further the function of the Anisogel will be investigated to grow aligned blood vessels (angiogenesis) and glial cells, present in the nervous system to insulate the nerves with myeling and enhance electrical nerve signaling. | |
| The animal protocol will be submitted in 2017 to hopefully start testing the Anisogels in a rat contusion spinal cord injuyr model in 2018. These in vivo studies are crucial to proof the potential of the Anisogels for clinical therapies.",2018-09-24 16:42:13,,637853,ANISOGEL,H2020-EU.1.1.,ERC-StG-2014,https://www.dwi.rwth-aachen.de/index.php | |
| 521,254533,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VetBioNet (Veterinary Biocontained facility Network for excellence in animal infectiology research and experimentation),"VetBioNet seeks to strengthen the European capacity and competence to meet the challenges of emerging infectious disease outbreaks by establishing a comprehensive network of European BSL3 infrastructures, academic institutes, industries and international organisations.To reach...","VetBioNet seeks to strengthen the European capacity and competence to meet the challenges of emerging infectious disease outbreaks by establishing a comprehensive network of European BSL3 infrastructures, academic institutes, industries and international organisations. | |
| To reach this overall objective, the Activities of VetBioNet are dedicated to: | |
| • Opening the VetBioNet infrastructure resources to external users by providing Transnational Access (TNA) to BSL3 animal experimental facilities and laboratories, technological platforms, and sample collections. | |
| • New scientific and technological developments. | |
| • Enhanced preparedness of the major European BSL3 research infrastructures that will allow a swift response to (re-)emerging epizootic and zoonotic threats. | |
| • Harmonization of Best Practices and a larger use of global standards in European BSL3 infrastructures. | |
| • Determining the social impact deriving from VetBioNet activities. | |
| • Establishing a sustainability plan that will allow VetBioNet to offer its services beyond the project duration. | |
| • Providing improved scientific and technological standards for the services offered by the VetBioNet infrastructures.","A VetBioNet website has been created and is operational since May 2017. During the period, the website had 48.852 unique visitors with 267.872 pages visited. A project communication package including logos, posters, leaflets and presentation templates was created. Two short videos targeting veterinary laboratories and the general public were published on YouTube. | |
| A web-based interface to submit and manage TNA services has been launched. Within 8 months’ time, 18 applications have been received and evaluated by a User Selection Panel (USP), consisting of independent and highly experienced scientists from various scientific disciplines. A specifically established TNA access point (TNA-AP) warrants a centralized application and management platform as interface between users and service providers. The VetBioNet website, social media, presentations or information stands at national/international meetings were used as means to brief the research community on the opportunities, modalities and conditions of TNA services provided by VetBioNet. | |
| The “Veterinary Emerging Threat Response Group” (VETRG) has been set up as a consultation group to deliberate on the project’s means to respond to imminent and/or predictable emerging epizootic and zoonotic infectious disease threats at European level (Preparedness plan). Links with European/international networks and organisations and industrial stakeholders have been forged. | |
| Considerable progress has been made in the harmonisation of best practices for operating BSL3 facilities on the basis of international standards. This VetBioNet topic now occupies a dedicated area on the International Veterinary Biosafety Workgroup (IVBW) website for promoting exchanges with the scientific community. Workshops have been held on the CEN CWA 15793 standard and the steps needed to comply with this standard. | |
| The first version of the Transparency and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy, and resources related to specific ethical issues and 3Rs, as well as training resources and events have been developed. | |
| Engagement with stakeholders and identification of funding opportunities has started as part of the investigation to sustain VetBioNet activities and tools beyond the current term of funding (2022). . | |
| Joint Research Activities (JRAs) for the development of in vivo infection models have been dedicated to: (i) the standardization of an ovine model for PPRV; (ii) the development of a reservoir pathogen model in Alpaca for MERS-CoV; (iii) the improvement of ferret aerosol models to study airborne Influenza virus infections; (iv) the optimisation of salmonid and cyprinid models for the study of fish viruses (SCVS, IPNV, VHSV, IHNV). Considerable progress has been made in the the development of alternative in vitro infection models : (i) testing an in ovo (embryonated chicken egg) model to predict the pathogenicity of NDV strains; (ii) development of a chicken B cell culture model for IBDV; (iii) development of protocols for the preparation of avian endothelial cells, avian and bovine precision-cut lung slices, porcine nasal mucosa explants and pig and rabbit mesenchymal stem cells. | |
| Tools to analyse high-risk infections are being developed. Analyses of the bovine and avian transcriptomes have been initiated using 2 state-of-the art platforms (Nanostring, Fluidigm). Ovine MHC I and II sequencing platforms are being developed, along with porcine B-cell and T-cell receptor analysis pipelines. Approaches to virus deep-sequencing (Foot-and-Mouth-Disease virus) as well as host microbiome (porcine) have been developed and applied. Development of reagents to enable construction of RHDV serotyping ELISAS, as well as ELISAS to track salmonid viral infections have been progressing successfully. | |
| Instrumentation and software for surveying relevant physiological parameters are being developed. A questionnaire was set out among partners to prioritize parameters to be measured and monitored and technical conditions to take into","VetBioNet TNA activities consist in providing free-of-charge access to BSL3 facilities and technical resources of the consortium. The call is permanent and project proposals are promptly handled by the VetBioNet TNA-APJRAs aim at improving the scientific and technical standards of the services provided by the consortium’s infrastructures. Some JRAs will develop and optimise livestock infection models for a number of high-impact epizootic and zoonotic diseases. Other JRAs will advance the state-of-the-art of the current analytical, telemetric or bioimaging approaches in animal infectious disease research. Five private partners are directly involved in the VetBioNet JRAs, thus permitting technologic development at an advanced Technology Readiness Level and potentially commercialisation of project outputs. Collectively, the VetBioNet TNA activities and JRAs will help to increase the competiveness of the participating infrastructures and to advance the European research and R&D agenda related to epizootic and zoonotic diseases. | |
| The overall goal of the Networking Activities (NAs) is to foster the cooperation between the consortium partners and forge cooperative relationships with other European or international research initiatives, industrial stakeholders, international organizations and policy makers. A Preparedness Plan has been implemented to establish VetBioNet as a central player in the European emergency response to infectious diseases. Concerted action by the VETRG is crucial to warrant a swift and efficient response of the consortium, especially at the present time when the EU is threatened by high-impact epizootic and/or zoonotic diseases such as African swine fever and West Nile fever. VetBioNet NAs addressing Best Practices and the harmonisation of protocols will help advancing the biosafety standards in high-containment facilities and may inform EU guidelines and regulations. NAs aiming to ensure high ethical standards and clarify the social impact of VetBioNet activities provide an ambitious and unique approach to map and positively alter the public perception of animal infectious disease research.",2019-04-26 00:01:39,,731014,VetBioNet,H2020-EU.1.4.1.2.,INFRAIA-01-2016-2017,http://www.vetbionet.eu | |
| 5012,190226,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - openMedicine (openMedicine),Context:Enabling the delivery of safe and efficient cross-border healthcare is a policy priority of the European Union. The overall goal of openMedicine was to enhance the safety and continuity of cross-border (and also national level) healthcare through interoperable...,"Context: | |
| Enabling the delivery of safe and efficient cross-border healthcare is a policy priority of the European Union. The overall goal of openMedicine was to enhance the safety and continuity of cross-border (and also national level) healthcare through interoperable ePrescriptions. Whereas the epSOS project solved the electronic “communication” or message transfer problem, it encountered a serious “delivery” problem: the univocal identification of a medicinal product noted in a prescription from a given country by a pharmacist dispensing it in another country. S/he must be able to select from the medicinal products available in that country the one that matches the prescribed product for safe dispensation to the patient. Or, if substitution is permitted, a similar product in line with national regulations. | |
| Objectives: | |
| openMedince addressed both the identification and the substitution challenge. This concerned developing respectively identifying | |
| • a common data model for prescribed medicines | |
| • a common vocabulary for unambiguous definition, description, and identification of medicines | |
| • prevailing national rules and practices of substitution | |
| • a roadmap for post-project actions and implementations | |
| and to contribute towards | |
| • the intentions of the MoU signed between the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the EC on trans-Atlantic eHealth cooperation. | |
| Conclusions: | |
| Harmonising the identification of medicines in regulatory processes, in ePrescriptions, eDispensation reports as well as in clinical messages, records and decision support systems remains a European challenge. It impacts on pharmacovigilance, the tracing of data across the life cycle of a medicinal product, the aggregation of information for public health purposes and many other health domains. And it promises a substantial European added value. | |
| Across the Union, differences in names of medicinal products and active substances, variations in strength and box size prevail, and the availability of a specific medicinal product varies across member states. This situation necessitates substitution of the prescribed product at thre point of dispensation in many instances if a patient is to be timely served in a pharmacy. The EU-wide implementation of ISO IDMP standards as under way by EMA for pharmacovigilance is a route to mitigate many of these problems. To fundamentally increase the probability, e.g., that a cross-border ePrescription can indeed be dispensed in another member state, it is mandatory to have the pharmaceutical product identification number (PhPID) available respectively automatically included from national sources or a central EMA data base, in order to identify medicinal products locally available which are equivalent to the one identified in the prescription. This also applies mutatis mutandis to other clinical or regulatory records and contexts. | |
| In the medium term, it will be mandatory to link the EMA IDMP (SPOR) DB with national drug DBs (or use NCPeH procedures) to have identifiers and identifying attributes automatically included into software systems which have to make use of such input for prescribing and other clinical systems. This will also improve and harmonise reporting of adverse drug events and pharmacovigilance. | |
| Work should also concern an assessment of impacts based on benefits and costs to be anticipated. Such an assessment should not only concern regulatory impacts, impacts on setting global standards and best practice, and impact on clinical data quality and interoperability, but also spill-over effects to pharmaceutical companies, data base producers and competitive advantage of European companies.","Work performed: | |
| Based and expanding upon epSOS results, new use cases, and reviewing ISO/IDMP standards, the work performed identified a common structure, data elements and semantic assets (vocabulary) for the unambiguous definition, description, and identification of medicinal products (MPs) throughout Europe. Detailed exchanges with and contributions to the eHealth Network activities on revised Guidelines led to concrete solution proposals for rendering cross-border eHealth services (ePrescriptions, ePatient Summaries) safer and more efficient. | |
| Four Expert Council Meetings were organised, twice at the premises of EMA in London, at CEN premises in Brussels, and with FDA at their premises in Washington, D.C. | |
| Across all member states, a survey was undertaken to gather information on and to analyse the handling of concepts and practices of substitution of medicinal products at the point of dispensation. | |
| A set of high level recommendations and a roadmap for post-project actions were discussed, validated and agreed. | |
| Key results of openMedicine: | |
| • A common data model for prescribed medicinal products (a common structure, data elements and semantic assets (vocabulary) for the unambiguous definition, description, and identification of medicinal products) | |
| • Contributions to the activities of the eHealth Network and the revised Guidelines for ePatient Summaries and ePrescriptions. | |
| • Submission of options to member states developing cross-border eHealth services in the context of the “Connecting Europe Facility” framework. In close cooperation with the EMA, intermediate solutions for univocally identifying medicinal products in cross-border contexts, particularly for ePrescribing services, were submitted | |
| • Four Expert Council Meetings with representatives of all major player and stakeholder groups from both sides of the Atlantic, two at the premises of EMA in London, one at CEN facilities in Brussels, and one at the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in Washington, DC. | |
| • An empirical surveyed across all member states on substitution of medicinal products at the point of dispensation. | |
| • A set of high level, critical recommendations and a roadmap for post-project actions and implementations. | |
| Dissemination: | |
| Results were widely disseminated to key players, stakeholders, thought leaders and multipliers through Expert Council meetings, regional workshops all across the Union; presentations at conferences and standardisation bodies; publications; and a comprehensive website.","Progress beyond the state of the art: | |
| openMedicine has substantially contributed towards the univocal identification of medicinal products. Solutions based on the ISO IDMP (identification of medicinal products) suite of standards are ready to be implemented by international (like EMA or FDA) and national (member state) regulatory bodies, by producers of medicinal products data bases, and by providers of clinical or pharmacy software. They will facilitate cross-border ePrescription services like those under implementation in the context of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). | |
| Benefits, impacts: | |
| OpenMedicine work will generate long-term benefits for | |
| • Patients: safer (cross-border) healthcare, better access to prescribed medicines abroad | |
| • Clinicians: improved reliability, and easier understanding and comprehension of medication records | |
| • Pharmacists: more reliable identification of medicines specified in a (cross-border) prescription, improved substitution guidance | |
| • Pharmacovigilance: faster alignment of reports on adverse drug events (ADEs) related to medicinal products with the same active ingredient(s) | |
| • Pharmaceutical industry: more efficient submission of information necessary for marketing authorisation of new medicinal products.",2019-02-26 10:25:41,,643796,openMedicine,H2020-EU.3.1.5.,PHC-34-2014,http://www.open-medicine.eu | |
| 192,204992,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INNO-SOFC (Development of innovative 50 kW SOFC system and related value chain),"The INNO-SOFC project is focusing on development of an innovative 50 kW SOFC system and related value chain from interconnects and stacks to end-users and application analysis. The project is based on the products of industrial partners (Convion, EnergyMatters, Elcogen, and...","The INNO-SOFC project is focusing on development of an innovative 50 kW SOFC system and related value chain from interconnects and stacks to end-users and application analysis. The project is based on the products of industrial partners (Convion, EnergyMatters, Elcogen, and ElringKlinger) and motivated by their interest to further improve their products and consolidate an efficient value chain by collaboration. Industrial partners are operating at different phases of the value chain and are not therefore competing against each other, The project aims to improve beneficiaries’ products and consolidate an efficient value chain by a close collaboration. Research centres (VTT, Jülich, and ENEA) support these companies to develop, experimentally validate and demonstrate their products. | |
| The main objective of this project is to design, assemble and demonstrate a novel 50 kW SOFC power plant with significant cost reductions, improved efficiency and longer lifetime compared to current state of the art SOFC systems. The quantitative objectives of the project are 60% electrical and 85% total efficiency. In addition, at least 30% reduction in system cost, below 4000 €/kW is targeted. Cost target for stacks is 2000 €/kW. Life-time target for the system is 30000 hours. Within the project, the INNO-SOFC system will be demonstrated with a 3000-hour run. Other objectives of the project are to identify most promising applications and boost the market penetration of stationary fuel cell products and services.","Main results of the first reporting period include: completed application and end-user analysis, completed system conceptual design including optimized stack-system interface, optimized open cathode stack design, new stack conditioning system for open cathode stacks, successful manufacturing and delivery of interconnect plates. In general, the project is progressing according to the original plan, except some months delay in system design and manufacturing. All deliverables of the first reporting period have been submitted and public deliverables are visible on the project webpage: http://www.innosofc.eu/","Within this project 60% electrical and 85% total energy efficiency will be demonstrated at system level. The electrical efficiency of a SOFC system is affected by stack voltages, system fuel utilization and auxiliary (parasitic) power consumption, including power conversion losses. INNO-SOFC project will provide improvements to all of these factors. The use of Elcogen’s high performance stacks at low temperatures will provide an improved Nernst voltage combined with reduced ohmic losses, resulting in a higher cell voltage than conventional SOFC cells at nominal conditions throughout the lifetime. High performance stacks combined with several improvements in system architecture will lead into beyond state of the art system efficiency. Currently system conceptual design is ready and stack validation tests have started with very promising results towards efficiency targets.",2019-04-30 15:36:58,,671403,INNO-SOFC,H2020-EU.3.3.8.1.,FCH-02.5-2014,http://www.innosofc.eu/ | |
| 5855,241922,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - reSGulating (Functional analysis of Stress Granules formation in plant adaptation to stress),"Stress adaptation is crucial for organism survival and is one of the driving forces of biological evolution. Plants are sessile organisms and must therefore continuously cope with various types of stresses imposed by abiotic factors (temperature, light, availability of water...","Stress adaptation is crucial for organism survival and is one of the driving forces of biological evolution. Plants are sessile organisms and must therefore continuously cope with various types of stresses imposed by abiotic factors (temperature, light, availability of water, etc.) and pathogens. It is very well documented that these stress-related alterations can have a high impact on crop productivity, limiting yield and resulting in unacceptable economic losses. Therefore, understanding the dynamics and evolution of plant stress response is of fundamental importance as these conditions impact agricultural yield, which is essential to sustain our society. One of the evolutionarily-conserved stress responses that plants share with other eukaryotes is a global shutdown and reprogramming of protein synthesis. This mechanism prevents unnecessary energy expenditures at the times of stress and ensures that only specific proteins vital for stress recovery are produced, minimizing stress-related damage and promoting cell survival. At the cellular level, this response is associated with the formation in the cytoplasm of the membraneless organelles called “stress granules” (SGs). These organelles are assemblies of untranslating messenger ribonucleoproteins (mRNPs) composed of mRNAs stalled in translation initiation and a diverse repertoire of proteins. | |
| Research on plant SGs is still in its infancy. In plants, the current knowledge of SG composition and function as well as their assembly requirements and regulation through stress-activated signaling pathways remain totally unknown. More importantly, it is unclear how SGs work and to what extent they can affect stress resistance. In this context, this project aims to better understand the fundamental function of SGs in the regulation of plant response to stress using the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Arabidopsis as model organisms. To achieve these general goals, a multidisciplinary approach including cell and molecular biology, genetic, physiological and bioinformatics techniques, were implemented in order to evaluate four major Aims.","During the first part of the grant, the work was focused on visualizing of the SG formation in the green alga Chlamydomonas. In parallel, I tried to figure out the molecular link between autophagy and SG clearance using Arabidopsis as model organism. As a new step towards a better understanding of the molecular function of SGs in plants, I isolated and identified the SG proteome using the SG-associated proteins TSN1 and TSN2 proteins as baits. | |
| Dissemination of the results has been conducted through (i) participation multidisciplinary seminars organized by the host institute (IBVF-CSIC); (ii) monthly meetings organized by the host group; and (iii) attendance of several national (XIV RBMP, II NEAR) and international conferences (SEB Goteborg 2017 and New Phytologist next generation scientists 2017 symposium). | |
| Outreach activities have constituted an integral part of the project. I have (i) participated in two Fair of Sciences (2018 and 2019); (ii) given a talk in the European Researchers’ Night 2019 (talk title: What is the green revolution?); (iii) created the Twitter account @stress_granules, which main objective is to share with a wide audience all the new advances generated by the SG research (summary: tweets: 178; following: 213; and followers: 230).","The research work has allowed me to progress towards the achievement of the main scientific goal of this project. In addition to the conceptual knowledge gathered in this time, the project has been endowed with very important training and dissemination/public engagement activities. From a strategic point of view, the implementation of the project has enhanced scientific collaborative activities, providing to me with ample opportunities to interact with different research groups, very active in my area of expertise. In addition to those formative strengths, it is our belief that the research questions addressed in this project provide new insights into the molecular role of stress granules formation in plants. This meant a new step to my current idea focused on unmasking the role of the SG formation in plants.",2019-01-23 16:54:45,,702473,reSGulating,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2015-EF,https://twitter.com/stress_granules | |
| 8347,201026,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ARTIST (Advancing Rechargeable-Batteries Through In Situ Techniques),"Energy storage in rechargeable batteries is a key technology in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, with the aim of minimising global warming and its potentially disastrous effects. The search for new battery materials together with the drive to improve performance and...","Energy storage in rechargeable batteries is a key technology in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, with the aim of minimising global warming and its potentially disastrous effects. The search for new battery materials together with the drive to improve performance and lower the cost of rechargeable batteries presents significant challenges. Many of the most important physical processes that occur in rechargeable batteries occur at the interface between the solid electrodes and a liquid electrolyte. However, directly probing the reactions occurring at these interfaces is challenging due the bulk of material either side of these interfaces. This project aims to address this problem by developing new techniques based on using atomically thin graphene membranes to probe the solid-liquid interface with established X-ray spectrocopy and scanning probe microscopy techniques. The understanding of electrode-electrolyte interfaces in rechargeable batteries is critical to improving their performance, and thus this project is of broad significance to society, given the widespread use of rechargeable batteries in portable electronic devices such as laptops and mobile phones, as well as their increasing prevalence as power sources for zero-emission vehicles. | |
| The overall objectives of this project are to: | |
| - Develop in situ techniques to probe solid-liquid interfaces. | |
| - Use these techniques to reveal the structural and chemical evolution of solid-liquid interfaces. | |
| - Obtain a detailed understanding of the evolution of electrode materials in rechargeable batteries and how these materials can be improved. | |
| Conclusions of the action: | |
| - Developed a new approach to perform X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of gases and liquids at atmospheric pressures using graphene membranes. | |
| - Revealed the structure of the solid-electrolyte interphase formed on high-capacity silicon anodes in lithium ion batteries, and how electrolyte additives can reduce capacity fade over many charge/discharge cycles. | |
| - Observed the evolution of silicon-based anode materials during lithium insertion, showing that using silicon oxide avoided the formation of undesirable phases.","The work performed for this project was carried out at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California (US) and at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge (UK). The focus has been on investigating how interfaces in electrochemistry and heterogeneous catalysis behave under reaction conditions. X-ray spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy techniques that have been specially adapted to operate at ambient pressures (tens of mbar) have been applied to study the behaviour of solid-gas interfaces. This has included fundamental studies of the pressure-dependent adsorption of carbon dioxide and methanol on low-index faces of Cu single-crystals which serve as models for the complex facetted nanoparticles typically used in carbon dioxide reduction and methanol oxidation reactions. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to obtain a precise account of the chemical species adsorbed on the Cu surface, the pressures at which they dissociate, and the corresponding oxidation state of the Cu catalyst. Scanning tunnelling microscopy has been used to observe the structures adopted by the adsorbed species on the catalyst surface, and how the catalyst surface restructures at pressures of up to 20 mbar. | |
| A new technique has been developed that allows photoelectron spectroscopy to be performed at atmospheric pressures in liquid or gas environments (see Figure). This is based on using graphene membranes to separate the gas/liquid from the vacuum conditions needed for electron detection, whilst the graphene is thin enough to allow the transmission of photoelectrons from the high-pressure side. Methods have been developed for producing stable graphene membranes that allow these measurements to be performed, and protocols for depositing electrode and catalyst materials onto these membranes have been established. Special liquid and gas reaction cells have been designed to accommodate these graphene membranes and successfully tested at various synchrotron facilities. Work has also been undertaken on applying X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to study solid-liquid interfaces. A three-electrode liquid flow cell that incorporates a metal-coated silicon nitride membrane (100nm thick) as both X-ray transparent window and working electrode, has been designed that allows measurement under electrochemical control. These operando X-ray spectroscopy techniques have been used to study electrolyte decomposition and resulting formation of a solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) on high capacity silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries. The effect of common additives such as fluoroethylene carbonate on the formation and structure of the SEI have been revealed, improving our understanding of how SEI structure can be altered to minimise capacity fade during repeated cycling. To complement the powerful chemical information these X-ray spectroscopy techniques can provide, scanning probe microscopy has been applied to study the structure of solid-liquid interfaces. Operando NMR has also been used to investigate the Lithiation mechanisms of the Si and SiO as high-capacity anode materials for Li-ion batteries.","The studies of solid-gas interfaces provide new understanding of how initially flat Cu surfaces can drastically restructure in carbon dioxide environments of ~20 mbar due to Cu nanocluster formation. They thus provide new insights at the molecular level into the “self- poisoning” and the role of step and kink sites in important industrial reactions catalyzed by Cu-based materials, such as the reverse water gas shift reaction and methanol synthesis. Furthermore they highlight the importance of in situ characterisation under realistic reaction conditions, as the catalyst structure and chemistry can be significantly changed simply by changing the pressure. | |
| The first X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy measurements of nanoparticles in an atmospheric pressure reaction environment have been performed by using graphene membranes. It has been demonstrated that this technique can equally be used to detect ions in aqueous solutions and to observe the electrodeposition of cobalt onto the graphene membrane from a cobalt(II) sulfate solution. This has been developed in collaboration with synchrotron research facilities (e.g. ALS, Alba) opening up new instrumentation opportunities to the international scientific community. The studies of how the SEI forms and evolves on silicon anodes will inform the rational engineering of the SEI structure to achieve improved battery cycle life. Complementary NMR studies have revealed how Lithium is inserted into Si and SiO anodes, showing that in the later case a high concentration of Li can be inserted without causing the undesirable formation of Li15Si4 formation which is otherwise found to be detrimental to maintaining battery cycle life. The enhanced understanding of solid-liquid and solid-gas interfaces obtained using this technique will benefit industries important to developing a sustainable society such as electrochemical energy storage and catalysis.",2018-08-28 16:12:47,,656870,ARTIST,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-GF,https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations | |
| 4387,251669,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AstroLakes (Bio-analysis of subglacial volcanic lakes as exoplanet analogues),"AstroLakes proposed to study the biodiversity and ecology of Lake East Skaftárkatlar Iceland. This volcanic subglacial lake results from the interaction of an ice cover melting under the effect of geothermal activity, making it a unique ecosystem on Earth displaying extreme...","AstroLakes proposed to study the biodiversity and ecology of Lake East Skaftárkatlar Iceland. | |
| This volcanic subglacial lake results from the interaction of an ice cover melting under the effect of geothermal activity, making it a unique ecosystem on Earth displaying extreme conditions for microbial life. | |
| However, studying life in such environment comes with a number of technical difficulties, notably to access and sample the water body and attempt to cultivate its highly specialized inhabitants. | |
| In this context, AstroLakes aimed at obtaining complete genomes in order to enable in-depth analysis of the community structure, functional capacities and overall ecology. | |
| Studying this lake brings two main source of value for the society. One is purely and scientific, with a better understanding of the evolution of life and ecology in an extreme environment on Earth. This brings knowledge in the field of astrobiology, since the conditions in the Lake are potentially analogous to that of frozen moons such as Enceladus. The second main interest is in the very nature of the organisms found in an extreme environment and adapted to either cold or hot temperatures, absence of oxygen or light, presence of sulfur species. Indeed the gene repertoire of such organisms is likely to contain enzymes of biotechnological or -to a lesser extend - medical interest. | |
| The main objectives included building a first ecosystem model for the lake and acquiring genomes of its inhabitants.","The work included attempts to cultivate the organisms from the original samples aiming at isolating bacterial species, and attempts to isolate them without need for cultivation through flow-cytometry and single-cell analysis. | |
| Those approaches raised a number of technical issues and the research was focused on deeply-sequenced metagenomes sequenced from the original samples. | |
| These bio-informatic analyses included the extraction and assembly of full-length ribosomal operons, resulting on high-quality community structure profiles, while revealing rather new radiations of life with distant relatives in public databases. | |
| Those results were then used to analyze the genes and metabolic functions available in the metagenomes shedding light on the contribution of the most abundant community members in carbon, nitrogen and sulfur metabolisms. | |
| Finally, new sequencing methods were performed and combined with the existing data to attempt to assemble circular genomes out of the metagenomes. Those works are still ongoing but show very positive preliminary results. | |
| The results from the bioinformatic analysis of the metagenomes were combined into a scientific publication currently under review in the ISME journal. | |
| They were also presented to the scientific community and the general public as part of the Icelandic Biological Conference and the European Researcher's night. | |
| In addition, the work was also presented in two 9th-grade icelandic classes with the aim to promote scientific careers and raise awareness on the scientific challenge that constitutes global warming and environmental collapse.","AstroLakes strongly enhanced the scientific profile of its main investigator Gregory K. FARRANT by acquiring and enhancing knowledge on project management and various cutting-edge scientific methods. | |
| Additionally, the researcher grew up towards excellence and scientific independence. | |
| AstroLakes also contributed to develop a technical framework for the bio-analysis of environmental genomic datasets which already found use in other scientific projects. | |
| Finally, the project and its scientific context were also used to promote scientific research and raise ecological awareness towards the upcoming generation of scientists and more broadly to the general public through popularization publications in various media.",2019-03-20 10:38:07,,704956,AstroLakes,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2015-EF,https://www.researchgate.net/project/AstroLakes | |
| 9698,185560,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OPTILIFT (OPTILIFT offshore lifting and logistics),"""The OptiLift framework employs intelligent / novel image and sensor processing approaches to significantly improve offshore lifting and logistics operations in the oil & gas sector. The technology is built around a sensor unit and a custom software solution. The sensor units...","""The OptiLift framework employs intelligent / novel image and sensor processing approaches to significantly improve offshore lifting and logistics operations in the oil & gas sector. The technology is built around a sensor unit and a custom software solution. The sensor units are installed at crane boom tips and sensor readings are processed for producing information and control that can vastly improve efficiencies of various operations. The solution is easily installed and maintained, and is thus highly cost effective while fully scalable. | |
| The main objectives are to (1) extend the weather window for offshore lifting operations, (2) increase safety for offshore personnel and cargo, (3) improve the logistics planning and tracking, (4) reduce the need for """"floating warehouses"""" and (5) improve the efficiency for offshore transportation. | |
| One of the most prominent advantages of the OptiLift framework is that it does not require instrumentation of vessels or cargo to be tracked. It only requires installation of sensor unit on the cranes involved.""","During the first phase of the OPTILIFT SME project (1) market feasibility, (2) financial feasibility, (3) IPR assessment, and (4) technical feasibility studies were performed. | |
| Market feasibility study was executed for offshore oil & gas, and offshore wind energy markets. Financial feasibility study shows the potential of the business model for OptiLift as well as the economies of scale. IPR assessments were performed with an updated search on the prior art. Through the technical feasibility study, FMECAs were executed for the modules of the technology platform, defining risks and mitigating actions. | |
| Conclusion is that the project is viable and has a great potential to succeed.","Expected final results of the project is a unified technology platform that will (1) reduce costs related to delayed and cancelled lifting operations by increasing the window of operations for lifting, (2) reduce costs related to floating warehouses through better utilization of deck capacity on vessels and installations, (3) reduce costs related to logistics planning and handling, (4) avoid costly accidents related to improper handling of dangerous goods and (5) improve the safety for personnel and minimizing damage or loss of equipment.",2018-07-27 14:17:11,,674094,OPTILIFT,H2020-EU.3.4.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,IT-1-2014-1,http://www.optilift.no | |
| 5443,251356,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ELENA (Low energy ELEctron driven chemistry for the advantage of emerging NAno-fabrication methods),"Nanotechnology, has been described as the technology for the 21st century, with applications from electronics to biotechnology and medicine. Accordingly, the next decade will be characterized by an increasing industrial demand for the creation of novel nanostructures whose...","Nanotechnology, has been described as the technology for the 21st century, with applications from electronics to biotechnology and medicine. Accordingly, the next decade will be characterized by an increasing industrial demand for the creation of novel nanostructures whose individual physical and chemical properties can be tuned to specific applications. This in turn requires increased control over material composition, shape and resolution, providing the mechanisms for advanced nano-meter scale fabrication methods. Focused Electron Beam Induced Deposition (FEBID) and Extreme Ultra Violet Lithography (EUVL) are two innovative, next generation, nanoscopic fabrication techniques. These approaches have in common that high energy irradiation is used to write the nanostructures desired. Such irradiation, in turn, leads to the production of secondary, low energy electrons that are determining in the chemistry defining the performance of these methods. | |
| The ELENA project aims at a better understanding of this low energy electron induced chemistry governing the performance of these methodologies and to use that understanding to advance these as commercially viable nanostructure fabrication techniques. Further, in order to significantly contribute to the development of FEBID and EUVL and nanotechnology in general, ELENA trains 15 early stage researcher in a broad set of skills and providing them with a detailed understanding of the physics and chemistry underpinning both FEBID and EUVL as well as the broader aspects of nano-technology processing.","The 15 ESRs active within ELENA have established a set of unique state of the art research projects whilst simultaneously receiving comprehensive training, both academic and technical. Two Technical Training School have also been arranged, with strong emphasis on direct contact with industrial stake holders and one Personal Skill Training School, where the emphasis was on training in outreach, dissemination and communication. | |
| Significant data has already been produced and importantly, collaborations across the network are very active. Such collaborations are an important element of the training and are probably the single most important element in achieving the technical and scientific objectives of this ITN. | |
| Studies on model compound for EUVL resist materials have been conducted and new approaches for such studies have been developed. Protocols for the synthesis of novel EUVL resist materials have been established and approaches to study chemically assisted electron-induced processes, with both EUVL resist materials and FEBID precursors, have been established. A library of metal complexes as potential FEBID precursors has been synthesized and these compounds are being systematically tested, also with novel approaches developed within the ELENA ITN. In addition, new FEBID precursors with potential applications in EUVL mask repair have been tested. The first efforts to calculate energy landscapes and determine relative rates for the growth of nanostructures have begun and current theoretical work is focused on defining a general methodology to obtain converged results for large systems. Studies on cross linking of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and on surface-anchored metal-organic frameworks (SURMOFs), as potential platforms for surface patterning with electron beams or EUV light, have also been conducted. | |
| Elena places a strong emphasis on application of its research and the first steps have been taken towards integration of a 3D lithography package into commercial SEMs, and currently work is being devoted to the development of protocols for the provision of precursors providing the desired material properties needed in the repair of EUVL photo masks.","Elena is designed to make significant advances in both the technical and scientific understanding of FEBID and EUVL, advances that are possible through the exploitation of the synergy provided by this collaborative MCSA, ITN platform. | |
| Studies on model compounds for resist materials for EUVL, based on conventional UV resist material and on novel materials tailored for EUVL have been conducted and a stable approach to synthesize novel, air- and moisture sensitive EUVL resist material have been established. Platforms have also been established for testing these materials under EUV exposure, including in situ analyses of EUV induced chemistry through ultrafast spectroscopy techniques. A library of metal complexes with potential for commercial use in FEBID has been prepared and many of these complexes have been synthesized and are being tested for their basic physical and chemical properties as well as their applicability. In this context, novel analytical approaches have also been developed to establish the critical physical parameters necessary to optimize performance of precursor molecules in FEBID. In addition new FEBID precursors with potential applications in EUVL mask repair are being tested. | |
| ELENA is also active in establishing common metrological criteria to evaluate FEBID precursors and process parameters. This is very important in the multi- dimensional space of FEBID, to be able to compare results for different precursors and different deposition conditions. Also new concepts for patterning with electron beams as well as EUV irradiation are being explored through cross linking of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and by using surface-anchored metal-organic frameworks (SURMOFs) and the first steps have been taken towards the integration of a 3D lithography package into commercial SEMs and precursors providing the desired material properties needed in the repair of EUVL photo masks are being explored.. | |
| ELENA will therefore deliver new materials, novel methodology and new research approaches to further develop EUVL and FEBID as viable commercial processes for nanotechnology processing in general. No less important is the training of the 15 ESRs, which at the end of the project are expected to enter the nanotechnology industry and research communities. These ESRs will be provided with a broad and well-funded knowledge base and strong technical skill sets, as well as having had personal development training encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. | |
| Through the development of new materials and approaches allowing the further commercial development of these new nanotechnology fabrication methods we expect ELENA to have a significant direct socio-economic impact. We also expect significant progress to be made by the broad technical and personal training of the 15 participating ESRs. Though a single ITN can only directly train a limited number of ESRs its reach and impact can be greatly enhanced as a model example to the wider community demonstrating the value of collaborative research and broad training in technical and transferable skills.",2019-02-18 16:36:45,,722149,ELENA,H2020-EU.1.3.1.,MSCA-ITN-2016,https://elena-eu.org/ | |
| 458,264069,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FALCON (Fuel and chemicals from lignin through enzymatic and chemical conversion),"FALCON aims to convert the lignin waste stream from lignocellulose-based bioethanol plants to a crude oil, which can be used directly as a low-sulphur marine fuel (value chain 1) or, alternatively, as a renewable feedstock for aromatic fuel additives (value chain 2) and...","FALCON aims to convert the lignin waste stream from lignocellulose-based bioethanol plants to a crude oil, which can be used directly as a low-sulphur marine fuel (value chain 1) or, alternatively, as a renewable feedstock for aromatic fuel additives (value chain 2) and chemical building blocks (value chain 3). These three new value chains can be readily linked to existing second generation (2G) biofuel plants or plants producing other bioproducts and thus contribute to their viability. In addition, the valorization of the lignin-rich waste stream will support the creation of the ‘zero-waste biorefinery’ concept. | |
| Lignin bio-oils are suited to be used as fuel additives for heavy-duty diesel engines to reduce soot emissions. Therefore, the new technology/process developed in FALCON can be directly integrated in this existing value chain. In this project, the objective is to mature over a period of four years from bench scale to pilot scale the production of low-sulphur heavy fuel oil from lignin by including the use of enzymes. | |
| However, FALCON aims to go beyond the initial bulk product as the phenolic nature of the lignin crude oil can also be used as a green chemical intermediate for aromatic bulk chemicals and resins. Therefore, this project will generate at least three value chains from the lignin waste stream: shipping fuels, fuel additives and chemical building blocks. | |
| Currently, lignin bio-oil is obtained by pyrolysis, which is a high-energy demanding process. Our objective is to replace the thermo-chemical transformation to obtain bio-oil with a sustainable down-stream process, which will need to be validated by means of a Life Cycle Assessment. As such, the project aims to bring more value to the current biofuel biorefinery processes, by valorizing a by-product into 3 value chains, ensuring easy implementation of the innovative new FALCON process. | |
| FALCON has brought together a multidisciplinary consortium of biologists, biochemists, chemists, and chemical, mechanical and process engineers, to jointly work in the FALCON project. To realize the specific goals we have defined six objectives for the project: | |
| 1. Process optimization of lignin production and purification | |
| 2. Production of solvent tolerant laccases that generate oxidized lignin, resulting in a liquid lignin fraction with smaller lignin-fragments (lignin oil) | |
| 3. Development of a separation process that extracts the low-sulphur lignin-derived heavy fuel oil from the aqueous lignin waste stream for further processing | |
| 4. Testing, standardization and implementation of the low-sulphur lignin-derived heavy fuel oil as a shipping fuel | |
| 5. Conversion of the low-sulphur lignin-derived heavy fuel oil to fuel additives and mono-aromatic building blocks for the chemical industry | |
| 6. Bioconversion of the extracted aromatic compounds from objective 4 to value-added products","The first 18 months of the project focused on identification of relevant enzymes as well as design of the processes that we want to use for the three value chains. | |
| The main results achieved so far are: | |
| - An extensive mining of fungal and bacterial genomes has resulted in a large set of candidate laccases, which were grouped based on phylogeny. 40 laccases have been produced and are currently being tested for their suitability for our process. | |
| - Promising solvent tolerance of selected laccases have been demonstrated. | |
| - The production of selected newly developed laccases has been upscaled and prepared for industrial scale production. | |
| - The treatment of the lignin waste stream and its influence on the use of it as a substrate in our process has been studied resulting in the identification of several parameters affecting this, as well as initial optimizations that will benefit the overall process. | |
| - The successful impact on the molecular weight distribution of lignin has been demonstrated with enzymatic treatment in alkaline conditions, using newly developed laccases, without and with mediators. In addition, membrane fractionation has been shown to be an industrial viable alternative for collecting different lignin molecular size fractions thus produced. The process is now in progress of upscaling to a pilot-scale. | |
| - Lignin Derived Fuel Oil properties have been determined by collection of specifications of marine fuel. These properties will be checked in the samples generated in the project. | |
| - Candidate lignin-based fuel additives have been identified and processes to generate them are currently being developed. | |
| - Acid treatment of partially depolymerized lignin efficiently results in further depolymerization. | |
| - Genes of several microbial pathways for conversion of lignin-derived aromatics to aromatic building blocks have been identified and the corresponding enzymes are currently being characterized. | |
| - Techno-economic base case scenarios, including environmental aspects, have been determined to enable comparison of the newly developed process of FALCON with existing processes. | |
| Overall the project is on track and main choices will be made in the coming months to select the enzymes, conditions and approach for the process to be developed.","FALCON will generate three new bio-based value chains valorizing the lignin sludge originating from 2G bioethanol or other bioproduct plants. This industrial waste stream is expected to grow significantly in the coming years due to the increase in 2G bioethanol production plants, amongst others, resulting in an increasing impact for our process. IEA predicts that global 2G ethanol production will be roughly 200 Mt (or 5 EJ) by 2050. As the size of the lignin waste stream is more or less equivalent to the ethanol output in 2G plants, the projected lignin availability by 2050 will be close to the ethanol figure. The three value chains differ in their development phase and time needed to go to market. The first two, shipping fuel and fuel additives are close to market readiness, and mainly need optimization of process parameters and scale up of the production process to make those economically viable. The third, chemical building blocks for aromatic bulk chemicals, resins and higher value end-products, is meant for proof of principle stage and requires more development. These three value chains could in fact offer a more sustainable alternative for three similar value chains that are currently derived from fossil resources resulting in a significant step towards the biobased economy. | |
| FALCON addresses the environmental feasibility of the value chains in that it will develop an innovative process that is performed under mild conditions using enzymatic conversions and mild chemical treatments. The chemicals used are bio-degradable resulting in a process that is much more environmentally friendly than the fossil-based process it replaces. Therefore, the overall process will use an industrial waste-stream from an environmentally favorable alternative fuel (2G bioethanol) and convert this to another environmentally favorable fuel (low-sulphur heavy fuel oil for marine use) and biobased chemicals. As part of the holistic sustainability assessment, the three value chains are investigated regarding resource efficiency and environmental impact within the Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) to demonstrate their environmental feasibility.",2019-04-25 13:41:53,,720918,FALCON,H2020-EU.2.1.4.,BIOTEC-02-2016,http://www.falcon-biorefinery.eu/ | |
| 9776,191370,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PlantaSYST (Establishment of a Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology for the translation of fundamental research into sustainable bio-based technologies in Bulgaria),"The overall objective of PlantaSYST is to establish a Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (CPSBB) in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The CPSBB will stand at the forefront of plant sciences by integrating molecular biology, functional genomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics...","The overall objective of PlantaSYST is to establish a Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (CPSBB) in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The CPSBB will stand at the forefront of plant sciences by integrating molecular biology, functional genomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, and long-standing expertise in practical plant genetics and breeding, to unravel the plant biology and translating the scientific knowledge into new horticultural and industrial applications. Partners in PlantaSYST are three research institutes in Plovdiv (Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Maritsa Vegetable Crops Researh Institute, Institute of Microbiology – Laboratory of Applied Microbiology) and two research entities located in the Science Park Potsdam-Golm, Germany (University of Potsdam and Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology). The newly established CPSBB will fill in the scientific and technological gaps identified in the Smart Specialization Strategy of Bulgaria and will take a leading role in educating next-generation early-stage researchers in the fields of molecular breeding, plant systems biology and biotechnology. The specific objectives of the CPSBB are: Highest research quality and productivity in the fields of plant systems biology and biotechnology; New products for the European market (technologies for plant breeding, new high yield vegetable varieties resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses, cultivars of vegetable crops with improved nutritionalyield stability and processing qualities as well asand nutritional, harvesting or processing qualities, and plant-derived products with new pharmaceutical properties for innovative applications in medicine); Retaining and re-gaining the best specialists in the fields of plant science and bioinformatics; Establishing an excellent service-orientated management structure, effective innovation management, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) mechanisms; Bringing sectors together (policy, science, industry) for social and economic development and serving as link between the academia and industry in Plovdiv. The objective of the one-year CSA is to develop a solid and comprehensive Business Plan for the establishment of the CPSBB.","During the one-year CSA period, the new CPSBB was successfully established as a legal entity in the Court of Plovdiv. The PlantaSYST consortium and the CPSBB has attracted support from the Bulgarian Government (promised co-funding for state-of-the-art scientific equipment and construction of a new building), the local authorities in Plovdiv (donation of a land for the CPSBB campus and regional infrastructure development), the German Federal Government (Project Plant-INNO from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research), as well as from many biotechnological companies and academic institutions. Milestone documents adopted by the PlantaSYST consortium, such as the analysis of the environment, feasibility studies, and business model development, have served as a basis for the development of a comprehensive business plan that shows the feasibility and sustainability of the CPSBB.","The project PlantaSYST has advanced further as the new CPSBB is now established, functional, and productive. The first CPSBB scientific papers were published in the first half of 2016. With the financial assistance of EU and the Bulgarian Government, it is expected that the CPSBB will unfold its full potential in 2017. The broad support from academic and business communities, policy makers, and general public indicates that the CPSBB is likely to have a profound impact on the scientific, economic, and social development of Plovdiv and Bulgaria.",2018-07-27 17:12:08,,664621,PlantaSYST,H2020-EU.4.a.,WIDESPREAD-1-2014,http://www.plantasyst.eu/ | |
| 1446,198275,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EUthyroid (Towards the elimination of iodine deficiency and preventable thyroid-related diseases in Europe),Iodine deficiency is the world’s leading cause of preventable brain damage and for years the World Health Organization has warned that Europeans are increasingly affected by the consequences of iodine deficiency. Europe currently has no harmonised approach to ensure that the...,"Iodine deficiency is the world’s leading cause of preventable brain damage and for years the World Health Organization has warned that Europeans are increasingly affected by the consequences of iodine deficiency. Europe currently has no harmonised approach to ensure that the iodine intake of European citizens is sufficient to prevent health problems. EUthyroid is an EU-funded research project to evaluate current national efforts aimed at preventing iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). By the analysis of current national approaches, assembling critical mass and creating capacities for harmonised monitoring of iodine intake we aim to pave the way for improved and cost-effective strategies to ensure a euthyroid Europe in cooperation with national authorities. The pan-European study has initiated an evaluation of existing IDD prevention programmes by collating and analysing data from disease registries in at least 19 of the 27 countries participating in EUthyroid. The pooled data in a joint database will result in the first valid map of comparable data about iodine status in Europe. | |
| EUthyroid supports harmonisation of national and regional surveys of iodine supply and thyroid disorders in up to 45 studies from 24 countries, through the provision of standardised questionnaires, guidelines and training tools, and for the first time, provides standardised thyroid-related measurements yielding a reliable view of the current status of iodine-related disorders in Europe. The project explores the potential of thyroglobulin as a marker for the individual iodine status according to WHO recommendations with a focus on pregnant women and women of reproductive age, two key target groups for IDD prevention due to the high risk of adverse effects on cognition of babies exposed to moderate iodine deficiency. This research is supposed to contribute to a new international recommended thyroglobulin (Tg) reference range for pregnant women and women of reproductive age. Importantly, EUthyroid studies the consequences of maternal iodine status during pregnancy in relation to the cognitive development of their children (as measured by child IQ, autism, ADHD and language development) using retrospective data from three countries (Spain, UK and the Netherlands). In order to be able to support decision-making processes in the healthcare system, the project partners aim with results from a developed decision-analytic model to explore the long-term effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of prevention and monitoring strategies for iodine deficiency disorders. Furthermore, EUthyroid follows through on an ambitious dissemination strategy to engage actively policy makers, stakeholders and the general public to promote harmonised IDD prevention and monitoring in European countries.","In the first reporting period, the consortium successfully established a joint European database for registry data related to the occurrence of thyroid diseases in European countries. The database currently also collates data from 24 IDD monitoring studies from 13 countries participating in EUthyroid. The EUthyroid infrastructure was established and includes a range of resources and training tools to support the harmonisation of studies including: socio-economic status (SES) questionnaires for adults and children; an instructional video on thyroid ultrasound examination and a web-based training and certification tool (ARCUS) for ultrasound observers. All training tools are accessible through the project´s website. | |
| Additionally, EUthyroid has developed a dried blood spot (DBS) Tg ELISA assay to analyse DBS cards of pregnant women and women of reproductive age (WRA) collected from various IDD monitoring studies across Europe, and to further cross-validate a reference range. Moreover, an intra-individual variation in DBS Tg study in 25 healthy adults has been conducted and finalised, the collected serum and DBS samples will be analysed to assess intra-individual variation and variation between the analysis methods. | |
| Data from the Netherlands, UK and Spain have been brought together, harmonised and integrated into one large dataset that will enable us to study the effects of low maternal iodine on child neurodevelopment using large numbers while also taking into account differences between the countries. The dataset includes data on almost 9,000 pregnant women with 3,000 additional urinary iodine measurements obtained. | |
| A proof-of-principle study has been performed on the effects of thyroid function on child IQ and the risk of behavioural disorders in over 9,500 mothers and their children. Results showed that both low and high maternal thyroid hormone levels during early pregnancy are associated with a lower child IQ and a higher risk of autism. | |
| In order to provide evidence for IDD prevention and monitoring programmes in Europe a preliminary model structure of a decision-analytic model was developed and expert input and systematic literature searches undertaken to parameterise the model. | |
| Policy makers, stakeholders and the general public have been targeted through a range of media including a project website, conference presentations, articles in national press and television interviews. Regional monitors have identified and contacted relevant national health authorities towards bringing about policy change in Europe.","EUthyroid aims to progress beyond the state of the art of fragmented national strategies towards iodine deficiency prevention through the harmonisation of: existing registry data; guidelines for study conduction; training of study staff and measurement of samples. At the EUthyroid policy meeting, which took place in Brussels in April 2016, it was clearly stated that the EC will not harmonise national legislation, therefore the focus shifts to working towards voluntarily harmonised national activities to provide the project's impact. | |
| This is effectively underpinned by | |
| • a joint European database for registry data and standardised IDD monitoring studies using geocoding to improve comparability and promote the first European map of iodine status and thyroid disease load. | |
| • resources and training tools to support harmonisation of studies | |
| • a new DBS Tg assay facilitating sample collection, storage and handling | |
| EUthyroid is currently engaged in coordinating national monitors from 24 European countries to support 45 IDD monitoring studies, which will yield comparable data for individual iodine status, using urinary iodine concentration (UIC). This will provide the most in-depth analysis of iodine deficiency and health outcomes in a moderate and mild iodine deficient region and provide a sound foundation of data to fill the current lack of health outcome research, which is considered the major stumbling block to initiate national monitoring studies.",2019-04-18 16:04:06,,634453,EUthyroid,H2020-EU.3.1.2.,PHC-06-2014,http://euthyroid.eu/ | |
| 2135,203679,en,"Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Gamesmondo (A Distribution and Monetisation Ecosystem for Mobile Applications, Maximising Market Growththrough Affiliation)",Flexion makes it easy for Android developers to maximise the growth potential of their games. Its unique technology has solved a distribution problem for developers. The company offers a platform and service that makes it profitable for game developers to distribute games to...,"Flexion makes it easy for Android developers to maximise the growth potential of their games. Its unique technology has solved a distribution problem for developers. The company offers a platform and service that makes it profitable for game developers to distribute games to many stores. | |
| The Android operating system is open. A multitude of distribution channels exist, including stores run by tech giants such as Samsung, Amazon and Huawei. New forms of distribution such as social networks and chat are emerging. To reach other distribution channels, developers need to rebuild their games and set up individual production lines and relationships for each distribution channel. The absolute and opportunity costs for developers to do this are high. Developers are faced with a dilemma; invest in open market distribution and risk losing position in Google Play or focus on Google Play and forego the opportunity of distribution to other channels. | |
| The Gamesmondo project supported Flexion’s overall value proposition, and by extension, the broadening of an open market for Android games by driving progress in three main areas for Flexion: | |
| 1) Customer growth - recruitment and management of additional game developer and distribution channel customers | |
| 2) Growth feature development – creation of features which drive additional monetisation, facilitate self-service enabling for customers and ensure platform scalability and technology readiness. | |
| 3) IP protection – conclusion of Flexion’s patenting activities | |
| The Gamesmondo project was a key factor in Flexion’s journey to become a leading distribution partner for Android games beyond Google Play. The technology and services developed as part of the project allows Flexion to solve the developer’s dilemma, making distribution to multiple stores profitable for developers.","Gamesmondo has been a very successful project for Flexion. Running between May 2016 and October 2018, the project has achieved: | |
| - A significant increase in the number of developers and games | |
| - Additional supported distribution channels | |
| - A significant number of new end-users | |
| - A suite of growth driving features, including but not limited to: a plugin for Unity, a self service portal for developers, a live subscription service in Samsung’s Galaxy Apps store and enhanced monetisation and distribution features. | |
| - Platform and product maturity and future proofing | |
| - Revised internal workflows and processes tailored to support future growth | |
| - A granted US patent | |
| Indirectly - through supporting the company's overall evolution and growth – the Gamesmondo project contributed to Flexion's successful listing on Nasdaq First North in June 2018. | |
| Activities during the two reporting periods involved feature development, business development, operational undertakings and organisational change management. Exploitation of results have been ongoing throughout the project. The overall duration of the project was extended by a total of 6 months, with the extended timelines primarily being driven by crowding out effects from Flexion’s listing project. | |
| Dissemination has happened throughout the project. In addition to business development activities, Flexion regularly attends trade shows and has been invited to speak at numerous EU, EEN and Innovate UK events. Gamesmondo, the horizon 2020 grant and its benefits are actively promoted throughout.","Without support from services such as those provided by Flexion, the opportunity cost for developers of investing in new distribution and solving fragmentation is prohibitively high. This follows because of: a) new channel support diverting resources from existing stores and b) new channel support having far longer payback times than user acquisition or feature investments in existing distribution. | |
| Most importantly – to be successful with distribution to many stores, developers need to divert resources from their core business - making games. Developers end up with a dilemma: a) invest in long term growth by diversified distribution but risk losing short term momentum in existing stores OR b) defend position in existing stores by foregoing new channel investment. Neither scenario is preferable. Developers struggle to balance the investment case and many end up foregoing investment in diversified distribution. | |
| As a result, many channels are missing out on content. Open market distribution channels could be growing faster with more quality content. With effective ways of eliminating the developers’ dilemma, overall market growth could be even stronger than it is today. The features and services which were developed with the support of the Gamesmondo project allows Flexion to solve the developer’s dilemma. | |
| Fragmentation is surmounted through a three-part value proposition comprising technical enabling, technical enhancement and service management. Flexion’s service platform manages aspects such as integration of 3rd party payments and features, in-application purchase and user license management. Flexion manages relationships with stores, undertakes retailing and promotion and manages revenue conciliation and payment to developers. Developers get a consolidated route to a fragmented ecosystem through a single distribution partner. | |
| All parties in the value chain benefit as a result. | |
| 1) Developers can reach distribution channels which they previously did not see as potentially profitable. As a result, they become less dependent on distribution through a single store, can target users more effectively and can maximise the growth potential of their games through increased exposure to end-users. | |
| 2) Distribution channels get access to content they were previously unable to attract and can play a significant role in Android games, as well as drive significant revenues from games. This drives employment and profitability but also increases the overall level of competitiveness in the market, ultimately creating better services for end-users. | |
| 3) The overall gaming eco-system becomes more open and competitive | |
| 4) End-users benefit thanks to more choice and variation, improved game discoverability and the naturally improved value propositions offered by stores and developers as a result of increased competition.",2019-04-10 11:28:05,,719084,Gamesmondo,H2020-EU.2.1.1.;H2020-EU.2.3.1.,ICT-37-2015,http://www.gamesmondo.eu | |
| 5987,232132,en,Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NextGen RiBiomics (Next Generation Proteomic Analysis of Pre-Ribosomal Proteome Dynamics Coupled to Glucose Metabolism in Caner Cells),This project will focus on the relationship between the process of ribosome biogenesis (RiBi) and glucose metabolism in human cells. Solid tumour cells are continuously exposed to glucose deprivation and hypoxia microenvironments because of the inadequate vascular supply...,"This project will focus on the relationship between the process of ribosome biogenesis (RiBi) and glucose metabolism in human cells. Solid tumour cells are continuously exposed to glucose deprivation and hypoxia microenvironments because of the inadequate vascular supply. Cancer cells in these tumours have to limit energy expenditure to survive under such energy-deprived conditions. Meanwhile, the most energy-consuming process in eukaryotic cells is protein synthesis by the ribosome and ribosome subunit biogenesis, so these steps are tightly regulated in response to metabolic changes. Therefore, characterising the mechanisms involved in these processes may lead to novel cancer treatment strategies, for example inducing deregulation of either protein synthesis, or RiBi, from metabolic control. | |
| The ribosome, which consists of four ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and ∼80 ribosomal proteins (RPs), is essential for protein synthesis in the cell. The mammalian ribosome is composed of a large (60S) subunit and a small (40S) subunit. Its biogenesis takes place in a dedicated subnuclear compartment, the nucleolus, where a transcribed rRNA precursor (47S pre-rRNA in human) is assembled with proteins to form a large 90S pre-ribosomal particle (PR). Then the 47S pre-rRNA is processed to separate the 90S particle into pre-40S and pre-60S particles. These separated particles independently undergo maturation steps further and move from the nucleolus to the nucleoplasm then eventually to the cytoplasm. | |
| However, the detailed molecular mechanisms involved in RiBi in human cells has not been fully elucidated. Moreover, the proteins involved in this process have also not been fully identified. A major reason for this is that the isolation of PRs from human cells is very challenging. Several biochemical subcellular fractionation steps, coupled with sucrose density gradient centrifugation (SDGC), is required. In contrast, a simpler co-immunoprecipitation approach allows efficient extraction of PRs from yeast cells, but this is not effective for analysis of extracts from human cells. Particularly, SDGC, which is the most widely used method for the isolation of ribosomes and PRs since the ribosome was discovered in 1960s, is widely recognized to have limitations, including limited reproducibility and the relatively long time required to set up and perform the analysis. | |
| Therefore, a first major aim for this project was to establish a new, more efficient method for isolating ribosomes and PR complexes. Next, we aimed to optimise this new method for isolating PRs and to identify their components using Mass Spectrometry (MS)-based proteomic analysis. Finally, the aim was to compare the components of PRs extracted either from normal cells, or from glucose-starved cells, to try to identify proteins which play a role in the regulation of RiBi under conditions of glucose starvation.","To establish a new approach for fractionation of ribosomes, we decided to employ a Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC)-based ultra High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (uHPLC) method. Arguably, this provides the most efficient and reproducible method for fractionation-based biochemical analysis. We also decided to fractionate cytoplasmic ribosomes and polysomes first, as these are more easily extracted from cells, as compared to PRs in the nucleolus. | |
| We first optimized the method for preparation of lysates from cells. Next, we optimized both the choice of pore size for the SEC column and the flow rate. We compared the SEC chromatograms using three different pore size SEC columns (300, 1,000, or 2,000 Å). This showed that only the largest pore size SEC column successfully resolved complexes in the polysome size range. We then assigned the resulting peaks by injecting either ribosomal subunits, or polysomes isolated by SDGC, onto the SEC column. We next optimized the column flow rate and showed that the polysome and ribosomal subunits could be fractionated successfully by SEC in as little as 15 min, which contrasts with the many hours required for SDGC separation. | |
| We characterized the SEC profiles further, using both western and northern blotting to compare the distribution of RPs, rRNAs, and mRNAs across the SEC fractions. We also examined the stability and activity of polysomes, isolated by SEC, by re-analyzing the isolated polysome fractions by a second round of fractionation using SDGC and also by using electron microscopy. We detected no dissociated ribosomal subunits from SEC purified polysome fractions, showing that the isolated complexes are stable. Moreover, the translation complexes isolated from the SEC polysome fractions show peptidyl transferase activity. | |
| We have carefully evaluated the reproducibility of polysome fractionation using the SEC-based approach. This showed very high Pearson correlation coefficients (~0.99) across multiple biological and technical replicates. In comparison, polysome fractionation by SDGC showed consistently lower Pearson correlation coefficients than those measured from SEC. Moreover, the largest differences between separate SDGC replicates were observed in the polysome region. | |
| Having characterized and optimized the uHPLC-based method for efficient and reproducible isolation of polysomes from either cell lines or tissues, we have initiated experiments using this approach to study how metabolism and stress changes the relative level of polysomes and ribosomal subunits in mouse liver tissues. This work is yielding promising results and the project is ongoing. | |
| In summary, we have successfully developed an efficient new SEC-based method that provides a major improvement over previous approaches for isolating polysomes and ribosome subunits. We have termed this new method “Ribo Mega-SEC” and a manuscript describing this method submitted to eLife is currently under revision, having been favorably reviewed. | |
| We have subsequently proceeded to optimize the SEC method also for isolation of PRs. This required a change in the composition of the running buffer to create conditions suitable for the efficient separation of PRs. We compared separation profiles using two different SEC columns (1,000 or 2,000 Å). This showed that the 2,000 Å SEC column successfully resolved three different PRs, i.e. 90S, pre-60S and pre-40S. We have collected these PRs across the fractions and prepared the samples for MS analyses to identify the protein components of the isolated PRs. This work is ongoing.","We have successfully developed a powerful new method – ‘Ribo Mega-SEC’ and shown that this offers major improvements over conventional approaches (such as SDGC), for analyzing translation-active polysomes and ribosome complexes. Our new method is rapid, convenient and provides highly reproducible fractionation. The technical limitations of previous methods for polysome isolation and analysis has hindered many researchers outside the field directly studying translation and ribosomes from analysing gene expression at the level of polysomes. Ribo Mega-SEC can therefore enable a much wider number of researchers interested in gene regulation in many different areas of biology to now benefit from including polysome analyses in their projects. Considering that previously there has been essentially no alternative to the laborious SDGC method for the analysis of polysomes/ribosomes and PRs, we believe that our new Ribo Mega-SEC approach is valuable and likely to have major impact.",2019-01-11 09:42:38,,657087,NextGen RiBiomics,H2020-EU.1.3.2.,MSCA-IF-2014-EF,http://www.lamondlab.com/ | |
| 2301,262902,en,Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Profile Infection (Unraveling changes in cellular gene expression during viral infection),"The herpesvirus human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infects the majority of the world's population, leading to severe diseases in millions of newborns and immunocompromised adults annually. During infection, HCMV extensively manipulates cellular gene expression to maintain conditions...","The herpesvirus human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infects the majority of the world's population, leading to severe diseases in millions of newborns and immunocompromised adults annually. During infection, HCMV extensively manipulates cellular gene expression to maintain conditions favorable for efficient viral propagation. Identifying the pathways that the virus relies on or subverts is of great interest as they have the potential to provide new therapeutic windows and reveal novel principles in cell biology. Over the past years high-throughput analyses have profoundly broadened our understanding of the processes that occur during HCMV infection. However, much of previous analysis was focused on transcriptional changes at the lytic phase of infection leaving posttranscriptional regulation and the latent phase of the virus relatively less understood. Novel emerging technologies have the potential to extend our knowledge in areas that were heretofore unattainable. | |
| The overall goal of our work is to decipher the multiple mechanisms by which HCMV modulates the host cell. For this, we use and develop multiple cutting-edge deep-sequencing technologies that will allow the analysis of novel aspects of host gene regulation during infection. Accordingly, the primary objectives of this research proposal are: 1) Deciphering posttranscriptional mechanisms that control cellular gene expression during infection; 2) Identifying and characterizing cellular protein diversification during infection; and 3) Uncovering the changes that occur in infected cells during latent infection. | |
| The knowledge generated from these objectives will provide us with a clearer depiction of the changes that take place during HCMV infection, which in turn can facilitate the development of novel anti-viral strategies.","Despite substantial variation in genome size, nucleic acid composition, and their repertoire of encoded functions, all viruses remain unconditionally dependent upon the protein synthetic machinery resident within their cellular hosts to translate viral mRNAs. Access to the translation apparatus, however, is patrolled by powerful host immune defenses programmed to restrict viral invaders. Our research focused on two major pathogens; a small RNA virus, Influenza A (IAV) and a large DNA virus, Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). | |
| Host shutoff is a common strategy used by many viruses to repress cellular mRNA translation, allowing efficient translation of viral mRNAs. In our work we used e RNA-seq, ribosome profiling and single molecule FISH to accurately quantify IAV induced host shutoff at both RNA and translation levels (Bercovich-Kinori et al. 2016). We reveal that IAV shutoff is mediated solely by interfering with cellular mRNA levels and we uncover that transcripts, coding for cell maintenance processes such as oxidative phosphorylation, were refractory to IAV shut-off affects. We further demonstrate that indeed continuous oxidative phosphorylation activity is important for IAV propagation. Our results thus challenge the notion of host shut-off being a blunt, indiscriminate instrument to halt host gene expression and reveal that shutoff could be selective, allowing maintenance of important housekeeping functions in infected cells. More broadly, this work lays the technological foundation for exploring host shutoff mechanisms during infection | |
| A different tactic was observed in HCMV-infected cells, where host protein synthesis is not globally suppressed so it was assumed that host protein synthesis proceeded uninterrupted. Using ribosome profiling and RNA-seq we showed that HCMV dramatically re-shape the infected cell translation landscape. This translational reprogramming was dependent upon virally induced mTOR activation. Importantly, we show that interfering with the virus-induced activation of cellular mRNA translation can limit or enhance HCMV growth (Tirosh et al. 2015). | |
| Although we obtained quantitative analysis of genes that are translationally regulated, our molecular understanding of this type of regulation is still at its infancy. In order to systematically identify cis-regulatory elements in mRNAs that affect posttranscriptional regulation, we mapped changes in mRNAs secondary structure along HCMV infection by utilizing in-vivo modification with dimethyl sulfate (DMS). DMS reacts with unpaired residues and the modifications are then mapped by deep sequencing. Our underlying assumption is that changes in translation should be mediated by changes in RNA binding protein interactions and that these interactions are likely to affect the DMS reactivity of the relevant mRNA region. Indeed, our measurements allowed us to identify hundreds of regions in human and viral mRNAs that show significant structural changes during viral infection. We are now using reporters, combinatorial mutagenesis and genome editing to elucidate the regulatory function and importance of these regions. Overall, this cutting edge approach allows us to identify new regulatory RNA elements and more broadly to shed light on how RNA structures help to regulate gene expression in mammalian cells. | |
| Primary HCMV infection results in a lifelong infection due to HCMV ability to establish latent infection, with the characterized viral reservoir being hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) and monocytes. Although reactivation from latency causes serious disease in immunocompromised individuals, our molecular understanding of latency is limited. A major limitation in studying latency is that natural latent cells are very rare and the experimental models utilize primary hematopoietic cells that are heterogenous, most likely consisting of several subpopulations differing in differentiation stage, thus may support non-uniform latent programs. In a manuscript we recent","We expect to accomplish all our original aims. | |
| We plan to finish characterizing the cis regulatory elements we mapped using DMS sequencing and to extend the method to specifically map regulatory elements located in 5' UTRs (manuscript just submitted for publication). | |
| With reg |
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