Co-FACTOR aims at speeding-up the industrial up-take of results of the FoF projects I-Ramp3, ReBORN, SelSus, T-Rex, INTEFIX and Power-OM , whose common topic centers around “smart components”. While the prime focus is on gaining benefit for these projects, the proposed measures also seek to link with program level initiatives in a complementary way. Positioning these projects in the core of a larger cluster set-up involving related initiatives as well as the entire stakeholder panorama of the field, Co-FACTOR pursues the 5 major ambitions: Cooperate: establish close partnership among the core cluster to give better visibility to those high-level performing projects among industry, scientific community and policy makers. Communicate: present and promote as a cluster the involved projects and their approaches and achievements among the full range of potential stakeholders as well as public groups and students. Further, to stimulate coherence among “smart components players”. Converge: leverage the impact of the projects by focusing on the cross-cutting issue „smart components“ and assessing reliable and interoperable solutions and standardization opportunities. Connect: facilitate the immediate or short-term exploitation of project results in industrial settings creating a win-win-situation for the technology „push“ and „pull“ site. Consolidate: analyze remaining bottlenecks for „smart components technology“ deployment to formulate thoughtful recommendations for future actions and political framework programs. Co-FACTOR proposes a set of measures spanning from technology assessment, match making among providers and end-user, propelling last-mile exploitation efforts by innovation management and funding outlook, expert workshops, link to research community and roadmapping to outline future R&D&I needs. These will be part of an extensive dissemination campaign featuring intense and strategic communication, organization of events and profound intra-cluster interaction

ECOBOTICS.SEA is a future-oriented 4-year research project with a research-driven human-resources training network in its center. ECOBOTICS.SEA focuses on the research of underwater robotics and biomimetics concepts and technology, targeting problems and needs in the real world that are related to the study of biospheres, species and ecosystems and their preservation. 8 Early-Stage Research Projects (ESRP) compose the research plan. The research to be carried out in these 8 ESRP is organized into 5 scientific work packages. The core of the research activities is constituted by 88 months of secondments within the partner network which are essential for ensuring the required knowledge and know-how transfer between the partners. The partner network is composed by 3 universities and R&D institutes and 3 companies located in European member states, plus 1 R&D in Third Countries. The consortium is highly interdisciplinary, aggregating excellence from various domains, including robotics,biomimetics for water/underwater systems, automation, biology, ecosystem preservation, entrepreneurship and anthropology applied to species preservation. Workshops, summer schools and international conferences serve as complementary measures, not only for further stimulating the exchange of knowledge and providing training, namely to the ESRs, but also for achieving the 4 scientific objectives as specified in the proposal. ECOBOTICS.SEA also incorporates a detailed and well defined career and risk management and training towards application-oriented R&D. Finally, the project is planned to establish an open community that will grow over time and enlarge its impact during and beyond the period of this project, resulting in a lasting, truly international R&D and business network beyond the project’s lifetime.

The MELOA project proposes to develop a low-cost, easy-to-handle, wave resilient, multi-purpose, multi-sensor, extra light surface drifter for use in all water environments, ranging from deep-sea to inland waters, including coastal areas, river plumes and surf zones. The device will be developed as an upgrade to the WAVY drifter conceived by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, which was used to measure the surface circulation forced by wave breaking, including detailed structure of rifts and the littoral drift current (Jorge da Silva et al, 2016). The philosophy of the WAVY drifter will essentially be respected: a small-size sphere with just enough room to accommodate power source, GPS-receiver, communications modules, antennae, sensors and data processor; optimised buoyancy to prevent the drifter trajectory responding to the wind instead of the current, while providing just enough exposure of the antennae to ensure acquisition of the GPS signal at the required rate and reliable near real-time communications. Given the low influence of wind upon the drifters’ displacements, MELOA will provide a cheap effective way to monitor surface currents and surface dynamic features anywhere in the World Ocean. Through equipping the drifters with thermistors at two different levels, the possibility is open for monitoring “near-skin temperature” and near-surface vertical temperature gradients, which will be invaluable for calibration/validation of satellite derived SST fields.

Innovative LED lighting technology for the private and public service sector provides many opportunities for more efficient high quality lighting systems. Modern LED solutions are based on optimised luminaires and advanced flexible lighting control and allow a more effective use of daylight. Despite the significant saving potentials, there are still relatively few policy measures implemented at international and national level that stimulate respectively facilitate the use of optimised LED lighting systems. LED lighting for the service sector is only partly supported by current EU legislation, however further developments are ongoing. At national level in the different EU-Member States good pilot initiatives for efficient LED-systems in the services sector already have been implemented. However the number of implementations is still limited and a broad market penetration has not yet been achieved. National and local policies supporting efficient LED technology are largely missing. The project PremiumLight_Pro aims at addressing the major saving potentials by supporting public authorities in the development of effective policies to facilitate the implementation of efficient new generation LED lighting systems in the service sector. The project shall support the implementation of policies including green procurement criteria and design guidelines for the planning and installation of both for outdoor and indoor lighting systems, education and capacity building for planners, architects, installers and consultants, incentives schemes, contracting, information services including product database and others. Furthermore the project will support energy efficient lighting in the national implementation of the EPBD and the development and implementation of supportive legislation at EU-level. The proposal thereby explicitly targets the central objectives of EE9 of the call for proposals. The initiative is supported by more than 50 major stakeholders in 9 EU countries.