Soft responsive materials and new fabrication schemes are key ingredients to develop new disruptive technologies for robotic elements and devices. Such devices are anticipated to revolutionize the fields of minimally invasive surgery, targeted drug delivery, material sampling and manipulation, responsive functional surfaces and human-machine interfaces. The use of soft responsive, instead of hard inert, matter in these areas provides unique features such as the material being able to sense the environment and autonomously perform complex tasks – “the material is the machine”. In this scenario, liquid crystal elastomers are receiving an increasing deal of attention as they exhibit large, programmable mechanical deformations in response to different stimuli. Europe has played a leading role in liquid crystal science since its birth. To be at the forefront also tomorrow, we aim at harnessing the full potential of liquid-crystal-based responsive surfaces, soft actuators and smart machines. Encompassing aspects from chemistry, physics, materials science, advanced manufacturing and robotics, we will train 13 science-educated and engineering-minded young pioneers to advance the state of the art of this exciting research field. STORM-BOTS will count on academic and non-academic leaders from top research institutions and with unique scientific and technical expertise, in order to provide the next generation of scientists and engineers the best possible research environment for developing new materials and manufacturing tools to enable advanced robotic functions. Based on innovative individual research projects, STORM-BOTS will provide the students with a transnational, comprehensive, highly integrated, multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral training programme. Through local and network-wide training activities, the students will learn the many faces of this cutting-edge research area, as well as a variety of relevant transferable skills needed for their future careers.

Floating PV, if it is to aid the transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society and contribute towards the EU policy goals, must overcome 3 challenges that are also high-lighted in the Work Programme. FPV must prove its sustainability, by demonstrating low impact on biodiversity and satisfy end-of-life requirements, its longevity and reliability by demonstrating system components that satisfy structural and functional requirements for the entire lifecycle, and its affordability, by reducing the LCOE from FPV power plants. These are the challenges that the objectives of SuRE seek to overcome. Activities are structured into 3 generalizable topics, SUstainability, Reliability, and Efficiency, which gives SuRE FPV its name, and are designed to advance the entire FPV industry. We will further work with concrete technology developments for 3 leading European FPV technologies to improve their design, sustainability, cost-competitiveness and application range. The three FPV technology providers are Ciel et Terre (CTI), who have installed 650 MW globally, Zimmermann PV-Steel Group (ZIM), who is dominating the European FPV market, and Sunlit Sea (Sunlit) who is providing a innovative FPV solution for off-shore deployment. CTI has recently prototyped a new floater design, which will be developed and tested in SuRE, first 50 kW, then on 5 MW scale. ZIM aims to expand their technology to higher sea states, and will build a 5 MW based on the developments in floater-, connection- and anchoring- technology in SuRE. Sunlit are about to scale up their FPV technology and see potential for large reductions in cost and CO2 footprint through the activities planned in SuRE. They will build a smaller, but still commercially relevant, pilot of 100 on the Norwegian cost. Ultimately, SuRE will provide both cost-efficient and sustainable new FPV technologies and generalizable knowledge, thereby expanding the potential application areas without environmental sacrifices.

SYSCHEMIQ will demonstrate how to migrate to a circular urban-industrial cross-border district, i.e. the CHEMELOT Circular Hub (CCH) in the Trilateral Euregio of NL, BE and DE. A Circular Economy Action Plan and a (4BEUR) Investment Agenda (2020-2030) are available. Stakeholder involvement schemes are in place, to allow governance within an ecosystem (Regional Government, Municipality, Industries, Educational and Research Institutes, Utilities and Cluster Management): a new way of working to overcome key-bottlenecks. Investment decisions have been made to set up mechanical recycling (4kT/a) and a 150 M€ semi-industrial (18kT/a) chemical pilot recycling plant, to run demos with optimised real-life Mixed Plastic Waste (MPW) streams. We will demo systemic solutions 1) a novel Dual-Track multistakeholder governance model, underpinned by the recently developed Plastic Recycling Impact Scenario: PRISM model (TRL6), and CIMS digital-twin 2) the CCH circular governance model (TRL6), 3) community-based innovation schemes; a Circular City Lab, citizens incentives schemes, incubator and novel skills development and innovation programmes with students (vocational, professional and academic) in a Circular Learning Lab (CHILL), 4) new plastic waste collection, sorting standards/protocols and technologies (e.g. prototype sorting line TRL6) for alignment of material flows in the value chain, 5) new Design rules (TRL 5) for plastic packaging products favouring mechanical and chemical recycling. Considering circa 1.1 Mt of MPW in NL and 30 Mt in EU, scenario calculations promise huge savings of 11.4 Mt CO2 eq./a and 190 kT/a virgin polyolefins. Business modelling and upscaling study will prepare investments in a 100-400 kT/a full-scale recycling facility. A structured Twinning programme with at least 5 selected regions (incl. Flanders and Lombardy), will foster replication, with the support of EU Platform organisations (ECRN, PRE) and in collaboration with the CCRI.