"We believe that peer learning, i.e. learning with and from each other, is one of the most important forms of learning. The aim of the XP2P-project is to implement peer-to-peer learning during a semester/module for post-graduate students in mechatronics, connected to the implementation of a suitable Competency Portfolio Assessment for guidance and documentation of the progress. Project-based learning in combination with this innovative approach on peer-to-peer learning will allow the students to acquire improved cross-functional skills such as:- social skills (coordinating with others, negotiation, persuasion, training and teaching others), - resource management skills (management of materials resources, time management),- systems skills (judgement and decision-making, systems analysis), - technical skills.Mechatronics is usually defined as a synergistic and integrated process of several sciences and skills (among which control and computer sciences, electronics, mechanics). It allows to conceive products and systems with augmented or improved functionality and it requires to consider the conception of the product or system in its overall lifecycle in a cooperative interdisciplinary approach.With the learning methodology examined in XP2P, peer-to-peer learning can act as a motivational instrument to gradually enhance the interest of current and future engineering students in mechatronics. The expected impact of the XP2P-project on our organisations is to gradually loosen itself from traditional teaching patterns and show possibilities beyond. On the market, different models of peer learning already exist. One of them is the model in which senior students tutor junior students. Another one is formation of partnerships in which students in the same year assist each other. Other models involved discussion seminars, private study groups, a buddy system or counselling, peer assessment schemes, collaborative project or laboratory work, projects in different sized (cascading) groups, workplace mentoring and community activities [D. Boud, ""Making the move to peer learning""].Our project proposal involves the set-up of innovative learning and teaching practice in mechatronics at master level. Special attention is given to the documentation and guidance of the learning process by a Competency Portfolio Assessment. To meet this need, our consortium aims at setting up peer-to-peer learning and project-based learning during a study semester/module thanks to collaborative projects proposed by partners’ staffs or by their partner companies. This study semester/module is one of the Intellectual Outputs of the project. Peer learning is an active learning method, and a student-centered instructional method in which students learn from each other. In our project, peer-to-peer learning (and teaching) will take place between master’s students themselves as they originate from different scientific background (mechanics, electronics, control science, computer science, mechatronics) and from different countries. 30 ECTS will be allotted to the semester, 10 to 20 ECTS being devoted to peer-to-peer learning (10 ECTS for HSKL and UTCN, and 20 ECTS for USMB). Peer-to-peer learning will take place in every learning mode and will use digital platforms such as Moodle and OLAT.Linked to this aim, our objective is first the integration of didactic tools and methods in the context of peer-to-peer teaching and learning through project-based learning, customization of learning pathways and their corresponding teaching and assessment methods as well as the definition of the corresponding relevant reference competency framework in mechatronics. We identify 3 target groups in our project. First, the master students in mechatronics involved in this programme will gain skills and competencies positive for their employability and for their potential employers. Second, the involved teaching staffs will increase their teaching skills by facing this challenging way of student-centered teaching, by working in crossed environment: several disciplines and students from different countries with different backgrounds and “student cultures”. Third, employers and laboratories will benefit from the increased competencies of graduated students in complex and collaborative problem solving. As a result, the institutions involved in the project will gain a strategic expertise in mechatronics peer-to-peer teaching and learning on a European scale. The international perspective will be necessary to implement and validate different ways of teaching and of learning and to obtain generic results which will be transferable in other higher education institutions.Finally, it is our goal to widely share the results of the XP2P-project into the academic community as part of our individual strategies for improving the universities’ reputation."

Polyurethane (PUR) products, which include foams for building, construction, automotive and furniture and bedding, are petroleum-based and usually lack important properties. The need for sustainability in these industries leads to the development of cost-efficient processes and sustainable added-value products from low carbon footprint materials. The main objective of BIOMAT is to establish an Open Innovation Test Bed (TB) for the benefit of industries and SMEs, aiming to facilitate the cross-border partnership and accelerate innovation in nano-enabled bio-based insulation materials for these industries. Through the creation of a Single-Entry Point (SEP), SMEs and other industrial parties will have open access at a competitive price to physical facilities (pilot production lines) and services (characterisation, nanosafety, standardisation/regulation, business/marketing plans as well as technological and business-oriented mentoring) which will be focused on manufacturing and testing of nanoparticle-enabled functional PUR-based foams for the above mentioned industrial sectors. The SEP will follow all EC guidelines related to the establishment of new entities providing services through different testbeds across Europe. BIOMAT ecosystem will cover the entire Value Chain (VC) from fundamental biomaterials and functional nanoparticles to the final products and their proof of concept in an industrial environment, thus accelerating the market uptake of the new nano-enabled sustainable bio-based products. BIOMAT will, therefore, fill the existing gaps in the VC of these industrial sectors, by providing new services and support at different levels the use of such materials in these key industries.

BatCAT is the project that realizes the manufacturability programme from the BATTERY 2030+ Roadmap, creating a digital twin for battery manufacturing that integrates data-driven and physics-based methods. It develops a cross-chemistry data space for two technologies, (1) Li-ion and Na-ion coin cells and (2) redox flow batteries, addressing a triple challenge in digital manufacturing: (i) Design, (ii) operation, and (iii) trust. (i) By improved product and process design and optimization, product quality and process efficiency increase. This requires decision support that makes complex decision problems accessible to human decision makers. The digital twin technology from BatCAT provides an interpretable industrial decision support system (IIDSS) based on multicriteria optimization. Surrogate modelling connects the high-level analysis firmly to ground-truth data. (ii) Process operation and control is improved by acquiring and analysing sensory and operando data at real time, facilitating live interventions within an Industry 5.0 real-time environment. BatCAT follows a rigorous approach to actionable modelling, combining data-driven methods with deductive reasoning based on ontologies and formal methods (answer set programming and BPMN-based model checking) to guarantee a reliable behaviour. (iii) The approach from BatCAT produces trustworthy models: Machine learning always retains a clearly characterized connection to the ground truth, and any decision support or decision making from inductive reasoning is safeguarded by constraints through formal deductive reasoning. All our models and methods are explainable, and all our data are FAIR and explainable-AI-ready (XAIR). The digital twin is validated in pilot production lines for (1) coin cells and (2) redox flow batteries, proving its transferability across chemistries. The project is closely connected to the Advanced Materials 2030 Initiative, BIG-MAP and BATTERY 2030+, BEPA, DigiPass CSA, EOSC, EMMC, and the Knowledge Graph Alliance, ensuring a community and industry uptake of the results.

New lightweight High-Performance Composite (HPC) materials and efficient sustainable processing technologies will have an enormous environmental and performance benefit in all sectors of application. However, current sustainable HPC application is limited to large sectors due to their limitations in terms of long processing times, high prices and low recyclability. To overcome these limitations, r-LightBioCom propose a paradigm shift in the way HPC are manufactured and recycled, unlocking sustainable-by-design production of lightweight HPC. Therefore, the project will enable new circular value chains towards r-LightBioCom results, contributing to environmental-related EU goals and reducing the HPC waste generation and the use of non-sustainable fossil resources. To this end, a sustainable catalogue of new advanced biobased and recycled HPC materials will be initially developed with inherent recyclability properties (at least 3 new types of bio-resins, 4 new biomass-derived nanofillers and additives, and 3 families of sustainable fibre-based textile products). To reduce current associated manufacturing costs and high energy consumptions and emissions, efficient processing techniques will be developed (2 new fast curing techniques) combined with recycling technologies for the new catalogue of materials to reduce waste generation and induce circularity. A new open method and related tools (Coupled Ecological Optimisation framework) will promote and standardise holistic sustainable HPC design, modelling and systematic optimisation, leading to continuous sustainable catalogue growth and inclusion of new families of biobased, recyclable lightweight HPC at competitive cost. All results will be validated in 3 use cases at automotive, infrastructure and aeronautic industries with specific business cases, contributing to establishing new resilient, sustainable and innovative value chains in the EU HPC industry, promoting a change of paradigm from linear to circular ones.

Waste2BioComp project aims to demonstrate relevant scale production of bio-based products and materials, as alternatives to traditional materials with high environmental footprint, using innovative manufacturing technologies. The project integrates all stages in the bio-based products´ life cycle, starting from R&I activities regarding the sourcing of feedstocks for the development of bio-based precursors and intermediate materials, smart inkjet printing techniques, and smart manufacturing technologies for final products, and the final demonstrators, which will entail the production on a relevant scale of the following bio-based products: shoe sole materials with different hardness; three-layered shoe insoles; plastic films/packaging with different flexibilities; social face masks; fashion garments printed with bio-based inks; leather and textile shoes printed with bio-based inks; paper for packaging printed with bio-based inks. Waste2BioComp will also develop sustainability and toxicity assessments to the developed materials and products, as well as re-manufacturing and recycling approaches to ensure circularity by closing the material loop. Furthermore, the project will develop dedicated training activities to support the creation of a skilled workforce in biomaterial-based manufacturing sectors, particularly for the textile, footwear, and packaging activities. Therefore, Waste2BioComp will have a significative impact on the reduction of the use of fossil-based materials, not only in the approached three value chains (textiles, packaging, and footwear), which are highly resource and polluting intensive sectors, but also with potential for several other sectors and applications. The project will run for 36 months, and it will be constituted by 13 partners from France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.