The PPILOW project aims to co-construct through a multi-actor approach solutions to improve the welfare of poultry and pigs reared in organic and low-input outdoor farming systems. The first originality of PPILOW is the participatory approach, involving all actors of the production chain from farmers to consumers, citizens, scientists and policy makers, for proposing and studying welfare improvement levers. The second originality of the project is to provide a combination of practical solutions for welfare improvement that can be applied on a pan-European basis with specific adjustments depending on citizen’s expectations and the target market (national legislation or consumer preferences). More precisely, PPILOW will co-create with end-users welfare self-assessment tools, innovative breeding and rearing strategies and techniques for improving the welfare of animals by avoiding mutilations (piglet castration or beak trimming in poultry), the elimination of one day-old layer male chicks, favouring positive behaviours, and improving health and robustness in both species. The innovative solutions will be investigated experimentally and the most promising ones will be tested on-farm. Multi-criteria analyses of the most effective breeding and rearing strategies will then be realised to evaluate their economic, social and environmental impacts based on the ‘One Welfare’ concept embracing sustainability goals with specific emphasis on animal and human welfare. Business models will be created for the use of high-quality products issued from the adoption of PPILOW strategies to improve welfare in organic and low-input outdoor farming systems for poultry and pigs. Finally, to ensure the rapid uptake of the project results by end-users, appropriate dissemination activities will be developed (such as training, digital videos from field partners, EIP abstracts…) and the close involvement of national practitioner groups throughout the EU will be managed to facilitate change.

HyFiDress aims at developing Excellence in the Research Area of Multifunctional Hybrid Hydrogel-Fibrous Constructs for Wound Dressings. This will be achieved by twinning the Warsaw University of Technology with outstanding EU institutions with high expertise in the areas of novel antimicrobial strategies and electrospinning. HyFiDress will allow the excellence development required for a consolidated strategic research approach and designing a set of guidelines for the exploitation and commercialization of the results that will have a strong regional, national and European impact. The proposal integrates synergies in complementary fields of research that include (large-scale) electrospinning technology, dual-function peptide development and microbiology, aiming to obtain scientific breakthroughs to improve the global health and economy. The objectives of this proposal are in line with the specific challenge and scope of the topic of the Twinning bottom-up call, addressing networking gaps and deficiencies between the research institutions of the Widening countries and internationally leading counterparts at EU level. This challenge is addressed by twinning WUT with leading EU research institutions: University Hospital Regensburg, an expert in the development and invention of novel antimicrobial strategies to combat biomaterial-associated infections, such as dual-function peptides and bacteriophages. They contribute with their extensive experience on the design and testing of novel antimicrobial agents in vitro and in vivo; JUNIA, an institution internationally-recognized for its excellence in the development of functional and instrumented textiles for medical and well-being applications providing decisive expertise on. Lastly, Bioprex Medical B.V., a biotechnology company that develops antibacterial coatings for medical devices, contributes with their expertise from industry IPR protection, business development, and valorization.

GOLD is organized in five work packages (see figure aside) and builds on the three pillars. The first pillar (WP1) aims to optimize selected energy crops for phytoremediation as well as to develop optimized phytoremediation solutions for decontamination purposes. In the second pillar (WP2) the contaminated feedstock of WP1 will be converted to clean biofuels by developing two thermochemical based conversion routes; the first on gasification and the second on pyrolysis. In both routes the main contamination constituents will be collected in a concentrated form: mainly in a vitrified slag with low leachability produced in the gasification in the 1st and in a form of high density biochar in the 2nd. In the third pillar selected value-chains for biofuels production and land decontamination will be modelled and analysed in terms of cost, sustainability and SDGs for the creation of win-win situations. Emphasis is being given on the international collaboration towards Innovation Mission Challenge 4 on Biofuels with the participation of three highly consuming countries (Canada, China and India) thoughtout the value-chains.

Polymyxin E, also known as colistin, was used initially in humans for treatment of infections caused by Gram negative bacteria. Because of its nephrotoxicity, colistin was withdrawn from therapeutic use in humans. Nevertheless, with increasing microbial resistance to current antibiotics and the lack of new drug candidates in the pipeline, colistin has now been reintroduced into human therapy as a drug of last resort to treat multi-drug resistant Gram negative bacteria. Importantly, colistin is also used in pig farming and in overall veterinary medicine to control Escherichia coli post-weaning diarrhea, which could lead to major economic losses. Colistin is clearly of major importance for human and animal welfare and its utilization requires a better management in order to avoid selection of resistant strains. The main purpose of the Sincolistin project is to reduce drastically the amount of colistin used in pig farming through the development of novel, sustainable and innovative antibiotic products based on increasing the potency of colistin by addition of bacteriocins. Indeed, recent data from the coordinator's group have shown that colistin and bacteriocins, such as nisin and pediocin PA-1, can act synergistically against E. coli and other Gram negative bacteria. Taking advantage of this finding, formulations based on the use of colistin and bacteriocins will be developed and incorporated into chitosan nanoparticles (50-100 nm) and microspheres (5-20 µm), which will survive the harsh gastrointestinal environment and then be delivered on the appropriate infection site. Bacteriocins are safe and natural antimicrobials. They are heat stable and insensitive to pH variations, though liable to hydrolysis by proteases. Bacteriocins foreseen to be used in the Sincolistin project are pentocin LB3F2, pentocin LB2F2, bavaricin LB1F2, bavaricin LB14F1 and bavaricin LB15F1, recently isolated from lactic acid bacteria and characterized for their E. coli inhibitory activity. These bacteriocins will be assessed against a set of fully characterized colistin-susceptible and colistin-resistant E. coli isolates of swine origin obtained from the RESAPATH network, which is headed by ANSES. The bacteriocin with the higher anti-E. coli activity, designated bacteriocin X, will be characterized for its: a) Mode of action against E. coli, in order to determine the mechanism that provokes cell death. b) Ability to generate resistant mutants (frequencies of mutation vs. colistin) c) Mechanism of synergy with colistin d) Cytoxicity to porcine and human cells Bacteriocin X will be produced at larger scale after optimizing the growth conditions and determining the best parameters of production. The release and bio-accessibility of the different formulations (nanoparticles and microspheres) developed within the framework of this project will be studied in the TIM in vitro model of upper gastrointestinal tract of pig. Further, the impact of these formulations on the pig gut microbiota and the survival of colistin-susceptible and colistin-resistant E. coli isolates from swine origin will be determined in the ARCOL in vitro model of pig colon thereby establishing whether the formulations destabilize the microbiota to a lesser extent than colistin alone. Finally, the best formulation will be tested in vivo under controlled conditions in pigs, inoculated with colistin-resistant E. coli, to validate the concept and strategies developed within the framework of the Sincolistin project.

The global market for next-generation telecommunications systems (B5G, 6G) demands products with higher speeds, better energy efficiency and sufficient power output. The project aims to meet these needs by developing and industrializing next-generation semiconductor technologies (SiGe BiCMOS for ST, RF GaN for UMS) and the associated integrated circuit design and characterization environments. Innovative analog and digital RF integrated circuits will be designed with the technologies developed and integrated as ‘FEM’ modules of innovative telecommunications system demonstrators. New assembly techniques that can solve RF signal integrity and heat dissipation issues, or greatly simplify RF systems, will also be explored. Demonstrators of innovative telecommunications systems will be developed (10 demonstrators; by NOKIA, SAFRAN, SIAE, and other partners), to validate new semiconductor and assembly technologies, on use cases envisaged for wireless B5G/6G networks (more particularly for network access and network trunks), very high-speed optical networks, and Earth observation and satellite telecommunications. The SHIFT consortium brings together players covering the entire value chain of these telecommunications applications, from laboratories to manufacturers, thus guaranteeing the highest scientific level and the possibility of validating the work carried out on suitable demonstrators. Activities will include environmental and economic impact assessments.