Microorganisms offer a large variety of functionalities that remains under-exploited due to the current inability to perform long term preservation at an industrial scale. PREMIUM project is a four-year multidisciplinary project involving a consortium of 5 academic partners from 5 European countries (France, Spain and Portugal) and 1 from third country (Argentina) and 3 industrial partners (France, United Kingdom and Spain). The project aims at developing new strategies to preserve lactic acid bacteria from laboratory to industrial scale. The innovative approaches of the project lay on: i) producing oligosaccharides of original composition for protecting cells; ii) developing novel preservation process based on encapsulation and evaluating the environmental impact of the whole system of production and stabilization of micro-organisms from the laboratory step iii) developing high-throughput characterization and screening tools such as vibrational spectroscopy. A multicriteria analysis approach will be developed to identify the most promising strategies for industrial eco-friendly preservation of micro-organisms. PREMIUM project involves 8 Workpackages (WP): WP1 is dedicated to project coordination and management. WP2 focuses on the production and characterization of a wide range of oligosaccharides. WP3 investigates and optimises new process technologies for preserving lactic acid bacteria. WP4 studies the mechanisms of bacteria preservation by oligosaccharides for defining the relevant composition and structure of oligosaccharides. WP5 focus on the scale up of processes, application to other cells and transfer of technologies to industry. The other WPs are dedicated to communication, networking and outreach activities (WP6), dissemination and exploitation of the results (WP7), ethics requirements (WP8).

The EU outermost regions (ORs) face unique challenges and opportunities in the biomedical sector due to their geographical remoteness, insularity, and specific socio-economic conditions. Despite significant R&I initiatives in the past years, which hold great potential to address the health challenges faced by these ORs, the creation of new businesses and jobs remains low. In addition, the lack of specialized biomedical researchers and innovators hampers the ability of ORs to conduct cutting-edge research. FOCUS-4R aims to enhance the R&I capacities of the ORs, helping them to gain autonomy, competitiveness, and attractiveness in the biomedical field. The FOCUS-4R project brings together 3 emblematic ORs (Reunion Island, Canary Islands and Madeira) to leverage the expertise they have developed over recent years to create growth opportunities and increase the excellence of their institutions. Bringing together an intersectoral and interdisciplinary network of 6 academic institutions and 5 non-academic partners from 4 Widening regions and 4 Advanced countries, the project will offer cross-sectoral training and talent mobility through secondments and workshops. FOCUS-4R aims to develop a relevant path to assess therapeutic effects of molecules rapidly and at a low cost without ignoring the ethical issues by focusing on identified techniques that meet the principles of 4R (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement and Responsibility). Through training and mentoring from advanced partners, FOCUS-4R will develop transferable skills essential to meet the industrial and market needs and enhance entrepreneurship in the ORs. By providing training, lifelong learning opportunities and by consolidating knowledge transfer, FOCUS-4R will contribute to bridge the gap between ORs and advanced regions, developing long-lasting collaborations, creating new employment and career opportunities and leading to the creation of a sustainable R&I ecosystem fostering Excellence and Innovation.

Groundwater represents the largest (and often the only practical) freshwater resource on oceanic islands. Due to the small area of many islands the amount of freshwater is limited, and it is particularly influenced by dynamic processes, including climate change. In the islands of Macaronesia any changes in climate conditions can have more severe negative effects on the available freshwater volume than in a continental environment, therefore, the protection of critical water infrastructure is of the highest priorities. The primary objective of GENESIS is to demonstrate that innovative, nature-based intelligent solutions for enhancing the climate resilience of critical water infrastructure can lead to more reliable and consistent/predictable water management practice by effectively protecting groundwater, by drastically improve the efficiency of water use and reuse, thus sustain social and economic activities while mitigating the potentially severe effects of climate change on local communities. The general concept of GENESIS is testing and showcasing local and regional NbS and delivering a deep demonstrator in the Macaronesian biogeographical area with the long term objective to provide climate-proof critical water infrastructure replicable for other islands and vulnerable zones of the EU mainland. The methodology is designed to provide the full workflow for implementing and demonstrating in operational environments how to capture, storage and protect water in an effective-strategic way (from diverse sources including storm runoff, treated wastewater and irrigation return flows) to mitigate the impacts of extreme events (droughts, floods, wildfires) and how to create climate resilient areas/islands. The development and implementation of systemic nature-based solutions for improved water management in Macaronesia will drastically improve these islands' resilience to climate change impacts by minimising stormwater runoff and soil erosion while enhancing infiltration and underground water storage.

The EU has nine Outermost Regions (ORs): Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Saint Martin, Réunion, Mayotte; the Canary Islands; and the Azores and Madeira. ORs are an integral part of EU territory but, as Article 349 TFEU recognizes, they differ from the rest of the EU due to their remoteness, their insularity, their small size, their adverse topographical and climatic conditions and their dependence on a limited number of local industries. ORs' participation in Horizon 2020 is inhibited by the fragmentation of the research community due to the geographic isolation but also lack of commitment of research institutions and missing connectivity with excellent partners in Europe and internationally beyond the traditional links with the European mainland of the same country. Therefore, the potential for excellent research activities based on the above described assets remains largely unexploited. The overall objective of the FORWARD project is to improve ORs' excellence in research and their innovation potential to improve their participation in EU research and innovation funded projects and link research activities with territorial development. The project commits the regional governments from the nine ORs in charge of R&I regional policies together with key R&I actors from each region. FORWARD will perform an initial analysis of R&I ecosystems and, based on these results, it will put in place tailored actions including definition of joint strategy and thematic action plans, capacity building and networking activities, and approaches for connecting research and policy-making. Based on a multi-actor, multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial approach, the project will also support the collaboration and networking among representatives of the quadruple helix (university, industry, government and civil society) at regional level and with their counterparts from EU Members States and Third Countries.

ROTATES aims to sustainably enhance agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services by introducing and promoting minor starchy root and tuber crops (MRT) sweet potato, yams, cassava and taro, considered minor crops and currently underutilized in Europe, in both conventional and organic farming systems. These crops have substantial growth potential in temperate regions to meet the increasing demand in Europe, which has tripled over the last decade. The inclusion of MRT crops will complement the cohort of minor crops introduced into European agrosystems by the previously funded projects. Employing a multidisciplinary and multi-actor approach, ROTATES will (i) identify levers for MRT crop adoption along the value chain, through a comprehensive diagnosis of constraints and opportunities for MRT crop adoption, agronomic practices to inform farm typology analysis, genetic material assessment, and disease pressure evaluation, (ii) deploy MRT crops by developing agroecological management practices, including crop rotation and intercropping, to leverage the benefits on provisioning and regulating ecosystem services, establishing breeding hubs to deliver varieties adapted to the agroecological systems, and creating a clean seed system relying on a policy framework for phytosanitary certification to support sustainable production and material exchange, (iii) unlock the value of MRT crops by establishing sustainable and innovative healthy and traditional food and feed transformation processes, integrating livestock to recycle unused plant by-products and provide crop amendments - gluten-low-to-free pasta, bread, and plant-based ice cream and feed for ruminants and monogastrics- (iv) promote adoption along the value chain, targeting primarily farmers and growers, through marketing avenues and capacity-building efforts. ROTATES will contribute to improving producers’ income, enhancing product value, increasing agrobiodiversity, and reducing Europe's import dependence.