The study of tropical biodiversity and ecosystems is crucial to understand, protect and manage nature in an era characterised by an international biodiversity crisis with imminent risks of extinction of species due to global warming and anthropogenic impacts such as habitat destruction and changes in land use. Funded by the European Commission and bearing the latter’s educational excellence brand, TROPIMUNDO is the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems, and is the first and only MSc program (2 yrs, 120 ECTS) that integrates the knowledge and skills related to the above field of study, while organising 2 full semesters abroad, one of which is located in the tropics.TROPIMUNDO is unique in incorporating theoretical courses and a significant field course in the tropics in Guadeloupe, Cameroon, Madagascar, Malaysia and Hong Kong. It also brings together European expert higher education institutes from Belgium, France and Italy with long-standing worldwide expertise in tropical rainforests and woodlands and in coastal ecosystems. Together they integrate world class scientific education and research expertise on tropical ecosystems and experience in designing and teaching in international MSc programs. The 1st semester aims at teaching basic courses, and the 3rd at specialised courses, in Europe, whereas the 4th is dedicated to the thesis. Graduates obtain a joint-degree, a common TROPIMUNDO Certificate, a joint Europass Diploma Supplement, and various Europass Certificates. TROPIMUNDO’s learning outcomes stretch far beyond academic knowledge and insight, but also aim at demonstrating enhanced capabilities in effective analysis and communication, independence, creativity and assertiveness, critical judgement, and ethical and social understanding.TROPIMUNDO students can choose to focus on botany, zoology and integrative ecosystem approaches. Multiple specialisations include the evolution of tropical flora and vegetation; faunistic assemblages; informatic and geomatic tools to treat and manage biodiversity data and databases; management and conservation of historic collections; diversity, dynamics and evolution of tropical and subtropical ecosystems (with a focus on related systems, namely tropical rainforests and woodlands, savannahs, mangrove forests/rocky shores, seagrass beds and coral reefs); interactions between biota, man and environment; sustainable management and governance of biodiversity, and finally, tropical ethnobotany, exploitation and valorisation of the functions, goods and services of natural habitats and their resources, and conservation of traditional ecological knowledge.This aims at improving the students’ language capabilities for which facilities are provided by all partners. TROPIMUNDO management is handled by a multi-level and shared responsibility involving 4 decision and 1 main execution body. A variety of Associated Partners links TROPIMUNDO to the real and professional world.

Neither the first round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) nor currently implemented climate policies are on track to meeting the Paris Agreement’s objectives. Parties are expected to increase their ambition and produce new NDCs covering the post-2030 period. The design of a multi-dimensional set of policy measures that comprise countries’ climate policy agendas is supported by equally diverse integrated assessment modelling (IAM) activities. Notwithstanding the recent progress in the IAM literature and scenario space, the modelling world has fallen short of its promise to include non-scientists in its process; to account for individual choices and lifestyle changes that are indirectly narrated as assumptions not interacting with the vividly modelled technology-economy-environment-policy flows; and to place climate action as a cross-cutting theme in the sustainability spectrum. IAM COMPACT will support the assessment of global climate goals, progress, and feasibility space, as well as the design of the next round of NDCs and policy planning beyond 2030 for major emitters and non-high-income countries. We will use a diverse ensemble of models, tools, and insights from social and political sciences and operations research, and will integrate bodies of knowledge to co-create the research process and enhance transparency, robustness, and policy relevance. We will explore the role of structural changes in major emitting sectors and of political, behaviour, and social aspects in mitigation; quantify factors promoting or hindering climate neutrality; and account for extreme scenarios, to deliver a range of global and national pathways that are environmentally effective, economically viable, politically feasible, and socially desirable. In doing so, we will fully account for COVID-19 impacts and recovery strategies, and align climate action with broader sustainability goals, while developing technical capacity and promoting ownership in non-high-income countries.

FUELPHORIA will demonstrate the establishment of sustainable complete value chains for advanced biofuels and RFNBOs for providing Europe with sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply schemes. The project will practically showcase a portfolio of nine complete Value Chains which will be set up and tested in real environment contexts with the active participation of all key players including: the feedstock suppliers (two biogas plants, a winery plant, an urban waste treatment plant); the technology providers who will convert through chemical, electrochemical, biological, thermochemical, and photobiological processes the feedstock (CO2, digestate, urban/ municipal biowaste) into an array of advanced biofuels and RFNBOs (light to long parafins i.e. CH4, medium/long chain hydrocarbons, esters i.e. biodiesel, and light alcohols i.e. ethanol, methanol) that meet quality specifications as defined by the end-users in the transport sector (aviation/maritime, road transport) and in the power production sector (gas or oil fired thermal plants), through four DEMOs in Europe (Belgium, Spain, Greece) while European export potential through international collaboration with Africa is also envisaged. Special emphasis will be also given to the logistics around the fuel production systems, i.e., for the sustainable supply of feedstock and the efficient transport of the final products to their end application. To do this, across the FUELPHORIA project the value chain approach is combined with the Life Cycle Assessment approach in order to not only consider all the different stages of the value chain from feedstock to end use but also to explore how the value chain operates as part of a larger system. FUELPHORIA will define and setup business models and marketing concepts and prepare market entry of the technology solutions as well as of the end-products, and will develop policy recommendations for realising the energy system transition potential.