Glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (GFRP and CFRP) are increasingly used as structural materials in many manufacturing sectors like transport, constructions and energy due to their better lightweight and corrosion resistance compared to metals. Composite recycling is a challenging task. Although mechanical grinding and pyrolysis reached a quite high TRL, landfilling of EoL composites is still widespread since no significant added value in the re-use and remanufacturing of composites is demonstrated. The FiberEUse project aims at integrating in a holistic approach different innovation actions aimed at enhancing the profitability of composite recycling and reuse in value-added products. The project is based on the realization of three macro use-cases, further detailed in eight demonstrators: Use-case 1: Mechanical recycling of short GFRP and re-use in added-value customized applications, including furniture, sport and creative products. Emerging manufacturing technologies like UV-assisted 3D-printing and metallization by Physical Vapor Deposition will be used. Use-case 2: Thermal recycling of long fibers (glass and carbon) and re-use in high-tech, high-resistance applications. The input product will be EoL wind turbine and aerospace components. The re-use of composites in automotive (aesthetical and structural components) and building will be demonstrated by applying controlled pyrolysis and custom remanufacturing. Use-case 3: Inspection, repair and remanufacturing for EoL CFRP products in high-tech applications. Adaptive design and manufacturing criteria will be implemented to allow for a complete circular economy demonstration in the automotive sector. Through new cloud-based ICT solutions for value-chain integration, scouting of new markets, analysis of legislation barriers, life cycle assessment for different reverse logistic options, FiberEUse will support industry in the transition to a circular economy model for composites.

Intelligent Reliability 4.0 (iRel40) has the ultimate goal of improving reliability for electronic components and systems by reducing failure rates along the entire value chain. Trend for system integration, especially for heterogeneous integration, is miniaturization. Thus, reliability becomes an increasing challenge on device and system level and faces exceptional requirements for future complex applications. Applications require customer acceptance and satisfaction at acceptable cost. Reliability must be guaranteed when using systems in new and critical environments. In iRel40, 79 partners from 14 countries collaborate in 6 technical work packages along the value chain. WP1 focuses on specifications and requirements. WP2 and WP3 focus on modelling, simulation, materials and interfaces based on test vehicles. WP4 applies the test vehicle knowledge to industrial pilots related to production. WP5 applies the knowledge to testing. WP6 focuses on application use cases applying the industrial pilots. We assess and validate the iRel40 results. Reliable electronic components and systems are developed faster and new processes are transferred to production with higher speed. Crucial insight gained by Physics of Failure and AI methods will push overall quality levels and reliability. iRel40 results will strengthen production along the value chain and support sustainable success of Electronic Components and Systems investment in Europe. By collaboration between academy, industry and knowledge institutes on this challenging topic of reliability, the project secures more than 25.000 jobs in the 25 participating production and testing sites in Europe. The project supports new applications and reliable chips push applications in energy efficiency, e-mobility, autonomous driving and IoT. This unique project brings, for the first time ever, world-leading reliability experts and European manufacturing expertise together to generate a sustainable pan-European reliability community.

In the need to improve the efficiency and driving range of electric vehicles (EVs), one strategy is the weight reduction of the global vehicle. There are already available solutions based on advanced light materials with promising structural properties but they still need further development to increase their TRL and reach the market. Furthermore, increasing environmental awareness and forthcoming stricter regulations demands the adoption of circular economy principles across the entire vehicle life-cycle. To respond to this challenge, ALMA will develop a novel BEV structure for a passenger car with 45% weight reduction potential compared to current baseline (15% additional reduction if compared to prior-art solutions) at affordable costs (below 3€/Kg-saved of additional cost), thus enabling up to 2.2 KWh/100Km efficiency increase and 11% LCA improvement. For this purpose, ALMA will develop a multi-material modular platform (BIW, chassis and closures) made of a combination of Advanced High Strength Steels (AHHS), Advanced-SMC and steel-hybrid materials, characterized with multiscale model-based tools. ALMA will adopt circular economy principles from early stages through the application of eco-design strategies to create a novel BEV platform “made to be recycled”, using a structural reversible bonding technology to enable the separation of components at the end-of-life (EoL) for repair and reuse. A ground-breaking health monitoring system based on acoustic emissions will be integrated in the structure to detect and locate damage while in-service. At last, efficient recycling and material recovery options will be analysed to complete the circular loop. ALMA involves a well balance group of 9 partners from 4 different EU countries, 5 of them are market-oriented companies (with 2 SMEs), being one an automotive OEM. It also includes 3 RTOs and one international association. ALMA has also gathered the support of 15 external supporting partners in the Advisory Board.

6 of the European carmakers (DAIMLER, VW, TME, CRF, VOLVO, Opel), under the coordination of EUCAR, have joined forces to commonly address the high cost issue of innovations in vehicle lightweighting, having identified it as the major bottleneck towards their implementation in vehicle series and mass production. The AffordabLe LIghtweight Automobiles AlliaNCE (ALLIANCE) has the ambition to develop novel advanced materials (steel, aluminium, hybrid) and production technologies, aiming at an average 25% weight reduction over 100k units/year, at costs of <3 €/kg. Additionally, ALLIANCE will develop a mass-optimizer software tool and a multi-parameter design optimisation methodology and process, aiming at an accelerated pre-assessment of technologies over existing designs in a holistic framework. ALLIANCE will work on 8 different demonstrators of real vehicle models, 6 of which will be physically tested, aiming at market application by OEMs within 6 years from project end (in 2025). A transferability and scalability methodology will also be developed for results replication across other vehicle components and models in other segments. ALLIANCE aims at becoming a central hub for innovation in lightweight design in Europe. To do so, it will establish an open inclusive framework towards external centres and clusters in this field, involving them in ALLIANCE development through an open lightweight design contest and dedicated workshops.