Bio-electronic microsystems hold promise for repairing the damaged central nervous system (CNS). However, this potential has not been developed because their implantation inflicts additional neural injury, and ensuing inflammation and fibrosis compromise device functionality. In Neurofibres we want to achieve a breakthrough in “Neuroregenerative Bio-electronics”, developing dual-function devices that will serve as electroactive scaffolds for CNS regeneration and neural circuit activation. We engineered electroconducting microfibres (MFs) that add negligible tissue insult while promoting guided cell migration and axonal regeneration in rodents with spinal cord injury (SCI). The MFs also meet the challenge of probe miniaturisation and biofunctionalisation for ultrasensitive recording and stimulation of neural activity. An interdisciplinary consortium composed of neuroscientists, medical specialists, researchers in biomaterials, protein engineering, physics, and electrical and mechanical engineering, together with a company specialised in fabrication of microcables and microconnectors, will join efforts to design, develop, and test the MFs and complementary technology (microfibre functionalisation, assembling, and electronic interconnection), in order to produce a biologically safe and effective bio-electronic system for the treatment of SCI. This goal will be achieved through five specific objectives: 1) To improve the electrical conductivity, strength, and chemical stability of the microfibres. 2) To develop electro-responsive engineered affibodies for microfibre functionalisation. 3) To develop the technology for MF interconnection and assembling into implantable systems. 4) To perform comprehensive investigation of the immunological, glial, neuronal, and connective tissue responses to the implanted MFs and applied electrostimulation in rodent and swine SCI models. 5) To investigate the motor and sensory effects of microfibre implantation and electrostimulation.

Our life expectancy is increasing and we are outliving our skeletal tissues. There is a need for orthopaedic surgery to move from replacement of tissues to regeneration. To do this medical devices are required that can stimulate the body's own healing mechanisms. Over the last 10-15 years, tissue engineering has promised that combining engineering principles with cells will lead to regeneration of tissues, however skin is the only tissue engineered product used clinically. The reasons skeletal tissue engineering has not been successful is that materials have not been developed that fulfill all the engineering design criteria for regenerative device (scaffold) and how materials interact with cells is not fully understood. A new hybrid approach is proposed where hybrid refers to an integrated interdisciplinary approach and the innovation in materials engineering that is needed. New materials must be developed that mimic the mechanical properties and structure of natural tissues. The aim is to build an interdisciplinary research team that can deliver high impact step changes in the way tissue engineering research is carried out to make skeletal tissue engineering a clinical reality. Team members will have expertise in materials chemistry and processing, multi-scale characterisation, materials modelling, cell biology, orthopaedic surgery and technology transfer. The adventurous programme will benefit the UK by improving the quality of life of patients, increasing the efficiency of orthopaedic surgery, reducing surgical costs and boosting the UK economy by ensuring patients recover and return to work more rapidly.The core platform technology will be novel nanostructured (hybrid) materials that can be designed to stimulate bone growth or cartilage regeneration before they are remodelled in the body and replaced by natural healthy tissue. To make these complex materials a clinical reality they must be understood from the atomic through the nano to the macro level and optimised with respect to cellular response. Computer models and improved characterisation methods are needed. Bone scaffolds must stimulate stem cells to produce bone and new ways of growing cells in devices may be necessary in order for blood vessels to grow throughout bone scaffolds and for cartilage regeneration to become a reality. If new devices are to reach the clinic, technology transfer must be considered. My vision is to build and lead a world renowned research group successful in musculoskeletal tissue engineering with a new field of inorganic/ organic hybrid materials engineering at its core. The research group will attract best, internationally leading researchers to the UK (or to stay in the UK). It will involve international and UK collaborators, with the UK at the focus, placing it at the forefront of biomaterials and tissue engineering. There will be focus on developing a dynamic and supportive research environment and on developing the career of group members so they will become the next leaders of the new fields that will evolve from the group's work.

The LAWGEM project will contribute to socially inclusive and better-quality higher legal education across Europe, through introduction of gender equality perspective into the new master`s legal studies curriculum. This innovative curriculum of master`s legal studies Law and Gender, which will encompass all relevant fields of legal education and legal practice will be the first sample of the gender sensitive review of the traditional legal knowledge at all levels of higher education. It will be developed in joint collaboration of 5 universities from Serbia, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Germany. Project activities include joint work of the professors from five Consortium members through online communication, face to face work at conferences (multiplier events), and transnational project meetings, all aiming towards the development of master`s study program consisting of mandatory and optional courses as the main intellectual output. Professors from the participating universities will take part in creating syllabi related to the courses with defined content and particular themes, aims, outcomes, relevance and innovative teaching materials - textbook and other resources. In the syllabi, the themes which cover specificity of gender sensitive approach in the legal field for which the course syllabus is created will be included, including difference in comparison with traditional approach to their legal course as well as to general legal studies. Following this output, the Textbook: Gender Sensitive Legal Education will be developed. This Textbook will be the pioneering all-encompassing attempt to systematically integrate gender perspective into the field of law, and will be necessary teaching material for the implementation of the master`s study program. It will be only the basic teaching material and complemented by two other important outputs: Life Long Learning Online Platform and Gender Equality Legal Clinic.The project output Empirical Survey Tool for Gender Equality will serve as a foundation with necessary empirical data for the development of curriculum and will be based on a systemic approach to all relevant dimensions for researching the quality of gender equality in academic institutions. The aim is to get empirically valid insights about the given state of affairs in these universities regarding the value statements and gender issue awareness of their staff members and use this data in development of syllabi. Presentation of the comparative research results will enable a very systemic exploration of gender relevant issues to a general, professional and educational public and thus further influence gender-mainstreaming in education system. In order to provide access to students and professors from all backgrounds and ability to participate in the courses, a Life Long Learning Online Platform (LLLP) will be created. All syllabi and relevant texts, links, the textbook will be available on this platform. LLLP will be used for the pilot implementation of the Curriculum and Legal Clinic during the year 2022. LLLP will also be used for informal learning on gender equality, constant and wide dissemination and raising awareness on the issue of gender equality, and presentation of examples of gender inequality expression in any field of life in all participating universities and wider. It will be especially useful from the time when accredited Law and Gender study program will be implemented at the universities and become a widely available good practice with all accompanied intellectual outputs. In addition, Legal Clinic, as one of the major outputs of the project will present additional, interactive and practically oriented legal education, which connects theoretical education with judicial practice, and enables students to meet the legal practitioners - attorneys and judges and to work with them on the case law analysis and with the real clients. It represents a practical teaching method of engaging students to actively participate in the life of their community and make them sensitive for the needs of particularly vulnerable groups and people that lack relevant legal information due to reasons of social or economic nature. This project will promote internationalisation through mobility and exchange of students and professors and dissemination of gender sensitive legal knowledge at European and global level. It will contribute to social inclusion through development of gender-sensitive approach through integration of issues related to discrimination ( based on sex, gender, sexual orientation) into education, also through participation of students, especially coming from vulnerable groups in development of syllabi and dissemination. As a long term impact, the project will contribute to the employment capacities of students in the master's program, and offer new frame of knowledge much needed for different jobs and skills necessary in all legal or human rights/human resources related occupations.