Every year, around 33 million musculoskeletal injuries are reported, 50% involving tendon and ligament injuries. Due to their diverse aetiology, there is no “one-fits-all” solution. TEN4CARE means a crucial opportunity for the EU Material and MedTech Industries to solve this challenge, by providing a technologically advanced, biomaterial-based medical device that can be applicable in the worst prognostic scenarios, generating a wide impact on the citizens health and wellbeing but also on the sustainability, resilience and business opportunities for the whole industrial sector. We aim to achieve tendon integrity by amplifying the recruitment of cells from surrounding tissues and refining their homing capabilities. This effort will drive the production of extracellular matrix, effectively replacing compromised or absent tissue. The objective is to tackle health complexities linked to tendon and ligament disorders, promoting rapid recovery for acute or chronic conditions. TEN4CARE will develop an innovative strategy for tendon tissue engineering through the design of a medical device based on electromagnetic-responsive shape memory 4D nanocomposite fibrous hydrogel and a minimally invasive surgery to inject and anchor it to bridge tendons/ligaments, able to be implanted using minimally invasive surgery that can be a game changer, as will combine enhanced structural properties, shape memory, antibacterial activity and regenerative capabilities, driven by external forces like magnetic and electric fields. We will get a GMP validated production process, coupled with a scale up, industrially-driven strategy and an early regulatory planning, completed by a regulatory roadmap for the sector and the implied communities; a detailed evaluation of Safety and Sustainability based on SSbD concepts, guiding our developments but also generating general guidelines and discussion for the whole sector and business models and exploitation plans for the transfer of the TEN4CARE products.

Implant-associated infections, commonly caused by biofilm-forming bacteria, are highly problematic for the patient, the healthcare system, and society. BIOREMIA will recruit 15 doctoral students (ESRs) and provide a highly inter-disciplinary joint research & training programme focused on the key issues that determine the future antibacterial biomaterials and technologies for orthopaedic and dental applications. BIOREMIA links 7 academic and 4 non-academic beneficiaries as well as 6 partners from 11 European countries (Germany, Austria, Greece, Sweden, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Ireland and the Netherlands) and the USA. The ESRs will be supervised and trained by world-class academic and industrial organisations, combining technical knowledge with hands-on training in state-of-the-art research projects. BIOREMIA training program will include face-to-face and online scientific courses in biomaterials & surface engineering, biotechnology,nanotechnology, implant manufacturing, biochemistry, microbiology and biofilm. This will be complemented by education in transferable skills such as entrepreneurship, management, IPR, communication etc. useful for getting an innovation-oriented mind-set of young researchers. Participating in BIOREMIA will make PhD students highly attractive for employers and open up doors for their successful careers in research, regulation, consulting, industry and the healthcare system. They will be experts for the better assessment of the antibacterial functionality of materials and surfaces and for delivering successful strategies for the medical device industry and the healthcare system. The strong involvement of the industrial sector will provide the ESRs with a holistic perspective on career opportunities. Beyond the trained researchers, this network will produce innovative materials and technologies that will enhance the productivity of European industry and improve the well-being of European citizens by minimizing implant-associated infection rates.

Society and clinical practice pose a growing demand on novel biomaterials, ICT, micro and nanotechnologies for innovative medical devices and in vitro diagnostics (Medical Technologies-MTs). In addition to the challenge of time, the new technologies are subjected to other pressing factors such as qualification, regulation, cost, biocompatibility and the need to be applicable worldwide. In the most recent years it is obvious that nano-enabled MTs can be applied in nearly every medical area, with a major presence and increased importance in cancer, regenerative medicine, advanced therapies, neurology, cardiology, orthopaedics, and dentistry. On the other hand, any innovation in the Health sector has to be carefully assessed in terms of risk/benefit ratio. Nano-enabled MTs particularly require careful assessment, since they are complex products group and their technological assessments are still under development. This assessment will be a key pillar for the here proposed Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB) To address all the aforementioned challenges, the SAFE-N-MEDTECH consortium aims to bring a strong and competitive cooperation to compete in the market for a coordinated OITB for nano-enabled MTs. SAFE-N-MEDTECH will build an innovative open access platform to offer to companies and reference laboratories, the capabilities, knowhow, networks and services required for the development, testing, assessment, upscaling and market exploitation of nanotechnology-based Medical and Diagnosis Devices. This across the whole Life Cycle. This OITB will offer a multidisciplinary and market oriented innovation approach to SME´s, Healthcare providers and Industries for the translation to the market of MTs, based on a deep understanding and knowledge of the material-nanoproperties, their advance use and applications in MTs and other aspects involved in MTs safety (electric compatibility, electromagnetic properties, etc).

Convert2Green will establish an Open Innovation Test Beds (OITB) that enables material suppliers to integrate their innovative, circular and carbon neutral material solutions to the European Key Value Chains: Clean Autonomous Vehicles; Smart Health; Industrial IoT; Low Carbon Industry and Clean Energy. Thus, Convert2Green will provide innovative material suppliers new business opportunities in these value chains. Convert2Green will complement the European Open Innovation Ecosystem with services not present in other OITBs by now: (1) Complete Eco-Impact Analysis from Raw Material to Product as a service including LCA, LCC, Safety and Toxicity; (2) TRL4 to 7 Process Chains for Smart Textiles and Processing of Fiber based materials; (3) TRL4 to 7 Process Chain for Electronics on Plastic, Paper and Textiles; (4) Pilot Facilities for recovering critical raw materials from products; (5) Pilot Facilities for Processing of recycled plastics and composites, (6) Pilot facilities manufacturing of (nano)fibers and composites from bio-sources. Furthermore, Convert2Green will be the first OITB that establishes and provides to the OITB ecosystem: (1) procedures and contract models for licensing of joint IP through the Single Entry Point(s); (2) multilingual digital platform to integrate and jointly promote the service portfolio of all OITBs as well as to interconnect relevant stakeholders and to allow fully digital project and knowledge management and (3) novel financing models for SME combining a trust generating due-diligence structure with project based investment models and crowd-invest opportunities to accelerate market entry in all value chains given above. Convert2Green will integrate its services with the whole European Innovation Ecosystem and continues the series of OITB events started by Safe-n-MedTech and FlexFunction2Sustain OITBs to unite and jointly promote the (currently 25) OITBs as a whole to European SME, Industry, Policy Makersand other relevant stakeholders.