Keratin is a fibrous and recalcitrant structural protein and is the third most abundant polymer in nature after cellulose and chitin. A wide spectrum of animals have developed a diversity of keratins used as structural parts of their outer protection which make up major component of feathers, hair, horns, hooves, cloves, nails etc. Their recalcitrant nature is due to properties such as a high degree of cross-linking by disulphide bonds, hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. Keratin-laden tissues represents a significant challenge for the animal rendering industry. For example, feathers consist of more than 90% keratin and represent a huge waste product of the poultry industry, where most ends up in landfills or is being burned. Similar challenges exist for other keratin-containing biomass waste. Today, most feather waste is discarded or ineffectively rendered for animal feed or fertilizer. This project will address the application of selected anaerobic thermophilic bacteria which can be optimised for keratin-laden waste material degradation as well as the understanding of the enzyme activities within the bacterial species responsible for this degradation. This will lead to improved control and understanding of the overall keratin-degrading process and its improvement and efficiency by using organisms expressing the required activities or using novel enzyme cascades of thermophilic keratin degrading enzymes in vitro optimised for keratin breakdown in a cost effective and controllable manner. ThermoK will bring together a multidisciplinary team of academics in order to take the results obtained to a transfer level 5 and above, including upscaling of the process. The project will contribute to the designing of more sustainable and resilient food systems and contribute to the vision of a circular economy by using waste products and converting them to other valuable commercial products including peptides, amino acids, fish feed and agricultural fertilizers.

South African higher education (HE) is characterised by inequalities of access, participation and success, and hence youth disadvantage, yet it is also seen as central to economic development and social mobility. The aim of the research, captured in the production of an innovative HE Index, is to develop an integrated, policy-oriented theorisation of pathways to learning outcomes that foregrounds equality and quality for young people from rural areas and townships when they are preparing for university, their experiences at university, and their graduate outcomes, and to understand what enables the realization of the transformative potential of HE for them. The project conceptualises raising learning outcomes as a process of multi-dimensional 'capabilities' expansion and realization of plural valued 'functionings'. Using the capability approach allows an understanding of how various factors interact to inhibit or enable capabilities that are valuable to individuals and to building a decent society. The project will uncover interrelated personal, educational and social challenges that account for the inequities in outcomes experienced by young people from challenging backgrounds, and standing in the way of quality HE for all. In particular, the project will focus on HE students supported by Thusanani Foundation (http://www.thusananifoundation.org), a youth-led not-for-profit organisation. Working with the Foundation provides access to disadvantaged youth and their educational pathways into, in and beyond higher education, and is a site through which important user insights can be gained. The mixed-method study will explore contextual factors - families, schools, university educational and social arrangements, and work-readiness activities - that enable and inhibit higher education pathways for these students. In particular, it will investigate what learning outcomes are valued by students themselves and by other stakeholders, why they are valued, and whether and how they are achieved. Engagement with stakeholders and impact activities are built into the project from the outset; the evidence-informed and consultative process will generate practice recommendations and policy options. The main research participants are Thusanani Foundation supported students, attending four historically diverse universities, over four years from 2nd HE year to post graduation. Against a backdrop analysis of documentation, literature and national statistical data of inequalities and learning outcomes (cohort analyses), we will use quantitative (survey of n=700 Thusanani supported students; final year students n=1600), longitudinal qualitative methods (life histories; interviews, n=48 x 4 years), as well as notes of stakeholder meetings and visual methods to explore, at macro and micro levels, student experiences and learning outcomes. The methodology includes a participatory element with young people (students plus mentors) as researchers (n=32) and the interviews they conduct (n=40), to allow co-construction of ideas and to explore how participation in research might enhance learning outcomes. Interviews with Foundation student mentors (24); Foundation Board members (5); and, ethnographic field notes of Foundation work with school pupils will provide insight into the motivations, strategies and possibilities of raising learning outcomes. The project thus provides an integrated analysis of access, higher education experiences and graduate outcomes, with attention to educational, social and economic impacts. The data will be analysed in terms of: (1) structural distributive patterns of opportunities and achievements, including an analysis of the differences made by Thusanani Foundation; (2) a framework of capabilities inhibition and expansion, profiled inductively and deductively; and, (3) multi-dimensional HE learning outcomes Index of practical use to policy makers and development agencies, going beyond narrow measures of completion rates.

Critical raw materials (CRMs) are fundamental to the EU industrial value chains and strategic sectors, particularly with regard to the green energy transition. Currently, the EU domestic supply of primary CRMs is below 3% for many important commodities. To obtain an improved understanding of the EU?s critical raw materials potential, discover new ore deposits and thereby increase the internal sourcing of CRMs and secure its raw materials autonomy, the EU aims to boost the exploration and production of CRMs. Orthomagmatic mineral systems host important green transition (critical) raw materials (GTRM) including Ni, Cu, Co, V, Ti, Cr and platinum-group elements (PGE). There are currently only 2 mines in operation producing these metals in the EU, though there is potential for additional mines in several EU countries. This project is designed to develop socially and environmentally sustainable means of exploration for orthomagmatic CRMs. We will apply, for the first time in the EU, the Mineral Systems Approach to guide exploration for orthomagmatic CRMs. We will thereby generate improved ore models for orthomagmatic mineral deposits which will be translated to mappable exploration criteria to delineate areas of high exploration potential, from regional scale to local scale. Through collaboration between geosciences and social sciences the project will also develop methods to promote social awareness of the importance of responsible exploration and mining. Further, we will map the exploration and production potential of CRM in the EU and key CRM supplier countries. Our research will be conducted at five reference sites in Finland, Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic representing different geological, social and environmental conditions. The ultimate goal is to promote responsible sourcing of CRMs in the EU and diversify the supply from third countries, thereby securing the continued supply of CRMs for EU industries.

Based on a previous EU project on innovation in South Africa we realized there was a need for a capacity building project in the region. As previous projects had focused on mobility of students and staff, we wanted to create a project that would train and support the university staff in developing innovation in their universities.We put together a set of models which would affect employment of graduates, operation of innovation centers as well as structured meetings between universities and the industry. This has the potential to increase innovation and entrepreneurship in South Africa while increasing employment of graduates, increasing research collaborations with the industry and strengthening all sides of the knowledge triangle

The project aims to build capacity to internationalise and transform higher education curricula by broadening student participation in the internationalisation process. The project is key as institutions are not prepared for curriculum internationalisation, which will become mandatory in the near future, particularly as physical student mobility is unable to reach a sufficient number of students in South Africa.iKUDU will develop and effect strategies to guide curriculum internationalisation through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) virtual exchanges. COIL is a novel teaching and learning initiative that advances global competencies across shared multicultural learning environments using Internet-based tools and online pedagogies. Students in two countries use electronic communication to work jointly through virtual exchange. Noteworthy is the intentional development of intercultural communicative competence amongst staff and students. Working with a peer in another country, the lecturer facilitates the competencies and skills necessary to live and work in a multicultural, interconnected world through COIL virtual exchanges. The project will train 55 teaching staff to become experts in curriculum internationalisation and transformation, and COIL virtual exchange. They will be equipped to train additional COIL virtual exchange experts. During the project’s lifespan, 55 sustainable COIL virtual exchanges will be developed with European partner universities, in which 2625 South African students will partake.The impact of the project will be that all students at partner institutions will benefit from internationalised and transformed curricula. The 55 trained COIL virtual exchange experts, who will be competent to train future cohorts, will be a critical mass to ensure that in the longer term a substantive part of the student population at South African partner universities will be able to access international exposure through COIL virtual exchanges.