EU Research Autumn 2021

EU Research Autumn 2021

Getting below the surface of European research

€30 Billion funding for health emergency authority The future of the planets Seas, Oceans and Waters

European Commission latest: Path to the Digital Decade by 2030 World bank warning on Climate Change

Disseminating the latest research from around Europe and Horizon 2020 Follow EU Research on www.twitter.com/EU_RESEARCH

Editor’s N T

he United Nations released a report recently indicating a ‘staggering rise’ in the amount of extreme weather events over the past 20 years. There have been 7,348 major natural disasters between 2000-2019, responsible for the deaths of 1.23 million people. The 20 years prior to this, 1980-1999, in contrast had 4,212 natural disasters, killing 1.19 million people. No surprises, of course, that climate change is a driver for this. We see it on the news almost nightly in the reports of floods, fires and droughts. The UN also states we have a ‘red alert’ for planet Earth – this is, effectively ‘it’, the moment, where we must make huge decisions, not as countries, but as a species. We can run towards the disasters with solutions or hide away, pretending it will all be fine if we carry on as before.

One of the biggest changes we are noticing and will continue to notice, as a knock-on effect of altering climate and weather, is the changing nature of our water resources. All the water systems on Earth are changing, most notably in our rivers and lakes. These places can be considered literally lifeblood. Apart from giving us water itself, they support valuable ecosystems and biodiversity and food resources. Take away water, add too much of it, radically change the seasonal flows, and life is hit hard.

As a seasoned editor and journalist, Richard Forsyth has been reporting on numerous aspects of European scientific research for over 10 years.

© NASA Expedition 65, International Space Station (ISS)

He has written for many titles including ERCIM’s publication, CSP Today, Sustainable Development magazine, eStrategies magazine and remains a prevalent contributor to the UK business press. He also works in Public Relations for businesses to help them communicate their services effectively to industry and consumers.

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Whilst there are ambitious targets and brave scientific efforts to counter climate impacts, freshwater systems are delicate, huge and influence the environment in complex and profound ways. Looking at the dry river and lake beds and the increasingly snow-less peaks of mountains all around the planet, these startling visions should be less a curiosity and should terrify us. These are indications of the reality of the crisis that has been the talking point of our generation, like the dying canary in a gas filled mineshaft, the dramatic water changes are stark, unmistakable warnings.

Hope you enjoy the issue.

Richard Forsyth Editor

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Contents 33 CLIMSEC

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Research News EU Research takes a closer look at the latest news and technical breakthroughs from across the European research landscape.

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iDESIGN Drug development is a long and arduous process. Researchers on the iDESIGN project are aiming to provide better starting points for drug discovery, as Dr Liam Cox explains.

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TransposonsReprogram Transposable elements form a large part of our DNA, yet relatively little is known about them. This topic is central to Dr Helen Rowe’s research agenda.

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HYBRID The HYBRID project is an innovative training network (ITN) which aims to train the next generation of imaging scientists and help them develop novel diagnostic procedures, as Professor Thomas Beyer and Dr Ivo Rausch explain.

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WEARPLEX The WEARPLEX project is developing printable electrodes which can be screen-printed onto textiles and adapted to the specific needs of the user, as Dr Russel Torah explains.

Initiation and propagation of alpha synuclein oligomers--Relevance for Parkinson s disease We spoke to Dr Karin Danzer about her research into the mechanisms by which alpha-synuclein oligomers propagate, which holds important implications for our understanding of Parkinson’s disease.

22 BRAIN MICRO SNOOPER Researchers in the Brain Micro Snooper project are working to develop improved brain implants, work which brings the prospect of restoring certain functions to disabled people a step closer, as Dr Gaëlle Offranc-Piret explains.

24 Learning to live with COVID-19

The reality is, we are destined to live with Covid-19 for a long time yet. It’s not going anywhere, and it certainly won’t vanish overnight.

How will we adapt to a deadly virus that won’t go away? Richard Forsyth reports.

28 REEFCADE We spoke to Professor Rossana Martini about her work in studying marine shallow-water (reefal) limestone from the Triassic period, which started more than 250 million years ago and spanned over 50 million years.

30 Carbon Cycle in Lake Geneva We spoke to Professor MarieElodie Perga about her research into the carbon cycle on Lake Geneva, in which she aims to find out more about the reactivity of inland waters.

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The relationship between climate and the risk of armed conflict is unclear. Dr Halvard Buhaug and his colleagues in the CLIMSEC project are investigating how climate variability affects contemporary conflict and violence.

36 VEEP Recycling and re-using concrete and demolition waste would bring both environmental and economic benefits.

The VEEP project is developing new technological solutions that could help increase the use of recycled materials in the construction sector, as Anna Paraboschi explains.

37 MixITiN We spoke to Dr Aditee Mitra and Dr Xabier Irigoien about how the MixITiN project has been bringing marine ecology into the 21st century, work which holds important implications for ocean health and policies.

40 The impact of climate

change on rivers and lakes Rivers, streams and lakes give us water and food, rich biodiversity and sustain industries, so when they change, you can expect disruption.

Can scientists help work out solutions before our waterways are dangerously dried up and degraded?

Richard Forsyth reports.

44 RECOMS The RECOMS project is training fifteen Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in developing more just, inclusive and community-based approaches to enhancing and transforming the sustainability of local environments and resources, as Alex Franklin explains.

EU Research

EU Research Autumn 2021

Getting below the surface of European research

46 The role of vocational

specificity and skill demand in explaining long-term labour market outcomes of people with VET Vocational education and training (VET) programmes in Switzerland prepare the next generation to enter the workforce. Professor Irene Kriesi is investigating how the nature of VET programmes affects career trajectories.

48 MultiFlex We spoke to Johannes Finger and Martin Reininghaus about the MultiFlex project’s work in developing a more powerful and faster laser machine that could open up new opportunities in materials processing.

50 FemtoSurf Researchers in the FemtoSurf project are developing a new system to treat large curved surface areas of metals, work which holds interest to several areas of industry, as Femtika CEO Vidmantas Sakalys explains.

52 HEATPACK We spoke to David Nevo, Erich Neubauer, Piotr Śpiewak, Szymon Bednarski, Arno Hoogerwerf, David Hien, Laurent Letteron and Athanasios Baltopoulos about the work of the HEATPACK project in developing new packaging solutions for space applications.

55 ICONET The digital internet has revolutionised the way information is transmitted, now researchers in the ICONET project are investigating the novel concept of the physical internet, as Philippos Philippou explains.

56 PERFORM We spoke to Rehan Iftikar, Anna Hermes and Daniel Hora about the PERFORM project’s work in training the next generation of digital retail managers to help build for the future of the sector.

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€30 Billion funding for health emergency authority The future of the planets Seas, Oceans and Waters

European Commission latest: Path to the Digital Decade by 2030 World bank warning on Climate Change

Disseminating the latest research from around Europe and Horizon 2020 Follow EU Research on www.twitter.com/EU_RESEARCH

59 DAPAS

The DAPAS system can transform the way older people manage their lives, stay in contact with family and keep to routines, driving a sense of well-being and independence, says Dr. Elisabeth Bourkel.

62 TECHNEQUALITY Technological innovations can improve business productivity, but they also have a wider impact . The Technequality project is investigating the social impact of technological innovation, as Professor Mark Levels explains.

64 JOLT Researchers in the JOLT project are investigating how to harness digital and data technologies to support the journalism sector in today’s digital environment, as Professor Jane Suiter explains.

67 PRACE-AISBL The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) provides researchers with access to HPC resources, helping them address societally relevant questions, as Dr Janne Ignatius explains.

70 Stabilising an unstable

industry: The role of agency in interconnecting international financial centres The financial services industry has remained relatively stable over recent years. We spoke to Professor Ben Derudder and Dr Sabine Dörry about their research into the underlying reasons behind this stability.

EDITORIAL Managing Editor Richard Forsyth info@euresearcher.com Deputy Editor Patrick Truss patrick@euresearcher.com Science Writer Holly Cave www.hollycave.co.uk Acquisitions Editor Elizabeth Sparks info@euresearcher.com PRODUCTION Production Manager Jenny O’Neill jenny@euresearcher.com Production Assistant Tim Smith info@euresearcher.com Art Director Daniel Hall design@euresearcher.com Design Manager David Patten design@euresearcher.com Illustrator Martin Carr mary@twocatsintheyard.co.uk PUBLISHING Managing Director Edward Taberner etaberner@euresearcher.com Scientific Director Dr Peter Taberner info@euresearcher.com Office Manager Janis Beazley info@euresearcher.com Finance Manager Adrian Hawthorne info@euresearcher.com Account Manager Jane Tareen jane@euresearcher.com

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RESEARCH

NEWS

The EU Research team take a look at current events in the scientific news

European Commission creates health emergency authority with promise of €30 Billion funding The new Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority will coordinate research and innovation plans, and support EU-wide clinical trial networks and data sharing.

The European Commission has officially launched a new health body to coordinate EU-wide clinical trial networks during health emergencies. The Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), modelled on the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, will start the work in 2022. It will have a dedicated budget of €6 billion up to 2027, but the Commission says it will also benefit from further €24 billion from other EU programmes.

HERA will be set up as an internal organisation within the Commission, with the €30 billion budget to be used for coordinating the development, production and distribution of drugs, vaccines and medical equipment during health emergencies. Last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, the EU lacked the capacity to purchase enough personal protective equipment and ventilators, as global demand went through the roof for these items, which are mostly manufactured outside the EU. “HERA will have the clout and budget to work with industry, medical experts, researchers and our global partners to make sure critical equipment, medicines and vaccines are swiftly available when and as necessary,” said EU vice president Margaritis Schinas.

It will also support research and innovation in the development of new medical countermeasures, including through EU-wide clinical trial networks and platforms for the rapid sharing of research data. “Research and innovation will be a central piece in HERA, as the new authority sets out to promote and support the

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development of medical technologies and their production,” said EU commissioner for research, Mariya Gabriel.

During her state of the union speech on Wednesday, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said HERA will bring together the public and private expertise and the budget to make sure the next pandemic doesn’t catch Europe by surprise. “We have the innovation and scientific capacity; we have the private sector knowledge, we have competent national authorities.

“And now we have to bring all that together, including massive funding,” she said.

Health Data Space and the European Science Cloud. Its functioning will be reviewed and adapted on an annual basis until 2025, when a full review will be carried out.

The European Parliament is to begin negotiations with member states on a new legal framework for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), after the Commission came up with a plan to set up a new health security framework based on the EU’s experience with COVID-19. This week MEPs voted through a proposal to extend the mandate of the ECDC. Member states are expected to come up with national preparedness and response plans and provide the ECDC with better epidemiological data. MEPs also hope member states will agree to extend the mandate of the ECDC beyond communicable diseases, to cover cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer, diabetes, and mental illness.

EU Research

The return of science to the United States of America: The new-look US R&D policy

After 4 years of Trump, science is respected again in Washington DC, in stark contrast to the new protectionism of Europe.

WASHINGTON DC - From his office on Capitol Hill earlier this month, Rep. Don Beyer videos into an ongoing legislative debate to propose an amendment about satellites. The commercial space sector in the US is booming, he says, and worldwide some 10,000 new satellites may be launched this year. That’s great commercially, but will all those orbiting gadgets get in the way of the astronomy on which space exploitation is based? “With the incredible promise of satellites in low-Earth orbit, we can’t ignore the consequences on ground-based astronomy,” he explains to the other Congressmen online. His proposal: Give the US National Science Foundation money and authority to study the impact. “All in favour say ‘aye’”, says the committee chair, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson. The ayes have it. No audible no’s. She gavels the amendment through. “I wish they were all that easy,” she says.

This is the US Congress with Democrats in the lead and a new president in the White House. The legislators are still operating in part remotely, and in part in-person as the pandemic eases in the US. But most of all, for those who care about science and technology, it’s an extraordinary time of action. Amendments to strengthen science can sail through. Massive plans for R&D spending clear legislative hurdles that only six months ago seemed insurmountable. Talks for international science cooperation – ruled out by the Trump Administration – are suddenly back on the agenda. “This is the most exciting time for science funding in America in the last 30 years,” says Beyer, a Virginia Democrat who chairs the House space subcommittee.

“There’s all these wonderful things we want to do,” he enthuses in an interview. “I mean, it’s an exciting time to be a scientist.”

What accounts for this extraordinary flipping of positions – from Trump’s no to Biden’s aye, from the EU’s “open to the world” R&D slogan of a few years ago to its current, protectionist “strategic autonomy” mantra? In Europe, a bad hangover from 2016-2020 seems to be muddling minds. In part, normally globalist EU leaders were traumatised by Trump; his “America First” rhetoric emboldened European protectionists. Further, four painful years of arguing with the UK over the terms of Brexit have made EU leaders afraid of pulling a Trojan horse, stuffed with new technologies, across the Channel into its own markets.

Also, a few chance occurrences: the appointment of French tech

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industrialist Thierry Breton as EU Industry Commissioner gave protectionists a powerful voice inside EU decision-making. And then there’s the money: The potential cost of reviving Europe’s COVID-19-crippled economy frightens EU leaders and has cast into the shade any hopes for big spending on R&D or other nice but not urgent topics.

In Washington, the opposite political dynamic is at work. First, on cooperation, the basic administrative machinery of US science wasn’t re-engineered by Trump. Many of the lower-level officials who actually do international R&D deals were forced to lay low for a while, but under Biden have been promoted. So when the new administration began reversing Trump foreign policies, it had on hand the experts who knew exactly what to do and how to get it done fast.

Second, on budget, despite grim forecasts of COVID-19-related budgetary disaster, many of the 50 US states are seeing nearmagical budget surpluses. In Massachusetts, home to Harvard and MIT, there’s so much cash that the Republican governor wants to offer a two month sales tax holiday to voters. That kind of largesse is rippling through the US political world, visible in the multi-trillion dollar budget bills advanced by the Biden administration. Only a portion of this money will ever get spent; in politics, promises are cheap. But it’s very likely that a big slice of it will be approved – and that, as Rep. Beyer said, adds up to the biggest budgets for US science in decades.

And then there’s the China card. The one thing Republicans and Democrats in Congress agree on is their distrust of Beijing.

The Senate’s massive science budget passed in large measure because Republicans and Democrats alike saw it as an essential response to keep US technology on top, in the face of rising Chinese competition. The Senate bill, Beyer says, “was pitched as a response to China. If it were just a matter of increasing research [spending], I don’t think it would get anywhere. But when you’re ‘standing up to China’ – that’s a brainwave.” What should this tell European policy leaders? First, that they had better join the R&D race, fast. Second, that they should be open, not closed, to R&D collaboration with proven allies; the work will go faster that way. And finally, why is it that it’s science and technology from China, not Europe, that has Capitol Hill on edge. That’s the most unsettling message of all.

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Mission Starfish: All aboard for the plan to restore European ocean and waters Horizon Europe report sets 17 objectives and says citizens must be ‘emotionally involved’ in achieving them.

Experts charged with defining objectives for the mission to restore the health of Europe’s oceans and waters say the 17 targets they have set won’t be met unless citizens are fully engaged. “The point is to create emotion. If people are not emotionally involved, they will not do anything to change their behaviour,” Cristina Pedicchio, a member of the oceans mission board and researcher at Italy’s National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics told Science|Business.

While researchers are learning more and more about oceans, people are not aware of their findings, due to what Pedicicchio called a widespread “out of sea, out of mind” mentality. As one of the EU’s five new research moonshots that are due to get off the ground as part of Horizon Europe, the oceans mission wants to change this. One of its main aims is to create a buzz around complex challenges such as microplastics pollution, protecting biodiversity and making water sources resilient to climate change, to inspire action to tackle them.

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and achievable,” said Meißner, a former chair of the European Parliament’s intergroup on seas, rivers, islands and coastal areas.

Pedicchio believes people are willing to learn about the sea and can create an emotional bond with it. Her research institute recently carried out a survey with 1,500 respondents on their attitudes to seas and oceans. When asked if they would agree to pay more taxes to help save European waters, 44 per cent of respondents said they would. The mission’s targets include clearing all plastic litter from European waters, starting with a pilot in the Mediterranean. By 2030, the board also hopes to have 30 per cent of EU waters highly to fully protected, to have regenerated 20 per cent of degraded seabed habitats, and to reduce underwater acoustic pollution by 50 per cent. Research will underpin the effort to reach these targets. “Research and innovation will be the main focus of all the aspects,” said Pedicchio.

The mission board of 15 experts that set out the 17 goals which Europe must meet to restore the health of its waters calls the project ‘Mission Starfish’. While the number and range of targets makes the mission complicated, the board wants to ensure it is accessible. “Our mission is so detailed, but we are trying to make it easy,” says mission board member and former MEP Gesine Meißner. That led the board to select the starfish emblem. The widely recognised sea creature is meant to help people develop an emotional connection with the sea, which will be an essential part of building momentum to translate research into action.

Last year, the commission launched the last big call under the current EU research programme, Horizon 2020, for European Green Deal projects, which will cover some the mission’s research, says Pedicchio. As part of the call, the commission is looking for bids to start creating a digital twin computer model of Europe’s oceans. The digital twin of Europe’s, and eventually all oceans, will be used for monitoring and research, including simulations of how different interventions affect the marine environment.

The mission board estimates it will cost €60 million to develop this research tool. “It is a really big challenge because you need physical, chemical, biological information, and to put together this information is complicated,” said Pedicchio. “Then, to this ecosystem, you have to add the economic aspects.”

The 17 goals are spread across five main topics, or arms of the starfish. These are: filling the knowledge and emotional gap; decarbonising oceans; eliminating plastic and sound pollution; regenerating marine ecosystems; and revamping ocean governance. The mission board estimates the EU, member states and the public sector will have to invest around €500 billion to reach them all. The emotional connection will be nurtured through blue schools, blue Erasmus+, a blue European master’s degree programme, and in events and demonstrator projects in the cultural sector. There will be a special effort to involve children with Mission Starfish, Meißner said. “If you can explain it to children and make them motivated, then you have everyone, so to say.” “On one side, the mission shall be very emotional, and on the other side shall have targets that are clear

Meißner says there is some concern whether there will be enough funding for oceans research after EU leaders slashed the budget of Horizon Europe to €80.9 billion, €10 billion less than the commission had proposed. “That is another issue we have to think about,” she said. However, Pedicchio is convinced the European Commission will continue funding research relevant to Europe’s waters through Horizon Europe and other programmes. While oceans have been on Europe’s research agenda for years, “the mission is mainly a way to focus attention, to concentrate on the main aspects and to reflect,” said Pedicchio. “If there is not the label mission, something will be there for sure […] It will never disappear [off the commission’s priority list] because it represents the main problem of our society.”

EU Research

European Commission moves forward with floating tidal innovation project The FORWARD-2030 project consortium, led by Orbital Marine Power, will receive €20.5 million and aims to accelerate the commercial deployment of floating tidal energy.

The project aims to develop a multi-vector energy system that will combine predictable floating tidal energy, wind generation, grid export, battery storage and green hydrogen production. Furthermore, the project will see the installation of the next iteration of the Orbital turbine, integrated with a hydrogen production facility and battery storage at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney. Commenting on the award, Oliver Wragg, Orbital’s Commercial Director said: “We now have a focused and highly experienced consortium dedicated to the delivery of tidal energy and committed to accelerating its future uptake.

This alignment of interest sets FORWARD-2030 on course to have a meaningful impact as we build towards large scale commercially viable tidal energy projects.”

Project partners will design options for integrating large scale tidal power into future net-zero energy systems, whilst developing environmental monitoring and marine spatial planning tools for large floating tidal arrays. During the project, Orbital will advance the company’s floating tidal turbine design, with support from technical partner SKF, who will design and build an optimised fully integrated power train solution, designed for volume manufacture. The partners will deliver several technical innovations targeting increased rated power, enhanced turbine performance and array integration solutions,

ultimately reducing the cost of Orbital’s technology. The next generation turbine will be deployed at EMEC’s Fall of Warness tidal test site off Eday in Orkney, where the company has already installed the O2. EMEC will host the demonstration, facilitate hydrogen production, provide an environmental monitoring programme, and develop a live environmental monitoring system and test programme.

As part of the project, LABORELEC will assess the large scale integration of tidal energy to the European energy system, develop a smart energy management system and an operational forecasting tool. The University of Edinburgh will deliver a technoeconomic analysis of tidal energy, and the MaREI Centre at University College Cork will be responsible for addressing marine spatial planning issues for wide-scale uptake of tidal energy.

Michaël Marique, CEO of ENGIE Laborelec: “The integration within a single system of tidal and wind energies, as well as storage by batteries and hydrogen makes FORWARD 2030 a world first.

ENGIE Laborelec is proud to participate in this large-scale project, which should make it possible to take a decisive step towards integration of multi-renewable technologies projects with large mixed storage.” The Fast-tracking Offshore Renewable energy With Advanced Research to Deploy 2030MW of tidal energy before 2030 (FORWARD-2030) project will run from 2021 to 2025.

Climate change could displace 216 million by 2050: Report World Bank warns ‘climate migrants’ will be in the tens of millions in three decades even if urgent action is taken.

Climate change could push more than 200 million people to leave their homes by 2050 unless urgent action is taken, the World Bank has warned. In a landmark report published in September, the international financial institution called on states to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap to avoid the effects of slow-onset climate change such as water scarcity, decreasing crop productivity, and rising sea levels.

“All these issues are fundamentally connected, which is why our support to countries is positioned to deliver on climate and development objectives together while building a more sustainable, safe and resilient future,” Juergen Voegele, vice president of Sustainable Development at the World Bank, said in a statement. Under the most pessimistic scenario, the World Bank’s Groundswell report predicts more than 216 million people across six world regions could be on the move by 2050, leading to “hotspots of internal climate migration” by 2030 that will continue to spread and intensify by 2050.

Sub-Saharan Africa has been identified as the most vulnerable region due to desertification, fragile coastlines and the population’s dependence on agriculture. Up to 86 million people are projected to move within national borders in the worst-case

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scenario. North Africa may see 19 million “climate migrants” moving, equivalent to roughly 9 percent of its population. In the most climate-friendly scenario, with low emissions and sustainable development, the world could still see 44 million people being forced to leave their homes.

The findings “reaffirm the potency of climate to induce migration within countries”, said Viviane Wei Chen Clement, a senior climate change specialist at the World Bank and one of the report’s authors. The first part of the Groundswell report, focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, was published in 2018. The sequel, which includes projections and analysis of internal climate migration for East Asia and the Pacific, North Africa, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, was published on Monday. The report did not look at the short-term impacts of climate change, such as the effects of extreme weather events, and did not examine climate migration across borders.

Among the actions recommended were achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century and investing in green development in line with the Paris agreement. The report comes before the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, scheduled to take place in November.

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State of the Union: Digitising society, the economy and the way we live Commission proposes a Path to the Digital Decade to deliver the EU’s digital transformation by 2030.

The Commission has proposed a Path to the Digital Decade, a concrete plan to achieve the digital transformation of our society and economy by 2030. The proposed Path to the Digital Decade will translate the EUʼs digital ambitions for 2030 into a concrete delivery mechanism. It will set up a governance framework based on an annual cooperation mechanism with Member States to reach the 2030 Digital Decade targets at Union level in the areas of digital skills, digital infrastructures, digitalisation of businesses and public services. It also aims to identify and implement largescale digital projects involving the Commission and the Member States.

Member States, which would in turn propose national strategic roadmaps to attain them. Each year, the Commission will submit a report on the ‘State of the Digital Decade’ to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union with the aim to:

Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for ‘A Europe Fit for the Digital Age’, said: “The European vision for a digital future is one where technology empowers people. So today we propose a concrete plan to achieve the digital transformation. For a future where innovation works for businesses and for our societies.

We aim to set up a governance framework based on an annual cooperation mechanism to reach targets in the areas of digital skills, digital infrastructures, digitalisation of businesses and public services.”

The Commission has identified an initial list of multi-country projects, which includes several areas for investment: data infrastructure, low-power processors, 5G communication, high-performance computing, secure quantum communication, public administration, blockchain, digital innovation hubs, and investing in people’s digital skills. Different targets will accelerate the process of digitalisation and will lead to greater resilience and technological sovereignty by bringing more specialists in the market to work in digital fields, or incentivising various industries to develop digital technologies in Europe.

Building on the 2030 Digital Compass, in which the Commission laid out the vision for a successful digital transformation of Europe’s economy and society by the end of the decade, the Commission now introduces a robust governance framework to reach the digital targets in the form of a Path to the Digital Decade.

Digital progress in the Member States has been very uneven in the last years. The trend shows that the countries progressing at a slow pace five years ago, have continued to progress slowly until now.

With this new Path to the Digital Decade, there will be structured cooperation to work collectively towards the agreed objectives, while recognising different starting points among Member States.

To ensure Europe is moving swiftly towards the Digital Decade objectives, the proposed governance framework foresees a progress monitoring system based on an enhanced Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). The Commission would first develop projected EU trajectories for each target together with the

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Present measured digital performance against the projected trajectories; Make targeted recommendations to Member States for reaching the 2030 targets, taking national circumstances into account.

The Commission shall review the targets by 2026 to take stock of technological, economic and societal developments.

The annual Report on the ‘State of the Digital Decade’ will provide the necessary information to account for developments and identified gaps in Europe’s digital transformation, and update the list of multi-country projects. Multi-country projects should pool investments from EU funding resources, including from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, as well as from the Member States. Other public and private entities may invest in the projects where appropriate.

The proposed Path to the Digital Decade is supported by the results of several consultations in which citizens, businesses, public administrations, Member States, industry and organisations shared their views on what is needed for a successful European digital transformation. Moreover, its implementation, including the design of follow-up initiatives, would be supported by discussions in the online forum dedicated to the Digital Compass.

EU Research

DFG to fund 13 new research units Topics range from DNA viruses and learning in visual computing to issues relating to migration due to labour, education and displacement.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing 13 new Research Units. This was decided by the DFG Joint Committee at the virtual DFG Annual General Meeting on 6 July 2021 on the recommendation of the Senate. The new Research Units will receive total funding of approximately €47.4 million, including a 22-percent programme allowance for indirect projectrelated costs. The Research Units include three that are to be funded under the lead agency agreement with the Austrian Fund for Scientific Research (FWF) and the Luxembourg Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR).

The funding duration for these consortia is based on the date on which the first draft of a funding proposal was submitted. Research Units which submitted their draft proposals after 1 October 2018 will be funded for a maximum of two four-year periods;

this applies to nine of the newly established Research Units. Four consortia are based on a draft proposal received prior to 1 October 2018; these will be funded for two periods of three years each.

In addition to the 13 institutions, it was decided to extend funding for nine Research Units for a second period, again including two that are funded under the lead agency agreement with the Luxembourg FNR. Research Units enable researchers to devote themselves to current, pressing issues in their subject areas and establish innovative new fields of research. With these new additions, the DFG is currently funding 173 Research Units, 14 Clinical Research Units and 13 Centres for Advanced Studies.

Clinical Research Units are additionally characterised by their close link between research and clinical work, while Centres for Advanced Studies are specifically tailored to work in the humanities and social sciences.

EU Research funding in Switzerland on a knife edge Swiss govt seeking to iron out research funding shortfalls over EU ties.

The Swiss government said on Friday it is seeking to implement transitional measures to make up for research funding shortfalls, as souring ties with the European Union put billions of euros of funding at stake for Swiss scientists.

Researchers at Swiss universities have been on tenterhooks about their ability to join the EU’s Horizon programme, after Switzerland’s decision to pull the plug on a draft treaty binding it more tightly to the bloc - its biggest trading partner - hampered access.

solutions, which must still be approved by parliament, to make up for the EU grants scientists and researchers can no longer apply for.”The planned transitional measures will be submitted to parliament in the winter session in the form of an addendum to the 2022 budget,” the government said.

“The Federal Council’s goal remains full association to Horizon Europe at the earliest opportunity,” the Swiss government said in a statement. “However, the EU views the question of Switzerland’s association to Horizon Europe in the context of overall relations between Switzerland and the EU. Negotiations are not possible at the present time.” With a 95 billion euro ($111.9 billion) budget, Horizon Europe is the world’s largest research and innovation funding programme. Swiss researchers were previously able to benefit from full participation in its predecessor programme.

The country will now be treated as a “non-associated third country” in the programme, the Swiss government said, meaning Swiss researchers can participate in most collaboration projects -- or about two-thirds of the available programmes -- but not individual projects. The government has now tasked the Swiss National Science Foundation with coming up with transitional

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Stronger foundations for drug discovery Drug development is a long and arduous process. It suffers from a high attrition rate, with many compounds failing at different stages of the drug discovery and development pathway; this also makes it a costly process. In an effort to address these challenges, researchers on the iDESIGN project are aiming to provide better starting points for drug discovery, as Dr Liam Cox explains.

There are many

ways to develop a new drug. A traditional approach begins with a detailed understanding of the disease. “In this strategy, you might start by identifying a target, for example a protein, which is associated with the progression of the disease. Designing a small molecule that can interrupt or change the behaviour of the protein might then provide a way of treating the disease. Further modifications to the starting molecule, using an iterative process of testing and structural refinement, are usually required to turn it into a therapeutic that can be used in the clinic,” explains Dr Liam Cox, Reader in Biological Organic Chemistry at the University of Birmingham. This process is arduous, complex and frequently fails. “Failure to achieve an appropriate safety profile or the physicochemical properties that are needed for in vivo efficacy are common causes of a drug candidate failing to reach the clinic,” outlines Dr Cox. An alternative approach to drug development starts with the chemistry.

Many pharmaceutical companies possess compound collections – or libraries – stretching into the millions. These collections are screened with the aim of identifying compounds – so-called hits – that display biological activity. “In this approach, a screen will often look for compounds that cause a change in the phenotype, after which biologists will work out how the change arises, hopefully identifying a druggable biological target,” says Dr Cox. A hit compound from this type of screen then provides the basis for a drug discovery programme. “You still need to do a lot of developmental work, for example, to improve bioavailability or safety,” continues Dr Cox. “But if your starting hit is

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The iDESIGN research team.

of a high quality, for example, if it displays drug-like physicochemical properties, it follows that you should have a greater chance of successfully advancing your compound through the various stages of the drug discovery process.”

initial discovery phase to the identification of a candidate, and through the clinical phases of development to the final drug, compounds typically become increasingly threedimensional in character,” says Dr Cox. There are a number of reasons for this. “A molecule that is more three-dimensional in character is often more soluble, which is a key physicochemical property that affects bioavailability,” explains Dr Cox. A further important factor is selectivity and a more three-dimensional compound typically displays better selectivity for its biological target.

Many compounds developed using traditional approaches incorporate socalled aromatic structures, which tend to generate relatively flat molecules. “There

If your starting points for drug discovery are high quality, then you will have a greater chance of progressing through the various stages of the drug discovery and

development process. iDESIGN project Identifying better starting points for drug discovery sits at the heart of the iDESIGN project, an EU-funded industrial doctoral training programme bringing together one academic partner from the UK, the University of Birmingham, and two industrial partners, Symeres, based in the Netherlands, and AnalytiCon Discovery, based in Germany. The project is centred around the development of high-quality compound libraries comprising compounds that exhibit a high level of threedimensionality. “As you progress from the

are good reasons why drug compounds incorporate aromatic structures. But the resulting relatively flat structures can cause problems. For example, sub-optimal selectivity can lead to so-called off-target effects,” outlines Dr Cox. “Such a compound is often described as being promiscuous; it is not only operating on the target that you want it to work on, but also interacting with other targets in the body. This can lead to a poor safety profile and dangerous side-effects that can lead to a drug being withdrawn if it ever reaches the clinic.”

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Better start points The iDESIGN team of chemists are synthesising libraries of high-quality compounds; providing a good starting point can accelerate the drug discovery process and help to reduce the rate of attrition that blights the sector. Dr Cox and his colleagues at Birmingham have developed many bespoke 3D scaffolds during their research; these were shared with their industrial partners at the start of the project who used their medicinal chemistry expertise to identify those that would provide good starting points for drug discovery. These scaffolds typically have two, and sometimes three, decoration sites, which allow researchers to generate a diverse range of compounds. Each compound in a library might derive from a common scaffold but each has a slightly different shape according to how the scaffold has been decorated.

“That’s attractive as a starting point for a drug discovery programme because if we identify a hit from a phenotypic screen, then the library of structurally related compounds will allow us to establish quickly a structure-activity relationship to guide further development,” explains Dr Cox. This also provides important insights into how that molecule is interacting with its target, allowing scientists to generate a pharmacophore, a type of model which defines how a compound interacts with its target and helps the medicinal chemist to develop the initial hit further.

The aim in iDESIGN is to develop libraries of compounds which possess favourable physicochemical properties and are free from structural features and functionality that are known to cause downstream problems in drug development. “If we can get the first stage right, that hopefully means you have to do less work later on,” explains Dr Cox. “Structural modifications are often made to reduce toxicity or metabolism issues. If these problems aren’t there at the start, you can save time and money.”

The scaffolds developed in the iDESIGN project are central to its success. Each researcher has their own project focusing on a particular class of scaffold which has been devised by academics at Birmingham. For example, one PhD student, Daniel Kovari, supervised by Dr Cox and Dr Oliver Kunz from AnalytiCon Discovery, has developed a range of novel spiroacetal scaffolds. “A spiro compound has one atom which is shared by two rings; they are inherently 3D in structure,” explains Dr Cox. In the first half of his project, carried out at Birmingham, Daniel worked closely with his academic supervisor to develop a robust synthetic

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route to his scaffolds. In January 2020, he transferred to AnalytiCon Discovery where he first synthesised his scaffolds on a large scale. He then worked with his industrial supervisor, Dr Kunz, an expert in compound library design and assembly, to complete his library synthesis. “Colleagues at Birmingham, looking for new treatments of liver disease, recently performed an in silico screen on Daniel’s compound library and identified a small sub-set which appear to interact with their target of interest,” explains Dr Cox. “Daniel has since synthesised these compounds and they have been shipped to Birmingham for physical testing. We’re excited to see if they prove active as they would represent a great starting point for a drug discovery project.”

All six iDESIGN students started their research projects at Birmingham where they also undertook wider training in broader research skills and key transferrable skills. Mid-way through the project, four transferred to Symeres and two to AnalytiCon Discovery to complete their research projects. “The really attractive feature of this type of EU-ITN programme is that it brings together academics and industrialists; each has their particular expertise, which the iDESIGN students have benefited from at the relevant stages of their projects,” explains Dr Cox. Exposing students to these different environments will prepare them for their future careers, whether that lies in academia or in industry. “The project is an industry-academic collaboration, which really helps early-career researchers to understand how science and drug discovery works,” stresses Dr Cox. A non-traditional view of the University of Birmingham’s clock tower.

iDESIGN Delivering Better Starting Points for Drug Discovery: New Compound Libraries Driven By Intelligent Design Project Objectives

iDESIGN’s Principal Objectives: • to provide a training programme which will train six early-career researchers to become expert synthetic and medicinal chemists, confident research scientists, consummate professionals, effective communicators and innovators with a creative and entrepreneurial spirit.

• to use the researchers’ individual PhD projects to develop new, structurally diverse, compound libraries for the pharmaceutical sector to use in hit-identification screening campaigns.

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Horizon2020 European Industrial Doctorate (EID) Innovative Training Network (ITN) ~€1.6M

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Dr Liam Cox Reader in Biological Organic Chemistry School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT T: +44 (0)121 414 3524 E: l.r.cox@bham.ac.uk W: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/ research/activity/chemistry/projects/ idesign/idesign.aspx

Dr Liam Cox

Dr Liam Cox is a synthetic organic chemist.

He joined the University of Birmingham in 1999 and is currently a Reader in Biological Organic Chemistry. His research focus has shifted increasingly to the interface of chemistry and the life and medical sciences with his team now applying their synthesis skills to solving biological problems and early-stage drug discovery.

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The making of more powerful stem cells

Transposable elements have been inserting new copies of themselves into our genome for millions of years, and today they form a large part of our DNA, yet relatively little is known about them. While most of these transposable elements are no longer mobile, some have the power to immortalize cells by remodelling the genome, as Dr Helen Rowe explains.

Around half

of the human genome is made up of transposable elements, including both retrotransposons and DNA transposons, which can be thought of as ancient viruses because they once replicated and inserted new copies of themselves into the genomes of our ancestors. While these elements are abundant in the genome (around half of our DNA), relatively little is known about them.

“We don’t really know what’s in there as they are poorly characterised, and we know even less about their function,” says Dr Helen Rowe, Senior Lecturer in Epigenetics at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Retrotransposons replicate through an RNA intermediate, an RNA molecule, which is an important difference with DNA transposons. “They can reverse transcribe their RNA into DNA, which means that they can readily expand their copy number by making new copies of themselves to insert at new locations throughout the genome,” explains Dr Rowe. Although these ancient viruses are no longer mobile, many have retained fragments called ‘enhancers’ that can switch on expression of our own genes.

Genome remodelling As the Principal Investigator of an EU-funded project based at QMUL, Dr Rowe aims to shed new light on the role of retrotransposons in

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genome remodelling, using embryonic stem cells from mice as a model system. In earlier research, Dr Rowe investigated an epigenetic regulation pathway of these transposable elements. “We know the components of that pathway are transcription factors, proteins that bind to DNA sequences embedded in these retrotransposons.

This is a novel class of transcription factors that are still mostly uncharacterised,” she

the mouse genome. Researchers are using a technique called CRISPR/Cas9 to edit the genome. “We can basically edit the DNA responsible for making these ZFPs, thereby preventing their function by generating a gene ‘knockout’. This approach helps us to dissect the function of the retrotransposons that these ZFPs bind to and usually switch off,” explains Dr Rowe.

We’re looking at zinc finger proteins that alter the chromatin landscape, and they bind to specific DNA sequences embedded within retrotransposons. We can map their binding sites using chromatin profiling techniques such as ‘Chromatin Immunoprecipitation-sequencing’ and ‘CUT&RUN’. outlines. Dr Rowe and her colleagues have been studying this novel class of proteins – called zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) – which could lead to new insights into the functions of some of these transposable elements. “A huge number of those ZFPs are encoded by the human and mouse genome,” she says.

A very small proportion of these ZFPs have been characterised, a topic at the heart of the project’s overall agenda. The Rowe lab are focusing on ZFPs that bind to retrotransposons that are present at hundreds of copies in

The focus of attention here is on two specific transcription factors, ZFP37 and ZFP819. “We’ve got one PhD student, Liane Fernandes leading the project on ZFP819, and a Postdoctoral Fellow, Poppy Gould leading the project on ZFP37,” continues Dr Rowe. A second Postdoctoral Fellow, Rocio Enriquez-Gasca, is working on both projects, pioneering novel computational pipelines, which are essential to the analysis of sequence data derived specifically from retrotransposons. “We can specifically target the genes that encode those proteins

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Transposons control genes encoding master transcription factors.

using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. We can direct sequence-specific RNAs to certain DNA sites and knockout the function of these proteins.”

The project is based in mouse embryonic stem cells, which are derived from the blastocysts of early embryos, and which can grow in a petri dish. These cells are ‘pluripotent’, meaning they can self-renew and differentiate into the different cell types of the body; now Dr Rowe and her colleagues are looking at the role of the ZFPs in genome remodelling. “We’re looking at whether – when we knockout genes encoding those ZFPs – these cells either differentiate or become reprogrammed to reflect an earlier stage of development, where they adopt a ‘totipotent’ rather than pluripotent state,” she outlines. This essentially means that the cells become more powerful stem cells because totipotent cells have the ability to produce all of the specialized cell types in an organism, including within the embryo and the placenta.

“We’re looking at how embryonic stem cells can be reprogrammed, changing their potency, by reactivating the retrotransposons,” says Dr Rowe.

A variety of different techniques are being used in this research, with Dr Rowe and her colleagues looking at different stages of development, using their stem cell model. A lot of energy is centered on investigating the master regulators at each stage of development.

“We look at the expression of these master regulators, as well as at the morphology of the cells. We use standard techniques such as Western blot, immunofluorescence and RNA sequencing, where you sequence all the RNA in a cell to identify the main determinants

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of change,” says Dr Rowe. Chromatin-based techniques are a fundamental tool in Dr Rowe’s research. “We’re looking at ZFPs that alter the chromatin landscape, and they bind to specific DNA sequences embedded within retrotransposons. We can map their binding sites using chromatin profiling techniques such as ‘Chromatin Immunoprecipitation-sequencing’ and ‘Cleavage Under Targets & Release Using Nuclease’ (CUT&RUN)” she continues.

Chromatin-based techniques enable scientists to capture a protein of interest, which here is the ZFPs, and then sequence all the DNA associated with it. This is how the retrotransposons targeted by the ZFPs of interest have been identified. “They don’t target

genes, they actually target retrotransposons.

We think that’s because they evolved originally to block the spread of these genome invaders, by targeting their regulatory sequences such as enhancers. But now, they regulate host genes located next-door to the retrotransposons,” outlines Dr Rowe. They do this by recruiting heterochromatin to the retrotransposon, which then spreads into host genes and regulates their function. “ZFP819 binds to a satellite repeat – which is a different class of transposable element – and recruits heterochromatin to it.

This switches it off, and all the nearby genes,” explains Dr Rowe. “The main genes that are associated with that satellite repeat are the master regulators of totipotency.”

Project researchers (left to right): Rocio Enriquez-Gasca, Liane Fernandes, Helen Rowe, Poppy Gould, James Holt, Hale Tunbak.

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Transposons control enhancers through epigenetic mechanisms.

TransposonsReprogram How retrotransposons remodel the genome during early development and reprogramming

Project Objectives

This work in TransposonsReprogram will exploit mouse development to unravel the mechanism of how RTNs remodel the genome. It will help us to understand how ZFPs can be engaged to reprogram cells and in stem-cell therapies, and will explain more broadly how RTNs, which dominate our genomes, control cell fate.

Project Funding

TransposonsReprogram is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant agreement ID: 678350.

Scientific Collaborators

• George Kassiotis, The Francis Crick Institute, UK • Didier Trono, EPFL, Switzerland

Contact Details

Dr Helen M Rowe Group Leader Centre for Immunobiology Blizard Institute Queen Mary University of London 4 Newark St, London E1 2AT, UK E: h.rowe@qmul.ac.uk W: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/blizard/allstaff/profiles/helen-rowe.html Dr Helen M Rowe

Dr Helen Rowe is Senior Lecturer in Epigenetics at the Centre for Immunobiology, part of Queen Mary University of London. Her lab is working on how epigenetic complexes regulate transposons and cellular genes in development, and how these pathways can go wrong in cancer and autoinflammatory diseases.

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Researchers have found that ZFP819 and this satellite repeat are able to influence cell fate, because ZFP819 expression coincides with exit from totipotency. ZFP819 knockout leads to reactivation of the satellite repeats and the master regulators of totipotency. However, Dr Rowe says they have less information about ZFP37. “It’s expressed a bit later in development, so it comes in later and then it binds to a different retrotransposon, and that regulates a different developmental transition,” she says.

There are over 300 of these ZFPs in the mouse and human genome, and the project provides solid foundations for further research into this protein family. “In the project, we’ve been looking to define new concepts and see how they could apply to other members of this ZFP family,” explains Dr Rowe. “We’ve been able to demonstrate that these retrotransposons and ZFPs do re-model the genome, and we believe this will apply to many other transposable elements within the genome.”

The next step beyond this is to understand how transposable elements exert their genome re-modelling effects. While the Rowe lab have made significant progress in terms of proving their hypothesis that retrotransposons direct cell fate transitions, Dr Rowe now aims to gain further mechanistic data. “We want to understand how these elements work,” she stresses. Initial findings suggest that these transposable elements are involved in regulating chromatin structure, now researchers are probing deeper. “We’re looking at things like DNA methylation, 3D chromatin structure, histone methylation and the accessibility of chromatin,” continues Dr Rowe. “Those things combined will help us to understand if these repetitive elements are simply regulatory elements, or if they are also structural elements controlling 3D chromatin organisation.”

Stem cell therapies This research also holds important implications for stem cell therapies. It is very difficult to manipulate cells and direct them into different differentiation pathways, and Dr Rowe says the project’s research could help provide a more detailed picture. “You usually start with human induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells, which are similar to embryonic stem cells. Our findings would relate to that model, where you then would potentially be able to make patientspecific human IPS cells more efficiently,” she outlines. Those cells can then be directed down different differentiation pathways, depending on the patient’s needs; safety is a primary consideration here, and it’s important to consider the impact of a therapy that affects transposable elements. “The impact of cell fate changes on transposable elements is largely unknown. We’re trying to understand how these ancient viruses fit in,” says Dr Rowe.

The project’s research could help make stem cell therapies more efficient and ensure they are safe, and that they do not lead to the reactivation of transposable elements that might have unwanted side effects. Researchers have used mice as a model system so far, and in future Dr Rowe hopes to conduct similar experiments in a human system. “We would use human IPS cell cultures, which we can grow in petri dishes in the lab. Then we would look at their cell fate,” she outlines, after gene knockouts of human ZFPs. In future, Dr Rowe plans to pursue further research into how transposable elements mediate structural changes to chromatin, building on findings so far. “We’ve found that these transposable elements regulate developmental fate. They recruit heterochromatin, they act as enhancers, they mediate structural changes to chromosome compartments,” she says.

“We are excited to find out more about what transposable elements can do and how.”

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Next generation train in hybrid imaging Diagnostic imaging is an important tool in modern medicine, but currently the different medical imaging modalities are often not being used to their full potential. The HYBRID project is an innovative training network (ITN), funded by the European Commission, that aims to train the next generation of imaging scientists and help them develop novel diagnostic procedures, as Professor Thomas Beyer and Dr Ivo Rausch explain.

Hybrid imaging

Future projects

Medical Imaging

The emergence of hybrid medical imaging systems (see box) promises to enable more precise diagnosis and treatment of disease. In the HYBRID project, the aim is to provide training to the next generation of imaging scientists and help bridge the gap between different areas of medical imaging. “In the past, there has typically been a divide between nuclear medicine imaging and radiology,” says Dr Ivo Rausch, a post-doc researcher in the Quantitative Imaging and Medical Physics team at the Centre for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering (CMPBMT) at the Medical University of Vienna. “You may be a specialist in nuclear medicine imaging, or MRI, or general radiology, but there is a lack of people who understand all the different imaging modalities and are able to bring this together.”

The intention of HYBRID is not just that ESRs develop their research skills, but also that they gain experience in industrial settings, which will help prepare them for their future careers. “At the end of the HYBRID funding period, there will be 15 highly-skilled and well-trained researchers, who should be able to bridge the gap between academic research, industry and product development in the field of hybrid imaging for better patient care,” outlines Ivo Rausch.

Medical imaging is a means to provide information on patients non-invasively, and help clinicians diagnose disease. A variety of different medical imaging modalities are available to assess patients, a few of which are briefly described below:

By training young scientists in different imaging areas, they can then combine the best aspects and come up with novel diagnostic procedures, which will give clinicians a fuller picture of a patient’s condition. HYBRID itself brings together academic and industrial partners across Europe, providing a platform for early stage researchers (ESRs) to work on different projects in the field of medical imaging.

There are 15 ESRs working on projects within HYBRID, with the shared goal of developing tools that enable doctors to use medical imaging systems more effectively.

By developing specific, image-based biomarkers, researchers hope to improve therapeutic decisionmaking. “We always strive to develop reproducible biomarkers. Several projects within HYBRID are geared towards improving the accuracy or reproducibility of these quantitative biomarkers as derived from molecular imaging,” says Thomas Beyer, Professor of Physics of Medical Imaging at the Medical University Vienna. The main focus in HYBRID is oncology, which is a primary area of application for hybrid imaging and where most of the consortium members engage in clinically.

Here, we highlight three representative projects to illustrate the aims of HYBRID (see next page). In one project, Alejanda Valladares investigates ways of mimicking tumour heterogeneity by building phantom models that can be used to validate new imaging protocols and evaluation approaches at multiple imaging centres. In a second project, Dr David Wallis and Professor Irène Buvat in Paris developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven approach to identify cancer lesions on PET images. This supports faster and more accurate diagnostic work-up of patients. A similar approach was taken further and translated into the clinic in a third project by Nicolò Capobianco, who used an AI-model to predict outcome in lymphoma patients. Currently this approach is being extended to other diseases and imaging protocols.

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While some ESRs may choose to work in academia, others may decide to move into industry, and HYBRID has been designed to help them gain commercial experience, alongside technical skills.

“For example, each ESR has a business coach that advises them on career paths in industry,” Thomas Beyer says. “The idea is that ESRs are exposed to different career options. This training programme should help them find their dream job.”

The tools developed by the ESRs will be shared within the consortium, while other elements of their projects’ research could have a wider impact.

For example, the bespoke imaging phantoms may become a standard for the validation of novel onsite imaging protocols and for gathering imaging studies across multiple sites.

A further important outcome from HYBRID is a strong relationship between the participating institutes and industrial partners. This will provide solid foundations for further collaboration in future, believes Ivo Rausch. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve established a positive relationship between the different institutions and industrial partners, built on trust. There’s a real desire to work together in future.”

The initial steps towards this are underway; with HYBRID nearing the end of its funding term, Thomas Beyer and his colleagues are in the process of establishing a new consortium. “We will build on this existing network, that has brought us sustainable and long-lasting collaborations.”

CT (Computed Tomography) – A CT scan is a type of radiology imaging, where patients are exposed to radiation from outside the body. A series of X-ray scans from different angles are combined in a CT scan to create cross-sectional images of the anatomy with high spatial resolution.

SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) – A SPECT scan is a type of nuclear imaging, where the radiation source is inside the body. A radioisotope is delivered into the body, then a gamma camera takes images from different angles, yielding a 3-D picture of the distribution of the radioactively labeled biomolecule inside the body.

PET (Positron Emission Tomography) – A radioactively labeled biomolecule (tracer) is also used with PET scans; in contrast to SPECT, PET employs positron emitting radioisotopes.

These radiotracers are introduced into metabolic pathways. This technique can be used to measure changes in metabolic processes, and to identify both normal and abnormal activity.

MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) – With MRI, strong magnetic fields and radio waves are used to generate detailed images of a patient’s anatomy and physiological processes within the body.

Hybrid imaging – Hybrid imaging denotes the physical combination of two complementary (anatomical and molecular) imaging modalities, such as PET and CT, or SPECT and CT. By combining two in one, diagnostic value can be increased and workflow can be improved.

The first meeting of the HYBRID consortium took place in March 2018 in Vienna, Austria.

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‘Sven Zuehlsdorff is a full time employee of Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. ‘Nicolò Capobianco is a full time employee of Siemens Healthcare GmbH.’

Alejandra Valladares

Irène Buvat

David Wallis

Sven Zuehlsdorff

Nicolò Capobianco

The HYBRID project is subdivided into three work packages, that each tackle a major problem with medical imaging techniques as they are currently used. The solutions proposed in these workpackages can be illustrated through the work of three ESRs within HYBRID. Dealing with tumour heterogeneity

Optimising data processing

Clinical translation

EU Research:Which imaging modalities

EUR: What was the main focus of David

EUR: What is the main goal in your project?

Alejandra Valladares: We work with

Irène Buvat: David worked on different

are you working with?

three different imaging modalities – PET, MRI and CT. In my project, I develop new imaging objects – called phantoms – which simulate some parts of the body or specific diseases. We use these phantoms to validate new techniques and imaging protocols in nuclear medicine.

EUR: Can you tell us a bit more about

aspects of the use of artificial intelligence in medical image analysis, in particular for automating image analysis. More precisely, his aim was to detect mediastinal cancer nodes in patients with lung cancer using PET/ CT images. He developed an algorithm that can automatically detect metastasis from the images, based on artificial intelligence.

these phantoms?

EUR: What can these images tell you?

AV: I am focused on developing physical

IB: The PET/CT images reflect what we

phantoms to serve as tools for testing new imaging protocols and data analysis algorithms. The aim is to help to improve the characterisation of tumour heterogeneities.

We want an object that simulates a tumour with different tracer uptake patterns in hybrid imaging.

EUR: How does a phantom simulate tumour heterogeneity?

AV: We have a standardised phantom, called the NEMA image quality phantom. This object is made of a number of homogenous spheres, simulating multiple lesions within the body. In terms of heterogeneity, we want to have different shapes and patterns inside these spheres, using different materials, which can be depicted in the three different imaging modalities. This simulates heterogeneity in lesions.

EUR: What are your plans for the future?

AV: New designs and phantom

construction techniques (including 3D printing) are under evaluation. We hope that the results will allow us to create novel and standardised imaging objects for tumour heterogeneity characterisation suitable for multi-centre hybrid imaging studies. In the long-term, it would be nice to create imaging objects involving biological factors. This will give us a more realistic simulation of what is happening within a tumour than compared with the current phantoms.

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Wallis’ project?

call the radiomic phenotype – that is the characteristics of the tumours as displayed on the images. These characteristics partly reflect the biological properties of the tumour, which in turn determine whether a tumour will respond to treatment, or how the patient’s condition will evolve over time.

Hence the importance of properly assessing the radiomic phenotype.

EUR: What benefits will this bring to oncologists?

IB: At the moment, oncologists mainly rely

on a biopsy to determine the tumour type. But when a tumour is heterogenous, the sample may not represent the properties of the whole bulk. Medical images provide a more global perspective on tumour heterogeneity and spread than a biopsy, and in combination with AI, medical readers can render a diagnosis faster and more accurately.

EUR: How will David’s work help enable

more personalised treatment of different forms of cancer?

IB: There are two main aspects of David’s

work. First, he tried to automate some tasks, such as the detection of cancer nodes in lung cancer patients, for a more accurate radiomic phenotyping. Secondly, he worked to design models to predict the tumour type.

He investigated how these models worked and what information they used. David tried to understand the basis of decisions made by the algorithms - what we call explainable AI.

Nicolò Capobianco: I focused on developing methods to analyse medical images, to obtain clinically relevant measurements. In my project I developed methods which would support physicians in automatically evaluating measurements such as the total tumour volume from an image.

The total tumour volume is an indicator of the disease severity and may support clinicians in identifying high-risk patients who might benefit from more intensive treatments.

EUR:

What were the main tasks in your research?

NC: One of the tasks I worked on is

in automating the identification and segmentation of tumours from images. My project is about segmenting what is the tumour - and what isn’t - in the body. The overall idea is to automate the identification and classification of these tumours, but this is a challenging task. These tumours are identified by the increased uptake of the tracer in a PET image, but this is not a unique feature of the tumour. Therefore, I’ve been working with machine-learning, deeplearning methods, which have the distinctive ability to capture complex patterns.

EUR:

What results have you gained so far?

NC: One important result involved

tumour volume estimation in lymphoma subjects. Previously my colleagues at Siemens developed an algorithm which can automatically identify regions which look suspicious for tumours in PET/CT images of the whole body. We applied this method in 300 subjects – and we showed that this method can be used to automatically estimate the total tumour volume. Our other main result relates to prostate cancer, in particular hybrid images obtained by PET/CT, with a new tracer that has been developed. We worked with these deep learning algorithms to automatically identify and classify the tumours on these images.

We were able to use these methods to label tumours, whether they are for example in lymph nodes, in bone, or in other organs.

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Recommended key components of routine quality control of multi-centre PET/MR imaging.

HYBRID Healthcare Yearns for Bright Researchers of Imaging Data

Project Objectives

HYBRID aims to establish the field of noninvasive disease characterization beyond the narrower vision of radiomics. Specifically, we seek to train a new generation of imaging specialists able to adopt a more inclusive approach to image analysis, that considers anatomical, functional and hybrid imaging, together with related clinical non-imaging parameters that are extracted from patients during their work-up.

Project Funding AI-driven detection of tumour lesions on FDG-PET/CT images of lung cancer patients.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 764458.

Project Partners

For full partner information, please visit: • https://www.hybrid2020.eu/partner.html

Contact Details

At the end of the HYBRID funding period, 15 highly-skilled and well-trained researchers will be around to help bridge the gap between academic research, industry and product development in the field of translational hybrid imaging for better patient care.

Thomas Beyer (scientific coordinator) Medical University Vienna QIMP Team, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering General Hospital Vienna, 4L, Waehringer Guertel 18-20 1090 Vienna, Austria T: +43 1 40400 39890 E: thomas.beyer@meduniwien.ac.at W: https://www.hybrid2020.eu/home.html W: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/764458 Thomas Beyer

Ivo Rausch

Thomas Beyer is a Professor at the Centre for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering (CMPBME), part of the Medical University of Vienna (MUV). He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Surrey/UK and an MBA in Innovation/ Entrepreneurship from WU Vienna/AT. He is the co-developer of the first combined PET/CT system worldwide.

AI-driven tumour burden estimation in PET/CT scans of lymphoma patients using a convolutional neural network (CNN). The two graphs on the right show a significantly faster disease progression for patients with high total tumor volume, both when measured manually by a physician (left) and when estimated automatically with a CNN. This research was originally published in JNM. Nicolò Capobianco, Michel Meignan, Anne-Ségolène Cottereau, Laetitia Vercellino, Ludovic Sibille, Bruce Spottiswoode, Sven Zuehlsdorff, Olivier Casasnovas, Catherine Thieblemont and Irène Buvat Deep learning FDG uptake classification enables total metabolic tumor volume estimation in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. J Nucl Med. 2021; 62 (1) 30-36. © SNMMI. https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/62/1/30

Ivo Rausch is senior scientist in the Quantitative Imaging and Medical Physics Team at the CMPBME at MUV. His research interests relate to quantitative hybrid imaging in nuclear medicine with a special focus on PET/MRI and PET/CT.

Information for project interviews opposite: Project 1: ‘Standardized quality assurance protocols in multi-parametric imaging’ ESR: Alejandra Valladares, PI: Thomas Beyer, Co-PI: Ivo Rausch / Medical University of Vienna, Austria https://www.hybrid2020.eu/esr1.html Project 2: ‘Tumour ID cards for multi-scale characterization of tumour heterogeneity’ ESR: David Wallis, PI: Irène Buvat / Institut Curie, Paris, France https://www.hybrid2020.eu/esr9.html Project 3: ‘Improving staging through machine learning based on multiparametric imaging: a collaborative platform’ ESR: Nicolò Capobianco, PI: Sven Zuehlsdorff / Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Erlangen, Germany https://www.hybrid2020.eu/esr12.html

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© Otto Bock

© AAU

© Thalmic Labs

© Mashable

A stimulating approach to wearable electronics

WEARPLEX textile electrode arrays protoype (Southampton, Aalborg).

Wearable electrodes can be used to both monitor electrophysiological signals and stimulate muscles. Researchers in the WEARPLEX project are developing printable electrodes which can be screen-printed onto textiles and adapted to the specific needs of the user, part of the new generation of ‘smart’ electrodes, as Dr Russel Torah explains.

A variety of different e-Textiles are available on the market today, with electrodes integrated into the fabric to enable the monitoring of heart rate and other electrophysiological signals.

At the moment electrodes are often made using moulds, and in many cases individually, now researchers in the WEARPLEX project are exploring a different approach. “We are developing printable electrode arrays, so the electrodes can be in any position on a garment.

It’s also possible to retroactively fit these electrodes on a garment,” says Dr Russel Torah, the project’s coordinator. These electrodes can be used to both record muscle signals and also stimulate them, a topic that researchers in the project are investigating. “We’re interested in stroke rehabilitation for example. The idea is that people recovering from a stroke have some movement, some recognition of how to move their arms – we can pick up those signals, and then amplify it through our own electrical stimulation,” explains Dr Torah. “The idea is that they will gain that movement back themselves over time, by essentially re-learning how to move their hands.”

WEARPLEX project The aim in the project is to develop a multiplexed array of biomedical electrodes,

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which involves research across many different disciplines, including electrical engineering and software development. The project overall brings together ten partners from across Europe, with Dr Torah and his colleagues at the University of Southampton focusing primarily on the textile side and making the electrodes, which differ from those typically used in hospitals. “These are ‘dry’ electrodes, so no additional gel is required to maintain contact with the body. The textile holds the electrodes in place, and so the electrodes don’t need to be sticky,” he explains. These electrodes are

printing to be reliable and consistent, so that each electrode is the same.”

Researchers are looking to maximise the number of electrodes that can fit within a given area, so that more data can be recorded.

It’s also important to minimise the number of wires needed to control the outputs or inputs, depending on whether the electrodes are to be used for functional electrical stimulation (FES) or for recording signals from muscles using electromyography (EMG). “For EMG it’s more inputs, for FES, it’s more outputs. But it’s essentially the same circuitry,” says Dr

We are developing printable electrode arrays, so the electrodes can be in any position on a garment. It’s also possible to retroactively fit these electrodes on a garment. integrated with fabrics worn on the body, so durability and reliability are important considerations, particularly given that they are designed to be used multiple times. “The idea is that you just clean it and then it’s ready to go again – either on the same person or someone else,” says Dr Torah. “We’re trying to develop materials to make the electrodes more flexible whilst maintaining performance. We want the

Torah. Rather than each individual electrode having its own individual control, stimulation and recording circuitry, Dr Torah and his colleagues are developing a different system.

“The idea is that you have say one stimulator, and then a junction box – the multiplexor – which just switches between electrodes,” he outlines. “The more switching you can put into the controller, the more electrodes you

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can have for the same amount of electronics.

Normally these multiplexors are quite big, bulky electronics, now the aim is to print it all directly onto the textile.”

The formulation of the electrodes may vary depending on the intended application.

If it’s going to be used for recording, it should ideally be very conductive to record the signal effectively, while Dr Torah says the requirements for stimulation are different.

“One partner in the project is trying to find an optimum point where you can use just the one material, but it may be that two are required. So, we’re looking at adjusting the properties of the conductive inks and skin/ electrode interface that are used to print the electrode,” he outlines. A conductive ink printed directly onto the textile is likely to soak into it, so researchers at Southampton have developed a primer layer, which Dr Torah says helps improve durability. “This effectively turns the textile into a smoother, plastic film, and everything else can then be printed on top, and encapsulated with the same primer material,” he continues. “This approach effectively seals in all the delicate conductive materials, preventing them being washed off when you put it in the washing machine, or damaged in any other way.”

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This primer layer opens the possibility of printing the electrodes onto pretty much any textile, including polyester, cotton and silks. The main criteria is that the fabric isn’t too rough, and in general the smoother the fabric the easier it is to print on. “We’ve printed on all sorts of different fabrics, such as ®Kermel for instance, which is used in firefighter uniforms. We’ve also printed on other fabrics,” says Dr Torah.

This approach could also help to accelerate the production of wearable electronics and improve cost-efficiency. “Printing is a roll-toroll process. So you can print out lots of devices really quickly – and the more you produce, the cheaper it is,” points out Dr Torah. “The most

expensive material we use is silver for the conductive tracks. Silver is expensive, but we only print a 5 micron layer, which is all we need.

The primer layer means that we can use less silver, because we smooth the layer out first, and we effectively turn it into a little piece of plastic, but only where we need to, leaving the rest of the garment as normal fabric.”

Improving reliability A major priority now in the project is to improve reliability, which will ultimately help encourage adoption in the textile industry. Screen printing is already commonly used in the textile industry, which is one of the main reasons Dr Torah and

WEARPLEX future work: OECT switching (RISE, Aalborg, Tecnalia).

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Testing the WEARPLEX smart algorithm for electrode selection (Aalborg)

WEARPLEX Wearable multiplexed biomedical electrodes

Project Objectives

WEARPLEX is a multidisciplinary research project to integrate printed electronics with flexible and wearable textile-based biomedical multi-pad electrodes. It focuses on the development of the printable electronics for textile based multi-pad electrodes with integrated logic circuits enabling a significant increase in the number of electrode pads (channels) and facilitate the creation of new products in the sectors of medical electronics and life-style.

Project Funding

WEARPLEX is funded under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research program via the ICT-02-2018 Flexible and Wearable Electronics call. Grant agreement ID: 825339.

Project Partners

There are 10 partners in the project: University of Southampton is the coordinator. We have 3 University partners (Southampton, Aalborg, Chemnitz), 4 research centres (Tecnalia Spain, Tecnalia Serbia, BC Materials and Research Institutes of Sweden) and 3 SME’s (Abalonyx, IDUN Technologies and Screentec).

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Russel Torah University of Southampton University Road Southampton SO17 1BJ United Kingdom T: +44 2 380 59 2600 E: rnt@ecs.soton.ac.uk W: https://wearplex.soton.ac.uk/ Russel Torah

Russel Torah is a Principal Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. His research interests are currently focused on smart fabric development but he also has extensive knowledge of energy harvesting, sensors and transducers. He co-founded Smart Fabric Inks Ltd, which specialises in printed smart fabrics.

his colleagues chose to use this approach. “The textile industry is the most likely to take up this technology, so we have to work on improving reliability,” he says. A lot of progress has been made in this respect, and Dr Torah believes the technology would be relatively easy to adopt for manufacturers. “Because you can print it, any textile manufacturer that already produces printed patterns can just swap their coloured ink for our functional ink straight away. No extra equipment is required and no other changes,” he stresses. “That’s one of our key selling points.

It’s easy to adopt, and also easy to adapt straight into mass manufacturing. So if they have a pattern and they want a particular structure, then they can print it pretty quickly.”

The next step could involve bringing some of these technologies to the commercial market, and researchers are already in the process of trying to patent some elements of the project’s research. The project’s research could have a significant impact on manufacturing efficiency, for example. “One of our partners makes basic stick-on electrodes, which they do by hand, so with very small runs. If they can use screen printing for mass manufacturing of electrodes, then that opens up new opportunities for them,” outlines Dr Torah. Another possibility is patenting the technology and licensing out the different elements to companies who might be interested. “We’ve used FES and EMG as demonstrators, but in principle the electrodes Screen-printed rGO pads (BCMaterials, Abalonyx).

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and the electronics can be used on anything to do with biopotentials,” says Dr Torah. “We could say to companies; we’ve got this basic technology.

We know how to print it onto textiles, we know the properties, we know how long it will last.

What do you want for your application?”

The different technologies are however at different levels of maturity. While the electrode technology - and the printing process - is on the cusp of commercialisation, Dr Torah says the printed multiplexing electronics side is less advanced. “It works, and we’ve shown that it works, and hopefully by the end of the project we’ll get it working in a fully integrated demonstrator. But it’s still at a relatively early stage,” he acknowledges.

Alongside exploring commercial possibilities, Dr Torah and his colleagues plan to pursue further research. “We could look to establish another research project, to try and make the technology more reliable,” he says.

Screen printed recording electrode array printed on fabric (Southampton, IDUN)

Cross-sectional images of printed rGO layer.

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Investigating the impact of oligomers The alpha-synuclein protein is very abundant in the brain, and it can aggregate itself or with other proteins and form molecules called oligomers, some of which have toxic effects. We spoke to Professor Karin Danzer about her research into the mechanisms by which these oligomers propagate, which holds important implications for our understanding of Parkinson’s disease.

The

alpha-synuclein protein is present in large quantities in the brain, and over time it can start to aggregate and form different oligomers, some of which are toxic and are associated with the development of neurodegenerative disease. Currently based at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Professor Karin Danzer aims to shed new light on how these oligomers form and then propagate, building on earlier findings.

“Previously it was thought that synuclein is just an intra-cellular protein, but then I and other researchers showed that it is also found extracellularly,” she outlines. Alpha synuclein is known to be involved in the pathology of Parkinson’s disease, and evidence suggests that extracellular alpha synuclein can have toxic effects.

“It can promote seeding in other neurons, so that pathology is then being propagated from one area to another,” explains Prof Danzer.

This issue is central to Prof Danzer’s research, in which she and her colleagues have been

In vivo detection of alpha synuclein oligomers based on alpha Synuclein-split-venus (YFP) mouse model

have been put forward, suggesting that it is just the fibrils that are toxic, or proto-fibrills, or specific forms of oligomers,” says Prof Danzer. A clearer picture of which forms of alpha synuclein or oligomers are particularly toxic would represent a significant step forward in terms of guiding therapeutic interventions to treat Parkinson’s disease, believes Prof Danzer. “If the toxic species can be cleared, then this would be

If the toxic species can be cleared, then this would be a very nice therapeutic target. Researchers are tackling this problem now, using specific anti-bodies that detect certain forms of synuclein.

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a very nice therapeutic target,” she explains.

“Researchers are tackling this problem now, using specific anti-bodies that detect certain forms of synuclein.”

The focus of Prof Danzer’s attention is the mechanisms by which alpha-synuclein propagates however, and what these different forms of oligomers do in human cells, while she is also interested in the interaction between protein aggregation and the immune system in Parkinson’s disease. While Prof Danzer’s group are mainly investigating Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) , this research holds relevance to neurodegenerative diseases more widely. “There are many similarities between different neurodegenerative diseases.

For example, in ALS, the aggregating protein is TDP-43. If we find a mechanism that’s related to a specific disease pathology, then we often investigate this mechanism in another disease,” she outlines.

A concept which first emerges in relation to a specific disease may prove to be relevant

Initiation and propagation of alpha synuclein oligomers--Relevance for Parkinson s disease Funded by the Emmy Noether Programm Professor Karin Danzer DZNE Ulm c/o Ulm University Department of Neurology N24, R3306 Albert-Einstein-Allee 11 89081 Ulm T: +49 7315 0063 049 E: karin.danzer@dzne.de W: https://www.uniklinik-ulm.de/neurologie/ forschung-arbeitsgruppen/ molekulare-mechanismen-derneurodegeneration-ag-danzer.html

© DZNE/Frommann

investigating the mechanisms by which alphasynuclein oligomers propagate. She and her group used a specific mouse model to gain deeper insights in this area. “We were able to express the protein in one area of the brain, and really measure these oligomers and follow them how they propagate,” explains Prof Danzer.

One strand of research involves investigating, on a single cell level, the pathological consequence when an aggregate is transferred to a neighbouring cell. “What happens with the transcriptome of the ‘accepting’ cell? Why are certain populations more vulnerable than others?” continues Prof Danzer. “We can look at the transcriptome of a neuron which received extra-cellular synuclein from another cell that did not receive it. How does this look different from a cell expressing synuclein, for example?”

Researchers can then look to identify the consequences for cells if they take up extracellular synuclein. There are several different forms of synuclein, and it is still unclear which are toxic and which aren’t. “Many hypotheses

to another, and our understanding of different diseases often develops in parallel. With more of us expected to live longer neurodegenerative diseases are likely to affect more of the global population in future, underlining the wider importance of continued research.

“We’re pursuing fundamental research into the mechanisms behind neurodegenerative disease,” says Prof Danzer.

Professor Karin Danzer is Head of the DZNE Research Group, mechanisms of propagation.

Her research group focuses on studying pathomechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disease, with a particular focus on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson’s disease.

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Stiff Biodegradable Needle

Floating Soft Electric Leads Nanostructured Surface

Biodegradation

Biodegradation

Insulating Sheath Microelectrode

Implants that understand the brain

Nanostructured Surface

Brain implants need to be well adapted to the natural brain environment.

Researchers in the Brain Micro Snooper project are working to develop improved brain implants, work which brings the prospect of restoring certain functions to disabled people a step closer, as Dr Gaëlle Offranc-Piret explains.

An individual who has been paralysed following a traffic accident may retain normal neuronal function, with neurons in the brain still sending signals out to the rest of the body.

The problem lies elsewhere in the body. “The problem is in communication to the nerves,” says Dr Gaelle Offranc-Piret, a researcher in the BrainTech research laboratory at Grenoble, part of INSERM. A reliable brain implant could help record information on neural activity at the neuron’s scale, a major step towards effective intervention; this is a topic at the heart of Dr Offranc-Piret’s work in the ERC-funded Brain Micro Snooper project.

“We aim to develop brain implants with micro-electrodes that will attach to neurons and detect their action potentials in the long term,” she outlines. “The goal is to bring these implants to the clinic. In order to achieve this we need to pay a lot of attention to the materials that we use, so that it has a higher probability of clinical transfer.”

Brain Micro-Snooper This research holds relevance beyond cases of paralysis, as the implant could be adapted to several different pathologies, including epilepsy, neurodegenerative disorders and

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certain types of tumours, while it could also be used in therapeutic brain-computer interfaces. The focus at this stage however The implant before surgical insertion.

A nanostructured electrode.

is on developing an implant to record action potentials, with Dr Offranc-Piret using fairly conventional materials. “We are looking at certain types of insulating polymer such as polyimides or parylenes, and we are also varying the conductor part using gold, platinum or PEDOT:PSS. We are then trying to compare the different possibilities in terms of performance,” she says. The shape of the implant is however the most important consideration. “The aim is really to be as biomimetic as possible when it comes to the shape of the implants so that they are seen by the brain environment just as a brain cell,” continues Dr Offranc-Piret.

By minimising the dimensions of the implant, Dr Offranc-Piret aims to reduce the flexibility mismatch between implant and brain materials, and therefore the disruption to surrounding cells once the implant is introduced. Also, researchers are using nanostructured or microstructured materials for the electrode. “Nothing in the brain is really entirely flat, everything is moving around to some extent. The membranes are quite packed,” outlines Dr Offranc-Piret.

By modifying the surface of the material, using micro- and nontechnology methods,

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researchers aim to ensure that it can function more effectively in the brain. “These micro/nanostructures are able to improve the adhesion with neural cells, and also encourage the re-growth of neurites, that may be necessary after the surgical insertion of the implant,” says Dr Offranc-Piret.

Researchers have used neural cell cultures from rat brains to assess the biocompatibility of the materials used in the implant. This work involves using in vitro tests to look at how neural cells adapt to the presence of an implant, while Dr Offranc-Piret and her colleagues are also conducting in vivo tests.

“We check how the tissue around the implant has reacted to the implant. Do we find any glial cell scar for example?” she outlines. The ideal scenario is for the implant itself to be in close contact with the surrounding cells.

“If we don’t have good contact then you will have poor recording and if stimulation is needed as a treatment, you will have to put in more current, resulting unfortunately in damage to the neurons,” explains Dr Offranc-Piret. “It’s also good to have several electrodes in contact with several neurons.

If you can stimulate several neurons at the same time and individually, you can apply a more complex pattern of stimulation and eventually send more relevant information to another part of the neural chain.”

consideration in terms of stimulating neurons.

“With plasticity, it may be that neurons can actually take advantage of a new connection with a device,” outlines Dr Offranc-Piret.

This could mean that a patient would be able to find an alternative neural pathway to perform a specific action, rather than the same pathway that they maybe used before the onset of disease, or suffering an injury. “In certain areas of the brain we see that there is some plasticity. This could be interesting, as a potential route to improving the condition of some patients that are wanting to regain certain functions and overcome disability,” continues Dr Offranc-Piret.

The focus at this stage in the project however is on improving the implants and bringing them closer to clinical application. Dr OffrancPiret and her team are still working mainly with rodents, and looking to improve the very tiny, thin wires that are used in the implants.

“We now know how to assemble those wires to the biodegradable matrix needed during the surgical insertion step. We will also look at the long-term reactions in the rodents after this matrix has degraded, and in the regions around the thin wires,” she says. The implants could also be modified further in future to adapt to specific pathologies. “We can look at the macro-shape of the implants and have sorts of hybridisation between different

The aim is really to be as biomimetic as possible when it comes to the shape of the implants so that they are seen by the brain environment, just as a brain cell.

A major challenge here is in establishing a good, reliable connection between a single electrode and the same neuron. Currently it remains very difficult to get long term recording data on the same neuron with a same micro-sensor in vivo, an issue that Dr Offranc-Piret is addressing. This would help researchers understand patterns of neural tissue, which then opens up wider possibilities.

“For example, it would be very interesting to look in more depth at the cortical areas that are responsible for the movement of the body, made of so many degrees of freedom” says Dr Offranc-Piret. “We need to gain more information about the patterns of neuronal signals from different areas of the brain, both in healthy and pathologic brain structures.”

implant materials. If it’s going to be implanted deeper in the brain, we may need to assemble our current implant to more stretchable materials,” explains Dr Offranc-Piret. “We will have to adapt the device depending on the pathology that we are aiming at and where it will be implanted.”

BRAIN MICRO SNOOPER A mimetic implant for minimal disturbance, stable stimulation and recording of intra-cortical neural units Project Objectives

One billion people experience some disability making them more susceptible to adverse socioeconomic outcomes such as less education, lower levels employment, and higher poverty rates.

These can become more perverse for people who live with some form of paralysis. Gaëlle is now developing flexible, thin and nanostructured brain implants for therapeutic applications that could restore function for disabled people.

Project Partners

• Fannie Darlot • Lionel Rousseau • François Berger

Project Funding

Funded by the European Research Council ERC at 1.5M € over 5 years (2015-2020)

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Gaëlle Offranc Piret, PhD ERC Brain Micro Snooper Braintech Laboratory U1205 INSERM/UGA/CHU 2280 rue de la piscine, Bât B-3ème étage, 38400 Saint Martin d’Hères, FRANCE E: gaelle.offranc-piret@inserm.fr

Gaëlle Offranc Piret, PhD

Gaëlle Offranc Piret, master in physics (Paris XI - Orsay University) is a permanent researcher at the the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research, Braintech Laboratory (U1205 INSERM UGA, Grenoble, France) whose activities are spread over the CEA-Grenoble and UGA University sites. She obtained her Master in Physics and her PhD in 2010 (IEMN laboratory, Lille University, France) and did a post-doctorate at polytechnique school, Palaiseau-Paris and then at the University of Lund (Sweden).

She works on the development of micronanotechnologies, materials and implants.

Tiny electrode wires at the end of each implant “arm”.

Brain models This is a challenging task, as it’s very difficult to get reliable models of the brain, although modern techniques do provide new insights into what can be considered as normal patterns.

The plasticity of the brain is also an important

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Covid-19 and our future: The changes we will learn to live with

When the first vaccines were announced as a success, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. ‘There will be an end to this’, was the promise. Yet, the reality is, we are destined to live with Covid-19 for a long time yet. It’s not going anywhere, and it certainly won’t vanish overnight.

How will we adapt to a deadly virus that won’t go away?

By Richard Forsyth

T

here have been pandemics throughout human history, yet Covid-19 in today’s world still feels like uncharted territory with so many shifting variables. In just a year and a half so much in our lives has changed. We have learned to live with wearing face masks in all indoor public venues, we have learned to live without going out to visit people and places, and we have learned to test ourselves regularly for the virus. Many of us have also learned to live without jobs, loved ones and the health we once took for granted.

Now the vaccination programmes are rolling out, how can we foresee the future of our daily lives evolve? People are still getting infected, despite vaccinations. Some are weary of constrictions to freedoms to a point they no longer care, whilst others have developed a terror of going beyond their house, and for mixing with others in any way. Beyond these different reactions to cope, there are some things that will become routine and impact us all, some familiar and some not. Covid-19 is widely expected to stay with us, rather than be eradicated, so what do the days, weeks, months and years look like moving forward? What will we notice about changing life in the era of Covid-19?

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A passport for rights One change we need to get used to is using so called ‘vaccination passports’. The EU has made the Covid-19 passport documentation a sufficient proof of vaccination for no restrictions to entry to an EU country. The idea is that those who are double vaccinated will be able to travel between countries without a requirement to quarantine.

Beyond a ‘green light’ for travelling, there is the controversial question of passports being used for allowing unrestricted access to venues such as museums, bars, gyms, nightclubs, stadiums, shops and even schools and higher education institutions. Whilst seeming a very practical way to show vaccination status, there is the glaring ethical question mark over the passport scheme. This could lead to a society split in two groups, one group that is stripped of basic rights, denied entry to most establishments. Whilst a vaccination is essentially a choice, there will be a margin of people who cannot take vaccines for medical reasons, beliefs, moralities or fear. The moment such as a passport becomes a way to enter any crowded venue, or rather to enjoy rights of movement, is a moment that human rights of a proportion of the population are taken away. It could lead to ostracisation, stigma, persecution and could prove a grim, lonely outlook for those without the correct ‘pass’.

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France has already witnessed a rage fuelled backlash for introducing its health pass (pass sanitaire) and making vaccination compulsory for health workers. In July, 100,000 people protested and vaccination centres were vandalised in response to the measures.

In April, just prior to the health pass introduction, President Macron himself said, “The health pass will never be a right of access that discriminates among the French. It cannot be made compulsory for access to everyday places,” and yet the pressures from the rapidly spreading Delta variant led to a very sudden and dramatic U turn.

From 21 July, the health pass was made compulsory to access leisure and cultural venues with over 50 people, like museums and cinemas.

And from August, the health pass was supposed to be essential if you wished to shop or sit down for a drink or food at a restaurant, even with an outdoor area. Since the protests, the French government has made some concessions, like lowering fines for noncompliance and changing the rules for shops, but it is a reality, that these types of passes are being rolled out across Europe, and the world. They are to be a major part of the fight to reopen the streets and the economies of beleaguered countries.

Another significant problem is that there could be a particularly hard hit, for poorer areas. In the US it was picked up by the Kaiser Health Foundation that vaccination rates of racial minorities and people in less affluent areas were behind the general population in take-up. This was for a variety of reasons from locations, transport issues, lack of technology etc but what’s apparent is the new ‘passports’ could drive a deeper wedge between the ‘have’ and ‘have nots’ and punish already pressured communities and individuals unfairly. Marginalising groups on health status is also a contentious issue. How this develops will attract close attention from human rights groups and politicians all over the world but it looks like vaccination passports might be here to stay, as an imperfect, quick fix to an incredibly difficult problem.

Will testing fall apart?

In the absence of a Covid-19 passport another safety check is of course, being tested. A negative PCR test 72 hours before travel or proof of recovery from infection, also allows for restrictions to be lifted. This could also apply to any access to crowded venues.

Since 2020 a culture of testing has become part of our daily lives.

School children, any worker in a public place and those with symptoms have lateral flow tests regularly. Testing may become the onus of the individual moving forward, who will need to potentially pay for those tests, which have thus far been free in countries with free healthcare.

This kind of testing is creating something of an industry, and with costs for a PCR being equivalent to a week’s shopping for some, they may be prohibitive for regular use.

This could lead to less testing, indeed with vaccination passports, testing will almost certainly diminish compared to the regularity we have seen prior to the summer. Whilst PCR tests are often required for certainty with individuals when travelling for example, for someone who just feels ill one day, they may not bother. As society becomes more open, and tests being less freely available, we will at some point stop testing rigorously and with that we lose the data on infection rates just when they may start to rise. It will be an uncertain moment, because testing regimes have been something that has been the

guiding force for national policies on handling the crisis so far, as well as isolating the infected in quarantine. Could it lead to overwhelming national healthcare systems, if we ease off testing regimes too soon?

In short, we may risk losing perspective of any growing new waves with less testing, as was the case for many countries in the first waves of the pandemic.

The challenge of herd immunity It is possible that Covid-19 will be with us for several years, or several generations or permanently, however, it will at some point become a substantially reduced threat to life and health it is theorised. Those who encounter it and beat it, those who are vaccinated, are part of a defensive chain of events, that will provide stronger immunity for populations. Herd immunity was initially proposed as a solution by the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in the early days of the pandemic to suggest natural herd immunity would occur if the virus was left to infect society. This of course was seen as a big mistake when the projected deaths were forecast.

Vaccines can help create herd immunity but achieving this is not the same for every disease. The more infectious the disease, the more of the population needs to be immune, to stop it spreading. For example, for measles it was estimated that 94% of the population needs to be immune to stop the chain of transmission. Covid-19 as we know, is highly transmissible so it follows a very high proportion of society needs to be immune for this to occur effectively. The vaccine rollouts are crucial to speeding up the process

The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped infrastructures, affected culture, and changed our expectations. www.euresearcher.com

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Every country is handling the Covid-19 pandemic in slightly or wildly different ways and that is also affecting outcomes, sometimes in unforeseen ways. New Zealand was praised for its quick response and long lockdowns which proved effective in quashing the spread of the disease, but we are only now seeing other issues emerge such as ‘immunity debt’ where children who would normally develop immunities to illnesses by mixing with other children, are becoming very poorly when they reintegrate in society. It seems when our patterns are out of balance, all kinds of issues can emerge that we did not expect.

Something we can expect moving forward, is the strain on our healthcare systems to continue to take a toll. To compound the work related pressures, workforces in healthcare have also been severely short staffed when Covid-19 infections rise as sickness or precautionary isolation means many key workers cannot be in their places of work. As a society we may have to learn to live with a reduced capacity for addressing healthcare needs and for some, hospitals induce fear, and are being seen as ‘no go’ areas.

Tests and isolation

which would otherwise take a long, long time and lead to a catastrophic amount of deaths. The vaccine rollout does not mean those vaccinated cannot catch the virus as it is clear that reinfection can and does occur in some who are double vaccinated. A positive indicator, however, came from the UK in the advanced stages of their vaccination programme on 19 July when Patrick Vallance, the UK’s science chief confirmed 60% of hospitilisations are people who have not been vaccinated. The whole UK’s gambit on opening up was on the evidence they had significantly weakened the link between contracting the virus and hospitalisations and death. At the time of writing, in the UK, all the numbers are rising: infections, hospitalisations and deaths. Whilst there are obviously less people in hospital care and less deaths, what will be the acceptable thresholds before taking action or a lockdown, remains unclear. As Covid-19 variants mean we can still become ill despite vaccination, herd immunity is not really possible. the best we can hope for at present is small percentages, lessened illness and death rates more in line with flu.

Contact tracing has been widely adopted, to know who has been in close proximity with confirmed Covid-19 cases. This ‘test, trace and isolate’ policy was seen as a fail-safe but there are challenges that have emerged. For example, the tracking is done by mobile phone – in the UK this was an app that pinged you an ‘isolate for 10 days’ instruction if you were within two metres of someone with confirmed Covid-19. In the week up to 7 July there was what the media termed a ‘ping-demic’, where over half a million people were pinged by the NHS Covid-19 tracking app. The isolation advisories also caused a shortage in lorry drivers which left some shelves in supermarkets without stock. This was immediately followed by a wave of the population, one in four a poll revealed, uninstalling the app, as it meant they would be missing work, could not interact with family or had their plans completely disrupted. This mass-deletion of the software has been likened by those who were involved in the app as ‘killing the canary in the coalmine’. Indeed, the app was only an advisory, not legal binding unlike a direct instruction by the NHS to isolate but it shows that people are less willing to be tracked and traced when it interferes with their lives and jobs if they have an ‘out’. There is something equally Orwellian if they are at some point in the near future, made to install the app by law.

The public willingness to adhere to isolation plays a huge part in what happens next, for populations who are reeling from a year and a half of not being near people and seeing loved ones. The battle in this pandemic is not just with the virus but also with the hearts

Healthcare shockwaves Many healthcare systems are now dealing with a backlog of years of treatments that were on hold because of the virus. In 2020 across Europe, there was a significant increase in excess deaths in March and April and whilst Covid-19 played its part up to 50 percent in some regions were recorded as non-Covid-19 related. Cancellations and avoiding operations and treatments could be part of this, and as Europe continues to face a backlog of treatments the problem remains significant.

For many countries, the daily healthcare support and infrastructure has been damaged, with long waiting lists for postponed treatments, leaving many with worsening conditions and exhausted healthcare workers now facing more uphill battles with what should be ‘business as normal’.

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and minds of all the citizens. It’s possible that track and trace may become too problematic and unpopular to continue effectively.

However, whether it’s a health passport or tracking software, it’s clear our own mobile phones are seen as a key monitoring device for citizens moving forward.

Jabs and masks as standard?

Pfizer and BioNTech have stated their vaccine will remain effective for at least half a year after the second dose, and so a third jab would be advised after this time period has elapsed. Pfizer CEO Albert Bouria also revealed it would ‘likely’ to be necessary to take an annual vaccination. That would mean repeating an exercise across Europe that has, as we have seen, required a huge effort and enormous resources from organisers and a steadfast commitment from the public. With such new vaccines, there will need to be research and collecting more data for definitive answers on longevity of effectiveness, but we should be prepared for potentially a culture of jabs on-going against Covid-19, at least in the near future.

With mask wearing in the future, the jury is out. When the UK announced ‘Freedom Day’ on the 19 July, the legal requirement for masks was largely abandoned. However, there was a mixed response from the public and businesses to this. With a rise in infections businesses did not want to be forced to close their doors or infect staff, so many have asked people to continue wearing masks. Indeed, despite signs at some supermarkets saying clearly it was no longer a requirement legally, many customers chose to continue to wear masks. It may be a long while till people feel completely safe, especially when the infection is far from finished and disrupting lives across countries. Masks maybe part of a daily precaution, a habit and a way to prevent spreading infection, for many people for a long time yet.

Rise in remote working Finally, something that is already happening for many of us is a changing nature of our work and home lives. In 2020 people were instructed, where possible, to work from home by their governments, creating essentially a global testbed for gauging productivity of home workers as opposed to office-based workers.

It accelerated a trend for remote working. In the same year, a record number of high profile companies announced moves toward more permanent flexible and hybrid ways of working. For industries that can adopt remote working, with online collaboration tools, work and home lives for many employees will merge as one.

McKinsey and Company analysed the potential of remote working across more than 2,000 tasks used in 800 occupations

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in eight focus countries. Taking those tasks into account that can be done with remote work with no loss of productivity, they revealed that about 20 to 25 percent of the workforces in advanced economies could work from home between three and five days a week, representing four to five times more remote work than before the pandemic. Companies and workers could also move out of large cities.

For companies and workers there are savings, and less movement means less carbon footprint. To illustrate personal savings possible, let’s look at the UK for example, where 26% of British workers plan to continue to work from home permanently or occasionally after lockdown. On average, it’s been estimated each of these workers will save £44.78 a week by cutting out things like commuting and buying lunch out. Essentially it was also found from two different surveys, that around two-thirds of employees say they’re more productive when working from home. The right to working from home is being woven in government policies too, like the German ‘Right to Work from home’ bill, which means 80% of the workplaces in Germany now have a flexible work policy.

The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped infrastructures, affected culture, and changed our expectations. The future of living with Covid-19 may well depend on each of us, how much social mixing we choose to do, how we take precautions, if we take the likelihood of meeting someone infected seriously. Covid-19 has disrupted schools, businesses, lifestyles and family and friends and it has led us to make changes around the way we choose to live. We are all desperate to see the back of this disease but as we forge ahead, with a hope resting on vaccinations, there are inevitably going to be some adjustments to make. The truth is, we will be in the process of adapting for a long while yet.

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The Triassic period started more than 250 million years ago and spanned over 50 million years. We spoke to Professor Rossana Martini about her work in studying marine shallow-water (reefal) limestone from this period, and the importance of this research to understanding the biological and ecological changes that occurred during the Triassic.

Delving deep into the Panthalassa Ocean The Panthalassa Ocean covered around 70 percent of the Earth’s surface during the latter part of the Triassic period, an area much larger than the modern Pacific Ocean. The sediments deposited in this immense ocean are therefore the best record of the environmental and biological conditions during the Triassic. As the Principal Investigator of the REEFCADE project, Prof. Rossana Martini has deep expertise in the analysis of rocks and sediments dating from the Upper Triassic, from which new insights can be drawn about the environment and climate during this period. “The idea in the project has been to check the composition of limestone rocks originating in different parts of the world.

We have found organisms that allow us to date rocks precisely as from the Upper Triassic,” she says. Much of the previous research on the sedimentary rocks and biodiversity of this period has focused on limestone deposited in the much smaller Tethys Ocean; now researchers aim to gather more information about the Panthalassa, then draw comparisons between deposits of reefal limestone in the two oceans. “This means the most accessible and well preserved limestone deposits that were deposited in the continental plateau during the Upper Triassic,” explains Prof. Martini.

REEFCADE project A large number of samples have been gathered from all over the world during the project, including Japan, the Far East of Russia, as well as North and South Americas, which have then been subjected to rigorous analysis.

These limestone rock samples were originally deposited in a fairly shallow waters, typically at a depth of less than 150 metres, with Prof.

Martini and her PhD students looking for the presence of certain organisms that would allow them to date the rocks as precisely as possible.

“I am a specialist in Permian and Triassic small Foraminifera, which are very valuable unicellular organisms to date rocks and specify rock depositional environments. We also use Conodonts, which are small pieces of very old vertebrates resembling eels, which lived in the sea from the Palaeozoic period to the end of the Triassic. Conodonts are also very useful for dating rocks, as they became extinct at the boundary between the Triassic and Jurassic

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Global reconstruction at 220 Ma (Norian) after the Panalesis model (Verard, 2019b); Robinson projection.

periods,” she outlines. By analysing these rocks, and looking at their isotopic composition, researchers hope to identify the different factors that affect how they are distributed and controlled within the oceans. “We have applied the same workflow in all the studied localities in the frame of REEFCADE,” says Prof, Martini.

Researchers have conducted in-depth analysis of these rocks, looking for example at their diagenetic features and their chemical

studies also allow us to be more precise about the reservoirs of natural resources, of gas or oil for example,” she continues.

The aim now is to bring various different strands of research in the project together and establish a clearer picture of what happened in the huge Panthalassa Ocean during the Upper Triassic period. One of the main goals is to understand how organisms were distributed around the Panthalassa Ocean at this time, a

The idea in the project has been to check the composition of rocks found in different parts of the world.

We have found some organisms that allow us to date these rocks precisely as from the Upper Triassic. composition, and trying to gain deeper insights.

Along with analysis, Prof. Martini and her research group have spent time out in the field. “We go out into the field, often exploring localities and outcrops for the first time, we collect samples and then we go back to the lab. We proceed to the preparation of the samples, which are very thin slices of rocks, and we look at them in the microscope, to see the components of the rocks and to date their deposition,” she says. This evidence provides a basis for Prof. Martini and her students to then effectively reconstruct the depositional systems during the Upper Triassic period. “We can reconstruct the environment in the past, the ecology at this time. There are also some applications to industry, since these

topic on which views have shifted over recent years. “Until around 15 years ago it was considered that the Tethys Ocean was the niche of biodiversity. It was assumed that marine life during the Triassic developed first in the Tethyan ocean,” says Prof. Martini. This was because the Tethys Ocean at that time was very shallow, in comparison to the Panthalassa, with a large zone on the continental shelf that was ideal for the development of life. “We know that more than 75 percent of life in the sea is nowadays developed on the continental shelf, and not in the deep. Nutrients and oxygenation are much more abundant in such environments, and the temperature is more conducive,” explains Prof.

Martini. “This is one of the reasons why it was

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REEFCADE

thought that life developed in the Tethys, and then dispersed in the Panthalassa.”

Upper Triassic - Lower Jurassic reef and carbonate build-up development as recorders of biotic, environmental and climatic changes

Origins of Triassic Foraminifera Researchers have been working to validate this hypothesis for Foraminifera, with many papers and PhD theses written on the subject over the course of the project. However, rather than validating the existing hypothesis, Prof.

Martini and her colleagues have found that certain Foraminifera in fact originated in the Panthalassa and then moved towards the Tethys, so the picture is far more complex than had previously been thought. “At that time, there was no sea route to connect the Tethys and the Panthalassa to the West. This connection was established much later with the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean. All the connections, the movement, circulation and palaeocurrents, went from East to West and West to East,” she outlines. More than 25 papers, strictly related to the topics of the REEFCADE project, have been written over the course of the project, and a consistent picture has emerged. “We’ve found a very clear and homogenous frame of what happened in the Panthalassa. We can see also that shallowwater limestone from the Upper Triassic period are concentrated around what we can call the Palaeoequator,” continues Prof. Martini.

The students themselves may be able to build further on this research should they choose to remain in academia, with Prof. Martini keen to encourage continued investigation. While some of Prof. Martini’s previous students have gone down the academic route, others have chosen to go into the private sector, demonstrating

Project Objectives

• Palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeographic evolution of the Panthalassa Ocean • Carbonates as an archive of global biological and ecological evolution during the Late Triassic and their implications on the T/J boundary crisis • Comparison at high stratigraphic resolution between Panthalassan and Tethyan provinces to disentangle the factors controlling different organisms distribution patterns and evolution • Taxonomy and systematic of foraminifers as a tool for assessing past depositional and ecological conditions

Project Funding Aulosina oberhauseri. Benthic foraminifer. Black Marble Quarry (Wallowa Mountains, Oregon, USA) – Age: Upper Carnian? – Lower-Middle? Norian. Diverse oblique sections (in Rigaud et al., Acta Paleont Pol 2013).

the wider relevance of this research. “Some students work in the geothermal energy field for example, looking at the composition of certain rocks, and their ability to store and/ or circulate hot water,” says Prof. Martini. The project’s research does hold wider relevance to industry, for example in assessing the quality of potential gas and oil reservoirs, yet Prof. Martini says her main motivation is scientific curiosity.

“We want to improve the knowledge of this period at the end of the Triassic,” she stresses.

“We have tried to characterise the Upper Triassic in terms of the forms of life and the depositional systems, just before the boundary with the Jurassic period. We can then compare these with those found from the Jurassic period, which is relatively well understood.”

Funded by the SNSF, which has been funding the long-term project REFFCADE (20072022, CHF 1.7M) to Rossana Martini.

Project Partners

• Prof. Bernard Lathuilière (http://georessources. univ-lorraine.fr/fr/content/lathuiliere-0) • Prof. Tetsujii Onoue (https://hyoka.ofc.kyushu-u. ac.jp/search/details/K007222/english.html) • Prof. Roberto Rettori (https://www.unipg.it/ personale/roberto.rettori) • Dr Sylvain Rigaud (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg/cris/ rp/rp00252) • Prof. George Stanley (http://hs.umt.edu/ geosciences/people/default.php?s=Stanley) • Prof. Hayato Ueda (http://www5b.biglobe. ne.jp/~ueta/main_eg.htm)

Contact Details

Principal Investigator, Professor Rossana Martini Director of the ELSTE University of Geneva – Department of Earth Sciences T: +41 22 379 66 12 E: Rossana.Martini@unige.ch W: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0674-863X Professor Rossana Martini

Natural light and cathodoluminescence pictures of calcite cements and (A) the related impact points of LA-ICPMS measurements; (B) Impact points of SIMS me; (C) Cathodoluminescence image of A. (D) Cathodoluminescence image of B (in Peyrotty et al., Marine and Petrol Geol 2020).

Professor Rossana Martini, Principal Investigator of REEFCADE project, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth sciences at the University of Geneva, a position she has held since 2011. Her main research interests are carbonate sedimentology and Permian and Triassic biostratigraphy using foraminifera, of which she is one of the world’s leading specialists for the Triassic.

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Closing the carbon budget on Lake Geneva Inland waters are extremely reactive and they are known to both transport a lot of carbon and also emit and sequester it, yet research has historically focused on boreal rather than clearwater lakes. We spoke to Professor Marie-Elodie Perga about her research into the carbon cycle on Lake Geneva, in which she aims to find out more about the processes responsible for this reactivity and transport.

There are typically two types of lakes

Lake Geneva

in mountainous areas like Switzerland. There are the smaller lakes that are found at high altitudes and which are usually relatively unproductive, then there are very large lakes at lower altitudes. “Lake Geneva for example is only about 370 metres above sea level,” says Marie-Elodie Perga, an Associate Professor in the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. These lakes tend to have quite ‘hard’ waters, with a higher dissolved mineral content (especially in calcium and bicarbonates) – related to the presence of chalk deposits – than ‘soft’ waters, and the lakes themselves tend to be very clear. “We have a very limited understanding of carbon cycling in these clear, hardwater lakes,” continues Professor Perga. “A lot of work has been done on boreal lakes, for example in Canada or Sweden. However, those lakes are completely different – they usually have very soft waters, and there is a lot of organic carbon that gives the waters a brown-ish appearance.”

The majority of the studies on carbon cycling in lakes so far have been conducted on boreal lakes, while the clearwater lakes are relatively under-represented. This issue is at the heart of Professor Perga’s work as the Principal Investigator of a research

interface between two environments, two chemistries. “Remote sensing images show a point where the lake turns a blue, chalky colour, which is caused by an in-lake calcite precipitation event that we call whiting,” outlines Professor Perga. “This whiting is created where the Rhone comes into the

The metabolism of a lake is certainly important, but it’s not the full picture. There are many other processes that may be responsible for the overall CO2 concentration in lakes, for example all the processes involving inorganic carbon. project in which she is investigating carbon cycling in Lake Geneva, looking to close the carbon budget and account for the complexities of the lake. “We are working on the pelagic area of the lake, the off-shore area, where the water is quite deep. We are also looking at the interaction between the Rhone river, which is the main tributary, and the lake,” she explains. This represents the

lake. It’s an interface that introduces a lot of spatial variability.”

A further point of variability is between the littoral area of the lake, which is relatively shallow and has more concentrated chemistry, and the off-shore area. Professor Perga and her colleagues take full account of the varying nature of these different environments. “We look at the lake not

The Lexplore platform on Lake Geneva. © Pascal perolo

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as a uniform, single place but as a mosaic of different environments with different reactivities,” she says. In terms of temporal variability, geochemical processes can take place over very different timescales. “When you think about the rate of photosynthesis for example, it changes every time a cloud obscures the sun. There is also variability at larger scales, at the diel, seasonal and interannual scales,” points out Professor Perga.

“We try to look at the processes at different timescales – from minute timescales, using the Lexplore platform on the lake, up to 10year timescales or higher, when we look at the sediment cores. We are looking at how these timescales are embedded into each other.”

This would help researchers to understand why the carbon cycle has changed to the extent that it has over recent decades, and also to forecast what is likely to happen in future. The metabolism of the lake, the balance between the amount of photosynthesis in the lake and the total respiration of organisms within it, is one factor which drives the CO2 concentration.

“If there is more photosynthesis than respiration, then CO2, concentration will decrease, and the other way round it will increase,” says Professor Perga. The metabolism has been the central focus of carbon cycle research on inland waters, but Professor Perga says the general perspective is shifting. “The metabolism is certainly important, but it’s not the full picture. There are many other processes that may be responsible for the overall CO2 concentration in lakes, for example all the processes involving inorganic carbon (those bicarbonates coming from the catchment and their processing in the lake through whiting),” she continues.

The aim now is to gain a fuller picture of the factors that affect the carbon budget on Lake Geneva, which has changed significantly over recent years. Researchers have about 50 years worth of monitoring data on many different components of the carbon cycle, but Professor Perga says it is difficult to

Preparation and analysis of water samples from Lexplore. © Didier Jezequel

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Satellite image of a whiting event, June 29 2019, (credit photo Sentinel-2A, © ESA).

explain why it has changed so much. “There are many candidates. It may be because the catchment has changed a lot, because the hydrology has changed, because the trophic level of the lake has changed,” she explains.

The goal in the project is to essentially solve this puzzle, and to identify which factors are driving changes in the carbon cycle. “Is it essentially driven by physical processes?

Or is it primarily driven by catchment processes?” says Professor Perga. “We are doing data analysis to investigate this. We develop models at very fine scales, and then we try to upscale them, mechanistically, to the whole lake.”

One type of model is mechanistic-driven, with equations for every type of process that may happen, which is then applied to the lake. If this proves ineffective in simulating the lake properly, it provides a hint as to where researchers should focus their attention, while Professor Perga is also using another approach, which builds on ideas from machine learning. “We are also using data-driven approaches – so we get all the data we can, and we use those models as a kind of black box. The model will try to simulate the output, based on the number of inputs,” she outlines. The idea here is to combine the mechanistic data with the machine learning models to get a deeper picture of the carbon cycle in Lake Geneva. “We know that the mechanistic models based on physics work very well in some situations. But we also know that when it comes to biological processes the mechanistic models are less effective,” continues Professor Perga. “We are trying to combine the best of two worlds, the mechanistic models and the machine learning approach.”

Maintenance of CO2 sensors, from Lexplore. © Pascal perolo

Sediment coring.

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CARBON CYCLE IN LAKE GENEVA Carbon Cycle in Lake Geneva

Project Objectives

Solving the conundrum of carbon cycling in lake Geneva: -combing long-term approaches (paleoecology, long-term monitoring data) to high-frequency observations and modelling from the LéXPLORE platform -Addressing the role of catchment-wide versus in-lake processes -elucidating the role of inorganic carbon cycling versus organic carbon processes -combining data-driven and mechanistic models

Project Funding

Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF 200021-175530 (Cycle du carbone dans le Léman) and Bourses d’excellence de la confédération suisse (to Dr Rantala)

Project Partners

• LéXPLORE (https://lexplore.info/fr/accueil/) • APHYS (EPFL) • SURF (EAWAG)

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Marie-Elodie Perga Associate Professor UNIL-Mouline, Géopolis, bureau/office 5885 Lausanne, Suisse T: +41 21 692 44 27 E: marie-elodie.perga@unil.ch W: http://wp.unil.ch/lakes/ marie-elodie.perga@unil.ch Perolo, P., Fernández Castro, B., Escoffier, N., Lambert, T., Bouffard, D., and Perga, M.-E.: Accounting for surface waves improves gas flux estimation at high wind speed in a large lake, Earth Syst. Dynam. Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2021-30 Wüest, A., Bouffard, D., Guillard, J., Ibelings, B. W., Lavanchy, S., Perga, M.-E., & Pasche, N.(2021). LéXPLORE: A floating laboratory on Lake Geneva offering unique lake research opportunities. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, e1544. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1544

Lexplore platform The Lexplore platform plays an important role in this research. Established by a scientific consortium including the University of Lausanne and several other Swiss partners, Professor Perga says Lexplore is a unique research infrastructure.

“There is nothing like it elsewhere in the world. It’s a floating laboratory, so we can operate and work from the platform, and there are many sensors around,” she outlines. The sensors of particular relevance to Professor Perga’s project are related to CO2 concentration in the air and the water, as well as pH and conductivity.

“We have a chamber that measures the fluxes of CO2 at the interface between the water and the atmosphere. From those high-frequency measurements, we could see for instance that wave events, despite being quite rare (6% of the time) contribute to a quarter of the lake’s CO2 emissions to the atmosphere,” she continues.

This data helps researchers delve deeper into the underlying reasons behind changes in the carbon cycle, and gain more detailed insights. The historical picture is also very important in this respect, and researchers are using sediment cores to reconstruct past CO2 concentrations on Lake Geneva, as well as others. “We have done this on 6-7 different lakes around Switzerland, not just Lake Geneva. In all lakes, phosphate

pollution has driven very important changes in the CO2 concentration, but not always in the same direction,” outlines Professor Perga. This then affects the quantity of algae on the lake, which is a prominent consideration in Professor Perga’s research.

“Algae photosynthesise, and so this affects how much CO2 gets into the lake, and how much is transferred and transported,” she explains. “We know phosphate pollution has an impact, but we cannot really explain in which direction and by how much.”

Enhanced weathering Professor Perga is looking into the possibility of an extension. Professor Perga is also interested in enhanced weathering approaches, which hold the potential of removing CO2 from the atmosphere. “The principle of enhanced weathering is that CO2 in the atmosphere can be captured when it reacts to certain rocks,” she explains. Switzerland counts on carbon capture solutions such as enhanced weathering to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. “We are wondering if the lake would help make enhanced weathering more efficient,” says Professor Perga. “Enhanced weathering remains very uncertain, but it would be an interesting way to widen the impact of the research that has been done on carbon processes and carbon cycling in the environment.” © Pascal perolo

Rantala, M. V., Bruel, R., Marchetto, A., Lami, A., Spangenberg, J. E., & Perga, M.-E. (2021). Heterogeneous responses of lake CO2 to nutrients and warming in perialpine lakes imprinted in subfossil cladoceran δ13C values. Science of the Total Environment, 782, 146923. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146923

Professor Marie-Elodie Perga

Marie-Elodie Perga is Associate professor at UNIL (since 2017), after working in France (INRAE) and Canada (UVIc). She studies biogeochemical processes in high-altitude lakes, and large swiss lakes at the foothill of the alps, connecting them to physical and ecological processes.

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Priorities for empirical research on climate and conflict (von Uexkull & Buhaug, J. Peace Res., 2021).

Can climate variability spark conflict?

While it is widely agreed that climate change represents a major threat to prosperity and development, the relationship between climate and the risk of armed conflict is unclear. We spoke to Dr Halvard Buhaug about the work of the CLIMSEC project in investigating how climate variability affects contemporary conflict and violence.

The underlying reasons

behind outbreaks of conflict are often highly complex, but issues like discrimination against particular groups, a poor and stagnant economy, and badly functioning political institutions are often at the forefront. Alongside these issues, it has been suggested that climate variability and food insecurity may also be important factors in triggering or prolonging conflict, a topic that Dr Halvard Buhaug is exploring in the CLIMSEC project. “The project is geared towards understanding how climate variability affects contemporary conflict and violence,” he explains. There is a clear distinction here between climate variability and climate change. “Climate variability refers to short-term changes in weather and climatic conditions, while climate change is a more or less permanent change in what is considered normal weather,” says Dr Buhaug.

It’s much easier, from a scientific point of view, to attribute observed social changes to short-term changes in the weather system.”

considered ‘normal’ weather. While the focus of CLIMSEC is in principle global, with four separate workpackages within the project centered on statistical and quantitative analysis, a lot of the empirical material Dr Buhaug and his colleagues are working on is based on conflicts in Africa. “That’s where much of the violence in the world today is located, and most societies in Africa are also considered among the most vulnerable to climatic changes,” he outlines. “This is

because the economies and livelihoods of many people on the continent are dependent on agricultural production, which we know is sensitive to droughts and floods.”

A wide variety of different statistical datasets and databases are being used in the project, on the basis of which researchers are analysing the relationship between climate variability and political violence. Some of this data relates to the national level, which enables Dr Buhaug to monitor changes in countries

Relative importance of climatic, economic, and political factors in predicting asylum migration to the EU (Schutte et al., Nat. Commun., 2021).

Climate variability Many of these short-term changes relate to shifting weather conditions, including extreme events like droughts, floods, heatwaves and other deviations from what would typically be

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Agricultural dependence and armed conflict events among ethnic group settlements (von Uexkull et al., PNAS, 2016).

over time and draw wider insights. “We have statistics on weather conditions, economic conditions and political conditions, as well as on political violence within each country, over time. Then we can explore whether a country that has recently experienced a severe drought – for example – is more likely to be involved in an armed conflict than other comparable countries, or the same country during normal climatic conditions,” he says.

Researchers also have access to more highresolution spatial data. “We can break up countries and focus on smaller, sub-national areas,” continues Dr Buhaug.

The PRIO-GRID database is an important tool in this respect. This database is essentially an analytical framework for breaking up data into smaller units in order to study variation within countries, which opens up new research questions. “If drought increases conflict risk, does violence break out where the drought occurs? Or is there maybe a displacement effect where people migrate away from the drought and then violence breaks out elsewhere? These are some of the questions that we are trying to study,” says Dr Buhaug. The local context is a major factor in considering the extent to which a community is vulnerable to climatic shocks, so Dr Buhaug says it’s important to combine data at different levels of resolution. “It’s important to account for institutional factors,

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like the quality of governance or economic performance, when we study at the local level,” he continues.

Researchers have statistics on armed conflict going back to 1946, but the data tends to vary in quality. The best quality data relates to conflicts since 1989, for which very detailed information is available on specific events. “Within an ongoing armed conflict, we have information such as geographical coordinates and the dates

Climate in context This is a key ambition in the project, with Dr Buhaug aiming to put the climate effect in context, in comparison to the other factors which may heighten the risk of conflict. Some areas of the world are known to be prone to drought or floods or other extreme weather events, yet have not experienced conflict in the recent past, and this is reflected in the data sample. “The sample includes both peaceful countries, and also peaceful periods

If drought increases conflict risk, does violence break out where the drought occurs? Or is there maybe a displacement effect where people migrate away from the drought and then violence breaks out elsewhere?

These are some of the questions that we are trying to study. of specific battles. We know which actors were involved, and we have statistics on the estimated number of casualties for each of those battles, within each conflict,” outlines Dr Buhaug. Researchers are aiming not just to detect whether climate variability has an impact on conflict risk, but also to assess its relative importance. “How large is this effect compared to the effects of, for example, poverty, economic marginalisation or political discrimination?” asks Dr Buhaug.

in countries that have experienced conflict in the past. This is important, because drought is a natural phenomenon to a large extent, and we have seen that it occurs in many different areas of the world, but conflict does not happen everywhere,” points out Dr Buhaug. “In order to provide an unbiased and scientifically sound estimate of the influence of climate variability, it is important to include both cases with conflict, and also cases without it.”

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Researchers in the project are also investigating what Dr Buhaug refers to as the dynamics of violence, relating to how the characteristics of violence in ongoing conflicts may change over time. This includes the intensity level of the conflict, the risk of diffusion across space, and the likelihood of reaching a peaceful end to hostilities; Dr Buhaug and his colleagues have gained some important insights in this respect. “This project has uncovered a bit more systematic evidence suggesting that adverse climatic conditions contribute to prolonging ongoing conflicts. So it becomes harder to end conflicts once they start,” he says. While the project’s primary focus is on the relationship between climate variability and conflict risk, this research also holds relevance in the context of climate change.

“By understanding how societies respond to climate variability, we may also be in a better position to assess the likely future implications of climate change,” continues Dr Buhaug.

The natural next step beyond the project would be to investigate the long-term implications of climate change, of humandriven and permanent changes in climatic conditions. This represents a major scientific challenge, but Dr Buhaug says it is on the horizon. “That is one of the motivating factors for doing this kind of research. When the CLIMSEC project ends, we hope to be

closer to being able to study and understand the long-term implications of climate change,” he says. Some of the case studies in the project have sought to effectively quantify the average effect of an increase in temperature over time, but it is problematic to extrapolate such results over the longterm. “It is difficult to infer about long-term implications of warming based on a statistical link between short-term temperature changes and contemporary conflict because we don’t know how much societies will manage to adapt to shifting environments and thereby reduce vulnerability in the future,” outlines Dr Buhaug.

A one degree rise in temperature above normal conditions today may incentivise people to use violence if it disrupts economies and livelihoods, but in future societies may be able to adapt as climatic conditions change. If they do adapt effectively, then even a three degree warming may not necessarily increase conflict risk, rather conflict will continue to respond ‘only’ to seasonal fluctuations.

“Trying to understand what is driven by variability, and what is actually related to the underlying trends in climate change, is important,” stresses Dr Buhaug. This is a topic Dr Buhaug is keen to address in future.

“We want to link this empirical research on climate variability with investigating the long-term implications, using scenario-based modelling,” he outlines.

Conflict risk as a function of agricultural sector size and economic transformation (Vestby et al., World Dev., 2021).

CLIMSEC Climate Variability and Security Threats

Project Objectives

CLIMSEC seeks to understand whether and how climatic variability and extremes affect dynamics of contemporary political violence through conscious theoretical and empirical assessment of indirect causal pathways and facilitating conditions around the world.

Particular attention is devoted to the role of socioeconomic and political marginalization as determinants of vulnerability, drawing on statistical analysis and simulations.

Project Funding

CLIMSEC is funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant (no. 648291), 2015–21, with supplementary funds provided by the Research Council of Norway and in-kind contribution by PRIO. Total budget frame is around EUR 2.5M.

Project Partners

CLIMSEC is hosted by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) with external project members based at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Uppsala University, Stockholm University, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, University of Nevada, Reno, and University of Utah.

Contact Details

Professor Halvard Buhaug Peace Research Institute Oslo Hausmanns gate 3 NO-0186 Oslo Norway T: +47 22 54 77 63 E: halvard@prio.org W: https://www.prio.org/projects/climsec : @buhaug S. Schutte, J. Vestby, J. Carling, H. Buhaug (2021).

Climatic conditions are weak predictors of asylum migration, Nat. Commun. 12: 2067.

N. von Uexkull, H. Buhaug (2021) Security implications of climate change: A decade of scientific progress, J. Peace Res. 58: 3–17.

Professor Halvard Buhaug

Halvard Buhaug is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and Professor of Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has led several large, collaborative research projects on climate-related security challenges over the past decade and currently serves as Lead Author of the ‘Key Risks’ chapter of the forthcoming IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.

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New uses for demolition waste Recycling and re-using the large quantities of concrete and demolition waste that are generated every year would bring both environmental and economic benefits. Researchers in the VEEP project are developing new technological solutions that could help increase the use of recycled materials in the construction sector, as Anna Paraboschi explains.

The building sector

consumes large amounts of raw materials, with significant quantities of concrete and other materials used to construct new homes, offices and other buildings.

Increasing the use of materials recovered from demolished buildings would help to reduce the sector’s energy consumption, a topic at the heart of the VEEP project. “We aim to develop and demonstrate a series of technological solutions for the massive retrofitting of the built environment,” says Anna Paraboschi, the coordinator of the project. One important part of this work involves developing novel pre-cast concrete elements (PCE), in which a high proportion of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) is embedded. “The objective is for C&DW to account for 75 percent by weight of the raw materials in our panels,” continues Paraboschi.

VEEP project This is not a simple task, as C&DW materials need to be treated in certain ways before they can be used in construction. Two technologies have been developed in the project, called Advanced Drying Recovery (ADR) and Heating Air System (HAS),

VEEP

Cost-Effective Recycling of Construction and Demolition Waste for Energy Efficient Building Retrofitting This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No: 723582 http://www.veep-project.eu/Page. aspx?CAT=PARTNERS&IdPage=60397ce2-ef70-47fcbde3-171ce3671eaf

Project Partners

Anna Paraboschi Project Manager RINA Consulting S.p.A. Via Cecchi, 6 – 16129 Genova, ITALY T: + 0039 010 31961 E: anna.paraboschi@rina.org W: www.rina.org Anna Paraboschi is a Project manager for the RINA group, she is PMP® and Lean Six Sigma Management certified. She has over 10 years of experience in the development and management of R&D projects funded under the European Commission Research and Innovation Programmes, with a focus on energy efficiency and sustainability topics.

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VEEP mock-up

which address the treatment of both the coarse and fine fractions of demolition debris. “The coarse fraction of debris, from 4-12 millimetres in size, has to be effectively sieved using ADR, and then it can be 100 percent recycled in concrete,” explains Paraboschi. The finest fraction of debris, below 4 millimetres, is treated using HAS. “The

durability” she says. Another dimension of the project is the development of new, green aerogels containing recycled C&DW materials, which hold rich potential in terms of insulation. “Silica from the C&DW is used in these green aerogels. This helps to reduce costs, which could encourage their wider adoption in the construction sector,” continues Paraboschi.

This is one of the products which researchers hope to bring towards practical application, while Paraboschi and her colleagues are also looking to test the effectiveness of the PCEs at two demonstration sites in Spain and the Netherlands.

The aim here is to test the thermal performance of the PCEs in very different climates, as well as to investigate their performance against several other criteria. “The panels developed during the project will go through acoustic and fire resistance testing,

In the VEEP project we aim to develop and demonstrate a series of technological solutions for the massive

retrofitting of the built environment. material goes into a hotter system, and the pollutants are then removed, in order to produce a fine fraction which is hardened into a cement paste,” outlines Paraboschi. “This can be very useful, as it can partially replace a conventional concrete formulation.”

These two technologies are both extremely mobile, and can be moved to a demolition site, which opens up wider possibilities in terms of producing recycled concrete particles and improving resource efficiency. These recycled materials still need to meet rigorous standards before they can be used of course, and Paraboschi says the results from the project so far are positive.

“We developed a novel concrete formulation in the project, and it performs well in terms of mechanical properties, thermal conductivity and

while we’ll also monitor them for any cracks,” says Paraboschi. This is essential if these panels are to eventually be applied in the market, which Paraboschi says is an important objective in the project. “There are some manufacturers involved in the project, and they are interested in developing products to add to their portfolio,” she explains.

VEEP aerogel

VEEP Project Consortium visiting partner Nuova Tesi System’s plant.

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Mixoplankton – marine organisms that break the rules!

The conceptual basis upon which management tools for our ocean, seas and coasts operate are out-of-date and do not adequately address current challenges. We spoke to Dr Aditee Mitra and Dr Xabier Irigoien about implications for ocean health, policies, aquaculture and fisheries under climate change in this UN Ocean Decade.

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way marine systems have historically been thought to function closely parallels that of land-based systems, where plants produce food and animals consume it.

Thus, in marine systems, the traditional view is that phytoplankton (microalgae) produce food which zooplankton consume, which in turn, are consumed by larger animals through to fish. “Actually, the situation is quite different,” says Dr Mitra, project coordinator of MixITiN. “What have traditionally been labelled as primary producers are also often www.euresearcher.com

consumers, and what have been labelled as consumers are also primary producers – life is complicated!” These organisms that combine plant-like and animal-like characteristics in the one cell are termed mixoplankton.

“In essence, over decades of research, mixoplankton have been mislabelled and misunderstood,” she explains. This forms the backdrop to the work of the MixITiN project.

The MixITiN project focused on the development and deployment of new research methods for application in ocean

sciences to establish a better picture of how mixoplankton contribute to marine ecology.

This interdisciplinary project encompassed diverse approaches, including laboratory and field work drawing on a range of disciplines, from molecular biology right through to coarse grain systems biology techniques.

The project’s wider goal – an improved understanding of indicators impacting ocean health, has major implications for the design of ocean ocean management policies and planning for a sustainable future.

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Background image: Artistic interpretation of representative mixoplankton drawn to common scale; mixoplankton range from 2 μm to > 5 mm. The width of the image is ca. 250 μm (= 0.25 mm). © Claudia Traboni

Mixoplankton – why the fuss?

Mixoplankton are not new discoveries as such, rather until recently they were just not recognised as a major component of the plankton community. “Indeed, we found that most of what are traditionally thought to be phytoplankton, and around 50% of protozooplankton, are actually mixoplankton,” says Dr Mitra. Well-known phytoplankton that are now known to be mixoplankton include: the chalk-producing coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi which, like the minute ocean-dwelling phytoflagellates, can eat bacteria to obtain vital nutrients; toxin-producing Alexandrium and Dinophysis, whose blooms (ironically termed Harmful Algal Blooms, HABs) result in shellfish contamination and aquaculture closures; Karlodinium and raphidophytes that cause mass mortalities of farmed and wild fish.

Mixoplankton are a diverse group which can be broadly divided into two types: constitutive mixoplankton (CM) – these have their own chloroplasts and can also eat (‘plants that eat’); non-constitutive mixoplankton (NCM) – these are like bodysnatchers, acquiring phototrophy through ‘stealing’ chloroplasts from their prey or capturing and maintaining their prey as symbionts (‘animals that photosynthesize’).

Mixoplankton are an enigmatic group; for example, the CM group include the fish-killing Prymnesium on one hand and the fisheries supporting Tripos (Ceratium) on the other.

Likewise, the NCM group include the fishsupporting Strombidium and also the bane of shellfisheries, the toxic Dinophysis.

The wider backdrop to this is concern that with climate change we will see changes in biodiversity as well as on food security and sustainability, and Dr Mitra says plankton are fundamental in this respect. “Microbial plankton drive life in the ocean, so it is essential that we get the basics right,” she stresses. This need has been the driver of the MixITiN project.

Mixoplankton and climate change in the UN Ocean Decade The UN has designated 2021-30 as the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, an initiative designed to support ocean research and facilitate communication with stakeholders, including policy makers, ecosystem managers and the fisheries industry. The Ocean Decade has its roots in a wider recognition of the importance of the ocean systems and the ecosystem services they provide, along with a commitment to reversing the long-term decline in their overall health and supporting

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Integration of facets of mixoplankton science in MixITiN. Working clockwise from 12 o’clock these include field studies and monitoring, determination of rate processes, taxonomic and genomic analyses, chemical analyses leading to stoichiometric ecology, trophic dynamics, ecosystem services and sustainability/profitability. The centre denotes the focussing of all these activities through modelling for hypothesis testing and predictive purposes. © Aditee Mitra

the UN’s ‘Sustainable Development Agenda’.

“Issues like eutrophication, climate change and the occurrence of HABs all affect the health of the oceans. Critically, the mixoplankton paradigm strikes at the heart of this effort, by bringing into question core scientific assumptions,” explains Dr Irigoien, Scientific Director of AZTI.

Mixoplankton and Ocean Management The shift in perception of the food web under the mixoplankton paradigm dramatically changes how marine systems should be viewed and studied. That we got our understanding so fundamentally wrong should make us reexamine the whole subject of plankton ecology.

The mixoplankton paradigm brings into question our basic understanding of the energy fluxes in the ocean, from carbon fixation to fish production.

Mixoplankton combine multiple trophic strategies for acquiring nutrition and energy. However, traditional climate change models are focussed on single strategies – photosynthesis versus predation in different organisms. This means that the conceptual basis of marine systems within climate change simulations are at best a gross simplification and at worst fundamentally flawed. Coarse grain systems biology modelling undertaken within MixITiN has shown that the exclusion of mixoplankton could potentially have serious consequences for future predictions.

Note: that only a portion of the Acantharia (top left corner) and green Noctiluca (bottom right corner) are visible here.

This in turn affects our understanding of how energy moves in the marine trophic chain, from microbes to fish. These issues fall within the aegis of ocean management including policies such as the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Dr Irigoien points out “mixotrophy does not change fisheries or water quality operational management, as we act on indicators. But it substantially changes our understanding about the carrying capacity of the ecosystem and its response to anthropogenic impacts. We need to revise those indicators, as the ecosystem tipping points might be different than what we thought.”

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Mixoplankton - challenges for aquaculture MixITiN has highlighted the importance of revising the indicators of the health of marine ecosystems in line with the mixoplankton paradigm. This is especially important for predictions of algal blooms and their impacts on aquaculture. “Most HAB species are mixoplanktonic, what controls their growth is not what we thought it was – it is not just light and plant-food. Competitors and even grazers are actually potential food,” explains Dr Mitra.

And, new types of mixoplankton blooms are appearing, such as green Noctiluca which are growing across coastal oceans with climate change. In the Arabian Sea, these blooms are leading to the collapse of the traditional phytoplankton-zooplankton-fisheries link in the food web with severe food security and socio-economic hardships to a population of over 140 million people. Other mixoplankton affect recreational activities and the property market - discolouration of water caused by Karlodinium blooms have been known to result in a decrease in prices of highly soughtafter waterside properties.

“There is also a potential interaction with aquaculture, as fish farms release both the nutrients needed for photosynthesis, but also the organic matter used by mixoplankton.

Algal blooms are a major issue for aquaculture all around the globe and including mixoplanktonic activity helps us to understand what controls such blooms. Indeed, the mixoplankton paradigm helps plug gaps in our understanding of what controls many algal blooms,” emphasizes Dr Irigoien.

Mixoplankton– where are they and when? Challenges for monitoring Current monitoring methods need to reflect the complexity of the reality we now better understand. Dr Irigoien points out that “most routine field phytoplankton sampling techniques currently used in ocean monitoring, based on chlorophyll, are not well adapted to provide quantitative data on mixoplankton”. For example, the presence of chlorophyll - used as an indicator of phytoplankton biomass in surveys and ecosystem monitoring - is actually not just an indicator of the presence of phytoplankton. “It may also indicate the presence of mixoplankton, which are not just primary producers, but also consumers, and include harmful species,” explains Dr Mitra. It is important that plankton monitoring programmes take into account the mixoplankton communities; their proliferation is not driven solely by light and inorganic nutrients as is that of phytoplankton.

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Therefore, they have a much wider and diverse impact on marine trophic dynamics.

Ocean Literacy; raising the profile of mixoplankton One of the wider aims of MixITiN has been to raise awareness, enhance ocean literacy, educate and train; this means not just the 11 researchers employed on the project, but also school pupils and the wider public.

Mixoplankton are key drivers of life in the ocean, and the MixITiN researchers have been keen to raise the profile of these enigmatic organisms. Without mixoplankton, life on Earth would not function as it does.

The importance of mixoplankton is not currently recognised in educational books, environmental management frameworks nor in the simulation models used to guide climate change policies, issues that Dr Mitra and her colleagues in the project are keen to address. “With this in mind, we have produced various open access manuals and reports to aid understanding and development of new protocols,” says Dr Mitra. These include a fieldwork guide, a functional group classification guide to establish whether a HAB species is mixoplanktonic or not, a manual for isolation and establishment of cultures and a simple mixoplankton food web model for teaching.

These materials and other information can be accessed via www.mixotroph.org.

What next?

Mixoplankton are important organisms helping to maintain planetary homeostasis and therefore could play a fundamental role under climate change. “We have looked at their biogeography, and we have seen that mixoplankton are absolutely everywhere, but the question of which type occurs where and how it relates to factors like seasonality, warming waters, and changing availability of nutrients, remains unclear,” says Dr Mitra.

The project MixITiN has come to the end of its journey (Oct 2017-Sept 2021). However, there is still much to learn about mixoplankton.

Dr Mitra and colleagues are currently working to build a comprehensive mixoplankton database to establish a clearer picture of which organisms are mixoplanktonic, and which species eats what. Various planktonic species have not been documented as mixoplanktonic, because no one has been looking for this characteristic routinely. Now is the time to look specifically for them. “Once again on our marine planet, we need to re-start from the basic questions, how many, where, when,” says Dr Irigoien.

MixITiN Bringing the paradigm for marine pelagic production into the 21st century; incorporating mixotrophy into mainstream marine research

Project Objectives

The overarching aim of MixITiN has been to explore the underlying principles of marine ecology under the new mixoplankton paradigm, a concept that reimages over a 100 years of science. The project has developed a suite of novel techniques for investigation and monitoring of our ocean under this paradigm.

Project Funding

The MixITiN project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 766327.

Project Partners

Contact Details

Dr Aditee Mitra School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Cardiff University E: MitraA2@cardiff.ac.uk W: www.mixotroph.org Mitra & Flynn (2021) HABs and the Mixoplankton Paradigm. UNESCO Harmful Algae News no. 67 https:// zenodo.org/record/5109703 Mitra et al. (2021) Novel Approaches for investigating marine planktonic mixotrophy. MixITiN Report 3.8 http://doi.org/10.5281/Zenodo.5148500 Leles et al (2021) Differences in physiology explain succession of mixoplankton functional types and affect carbon fluxes in temperate seas. Prog Oceanogr 190:102481 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2020.102481 Flynn et al. (2019) Mixotrophic protists and a new paradigm for marine ecology. J Plankton Res 41:375 https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbz026

Dr Aditee Mitra Dr Xabier Irigoien

Dr Aditee Mitra is a Research Fellow in Cardiff University, UK. Her research focuses on plankton life in the single largest ecosystem of Earth, the ocean. She has been a key driver of the mixoplankton paradigm in marine ecology.

She is a keen advocate of ocean literacy.

Dr Xabier Irigoien is Scientific Director at AZTI, a scientific and technological centre based in northern Spain. He is also an IKERBASQUE Research Professor. His main research interests lie in biological oceanography, plankton ecology and the physics of plankton-fish interactions.

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The impact of climate change on rivers and lakes Climate change and human interference are altering our water systems on land. Lakes and rivers are undergoing dramatic transformations which impact nature, ecosystems and ultimately us. Rivers, streams and lakes give us water and food, rich biodiversity and sustain industries, so when they change, you can expect disruption. Can scientists help work out solutions before our waterways are dangerously dried up and degraded?

By Richard Forsyth

W

hilst we often think of climate change in terms of rising sea levels and coastlines under threat, climate change is also fundamentally changing the planet’s precious lakes and river systems.

Consider that 97 percent of the water on Earth is saltwater, leaving only three percent as fresh water. Around two thirds of that fresh water is frozen in glaciers and ice and most of the remaining is subsurface groundwater. That leaves a tiny fraction as water above the ground or in the air.

The warming effect of climate change is transforming the water cycle and when, where and how much precipitation occurs. It triggers severe weather events as more water evaporates, so with the higher levels of water vapour there is more frequent and heavy rainfall, which in turn can lead to flooding. The drier land with less vegetation means the soil does not so easily absorb the downfalls. Add farming fertilisers to the runoff from fields into waterways and it can lead to algae blooms which can be detrimental to the natural wildlife in the rivers and lakes.

Rivers and lakes affected by climate, can change the weather and affect environment in and around the water.

In more than one way, today, our natural water sources are altering in nature, and faster than we could have predicted. Combine this with our interference with nature’s water systems, building dams and excessively using fresh water and you have the makings of a potential crisis.

No snow, no meltwater High-up glacial meltwater is often the source for rivers but with less precipitation and warmer climates, the ice and snow vanishes. This leads to some rivers and lakes drying up and even disappearing, as with Lake Poopó, which was Bolivia’s second biggest lake prior to 2015. This was largely due to the loss of the Andes glaciers, which provided the meltwater. The huge lake was reduced to marshland after December 2015 and is unlikely to recover. The lost Bolivian lake provides a glimpse at a scenario that is likely to be repeated across the world.

Rivers are facing the same challenges as lakes. Pakistan held an urgent online meeting, organised by Global Water Operators Alliance in June, precisely to acknowledge that water from melting glaciers has been affected by climate change and the country’s river water was running dry. Ironically, in conjunction there have been unpredictable torrential rains which led to flooding in urban areas and to the destruction of crops.

About half the world’s river networks are running dry. To highlight this closer to home in Europe, impacts of this nature have already

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begun. The Rhine and the Danube for example, have headwaters that originate in the Alps. The Alpine glaciers of Europe are melting faster than the snow can top them up, due to the warmer temperatures. In recent years there have been unprecedented low water levels in these rivers. In 2018, Germany’s Rhine levels were so low that shipping was impossible, which had a knock-on impact for industry, cutting off factories from supply ships. In 2020, at one key point in the river at Kaub, it dropped to about 1 metre on 3 June, the lowest in two decades.

Researchers at the University in Canada found that over half of the Earth’s rivers stop flowing for at least one day a year and more are expected to run dry. In this study, the reasons for halted flow vary, from freezing up, such as in the Himalayan streams, drying out as in the Sahara or when there is too much water extraction for irrigation of crops. This is a situation expected to get worse with escalating climate change. The World Health Organisation estimates that half of the world population will be living in areas that are water stressed by 2025.

Washed away As previously mentioned, on the other side of the challenge of drying up rivers and lakes, climate change can increase rainfall. This can cause some rivers to burst their banks and flood, at times which are not in line with established ecosystem processes. Researchers from University of Glasgow and Umeå University in Sweden found that the thermal growing season for plants (where temperature rises consistently above 5°C) was starting earlier in the year, closer to the time when the highest river floods occurred. This means that seeds and vegetation get washed away, which in turn denies a food source for animals, with implications for farming too.

The changing influences of water Rivers and lakes are changing all around the world, that is clear now.

A recent study published in the journal Science, by an international team led by ETH Zurich, analysed 7,250 measuring stations around the world and combined with computer modelling, the study proved river flow changed systematically between 1971 and 2010. Some rivers were drying out and some were increasing volume. The common factor was that significant changes were occurring. Patterns emerged from the study revealing the nature of the changes. Regions like the Mediterranean and north eastern Brazil had become drier and in other places like Scandanavia the volume of water had increased. Studies like this can also provide data for projecting ahead, and that can be crucial for management of land, resources and to see how migration patterns of animals and people could occur.

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The simple truth is the world’s demand for water will overtake supply by 40 percent in 2030.

One solution, one that is almost an inevitable outcome, is that we will need to address how we use water and essentially ration and recycle it, to be smarter with it. www.euresearcher.com

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Solutions to adapt Other projects are also accumulating data on river changes. For instance, the EU project, DRYvER, started in 2020 and set to finish in 2024, has an aim to develop strategies to mitigate climate change effects on drying rivers, with guidelines and tools.

The big problem is not just about the volume of water or more often than not, the lack of it, it is that the health of rivers and lakes is in decline. Preventing and reversing the destruction of natural habitats through both climate impacts and manmade projects has become an urgent motivation for taking actions, for the EU. Many aquatic species are under threat of extinction. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) stated that 60 percent of EU rivers, lakes and wetlands are not healthy and Europe in particular, has the most fragmented river landscape on the planet. This has led to devastation of biodiversity. Freshwater species populations have shrunk by 83 percent since the 1970s.

Countering this problem has long been a mission for The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). From the year 2,000 it has and still is, striving to bring most of the EU rivers, lakes, wetlands, groundwater and coastal waters back to good health by 2027. Part of its strategy is minimising changes to natural water systems and preventing, where possible, hydropower projects that are destructive to natural water habitats. It will also try to exert influence to minimise overuse of freshwater resources for agriculture and industries with heavy water usage

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Removing dams To intensify the challenge of drying rivers, dams can cause more damage to river environments, destroying natural habitats and interfering with natural flow. Whilst damaging to natural environments, the hydropower sector is thriving, as a way to increase energy supplies to locations and attract industry. There are 21,387 hydropower plants in Europe with 8,785 plants planned and being built.

Blockages and dams are prolific in Europe, and there is estimated almost one kind of barrier for every kilometre of river. These barriers are often not necessary, and yet their effects include blocking fish migration, interfering with sediment and nutrient flow and generally degrading natural rivers.

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Taking away blockages like dams, or at very least not increasing barriers, is a solution to stem the serious decline in nature. With this as a driver, European Rewilding Network (ERN) is looking at ways of restoring rivers to their natural, free flowing state, with a focus on removing nonessential dams. It has been estimated that in Spain, France the UK and Poland, there are around 30,000 dams that are obsolete.

Organisation’s such as WWF are pressuring to stop the development of new hydropower projects, and instead, to focus on refurbishment of existing plants and changing to low impact alternatives like solar and wind power. The WWF is also advocating to stop subsidies and state financing for new hydropower in Europe, to take away the lure of attractive incentives.

A change of attitude One solution, one that is almost an inevitable outcome, is that we will need to address how we use water and essentially ration and recycle it, to be smarter with it. Household water usage will need to become a focus for water conservation. Devices like dishwashers and washing machines can use excessive amounts of water. Industry and agriculture also require huge amounts of water. Farming makes up for 70 percent of water consumed and a lot of that is wasteful and unnecessary. Every industry requires water and the sectors that consume the most water can be surprising. Consider the fashion industry uses around 79 billion cubic metres of water per year (2 percent of all the freshwater extraction around the world) and this could be doubled by 2030. Focusing on

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conservation and recycling of water for home and business use is a key part to ensuring water security around the world, including Europe.

Smart designs that facilitate recycling water, such as rain collection systems on roof tops, will also be a key to future considerations when fresh water becomes scarcer. Looking at options such as groundwater extraction, where water is stored beneath the earth’s surface, needs serious consideration for dry sites that will spread throughout the world, from California to the Nile Delta.

On a global scale, less than half of all waste water is collected and less than 20 percent of that is treated before being released back into the cycle. Untreated water can do further damage to water systems and nature. The simple truth is the world’s demand for water will overtake supply by 40 percent in 2030.

Of course, we do have the technology for desalination, which removes salt from saltwater but the technology uses a lot of energy and is prohibitively expensive. Currently, desalination does play a part in water supply strategy in places where freshwater is in very short supply, like The Middle East and North Africa.

For a growing global population, water shortage will be an ever more urgent issue to address, not least for its relevance to food security. The lakes and rivers of the planet are in a state of transformation, the meltwater is drying up, and now is the time to innovate, conserve and plan for a world that is going to see a great deal of change in natural water sources, and many more drier regions with fewer rivers and lakes.

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Building resilient communities through co-creative environmental practice The RECOMS project is training fifteen Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in developing more just, inclusive and community-based approaches to enhancing and transforming the sustainability of local environments and resources. Project co-ordinator, Alex Franklin, illustrates how the project works closely with people in both urban and rural communities.

“Spaces of Possibility” Exhibition featured interactive objects, for people of all ages and backgrounds to explore.

An aim of

RECOMS is to enhance the connections between communities and their local environments, for the purposes of tackling societal challenges such as food insecurity, energy use and climate change.

Urban parks, woodlands, food allotments, community farms, waterways, village theatres, community housing – all such places (and many more besides) have the potential to elevate and empower communities. However, in order to do so in a manner which benefits the majority rather than merely the (already empowered) few, their management, planning and models of ownership need to be grounded in more just and inclusive forms of public participation, engagement and use.

The premise is that the people who are affected by such places, can play a pivotal part in planning their usage and their future.

Enabling this in turn will help maintain people’s mental and physical health, their individual and collective sense of well-being, and ultimately the resourcefulness and resilience of their communities. Moreover, alongside it will ensure that such places retain greater social value and are more sustainable environments.

By empowering local communities to be the driving force for change, the RECOMS project is in line with broader EU goals of sustainable and inclusive growth and territorial resource-based development, enhancing social cohesion and social innovation.

How people plan, interact and maintain their own local environments is recognised as important to sustaining those environments and give them purpose and longevity. The project’s objective is to ultimately build resourceful and

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resilient communities via the adoption of adaptive and transformational environmental practices.

The RECOMS ESRs seek to tackle such socialecological challenges, working hand-in-hand with vulnerable communities to transform urban and rural environments. It is critical to planning, to find more socially equitable ways to reveal the aspirations, requirements and also the expertise of those who can both influence and benefit from these shared spaces. The project hinges on the premise that dictating solutions is not the way to understand or transform such environments. It is essential to engage those who use the areas, so they nurture their own ideas and creative solutions for more meaningful, sustainable developments.

Inclusivity at the heart of effective change A key part of the process is to achieve greater inclusivity and equality at a local level for work on developing these places and spaces, which means nurturing a broader participation. Within RECOMS, in support of this goal, participation What is RECOMS? Enhancing the connections between communities and their local environments for the purposes of tackling societal challenges such as food sustainability, energy use and climate change.

hinges on a concept of prioritising co-creativity, where collaborative and creative forms of action and reflection are favoured, researching ‘with’ rather than ‘for’ the people using them. Such methods flatten hierarchies and make sure one voice does not overpower; rather, all the voices of a group are heard and valued.

Indeed, there are many methods of reflection, analysis, and communication, from debate to visualisation, creative, to metaphorical or lateral thinking. It is important to select methods that can be used most effectively.

Imogen Humphris (Groningen University), RECOMS ESR, explains why it is important to explore new methodologies: “There are those systems and structures in society which daily life is governed by and organised by. We have to think about transitioning without those structures, to find progressive ways forward, whilst having to weave these new ways with existing systems already there. We also have to recognise those who are not represented in the process.”

The creative and innovative approaches to research adopted by the ESRs through RECOMS have been shared in an edited book by Palgrave, titled: Co-creativity and engaged scholarship: transformative methods in social sustainability research. The book highlights the work which considers how, through socially inclusive forms of action and reflection, co-creative methods can be used to stimulate alternative understandings of why and how things are, and how they could be.

RECOMS’ portfolio of outputs includes standard forms of academic research publications, but also goes well beyond this by having creative methods and modes of communication as a thread running through

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the entire programme of research and training.

Already published examples include: a series of animated educational film clips, a toolkit of creative methods, and a public exhibition, with others soon to follow. Further to this, Sara Smaal (ILVO), RECOMS ESR, is currently finalising an engagement toolkit (RE-ADJUSTool) designed to enable policy makers, practitioners and citizens to jointly unpack, discuss and integrate social justice within their specific economic, cultural and political food governance contexts.

Whilst RECOMS seeks to enable communities to explore innovative thinking around shared spaces and sustainability, it is also enhancing the way that the research is communicated, so as to be more meaningful to particular target audiences and acknowledge the inputs of both individuals and whole communities to research findings.

RECOMS makes a difference by thinking beyond traditional methods. Parts of the project are rewriting the rule book of academic presentation, in order to connect with the people who are involved. For sustainability research to be truly transformative, in addition to the accepted ways it is essential to pursue a range of different ways of communicating research findings and ensuring the voices of those who are often unheard, due to their lack of power, are properly represented.

A new way of sharing research An idea that took shape for one part of the project was the creation of an exhibition of research, where the RECOMS ESRs represented their ideas and findings through a curated mix of objects, visuals, soundscapes and games. It was an innovative way to change how social science research is absorbed, shared and offered. Convened by ILVO and held in the greenhouse of a local community food initiative (Parckfarm), it was designed to be highly interactive, for people of all ages and backgrounds to explore.

The exhibition was visual, tactile, presented with colour, bite sized, impactful information and elements that drew the viewer through a narrative. It had broader appeal than academic texts and it became an experimental place to

RECOMS Resourceful and Resilient Community Environmental Practice Project Objectives

A key aspect for Green Open Space management and preservation is inclusiveness. This is a pilot test of the Participatory GIS tool that RECOMS ESR Nohemi Ramirez Aranda (ILVO) is working on to improve the inclusiveness of minority groups in spatial decisions.

share points of view on the world. It was clear this unique research presentation would benefit a wider spectrum of people. It communicated results in a way that was relatable to people’s everyday lives and places of residence.

Field research reaps knowledge For the RECOMS researchers advanced training provided during the project has included integrated action-based learning, collaborating with communities directly and experimenting with creative techniques.

“A lot of us work with community groups in physical places. Through working dialogically between their material landscapes and their bodies these groups are building intimate knowledges of their environment,” explains Humphris.

What has emerged from RECOMS is how the meaning of environments to the people that use them can often be misunderstood by planners and policy makers, who may have a more remote, disconnected understanding of them. For establishing the optimum use of a shared environment, it is imperative to find ways relevant for all those who reside locally, or are otherwise connected to it, to share their experiences, their needs and their aspirations for that space. Only then can it be sustainably and inclusively managed, cared for and used, with this in turn contributing to the building of resourceful and resilient communities.

RECOMS is comprised of a transdisciplinary consortium of scientists, practitioners and change agents from eleven public, private and non-profit organisations located in six European Union countries. It will train fifteen Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in transdisciplinary approaches to supporting resourceful and resilient community environmental practice. Through individual doctoral projects, collaborative learning and guided training, the ESRs will develop advanced skills and expertise in tackling social-ecological challenges such as how to transform urban and rural environments for the health and wellbeing of vulnerable communities.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 765389.

Project Partners

https://recoms.eu/partners

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Alex Franklin Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, UK T: +44 (0) 755 742 5456 E: ac0569@coventry.ac.uk W: https://recoms.eu Alex Franklin

Moya Kneafsey

Alex Franklin is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University. Her research explores collaborative forms of environmental action and care, with a particular focus on placebased practice, situated knowledge and morethan-human relations. She is co-ordinator of the RECOMS project.

Moya Kneafsey is Professor of Human Geography, Food and Local Development at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University. Her research concentrates on ‘alternative’ food networks, short food supply chains and food justice. Her latest publication is Geographies of Food: An Introduction. She is joint co-ordinator of the RECOMS project and co-ordinator of COACH.

An interactive game, outlining the different pathways to sustainability, each of us can achieve locally, was a hit with all ages.

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45

Tracking the career trajectories of VET graduates Vocational education and training (VET) programmes in Switzerland typically include both occupation-specific and general teaching, and the balance between the two has a significant influence on graduates’ later careers. We spoke to Professor Irene Kriesi about her research into how the nature of VET programmes affects career trajectories.

The majority of

young people in Switzerland go into vocational education and training, through which they acquire the skills and knowledge that will help them enter the labour force. While there are different types of vocational education and training (VET), most young people go into so-called dual VET, which is company-based. “This means that they spend maybe 3-4 days in a training company, and 1-2 days in vocational school,” says Irene Kriesi, Professor at the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET). The nature of this training, and the balance between occupation-specific training and more general education in VET programmes, has a strong influence on young people’s later career trajectories, a topic of great interest to Professor Kriesi. “These young people have different labour market opportunities, depending on the type of programme they go through, as most jobs require a specific credential,” she explains.

There are around 230 different VET programmes in the Swiss system, covering a wide variety of different occupations.

Although all programmes focus strongly on occupation-specific skills, there is some degree of heterogeneity in the balance between general and occupation-specific teaching.

While in some training programmes young people spend most of their time in the firm,

Digital literacy learning objectives in Swiss VET occupations.

and focus strongly on occupational-specific skills, others are different. “There are training programmes with more general education and less vocation-specific training. There are also differences on exams, which affects how training is organised, as well as differences in terms of the breadth of the programme,” explains Professor Kriesi. This has a major impact on young people’s career prospects, as Professor Kriesi says the Swiss training system and the labour market are closely linked. “The type of training young people do determines to quite a strong extent how they enter the labour market,” she continues.

Interactive skills learning objectives in Swiss VET occupations

research project based at SFUVET. The core database used in this research is the Swiss labour force survey, while Professor Kriesi and her colleagues are also using data from a number of other sources. “We intend to extend our analysis using the TREE (Transition from Education to Employment) data, which is a longtitudinal survey. We’re also working with unemployment data,” she outlines.

Researchers are also using data from the Swiss job monitor, which holds a representative

Career trajectories An occupation-specific training programme may put young people in a good position to enter the labour market, but it may also affect their subsequent career trajectory and ability to move into a different job later on, a topic which Professor Kriesi is investigating in a

The Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training SFUVET is Switzerland’s expert organisation for vocational education and training.

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sample of job adverts. “With this dataset we can measure the labour market demand for people with specific credentials. That’s quite important in order to control for labour market demand,” explains Professor Kriesi.

A further source of data is a database created at SFUVET, in which information from ordinances and different curricula frameworks have been collected. A lot of indicators have been collected on different VET programmes.

“This includes things like how many hours of general education they have a week in vocational school, how many lessons are in the local language and how many lessons are in foreign languages. Data-mining techniques are also used to measure IT literacy for example, or communication and interaction skills,” says Professor Kriesi. This provides solid foundations for researchers to investigate how the balance between general and specific training in VET programmes affects labour market outcomes, all against a backdrop of evolving demand for specific skills from employers. “Our hypothesis was that the ability to adapt to changing circumstances depends on the skill bundle taught in VET,” continues Professor Kriesi.

these terms, even if it may not be immediately relevant to a career as a hairdresser or chef for example. “The more IT literacy is taught in a VET programme, the steeper the earnings trajectories of the graduates,” says Professor Kriesi. General communication skills are also important, particularly when young people face a tough labour market. “If demand for people with a particular skill isn’t very high, then it’s really important that young people have picked up those interaction skills during their training,” stresses Professor Kriesi. “Those people with good communication and language skills and general knowledge are less negatively affected when the labour market situation is difficult.”

Swiss labour market The Swiss labour market has in general remained fairly stable for the last few decades, yet some jobs are disappearing due to automation. However, Professor Kriesi says the vast majority of training programmes have adapted, while new jobs are emerging in the modern economy as new technologies are developed. “New occupations are being created all the time,” she says. There is a

We wanted to analyse those 230 different training occupations, and find out any differences regarding the extent to which they teach these general skills.

In a second step, we wanted to look at whether that has

THE ROLE OF VOCATIONAL SPECIFICITY The role of vocational specificity and skill demand in explaining long-term labour market outcomes of people with VET Project Objectives

The project investigates how mid and long-term labour market outcomes of individuals who completed Swiss vocational education and training (VET) depend on the interplay between the occupation-specific skill demand and the type and composition of general and occupation-specific skills provided by their training programmes. In other words, we ask how the long-term usability of skills taught in VET programmes differs within and across occupational fields and leads to unequal employment and career prospects.

Project Funding

Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, grant number: 10001A_182702

Project Partners

• In cooperation with: University of Bern, Dr Stefan Sacchi

Contact Details

Principal Investigator: Prof Dr Irene Kriesi, Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training SFUVET Kirchlindachstr. 79, 3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland T: +41 58 458 28 27 E: irene.kriesi@ehb.swiss W: https://www.sfuvet.swiss/project/ specificity-and-skill-demand-SNSF Professor Irene Kriesi Dr Miriam Grønning Dr Stefan Sacchi

an effect on graduates’ later careers.

The evidence suggests that young people who undergo very occupation-specific training find it easier to get a matching job, and they have higher earnings when they initially enter the labour market. However, those who have higher proportions of general education have steeper earnings gains once they have entered the labour market and more occupational mobility. “This may be because they find it easier to adapt to changing circumstances,” says Professor Kriesi. Skills like knowledge of foreign languages, IT literacy and communication skills are also becoming increasingly important in the labour market, now Professor Kriesi aims to assess the extent to which they are addressed in Swiss VET programmes. “We wanted to analyse those 230 different training occupations, and find out any differences regarding the extent to which they teach these skills,” she outlines. “In a second step, we wanted to look at whether that has an effect on graduates’ later careers.”

This includes analysing people’s earnings later in their careers, assessing their mobility in the labour market, and looking at how often they become unemployed. Researchers have found that training in IT literacy pays off in

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trade-off to consider for all VET training occupations, whether they are relatively new or long established. “We have seen that the more specific the training is, the more time the trainees spend really learning very narrow, occupation-specific skills, the easier it is for young people to enter the labour market,” explains Professor Kriesi. “However, in the long run, if young people want to stay flexible, and to be able to adapt to changing labour market opportunities, then it’s an advantage to have a more general education.”

This trade-off should be an important consideration for policy-makers looking at the future of VET programmes. At the moment Swiss policy-makers are primarily focused on giving young people good opportunities to enter the labour market, which is clearly important, yet Professor Kriesi believes it’s important to also consider their prospects for further progression. “Our impression is that educational policy-makers sometimes aren’t sufficiently aware that while entering the labour market is important, it’s also important to look at what these young people need to go on to have successful careers later on,” she says.

Prof Dr Irene Kriesi is head of the research area on “Strategic planning of the VET/PET system” at the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training in Switzerland. Her research interests are educational trajectories, school-to-work transitions, occupational careers and social inequality, with a specific focus on gender inequalities.

Dr Miriam Grønning is a researcher at SFUVET. She earned her doctorate in the sociology department at Leibniz University in Hannover.

Dr Stefan Sacchi is a Senior Researcher in the Institute of Sociology at the University of Berne.

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Laser-like focus on materials processing Ultra-short pulse laser systems are capable of ablating materials to a high level of precision, yet the long processing time means their industrial use is limited to a few applications. We spoke to Johannes Finger and Martin Reininghaus about the MultiFlex project’s work in developing a more powerful and faster laser machine that could open up new opportunities.

The majority of

femtosecond lasers currently in industrial use have an average power of some tens of watts, which limits them in terms of material processing time and productivity. As the coordinator of the EUfunded MultiFlex project, Martin Reininghaus is working to develop a new, more powerful laser processing machine that will greatly improve throughput. “The novel aspect of this project is the power of this laser,” he says. Lasers with a few hundred femtoseconds (1 fs = 10 -15 of a second) of pulse duration are already used for materials processing, but they’re limited to just a few applications due to productivity issues, an issue that the project is working to address.

“Currently femtosecond lasers with an average power of 10-50 watts are used for materials processing. In this project, we go up to 1 kilowatt of power, so this technology can make material processing much faster,” explains Reininghaus.

Higher power A second major challenge is to then distribute this higher average laser power onto the workpiece so that it can be used effectively for laser materials processing, while still maintaining the high quality associated with ultrashort pulsed laser radiation. Researchers are developing an optical system that essentially splits the laser beam into several beamlets, or sub-beams. “We split the beam up into 64 identical copies,” says Johannes Finger, a colleague of Reininghaus who played a major role in the project. A further aspect of the project’s research involves developing a control system and software to then control these beams individually and switch any beams on and off as required. “You basically have this array of beams which is moved over a surface structure and then adapt your multibeam beam pattern by switching on and off arbitrary beams. In this way, you can realize a highly parallelized ablation process without any limit of geometric aspects, quality or precision compared to a single beam process,” outlines Finger.

The project’s work encompasses the development of not only the laser source and the optical system, but also a machine tool.

Prototypes of each of the components have

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The Multiflex “High power USP laser-dot-matrix-printer.

been developed in MultiFlex, with researchers now looking to combine everything into one machine concept. “We are now looking at integration and interaction of all components, for example the beam quality and thermal load of optical components during operation.

All these aspects will have an effect on the final performance and reliability of the machine,” says Reininghaus. Alongside testing the components individually, the consortium is also considering the challenges that may

use cases in the project. The main focus in MultiFlex is on increasing productivity, which is always a prominent consideration in industry. “We aim to set up a manufacturing machine to really upscale productivity for industrial use,” outlines Reininghaus. While currently available ultra-fast lasers can ablate materials very precisely, this is not enough in itself for the technology to be adopted more widely, as companies typically place a lot of emphasis on productivity. “Materials

Currently femtosecond lasers with an average power of 10-50 watts are used for materials processing. In this project, we go up to 1 kilowatt of power, so this technology can make material processing much faster. arise when these machines are applied in an industrial environment. “Aside from some small drawbacks, everything fits together quite well and we are optimistic that we can continue our progress through the final phase of the project,” he continues. “We are basically developing a disruptive solution for industrial laser processing.”

This solution is ultimately intended for use in the commercial sector, and it will be tested and evaluated in three industrial

processing by means of ultra short pulsed laser radiation has already penetrated many markets as it results in high surface quality. I am convinced that this is just the beginning of this digital production technology, which has the potential to be widely used in industrial applications. This laser technology can get very good results, but it’s still much too slow to be widely used in industrial applications,” explains Reininghaus.“The project aims to increase productivity, to make these

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MultiFlex Making ultrafast lasers faster Project Objectives

Laser generated 3D-structures in ceramics or metals.

The MultiFlex aims at developing a high power “USP laser-dot-matrix-printer”, which consists of a newly developed high power ultrashort pulsed laser and a flexible multi beam optics concept for laser materials processing. The high power laser beam is split into a matrix of 64 multi-beams. By enabling the flexible switching of the separated single beams and a control system for compensating field distortions, arbitrary surface structures can be generated with highest precision and throughput.

Project Funding

processes up to 100 times faster and so more economically viable.”

There are a variety of potential applications of this technology, including in the automotive sector, for example in manufacturing lighting elements or piston rings and in reducing the friction on certain surfaces. Improving the speed of processes would also open up further opportunities to apply ultra-short laser processing, believes Reininghaus. “There are some potential applications that we can imagine now, but which are not yet thought of as realistic.

Like using ultra-fast lasers to manufacture large self-cleaning surfaces, for example for antiicing for aircraft wings and wind turbines,” he says. The productivity of existing ultra-fast lasers is currently much too low to make these applications a realistic prospect on a m2 scale, but the project’s research could bring this a step closer by making materials processing much faster. “This technology can help to make these applications more realistic,” says Finger.

Prototypes This research could have a wider impact on certain areas of industry, for example friction reduction could lead to dramatically reduced energy consumption in the automotive or energy sectors. However, at this stage the focus is more on improving the technology.

“We have all the prototypes ready, and they will now basically all be merged into one machine,” says Reininghaus. With a lot of the groundwork now done, Reininghaus and the Multiflex consortium are now looking to make more progress over the final year of the project’s funding term. “By around the middle of next year we aim to have a finalised system here at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT), with the complete machine tool and every component integrated. We also want to have demonstrated the three industrial use cases,” he outlines.

The ambitious aim is to increase productivity by two orders of magnitude,

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This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 825201.

Project Partners

which would make ultrafast laser processing a more cost-effective option. The project is at a very exciting stage, with very promising results so far in terms of the effectiveness of the laser, and so researchers are beginning to look to the future and consider in which areas it could be applied. “We have now developed this technology, and of course we are thinking about where it could be used,” says Finger. Laser ablation is attracting an increasing level of attention as a potential manufacturing process, with interest from many different areas of industry. “There’s interest from different sectors like the automotive industry, the semi-conductor industry, medical applications, and consumer electronics,” says Reininghaus.

This project has a total of 6 Partners from 3 different Countries.

• https://multiflex-project.eu/consortium/ • http://www.aaoptoelectronic.com/ • https://amplitude-laser.com/ • https://www.tos.rwth-aachen.de/ • https://www.ilt.fraunhofer.de/ • https://www.lasea.eu/en/

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Martin Reininghaus Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT Steinbachstr. 15 52074 Aachen T: +49 241 8906 627 E: martin.reininghaus@ilt.fraunhofer.de W: https://multiflex-project.eu

Martin Reininghaus

Laser based manufacturing of Sapphire gears.

Martin Reininghaus is group manager for micro- & nanostructuring at Fraunhofer ILT. His group conducts research and development activities concentrate on laser material processing by means of ultrashort pulsed laser radiation. The activities cover the entire chain from fundamental research on lightmaterials interaction to process development, prototype machine constructions and systems engineering. In 2020, his team awarded the German Stifterverband prize for multibeam laser processing.

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Laser focus on surface structures Lasers are an important tool in industrial materials processing, enabling scientists to modify the surfaces of materials and tailor their properties. Researchers in the FemtoSurf project are developing a new system to treat large curved surface areas of metals, work which holds interest to several areas of industry, as Femtika CEO Vidmantas Sakalys explains.

A large number

of lasers with pulse durations in the nanosecond (10 -9 of a second) range have been developed over recent years, but researchers are continuing to push the boundaries of technology and strive for further improvements. As Project Leader of the EU-funded FemtoSurf project, Vidmantas Sakalys is now leading a team of worldclass scientists and engineers to develop a femtosecond (10 -15 of a second) laser based surface modification machine. “One of the project targets is to create a very powerful - about 2 kilowatts - femtosecond laser,” he explains. This work could be relevant to a wide range of industrial sectors. “Our main targets in the project are shipbuilding, healthcare, aerospace, and heavy industry,” says V. Sakalys. “For example, with shipbuilding, we can use surface structuring to make the propellers anti-fouling.”

This could have a significant impact on the performance of a vessel and greatly improve efficiency. A ship’s propellers are often rapidly clogged up after a period out on the water as a result of fouling, which V. Sakalys says has a detrimental impact on its overall performance. “Fouling usually causes about a 5 percent increase in fuel consumption, and the ship has to be taken in for cleaning on a regular basis,” he outlines. By modifying the surface of the structure, researchers aim to improve performance and reduce maintenance costs. “If we can make it easier to clean the ship’s propellers, then it would really drastically reduce the costs of using it,” points out V. Sakalys. “The surface of a metal can also be structured in such a way to reduce friction and corrosion.”

Different surface micro-textures resulting in different properties and contact angles between water drop and the surface.

metal can change its behaviour. “Some nanoripples and micro-patterns are formed on the surface of a metal,” explains V. Sakalys.

Researchers in the project are working to develop a system to structure the surface of a metal, which V. Sakalys says represents a route to introducing certain interesting properties.

“We can make the surface hydrophobic for example, so that it repels water, or hydrophilic, the opposite. It’s also possible to make surfaces anti-microbial,” he says.

A major challenge at the moment is the insufficient power of femtosecond lasers, an issue that V. Sakalys and his colleagues are

Surface structures The idea in the project is to develop a laser based micro-fabrication machine to structure relatively big and curvy surfaces, with dimensions in the order of several square metres, all within a reasonable and cost effective timeframe. Applying a laser beam with a femtosecond pulse to the surface of a

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Water drops on the textured water-repellent surface.

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FemtoSurf Femtosecond laser 3D surface microstructuring for industry applications Project Objectives

The main objective of FemtoSurf project is to develop, test and demonstrate industrial-grade solidstate 2-3 kW-level fs laser with parameters suitable for metal surface patterning of arbitrary shaped metal components with sizes exceeding several meters while retaining micrometer level precision, applicable in industrial settings.

Project Funding

working to address in the project. Currently, in order to increase the throughput of a laser, it’s necessary to either increase the spot size of the focused laser beam, or to operate with multiple beams. “This is where the optical chain comes into play,” says V. Sakalys. The optical chain essentially directs light from the laser source to the surface, and it needs to deal with the huge power of the laser in order to structure quite big surfaces in one go. “We are addressing the problem of handling the power of a 2kw

less power at our disposal. We will then look to adapt these parameters to this more powerful laser in future,” he says. Once this new laser has been shown to be effective, the target is to find industrial and commercial applications. “We are working with endusers in the project from several different industries,” continues V. Sakalys. “We can see, for example, that there is a lot of potential for the commercialisation of this research in the medical devices industry.”

Fouling usually causes about a 5 percent increase in fuel consumption, and the ship has to be taken in for cleaning on a regular basis. If we can make it easier to clean the ship’s propellers, then it would drastically reduce the costs. femtosecond laser,” continues V. Sakalys. “A further problem that we are addressing is the surface structuring of big, curved surfaces.”

This is a more complex challenge than structuring the surface of a square metal sheet.

Dealing with the curved surface of propellers is extremely tricky for example, as they are extremely heavy and need to be rotated under a laser beam, all while maintaining very high standards. “You need to do this at a great level of precision, within about 1 micron (10 -6 of a metre),” outlines V. Sakalys.

This research is primarily about the surface structuring of metals, although V. Sakalys says there are some further possibilities beyond this. “There are also some interesting ideas about covering the surface with nanoparticles, which will create some interesting possibilities, like anti-microbial surfaces for example,” he explains.

The 2 kw laser itself is currently in development, and so currently researchers are working with a 400 watt laser. With a lot of preparatory work done, V. Sakalys and his colleagues hope to hit the ground running when the new, more powerful laser is ready.

“We already have the laser parameters, on how surfaces are structured when we have

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The FemtoSurf Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 825512. This project is funded by one of the call under the Photonics Public Private Partnership (PPP) (www.photonics21.org)

Project Partners

• https://www.femtosurf.eu/project-partners/

Contact Details

Giedrė Grigalevičiūtė Research & Marketing Sauletekio al. 15, 10224 Vilnius, Lithuania E: info@femtika.lt W: https://www.femtosurf.eu : https://www.linkedin.com/ showcase/67103966/

Vidmantas Sakalys

Industrial applications A number of other applications have been identified, including in the automotive sector, where structuring the surface of certain components could improve fuel efficiency.

A surface that is not totally flat will have much less friction between the surfaces.

“This could be useful for the automotive industry. For example, if we can make a surface hydrophobic then it will require less oiling,” says V. Sakalys. The project’s research holds wider importance in terms of the ‘green’ economy, and the general goal of reducing our use of certain resources. “The adhesion of paint can be improved by structuring the surface of a material so that you need less paint. That means that we can reduce the amount of toxic paints that are released into the environment,” explains V. Sakalys.

The project consortium itself includes nine different partners from across Europe, testament to the level of interest in this research and its wider potential. The ultimate goal is to bring this technology to the market, and to bring metal surface patterning to a wider range of industries. “We are working with end-users in the project, from several different industries,” says V. Sakalys.

Vidmantas is the CEO of Femtika, a toplevel business manager with business experience in commercialization of advanced technologies for over 25 years.

In 1992 he acquired Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering at the Kaunas University of Technology. From 1992 till 2013 he worked in number of companies as IT manager as well as director/business developer. From 2013 after establishment of the company Femtika Vidmantas is working as the CEO of the company.

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Taking the heat out of space applications Effective thermal management of the new generation of high-power components is essential if their capabilities are to be fully exploited in space applications. We spoke to David Nevo, Erich Neubauer, Piotr Śpiewak, Szymon Bednarski, Arno Hoogerwerf, David Hien, Laurent Letteron and Athanasios Baltopoulos about the work of the HEATPACK project in developing new packaging solutions.

A lot of

progress has been made over recent years in the development of highpower semiconductors, with powerful and efficient gallium nitride (GaN) transistors now available. As this technology has developed, a parallel need has emerged for efficient techniques to fully exploit its potential and improve the thermal management of these components. “We see that there is a gap here, between progress at the active component level, and at the packaging level,” says David Nevo, an engineer at Thales Alenia Space. This is an issue the Heatpack project, a consortium bringing together academic and commercial partners from across Europe (including Thales Alenia Space) aims to address. “The intention in the project is to explore some innovative packaging solutions for highpower components,” outlines Nevo. “It’s not only a matter of thermal efficiency, it’s also a matter of performance and reliability of the components. Keeping the components as cold as possible will have a huge impact on their reliability, and their lifetime.”

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Packaging solutions The main area in which it is envisaged these packaging solutions will be applied is the space domain, with satellites today generating large amounts of heat. Satellites today have more capacity and more capabilities, and telecommunications applications require a lot of power. “This means increased thermal fluxes need to be handled inside the payload,” explains Nevo. A number of technologies at different levels of maturity are being investigated in the project, with Nevo and his colleagues aiming to demonstrate that they are reliable and can be used in the space domain. ““For the realisation of the electrical demonstrators, and the validation of the packages – based on the technologies developed by the partners – we will use already available components such as GaN power transistors,” says Szymon Bednarski, an engineer at Alter Technology UK, a member of the project consortium. “We’re developing better packaging solutions, to improve performance for the space market.”

This includes research into the use of diamond-based composite materials for use as baseplates, replacing composites such as tungsten-copper, or molybdenum-copper.

Diamond is being used primarily for its outstanding thermal properties, yet Nevo says it also has some drawbacks. “It has a very low coefficient of thermal expansion, so it is difficult to match it with other common packaging materials,” he explains. This is a challenge researchers at Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) and the RHP technology research institute, both members of the project consortium, are dealing with in the development of composite materials based on diamond particles. “We use diamond powders or diamond particles, which are characterised by a high thermal conductivity and a low coefficient of expansion. These materials are well-suited for use as a filler in a metallic matrix,” says Erich Neubauer of RHP. “We are creating a composite material, consisting of either a silver matrix, or a copper matrix.”

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Matching materials with functions and processes: multi-functional Thermal Interface Materials in film form developed under HEATPACK project

The diamond particles are then embedded in this matrix in a high concentration, which should in theory result in a material with excellent thermal performance. However, the main problem with metal-diamond composites - in particular copper-diamond - is the interface. “Essentially copper and diamond do not like each other. So we need to modify the interface, so that there is good compatibility between the metal and the diamond,” outlines Neubauer. “To prevent graphitisation of diamonds during thermal processing, at WUT we developed copperdiamond composite using Pulse Plasma Sintering powder metallurgy technology,” says Piotr Śpiewak, a researcher at WUT. This issue has been resolved to a degree, yet a further challenge lies in shaping and machining the composite material effectively.

“A metal which contains a lot of diamond particles is really difficult to machine,” says Neubauer. “We cannot use standard milling or cutting operations, so we are using lasercutting and other cutting techniques. We need to identify the best technologies for the cutting operations, so that we meet the geometric tolerance requirements.”

The University of Bristol, a partner in HEATPACK, is involved in the thermal characterisation of these metal-diamond composites, as well as the other materials under development in the project. Researchers at Bristol are experts in this area and are developing a method called Frequency Domain ThermoReflectance (FDTR), tailored to measure the thermal conductivity of these materials.

“This method is well suited to the measurement of ‘sandwich’ composites in particular, such as the diamond-based materials produced in the project,” outlines Nevo.

Thermal interface materials A further aspect of the project’s research involves the development of thermal interface materials (TIMs), which are located between the active components and the package. One part of this work centres around developing a silver sintering based TIM. “The aim is to develop a better, more flexible material, in relation to performance as well as to component assembly,” says Bednarski. One

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of the major challenges here is in achieving the best possible thermal conductivity of the material, while at the same time keeping the assembly methods as simple as possible, a topic which is being addressed by researchers at WUT. “Our colleagues at WUT are developing a sintered paste, which combines the advantages of a solder and a glue, while achieving very good thermal efficiency of the joint, about two times better than the brazing material currently in use,” says Nevo.

However, the usual presence of air voids (pores) during the sintering of silver-based pastes diminishes their thermal conductivity and, therefore, their performance. “Currently we are working on optimising process parameters that reduce the voids during the chips assembly,” summarises Śpiewak.

A second TIM under development in the project is an adhesive film which is intended to be both thermally and electrically conductive.

TIMs provide an effective path for the heat to transfer given that transfer through air (convection) is not available in space due to vacuum conditions. To succeed in this high thermal conductivity, particles are employed in adhesives. “Over recent decades research and innovations in production technologies have brought to the market a plethora of nanomaterials, offering a variety of sizes, shapes, properties and functionalities.

Materials with a 2-dimensional architecture, such as Graphene and Boron Nitride, are promising to push the performance of TIMs and are being investigated within HEATPACK in combination with traditional materials,” notes Thanos Baltopoulos of Adamant Composites. The objective here is to achieve improved thermal performance, compared to commercially available films. “For us the challenge is not only to come up with a A filled active cooler ready for use.

solution that meets the package application requirements (e.g. conductivity, temperature, vacuum compatibility); but that our film is compatible with all the production processes employed by our industrial partners for realizing the packages,” adds Baltopoulos. “This kind of interface has a role to play in structural assembly, as well as in handling some possibly important thermal expansion mismatches even with large parts” outlines Nevo.

Active cooling The project’s agenda also encompasses the development of solutions designed to cool down the components, helping to ensure they can operate effectively for longer.

Based at the Swiss Centre for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), Arno Hoogerwerf is developing active cooling solutions. “With the device that we’re making the semiconductor heats up a liquid underneath it. The liquid vaporises, it forms a bubble. The bubble moves to the cold side of the package where it condenses and becomes a liquid again. So you have physically moved the bubble, with a lot of heat in it, to the cold side,” he outlines. This procedure has been shown to be very effective, providing excellent cooling performance better than copper or silver - through the use of relatively low-cost materials.

“The advantage with active cooling is that you can achieve good cooling performance, SiC-Lid bonded with silver sintering on the back-side of GaN Switch ICs.

High power package developed in the frame of EC funded project AGAPAC, implementing a diamond based composite baseplate.

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HEATPACK New generation of High thErmAl efficiency componenTs PACKages for space

Project Objectives

HEATPACK project aims to develop and validate critical technology building blocks for enabling transformative packages for space applications with very low thermal resistance.

Copper-Diamond Composite with pin-fin structure for high power electronics.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s HORIZON 2020, Space Research Program, Technologies for European non-dependence and competitiveness, under grant agreement No 821963, Project Officers Mr Andrej ROZKOV and Mr Fabio VITOBELLO.

Project Partners

9 partners from 7 differentcountries: • T hales Alenia Space (Coordinator) - David Névo •A damant Composites - Mr Athanasios BALTOPOULOS, baltopoulos@adamantcomposites.com and Mr Nicolas BLASAKIS, blasakis@adamant-composites.com • CSEM - Mr Arno HOOGERWERF, arno. hoogerwerf@csem.ch • Alter Spain - Juan Moreno, juan.moreno@ altertechnology.com • University of Bristol - Prof. Martin Kuball, martin.kuball@bristol.ac.uk • Egide - Mr Laurent LETTERON, lletteron@ fr.egide-group.com and Mr David HIEN, dhien@fr.egide-group.com • Alter UK - Mr Szymon BEDNARSKI, Szymon.Bednarski@uk.altertechnology.com • RHP - Mr Erich NEUBAUER, e.ne@rhp.at • Warsaw University - Mr Piotr SPIEWAK, piotr.spiewak@pw.edu.pl and Mr Ryszard KISIEL, ryszard.kisiel@pw.edu.pl

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, David Névo Thales Alenia Space Région de Toulouse, France T: +33 5 34 35 72 15 E: david.nevo@thalesaleniaspace.com W: https://heatpack.eu/ David Névo

David Névo is a senior engineer at Thales Alenia Space Toulouse, France.

His activities are focused on packaging, advanced components and material solutions engineering for microwave space applications, with an expertise in Printed Circuit Board technology and Electromagnetics applied to microwave packaging and interconnects.

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Synthetic diamonds and coated diamonds are used for the manufacturing of high thermal conductive heat sink materials.

without having to use expensive materials,” says Hoogerwerf.

Manufacturing packages These different building blocks of the overall solutions – active cooling, diamond composites, and the two TIMs – will be evaluated by the partners during the project, then engineers at the Egide group will manufacture two packages, one dedicated to a Ka-band RF application with an output power of more than 20W for each unit, and an LF (“Low Frequency”) package dedicated to DC-DC conversion applications. “At Egide, we have been developing and manufacturing hermetic packages for more than 30 years.

We use our expertise in special alloys, plating, chemistry, mechanics, electronics, RF modelling and ceramics to protect our customers’ ICs,” says David Hien, Director of

demonstrator, representative of the demands of space applications, and will also be subjected to some thermo-mechanical stresses, deep analysis, by our partner Alter Technology at their site in Spain,” outlines Nevo. “ This is part of the wider goal of securing a European supply chain for high-power, high thermal efficiency packages. While the project has primarily focused on space applications, some of the building blocks could be used down here on earth. “We are working on a lot of different projects right now, for defence, opto-electronics and power packaging. Through participating in projects like Heatpack we can showcase our expertise, challenge ourselves to find new solutions, and then bring them to other markets,” says Hien. Once it has been demonstrated that these packages and solutions are able to withstand the constraints of the space environment, this could lead to the

The intention in the project is to explore some innovative packaging solutions for high-power components. It’s not only a matter of thermal efficiency, it’s also a matter of performance and reliability of the components.

Business Development at Egide.

The packages are much smaller than previous generations, with researchers working to ensure that the active components within a package keep running for a long time, so that a satellite can remain operational. In general, hermeticity is a key requirement because the active components are highly sensitive to moisture and their performance can degrade over time, although more and more non-hermetic/plastic components are used even in the space industry mainly to drive down costs. “The LF package is not required to be fully hermetic,” says Laurent Letteron, Research & Development and Engineering Manager at Egide.

These packages, implementing the building blocks developed, will undergo rigorous testing to assess their suitability for space applications.

“They will also be put into an electrical

identification of other potential applications, although some technologies are closer to market readiness than others. “The various technologies are at different maturity levels.

For example, the TRL of active cooling may not be as high at the end of project as for diamond composites, so further development will be needed there,” continues Nevo.

First steering comittee meeting organised with the consortium in Warsaw.

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Logistics of the future via the physical internet The digital internet has revolutionised the way information is transmitted, now researchers in the ICONET project are investigating the novel concept of the physical internet. This research could help improve efficiency in the transport of physical goods and bring wider benefits along the supply chain, as Philippos Philippou explains.

The concept of

the physical internet (PI) has been inspired to a large degree by the digital internet, with researchers exploring new approaches to improve efficiency in the transport of physical goods. Earlier work by Montreuil et al in 2012 [1] proposed the Open Logistics Interconnection model (OLI) based in turn on the Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI) which, as a reference model, standardizes the communication functions of the digital internet and the way data moves between devices and systems. This OLI model formed the basis of the infrastructure architecture.

While in the digital internet information is transmitted through packets, in the PI goods are transported in standardised containers equipped with trackers and sensors, which promises to bring wider benefits. “The objective with the PI is to enable actors in the logistics industry to use multiple routes and engage multiple operators, to help minimise CO2 emissions, increase transport means’ fill rates, utilize resources more efficiently and reduce operational costs while improving service quality,” explains Philippos Philippou, Senior Project Manager at eBOS technologies in Cyprus. Several well-versed partners are participating in the project consortium, with the aim of developing an ICT infrastructure designed to help improve logistical efficiency.

This infrastructure will then be deployed and tested via the use of simulation modelling. “In the project four living labs have been co-created - by business users and technical partners - to investigate and ultimately validate how the PI could benefit the logistics industry and the wider supply chain,” says Philippou.

ICONET project A key benefit of the PI is the ability to communicate information on the status of a container through IoT devices, such as its position and the condition of the products inside it, which can greatly ease operations at a logistical hub, such as a sea port.

It is easier for fork-lift operators to work with standardised containers for example, and for truck drivers to then use the available capacity efficiently when the goods are transported onwards. “In ICONET we have investigated the scenarios of goods being able to be moved through different transport modes, ultimately seeking the most effective way,” says Philippou.

The project’s research encompasses not only the distribution of physical goods, but also issues around stacking containers in warehouses and optimizing space utilization. “Warehouse managers pay a lot of attention to issues around the use of space, preparation and picking times, but they do so in an isolated way,” continues Philippou. “If they know exactly what is coming, then they can allocate resources in a better way.”

The development of the PI will play an important role in this respect, with researchers aiming to achieve interoperability between operators, systems, and data, in a transparent, secure and standardised way. The infrastructure developed in the project has been deployed and tested at four living labs, one of which is based in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, which is among the biggest container sea ports in Europe. “In the Port of Antwerp we have studied the optimisation of the wagon loading yard, where containers arriving by sea are initially kept,” outlines Philippou.

Researchers are also looking at whether more

PI Services IoT Triggered Rerouting

environmentally-friendly modes of transport can then be used to bring physical goods closer to their ultimate destination. “Can we use the train?

How can we then fill up the train with wagons carrying goods from China that are going to the same destination? How can we optimise this?” says Philippou. “For example, if I have storage space of 25m3, how do I pack it up with goods to fill it up to 95-100 percent?”

A number of other concepts have also been developed and tested at the other three living labs within the project in the context of practical business scenarios. This has ultimately helped researchers develop an ICT infrastructure that is targeted at commercial needs. “The benefit of the living lab is that you test the principles you suggest in collaboration with business users,” stresses Philippou. While logistics companies are protective of their own interests, Philippou believes that a degree of collaboration will help businesses work more effectively and minimise their environmental impact. “Logistics companies have to collaborate and share routes where possible. If the right agreements are in place, then everyone benefits,” he says.

ICONET ICT Infrastructure & Reference Architecture to Support Operations in Future PI Logistics Networks Philippos Philippou, Senior Project Manager eBOS Technologies Ltd EBOS Tower, Arch. Makariou III and Mesaorias 1, office 101,2322 Lakatamia P.O.Box 28122, Nicosia 2090, Cyprus T: +357 22 877 677 E: philipposp@ebos.com.cy W: https://www.iconetproject.eu/ W: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/769119 This project is funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 769119.

Mr. Philippos Philippou holds a BEng degree in Civil Engineering from UMIST University (UK) and a Master’s degree in business administration from University of Bradford (UK). He has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of Operations and Supply Chain Management in a wide spectrum of business environments.

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PERFORM Network of Beneficiaries and Industry Partners.

Pioneering a New Era in Digital Retail A €3.9 million EU-funded project focusing on Digital Retail, the PERFORM EU Project has led research into novel and innovative business strategies to help retailers thrive in the digital landscape. We spoke to members of the PERFORM Training Network about how this project trained the next generation of digital retail managers in line with the ethos of Digital Europe to help build an innovation-based foundation for the future of the sector.

The retail landscape

is changing dramatically as new digital technologies continue to emerge, highlighting the inflexibility of the established business model.

While the shift towards online shopping is proving highly disruptive, it also brings abundant opportunities to those companies ready to harness the power of technology believes Professor Markus Helfert, Director of the Innovation Value Institute (IVI) at Maynooth University. “Effective use of technology can help European retailers to compete with the major multi-nationals.

Improving the customer experience, the connection between customers and companies, is where European retailers can really set themselves apart,” he says.

Professor Helfert is the Coordinator of the PERFORM Training Network, an initiative

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which brings together fifteen partners from across Europe, including universities and retailers. “The aim of this project is to prepare the next generation of digital retail leaders,” says Professor Helfert.

Cultivating Future Leaders This means equipping prospective leaders with the technical skills, knowledge and experience they will need to work in the retail industry, an area in which demand is growing for highly skilled graduates. The retail market contributes a significant amount to the European economy, employing over 30 million people and accounting for around 11 percent of GDP, but traditional retail companies need to adapt to trends in digital innovation if they are to compete with the major multi-national retailers and provide an attractive alternative to

them. “We don’t want to end up in a situation where large multi-national retailers completely dominate the retail market,” says Professor Helfert. The adoption of digital strategies and technologies can ensure that retailers of all sizes can find their space in this dynamic market.

The PERFORM project itself is a European Training Network, in which 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) are investigating a wide variety of different topics relating to the future of the digital retail sector, from audit tools, to compliance monitoring, to logistics.

This wide scope reflects the highly dynamic nature of the retail sector. “Over recent years the retail sector has fundamentally changed, a process that has been accelerated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Professor Helfert. While the ESRs are based primarily at the different universities

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and companies that make up the PERFORM Consortium, they have also worked with the project’s industry partners, gaining valuable experience of real world problems within the commercial sector. “All of the ESRs have completed at least one secondment, which has involved them working directly with companies. Therefore, their research has been carried out not in an academic vacuum but rather it has been very much informed by issues on the ground,” says Professor Helfert.

A major challenge for many retailers is the creation of an omnichannel system, where all of the different touchpoints by which they interact with their customers are interconnected, including both online and offline channels.

This is an important part of improving the customer experience, a factor that can help retailers attract and retain customers. “Physical retail has been moving towards what we call experiential retail, in which the customer experience - what you experience in the store - is more important than just the act of buying the product itself,” explains Rehan Iftikhar, an ESR based at the Innovation Value Institute at Maynooth University, Ireland. The customer experience should ideally be seamless, with no need to duplicate steps in a physical store that they have already completed online for example. All interactions between the customer and the retailer should be frictionless in order to maximise customer satisfaction.

This concept centres around the use of emerging technologies to enhance the customer experience in traditional shops. This is not about directly mimicking ecommerce, but rather identifying the specific characteristics in the physical environment that the retailer can use to improve the customer experience. “For example, a customer may be looking for information – how can we provide this information in a more efficient way? How we can provide offers, or maybe product comparisons and recommendations, that match the individual preferences of the customers?” outlines Daniel Mora, an ESR based at the AWS Institute for Digitized Products and Services in Germany.

Every customer is different of course, and their preferences will affect how and where they shop, a topic that ESR Anna Hermes, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria is investigating.

“Which factors drive customer experience?

How do individual characteristics influence where a customer shops? What are the ways by which retailers can optimize a customer’s omnichannel experience?” she outlines.

There are 15 ESRs within the PERFORM network, working on different projects around the common goal of using digital innovations to advance the efficiency and productivity of

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ESR 6, Robert Zimmermann delivering a workshop for our industry partners on touchpoint identification.

all areas of the retail ecosystem. This research is already bearing fruit for the project’s partner organisations, as Marcel Verhofnik, Head of Digital at INTERSPORT Austria GmbH, attests. “Through knowledge and practical input, PERFORM has helped us with creating better customer experiences and to optimize our omnichannel efforts,” he enthuses. Evelyn Moynihan, CEO of the Kilkenny Group, Ireland, another partner organisation in the project, is similarly positive. “The Kilkenny team are thrilled with the strategic partnership in place with the Maynooth PERFORM team; it has enabled our business by providing exciting

and innovative digital services to enhance our overall customer experience,” she says. “I am confident the outcomes we are achieving with the PERFORM team will deliver long-term differentiation for our brand and business.”

This is what will ultimately help retailers attract new customers and retain existing ones, and so build for a profitable and growth-filled future. While the project is set to reach its conclusion towards the end of 2021, research into the future of digital retail is set to continue at the Innovation Value Institute, which will help guide the ongoing evolution of the sector. The retail sector is

ESR 14, Shubham Jain demonstrating the mixed reality application developed by PERFORM ESRs.

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PERFORM Project Objectives

PERFORM’s objectives are to prepare the next generation of Digital Retail Leaders and help European retailers transition to the digital era of retail. To achieve these objectives, 15 Earlystage researchers (ESRs) receive training in the areas of customer experience, digital retail technologies, business models and supply chain. By combining academic knowledge and industry expertise, the project contributes towards the understanding and shaping of omnichannel retail.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 765395.

Project Partners

The project partners can be found here: https://www.perform-network.eu/consortium/

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Prof. Markus Helfert Innovation Value Institute Maynooth University E: markus.helfert@mu.ie E: info@perform-network.eu W: https://www.perform-network.eu/ • The Innovation Value Institute (IVI) is a multidisciplinary research institute focused on digital transformation and technology adoption based in Maynooth University. Founded in 2006 in collaboration with Intel, we have a strong track record of industry collaboration, both locally and internationally. We have demonstrated excellent dissemination capability including education and training, and have developed a close working relationship with Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland and other research centres.

Professor Markus Helfert

transforming, and the PERFORM project is helping to shape that transformation. The institutions participating in PERFORM will keep working beyond the end of the project, and will continue to help retail companies to transform. The ongoing development of the new technologies which are reshaping the industry is a prime consideration in this respect. With the current pace of technology development, it is difficult even for experts in the field to keep track of new advances, and to identify how business models need to evolve.

The PERFORM project provides support to help retailers adapt to often rapid changes in the behaviour of their customers.

PERFORM project hosted the European Digital Retail Summit which was a great success with 235 registered participants, 2 excellent keynote speakers, 35 presenters and an expert panel.

This event focused on providing high quality contributors in a timeframe that suited both academics and retailers, while also using a platform that facilitated inter-participant networking and communication. The summit provided a forum for researchers and industry representatives to discuss cutting edge digital innovations for retail enterprise.

There is no shortage of high-quality retailers in Europe, however it can be difficult for SMEs to compete in today’s commercial landscape

Through knowledge and practical input, PERFORM has helped us with creating better customer experiences and to optimize our omnichannel efforts. - INTERSPORT Adapting to Retailers Current Challenges Many of these behavioural changes pre-date the Covid-19 pandemic, however lockdowns and restrictions on social mixing have accelerated the general move towards online shopping, including among some sections of the population who may previously have preferred to visit a physical shop. The ESRs on the PERFORM project conducted a significant amount of research on the impact of the pandemic, aiming to help retailers deal with the challenges they face. All of the ESRs wrote blog posts exploring solutions to key issues raised by the pandemic, and they were shared across mutliple platforms.

More than 35 research papers have also been published as a result of the project are available on the project web page. In June of this year, the

where major multi-national online retailers have fundamentally changed the way the retail sector works. By helping European retailers make the transition to the digital era, Professor Helfert hopes the project will help them to capitalise on new opportunities. “The retail sector is really changing. We aim to help European retailers to compete and grow,” he outlines. This work will continue beyond the end of the PERFORM project, with researchers at IVI leading a digital research cluster involving a range of companies to provide ongoing support and research. Professor Helfert stressed that, rooted in the knowledge base built by the PERFORM project, this group will continue to collaborate with retailers, working with them to navigate the best pathway for their business’s digital transformation.

Professor Markus Helfert is the Director of the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University, Professor of Digital Service Innovation at Maynooth University, and Principal Investigator at the SFI Centres Lero and Adapt. He is project coordinator of the MSCA Project PERFORM . His research focuses on Digital Transformation and Data Governance.

ESR 5, Gabriele Obermeier conducting an exploratory interview with an industry expert.

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EU Research

We talk to Dr. Elisabeth Bourkel of the DAPAS (Deploying AAL Packages at Scale) project, which is creating an innovative solution based on the best outputs from previous projects aimed at supporting older adults. The DAPAS system can transform the way older people manage their lives, stay in contact with family and keep to routines, driving a sense of well-being and independence.

Empowering the older generation with technology There have been several AAL (Active & Assisted Living) projects funded by the EU’s AAL programme, all focused on the goal to improve daily routines and to assist people, particularly who fall into the 65+ age bracket.

The aim is to create market-ready products and services that the older generation can and will use to support their independence.

This is an important area of research for Europe because, taking into account higher life expectancy and lower birth rates, over half of the EU’s total population is estimated to be over 65 by 2070. We need to adapt healthcare infrastructure and policies to address the needs of older people, to better meet the challenges posed by demographic change.

Taking the best bits A challenge of the often awkward pairing of the older generations and new technology is that the chosen technology must be useable and genuinely helpful. The ideas have to be attractive, intuitive and beneficial enough

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for widespread adoption and market success.

However clever an application is, if there is no take up, if it does not fundamentally appeal to the end-user, then it will fail. This is where the DAPAS project comes in, which is taking a broad look at existing studies, the outcomes of previous projects and the latest technologies – analysing them and handpicking the best ideas for the next step in innovation. To reach a stage where you can comfortably scale this kind of technology, you need to get it right on all counts for the end-user.

“A lot of projects have been done in this funding scheme and unfortunately their products often don’t come to market. So, an idea of this project was to integrate several successful solutions from different previous projects that could be distributed on a larger scale,” explains Bourkel. “In the DAPAS project the technical solution has three versions of an android app designed for a tablet, with a cloud backend, smart hardware components and a voice assistant. There is the starter version, the value version and the premium version.

The end users are important partners in our research and the development of the app.

After the participants use each version, we always collect feedback on what they think about it and give it directly to the organisations’ developing these solutions.

They try to integrate what they learn from the feedback as soon as they can, to make the system more useable. That is one of the ideas of this project.”

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The value of user feedback To gauge usability of the different parts of the app, the versions were trialled by 120 older adults from Austria, Luxembourg and Portugal, as well as caregivers. The carers were important for inclusion in this study, because the app has the potential to take the burden off of intensive care management, for trained nurses and for untrained family members, who are time starved in other areas of their life because of their commitment to care.

There are many benefits that the app is exploring.

Bourkel elaborates: “On the app you have messaging and video, so a key benefit is to really stay in touch with your family. It promotes communicating a lot more with family, also via video, for instance.”

The communication aspect of the tablet and app gives the users a lifeline to family, friends and carers, something that is implicitly understood for its value, in the Covid-19 pandemic.

As well as easy messaging and video calls, the app can help stimulating cognitive ability for users via some clever and fun games on the tablet.

“We provide specially developed cognitive games and from my observations, the users seem to like the games. They are convinced that playing them improves their concentration and memory. My background is that I am a clinical psychologist involved in this kind of topic, so I know keeping your brain active will be important for people aged 65 and over. There are opportunities to train your memory in a structured way. One of the games is called Word Bingo – where you have to memorise words and recognise them.”

Importantly, this solution allows users to

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test and work on improving their cognitive ability in the comfort of their own home.

“The DAPAS system also creates an agenda, with a calendar, to follow for organising one’s life – medications reminders, meeting people, important times of the day to do things. In short, it drives them to be more self-assured and confident, it develops their sense of well-being. People can set reminders for things like drinking regularly, to stay hydrated, and checklists to encourage themselves to use one of the several features integrated in DAPAS. We also have a voice assistant, Emma, who you can talk to and who can answer your questions.”

Some of these features are already widely used, but what makes our system special is that the information, which is often considered sensitive, is not sold to third parties or companies. This is a dedicated enduser support platform that does not treat personal data as a commodity.

A voice to connect with “One interesting point,” adds Bourkel,“is the integrated telecare system, which can be used for increasing safety in the homes of older adults.”

The voice recognition part of the system could prove important for health and safety reasons.

“With the value version of the DAPAS system, people received a base station where they learned how to communicate with the voice assistant, Emma. The idea of just using your voice is a benefit for older people, as you don’t have to type anything.”

This could also prove a potentially critical benefit if an older adult took a bad fall in the home, or was having a stroke, and could only rely on their voice to raise the alarm.

“If you have serious movement restrictions you don’t have to move, you can just talk to use the system. There is also

EU Research

DAPAS Deploying AAL Packages at Scale

Project Objectives

Active & Assited Living (AAL) aims to improve older adults’ life through the use of information and communication technology (ICT). In this context, the project delivers an innovative solution, which is based on the needs of older adults and their caregivers.

The project brings together successful outputs of previous AAL projects.

Project Funding

DAPAS is co-funded by the European AAL program (Active and Assisted Living - ICT for aging well, Call 2017)and is supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) (INTER/AAL/17/11747168).

a lamp installed with it, and a sensor, so if you enter the room Emma knows that you are in the room and she delivers messages and reminders. The lamp also switches on as soon as the person receives a message.

Having a voice assistant can almost be like having someone around which could potentially lessen that feeling of isolation.”

The possibilities of this assisted living with helpful technologies, of primarily a tablet and a corresponding app, could open up important opportunities for the older generations. In the future, people coming up through the generations will be increasingly technology savvy for a truly seamless introduction to the new support services for a self-determined life.

In short, it drives them to be more self-assured and confident, it develops their sense of well-being.

“In Austria, the premium version also includes a door opener. With this functionality, the door can be easily opened by family members or caregivers in case of emergency. People can also get activity trackers which measure stress levels and physical activity. Both features can be displayed on the DAPAS app – so you can see how you did compared to last week, if you moved more or less, to encourage you to move more. During my work with the DAPAS system I noticed that some people that have received the tablet are getting more and more used to it and just using the tablet had a big impact on their daily life.”

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Ultimately, for all those who need structure to routines, remote access to family and friends and for those seeking more autonomy, the innovation can make getting older less lonely, less confusing and more manageable.

One of the biggest drivers for developing the DAPAS system is it builds self-esteem for those who might be struggling a little in their senior years.

When rolling it out and scaling it up, the hope is that, the system will become a standard piece of equipment around Europe and maybe the world, leading to a happier, fuller, more connected and structured life for those embracing its functionality and support.

Project Partners

• https://dapas-project.eu/consortium/

Contact Details

Project Coordinator : Exthex GmbH, Graz, Austria.

Dr Elisabeth Bourkel, PhD Stëftung Hëllef Doheem BP 1878 L-1018 Luxembourg Luxembourg T: +352 40 20 80 6722 E: elisabeth.bourkel@shd.lu W: https://dapas-project.eu/ W: http://www.aal-europe.eu/projects/dapas/ Dr Elisabeth Bourkel, PhD

Elisabeth Bourkel has a doctoral degree in Psychology. She works as research officer at Stëftung Hëllef Doheem (SHD) since November 2020. Her fields of expertise are gerontology, neuropsychology as well as clinical and health psychology. She also worked in a pluridisciplinary centre, on the prevention of age-related cognitive and physical decline. At SHD, she is coordinating several research projects, focusing on aging, health and technology.

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Assessing the social impact of technological change Technological innovations like increasingly sophisticated robotics tools, machine learning and artificial intelligence can improve business productivity, but they also have a wider impact on the labour market and society. Researchers in the Technequality project are investigating the social impact of technological innovation, as Professor Mark Levels explains.

The

development of innovative technologies opens up new commercial opportunities and can improve business productivity, yet technological change is also by nature disruptive and can mean that some jobs are no longer necessary or economically viable. Much of the literature in this area addresses productivity issues and questions around how many jobs will be created or destroyed by new innovations, yet there is comparatively little on the impact of technological change on social inequalities.

“Very little research has been done on which social groups would be most affected,” says Mark Levels, Professor of Health, Education and Work at Maastricht University. This is an issue at the heart of Technequality, a project bringing together researchers in several different disciplines. “The questions we try to address are at the intersection of sociology and economics. The impact of technological change on work, and workers, is very close to the heart of both economists and sociologists,” says Professor Levels.

Industrial revolutions Researchers are addressing six main questions in the project around the impact of technological innovation, building on comparisons with previous periods of change, for example the shift towards using machines and new manufacturing processes

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in the first industrial revolution. The current period of technological change, commonly described as the fourth industrial revolution, is thought to mainly resemble the first in terms of social impact and disruptive potential. “The question here is, do new technologies augment labour, or are they a substitute for it?” outlines Professor Levels.

Where previous technological innovations were mostly used for routine tasks like drilling holes or tightening screws, modern robotics and artificial intelligence tools can

at how to implement AI, robotics - or a combination of both - into their value chains, and Professor Levels believes growth could be rapid once these tools are more established.

“Scalability is an issue. But if a chat-bot is trained for a company HR department, many of the questions it can answer will also be relevant in other companies. So, once you have something up and running, it can very easily be implemented in other environments,” he explains. In this scenario, the value of specific HR skills and knowledge

Automation is happening right now, and it will affect our lives. I would like people to start talking about this – if you have children, what subjects should they be learning about? now take on more complex tasks, which Professor Levels says is likely to affect the nature of work. “They can increasingly do things in a way that really mimics human intelligence, including decision-making,” he says. “The development of AI and robotics will have an impact on all economic sectors, including the service sector.”

Many of these technologies are at an advanced stage, and the factors limiting their application are primarily cultural or organisational rather than technical.

However, many companies are now looking

decreases; Technequality researchers are exploring the wider social implications of this technological shift. “What happens if social skills become more important than professional credentials? What does that do to social inequalities? What does it do for inter-generational mobility?” asks Professor Levels. “What are the consequences for education? Should we for example teach different subjects in schools?”

The wider context here is the challenge of equipping people with the skills they need to be productive in the economy of the future,

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against a backdrop of ongoing technological disruption. Some European countries have extensive vocational education systems, which prepare students for a specific career, but Professor Levels says there may be issues with this approach. “These jobs may disappear or their skills requirements may change. It may be more difficult to re-train someone with occupationally specific skills than someone with the general skills that contribute to active learning,” he points out.

This issue must be looked at holistically, believes Professor Levels, taking the entire education system into account. “We have to look at the entire education system, including vocational education and tertiary education, and really take lifelong learning seriously,” he stresses. “Most of the people who will have to develop new skills left the education system a long time ago. So re-skilling will probably mean that they have to go back to either informal or non-formal learning, or to school. How to retrain large groups of people whose skills are obsolete is one of the vexing questions of our time.”

An employer can play a role here in providing training, and many companies across the commercial sector take their responsibilities in this area seriously.

However, companies may not always be willing to train staff at risk of redundancy, which affects social inequalities. “If you are in a huge reorganisation, with 30 percent of your workforce being dismissed because of automation, there is no incentive for a company to invest in these people’s skills, because they will not benefit,” points out Professor Levels. A second issue is that companies tend to select their most productive people for training and

instruction, leaving others behind. “These may be the people who need re-skilling or up-skilling the most,” continues Professor Levels. “This is why I think governments have a role to play in facilitating training and education, to ensure that people who have difficulty learning at an older age don’t fall behind, which would then widen inequalities between generations. We know that the older you get, the harder it generally becomes to learn something new.”

Universal basic income A further strand of the project’s research involves investigating the impact of different forms of social welfare as a way of mitigating the impact of unemployment related to the introduction of new technology. One idea that has attracted a lot of attention from all parts of the political spectrum is the concept of a universal basic income; the debate on this has been quite ideologically-driven, the aim now for Professor Levels and his colleagues is to provide more data. “As scientists we try to assess the impact. So, if you’re going to implement a universal basic income then what will the consequences be?” he outlines. This work represents an important contribution to the debate around automation and its social impact, which Professor Levels hopes to bring to wider prominence. “Automation is happening right now, and it is affecting our lives. I would like people to start talking about this, not just in government circles, but also around the kitchen table. Ask yourself – if you have children, what subjects should they be learning about? What education system should they be enrolled in?” he asks. “Their future employability and social situation will depend on us answering these questions correctly.”

TECHNEQUALITY Technological inequality – understanding the relation between recent technological innovations and social inequalities

Project Objectives

Technological innovations in robotics and artificial intelligence create pressing societal questions. How will work change? Who will benefit most? How will innovations affect social inequalities? And what can governments do to cushion technological inequalities? TECHNEQUALITY unites a multidisciplinary group of scholars from Europe’s most renowned universities to answer these questions and work with policymakers to co-create policies that work.

Project Funding

The Technological Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 822330.

Project Partners

• Maastricht University (ROA) • University of Oxford (Oxford Martin School, Skope) • Cambridge Econometrics (CE) • WZB Berlin Social Science Centre • Tallinn University (Sociology dept) • Tilburg University (Tranzo) • Stockholm University (SOFI) • European University Institute (SPS)

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Professor Mark Levels Maastricht University School of Business and Economics ROA Tongersestraat 53 6211 LM Maastricht T: +31 43 3882844 E: technequality-sbe@maastrichtuniversity.nl W: https://technequality-project.eu/ Professor Mark Levels

Technequality founder and consortium leader Professor Mark Levels is program director at the Research Centre for Education and the Labor Market (ROA) of Maastricht University and fellow of the Berlin Social Science Centre (WZB).

Montizaan holding a drone: Technequality Project Coordinators Professor Mark Levels and Dr Raymond Montizaan).

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Journalism in the digital age Traditional news media are under threat in today’s digital environment, with many people used to accessing content for free and major digital platforms dominating the online advertising market. Researchers in the JOLT project are investigating how to harness digital and data technologies to support the journalism sector, as Professor Jane Suiter explains.

The development of

new digital and data technologies is having a dramatic impact on the traditional media industry, as more and more people go online and to social media platforms for their news fix, challenging the established media business model. At the same time the emergence of new digital and data technologies also opens up new opportunities, yet this requires effective communication and collaboration between editorial teams and technical specialists, which is not always the case at the moment.

“A lot of studies have shown that technical staff tend to be quite isolated from editorial and news staff. And among researchers there is often a lack of common understanding between technologists and social scientists,” outlines Prof Jane Suiter, Professor in the School of Communications at Dublin City University and director of the Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society. This issue is at the heart of JOLT, an EU-funded

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project which brings journalism and social science researchers together with people from technology and data backgrounds to develop an understanding of each others’ needs.

“The JOLT network brings together different disciplines that don’t normally interact,” says Prof Suiter. “It is a collaboration between five universities - Dublin City University, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Amsterdam, University of Navarra, and University of Toulouse III – and two media companies – BBC and Samsa.”

JOLT project The project includes technology and databased researchers, working in areas like engineering and data science, as well as others researching the business, political, and ethical dimensions of new journalism practices. Within JOLT as a whole, 16 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) are examining different aspects of digital and data

journalism, part of the wider goal of ensuring the long-term future of the news media sector. “The European Commission recently launched a Media and Audiovisual Action Plan. The concern is that the media’s ability to play its key democratic role, of holding government to account and explaining issues to the public, is under threat,” explains Dr Eileen Culloty from Dublin City University and the JOLT management board. One of the reasons for this is the nature of today’s digital environment, in which Prof Suiter says audiences have grown accustomed to getting content for free and the major digital platforms dominate the online advertising market. “The money that used to go to the media is now eaten up

by Facebook and Google, so there’s a huge black hole where the money used to be,” she continues.

Through a PhD training programme, the aim of the project is to advance research

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JOLT Project Zoom team meeting.

that helps media organisations build a sustainable future and harness the power of new technologies in the modern digital environment. “JOLT’s main research goal is to develop new theoretical, technical, and best practice frameworks for the integration of data and digital technologies with journalism,” explains Prof. Suiter. “Each of the researchers in JOLT are working on their own projects, which are divided into three areas: data and technology, business and organisational practices, and politics and ethics.”

Among the data and technology projects, the journalism ESRs are investigating the rise of automated journalism, the integration of data journalism in newsrooms, and bestpractices in data visualisations. Meanwhile, the technology ESRs are investigating techniques to colourise archive footage, to automatically summarise content from videos, to compress broadcast video more efficiently, and new forms of multimedia storytelling. For example, Marc Górriz Blanch is applying artificial intelligence to develop a framework for the enhancement and colourisation of archive footage. This framework will help legacy media exploit their existing stock of media content.

Working with his supervisors at BBC Research and Development in London and the Insight Centre for Data Analytics in Dublin, Marc has released open-source software arising from his work. To date, JOLT ESRs have published four open-source releases for the benefit of the wider community.

Digital technologies have placed severe pressure on the traditional business and revenue model of print and broadcast journalism. However, new technologies also create opportunities for leveraging digital and data services for audience expansion and alternative revenue streams. Among the business and organisational projects, ESRs are investigating how newsrooms incorporate metrics in decision making, the globalisation of news services, the adoption of data journalism, the rise of collaborative journalism, the impact of technology platforms on news media practice, and the extent to which newsrooms engage audiences in production. For example, Sophie Chauvet is co-supervised by Samsa in Paris and University of Toulouse III to investigate how media companies use audience metrics to inform their business strategy. The use of metrics is increasingly controversial as some media outlets reward journalists based on the volume of engagement their work generates.

While digital and data-driven technologies have greatly increased the capacity of

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journalism to serve the goals of democratic accountability and diversity of political expression, the same technologies operate in a complex ethical-political environment.

Among the politics and ethics projects, ESRs are investigating the threat of digital surveillance for journalists, how digital technologies can give voice to activists and marginalised groups, and the complex policy

In addition to working on their own protects, the ESRs are encouraged to collaborate, both with their peers and others outside the project. “One interesting collaboration has examined how WhatsApp is used to distribute news and engage audiences in Brazil,” explains Dr Culloty.

Online news consumption on mobile devices has surpassed that from desktops since

To thrive, journalism needs to take advantage of the significant technological opportunities while putting technology in the service of the core journalistic values of accuracy, fairness, and accountability. dimensions surrounding the moderation of online content. For example, Dimitri Bettoni is investigating the impact of surveillance by governments and non-state actors on journalism practices. Based at Dublin City University, his research will deliver new insights into how journalists can protect their data, themselves, their sources, and their colleagues.

2016. As a result, more news organizations are attempting to use social media and messaging apps to reach audiences. To analyse this, Giuliander Carpes from University of Toulouse III and Enric Moreu from Dublin City University analysed the WhatsApp channels of 14 Brazilian media organizations between November 2020 and March 2021. They applied a computational The JOLT Project Team.

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Jolt project meeting at Samsa in Paris.

JOLT Harnessing Digital and Data Technology for Journalism

Project Objectives

JOLT is a Marie-Skłodowska-Curie European Training Network, which aims to harness digital and data technologies for journalism by providing a framework for the training and career development of 16 Early Stage Researchers.

JOLT researchers will provide empirical answers to important questions regarding the future of journalism by forging multidisciplinary and crosssectoral research into the digital and data-driven tools, practices, and values shaping journalism.

Project Funding

The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska Curie grant agreement No 765140.

Project Partners

• Dublin City University (coordinator) • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki • BBC Research and Development • University of Amsterdam • University of Navarra • University of Toulouse III • Samsa.fr Supporting organisations: Bureau of Investigative Journalism, CIPSEA, CNN Greece, COLABORA, Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma, El Confidencial, Trinity Mirror, The Irish Times, The Press Project, RTÉ.

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Professor Jane Suiter Dublin City University Ireland T: +00 353 1 700 6994 E: JOLTinfo@dcu.ie W: http://joltetn.eu : @JOLT_EU : jolt-project https://fujomedia.eu/jolt-harnessing-digital-anddata-technologies-for-journalism/

Professor Jane Suiter

Professor Jane Suiter is the coordinator of the project. She is a professor in the School of Communications, her research focus is on the information environment in the public sphere and in particular on scaling up deliberation and tackling disinformation.

content analysis to identify patterns and conducted interviews with news editors to understand their strategies. The results are available on the project website with interactive visualisations: https:// whatsappening.joltetn.eu/ In recent years, Latin America has shown significant innovation in the application of data and digital technologies for journalism.

JOLT supervisor Ramón Salaverría and ESR Mathias Felipe de Lima Santos from the University of Navarra recently edited a new book Journalism, Data, and Technology in Latin America. Featuring the work of four ESRs, it explores innovative approaches to digital and data journalism, brought by both legacy media and newcomers to the industry, with the purpose of examining this changing media landscape.

Sustainable news media The wider aim of the project is to ensure the long-term sustainability of journalism that is democratically and socially valuable. “Digital disruption has created distinct challenges for the news industry, journalism practitioners, and the publics journalism is supposed to serve”, says Prof. Suiter. “To thrive, journalism needs to take advantage of the significant technological opportunities while putting technology in the service of the core journalistic values of accuracy, fairness, and accountability”.

To achieve that, journalists and journalism researchers need to be technically literate,

Prof. Suiter says, but technology developers also need an understanding of the social, ethical and industry dimensions of their work. “We need more opportunities for people to interact and collaborate,” she stresses. “For example, at one of our meetings we had a fantastic presentation from a PhD student from the Insight Centre for Data Analytics about deep fakes and artificial intelligence, where we heard about those technologies – how they work, what’s possible and what’s likely to happen in the coming years. That was really helpful for people from the journalism and social science side, who are researching how you counter these challenges.”

The JOLT project is supported by a diverse range of media organisations from Europe and further afield. These organisations have hosted researchers on secondment, provided training, and offered their industry insights at project conferences. “A key aim of the project was that the researchers would be exposed to different environments, working with people in industry, NGOs, as well as other different disciplines”, says Dr Culloty.

This has been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, yet there have still been opportunities for researchers to collaborate across disciplinary and sectoral boundaries.

The final Jolt conference will be held in the University of Navarra in September. “This will be a great opportunity for the researchers to showcase their work,” says Prof Suiter.

ESRs present their work at the University of Navarra in Spain.

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High-performance computing for major societal challenges High-performance computing resources are an important tool in many areas of science, enabling researchers to simulate different scenarios in unprecedented detail and gain deeper insights. The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) provides researchers with access to HPC resources, helping them address societally relevant questions, as Dr Janne Ignatius explains.

Researchers across a

number of scientific disciplines use high-performance computing (HPC) resources to analyse data, perform simulations and gain deeper insights into key questions, including specialists in areas like computational physics, chemistry and meteorology.

Alongside these disciplines, HPC resources are being used across a widening range of scientific domains. “For example, HPC resources are an important tool in the biomedical sciences. They are also being applied in the humanities, linguistic studies, and economics, as well as in optimising transport solutions,” says Dr Janne Ignatius, Chair of the PRACE Council, the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe. A notfor-profit association based in Brussels, PRACE was established with the aim of enabling more researchers to use HPC resources. “We aim to not only provide access to resources, but to essentially spread the expertise and the ability to use them,” explains Dr Ignatius.

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Applications The focus here is on the top-tier supercomputers with very high levels of computing power, including some petaflop machines, as well as a number of national centres. There are 26 member countries within the PRACE programme, which provides access to HPC resources to researchers from both academia and industry, helping them address questions around major societal challenges. “This includes topics like energy sustainability, materials development and bioscience,” outlines Dr Ignatius. Climate change is another very important area in which HPC resources can be applied, says Dr Ignatius.

“Analysing the long-term evolution of the climate system on Earth, coupling oceans to the atmosphere, and predicting hurricanes, are all very important for example,” he stresses. “There is also the potential for major societal impact through the advancement of industrial manufacturing, as well as some engineering applications.”

An increasing number of HPC resources are now available in Europe to meet this demand, following the establishment of the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), which is working closely with PRACE. The first EuroHPC petascale systems, capable of performing more than 1015 floating point operations a second, are now coming online, and Dr Ignatius says further progress is expected in the near future. “So-called preexascale systems (close to 1018 operations a second), will probably come towards the end of this year. There is also a roadmap towards even bigger systems in future,” he outlines. This will lead to wider benefits for European scientists, believes Dr Ignatius.

“The amount of supercomputing resources in Europe is now clearly growing with the establishment of EuroHPC JU. This is very good news for science in Europe, and for the scientists using HPC,” he says.

The aim then is to award access to HPC resources to those researchers who could

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benefit from the vast computational capacity they hold. Typically, PRACE allocates resources on given systems at a time following a peer-review process; the main criterion in awarding computational time is the scientific quality of the proposal.

“In principle, we do not have defined research priorities, scientific quality is the main consideration. With regular access, it’s just about scientific excellence, and this is not limited to specific disciplines,” stresses Dr Ignatius.

A balance has to be struck here between the long-term scientific agenda and more immediate research priorities that may emerge quite suddenly. While in previous years computational time has been awarded to projects on a diverse range of topics, including neuroscience, engine design and climate change, over the last 18 months or so more and more time has been devoted to analysing COVID-19 as the pandemic has taken hold. “Alongside the regular access we also offer fast-track access, and that’s been used heavily during the

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coronavirus pandemic,” says Dr Ignatius.

The access process was greatly accelerated for coronavirus-related research as the scale of the challenge became apparent, although the high-quality peer review process was still maintained, which Dr Ignatius says required huge amounts of work. “Some key

necessarily be familiar with HPC resources and the way they work. This is an issue Dr Ignatius and his colleagues in PRACE seek to address. “PRACE organises plenty of training courses, while we are also involved in helping directly in the applications, the numerical software that many users run,” he

High-Performance Computing resources are being used in the biomedical sciences. They are also being applied in the humanities, linguistic studies, and economics, as well as in optimising transport solutions. people really put their heart and soul into it, because it was a common goal with biggestever societal impact,” he says.

Training The researchers themselves typically have deep expertise in their own field, whether they’re a bioinformatician, physicist, or materials scientist, but they may not

says. The technology landscape continually develops and evolves, so Dr Ignatius says it’s also important to prepare effectively and help users adapt to change. “PRACE is involved in HPC market surveillance.

We also regularly discuss changes with stakeholders and vendors, and contribute our own technical expertise,” he outlines.

“We’re looking at how technology evolves,

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and how software adapts to the underlying technological changes.”

This HPC technology is primarily intended for complex projects and technically demanding research, yet some elements could trickle down into more everyday uses in future. Certain technologies associated with supercomputing have entered the mainstream already, on the technical level of the Central Processing Units (CPUs) and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), while multi-core processors are also commonly used. “They’re used in PCs and mobile phones, so in that sense, it’s also a step closer to everyday applications. The difficult thing is the communication between these processors however, as in supercomputers they work together,” explains Dr Ignatius.

“Energy consumption accounts for around half of the total cost of ownership of a supercomputer over its operational lifetime, so it’s important to try and decrease it, to be more environmentally friendly.”

The development of neuromorphic computing, which seeks to mimic how the human brain functions, could help dramatically reduce energy consumption while still maintaining vast computational capacity. Another major area of interest in research is quantum computing, where the holy grail would be a so-called general purpose quantum computer, although this is a distant prospect at this stage. “That is still quite far away. At the moment, quantum

computation is still limited to very specific applications. However, we expect that more hybrid computers will emerge in the latter half of this decade,” continues Dr Ignatius. As the Chair of the PRACE Council, Dr Ignatius is involved in monitoring these developments and helping HPC user communities prepare and adapt. “One of the strengths of PRACE is that it is a trusted neutral actor. It’s agnostic to different developments, or commercial vendors,” he outlines.

Supporting science The wider aim here for PRACE is to support scientific research through providing access to HPC resources to those who could use them. This includes scientists from a wide variety of disciplines, as outlined in The Scientific Case for Computing in Europe 2018-2026, a report written by the PRACE Scientific Steering Committee. “This report lists the grand challenges in different scientific domains,” says Dr Ignatius. HPC resources have an important role to play in this respect, enabling researchers to simulate the formation of the galaxies and improve the resolution of weather forecasting for example, as well as bringing the prospect of personalised medicine a step closer. “The raison d’etre of PRACE is to aid scientific discovery. This includes addressing subjects that are relevant for society at large, across many different disciplines,” says Dr Ignatius.

PRACE AISBL Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe

Project Objectives

PRACE enables high-impact scientific discovery and engineering research and development across all disciplines to enhance European competitiveness for the benefit of society, by offering world class computing and data management resources and services through a peer review process. The PRACE-6IP project supports PRACE and the HPC ecosystem by building on the core principles of support, co-ordination, and collaboration.

Project Funding

PRACE aisbl is funded by the PRACE Members. The Implementation Phase of PRACE receives funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (2014-2020).

Project Partners

• https://prace-ri.eu/about/ip-projects/

Contact Details

Chair of PRACE Council, Dr. Janne Ignatius PRACE aisbl Rue du Trône 98, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium E: janne.ignatius@csc.fi W: https://prace-ri.eu/

https://prace-ri.eu/news-media/publications/ prace-fact-sheets/ https://www.youtube.com/user/PRACERI

Dr. Janne Ignatius

Dr. Janne Ignatius is Director responsible for Computing Research Infrastructures at CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland.

He holds an Adjunct Professorship of Theoretical Physics at University of Helsinki. In PRACE Dr. Ignatius has served in confidential posts for over a decade, chairing PRACE Council since 2020.

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Why is the financial services industry so stable?

The financial services industry is highly dynamic, yet it has remained relatively stable over recent years, with the same cities, institutions and organisations still at the forefront.

We spoke to Professor Ben Derudder and Dr Sabine Dörry about their research into the underlying reasons behind the stability of these established financial centres.

The major actors in the financial sector have remained fairly stable over recent years, even with the many changes and crises that the industry overall has experienced. Many of the same banks are still at the apex, and the same locations remain central to global finance, in spite of the dynamism within the sector. “There’s actually quite a high degree of stability,” says Ben Derudder, Research Professor in Urban Studies at KU Leuven. The financial services industry here means not just banks, but also other actors. “There are different kinds of banks, asset managers and different kinds of investment funds, including hedge funds and private equity. Then there’s the wider eco-system, including commercial lawyers, accountants and many other services required to set up financial structures and regulate them,” explains Dr Sabine Dörry, Senior Research Fellow at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research.

Financial centres A number of European cities have become established over time as important financial centres, notably London, but also Luxembourg and Brussels, for example. Dr Dörry and Professor Derudder are now collaborating on a research project, in which they are probing

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deeper into the underlying reasons behind the stability of the financial sector, and if and how cities like London stay at the forefront. They seek to tackle questions like; what kinds of functions are located in these kinds of places?

over recent years is technology in finance (Fintech), a topic that is being addressed in the project. The majority of markets are either now digital in nature or in the process of digitalising, while new markets are emerging driven by

We are trying to understand why financial centres like London, or to a certain extent Luxembourg, have remained so stable over the years. What functions are located in these places?

How do these functions work together?

How do they evolve over time and in the future?

How do these functions work together? What role does financial infrastructure play in this context?

One of the aims is to essentially break down financial products. If one thinks about cars, certain quite sophisticated, technologyintensive parts come from suppliers in different places, and all these functions work together in a value chain.

The aim is to effectively dissect financial products in a similar way.

An area that has developed rapidly

technology. This opens up new opportunities to gain and exploit data and information, which is what drives the financial services industry.

“Outside established financial centres, new tech-driven ecosystems are developing, that both feed established financial centres but also point to changes in financial geographies.

Examples include the rise of Berlin, Stockholm or Tel Aviv. This is a new development we are seeing,” outlines Dr Dörry. “It is common to talk about financial flows around the globe when considering the role of these financial centres, but it’s actually information that is flowing. New technology helps facilitate transactions.”

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Telecommunications innovations and the increasing digitization of payments are however not proving as disruptive as initially expected. A PhD researcher in the project, Mr Gary Robinson, is looking, for example, at global payment infrastructure such as SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) and correspondent banking to test this point. “What were the professionals in this area doing before they became involved in Fintech? And how does this knowledge shape the evolution of FinTech sectors? Those are some of the questions we’re looking at,” says Professor Derudder.

Researchers are also investigating the major financial centres themselves, where the same big banks commonly have a presence. Many banks and other actors in the financial sector tend to co-locate in major cities like London, which are established as globally important locations in the industry, as well as in other less well-known financial centres. “Co-location of financial organisations, institutions and infrastructures are factors that define financial centres in general, not just the big ones like London.

However, what they do can be different,” says Dr Dörry. One major factor here is access to people with the skills required to work in different areas of financial services. “Competitors tend to colocate because they need the same generic skills, tools, or surroundings. It’s not just about access to airports and other infrastructure, but also elements that make up key urban environments,” outlines Professor Derudder.

The human skills available in locations like London and New York are a major part of their attraction to banks, but more subjective factors are also at play. One of these is the dynamism, excitement and glamour associated with major urban centres. “The financial eco-system is

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embedded in the urban fabric of larger cities. In the aftermath of Brexit, we have seen mainland European cities promoting themselves in terms of their attractiveness as a city to try and attract new business,” points out Dr Dörry. It is however also possible for smaller cities like Luxembourg to attract more business, while entirely new financial centres have also emerged in the recent past. “We see new international financial centres emerging in China for instance, while Dubai has grown rapidly,” says Professor Derudder.

The typical clustering in these cities might be described as the financial services complex, the lawyers, accountants and other business services that play an important role in the industry. Some of the biggest services firms are developing a portfolio that straddles all of these different areas rather than specialising in one sector. “In the past, many household names in the services industries were attached to a specific sector, but

if you think about the bigger companies now, they often offer a portfolio of services. They may offer legal and accounting advice, and so on,” outlines Professor Derudder. While many of these companies have a presence in financial centres across the world, they may offer different services in each, as the regulatory regime is an important consideration. “What can and can’t you do in these locations? And what implications does it have for the well-being of our societies when some countries ‘sell’ their sovereignty to cash in on business fees and benefit from global tax engineering?” asks Dr Dörry.

The regulatory regime determines which skills can be used in a certain location and which can’t, which comes down to how strictly European or international regulations are applied by the domestic authorities in the country concerned. One example Dr Dörry points to is trust law. “This can be

Cluster heatmap of 241 cities (rows) and 175 producer service rms (columns) based on correlation coe cients.

A high-resolution version of this slide for use with the Virtual Microscope is available as eSlide: VM05653.

T. Storme, et al. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 76 (2019) 57–68.

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STABILISING AN UNSTABLE INDUSTRY: THE ROLE OF AGENCY IN INTERCONNECTING INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CENTRES

Project Objectives

The objective of this research project is to better comprehend the dynamic/stability duality of the system of ‘international financial centres’ (IFCs) through an analysis of several ‘transnational social layers’: networks of financial centres, networks of financial firms and their products, and networks of leading financial professionals.

By adding an agency perspective to the presently-dominant ranking interpretations of how IFCs come into being and jockey for position within global financial business flows, we help move our understanding of stability and dynamics among IFCs beyond broad-sweeping narratives of path dependence and crisis.

Project Funding

This project is funded by the The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR).

Contact Details

Sabine Dörry, Research Fellow, LISER and Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Institute of SocioEconomic Research (LISER), Maison des Sciences Humaines 11, Porte des Sciences, L-4366 Esch/Belval, Luxembourg T: +35.2585855231 E: sabine.doerry@liser.lu W: https://liser.elsevierpure.com/en/ persons/sabine-dörry Prof. dr. Ben Derudder, Research Professor in City Science Director, Leuven Urban Studies Institute (LUSI) Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven Parkstraat 45 bus 3609, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium T: +32.16322129 E: ben.derudder@kuleuven.be W: https://soc.kuleuven.be/io/personeel/ staf/00069149/ Prof. Ben Derudder

Dr Sabine Dörry

Dr Sabine Dörry is an economic geographer working at the Luxembourg Institute of SocioEconomic Research. She is also a founding and board member of FINGEO – the Global Network on Financial Geography.

Professor Ben Derudder is an urban geographer working at KU Leuven’s Public Governance Institute. He is also an associate director of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network.

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both a highly useful and a pretty harmful instrument. In the latter sense, it helps shield private wealth so that it will not contribute to the creation of public wealth but deepens social and spatial inequality,” she says. Trust law was initially developed in common law countries like the UK, but has since spread more widely, and it affects the nature of the financial services industry in those locations. “This is just one example to highlight the importance of law firms and legal skills, the use of which is encouraged by private law in some places and not in others.

New industries have developed over time around new services based on trust law. This makes the financial industry stable but not necessarily societally useful and sustainable.”

Co-locating companies The more immediate aim in the project is to look at where financial firms are co-located, taking these various considerations into account. While Dr Dörry’s expertise lies primarily in qualitative analysis, Professor Derudder focuses more on large-scale quantitative analysis. “The idea in the project is to bring those two perspectives together,” he explains. The evidence base in the project includes large-scale matrices showing where firms are located, with researchers looking for patterns in the data (as illustrated by the heatmap image on the preceding page). “We see all sorts of geographic patterns emerging.

Some financial services firms pursue a European strategy for example, while others are quite global. Then you look at the Chinese firms that are really looking to enter African markets, but also the big international financial centres.”

This analysis shows where companies are located and what kinds of services they offer, then the next step is to investigate how they work together. Building on Professor Derudder’s analysis, Dr Dörry has spent time in eight different financial centres, aiming to build a deeper picture of how the financial eco-system has evolved. “What kinds of locational assets do they build together in order to attract what kinds of services? Then we can understand much better how a location has developed over time, or why it has developed in a certain direction.

Some - often small - countries have essentially started by selling their sovereignty to ‘letter box’ companies and benefited from the emerging Euromarkets. But some have since developed into sophisticated financial centres. However, they build on their history when countries started to cooperate in designing law that is often not only drafted by the international law firms, but then also used by their clients who gratefully use these new ‘opportunity’ spaces.”

A financial company typically looks at the costs and benefits of operating in a

certain location, and the legal and regulatory frameworks are important conditions. “You need to look at not only what your employees like, but also what serves your purposes best,” continues Dr Dörry.

The financial industry is very much international in nature, and in some cases major organisations are regulated from what might be considered unlikely locations. SWIFT is regulated by the Belgian National Bank for example. “What are the implications?” asks Professor Derudder. Part of the reason for this lies in geo-political factors, which relates to one of the project’s major findings. “We don’t offer policy recommendations because ultimately there’s a lot of politics behind this, which is what we are trying to show. It is possible to identify best practice, but it will be best practice for a specific party. You will maximise the benefit for somebody, whether it’s financial services firms or governments.”

There is no single ideal approach to regulating the financial services industry, as ultimately this depends on the philosophical outlook of those with responsibility and their priorities. The financial sector is undergoing rapid change as new technologies are introduced, which has led to some stimulating debate. “We have had some very interesting discussions about what financial innovation actually is - it is often tightly interwoven with legal innovation, or technological innovation. We see that finance as an industry is always among the first movers in terms of adopting new technology, and every financial innovation has its own spatial implications” says Dr Dörry. The project’s research could therefore open up new avenues of investigation. “Our research shows that what happens in financial centres directly and indirectly influences people’s work and way of life, but also how cities are built, for example.

It helps explain the vast differences in wealth between the world’s rich and poor. A better understanding of the financial system and the importance of financial centres - specifically in their relationship with one another - in the FINWEBS project encourages further research into global finance. Of high importance is the growing sustainability imperative and how financial centres could shift their strategies to enter a truly green and sustainable future.”

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