TIMB3 offers the unique opportunity to capitalize on the existing infrastructure and human resources of ITQB-NOVA (Portugal) on biospectroscopy applied to the study of metals in biology to raise its scientific profile and achieve integration in the top league of research intensive institutions. The essential role of metals in biology is well recognized even by the general public (think of iron in blood). Notwithstanding, there is a growing appreciation of the potential of their study to radically transform our capacity to improve health and well-being and to develop novel biotechnological solutions to pressing environmental problems. This project emerges from successful test runs with the world class partners CIRMMP (Italy) and TUB (Germany), using networking instruments of narrower reach such as COST actions and bilateral partnerships. The scientific theme underlying the execution of TIMB3 is the enhancement of the capacity of ITQB-NOVA in performing world class research in biospectroscopy applied to metal homeostasis and trafficking and applied to bioinspired catalysis. The research profile of ITQB-NOVA staff will be raised by a combination of exchange missions with counterparts on the partner institutions, and structured training events on scientific and soft skills, including project writing and IP awareness. These activities will enable ITQB-NOVA to create a virtual platform for biospectroscopy to be used by non-specialists to learn the potential of this versatile group of methods to solve their specific research and development problems, broadening the social awareness to the capacities of biospectroscopy applied to the study of metals in biology. At the end of TIMB3, ITQB-NOVA will be able to enter international scientific consortia and compete for funding at the highest level establishing itself as a bona fide member of the top league of research intensive institutions.

The aim of the MR LATVIA project is to establish a regional centre of excellence in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) at the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis (LIOS), with a special focus on NMR applications in (bio)pharmaceuticals research. By linking the coordinating institution with two top-class European NMR centres (and facilities), Centre de RMN à Très Hauts Champs in Lyon and Consorzio Interuniversitario Risonanze Magnetiche di Metallo Proteine in Florence, the project aims to create a national NMR core facility, enhance the research and innovation performance of LIOS, raise the research profile of its staff as well as strengthen its research management and administrative capacities. The transfer of expertise from the advanced partners to LIOS will be achieved through inter-institutional seminars, organisation of scientific events (workshops, summer schools and a conference), short-term visits, on-the-job training of LIOS early-stage researchers during long-term secondments, and implementation of a joint research project. As a result of this project, LIOS will develop as a regional NMR hub involved in strategic networking activities with two leading NMR European facilities and integrated into the broader European network of NMR research infrastructures. Through providing access to NMR instrumentation and expertise the developed research excellence will be further spread across Latvia and the whole Baltic see region, thereby contributing to closing of the research and innovation gap within Europe.

The properties of individual molecules and condensed matter are at the origin of the functions of almost every single product conceived, produced or analysed. Understanding and improving the properties of condensed matter requires the determination of both structure and dynamics with atomic resolution over a very broad range of timescales. No technique is available today to determine dynamics from picoseconds up to microseconds of complex systems in liquids with atomic resolution. The HIRES-MULTIDYN project introduces a ground-breaking technology: ultrafast high-resolution relaxometry (UHRR), which synergizes the high-resolution power of high-field nuclear magnetic resonance with multiscale dynamics low-field relaxation based on a new concept for critical fast-field switching. We will design, build, and test the first two proof-of-concept prototypes of UHRR instruments. We will develop the theoretical framework to understand the unprecedented measurements obtained by UHRR and interpret them in terms of molecular motions. We will exploit UHRR prototypes in a series of proof-of-concept applications covering a broad range of fields (drug design, food and health sciences, energy). These applications will demonstrate the unprecedented analytical power of UHRR and generate the momentum required to lead to the future development of a commercial UHRR system built in Europe. The HIRES-MULTIDYN project brings together a tight and complementary consortium of engineers, experimental scientists and theoreticians who are world leaders in NMR methods development, instrumentation, applications and in the theoretical foundations of magnetic relaxation and molecular dynamics simulations. Our ambition is to develop UHRR as a novel technology to determine the dynamic properties of condensed matter that will, within the next decade, boost the ability of scientists to innovate in academia and several industries (from pharma to food, energy and beyond) and enhance public health.

Europe needs a sustainable chemical industry which will only be realized by new breakthrough technologies. Industrial biotechnology is established in chemical manufacturing, offering more efficient, more specific, safer and less energy demanding production, but is held back by the limited number of enzyme classes in industrial use. This project opens up an important new enzyme class of tungsten-containing enzymes (W-enzymes) which catalyse amazing chemical reactions involving challenging low redox potential reduction reactions, but are currently impossible to obtain economically and on scale to match industrial needs. We need to produce W-enzymes using an industrial workhorse micro-organism such as E. coli. Yet, we discovered that W-cofactor biosynthesis is the bottleneck preventing successful production of W-enzymes in E. coli. We can solve this challenge by using cutting-edge computational enzyme design approaches we recently developed, to create a completely new W-cofactor biosynthesis pathway for E. coli. The W-BioCat strains developed in this project will enable expression of new W-enzymes from genetic databases, and facilitate production of new engineered W-enzymes. The catalytic potential of these new W-enzymes will be established and implemented in new processes. Exciting new reaction scope in biocatalytic CO2 reduction to valuable chemicals and Birch reduction of aromatic compounds will be explored, alongside the already-established and broadly applicable carboxylic acid reductions. W-BioCat will be the breakthrough to make W-enzymes accessible for industry. As a proof of concept, a hydrogen-driven process to convert plant-derived oleic acid to the emollient ester oleyl oleate will be created. Oleyl oleate is used in many cosmetic products used daily by millions of people. This process will be demonstrated in multi-gram yield in scalable, industrially-relevant hydrogenation reactors, together with market research to address a pathway to commercialisation.