Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe is the world's largest research and innovation programme.

Projects funded by Horizon Europe

HVL is currently participating in these ongoing Horizon Europe projects:

Society, education and labour

Safety, transport and mobility

Sustainability, energy and materials

WHITECYCLE – Upscaling of innovative processes for the recycling of PET from complex wastes

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is widely used in plastics and textiles leading to over 20 Mt/y of complex waste worldwide for which no closed-loop recycling is viable today. Most complex waste is landfilled or incinerated. There is an urgent need to develop a circular solution to convert complex PET wastes from plastics and textiles back into high-added value products.

WHITECYCLE aims to demonstrate two new processes combining strong scientific and industrial know-how: (i) innovative identification, sorting and separation technologies that will dramatically increase the PET content of complex waste streams to 80%, and (ii) a disruptive enzymatic recycling process that is expected to yield pure PET monomers sustainably even for impure waste streams. Process design kits, LCA and production cost estimates will be provided to PET manufacturers and waste management companies for rapid deployment and assure social acceptance.

First projections show that WHITECYCLE’s recycled PET will be competitive with virgin PET. The project will conduct a full circle loop from real complex waste feedstock to representative product of the 3 use-cases at TRL 5. Then, a strong upscale study will allow the process steps to reach TRL 6 to 8.  By 2030, WHITECYCLE will enable the annual recycling of more than 2 Mt of PET, which corresponds to the amount of additional recycled PET needed to meet the EU’s 2030 targets. This will reduce emissions by around 2.06 Mt CO2eq and avoid the landfilling of more than 1.8 Mt of PET.

Project leader: Valeria Jana Schwanitz  

For more info: https://www.whitecycle-project.eu/ 

 

StoRIES - Storage Research Infrastructure Eco-System

HVL is a Third Party in the StoRIES project.

More info: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101036910

AQUABALANCE - Balancing economic, environmental, and social sustainability in the European aquaculture industry

Sustainable development of aquaculture is one of the main objectives of the common fisheries policy. Despite rather high profitability, the industry has been confronted with several (and mounting) environmental and ethical issues. It is therefore important to strengthen the legitimacy of the aquaculture industry, reduce its negative environmental impact and increase its positive societal impact.  

Co-funded under the Horizon Europe Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, AQUABALANCE will explore strategies and best practices for balancing economic, environmental, and social sustainability and provide the aquaculture industry and stakeholders with new knowledge and evidence-based recommendations boosting the sustainability and viability of the sector. The project follows a pan-European perspective by focusing on different geographical locations and sea-basins (North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean), where existing and promising solutions for more sustainable aquaculture industry will be mapped. Based on a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, it will create new knowledge about how the European aquaculture industry can develop onwards in ways that are not environmentally harmful, and contribute to value creation locally, nationally, and internationally. By combining several theoretical perspectives (economic geography, socio-technical transition studies, and literature on sustainable business models), the project will provide valuable research-based insight and action points on an efficient and smart industry policy in order to successfully cope with the societal challenges of promoting economically robust, environmentally friendly, and socially inclusive industrial activities. AQUABALANCE will provide pan-European and regional industry and policy advice and a policy roadmap that has a transnational perspective and also can be adapted to the regional specificities. These recommendations will serve as a background for a more sustainable growth of the aquaculture industry, contributing to achieving the goals of the EU Farm to Fork strategy. The project consortium consists of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and The Seafood Innovation Cluster (Norway), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), University of Verona (Italy) and University of Limerick (Ireland) and is coordinated by Prof. Natalia Mæhle, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. 

Kicking off in April 2024 for a duration of 3 years, the project will begin with identifying barriers and drivers for the ongoing transition in the aquaculture sector. The consortium will carry out 12 qualitative case studies in different European hubs and a series of stakeholder workshops in order to investigate dilemmas associated with rebalancing the economic, environmental, and social dimensions and explore the role of policy. AQUABALANCE will also develop an assessment method for economic viability and environmental effects of new technological solutions. Moreover, the consortium will provide new knowledge on consumer preferences through a wide market survey and deliver sustainability communication toolkits for practitioners. To ensure wider impact beyond academia, policy recommendations will be co-created with stakeholders through a policy experimentation lab.  

Project Coordinator:

Natalia Mæhle
Professor
HVL Business School

TUAI - Towards an Understanding of Artificial Intelligence via a transparent, open and explainable perspective 

TUAI - Towards an Understanding of Artificial Intelligence via a transparent, open and explainable perspective 

TUAI (a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions doctoral network) aims to develop a training programme to educate doctoral candidates on machine learning, its advancements, and how to leverage technological improvements for the benefit of European producers. Additionally, the project will apply these advancements to optimise smart services and devices, improving their sustainability and energy consumption throughout manufacturing and their use in smart cities or other smart methodologies. The project will focus on ML-based smart services that should first meet the customers’ needs but with the same importance should focus on protecting the natural environment by creating smart services dedicated for smart mobility, to reduce energy consumption by smart cities and to avoid the losses and suboptimal use of resources in smart manufacturing. The scope of the research will be organised under four research areas (RA): (i) Time Series Analysis, (ii) Sensor Fusion, (iii) Federated Learning and (iv) the sustainability and trustworthiness of the AI solutions. 

Contact:  Marcin Andrzej Fojcik 

More info:  https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101168344 

FOODMISSION: Citizens Leading the Change for Sustainable Food Systems  

FOODMISSION: Citizens Leading the Change for Sustainable Food Systems  

Funded by Horizon Europe, the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, the FOODMISSION project takes a novel citizen science approach by directly involving citizens in the research process through participation in data collection and other activities. By engaging individuals and households, the project aims to better understand how citizens perceive sustainable food and what drives their food-related behaviour. The collected citizen data will be used for informing effective policymaking and driving meaningful change.  

 To secure continuous citizen engagement, FOODMISSION uses gamification, which represents one of its key innovations. The project will develop a gamified educational virtual platform that combines educational content with interactive activities designed to maintain user interest, incentivize specific actions, and disseminate valuable information. The platform will also support the collection and sharing of data contributed by citizens, in full compliance with privacy regulations and ethical principles. Through data visualization and feedback mechanisms, individuals and communities will receive evidence of the impact of their decisions, which will promote social learning, collective responsibility, and system-level change.  

To incorporate multiple perspectives, the FOODMISSION project will in addition involve various stakeholders through seven 'Transformation Labs' across Europe. These labs will serve as hubs where stakeholders, such as universities, SMEs, consumer associations, and NGOs, will collaborate to co-create the platform and other key project outputs. This approach ensures that the project adheres to Responsible Research and Innovation principles, involving stakeholders at every stage of project development.   

 Coordinated by the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, the project involves four universities, two SMEs, a national consumer association, a representative from the retail sector, a social learning and policy implementation NGO, and an interest group of agricultural and food companies. The partners cover eight European countries and a whole range of expertise: sustainability transition, digital innovation, consumer behaviour, food systems, nutrition, gamification, citizen science, citizen engagement and motivation, policy advocacy, digital education and training. FOODMISSION was launched on the 1st of January 2025 and will run for three years and six months.  

Contact: Natalia Mæhle 

More info: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101181774  

Health

RAPTORplus - Right-time Adaptive Particle Therapy Of canceR - Personalisation through anatomical plus biological adaptation

The RAPTORplus consortium gathers excellent research institutions, academic hospitals and non-academic particle therapy (PT) centres, industrial corporations and public organisations. It offers a platform for intercultural, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral training and education of doctoral candidates (DCs) in the field of medical physics focussing on right-time adaptive PT. The assembled infrastructure and expertise from academia, clinic and industry is needed to address the challenges of personalised adaptive PT.

PT is a precise form of radiotherapy with a growing number of centres treating patients. It targets localised cancers while sparing healthy tissue, but might deliver suboptimal doses in case of anatomical changes. To exploit the full potential of PT, fast and safe online treatment adaptations must be enabled and performed if beneficial, e.g. indicated by image-based biomarkers, biological models or other response data. The research projects conducted at academic and non-academic facilities will tackle (1) the efficient realisation of online-adaptive PT (OAPT), (2) the technological completion for broad and safe use of OAPT, and (3) a further treatment personalisation by biomarker-based adaptation.

The network uses a multi-sectoral approach to ensure that the DCs develop scientific, clinical and practical industry-relevant skills. The holistic training programme includes in-person training camps, online trainings, project-specific secondments, training in tutoring, research communication, entrepreneurship and science policy, and opportunities to participate in international conferences and professional networks. RAPTORplus will train the next generation of research leaders, medical physicists and entrepreneurs to be aware of the necessity of right-time adaptive PT. They will drive innovation in the coming era of adaptive PT and improve cancer care through enduring international and cross-sectoral collaborations based on their transformative thinking.

Project leader at HVL: Prof. Ilker Meric

More info: Right-time Adaptive Particle Therapy Of canceR - Personalisation through anatomical plus biological adaptation | RAPTORplus | Project | Fact Sheet | HORIZON | CORDIS | European Commission

LABDA – Learning network for Advanced Behavioural Data Analysis

HVL is Associated Partner in the MSCA Doctoral Network project LABDA.

More info: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101072993

NOVO- Next generation imaging for real-time dose verification enabling adaptive proton therapy

The European Commission published in 2021 Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, emphasizing patient-centered cancer care and promoting actions to enable personalised cancer treatment, improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their caregivers, and reduce inequalities in accessing high-quality cancer care across Europe. To meet these ambitious goals, scientific and technological breakthroughs in radiation therapy are needed, in particular for the treatment of radioresistant, hypoxic (oxygen-deprived) tumors associated with low survival rates, involving sophisticated and more accurate radiation dose delivery techniques and enabling personalised dose escalation while ensuring patient safety.

Proton therapy has the potential to offer the most conformal radiation dose to patients, and the number of proton therapy centers around the globe follows a significantly upwards and persisting trend. Adaptive proton therapy, by monitoring and adapting to changes in patient anatomy between treatment fractions, is required to enable safe delivery of proton therapy and to spare healthy tissues. However, truly personalised, dose escalated treatments with proton therapy are not yet possible due to the lack of real-time dose verification technology to truly empower patient-centered cancer treatment, important to improve curation and quality-of-life.

The NOVO (Next generation imaging for real-time dose verification enabling adaptive proton therapy) project aims at making real-time dose verification an integral component of proton therapy -based cancer care in the long-term, allowing precise control over radiation doses delivered to the tumor, as well as preventing unintended exposure of healthy surrounding tissues. We will develop the first proof-of-concept of a groundbreaking real-time dose verification technology adaptable to any proton therapy treatment. The proof-of-concept will be tested under pre-clinical conditions, bringing the envisaged technology concept to Technology Readiness Level 4.

Our high risk/ high gain approach builds on the synergy between: cutting-edge and low-cost organic scintillator technology to detect secondary radiation during treatment for non-invasive measurements; novel and fast image reconstruction algorithms, AI-accelerated models and AI-enhanced image reconstruction to allow simultaneous detection and imaging of multiple radiation species and tissue compositional analysis; tumor-tracking and imaging of tissue radio-sensitivity based on oxygen levels; and intelligent automation of decision-making schemes for real-time dose-guided adaptive therapy. We will also demonstrate technical robustness and trustworthiness of the AI methods used to ensure patient safety and address its effective integration within adaptive therapy clinical workflows.

The NOVO consortium covers the entire value chain of real-time dose verification development (technology providers, theory and modelling, technology integration and testing, and end-users) and will foster transdisciplinary collaborations between nuclear, medical, and high-energy physicists, chemists, mathematicians, computer scientists, oncologists, biologists, as well as European proton therapy centers.

Coordinated by Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Norway), the NOVO consortium consists of Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Target Systemelektronik and Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems (Germany), Bogazici University (Türkiye), University of Manchester (The United Kingdom) and University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital- Helse Bergen (Norway). The project is led by Ilker Meric.

Starting in March 2024 for a duration of four years, NOVO will receive European Union’s funding of almost 3.8 million € from the European Innovation Council as part of the EIC Pathfinder Open programme, under Horizon Europe. EIC Pathfinder supports the exploration of bold ideas for radically new technologies and finances high-risk / high gain and interdisciplinary cutting-edge science collaborations for technological breakthroughs.  

Contact: novoeic@hvl.no

GELA - Global Evidence, Local Adaptation

The sub-Saharan region in Africa still experiences the highest under-five mortality rate in the world despite improvements since the 1990s. The impact of poor nutrition and poverty-related diseases, including malaria and diarrhea is exacerbated by poor healthcare systems and inequity in access to care. Policy makers and practitioners need evidence-informed guidance on effective clinical care, and they need guidance on how to implement this care efficiently within their health systems.

The GELA project will address these gaps with evidence-informed guideline recommendations for newborn and young child health in three countries – Malawi, Nigeria and South Africa. GELA will increase the capacity of decision makers and researchers to use global research to develop locally relevant guidelines for newborn and child health. GELA focuses on priority topics for each of the participating countries, selected with stakeholders in each country to identify local priorities and capacity needs within newborn and child health. To inform this process, GELA conducted a landscape analysis of existing clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for newborn and child health in these countries.

GELA is coordinated by the South African Medical Research Council and the partners include the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Western Norway University of Applied Science, Stellenbosch University (South Africa), University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (Nigeria), Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Malawi), Cochrane and the MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation (Norway). The consortium is teaming up with national ministries in Malawi, Nigeria and South Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) and WHO Afro and the civil society group, Peoples Health Movement.

GELA is supported by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) under the EDCTP2 programme (grant number RIA2020S -3303-GELA). EDCTP is a public-public partnership between countries in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Project leader: https://www.hvl.no/en/employee/?user=Claire.Glenton

More info: Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) | Cochrane Africa

 

Previous projects

COEMS  

COMETS 

CREATIONS 

DISCEFRN

  • Does standardization matter? Evaluating the potential of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) for reducing employment discrimination faced by immigrants
  • Project leader: Miriam Schmaus
  • Website: cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101065566 

DocTalent4EU

DRES2MARKET 

EERAdata

EMPOWER

  • Design and evaluation of technological support tools to empower stakeholders in digital education
  • Project leader: Ilona Heldal

  • Website: project-empower.eu/ 

INTREPID HEI 

MOVE  

OCEAN

ONESTEP

PIONEERED 

RiskGone

RRI2SCALE

SENSE.

Do you want to collaborate with HVL? 

HVL is aiming at increasing its participation in Horizon Europe and we are always looking for new opportunities for cooperation.

Do not hesitate to contact us: 

bilde av Karin Wibrand

Karin Wibrand

Head of Section, Division of Research, Internationalisation and Innovation

Postdoctoral Fellowships