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INFINITY will develop an inorganic alternative to a scarce and high cost material, indium tin oxide (ITO), currently used as a Transparent Conductive Coating (TCC) for display electrodes on glass and plastic substrates. The novel conductive materials to be developed in this project will be based on low cost sol-gel chemistry using more widely available metallic elements and will leverage recent advances in nanostructured coatings. Novel printing procedures will also be developed to enable direct writing of multi and patterned nano-layers, removing the waste associated with etch patterning.

The first Ebolavirus Zaire (EBOV) outbreak of 2014 was declared on 22 March in Guinea. As of 30 September 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports the total number of cases in the current outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa at 7470, with 3431 deaths. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that the number of cases is currently doubling every 20 days and estimates the true number of cases at 2.5 times higher than that reported. Countries that have been affected are Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Ten percent of fatalities have occurred among front line health care workers attempting to contain the epidemic. On 7 August 2014, the WHO requested that GSK “fully engage in WHO-coordinated efforts to test, license and make available safe and effective Ebola interventions” to assist in the control of the outbreak. Taking into account the early stage of development, EbolaVac seeks to accelerate the clinical development of the GSK chimpanzee adenovirus type 3 Ebolavirus Zaire (ChAd3-EBO Z) vaccine candidate to make the vaccine available to frontline health care workers at risk and to be used in the containment of EBOV outbreaks. The project specifically aims to: (i) complete Phase 1 development of the ChAd3-EBO Z vaccine by supporting a clinical study conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland (WP2); (ii) evaluate the ChAd3-EBO Z vaccine in Phase 2 testing on adults and children at established clinical study centers in West Africa outside the current most heavily affected countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia (WP3); (iii) investigate immunological effects of vaccination and the effect of booster vaccination (WP4) and (iv) centrally manage and analyse clinical study data (WP5). Besides using an innovative vaccine technology, much of the innovation of this program will reside in its capacity to implement vaccine evaluation under significant time pressure and complex logistical challenges while maintaining appropriate quality standards.

Modern economy is highly dependent on specific raw materials, and it is envisaged that this dependency will increase in the near future. Most of them are scarce in EU and of poor purity, being mixed within complex and low grade aggregates which need to be processed by means of a separation process consuming high quantities of energy and water, and even in some cases this makes its exploitation unfeasible due to production costs. Being EU dependent on some of these materials, as identified by EIP initiative, our society is demanding more efficient extracting processes to contribute to major European independency on these Critical Raw Materials. Tungsten and Tantalum ores are two recognized CRMs: In a market currently dominated by China and Russia production (among others), in Europe Tungsten (limited) production is mostly concentrate into UK, Spain and Portugal . On the other side, Tantalum is a key element on electronics with clear EU external production dependency, as it is naturally really scarce in Europe (only 1% of world production is concentrated in EU). Knowing this situation, OptimOre Project proposes the research and development of modelling and control technologies, using advanced sensing and advanced industrial control by means of artificial intelligence techniques, for the more efficient and flexible Tantalum and Tungsten ores processing from crushing to separation process, with the participation of relevant international players in the mining field on research (Chalmers University- Dr. Magnus Evertsson, Exeter University with Dr. Richard Pascoe, Freiburg University with Dr. Holberg Lieberwirth, among others). The project proposes a 3 years collaboration among 8 partners of 4 different countries.

The EU has to face many challenges in achieving a more balanced regional development and sustainable economic recovery. Many of those challenges have to do with the ageing population trend, urbanization and environment under distress. More liveable and efficient communities is a target to be reached in Europe, where the “silver hair” trends can become a challenging opportunity, from a social, economic and cultural perspective. Despite those challenges are strongly interlinked, solutions provided in urban contexts not often pay due attention to the social process underlying urban trends and to the needs and behaviour of elderly citizens. GRAGE intends to contribute to fill this gap, developing winning ideas to promote an active, harmonious and inclusive citizenship for elderly people living in urban contexts. The consortium gathers ground-breaking expertise from different scientific background (legal, economic, humanities, engineering), from academic and non academic institutions, belonging to several countries (from EU and Ukraine). Using a mix of methodologies, the research and innovation programme of the project will evolve around the idea of citizenship as a collector of interest, healthy environment and suitable urban solutions for an aging society. Main themes will be: green buildings, food and urban agriculture, information and language technology. Researcher will analyze their role in transforming cities in environments that support green and healthy lifestyles for elderly people. GRAGE intents to boost dialogue through Europe, both strengthening the academic and non-academic collaboration and a practical understanding of elderly living across Europe. Such a cooperation can have a series of returns for Europe, ranging from a more effective solution to strategic challenges (sustainable cities and demographic change) to new business opportunities for European firms, offering solutions and products for smart/inclusive/ageing societies at global level.

C-ENERGY 2020 is a 48 months Coordination and Support Action having the specific objectives to Ensuring high quality Energy NCP services for Horizon 2020 and related programmes applicants; Lowering entry barriers for Energy NCPs approaching EU Framework Programmes for R&I for the first time; Consolidating the network of Energy NCPs. C-ENERGY 2020 project will take into consideration the significant changes that Horizon 2020 has brought about the Energy NCP mandate. With its brand new approach to R&I Horizon 2020 demands Energy NCPs: a) to address their services to a wider target, b) to have specific multidisciplinary competences. C-ENERGY 2020, whose consortium is composed by experienced and less experienced Energy NCPs from 18 countries, will tackle these challenges building up the NCP capacity by organising benchmarking activities, at least 8 training sessions and 12 twinning schemes. The dialogue with energy participants will benefit of at least 2 enhanced cross-border brokerage events and 9 training sessions for stakeholders. The project will also take special care of outreaching activities by extending the collaboration with other NCP thematic networks, cooperating with EEN, working on partner search and cooperating on international relevant activities. Finally, communication within and outside the Energy NCP network and the dissemination of results will be ensured through the website, the development of promotion/information materials, the participation at major events and PR activities and an e-mail alert service/newsletter. Throughout the project special attention will be paid to the diversity of stakeholders in the energy sector, the gender dimension, as well as to establish links with other EU relevant initiatives, programmes and policies.