The major goal of the project is to develop a novel type of an electrochemical capacitor with high specific power (up to 5 kW/kg) and energy (up to 20 Wh/kg) preserved along at least 50 000 cycles. Thus, completion of the project will result in remarkable enhancement of specific energy, power and life time of modern electrochemical capacitors. Advanced electrochemical testing (galvanostatic cycling with constant power loads, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, accelerated aging and kinetic tests) will be accompanied by materials design and detailed characterization. Moreover, the project aims at the implementation of novel concepts of the electrolytes and designing of new operando technique for capacitor characterization. All these efforts aim at the development of sustainable and efficient energy conversion and storage system.

There is a pressing need for clear and understandable information regarding the sustainability of products, companies and policies. To achieve this, one of the main priorities for the European Commission is strengthening the integration of Sustainable Development (SD) principles into the policy-making processes. For this to occur there is an impelling need for: (i) enhancing the economic profitability of businesses employing the principles of a circular economy; (ii) providing consumers with a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of products from a sustainability perspective, including environmental (e.g. energy consumption), economic (e.g. raw materials costs) and social considerations (e.g. workers’ safety); and (iii) accounting for limited availability of primary resources. These objectives can be achieved if robust evaluations for the sustainability of products, companies and policies are conducted and communicated. The premier tool to support the achievement of these objectives is Sustainability Assessment (SA). Due to the importance of such societal challenges, an increasing number of criteria have been proposed to conduct a SA. A main challenge is the ability to communicate effectively the sustainability of the target alternatives in an easily understandable format, being as a score of performance, a preference class, or a ranking. Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) is an excellent approach to achieving these goals. Frameworks applying MCDA to SA have been proposed, but they are tailored to a set of MCDA methods and only support a limited typology of data and preference elicitation techniques. This SAbDA project will tackle these shortcomings by introducing a step-wise framework to support the development of SAs and selection of the most relevant MCDA method(s). This will include assessing the MCDA methods currently available and developing new ones, including those for evaluations at the micro (product) and meso (organization, region) levels.

This project focuses on the electric energy storage and offers research on novel type of hybrid electrochemical capacitor (HEC) that stores the energy quickly (due to high power), efficiently (due to reversible interactions inside) and demonstrates the satisfactory performance over thousands of charging/discharging cycles. Innovative concept of redox-active electrolyte as a component that allows for full insertion of the negative electrode will be researched. A comprehensive study, including several operando techniques will be provided, with elaboration on the mechanisms that govern the performance fade. Finally, the device of high energy density (~50 Wh/kg) and power (over 1 kW/kg), retained over at least 1 000 of cycles is aimed to be delivered.

The EntreSTEAM project helps HEIs integrate entrepreneurial content into their curricula, increase virtual student mobility and tackle skills gaps and mismatches by increasing entrepreneurial, intercultural and digital competencies of HEI students. The project integrates entrepreneurship education into transnational language studies in the STEAM disciplines at the University of Oulu (Finland), the University of Zaragoza (Spain), and Poznan University of Technology (Poland). The EntreSTEAM project will be run in iterative development circles consisting of literature review, benchmarking, experimenting and collecting & analyzing feedback for further development of an online module and other materials which will be developed and scaled during the project. The online module simulates distance working in teams using EML (Entrepreneurially Minded Learning) and PBL (problem-based) pedagogical approaches. It helps students strengthen their abilities to work productively in transnational online teams. Students learn English for special purposes in online modules where transnational teams define a real-world problem, narrow it down to manageable proportions and create an appropriate solution through a human-centric design approach and team learning. Language teachers are coached by Train the Trainers program, which helps teachers integrate entrepreneurial and transnational elements into their courses. As the primary target audience, the teachers and students will act as co-developers of the project outputs, which are 1) a resource package for the online module which will be created, including a guidebook for communication and facilitation, pedagogical models as well as teacher training materials targeted for teachers in HEIs. 2) Train the Trainers program for using the online module, 3) an online learning environment to run the online module which will be planned, put together and maintained, 4) The Best Practice Guide including guidelines, reports of studies and analysis will be produced in order to provide in-depth insights and 5) a student guide which will be created including information, tips and concrete tools for transnational teamwork. The above-mentioned outputs form together the online module, which can be used as a stand-alone learning environment, or it can be integrated into existing courses by HEIs across Europe who are looking for a scalable model for integrating entrepreneurial elements into their curricula and ways to increase IaH through virtual mobility. The impact of the project is increasing virtual student mobility, the quantity and quality of IaH activities, improving the working-life connection of foreign language and communication courses and providing authenticity and real-life context, as well as giving universities a novel method for entrepreneurship education to be integrated into all degree programs. Students from partnering universities, and at later stage from other European HEIs, will be more ready to work productively in international environments and in online teams, take the initiative and solve complex problems, adapt to changing circumstances and be more empathic and tolerant in their actions as their foreign language communication skills have improved. The easily adaptable model for applying these themes into practice for a large number of students as part of their existing curricula can later be scaled to other fields and HEIs.