Two of the major hurdles for the chemical industry transition toward the “chemical factory of the future” are the ability to design (i) efficient and selective catalytic transformations of renewables and (ii) eco-efficient separation processes to retrieve and purify the product(s) and catalyst(s). Future generations of researchers (academic &industry) will need to be trained and equipped with these expertise that constitute the main goal of ChimSep. ChimSep aims at establishing an inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral European Joint Doctorate programme offering challenging and innovative research and training in sustainable catalytic synthesis and sustainable membrane separation processes. The network is based on 7 academics, 7 industrials partners and 1 bio-economy cluster. Such a network gathering internationally renowned experts in the two topics has never been built-up and carried in Europe. ChimSep will implement an unprecedented and high-level training programme in order to provide the 13 Doctorate Candidates (DC) with a double culture/competency in both chemical synthesis and membrane separation. The capability of future European researchers to work at the interface of different domains and to master the entire process chain is a key to increase the competitiveness of European chemical research and industry by the progressive replacement of distillation by membrane processes at least 10 times less energy consuming. Each DC will benefit from training through a research project conducted in two academic sites plus a secondment in industry. DCs will acquire complementary soft skills provided during network events, interdisciplinary summer schools, workshops and a collective research project. All DCs will be hosted few months by industrials. Furthermore, ChimSep has designed an innovative supervision policy to favour fruitful exchanges between DC and senior scientists providing an exceptional training experience, through extensive research and complementary skills development.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common inherited heart disease (prevalence 1:200 - 1:500), manifested by thickening of cardiac walls, increasing risks of arrhythmia, and sudden cardiac death. HCM affects all ages - it is the leading cause of death among young athletes. Comorbidities due to gene mutations include altered vascular control, and, caused by HCM, ischemia, stroke, dementia, or psychological and social difficulties. Multiple causal mutations and variations in cellular processes lead to highly diverse phenotypes and disease progression. However, HCM is still diagnosed as one single disease, leading to suboptimal care. SMASH-HCM will develop a digital-twin platform to dramatically improve HCM stratification and disease management, both for clinicians and patients. Multilevel and multiorgan dynamic biophysical and data-driven models are integrated in a three-level deep phenotyping approach designed for fast uptake into the clinical workflow. SMASH-HCM unites 8 research partners, 3 hospitals, 3 SMEs, and a global health-technology corporation in collaboration with patients to advance the state of the art in human digital-twins: including in-vitro tools, in-silico from molecular to systemic level models, structured and unstructured data analysis, explainable artificial intelligence - all integrated into a decision support solution for both healthcare professionals and patients. SMASH-HCM delivers new insights into HCM, improved patient care and guidance, validated preclinical tools, and above all, a first HCM stratification and management strategy, validated in a pilot clinical trial, and tested with end users. Thus providing a cost efficient and effective solution for this complex disease. SMASH-HCM develops a strategy towards fast regulatory approval. In reaching its goals, SMASH-HCM serves as a basis for future digital-twin platforms for other cardiac diseases integrating models and data from various scales and sources.

Soil bacteria are of critical importance to soil health. Soil pore-size distribution over multiple length scales, which facilitates nutrient transport, depends on the presence of soil aggregates, cohesive organo-mineral assemblies formed by bacterial activity. Aggregates support plant health and increase soil stability. Although restoring aggregate structure in degraded soil can yield great benefits for extreme-weather resilience and agricultural productivity, we lack any mechanistic understanding of how aggregates are formed by bacteria. This knowledge gap hampers the deployment of promising bio-augmentation strategies for soil restoration, such as inoculation of soil with aggregate-promoting bacteria. The objective of AgriGate is to narrow this gap by elucidating the biophysical mechanisms of bacterial aggregate-formation. I will focus on the reciprocal mechanical interactions between bacteria and soil grains, using interdisciplinary methods over multiple spatial scales. I will first develop a novel microfluidic chip granting real-time optical access to bacterial dynamics inside a three-dimensional bed of model soil grains. AgriGate’s hypotheses are that (1) there exists an optimal grain size and inoculant richness for bacteria-led aggregation, and (2) that bacterial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are necessary for aggregation. I will test these hypotheses by varying grain size, inoculant richness, and bacterial EPS-production in the chip. Microfluidic experiments will be combined with experiments in bacteria-loaded soil columns observed by X-ray tomography, to extend results to the macroscopic scale and link microscale structure to macroscale function. The search for optimal aggregation conditions will be formalized mechanistically and extended by a numerical model of bacterial colony growth in a cohesive granular medium. Together, AgriGate’s new tools and results will provide a strong basis for fundamental and applied studies on soil bio-augmentation.

Nitrate pollution remains a significant concern for water quality. Since the 90s, Europe has been actively working to reduce nitrate levels and improve water quality. Yet, restoring water quality is a slow process as nitrates may remain for decades within aquifers as a legacy. While imperative, assessing Nitrate Recovery Capacity (NRC) faces challenges due to strong variabilities in nitrate transfer times and percentages removed by bacterial consumption within anoxic zones, often requiring intricate models. Here, we propose to leverage an innovative regional-scale assessment method to investigate the correlation between NRC and a readily accessible catchment attribute: lithology. Comparing nitrate concentrations with proxies of conservatively transferred element, NIRECAS determines the nitrate reactivity and legacy of a region. Within consistent geological contexts, the method analyzes the correlation between these factors and lithology while providing uncertainties of the correlation estimates. Our objectives are to (i) investigate the control of lithology on nitrate reactivity and legacy using 200 pilot sites in the Armorican Massif (France) taken as a first experimental region and (ii) extend and generalize the methodology to other European regions. Our deliverables include (1) a methodology for regional scale NRC mapping using available lithology databases, (2) maps of NRC for one to several European regions where lithology is found to be the primary controlling factor, (3) a user-friendly interface to a priori assess the percentage and transfer time of nitrate removed. This should provide key information on the ability of vulnerable regions to restore water quality while catching the legacy of past agricultural practices at the relevant resolution. Besides, NIRECAS should serve as a valuable predictive tool to assess the impact of current agricultural strategies on future generations and support the transition of practices over the medium and long term.

PAROMA-MED will develop, validate and evaluate a platform - based hybrid-cloud delivery framework for privacy- and security- assured services and applications in federative cross-border environments. To this purpose, the project will develop new architectures, technologies, tools and services to support: - automatic attestation of federation partners - privacy- and security - by-design, integrating standard compliance and performance / QoS requirements into a policy framework - consumers with their rights for opt-in / opt-out consent, portability and right to be forgotten requests, as well as transparency in access to their private-data. - federative Identity and Access Management, based on Zero Trust principles, continuous risk assessment and on confidentiality, integrity and authenticity insurance - privacy-preserving and trusted data - storage and - processing in federative environments - flexible and secure access over the Internet to private-data and service resources - AI / ML by-design, integrating platform services to be used by application developers for data-intensive applications - Zero Touch deployment and automatic life-cycle management of services and applications - managed Privacy and Security operations for automated policy enforcement and cyberthreat detection and mitigation Efficiency and scalability will be insured by the implementation of cloud-native solutions, while future adoption and further development is insured by open-source implementations. The project will validate and evaluate the PAROMA-MED framework by developing of a comprehensive Use Case with real users in the Healthcare sector. The project will create impact on the application- creation and delivery ecosystem (including standardization and legal stakeholders), on society and environment and manage the impact via dedicated activities and communication channels.