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Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important cause of pneumonia, meningitis and bloodstream infections throughout the world and is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Macrophages are immune system cells with a critical role in defence against S. pneumoniae infections. Treatments that boost bacterial killing by macrophages could be a useful alternative or adjunct to antibiotics. However, we currently do not know which macrophage immune responses it would be most beneficial to boost. I will harness insight from a group of S. pneumoniae (serotype 1) with an unusually strong ability to cause invasive infections in young healthy people. Macrophage immune responses these bacteria have evolved to avoid are likely to be very important against all S. pneumoniae and would be sensible targets for new treatments. I will characterise activation of macrophage genes and bacterial killing mechanisms against serotype 1 S. pneumoniae to identify immune responses the most successful bacteria evade. I will then identify the bacterial genes responsible for this. Finally, I will confirm the immune responses involved by editing relevant genes in macrophages grown in the lab. This research will help identify critical macrophage immune responses to S. pneumoniae that could inform the design of new treatments for patients with this infection.

This project addresses the scientific, technological and clinical problem of recovery of hand function after amputation. Despite decades of research and development on artificial limbs and neural interfaces, amputees continue to use technology for powered prostheses developed over 40 years ago, namely myoelectric prostheses controlled via superficial electrodes. These devices do not purposely provide sensory feedback and are known for their poor functionality, controllability and sensory feedback, mainly due to the use of surface electrodes. The consortium has pioneered the use of osseointegration as a long-term stable solution for the direct skeletal attachment of limb prostheses. This technology aside from providing an efficient mechanical coupling, which on its own has shown to improve prosthesis functionality and the patient’s quality of life, can also be used as a bidirectional communication interface between implanted electrodes and the prosthetic arm. This is today the most advanced and unique technique for bidirectional neuromuscular interfacing, suited for the upper limb amputees, which was proven functional in the long term. The goal of the DeTOP project is to push the boundaries of this technology –made in Europe– to the next TRL and to make it clinically available to the largest population of upper limb amputees, namely transradial amputees. This objective will be targeted by developing a novel prosthetic hand with improved functionality, smart mechatronic devices for safe implantable technology, and by studying and assessing paradigms for natural control (action) and sensory feedback (perception) of the prosthesis through the implant. The novel technologies and findings will be assessed by three selected patients, implanted in a clinical centre. DeTOP bridges several currently disjointed scientific fields and is therefore critically dependent on the collaboration of engineers, neuroscientists and clinicians.

The main concern in cancer treatment is its high rate of recurrence. It may happen soon or years after treatment and it’s very hard to predict/prevent. Removing residual tumour cells is the best way to avoid recurrence, so identifying new tumour markers is the most pressing demand. We have developed SenolT, an innovative diagnostic test for the early detection and monitoring of senescent cells, which appear after chemotherapy/radiotherapy and are directly associated to cancer recurrence. SenolT detects all kinds of tumours, but we focus on pancreatic and triple negative breast (TNBC) cancers because prognosis is very poor for patients and recurrence is their main cause of mortality. Our customers will be pharmaceutical companies, so we have already contacted several of them in the sector. The initial target market will be TNBC/Pancreatic cancer patients that received chemotherapy/radiotherapy in the EU & USA. Competitors focus on liquid biopsy tests and cancer-related protein markers (expensive & slow to get results). No other companies are working in the detection of senescent cells as a diagnostic method to predict recurrence. Senolytic Therapeutics is a company that develops a new class of medicines by targeting damaged cells. Our mission is to advance our portfolio of therapies to clinical trials and improve the lives of patients and families. Our SenolT proprietary technology will be developed and de-risked through Phase2 Clinical trials and then license the validated technologies to pharma companies, to finalise their development and bring them to the market. By 2025 we expect: A) 15% royalties’ rate on net sales with a unit price to healthcare systems of €800; B) 20% market share (70,000 people) from an expected total of TNBC/pancreatic cancer population of over 352,000 in USA & EU; C) TAM growing up to about €57 m; D) NPV of €27.2 m (10% discount rate) and an IRR of 120%; E) Cumulative EBITDA of about €44 m; F) 20 newly created jobs, mainly in R&D and sales.

Construction & Demolition Waste (CDW) represents one of the most relevant material flows globally and ambitious goals for its management were set by the EU. Nonetheless, market uptake of recycling and recovery products from CDW is still lacking. In particular, the fine recycled aggregates (fRA) are still the most under-used component without a clear entry point into the circular economy model. The recovery/recycling of CDW can be improved by developing its use in higher-grade applications through innovation and emerging technologies. In this context, the Recycl3D (Recycled aggregates for 3D printed concrete structures) project aims at maximizing the recovery of fRA derived from CDW and valorizing it as an essential constituent in the fabrication of new concrete elements through innovative 3D printing technologies. Therefore, Recycl3D tackles the challenges of sustainability (circular economy) and innovation (additive manufacturing) of current relevance for the construction industry. The actions within Recycl3D will facilitate the entry of fRA from CDW into the circular economy value-chain and at the same time increase the material efficiency and lead to higher added value. Then, the mechanical, durability and service-life of 3D-RAC elements (considering also their recoverability and recyclability) could be consistently predicted and, consequently, the barriers for future market uptake can be addressed by designing and optimizing 3D-RAC structural prototypes and testing them in relevant environments. These outcomes will directly impact both the scientific and industrial communities at both the global/European level and the national/regional one. The project consists of Applied/Industrial Research activities in the fields of sustainable construction materials & structures and additive manufacturing performed by a carefully tailored Consortium that ensures a multidisciplinary and complementary expertise needed to significantly advance current knowledge. Os Resíduos de Construção e Demolição (RCD) representam um conjunto dos materiais mais relevantes a nível mundial, tendo sido estabelecidas pela UE metas ambiciosas para a sua gestão. No entanto, ainda falta a aceitação pelo mercado de produtos de reciclagem e recuperação de RCD. Em particular, os agregados finos reciclados (fRA) ainda são o componente mais subutilizado sem entrada clara no modelo de economia circular. A recuperação/reciclagem de CDW pode ser aprimorada desenvolvendo o seu uso em aplicações de alto valor acrescentado por meio da inovação e tecnologias emergentes. Neste contexto, o projecto RECYCL3D (Agregados reciclados para estruturas de betão por impressão 3D) visa maximizar a recuperação de fRA oriundos dos RCD e valorizá-los como um constituinte essencial na fabricação de novos elementos de betão por meio de tecnologias inovadoras de impressão 3D. Portanto, o RECYCL3D aborda os desafios de sustentabilidade (economia circular) e inovação (fabrico aditivo) de relevância actual para a indústria da construção. As acções no RECYCL3D facilitarão a entrada de fRA dos RCD na cadeia de valor da economia circular e, ao mesmo tempo, aumentarão a eficiência do material e levarão a um maior valor acrescentado. Assim, a resistência mecânica, a durabilidade e a vida útil dos elementos 3D (considerando também sua capacidade de recuperação e reciclagem) podem ser previstas de forma consistente e, consequentemente, as barreiras para a aceitação futura do mercado podem ser abordadas projectando e optimizando protótipos estruturais 3D e testá-los em ambientes relevantes. Esses resultados impactarão directamente as comunidades científica e industrial, tanto no nível global/europeu quanto no nacional/regional. O projecto consiste em actividades de Pesquisa Aplicada/Industrial nas áreas de materiais e estruturas de construção sustentáveis e manufactura aditiva realizadas por um Consórcio cuidadosamente adaptado que garante uma experiência multidisciplinar e complementar necessária para avançar significativamente o conhecimento actual.

Following World War II, globalisation and market liberalisation triggered a period of unprecedented growth. Recently, these trends appear to reverse, whereby globalisation and corporations started to pose challenges for liberal democracy, social cohesion and environmental sustainability. DemoTrans is an impact-driven research project that will provide theoretically and empirically robust recommendations on how to reinvigorate democratic governance by improving the accountability, transparency, effectThe notion that liberal, representative democracy is in some form of crisis ? or even a terminal decline ? has been brought forward by numerous scholars (for a recent review, see Bickerton & Accetti, 2021). While the globalisation and liberalisation of markets triggered a period of unprecedented growth ? as well as improvements in standards of living and consolidation of liberal democracies ? in the decades following the Second World War, we have recently witnessed a substantial reversal in these trends. Today, globalisation and global corporations rather appear to bring challenges to liberal democracy, social cohesion as well as the environment. The academic literature studying these developments often focuses on describing and interpreting what is going ?wrong?. However, the key challenge is to outline and understand the new type of politics that is emerging in its place as well as to envisage and develop the contours of new promising approaches to re-embed democracy and capitalism. This key challenge lies at the heart of the DemoTrans project, and we address it by bringing together a multidisciplinary consortium of six experienced and leading research groups from four European research universities and an NGO with a strong track record. Building on their wide-ranging expertise, DemoTrans will develop novel theoretical and empirical academic research aimed at robust recommendations that encouraging stronger democratic accountability and inclusion in economic processes.

The project proposes a novel way to numerically model delamination or debonding in layered structures using beam-type finite elements for the layers, which can be geometrically linear or nonlinear, and mixed-mode, rate-dependent cohesive-zone models (CZMs) for the interface, both based on recent cutting-edge research. In this way, the project shall provide new, more accurate, more intuitive and computationally much cheaper techniques than those currently available, that will be implemented in open-source user-friendly software and experimentally validated for mode-I, mode-II and mixed-mode tests on aluminium-epoxy adhesive joints. At the end of the project, engineers will be able to numerically simulate tests with different dimensions and material properties to characterise the fracture energy and its rate dependence for existing or new adhesives or other interfaces, with applications including but not limited to metal joints, composite delamination, reinforced elastomers or dissection of soft tissues in biomedical engineering. The research builds on complementary and internationally highly recognised expertise of the researcher and his PhD supervisor at the University of Rijeka (on geometrically nonlinear beam models) and the supervisor at Brunel University (on CZMs and nonlinear finite-element analysis). The researcher will have the opportunity to (a) develop world-leading knowledge and expertise in a research topic of significant importance for industrial and real-life applications, (b) transfer it to a country where such expertise is limited and (c) boost his scientific career and international profile through high-quality publications and via his leadership in the development of the software. This will also provide numerous networking opportunities with other research groups and industries worldwide for all parties involved in the action.

MImETIC INDiRECT aims to develop a standardised, accessible, versatile organ-on-chip toolkit for cancer biology and drug discovery research, compatible with microscopy-based (live imaging and confocal) techniques. The project is expected to facilitate academia and industry adoption of microfluidic 3D cell culture systems for comparable and reproducible results in a complex biomimetic animal free model for cancer drug discovery, toxicology, advanced (pre)clinical as well as personalized medicine. The toolkit components will consist of an integrated temperature controller dual-chamber chip, the Cherry Biotech CubiX system and growth factor optimized collagenous solutions for each chip chamber. The dual chamber chip, with cellular migration lanes, will have two tailored collagen-based formulations, designed per chamber. The CubiX platform is a compact flow and temperature controller, allowing optional sensor (e.g. O2) integration, compatible with single chips or 24-well plates. The cancer(s) sub-types to be used toolkit standardization will be dictated by market needs, where commercial cell lines (cancerous and non-cancerous) will be used to create the microvascularized complex tissue model. Potential project risks have been identified with appropriate mitigation strategies, where the project promotes adoption of standardized, cost-effective and versatile cancer organ-on-chip platforms in the market, rather than disruptive academic findings. Access of the aforementioned system to a worldwide growth market will fully exploit the project results, disseminated by direct and indirect marketing and scientific approaches. Project implementation will be an academic-industry collaborative and multidisciplinary manner providing the acquisition of diverse and unconventional complementary skills, leading to an understanding of both sectors requirements. We envision the above-mentioned to facilitate future academic and industry collaborations.

HUB4CLOUD will assist growing the impact and relevance of Cloud Computing research, innovation and policy-driven efforts, while accelerating its adoption and deployments in Europe. By running dedicated coordination and support activities, including roadmapping, dissemination, organisation of events, mapping of open source/(pre-)standardisation initiatives, and business acceleration activities, HUB4CLOUD will ensure the creation of an open, inclusive, and sustainable ecosystem. To succeed in its ambition, HUB4CLOUD, as a rather small project, will “stand on the shoulders of giants”, meaning it will build upon and together other relevant ongoing efforts (), engaging top experts (Letters of Support/Intent from RedHat, GAIA-X, CERN, GÉANT, EOSC, HELIX NEBULA, NESSI, OW2, FIWARE, IBM, etc.) and featuring an impressive mix of experience and skills brought in by strong and committed partners. HUB4CLOUD build on the core principles of agility and value creation. Agility because besides dealing with a moving target, the ECC is in continuous evolution, in the transition towards Horizon Europe short iteration cycles to generate outputs will allow to answer the need of the community (including the EC) more effectively. Value creation because without clear benefits provided to its participants, it will not be possible to engage stakeholders (internal and newcomers/external) in the European Cloud Computing community in a durable way. HUB4CLOUD ultimate ambition is contribute building “a Europe fit for the digital age” in which digital technologies and solutions are strongly rooted in the core European values, spanning fundamental individual rights to market openness and environmental sustainability.

A failure to quantitatively control adhesion costs billions of euros each year in failed components, suboptimal product performance and life-threatening infections. Nano-enabled and bio-inspired products offer practical solutions to overcome adhesion and friction problems in these application areas. Current tools and methodologies, however, have so far failed to produce any standardised interpretation of adhesion data linking nanoscale adhesion to the macroscopic data. OYSTER uses contact mechanics to bridge adhesion data at multiple length scales and link interfacial adhesion to physicochemical properties. OYSTER brings Europe’s first-class laboratories and SMEs to take existing nanoscale characterisation technologies towards widespread utilisation in process optimisation and model validation. OYSTER achieves this by sharing metadata in an Open Innovation Environment, where new paradigms of multi-scale contact mechanics are validated on selected application oriented reference materials through continuous interaction with the European Materials Characterisation Council (EMCC). This way, OYSTER generates wider agreement over adhesion measurement protocols by multimodal Atomic Force Microscopy and high-speed nanoindentation. Tools and methodologies at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4 will be progressed to TRL 6 through unambiguous, standardised, quantitative measurements of adhesion from nano- to macro-scale. Nano-patterned wear resistant surfaces and chemically/topologically functionalised soft contact lenses will show case nano-enabled and bioinspired products for significant market impact. In this way, OYSTER implements the triangle of modelling, characterisation and manufacturing to the wider context of industrial exploitation specially through small and medium enterprises, stakeholders’ networks such as EMCC, European Materials Modelling Councils (EMMC) and European Pilot Project Network (EPPN), and international standard organisations.