EU Funded Projects

Acronym: REFAIR
Title: Regulating the Grey Zone: Fairness, Informality, and the Boundaries of Work

What is the REFAIR project about, and what challenge does it aim to address?
REFAIR is a Horizon Europe research project that aims to improve our understanding of undeclared and underdeclared work and to develop better policy responses to it. The challenge it addresses is that informal work is usually defined narrowly, as the non-payment of taxes and social security contributions, which overlooks how differently it is understood, justified and regulated from one country to the next. REFAIR moves beyond this narrow view and places ‘fairness’ at the centre of the analysis, examining how laws, working realities and public perceptions interact across diverse European welfare and labour-market systems. In doing so, the project seeks to identify innovative, context-sensitive and sustainable policy responses to a phenomenon that affects workers, public finances and social protection across Europe.. 
 

How will REFAIR improve our understanding of undeclared and under declared work across Europe?
REFAIR builds its analysis around three dimensions of fairness: how laws and policies are designed to regulate and promote formal work; the nature of undeclared work itself, including its scale, patterns and underlying drivers; and how individuals and institutions perceive informal work and the policies that target it. To capture all three, the project uses a robust mixed-methods approach that combines legal analysis, a survey on the prevalence and drivers of un(der)declared work, a survey on public attitudes, and qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, ethnography and co-designed case studies. This work is carried out in six countries, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland, chosen to represent diverse welfare and labour-market regimes, which makes it possible to draw genuinely comparative, evidence-based insights rather than isolated national snapshots.. 

What role will VUB play in REFAIR, and what expertise does VUB bring to the consortium?
VUB takes part in REFAIR as a project partner, with the Belgian team led by Prof. Dr. Tuba Bircan and supported by Prof. Christophe Vanroelen. Within the consortium, VUB leads Work Package 2 (‘Methods Foundations’), the methodological backbone of the project, which designs the surveys and research tools that underpin REFAIR’s empirical work. VUB also leads two key methodological tasks: developing a partially synthetic-data and ‘country-twinning’ protocol that uses statistical models calibrated to official data to extend the project’s findings to countries not directly surveyed, and the statistical modelling used to estimate undeclared and underdeclared work in EU member states not covered by the REFAIR Labour Survey. In addition, VUB contributes to the project’s conceptual groundwork and to the design of the REFAIR Labour Survey. This reflects VUB’s recognised expertise in quantitative and computational social science and in statistical data methods, which it brings to bear on one of REFAIR’s central challenges: producing robust, comparable estimates of a phenomenon that is, by its nature, difficult to measure.

What broader impact could REFAIR have on workers, policymakers, and society as a whole?
By placing informal work within wider debates on precarious employment, social protection and economic fairness, REFAIR aims to deliver practical, actionable insights that support more effective, inclusive and equitable labour-market policies across Europe and beyond. A key feature of the project is the active involvement of stakeholders throughout the research process, which helps ensure that the findings are relevant in the real world and draw on the knowledge of practitioners in the field. For workers, this can translate into better-designed protections; for policymakers, into evidence-based and context-sensitive responses; and for society more broadly, into fairer labour markets and stronger social protection systems.

Acronym: RADAR
Title: ReclAiming Democracy Advancing Rights

What is the RADAR project about and what challenge does it aim to address?
RADAR is an interdisciplinary research project with case studies across seven countries, namely Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, and Turkey. It brings together political science, law, sociology, history, education, and media studies to understand how autocratic tendencies actually take root; both as sudden shocks and as slower, long-term pressures on democratic systems. It aims to diagnose strategies and symptoms of authoritarianist behaviours in different settings with action-oriented approaches. 
 

What are the key outcomes or innovations RADAR hopes to achieve?
The aim of the project is to provide trust, accountability and resilience in democratic systems through different outputs that strengthen the capacities of policymakers, academics and citizens. Amongst others, an AI detection tool will be develop to flag harmful authoritarian content with also a practical toolkit to counter disinformation. 

Which expertise will VUB bring to the table in this consortium?
The expertise of the VUB is found in the field of citizen science and impact assessment. Firstly, we will organize a citizen science panel around the topic of science denial and specifically on the narratives, attitudes and 
Trust perceptions to understand the mechanisms in which science denial and science skepticism emerge. Secondly, we conduct an impact assessment of the whole project itself by reviewing and monitoring its influence on policy and practice throughout the project and provide an impact brief for each individual country. 

What broader societal impact will RADAR have?
As European democratic systems are constantly threatened by anti-democratic actors, RADAR aims to empower European societies by providing tools which are based on real life examples and tools that are based on practices and experience within autocratic systems. RADAR examines how democracies have fought back against autocratic forces and creates messages and strategies of resistance and will have field-tested these before creating a RADAR Resilience Book.

Acronym: ANTIGONE
Title: ANTagonIsm to aGOnism iN digital Ecosystems

What is the ANTIGONE project about, and which societal or democratic challenge does it seek to address?
Inspired by Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone, the project explores conflicts between competing systems of legitimacy, recognition, and democratic voice. ANTIGONE delves into how online platforms can be institutionally and technologically designed to host conflict constructively: to distinguish between harmful disinformation and necessary disagreement, between symbolic exclusion and productive contestation.

    “Antigone rethinks the core democratic tension between freedom of expression and disinformation control not as a clash between truth and falsehood, or regulation and rights, but as a question of how disagreement itself is institutionally and technologically hosted.”
     Trisha Meyer

Currently, governments and online platforms often face a difficult choice: how to balance the right to free expression with the need to curb disinformation. Across Europe and North America, prominent critics have weaponized the concept of “free speech,” portraying counter-disinformation efforts as covert censorship. This has fueled legal and political battles in the US and pressure on EU regulators to weaken the Digital Services Act. These developments underscore the urgent need to define the boundaries of legitimate dissent and distinguish harmful manipulation from democratic debate.
At the same time, democracies face growing challenges from online information manipulation, polarization, and declining trust in institutions. As platforms scale back moderation and debates over free speech intensify, initiatives such as the Digital Services Act have become increasingly contested. ANTIGONE responds to these tensions by examining how democratic societies can distinguish harmful manipulation from legitimate disagreement, while safeguarding both freedom of expression and democratic participation.

ANTIGONE addresses these challenges by shifting the focus from content control to the institutional and technological conditions that govern online expression. It brings together academic researchers, media integrity, AI & data scientists, and journalists to explore a central hypothesis: antagonism in online discourse often stems not from extreme views alone, but from a misalignment between political expression and the institutional or technical conditions.
 

What are the main outcomes or contributions that ANTIGONE aims to achieve through its research and activities?
ANTIGONE aims to create three interlinked conceptual innovations:

• Institutional and technological conditions of speech, exploring how rules, platforms, and infrastructures shape (and sometimes limit) mutual recognition in communication.
• Narrative drift, tracking how stories change as they move across platforms, audiences, and ideological spaces, often challenging existing regulatory categories,
• Agonistic digital ecosystems, a framework for understanding when and how disagreement in digital spaces can remain visible, accountable, and productive rather than harmful or unproductive.

Additionally, the project will create methodological and technological innovations with proof-of-concept interventions:

• Comprehensive disinformation archive and documentation standards, integrating insights from data scientists, legal and journalistic practice to support contestable and transparent moderation outcomes; 

• AI-Human OSINT web-based tools and plug-ins that foster agonistic digital ecosystems by signaling antagonistic discourse and information manipulation across content formats and platforms; 

• Experimental participatory governance formats to foster agonistic speech, co-created with social media influencers, journalists and fact-checkers to enhance interpretability and symbolic inclusion in online debate; 

• Legal redress protocols to counter illegal and harmful speech, developed in collaboration with legal experts and rights defense organizations. 

"By bringing together researchers, policymakers, media professionals and civil society, we aim to create more resilient digital ecosystems where harmful manipulation can be addressed without undermining legitimate democratic disagreement."
 Basak Uslu

What role does VUB play in the consortium and which expertise does it contribute to the project?
VUB, as the project coordinator, leads the project and oversees the establishment, coordination and monitoring of the project’s governance structure. VUB provides overall scientific, managerial, and financial leadership through its Centre for Digitalisation, Democracy and Innovation (CD2I) at the Brussels School of Governance. Prof. Trisha Meyer (PI), with her team, leads Project Management work package and liaises with the European Commission, drawing on extensive experience in coordinating EU-funded projects and expertise in platform governance, disinformation, and participatory policymaking. Additionally, the VUB team plays multiple roles across all work packages, contributing to activities ranging from the critical analysis of speech grey zones and laying the foundations for restoring open civic discourse to the design of pluralistic and transparent online environments.

What broader impact do you expect ANTIGONE to have for society?
With the outcomes of ANTIGONE, we aim to amplify democratic resilience by empowering key actors, strengthening civic discourse, and informing EU and national digital policies. At the same time, ANTIGONE will foster multidisciplinary research on disinformation, freedom of expression, and online civic discourse through the concept of agonistic digital ecosystems, while addressing communicative misalignment and narrative drift. Building on this, the project will develop innovative AI-human OSINT and archiving tools to help monitor and counter disinformation and information manipulation across media and technology ecosystems.
 

Acronym: GENeCITY
Title: Generative Agentic AI and Explainable Digital Twins for Climate-Neutral Cities

European cities are under pressure to become climate neutral. What is the GENeCITY project, and how will it help cities make this transition?
Dr. Carina Veeckman - GENeCITY is a Horizon Europe project that helps cities move towards climate neutrality by combining AI, digital twins, and participatory governance. The idea is to give cities, such as their urban planners, policymakers, and residents, tools to explore "what-if" scenarios around concrete urban challenges like heat stress, air pollution, and mobility. The project co-designs and evaluates these tools with the cities themselves. Five pilot cities across Europe are involved, including Athens (Greece), Riga (Latvia), Amersfoort (The Netherlands), Murcia (Spain), and Skellefteå (Sweden). 

GENeCITY will use new digital tools to help cities understand and plan for challenges. In everyday terms, what will these tools allow cities ─ and their citizens ─ to do differently?
Laura Temmerman - The core idea is that cities and their citizens will be able to explore different possible futures before committing to decisions. Through the GENeCITY platform, users can visualise what happens if a city plants more trees, expands cycling infrastructure, or changes traffic flows: how does that affect air quality, heat, or emissions? Citizens also play a role in generating the data that feeds these tools. Through participatory mobile apps and low-cost sensors, residents can contribute real-time observations on air quality, heat, and comfort in their neighbourhoods.

The project brings together many partners from different countries. What role will the VUB team play, and why is this expertise important for the project’s success?
Dr. Carina Veeckman -  SMIT leads two work packages in GENeCITY. At the start of the project, we lead WP4, which is about making sure the tools being developed actually respond to real needs. That means reviewing existing urban policies across the pilot cities, mapping stakeholders, and running participatory workshops to understand what city partners and residents need from the system — and how much they trust AI in the first place.

Towards the end of the project, we lead WP14, which focuses on ensuring that what works in the five pilot cities can travel further. This involves the development of a GENeCITY toolkit, which is a practical resource that other cities can use to adopt the project's methods and tools beyond the project's lifetime.

What broader societal impact will GENeCITY have?
Laura Temmerman: GENeCITY aims to to make AI-driven tools transparent, explainable, and genuinely accessible, including to groups that are typically left out of these conversations, such as the older adults, youth, and socio-economically disadvantaged communities.
There is also a broader question of trust. As AI becomes more embedded in public decision-making, citizens have legitimate reasons to ask how these systems work and whether they serve everyone fairly. Through our participatory approach, we aim to build in explainability and accountability from the start. 
 

Acronym: TWINVERSE
Title: The Federated Universe of AI-Enhanced Digital Twins to Achieve Climate Neutrality of Urban Environments

What overarching urban challenge does TWINVERSE aim to respond to, and why is it important for European cities right now?
TWINVERSE responds to a central challenge facing European cities: how to make urban planning and management fit for the climate transition. Cities are expected to move rapidly towards climate neutrality, while at the same time dealing with heatwaves, flooding, air pollution, energy poverty and other pressures that often affect vulnerable communities the most. Yet many urban decisions are still taken through fragmented processes, with data spread across departments, systems and policy domains. TWINVERSE addresses this gap by helping cities connect data, AI and Digital Twins in ways that support more integrated, evidence-based and participatory decision-making.

This is especially important now because the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities asks cities to accelerate their transition by 2030. To do that, cities need tools that can help them understand complex interactions between mobility, energy, land use, buildings, socio-demographics and green infrastructure, and translate this understanding into practical action through instruments such as Climate City Contracts, SECAPs and SUMPs.

What kinds of new capabilities or ways of working do you hope TWINVERSE will enable for cities?
TWINVERSE aims to enable cities to move from fragmented, siloed planning towards more connected and anticipatory ways of working. By combining Local Digital Twins, interoperable data spaces and explainable AI-powered services, cities will be able to test scenarios, simulate impacts and compare possible interventions before implementing them in the real world. This can support better decisions on issues such as mobility, energy use, urban heat, air quality, public services and climate adaptation.

The project also aims to strengthen collaboration across departments and between cities. Because TWINVERSE is built around federated and interoperable Digital Twins, solutions developed or tested in one city should become easier to adapt, reuse and scale in others. Just as importantly, the project includes participatory tools that can help bring citizens and stakeholders into planning processes, making urban transformation more transparent, inclusive and responsive to local needs. 

Which strengths does VUB bring to the consortium, and how do they help advance the project’s goals?
VUB contributes to TWINVERSE through FARI - AI for the Common Good Institute, an initiative by ULB and VUB with a mission to put the common good at the heart of AI, data and robotics research. FARI brings strong interdisciplinary expertise in responsible AI, data governance, law, ethics and public-sector digital transformation.

A key strength of VUB-FARI is the involvement of the Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) research group, which is part of FARI’s interdisciplinary ecosystem. LSTS focuses on the relationships between law, science, technology, ethics and society, making it particularly relevant for a project such as TWINVERSE, where AI-enhanced Digital Twins must be developed and used in ways that are legally sound, socially responsible and aligned with fundamental rights.  
Within TWINVERSE, FARI leads T1/2.2 Data and SELP management, covering the project’s Data Management Plan and the monitoring of Security, Ethical, Legal and Privacy requirements across the consortium. In this role, FARI supports partners on ethical and legal aspects, including alignment with the AI Act, GDPR and evolving EU policies.

VUB-FARI will also contribute to the project’s broader experimentation and engagement activities. This includes supporting the potential use of a CAVE, or Computer Augmented Virtual Environment, for solution replication and immersive visualisation in Brussels, as foreseen in the proposal in relation to enhancing the Local Digital Twin of the City of Brussels. VUB-FARI will also contribute to citizen engagement activities and citizen workshops, helping gather feedback at relevant stages of the AI solution lifecycle, from design and development to testing and use, so that the tools remain responsive to societal needs and public-sector realities.
This contribution helps ensure that TWINVERSE does not only deliver technically advanced AI and Digital Twin solutions, but that these solutions are also trustworthy, accountable, privacy-aware, understandable and usable in real public-sector decision-making. In this way, VUB-FARI helps bridge the gap between technological innovation and the democratic, legal and societal conditions needed for cities to adopt AI responsibly.

How do you see TWINVERSE supporting cities in becoming more resilient, inclusive, and climate neutral over time?
TWINVERSE can support cities by giving them better ways to understand the consequences of their choices and to act earlier, rather than only reacting once problems appear. AI-enhanced Digital Twins can help cities model risks, test climate-neutrality pathways and identify where interventions may have the greatest impact. This is particularly relevant for areas such as urban heat, pollution, mobility emissions, energy efficiency, cooling poverty and access to essential services.

Over time, the value of TWINVERSE lies in connecting technical intelligence with inclusive governance. By combining data, simulations, explainable AI and citizen participation, the project can help cities make climate action more targeted, more transparent and more socially fair. If successfully embedded into planning processes such as Climate City Contracts, SECAPs and SUMPs, TWINVERSE can become a practical support system for cities that want to move towards climate neutrality while also strengthening resilience and inclusion.

https://www.twinverse-project.eu/

Acronym: CRACY
Title: CRA CompliancY (made easy)

Can you provide a brief overview of the CRACY project and its primary objectives?
CRACY was launched to help companies, mainly small and medium-sized engineering companies, comply with the new Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), which has recently been approved by the European Parliament and which will fully enter into force by December 2027. [1] It seeks to improve the reliability and (cyber)security of both software applications and physical products that employ software systems, such as electronic appliances. The CRA requires manufacturers to perform risk assessments regarding the security of their devices and the extent to which these devices are vulnerable to hackers. Furthermore, manufacturers will be required to provide mechanisms for providing continuous security updates over the course of the device’s lifecycle.

Implementing such protocols is very labour-intensive. Smaller enterprises especially may not have the in-house expertise available to comply with the new regulation, which in turn will make it more difficult for them to compete against larger companies. Furthermore, as the CRA targets a broad spectrum of products, it must necessarily adopt a technology-agnostic, high-level view of how software systems are created and maintained. This makes it more difficult for companies to translate the CRA’s legal framework into actionable insights that they can implement themselves.

CRACY will therefore develop free and open-source tools, mechanisms, checklists, and guidelines to help companies comply with the CRA by performing the necessary technical assessments of their products themselves. It will furthermore create content for webinars, workshops, training sessions, etc. to help shed light on the obligations imposed by the CRA.

[1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240308IPR18991/cyber-resilience-act-meps-adopt-plans-to-boost-security-of-digital-products

What role does VUB play in the CRACY project, and what are some of its key contributions?
Modern software systems are comprised of many different interacting software components, software libraries, and software services, collectively termed dependencies. Often, even the developers of a system are not aware of exactly which dependencies have been included in a software system, as these dependencies are often reused between different systems. Some of these dependencies are made open-source, so that they are available to a large group of developers. A downside, however, is that any security vulnerability in a popular dependency may also introduce a vulnerability in a system in which they are included. The CRA therefore requires the manufacturer of a product to perform a thorough risk assessment of the product’s software, including its dependencies.

The role of the VUB in this project is to develop an open-source tool to automatically scan the various software dependencies that are used in a software system. This tool produces a so-called “Software Bill of Materials”, which includes, for each dependency, information on e.g., known vulnerabilities, the mechanism for reporting vulnerabilities to the dependency’s developers, and the software license in use. Such tools already exist, but they require considerable intervention from developers with expert knowledge. The goal of the VUB is, therefore, to investigate how we can fully automate this analysis, so it also becomes available to non-experts, and how we can make the scan more comprehensive, so that it also considers dependencies which are currently ignored by state-of-the-art scanners.

This tool will help lower the barrier for developers to create secure and reliable products. This tool will reduce the likelihood that a product is released with known security vulnerabilities. Furthermore, it will also enable developers to be automatically notified whenever a security vulnerability is reported for one of the dependencies that are used in their system. This will make it easier to quickly fix vulnerabilities if any are discovered after the product’s release.

What will be the broader impact of the CRACY project?
Because of the complexity of modern software, making an application fully secure and resistant to every conceivable attack is a herculean task. This problem grows even larger for applications which are actively updated and which frequently receive new features, as each update may introduce a new vulnerability. Large organisations often employ dedicated teams to test the security of their products and to fix issues as soon as they are reported. These teams consist of security experts who use sophisticated tools to discover and fix vulnerabilities. 
CRACY will democratize knowledge on software security by developing new tools, mechanisms, and guidelines for improving the security and reliability of products, and by partially automating some of the required technical assessments. As CRACY is funded by the EU’s Digital Europe Programme, all of these tools will be made available as free and open-source software, so they can be adopted by developers worldwide. This will make it much easier to ship new products without known security exploits. Even if new exploits are discovered after a product has already been released, the tools developed by CRACY will help developers to patch these exploits more quickly.

CRACY will also organise educational activities, including webinars, workshops, and training sessions, to help organisations make their products CRA-compliant by December 2027. As with the tools developed by CRACY, the content of these activities will also be made publicly available.

More information on the CRA and CRACY can be found at https://cra-cy.eu/.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Digital Europe Programme under grant agreement No 101190492. 

Acronym:  FLEXMCS
Title: Flexible Megawatt Charging Systems, open software architectures, and planning modules creating multi-charger hubs for the European electric mobility system

What are the main challenges regarding charging infrastructure for the mass deployment of electric trucks?
The transition to electric heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) faces several major hurdles. Charging infrastructure is currently insufficient, both in terms of availability and power capacity. The grid must be able to support high-power fast charging, but capacity limitations and energy distribution inefficiencies present significant challenges. Additionally, charging stations need to be flexible and scalable, accommodating different types of vehicles while ensuring cost-effective deployment

Can you provide a brief overview of how the FLEXMCS project will address these challenges?
In the EU FLEXMCS project, we are developing multiport Megawatt charging systems with 4 MCS and up to 18 CCS outlets, optimizing usage by enabling fast charging for HDVs and overnight charging for light vehicles. To reduce grid impact and energy losses, we will integrate renewable energy sources and stationary energy storage systems (BESS). Additionally, an Open Charging Framework will enable real-time data exchange between charge point operators (CPOs) and trucks, ensuring smart energy management. The project will be validated through a real-world demonstration in Karlsruhe, Germany, assessing scalability, technology effectiveness, and business viability.

What role does VUB play in the FLEXMCS consortium, and what will be some of its key contributions?
VUB, through the EPOWERS Research Group at VUB-ETEC-MOBI, is coordinating the EU FLEXMCS project. VUB will also develop tools to optimize both the chargers' power electronics architecture and charging site layout. These tools will enable enhanced combined charging for both CCS and MCs outlets and provide an optimal site design for different business cases. Further, VUB will define the multi-layer EMS architecture and specifically contribute to a medium-level controller, for the optimal modular operation of the chargers. VUB will also provide a lifetime assessment tool for power electronics health degradation. Finally, VUB will support in the TCO assessment linked to large-scale geographical deployment strategies of the solutions.

What will be the broader impact of FLEXMCS?
EU FLEXMCS will accelerate the deployment of megawatt charging infrastructure, making zero-emission freight transport more viable and cost-effective. By optimizing charging efficiency, expanding grid capacity, and integrating renewable energy, the project will help logistics operators reduce costs, lower emissions, and increase fleet reliability.

Acronym:  HARPOONERS
Title: High voltAge, modulaR and low weight electric POwertrains fOr NExt generation waterborne tRanSport

What are the main challenges in decarbonising maritime and inland waterway vessels?
The decarbonization of maritime and inland waterway (IW) vessels is progressing slowly due to several challenges related to battery energy storage systems (BESS), which must be addressed before they can effectively compete with conventional solutions. The key challenges are:

• Weight: High storage capacity in BESS results in significant weight, which limits the cargo capacity of small and medium-sized vessels.
• Reliability: Ensuring trouble-free operation, reducing unexpected failures, and lowering operating and maintenance costs is essential.
• Safety: Large-scale adoption of BESS depends on addressing safety concerns to gain vessel owners' trust and compliance with regulations.

These challenges are critical in making electrification a viable solution for decarbonization. 

How will HARPOONERS address these challenges?
The HARPOONERS project directly tackles these challenges through its three Innovation Pillars:

1.    Weight Reduction:

• HARPOONERS is developing a compact and modular high-voltage (HV) battery system that integrates key components, reducing overall system weight.
• The system eliminates the need for a transformer and additional cooling, making it significantly lighter.
• This is particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized vessels, allowing for full electrification without sacrificing cargo capacity.

2.    Reliability Improvement:

• The project introduces an "AC battery system" that enhances efficiency and ensures trouble-free routing, lowering operational and maintenance costs.
• Advanced management systems will be developed for stable operation in both all-electric and hybrid vessel powertrains.

3.    Enhanced Safety:

• By eliminating certain complex components (like the transformer and additional cooling system), the new system improves safety while maintaining performance.
• The design enhances the adoption potential of BESS by minimizing risks for vessel owners.

Additionally, HARPOONERS' European-wide partnership (involving research institutions, battery manufacturers, power electronics experts, and shipping owners) ensures a well-rounded approach to making electrification viable across different vessel types.
With a €7.5M budget and a 36-month timeline (starting February 2025), HARPOONERS aims to accelerate the adoption of BESS, contributing significantly to the decarbonization of the maritime and IW sectors.
 

Acronym:  EURL-PH-DIPE
Title: European reference laboratory network for EURL for public health in the field of Diphtheria and Pertussis

What is the EURL-PH-DIPE project about and what are the main goals?
This project is about two vaccine-preventable diseases that still circulate in EU-countries, pertussis and diphtheria. The European Center for disease Control (ECDC) launched a call for the establishment of a network of National Reference Laboratories (NRL) to meet a need for harmonization of methods, capacity building and professional exchanges of expertise and materials at the European level.

Pertussis (whooping cough) is a highly contagious respiratory disease mainly caused by Bordetella pertussis. In infants too young to be vaccinated, the disease is especially serious and still sometimes deadly. Despite extensive vaccination, pertussis remains endemic and epidemic worldwide, peaking every three to five years. After a very low prevalence due to social containment measures for Covid-19, an extensive epidemic is occurring in Europe since 2022.

Diphtheria presents mainly as a severe respiratory disease with systemic complications) e.g. cardiac and neurological symptoms), or a cutaneous infection.  It is caused by toxigenic corynebacteria; Corynebacterium diphtheriae, highly contagious among humans, and the zoonotic C. ulcerans, only exceptionally transmitted between humans but occasionally acquired after contact with domestic animals (mainly cats and dogs), cattle, or sometimes wild animals. This disease became very rare in Europe, but in 2022 and 2023, an increase of cases was observed, of which the majority were diagnosed in migrant-related facilities.

How does an ideal vaccination program look like?
Both diseases are included in the basis childhood vaccination schemes in all European countries, followed by life-long boosters. However, both present shortcomings.

Pertussis immunization, both after vaccination or natural disease, is waning after a few years and mild, often unrecognized, pertussis episodes manifesting as cough, occur at any age, resulting in a reservoir of contamination for children too young to be vaccinated. In children less than one year old, pertussis has an atypical course, with few coughs but episodes of potentially fatal breathing pauses (apnea). Since 2013, the Superior Health Council advises a booster vaccination in pregnant women, to transfer immunity through the placenta and provide passive protection until infant vaccination can be provided. Unfortunately, maternal vaccine coverage is still too low, due to vaccine hesitancy.

Diphtheria immunization is very complete in Europe, but migrants from countries where vaccination programs were disrupted by war and other societal problems often did not receive childhood vaccinees and can be a source of infection for insufficiently immunized adults. Indeed, a recent serological survey demonstrated that up to 82% of adults aged 40 to 59 years lack the protective level of diphtheria antibodies in many European countries.

What will be the broader societal impact of EURL-PH-DIPE?
This EURL project will enhance protection and preparedness against pertussis and diphtheria in Europe, through different tasks aiming to improve functions of each NRL, and by providing guidance and help to both ECDC and NRLs.

What is VUB’s role in the EURL-PH-DIPE consortium?
The Belgian National Reference Centers (NRC) for pertussis and diphtheria are both coordinated by the laboratory of microbiology of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussels (UZB). They combine our expertise on the detection and characterization of B. pertussis, the agent of pertussis (whooping cough) and C. diphtheriae and C. ulcerans, the agents of diphtheria, with the expertise of the laboratory of immunology of Sciensano on the immunological response to these pathogens.

In the frame of this European Reference Laboratory led by Finland and in collaboration with France and Germany, UZB will organise two rounds of External Quality Assessments for B. pertussis detection, give scientific advice and technical support and organize training activities to other NRCs and ECDC, and organize scientific meetings.

Acronym:  Shift2Zero
Title: Shifting to zero-emission logistics with right-sized, mission-focused, N1 eLCVs

Why is there a mismatch between current small commercial vehicles and the demand for efficient, environmentally friendly solutions? 
There is a gap between supply and demand in the market for small commercial vehicles (N1 LCVs) due to several reasons:

• Slow adoption of e-LCVs: In 2023, 1.2M new Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) were diesel-powered, while only 108,200 were battery-electric, indicating a clear gap in the adoption of electrical LCVs.
• Lack of mission-specific vehicle designs: Most Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) focus on general-purpose vehicles rather than mission-specific solutions for urban logistics. The OEMs involved in the project include IVECO SPA, Alkè Electric Vehicles, and Paxster AS.
• Operational inefficiencies in last-mile logistics: Last-mile logistics, the final stage of delivery from a distribution hub to the end customer, are often inefficient and can account for a significant portion of the total logistics cost. These inefficiencies can be due to different factors like the use of oversized vehicles, lack of energy-efficient solutions and unforeseeable circumstances like urban congestions.
• New emission regulations: Expanding Low-Emission Zones (LEZs), new EU vehicle standards (Euro 7), and urban access restrictions drive the demand for zero-emission solutions, but available eLCVs are often too costly or not optimized for specific logistics needs. 
   

How will the Shift2Zero project address this?
Shift2Zero is built on a strong industry-academia collaboration and takes a user- and mission-centric approach to design zero-emission LCVs that are tailored to meet the specific needs of urban logistics, it will:

• Co-develop six innovative e-LCV concepts tailored to key urban logistics sectors like e-commerce, cold chain (temperature-controlled deliveries), and dual-use transport of people and goods.
• Enhance vehicle efficiency and sustainability through optimized designs, such as adaptable cargo spaces with eutectic evaporators and movable panels for dynamic temperature zones, new control strategies that optimize energy management and driving efficiency, and bi-directional charging capabilities that enable eLCVs to supply energy back to the grid.
• Test solutions across six pilot sites in Belgium, Greece, Italy, Norway, and Poland with logistics operators to validate real-life performance.
• Integrate vehicles into advanced logistics systems for smarter and more efficient delivery networks, leveraging:
  •    Physical Internet (PI): As an open global logistics system founded on physical, digital, and operational interconnectivity through encapsulation, standardized interfaces, and protocols. This enables seamless, efficient freight movement across multiple logistics providers and transport modes.
  •    Synchromodal Logistics: As a real-time, dynamic extension of the existing intermodal transport by including real-time re-routing to adapt to disturbances, infrastructure constraints, and customer requirements, ensuring optimal transport efficiency.
• Support market adoption by ensuring the vehicles are cost-effective, scalable, and compliant with regulatory requirements. 
   

What role does VUB play in the Shift2Zero consortium, and what are some of its key contributions?
MOBILISE leads the work package focused on defining user- and mission-centric vehicle requirements for zero-emission LCVs for urban and suburban logistics and freight mobility. MOBILISE will bridge its expertise in city logistics and transport modelling through different key contributions:

• Defining user- and mission-centric needs – Conducting stakeholder engagement, choice-experiment surveys, and user trade-off analysis to inform the vehicle design.
• Ensuring user-centricity – Coordinating and integrating diverse stakeholder perspectives, crucial in urban logistics. This specifically includes operators using e-LCVs, such as drivers, who are often overlooked in vehicle design but whose insights are essential for usability and efficiency.
• Exploring logistics innovations – Assessing how Shift2Zero vehicle designs integrate with new logistics models, such as Physical Internet and synchromodal transport, to enhance delivery networks.
• Simulation & real-life demonstrations – Executing transport modeling and optimization simulations to support pilot implementations, and supporting the implementation of the Brussels pilot, where shared-use e-LCVs will be tested.

What will be the broader impact of the Shift2Zero project?
The broader impact of Shift2Zero will be the acceleration of the transition to zero-emission, efficient, and sustainable logistics in urban and suburban areas. The key areas of impact include:

• Societal impact: Reducing societal impact of logistics operations by lowering CO2 emissions, noise, and pressure on public spaces, while improving safety.
• Scientific and technological impact: Developing validated methodologies and innovative e-LCV designs for urban logistics optimization.
• Economic impact: Increasing logistics efficiency, reducing costs for e-LCVs through reduced operational expenses, and enabling new business models for clean and affordable urban logistics solutions.