Considering response operations and relevant tasks in an urban fire or wildfire, performance of first and second responders is dramatically affected due to the low-, or even zero-, visibility conditions. ForeSight will design, develop, integrate, deploy, test, evaluate and demonstrate a set of bespoke re-sponse tools and services, at the service of civil protection agencies (fire brigades, civil protection organisations and emergency medical), which ensures a catalytic upgrade when managing urban fire or wildfire. These tools and services: a) effectively allow FRs to see unobtrusively through fire, smoke, fog and dust; b) boost situational awareness, tactical reconnaissance and last-kilometre logistics related not only to heavy equipment and emergency relief items delivery but also comprehending the entire route from start point of resources to entering and navigating to the “hot” zone; c) enhance decision and sense making of individual responders and teams from the onsite to the closure of an incident. Notably, the tools and services delivered by ForeSight shall be evaluated against a rich tech-nology inventory created within the project that extensively analyses existing technologies supporting first and second responders in their immediate response to natural disasters, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, the ForeSight technologies follow by design privacy, ethical, security and legal constraints to expedite their inclusion in response tasks and their abidance to standard operational procedures. Finally, a rich Integration, Testing and Vali-dation Activities Programme is followed– of Round Tables (RTs), Technical Integration Workshop (TIWS), Com-ponent Field Tests (CFTs) and System Field Tests (SFTs) – towards empowering collaborative response and han-dling of complex incidents to its fullest whilst facilitating implementation of most promising user-centred technologies in real-world conditions.

Photonics-based sensing in the mid-IR been proven to be the key technology for highly efficient sensing in a plethora of applications ranging from environmental monitoring to industrial process control, medical diagnostics, water quality, safety applications, medical and more. Related to other sensing approaches, mid-IR spectroscopy-based sensing enables the fast, reliable, and consumables/maintenance-free operation for the detection of trace amounts (even in the sub-ppb range) to high concentration of the targeted analytes. The interest in the technology has been significantly increased due to the maturing of the Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs). QCLs offer an up to 2-orders of magnitude enhancement in the signal-to-noise ratio while enabling the direct access to the characteristic molecular fingerprint region of the targeted analytes. M3NIR develops very innovative (currently at TRL2) mid-IR sensing approaches to significantly boost the technology in terms of performance (low limit of detection, multiple-species detection), footprint (co-integrating of lasers and components) reduction of energy consumption and cost. For the latest two, M3NIR implements detector-free sensing by means of the self-mixing detection scheme. Moreover, the combination of mid-IR and near-IR components in photothermal sensing is yet another approach for the implementation of miniaturised, energy efficient and low-cost advanced sensory system. To accomplish its goals, M3NIR co-integrates advanced electronics and data processing units in the systems as well. M3NIR demonstrates its novel approaches at TRL5 for the monitoring of GHG and ships emission (a drone-mounted sensor to be demonstrated), detection of phosphates and nitrates in water and the breath analysis for health and well-being related applications.

The Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) region faces rapid population growth (currently about 400 million inhabitants) as well as political and socio-economic instabilities. These challenges, experienced by a part of the world that is already hot and arid, are exacerbated by droughts and the extreme weather conditions associated with rapid climate change. Extremes of temperature, in combination with increasing air pollution and windblown desert dust, could in the near future lead to intolerable conditions, ultimately compromising human habitability and promoting migration. Since climate change and air quality share many common sources, it appears logical to focus on the development of amelioration strategies that combine the goals of limiting climate change and reducing air pollution. It has been estimated that mankind may have a relatively small-time window - up to the middle of the century - in which to implement solutions to these challenges, particularly as far as climate change is concerned. Edu4ClimAte will engage Advanced Partners (from France, Austria, Germany, Finland) to strengthen the scientific excellence of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from twin islands of widening countries (Greece, Cyprus) with a view to establish a “regional hub of knowledge” in air pollution and climate change research and innovative solutions, engaging their respective surrounding ecosystems from the quadruple helix in addressing these societal challenges over the wider EMME. Edu4ClimAte will enhance local, regional, and international clusters led by its consortium with a view to build the foundation of an inclusive European Universities Alliance made of Advanced and Widening HEIs in Climate & Atmospheric Sciences to optimally support the current EU Green Deal ambition and its regional challenges, train and educate the next generation of researchers and innovators to achieve the EU long-term 2050 climate-neutrality objectives.

In today’s changing climate is of urgent importance to understand the adverse impacts of climate change to the local and regional Arctic natural environments, infrastructures and industries. To this end, Earth Observation (EO) is the way forward, as it is extremely challenging to obtain long-term continuous ground observations. Recent advances in EO sensors, in cloud computing, geographical information systems (GIS) and in the field of socioeconomics provide unique opportunities to promote research and socioeconomic studies in the Arctic. Yet, despite their plethora, EO data are provided in a dispersed and unconnected way through several web platforms and in diverse formats, making their use difficult. EO-PERSIST proposes the development of a single cloud-based system that will allow in a unique way the availability of the collection, management and exploitation of the available EO data suitable to permafrost studies. The system leverages existing services, datasets and novel technologies to: a)create a continuously updated ecosystem with EO datasets suitable for permafrost studies, b)promote methodological advances in permafrost studies by exploiting the huge volume of EO datasets and c)provide indicators directly connected with socioeconomic effects to permafrost dynamics. Experimental analysis will also be carried with the system to showcase its use via five carefully selected and innovative Use Cases, that will serve as Key Performance Indicators of the system. EO-PERSIST brings together staff from academia and industry via a series of carefully-designed secondments, establishing a unique fertile collaborative research and innovation environment to promote pioneering research and socioeconomic studies implementation in the Arctic. A strong inter-sectoral experienced research team, of 5 academic and 6 industrial partners, coming from Greece(3), North Macedonia (1), Finland(1), Sweden(1), Cyprus (1), Poland(1), Romania(2) and Italy(1) constitute the project’s consortium.

Preventing and fighting illicit material and dangerous substances postal and courier services flows in EU areas is of top priority. However, ensuring efficiency, speed and continuity in screening and detection tasks remains yet a challenge. Currently, custom, police and courier authorities involve a range of screening systems in place but there is still much to do in terms of detection efficacy and creation of intelligence towards risk and threat identification. On top of that, criminals or smugglers exploit the multitude of flows and easily spot security gaps that allow parcels or letters to be transported within or across EU with relative ease. To overcome these constraints, iFLOWS proposes a unique approach to assist customs, police and postal/courier services in preventing and detecting such crimes by improving operational readiness, enhancing situation awareness, reducing detection time, providing operational efficiency and achieving superior mission performance. iFLOWS will design, develop, integrate, test and validate a novel multi-tier synergistic Toolkit in enhancing intelligence extraction, screening and detection operations of illicit material and hazardous substances within courier and postal flows moving across and within EU borders. iFLOWS works upon these 3 building blocks to deliver a) a tailored to such operations C4I that boosts preparedness and cooperation be-tween police, customs and courier/postal services, b) enhanced Intelligence in terms of threats, risks and suspicious flows and c) novel detection technologies (i.e. THz Scanning system and UWB Scanner) featuring enhanced detection capabilities over a large span of illicit material and substances, which, coupled with advanced image-based feature extraction in combination to legacy systems (e.g. X-Ray and Raman) optimise the detection process without interrupting the postal/courier flows.