Connected and automated vehicles can be seen as a revolution in the global automotive industry, bringing a new mobility paradigm and having a huge impact on several economic sectors such as logistics industry. Significant progress has been made in the field of autonomous truck driving with numerous prototypes. However, challenges need to be addressed in order to ensure the uptake of this breakthrough technology and the future advent of an overall autonomous logistic chain. The deployment of autonomous heavy-duty vehicles is hindered by the current inabilities of these vehicles to work with the right safety and functional level for 24/7 availability (e.g. harsh weather conditions) and by the lack of harmonized regulatory framework. This project aims at developing and enabling to deploy a safe autonomous transportation systems in a wide range of real-life use cases in a variety of different scenarios. This encompasses the development of autonomous driving system (ADS) capable of handling adverse environmental conditions such as heavy rain, snowfall, fog. The ADS solution will be based on multiple sensor modalities to address 24/7 availability. The ADS will then be integrated into multiple vehicle types used in low-speed areas. Finally, these vehicles will be deployed, integrated and operated in a variety of real-life use cases to validate their value in the application and identify any limitations: forklift (un)loading in warehouses and industrial plants, hub-to-hub shuttle service on open road, automated baggage dispatching in airports, container transfer operations and vessel loading in ports. Logistics operations will be optimized thanks to a new fleet management system that will act as a control tower, gathering all information from subsystems (vehicles, road sensors, etc.) to coordinate the operations and protect vulnerable road users. This work should then enable commercial exploitation of the technology and policy recommendations for certifications processes.

The development and adoption of renewable and sustainable energy has become a top priority in Europe, and is Horizon 2020’s most prominent theme. Research into new energy methods required to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint is an urgent and critical need, and is reliant upon a flow of newly qualified persons in areas as diverse as renewable energy infrastructure management, new energy materials and methods, and smart buildings and transport. Bioenergy is a particularly important field in this respect as it is at the cross-roads of several important European policies, from the Strategic Energy Technology Plan Roadmap on Education and Training (SET-Plan) to the European Bioeconomy Strategy to European Food Safety and Nutrition Policy. European development in this prioritised field is stalled due to a lack of qualified personnel, a lack of cohesion and integration among stakeholders, and poor linkage between professional training and industry needs. To address these problems, BioEnergyTrain brings together fifteen partners from six EU countries to create new post-graduate level curricula in key bioenergy disciplines, and a network of tertiary education institutions, research centres, professional associations, and industry stakeholders encompassing the whole value chain of bioenergy from field/forest to integration into the sustainable energy systems of buildings, settlements and regions. The project will foster European cooperation to provide a highly skilled and innovative workforce across the whole bioenergy value chain, closely following the recommendations of the SET-Plan Education Roadmap.

The H3PS starts in a completely new, challenging and probably never seen before revolution in General Aviation (GA). The main driver behind the H3PS project is to develop a new, greener propulsion system (a parallel hybrid powertrain) to pioneer one of the aviation industry’s solutions in reducing the environmental impact of air travel. The propulsion system to be designed and developed within the project will be suitable for powering four-seat GA aircraft, a market segment which employs today piston-powered engines, where the leading engine manufacturers are providing components whose basic technology, although constantly updated and reliable, is now over 50 years old and, in most cases, still needs leaded fuels to operate. The objective of the project is to put the basis for the development, manufacturing and in-flight test of a parallel hybrid powertrain for General Aviation by the involvement of three European GA market leaders: an aircraft manufacturer (TECNAM), an aircraft engines manufacturer (ROTAX) and an electric motors manufacturer (Rolls-Royce). The H3PS project objective is to fly a GA aircraft with the parallel hybrid powertrain demonstrating the challenging advantages of the configuration but also its high scalability level. “Breakthrough” concept will be achieved by demonstrating the feasibility of a power scalability for up to 11 seats airplanes. The main impact of the project will be related to the introduction of a really marketable solution to bring GA in the hybrid vehicles arena. Hybrid solution is today the most realistic intermediate way to step from gasoline operated powerplants to full electric systems offering the same performances, comparable initial acquisition costs and weights but featuring a more-than-acceptable cost saving in operations. The H3PS project will contribute to the main EU challenges in transportation sector, particularly leadership position of its aeronautics industry and reliable and sustainable air transport system.

The development and adoption of renewable and sustainable forms of energy has become a major priority for Europe and is an important theme in H2020. Research into new, energy-related technologies to reduce Europe’s reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels is a critical need, and requires more newly qualified people in areas such as renewable-energy infrastructure management, new energy materials and methods, as well as smart buildings and transport. Bio-energy is particularly relevant to the Work Programme, because it is at the crossroads of several key European policies – from the Strategic Energy Technology Plan Roadmap on Education and Training (SET-Plan) to the European Bio-economy Strategy for European Food Safety and Nutrition Policy. So far, technological development has concentrated on using crops and wood for fuel, energy and industrial products. These conventional bio-resources are, however, limited, and the use of nonconventional, currently unused or under-utilised bio-resources provides the best possibility for the growth of the bioeconomy. However, European development in this priority field is failing to keep pace with demand due to a lack of qualified personnel, a lack of cohesion and integration among stakeholders, and poorly developed links between professional training and the real needs of industry. Based on seven work packages the Phoenix RISE project will address these issues by exploiting the complementary expertise of its partners and creating synergies between them through the targeted secondments of staff to advance research and innovation knowledge in bio-energy research. Phoenix is an international, interdisciplinary, cross-sectorial project, bringing together a total of 16 partners: 14 from the EU (5 companies and 9 academic organisations) and two Third-Country academic partners to enhance its collective research excellence and create new, post-graduate-level research training in key disciplines that support the provision of bio-energy.