In today’s Morning Brief:

INESC TEC develops technology to detect driver fatigue

According to the Portuguese Road Safety Authority, car accidents have a very significant impact on our society, with drowsiness being one of the main causes of accidents in Portugal. This was the basis for the development of the project AUTOMOTIVE – AUTOmatic multimodal drowsiness detection for smart VEhicles, which focused on the study and development of methodologies for driver monitoring, with particular emphasis on fatigue and drowsiness detection, using sensors on the steering wheel.

The group of researchers, which brought together the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC), the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL), CARDIOID Technologies and the Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural (COFAC), focused on developing a robust, driver-oriented system using multiple sources of information that learn each driver’s unique personal patterns, for increasingly accurate detections.

The AUTOMOTIVE technology will initially be applied to fleets of heavy vehicles, but its integration into passenger vehicles is also planned.

The second wave of the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) calls for project grants now published

The second wave of the Digital Europe Programme calls for project grants under the 2021-2022 Work Programme has been published.

The submission of applications will open on 22 February 2022 and close on 17 May 2022. The total budget available for the three calls is 87 million euros. The three calls include the following six topics:

• Data for Cultural Heritage;
• Advanced Digital Skills Short term training courses;
• European Blockchain Services Infrastructure – Deployment of services;
• Blockchain Standardization;
• European Digital Identity Framework;
• Security (law enforcement)-AI based pilots.

More information about the calls and the respective deadlines is available on the dedicated page on HaDEA’s website.

Security Research Event 2022

After more than a two year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Security Research Event (SRE) 2022 will gather around 800 participants representing a wide range of security stakeholders as well as a wide number of policymakers across Europe.

Taking place between 1-2 March, the event will mark the first year after the launch of Horizon Europe, the new framework programme for R&I for which the first projects will be starting in the months following SRE 2022.

If you want to read more about the event and how to register, click here.

Dutch applied research organisations impact report 2021

How do applied research organisations (TO2 federations) contribute to solutions for societal challenges, such as security and climate change, and to strengthening the competitiveness of Dutch industry? The yearly TO2 Impact Reporting is now online.

The TO2 organisations, which are united in the TO2 federation, are TNO, WUR, Deltares, NLR and MARIN. In close collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Change, they are today publishing their Impact Report 2021, in which they show by means of examples how their innovative solutions contribute to a sustainable, clean, healthy and safe and secure future for the Netherlands. A significant part of the research is funded by the government, and the TO2 organisations involved are pleased to show the results in this accessible publication. Read the full report here.

Commission seeks views and input on fair licensing of standard essential patents

The Commission has established a call for evidence and a public consultation on standard-essential patents (SEPs).

The Commission invites interested parties to express their views and experiences in order to improve the current system, in particular the transparency and predictability of the licensing framework. With the call for evidence, the Commission is looking for input on the main problem areas identified with the current licensing framework.

The call for evidence and the public consultation will be open until 9 May 2022. SEPs refer to patents that protect technology essential to a standard. As announced in the 2020 Action Plan on Intellectual Property, the Commission aims at setting the right conditions for a transparent, predictable and efficient SEP system.

Space: EU initiates a satellite-based connectivity system and boosts action on management of space traffic

Today, the EU is acting on its space ambitions by tabling two initiatives – a proposal for a Regulation on a space-based secure connectivity and a Joint Communication on an EU approach on Space Traffic Management (STM). As a major space power, the EU’s Space Programme already provides valuable data and services for a wide array of daily applications from transport, agriculture, and crisis response to the fight against climate change, to name a few.

However, due to new challenges and increased international competition, the EU’s space policy needs to constantly evolve and adapt if we want to continue enjoying freely the benefits that space brings. The EC hopes that today’s initiatives will help safeguard the efficiency and security of our current assets while developing European cutting-edge space technology to the benefit of our citizens and economy.

Read the full press release and access the documents here.

EU Soil Mission wants your research proposals!

EU Missions are a new tool under the Research & Innovation funding programmes to bring concrete solutions to some of our greatest challenges. This is why the EU Mission: ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ aims to protect and restore soils, a precious resource essential for life.

The European Research Executive Agency (REA) will implement the research projects funded to support the EU Soil Mission, working closely with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Agriculture (AGRI), which has overall responsibility for the Mission. In this exclusive interview the Commission sat down with Kerstin Rosenow, Head of Unit for Research at AGRI, and Paul Webb, Head of Department for Green Europe at REA  and asked them to clarify key aspects of the EU Soil Mission call for proposals for the benefit of future applicants. Click here to read the Q&A!

European Universities joint appeal for more support for African universities

The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities is joining calls on the African Union (AU) to develop excellence and infrastructures for research in African universities ahead of February’s EU-AU summit.

Joining sixteen leading African universities, the Guild argues public universities are the biggest research players in the continent but receive too little funding to fulfil their potential, leading to brain drain and overreliance on research partners from outside the continent.

Jan Palmowski, secretary general of the Guild, said strengthening African universities “must now become a central pillar of the new AU-EU strategic partnership.”. Read more here.

Commission unveils significant actions to contribute to European Defence

Today, the Commission puts forward a number of Commission-led initiatives in areas critical for defence and security within the European Union. These comprise a Contribution to European defence, covering the full range of challenges, from the conventional defence industry and equipment on land, sea and air, to cyber, hybrid and space threats, military mobility and the relevance of climate change; and a roadmap on critical technologies for security and defence. These new initiatives are concrete steps towards a more integrated and competitive European defence market, particularly by enhancing cooperation within the EU, thereby building scale, mastering costs and enhancing operational effectiveness. With its announcement today, the Commission provides input in the run-up to the EU Strategic Compass on Security and Defence.

Data Protection Engineering

A recent report by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity on Data Protection Engineering (DPE). DPE can be perceived as part of data protection by Design and by Default. It aims to support the selection, deployment and configuration of appropriate technical and organizational measures in order to satisfy specific data protection principles. The current report took a broader look into data protection engineering with a view to support practitioners and organizations with practical implementation of technical aspects of data protection by design and by default. Towards this direction this report presents existing (security) technologies and techniques and discusses possible strengths and applicability in relation to meeting data protection principles as set out in Article 5 GDPR. Based on this analysis, the report provides conclusions and recommendations for relevant stakeholders.

Workshop Series on the Digitalisation of the Energy System

The EU strategy for energy system integration sets out key actions to drive the clean energy transition. One of them is a system-wide digitalisation of energy action plan that aims to contribute to the EU energy policy objectives by supporting the development of a sustainable, (cyber)secure, transparent and competitive market for digital energy services, ensuring data privacy and sovereignty, and also by supporting investment in digital energy infrastructure. It further aims to ensure that digitalisation of the energy system is fully part of the green energy transition and also consistent with the digital targets for 2030.

The action plan the EC is working on and that is presented as a roadmap, was open for consultation and the feedback was integrated in a public consultation (4 October 2021 – 24 January 2022). In addition, the Commission is organizing a series of workshops between 16 February and 3 March, aiming to collect further input from stakeholders and other relevant Commission services.

The planned calendar and theme of the workshops within the series are the following:

• 16 February at 9.00 – 12.30 (CET) – Best practice for energy data sharing

InterConnect, a EU project coordinated by INESC TEC, will be represented in this workshop through Antonio Kung, Trialog CEO and Co-chair WG standardisation AIOTI, which will moderate “The Way Forward” round up panel from 11:50 to 12:20.
The aim of this workshop is to discuss the basic principles and best practices for establishing an European Energy Data Space, built on common rules compliant with industrial and economic interests and also with the legal framework.

To register for this workshop, please send an e-mail to ENER-B5-SECRETARIAT@ec.europa.eu. You will receive the login details in return.

• 18 February at 9.00 – 12.30 (CET) – Efficient integration of the electric vehicles to the electricity system and the data sharing framework.
• 23 February at 10.30 – 12.00 (CET) – Priorities in the energy transition that require enhanced data exchanges at EU level.
• 24 February at 15:00 – 16:30 (CET) – Data sharing in renewable energy: experiences and incentives (organised by the Association of European Renewable Energy Research Centre, EUREC).
• 25 February at 10.30 – 12.00 (CET) – Promoting cooperation between digitalisation of energy centres of expertise and digital innovation hubs.
• 3 March – Prosumer data exchanges to enable seamless flexibility integration into TSO-DSO markets (organised by Smart Energy Europe).

Find here more information about the workshops and the link for registration here.

WHO policy brief: AI and ageism

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have the potential to improve older people’s health and well-being, but only if ageism is eliminated from their design, implementation, and use. A new policy brief, Ageism in artificial intelligence for health, released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) presents legal, non-legal and technical measures that can be used to minimize the risk of exacerbating or introducing ageism through these technologies.

Survey: transition pathways

The update of the EU Industrial Strategy highlights the need to accelerate the green and digital transitions of EU Industry. Among the various instruments, the Commission proposed to co-create, in partnership with industry, public authorities, social partners and other stakeholders, transition pathways for ecosystems, where needed. The proximity & social economy ecosystem was identified among those ecosystems to develop such a transition pathway.

The Commission services have prepared a Staff Working Document to outline possible scenarios for a transition pathway towards a more resilient, green and digital proximity and social economy industrial ecosystem. Through collaborative efforts, the aim is to co-create concrete actions and commitments with all stakeholders of this ecosystem to step up its green and digital transition and strengthen its resilience to future shocks. These efforts will build upon the EU Industrial strategy update, which highlighted the need to accelerate the green and digital transitions of EU Industry and identified needs and challenges of 14 industrial ecosystems. They will also build on the Action Plan on the Social Economy, which proposes a series of actions for the period 2021-2030 to support the development of the social economy. Based on the results of the consultation, the EC will organise further meetings with stakeholders to deepen the discussions towards finalising the proximity & social economy pathway during 2022. You are invited to engage in this process by contributing to this survey that will run until 28 February 2022. The HUB will submit a response on behalf of the INESC institutions.