Plastic and paper based flexible materials and films are used in a wide range of daily life products e.g. in packaging, furniture surface finish, consumer electronic devices, architecture or in car windows. Applications represent well established multi-billion Euro markets. Key Enabling Technologies for a majority of these applications are based on nano-enabled functionalization of the surfaces. Today, Industry faces game-changing, critical challenges for societal acceptance and economic competitiveness: (1) Overcome plastic waste pollution and follow the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy towards the development of sustainable materials; (2) Keep pace with digitisation and get products ready for integration of smart systems and intelligent products. FlexFunction2Sustain will be the first European Initiative to support the Industry in overcoming these challenges through a sustainable Open Innovation Ecosystem. FlexFunction2Sustain will develop dedicated services to boost innovation for nano-functionalised flexible plastic and paper surfaces and membranes and offer those services to users, in particular SMEs, in all 28 EU countries through an independent single entry point (SEP) legal entity with multiple regional front offices. FlexFunction2Sustain connects complementary pilot lines to a set of 9 connected lab-2-fab facilities covering all major nano-surface processing techniques for (flexible) plastic and paper surfaces and membranes. The facilities and novel surface functionality will be demonstrated in six relevant industrial application scenarios. 20 pre-commercial pilot cases will demonstrate the Services of the FlexFunction2Sustain OITB The FlexFunction2Sustain OITB is prepared to support the client at any point in the innovation chain from TRL4 to TRL7 with and integrated technological, business development and verification/pre-certification service portfolio that helps the client to progress quickly through the innovation chain.

Reduction of embodied emissions is crucial for achieving sustainable and low-carbon building practices. GreeNest creates an ecosystem that integrates CO2 neutral building materials (reused, recycled and locally sourced biogenic materials) and renewable energy sources (abiotic components) into the building design, together with human response and natural/green systems (biotic components) to demonstrate resource efficient construction that needs less materials and implements energy-efficient circular construction practices. The project targets 100% carbon free construction through the application of biogenic materials that store carbon, the reduction of embodied emissions by 50% with respect to NZEB standard, ZEB or even positive energy standards via renewable energy sources with remaining primary energy consumption less than 30-40 kWh/m2, reduction of GHG emissions by 60% and increased productivity of construction by >30%. GreeNest delivers a palette of innovative solutions for new buildings, addressing all stages of the building’s life, from the design stage up to the end of the building’s lifetime and disposal stages (including re-use and recycling of components). It proposes sustainable envelope components based on low carbon and carbon-neutral market mature materials, using on-site renewable energy, reducing waste, enhancing productivity of construction through digitization and demonstrating circular economy principles. The innovative solutions will be fully demonstrated in four real and two virtual new construction projects in five countries using local and regional value chains increasing the potential for replication across Europe. The GreeNest consortium benefits from a strong industrial and commercial involvement with 11 SMEs 1 Large Company 3 Universities, 3 Associations and 2 Public bodies from 8 European countries.

The HyperImage project will be the first initiative to develop a universal, fast, modular and cost-effective spectral image sensing technology platform suitable for both short- and long-range imaging applications. To achieve that, HyperImage will make use of innovative photonic components including electrically tunable liquid lenses, pixel shifters, fast steering mirrors, and configurable SMD style IR micro-emitter arrays. HyperImage will integrate these components into innovative, high-performance multi- and hyperspectral snapshot and line scan cameras. AI machine learning algorithms will translate spectral image data into relevant functional products properties and detect and classify objects for more accurate decision making e.g. in autonomous driving. The technology platform will be complemented with a cloud-based spectral image analysis platform and reference data repository that enables users to continuously improve image analysis accuracy and prediction models. The HyperImage technology platform will be validated in four industrial use cases: (1) quality control in manufacturing of high power electronics; (2) crop growth monitoring for fully automated vertical farming of salads, herbs and microgreens; (3) spectral image based vision and navigation in off-road autonomous driving; (4) light-weight, high-resolution hyperspectral vision system for unmanned geo-surveillance drones. Based on that, HyperImage will provide European Industry a universal, efficient and reliable solution for object recognition, detailed product and material analysis and reliable quality control in manufacturing. HyperImage solution will lead to strong benefits for the applications such as 10-20% increase yield and reduced cost in manufacturing and vertical farming, 20% fuel saving and up to 40% increased operation speed in autonomous offroad driving; and up to 10% drone weight reduction (25 kg MTOW class) yielding 50% increased flight time through space for a larger battery.

Convert2Green will establish an Open Innovation Test Beds (OITB) that enables material suppliers to integrate their innovative, circular and carbon neutral material solutions to the European Key Value Chains: Clean Autonomous Vehicles; Smart Health; Industrial IoT; Low Carbon Industry and Clean Energy. Thus, Convert2Green will provide innovative material suppliers new business opportunities in these value chains. Convert2Green will complement the European Open Innovation Ecosystem with services not present in other OITBs by now: (1) Complete Eco-Impact Analysis from Raw Material to Product as a service including LCA, LCC, Safety and Toxicity; (2) TRL4 to 7 Process Chains for Smart Textiles and Processing of Fiber based materials; (3) TRL4 to 7 Process Chain for Electronics on Plastic, Paper and Textiles; (4) Pilot Facilities for recovering critical raw materials from products; (5) Pilot Facilities for Processing of recycled plastics and composites, (6) Pilot facilities manufacturing of (nano)fibers and composites from bio-sources. Furthermore, Convert2Green will be the first OITB that establishes and provides to the OITB ecosystem: (1) procedures and contract models for licensing of joint IP through the Single Entry Point(s); (2) multilingual digital platform to integrate and jointly promote the service portfolio of all OITBs as well as to interconnect relevant stakeholders and to allow fully digital project and knowledge management and (3) novel financing models for SME combining a trust generating due-diligence structure with project based investment models and crowd-invest opportunities to accelerate market entry in all value chains given above. Convert2Green will integrate its services with the whole European Innovation Ecosystem and continues the series of OITB events started by Safe-n-MedTech and FlexFunction2Sustain OITBs to unite and jointly promote the (currently 25) OITBs as a whole to European SME, Industry, Policy Makersand other relevant stakeholders.