The EcoSentinel project envisions a groundbreaking transformation in our relationship with nature to address pressing global sustainability challenges as biosphere integrity degradation, fostering a harmonious coexistence between technological innovation and environmental conservation; culminating in a community of Ecological Sentinels (EcoSentinel). Specifically, EcoSentinel leverages the biological processes and the resilient nature of living plants to give them the necessary means (i.e., energy harvesting and electromagnetic signal propagation) to become self-sustained digital nodes of a network able to autonomously monitor themselves. This revolutionary approach aims to enhance our capacity to safeguard forests and other ecosystems. The EcoSentinel technology will introduce a carbon-negative wireless communication system, powered by the ecosystem itself, enabling environmental monitoring to prevent and mitigate critical events such as wildfires and biodiversity loss. The EcoSentinel project proposes a new form of plant-plant interaction by elevating it to a digital level. By enhancing plants’ interconnection through cybernetical implants, we embark on a path to digitally transform the greenery. This unprecedented approach aims to establish a novel wireless plant-based communication system, using plants as natural antennas, uniquely powered by the integration of plant-microbial electricity generation seamlessly blended into the vegetation.

The main challenge that the European start-up ecosystem is facing, is that innovative start-ups fail to scale up at a sufficient rate. Start-up incubators play a significant role in helping start-ups in Europe to scale up. An Incubator is a set-up to reduce the chances of failure of an early stage start-up and they have a deep impact on start-up ecosystem and its stakeholders. Although incubators have an increasingly important role in supporting early stage companies with the basic needs of developing a company, they are consistently failing to provide services that are needed for companies to go global and scale up. The Scale-up Champions project builds on the premise of equalising opportunities of scaling up for start-ups across Europe and connects less and more developed startup ecosystems. Our strategic objective is supported by the following sub-objectives: • Increase the connectedness among members of deep-tech start-up ecosystems and their companies (start-ups and scale-ups) and to the larger european business ecosystem seeking maximum synergies. • Increase access to customers, private and public, access to qualified employees, access to the right combination of finance and prospects for scaling up across borders. • Stimulate European investments in deep-tech digital sectors through increasing the number of cross-border investments. To achieve these objectives, Scale-up Champions’ consortium will implement the following actions: • Develop a method for experience-sharing among project partners that fosters the collaboration between different European start-up incubators. • Foster start-up and corporate cooperation in order to build sustainable partnerships through active support of start-ups and corporations. • Build the fundraising capacity of deep-tech start-ups through an active investment readiness program and create working networks between investors and start-ups. • Foster cross-border activities for European start-ups in order to support interna

RE-DWELL will train a new generation of professionals with the transdisciplinary skills which are needed to address the urgent need of affordable and sustainable housing, a major challenge for European societies. To date, affordability and sustainability of housing have been addressed separately, from various disciplinary perspectives (e.g. architecture and planning, economics, sociology) and realms (e.g. policy-making, sustainable development, urban planning, green building). However, recent research indicate that it is necessary to consider the affordability and the sustainability of housing as complementary and interrelated aspects which need to be addressed with a transdisciplinary approach, by combining academic disciplines and engaging non-academic sectors in a common production of knowledge. Ten academic beneficiaries and twelve non-academic partner organisations will jointly contribute to creating a transdisciplinary research environment which encompasses the various disciplines, sectors and stakehold