The growing innovation divide across the European Union appears particularly detrimental to small and emerging regional research and innovation systems like the Outermost Regions. With limited resources, these regions struggle to reach the critical mass needed to build comparative advantages and become knowledge societies. Though the European Research Area and the Framework programmes could compensate this marginalization through greater knowledge circulation, resources sharing and talents mobilities, the Outermost Regions present a limited participation in FP7 and Horizon 2020. This underutilization notably stems from the competing relations between structural funds (ESIF) and the framework programs or “substitution effect”: many organizations and individuals prioritize easily accessible ESIF, decide not to apply to the FP and end up in “substitution trap” which isolates them from promising collaborations. To move Outermost Regions’ R&I organizations and systems from substitution to synergies, REMORA ambitions to transform 3 Ocean and Marine ESIF-funded institutions in La Réunion, Madeira and the Azores into Horizon Europe champions : CITEB, OKEANOS and OOM. To that end, REMORA will enhance their competitiveness (notably human resources, knowledge transfer and innovation capacities), strategic positioning and connections with major EU networks through a joint internationalization strategy. REMORA will then use the successful transformation of these 3 role models to lead other ESIF-oriented R&I organizations and policy-makers in Outermost and Widening Regions on the path to synergies.

SURIMI’s overall objective is to develop social-ecological models and user-friendly solutions that will be integrated in an interoperable and standardized manner within the DTO to generate policy analysis rooted in management strategy evaluation (MSE) principles. The project will develop the SURIMI toolbox which will 1) provide open-source interchangeable socio-ecological, assessment and policy models including protocols and standards for model and data interoperability, 2) ensure the collection and harmonization of data informing these models across EU waters as well as ensuring long-term accessibility of the data and 3) package models, data and a visualization interface with a set of accessible and informative user-centric decision support tools, including the use of natural language processing (NLP) artificial intelligence for policy analysis and implementing a MSE framework to thoroughly account for benefits and costs of policy implementations. The project will integrate every element of the SURIMI toolbox (models, data, interoperability layer, graphical user interfaces) as core elements of the DTO infrastructure and model lab. SURIMI will cover and generalize broadly across the EU waters while providing input interfaces for users to tailor scenarios to their specific use-cases and local twins by inputting their own data and assumptions. Throughout the entire project lifetime, SURIMI will engage a wide community of stakeholders from research, industry, advocacy, policy and society, to co-create, co-design and co-assess the SURIMI toolbox in a demand-driven and responsive development cycle. All this, 1) expanding the DTO to covering ecology, economy and society and thus complementing its capacities and uses, 2) enabling better management of human activities, 3) facilitating what-if scenario analysis, decision support, and policy implementation both at European and regional/local scales, and 4) contributing to the EU Mission Ocean Restore our Ocean and.

Europe is on an ambitious path to becoming climate neutral by 2050, aiming to cut 55% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. Transport is a sector where so far it has proved harder to reduce emissions, while being one of the main energy users and source of emissions. Transport sectors such as aviation heavily depend on high energy density fuels, for which sustainable biofuels are the best near term low-carbon renewable alternative. Biofuel production based on algae is being considered as a main clean energy alternative and one of the most promising solutions. However, there are several challenges that hinder development and application of algae-based biofuel, ranging across the entire value chain. SUSTEPS main overall objective is to improve key knowledge, identify systemic constraints and opportunities, and propose solutions for the scaling up of a sustainable algae-based biofuel value chain. It aims to contribute to cost-effective and more sustainable large-scale production of sustainable algae-based biofuels by developing and validating a bio-refinery concept that efficiently produces sustainable biofuel from non-food/feed microalgae via CO2 fixation from high-emission facilities and through feeding on nutrient-rich wastewater, thereby minimising biomass production costs and utilising harmful CO2 emitted from energy-intensive activities. The process will be coupled with green hydrogen to be used in upgrading of microalgae-based fuel, and smart integration of processes that also produce value-added chemicals, valorising all side streams effectively. Based on international collaboration, SUSTEPS will build a more efficient, less costly CO2-to-biofuels process, identifying systemic constraints, opportunities and solutions for scaling up the value chain of algae-based sustainable biofuels which will support the development of best practices and concepts along the entire value chain and accelerate the scale-up of sustainable biofuels worldwide.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are interdependent crises, but knowledge gaps on their interplays prevent effective risk assessment and solutions. Trees4Adapt will 1) enhance empirical understanding of climate change, biodiversity loss, their interdependencies, and how these influence risks; 2) develop evidence-informed tools and solutions that build climate resilience and support biodiversity at the same time. We focus particularly on tree-based solutions, which are nature-based solutions involving trees that promise to safeguard the EU by delivering cross-sectoral benefits, if we better tailor their design and implementation. Trees4Adapt combines field-quantified understanding from multi-national research platforms and case studies representative of boreal, temperate, and Mediterranean biomes with novel bioeconomic modelling and high-resolution modelling and mapping of complex risks. Our activities operate from the plot- to EU-level, with interdisciplinary models developed during the project integrating the scale-dependent findings. Trees4Adapt applies co-creational approaches, and key stakeholders - including public administration and authorities - from the local- to EU levels will actively guide, inform, and participate in the project. This will ensure the outputs of our research are useable, custom-made to stakeholders’ specific needs, and result in changes in decision-making and other impact in relation to recognised societal needs and key EU and global policy priorities including the Climate Adaptation, Forest, and Biodiversity Strategies. Trees4Adapt’s consortium consists of leading experts on climate change science, ecosystems and land use changes, nature-based solutions, transdisciplinary and participatory research, bioeconomics, environmental policy, risk assessment and modelling. Ultimately, Trees4Adapt aims to work with and support EU decision-makers to successfully assess and address complex risks from climate change and biodiversity loss.

Recent decades have seen dramatic increases in our understanding of Light and Noise Pollution (LNP) impacts on aquatic biodiversity. These impacts are globally widespread and occurring in all aquatic ecosystems from lakes and rivers to the seafloor. A variety of technologies and policy interventions are also now available to mitigate LNP impacts in aquatic ecosystems. Yet, numerous knowledge gaps exist that if addressed would substantially improve our understanding of the prevalence and impacts of LNP, and our ability to manage them. There remain critical gaps in our understanding of the combined occurrence and impacts of LNP across the breadth of aquatic ecosystems, particularly at large spatial scales and over long-time frames. While numerous abatement options exist, pathways to achieving their effective implementation remain unclear. AquaPLAN is an interdisciplinary pan-European consortium that are world leaders in the fields of aquatic light and/or noise pollution. AquaPLAN aims to quantify the combined impacts of LNP on aquatic biodiversity across European seas, lakes, and rivers, and facilitate the implementation of empirically sound strategies for managing these pollutants through novel interdisciplinary approaches. AquaPLAN will: i) provide a comprehensive review of the state of the art on the impacts of LNP on aquatic biodiversity; ii) assess perceptions of LNP impacts and the need for their management across key stakeholder groups; iii) quantify the combined impacts of LNP on the conservation status of biodiversity in aquatic habitats; iv) identify the mechanisms leading to individual and combined impacts of LNP on aquatic biodiversity; v) explore innovative interdisciplinary solutions to prevent and mitigate LNP impacts on aquatic biodiversity; vi) build an international, interdisciplinary network to assess, prevent and mitigate the combined impacts of LNP on aquatic biodiversity. Building on AquaPLAN's objectives, other knowledge gaps will be filled by a new partner coming from Portugal, with a two-fold novelty: an incremental novelty, adding a new land-cover type (urban), a new habitat (small ponds and streams), and a new suite of taxa (freshwater macroinvertebrates and amphibians); and a scientific novelty, considering the potential impacts of noise-induced substrate vibration, which can be more important in shallow water systems, such as urban aquatic habitats. While direct noise impacts large bodies of water, sound-induced substrate vibration can cause additional stress in organisms that use these areas for food or shelter. This approach will contribute to and increase AquaPLAN's objectives. Because multiple stressors (other than LNP) are found in urban areas, AquaPLAN will consider the impacts of LNP and substrate vibration along with air pollution and urban heat island effects. Since measures to decrease the impact of noise on humans are built into cities, AquaPLAN will test their potential role in protecting biodiversity, including calculating thresholds for effects. Taking this information together with new knowledge of the role of substrate vibration (which can be manipulated when building or restoring urban aquatic habitats), the project will contribute to improving policies and technological development for dealing with LNP. Considering the novel LNP sources and biodiversity taxa, AquaPLAN's original range of habitats and taxa will be widened, which is especially relevant for sensitive taxa, such as amphibians and some freshwater macroinvertebrates. This will also contribute to the implementation of long-term monitoring of LNP combined impacts on aquatic ecosystems.