Among top ten current N95 producers, only one of them is EU-origin company. Europe needs to act to develop sustainable face masks to lead the fabric filtration industry, which will be worth in excess of 2.7 billion Euros in 2024. Due to ongoing coronavirus pandemic, consuming billions of face masks around the globe resulted not only plastic pollution, but also created a shortage on the melt-blown polypropylene (PP) supply chain, which is the mainly used filtering medium. PP is a petroleum-based polymer and doesn’t have antibacterial activity. The ideal solution to this problem would be using a sustainable and antibacterial filtration media that can effectively filter ultra-small particles such as coronavirus itself. To address the challenge, I have formulated an innovative and interdisciplinary project based on my research experience to develop filtration media using sustainable and antibacterial poplar fibers that aligns with The European Green Deal action plan. After developing poplar webs, I will utilize Grado Zero Espace's (GZE), expertise to create commercial surgical masks and filtering facepiece respirators (FFP). The significance of developing Coronavirus-specific project is clearly emphasized in the European Research Area Corona Platform. Developing surgical masks and FFPs prototypes from a sustainable material not only contributes Sustainable Development Goal of EU, but also could lead higher-added value products, responding the global need for face masks in pandemic situations.

The Repro-light project aspires to successfully initiate a transformation of the European LED lighting industry by the year 2020 since European lighting companies have been facing fierce competition from Asia while at the same time prices for LED luminaires are rapidly falling. By developing an intelligent LED-based luminaire with a modular, stackable architecture the project seeks to change the industry’s view of the LED luminaire as a generic, disposable object into a customized, sustainable product with high functional value. Breaking the rules of traditional luminaire design by using innovative technologies and materials to completely forgo wiring and make luminaires completely stackable as in the Repro-light project has never been attempted before. Through the modular design and the development of a smart production scheme costs and time of luminaire manufacturing can be reduced substantially as well as their environmental impact. Now is an extremely crucial moment for creating a sustainable solution for LED luminaires since the LED market is in the middle of a massive transformation, changing the value proposition of LED-based lighting solutions from a focus on energy efficiency to functional values. The Repro-light luminaire will fulfil this value propositions by employing intelligence and having a positive impact on peoples’ health. The Repro-light consortium is perfectly suited to be the spearhead of this lighting “revolution” as the entire value chain is represented and the consortium is structured around a sound industrial backbone. With representatives and driving forces of the European lighting industry as well as manufacturers of basic products, experts on lighting sustainability and the Social Sciences, the Repro-light consortium possesses the excellence and the influence to not only execute this project successfully but also invoke a sustainable change in the European lighting industry beyond the lifetime of the project.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a key enabling technology in high value manufacturing. The global AM market is on the rise and in 2016 the industry was valued at $6 billion with 93% being attributed to industrial applications. Evolving novel innovation networks, perfectly represented by the emerging, rather complex and highly dynamic AM industry sector, are frequently characterised by entirely new business models, high development and adaption rates, as well as strong technology diffusion within the economy. I AM RRI will investigate the AM innovation network in order to facilitate a better understanding and the modelling of the dynamics of its complex web of innovation value chains including openings for responsible research and innovation (RRI). In-depth investigation of the AM innovation network, accompanied by open stakeholder and foresight processes, will establish a comprehensive knowledge base and thorough understanding of the network’s components, processes and interconnections, forming the foundation for building a dynamic model. The model will allow deepening the understanding of the AM innovation system even further, and to simulate/govern rapidly developing and complex future changes of the network and its crisscrossing value chains. As core component of I AM RRI, use cases for automotive and medical AM application will be conducted in order to refine the model and to showcase its applicability and adaptability. The I AM RRI outcomes developed in the course of I AM RRI will be made available to the broad open science community and to stakeholders/policy makers, strengthening research and business, and fostering the evolvement of other novel innovation networks. Strategic guidelines will be defined to initiate institutional change. Identified RRI openings within the AM innovation network will support smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe. I AM RRI will promote AM in Europe as a globally competitive, innovative and world leading key technology.

The main objective of the SMARTWASTE MSCA SE project is to form a world class international and inter-sectoral network of organizations, working on a joint research programme in the field of novel Sustainable Smart Textile Materials, by replacing conventional and high costs textile materials with sustainable, environmentally friendly, cheaper and novel materials such as cellulose fibres from tomato stems waste and creating nonwovens from unconventional poplar seed fibers. This can only be achieved by bringing together world-class experts in materials, polymers, environmentalists, chemists, software engineers, and designers with state-of-the-art innovations and processes in their respective fields of expertise. The participants will exchange skills and knowledge to create sustainable textile materials, strengthening collaborative research between different countries and sectors. SMARTWASTE will also refine and produce potential commercial market opportunities for non-academic participants in the project (WP7). Our goal is to train next generation of researchers and innovators in sustainable textiles through cross-sectoral and training modules. The staff members will develop new skills, be exposed to new research and innovation environments, international networks, new industrial processes and techniques whilst widening and enriching career development through cross-sectoral knowledge transfer and international mobility.