This proposal aims at developing an advanced detection and ranging sensor system based on a collaborative scheme, integrating on the same module both radio and light-based sensing. The module will consist of: a silicon photonics solid-state light detection and ranging (LiDAR) chip, with integrated laser source and driver electronics; a CMOS radio detection and ranging (RADAR) chip connected to a single transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) set of antennas; a processing unit (PU) to actively control the two sensors and process the generated data. The LiDAR and RADAR chip will be integrated on the same printed circuit board (PCB) avoiding any use of free space optics. The proposed architecture will allow an active cooperation of the two sensors through an advanced algorithm installed on the PU. CoRaLi-DAR advanced sensor system will exploit LiDAR’s high-resolution capabilities, and RADAR’s strong reliability in adverse weather conditions, to deliver an automotive compatible detection and ranging system. The use of fully integrated photonics and electronics will reduce packaging size, manufacturing cost and ultimately operational power. With CoRaLi-DAR we plan to create a low-cost, low power and reliable sensor system that can be used as a platform for the automotive market and beyond.

Composite materials are characterised by their unique “smart” capability of integrating nanomaterials and permanently installed sensing devices to enable accurate monitoring of the structural integrity. However, the full-scale industrial use of smart composites is hindered by the lack of wireless and easy-to-install embeddable sensors, automated and reliable data processing methods for damage diagnosis and prognosis in real-life operational conditions, accurate modelling tools, standardisation procedures, and trained operators. The ASSESS project aims to address all these issues and bridge the gap between research and industry by designing, manufacturing, and testing new-generation smart Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites through the research activities of 12 Doctoral Candidates (DCs). The ASSESS consortium will leverage multi-disciplinary collaborations between world-leading organisations in structural health monitoring, materials and computer science, aerospace and civil engineering to develop a novel research & training programme in Europe for the structural integrity of smart composites. Through extensive research, training events and secondments, DCs will embrace diverse emerging technologies, such as smart composites, advanced simulations, wireless sensors, artificial intelligence data-driven approaches and digital twins. These technologies will be key enablers towards Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things for the most strategic industries in Europe such as aviation, space, and wind energy, and support their future careers in these fields. Smart composites will empower safer, more lightweight, and structurally efficient composite aerospace components and wind turbine blades, which in turn will contribute to reduce material waste, aircraft fuel consumption, C02 emissions and enhance renewable wind energy production. Hence, ASSESS will play a pivotal role in the context of future European green energy and transportation.

Climate-related health risks are escalating, as our expanding European population of older people are at high risk from recent unprecedented climate change and extreme weather events.The chAnGE Alliance of HEI, VET and Health & Social Care organisations [HSCOs] in Ireland, Portugal, Finland, Austria & Greece aims to:1. Co-create a suite of online microcredentials (MC), for HSC workers who plan/deliver care to older people, to give them knowledge, confidence & skills to plan/incorporate climate adaptation and resilience in their work 2. Empower HSC professionals as local climate adaptation leaders, champions and peer-trainers, to multiply impact 3. Foster relationships & knowledge co-creation between VET-HEI-HSCO through project activities, and targeted knowledge-exchange (KE) events4. Facilitate HEI & VET to modernise their learning offerings and support learners’ transition to HEI 5. Agree an EU-aligned framework for MC credit recognition/accumulation, for exploitation (for any topic or learner group), by HEI/VET across Europe. Project activities occur via four Work Packages (WPs) over 3 years:WP1: Project coordination/monitoringWP2: Preparation: Iterative content co-creation, digitalisation, piloting; MC credit certification WP3: Implementation (learning delivery), monitoring, evaluationWP4: Dissemination & exploitation Results & Outputs: The innovative education, delivered to 500-1000 HSC workers/professionals, and widely multiplied in HSCOs, will be novel (based on extensive needs/gap analyses), interactive, accessible, bite-sized, stackable, and co-created with target learners/older people, at EQF level 4-6. The curriculum & learning content (for the 15 linked MCs) and learning-amplification resources will be freely available for others to adapt/use, along with 3+ academic papers, and 3 reports, on MC credit recognition, sustainability, and the evaluation (learner’s feedback & support needs; usage & usability; learning effectiveness/impact).

Climate-resilient sunflower crops can help to reduce the EU dependency on imports of vegetable oils and proteins shifting towards sustainable alternatives, to mitigate the impact of agricultural production on water use and greenhouse gas emissions, to grow resources for pollinators, and to promote biodiversity. HelEx will generate the knowledge and use innovative tools to accelerate the breeding of sunflower varieties adapted to extreme drought and heat stresses, while improving their environmental impact and assessing their socio-economic value of the resulting innovations along the value chains. HelEx will thereby consider two related groups of traits increasingly impacted by climate change, i.e. the eco-systemic service to pollinators and seed quality. For this, HelEx brings together scientists, SMEs, and industries representing an international consortium of experts in sunflower ecology, physiology and genomics; plant biotechnology and breeding; pollinator biology and ecology; environmental impact assessment and feedstock processing; and socioeconomic assessment at different scales. This HelEx multi-disciplinary consortium will explore the genetic and molecular processes involved in tolerance to drought and heat in wild extremophile Helianthus species, and identify favorable wild alleles introgressed into cultivated sunflower, for seed quality and pollinator attractiveness resilience (WP1). These processes will be transfered using classical marker-assisted selection and innovative genome editing approaches (WP2), and the environmental and biodiversity impact of these new climate-smart sunflowers assessed (WP3). HelEx will investigate the socio-economic impact and benefits in relevant value chains for different feedstock (WP4). Our communication strategy (WP5) will engage a variety of societal stakeholders to ensure feedback and enhance project progress and outcomes, and make transparent the broader dimensions of plant biotechnology, biodiversity, and benefit sharing

European rural areas, face societal, demographic, economic and environmental pressures due to global transformations and crises. They are in need of a renewal by social innovation that increases their resilience and reduces the adverse effects on their socio-economic and environmental sustainability. Unbalanced development impacts their populations’ lively-hoods and well-being in general, but it affects the most those people who are already in precarious and fragile positions. SERIGO produces evidence-based theoretical and practicable knowledge on how the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) can support resilience, social inclusion, and ‘good life’ in European rural areas. Based on the research results produced, the aim is also to provide insights and recommendations on what framework conditions and policy arrangements are necessary to promote this, as well as to trigger constructive debates and collaborations around this issue involving diverse set of stakeholders in Europe. The project applies an intersectional perspective to vulnerability, as well as implements critical systems thinking in combination with community-based participatory research to investigate potentials of the social economy in promoting social inclusion and in enhancing the quality and accessibility of services in rural areas. Empirical data is gathered in a high number of qualitative case studies from 13 countries on social economy solutions implemented in local contexts. Using the multi-actor approach, SERIGO benefits from more nuanced and ’live’ insights into the drivers of social exclusion offered through the lenses of local stakeholders working together with researchers on co-created experimental pilots in five European regions. SERIGO ensures also with a system of deliberate feedback loops, dedicated multi-level policy workshops and a sustained thematic community of practice that the new knowledge generated is pertinent and applicable, and all its outputs have high exploitable potential.