The functioning of the European patent system has been called into question from many different angles. The criticisms range from discontent with low patent quality and with backlogs in patent examination to ethical concerns about ‘patents-on-life’, and from accountability/legitimacy problems of the European Patent Office (EPO) to fundamental doubt about whether patenting fits the current research and innovation models, especially in emerging technologies such as for example biotechnology. The current European patent system is however a rather closed system (that primarily services patent applicants) and it is not inclined to take on board such criticisms and/or considerations that are relevant to society at large. Put differently: the system is currently not aligned with the main principles of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Research in this field seems however to be stuck in –very similar- diagnoses of what is wrong with the system. The project takes the analysis an important step further by looking at changes needed in the governance of the European patent system in order to substantially enhance its responsiveness to societal stakeholders. It tries to explain the limited actual use of inclusive mechanisms that are currently available in the European patent system. It assesses similar mechanisms that are used by other regional patent systems and could potentially be transferred to the European patent system. It looks at changes needed in the institutional set-up of the European patent system in order to enhance responsiveness. The project also analyses changes needed in European patent law that could open up the patent system to more inclusive IP rights, and it addresses the likely impact the new EU Unitary Patent will have on the responsiveness of the European patent system.

This is a higher education student and staff mobility project, please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.

The employment rate of persons with disabilities across Europe is much lower than of the general population and the disability employment gap has remained considerable, independently of labour market policies. Over time different approaches to work inclusion of persons with disabilities have been developed, where support-side approaches, especially supported employment methods, that are using the workplaces as instruments of inclusion, have been shown effective. The collaboration between employer and the support system is crucial when using the workplace as an arena for work inclusion, but there is a lack of research on employer-support system relations and how they can be formed to facilitate increased employment of persons with disabilities. Using theoretical frameworks from the field of sociology and psychology, and by drawing conclusions from qualitative data, this project addresses successful collaboration between employers and support systems in work inclusion of men and women with disabilities. Results from observation/interview studies in Norway and Sweden and insights from a literature review will inform support-side approaches and facilitate work inclusion. During the fellowship will benefit from the expertise of the INTEGRATE core research group, at OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University and its international expert network and from short visits to other European excellence research centers in work inclusion. Building on my previous work and skills in labour market and disability research, the project activities will lead to further development of my professional maturity as a researcher, while the results will have a key impact on the development of effective support-side methods and as called for in EU policies, on the labour market participation of persons with disabilities.

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. Students in all study fields and cycles can take part in a study period or traineeship abroad. Higher education teaching and administrative staff can take part in professional development activities abroad, as well as staff from the field of work in order to teach and train students or staff at higher education institutions.

Bridge infrastructure in Europe has great economic, social and cultural value. Nevertheless, many of the assets which are part of this network are in poor condition, which has been recently evidenced by the collapse of several bridges. The available human and economic resources are simply not enough to repair, maintain or replace all bridges - part of the European network. Therefore, improvements on the current bridge management and operation system is urgently needed. During this fellowship an open-source digital twin anomaly detection decision-making (DTADD) tool will be developed to support the preventive conservation of existing bridges in Europe. This innovative tool will improve the bridge management by aiding the implementation of a reliability-based bridge management approach (RBBMA), thus contributing to bridge cultural heritage (CH) conservation and sustainability by extending their service life and reducing management costs. The DTADD fellowship has two specific objectives. The first objective is to build digital twin (DT) models of heritage/conventional bridges to assess and identify the highest performing anomaly detection algorithm (ADA) for damage and/or significant decay detection. Its second objective is to develop an ADA-informed open-source decision-making tool based on a RBBMA, to assess the need for bridge intervention while explicitly considering the bridge’s CH value. This fellowship will be carried out mainly at OsloMet, Norway, with a six-month secondment at TU Delft, Netherlands. The research experience, skills and knowledge obtained during the fellowship will help the experienced researcher to become a leading international expert on the conservation of bridges and will aid him to achieve his goal of becoming an independent researcher and obtaining a tenure track position. Furthermore, this fellowship is aligned with the Transport action of the European Green Deal as well as with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).