The growth of cities, impacts of climate change and the massive cost of providing new infrastructure provide the impetus for this proposal – entitled Training in Reducing Uncertainty in Structural Safety (TRUSS) – which will maximize the potential of infrastructure that already exists. If flaws in a structure can be identified early, the cost of repair will be vastly reduced, and here an effective monitoring system would allow identifying the optimum time to repair as well as improving structural safety. But safety is difficult to quantify and requires a deep understanding of the uncertainty associated to measurements and models for the structure and the loads. TRUSS will gather this understanding by bringing together an intersectoral and multidisciplinary collaboration between 4 Universities, 11 Industry participants and 1 research institute from 6 European countries. The consortium will combine and share expertise to offer training at an advanced level as new concepts for monitoring, modelling and reliability analysis of structures are emerging all the time. TRUSS will make knowledge of structural safety grow by incorporating these emerging technologies (hi-tech monitoring and manufacturing, computing, etc.) into the training programme and it will support job creation by enabling a wider talent pool of skilled and accredited engineering graduates with business, entrepreneurship, communication, project management and other transferrable skills. The training programme will be structured into taught modules combined with original research supported by secondments that will expose 14 fellows to both academia and industry. While developing tools that will reduce uncertainty in structural safety and improve infrastructure management, TRUSS will lay the basis for an advanced doctoral programme that will qualify graduates for dealing with the challenges of an aging European infrastructure stock, thereby enhancing their career prospects in both industry and academia.

The goal of UrbanAIR is to develop a new digital twin that supports decision-makers in urban areas to deal with urban design dilemmas in atmospheric heat and air quality to maximise the health and socio-economic well-being of its citizens affected by climate change. It will provide critical tools for climate adaptation and hazard control through urban design and planning, including very high-resolution model components of the urban atmosphere. UrbanAIR is designed by a consortium that covers the full value chain to revolutionize digital twin platforms by starting from the perspective of the end user. Through co-creation with the end users and a balanced evaluation of the decision criteria, the overall objective of UrbanAIR is to yield a dynamic, user-friendly infrastructure integrated into the Destination Earth infrastructure that empowers municipalities and industries to face urgent urban climate risks. The scales in the atmospheric models in UrbanAIR cover the full range from the regional to the neighbourhood level. This innovative multiscale approach is achieved through the development of software interfaces for the modular coupling of atmospheric models. AI-based emulators allow for the acceleration of these computationally expensive models, which, together with the application of advanced data assimilation techniques, allows the quantification of risks and uncertainties for the UrbanAIR scenarios. Corresponding behavioural models simulate the human response to changes in climate and associated hazards. The resulting scenarios form the input to the objective evaluation of the criteria for decision-making. With these science-based tools for scenario simulation of natural and human behaviour, reliable risk assessment, and balanced decision analysis, UrbanAIR will develop tools and the infrastructure to support decision-makers in cities. This will pave the way for effective climate adaptation by developing tools for a safer, healthier, and more resilient future.

RobetArme will deliver a human-robot collaborative construction system for the automation of shotcrete (i.e. concrete spray casting), which is an emerging technology in construction domain. A multitasking Inspection-Reconnaissance mobile manipulator-IRR (ROB) will fuse the latest Geotechnical models (BIM/CIM) (DTT), high-density visual data and semantic SLAM (CERTH) representations to automate modelling and fast reconstruction (DTU) of the surface to be shotcreted. IRR will facilitate rebar reinforcement through metal additive manufacturing (ANIMA) capitalizing on its precise repair skills (EPFL). The Shotcrete and Finishing mobile manipulator ?SFR (COBOD) will apply dexterous concrete placement through closed-loop visual guidance methods, suitable for turbid conditions (KUL). Concrete mix-design and study on innovative reinforced cementitious materials (TITAN) will contribute to the reduction of materials? and water waste during shotcrete. The SFR robot equipped with universal tool changing (ROB) will also automate the surface finishing step through delicate and human-like robot manipulations, enabled from a safety operation toolkit that includes physical human-robot collaboration and human-aware navigation (CERTH). A Digital Twin (DTT) coupled with simulation tools (SDU), advanced decision making (ICE) and task planning (CERTH) skills will facilitate fast and greener shotcrete automation. RobetArme will be evaluated (DS4) on four diverse construction sites, i.e. tunnels/culverts (BYCN), bridges posttensioned boxes (ARUP), beams & piles of buildings (CEAS) and ground support walls (BYCN), assessing its autonomous shotcreting abilities. RobetArme will substantially increase the repair/maintenance automation, will foster adoption of robots in Construction 4.0 era (EFF), while it will increase construction productivity providing flexibility to the maintenance personnel, contribution to standards (UNI) and better quality to their workplaces (MORE).

Drastic decrease in transport emissions of 55% by 2030 and 90% by 2050 is required for European cities to reach climate neutrality. This is hindered by inconvenient mobility infrastructure, inadequate services and insufficient governance for short-distance travel, negatively impacting active modes’ safety and security. REALLOCATE’s main objective is to pave the way towards climate-neutral, safe, inclusive and smart European cities through integrated and innovative sustainable urban mobility solutions that will address the needs of diverse groups and communities, while rebalancing street space allocation. The project will empower 10 twinned Mission Cities (Gothenburg-Tampere, Heidelberg-Utrecht, Lyon-Warsaw, Budapest-Zagreb, Barcelona-Bologna) by providing horizontal thematic expertise, supporting them to build a local innovation ecosystem to develop and deploy zero-emission, shared, inclusive, active and human-centred mobility interventions. Pilots in 15 urban and peri-urban unsafe areas will demonstrate innovative urban space management and reallocation strategies for sustainable modes (with a specific focus on active modes), having in mind safety, inclusivity, affordability and a just transition to climate neutrality overall. Solutions include innovative urban design, behavioural nudging, smart technological and data-driven solutions to reduce actual and perceived road safety risks, all contributing to achieving climate neutrality by 2030. The pilots will be the learning and testing environments for integrated approaches to foster knowledge transfer and collaborative learning to staff in cities through mentoring and capacity building, knowledge exchange, twinning and work shadowing. The project’s impact will be exponentially increased by engaging 10 Cascade Cities in capacity building activities, and providing them with replication packages and guidelines resulting in implementation plans for replicating at least one of the innovative solutions piloted.

RES4BUILD will develop renewable-eneRRES4BUILD develops renewable energy-based solutions for decarbonising the energy used in buildings. The approach of the project is flexible, so that the solutions are applicable to a wide variety of buildings, new or renovated, tailored to their size, their type and the climatic zones of their location. In the heart of the solution lies an innovative multi-source heat pump with a cascading configuration, including a magnetocaloric (bottom cycle) and a vapour compression heat pump (top cycle). The heat pump will be combined with other technologies in tailored made solutions that suit the specific needs of each building. These technologies will be selected on a case by case basis from a mix of standard equipment available in the market and from innovative components that will be specifically explored within the project. The innovative technologies include innovative collectors that integrate in one panel photovoltaic cells and solar thermal energy collectors (PV/T) and borehole thermal energy storage (BTES). For all solutions, advanced modelling and control approaches will be developed and will be integrated in a Building Energy Management System, allowing the users to select their objectives and to optimise the use of the system accordingly, allowing the activation of demand response and the exploitation of the full value of smart appliances and smart charging of electric vehicles. The project adopts a co-development methodology, where the end-users and other relevant stakeholders are engaged in an interactive process, where a RES$BUILD system is designed for their buildings with their active participation. In parallel, a full life cycle assessment and life cycle costing analysis will be carried out, showing from an early stage the real impact of each proposed design. The diverse consortium and the dedicated exploitation tasks will connect the project with the market, paving the way for wide application of the developed solutions.