FITNESS is a Doctoral Network at the intersection of electric power distribution networks optimization, electricity markets, communications, and control systems. The project will develop new methodologies for active distribution networks services in the era of smart grids. FITNESS is the first training network dedicated to this challenge and involves 4 Beneficiaries and 6 Associated Partners from 7 EU countries, guaranteeing a pan-European approach in a multi-sectoral context (universities, research centres, and SMEs). FITNESS will train a new generation of scientific professionals who can transition between disciplines and between the public and private sectors based on (i) Recruited Researcher (RR) projects; (ii) courses and workshops, with the emphasis on hands-on, collaborative learning and attention to transferable skills; (iii) mobility, knowledge transfer, all within a training network that includes some of Europe’s finest researchers.

According to Polanyi's paradox, humans know more than they can explain, mainly due to the huge amount of implicit knowledge they unconsciously acquire trough culture, heritage, etc. The same applies for Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems mainly learnt automatically from data. However, in accordance with EU laws, humans have a right to explanation of decisions affecting them, no matter who (or what AI system) makes such decision. NL4XAI will train 11 creative, entrepreneurial and innovative early-stage researchers (ESRs), who will face the challenge of making AI self-explanatory and thus contributing to translate knowledge into products and services for economic and social benefit, with the support of Explainable AI (XAI) systems. Moreover, the focus of NL4XAI is in the automatic generation of interactive explanations in natural language (NL), as humans naturally do, and as a complement to visualization tools. As a result, ESRs are expected to leverage the usage of AI models and techniques even by non-expert users. Namely, all their developments will be validated by humans in specific use cases, and main outcomes publicly reported and integrated into a common open source software framework for XAI that will be accessible to all the European citizens. In addition, those results to be exploited commercially will be protected through licenses or patents. It is worthy to note that we have selected some of the most prominent European researchers (from both academy and industry) in each of the related fundamental topics and created a joint high quality training program that can be seen as a pyramid with the main research objective (designing and building XAI models) on top. It will be achieved as result of jointly addressing the research objectives in the pyramid base (NL generation and processing for XAI; Argumentation Technology for XAI; Interactive Interfaces for XAI). ESRs are also to be trained in Ethical and Legal issues, as well as in transversal skills.

DS2 draws researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines to secure that complex lifecycles of inter-sector data sharing, aggregation and provenance take place in a human-centric and trusted way, with common structures, exportability and insight, whilst protecting the sovereign rights of data owners and complying with European data regulations. DS2 provides a modular software infrastructure to connect data sources (Data Spaces/data silos/data lakes) together for the purpose of cross-sector data sharing. Once connected, data consumers and data providers will be able to structure and execute efficient complex data lifecycles that respect the technical and governance related requirements of the participating data sources. It will do this via an IDT (Intersector DataSpace Toolkit) which is deployed at each data source/space and network connected to any other IDT-enabled data source. The IDT Toolkit is composed of a Broker which manages the fail-safe network operation with no central point of control. Plugged into this is a set of modules for the execution of complex data lifecycles, e.g. filtering, labelling, both automated and catering for where human-in-the loop is required. DS2 will pilot and evaluate its technology using 3 well-defined, inter-sector use cases, (City Scape, Green Deal, Precision Agriculture). The DS2 solution enhances and accelerates the shift towards the data economy by addressing the challenges, pain-points, and requirements with respect to the execution of complex data lifecycle. Data consumers and data providers can now orchestrate, manage and securely execute complex data lifecycles to realize cross-sectorial data driven applications.

Emerging technologies as Offshore Wind Energy, demand new advanced solutions for reducing Operation & Maintenance (O&M) costs, as well as for performing the reliability and extended life-time of wind turbines (WT) and farms (WF). In this sense, ROMEO is a 5 years project whose main objective is to develop and demonstrate an O&M information management and analytics platform capable of improving the decision making processes of offshore WF operators allowing the transition from calendar base maintenance to condition-based maintenance strategies reducing significantly O&M costs. Thus, a flexible and interoperable IoT platform will provide an advanced analytics ecosystem to better understand the real time behaviour of the main components of the WTs under operation conditions; maximizing their life-time and reducing the need for maintenance, thus minimizing the OPEX which drastically impact on LCoE of offshore Wind Energy. The project has been structured in three phases: 1st phase “specifications” will pave the way for other phases, defining the specifications and requirements in order to develop a health monitoring strategy for the most relevant and critical components to be further considered. -nd phase “models/tools/database” will be devoted to the development of health monitoring systems, diagnosis and prognosis tools for failure detection both at WTG components and support structures level, feeding the development of a data acquisition and advanced analytics ecosystem. 3rd phase “O&M/rollout” will develop and deploy an O&M platform to be validated in three pilot scenarios, data that will serve as input for impact assessment with a special focus on LCoE and replicability. ROMEO consortium is formed by a well-balanced set of experts (12 entities from 7 countries) representing the whole offshore value chain (from WT components manufacturers and service providers through to WF operators) together with IT market leaders, thus ensuring that results will reach the market.

In4Wood alliance is working towards the design, development and recognition of a Joint Curriculum for filling the skills gaps of productions managers and CEOS of such industries in those relevant Key Enabling Technologies (hereinafter, KETs) from the Industry 4.0. With the support of the Sector Skills Alliances action from the Erasmus+ programme. Being the project objectives clearly aligned with both the needs of the sector in terms of sustainability and the main aims of the participant institutions, In4Wood is composed by association and bodies representing the furniture and woodworking industries, educational institutions from regions highly influenced by such sectors, authorities in the field of Labour and Vocational Education and Training from Spain, Italy, Germany and UK, and one federation representing regional development agencies from all Europe. During this second period of the project, this Sector Skills Alliances has produced more than 90 hours of training for CEOs, production managers and ICT students about digital transformation and industry 4.0 in the furniture and wood sector. Many of them, transferable to other manufacturing sectors. IN4WOOD course is composed by 5 Specializations divided in 17 courses that encompasses online and face to face training materials:•310 video pills (videoclips around 3 minutes duration about one single concept)•271 Powerpoints•17 instructor guidelines•Glossary of terms •245 Multiple choice questions•Proposals for final projects (Factories of the Future)To deliver the training in appropriate online mode, the project has developed from scratch an specific e-learning platform with the following objectives:-Disseminate in4wood project learning materials-Introduction to industry 4.0 to the wooden sector through 300 Videos of 3 minutes of duration-Reach the target audience with specific requirements-Improve user success and satisfaction by using gamificationThe platform used the following technologies:-Web because is the most flexible way to disseminate information-Mobile platforms were selected also because the ubiquity and flexibility → Training in your pocket. Nowadays the mobile markets are considered even a better way to connect users with training due to the offer of the related technologies in the different mobile app markets. Android and iOS were selected because they are the most common devices in the mobile market. The gamification of the in4wood project was designed for the consumption of courses, relating common contents and interests to offer a complete and quality training through the definition in each content of the target user profile. The competitiveness among users has been enhanced to avoid the feeling of being alone doing an activity and wishing to stand out from other users through user rankings and leaderboards. A badges system was created to directly reward the user at the end of the course and generate a feeling of needing to complete all the courses in a unit.The platform can be found:Web, in the following URL: https://app.in4wood.eu/Android Market: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pristalica.in4woodApple Market: https://apps.apple.com/es/app/in4wood/id1468253565The tool and content was evaluated by external stakeholders in the Joint Forum Group Discussion (D8.6) during the 2 webinars performed for that aim. Furthermore, the consortium performed a broad pilot course reaching in total 195 students including workers and employees with many different academic or professional background and field of expertise. 24 final projects of factories of the Future were delivered and final 4 projects were selected among all of them due to their high quality in the problem-solving design.The consortium organized a final event in Brussels with more than 80 stakeholders including project partners, DG employment o DG RTD and enterprises of the sector.