Lava flows from eruptions on Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland started burning urban structures on 14 January 2024. Volcanic emissions and urban fires, respectively, are known to contain many chemical compounds that are hazardous to health. While these distinct end member compositions are better known, lava-urban interface (LUI) emissions have not been studied. Key hypotheses: LUI emissions have unique chemistry due to the combination of volcanic and human-made compounds. The interaction impacts the combustion process, the composition of the emissions released into the environment, and the chemical reaction pathways in the atmospheric plume. The LUI interaction may also be modifying the degassing processes in the lava, and release of magmatic volatiles. Eruptions at the urban interface lead to higher human exposures than remote eruptions because of their proximity to communities; and small eruptions can cause severe air pollution in populated areas. Lava encounters urban space quasi-periodically, for example Kilauea, Hawaii 2018, Cumbre Vieja, La Palma 2021 and now on Reykjanes, Iceland (2024 - present). Despite the recognition of the importance of characterising chemistry of air pollution sources, LUI emissions remain unstudied, likely due to a combination of challenging sampling conditions, and the unpredictability and the short duration of each eruptive episode. Globally, the number of people exposed to LUI emissions is growing because of building expansion into previously uninhabited areas. For instance, the homes burned by lava in Iceland in January 2024 were newbuilds, the construction of which began when the volcanic system was already in unrest. We will use the ongoing activity in Iceland as a natural laboratory for the first ever characterisation of LUI emission chemistry at-source and in the near-field (1-40 km distance).

This project will develop a decision-support system (DSS) for disaster risk management by considering multiple interacting natural hazards and cascading impacts using a novel resilient-informed and service-oriented approach that accounts for forecasted modifications in the hazard (e.g., climate change), vulnerability/resilience (e.g., aging structures and populations) and exposure (e.g., population decrease/increase). The primary deliverable from MEDiate will be a decision support framework in the form of service-orientated web tool and accompanying disaster risk management framework providing end users (local authorities, businesses etc) with the ability to build accurate scenarios to model the potential impact of their mitigation and adaptation risk management actions. The scenarios, which can be customised to reflect local conditions and needs (e.g., demographics, deprivation, natural resources etc), will be based on a combination of the historical record and future climate change projections to forecast the location and intensity of climate related disaster events and to predict their impacts, including cascading impacts, on the vulnerability of the local physical, economic and social systems. The scenarios will allow end users to evaluate the potential impact of different risk management strategies to reduce vulnerability and enhance community resilience. The project will consist of analysis of relevant data and co-development with testbed decision-makers of a DSS to enable more reliable resilience assessments, accounting for risk mitigation and adaptive capabilities, to be made, therefore reducing losses (human, financial, environmental etc) from future climate-related and geophysical disasters. The project will involve a multi-disciplinary team of geophysical and meteorological scientists, risk engineers, social scientists, information technologists and end-users, working together to ensure that the system is user-led and supported by appropriate technology.

The research conducted in SYSTEM_US (ERC Advanced Grant #232816) has led to the discovery of valuable biomarkers for the quality of red blood cells (RBCs) in standard blood bank storage conditions. Using a combination of systems biology and metabolomics, this discovery will lead to the development of novel RBC storage technologies including additive solutions and diagnostics. These technologies will become valuable assets in the form of intellectual property to large transfusion medicine companies and will save thousands of lives over the coming decades. This proposal covers the needs to fully define the market and NPV of the developing technology, fully define the regulatory and clinical path of product approval, file for patents to protect the intellectual property, conduct necessary validation experiments, and continue to develop relations with industry contacts.

The REVAMP project will develop, test and implement an innovative and sustainable transnational freely accessible online training package to enhance medical and healthcare practitioners knowledge and skills, to recognise and understand the health needs and impact of violence, abuse and neglect on victims, thereby improving their health outcomes. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse (IPVA) as a pandemic, with a 1:3 global prevalence rate in most countries (WHO, 2013). IPVA includes physical, sexual, emotional abuse and controlling behaviours by an intimate partner (WHO, 2012). The WHO (2017) estimates that globally almost 1/4 of adults suffered physical abuse and/or neglect as a child and about 1/3 of women experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or nonpartner sexual violence at some point in their life. Tackling and ending gender-based violence is recognised by the European Commission, and further supported by combating gender-based violence and protecting and supporting victims (European Union, 2017). The Council of Europe indicates that about 1 in 5 children has suffered this type of abuse and that, in 70-85% of cases, the perpetrator was known to the victim. ‘Violence against women and domestic violence continue to be one of the most pervasive human rights violations, both in Europe and beyond’ (Council of Europe, 2014, page 1). The need for effective transnational education of medical practitioners to recognise victims of IPVA is clear due to the plethora of evidence that IPVA is a common problem that has a significant negative impact on individuals and families. Medical and healthcare practitioners will see victims of IPVA on a daily basis given the high number of victims. There has been little attention to producing a robust and freely accessible training. This project will be carried out transnationally as IPVA is prevalent across all countries, and migration might result in a victim trying to access support in several countries. The REVAMP project represents an original approach of joining forces across Europe to deliver this training to all medical and healthcare providers. REVAMP's target group are medical and healthcare practitioners as defined by Eurostat Statistics Explained (2017), where 'practitioner' means a person who delivers healthcare to a person such as: medical doctor, nurse, midwife, dentist, pharmacy, physiotherapist, social worker etc. REVAMP partners are embedded in the delivery of training medical and healthcare professionals, ideally placed to co develop and disseminate the training. REVAMP has the following objectives: 1-To develop a freely available and easily accessed online training package consisting of five modules for medical and healthcare practitioners to enhance their recognition of an understanding of IPVA, thereby improving the health outcome of victims.2- To use innovative teaching methods3- To involve a multi-lateral partnership of institutions4- To contribute to the public health strategy for recognition of victims of IPVA5-To ensure a broad dissemination of findings to relevant stakeholders6-To recognise the new acquisition of skills and knowledge by 5 ECTS for successful participationThe methodology that will apply to the REVAMP project is designed to support the development of an effective and transnationally relevant training programme for medical and healthcare practitioners to enhance the recognition of and understanding of the impact of violence on victims and are able to then refer these victims for ongoing support. REVAMP will be freely accessible from an outward facing website. Using a variety of pedagogical methods to engage medical and healthcare practitioners in the training programme, each of the five modules of the REVAMP training package will present a different aspect of IPVA. REVAMP will be developed into five modules (OCAPA): Orientation to the training package, IPVA and the child, IPVA and the adult, IPVA and the older person, Analysis and Evaluation. The effective open access REVAMP Platform from which the training is accessed is a significant step towards transnational recognition and training of IPVA giving wider exposure and access to medical and healthcare practitioners across Europe. Medical and health care practitioners across Europe will have the opportunity to engage in free and consistent training to support an effective response to victims of IPVA. Training participants will have improved skills competencies resulting in positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the victim. There is currently no standard training focussing on the training of medical and health care practitioners transnationally and REVAMP fills this gap. After completion, this project may be used to develop further trans European training.