Air Transport has for a long time been linked to environmental issues like pollution, noise and climate change. Aviation emissions, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapour (H2O), nitrogen oxides (NOx), soot and sulphate aerosols, alter the concentration of atmospheric Greenhouse gases and trigger the formation of contrails and cirrus clouds. The share of aviation amongst all anthropogenic CO2 emissions is about 2% (ATAG). However, studies estimate the climate impact from aviation for the year 2005 including non-CO2 emissions to roughly 5% of the total anthropogenic radiative forcing (Lee et al., 2010). Considering the projected growth of air traffic for the next decades of 5% (RPK) per year, aviation’s share of the total anthropogenic climate impact is expected to increase further. Consequently, intergovernmental organizations, aircraft manufacturers and operators and the research community are increasingly focusing on different technological, operational and regulatory climate impact mitigation options. In this framework, ClimOP aims to identify, evaluate and support the implementation of mitigation strategies to initiate and foster operational improvements which reduce the climate impact of the aviation sector. Operational improvements correspond to any operational measure or action taken through time in order to improve the current provision of aviation operations. The overall objective of ClimOp is to define actions and advice for policymakers by proposing a set of most promising and harmonized mitigation strategies.

The project’s goal is to develop and demonstrate novel modular, compact, high performances and Plug&Play thermal energy storage (TES) solutions for heating, cooling and hot tap water production. The new concept of TES proposed in the project will provide electricity load shifting with meaningful peak shaving of the thermal and electric load demands. Furthermore, the exploitation of renewable sources will be a key point of the new TES device considering at the same time the cost-effective results in terms of energy, costs and sustainability of the system. The project will provide a TES system able to store energy for heating and cooling in building applications for a period of at least four weeks. The novel TES system will be based on a closed-loop TCM reactor insulated by PCM and equipped with an ice storage, again integrated with PCM, for high cooling energy demand. The thermodynamic cycle has been designed to benefit from a further PCM thermal buffer tank, breaking through the closed-loop concept by compensating the energy for humidification with its latent heat. An advanced heat pump will be finally dedicated to the power conversion during the thermal charging process of reactor and PCMs storages, increasing the overall performance. A dedicated control system will be developed to operate the TES according to the energy production and the end-users’ requirements, adapting to the conditions of use according to the type of air conditioning system and the particular demand for domestic hot water. The TES solution will be adaptable to all the different possible European scenarios, in terms of energy policy and end-users’ requirements. It will be designed to be used both as integrated into the building heating system and in the smart electricity grid, or in buildings not connected to district heating and cooling network. Different characteristics of the system will be taken into account, ranging from storage efficiency and durability to cost reduction and LCA and LCCA.

Maritime profession, due to the diversity of risks involved and harshness of working conditions at sea, is acknowledged to be among the one of the most dangerous professions in the world. Seafarers are mandated to spend their work hours and their leisure time saved for relaxing at the end of work day on shipboard. This reality shows that in their work and leisure times, the seafarers are exposed to various hazards and risks. To name a few; threats originating from chemical and biological materials, harsh weather conditions, physical challenges, a range of different critical operations, machine operations combined with dangers and risks stemming from harsh working environment and unsatisfactory health conditions.In relation to the above-listed risks and hazards, the limited medical means in particular, insufficient medical intervention and saving service may lead to a more critical nature for any potential accidents occurring at sea. Maintaining optimal medical conditions for seafarers can be directly effective in preventing risks related to safer navigation at sea. MariHealth project; by elevating scope and quality of the health services offered to seafarers, aims to be the leader in forming maritime health domain and to play vital role in the identification of criteria to increase medical status of seafarers on an international scale. Targets of this project, based on the interest and business scopes of relevant associates, have been attentively selected as summed up hereinafter:• The main objective is to design web-based e-learning/training platform for seafarers and maritime doctors that focuses on advanced medical intervention practices on-board ship. Thanks to the distance education program this objective will remedy current knowledge gaps, update existing knowledge and develop practical skills of seafarers to perform better even in the toughest cases requiring medical intervention.In this context, medical training modules for seafarers is developed to improve their first aid skills and knowledge as well as keeping them up to date.• One of the other targets will be, updated basic-level first aid training program will be provided to keep first-aid skills and knowledge of seafarers. This Program will assist seafarers in putting basic life saving techniques into practice and knowing how to tackle with emergency cases• Devising a medical training program in progress to remedy the maritime–related knowledge gap of doctors issuing seafarers’ medical reports and certificate doctors familiar with unique conditions to sea life has also been listed as one of the project goals.In order to fulfill aforementioned aims and targets, a robust consortium was established including three maritime specific-university, one national public body dealing with maritime health affairs, certifications, medical trainings, etc., one research and development company handling IT works, one international seafarers manning agency and one civil society organisation (camber of marine engineers). The profile of the participants were established by considering strong relationship with the scope of MariHEATH project. The participants are qualified marine lecturers, maritime doctors, research and development software specialist, maritime heath regulatory bodies and seafarers (crew) manning professionals. The project activities are including management, implementation and dissemination of the output. Regular meetings, press releases, managing social media are one of the fundamental activities undertaken in MariHEALTH project. The expected results of the project are to enhance medical knowledge level of seafarers as much as possible to perform medical intervene easily to the patients on-board ship,to develop e-training courses (web-based e-learning/training platform), to design mobile phone application, to improve medical consciousness of seafarers and maritime doctors, transform theoretical medical knowledge into high- quality practice training and to increase knowledge level of maritime doctors about shipboard working environment as well as marine-specific injuries, diseases and illnesses. The envisaged impacts of the projects are that a unique online training course modules under web-based e-learning/training platform is created and the medical knowledge performance of seafarers and maritime doctors can be evaluated via MariHEATH project. The potential longer benefits of the projects are recognition of training program by European sea transportation operators will not only raise health consciousness of seafarers to the end of making them more knowledgeable, but it will also immensely contribute to train maritime doctors. Since the project offers an improvement on training modules for maritime doctors and seafarers, it can be the first unique internationalized web based e-learning platform and mobile smartphone application.

BACKGROUNDSignalled through the launch of the Europe 2020 Strategy (EC 2010) and the EU Growth Agenda (EC 2014), Europe is on a path towards stronger connectivity among society, government, business and higher education institutions (HEIs) in order to increase employment, productivity and social cohesion. The EU is promoting knowledge and technology circulation by HEIs, and the involvement of citizens, academia and industry to ultimately turn research results and innovations into sustainable solutions with economic value and societal benefits. However, despite the existing policy support, research valorisation by HEIs remains low (Davey et al., 2011, 2018). Researchers struggle with generating societal impact out of their research beyond just generating publications while HEIs remain unable to sufficiently support their researchers in their entrepreneurial and valorisation activities (Technolopolis, 2015). For decades, HEIs have placed the third mission and valorisation in particular more prominently on the agenda, however, they are yet to succeed in overcoming the barriers associated with it, including:-lack of entrepreneurial skills among researchers-low levels of commercial awareness-weak cooperation between universities and external stakeholders-lack of awareness about the valorisation engagement activities beyond research commercialisation-lack of industry contacts and supporting networks. Furthermore, it has been found that 50% of PhD students do not complete their PhD with 50% citing the lack of relevance of their research, and that up to 50% of PhD research is not converted into publications let alone products or services (Council of Graduate Schools, 2010). An OECD report (2017) however highlights the potential to leverage this latent to create useful products and services as well as partnerships and jobs. They estimate that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) PhDs alone in Europe have the potential to add €1 Billion to the economy.Thus, there is a lack of researchers with the appropriate valorisation skills and knowledge, as well as a lack of appropriate training for them to acquire such skills. This is mainly because researchers, especially those in STEM, are not being trained to think and act entrepreneurially and on how to valorize their research (Alexandar et al., 2019). Although the technology transfer pipeline for STEM research may already be well-established at some HEIs, the STEM researchers still require tailored training focussed on valorisation that goes beyond just commercialisation and patenting. Whilst the majority of HEIs, driven by the willingness to spark entrepreneurial awareness and valorisation culture among students, has already integrated a number of entrepreneurship courses into their curriculum on a bachelor or master level, PhD students (i.e. R1 First stage Researchers www.euraxess.ec.europa.eu) commonly do not receive such training, including the ones working with the STEM research (Alexandar et al., 2019). This is notwithstanding the lack of valorisation and entrepreneurial capabilities amongst STEM graduates (CGS, 2017). PROJECTGiven this background, the STEM_Valorise project will develop valorisation capabilities amongst first stage STEM researchers by developing and delivering its 4 intellectual outputs. IO1 Valorisation Training Investigation Report, IO2 Digital Gallery of Success and Fail Stories of Academic STEM Entrepreneurs, IO3 Valorisation Training Programme and Toolkit, and IO4 Valorisation Training Pilot Test and Validation. The project will offer first stage researchers the necessary skills to create a commercial and societal value from their STEM research. More specifically, the project has the following objectives:•to provide a comprehensive understanding of the needs for valorisation and research-driven entrepreneurship training for first stage STEM researchers•to examine and disseminate the best practices of valorisation training offerings for researchers •to profile and showcase successful as well as unsuccessful stories and experiences of the STEM academic entrepreneurs•to design a modularised valorisation training programme and toolkit for first stage STEM researchersThis project will target technical universities and their first stage STEM researchers located in partner countries. It will offer critical insights into valorisation in STEM as well as provide educational means for HEIs to train their STEM researchers in valorisation and entrepreneurship. By raising entrepreneurial competences of researchers, the project will ultimately develop a new generation of STEM researchers empowered to make a stronger impact on society through the valorisation of their research. The project aims to develop STEM valorisation capabilities within HEIs at a European level owing to the interrelated nature of research networks within European countries. Thus, it is important that the project operate transnationally.