5G is considered to be the next decade mainstream broadband wireless technology and can leverage the efficiency and effectiveness of everyday high demanding operations such as public protection and disaster relief (PPDR). ITU considers LTE-Advanced systems and 5G as a mission critical PPDR technology able to address the needs of mission critical intelligence by supporting mission critical voice, data and video services as an IMT radio interface. 5G-EPICENTRE will deliver an open end-to-end experimentation 5G platform focusing on software solutions that serve the needs of PPDR. The envisioned platform will enable SMEs and developers to acquire knowledge with regard to the latest 5G applications and approaches for first responders and crisis management, as well as to build up and experiment with their solutions. The 5G-EPICENTRE platform will be based on an open Service oriented Architecture, following the current best DevOps practices (containerization of micro-services) and will be able to accommodate and provide open access to 5G networks’ resources, acting this way as a 5G open source repository for PPDR Network Applications. For the assessment of the abovementioned platform, the realization of several use cases is being foreseen which will be realized as a PPDR vertical. The purpose of the use cases is to expand along the entire range of the 3 ITU-defined service types (i.e. eMBB, mMTC and URLLC) as well as to provide the floor for overseeing the platform’s secure interoperability capabilities beyond vendor-specific implementation. The engaged SMEs and organizations that will participate into the realization of the use cases constitute active players in the public security and disaster management, thus acting as key enablers for the assessment of 5G-EPICENTRE with regard to the real needs that should be addressed. Finally, through the use cases realization, KPIs relevant to 5G will be measured, especially those that are pertain to services’ creation time.

MIRACLE will take towards commercialization the first mid-infrared (MIR) arthroscopy probe for in-depth evaluation of articular cartilage enabling early diagnosis of degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA). The proposed device is intended for use during a minimally invasive surgery (arthroscopy). Currently, the surgeon’s decision-making is based on visual inspection and manual probing of the cartilage tissue which is highly subjective and of poor repeatability. Untreated or not-correctly treated joint injury will most likely progress towards OA, which will lead to joint pain, movement limitation, joint failure, and ultimately disability and joint replacement. OA constitutes a major challenge for the health systems and affects 242 million people globally. Moreover, OA is highly prevalent in Europe with an estimated 19.7-42.3% in the elderly population. MIRACLE concept is to access the biochemical on articular cartilage, which precedes OA. The feasibility of this approach as a diagnostic method has been demonstrated by MIRACLE consortium (TRL4). MIRACLE has also prototyped a MIR-probe with potential use for diagnostics (TRL4). By technology development reaching TRL 6-7, MIRACLE will bring to the arthroscopy market the first MIR-based probe providing an unique, accurate and quantitative diagnostic tool for the orthopedic surgeon. This will be achieved combining three novel photonics components: (i) a quantum cascade laser array tailored to biodiagnostics, (ii) an on-chip beam combiner for efficient radiation coupling, and (iii) MIR sensing probe for imaging. These components will be integrated in a medical device to be placed in the arthroscopy market (valued at $4 billion in 2015). In addition to add value to the European medical equipment industry, MIRACLE strives towards cost reduction of OA patients (currently costs/patient/year €10,452) contributing to more affordable public health care and promoting wellbeing in the European ageing population.