Cooling, refrigeration and air-conditioning are crucial for our modern society. In the last decade, the global demands for cooling are growing exponentially. The standard refrigeration technology, based on vapour compression, is old, inefficient and environmentally harmful. In the SUPERCOOL project we will exploit the potential of elastocaloric cooling, probably the most promising solid-state refrigeration technology, which utilizes the latent heat associated with the martensitic transformation in superelastic shape-memory alloys. We have already demonstrated a novel concept of utilizing the elastocaloric effect (eCE) by introducing a superelastic porous structure in an elastocaloric regenerative thermodynamic cycle. Our preliminary results, recently published in Nature Energy, show the tremendous potential of such a system. However, two fundamental challenges remain. First, we need to create a geometry of the superelastic porous structure (elastocaloric regenerator) to ensure sufficient fatigue life, a large eCE and rapid heat transfer. Second, we must have a driver mechanism that can effectively utilize the work released during the unloading of the elastocaloric regenerator. To succeed I am proposing a unique approach to design advanced elastocaloric regenerators with complex structures together with a driver mechanism with the force-recovery principle. We will employ a systematic characterization and bottom-up linking of all three crucial aspects of the elastocaloric regenerator, i.e., the thermo-hydraulic properties, the stability and the structural fatigue, together with a new solution for force recovery in effective drivers. Based on these theoretical, numerical and experimental results we will combine both key elements of our novel elastocaloric concept into a prototype device, which could be the first major breakthrough in cooling technologies for 100 years, providing greater efficiency and reduced levels of pollution, by applying a solid-state refrigerant.

Environmental disasters are becoming a disturbing, new reality. While they dramatically alter how we perceive and live in affected areas, the personal, everyday impacts of these changes often remain in the backdrop of public discourse and policy. DeepLandS will bridge this gap as an innovative phenomenological inquiry into the sensory and emotional aftermath of disasters. It will look into the recovery of two landscapes, in Portugal and Slovenia, shedding light on the sensory aspects of day-to-day life following the events that are among the worst wildfires in living memory. By examining the lived experiences and private narratives of those affected, the project will offer a nuanced understanding of the fragility of post-disaster “normalisation” and the diverse realities of recovery. Through an empirically grounded approach to deep mapping, the project will create a creative interface between sensory ethnography, creative geographies, and spatial humanities. DeepLandS will provide important theoretical insights and an interdisciplinary methodology to inform more inclusive disaster recovery responses in Europe and globally. By harnessing sensory and artistic methods, the project will explore the evolving relationships between the senses and the environment, moving beyond representational and symbolic understandings. Such an approach aims to alter perceptions of post-disaster landscapes and encourage community engagement, raising awareness of this critical issue in the EU's climate adaptation strategies. In doing so, DeepLandS will shift the focus from reparative to a transformative, regenerative, and holistic approach to post-disaster living, positioning creativity at the core of the recovery process.

The idea is to Build a Knowledge Base, that can be used to trace all activities related to the overall life-cycle of buildings. Since various directives of the EU are related to sustainability, resilience and energy efficiency of building stock, it is necessary to provide a marketplace where various actors can share their offers, including their quality certificates and credentials, and where it would be possible to log and trace every information, activity and change, and use the knowledge to improve sustainability. The project will extend a Digital Building LogBook (DBL), used by a municipality for the management and the administration of its huge set of buildings, with several available and novel data, tools and functionalities, by the help of a Decentralized Knowledge Graph (DKG), an open source blockchain-based solution. DKG software will include specific building-related ontologies, so that the whole knowledge base about the life-cycle of the building can be logged and by that continuously updated, providing mechanisms and interfaces for the relevant stakeholders, to publish, trace, share, tokenize, end even trade models in a market economy. Such information integration can support decisions on optimal adaptation and intervention planning strategies for large populations of buildings. The DBL will be integrated with several new functionalities demonstrated on a dozen of use cases via easily accessible and publicly available APIs. These functionalities will assure a high interoperability between legacy systems and existing tools (e.g. BIM, HBIM), compliance with standards, providing automated warning and alerting system with the help of machine learning tools, digital twinning, and decision-making support. The new DBL based applications will be tested on pilot projects focusing on historical and critical buildings, and on building stocks. The project targets a smarter and more sustainable built environment of the EU providing new market and new value creation.

CREA aims to promote ICT development and creativity as new drivers able to produce specific structural changes and arrangements in the European entrepreneurial base, to influence the future paths of social change and innovation to a large extent. CREA project wants to validate a new European Model of Summer Academy for students who wants to develop business ideas focus on creativity and ICT and able to explore innovation in advanced fields: new products for new markets, social innovation, meaning drive innovation in old sectors, service innovation, technology driven innovation etc. CREA will test 2 edition of Summer Academy simultaneously organized in 6 European Cities (Milan, Stuttgart, Ljubljana, Newcastle, Tallin, Utrecht), which will end with an international event (CREA ICT Business Idea Contest) for the presentation of results to international investors and the awarding of a prize. The project includes training courses, mentoring activities and the incubation program for start up companies that will be able to use the opportunities of ICT and Creativity to propose new business model with a European vision. The general objectives of CREA project are: - To create European wide system of Summer Academies for university and last year high school students entirely focused on ICT entrepreneurship; - To create a model of Summer Academy action oriented with a strong focus on ICT and entrepreneurial skills development and a rich offer of mentoring, support for business planning, matchmaking opportunities and generation of ICT related business idea; - To stimulate the development of new start up business ideas boosting on ICT and creativity; - To complement and extend similar existing Summer Academy program while strongly focusing on ICT and creativity entrepreneurship; - To organize and promote ICT Business Idea Contests.