The IPERION HS proposal aims at establishing and operating an Integrating Activity for a distributed pan-European research infrastructure, opening key national research facilities of recognised excellence in heritage science. Heritage science is a young and cross-cutting scientific domain embracing a wide range of research disciplines enabling deeper understanding of the past and improved care for the future of heritage. Since 2016, heritage science is included in the ESFRI Roadmap as one of the strategic areas in the domain of Social Sciences and Humanities, where it is represented by the ESFRI Project E-RIHS (European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science). IPERION HS will provide to the advanced community of heritage science - built and reinforced with the support of four EU projects spanning across four Framework Programmes, approaching 20 years of constant service to the heritage domain - a further level of pan-European integration, in view of the establishment of E-RIHS. IPERION HS is a further step towards a unified scientific approach to the most advanced European instruments for the analysis, interpretation, preservation, documentation and management of heritage objects in the fields of art history, conservation, archaeology and palaeontology. IPERION HS core activity will be offering Trans-National Access to a wide range of high-level scientific instruments, methodologies, data and tools for advancing knowledge and innovation in the domain. In addition, IPERION HS will contribute joint innovative research for a better interoperability not limited to data, but including sample materials, methods and instruments. The networking activities in the project aim at reinforcing the binding in the group and at creating a sense of belonging for heritage science researchers which will exploit the RI services. IPERION HS consists of partners from 22 Countries clustered around their national nodes.

Recent literature has underlined the interplay among climate mitigation, adaptation, and finance, as well as between climate action and other development agendas, including sustainable resource use, human development and equity, and environmental pressures. Such an interconnected policy environment requires an integrated ecosystem of disciplines, methods, and tools. Despite the significant evolution of integrated assessment models (IAMs) in the last decade, there remain several criticisms on their design, use, and adequacy to respond to unaddressed and emerging questions in the light of the Paris Agreement and net-zero ambition. These include openness, legitimacy, and ownership, as well as technical feasibility to represent demand-side and broader societal transformations, cross-sectoral interactions, physical impacts and adaptation, climate finance and labour dynamics, and other sustainability goals. DIAMOND will update, upgrade, and fully open six IAMs that are emblematic in scientific and policy processes, improving their sectoral and technological detail, spatiotemporal resolution, and geographic granularity. It will further enhance modelling capacity to assess the feasibility and desirability of Paris-compliant mitigation pathways, their interplay with adaptation, circular economy, and other SDGs, their distributional and equity effects, and their resilience to extremes, as well as robust risk management and investment strategies. This will be done via integration of tools and insights from psychology, finance research, behavioural and labour economics, operational research, and physical science. We will develop a transdisciplinary scientific approach to legitimise the implementation process and co-create research questions that stretch the frontiers of climate science, as well as establish vibrant communities of practice to transparently open model enhancements and to develop capacities, thereby lowering the entrance barriers to the established IAM community.

The ONEPlanET project aims to develop a common nexus modelling framework to simulate and evaluate pathways to define a more sustainable future in Africa through the deployment of renewable energy infrastructure. In this way, it will be possible to stimulate a green energy transition in the continent as well as a decarbonization of existing energy plants. The ONEPlanET model will be tailored to the needs of different stakeholders and end-users (public and private actors, policy and decision-makers, experts, and citizens) and will be totally open source to stimulate its future upgrades. The model will include information on Water, Energy, Food (WEF) and interlinkages with other sectors as Economy, Ecosystems, Society, Climate and Land for delivering a multi-sectoral assessment consistent with socio-economic and climate scenarios. The ONEPlanET modelling approach will integrate Earth Observation data (e.g., Copernicus, ESA or GEOSS), statistical data and information from basins to national and regional, via three representative case studies in the Songwe (Malawi/Tanzania), Inkomati-Usuthu (South Africa) and Niger (Nigeria) river basins, which show different types of basins and socio-ecological systems. ONEPlanET will help to better understand the interactions between Nexus sectors to deliver sound technical and policy recommendations towards the implementation of energy infrastructure to build a more climate neutral and resilient society.

The project Quantum Computing for Excellence in Science and Technology (QUEST) will create a research group in Quantum Computing (QC) at the Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC) of The Cyprus Institute (CyI) under the leadership of the ERA chair Dr. Karl Jansen of the German Electron-Synchrotron (DESY), who is also the leader of the Center for Quantum Technology Applications (CQTA) at DESY. The ERA chair holder will establish a Quantum Computing Hub as a collaborative platform for exploiting QC for applications in science and technology in partnership with CQTA. He will recruit and mentor a senior researcher to lead the team beyond the project end, offer training and education for a new generation of scientists and engineers, and pursue collaborations with other local research teams and internationally, securing further funding for sustainable development. QUEST responds to the rapid developments that demonstrate the potential of QC for breakthroughs in science and technology and the lack of leadership and critical mass of researchers in Cyprus in this field. The project aims to make Cyprus "quantum ready", closing the gap that currently exists with advanced EU countries due to the absence of expertise and infrastructure in QC, thus aligning with the objectives of the widening program in general and the ERA chair action in particular. The objectives of QUEST also align and are made feasible by the role of CaSToRC as the national high-performance center of Cyprus, namely by the mission of the center to carry out computation-based interdisciplinary research, and spread knowledge and provide support to local researchers in using computing technologies for research and innovation. QUEST will allow Cyprus to take advantage of opportunities in QC at the European level, such as by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and the quantum technologies flagship program, which are presently not being fully exploited.

The Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME), a region with a population of about 400 million, is affected by dust storms, dryness, heat extremes, and unparalleled air pollution. The region has been identified as a climate change “hot spot”, with adverse impacts ranging from extreme weather events to poor air quality, expected to further exacerbate in the coming decades. To address these challenges, EMME-CARE proposes the establishment of a world-class research and innovation Centre focused on environmental challenges, via the upgrade of an existing regional Centre of excellence, the Atmosphere and Climate Division of the Cyprus Institute (CyI). The integrated program of EMME-CARE will address these issues through a combination of research, innovation and education. This will involve laboratory studies, instrument development, continuous comprehensive atmospheric observations, field experiments and computer modelling of the regional climate and atmospheric environment. EMME-CARE will combine national and regional proficiency with international expertise along with unique research infrastructure to foster sustainable development in the EMME, and reduce dependency on external knowhow and services. The programme focuses on greenhouse gases, the water cycle, extreme weather, atmospheric dust and air pollution. These environmental challenges represent an important horizontal priority in the Cyprus Smart Specialization Strategy, interconnected to other vertical priorities such as health, with strong links to the public and private sectors. EMME-CARE will make use of the strategic geographical location of Cyprus as a gateway between Europe and the Middle East, and will further excellence by building on a critical mass of top scientists and engineers, promoting innovation via regular exchanges of staff and students with strategic partners, regional networking, technology transfer, entrepreneurship and spinoffs.