Successful Horizon Europe Pillar 2 projects with New Zealand partners

This funding was used to pay for overheads associated with a New Zealand organisation’s participation in a Horizon Europe Pillar 2 project EU-CIEMBLY: Creating an Inclusive European Citizens' Assembly.

EU-CIEMBLY addresses the need for the introduction of new forms of citizens’ participation and deliberation in EU political life and, particularly, an EU Citizens’ Assembly whose design and implementation fully addresses issues of intersectionality, inclusiveness, and equality.

This project focuses on creating new ways for EU citizens to participate in politics, through an EU Citizens' Assembly that prioritises inclusion and equality.

While there has been interest in improving how citizens can take part in EU democracy, past efforts have often failed to ensure all groups, especially marginalised ones, are included. This project aims to address these gaps.

It will create a framework and prototype for a Citizens' Assembly, which can be used at both the EU level and adapted for national and local use across EU member states.

The consortium includes the University of Coimbra (Portugal), University of Essex (UK), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), European Citizens Action Service (Belgium), University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg (South Africa), Institute for Methods Innovation (Ireland), Aspon Consulting (Cyprus), Universita' Degli Studi Di Bergamo (Italy) Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), University of Waikato (New Zealand) and Make.Org (France). The total funding is EUR 2,998,845 for 48 months.

The funding was used to pay for overheads associated with the University of Waikato’s participation in the Horizon Europe project titled EU-CIEMBLY: Creating an Inclusive European Citizens’ Assembly (“Horizon Europe Project”).

This Horizon Europe Project focuses on enhancing the participation of EU citizens in the political process through the development of an inclusive and equitable EU Citizen’s Assembly.
 
While prior initiatives have explored avenues for increased citizen engagement within the EU, ensuring the inclusion of all groups, particularly those facing multiple, intersectional disadvantages, has often proven challenging. This Horizon Europe Project aims to address these shortcomings. At EU-CIEMBLY, the team is dedicated to advancing the principles of intersectionality, inclusiveness, and equality in deliberative democracy.

Creating an inclusive European Citizens’ Assembly(external link) — University of Waikato

The d@rts project aims to find out whether performing art forms such as music, dance and drama can help people to create dialogues and live together better across different cultures. The 3 year project is led by NORD University, Norway and involves 10 Research Partners and 17 Associate Partners. It is organized into 9 works packages, each with a leader, a team of researchers and with distinct outputs.

Dance Studies at University of Auckland, is one of the research partners and involved in 5 of the Work packages. The staff involved are Dr Sarah Foster-Sproull and Prof. Ralph Buck. Aotearoa/NZ is one of the Non-European countries invited to participate, valuing our expertise in developing dance curriculum and researching pedagogies within decolonial contexts.

The research question driving the 3 year project is: How can performing arts education, in formal and non-formal contexts, reimagine cultural literacy as a dialogical practice that enhances social cohesion and inclusion? That is, can dance, drama, music help people be more tolerant, understanding, empathetic in school and non- school contexts, and therefore help build more inclusive and cohesive societies.

dialoguing@rts(external link)

This funding was used to support the University of Otago’s participation in a Horizon Europe Pillar 2 project: ERDERA - European Rare Diseases Research Alliance. This is a significant consortium dedicated to improving the lives of people with rare disorders.

More than 170 organisations from 37 countries are members of the consortium, and this is the first time New Zealand has been able to join such an initiative.

The University of Otago will represent New Zealand in accessing advanced systems and approaches to help improve diagnosis rates for people with rare disorders both here and internationally. Additionally, the University of Otago is being funded to establish an inclusive national group to share knowledge, activity and provide momentum to help drive improvements for diagnosis and care for rare disorders in New Zealand.

ERDERA - European Rare Diseases Research Alliance(external link)

Contact: louise.bicknell@otago.ac.nz

Minority Report will develop and implement a co-creation framework, which will support the design and development of an integrated, people-centric technology platform, integrating:

1. innovative predictive digital technologies,
2. rigorous scientific baselines and models for risk (including vulnerability and uncertainty) assessment and categorisation,
3. advanced weather forecasting and early warning for climate events,
4. BIM, digital twins, monitoring systems and decision support tool,
5. energy simulations and behavioural models based on Artificial Intelligence (AI),
6. and newly developed approaches from social sciences and humanities (SSH).

The final objective is to deliver the Minority Report technology platform for a functional, environmentally, and economically sustainable circular value chain for the construction and renovation of built environments, which enables to develop climate change and natural risks mitigation, and resilience enhancing strategies to improve climate change mitigation (heat waves, category 5 storms, wildfire) and disaster resilience (floods, earthquakes, etc.), through AI-assisted holistic solutions, that combine building adaption and renovation and Nature-based Solutions (NBS), at city and building scale. These types of solutions will be co-selected and co-created with the participation of citizens by means of the Minority Report people-centric technology platform, targeting expert and non-experts to collaborate over bespoke interventions for each site, ensuring the most impactful and appropriate interventions that are most acceptable to the local community and most effective for mitigating disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations are applied, within the project’s innovative co-creation framework.

This funding was used to pay for overheads associated with a New Zealand organisation’s participation in a Horizon Europe Pillar 2 project (Randomised Controlled Trial of Preventive Treatment of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus).

Professors Philip Hill and Katrina Sharples at the University of Otago are the senior epidemiologist and statistician respectively on this world-first trial. They led the design of the study and play a leadership role in its execution. The goal is to identify whether preventive treatment against the development of tuberculosis should be a priority for people with diabetes mellitus who live in a country with a high incidence of tuberculosis.

About the PROTID Project(external link) — protid-africa.com

Contact: Philip.Hill@otago.ac.nz

This funding was used to pay for overheads associated with a New Zealand organisation’s participation in a Horizon Europe Pillar 2 project UPWEARS.

The textile industry is facing major challenges. It is one of the most polluting industries, and consumers, as well as regulators, are pushing for change. Global demand is changing, and consumers expect more sustainable and smart textiles.

UPWEARS is a four-year EU research and innovation funding programme aiming to develop new fabric materials from hemp, cork, flax and byproducts of paper production for e-textile and sportswear uses. To demonstrate the e-textile, the team will create high-performance clothing for biking that is abrasion and tear-resistant, waterproof or repellant, stretchable, and breathable. The project will also develop ways to recycle and reuse textile waste. The overall aim is to contribute to a sustainable economy by unlocking the potential of bio-based and hybrid fabrics.

Led by INRAE, France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, Scion is among 15 partners globally and is leading a work package to modify and functionalise biomaterials for e-textile applications.

Scion will utilise expertise in sustainable materials and electronics to create flexible sensors and functional materials from biomaterials for integration into fabrics, sending temperature and humidity data to a user’s device. Scion is supporting turning recovered textile waste into filament or pellets for 3D printing meaning the clothing will be recyclable and zero-waste. In addition, Scion is also contributing to AI/machine learning activities to optimise the production process reducing waste and increasing zero-defect products.

Overall, the project will help transition to a modern textile fabrication process using natural fibres and reducing waste during and postproduction. It will also tackle the huge textile waste problem and contribute towards achieving a circular economy.

Contact: funding@scionresearch.com

This funding was used to pay for overheads associated with a New Zealand organisation’s participation in a Horizon Europe Pillar 2 project VITAL (‘Virtual Twins as tools for personalised clinicAL care’).

VITAL will deliver a comprehensive clinically validated multi-scale, multi-organ modelling platform that is driven by and can represent individual patient data acquired both in the clinic and from wearable technology. The platform will create a virtual human twin for individualised and sex-specific optimisation of medical (pharmacological) or surgical (interventional) therapy for complex, multifactorial cardiovascular disorders (systemic hypertension, heart failure and atrial septal defects) that have systemic impact and high risk of comorbidities. User-friendly interfaces, co-created with healthcare professionals, will provide access to the technology. By the end of the project, the predictive value of the platform in optimising the treatment of patients with cardiovascular disorders will have been validated through five clinical studies in Europe involving more than 200 patients. Each clinical study will investigate a scenario where predicting treatment response is a strong unmet need.

The Auckland Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland is leading a work package on multi-scale/multi-organ model development. This includes creating computational models that integrate neuro, mechanical, and drug modulation of cardiac function, and developing multi-scale models of the arterial and venous systems that incorporate the effects of the autonomic nervous system on vascular function. These models will be used to gain a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of cardiac disease, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and other vascular diseases, and to identify new therapeutic targets.

Horizon Vital Project(external link)

Contact: P.Hunter@auckland.ac.nz

Creating an Inclusive European Citizens’ Assembly (EU-CIEMBLY(external link))

Topic

HORIZON-CL2-2023-DEMOCRACY-01-07(external link)

Type of Action

Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA)

Project timing

Start date: 2024-01-01. End date: 2027-12-31. Duration: 48 months

Budget

€3 million (€0.14 million to NZ partners)

Coordinator

Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal

NZ Partner(s)

Victoria University of Wellington
Project funding: EUR €81,108.75
MBIE top-up funding: NZD $87,120.03

University of Waikato
Project funding: EUR €63,922.50
MBIE top-up funding: NZD $68,660.04

Public statements from NZ partner(s) receiving top-up funding

To come

Read more about EU-CIEMBLY

VIrtual Twins as tools for personalised clinicAL care (VITAL(external link))

Topic

HORIZON-HLTH-2023-TOOL-05-03(external link)

Type of Action

Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA)

Project timing

Start date: 2024-01-01. End date: 2028-12-31. Duration: 60 months

Budget

€11 million (€1.68 million to NZ partners)

Coordinator

Universiteit Gent, Belgium

NZ Partner(s)

University of Auckland
Project funding: EUR €1,679,000.00
MBIE top-up funding: NZD $1,050,000.00

Public statements from NZ partner(s) receiving top-up funding

To come

Read more about VITAL

Digital technologies for plant health, early detection, territory surveillance and phytosanitary measures (STELLA(external link))

Topic

HORIZON-CL6-2023-GOVERNANCE-01-16(external link)

Type of Action

Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA)

Project timing

Start date: 2024-01-01. End date: 2027-12-31. Duration: 48 months

Budget

€5 million (€0.29 million to NZ partners)

Coordinator

Geoponiko Panepistimion Athinon, Greece

NZ Partner(s)

Lincoln Agritech Ltd.
Project funding: EUR €286,937.50
MBIE top-up funding: NZD $313,250.55

Public statements from NZ partner(s) receiving top-up funding

To come

Read more about STELLA

dialoguing@rts – Advancing Cultural Literacy for Social Inclusion through Dialogical Arts Education (d@rts(external link))

Topic

HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-01-07(external link)

Type of Action

Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA)

Project timing

Start date: 2024-01-01. End date: 2027-12-31. Duration: 48 months

Budget

€3 million (€0.14 million to NZ partners)

Coordinator

Geoponiko Panepistimion Athinon, Greece

NZ Partner(s)

University of Auckland
Project funding: EUR €141,968.75
MBIE top-up funding: NZD $155,567.98

Public statements from NZ partner(s) receiving top-up funding

To come

Mitigating environmental disruptive events using people-centric predictive digital technologies to improve disaster and climate resilience (Minority Report(external link))

Topic

HORIZON-CL5-2023-D4-02-02(external link)

Type of Action

Innovation Action (HORIZON-IA)

Project timing

Start date: 2024-06-01. End date: 2027-11-30. Duration: 42 months

Budget

€5.3 million (€1.14 million to NZ partners)

Coordinator

IES R&D, Ireland

NZ Partner(s)

University of Auckland
Project funding: EUR €286,250.00
MBIE top-up funding: NZD $508,572.44

University of Canterbury
Project funding: EUR €197,500.00
MBIE top-up funding: NZD $350,892.78

Urban Intelligence Limited
Project funding: EUR €304,9387.50

Wellington City Council
Project funding: EUR €217,500.00

Public statements from NZ partner(s) receiving top-up funding

To come

Read more about MINORITY REPORT

Randomised Controlled Trial of Preventive Treatment of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus (PROTID(external link))

Topic

HORIZON-JU-GH-EDCTP3-2023-01(external link)

Type of Action

Research and Innovation Action (HORIZON-RIA)

Project timing

Start date: 2024-07-01. End date: 2026-12-31. Duration: 30 months

Budget

€2.3 million (€0.09 million to NZ partners)

Coordinator

Stichting Radboud Universitair Medisch Centrum, Netherlands

NZ Partner(s)

University of Otago
Project funding: EUR €94,446.25
MBIE top-up funding: NZD $167,532.15

Public statements from NZ partner(s) receiving top-up funding

To come

Read more about PROTID