Emissions of the existing gasoline engines and brakes of the commercial vehicle fleets in Europe relate to health problems and death of annually >1,45 Mio. people. For the next decades, these vehicles will continue populating the roads, emitting PM/PN exhaust particles and toxic secondary emissions. For immediate reduction, retrofit solutions for tailpipe and brake emissions must be brought to TRL 8 and introduced to the market by 2025. Timing is crucial: Retrofits are transition technologies until full electrification of Europe’s transport fleet. Even beyond, brake retrofits play an important role in the electrified fleet. Quick wins in the reduction of the overall footprint of the existing fleets can be realised by using our 3 retrofits for tailpipe, brake and closed environments: 95% of PM2.5 and 80% of toxic secondary emissions using an innovative Gasoline Particle Filter, 60% of NOx exhaust emissions replacing the aged TWC by original equipment, 90% of the brake particles of long-lived road transport assets using a passive BDPF, 90% of particles in closed environments (bus stops, tunnels, metro stations) using a special designed and enhanced stationary air purifier. To create credible key messages for clients, citizens and policy, we perform lighthouse demo activities: 1) tailpipe retrofit: 1.000 vehicles in 2 climate zones (Germany + Israel) for 4 representative engine type families, 2) brake retrofit: Define emission fingerprints for the public transport of the cities of Valladolid, Ancona, Fermo and Sofia and > 35000 km lab testing on dynamometer and > 8000 km real driving, 3) air purifier retrofit for closed environments: 3 underground stations (Sofia, 2x Lisbon) with > 130000 commuters and Valladolid central bus depot with > 150 buses. For market preparation we will reach >4.000 citizens and policy makers from EU KOM level and >8 EU countries. We unite world leading industry, renowned scientific institutes and lighthouse demo sites in 8 European countries

Sodium-ion batteries offer enhanced cost-effectiveness and sustainability, challenging the dominance of lithium batteries in the stationary energy storage sector. The SPRINT project will gather 8 industries, 2 SMEs and 8 academic partners (incl. one associated partner) for 46 months to optimise and demonstrate two sustainable, techno-economically viable and safe quasi-solid-state sodium-ion batteries better meeting the requirements of stationary energy storage applications. This will be achieved relying on abundant, non-toxic, safe, and competitive materials available in EU supply chains brought to scale within SPRINT, i.e. optimised NFP cathode materials relying on novel synthesis; hard-carbon materials derived from a validated forest residues supply chain in Northern Europe; and quasi-solid-state polymer and polymer composite electrolytes with a solvent-free synthesis, and which are major advancements vs. flammable liquid electrolytes. Strategic interface optimisations will be leveraged to meet end-users’ requirements in terms of cells’ cycle life. SPRINT also aims to bring to scale dry electrode processing (incl. using PFAS-free binders) to enhance the sustainability of battery manufacturing. Batteries encompassing such solutions will be demonstrated on two demonstration sites in Austria (portfolio hybridisation, balancing services) and Lithuania (residential PV, increased grid capacity for EV chargers), and SPRINT will also engage with international use-case providers (e.g. Morrocco, Tunisia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, etc.). All in all, it is foreseen that SPRINT will reduce costs (0.04€/kWh/cycle), enhance energy density (>200Wh/kg & >420Wh/L) and power metrics (>500 W/kg), improve cells' cycle life (projected >5,000 cycles), while ensuring safe operation (leak-free technology) for a high market penetration. The Consortium will accompany all solutions to commercialisation, supported by the created Exploitation Board to facilitate their uptake.

K-HEALTHinAIR aims at the assessment of the indoor air quality (IAQ) effects in health on the basis of an extensive monitoring campaign of chemical and biological indoor air pollutants in several very representative at EU level indoor locations together with a deep research on their sources, interactions and main correlations with health problems by means of theoretical analysis, clinical trials and tests (includes in vivo/vitro approaches). Moreover, Project will deliver affordable and easy for implementation measurements to monitor and improve current IAQ. The project will deliver structured knowledge coming from both the monitoring, characterization and research stages formed by extensive and accurate data, qualitative information and guidelines in an easy and fully open access format to support public authorities, policy makers and many other collectives. Project will also deliver innovative equipment and associated tools to the citizens as main final users enabling them to monitor indoor air quality for identifying health risks and suggesting suitable solutions to mitigate them. The advanced knowledge will be obtained by means of the deployment of a set of fully complementary activities. The organization and publication of the knowledge generated in a fully open access platform looks for being considered a reference in accuracy and simplicity to favor easy consultation from public authorities and policy makers and support the definition of new legislations, regulations and standards. K-HEALTHinAIR ensures the integration of the existing legislation (e.g. in work places) within a comprehensive proposition of new indoor air quality standards leading new science-based regulations. K-HEALTHinAIR will deploy activities leading to effectively engaging most of the collectives concerned verifying that project results will impact as it is expected. Project K-HEALTHinAIR is part of the European cluster on indoor air quality and health (name and acronym to be decided)

LEARNing about the status of air quality in schools and its impact on the cognition of children is a major cornerstone in LEARN. For that, we want to overcome the barriers of the currently existing technologies and take a bold step towards the development and deployment of novel sensors to detect the presence of possibly harmful air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds and ultrafine particles. We will measure and characterize indoor and outdoor air pollutants and evaluate the presence of biomarkers of exposure and their effect on children´s cognition, while trying to recapitulate those effects using C.elegans as biosensor. Moreover, we will use advanced human-based in vitro models of lung and skin coupled to a revolutionary multisensing device to investigate their mechanisms of toxicity in real-time. Novel remediation strategies will be explored to improve air quality and promote children´s quality of life and life expectancy. For that we will mobilize a group of eleven leading research teams, unrivalled in their respective fields (environmental epidemiologists, toxicologists, air quality specialists, systems biology, engineers and citizen/social scientists). The scientific achievements expected to result from LEARN will unlock a large technology potential in IAQ for decades to come, leading to disruptive societal and economic impacts steaming from a radical improvement in the quality of life of children in Europe. Project LEARN is part of the European cluster on indoor air quality and health.

In H2MAC, two machines, namely an excavator and a shredder for the construction and mining sector, will be newly designed to integrate a FC powertrain and the related subsystems. The machines selected for the project will demonstrate a modular solution scalable, as the excavator will be powered by a FC consisting of one module of 120 kW, and the shredder will upscale the concept using two modules to enlarge the power to 240 kW. The operation of the machines is also complementary, as the excavator has a load profile derived of its movement during operation, while the shredder is a more static machine when operating. At the proposal stage, a preliminary assessment of the duty cycles have been performed to select the perfect showcase for the project activities, as well as carefully assess the size of the systems which will be developed during the project. This actions already done will pave the way to a successful project and minimise the project risks related to the planning of project resources. That, together with the simultaneous demonstration of the machines during 1000 hours in a single real environment, will allow the partners to develop solutions capable of operation in different sectors and operative patterns, and help broadening the project impacts and commercial exploitation. The consortium is composed of different technological partners, component manufacturers, machinery manufacturers and associations that will help communication, dissemination and exploitation through standardisation.