By applying a circularity-by-design approach, the AMBIANCE project aims to develop new and advanced bio-based products, characterized by a high or total bio-based material content and taking into account the different alternatives for recirculation such as the different types of reuses, remanufacturing, recycling, biodegradation or energy recovery to enhance sustainable models. Such approach will be coupled to the optimization of the mechanical properties for particular applications, e.g. durability for outdoors urban furniture or sports and leisure products, taking into consideration the whole lifecycle. Special attention will be paid to the optimization of product manufacturing of bio-based materials, which will require tuning of material composition and processes (extrusion, large-scale additive manufacturing, compression moulding) for different bio-based materials. Besides, the use of Digital Twin technologies will enhance the development of materials and products and the remanufacturing of such bio-based goods, and it will optimize manufacturing processes and enhance production quality of such novel applications by leveraging IoT and Artificial Intelligence technologies. AMBIANCE's impact will be two-fold: firstly we will showcase disruptively innovative bio-based products in different sectors and manufacturing processes, while we will demonstrate applicability in daily-life products, starring green urban areas that will lead the transition to sustainability. The setting proposed by AMBIANCE will directly result in the creation of new jobs, based on new technical competences that will require specific training and upskilling, while the technical developments and findings will be used to contributing to the standardization of bio-based products and materials, which will guarantee an effective and wide adoption for making such products the new baseline of our lives.

The overall objectives are to demonstrate a new biobased, renewable and economically viable carbon fibre (CF) precursor – lignin – produced in Europe with European raw material and to develop conditions for its processing into CF and structural CF composites. The target is a cost-effective biobased CF for use in reinforced composites delivering sufficient enough strength properties for large-volume automotive applications. Reducing vehicle weight is a decisive factor for successful fulfilment of the future targets in EU regulations regarding CO2 emissions from the automotive sector. CF reinforced plastics has been introduced as a low-weight material replacing/complementing steel and aluminium. Today’s CF production is based on use of a petroleum-based raw material, PAN, which is costly due to the starting precursor and the process for turning it into CF. Most PAN used in Europe is imported. The automotive sector has identified a need for a cheaper lower-grade CF to meet the demands of components in normal consumer cars. Lignin from kraft pulp mills is a green, sustainable, abundant and cost-efficient new potential CF precursor. The European pulp and paper industry has a need for additional revenues due to the global competition and the decline in printing and writing paper. Successful lignin applications like CF will create new business opportunities and new jobs also in rural areas where the pulp mills are located. The development of lignin-based CF is still in laboratory scale and material properties meeting high-quality product demands is the main challenge. Now a new technology in commercial operation makes it possible to produce lignin with new properties, higher purity and with less impact on the pulp mill operation. The idea is to tailor kraft lignin properties already in the lignin separation/upgrading and optimise the lignin for target automotive applications. The consortium has unique competence through the complete value chain to realise this new concept.

The general objective of Bio-Uptake project is to ensure a sustainable uptake (increase the use in a 39%) of bioplastic composites through boosting a twin green and digital transformation in the European manufacturing industry. In particular, Bio-Uptake solution will focus scientific and technology efforts on developing flexible manufacturing processes to produce biobased end-products for the construction, medical and packaging sectors based on the combination of intermediate formats made of natural and/or biobased synthetic fibres reinforced with biopolymers, which are easily adaptable to new market demands. The novel approach on which Bio-Uptake project relies is based on modularity or pre-fabrication: a smart combination of intermediate formats (organosheets, tapes and pellets) into a final end-product which allows to overcome the current technical and environmental limitations to meet the demanding requirements of a specific sector/application where a single biobased material doesn?t. Thus, the synergistic potential of composite materials will pave the way for the integration and uptake of bio-based materials in mass customised manufacturing (manufacturing as a service). Three disruptive manufacturing processes (based on conformal technologies) will be developed within Bio-Uptake focused on the plastics manufacturing sector, which is on the centrality of a variety of value chains, and being demonstrated in 3 demo cases (bathroom ceiling cabinet, feet orthosis and garbage container lid). Sustainability criteria will be applied since the design phase to reach circularity by design, obtaining products with more than 75% biobased content and decreasing GHG up to 33%. Bio-Uptake solution does not request large investment in complex equipment too. Bio-Uptake consortium is formed by 13 interdisciplinar and complementary partners (6 industries, 4 RTOs, 1 academia and 2 Other organizations). The overall budget is 5,994,886 Euros.

NIMBLE: collaboration Network for Industry, Manufacturing, Business and Logistics in Europe will develop the infrastructure for a cloud-based, Industrie 4.0, Internet-of-things-enabled B2B platform on which European manufacturing firms can register, publish machine-readable catalogs for products and services, search for suitable supply chain partners, negotiate contracts and supply logistics, and develop private and secure B2B and M2M information exchange channels to optimise business work flows. The infrastructure will be developed as open source software under an Apache-type, permissive license. The governance model is a federation of platforms for multi-sided trade, with mandatory interoperation functions and optional added-value business functions that can be provided by third parties. This will foster the growth of a net-centric business ecosystem for sustainable innovation and fair competition as envisaged by the Digital Agenda 2020. Prospective NIMBLE providers can take the open source infrastructure and bundle it with sectoral, regional or functional added value services and launch a new platform in the federation. Internet platforms need fast adoption rates and the work plan reflects this: we start attracting early adopters from day one and develop the initial, working platform in year one. Added-value business functions follow in year two and final validation at large scale, involving hundreds of external firms, will happen in year three. Our adoption plan is designed to enable two or more platform providers at the end of the project, and to have 1000 to 2000 enterprises connected to the overall ecosystem at that point. NIMBLE has 17 partners grouped around 3 main activities: developing the infrastructure, running a platform adoption programme, and validating the platform with 4 supply chains (white goods, wooden houses, fashion fabrics, and child care furniture). NIMBLE will give manufacturing SMEs in Europe a stable and sustainable digital ecosystem.

The RAMSSES project has the strategic objective to obtain recognition and an established role for advanced materials in the European maritime industry. To achieve this the project will demonstrate the benefits of new materials in thirteen industry led and market driven demonstrator cases along the entire maritime process chain from components through equipment and ship integration to repair. Those demonstrators will reach a high Technology Readiness Level between TRL 6 and 8 and will either be installed on shore under close to reality conditions or validated on board. The technical performance as well as life cycle cost efficiency and environmental impact will be assessed and validated by specific expert teams following common procedures and testing standards. The test program will be based on risk assessment and a widest possible use of existing test results and supervised by rule making bodies, such ensuring relevance for a commercial approval beyond the project. Test data as well as best practice procedures on design, qualification and production of new material solutions will be made available in a maritime test database and a central knowledge repository, thus allowing fast qualification and approval of similar maritime applications in future. RAMSSES also aims to improve the innovation capabilities of the European maritime sector by elaborating terms of reference of a future use of the test database and the knowledge repository beyond the project. In cooperation with other initiatives, it will contribute to the formation of a maritime materials innovation Platform including continuous technology transfer from and to other industry sectors.