The transformation of the European Process Industry needs to embrace circular economy and restorative feedback loops, as a key pillar of the design of entire value chains. Construction, as a waste-intensive sector, is expected to greatly benefit from the potential impacts of circular economy models, to optimize the use of resources, reduce exploitation of raw materials and costs associated with its supply. In the construction and manufacturing process industries, a key challenge to allow the actual uptake of circular economy models and of upcycled /repurposed and/or recycled materials, lies on the need to guarantee that reclaimed materials can offer the same level of quality, performance, and safety of new secondary products. The aim of CIRCULess, is to contribute to foster circularity in the construction and manufacturing process industries, by minimizing Construction and Demolition waste (C&DW) as well as Manufacturing waste (CDM), with focus on mineral (i.e. concrete) and timber-based material streams, which is aligned with the objectives of the Processes4Planet Partnership, by developing new processes for circularity of secondary materials from wastes/residues for all industrial processes, without compromising quality and performance as well as sustainable-by-design circular products. CIRCULess main objective will be addressed by experimenting new circular products and novel processing techniques to improve the quality and performances of secondary materials up to industry expected standards, improve value chain environmental friendliness, maximize recycled components. These actions will benefit from the support and will provide inputs to a tailored digital platform to orient decision making and operational activities. Finally, to foster uptake by the construction sector, recommendations for standards updates and relevant training material for both upskilling current construction workforce and create new specialized profiles in the sector will be created.

“Nearly all growth in retail comes from e-commerce” states E-commerce Europe, as online sales in Europe grew by 13.3% while the growth in total retail sales merely reached 1% in 2015. However, cross-border sales constituted only 10.6% of Europe's total online sales in 2013, despite the European Commission’s (EC’s) estimate of €415 billion annual contribution to European economy from a European Digital Single Market (DSM), which is currently one of the top priorities of the EC. Besides language barriers and differences in legislature across the EU, the EC states that low engagement can be attributed to: 1) high compliance and delivery costs, 2) low consumer trust regarding foreign retailers’ delivery and after-sales support, and 3) low consumer awareness of foreign retailers. The EC has proposed several trade policy measures to facilitate a DSM. Yet, complementary operational business strategies that enable cross-border profitability under aforementioned challenges have not been explored, while trade measures are still under way. This project aims to develop an interdisciplinary modeling and optimization framework in order to study the dynamics of cross-border alliances between retailers for enhanced cross-border customer acquisition, distribution, and after-sales support. This much-needed framework will provide timely and reproducible models, leading to win-win horizontal cross-border alliances that leverage unique strengths of local retailers under high distribution and compliance costs, low cross-border consumer awareness, and consumer concerns on cross-border delivery and after-sales support. To that end, an interdisciplinary research that uses econometrics, economics, systems dynamics, and optimization literatures will be conducted to create models that can be translated into decision support systems. The proposed models will find future applications in banking and travel sectors, as they face similar challenges in their cross-border operations.

INTER-IoT project is aiming at the design, implementation and experimentation of an open cross-layer framework and associated methodology to provide voluntary interoperability among heterogeneous Internet of Things (IoT) platforms. The proposal will allow developing effectively and efficiently smart IoT applications, atop different heterogeneous IoT platforms, spanning single and/or multiple application domains. The overall goal of the INTER-IoT project is to provide a interoperable framework architecture for seamless integration of different IoT architectures present in different application domains. Interoperability will be provided at different levels: device, network, middleware, services and data. The two application domains and use cases addressed in the project and in which the IoT framework will be applied are m-health and port transportation and logistics. The project outcome may optimize different operations (e.g. increasing efficiency in transportation time; reducing CO2 emission in a port environment; improving access control and safety; improving remote patient attendance and increase the number of subject that surgery units can assist using the mobile devices with the same resources; reducing time spent in hospitals premises or reduce the time dedicated to the assistance activities carried out directly at the surgery with advantage for subjects in charge and also benefits those waiting, i.e. reduction of the waiting list) in the two addresses domains, but it may be extended to other application domains in which there is a need to interconnect different IoT architectures already deployed. The project may deal with interoperability at different layers.

COOPERATE overall objective is to develop and pilot the ERA Hub concept based on the vision and success stories developed within the EuroTech Universities Alliance and their R&I ecosystems. The overall approach revolves around co-creation Arenas in which ecosystems and a broader community of quadruple helix actors can interact. The piloting phases of the project’s implementation are expected to test the approach and pave the way for its consolidation and replication phase. The approach follows a mechanism in which leverage is sought to engage a broad range of stakeholders, activate cross-fertilization, facilitate mutual understanding, create intertwining cooperation, and jointly develop innovative ideas for shaping the ERA Hub framework model for further piloting and validation. The intended ERA Hub model builds on lines of action (e.g. access to knowledge and talents) which gather a set of initiatives/projects to animate the actors and stakeholders and operate the ecosystem around common priorities (i.e. strategic multi-annual roadmap) which reflect the mission-based approach. In this framework the key exploitable results include: 1) The ERA Hub model and associated PLAYBOOK, TOOLBOX and PLATFORM with compliance criteria to develop the ERA Hubs network; 2); the Policy Recommendations and content from co-creation activities. The consortium is aware that the outcome of the project is supporting the EC roadmap towards the launch of ERA Hubs as flagship initiative in Europe to boost the ERA, beyond the scope of the project. Tailor made communication, dissemination and exploitation actions will therefore create awareness and engagement within regional ecosystems in EU, building consensus in a close dialogue with EU and national/regional institutions. In particular two large events will be organised in Brussels at mid-term and at the end of the project for consensus building on the project findings and policy recommendations.

The overall goal of IDEALFUEL is to enable the utilization of lignin from lignocellulosic biomass as maritime fuel in a sustainable manner. IDEALFUEL aims to develop an efficient and low-cost chemical pathway to convert lignocellulosic biomass into a Bio Heavy Fuel Oil (Bio-HFO) with ultra-low sulphur levels that can be used as drop-in fuel in the existing maritime fleet. This will be achieved by the strategy to first extract lignin from lignocellulosic biomass as a Crude Lignin Oil (CLO) and to convert the CLO - in a second chemical step - into a Bio-HFO. The solid cellulose fraction, which will be separated from the CLO via simple filtration, can be used in the pulp and paper industry or converted into ethanol. Hemicellulose will either be separated from the CLO or end up in the Bio-HFO. IDEALFUEL’s ambition is to develop new technologies, solutions and processes from the current lab-scale (TRL3) via bench-scale (TRL4) to pilot scale (TRL5) and to prove the performance and compatibility of the Bio-HFO over the whole blending range in maritime fuel systems and marine engines. This includes a safety evaluation, which is necessary for the approval by the relevant regulatory bodies. Further, IDEALFUEL will prove the techno-economic potential to reach a cost level of 700 € per tonne in 2025, 600 € per tonne in 2030 and < 500 € per tonne beyond 2030 resulting from optimisation, scaling effects of larger plant sizes and repetitive installations. This is cost competitive with Ultra-Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (ULSFO) which current, 2019, price level is 450-550 €/ton. IDEALFUEL will also carry out a Well to Propeller impact assessment and Life Cycle Analysis to check and proof the soundness of the environmental, society and sustainability aspects of the to be developed technologies, processes, products and logistics.