In 2014 422 million adults in the world suffered from diabetes, and the increasingly sedentary ways of life will contribute to the “growth” of this disease. Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are one of the most common complications of diabetes, accounting for most of diabetic patients’ hospitalization, and being the direct cause for 50% of all non-traumatic amputations. This also implies substantial healthcare costs: compared with “healthy” diabetic patients, the cost of care for patients with a foot ulcer is 5.4 times higher, and across the EU, ulcer complications’ care adds 7- 10 € billion to direct yearly costs. Early diagnosis can have a significant impact on decreasing the impact of DFUs. However, this is not a simple task, as current methods for the diagnosis of DFUs rely only on foot inspection by doctors and decades-old microbiological techniques. Therefore, there is an urgent need for technologies that enable early diagnosis of DFUs so as to minimise their consequences. FeetWell™ is the response to this need: a user-friendly device based on the merging of different monitoring technologies (IR Thermography, Ultrasonography and Dermatoscopy) to facilitate early detection of microvascular and macrovascular foot complications. Moreover, as it is a simple to use device, it will empower patients, making them less reliant on doctor visits and increasing their engagement into their self-care. Feetwell is a strategic project for our company, Metis Baltic, as it will enable us to bridge the gap between previous R&D projects and launch ourselves into the medical diagnostic tools’ market as the developers of the 1st automated diabetic foot inspection device on the market, by 2020 reaching revenues of €16.5 million by 2022, with a ROI of 2.2, and multiplying by 10 our staff. But Feetwell will not only benefit our company, but it will also contribute to reducing the impact of DFUs on EU healthcare systems.

According to the European Commission, around six million young people drop out of school each year – about 14% of all pupils. (http://ec.europa.eu/news/culture/110202_en.htm). Education has a leading role to play for the needs of future society. Many OECD studies such as The Social Outcomes of Learning in 2010, have shown that Education has a crucial impact on improving social progress and well-being, mainly through the development of competencies and skills. There is a need to rethink Education for a modern society and the requirements for the future professionals, in order to be capable to respond to the social-economical demanding’s of the 21st century. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects are one of Europe’s major education domains. Improving the attractiveness of research careers and other related careers to young people is an important contribution to generate a more skilled workforce capable of facing new technological changes in Europe. The “CREATEskills” project was designed to develop and implement innovative practices, tools and methodologies in primary schools for the establishment of STEM studio classrooms, improving the quality and relevance of the learning process in primary education, more specifically regarding the attractiveness of STEM subjects. Through hands-on activities and based on the logic of the social learning theory, “CREATEskills” contributes effectively to the development of the 21st-century skills among students. The project started with a Research study “Socially Learning STEM in Primary Education - guidelines towards a common framework” in order to develop, test and implement an innovative methodology for STEM Education in primary schools including a Toolkit with STEM teaching materials for primary school teachers and a Teacher’s Guide. For the engagement of a wider community, parents and other communities, a web animated platform was created with a “virtual teacher’s room”, establishing a network among European teachers, a virtual library and home activities and DIY projects for children and family available in all partner languages. The direct target groups were primary school students (6-12 years of age), teachers and parents. We also reached out a wider community, namely science-related Researchers and Organizations, establishing a bridge between schools and work environments. In more details, the project reached 749 primary school students that participated in the pilot phase, 30 primary school teachers and at least 249 parents have used the web platform. All together they have also contributed to the development of primary school STEM strategies for wider uptake of inquiry-based and other innovative approaches to STEM Education.Through these activities, the project addressed the needs that have been identified in the current EU school context, namely: - To promote inter-disciplinary pedagogical approaches, through the collaborative development and implementation of a STEM-related methodology for primary students. Increase primary teacher’s involvement in experimental education by testing and using the Toolkit and engaging in several activities of the project. - To promote critical thinking and 21st-century skills at an early childhood education. - To improve the motivation of European students to scientific culture and professions, as a result of the participation in exciting activities with a strong scientific and pedagogical component and contacting professionals that use this knowledge in their day-to-day work. - To contribute to minimize early school dropout, as a result of the increased motivation for classes and a wider perspective of possible career options, including those connected to scientific fields, with special note to foster gender mainstreaming.In the end, the project's achievements exceed the initial expectations.

VOCORDER develops innovative components based on disruptive technologies that aims to render breath analysis testing a holistic, highly efficient health monitoring apparatus that can be seamlessly integrated into everyday life. The project capitalizes on recent developments on mid-infrared lasers and moves the technology well beyond the state-of-the-art to demonstrate at TRL5 a highly efficient multiple species (gases) breath analysers that can with a 5 sec use of the device, and the use of artificial intelligence-based signal processing, can conclude on the health status of the individual, just like the fictional Star Trek Tricorder. To record and analyze the maximum amount of information on the individual health status completely unobtrusively, exhaled breath is among the most convenient body fluids as can be obtained at large quantities, practically without any causing discomfort to the user, with strong potentially to seamlessly integrate into everyday life. Exhaled breath contains more than 1’000 substances which can serve as efficient biomarkers, the measurement of concentration of which can provide a clear provision of the health status of the individual while the diagnosis of some diseases or pathological process in human body can be obtained early. For a truly seamlessly integration in a plethora of settings, VOCORDER examines the ways to render the final instrument compact and potentially inexpensive.

YADES aims to efficiently train a network of fellows on the field of the resilience of Cultural Heritage (CH) areas and historic cities against Climate Change (CC) and other types of hazards. Towards this direction, YADES aims to introduce a research framework for downscaling the created climate and atmospheric composition as well as associated risk maps down to the 1x1 km (historic area) scale, and specific damage functions for CH materials. Applying atmospheric modelling for specific CC scenarios at such refined spatial and time scales allows for an accurate quantitative and qualitative impact assessment of the estimated micro-climatic and atmospheric stressors. YADES will perform combined structural/geotechnical analysis of the CH sites and damage assessment under normal and changed conditions, based on the climatic zone, the micro-climate conditions, the petrographic and textural features of building materials, historic data for the structures, the effect of previous restoration processes and the environmental/physical characteristics of the surrounding environment. The data coming from installed monitoring system will be coupled with simulated data (under our cultural heritage resilience assessment platform-CHRAP) and will be further analysed through our data management system, while supporting communities’ participation and public awareness. The data from the monitoring system will feed the DSS so as to provide proper adaptation and mitigation strategies. The produced vulnerability map will be used by the local authorities to assess the threats of CC (and other natural hazards), visualize the built heritage and cultural landscape under future climate scenarios, model the effects of different adaptation strategies, and ultimately prioritize any rehabilitation actions to best allocate funds in both pre- and post-event environments. To train the fellows, the project will make use of extensive workshop and training sessions, as well organise summer schools.