Ageing is the major risk factor for idiopathic PARKINSON'S DISEASE (PD), the first motor neurodegenerative disorder (in EU 1% in 65+; about 4% in 80+). The most recent conceptualizations of ageing and PD indicate that they share basic mechanisms, e.g. accumulation of senescent cells and propagation phenomena such as inflammaging mirrored in PD by neuro-inflammaging in brain that foster a prion-like spreading of neuronal damage. Thus, to fully understand PD pathogenesis and set up innovative neuro-protective therapies it is mandatory to posit PD within the framework of ageing process. The main goal of PROPAG-AGEING is to identify specific cellular and molecular perturbations deviating from healthy ageing trajectories towards PD. To this aim the project will exploit four large, very informative EXISTING COHORTS where biomaterials are available: i) de novo PD patients (before any therapy) followed longitudinally, including the largest repository of PD patients, i.e. PPMI; ii) centenarians and their offspring (CO) who never showed clinical signs of motor disability; iii) old twins of the Swedish Twin Registry (STR) followed longitudinally for >45 years, assessed for lifestyle and exposure to toxicants, and where incident and prevalent cases of PD discordant twins have been collected, including brains. The most informative sample from these cohorts will be studied in a DISCOVERY PHASE by an integrated set of omics to identify molecular signatures whose results will enter in a VALIDATION PHASE exploiting the four large cohorts, and performing functional in in vitro studies using dopaminergic neurons obtained by PD somatic cells from PD patients and centenarians via iPSC protocol. An added value is that omic data in centenarians and CO are available, and will represent the gold standard of healthy ageing. This approach will allow to identify new molecular profiles for early diagnosis and therapy (identification of druggable targets) of PD and signatures of healthy ageing.

Recent reports indicate an increase in mental health problems among the general EU population in recent years. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and public organisations are particularly vulnerable as they have often scarce knowledge and resources to effectively manage workers’ mental health and wellbeing. The general aim of the H-WORK project is to design, implement and validate effective multi-level assessment and intervention toolkits providing new products and services to promote mental health in public organisations and SMEs, evaluate individual and organisational outcomes of the adopted measures, and provide recommendations for employers, occupational health professionals and policymakers. The project aims to design, implement and exploit an integrated toolkit (H-TOOLS) which will provide managers and CEOs to effectively assess organisational psychosocial risk (HAT), implement the most appropriate interventions (HIT), and evaluate individual and organisational outcomes of the adopted measures (HET). Implementation of the H-WORK Toolkits will occur in ten intervention sites across five European countries, including five public organisations (healthcare, higher education, governmental) and five SMEs. Moreover, the data and experience generated during the implementation process will allow for development of further H-WORK products and services. Specifically, H-WORK will design, test and deploy the H-WORK Innovation Platform which will include novel digital services such as Benchmarking Calculator and Decision Support System that will facilitate the spread and uptake of the H-WORK solutions across Europe, and ensure the long-term sustainability of the project outcomes. The H-WORK project will significantly contribute to coordinated strategies for occupational health and safety and will foster health, social and economic prosperity in the EU.

A major, albeit underestimated, by-product of urbanization is the exponential increase of human exposure to artificial light. Outdoor illumination, artificial sky glow, domestic lighting, light-emitting screens, etc. entrain circadian clock. Despite scientific evidence on the pathogenic role of circadian rhythms disruption in predisposing to NCDs, affecting sleep, metabolism, immune function and many aspects of behavior and mood, EU cities are mostly focusing on improving lighting services’ efficiency, reducing costs and emissions, but failing to consider lighting impacts on health and wellbeing. Through an open-online Urban Lighting and Health Atlas, ENLIGHTENme will collect and systematize existing data and good practices on urban lighting and will perform an accurate study on the correlations among health, wellbeing, lighting and socio-economic factors in 3 pilot cities -Amsterdam, Bologna and Tartu, where a target district will be selected due to its exposure to artificial light and to reflect social inequalities. Through the establishment of Lighting Urban Labs within the district, citizens and stakeholders will co-create innovative Lighting Urban Plans measures and define the implementation of a smart outdoor lighting system and indoor lighting changes in a pilot area within the district. There, a population-based study on elderly – addressed as a vulnerable group particularly prone to suffer circadian misalignment – will allow to assess lighting-dependent risks on mental and health conditions and surveys involving the overall district population and users will allow assess the impacts of urban lighting on quality of life and wellbeing. The results will allow to develop a dedicated Decision Support System and guidelines and recommendation on the impact of lighting on health and wellbeing, proposing innovative lighting policies, measures, technologies and interventions aiming at improving citizens’ health and wellbeing in cities. ENLIGHTENme is a part of the European Cluster on Urban Health.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is characterized by abnormal muscular activity and dream enactment in REM sleep. In its isolated form (iRBD), it is recognized as an early alpha- h Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy). Due to the low number of specialized sleep centres and the fact that the disorder might remain unnoticed, iRBD is often not recognized. An early, accurate, automated and population extended recognition of iRBD, however, would be essential to recognize patients in early stages of alpha-synucleinopathies, enabling timely begin of disease modifying treatments. Furthermore, objective and automated methods would improve follow up of iRBD patients and allow personalised treatments. We aim to develop and validate a novel small, light and portable 3D video-based technology employing artificial intelligence as powerful, automatic, stand-alone instrument to identify and follow-up iRBD patients. The technology will be validated in sleep centres and compared to gold standard video-polysomnography, posing the basis for future implementation of 3D video in home environments. The proposed project will be carried out by a consortium of five European sleep centres. To develop a robust and high-standard technology, the multicentric ruitment of participants will ensure excellent representation of both genders, a large iRBD cohort and inclusion of different conditions mimicking RBD. By the end of the project, we expect that 3D video will be validated and ready to be established as a novel and powerful stand-alone technique to reliably identify and follow-up iRBD patients. We believe that this novel tool can revolutionize the way in which iRBD patients are identified, allowing better identification of early-stage alpha-synucleinopathies. Furthermore, this technology will allow to have objective measures of the efficacy of symptomatic treatments, thus making possible to personalise them.

What if in a near future Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes human-centric, focusing on human needs and build trustworthiness by mutual understanding? Today, millions of people worldwide suffer from deteriorated motor abilities, due to stroke, brain tumor surgery or accident. This represents a serious society challenge with missing adequate technological response. Patients need assistive devices that are trustworthy, multifunctional, adaptive and interactive, i.e., intelligent, unlike current neuroprosthetics that replace single motor impairments. MAIA proposes a paradigm shift where human-centric AI will control prosthetic and assistive devices. We will investigate and resolve critical steps towards the rapid development of such human-centric control: a radically novel intention decoder, a novel concept for trustworthy human-AI interactions, and a new type of database for acquired information from multiple sources. MAIA AI technology will decode human intentions and communicate the decoded targets to assistive devices and to the users, to ensure compliance and develop trust through natural interaction and mutual learning. The technological outcome will be a multifunctional human-centric AI controller at TRL4 with embedded trustworthy characteristics, suitable to be integrated in robotic arms, wheelchair and exoskeletons. To reach this, MAIA will investigate the principles underlying natural, fast and lean communication and new forms of combinations of neural and behavioural data beyond current data processing. MAIA’s approach will be guided by real needs of end users (patients and caregivers) through their direct involvement in the research program, and by all current knowledge from neuro-, cognitive, and social science research. The application domains of MAIA’s new paradigm span from healthcare to industry, and space exploration. We will also establish a European innovation ecosystem beyond the research labs that will stimulate highly innovative enterprises.