The DOMINOS objective is to propose in the market a disruptive information system for SMEs’ business consulting using problem solving techniques, semantic technologies and social media. It will be a completely new and innovative service in terms of service offering (features and delivery) and business model. DOMINOS will be accessible by companies through the Web, helping them in the decision-making processes related to business issues by allowing users to access: - Structured methodologies to business problem solving, suggesting innovative solutions, making use of the power of long acknowledged evolution paths of technological and industrial processes, which stem from TRIZ theory; - External expertise offered by knowledge markets and the DOMINOS collaborative environment; - Access to relevant information for SMEs business management decisions through semantic technologies; DOMINOS will support SMEs in both taking business management choices based on more informed decisions, as well as in interacting with external advices coming either from knowledge markets (communities), or through specific questions / problems asked to consultants that will interact through DOMINOS. The business model will be completely new for the management consulting business, not relying on hourly-based consulting fees, but offering an on-line Freemium service (free service for basic functions, premium service for advanced ones), allowing SMEs to choose if, when, and on which specific topic make use of consultants. SMEs, thus, will be able to connect with experts in existing knowledge markets as well as consultants, with the possibility to establish long term relationships to ensure sustainability of the proposed solutions (no “hit and run” approach from consultants) at a fair price.

AI-CUBE seeks to enhance the understanding of different digital technologies related to artificial intelligence (AI) and big data (BD) applied in process industries for all the SPIRE industrial sectors. At the start of the project in September 2020 there were eight SPIRE industrial sectors considered, namely: cement, ceramics, chemicals, engineering, minerals and ores, non-ferrous metals, steel and water. At the start of 2021, also pulp & paper and refineries were added – which were then considered and integrated into the list of sectors being analysed through the project. Therefore, a close collaboration with industry is mandatory to achieve in-depth insights into possible application areas of AI for processes, technology, sensor applicability and assessment of their level of penetration. The overall project approach is based on the development of a 3-dimensional conceptual matrix based on: 1) AI and BD technologies 2) Application areas (activities and industrial processes) 3) SPIRE sectors AI-CUBE’s main goal is to define a roadmap in AI and the use of BD for the process industry and their maturity level across the industrial sectors, including guidelines for implementation. Industrial stakeholders and associations will validate the consolidated roadmap ensuring solution feasibility and benefits for the European industrial community. A crosslinked vision over process industry sectors shall facilitate cooperation and boost technologies deployment at their full potential. An in-depth consultation with industry (association, representatives, companies) will provide an overview of current AI and BD algorithms application, identifying exploitable synergies among sectors. A deep study of the application areas in planning and operations within other industrial sectors facilitates a gap analysis, propitiating knowledge sharing among processes and sectors. A Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria analysis will obtain a widely supported and consensus-based action plan for industrial consultation. This will allow the inclusion of a broad stakeholder community representing the main industry actors throughout all the SPIRE sectors, with which the project consortium has strong connections that will support sector integration and stakeholders’ engagement.

COGITOR represents a novel approach to cybernetics, proposing the study of Colloidal (liquid) Cybernetic Systems (CCS), a multifunctional liquid-based platform that we have designed to be capable of pressure sensing (i), computing and data storage (ii), energy harvesting (iii) and integrating fully custom electronics (iv). A CCS provides operation in extreme environments by definition, having distributed architecture (homogeneous liquid plus random network architecture), being fault-tolerant and featuring self-healing capabilities. Within COGITOR in 54 months the consortium will provide a platform where liquid electronics efforts can converge from all over the world, making European research the point of reference for this big step forward. COGITOR measurable and specific objectives are: i) creating an impedance liquid state pressure sensor with spatial and temporal resolution; ii) producing an holonomic reversible memory written/erased electrically and read by tomographic Microwave Impedance Spectroscopy; the electrical operation will be used to implement learning (both sequential and concurrent) and calculation, where the system acts as a many-input Boolean circuit; iii) harvesting energy from a thermal gradient artificially induced by IR radiation upon the prototype; iv) integration and testing of the final CCS prototype, testing self-healing and fault tolerance capabilities, as well as assessing interference, also under EE conditions varying T, p and B. The engineering applications that we plan to exploit will be part of the intellectual property of a spin-off company. The consortium is well-balanced with cutting edge Research Organizations across EU (IIT – Italy, UWE – UK, EMPA - Suisse) and companies (PC – Germany, PNO – Spain) that will closely collaborate to develop and really transfer knowledge and innovations into products and related services.

Carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) has been recently recognised as a key technology to reduce carbon emissions, especially in hard-to-abate sectors, and significantly contribute to EU carbon neutrality targets for 2030 and 2050. Accelerating the upscaling and subsequent market introduction of CCUS research results and technologies is becoming thus increasingly urgent. The Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020) has contributed to the development of innovative technologies, including CCUS. The Innovation Fund Programme (IF) on the other hand, focuses on commercial demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies. The transition from mature H2020 projects to the IF is a logical pipeline along the TRL line. Synergies between these and other EU funding programmes can contribute substantially to overcome the hurdles and de-risk large scale investments in first-of-a-kind CCUS flagship projects, but still much remains to be done in accelerating go-to-market strategies for publicly funded innovations. LEADS aims at bridging the gap from research to deployment for CCUS projects in Europe by building an innovation pipeline of promising H2020/HEU projects and supporting project owners to overcome the main bottlenecks and reach final investment decision. Building on their outstanding experience in innovation and EU programmes, as well as leveraging on their strong EU networks, LEADS partners will implement a well-designed methodology and set of measures to assess and select the most promising H2020 projects, coach them and enable them to apply to IF. LEADS methodology will be tested with six H2020 CCUS project cases. A set of reusable IF tools will be created and made available to CCUS stakeholders. Synergy mechanisms between H2020 and IF will be also created by aligning the CCUS up-scaling potential with IF targets. At LEADS project end, at least three H2020 projects are expected to have completed the full LEADS cycle and have submitted a full IF application.