Funding and ongoing projects for sustainable innovation

AlmaScience is a CoLab focused on sustainable innovation, aiming to create a world-leading ecosystem in smart technologies and sustainable applications based on cellulose and other natural materials. The focus lies on the development and commercialization of solutions targeted towards industry 4.0, locally produced, printable, energy-efficient, low-cost, and fully recyclable as an alternative to traditional electronic devices. AlmaScience aims to position itself as a one-stop shop, from concept to commercialization, for the co-development of these technologies in key areas that translate into 4 thematic lines:

• CelluGel: ultralight cellulose-based materials for applications in packaging, flexible electronics, biomedicine, etc.
• PaperWeight: paper transformed into pressure sensors for multiple applications.
• PapeRF: product security. Ultra-low-cost encrypted codes, self-powered and mass-printed tags for product authentication and chain monitoring.
• SmartPack: low-cost, mass-printed paper-based devices and sensors for monitoring product connectivity throughout the supply chain.
  

Objectivos

1. Support the development of the AlmaScience CoLab, ensuring the reinforcement of research, technological development, and innovation in the CoLab's areas of operation, as well as its incorporation into the economic sector.
2. Creation and development of high-value-added products and services.
3. Creation of qualified employment in high-tech areas and relocation of employees to high-value-added tasks.
4. Contribution to and positive impact on the objectives of the Twin Transition, Green and Digital, within the scope of the EU Green Deal, and to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, and 17.
5. Strengthening of Research and Innovation activities, technology transfer, intersectoral cooperation, and business development.
6. Increase exports and access to the global market, international investment impact, and innovative potential in strategic industrial sectors (paper, cork, polymers, textiles, footwear, automotive industry, and energy management systems).

The “From Fossil to Forest” Innovation Pact aims to develop packaging and cellulose-based products to replace fossil plastics.
This transformation focused on the development of innovative forest-based products will be crucial to achieving the goals of the Green Deal, ensuring a socially just transition to an economy that is positive for nature and neutral for the climate.

The development and production of these solutions, still little known at the state-of-the-art level, will be possible through R&D activities, which include tasks related to the development of prototypes, and their subsequent industrialization, which involves production (in an industrial context) of the solutions developed and approved in the following lines of action:

1. High-performance pulps and brown papers;
2. Papers with greater mechanical resistance;
3. Papers with barrier properties;
4. Biocomposites;
5. Smart packaging paper sensors;
6. Molded pulp for rigid packaging.

PT Smart Retail - Portugal as a reference for the new generation of autonomous and intelligent retail

The Smart Retail agenda brings together 22 entities (19 promoters + 3 partners) from different natures and sectors, aiming at the development, demonstration, and industrialization of technologies to support a new generation of retail, with the incorporation of 100% national technology, including dematerialization solutions of processes applied to the sector that allows providing a seamless and ultra-comfortable experience to its users, with relevant economic and environmental efficiency and remarkable potential for internationalization, contributing to direct the country's specialization profile towards solutions with high added value and for the generation of wealth and employment.

The Mobilizing Agenda “Embalagem do Futuro” aims to be a response to the main priorities of the European Green Deal.

The goal is to present a more ecological, more digital, and more inclusive package. A consortium that includes 84 co-promoters of which 16 are entities and 68 companies. Mostly centered in the Leiria region, the consortium is present from north to south of the country and represents a total investment of  EUR 105M.

Agenda VIIAFOOD, a project supported under the RRP (www.recuperarportugal.gov.pt), aims to promote the structural transformation of the agri-food sector in line with the purpose established in the Pact for Competitiveness and Internationalization of this national sector.

For this purpose, the VIIAFOOD Agenda intends to create a national platform for the development and industrialization of innovative products, processes and services, materializing in a concerted strategic plan, with joint measures and actions oriented to the transversal objectives of the Sector.

Indeed, the VIIAFOOD Agenda intends to reinforce collaboration between companies in the agri-food industry, companies in other related industries and Research & Development entities to leverage the creation of synergies and the transfer of knowledge and technologies in order to (re)industrialize the Sector Portuguese agrifood.

The aim of EMERGE is to establish the first integrated, distributed research infrastructure supporting comprehensive user projects for multi-and-trans-disciplinary research on sustainable flexible large-area printed electronics and photonics (FLAPEP) value chain, going from materials formulation to design and architecture of processes, devices and systems, backup by characterization, test modeling and simulation tools, through a coordinated open-access for RTOs, industry and SMEs to complementary facilities.

This is a route for creating added value and road mapping the introduction of new, recyclable electronics products at “Half-the-time/Half-the-cost” to establish a sustainable prosperity, as required by today’s science and technology challenges and ESFRI landscape analysis.

The overall objective of EMERGE is to provide access for users working with materials such as paper, textiles or biocompatible polymers to small-footprint FLAPEP technologies which enables emerging devices by using industrially compatible hybrid printing processes (roll-to-roll (R2R), functional 3D printing, etc.) accompanied with in-line inspection tools and automatic systems for high throughput inks determination, both driven by a novel Knowledge repository powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods. At least 1400 users will be involved in the project through cross-border experiments, while creating at least 4 Symbiotic Clusters transregional connected, 4 Innovation gateway Hubs focusing on technology brokerage and 1 transversal hub valuing the results of the prototypes within a market approach.

EMERGE will focus intensively on networking among partners and stakeholders through advocacy and dissemination, sharing data and information management and exploitation to ensure a long lasting, sustainable community in line with the Green Deal initiative for environmentally friendly approaches towards circular economy.

REFORM (pRinted Electronics FOR the circular econoMy) sets out to address the environmental and sustainability challenges around conventional surface-mounted and embedded functional electronics.

The project aims to accelerate and guide the development of a new European green functional electronics supply chain. It seeks to use eco-design principles to ensure that functional electronics can be produced that meet multiple application requirements for technological performance and compliance, while also meeting societal and environmental needs for sustainability. To achieve this, REFORM will develop environmentally benign electronic ‘building blocks’ focusing on green, bio-derived adhesives, conductive inks, and flexible substrates. These will be integrated into industry-led functional electronics systems and supported by innovations in conformance testing and material recovery methods. Taking a holistic approach to development across the supply chain positions, this project is unique in not only achieving a step-change in technology compatible with industrial reality but also producing prototype showcase systems with a direct future impact on sustainability.

REFORM brings together a world-leading consortium of academics, non-profit RTOs, industrial associations, private SME partners, and large firms from eight countries across Europe.

The project is female-led and coordinated by CIDETEC, a specialist RTO in surface engineering and energy storage based in Spain with a strong track record of leading large collaborative European projects. By combining the consortium’s unique and complementary expertise, REFORM aims to give Europe an innovation lead in green functional electronics, enhancing European competitiveness, and helping meet the ambitions for the European Green Deal.

The immediate outcome of REFORM will be three demonstrators: a green smart logistics tag, a green embedded wireless sensor, and a microsupercapacitor, taking the project from TRL 2/3 to TRL 5.

Mechanical energy harvesting concepts assume great relevance as a game-changing contribution to “green energy”. The surface electrification concept has gained momentum with the possibility of extending it to large areas, concerning eco-design strategies. BRIGHT proposes a new conception of designed cellulose-based bio-foams functionalized by conjugated polymers and bio-compatible elastomers. The resulting unique mechanical response will be grounded on unique macro-to-microscale simulation and design strategies, while the proposed circuitry design allows for improved efficiency and integrated sensing functionalities with energy harvester for sustainable large-area self-powered systems. Outputs of BRIGHT will impact wearables sectors such as transportation. The general outcomes are fully aligned with the future challenges concerning sustainability, namely in diversifying energy sources, raw materials rational utilization, carbon neutrality, and eco-design of products and systems.

CELLECTIVE aims to demonstrate a radically new concept for CNCs-based structures with exceptional optical properties. CELLECTIVE merges different fields that go from chemical modification, materials selections and tailoring, deposition techniques, optical tuning with laser engraving, simulation and design of materials, and hydrogels for photonic and electronic applications. Moreover, CELLECTIVE will focus on dynamic natural structures with fast actuation responses, that are highly susceptible to temperature and moisture variation, turning those materials very attractive as sensing layers.

IDS-Paper aims to establish an integrated and innovative self-sustained green electronic system paper-based for wireless communication applications that address the ubiquitous security and low-cost green electronic sectors and their translation towards products that capture the needs associated with the Internet of Things and cyber security matters, fully aligned with the expected transition towards the green deal prosperity mission of the future.

Cellulose-based composites are a low-cost, lightweight, and biodegradable family of materials, that in the future may be essential for sustainable technologies, such as smart packaging and water filtering systems. In this project, we plan to deposit Metal-Oxides and Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) coatings on cellulose-based substrates using an Atmospheric Pressure Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (AP-SALD) system.

The development of composites that combine oxides and cellulose fibers will create protective coatings in a nanostructured cellulose paper to enhance the barrier properties for water and gases transport.

Furthermore, we plan to growth MOFs on cellulose membranes to enhance the filter properties for water purification, to remove pollutants as heavy metals.

The use of the AP-SALD will guarantee a low-temperature, atmospheric pressure, and high throughput deposition process, important aspects for the future industrial implementation of these advanced sustainable composites.