Chronic aortic aneurysms are permanent and localized dilations of the aorta that remain asymptomatic for long periods of time but continue to increase in diameter before they eventually rupture. Left untreated, the patients’ prognosis is dismal, since the internal bleeding of the rupture brings about sudden death. Although successful treatment cures the disease, the risky procedures can result in paraplegia from spinal cord ischaemia or even death, particularly for aneurysms extending from the thoracic to the abdominal aorta and thus involving many segmental arteries to the spinal cord, i.e. thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms of Crawford type II. Although various strategies have achieved a remarkable decrease in the incidence of paraplegia, it is still no less than 10 to 20%. However, it has been found that the deliberate occlusion of the segmental arteries to the paraspinous collateral network finally supplying the spinal cord does not increase rates of permanent paraplegia. A therapeutic option, ‘minimally invasive segmental artery coil embolization’ has been devised which proceeds in a ‘staged’ way to occlude groups of arteries under highly controlled conditions after which time must be allowed for arteriogenesis to build a robust collateral blood supply. PAPA-ARTiS is a phase II trial to demonstrate that a staged treatment approach can reduce paraplegia and mortality dramatically. It can be expected to have both a dramatic impact on the individual patient's quality of life if saved from a wheelchair, and also upon financial systems through savings in; 1) lower costs in EU health care; 2) lower pay-outs in disability insurance (est. at 500k in Year 1), and; 3) loss of economic output from unemployment. Approx. 2500 patients a year in Europe undergo these high risk operations with a cumulative paraplegia rate of over 15%; therefore >100M per year in costs can be avoided and significantly more considering the expected elimination of type II endoleaks.

In this proposal we describe a timely and disruptive solution to the long-standing and vexing problem of the rapid stand-off detection of explosive, toxic or otherwise hazardous materials which are present within potential- or post-terrorist attack or industrial accident sites. We will achieve this by realising highly sensitive, state-of-the-art handheld and tripod-mounted instruments based upon active hyperspectral imaging and detection. These will exploit the deep infrared molecular fingerprint waveband region, where these hazardous compounds exhibit their strongest and most distinctive optical absorption features. Crucially, by keeping our goal fixed on the needs of the end-user, we will realise high-TRL devices which are cost-effective, lightweight and highly utile. Within the lifetime of this project, these will ready for evaluation in end-use scenarios (as opposed to mere laboratory-based demonstration). Our consortium is uniquely placed to prosecute this programme as is it comprises world leading workers in every technology upon which this solution depends, from quantum-cascade laser source, MEMS and detector growth expertise to advanced imaging, signals processing and device integration. One refined, the technology we will pioneer will be evaluated by civil security partners who will implement them in a number of likely end-use scenarios, thus proving the potency and utility of our technology.

The Hi-FLY project aims to develop and validate innovative technologies to remarkably improve space on-board data handling and transfer capabilities, primarily for Earth Observation and partly also for Telecom future missions. To achieve this goal, Hi-FLY will make substantial advances in all major elements of the data chain including inter-satellite and on-board network, payload processing, data compression, protection, storage and transmission. Whilst individual advances can only enable incremental improvements, the breakthroughs in satellite data management required to support the next generation of data intensive missions can be achieved only by jointly designing the complete data chain architecture and considering the overall system performance. . The Hi-FLY project will provide a comprehensive demonstration incorporating all the critical elements of the payload data chain from instrument to ground-station; aiming to substantially increase the payload data-rates that can be supported in future space-based data networks and Earth Observation missions. It will allow an aggregate instrument data-rate of at least 50 Gbps to be supported in the near term together with a roadmap to achieve even higher performance in the future. The Hi-FLY consortium brings together world-leading experienced experts in all the required fields to deliver the objectives and outputs of the project. Industrial leaders, large organisations and SMEs, are joining forces with influential academic to ensure that the research efforts translate into market-ready and industry-aligned technologies. By delivering breakthrough innovation designed to respond to the future space missions’ needs, the Hi-FLY project will ensure that the internationally competitive position of European spacecraft primes and equipment manufacturers is maintained and enhanced in the strategically important area of satellite systems.

The 5+ Bn km of currently installed data communications optical fibre cable provides an opportunity to create a globe-spanning network of fibre sensors, without laying any new fibres. These traverse the seas and oceans, where conventional sensors are practically non-extent, and major infrastructures, offering potential for smart structural health monitoring. ECSTATIC will develop novel interferometry and polarisation-based sensing approaches for vibration and acoustic fibre-optic sensing technologies. New possibilities will be defined for sensitivity, distance range and localization, offering a range of solutions for different use cases, while ensuring the coexistence of the sensing signal with live data traffic. A new compact photonic chip-based dual-microcomb engine will enable enhanced range, resolution, and bandwidth of distributed acoustic sensing together with fundamental new knowledge on the physics of physical stimuli in relation to state-of-polarisation sensing. Simultaneous interrogation of multiple transmitted comb lines in the microwave domain with multi-wavelength interferometry and novel state-of-polarisation millisecond field programmable gate array-based transceivers will be developed and characterised to improve the sensitivity, spatial resolution, and dynamic range of distributed fiber sensors. To address the limited data storage and processing capabilities of communication networks new digital signal processing algorithms based on edge devices and artificial intelligence/machine learning will be developed and used to extract information via data-compression techniques. Solutions will aim to minimise algorithm complexity while realising real-time sensing of events and network condition with high classification accuracy. These technologies and algorithms will be tested in real-world submarine, metropolitan and infrastructure networks to validate their potential for early warning of seismic events, predictive maintenance, and network integrity.

Liberal and constitutional democracies in Europe are currently under massive pressure from authoritarian populism, culture wars and identity conflicts. A key issue is the erosion of trust in democratic institutions and the parallel rise in belief in conspiracy theories. The latter undermine democratic procedures as well as citizen engagement and create harmful political identities by exploiting the inherent vulnerabilities of democracies: their openness and the ambiguity of decision-making processes. These identities block political discourse with authoritarian narratives and hinder effective political action, threatening democracies from within. TaCT-FoRSED closes a scientific gap regarding the interrelation between democracy, identity formation and conspiracy theories. Using existing research and collecting new data, the project plans to a) investigate the impact of conspiracy theories on the adoption of an anti-democratic group identity and, conversely, to explore concrete identity factors that strengthen or weaken resilience to conspiracy myths. Based on the realisation that the complexity of value-pluralistic democracies is the counterpart to any simplistic, authoritarian friend-foe thinking of conspiracy beliefs, democratic identity formation processes are also seen as an opportunity to effectively combat conspiracy narratives. TaCT-FoRSED will therefore b) address its key target group of multipliers in the educational fields and develop OER that specifically promote democratic self-efficacy to foster a counter-identity to any conspiracy mentality. These materials will be evaluated together with relevant institutions from different target groups. The project will thus improve the legitimacy of knowledge-producing institutions and political parties by supporting democratic participation. c) The findings made by TaCT-FoRSED will result in policy recommendations for political stakeholders and educators in order to make the gained solutions widely accessible.