Food allergies affect over 17M people in Europe and increasing at a 2 digit prevalence rate. With no cure, the only successful method to prevent allergic reactions is to strictly avoid all foods containing the allergen. Hence, to identify these, the consumers rely on an accurate product labelling.The labelling of allergen contents for the industry is however not trivial, it does not only depend on the composition of the product, but also on the possible cross-contamination with allergens from other products. The current lack of standardized food allergen control plans and cost-effective allergen testing tools, drives food manufacturers to adopt over cautious labelling strategies. As a result, 90% of products with ¨may contain¨ allergen labels do not contain any. This reduces the choice of safe food for the allergic population (39.1M people), leading to a risk taking behaviour. SaPher project will disrupt the food allergen assessment market thanks to the development of an allergen assessment procedure supported by the industrialization and commercial deployment of our full automatic SaPher nano-photonics biosensing allergen test platform. SaPher will simultaneously assess up to 6 different allergens in food matrices, reducing turnaround times and cost by over 70% in comparison with current golden standards. To reach market, we will elaborate a standardized risk assessment method (DTU), develop the antibodies of interest not comercially available in the market for the target industries (INGE), industrialize and optimise our technology for mass production (LUME and UPV) and demonstrate both technology and procedure with the meat, dairy and bakery industries (NESTLE) as well as independent laboratories under operational conditions. As a result, we expect SaPher to be adopted by large and medium food producing companies and external laboratories, ensuring products are correctly labelled on allergen contents by performing over 1,1 Million allergen tests in 3 years.

African Swine Fever (ASF) is one of the most important viral diseases affecting swine, with a serious socio-economic impact. It is present in more than 13 countries in Europe (10 in the EU), 28 sub-Saharan African countries, and 2 Asian countries, China and Mongolia. No vaccine is available and recent incursions in Europe and Asia are jeopardizing the pig industry worldwide. Control of ASF is based on early diagnosis and the implementation of strict sanitary measures. However, measures taken by affected countries have not been sufficient to stop spread. The objective of VACDIVA is to solve the ASF problem in Europe and affected countries through innovation efforts. VACDIVA will provide (1) Three safe and effective pilot vaccines for wild boar and domestic pigs ready for registration; (2) validated companion DIVA tests and 3) cost-benefit and effective surveillance and control-vaccination strategies, with field trials in Lithuania and Kenia. Two world leader companies in vaccine production and ASF diagnostic kits will provide production of the new vaccines and DIVA tests. Epidemiological modelling of worldwide scenarios will be offered in a portfolio of services to help animal health authorities control and eradicate the disease. This project will provide policy makers valuable decision support tools to better prevent and control ASF. VACDIVA counts with the expertise of two world ASF Reference Laboratories (OIE and FAO), the EU reference laboratory (EURL), six EU national Reference Laboratories (of 6 out of the 10 countries currently affected by ASF) and four prestigious ASF research institutions. Participation of Russian, Chinese and African laboratories will provide useful support, increasing acceptance of the vaccines. Active involvement of pig producers, agricultural associations and International agencies like FAO will enlarge the impact of communication, dissemination and training activities.

Over the last decade, development of Smart Systems Integration (SSI) has demonstrated tremendous benefits in terms of enabling new functionalities of diverse products contributing to enormous economic potential with annual efforts in Europe estimated at approx.10 b€. There is significant opportunity for innovative SME’s to further exploit SSI as they are ideally placed to commercialise and drive the whole product development cycle, effectively bridging the “valley of death”. Europe is in a strong position to champion its’ established RTO’s competitive research, development and production facilities and to be a World leader in transitioning product development in SSI from prototyping to manufacturing, with particular focus in the low volume high value chain domain. SMARTER-SI has a unique opportunity to capitalise on Europe’s research excellence in SSI, leverage expertise of SME’s and RTO’s and drive impact through commercial exploitation. Inspired by the Strategic Research Agenda of EPoSS, SMARTER-SI aims to develop a RTO Community Foundry Model (CFM) that will accelerate a wider deployment of SSI with greater access to design, manufacturing capabilities for prototyping, early validation and first production for SME’s to exploit in niche markets. A strategic objective is to lower entry barriers using the cooperative approach of utilising existing process steps/building blocks available at partner RTOs. This in turn will advance innovative products for SMEs in Europe. The system approach will enable these companies to reach for a higher profit margin than currently achievable with components sales. SMARTER-SI will thus facilitate a greater level of innovation and know-how that will reside within Europe and will be difficult to replicate by competitors in other regions for the manufacture and production of similar products. SMARTER-SI is designed to be a test bed to realise 10 Application Experiments through the CFM that will trigger a bigger action, e.g. in ECSEL.