ERN-Apulia+MED targets to bring Citizens cERN-Apulia+ targets to bring Apulian Citizens closer to Researchers and viceversa and further extend the initiatives outside the region in the Mediterranean Area and extra-EU countries (at no cost), involving major public universities and Public and Private Research Institutions and representative schools. The large capacity of beneficiaries was already demonstrated in the past EU-funded projects for 2018- 2021 Nights and the continuation of activities in the unfunded 2022-2023 Nights. Here the initiatives for Citizens involvement will be further scaled up. Main objectives are: - to implement pre-events, the 2024 and 2025 ERNs and some post-events, with particular attention to students, industrial and professional organizations, municipalities and public administrations, already actively involved in the past editions; - to increase public awareness and recognition of the importance and impact of research in daily life, with specific examples from ICT to health and life sciences, from elementary particle to cultural heritage, etc; - to stimulate curiosity and interest and explain the fascinating world and the opportunities in research, especially to the youngest as a mean to encourage them to embark scientific careers; - to establish a tight connection among population/institutions and researchers to continue during the year; - to prepare and publicize dissemination materials along with scientific games and site visits (including laboratories and sites of cultural interest) to be available during the whole year for the general public; - to explain the spirit and opportunities of the European Research Area, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and the principles of “The European Charter for Researchers”; to reach a number of Facebook Impressions >1.5M and Reach >400k, Youtube Views > 30k and watch time > 1000h, followers close to 200k, participants > 100k (among all the various initiatives) and a participants to the ERN > 50k.

VALIAS aims to match the need for managing the marine Invasive Alien Species (IAS) populations with the growing demand for marine derived-products. Under the frame of circular economy, the valorization of unexploited IAS feedstocks can represent a sustainable strategy for the realization of a circular bio-economy, with the production of stable and safe food, fish feed and cosmetic ingredients. Various compounds with high commercial value obtained from fish and other invasive aquatic species byproducts, including collagen, enzymes, bioactive peptides, minerals and functional fatty acids will be valorized in VALIAS. VALIAS proposal can turn the current problem represented by marine IAS into a "WinWin" solution both for the European fisheries and for the companies active in the sector of aquaculture, nutrition and cosmetology. Specifically, VALIAS will contribute to the limitation of IAS stocks and of their negative ecological and economic impact on marine life, fisheries, human welfare, and health in European seas. Finally, VALIAS will contribute to the enrichment of the knowledge of the biology of IAS, a key objective of European Directive 1143/2014 on the prevention and management of introduction and spread of alien species. VALIAS will bring together experts from industry and academia specialized in interdisciplinary/inter-sectorial, yet highly complementary, research areas of Marine-Maritime Research, Aquaculture, Feed-Food technology and safety and Cosmetology. As a joint research and innovation project, it will develop a strong partnership involving 8 partners from 5 EU countries (EL, CY, IT, IE and BG) and with different technical backgrounds from the academic and non-academic sectors. The execution of the project and the knowledge sharing will be based on secondments (exchanges) of research and innovation staff with an in-built return mechanism strengthening collaborative research among the different countries and sectors.

Marine jellyfish are recognized as subject to proliferations in many coastal areas. When they are exceedingly abundant, jellyfish cause substantial ecological impacts on marine biodiversity, interfere with economic and recreational human activities, and may be harmful to public health. For these reasons, jellyfish “blooms” are regarded as a multi-billion Euro problem for human activities in the sea and coastal zones. Understanding of jellyfish biology and ecology is therefore mandatory to prevent or mitigate critical ecological and economic drawbacks. Moreover, the large amount of jellyfish biomass could be considered as an untapped source of bioactive compounds including peptides, collagen and gelatin, oligosaccharides, enzymes, water-soluble minerals, and biopolymers making them a potentially valuable material for industrial uses in cosmetic, pharmaceutical and biomedical industry as well as food or feed. By identifying potential applicative uses of jellyfish biomaterials, we will provide the opportunity of showcasing jellyfish in a more positive light. Jellyfish biomasses also represent a poorly exploited source of carbon in marine food webs. The research proposal entitled "PULMO: "Population dynamics, trophic interactions, and human exploitation of a novel nutraceutical and pharmaceutical marine resource: the Mediterranean sea lung jellyfish, Rhizostoma pulmo" aims at a better understanding of mechanisms underlying recurrent, massive proliferations of one of the most common jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea to boost its potential utilization. The project will provide [i] novel and unprecedented information about the biology, trophic ecology, biochemical and molecular composition of the sea lung Rhizostoma pulmo; [ii] provide quantitative assessment of exploitable jellyfish biomass at regional and subregional level; [iii] identifying the potential of jellyfish biomaterials as new sustainable resource for humans.

ICHAruS is a Doctoral Network aimed to train early-stage researchers, able to face current and future challenges in the field of innovative, edge-cutting technologies based on electro-magnetic assist to achieve full control of the hydrogen flames. ICHAruS has been built to provide doctoral training in a collaborative partnership between academic and industry partners who are major European gas turbine manufacturers. The aim of this partnership is thus to understand the physical processes that govern the interaction between hydrogen combustion and electro-magnetic fields at all flow scales to achieve such control and identify the key parameters that would allow for the design of an innovative, ultra-low NOx and flashback-proof combustion device. The behavior of hydrogen flames under plasma discharge and electromagnetic conditioning offer the opportunity to strongly accelerate the path towards zero-carbon energy and transport sectors. Three specific research objectives will be pursued: 1) Investigation and modelling of electromagnetic field effects on the species transport and chemical kinetics to unveil the effect of external electromagnetic fields on the reaction chemistry of hydrogen in both pure oxygen and air, and also determine any effects on the formation of pollutants. The effect of differential diffusion on the flame structure as opposed to electromagnetic drift will be also investigated. 2) Develop turbulence combustion models for low- and high-energy electromagnetic assisted combustion. The competing effects between electromagnetic drift and turbulence transport will be investigated and sub-grid scale closures for large-eddy simulations that consider the effect of electromagnetic fields and plasma will be developed. 3) Experimental and numerical investigation of innovative electromagnetic-assisted control technologies for the stabilisation of flames of practical interest. Both single swirl flames and annular configurations will be investigated