The SpeechXRays project will develop and test in real-life environments a user recognition platform based on voice acoustics analysis and audio-visual identity verification. SpeechXRays will outperform state-of-the-art solutions in the following areas: · Security: high accuracy solution (cross over accuracy of 1/100 i.e. twice the commercial voice/face solutions) · Privacy: biometric data stored in the device (or in a private cloud under the responsibility of the data subject) · Usability: text-independent speaker identification (no pass phrase), low sensitivity to surrounding noise · Cost-efficiency: use of standard embedded microphone and cameras (smartphones, laptops). The project will combine and pilot two proven techniques: acoustic driven voice recognition (using acoustic rather than statistical only models) and multi-channel biometrics incorporating dynamic face recognition (machine vision analysis of speech, lip movement and face). The vision of the SpeechXRays project is to provide a solution combining the convenience and cost-effectiveness of voice biometrics, achieving better accuracies by combining it with video, and bringing superior anti-spoofing capabilities. The technology will be deployed on 2000 users in 3 pilots: a workforce use case, an eHealth use case and a consumer use case. The project lasts 36 months and is coordinated by world leader in digital security solutions for the mobility space.

Societies underinvest in research either because it is a long term process and the results are not easily seen, either because of the complexity of this enterprise. This along with other difficulties weighs on the researchers who lack the will or power to get more engaged in the public life which further affects the trust in science and research. Breaking the vicious circle is a slow process and should be based on a genuine partnership between the researchers, as promoters of new findings about the world's true nature, the society as a whole, with its most stringent but also subtles needs, and the communication facilitators as a way to surface the unexpressed realities. The partnership, ReCoNnect-ing these different views, should be effective in educating the present citizens, but also shaping the teaching approaches for the members of the future society. This consortium is made up from 6 research institutes, 4 universities, 1 public body, and 2 civil community associations experienced in promoting science and STEM education, which supported the development of one of the largest educational networks in the country in connection also with EU programmes. Together, we propose a highly innovative concept of European Researchers' Night rooted in a long experience with the programme and well supported by the partner's institutions, which we will implement in a nationwide campaign comprising 21 events in representative urban areas. Three UNESCO/aspiring geoparks will organize events in rural areas, while others will be encouraged to participate remotely. Focusing the conversation, we tackle a topic of great interest for the European Union countries: The European Green Deal. We propose to map the current perceptions and expectations of the population on this programme by a large number of encounters with the public, and to better communicate on the endeavors and successes that Romanian researchers have in contributing to the very ambitious goals of the EU programme.

Researchers worldwide are struggling nowadays to solve some of the critical issues which pose a threat to our future life on Earth. While everyone heard about the climate change, smart cities, freshwater and ocean pollution, soil degradation which conduct to poor quality of food, or cancer, but most of the time only with respect to disasters or an uncertain future, the researchers are actively involved into identifying practical solutions for all these threats, developing devices and systems to monitor, control and diminish their effect, and to cure people and Earth. These missions will have the chance of becoming effective only by ReCoNnect-ing the researchers to the society, by developing a mutual respect and understanding one needs a will to listen, to be open to the new and to explore. As such, we propose the adoption of a special life strategy, that of continuous and active learning, in which all those involved, scientists, communicators or the general public, are active learners interacting with each other. The consortium is made up from 5 research institutes, the largest and most prestigious in the country, 4 universities, with high scientific expertise but also including journalism faculties and one public scientific body, that have been participating in previous research outreach events and coordinate some of the largest STEM educational networks (teachers and pupils) derived from the European programmes. By organization of 20 NIGHT events yearly, also in rural areas, and a strong involvement of researchers at school along the 2 years project implementation, we are confident in the strengthening of the science communication and educational programs already developed, increasing, meanwhile, the number of researchers involved in outreach activities. These allow us to look to the future with new hopes of an active and cultured society towards solving the humanity issues through science and awareness.

Doing Research Midnight in ROmania (DoReMi-RO) 2020 is the International Year of Sound, an area of high importance for science and technologies for all in modern society. Our team goal is to join the European Researchers’ Night event in Romania with this initiative, in order to emphasize both research activities and technological development mixed with sounds and music: DoReMi-RO. The promotion and dissemination of the research results among young people, in one day event, is at the same time welcome but also insufficient. For the moment the kids' curiosity will be sparked but on the next day they feel that everything is beautifully solved in science and there is not much left to do. Then, the research as a career might be unattractive. After a single successful evening, as the Night is, the event must be transformed into a new public challenge based on the well-known concept of collaborative engagement. Thus, the general objective of the project is to raise awareness on research results baked by experiments, involving the participants in a particular citizen science project whereby researchers and the public are working together. The collaborative process will take place before, during and after the Night event and aims to make the magnetic map of Romania. All together will use common smartphones to measure the magnetic field, throughout Romania. The anonymous collaborative public have to send us the measured data, along with the GPS coordinates, uploaded on an internet web-platform. DoReMi-RO event will be held in more than 15 cities, spread throughout entire Romanian territory, among which: Baia Mare, Brasov, Bucharest, Cluj, Constanta, Craiova, Iași, Pitesti, Timișoara, Sibiu and Suceava. All proposed activities are represented by various minds-on and open-air activities: hands-on experiments, debates about collaborative engagement types, games, quizzes, organized in an amusing and stimulated manner by real researchers.

Radon is an unique atmospheric tracer, and high-quality measurements of direct atmospheric radon concentration complemented by indirect (by progeny) measurements at a key unique location in the Atlantic will open up multiple possibilities for climate science, as well as in terms of radio protection and nuclear surveillance. The radon observations will provide an accurate time-varying baseline reference level for European GHG enabling clearer distinction between emissions and slowly changing background levels. In addition to GHG baseline estimates, the quantification - based on atmospheric radon concentration - of the degree of terrestrial influence on air masses will significantly assist multiple atmospheric and multidisciplinary environmental studies. These will be addressed in the project, including the quantification of pollution events, the investigation of the feedback of natural planktonic communities occurring at the surface North Atlantic to GHG emissions, and atmospheric studies of marine boundary layer clouds and aerosols. The project will also increase understanding on wet deposition and meteorological processes influencing ambient gamma dose rate that need to be taken into account in setting threshold alarm levels of nuclear surveillance networks for radiological protection purposes.