Access to clean and affordable energy is an important basis for the sustainable development of a country and for the quality of life of the population. The universities can contribute with the supply of skilled human resources and through relevant research objectives. Distributed Renewable Energy Systems are now emerging as competitive alternatives to the extensions of the national electrical grid. This is an area of energy technology calling for innovation and new technical solutions (small scale combined hydro, wind, solar and bioenergy). Universities taking on these challenges, with a problem solving approach, can then have a direct impact on the society. The partner universities have collaborated on research and education in energy technology during the last 10 years. The results have been new and sustainable master programs on renewable energy technology at all universities. The partners now acknowledge the needs for strengthening the doctoral programs. As doctoral programs are research intensive, as the number of PhD candidates currently is quite low and as the university resources are limited, a cost efficient path towards improved PhD programs is to approach this jointly.The main outputs of the combined efforts among the Curriculum Partners will be a joint curriculum (Joint PhD Course Catalogue) and joint access to improved and specialized research facilities (Training Nodes). The long term aim is that this university network shall be sustained as a Network of Excellence in the area of Energy Technology. The further continuing improvements of laboratory resources and educational material shall be accessible to the Network Partners, and also facilitate the development of PhD level programs at the Training Partners in the project.

Overall, our proposal SARA was ranked in Group A. There were only a few comments from the reviewers. One comment was: "Given the high societal relevance of the proposed research, a more effective way of dissemination of project results to society at large is appropriate." In order to improve the visibility and comprehensibility of the dissemination activities within this research project, a work package entitled "training and dissemination" (WP 9) was integrated into the work plan. Therefore, further information on the dissemination can be found in WP 9, but also in the section "Exploitation and dissemination". Dissemination is addressed to both the scientific community and the end-user community. Therefore, it takes place through a variety of channels: Advisory Board, project webpage and brochure, webinars, leaflets and press releases, publications in scientific journals, contributions to international conferences, and presentations at local, regional and national venues. As a further element for dissemination, a Stakeholder Forum will be established. The objective of establishing the Stakeholder Forum is to ensure that key players within the target organisations are aware of the results, its conclusions, and the implications for their monitoring programmes, risk assessment, and policy areas. The members of the Stakeholder Forum represent international health and environmental organisations, European associations of water business companies, European and African waterworks and authorities. Corresponding letters of intent from these stakeholders can be found in the additional information. A second comment referred to the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in water: "Ultimately risk assessment will be related to risks of exposure and the consortium have plentiful expertise here but it will be very helpful to have infectivity assays for Sars." This comment has been taken into account when preparing the tasks of WP 3. In addition to the establishment of alternative, molecular approaches to estimate viral infectivity, selected samples will be examined for the presence of infectious viruses using cell culture techniques. Furthermore, SARS-CoV-2 biomarkers will be analysed not only in wastewater, but also in surface water. In this additional task, analysis by PCR and – for selected samples – by infectivity assays are proposed.

CT-Luso intends to (1) draw an updated diagnosis and screenshot of the research ethics infrastructure in the 5 Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PSAC), (2) identify the needed transformations, draft strategic recommendations to carry out this transformation and design a policy roadmap for its implementation, (3) reinforce existing legislation and promote the necessary regulations for a robust ethical-legal framework, supporting the revision of internal regulations for the operation of RECs and NRAs, and promote the development of codes of scientific integrity in research institutions, (4) strengthen the skills of RECs and NRAs, researchers (senior, junior and post-graduate students) by drafting guidelines for the practice of the different roles required by the evaluation of CTs. It is necessary to work with all 5 PSAC simultaneously on four different levels, all equally indispensable and complementary: legislative, institutional, professional, and procedural, which in turn requires political commitment. CT-Luso proposes to reach the abovementioned objectives by (1) building an international team of legal experts and promoting dialogue for the co-creation of legislative and organizational recommendations (2) creating an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral education (3) creating an advanced progressive training program for members of RECs, NRA, CTs Centres and researchers (4) hands-on experience developed in a finely tuned manner and according to country specificities, complementing the previous education and training programs (5) assess whether each PSAC has the necessary installed capacity to be included in the international CTs roadmap and in particular to create a Portuguese-speaking cluster by simulating the procedures under the development of an academic CT (6) in parallel, the legislative and regulatory transformations to be implemented will require the political power involvement, acting in a double approach, both bottom-up and top-down.