Five EU projects join forces to develop an Environmental Intelligence system
date: 02/02/2021
The main goal of Environmental Intelligence call (FETPROACT-EIC-08-2020) is to build a systemic understanding of the socio-environmental inter-relationships, to regulate or design policies and incentives for environmental sustainability and to track their effectiveness over time and to provide intelligible options for adjusting them. Moreover, the call was designed as a joint initiative in creating a European strategy for Environmental Intelligence system.
In the 2020 call, a total of 87 proposals were submitted. Out of them, 5 gained support under the EIC Pathfinder (FET Proactive) funding scheme: I-Seed, RAMONES, ReSET, SMARTLAGOON and WATCHPLANT.
RAMONES aims to propose new and efficient solutions for in situ, continuous, long-term monitoring of radioactivity in harsh subsea environments. It will design, develop and validate a new generation of radiation-sensing instruments to perform spectroscopic studies.
ReSET will develop the conceptual framework and practical applications to better integrate interdisciplinary research and AI into a best of class spatial policy support system as a contribution to sustainable development through environmental intelligence.
SMARTLAGOON works on innovative modelling tool suited for coastal lagoons ecosystems. It develops a digital twin strategy to build a systemic understanding of the socio-environmental inter-relationships affecting these specific environments.
WATCHPLANT proposes a radically novel approach consists of developing a biohybrid system technology for in-situ self-powered monitoring that allows plants to wear AI components and technological interfaces, which results in creating of “smart biohybrid organisms”.
These 5 selected projects will work towards a blueprint for an Environmental Intelligence system. The project teams will also collaborate in order to minimise duplication of effort, share best practices and technology (where appropriate) and ensure their joint impact is greater than the simple sum of individual projects.
The mutual work will be fostered through a series of collaboration activities, including knowledge transfer sessions with policy makers and stakeholders, a special issue in a in a multi-disciplinary journal related to environmental issues, and two collaboratively organised summer schools bringing together dissemination and training activities of the individual projects with a session on integration and environmental intelligence more broadly.
Background information
FET-Open and FET Proactive are now part of the Enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) Pilot (specifically the Pathfinder), the new home for deep-tech research and innovation in Horizon 2020, the EU funding programme for research and innovation.