Most diseases including cancers, viral infections, neurodegenerative conditions, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal disorders, all originate from a molecular level disruption of the biological cell lifecycle. Each year the cost to the EU is ca. 1.9 million lives and ca. €200 billion in health care, informal care and productivity loss for cancers alone. Current live cell imaging tools can only provide a limited view of the in vivo and in vitro microenvironments where diseases originate and grow. The result is a gap in our understanding of the biochemical cellular makeup and how their disturbance leads to disease. By increasing accuracy and speed of imaging and analysis, the gap can be closed allowing novel medical treatments and diagnostics tailored to patients’ specific conditions. uCAIR brings successful R&D photonics SMEs, research laboratories in optics and cell biology, and world-leading microscopists and clinicians to create an innovative, versatile, practical multimodal photonics platform that will enhance and speed up the way cells are examined by scientists and healthcare professionals. uCAIR will achieve breakthrough results by developing a laser platform that inventively combines non-linear optical fibers, optronics, wide-band coherent Raman and artificial intelligence technologies to image at video rates and track cells and biological tissues with augmented chemometric digitalisation. The new coherent light sources will be suitable for fundamental research microscopes and microfluidic channels but also in medical imaging instruments, encompassing a value chain for new biomarker discoveries and translation into medical endoscopy, for example during cystoscopy and resection of bladder cancer. Technology progression to TRL 6 will allow first mover advantage with sustainable supply chain. In this way, uCAIR sustains the European leadership in photonics to deliver continuous innovation and outstanding benefits for its economy and the health of its population.

Since 2008 'fiscal leaks' have become an immediate policy challenge for EU governments, partly as a result of tax abuse. The COFFERS project unfolds as EU tax authorities transition to a new era in tackling tax abuse based upon policy innovation at the OECD, EU and national levels. COFFERS recognizes this creates a state of flux where much tax authority expertise regarding past regulations, systems and practices is now irrelevant and understanding has, instead, to focus upon the on-going change process. Deploying principles of evolutionary political economy COFFERS both studies and is an integral part of this change process. COFFERS recognizes that identifying and tackling the tax gap to relieve inequality is the ultimate aim. Noting the tax gap exists both domestically and internationally and ranges from criminal money laundering to sophisticated tax avoidance, COFFERS benchmarks current understanding of these issues, undertakes comparative analysis of approaches taken to tackle them across EU Member States, and assesses resources being allocated to the task of closing the tax gap. In parallel expert networks in business, the tax profession, secrecy jurisdictions and the criminal economy that develop the mechanisms undermining the expected effectiveness of tax systems will be appraised, especially with regard to responses to regulatory changes taking place. This results in COFFERS outputs that transmit analysis, risk assessment and policy advice. Deliverables of use to EU tax authorities include new tax gap analyses by state, tax risk maps identifying risk by jurisdiction, a new anatomy of money laundering risk, and tools to help tax authorities understand the risks that they face domestically and internationally. COFFERS delivers value for money in enhancing tax yield, effectiveness in creating the tools to achieve that goal, and behavioural change in taxpayers and their advisers as a result of recommendations made, all with the aim of reducing inequality.