Documentation and conservation of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) is crucial to preserve humankind’s history and traditions, safeguarding tangible testimonies of past human life while ensuring its accessibility to present and future generations. TECTONIC project will promote an intersectoral collaboration between academic and non-academic professionals (such as technical experts, archaeologists, conservator, geologists, engineers, computer scientists) working in different topics related to the UCHs to respond and find solutions to the complex issues still existing in the field of UCH. The overall aim is the exchange of skills and expertise, the training activities for the implementation, improvement and assessment of innovative materials, techniques, tools and methodologies to develop solutions and marketable products for the conservation, restoration and management of the UCH (objects, artefacts, structures, remains etc.). To achieve its overall aim, TECTONIC project will undertake innovation and development activities driven by the following objectives: Study, documentation and 3D reconstruction of the selected pilot sites; Decision support tool for UCH risk assessment in a changing environment; Conservation studies, protocols and suitable procedures for preservation/conservation activities; Development of open and low-cost robotic solutions for the inspection, documentation and monitoring of UCH; Raising the public awareness and knowledge about the importance to preserve the underwater historical and archaeological heritage. All the objectives will be devoted to stimulate new ideas that would bring to the development of new marketable products by capitalizing on the research results that will be achieved in the project, creating a link between business, research and higher education.

The need to develop and use products made out of residues or sub-products from industry is creating pressure over fields where more traditional, linear economy concepts prevail. In this project we address one important stage of the life cycle of products, particularly trying to extend its service life, thereby contributing for advances towards circular economy via increase in durability of materials and use of greener materials. In particular, this proposal addresses the problem of protection and monitoring of corrosion of metallic substrates used in different applications. Structured in previous experience with a recently finished MSCA-RISE project SMARCOAT (ref. 645662, 2015-2018), this project aims at developing eco-friendly multifunctional coatings with capacity to protect and detect corrosion based on different mechanisms combining nanostructured inhibiting and sensing additives. Two types of coating systems are intended to be developed, one for temporary protection during storage and transportation based on biodegradable materials and another on thermosetting polymers obtained using raw materials from sustainable sources. A relevant part of this project includes the study of fate and ecotoxicity of different coating components and Life cycle analysis, which will be equaled as a figure of merit with performance factors to select the most promising systems and launch demonstrators for standard and field tests.

Fibre-reinforced plastic composites (FRPC) are widely used in advanced fields such as aviation, shipbuilding, wind energy, etc. FRPC structures, during exploitation, lose loadbearing capacity because of local damage, icing, water absorption and other factors. The specific objective of the MIRACLES fundamental research is FRPC with the tailored additional functionality of damage monitoring, de-icing, self-sensing, and moisture barrier protection. These functions are implemented using thin MXene-dopped coatings and (or) interlayers. Novel two-dimensional MXene nanoparticles uniquely combine high electrical conductivity and mechanical properties realised under the high alignment of the particles in thin coatings and (or) interlayers. The workflow in the project combines theoretical modelling and experimental research with nano-engineered technologies for validation, upscaling, and demonstrating. Novel eco-friendly methods of MXene delamination and exfoliation will be explored together with the possibilities of reagent recycling. An automated spray and print methods with precisely controlled nanoparticle quality will be explored. Layer sensitivity will be improved with the new technology using different nanoparticle and polymer configurations. New surface temperature annealing, antioxidants, and protective polymer coatings will be explored to increase stability further. The objectives and contributions to the impact will be achieved through 117 secondments for 205 person-months, homework, and other networking actions. The interdisciplinary and intersectoral consortium of six academic and four industrial partners from six EU countries has complementary expertise in Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical Sciences. By starting from TRL3, the project plans to grow forward to TRL6. The greatest impact of this innovation will be achieved by making FRPC structures safer, cleaner and cheaper.

The proposal aims to develop an innovative approach to impart sensing functionality and detect substrate degradation. The degradation processes targeted will be corrosion of metallic substrates and mechanical damage by impact on fibre reinforced plastics and composites (FRP), used as structural components in the vehicle industry worldwide. The innovative sensing materials are based on controlled release of active species, encapsulated in polymeric and inorganic capsules with sizes ranging from several micrometres down to the nanometre range. These will be designed and prepared in a way that responds to specific triggers associated with the nature of the degradation process. The functional materials will be subsequently incorporated as additives in organic and hybrid organic-inorganic coating matrices, or directly impregnated in the substrate (FRP). The goal is to get coatings capable of sensing substrate degradation at early stages, making maintenance operations cost-effective without jeopardizing safety. The range of selected materials encloses systems conceptually designed to be prepared and tested for the first time at lab scale (high breakthrough at research level) and others already studied at lab scale with promising results and which can already be tested at pilot scale (high innovation level). Furthermore, the characterization encompasses lab-scale, cutting-edge technologies and modelling, as well as upscaling and industrial validation. The consortium upon which the present proposal is set has strong knowledge and previous experience in the topics above presented, reflected upon previous participation in large FP7 EU-projects as well as on Marie Curie actions (IRSES). Therefore, part of the interdisciplinary exchanging network necessary to successfully achieve the objectives and allow a flow and sharing environment of people, knowledge and methods has already been tested in previous projects with positive results.