Existing EU policies aiming on strengthening and growth are mainly focused on new developments, omitting investments in inspection and maintenance operations due to traditionally high costs. To overtake this, VORTEX aims to commercialize the Vortex Robot (VR) technology developed in Η2020 FETOPEN CompInnova, which will increase the inspection efficiency in terms of lower execution times, lower operational costs and higher worker safety. VORTEX will focus on the creation of its brand name and expand the dissemination/communication activities implemented in CompInnova to focused industrial events and wider media/press channels, for maximizing societal and market acceptance of autonomous multi-robot systems tackling inspection and maintenance tasks. VORTEX will use as the base the identified aerospace maintenance market and the end-users/customer base formed during CompInnova from within the aerospace industry, to expand on potential stakeholders and customers in wider inspection and maintenance areas. Through the implementation of a commercialization plan, analysis of potential markets, technology assessment and consolidation of intellectual property rights, the envisioned activities will lead to the development of the VORTEX business case. The planned dissemination and exploitation activities will stimulate the formation of an open and proactive mindset towards exploiting innovative tools in infrastructure inspection and maintenance, which are beyond the technical capabilities of existing companies, for addressing the demands for higher human safety and reduced downtime costs.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Green Charter guides all the researchers and the academic community to work towards a greener and better future. Therefore, the current action is appropriate and timely as it is primarily dependent on the reduction of the excessive amount of carbon footprints, generated through the huge number of fossil-based experiments conducted to observe the suitability of structural materials for different applications and denoting fire-ratings. The project will focus on introducing fossil-free electric heating (inductive/resistive) for different structural materials and compare the results to the established fossil-based ones. The aim being to prove that fossil-free methods can also help in providing the required information on different structural materials, resulting in possible standardisation of the same. Acceptance and proper functioning of the method will substantially help in reducing the use of fossils, specifically propane, and in working towards a more sustainable environment. Furthermore, the process will also enable in providing a portable and economical way for research institutes and universities to conduct large-scale experiments on new structural materials. The action will also involve the specification of a method to achieve optimal desired fire-safety in materials, and a renewable wood-based structural composite material that has good mechanical and fire performances. The successful preparation, testing and analysis of the new structural material will further enable the team to file a patent. Additionally, the same material will be used to prepare corrugated and honeycomb sandwiched structures with numerical modelling, that for the first time will capture the influence of the cell sizes on the flammability of the structure.

Additive Manufacturing is one of the most promising technologies under the umbrella of Advanced Manufacturing identified by the European Commission as one of the Key Enabling Technology (KET), which can help achieve EU’s Twin Transition towards a Green and Digital Economy. The global market for additive manufacturing is expected to reach $40.2 billion by 2027, and the market for fatigue-resistant additive manufacturing parts is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4% from 2022 to 2027. The fatigue life of AM parts presents non-negligible discreteness, challenging the fatigue performance evaluation. TUBITAK has advanced infrastructure with significant amount of experience in fatigue tests on different grades of super alloys, particularly Ni based super alloys, but has several weaknesses in the areas addressed in the FatSAM project, mainly lack of simulations expertise both in the simulation of the AM process and in the posterior simulation of the fatigue behaviour of these parts. Leading scientific institutions, CIMNE-CERCA (Spain) and LTU (Sweden) have joined forces to bring expertise in these simulation fields and enhance the research management of TUBITAK by means of a diverse range of initiatives. The partnership encompasses skills acquisition and networking through short-term stays of TUBITAK senior researchers at CIMNE-CERCA and LTU, externships of young researchers at CIMNE-CERCA and LTU, the organization of workshops, short courses, joint participation in conferences and in scientific publications and training on project management and administration for both researchers and supporting staff.