The establishment of a new accredited Master degree related to the application of Artificial Intelligence techniques in the field renewable energies could provide solutions in this matter and contribute to the EU efforts in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions according to their strategic and plan actions by 2030. The main program challenge is to train qualified graduates who are able to properly design innovative solutions for the use of renewable energies based on the latest revolutionary cutting-edge techniques.Through this project, the partners, coming from four distinct countries will establish/accredit an innovative International Master's program whose goal is to train graduates who can design and operate in the development and strengthening of the use of renewable energies and their optimum utilization and management through the use of Artificial Intelligence, i.e. a sector in full and quick mutation and that requires highly qualified and innovative professionals. This project comprises two main aspects: the first is related to the training of technical staff specialized in the discipline of renewable energy, including the design, installation and PV plants management, wind farms, other renewables and energy persons benefiting from the storage systems, the second is related to the development of soft computing tools and data mining allowing optimal exploitation, utilization, and storage of renewable energy sources. The partners' joint cooperation will create a strong research and teaching alliance which will help the recruitment of excellent students worldwide and the mobility of students and researchers among our institutions. Persons benefiting from the project: 20 students, 22 academic staff, and 5 from the administrative and financial staff. The Joint Master program of AIRES outlines expected results: accreditation of the proposed Master replying to European standards; network between partner universities; dissemination and exploitation platform.

Although Europe is leading industrial sphere in several areas, the transition to Industry 4.0 still not affordable and accessible for all companies, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Indeed, the evolution to smart factories meets a reluctance from the industrials and sometimes a worry because of uncertainties and transition complexity. This transformation is not only economic, but requires also human and social changes, which must be well prepared and thought. In many cases, the main effort toward a digitalization process in not related neither to the economic aspects nor to the technical aspects, but to the commitment and to the human resource capabilities. Industry 4.0 transition requests better capabilities in project management, project financing, digital entrepreneurship, software skills and obviously technical competences. At the same time, start-ups and digital entrepreneurship in the field of Industry 4.0 or related domains are not enough developed neither in Europe nor in MENA region. Indeed, young graduates in the field of engineering and management are struggling with skilled employability. Generally, they try to join existing companies and they do not think about starting their own SME project.So, designing a new accredited Master program related to Industry 4.0 and Digital Entrepreneurship could bring tailored and effective solutions. This master aims to learn engineers and managers new skills, to help them developing an interdisciplinary ecosystem not only in Europe but also in MENA region. Concretely, this master will focus on skills related to industry 4.0, to the transformation to Industry 4.0 together with those related to digital entrepreneurship. Through this project, successful qualified graduates will receive an innovative joint master program in order to be able to operate for the development and strengthening of an interdisciplinary industrial ecosystem in a rapidly changing environment.

For more than a decade, the dead bodies of people who had hoped to cross the Mediterranean have been washing ashore on the beaches of Zarzis, a coastal town in southern Tunisia. This research program starts out from the question: How did these bodies end up here? While in Europe people who are adrift may be seen as evidence of a “migration crisis,” from the African side of the Mediterranean they point to the chronic, (neo-)colonial depletion of livelihoods. To map how life is enduringly made unliveable, this program develops the method of forensics as the art of paying attention. This method will allow us to trail exemplary vital elements—resources crucial for fostering life and livelihood—and the relations between them. Our cases include: the extraction of phosphate, the fishing of sea sponges, the cultivation of tomatoes, the extraction of water, and the leaving behind of industrial waste. To better understand the complexity of, and material semiotic relations between, vital elements, we focus on Zarzis as a nodal point. This will make it possible for team members to visit each other’s sites and to work together in a Method Lab as well as to collaborate with local artists who will help to sensitise us to local concerns in a Vital Elements Atelier. The research program is innovative in three ways: it (1) contributes to a decolonial shift of attention from the “migration crisis” befalling Europe to the “chronic depletion of life” afflicting Africa; (2) develops the method of forensics as an art of paying attention to ethnographically study the complexity of, and the relations between, vital elements and the ways they impact on living and dying; (3) advances the concept of vital elements for materialities that are active, make connections and foster life, or spur on death.

In Mediterranean basin, the olive oil production is mainly assured by small farmers which are characterized by high production costs and low profit level. This is due to the fact that the market is controlled mainly by powerful and big companies, that impose low prices on small farmers for raw materials compared to the price at which end products are sold to the final customer. In fact, nowadays, small farmers are unable to access the supply chain’s information system and sell their olive crops at fair prices. Our project OIL4MED will identify and engage main players in the olive oil supply chain (olive grower-consumer “farm-to-fork”), in order to assure fair price for all the stakeholders and wide open the market for new entrepreneurs. OIL4MED vision is to create a disruptive collaborative supply chain management system that changes the traditional existing one (linear model) to a new one that focuses on creating transparent overview on the product value chain, fair prices/market share and sustainable business for all stakeholders. This will be achieved by ensuring open access ICT-based application, exchanging knowledge, creating synergies between small producers and using novel technologies. OIL4MED platform will be a combination of Blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies suited for local clusters of small farmers, small manufacturers and SMEs for each country. The traceability, transparency, efficiency and secure communication of our platform will be ensured by the use of innovative technology (Blockchain and IoT) in the Oil Agri-Food supply chain. OIL4MED will assist small farms through tailored business models enabling them to improve profitability and to commercialize their products in an efficient and cost-effective way. OIL4MED vision and ambition will be guaranteed by our multidisciplinary consortium team, composed of 3 European partners (IFAPA from Spain, University of Pisa from Italy, Instituto Superior de Agronomia of Lisbon from Portugal) and 2 Tunisian partners (Olive Institute and University of Sousse from Tunisia). OIL4MED will also strengthen partners’ expertise, both professor-researchers and technical staff, in different fields: ICT-based solutions (IoT, DLT, Apps) and Blockchain.