Grape production is among the most economically important agricultural activities in the Mediterranean region, particularly for Italy, France and Spain. In the context of climate change and increased consciousness of the negative environmental and public health impacts of agricultural activities (e.g. pesticide application) there is an increasing emphasis on the development of sustainable agricultural approaches in viticulture. Climate change is threatening the sustainability of Mediterranean viticulture where recurrent drought events during the summer have increased the necessity of modern irrigation to maintain yields and quality. This issue is amplified in semi-arid and arid regions. Moreover, climate change is also influencing the availability of water resources, which combined with a growing world population, is increasing competition for water. Therefore, the conservation of freshwater resources through the use of non-conventional sources of water (e.g. reclaimed wastewater) for agriculture is an increasingly relevant alternative. However, this option might lead to salinity issues in the soil depending on the reclaimed water quality and the problem is amplified in saline soils. On the other hand, sustainability is also threatened by pollution. Traditional European wine grape varieties (V.vinifera) are highly susceptible to fungal diseases (powdery and downy mildew being the most important). Copper-based fungicides have been used for more than a hundred years in European vineyards. Exposure to these pesticide can result in acute and chronic illnesses for vineyard workers and surrounding communities. Pesticide reduction (or even elimination) represents a priary goal for attaining sustainability in viticulture. The EnViRoS project aims to enhance the sustainability of the grape cultivation in the Mediterranean area by exploiting newly available genotypes recently developed by breeding programs in Italy, including fungal disease-resistant cultivars and drought/salinity-tolerant rootstocks. The enhanced characteristics offered by these new genotypes against biotic (resistance to powdery and downy mildew fungal diseases) and abiotic (drought and salinity) stresses, makes them suitable to solve some of the major concerns affecting Mediterranean viticulture. However, given its actual importance, traditional V.vinifera cultivars will probably remain the major market portion in Europe in the short and medium term. The project work plan includes the optimization of the irrigation management for these varieties, as well as the study of their performance when grafted on new rootstock genotypes and subjected to water and salinity stress. We expect the project proposed here to lead to reductions in water use and pesticide applications. Both of these goals have real, tangible socioeconomic impacts that will positively impact the profitability and sustainability of grape production, and the health and well-being of vineyard workers and the surrounding communities.

Europe still sees a quarter of the world's cancer cases each year, making cancer the second leading cause of death and illness in the region after cardiovascular diseases. Unless we take decisive action, lives lost to cancer in the EU are set to increase by more than 24% by 2035, making it the leading cause of death in the EU. Cross-border collaboration can address this challenge by combining data from various modalities and sources, extracting meaningful insights to deepen our understanding of cancer. However, ethical, legal, and national regulations, along with data access processes, including differing interpretations of the EU GDPR create significant hurdles. Technical interoperability issues across European cancer RIs, and patients' and citizens' rights to control who uses their personal information and for what purposes further complicate data sharing. The project will provide European researchers, SMEs, and innovators with a decentralized collaborative network, “UNCAN-CONNECT,” for cancer research. It consists of both technical components, a governance, compliance, and operational framework based on the UNCAN blueprint, with the goal of operationalizing it. The objective is to facilitate access to cancer data, promote open science, and revolutionize cancer research and treatment by co-creating an open-source federation of federations platform. It will be developed using specific use cases focused on six major cancer types: Paediatric, Lymphoid malignancies, Pancreatic cancer, Ovarian, Lung, and Prostate cancers and active collaboration with a diverse range of stakeholders, including researchers, SMEs, industrial end users, and citizens. It will build on existing European RIs such as BBMRI as well as initiatives like EOSC4CANCER, CanSERV, EUCAIM, to enable seamless storage, access, sharing, and processing of data across Member States and associated countries. This approach will foster interoperability and collaboration, accelerating progress in cancer research. This action is part of the Cancer Mission clusters of projects 'Understanding' established in 2022.

The objective of the GoJelly project is to develop, test and promote a gelatinous solution to microplastic pollution by developing a TRL 5-6 prototype microplastics filter (GoJelly) for commercial and public use, where the main raw material is jellyfish mucus. In doing so, the consortium addresses two environmental issues with one approach by removing the commercially and ecologically destructive sea and coastal pollution of both jellyfish and microplastics. This innovative approach will ultimately lead to less plastic in the ocean, municipal demand (and thereby competitive prices) for jellyfish raw material to fill the "mucus-need" by filter developers, and in turn more jobs for commercial fishers in off-seasons. The by-products of the GoJelly biomass have other uses as well, ensuring that GoJelly also delivers a green innovation, resulting in novel, valuable resource for the food and feed industry as well as agro-biological fertilizer for organic farming. The GoJelly prototype products will be tested and demonstrated in three different European seas (Norwegian, Baltic and Mediterranean), by a range of stakeholders, including commercial fishers and industry partners. Tying it together, the project will also ensure the possibilities for broader European promotion and utilization of GoJelly at the local, regional and global level by delivering a socio-ecological methodological toolbox for forming and implementing policies. GoJelly will broadly communicate its results in several formats such as traditional social media, open lab ship cruise, and in the form of an experimental online game depicting different management scenarios under different jellyfish- and microplastics combinations. An interdisciplinary and international consortium consisting of technology developers, business analysts, fishing companies, research institutes, and both natural and social scientists will realize GoJelly, and will ensure the uptake of GoJelly products by industry and policy makers.