Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University (ACU) is a thematic university in the field of health sciences in Turkey. GEMSTONE will advance ACU's scientific research and innovative capacity in strategic areas of gene engineering technologies and neuroscience with focus on the neurodevelopmental aspects of brain disorders, such as Parkinsons disease and epilepsy. GEMSTONE will strengthen collaboration with and capitalizing on knowledge transfer from one high-ranking foreign European academic institution (ULUND) and one non-profit organisation (ICONS). GEMSTONE will create opportunities for bilateral exchange of scientific knowledge and technical skills and training opportunities for researchers in hard and soft skills, supported by naturally convergent research interests. The project will result in increased scientific productivity, more active participation of ACU in national/international conferences and grants, and new networking and collaboration opportunities, which will increase the attractiveness, competitiveness and visibility of ACU within the global neuroscience community. A second pillar in the project will ensure that ACU researchers are adequately supported to express their potential. Staff of ACU Research Project Office and other research support services will be provided with the necessary knowledge and skills to guide researchers in submitting successful grant applications, attracting funds, communication research results and translating them to clinics and/or in commercial products. Lessons learned in the performance of research and in research management and administration will be collected in a best practice book and disseminated to other universities and governments in Widening countries. Ultimately, by increasing ACU researchers scientific profile and ACU research management, administration and communication capacities, the project will decrease the disparities among ACU and the top-class leading counterparts at the European level.

The project’s main objective is to increase the visibility and impact of EIC portfolios of projects through the co-creation of diverse online and physical activities, materials and tools that will be implemented in three thematic Communities of Practice - CoP (green, digital/industry/space and health). Those formats will prompt the creation of multidisciplinary communities around selected portfolios, and will stimulate interactions and synergies among projects inside and across thematic and EIC challenge-driven portfolios, while providing the EIC Programme Managers ( EIC PMs) with sustainable measures and community model structures to build networks around portfolios and develop new visions for future technologies and innovation breakthroughs. EIC Communities will work closely with the EIC representatives and EIC PMs through, inter alia, co-creation of new engagement practices and co-developing policy recommendations for R&I in future deep-tech. Community and synergy building activities will be co-developed with CoP stakeholders and implemented inside and across the three CoPs to ensure cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary interactions between EIC open and challenge-driven portfolios and projects. Those activities will include: (i) pitching sessions, (ii) matchmaking between projects, (iii) organisation of Portfolio Days and online interactive academies, (iv) thematic workshops and (v) re-launch of the Future Tech Week. As a result, a wider community, which goes beyond the selected portfolios, will be established in each CoP. The outcomes of the activities carried out in CoPs will be translated in a set of high-impact communication materials that will aim at showcasing the added value of the portfolio ecosystem and benefits stemming from portfolio interactions. Sustainability and replication plans will be produced with a view to ensure effective pathways for exploitation of project results and to stimulate synergies with other portfolios, not covered by the project.

The strategic objective of the “FETFX - Stimulating effects in Future and Emerging Technologies through communication and outreach” project is to promote FET research among a wide range of actors (researchers and innovation community, policy makers, and general public) a through dedicated community building and multi-stakeholder engagement actions. FETFX proposes an innovative and customized communication and outreach strategy, based on the previous efforts made by the EFFECT project and taking advantage from the experience gathered by other Coordination and Support Actions, such as COFET and FEAT, funded under the FET programme in both FP7 and H2020. The FETFX communication activities will be based on the implementation of an innovative communication model, based on a content-centric and challenge-based approach. The FETFX project will be developed exploiting the connection with the former EFFECT project, based on novel and former communication channels (website and social media) and formats (different video formats, articles, news releases, multimedia storytelling, interviews), distribution mechanisms and contents classification. FETFX engagement actions will be implemented through different initiatives around the following key elements: (i) innovation potential (FET START Cup competition), (ii) communication potential (journalists in-the-lab), (iii) communication gaps on high-risk research (policy workshop and Recommendation Paper), (iv) engagement of the civil society (FETFX Photo Contest), (v) increase FET researchers communication skills (webinars and training sessions), (vi) foster the emergence of the FET community around its achievements (FET Day and Booklet). Thanks to its inclusive and creative approach, FETFX will stimulate the awareness and the engagement of a broader community around the mission-oriented scope of the FET Programme and the future and emerging technologies capable to renew European growth in terms of innovation and benefit for society.

The on-going energy transition towards a decarbonized economy is changing profoundly the infrastructure of the power grids worldwide. Conventional high-power transformers are not fully prepared to overcome these challenges, as they do not have intrinsic capabilities regarding active system support. Instead, Solid-state Transformers (SSTs) have emerged in the last years as a disruptive technology able to extend the typical functionalities of a regular transformer, optimizing the power flows and introducing a high degree of digitalization and intelligence in the network. However, SSTs are not still a mature technology and only prototypes of up to 15 kV and 15 modules have been developed in the range of high frequency (40 kHz) so far. Therefore, their use is currently restricted to low-voltage applications. In this context, SSTAR aims to increase the operation voltage level of SSTs to enlarge their applications within the energy power sector while improving its performance in a reliable, cost-optimized and sustainable way. To do so, three main R&I Lines will be developed: 1) Sustainable biobased dielectric fluid able to increase the SST modules insulation voltage while achieving up to 50% of CO2 saving comparing to traditional oils 2) New SST module based on SiC with a bidirectional Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) system able to increase the individual voltage and switching frequency of SST modules up to 1.5 kV and 50kHz respectively with a total efficiency of 98.5% and 3) Decentralized control cascade H-bridge (CHB) converter to scale-up the number of modules in a single SST device to achieve the voltage levels of transmission grids. The combined effect of these innovations will be validated at TRL 4 in two certified test-beds in Spain and Portugal. Hence, SSTAR seeks to pave the way for the development of new disruptive HV SST devices more attractive for commercial purposes than the prototypes made so far, and able to be used in distribution and transmissions grids.

NEMO project aims at advancing the state of the art of battery management systems (BMS) by engaging advanced physics-based and data-driven battery models and state estimation techniques. Towards achieving this goal, the consortium tends to provide efficient software and hardware to handle, host, process, and execute these approaches within high-end local processors and cloud computing. NEMO benefits from a wide range of sensor information acquired at high frequencies in addition to dedicated electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) sensors which allow for the identification of ongoing electrochemical reactions inside each individual battery cell. Capable hardware for storing and processing such measurements will be provided by the tier1 members of this industry onboard the consortium. The availability of such diverse physical information on batteries onboard makes room for developing cutting-edge performance, lifetime, and safety battery models and state estimators within NEMO, and validating them on two different BMS configurations. Physics-based performance model parameters continuously get updated as the battery ages, so that performance and safety state indicators maintain the least possible error. The data-driven approaches exploit mathematical algorithms to be trained upon the large datasets made available from historical or laboratory-generated battery information. Combinations of coupled physics-based and data-driven approaches are also foreseen to be implemented within NEMO as another innovation of the project to propose next-generation BMS. Solutions offered by NEMO considerably extend battery life and make the battery system safer within long-term operation since every individual cell is monitored, controlled, and studied. NEMO’s ambitious solutions for stationary and automotive use cases are expected to be validated by industrial partners and to take a considerable share of the market in later years.