Ageing@Work will develop a novel ICT-based, personalized system to support ageing workers (aged 50+) into designing fit-for-purpose work environments and managing flexibly their evolving needs. Advanced dynamically adapted virtual models of workers will incorporate specificities in respect to skills, physical, cognitive and behavioral factors, being extended from the work context to personal life aspects interacting with workability, health and well-being. Virtual workplace models will encode characteristics of the workplace (factory, outdoor work site, home), at both physical and semantic, resource/process levels. On top of the models, computational intelligence will be responsible to (a) assess user specificities and needs i.r.t. work conditions, both in terms of ergonomics, health and safety issues and task assignments, and (b) perform personalized predictive simulations on workability, health and well-being. Recommendations will then be provided both to the worker and company (under strict privacy restrictions), on how the working conditions must adapt. The worker models will be populated by highly unobtrusive worker sensing, both at work, at home and on the move. To foster workability and productivity, highly personalized, intuitive, age-friendly productivity, co-design enhancement tools will be developed, including ones for AR/VR-based context-awareness and telepresence, lifelong learning and knowledge sharing. On top of these, a novel Ambient Virtual Coach (AVC) will encompass an empathic mirroring avatar for subtle notifications provision, an adaptive Visual Analytics –based personal dashboard, and a reward-based motivation system targeting positive and balanced worker behavior at work and personal life, towards a novel paradigm of ambient support into workability and well-being. The integrated system will be developed by user-centered design and will be evaluated at two pilot sites, related to core Industry 4.0 processes of mining and machines production.

Europe must reduce its dependence on raw materials (RM). Over 100,000 MWFs hold vast potential for critical and non-critical RM, while addressing environmental concerns. SCIMIN-CRM aims to enhance access to primary and secondary RMs in Europe by leveraging MWFs' untapped potential. This involves developing a streamlined ‘fast-path’ process and a collaborative digital platform for smart assessment, alongside technology development for RM valorisation in various MWF types across Spain, Sweden, Austria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. A roadmap will prioritize extraction of valuable CRM like fluorspar, baryte, REEs, and bauxite/aluminium, among others non-critical but highly valuable materials (e.g. copper, aggregates). SCIMIN-CRM will transform discarded materials into valuable resources, increasing valorisation from near 0% to 5% and reducing assessment time by -83%. It will deliver two mobile crushing technologies, a collaborative digital platform, and four cutting-edge processing methodologies. By 2030, the new process aims to become the standard for sustainable MWF assessment aligned with the CRM Act. The project will promote market adoption of sustainable solutions, offer capacity-building programs, enhance social acceptance, and foster industry collaboration. Ultimately, SCIMIN-CRM seeks to boost EU's access to RMs, improve economic performance, enhance recovery rates, and ensure responsible supply, contributing to long-term sustainability and competitiveness. The consortium involves 21 participants from 10 countries spanning the MWF value chain.

ROTATE's ambition is to tap the full potential of minerals extraction and processing in a sustainable and ecological way, developing the needed technologies and tools for achieving zero emissions and pollution for essential and critical raw materials obtention and ensuring a circular approach by implementing mechanisms for waste valorisation in the context of industrial symbiosis, especially reusing waste as aggregates for the construction sector and also recovering secondary products. ROTATE'S GENERAL OBJECTIVE is to achieve a near zero emissions and pollution obtention of raw materials, providing new tools for the mining industry in its journey to a more sustainable and green mineral extraction. The solutions proposed in the project will allow to improve the cut-off grade while reducing the environmental footprint of the whole process. The pilot demonstrations in mineral deposits with different paragenetic (minerals occurring together in a rock, formed by the same genetic process during the same stage) profiles will ensure the replication of the technologies to a wide variety of mining sites. To ensure EU?s lead on Critical Raw Materials access, the project is structured in three main interconnected PILLARS providing technical solutions and three transversal FLOORS covering cross cutting issues, including clustering and social acceptance. A series of technical Project Results of Pillars [PRP] and Project Results of Floors [PRF] will be delivered within the ROTATE's framework. ROTATE's will deliver specific methods and/or technologies aiming to overcome the reluctance of social agents to the exploitation of CRM deposits thanks to the environmental impact reduction achieved. This will result in an increase of the CRM sites that could be exploited in a future, boosting the access of EU to strategic CRM and enabling the development of the Renewables, e-mobility and Defence & Space sectors.

The European aggregates extractive industry is, by far, the biggest non-energy extractive industries in the EU (Eurostat 2017): 26000 estimated extraction sites: 81,26% of the total EU mining and quarrying sites, 3000 million ton extracted and supplied to the EU internal market, ~ 220000 persons directly employed. Hence the EU faces the need of sustainable and competitive future for European Raw Materials specially in the construction sector due to a greater anticipated demand for products linked to human well-being, health, safety and sustainability. DIGIECOQUARRY will exploit the aggregates industry´s great potential through a coordinated approach towards construction materials management with the final goal of reducing EU external supply dependency as well as leading an efficient use of resources. DIGIECOQUARRY will develop systems, technology and processes for integrated digitisation and automation real-time process control, to be piloted in 5 EU quarries with the target of improving health and safety conditions for workers. The pilot campaigns will lead to improved efficiency of processes maximizing quarry resources and sustainable management of water, energy emissions, minimised environmental impact and expanding the EU aggregates and construction business. Coupling Artificial Intelligence approaches with cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things concept, make Industry 4.0 approach possible and the smart sustainable extractive site a reality. All phases of the process, from extraction to the end user are covered by DIGIECOQUARRY, ensuring communication with policy makers, social awareness activities and international cooperation with Colombia and South Africa to share knowledge and best practices. The development of innovative an Intelligent Quarrying System (IQS) will increase the sustainable supply of minerals for the construction sector as well as enabling the sustainable extraction of EU´s mineral resources in existing and new quarries.