canSERVs mission is to make cutting-edge and customised research services available to the cancer research community EU wide, enable innovative R&D projects and foster precision medicine for patients benefit across Europe. By connecting, coordinating, and aligning existing oncology and complimentary research infrastructures (RIs) and providing services in a synergistic way transnationally, canSERV will capitalise on the critical mass of experts and cutting-edge services offered by canSERVs RIs and their extended network. canSERV brings together world-class European life science RIs (BBMRI, EURO-BIOIMAGING, ELIXIR, EU-IBISBA, EuroPDX, EU-OPENSCREEN, INSTRUCT, EATRIS, INFRAFRONTIER, EMBRC, ECRIN, EATRIS, MIRRI, ARIE, CCE, EORTC and IARC) that collectively not only covers all aspects along the development pipeline for oncology, but is also capable of interconnecting these technologies providing users a guidance for navigating them through the entire translational value chain. A patient organisation or resp. governance board members wil bring the patients perspective, while the two SMEs, ARTTIC and ttopstart, will provide valuable input regarding stakeholder engagement, and project management activities. A common access management system (CAMS) will be developed based on mature solutions from INSTRUCT and BBMRI. The CAMS will provide a method for selection of services, construction and submission of research proposals, multi-step review of research proposals, and tracking of the access process from approval through delivery to conclusion. Through a united user-intuitive transnational access where a united catalogue of oncology services will be offered, our users will have access to a comprehensive service portfolio. As our ambition is to scale up canSERV to a pan-European collaboration of RIs for accelerating the development and implementation of solutions for the cancer patient community, the sustainability of this network beyond the end of the project will also be addressed.

Due to lack of targeted interventions, compliance issues, insufficient effect sizes and a high non-responder rate to currently available interventions, there is an urgent need to develop innovative and new interventions for chronic paediatric neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to be an innovative, effective and safe alternative treatment approach for neuropsychiatric disorders in adults. Here, for the first time, the effect of tDCS on core neurocognitive and behavioral outcomes will be proven in children and adolescents. First, effect sizes and safety of standard tDCS in the clinical setting targeting core brain regions and disorder specific cognitive tasks will be established by three phase-IIa randomized, double blind, sham-controlled studies in ADHD and ASD. Second, the impact of brain development and age-dependent anatomical / functional features on effects of tDCS will be studied systematically using methods of modern neurophysiology, neuroimaging and electric current modeling. This involves an additional phase-I clinical trial. Third, mechanisms of tDCS on brain function will be studied, and biomarkers will be developed in order to predict individual response to standard and individualized stimulation protocols. Finally, the applicability of tDCS in children and adolescents will be improved by developing an innovative personalized home-based treatment option in combination with a telemental health service, which will be tested by a fifth, phase-IIa clinical trial. Throughout the entire project, ethical concerns of the target population will be addressed. This project opens a new avenue for the application of tDCS as an alternative treatment for a great number of chronic neuropsychiatric disorders in children and adolescents and will allow flexible integration of tDCS in the daily routine of families.

The mitigation of aviation non-CO2 effects, in particular contrails, could cut the radiative forcing from aviation by half in the next decade. Furthermore, the European Commission requires the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of non-CO2 forcing agents by 2027. However, large uncertainties currently prevent the implementation of dedicated mitigation measures. A4Climate directly targets the complex challenge of reducing aviation non-CO2 effects by advancing knowledge on engine particle emissions, contrails and their climate impact. Specifically, A4Climate improves weather and contrail predictions and integrates new information on contrail predictability, accuracy, climate impact and cost in a real time software. The contrail prediction tool will be validated on 400 contrail avoidance flights, thereby leveraging the consortium’s expertise in the air transport system, weather and climate research. A4Climate creates further knowledge on contrail formation in the “low-soot regime” through dedicated lab measurements and models, filling gaps towards the assessment of the climate impact of modern lean burn and future hydrogen-based propulsion systems. Ultimately, A4Climate provides unique new atmospheric data on humidity, aerosols and contrails from an exceptional campaign with a research aircraft to improve process and climate models and to investigate fuel sulfur effects on contrails and low clouds. Engaging policy and stakeholders early in the process, A4Climate will accelerate the evidence-based implementation of measures to reduce aviation non-CO2 effects. The 17 partners across academia, authorities and industry from 9 countries will collaborate over 4 years to ensure the success of the project with an overall budget of 8.1M € including 4.8M € EC contribution.

Every year, 1.3 million Europeans have a stroke and one million ultimately die of stroke. One third of stroke patients remain dependent on the help of others. The annual costs for stroke care in Europe are estimated at € 64.1 billion. Stroke incidence increases almost exponentially with age, and the personal, societal, and economic burden of stroke is therefore largely driven by its frequent occurrence in the elderly. The elderly have been strongly underrepresented in previous stroke trials and treatment guidelines have no recommendations specific to this important group. Elderly patients are at the highest risk of complications after stroke, such as infections, fever, and dysphagia. These complications are strongly and independently associated with a higher risk of death or dependency. We will perform a pragmatic, randomised, open clinical trial with blinded outcome assessment in at least 2500 patients with acute stroke aged 66 years or older, to assess whether pharmacological prevention of infections and fever, and early management of dysphagia, will reduce the risk of death, poor functional outcome, and poor quality of life, and lead to reductions in the costs of stroke care throughout Europe. Patients will be randomised using a factorial design to preventive treatment for 4 days with ceftriaxone, paracetamol, and/or metoclopramide, or to ‘standard care’ alone. The primary outcome is functional outcome at 3 months, assessed with the modified Rankin Scale (mRS), and analysed with ordinal logistic regression. The study will have 80% power to detect a statistically significant shift towards a favourable outcome, assuming a 5% absolute increase in the proportion of patients with a good outcome (mRS 0 to 2) in the intervention group, compared with controls. This simple, safe, and generally available treatment strategy has the potential to lead to an annual reduction of over 25 000 elderly Europeans being dead or dependent as a result of stroke, at very low costs.

Mental, cognitive, vision and hearing health problems in elderly people are amongst the top 10 public health challenges in Europe. They frequently occur co-concurrently and have an additive negative effect on quality of life and mental well-being. To address this negative impact, and promote mental well-being, particularly from a gender and minority community perspective, SENSE-Cog's aim is to: (1) understand the inter-relationship of sensory impairments and cognitive and mental health functioning; (2) identify novel means of screening/detection for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes; and (3) translate this knowledge into clinical applications for the mental well-being of EU citizens. Methods: SENSE-Cog will use a ‘mixed methods’ approach with a trans-EU, UK-led, multidisciplinary collaboration of 7 EU countries with academics, SMEs, city government and ‘patient-public voice’ members. We will deliver linked Work Packages (WPs) reflecting 7 themes: (1) exploration: an epidemiological analysis of 5 large EU longitudinal databases to detect risk profiles for good and poor mental health outcomes; (2) assessment: the adaptation/validation of assessment tools for cognition and sensory impairment for vulnerable populations, including the development of a composite e-screen for sensory, cognitive and mental functioning; (3) intervention: a clinical trial of a newly developed ‘sensory support’ intervention; (4) participation: an EU ‘patient and public voice’ and innovative public engagement network to inform the WPs and communicate findings; (5) valuation: health economic and cost effectiveness analyses; & (6) management, governance/ethics. Impact: SENSE-Cog will promote earlier detection of sensory, cognitive and mental impairments to enable swift interventions, prevent deterioration and limit negative impacts.