Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Demonstration of a 1-MW wave energy converter integrated in an offshore wind turbine farm — UPWAVE" "Peter Troch" "Department of Civil engineering, Aalborg University, DNV GL (United Kingdom), STX Europe (France), University of Cantabria, French Institute of Petroleum" "The aim is to develop and install a pre-commercial wave energy converter (WEC) of 1MW power, the WAVESTAR C6-1000 device, with main targets the device industrialization and the demonstration of wind and wave energy applications. The utility company Parkwind, which develops, builds and operates wind farms in the North Sea, is committed to the achievement of WAVESTAR's nect development stage. Parkwind provides the installation site with frid connection for the first full-scale WAVESTAR WEC, located within a Belgian offshore wind farm" "How the third wave of global judicial (and social) activism is filling ecological governance gaps and challenging the liability-remedy paradigm." "Liliana Lizarazo Rodriguez" "Brussels School of Governance, R&D centraal" "This project conceptualises the worldwide progressive transformation of human rights litigation into more ecocentric litigation and the emerging but important role of (activist) courts in addressing ecological governance gaps. In addition, it will inquire how this greening of social litigation challenges the legal concept of attribution of liability in transnational lawsuits and influences access to effective remedy for victims of transnational ecological harms. The main hypothesis is that ecocentric lawsuits mostly seek to nudge the choice architects of ecological governance, i.e. policymakers and global value chain (GVCs) coordinating firms, to implement effective actions for the sustainability of ecosystems while not necessarily seeking concrete remedies for victims. Although the effectiveness of this activism could be questioned by considering that only a minority of transnational ecological conflicts become lawsuits, ecocentric case law has nevertheless the ability to nudge ecologically responsible behaviour of policymakers and firms. The project will inquire how this instrumentalist use of the judiciary may hide the necessary debate on the quality of ecocentric case law as courts lack technical knowledge on ecological and economic issues and on the type of remedies actual or potential victims (e.g. future generations) can obtain from ecocentric judgments. The combination of systematic (quantitative and qualitative) empirical analysis of global data should lead to a high gain project that sheds light on the transformation of social claims, on the synergies among social and judicial activism and soft law production and implementation, on the institutional quality of courts to understand global ecological and economic conflicts, on the patterns of innovative ecocentric case law, on whether triggering courts contributes to filling ecological governance gaps, and on whether this has (or not) a waterfall effect on access to remedy for victims of ecological harm." "Back-reaction Of Solar plaSma to WAVES" "Tom Van Doorsselaere" Plasma-astrophysics "The solar coronal heating problem is a long-standing astrophysical problem. The slow DC (reconnection) heating models are well developed in detailed 3D numerical simulations. The fast AC (wave) heating mechanisms have traditionally been neglected since there were no wave observations.Since 2007, we know that the solar atmosphere is filled with transverse waves, but still we have no adequate models (except for my own 1D analytical models) for their dissipation and plasma heating by these waves. We urgently need to know the contribution of these waves to the coronal heating problem.In BOSS-WAVES, I will innovate the AC wave heating models by utilising novel 3D numerical simulations of propagating transverse waves. From previous results in my team, I know that the inclusion of the back-reaction of the solar plasma is crucial in understanding the energy dissipation: the wave heating leads to chromospheric evaporation and plasma mixing (by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability).BOSS-WAVES will bring the AC heating models to the same level of state-of-the-art DC heating models. The high-risk, high-gain goals are:to create a coronal loop heated by waves, starting from an ""empty"" corona, by evaporating chromospheric materialto pioneer models for whole active regions heated by transverse waves" "Empowering customers to save energy by informative billing" "Lieven Vandevelde" "Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Polytechnic University of Turin, Iren (Italy), International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Hespul" "This project aims to empower consumers: by involving and informing them, helping them to take measures to save energy on the basis of the information they read on their meters or on their bills. EMPOWERING brings together key actors: energy utilities, local authorities and consultants in order to implement more informative billing services for 344,000 consumers. The effectiveness of the implementations will be evaluated in terms of technical feasibility, economic viability, user acceptance and satisfaction (sustainability) and critical factors for more wide-spread applicability (impact). The objectives are to develop and implement a range of insight based services and software tools, to engage customers of utility companies. The outputs will include: assessment of customer expectations, training and capacity building services implementation in real operation and evaluation of results in terms of measurable energy performance improvements and client response." "Create a Symbiosis where PV and agriculture can have a mutually beneficial relationship" "Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS)" "The decarbonisation of the energy sector is one of the top priorities at various political levels including at the European level. Photovoltaics (PV) is widely seen as one of the key technologies to drive the energy transition. The difficulties arise when the targets for PV (usually set at national level) needs to be put into practice at regional / local level. Although the PV rooftop potential is extremely large and could potentially contribute to the ambitious targets, the rate of installation of PV rooftop systems will not be fast enough to support a rapid transition. On the other hand, large utility-scale PV installations in open fields are not an option in many regions. It is in this context that the concept of Agrivoltaics is emerging. What several decades of efforts developing Building Integrated PV (BIPV) products and systems for rooftops and facades have taught us is that there are multiple levels of integration and various stakeholders across the value chain which can all generate significant barriers to widespread adoption . Agrivoltaics is in fact in the unique position to learn from the past mistakes made with BIPV which delayed the development of cost-effective BIPV solutions and market acceptance. In SYMBIOSYST we will not develop solutions that are highly customized as this would drive the costs up. We will rather innovate by adapting standardized cost-effective solutions in terms of PV modules, mounting structures and Operation and Maintenance (O&M) practices to the specific needs of various crops in different climates and landscapes. We will also find aesthetically pleasing solutions that can be mass manufactured and integrated with the agricultural land in a harmonious way while maintaining the primary goal of farming. The interdisciplinary consortium in SYMBIOSYST is composed of partners across the value chain with decades of experience in agriculture, precision farming, PV modules and systems, social science and integrated PV applications." "LIFE21-CET-HOMERENO-LIFE FOSSTER" "Wouter Van Bockhaven" "Research & Valorisation" "The Belgian building stock has an energy performance problem: at the current level of transition towards a nearly-zero energy buildingstock it will be difficult to achieve its energy efficiency targets. Renovating public and private buildings is key in reaching these targets,as described in the Renovation Wave strategy that is part of the EU Green Deal. Different from other EU Member States, in Belgiumthe implementation of the EED and the EPBD is a regional responsibility. Flanders, the Walloon Region and the Brussels Region haveproposed various measures which have subsequently been combined in Belgium’s National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 and the regional Long Term Renovation Strategies (LTRS’s). FOSSTER’s overall aim is to integrate existing Flemish energy savings awarenessprogrammes and combine them with best-practices from related projects into a one-stop-shop model for different types of homeowners. FOSSTER will integrate successful existing guidance & support services of some of the partner Energy Houses with complementary support on implementation of renovation works and financial instruments aiming to unburden homeowners and to lower as a market facilitator financial, technical and administrative resistance against energy home renovation. Five Energy Houses in Flanders will test the FOSSTER concept as part of their overall energy guidance service to homeowners, including both big city environments as well as rural areas. Once the service and the business case have been validated, the concept will be offered to all other Energy Houses in Flanders by integrating them in the legal framework. The overall result 5 years after project-end projects a substantial increase in the number of and the overall investment in energy renovations (€ 815Mio) leading to an additional 404GWh/year energy saving and 124KtCO2/year reduction." "Orchestration and Reconfguration Control Architecture" "Sofie Pollin" "Waves: Core Research and Engineering (WaveCore)" "ORCA offers experimentation facilities to promote wireless innovation in several market segments, including manufacturing, automotive industry, healthcare, ambient assistant living, public events, home automation, and utilities. Within the manufacturing market, for instance, application requirements vary from very low latency, up to real-time 3D video-driven interaction between collaborative robots and humans, to non-time critical downloads of large data volumes for updating the software of machines. Different applications and services often have to share the wireless infrastructure and the spectral bands, making it very challenging to meet the diverging QoS requirements simultaneously. The control mechanisms that are provided today in wireless technologies are not adequate to deal with extreme (ultra-low latency, ultra-high throughput, ultra-high reliability) and diverging (low AND high data rate, time-critical AND non-time critical) communication needs. Interesting evolutions are happening at different levels, enabling the creation of parallel on demand wireless network slices optimized for a specific set of requirements.The overall ORCA objective is to bridge those interesting evolutions at different levels, making them mature enough to enable end-to-end networking experiments going from Software-Defined Radio (SDR), with Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS). We will open novel frequency bands, by proposing SDR technology at mmWave frequencies, that is mature and fast enough to be included in end-to-end networking experiments. We will bridge SDR with SDN technology, enabling the creation of multiple virtual networks that operate on the same infrastructure but meet the most diverse and stringent application requirements. We will finally enable advanced reprogramming of the SDR infrastructure, needed for offering versatile testbed facilities, paving the way towards, ultimately, on demand wireless networking and experimentation." "Nieuwe synchroonmotoren voor elektrische voertuigen" "Karel Van Acker" "Sustainable Materials Processing and Recycling (SeMPeR)" "HEFT considers that an energy efficient rare-earth synchronous motor is the best option for next generation high-power primary axle traction EVs and proposes a set of innovation challenges on electric synchronous motor configuration based on SiC inverters (direct cooling of rotor and stator, advance insulation for high voltage, multibarrier rotor topology, wave windings) and advanced materials (advanced GBD magnets, epoxy for magnet fixation, composite for motor housing, insulation resin).These innovations will result in a high-efficient and low-cost solution that will be validated on 2 motor topologies, which compared to two main reference automotive IPM commercial motors in Europe (VW ID.3 and FIAT500) will lead to next impacts: >800V, 20% reduction losses, >7 KW/kg and 42kW/l power density, 28% cheaper, 50-66% material savings, including 60% reduction of REE content and >80% REE recyclability rate.As this solution is still dependent on REE from China, HEFT will be aligned with the ERMA action plan towards a circular economy market of rare earth permanent magnets and suggests: one alternative magnet route (Ce based) and two REE recycled routes together with policies promotion towards the foundation of a European rare earths industry, capable of delivering 20% of EU demand by 2030.HEFT plans 8 WPs to implement these concepts, where 5 research partners will be essential for developing innovative ideas around the design-to-x approach, while strong companies (GKN, MAGNETI, VYNCOLIT) will ensure that HEFT results have a clear market orientation and fulfil the industry needs.HEFT plans to organise OEM workshops to ensure wide adoption of HEFT solutions, but also with policymakers to promote regulations towards the EU circular market that would help maintaining the leadership of EU companies, while increasing their competitiveness and job opportunities linked to the new circular business models.Fields of science" "Bottom-up reconstruction of a Synthetic Erythrocyte" "Xevi Casadevall i Solvas" "Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS), Biomedical MRI, Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology (SMaRT)" "Blood is a precious and vital resource for many clinical interventions. Erythrocytes, its key component, are used to save thousands oflives every day worldwide. Yet, in low- and middle-income countries, its scarcity and unsafe control are endemic burdens that cost lives.In spite of several decades of attempts to develop a safe and universal blood substitute, this goal has yet to be achieved. Beyond the meretransport of gasses, erythrocytes have evolved together with their host organisms to perform very specialized functions. It is now clear thatmuch of their complexity is indispensable to establish effective cardiovascular regulation. Yet, reproducing this complexity in a synthetic,functional facsimile is a challenging endeavour that requires new methods and multidisciplinary approaches. The ambitious goal ofSynEry is to reproduce, in an advanced lipid vesicle, the following key features of erythrocytes: adequate lipid asymmetry with raft-likenanodomains; integration of essential functional proteins (both cytosolic and transmembrane) and a biomimetic cytoskeleton (conferringdurability, flexibility and biconcavity); enhanced immune tolerability; responsivity to environmental cues (such as under deformation andhypoxia). These goals will be tackled by an interdisciplinary consortium bringing expertise on: droplet-based microfluidics combinedwith interfacial self-assembly of biofunctionalized nanoparticles (to build complex biomimetic membranes with ordered cytoskeletalnanodomains); DNA origami and self-assembling peptide technologies (to reconstruct a biomimetic cell cortex); and in-vivo testingmodels (to verify biocompatibility and functionality). The knowledge gained by producing a synthetic erythrocyte, is envisioned to enablethe production of artificial cells with in-vivo applicability and it will pave the way towards the future development of an effective bloodsubstitute that can remedy pervasive global blood availability and safety issues " "SOLPROM-SMS: Solar prominences: stability, magnetohydrodynamics and seismology." "Marcel Goossens" Plasma-astrophysics "The solar corona is a natural laboratory to study and understand the behavior and properties of plasmas under conditions that cannot be realized in a laboratory on Earth. The focus in this project is on Solar Prominences. Very recent observations have reported on exiting prominence dynamics with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution as, e.g., oscillations, waves, flows, and instabilities. Prominence thread oscillations have been interpreted as magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) waves. Flows may drive Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities and resonant flow instabilities, while the threads may be thermally unstable. Despite the timeliness and relevance of the observations, these phenomena are not well-understood. The present research project aims to investigate oscillatory dynamics and stability of prominences from a theoretical point of view. We shall make use of analytical methods in combination with advanced numerical simulations. This project is organized in two parts. The main aim of the first part is to study properties of MHD waves in prominence threads. We plan to use MHD seismology as a tool to indirectly determine relevant physical parameters of the prominence plasma. In the second part of the project we shall focus on plasma instabilities, particular attention will go to thermal instabilities and shear flow instabilities under prominence conditions."