EU projects

Bringing plastics into line with the demands of a circular economy is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The EU financed project called C-PlaNeT is laying the foundation for a new plastics industry by training fifteen young researchers to become the new generation of scientists. The project will train these researchers to focus on complementary skills such as entrepreneurship and the translation of research into policy. The researchers have a background in chemistry, social sciences, engineering, political sciences, product design and business model development. They will be involved in international research and will be active in the plastics industry where they will also raise awareness through public outreach.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of C-PlaNeT.

Innovation in tendon medicine is a promising field of research to respond to the urgent societal and economic demand in the healthcare sector. The aim of the EU-financed project “Perspectives For Future Innovation in Tendon repair (P4 FIT)” is to equip a new generation of 15 early stage researchers with adequate skills to explore non-conventional therapeutic and diagnostic solutions by exploiting the technological advances in nanomedicine. The interdisciplinary and intersectoral educational environment will booster innovation-driving training and research grounded in excellence for widening success in P4 medicine (predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory), promoting tendinopathy resolution. P4 FIT will encourage cross-disciplinary working coordinated by human and veterinary orthopedics specialists while incorporating innovation and R&D facilities to combine multidrug nanotheranostic systems with tissue engineering. The transfer of these technologies will lead to solid, evidence-based datasets that offer unique opportunities for identifying new predictive biomarkers through the use of artificial intelligence and deep learning data analysis.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of P4 FIT.

Non-linear optimization problems are present in many real-life applications and in scientific fields such as operations research, control engineering, physics, information processing, economics, biology, and so on. However, efficient computational procedures that can provide the guaranteed global optimum are lacking. The project will develop new polynomial optimization methods, combining moment relaxation procedures with computational algebraic tools to address this type of problem.

The network combines the expertise of active European teams working in these two areas to address important challenges in polynomial optimization and to demonstrate the impact of this research on practical applications.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of POEMA.

Economic, geopolitical and social trends arising from environmental concerns are precipitating legislative actions for the partial substitution of diesel by cleaner fuels. Natural gas/diesel dual-fuel engines offer a means of meeting current and future emissions standards. Funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie program, EDEM will develop direct numerical simulation and large-eddy simulation techniques for fuel injection, mixing and combustion processes relevant to dual-fuel engines. The newly derived models will serve as input for the design of more efficient internal combustion engines.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of EDEM.

In orthopedic implants, such as joint prostheses, postoperative infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise, which represent a heavy burden for patients and healthcare systems. This is why the prevention of biofilm formation on the surface of the implants is so important. The EU-funded AIMed project will develop a series of biomaterials with anti-bacterial properties and laser processing will be used to make the biomaterials more resistant to the formation of biofilms. A network of 12 companies and six partner institutions will test the properties of the new materials to demonstrate that they are suitable for use in future implant interventions.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of AIMed.

Elevating the temperature in tumors to 40-44 °C – a process known as hyperthermia – is emerging as an attractive anti-cancer treatment that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The key objective of the EU-funded HYPERBOOST project is to further improve the effectiveness and synergy of hyperthermia by identifying and implementing optimal temperature levels and optimal timing with other modalities in different tumor types. Researchers will investigate the mechanisms responsible for the therapeutic effect of hyperthermia using an interdisciplinary approach that combines biology, physics and oncology. The generated knowledge and practical tools will pave the way for personalized hyperthermia treatment with improved clinical results.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of Hyperboost.

Although pancreatic cancer is the 11th most common cancer worldwide, it is the seventh leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally. Despite advances in diagnosis and management of pancreatic cancer, the five-year survival rate still remains less than 10%. The PRECODE training network is taking advantage of a newly developed technique for the self-assembly of functional organ-mimicking tissues grown in a laboratory to speed drug development for this lethal disease. In this project, young researchers are honing their skills in culturing and manipulating pancreatic organoids to better understand disease progression. Ultimately, using pancreatic organoids developed from the patient’s cells could lead to personalized medicine that is targeted, specific and highly effective against pancreatic cancer.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of PRECODE.

Highly flexible slender structures like yarns, cables, hoses or ropes are essential parts of high‐performance engineering systems. The complex response of such structures in real operational conditions is far beyond the capabilities of current modeling tools that are at the core of modern product development cycles. Addressing this requires a new generation of brilliant scientists. Marie Skłodowska‐Curie funding of the THREAD project will bring together young mechanical engineers and mathematicians, who will develop mechanical models and numerical methods for designing highly flexible slender structures, and support the development of future virtual prototyping tools for products where such structures have a key role in functional system performance. The project will invest in transferable skills through secondments, and will also offer early‐stage researchers experience with industrial partners. Addressing fundamental modeling problems will ultimately enable the sector to better meet the needs of different industries.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of THREAD.

Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are a new way of farming fish. This technology makes it possible to raise fish in any climate and location, no matter the temperature outside. This is good news since aquaculture is the fastest-growing animal food sector today. In this context, the EU-funded RASOPTA project will develop new technologies for improving water quality by reducing nutrient levels and controlling the abundance of harmful bacteria and parasites. The project will also design sensory and instrumental methods to determine ideal rearing conditions for optimum taste. It will also develop a DNA-based chip to warn of emerging problems in operating RAS.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of RASOPTA.

The development of high quality products and processes is essential for the future competitiveness of the European economy. In most key technology areas, product development is increasingly based on simulation and optimization via mathematical models that allow the design and functionality to be optimized using free design parameters.

ROMSOC will work towards this goal for high dimensional and coupled systems that describe different physical phenomena on different scales; it will derive a common framework for different industrial applications and train the next generation of researchers in this highly interdisciplinary field.

For more information on the project, please visit the project website of ROMSOC.