Microbiomes comprise communities of microorganisms (i.e., microbiota that includes bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi and microalgae) and their "theatre of activity" (i.e., structural elements, metabolites, signal molecules, mobile genetic elements, as well as surrounding environmental conditions). Microbiomes play a key role in maintaining life on Earth by providing a range of essential ecosystem services and are indispensable for the health of plants, animals and humans. Thus, there is a wide consensus that by harnessing microbiome functions society would be better placed to tackle global challenges such as food security, health and wellbeing, food waste management, and climate change mitigation. To facilitate the science necessary to achieve key advances in microbiome research, methodologies and technologies to capture or create, ensure stable long-term maintenance, and experimentally perturb microbiomes are required. Research infrastructures currently lack optimized methodologies and technologies to preserve and provide access to microbiome samples and massive amounts of associated data MICROBE is designed to address these issues by building upon and connecting: (1) technical solutions for microbiome preservation, propagation and functionality assessment, (2) novel ecological concepts (i.e. “core microbiome” and “microbial keystone taxa”), and (3) data infrastructures. In addition, MICROBE will address essential framework issues such as standardization, ethical and legal requirements and new business opportunities. Participation of relevant European research infrastructures, i.e., BBMRI-ERIC, MIRRI, ELIXIR and EMBRC-ERIC, to ensure that community needs are properly addressed and that developed solutions are efficiently taken up by the infrastructures themselves and by their user communities. Long term ambition is to ensure widespread uptake in microbiome research communities and thus support the development of novel microbiome-based applications.

The Holocaust is a central reference point for European history and a ‘negative founding myth’ of European integration. VHH is an innovation action that focuses on the digital curation and preservation of film records relating to the discovery of Nazi concentration camps and other atrocity sites. We combine state-of-the-art concepts and practices from information science, museum pedagogy and digital storytelling to design a new approach for the engagement with a significant aspect of European audio-visual heritage. While the majority of these film records are in the public domain as they were produced by Allied military personnel on government order, hardly any of them are available in digital formats fit for the purposes of technology enabled research, analysis, and curatorial re-use. Building on the advanced digitisation of a relevant selection of these materials VHH will develop new methods in digital curation and apply sophisticated technologies to the analysis and time-based annotation of these historical materials. Filmic records will be dynamically linked with photographs, audio, and texts in order to discover and unlock layers of context and meaning inaccessible through traditional linear narrative modes of dissemination. Our aim is to develop a ground-breaking inclusive concept of digital curation to innovate curatorial work with digitised film and media collections and to create best practice models and tool kits for advanced digitisation, automated analysis, linking of different media types, and the linking of tangible and intangible assets. VHH will develop new forms of learning experiences and user interaction with the digital data and the stories contained in it. We will curate a discrete set of engagement levels to facilitate users’ engagement and co-creation. The resulting prototype applications will deliver new impulses to a range of industry sectors in education, museums, libraries and archives, cultural tourism and the content industries.

To meet the global and European challenges of reducing the GHG emissions from the construction sector, Build-in-Wood will develop a sustainable and innovative wood value chain for the construction of multi-storey wood buildings. The potential estimated impact from Build-in-Wood is a reduction of GHG emissions of 12.1 MT/year by 2030. Build-in-Wood will, based on experiences from the stakeholders involved in construction of some of the worlds largest wooden multi-storey buildings, take building with wood beyond state of the art. The consortium has identified a strong need for improving the whole value chain and intent to make wood a competitive building material by delivering a fully documented, demonstrated, sustainable and cost effective building system. Build-in-Wood will address this challenge by innovative development of materials and components as well as structural systems and façade elements for multi-storey wood buildings fit for both new construction and retrofitting. Developments will be delivered by means of a dynamic co-created web-based building configurator – the Design Guide – and a complimentary web-based toolbox of documented materials and components. Build-in-Wood will demonstrate full-scale digital case projects for real projects and test system prototypes in operational environments. Active engagement of cities and their building ecosystems through technical and thematic co-creation workshops will strengthen the urban-rural connections. All developed materials, components and system prototypes will be tested, piloted and fully documented for immediate market uptake. Based on developments, recommendations for new or updated European harmonised technical specifications and Eurocodes will be provided. To meet consumer acceptance, regulatory and sustainability requirements, Build-in-Wood includes life-cycle, socio-economic and safety assessments that will guide policy and decision-making at industry and EU level.

The proposed Coordination and Support Action (CSA) has the overall objective to establish an international network of experts and stakeholders in the field of microbiome food system research, elaborating microbiomes from various environments such as terrestrial, plant, aquatic, food and human/animal and assess their applicability and impact on the food system. MICROBIOMESUPPORT will follow the approach of food system and integrate actors and experts from all stages in this circular economy of food. The food system approach is part of the FOOD 2030 concept to promote a systems approach to research and innovation (R&I). MICROBIOMESUPPORT will be one of the key drivers to implement FOOD 2030 strategies, will facilitate multi-actor engagement to align, structure and boost R&I in microbiome and will support the European Commission by coordinating the activities, meetings, workshops and results from the International Bioeconomy Forum (IBF) working group ‘Food Systems Microbiome’. The main concept behind MICROBIOMESUPPORT IS to boost the bioeconomy and the FOOD 2030 strategy, by focusing on the new avenues generated by microbiome R&I efforts. MICROBIOMESUPPORT WILL have a main impact on the coordination of commonly defined R&I agendas which will be incorporated into regional, national, European but also global funding programmes related to microbiomes in food systems. MICROBIOMESUPPORT will create a collaborative international network and integrate know-how in plant, terrestrial, animal, human and aquatic microbiome R&I as well as expertise in bioeconomy applications. MICROBIOMESUPPORT has integrated international partners form Brazil, Canada, South Africa, China, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, India and USA in order to improve the international cooperation and coordination of common bioeconomy research programmes and set a basis for common microbiome R&I agendas.