The project NANO-CATHEDRAL aims at developing, with a nano-metric scale approach, new materials, technologies and procedures for the conservation of deteriorated stones in monumental buildings and cathedrals and high value contemporary architecture, with a particular emphasis on the preservation of the originality and specificity of materials. The objective is providing “key tools” for restoration and conservation: •On representative lithotypes •On European representative climatic areas •With a time-scale/environmental approach •With technology validated in relevant environment (industrial plant and monuments) •Exploiting results also on modern stone made buildings A general protocol will be defined for the identification of the petrographic and mineralogical features of the stone materials, the identification of the degradation patterns, the evaluation of the causes and mechanisms of alteration and degradation, including the correlations between the relevant state of decay and the actual microclimatic and air pollution conditions. Moreover, innovative nano-materials will be developed suitable for: •Surface consolidation: in this case water-based formulations based on nano-inorganic or nano-hybrid dispersions such as nano-silica, nano-titania, nano-hydroxyapatite, nano-calcite and nano-magnesia as well as their synergic combinations with organic and inorganic compounds will be considered. •Surface protection: in this case, innovative composites will be developed consisting of polymers and nano-fillers. The use of hydrophobins, nano-assembled hydrofobic proteins extracted from fungi, and photocatalytic nano-particles (for favoring the decomposition of volatile organic molecules carried by polluted atmosphere and to prevent biofilm growth) will be considered. The project will contribute to the development of transnational cultural tourism and to the development of common European shared values and heritage, thus stimulating a greater sense of European identity.

MEZeroE is an EU distributed open innovation ecosystem for: (i) developing nZEB Enabler Envelope technology solutions ; (ii) transferring knowledge; (iii) matching testing needs with existing facilities; (iv) providing monitoring in living labs and; (v) standardizing cutting-edge solutions coming from SMEs and larger industries, to foster inclusive change in the building sector, being accessible via a single-entry point to all users. MEZeroE allows the development of ground-based solutions focused on carbon neutrality and healthy indoor environment, validated with advanced assessment methods and services, recognized protocols and long-term vision to embrace industry 4.0 trends, rapid decision making and customer-centric requirements. MEZeroE accompanies enterprises in adopting the open innovation approach comprising discovery (phase 1), empowering (phase 2), and exploiting (phase 3). MEZeroE will be accessed via a single-entry point web-based multi-side virtual marketplace, including 9 Pilot Measurement & Verification Lines (PM&VL) and 3 Open Innovation Services (OIS) covering training, business model development, systematic IP and knowledge management. MEzeroE will fast-track prototypes to the market as fully characterized products. MEZeroE virtual marketplace provides structured knowledge to different stakeholders with a pragmatic and well-grounded mid to long-term ambition of developing and consolidating a trusted expertise network, to be active and self-sustaining well beyond the project timeline. Based on synergies among partners, existing channels and a dedicated marketing strategy MEZeroE will exploit 3 revenue lines to ensure a 4x leverage factor vs. EU contribution. These revenue streams include: (I) memberships (benefit of web-based platform manager); (ii) consultancy for innovation and IPR protection (benefit of OIS developers) and (iii) incremental revenues of industrial partners (benefit of users) thanks to product transferred to market.

The here proposed DIMAP project focuses on the development of novel ink materials for 3D multi-material printing by PolyJet technology. We will advance the state-of-the art of AM through modifications of their fundamental material properties by mainly using nanoscale material enhanced inks. This widens the range of current available AM materials and implements functionalities in final objects. Therefore applications will not be limited to rapid prototyping but can be used directly in production processes. DIMAP will show this transition in two selected application fields: the production soft robotic arms/joints and customized luminaires. In order to cope with these new material classes the existing PolyJet technology is further developed and therefore improved. The DIMAP project targets at the following objectives: additive manufactured joints, additive manufactured luminaires, ceramic enhanced materials, electrically conducting materials, light-weight polymeric materials, high-strength polymeric materials, novel multi-material 3D-printer and safe by design. With the development of novel ink materials based on nanotechnology improvement of the mechanical properties (ceramic enhanced and high-strength polymeric inks), the electrical conductivity (metal enhanced inks) and the weightiness (light weight polymeric materials) are achieved. Based on the voxel printing by PolyJet these new materials lead to a huge broadening of the range of available digital material combinations. Further focus points during the material and printer development are safe by design approaches, work place safety, risk assessment, collaboration with EU safety cluster and life cycle assessment. An established roadmap at the end of project enables the identification of future development needs in related fields order to allow Europe also in the future to compete at the forefront of the additive manufacturing revolution.

When compared to fossil fuels only one decisive disadvantage remains for electricity from solar cells and wind mills, namely the difficulty to store this energy in very large quantities and in high energy density. State of the art batteries have a low energy density, and, in addition, cannot handle the needed quantities of energy. In principle, fuel cells could store huge quantities of energy and in in high energy density, but these are not very efficient and, moreover, rely on expensive materials. We want to develop a novel screening method to find efficient fuel cells that rely on cheap materials. KIT developed a novel multi-material nano3D printer that generates ~40.000 nanostacks per glass slide with freely chosen sequential arrangements of printed nanolayers that are made of nanoparticles or organic materials. We want to use this robot to print conductors, isolators, diodes, battery-, fuel cell-, and LED-materials, and then screen ~15.000 twin-nanostacks per glass slide for function. We will start with diodes that are made of a ZnO layer on top of ITO nanoparticles. When positioned in between two capacitor plates, an AC current will drive electrons unidirectional through all of these nanostack-diodes from where they travel back through the adjacent twin nanostack. If this twin nanostack is a functional battery, reduced battery materials are identified in a scanner, while functional LED nanostacks identify themselves through emitted light. Functional LED- or battery-nanostacks will then be used to identify those nanostacks that work as a fuel cell. We think that this new method will advance materials research beyond the screening for novel energy materials.

Nanomaterials a found more and more often in our everyday life, whether it is in the food industry, the transport, medical devices, building materials or cosmetics. If the small size of these objects confers them unprecedented properties, it also facilitates the absorption of these nanoparticles by the organs of living beings. Thus a major stake in the development of the nanoindustrial industry in Europe stands in the effective control of nanoproducts at all stages of production in order to certify the nanomaterials at the light of a set of relevant properties, not only towards the targeted final applications, but also in a prospect to answer better the regulations to come regarding risk bound to the placing on the market of nanoproducts. The caracterisation challenge not only consists of getting the chemical composition, the mean size and size distribution of the raw and processed materials, but also targets properties such as their shape, their surface, their crystal structure or the presence of trace non-desired elements. Our approach aims at implementing a fast, reliable and integrable multi-technical module of characterization inserted within industrial processes of production. Our objective is to shorten significantly the times of development and, hence, to take part in te improvement of the industrial efficiency of the sector in Europe. We also pay a particular attention on the economy of resources, raw materials and energy, as well as in the problems of recycling and stability in time. Thus, besides a substantial gain of competitiveness, we also look for a significant advances in the field of the quality control and standardisation of nanomaterials along their whole life cycle, in order to answer the justifiable expectations of the society in terms of public health. The strategy of the envisaged consortium bases on the follow-up of the production of metallic nanoparticles, oxides and carbide shaped in the state of divided solid or thin films following the ascending strategy of nano-assembly (bottom up). Owing to the diversity of composition and structure of the targeted nanomaterials, our project embraces the whole nanoindustrial sector and potential markets in Europe. Besides the follow-up of the production of nano-objects, we also address intermediats's' production such as suspensions of nanoparticles in a solvent, functionalised nanostructured products as well as in several final applications. The in situ characterisation of nanomanufacturing processes is the central activity of the aimed AAP. So, the consortium is organized around an academic team specialised in the in situ and operando characterisation at UCCS-LILLE, coordinator of the project, and the company, HORIBA, who markets solutions of analysis at the nanoscale. To every class of nano-objects corresponds a combination of specific characterisation techniques . To this end, the proposed consortium gathers several laboratories and research teams public recognized for their expertise in the field of the synthesis and the characterisation of every targeted class of nanomaterials: nanoparticles oxide (TiO2, SiO2 ...), metallic nanoparticles and carbon nano-objects: nanotubes of carbon, graphene. The project also involves the preparation of tailored reference materials, and their comprehensive characterisation for being implemented in an open access database and establish correlations between the way of preparation and the final physico-chemical properties of the nanomaterials. The scaling up of the developed characterisation tools and their fitting to the requirements of an industrial production line will be supported by the commitement of the SME TECNAN, specialised in the production and the marketing of functional products involving nanoparticles.