Open Educational Resources on Enabling Technologies in Wearable and Collaborative Robotics (WeCoRD) project will establish a strategic partnership for modernising postgraduate and continuous professional education in the field of robotics, making it more relevant to the users, labour market and industry needs, boosting skills and employability of learners.According to the International Federation of Robotics, collaborative and wearable robots have become the largest trend in robotics with high demand for skilled graduates. Collaborative industrial robots enable manufacturers to improve productivity by complementing human skills, relieving employees of heavy, unergonomic and tedious tasks. They play a vital role in the automotive sector. For millions of people with physical disabilities, wearable robotic technologies make everyday life easier or assist their rehabilitation. The EU collaborative robots market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 50.02% during 2018-2026. The global surgical robots market is rapidly expanding and is anticipated to reach $19.96bn in 2019. This means that the development of robotics could have a significant impact on Europe’s capacity to expand a competitive industry with millions of related jobs at stake.There has been a clear focus on developing more user-friendly robots as current models often have flaws that disappoint users. As per Multi-Annual Roadmap for Robotics in Europe 2020, development of enabling technologies to improve wearable and collaborative robots is one of the main priorities. The more user-centered is the design of such robots produced in Europe - the greater are the overall acceptance of technology among users and the global market share. These days, the market is dominated by the US and Japan. Given that an increasing number of EU citizens will need healthcare/rehabilitation in the coming decades, massive introduction of well-designed medical and rehabilitation robots could have a significant social and economic impact for the EU. The knowledge of physiology, neuroscience, ergonomics, interaction design is therefore becoming a more widely sought professional quality for robot engineers.In this context, WeCoRD project aims to enhance the EU higher education capacity in teaching enabling technologies in wearable and collaborative robotics for medical and industrial applications to fill in the skill gap between, on the one hand, the industry and the labour market needs and, on the other hand, the quality and quantity of the graduates. WeCoRD brings together five internationally renowned institutions from Turkey, Belgium, Russia and the Netherlands to combine their advanced expertise on enabling technologies in a validated innovative course offer of excellence, extended with professionally produced open educational resources, and an online Virtual Lab aimed at accessibility and fostering implementation across Europe. The project partners will select the most relevant methods, tools, and findings in engineering, design and medical research to introduce them into curricula by producing four dedicated transdisciplinary modules. These will equip graduates with the right skills and with the mindset of future technology leaders.Consultations with industry/medical stakeholders will guide the consortium's selection of learning methods and objectives, assessment criteria, research methodologies, required skills, and competences, filling the gap between research, education and the workplace. Three innovative teaching modules comprising the course will be validated during transnational Summer Schools, resulting in first-hand experience and feedback data. The fourth module is aimed to make biomechatronics accessible to medical students as future users of robots in surgery and rehabilitation. It will be validated by experts.Various participants are considered for the pilots and beyond. Mechanical Engineering students from partner universities are direct end-users of the project outputs. Other participants who enroll in the course through the Virtual Lab or in replications across Europe will include all types of learners, educators, professionals and industry workers. Five public events will be the main dissemination activities for relevant stakeholders, who are essential as the target audience, users of the Virtual Lab, multipliers of the knowledge, and a source of valuable feedback.WeCoRD's impact will be strongest at EU level, while also providing benefits to society and the economy at local, regional and national level. Through intensive cross-border and transdisciplinary cooperation, the project will produce results that are likely to become self-sustaining and develop further, such as the WeCoRD teaching community and the Virtual Lab. The project will help to prepare graduates for the robotics industry and other employers, thus contributing to making the economies of the Erasmus+ Programme countries more research-driven, knowledge-based, and competitive.

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are driving a revolution in lighting systems due to their superior energy efficiency, and are already entering the Internet of Things (IoT) market with embedded sensory functionalities. By bringing connectivity to every LED bulb, Visible Light Communication (VLC) offers the opportunity to write the next chapter of the LED revolution with the language of ubiquitous networks. With VLC networking still in its infancy, ENLIGHT’EM will take the unique opportunity to design IoT systems that leverage the low baseline energy consumption of LEDs to jointly deliver lighting and networked communication. ENLIGHT’EM will explore the emerging field of low-energy VLC systems for the IoT to design and demonstrate sustainable networking solutions. ENLIGHT’EM will train a new generation of innovators and provide them with the know-how to contribute to the development of the IoT in the world of 5G and beyond. Fifteen early stage researchers (ESRs) will evolve into leading-edge experts in a diverse array of sub-fields leading to the integration of low-energy VLC into the IoT. The ESRs will acquire and hone cutting-edge skills contributing to IoT areas such as connected energy, light, living and cities through a multidisciplinary network of experts from universities, research institutes, SMEs, and large companies.

RECIRCULATE addresses the needs of European recycling sector by overcoming current challenges relating to automated dismantling and sorting; safe logistics; fast, cost-effective and reliable State of Health and State of Safety characterization. Combining these advances with a blockchain-based platform, that will combine the data collected during dismantling and recycling and the battery provenance, will enable a unique battery passport and virtual marketplace for e-mobility, consumer and stationary Battery Energy Storage Systems. This approach will enable the RECIRCULATE consortium to create a cascade approach that will enable increased end-of-life battery repair, reuse, remanufacture and recycling. The advances in RECIRCULATE will based on best-in-world innovations, including: • Automated dismantling based on Artificial Intelligence with accurate sorting by SoX and battery provenance for recycling. • Fast, cost-effective, reliable SoX characterization; Safe storage and transportation based on smart logistics solutions. • Blockchain-based Battery Passports that tracks key battery data, and enables both a complete circular system for e-mobility batteries and a unique, blockchain-based virtual marketplace. The unique virtual marketplace will allow for the creation of new circular business models for repair, reuse, remanufacture and recycling of second-life batteries, minimizing cost, time, energy and environmental impact whilst maximizing battery value. RECIRCULATE represents a pan-European consortium of world leading organisations that are looking to commercialize these technologies of European origin. The coordinator, Centria, is leading activities in battery dismantling. The consortium is strengthened by very large organisations, including: Ford, who are currently undertaking development for e-mobility, and DHL a global leader in logistics and reverse logistics as well as European SMEs with world leading technologies.

Emissions standards for vehicles have managed to introduce state-of-the art emissions controls that have brought significant reductions in the actual emissions levels. However, there is increasing clear evidence of illegal manipulation of emission control systems by vehicle owners and widespread usage is observed in the market. In general it is almost always the vehicle’s owner or operator that tampers the EPS for economic advantages; either to reduce fuel or urea costs, or to avoid costly repairs of aged or malfunctioning equipment. Traditional OBD systems are designed to inform users about malfunctions of systems and components and notify the users of the repair needs and cannot prevent tampering. The primary target of DIAS is thus to harden vehicle environmental protection systems (EPS) against such tampering. This means that any changes in EPS hardware, software that degrade the performance of the system will be prevented, or detected. DIAS will develop innovative protection and security measures to increase the level of prevention. In case detected, information about the tampering attempt is available and is used to introduce countermeasures e.g. the activation of the driver inducement systems. DIAS brings together a highly qualified interdisciplinary team that starts with OBD and takes a two-step approach that involves implementing first measures to take early action against these activities, and a second cloud-based step that prepares methodologies and means for dealing with tampering attempts in the future that are currently unknown. Additionally DIAS will take into account that effective upcoming new tampering countermeasures can also be applied on vehicles already in the field to have an even stronger impact on preventing unnecessary environmental pollution. Finally DIAS takes advantage of future vehicle connectivity, both as opportunity and challenge, since these systems are intended to operate throughout Europe and even on a global scale.

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells are considered as one of the solutions enabling long-term sustainable transport, however, incumbent systems provide electric power outputs below 200 kW. To cater to the need of the heavy-duty transport sectors, the development of next generation of Fuel Cell systems aims at durable PEMFC stacks offering power output between 250 and 500 kW. To support this development, the H2UpScale project aims to design, build, test and validate key BoP components for PEMFC systems generating more than 250 kW electric power suitable for heavy-duty transport applications (aviation, maritime, on-road long-haul). H2UpScale brings together 3 research organisations, 2 academic and 11 industrial partners, including BoP manufacturers and OEMs. The project will identify application-specific requirements, that will then drive the requirements, development and optimization of 3 standards for modular and scalable PEMFC architectures ≥250kW (electrical power supply architectures & waste heat management system designs).The BoP components in focus include the hydrogen ejector, H2 recirculation pump, H2 leakage sensor, air compressor, cathode air filter and air humidifier, water separator, exhaust resonator, coolant heat exchanger and coolant medium. The targeted advancements for BoP components include efficiency and durability improvements, weight and volume reduction, and architecture simplification. The components will be designed to be compatible with both single- and multi-stack platforms, with scalability and modularity in mind, facilitating their integration into multi-MW scale systems. Selected full-scale BoP components will be validated on a Hardware-in-the-Loop test bench and a techno-economic analysis of the potential impact of the developed BoP components on the HD markets will be performed. With these main targets, the aim for H2UpScale is to provide critical technological bricks enabling the creation of a TRL7 demonstrator from 2027 onwards.