Research has shown that the engineers of the 21st century have to possess more than just state of the art technical knowledge and skills. According to research they will have to be able to tackle complex problems, think outside the box, understand not only the individual technical details, but the overall picture, work in interdisciplinary teams, be creative and innovative, so that they can apply the knowledge in new and exciting ways, manage, motivate and inspire people, adapt to changes. This is not only known from studies and projections, but also from the needs analysis and the feedback from the employers of the graduates of the HE institutions involved. Research and needs analysis of the partner organisations also shows that the educators are not well informed, nor equipped with the competences to successfully implement innovative pedagogies, such as the FCA (Flipped classroom approach), which could allow the use of learning approaches to foster the above mentioned competences, nor is the adoption of the FCA from other fields and levels of education easily and successfully made without analysis of the special needs of the courses, the students and the educators. Needs analysis also showed that the educators also lack the knowledge and information about ICT tools available to support the development of efficient blended learning approaches, including e-content development, learning management systems, opportunities of innovative technologies, like augmented reality. The project PolyFlip aims to build on good practice examples in other disciplines and levels of education, current research findings on this topic and adapt and implement the flipped classroom approach (FCA), to enable and encourage active, student centred and collaborative learning in (Polymer technology) engineering programs. By developing, adapting, piloting, promoting and disseminating the developed concept, e-materials, trainings and case studies, it aims to improve the motivation and the competences of the educators and foster the faster uptake of FCA in partner and other HE institutions, other STEM fields and other countries. This will also raise the competences of the HE institutions to successfully implement other blended learning techniques, which has in light of the COVIS 19 epidemic, found to be very important and challenging.The consortium consists of three HEI with Polymer Technology courses (from Slovenia, Austria and Hungary) and two partners with experiences and know-how in FCA design and implementation, as well as design and implementation of trainings in this topic and in ICT tools available for designing quality e-content and learning paths (from Slovenia and Belgium). The project will deliver and disseminate the following outputs: a new FCA concept for HE science and engineering courses, on-line FCA training course and description, evaluation and dissemination of case studies implemented during the time of the project and presented in the Case study Report. The intellectual outputs will not only be available to partner organisations, but will be disseminated via the project webpage and social media activities as well as at several multiplier events (in all partner countries) to other HEIs and other education institutions as well. They will be available in English, Slovene, German, Dutch and Hungarian, not only fort he duration of the project, but also after its complition. Furthermore the project includes a FCA face to face training, where the involved educators from partner HE institutions will be facilitated in designing the FCA in their courses, including the design of the e-content. The participants will then pilotly implement the courses, which will be presented in the Case study report.With dissemination activities of the project outcomes, educators from other HEIs in partner and nonpartner countries and consequently their students, will benefit as well. With the described, evaluated and presented case studies of the FCA implementation in a variety of very different science and engineering courses and in all partner languages, the educators will be able to relate to the pilot implementation and their outcomes, use the developed freely available tools, which will foster the faster and successful uptake of this innovative pedagogy. This is very important since research has shown that the engineering HE programs are lagging behind other disciplines and levels of education in implementing the FCA approach and that for the approach to yield the desired outcomes, a very important prerequisite is motivating and equipping the educators with the mindset and the didactical, pedagogical and technical skills.Their will be positive impact on research results as well, since most of the research on FCA has been done outside EU and very little research has been done on the HE level and focusing on the impact on educators and not only students.

NIAGARA compiles all the necessary approaches to provide a comprehensive response to the phenomenon of spread of pollution (chemical, microbiological and plastic) from drinking water sources to human exposure, through the Driking Water Treatment Plants. These approaches and their solutions are: (1) Real-time monitoring. NIAGARA will develop multi-analyte biosensors able to quantify simultaneously 4 highly concerning pollutants of very different chemical nature: BPA, imazalil, H. pylori and paracetamol/ibuprofen. Using pre-concentration units, detection limits will reach pg/mL for chemicals and 10-100 viable cells for H. pylori, which are below harmful levels for human exposure. (2) Remediation. A removal and disinfection system based on a tandem formed by two IEDS biofilters (immobilized-enzymes degradation systems) and a UV/TiO2 photoreactor. With this solution, we will achieve total removal of the 4 analytes (concentrations below detection limits of water laboratory techniques) and a Total Organic Carbon removal of >70%, exceeding current State of Art. The DBPs formed will be identified, and their appearance mechanisms and toxicity will be predicted. (3) A fast and cost-effective method for real-time monitoring of the propagation of these 4 contaminants using a hydraulic model that exceeds the performance of current methods (seconds vs weeks, > 60% accuracy). These solutions will be validated up to a pilot scale (TRL=5) in a case study in the city of Valencia, in a DWTP, and using the drinking water supply system of district #9 (Jesús), with the participation of the Municipal Drinking Water Company, and accomplishing safety and sustainability-by-design. Finally, the Communication and Exploitation plan has been specially designed to have an clear projection ouside EU to enhance its competitiveness in the water sector and to foster its position and role in the global water scene, with the participation of previously established EU and non-EU networks.

Within Be-UP project new synthesis and processing routes will be developed for novel aliphatic-aromatic biopolyesters with increased renewable content using biobased building blocks (e.g 1,4 bio-BDO), alongside innovative catalysts and additives. These components will be optimized through advanced digital modelling tools, based on Kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) models, for synthesis and polymerization. These biopolyesters will be blended with commercial biopolymers (e.g., PLA, PBAT, and PHA), biobased chain extenders, and mineral fillers to create bioplastic packaging materials. The design of these blends will employ advanced compounding modelling tools, supported by techniques like screw design and inline rheology measurements, to achieve the target technical performance, sustainability and biodegradation goals using multi-objective function evaluation. Processability will be also a key factor, with a focus on the primary production techniques used in the packaging industry, namely, blown film extrusion, injection moulding and thermoforming. A set of packaging products’ prototypes (TRL7) will be manufactured to validate the developed materials. The biodegradability of these novel products will be assessed in different End-of-life (EoL) scenarios, including open environments and controlled conditions, thus making possible to fill the gap between laboratory conditions and real end-of-life behaviour of these materials. Additionally, the recyclability of the new products will be evaluated. The data and conclusions of these assessments will be useful for: i) the development of guidelines and tools for circular design contributing to the adoption of the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Framework; ii) contributing to improve the standardization framework for testing and labelling of materials and packaging products. Be-UP is expected to replace more than 50,000 tonnes in 2032 of non-biodegradable plastics leading to savings of over 120,000 CO2 eq tonnes yearly.

Global annual consumption of plastics is expected to increase from the current 368 million tons (2019) to 1.1 billion tons in 2050. However, this growth also poses some dangers, such as the increasing amount of plastic waste and a rise in CO2 emissions. One of the ways to tackle these problems is to produce more durable products and to use processing technologies that generate less waste. The IPPT_TWINN project addresses both methods, as more durable products can be manufactured through a better understanding of processing methods and waste can be reduced through the application of new technologies and better waste management. The main objective of IPPT_TWINN is to increase the knowledge of polymer processing at FTPO. This will be achieved both through joint scientific work with 4 partners from 4 EU countries, covering several advanced processing techniques and through the organization of a series of events such as workshops, summer schools, expert visits, etc. However, the project is organized in such a way that not only FTPO, but all four partner institutions will make progress in this area. Although partners knowledge largely overlaps, each is a specialist in a particular field, and together they represent a concentration of knowledge in the whole field of modern polymer processing. The proposed joint research work will improve the research excellence and innovation capacity of researchers at FTPO that will result in more scientific publications in high-impact journals. This will make FTPO more attractive as a partner also for other educational and research institutions. Industry representatives will also be invited to the events to be organized, which will increase the visibility of all partners in the business sector and strengthen cooperation. At last but not least, one of the main goals of the project is to train researchers, especially the young ones, how to find suitable calls, right partners and to prepare and manage excellent project proposals.