<< Background >>The European PhD Hub (PhD Hub) contributes to the innovation potential of doctoral training by opening research to new avenues of collaboration among European academic and non-academic partners. The PhD Hub platform operates as a single online resource for business-driven research. It connects early-stage researchers, researchers and practitioners at the local and European level and acts as a means to match the research interests of both academia and industry.<< Objectives >>The PhD Hub offers higher education institutions the opportunity to structure innovation and research cooperation in their doctoral training and research activities with non-academic partners via the creation of local hubs. It contributes to reinforce the knowledge square and pro-actively supports the creation of new international University-Business cooperation models. Both elements are key to ensuring the contribution of higher education institutions to the EU’s innovation capacity.<< Implementation >>The PhD Hub is composed of local hubs – groups of higher education institutions and business partners. These local hubs are connected on the PhD Hub platform (phdhub.eu) at the European level to match research interests, network with peers and recruit best talents for their research activities. A range of guidelines and strategies, events and its platform, the PhD Hub support interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international research involving Early-Stage Researchers and industry partners<< Results >>The PhD Hub project's main results are: - An online platform aggregating doctoral open positions, cooperation calls and a professional network- Quality cooperation frameworks including university-business and international cooperation guidelines, local hub strategies and flagship events (Hack, EIF)- Further guides (Users' manual, Codebook, etc.), products (Knowledge graph, Social Media kit, etc) and value-added content such as in-depth articles on the PhD Hub blog, PhD useful tips and FAQs.

One way in which bioenergy production can be increased is through retrofitting, the addition of new technology or features to existing industrial installations. Retrofitting means often lower capital expenditure (CAPEX), shorter lead times, faster implementation, less production time losses, lower risks and therefore faster project development and increased market benefits. BIOFIT aims to facilitate bioenergy retrofitting in five industries: first-generation biofuels, pulp and paper, fossil refineries, fossil firing power and combined heat and power plants. First an overview will be made of existing options for retrofitting, and best practices analysed, to establish (both technical and non-technical) success factors. This will constitute the basis for two core project actions i.e. the development of 10 concrete bioenergy retrofitting proposals (2 each per industry) and the establishment of dedicated working groups for each industry (industry platform) to facilitate two-way dialogue. Both actions will be industry-driven, and focus on identifying and helping to solve actual – general and industry-specific – barriers towards wider market uptake. BIOFIT will give specific attention to generating information for policy development. Acceptance of bioenergy, both by the industries and by the general public, is key to the industries’ transformation towards sustainable bioenergy generation and market uptake. Research into acceptance factors is an integral part of project set-up. Key issues will be highlighted, and guidelines for industries will be issued. The BIOFIT consortium is a multidisciplinary partnership, with strong industrial involvement, broad coverage across Europe, and existing practical experience developing bioenergy retrofits. The expertise of the consortium covers all five target industries. BIOFIT consortium partners have wide networks in industry and industry platforms, ensuring relevance and transferability of all results.

Today, there are still several R&D barriers, and user-acceptance-related challenges that hinder the smooth integration and proliferation of multiple Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in buildings. In response to that, RE-COGNITION proposes a holistic, end-to-end RETs Integration Framework towards energy positive buildings with a focus on small and medium-sized buildings in Europe. Through the envisaged Automated Cognitive Energy Management Engine (ACEME), RE will be utilized more efficiently paired with appropriate storage technologies and innovative energy systems to meet the electricity and heating/cooling demand of the buildings. The framework is designed to enable the integration of multiple, heterogeneous, energy generating systems covering the spectrum of available building-scale RES (solar (PV, thermal/ cooling), wind, bio-energy (renewable biofuel through micro-CHP) and geothermal) and demonstrating future-proof extensibility. To this end, the project entails R&D at the level of single technologies and their interconnection with novel energy systems (like heat-pumps harnessing geothermal energy, absorption chillers) leveraging current IoT and smart-grid standardization outcomes. Along with measurable improvements on each technology’s efficiency, performance, desired characteristics and cost-effectiveness, RE-COGNITION ensures optimal integration of RETs in buildings, as well as (inter)operation and matching between building RE supply and energy demand. Its stakeholder-centred approach aligns both the process and its outcomes with the needs and expectations of (end-)users by providing tools that facilitate large-scale deployment of building-scale RETs. For 36 months 15 partners from 7 EU countries will provide technology know-how, lab facilities & 5 validation sites and will work towards meeting EU’s expectations for reduced dependence on fossil fuels and cost-effectiveness compared to conventional energy generation and management solutions in buildings.

The goal of the project ZEOCAT-3D is the development of a new bi-functional (two types of active centers) structured catalysts, achieving for the first time a tetramodal pore size distribution (micro-, meso1-, meso2-, macro-porous) and high dispersion of metal active sites for the conversion of methane, coming from different sources as natural gas and biogas, into high value chemicals such as aromatics (benzene, naphthalene, among others) via methane dehydroaromatization (MDA). The main drawbacks associated with this process are: Low methane conversion, low selectivity towards the desired products and the quickly deactivation due to carbon deposition onto catalyst. These problems will be overcome by the use of hierarchical zeolites structures synthetized by 3D-printing and loaded with doped molybdenum nano-oxides. The methodology of the project will go from laboratory to pilot scale demonstration in a real environment. Catalyst design and operation conditions will be optimized for different methane feedstock at lab-scale and then upscaling and construction of a final prototype will be carried out. The optimisation of these catalytic processes will bring enormous advantages for increasing the exploitation of natural gas and biogas, since ZEOCAT-3D is very well in accordance with the programme topic NMBP-24, regarding development industrial process to obtain high value chemicals at the same time that the dependence from the current fossil fuel is reduced.