Infectious diseases pose a significant threat to both human health and the global economy, they account for more than 20% of global mortality and viruses are responsible for about one-third of these deaths. To date, we know of about 200 infectious diseases and about 80% of infectious diseases are transmitted by unclean hands touching contaminated surfaces. SUSAAN project is focussed on development of new sustainable antiviral and antimicrobial coatings for textiles and high traffic objects made of plastics and metal, involving textile, bathrooms and switches manufacture industries. In this context, it can be stated that most of the common hand-touch sites and/or objects are covered by the project so final impact would be extensive after the successful project execution, being the results of the project validated in three main market sectors through end users. Consortium Partners and core business are one of the strongest points of SUSAAN. Technological and scientific partners (LUREDERRA, NCSRD, IVW, CEIT and ITENE) are experts on main areas of nanoparticles, coatings, pretreatment, biobased nanocapsules and toxicity assessment. Companies involved cover the whole value change based on their core business including coatings production (TECNAN), biobased products (CELABOR), bathrooms manufacturing (ECZACIBASI), home appliances (PANASONIC) and textiles (ALMAXTEX). Last but not least, INTER IT will cover the activities on BPR assessment being VIRHEALTH (the expert on virology) on charge of standardized testing to determine virucidal and antimicrobial activity of the coatings and ARDITEC on charge of sustainability assessment. The final outcome of SUSAAN project is the validation of the new sustainable antimicrobial/antiviral nanocoating in different final products: high traffic objects (plastic and metallic) and textiles. Technical advantages and comparative results to current solutions will be used to present SUSAAN solutions to potential clients.

The project NANO-CATHEDRAL aims at developing, with a nano-metric scale approach, new materials, technologies and procedures for the conservation of deteriorated stones in monumental buildings and cathedrals and high value contemporary architecture, with a particular emphasis on the preservation of the originality and specificity of materials. The objective is providing “key tools” for restoration and conservation: •On representative lithotypes •On European representative climatic areas •With a time-scale/environmental approach •With technology validated in relevant environment (industrial plant and monuments) •Exploiting results also on modern stone made buildings A general protocol will be defined for the identification of the petrographic and mineralogical features of the stone materials, the identification of the degradation patterns, the evaluation of the causes and mechanisms of alteration and degradation, including the correlations between the relevant state of decay and the actual microclimatic and air pollution conditions. Moreover, innovative nano-materials will be developed suitable for: •Surface consolidation: in this case water-based formulations based on nano-inorganic or nano-hybrid dispersions such as nano-silica, nano-titania, nano-hydroxyapatite, nano-calcite and nano-magnesia as well as their synergic combinations with organic and inorganic compounds will be considered. •Surface protection: in this case, innovative composites will be developed consisting of polymers and nano-fillers. The use of hydrophobins, nano-assembled hydrofobic proteins extracted from fungi, and photocatalytic nano-particles (for favoring the decomposition of volatile organic molecules carried by polluted atmosphere and to prevent biofilm growth) will be considered. The project will contribute to the development of transnational cultural tourism and to the development of common European shared values and heritage, thus stimulating a greater sense of European identity.

When compared to fossil fuels only one decisive disadvantage remains for electricity from solar cells and wind mills, namely the difficulty to store this energy in very large quantities and in high energy density. State of the art batteries have a low energy density, and, in addition, cannot handle the needed quantities of energy. In principle, fuel cells could store huge quantities of energy and in in high energy density, but these are not very efficient and, moreover, rely on expensive materials. We want to develop a novel screening method to find efficient fuel cells that rely on cheap materials. KIT developed a novel multi-material nano3D printer that generates ~40.000 nanostacks per glass slide with freely chosen sequential arrangements of printed nanolayers that are made of nanoparticles or organic materials. We want to use this robot to print conductors, isolators, diodes, battery-, fuel cell-, and LED-materials, and then screen ~15.000 twin-nanostacks per glass slide for function. We will start with diodes that are made of a ZnO layer on top of ITO nanoparticles. When positioned in between two capacitor plates, an AC current will drive electrons unidirectional through all of these nanostack-diodes from where they travel back through the adjacent twin nanostack. If this twin nanostack is a functional battery, reduced battery materials are identified in a scanner, while functional LED nanostacks identify themselves through emitted light. Functional LED- or battery-nanostacks will then be used to identify those nanostacks that work as a fuel cell. We think that this new method will advance materials research beyond the screening for novel energy materials.

MEZeroE is an EU distributed open innovation ecosystem for: (i) developing nZEB Enabler Envelope technology solutions ; (ii) transferring knowledge; (iii) matching testing needs with existing facilities; (iv) providing monitoring in living labs and; (v) standardizing cutting-edge solutions coming from SMEs and larger industries, to foster inclusive change in the building sector, being accessible via a single-entry point to all users. MEZeroE allows the development of ground-based solutions focused on carbon neutrality and healthy indoor environment, validated with advanced assessment methods and services, recognized protocols and long-term vision to embrace industry 4.0 trends, rapid decision making and customer-centric requirements. MEZeroE accompanies enterprises in adopting the open innovation approach comprising discovery (phase 1), empowering (phase 2), and exploiting (phase 3). MEZeroE will be accessed via a single-entry point web-based multi-side virtual marketplace, including 9 Pilot Measurement & Verification Lines (PM&VL) and 3 Open Innovation Services (OIS) covering training, business model development, systematic IP and knowledge management. MEzeroE will fast-track prototypes to the market as fully characterized products. MEZeroE virtual marketplace provides structured knowledge to different stakeholders with a pragmatic and well-grounded mid to long-term ambition of developing and consolidating a trusted expertise network, to be active and self-sustaining well beyond the project timeline. Based on synergies among partners, existing channels and a dedicated marketing strategy MEZeroE will exploit 3 revenue lines to ensure a 4x leverage factor vs. EU contribution. These revenue streams include: (I) memberships (benefit of web-based platform manager); (ii) consultancy for innovation and IPR protection (benefit of OIS developers) and (iii) incremental revenues of industrial partners (benefit of users) thanks to product transferred to market.