The project intends to explore the feasibility of introducing to the market Sea Litter Critters, a compact, unmanned, renewables-powered and self sufficient marine litter collection and treatment vessel based on a patent pending device treating waste thermally with plasma technology and no harmful emissions. This device is designed to operate near the shores especially nearer tourist facilities substituting the mechanical collection of litter currently adopted. By picking up litter (plastic debris mostly) near the point of entry, Sea Litter Critters contribute to minimising the pollution risks linked to plastic in the sea, where plastic items become brittle and break down into small particles, but basically never dissolve. Such particles can be eaten by zooplankton thus enter the foodchain. Therefore picking up plastic debris while still intact and as soon as possible after their disposal supports and complement in the short term all the high level policy actions for litter prevention (minimisation of waste, use of biodegradable plastic, awareness raising, beach clean up days etc.). This study aims to check the attractiveness of the innovation to the market involving potential customers (coast towns, associations of tourist and fishing ports and marinas, representatives from the cruise and hotels industry, marine natural reserves authorities). The first markets identified are on the Mediterranean Sea, which is at the center of a very highly populated area of the World with many Countries relying mostly on tourism. Studies confirm that the Med has mostly marine litter derived from this economic activity and up to 80% of it originating from land. Italy, with its over 7600km long coastline and a strong dependency upon tourism, will be the first market, followed suit by France and Croatia and then Spain and Greece. After a 3 year phase to cover development, industrialisation and commercialisation, production is expected to start in 2019, with employment of 17 new staff.

FormulaGP aims to recruit a specialist researcher (grade R3 “Established Researcher) able to take forward the work undertaken so far by IRIS on a small scale thermal waste treatment technology, the GreenPlasma. The device is an original idea of the Company and it is currently at TRL6 but it requires a redesign and further work in order to: 1. Transform the process from batch to continuous; 2. Complete the device by adding same scale pre- and post-treatment, by miniaturising existing technologies and by optimising the overall process, considering the likely efficiency and efficacy issues due to its very small scale; 3. Ensure all the requirements of the foreseen main application (a “domestic” waste pyroliser) are met in terms of e.g. safety of use by non-technical users and for improper use, and ability to integrate in a domestic context including connecting to the grid (electricity and methane distribution); 4. Devising an innovation project (industrialisation and commercialisation) that will start at the end of the 12 months if the objectives are achieved and that will be implemented by the SME Associate if he/she wished to accept the challenge and the position; 5. Initiating the declination of the GreenPlasma device in other applications, including scale ups, use on board of unmanned vehicles and vessels, etc in a longer term role as Head of product development once the commercialisation of the device is starting. The first step of this plan, i.e. the 12 months leading to an improved version of the original GreenPlasma, requires a PhD figure of experience with a strong engineering background and ideally with a specialist expertise in thermal processing of waste but also a problem solving approach and an applied research attitude. The same set of skills is valuable for the innovation project to follow after successful completion of this project, with the Associate being rewarded with a permanent contract in a prominent and permanent position.

FreeWheel promotes social inclusion of disabled and elderly people through a urban mobility solution consisting of a unit integrating an autonomous “smart active” module, multiple custom interfaces and an app. Such a solution can be either rented (a sharing service available at in-door and out-door urban facilities), or sold; in the latter case the unit includes a fully personalized wheelchair. FreeWheel satisfies the need for customization, both on the user and on the vehicle side, through the implementation of a modular concept based on standard reconfigurable, low-cost modules (e.g. engine, gears, control unit, HMI, etc.) and on ultra-customized interfaces (e.g. body-to-vehicle, engine-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, etc.), produced via additive manufacturing. Re-configurability is achieved through an easy exchange of standard modules in different products. A further objective is making affordable the lifecycle cost of the above-mentioned mobility service (and/or product) through an innovative business model that offers mobility as a service (independent of vehicle ownership) and by leveraging dematerialization (reduction of manufacturing lead times and investment costs) and product re-configurability. The expected impact is: - Social inclusion of elderly and disabled citizens: the project will demonstrate affordability and safety in accessing public spaces in urban areas; - Short time-to-market: 70% less than the conventional approach. - Significant cost reduction in the manufacturing of a personalised wheelchair unit as a result of the re-usability and adaptability of personalised products components; - Ultra-low environmental impact: re-usability of modules and efficient manufacturing leading to more than 70% in environmental impact reduction regarding primary resources consumed while offering this mobility service.

The ALABAMA project aims to develop and mature adaptive laser technologies for AM. The objective is to lower decrease the porosity and to tailor the microstructure of the deposited material by shaping the laser beam, both temporally and spatially, during the AM process. The key innovations in the project are to develop multiscale physics-based models to enable optimization of the AM process. These process parameters will be tested and matured for multi-beam control, laser beam shaping optics and high-speed scanning. To ensure the quality of the process, advanced online process monitoring and closed loop control will be performed using multi spectral imaging and thermography to control the melt pool behavior coupled with wire-current and high-speed imaging to control the process. To verify that the built material fulfills the requirements, advanced characterization will be conducted on coupons and on use-cases. The matured technology will be tested on three use-cases; aviation, maritime and automotive. These three industrial sectors span a broad part of the manufacturing volumes: from low numbers with high added value, to high numbers with relatively low cost. However, all these sectors struggle with distortions, stresses and material quality. The ALABAMA use-case demonstrators will improve the compensation for distortions during the AM process, reduce the build failures due to residual stresses, reduce porosity and improve tailoring of the microstructure. Overall, this will contribute to up to 100% increase in process productivity, 50% less defects, 33% cost reduction due to increased productivity and energy savings, a reduction of 15% in greenhouse gases and enable first time-right manufacturing thanks to simulation, process monitoring and adaptive control. The end users will insert the technologies while the sub-technologies developed in the work packages will be commercialized. This will increase the autonomy for a resilient European industry.

In order to overcome the main barriers that prevent renewable energy technologies from forming the backbone of the energy system, GICO develops new materials (CO2 capture sorbents; high temperature inorganic removal sorbents; catalytic filter candles; membranes for oxygen separation and methanol production) and technologies (Hydro Thermal Carbonisation; Sorption Enhanced Gasification; Hot Gas Conditioning; Carbon Capture, Storage and Use; Power To Gas via Plasma conversion) to: • produce intermediate solid (5 vs 15 €/MWh) and gaseous (10 vs 30 €/MWh with zero particulate and ppb contaminants level) bioenergy carriers; • capture CO2 (40 €/t vs 90 €/t) receiving waste high alkali content and producing bricks; • convert CO2 to CO and O2 (90 vs 10% efficiency) storing renewable electricity excess; • produce methanol (35 vs 75 €/MWh) and electricity (100 vs 200 €/MWh). GICO encompasses technology development (materials, processes, simulations, integrated system besides full-scale design) and assessment (techno-economical, environmental, social impacts and market) and dissemination activities. GICO activities are fully innovative and constitute a breakthrough (in materials and processes development and integration) involving methodological, technological and exploitation developments achieved previously by partners´ research over many years. The GICO activities aim at developing small to medium scale residual biomass plants (i.e. 2-20 t/day and 500-5,000 kWe, compatible with the standard residual biomass availability of few thousand tons per year) will change the actual social acceptance of the energy plants. They will no longer be seen as distant large consumers of resources and emitters of pollutants but as local small/medium plants connected to communities (for waste, materials and energy with negative/zero emissions) within the circular business model (industrial symbiosis with jointly located industries) that GICO promotes.