Natural hazards, such as extreme weather events, are exacerbated by climate change. As a result, emergency responses are becoming more protracted, expensive, frequent, and stretching limited available resources. This is especially apparent in rapidly warming regions. MedEWSa addresses these challenges by providing novel solutions to ensure timely, precise, and actionable impact and finance forecasting, and early warning systems (EWS) that support the rapid deployment of first responders to vulnerable areas. Specifically, MedEWSa will deliver a sophisticated, comprehensive, and innovative pan-European–Mediterranean–African solution comprising a range of complementary services. Building on existing tools MedEWSa will develop a fully integrated impact-based multi-hazard EWS. This call contained five expected outcomes, all of which will be specifically addressed by MedEWSa. Led by WMO, MedEWSa will be an exemplar of the UN Secretary General’s March 2022 call to ensure that everyone on Earth is protected from extreme weather and climate-related hazards by EWS within the next five years. Through eight carefully selected pilot sites (areas in Europe, the southern Mediterranean, and Africa with a history of being impacted by natural hazards and extreme events with cascading effects), four twins will be created: ● Twin #1: Greece (Attica) – Ethiopia (National Parks): wildfires and extreme weather events (droughts, wind) ● Twin #2: Italy (Venice) – Egypt (Alexandria / Nile Delta): coastal floods and storm surges ● Twin #3: Slovakia (Kosice) – Georgia (Tbilisi): floods and landslides ● Twin #4: Spain (Catalonia) – Sweden (countrywide): heatwaves, droughts and wildfires. The twins will bridge areas with different climatic/physiographic conditions, yet subject to similar hazards, and are well positioned to deliver long-term bi-directional knowledge transfer. They will demonstrate the transferability and versatility of the tools developed in MedEWSa.

The rapid growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its ubiquitous presence in our everyday life has significantly affected the way government services are delivered today. This poses constant challenges to safeguard the data confidentiality and integrity of e-government services, while increasing its adoption and usage by citizens and businesses. GLASS caters for a 'European Common Services Web', bringing closer together citizens, businesses and European governments. The project introduces a citizen-centric e-governance model that enables beneficiaries to participate in a network for big data exchange and service delivery, which is by design digital, efficient, cost-effective, interoperable, cross-border, secure and promotes the once-only priority. The GLASS solution comprises (i) a distributed file storage system, capable of addressing the complexity of the processes and their high demand on resources; (ii) a distributed ledger, which records every transaction among users to increase the overall transparency and trustworthiness; (iii) a distributed application (dapp) ecosystem for delivering mobile services tailored to the needs of its users; (iv) a single sign-on Wallet as a Service (WaaS) platform responsible for managing multiple services provided by each dapp; and (v) a Middleware Gateway Framework, responsible for the establishment of secure communication pathways among operational stakeholders and the integration of already existing e-governance systems with newly developed ones. GLASS brings together twelve (12) interdisciplinary partners from eight (8) countries to deliver a novel e-governance model and address the challenges that governance structures in the EU are currently facing - from divergent and legal groundwork to physical and technological limitations - towards the democratization and openness of the public administration services.

The ENTRUSTED consortium proposes to establish a Network of Users for governmental Satellite Communications, with the aim to achieve a reliable collaboration and coordination between them to eventually agree on common user needs and requirements, to share information about existing and planned future SatCom capabilities and to have a framework to establish symbiotic relationships when beneficial for the partners. The main project's results will be a consolidated set of institutional EU user requirements for secure SatCom services and a long-term Roadmap and Coordination plan for research and innovation activities related to the user technologies, to serve as reference guidelines for the future user related activities and pave the way for a potential future EU GOVSATCOM programme.

Europe needs to step up its efforts and strengthen its very own security capacities to secure its digital society, economy, and democracy. It is time to reconquer Europe’s digital sovereignty. The vision for Europe can only be to join forces across Europe’s research, industry and public sector and to include all talents not just those that have representation in the EU mainstream or are within big organizations. Diversity and inclusion are keys for success. Europe has incredible coverage and talent in the area of IT and cybersecurity. The area of cybersecurity is geographically fragmented across Europe for competences, and often also technically fragmented with problem-specific development of security solutions. There is no doubt that excellent research exists in Europe. Nevertheless, it is a fact that this research does not result in IT products and solutions that contribute to the European Single Digital Market. On contrary, a lot of research, also financed by EU ERC grants, is tested on real data in large US companies that cooperate with them. Europe has to and is already rethinking this strategy. CONCORDIA addresses the current fragmentation of security competence by networking diverse competences into a leadership role via a synergistic agglomeration of a pan-European Cybersecurity Center. The vision of CONCORDIA is to build a community a strong cooperation between all stakeholders, understanding that all stakeholders have their KPIs, bridging among them, and fostering the development of IT products and solutions along the whole supply chain. Technologically, it projects a broad and evolvable data-driven and cognitive E2E Security approach for the ever-complex ever-interconnected compositions of emergent data-driven cloud, IoT and edge-assisted ICT ecosystems.

The emergence of large drone systems that can be integrated with intelligent coordination technology has enabled Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) concepts that are poised to revolutionize a broad range of domains including transport (including logistics), and climate adaptation. Nevertheless, despite commendable global initiatives, Southeast Europe is facing challenges and delays in adopting and implementing AAM. In this context, we introduce EUSOME with the mission to propel the AAM R&I ecosystem in this part of Europe, addressing specific regional challenges arising from its distinctive geographical characteristics. Evidently, the region would heavily benefit from the development and adoption of a transformative transportation solution that has the potential to eradicate traffic congestion and provide a transformative climate adaptation solution to a heavily stressed ecosystem. Nevertheless, the incorporation of AAM presents regulatory complexities and lacks a driving force in terms of R&I in AAM, partly due to the absence of a cohesive, open R&I infrastructure and adequate specialized mentoring programs. The proposed EUSOME Excellence Hub endeavors to tackle these challenges head-on, assuming a pivotal role in establishing AAM as an integral component of the transportation landscape in the region. The consortium consists of experts across the whole AAM spectrum, from cutting-edge research departments, aircraft manufacturing, civil aviation authorities, relevant public agencies, experts in translating research into innovation, and representatives of the public society. This partnership enables EUSOME to deliver a diversified open R&I infrastructure, covering all needs within the AAM spectrum, a regional masterplan for the adoption of EASA’s recommendations on AAM, and a comprehensive mentoring, training, and service provider program for entities (businesses, public agencies, etc.) desiring to enter the AAM domain.