The IM-TWIN project aims to develop some of the outcomes of the FET GOAL-Robots project towards market exploitation. The basic-research FET GOAL-Robots project aimed to study how intrinsic motivations (“curiosity”) drive exploration and learning in children, and how such processes can be used to develop innovative autonomous robots. This led to conceive the idea that intrinsic motivations can be used to build engaging interactive robots usable for the treatment of children with developmental disorders, in particular within the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD is a condition with dramatic importance for the well-being of society as it affects about 1 out of 10 newborns in developed countries. We thus developed a “wearable companion robot”, usable for the treatment and daily support of ASD, called PlusMe, now at the stage of prototype. The IM-TWIN project has two sets of objectives. The first is to develop a highly-modular system pivoting on the PlusMe, called the IM-TWIN, addressing the needs of the market segment involving ASD therapy centres and, potentially, families with ASD children: this involves endowing the PlusMe with intelligent behaviour, equipping it with additional embedded biosensors and cameras for detecting the child’s affective/emotional state, and integrating all components as a whole IoT system. The second set of objectives aims to validate the device and its components with target stakeholders, and to carry out a number of activities directed to advance the system components to a higher Technological Readiness Level (TRL7 for the PlusMe): this involves identifying the target groups and analysing ASD-related markets, refining and implementing an effective IPR strategy, planning the steps for individual and collective exploitation of the project outcomes, and finally creating a startup for the exploitation of the IM-TWIN system and its components. IM-TWIN will also foster the development of a lively high-tech research and application ecosystem.

Plastics are strategic materials for several key sectors and the rethinking of plastics within the circular economy concept is pivotal for a more sustainable and resource efficient Europe. In particular, composites and thermosets, materials of choice for applications where long-term use and mechanical resistance are critical, cannot be mechanically re-processed since at elevated temperature they do not flow but degrade. A powerful new strategy to produce reprocessable cross-linked polymers is the functionalization of the polymer matrix with cross-links able to reverse or exchange at elevated temperatures. These covalent adaptable networks (CANs), also known as vitrimers, are able to shuffle chemical bonds through exchange reactions at high temperature, allowing for material reprocessing. To fully exploit the potential of vitrimers in high-end consumer goods, their properties need to be tailored to the specific application by embedding functional additives. Moreover, to accomplish vitrimer circularisation, such properties must also be preserved upon recycling. The VIT proposal intends to engineer vitrimers by endowing these polymers with highly desired functional optical and electrical properties, which are retained after recycling, fulfilling the circular economy paradigm “use-reuse-repair-recycle”. The VIT network gathers the expertise required to tackle this timely challenge. The consortium is composed of 10 high-level academic research groups from 3 different continents (Europe, America, Asia) and 2 highly innovative companies. By the seconding of 97 ERs/ERSs across Europe and worldwide, the aim is to capitalize on the consortium expertise in the chemistry and processing of functional materials to develop a new generation of advanced functional vitrimers able to satisfy the stringent requirements of reprocessability while preserving their properties.

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is not just an annoyance. With increasing numbers of safety-critical devices communicating wirelessly, ensuring that equipment functions correctly is an ever-increasing concern. Nowhere is this more true than hospital environments. Europe is a leader in many areas of medical technology, with companies like Philips at the forefront of research. However, with highly complex interactions between devices becoming the norm, guaranteeing safety requires that we start to assess new equipment using a risk-based approach rather than the conventional rules-based approach, a method that is increasing inappropriate for harsh EMI environments. The ETERNITY ETN will train 14 ESRs through a combination of research, doctoral schools, network-wide events and secondments at the Participants, which include 7 Beneficiaries (4 academic and 3 from industry) and 5 Partner Organisations from across Europe. In combination, these Participants can offer the ESRs research training that is international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral. The 14 ESRs are set to benefit from excellent supervision, with a triple-supervisor system that combines leading researchers from academia and industry, and to have access to some of Europe's finest research facilities. The training programme on offer will go beyond the needs of the ESRs in terms of technical hands-on training and taught courses focusing on the necessary aspects of engineering, with a wide range of complementary and transferrable-skills training that will equip them for their future careers in academia, industry, the public sector or, perhaps, their own start-up. ETERNITY is about maximising opportunities; giving the ESRs the chance to really benefit from a carefully crafted research-training programme; and allowing them to learn and develop as individuals who will make a difference to a vitally important area in terms of people’s safety and well-being in an increasingly technologically complex world.

RAPID-MIX brings together 3 leading research institutions with 4 dynamic creative industries SMEs and 1 leading wearable technology SME in a technology transfer consortium to bring to market innovative interface products for music, gaming, and e-Health applications. RAPID-MIX uses an intensely user-centric development process to gauge industry pull and end-user desire for new modes of interaction that integrate physiological human sensing, gesture and body language, and smart information analysis and adaptation. Physiological biosignals (EEG, EMG) are used in multimodal hardware configurations with motion sensors and haptic actuators. Advanced machine learning software adapts to expressive human variation, allowing fluid interaction and personalized experience. An iterative, rapid development cycle of hardware prototyping, software development, and application integration accelerates the availability of advanced interface technologies to industry partners. An equally user-centric evaluation phase assures market validation and end-user relevance and usability, feeding back to subsequent design cycles and informing ultimate market deployment. The RAPID-MIX consortium leverages contemporary dissemination channels such as crowd funding, industry trade shows, and contributions to the DIY community to raise awareness across the professional and consumer landscapes of novel interface technologies. Project output is encapsulated in an Open Source RAPID-API exposing application level access to software libraries, hardware designs, and middleware layers. This will enable creative partner SMEs to build a new range of products called Multimodal Interactive eXpressive systems (MIX). It also allows broader industries such as quantified self, and DIY communities, to use the API in their own products in cost effective ways. This assures the legacy of RAPID-MIX and marks its contribution to European competitiveness in rapidly evolving markets for embodied interaction technologies.