This SPAR project seeks to revolutionise the safety, efficiency, and performance of advanced energy storage systems, with a primary focus on batteries. As energy storage is critical to the renewable energy transition, the SPAR project addresses key challenges such as real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and lifecycle optimisation by integrating advanced photonic fibre sensing technologies with cutting-edge digital twin methodologies. By embedding smart photonic fibre sensors directly into battery systems, SPAR enables robust, high-resolution, distributed, and real-time monitoring of critical parameters, including internal/external temperature, pressure, cell expansion, state of charge estimation and state-of-health, at both the cell and pack levels. These data streams are harnessed within a dynamic digital twin framework, creating a virtual replica of the battery system to enable predictive analytics, early fault detection, and enhanced performance management. This integrated approach significantly enhances battery safety, extends operational lifespan, and optimizes energy storage efficiency for applications ranging from grid-scale storage to electric vehicles. Through collaboration between academic institutions, industry leaders, and end-users, SPAR is poised to set a new standard in battery management systems, contributing to Europe’s leadership in sustainable, intelligent energy technologies. By driving innovation at the intersection of photonics, Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), SPAR supports European goals for clean energy, decarbonization, and technological resilience, ensuring the reliable and sustainable operation of next-generation energy storage systems.

Chronic migraine is defined as a headache persistent for more than 3 months or a severe headache persistent for more than 15 days within a month. It affects approximately 2% of the world population. The World Health Organization classifies severe migraine attacks as among the most disabling illnesses, comparable to dementia and quadriplegia. Treatments start with pharmaceutical drugs, which have contra-indications and severe side effects and often remain ineffective in chronic migraine patients. Injectable treatments like Botox and nerve blocks can be effective but require multiple sessions per year and also have undesirable effects. Treatments using neurostimulation products that deliver electrical pulses to the occipital nerve have been up to 80% effective but they are designed for the back not the neck which results in high rates of surgical revisions. This leaves the chronic migraine population severely underserved and in need of an innovative solution. Our vision is fundamentally based on disrupting the continuum of care and referral pathway by creating a more effective non-surgical solution that reduces cost and risk and therefore increases accessibility to more physicians and patients. The consortium will develop a novel platform for the treatment of chronic migraine that will be particularly applicable to resource restricted environments and targeting underserved patients. We are working on 4 elements working together seamlessly. 1) LUNA-AIR: An implantable electronics device with neural write stimulation 2) LUNA-CONTROL: A wearable device that will communicate with and power the implantable device. 3) LUNA-APP; a mobile app to control the implant. 4) LUNA-INJECT; an ergonomic, minimally invasive, injection device that minimises tissue trauma and training required for physicians.

Communication networks play a vital role in the technological infrastructure underpinning Internet traffic applications. Service providers and researchers worldwide are sparing no effort to increase the information capacity and security of telecommunication networks to support the demands of high-speed, reliable and secure emerging internet, data centre, cloud computing, 5G new radio and IoT systems, especially since the outbreak of Coronavirus. Applications such as intelligent transportation, signal processing ubiquitous low-latency connectivity and massive connected objects, have raised challenges for backbone and access networks that are often underpinned by optical, radio or hybrid networks. Artificial intelligent (AI) technologies appear an innovative and promising solution to cope with emerging challenges in optical/wireless/hybrid networks, in which the underlying physics, mathematics and optimisation of problems are non-deterministic to analyse or impossible to describe explicitly. In this proposed research, supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning techniques such as neural networks, clustering and regression will be exploited in optical/wireless/hybrid networks to mitigate stochastic distortions, to predict network conditions and to maximise network capacity. This DIOR proposal aims to unite optical/radio network research and AI technologies for tackling emerging challenges. This project aims to carry out world-leading research on building a machine learning-based communication platform to accelerate secure, intelligent and high-capacity communication networks.

Long linear infrastructure (LLIs) earthworks (e.g. road & railway slopes, pipeline bedding, flood protection structures) are more vulnerable to cascading and escalating failures, due to their topographically designed spanning length and long operational lives. With increasingly frequent severe weather conditions caused by climate change, maintaining a high level of safety performance, especially for the aged LLIs, remains a constant challenge, leading to an ever-increasing amount of investment in maintenance. Current knowledge about how these assets deteriorate over time and how deterioration affects risk and performance is patchy. The conventional engineering-oriented approach alone became insufficient to provide a solution to the complex problem like this. As we accelerate into the 21st century, the latest advances in technology, through digitalisation by integrating new revolutionary data technologies of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), offer opportunities to UPGRADE our LLIs and achieve new heights in safety and performance. Highly-skilled researchers and practitioners, capable of dealing with such problems, are scarce and in high demand by both academia and industry. Therefore, formed with 11 world-leading research organisations and 6 companies across Europe, Asia and Oceania with expertise and facilities in Earth Observation, geomaterial testing, constitutive modelling, data mining, machine learning, uncertainty quantification, data-driven design and optic communication, UPGRADE aims to ensure comprehensive, robust and implementable solutions are obtained for LLIs resilience built and sustainable development. The network is carefully designed to enable research and innovation staff exchange across all aspects. UPGRADE secondees will enjoy a highly integrated, interdisciplinary and intersectoral staff exchange, sharing know-how and skills development environment through the planned secondments, networkwide events and local trainings.