Darwin identified the incompleteness of the geological record as a major concern in our ability to reconstruct the evolutionary history from fossils. Geological strata are not, however, a random selection of the past, but are deposited and preserved in processes which can be modelled mathematically. This project employs numerical forward modelling, a technique from sedimentary basin analysis, to quantify how stratigraphic gaps affect evolutionary patterns in the fossil record. It focuses on tropical carbonate platforms, because they are the richest archive of biodiversity through the Phanerozoic and are directly formed by organisms, thus preserving a positive feedback loop between the environment, evolution, and sediment formation. Completeness of the record depends on the time scale of measurement. Previous work demonstrated that long gaps in the record, in the range of 106-107 years, are reflected in biodiversity reconstructions. Here we address shorter gaps (103-105 years), which are more frequent, but harder to detect. They can be predicted using models of stochastic sedimentation, astronomical forcing, and sedimentary and diagenetic self-organization. Forward modelling will be used to simulate the effect of gaps in the record produced by each of these processes on diversity and character evolution. This will allow us to answer the questions: What part of diversity do we miss owing to the missing rock record? Are the preserved intervals exceptional or representative? Is there a systematic part of biodiversity and environmental records which will always fall into gaps? By applying the findings of the forward modelling to fossil successions, we will be able to identify and correct for the missing parts of the record and formulate testable hypotheses on the original tempo and mode of evolution at the highest temporal resolution achievable in the geological record.

The RDA TIGER aims to provide services to facilitate and support well-defined Working Groups between key European and international initiatives, resulting in concrete alignment, harmonisation, and standardisation of Open Science developments and technologies globally. In particular the project will directly contribute to the European Open Science Cloud Partnership, by supporting (via the Working Groups) the international engagement and alignment of policies, technologies, methodologies, practices and other outputs of EOSC-related and other European Open Science developments; and develop and offer a service platform for these Working Groups, effectively identifying key partners for the groups, and increasing their work efficiency by facilitation and other support actions and ultimately maximising the impact WG results have on the EOSC, global Open Science, and society. RDA TIGER leverages the demonstrably effective instrument of community-driven RDA Working Groups and the foundations of EOSC, RDA, CODATA, Research Software Alliance (ReSA), and the Open Science movement in general, and provides a way to efficiently use the RDA platform for internationalisation and standardisation of research outputs that allow science to be reproducible and scrutinised. RDA TIGER service platform includes planning, engagement, communication, facilitation and finalisation services to the Working Groups, maximising the WG outputs, and their impact. Most of the RDA TIGER services have been tested in one form or another in earlier RDA-related projects both in Europe and internationally, demonstrating that they are realistic and achievable. RDA TIGERs ambition stems from the concentrated use of these services, together with systematic quality control and improvement mechanisms, and via the careful selection of Working Groups which will maximize the impacts relevant to the Work Programme.

The PROCESS demonstrators will pave the way towards exascale data services that will accelerate innovation and maximise the benefits of these emerging data solutions. The main tangible outputs of PROCESS are five very large data service prototypes, implemented using a mature, modular, generalizable open source solution for user friendly exascale data. The services will be thoroughly validated in real-world settings, both in scientific research and in industry pilot deployments. To achieve these ambitious objectives, the project consortium brings together the key players in the new data-driven ecosystem: top-level HPC and big data centres, communities – such as Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project – with unique data challenges that the current solutions are unable to meet and experienced e-Infrastructure solution providers with an extensive track record of rapid application development. In addition to providing the service prototypes that can cope with very large data, PROCESS addresses the work programme goals by using the tools and services with heterogeneous use cases, including medical informatics, airline revenue management and open data for global disaster risk reduction. This diversity of user communities ensures that in addition to supporting communities that push the envelope, the solutions will also ease the learning curve for broadest possible range of user communities. In addition, the chosen open source strategy maximises the potential for uptake and reuse, together with mature software engineering practices that minimise the efforts needed to set up and maintain services based on the PROCESS software releases.

Reactive process design has largely been based on trial-and-error experimentation and similarly, reactor design has utilised empirical kinetics (data-based models). On the other hand, physics-based modelling approaches are emerging as highly promising in the development of new catalytic materials and reactive processes, and it would be desirable to be able to use high-fidelity, first-principles-based reactor scale simulations for process design. Multi-equation models are steadily gaining ground in the chemical reaction engineering community, combining mature tools at each scale, from the molecular up to the reactor. However, such efforts are currently restricted to academia; a commercial modelling suite and software platform, accessible to the generalist user, is lacking. To address this challenge, ReaxPro has identified a set of academic software tools (EON, Zacros, CatalyticFOAM) which will be upscaled into easy-to-learn, user friendly, interoperable software that is supported and well documented. These tools will be further integrated with commercial software (ADF Modeling Suite) into an industry-ready solution for catalytic material and process design. The ReaxPro Software platform and associated services will be made available via the European Materials Modelling Marketplace through the consortium's partnership with ongoing EU projects MARKETPLACE and VIMMP. To fully reach the target technology readiness level of 7, ReaxPro has partnered with translators and industry for validation and demonstration in pilot- and industrial-scale user cases. As a result of the proposed activities, academia and industry will have at their disposal an integrated, interoperable, customisable and modular modelling platform, enabling users to gain unique fundamental insight on reactive processes, but also a ready-to-use tool for the design of cost-efficient, environmentally friendly and sustainable processes, delivering measurable impact on the entire EU economy.

Microbiomes have high potential to improve biobased processes. For example, in soil and groundwater they can degrade organic contaminants, a process called bioremediation. In Europe about 324,000 severely contaminated sites exist, which pose a risk to humans and the environment. Conventional remediation technologies to clean them are often too expensive and technically Microbiomes have a high potential to improve processes in the bio-based industry. Like the microbiome in the gut, that supports the body in the digestion of food, microbiomes in environmental compartments like soil and groundwater can produce enzymes that can degrade organic contaminants caused by human activities. In MIBIREM we will develop a TOOLBOX that helps to better develop applications for microbiomes. The TOOLBOX includes molecular methods for a better understand and monitoring, isolation and cultivation techniques as well as quality criteria for deposition of whole microbiomes and last, but not least methods that are applied to improve specific functions of microbiomes like microbiome evolution and enrichment cultures and microcosm tests. The TOOLBOX is developed for the environmental applications of microbiomes for ‘bioremediation’. For that purpose, three use-cases were selected. In these three use-cases the degradation of organic contaminants in soil and groundwater by active microbiomes is investigated and developed. The three groups of contaminants are cyanides, hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) and petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC). The project starts with sampling of contaminated sites to isolate microbiomes active in degradation and to gain data for the development of a prediction tool that helps guide bioremediation. Isolated microbiomes and degrading strains will be deposited and will also be improved via laboratory evolution. Finally, the performance of the isolated microbiomes will be tested based on the gained knowledge about degrading microbiomes in pilot tests under real field conditions.