Being the 1st edition of Science Comes To Town (SCTT), UNITES will offer an inspiring and entertaining programme with more than 1,000 activities, bringing together over 70 partners in the cities of Kiel, Brest and Split and their regions by connecting scientific institutions, innovation ecosystems and citizens across Europe. More than 20,000 scientists are available to the partners for the implementation of UNITES. The cities share a similar geographic position as the largest coastal cities of their countries, yet still only medium-sized, peripheral and distant from any large urban agglomerations. They are all vibrant and renowned university cities with excellent town-and-gown relations, enthusiastic about hosting large science outreach events, including national and international science competitions, and experienced in organising large public festivals attracting several millions of visitors. The common profile results in shared local societal challenges and in a distinctly European approach to finding solutions. They have long participated in EU’s biggest flagship initiatives like the EU Missions and the European Researchers’ Nights. However, what truly UNITES the cities is the European University Alliance SEA-EU, where they have built a transnational network of nine universities and their city administrations. Together with the SEA-EU satellite events, UNITES' sphere of activity stretches from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean and will attract over 1.5 Mio visitors and raise awareness of SCTT among more than 25 Mio people. A well-planned marketing strategy will promote SCTT across Europe, supported by the international visibility of EUCYS and EU TalentOn. UNITES will carefully select locally relevant topics and incorporate existing and newly developed interactive formats to make the year engaging for all participants. Along with its train-the-trainer workshops and a participatory approach, this will guarantee the quality and long-term impact of the project.

Global change is expected to increase the arrival of opportunistic macroalgae, as well as the rate and extent of blooming events, causing severe negative impacts on marine and coastal ecosystems. Opportunistic macroalgae may represent a particularly interesting source of secondary metabolites, as they adapt to highly variable environments and have a withstanding capacity to cope with environmental stressors. Valorization could be a key solution to transform this huge biomass of opportunistic species into a potential for biotechnological and socioeconomic innovation. Before this, it is crucial to have a full understanding on how seasons, life stage and environmental variability modify their metabolome and thus, the quality of their biomass. In this regard, the holobiont perspective (relationship of macroalgae with their microbiome) is paramount to understand comprehensively the macroalgal ecophysiology and the environmental factors modulating their metabolome, all along their life-cycle until their degradation. HOLO-CWEED aims to study opportunistic macroalgae as holobionts to: 1) shed light on the opportunistic macroalgal ecophysiology, 2) assess the intrinsic (microbiome) and extrinsic (environment) factors affecting the quality of their metabolome along their life-cycle, and 3) assess the impact of massive macroalgal strandings on the surrounding seawater. This work will require an inter-disciplinary methodological approach gathering microscopy, biochemistry, metabolomics and metabarcoding, to have a complete understanding of macroalgal holobionts. The host institution facilities and expertise will be essential for stepping from fundamental research to applied research through the valorisation of macroalgae. HOLO-CWEED provides an original scientific approach to understand how opportunistic macroalgae thrive in a changing environment and assess how their massive degradation changes the seawater quality.

Autoimmune disorders are highlyImmune-mediated disorders are highly heterogenenous entities for which the mechanisms of disease progression and therapeutic responses are only recently beginning to be understood. The patterns of transcriptome are the reflection of distinct cell types that are involved in the development of the disease process. Our plan is to approach the diseases beginning from a global view that allows us to then come down to the most relevant cell types in tissues and blood. In addition, by understanding disease heterogeneity and diseases similarities, we can also identify the best pathways to be targeted with specific biological treatments. The diseases involved are systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Crohn´s disease and ulcerative colitis. Based on a unique ongoing platform of clinical groups across Europe and specialists in cell and molecular profiling, imaging analyses, single cell sequencing and analysis, we will identify the molecular basis of each of the diseases heterogeneity, the mechanisms of treatment non responsiveness, and develop a specialized training program where students will be able to visualize the overall work from design to analysis of the data and become engaged in the unique multi-disciplinariry of this platform. The platform will have available existing clinical studies and clinical trials, but will be also producing new data from prospective studies where samples and tissues for each disease, based on the appropriate indications will be obtained with special protocols, for the study. The engaged students will be permeated by the latest advances in not one, but several new approaches and systems biology modelling, and develop out-of-the-box concepts where diseases can be viewed not as separate clinical entities but as novel groups of shared molecular and cellular patterns that impinge on specific tissues by specialized cell types.

Autoimmune diseases affect nearly 4% of the world’s population and can be life-threatening. Among them, primary Sjögren Syndrome (pSS) is the most common systemic autoimmune disease. Unfortunately, to date, treatments are focusing on relieving symptoms. It is of public relevance to find potential new biomarkers for treatments. B cells are one key player in pSS and promising drugs targeting B cell activation are currently under phase 3 clinical trials. Restraining B cell hyperactivity is central to treating pSS permanently. Hence, instead of targeting B cell activation, pSS treatments would also benefit from targeting signals or interactions leading to B cell activation. The TABANK project aims to address this hypothesis by using cutting-edge technologies (high-parameter flow cytometry, single-cell sequencing technologies and unsupervised analysis) to interrogate the immune network in the circulation of pSS donors as well as in the inflamed environment of impaired salivary glands. This overarching goal will be achieved by (i) Compiling a comprehensive database of immune cell profiles in pSS using both single-cell sequencing and high-parameter mass and flow cytometry; (ii) Determining potential interactions of immune cells leading to B cell activation using a novel computational approach; and (iii) Validating these interactions using ex vivo culture. TABANK will be conducted at the Lymphocytes B, Autoimmunity and Immunotherapies center, Université of Brest Occidentale a leading research institution in the study of immunotherapies for B cell diseases. This project will be supervised by two leading experts in autoimmune diseases and B cell biology. This unique synergy, in addition the researcher’s own expertise in examining immune responses in human tissues, particularly oral mucosal tissues, will precondition the project for success while facilitating a mutually beneficial, two-way transfer of knowledge.

Imaging the brain activity is fundamentally important for many brain-related scientific disciplines. Among the non-invasive neuroimaging strategies, Electroencephalography (EEG) from scalp potentials is one of the primary. In EEG the neuroninduced electric potential is measured by using electrodes on the patient’s scalp. The skull however, highly resistive, shields EEG recordings limiting the spatial resolution. The standard way to avoid skull shielding effects is to invasively implant EEG electrodes under the skull (ECoG) or in the brain cortex (StereoEEG), in both cases after trepanning the patient’s skull. Scalp EEGs are noninvasive but lack spatial imaging accuracy. ECoG and StereoEEG are highly accurate but require skull trepanation and they image only a limited part of the brain. There is the need for increasing the resolution of scalp EEG providing the same level of accuracy of invasive EEGs. This will be the grand challenge which CEREBRO will achieve by conceiving the first ever existing EEG contrast medium, able to provide imaging of the entire brain and in a non-invasive way.