Envisioned battery demand of 735 GWh for electric mobility by 2025, escalating to a projected 125 million Electric Vehicles (EVs) by 2033, fuels our impetus for innovation. However, these prospects are marred by real safety concerns, evidenced by 2 harrowing ship fires involving luxury EVs, despite adherence to the most stringent safety protocols. SAFELOOP is a collaborative effort involving 15 entities from 11 countries, representing a blend of research, manufacturing, and business across Europe. Transatlantic partners are joining forces to bolster competitive material-level technologies and supply chain logistics. Key goals include securing strategic raw material feedstock, reducing reliance on Asian supply chains, intensifying environmental sustainability, optimizing energy-efficient processing, and demonstrating technological leadership. SAFELOOP’s focal point is Gen3 EU EV Li-Ion Battery (LIB) safety, encompassing the entire life cycle of LIBs within EVs. Safety is considered in a broader sense, not just at a cell level, while the latter remains a key pillar of the research at hand. To name a few, material handling, component processing, battery manufacturing, testing, transport, maintenance, and recycling of active materials are considered. A Eurocentric supply chain for EV-grade battery materials will be established, minimizing the environmental and cost impact of long-distance transportation. SAFELOOP ensures that batteries and their components adhere to EU safety and environmental regulations. Beyond enhancing EU battery safety, the project seeks to develop the world's first EV-rated LIB using up to 25% recycled and fully rejuvenated battery-active materials. This initiative paves the way for an ambitious industry-wide recycling target of 90% within the next decade, akin to today's lead-acid battery industry's 95% recycling rate. These ecologically responsible solutions address key aspects of automotive battery safety within the EU and beyond.

The project builds on an existing community linked to ISPIM Society focused on innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) – a theme of central interest in EU as a source of employment and growth. The consortium consists of industrial partners (Nokia Networks, Lufthansa, Torbay Hospital, AachenMuenchener, BMW, Lego) and academics who share a concern with the question:How do we improve on current I&E teaching, coaching and training?While many organizations offer courses that focus on I&E we know these often fail to stimulate a step change in student abilities. Learners know they should act, but training does not enable this and whilst they gain considerable ‘explicit’ knowledge, they fail with ‘TACIT’ element that helps them to apply it. We suggest this is partly due to the mode of delivery and there is a need for new and innovative approaches that embrace learning as a generative iteration of knowledge and knowing through doing, making and relating:• recognise different modes of learning; for many practitioners classroom style approaches do not work effectively• promote experiential learning offering different ways of closing the learning cycle between theory and practice• create skills-based learning placing emphasis on what individuals in organizations can actually do rather than focusing only on structures and processes to enable innovation• assure practice-based learning: allowing capability development through experimentation and prototyping• build on core I&E principles around which individuals configure solutions to work in their own corporate contextThe objective of this project is to combine the efforts of business and university educators to create new learner-centred teaching methods, open up new learning opportunities and develop the practical application of entrepreneurial skills. This will be framed as an innovative teaching module to be embedded in the existing curricula of higher education institutions and in the corporate training programs.

IMPACT is a practice-based, sustainability-oriented, and result-driven project aiming to advance Europe’s capacity and effectiveness in training and teaching sustainability-oriented innovation and entrepreneurship (SOIE). The ambition of the project is to drive innovation and entrepreneurship based on values of corporate sustainability, and to facilitate organisation-wide cultural change toward more sustainable innovation processes. With its explicit focus on sustainability, IMPACT makes a unique contribution to effectively translating Europe’s new growth strategy presented in the “Green Deal” into an innovative educational program and business practice.More specifically, IMPACT brings together leaders from industry, academia and innovation ecosystems to:I. empirically generate, aggregate, exchange and disseminate knowledge about good practices and methods in SOIEII. facilitate values-based and sustainability-oriented innovation and entrepreneurship practices and methods that help to establish a sustainability-oriented innovation culture III. create advanced education methods and real problem-based materials to teach and learn SOIE IMPACT builds on the results of previous projects and draws on the experience of innovation scholars and practitioners to generate actionable insights for students, young entrepreneurs and industrial partners striving to make a positive impact on society as a whole. The main outcomes of the project are: I) a database of concrete examples and best practices for enhancing sustainability; II) facilitation methods toolkit for enabling the effective involvement of internal and external stakeholders in innovation-related activities, as well as the collaborative review and redefinition of cultural routines, implicit values and hidden assumptions; and III) methods for teaching and coaching SOIE toolkit, which includes a module on Sustainable Innovation Practices (12 ECTS) for professional development and elective university courses.

Microscopic plastic debris, so-called microplastics (MP), pose a global challenge. As most plastic is produced and used inland, the considerable lack of knowledge on their sources and impacts in freshwater ecosystems inhibits effective mitigation measures. To meet this challenge, LimnoPlast will for the first time bring together environmental, technical, and social sciences with the vision to transform a new understanding of freshwater MP to innovative solutions. LimnoPlast will: - Train a new type of scientists able to tackle the complex plastics issue holistically and contribute to Europe’s innovation and Circular Economy capacity. Working at the interface of three usually very distant disciplines, they will promote a step change in how we deal with this and future environmental challenges. - Provide the first comprehensive assessment of the sources and impacts of freshwater MP based on the analysis of three major urban areas as hotspots of plastic pollution. - Innovate technological solutions to the plastics issue, including novel processes to remove MP from municipal and industrial wastewater as well as bio-degradable, environmentally sound polymers. - Promote societal change by understanding the economic, legislative and social context of freshwater MP. - Transform science into a set of specific solutions, including (I) the prioritization of actions based on the sources and impacts of MP, development of (II) better processes and polymers, (III) risk communication strategies and societal interventions, (IV) effective policy and legislative interventions. - Transfer the LimnoPlast outcomes to European decision makers, stakeholders and the public to enable and promote action on freshwater MP using an innovative communication and dissemination strategy.

Invasive mechanical ventilation (MV) is one of the most important and life-saving therapies in the intensive care unit (ICU). In most severe cases, when MV alone is insufficient, extracorporeal lung support (ELS) is initiated. However, MV is recognised as potentially harmful, because inappropriate MV settings in ICU patients are associated with organ damage, contributing to disease burden. Studies revealed that MV is often not properly provided despite clear evidence and guidelines. Furthermore, treatment decisions by the healthcare providers, especially regarding MV and ELS, often remain incomprehensible to the patients and their relatives, since flow of information from caregivers to patients is challenged by a number of factors, including limited time and resources, communication problems as well as patients? capacity to comprehend and memorise information. The project proposed herein aims at clinically validating and extending our IntelliLung Artificial Intelligence Decision Support System (AI-DSS) designed to optimise MV and ELS settings to improve the care of ICU patients, alongside caregiver-patient communication. Thereby, best practice evidence-based MV and ELS within safer therapy corridors for longer periods, faster weaning from MV, and improved survival could be achieved - even in non-experienced hands. Additionally, this project will improve the information flow from caregivers to patients and relatives in the ICU setting. Therefore, we will develop a digital solution that allows automatic generation of an extensive plain-language information package for patients and their relatives, communicating highly individualised information on diseases and knowledge-based disease-management strategies, thus facilitating high-quality current and subsequent care through health literacy empowerment and patient-centredness. We will perform a retrospective and prospective multi-centre study to validate our IntelliLung AI-DSS and the patient information software.