Projects
Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals PARC is an EU-wide research and innovation partnership programme to support EU and national chemical risk assessment and risk management bodies with new data, knowledge, methods, networks and skills to address current, emerging and novel chemical safety challenges. PARC will facilitate the transition to next generation risk assessment to better protect human health and the environment, in line with the Green Deal?s zero-pollution ambition for a toxic free environment and will be an enabler for the future EU ?Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability?. It builds in part on the work undertaken and experience...
Electric Vehicles Management for carbon neutrality in Europe The Electric Vehicles Management for carbon neutrality in Europe (EV4EUThe Electric Vehicles Management for carbon neutrality in Europe (EV4EU) project will propose and implement bottom-up and user-centric Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) management strategies creating the conditions for the mass deployment of electric vehicles. The strategies will consider the impact on batteries, the needs of the users, power systems, the integration with energy markets, and cities’ transformation. The proposed V2X management strategies will be tested in four demonstration sites, allowing an evaluation of the proposed methodologies and tools, the definition of the appropriate implementation conditions,...
Substellar Science with the Euclid Space Mission Euclid is a space mission led by the European Space Agency (ESA) to conduct a deep, single-epoch survey of 15,000 deg2 of sky with visible and near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy, and 40 deg2 multi-epoch very deep surveys. Its primary science goal is to investigate the geometry of the dark universe by mapping the distribution and shapes of galaxies.The unprecedented combination of sensitivity, areal coverage, spatial resolution, data homogeneity and spectral information will naturally be of tremendous benefit to other areas of astrophysics. Two Euclid Independent Legacy Science (ILS) programs have been designated by...
The European Biodiversity Partnership Being one of the main actions of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the European Biodiversity Partnership (Biodiversa+) will coordinate research programmes between EU and its Member States and Associated Countries, mobilising environmental authorities as key partners for implementing biodiversity research and innovation, along with ministries of research, funding organisations, and environmental protection agencies (75 organisations from 37 countries). Biodiversa+ has five overarching objectives: (1) improve monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe (status and trends); (2) generate actionable knowledge to tackle the direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss; (3) expand and improve the evidence...
Implementation of activities described in the Roadmap to Fusion during Horizon Europe through a joint programme of the members of the EUROfusion consortium EUROfusion’s updated Fusion Research Roadmap aims to acquire the necessary knowledge to start constructing a demonstration fusion power plant (DEMO) five years after ITER is in full-power operation. DEMO will deliver fusion electricity to the grid early in the second half of the century. The Roadmap has been articulated in eight different Missions. The present proposal has the goal of implementing the activities described in the Roadmap during Horizon Europe through a joint programme of the members...
INTEGRATED DigitaL Framework FOR Comprehensive MARITIME DATA AND INFORMATION SERVICES ILIAD builds on the assets resulting from two decades of investments in policies and infrastructures for the blue economy and aims at establishing an interoperable, data-intensive, and cost-effective Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO). It capitalizes on the explosion of new data provided by many different earth sources, advanced computing infrastructures (cloud computing, HPC, Internet of Things, Big Data, social networking, and more) in an inclusive, virtual/augmented, and engaging fashion to address all Earth Data challenges. It will contribute towards a sustainable ocean economy as defined by the Centre for...
Gliders for Research, Ocean Observations and Management: Infrastructure and Innovation Underwater and surface drones, in particular gliders, have become essential vehicles to carry scientific payloads for most environmental observations from the surface down to 6000m and for activities supporting the blue economy. Their major advantages are being mobile, steerable, persistent and usable in large numbers and at relatively low costs. However, the distributed infrastructure required to exploit these assets must be able to meet different demands from research and monitoring of the marine environment, to public service missions and industry needs, requiring customised payloads and operations. The rapid evolution of...
National Competence Centres in the framework of EuroHPC The EuroCC activity will bring together the necessary expertise to set up a network of National Competence Centres in HPC across Europe in 31 participating, member and associated states, to provide a broad service portfolio tailored to the respective national needs of industry, academia and public administrations. All of this to support and increase strongly the national strengths of High Performance Computing (HPC) competences as well as High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities and to close existing gaps to increase usability of these technologies in the different states...
The first Hybrid Power Unit Retrofit Solution for airplanes BLU-SPARK aims at designing, developing and testing the first parallel hybrid airplane ever produced offering the pilot top dynamic performances, more flying safety and environment protection. The proposed hybrid airplane will represent a quantic step in the general aviation industry, bringing new benefits such as: more power with boost mode, increased climbing rate when necessary, back up propulsion in case of failure of the internal combustion engine, energy savings (ensuing strong reduction of overall greenhouse gas emissions); zero gas and noise emissions in airports; reduced dependence on fossil fuels; cost savings...
CHromospheric magnetic fields in fLAREs and their evolution This research project aims to study the variations of the solar magnetic field in flares, the most energetic events in our solar system. Flares accelerate charged particles into space, which may adversely affect satellites and Earth’s technology. Despite their clear importance for today’s technology, the timing and positioning when flares occur are so far unpredictable. Changes in the solar magnetic field topology are known to be the causes for flares, but their physics is not understood in detail. Past studies have shown prominent changes of the magnetic field in the photosphere during...
Exoplanets Molecular Atmospheric Composition "The search for and characterization of exoplanets are among the most active and rapidly advancing fields in modern astrophysics. To date, more than 4000 exoplanets have been detected, spanning wide ranges in physical, orbital and stellar parameters, and with a great variety of system architectures. Understanding the causes of exoplanet diversity and variety is a stated goal of the next-generation of ESA/NASA missions. In this context, I propose to develop the project ""Exoplanets Molecular Atmospheric Composition"" (ExoMAC), together with the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) under the supervision of Dr. Enric Pallé. The project consists...
The role of intravesicular ATP in excitatory and inhibitory synapses of the central nervous system COST-ATP pretends to establish the role of intravesicular ATP in excitatory and inhibitory synapses of the central nervous system (CNS). Although, several laboratories have characterized the crucial interaction between ATP and catecholamines to permit its large accumulation in secretory vesicles of chromaffin cells, this crucial mechanism has not been studied in synaptic vesicles where high concentrations of neurotransmitters are needed for neuronal communication in the CNS. COST-ATP will combine the experience of the host laboratory in ATP as an accumulator of neurotransmitters in chromaffin cells...
Galaxy Sizes as Tracers of Dark Matter I propose the project Galaxy Sizes as Tracers of Dark Matter (GALSIZE) to be supervised by Prof. Courteau at Queen’s University in Kingston (Canada, Third Country for the outgoing phase) and by Prof. Knapen at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC, Tenerife, Spain, beneficiary institution and host for the incoming phase). The main scientific goals are to (S01) establish a new paradigm of galaxy data-model comparisons, developing a definitive theory of disk formation based on galaxy sizes; (S02) characterize the nature of, and coupling between, dark and luminous matter in galaxies, with...
Age-related arterial dysfunction and gut dysbiosis in mice and cetaceans Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death in Europe. Arterial dysfunction develops with aging making advancing age the primary risk factor for CVD. Advancing age can induce adverse changes in the gut microbiome, which in turn, can activate systemic pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory signaling pathways with detrimental downstream consequences. One main objective of this project is to investigate the role of the gut microbiome in modulating arterial function with aging. To approach this objective, I will carry out two experimental studies: 1) mouse-to mouse transplant of gut microbiota...
Climate Science from Space: Synergies for a greener innovation economy Conference The Portuguese Presidency, with the support of the European Commission, and in coherence with national strategic priorities aims organising an event entitled: Climate Science from Space: Synergies for a greener innovation economy. This event (conference) is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education underlying issues of major relevance to the Societal Challenge Climate Action. Hence, featuring innovation and technologies towards clean transformation with the aim of providing an appropriate balance between environmental, economic and social elements. The concept dovetails with the 18-month Trio...