Wear and corrosion of materials causes losses of 3-4% of GDP in developed countries and billions of Euros are spent annually on capital replacement and control methods for wear and corrosion infrastructure. As a result many important industries are dependent on surface engineering of protective coatings, making it one of the main critical technologies underpinning the competitiveness of EU industry. There are 2 main techniques that dominate the protective coatings sector: hard chromium (HC) plating and thermal spray (TS). However, HC plating faces a series of issues with most important the extremely negative health and environmental impact leading to the EC restriction of this method for using Cr+6 by the end of 2017. Similarly, recent toxicity studies concerning Co-WC cermet applied by TP have revealed that Co-WC particles are toxic in a dose/time-dependent manner. Consequently, there is the necessity of finding new, less hazardous methods and materials exhibiting the same or better performance compared to existing ones. The PROCETS project will took advantage of the use of nano-particles for production of composite coatings with superior properties compared to those of HC produced by electroplating or to Co-WC produced by TS. These novel nano-particles will be incorporated into existing production lines after appropriate modifications. The new procedures will be easily transferred by minor adaption to the present electroplating and TS facilities, and will combine flexibility and mass customization abilities, restrict environmental and health hazards and finally be available at acceptable cost. Thus, PROCETS main target is to deliver protective coatings covering a wide range of applications such as automotive, aerospace, metal-working, oil and gas and cutting tools industries via thermal spray and electroplating methods by utilizing more environmental friendly materials, compared to the currently used.

AIMS5.0, a collaborative Innovation Action aims at strengthening European digital sovereignty in comprehensively sustainable production, by adopting, extending and implementing AI-enabled hardware and software components and systems across the whole industrial value chain to further increase the overall efficiency. Vulnerability of existing supply chains in crisis shows the need for shorter supply chains and for keeping production in Europe. AI enabled fabs will be given more output and higher sustainability, which makes them more competitive on a global scale. New technologies from IoT and based on semantic web ontologies, ML and AI will help to enable the transformation from Industry4.0 to Industry5.0, to create human-centric workplace conditions and to enable the transformation of European industry to climate-friendly production. Above all, sustainability and resilience will be improved. In essence, AIMS5.0 will deliver: - AI-enabled electronic hardware components & systems for sustainable production - AI tools, methods & algorithms for sustainable industrial processes - SoS-based architectures & micro-services for AI-supported sustainable production - Semantic modelling & data integration for an open access productive sustainability platform - Acceptance, trust & ethics for explainable industrial AI leading to human-centered sustainable manufacturing 20 use cases in 9 industrial domains resulting in high TRLs will validate the project’s findings in an interdisciplinary manner. A professional dissemination, communication, exploitation and standardisation will ensure the highest impact possible. For the first time a joint approach for implementing AI and AI-enabled hardware will be developed that overarches different industrial domains. AIMS5.0 will result in lower manufacturing costs, increased product quality through AI-enabled innovation, decreased time-to-market and increased user acceptance of versatile technology offerings. They will foster a sustainable development, in an economical, ecological and societal sense and act as enablers for the Green Deal and push the industry towards Industry5.0. The innovations will leverage the experience of the 53 partners, such as renowned OEMs, Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers, technology and application large enterprises and SMEs, supported by academic research specialists in fields like AI, industrial hard-ware and software, decision making and management algorithms. Specific outcomes of the project are - 20% faster time to market, - Participation of disabled people in the factory environment > 5% (in relation to the total number of employees employed in production), - AI based MES capability > 10 %, - Increased user awareness and trust by 10%, - Subsequent reduction of environmental footprint for wafer transport, handling and storage > 20 %, - 50% reduction of time for monitoring industrial equipment. AIMS5.0 is a pan-European initiative to boost industrial competitiveness through interdisciplinary innovations, establishing sustainable ECS value chains and therefore contribute to European Digital Sovereignty addressing urgent issues like Security of Supply, Monitoring and Crisis Response, and Chip Shortage.

Circularity has opened up new markets and business opportunities, domestically and outside the EU. However, opportunities are being missed due to low reuse and recycling rates. iCircular3 creates a cohort of future leaders in research, policy, and business through its innovative training programme focused on the Circular Economy. Three leading universities supported by four industry partners will address the incorporation of circular economy principles using digital technologies throughout the product lifecycle, for three innovative and strategic sectors for the European economy: industrial robots, outdoor power products, and electric vehicles. Each sector will explore the possibilities of a circular lifecycle through four perspectives: 1. Product and service design: exploring opportunities for circularity in the design of outdoor power products, electric vehicles, and industrial robots. 2. Reverse supply chains: understanding and overcoming recovery barriers in these industries. 3. Users and stakeholders: ensuring stakeholder engagement in the transition towards more circularity, for instance by engaging outdoor power product consumers in the development of Reverse Logistics systems, and improving the recycling rates of electric vehicles from a consumer perspective. 4. Systems: developing digital tools and decision support systems that foster circularity. iCircular3 will recruit and train 9 Researchers to conduct sector-specific projects related to circular lifecycle perspectives; combined together, the projects will contribute to the development of new guidelines and digital tools for the integration of circularity in industry, as well as the identification of cross-sector commonalities. The strong academic/industry interaction in iCircular3 will ensure the relevance of each research project. Researchers will receive high-level industry-led research training and professional development courses, with a view to open up their career perspectives.