Fluids play a critical role in the evolution and chemical modification of the Earth’s crust. They control heat and mass transfer, mineral reactions, and deformation processes. The movement and physio/chemical interaction of aqueous geofluids with rocks in the Earth’s upper crust is thereby fundamental for critical raw material mineralisation and the formation of geothermal fluid flow systems. With the rapidly increasing global demand for raw materials, the EU faces significant challenges regarding its dependencies on access to raw materials. Fluid movement in the upper crust is, by its nature, controlled by an interaction of physical and chemical processes that can operate from the tectonic plate to the microscopic ‘rock grain’ scales. Fully understanding these complex systems inherently requires a multidisciplinary/multiscale approach using cutting edge structural geology, mineralogy/petrology, geochemical and geophysical tools. ForMovFluid proposes to adopt new and existing laboratory and field techniques in these geoscience sub-disciplines to address key knowledge gaps related to fluid flow drivers, pathways, and fluid/rock reactions. In doing so, the objective of ForMovFluid is to train 15 doctoral researchers in cutting edge geoscience field and laboratory techniques and broader professional skills to develop future leaders in the field. This will contribute significantly to addressing the climate emergency by developing novel solutions for the energy transition that hinges on enhanced access to hydrothermal-hosted critical metal deposits, as highlighted in the EU Critical Raw Materials Act. The aims of ForMovFluid are to further our understanding of the movement and physio/chemical interaction of aqueous fluids with rocks in a variety of tectonic settings in the Earth’s upper crust, and to establish a long-term pan-sector research network that will go on to contribute to European geofluid research and to underpin Europe’s raw material and geothermal sectors.

The EMSODEV general objective is to catalyse the full operations of the EMSO distributed Research Infrastructure, through the development and deployment of the EMSO Generic Instrument Module (EGIM). EGIM will provide accurate, consistent, comparable, long-term measurements of ocean parameters, which are key to addressing urgent societal and scientific challenges (e.g. climate change and hazards). This will lead to an increased interoperability of EMSO nodes and to the common collection of ocean essential variable time series. The specific objectives are: (1) to design and implement a state-of-the-art, standardized multidisciplinary EGIM, a common, harmonized, observation system; (2) to fully test, calibrate, validate and assess the effectiveness of this innovative module in order to ensure its maximum quality, long-term durability, and reliability; (3) to strengthen the data management and delivery backbone of the EMSO RI; this will require a coordinated approach to data capture, archiving, management, and delivery, in turn spurring the development of a wide range of data products and services; (4) to promote the uptake of the project results and public-private partnerships establishing links with industry and SMEs for technology transfer. These objectives will be achieved through: (a) Research & Innovation activities focused on the design, development, test, replication and deployment of EGIMs at EMSO nodes and data management system implementation; (b) Communication, dissemination and exploitation activities aimed at disseminating and facilitating the uptake of the project results, and setting up activities to increase the innovation potential of EMSODEV technological output, and to explore EGIM commercialization. All these activities are in line with those listed in the part B of the section “Specific features for Research Infrastructures”. The consortium includes 11 multi-skilled partners, with two industries, ensuring the fulfilment of the objectives.

To reduce the total cost of low enthalpy geothermal systems by 20-30 % the project will improve actual drilling/installation technologies and designs of Ground Source Heat Exchangers (GSHE’s). This will be combined with an holistic approach for optimum selection, design and implementation of complete systems across different underground and climate conditions. The proposal will focus on one hand on the development of more efficient and safe shallow geothermal systems and the reduction of the installation costs. This will be realized by improving drastically an existing, innovative vertical borehole installation technology of coaxial steel GSHE and by developing a helix type GSHE with a new, innovative installation methodology. These GSHE’s will be installed to a depth of 40 – 50 meters ensuring improved safety and faster permitting. On the other hand, the proposal will develop a decision support (DSS) and other design tools covering the geological aspects, feasibility and economic evaluations based on different plant set-up options, selection, design, installation, commissioning and operation of low enthalpy geothermal systems . These tools will be made publicly available on the web to users, including comprehensive training to lower the market entry threshold. Given that drilling and GSHE technologies are mature but costly, this holistic approach is included in the proposal to bring the overall cost of the total project down, i.e. not just the cost of the GSHE itself but the avoidance of ground response tests, the engineering costs for the design of the GSHE and the integration of heat pumps with building heating and cooling systems. Also the use of novel the heat pumps for higher temperatures developed within the project will reduce the costs in the market for retrofitting buildings. The developments will be demonstrated in six sites with different undergrounds in different climates whilst the tools will be applied to several virtual demo cases.

The coastal area is the most productive and dynamic environment of the world ocean with significant resources and services for mankind. JERICO-NEXT (33 organizations from 15 countries) emphasizes that the complexity of the coastal ocean cannot be well understood if interconnection between physics, biogeochemistry and biology is not guaranteed. Such an integration requires new technological developments allowing continuous monitoring of a larger set of parameters. In the continuity of JERICO(FP7), the objective of JERICO-NEXT consists in strengthening and enlarging a solid and transparent European network in providing operational services for the timely, continuous and sustainable delivery of high quality environmental data and information products related to marine environment in European coastal seas Other objectives are: Support European coastal research communities, enable free and open access to data, enhance the readiness of new observing platform networks by increasing the performance of sensors, showcase of the adequacy of the so-developed observing technologies and strategies, propose a medium-term roadmap for coastal observatories through a permanent dialogue with stakeholders. Innovation JERICO-NEXT is based of a set of technological and methodological innovations. One main innovation potential is to provide a simple access to a large set of validated crucial information to understand the global change in coastal areas. Although JERICO-NEXT already includes industrial partners, it will be open to other research institutes, laboratories and private companies which could become associated partners to the project. Added values of JERICO NEXT JERICO-RI shall send data and information in an operational mode to European data systems, with dedicated service access. One of the strengths of JERICO-NEXT lies in the fact that technological and methodological developments shall be deployed in natural environment.