NATALIE addresses the risks posed by climate change and its impacts and proposes to advance the concepts of “ecosystem-based adaptation” in Europe combined with climate resilient development pathways, as the means for impact driven Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), to accelerate and mainstreaming the adoption of NBS for resilience to climate change, which is also the cornerstone identified in the recent IPCC AR6 WGII Report. NATALIE will deliver innovative and practical innovationsin co-creation ofsolutions and stakeholder engagement, modelling, testing, monitoring and validation mechanisms that will support regions and municipalities to plan and develop adaptation actions bringing along valuable knowledge and experience as actionable knowledge for adaptation and impact-driven NBS. To achieve this goal, NATALIE will develop a transformative NBS booster pack of 25 solutions (innovative actions that address the key six levers for transformative change: (1) socially acceptable, smart and financial innovative solutions; (2) societal, stakeholder and citizen engagement; (3) larger systemic solutions at regional level; 4) monitoring, evaluation and cost-benefit analysis of solutions; 5) pre-feasibility study; 6) evidence-based outcomes and recommendations). The main goal is to accelerate and foster the mainstreaming of NBS, by forming an ecosystem based adaptation for regional resilience. The booster Innovation Package includes innovative technical, modelling and IT solutions (including an innovative NBS knowledge booster and digital twin), governance, policy recommendations at EU and regional level, financing and public engagement transformative solutions. 18 NBS measures will be demonstrated at 8 case studies, in different biogeographical regions of Europe in Greece, Romania, Latvia, Canary Islands, Belgium (Flanders), France, Norway and Italy (Veneto region), as well as five follower regions in Iceland, the Balearic Islands, Romania, France and Lithuania).

The goal of PushBackLash is twofold: (1) Firstly, to systematically inquire into the present-day contestation of gender equality issues and policies at both elite and citizen levels. Approaching democracy from a global feminist perspective, we employ a rigorous, comparative, multi-method design (e.g., experiments, surveys, interviews, participatory theatre). Our project enables: (a) identifying anti-gender strategies as well as best practices in counter-acting them across space and time; and (b) assessing the effects of antigender discourses by focusing on parties, social media and the public opinion. Secondly, to (2) develop and test strategies that can effectively counteract anti-gender and anti-feminist discursive strategies. Aiming at supporting the quality of democratic governance in more inclusive European societies, we acknowledge intersections between gender and other social categories at all stages of the project (composition of consortium and advisory board; theory formulation, empirical investigation, and policy recommendations) and thus engage with stakeholders. To develop sustainable solutions, we bring together gender activists, EU experts and researchers from several fields of political science (political theory, public policy, political parties, public opinion, political behavior), anthropology, communication and media, philosophy, sociology and social psychology. PushBackLash is a transdisciplinary, gender-diverse consortium aiming at equipping pro-equality actors with practical toolkits for responding to anti-gender equality and anti-feminist discursive strategies and backlash tactics

WEDUSEA led by Irish Wave Energy Developer, Ocean Energy, will demonstrate a grid connected 1MW OE35 floating wave energy converter (known as the OE Buoy) at the European Marine Energy Test Site (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. This rigorous technical and environmental demonstration will happen over a 2-year period in Atlantic wave conditions with outcomes directly impacting policy, technical standards, public perception and investor confidence. The project will demonstrate that the technology is on a cost reduction trajectory in line with the EU SET Plan targets and will be a steppingstone to larger commercial array scale up and further industrialisation. The action will integrate subcomponents such as moorings and PTOs - improving efficiency, reliability, scalability, sustainability and circularity of the technology. The combined actions of the work programme are expected to reduce the LCOE for the technology from €361/MWh to €245/MWh, a 32% reduction. For a 20MW array the LCOE would reduce from €185/MWh to €127/MWh. The project has 3 clear phases, phase 1 the initial design phase leading into a Go/No Go, phase 2 Demonstration in which it is expected that the baseline device will generate in excess of 1,650 MWh over the deployment and Phase 3 Commercialisation and Dissemination which sees the capitalisation and exploitation of the results. Ocean Energy and other consortium companies will actively exploit the results through new innovations, products and services. The results will be disseminated to feed both environmental databases and IEC electrotechnical standards. This action will take wave energy beyond the state of the art, building on the partners experience in prior EU projects enabling arrays of reliable devices to achieve the 1GW target set out in the 2030 DG-ENER Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy. Planned engagement will create more public perception, empower and inform policy makers and de-risk larger scale investments to meet the 2050 targets.

To develop a systematic tool to optimise learning delivery options to customers.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related disorders leading to dementia are associated with staggering costs and suffering. Recently, there has been some progress in the search for effective therapeutic interventions and it is clear that any treatment is likely to be most effective if administered at the earliest stage of disease, but the health care system is not ready for this new scenario. There is an urgent need, therefore, to establish scalable, cost-efficient diagnostic markers, tools and procedures that can identify people at increased risk, at point of care for stratification into personalized interventions to prevent or delay dementia. PREDICTOM will develop an open-source, interoperable and customisable biomarker screening platform, utilizing an existing online resource to save time and money, to generate an evidence base for general population screening for AD and related disorders. We will bring diagnostics closer to the patient by examining the feasibility of using samples which can be obtained at home (e.g. finger-prick blood, saliva (for genetics and epigenetics) and stool for microbiom) for diagnostic biomarker analysis. We will also evaluate innovative technologies for disease risk identification, including digital technologies and novel MRI, EEG, eye tracking, and blood-based biomarkers. The platform will use artificial intelligence models to analyse data from all biomarkers to identify users at high risk of developing dementia and to direct them to personalized intervention to prevent further cognitive decline and development of dementia. We will seek to facilitate a change in current healthcare practice for early diagnosis of AD through development of new clinical practice guidelines based on evidence generated in the project. By improving the ease of identification of those with early signs of dementia we expect to have a significant impact on personal and financial burden of dementia in Europe and across the world.