The INSIGHT project aims at developing a Monitoring, Diagnostic and Lifetime Tool (MDLT) for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) stacks and the hardware necessary for its implementation into a real SOFC system. The effectiveness of the MDLT will be demonstrated through on-field tests on a real micro-Combined Heat and Power system (2.5 kW), thus moving these tools from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 to beyond 5. INSIGHT leverages the experience of previous projects and consolidates their outcomes both at methodological and application levels. The consortium will specifically exploit monitoring approaches based on two advanced complementary techniques: Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) in addition to conventional dynamic stack signals. Durability tests with faults added on purpose and accelerated tests will generate the data required to develop and validate the MDL algorithms. Based on the outcome of experimental analysis and mathematical approaches, fault mitigation logics will be developed to avoid stack failures and slow down their degradation. A specific low-cost hardware, consisting in a single board able to embed the MDLT will be developed and integrated into a commercial SOFC system, the EnGenTM 2500, which will be tested on-field. INSIGHT will then open the perspective to decrease the costs of service and SOFC stack replacement by 50%, which would correspond to a reduction of the Total Cost of Ownership by 10% / kWh. To reach these objectives, INSIGHT is a cross multidisciplinary consortium gathering 11 organisations from 6 member states (France, Italy, Denmark, Slovenia, Austria, Finland) and one associated country (Switzerland). The partnership covers all competences necessary: experimental testing (CEA, DTU, EPFL), algorithms developments (UNISA, IJS, AVL), hardware development (BIT), system integration and validation (VTT, SP, HTC), supported by AK for the project management and dissemination.

IF-EBOLA has been strategically designed to efficiently respond to critical needs required to control Ebola outbreak from spreading and prepare a therapeutic approach to save lives. The work involves two of the main EVD outbreak sites, Sierra Leone and Liberia. MDs, public health authorities and virus experts working on site, under ethical regulatory rules, will extend their collaboration to companies and institutions to form a consortium of outstanding complementary partners, sharing their innovative technological approaches for a common goal. The main goal of our project is to contribute to provide innovative ultrasensitive diagnostics and therapeutic approaches for an early and accurate diagnostic for an early therapeutic treatment to control the epidemic and safe lives. We have been obligated to modify and extend for one year our initial two-year period IF-EBOLA action program due to both major foreseen and unforeseen changes produced during this “non-emergency” period: consisting mainly now in 3 main actions: (i) Preclinical validation of the therapeutic equine anti-Ebola antibodies; (ii) Clinical validation of the ultrasensitive detection (iii) homeostasis (“pathology”) profiling of patients and survivors. Originally (“emergency period”) IF-EBOLA included 2 phases: (I) a phase of preparation including, ethical authorizations, antibody production, technical and field organization as well as the beginning a follow-up of the homeostatic profile of contacts early-EBOV diagnosed and self-cured convalescent individuals in the absence of existing treatment, (with an ultrasensitive detection method of pernicious microorganisms, from the EC USDEP project qualified as a European success story “USDEP” project in 2010 by the EC-Project Officer) and (II) phase of a clinical study using a wide validated approach revisited with an innovative concept (strongly supported EC/EMA-WHO), we propose to carry out an experimental passive-immune therapy based on neutralizing capacity of horse anti-EBOV polyclonal F(ab’)2 on early-diagnosed patients to impact and reduce their pre-existing viremia, their mortality, the evolution of their homeostasis profile, during and after this treatment (once patients become convalescents). The homeostasis status evolution will help to generate high quality scientific data to understand the EVD, the effect of this therapy and cure parameters characterized at 3 different levels: immune (transcriptomes, NGS, metagenomics); infectious (other than EBOV, DNA arrays), and EBOV diversity (sequencing and metagenomics).

The transport sector is dominated by the use of fossil fuels, and alternative fuels represent currently only 5% of fuel consumption in EU. The EU objective for the share of renewable energy in the transport sector is 10% in 2020. To achieve this goal, new advanced biofuels are needed and must be produced from alternative feedstocks. The Pulp&Fuel concept is to develop a simple and robust fuel synthesis process taking advantage of the synergy between super critical water gasification (wet gasification) and fixed bed gasification (dry gasification). For the Pulp&Fuel project, we have chosen to study the integration of the full process on a pulp mill. The developed process will take advantage of low to negative value wet and dry resources on a paper mill to add value to the overall process. The yield of biofuels will be significantly increased to 28 % compared to a classic approach that would only yield 18 %. The Pulp&Fuel final objective is to produce biofuels below 1 €/L without having a negative impact on the existing operations of the pulp mill. To achieve these goals a team of 10 partners, leaders in their field, from 4 EU-member states, will join efforts. To this end, we have defined five ambitious specific objectives: - Improve the efficiency of the dry gasification process from 70 to 80 % - Improve the carbon conversion of the wet gasification process to above 90 % - Improve fuel synthesis to obtain carbon efficiencies above 50 % (state of the art 45%) - Integration of the full process and synergy between dry and wet gasification - Integrated assessments will show that biofuels can be produced below 1 €/L Related work packages, tasks, milestones and risks are considered in order to achieve these objectives. The Pulp&Fuel project addresses the topic “liquid diesel- and gasoline-like biofuels from biogenic residues and wastes through either chemical, biochemical and thermochemical pathways, or a combination of them” of the LC-SC3-RES-21-2018 call.

The main objective of the project is to provide a treatment of the neurological symptoms of patients with Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT), a rare progressively disabling and life-shortening genetic disease for which no therapy is currently available. To achieve this, a pivotal Phase III study will be conducted, to allow regulatory filing to obtain market authorization in EU and USA by 2019. EryDex is an innovative product, developed by EryDel, used to administer dexamethasone sodium phosphate by ex-vivo encapsulation in autologous erythrocytes, which are infused into the patient. EryDex provides long-term delivery of low doses of dexamethasone without the typical steroid side effects and has reached a successful Phase II trial conducted in AT patients. The phase III trial will be an international, multi-center, 1 year, randomized, prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled, designed to assess the effect of 2 dose ranges of EryDex, administered monthly by IV infusion, on neurological symptoms of AT patients. The protocol of the trial and the regulatory path to registration has already been agreed upon with EMA and FDA. An international patient registry will also be set with the aim of establishing and maintaining a comprehensive clinical database of patients with AT and closely related conditions, enabling the monitoring of AT epidemiology, the development of an evidence-based natural history of the condition, identification of biomarkers as well as development of clinical guidelines. The AT NEST, the first scale to assess symptoms specific to AT patients, coordinated by the AT centre at the John’s Hopkins University, will be tested in the study and if validated will represent the 1st scale assessing chief areas of impairment specific to AT. In parallel to the clinical trial, investigations into the molecular mechanisms of action of EryDex will be performed with the objective to provide the validation of a new biomarker predictive of treatment efficacy.

Lidar remote sensing of the earth’s atmosphere is one of the main challenges in coping with the effects and causes of global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases. The present operating Lidar missions are all implanted on large satellite platforms due to the size of the telescope and high energy laser modules required to ensure a sufficient collection of light to extract the signal from the detector noise. The principal objective of HOLDON project is to develop a new detection chain which will improve the performance of the Lidars on large platforms and/or reduce the Lidar payload to be integrated in the future micro and mini-satellites. The performance increase is obtained by the optimization of HgCdTe avalanche photodiodes that will be hybridized to a CMOS Readout Circuit providing two operation modes and designed to meet the most demanding requirements for Lidar applications in terms of sensitivity, dynamic range and temporal resolution. To achieve these goals, a team of 7 partners, leaders in the different fields related to Lidar missions, will collaborate (4 represented EU member states). To this end, three ambitious objectives are defined: • Design and built a cutting-edge photon noise limited Lidar detection chain • Validate adequation between detection chain key performances and future space mission requirements • Demonstrate the improvement achieved with the cutting-edge detection chain for greenhouse gases detection COMPET-2-2017 aims at supporting project developing new technologies, systems and sub-systems for Earth observation in a relevant environment. According to this call, HOLDON project addresses i) “Detector technolog y and complete detection chain enhancement in the domains of CMOS and Infrared for Earth observations”, ii) “Sensors and mission concepts delivering high accuracy parameters for emission measurements.