Projects

ARC II - AWARENESS RAISING CAMPAIGN FOR SMEs

The ARC II project is a two-year project granted by the European Commission-EU. It aims to raise the awareness of personal data protection among SMEs in Croatia and Italy and provide practical guidance for the compliance with the GDPR. It will develop an open-source, freely accessible, interoperable and innovative digital tool “Olivia”, tailor-made to specific needs of SMEs. This digital tool can also be replicated in other Member States, adapted to SMEs needs, to facilitate them the implementation of GDPR obligations.

Overall expected direct result of ARC II project is increased knowledge and understanding among SMEs of their obligations arising from the GDPR and Italian and Croatian data protection legal framework. The GDPR compliance digital tool will be developed in open-source code, therefore all the data protection authorities (DPAs) could adapt it to their national legislation and language. In this way, SMEs across the EU will be able to benefit from the project results of the ARC II project.

Project number: 101072630, Citizenship, Equality, Rights and Values Programm  Granting authority: European Commission-EU  Project duration: 24 months, 2 September 2022 - 1 September 2024  Grant amount: 360 514.43 eur Total costs: 400 571.62 eur 

Coordinator: Agencija za zaštitu osobnih podataka (AZOP)- Croatian Personal Data Protection Agency  Beneficiaries: Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali (Grante Privacy), Faculty of Information and Organisation (FOI), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), University of Florence (UNIFI)

FACILITATE- FrAmework for ClInicaL trIal participants’ daTA reutilization for a fully Transparent and Ethical ecosystem 

FACILITATE is a project built on a patient-centred, data-driven, technological platform where dynamic consent allows thereturning of clinical trial data to study participants within a GDPR compliant and approved ethical framework. FACILITATE starts-off by providing clear rules in a trusted ethical, legal and regulatory ecosystem before engaging patients as datagenerators. This avoids the current situation where clinical data are siloed in separate repositories without any possibility tobe used beyond their original single-sided purpose. FACILITATE will provide the technological solutions to comply withGDPR in medical research by building on the empowered stakeholders’ willingness to share and re-use their data.

The overall goal of this 3-years project is the development of a patient centered process prototype to allow the direct generation and the return of clinical trials data to study participants. By putting the study participants at the very core of their data portability and secondary use, the FACILITATE project will make it easier to integrate both local and pan-European implementations considering best practices and data protection regulations. This prototype process will be delivered as part of the project alongside a robust business plan to ensure its sustainability to foster the harmonization of the legal framework applicable to medical research in different European Member States.

Status: Active   Project Duration: 48 months, 1st January 2022 - 31st December 2025

PLANET4HEALTH - Translating Science into Policy: A Multisectoral Approach to Adaptation and Mitigation of Adverse Effects of Vector-Borne Diseases, Environmental Pollution and Climate Change on Planetary Health

PLANET4HEALTH is a four-year project granted by the European Commission to a consortium of 17 partners, where VUB ensures compliance with ethical and legal standards. This project will provide new knowledge and tools on environmental degradation and its impact on human animal and ecosystem health. The project results will support the policy-making process and citizens' awareness of sustainable planetary health, climate and environmental policies and adaptation and mitigation strategies to natural hazards. Furthermore, PLANET4HEALTH will develop collaborations from a large variety of organizations from the environmental and climate science, public health, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, social, political and economic science, engineering, law and ethics, and communication, to produce solid knowledge and tools to facilitate learning and practice on the interaction between the natural system and human health.

Four tailor-made case studies will be performed: 1) One Health effects of vector-borne diseases, 2) air pollution, 3) food contamination arising from soil and water contamination, 4) mental wellbeing linked to environmental and climate stressors, in different geographical areas thanks to the large project network. These case studies aim to draw universal conclusions and replicable solutions to improve the predictive capability and preparedness. 

The consortium will produce research, technological innovation, tailored outreach and training, and policy solutions through a cross-sectorial multidisciplinary scientific collaboration in line with the transnational character of planetary health. For these aims the project will: a) collect, organize and assure open availability of new and already existing data on climate and environmental indicators linked to One Health; b) carry out analyses on data and build innovative, inter-operable and multifunctional digital prototypes; c) produce new knowledge and tools to support One Health policies by applying social science theories and involving citizens, policymakers and stakeholders; d) offer open-access data, tools and research material to public authorities for decision making and academic research for further study.

Project number: 101136652. Call: HORIZON-HLTH-2023-ENVHLTH-02. Topic: HORIZON-HLTH-2023-ENVHLTH-02-01. Type of action: HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions. Granting authority: European Health and Digital Executive Agency. Maximum grant amount: 5 925 130.00 EUR. Duration: 48 months, January 2024 - December 2027

Smart-CHANGE  –  AI-BASED LONG-TERM HEALTH RISK EVALUATION FOR DRIVING BEHAVIOUR CHANGE STRATEGIES IN CHILDREN AND YOUTH

SmartCHANGE is a four-year project granted by the European Commission to a consortium of 13 partners, where VUB ensures compliance with the relevant EU legislation. The overall goal of the project is to develop trustworthy, AI-based decision-support tools that will help health professionals and citizens reduce long-term risk of non-communicable diseases, by accurately assessing the risk of children and youth, including those with difficult-to-detect risks, and promoting delivery of optimised risk-lowering strategies. 

The main outcome of the project will see clinicians, medical professionals and citizens have access to and use validated AI tools for disease risk assessment, thus making it possible for citizens to be better informed in managing their own health.

Project number: 101080965. Call: HORIZON-HLTH-2022-STAYHLTH-01-two-stage. Type of action: HORIZON-RIA. Granting authority: European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Project duration: 48 months: 1 May 2023 – 30 April 2027. Grant amount: € 5 967 395.00 Total costs: € 5 967 395.00 

Coordinator: Institut Jozef Stefan (Slovenia) Beneficiaries: University of Piraeus Research Centre (Greece), Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (the Netherlands), Univerza v Ljubljiani (Slovenia), Stichting VUMC (the Netherlands), Jyvaskylan Ammattikorkeakoulu Oy (Finland), Engineering – Ingegneria informatica SpA (Italy), Connectedcare Services BV (the Netherlands), Trust-IT SRL (Italy), Commpla SRL (Italy), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), Universidade do Porto (Portugal), Università della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland).

SOCIO-BEE - Wearables and droneS fOr CIty Socio-Environmental Observations and BEhavioral ChangE

The SOCIO-BEE project aims to design, deploy and validate a next-generation CS platform for citizens’ wearable-based modules for air quality observation, supported by local decision-makers and action groups. It aims to realize sustainable, scalable, and replicable/spreadable experiments, who are co-created. SOCIO-BEE will develop and  implement a co-creation module for facilitating citizen science.Users will be able to select among several customizable campaigning blueprints each of which will entail such  tools for delivering engagement programmes and campaigns that genuinely enable communities to influence decision  making for reducing pollution levels in cities and creating trust between stakeholders.  

The project proposes that community engagement and social innovation combined with Citizen Science (CS) through emergingtechnologies and playful interaction can bridge the gap between the capacity of communities to adopt more sustainable behavioursaligned with environmental policy objectives and between the citizen intentions and the real behaviour to act in favour of theenvironment (in this project, to reduce air pollution).

Status: Active   Project Duration: 36 months, 1st October 2021 - 30th September 2024

SUN - Social and hUman ceNtered XR

The Social and hUman ceNtered XR (SUN) project aims at investigating and developing extended reality (XR) solutions that integrate the physical and the virtual world in a convincing way, from a human and social perspective. The virtual world will be a means to augment the physical world with new opportunities for social and human interaction. The solutions will be demonstrated in three real-life scenarios, focusing on social interaction and collaboration: eXtended reality for Rehabilitation, eXtended reality forsafety and social interaction at work, and eXtended reality for people with serious mobility and verbal communication diseases.

The project will contribute to human-centred and ethical development of digital and industrial technologies, through a two-way engagement in the development of technologies, empowering end-users and workers, and supporting social innovation, including end-users from the very beginning through the co-creation of scenarios, and later on gathering their feedback through the pilots demonstrating new uses of XR in the field of industry (ameliorating safety and capability of workers), rehabilitation, and inclusive communication

Status: Active   Project Duration: 36 months, 1st December 2022 - 30th November 2025

TeNDER - affecTive basEd iNtegrateD carE for betteR Quality of Life

TeNDER- (affecTive basEd iNtegrateD carE for betteR Quality of Life)  is a multi-sectoral project funded by Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. From the end of 2019 to the end of 2022, TeNDER will develop an integrated care model to manage multi-morbidity in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (and other forms of dementia), Parkinson’s disease, and cardiovascular disease.

By combining user-friendly technologies and substantial research experience, the project aims to help improve the quality of life of patients and those who surround them. Moreover, it will test ways to ease communication between different health and care providers who treat patients with multi-morbidities.

Status: Completed   Project Duration: 41 months, 1st November 2019 - 30th April 2023

LOCARD - Lawful evidence cOllecting & Continuity plAtfoRm Development

LOCARD is a project funded through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program, that would automate the collection of digital evidence in any electronic format and medium. Its goal is to provide a comprehensive management approach to handle digital evidence to be presented in a court of law, alleviating many issues of current art and practice. LOCARD aims to increase trust in the handling and processing of digital evidence and the management of chain of custody by providing transparency and using immutable chain of custody stored with blockchain technology.

Project Duration: 36 months, 1st May 2019 - 30th April 2022  Total Budget: 6,843,385,00 eur

PROTEIN Project

PROTEIN is a research initiative led by a consortium of European public- and private-sector organizations working to promote health and wellbeing. By bringing together experts from across Europe, PROTEIN will develop tools using the latest communications technologies and machine learning strategies to provide personalized nutrition and physical activity support to EU citizens.   

https://protein-h2020.eu/about-protein/ 

Grant Agreement ID: 817732 Start date: 1 December 2018 End date: 31 May 2022 Funded under programme(s): H2020-EU.3.2.2.1. - Informed consumer choices | H2020-EU.3.2.2.2. - Healthy and safe foods and diets for all Topic: DT-SFS-14-2018 - Personalized Nutrition Funding Scheme: IA - Innovation action 

FASTER - First responder Advanced technologies for Safe and efficienT Emergency Response 

FASTER aims to establish a new approach for disaster response in order to improve Europe’s overall disaster resilience. This will be accomplished by the targeted employment and synergetic deployment of a set of appropriate and complementary technologies. Immediate response is the second phase of the disaster management cycle and is a very important aspect for dealing effectively with disasters. Consequently, FASTER will improve the disaster response and monitoring capabilities by providing first responders with a suite of core and supplementary tools to augment their situational awareness and, as a result, guarantee their safety as well as enhance their operational capacity. 

More details of the project see here: https://www.faster-project.eu/ 

ALADDIN - Advanced hoListic Adverse Drone Detection, Identification Neutralization

The project ALADDIN – Advanced hoListic Adverse Drone Detection, Identification and Neutralization is funded by the European Commission (EC) through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, in response to the call ‘SEC-12-FCT-2016-2017 – Sub-topic 2: Detection and neutralization of rogue/suspicious light drone/UAV flying over restricted areas and involving as beneficiaries, where appropriate, the operators of infrastructure’.

ALADDIN will study, design, develop, and evaluate, in series of complementary pilots, a counter UAV system as a complete solution to the growing UAV threat problem, building upon a state-of-the-art system and enhancing it by researching on various technologies and functionalities. ALADDIN will follow a holistic and heavily user-centred methodology involving a large number of LEAs and critical infrastructure operators, as well as an expert Advisory Board panel ensuring end-user diversity, as they all face different kinds of threats and work within different regulatory frameworks. This diversity is important to shape EU-wide system specifications and the innovative training curricula and training that will be realised to share the knowledge gained and raise awareness. Furthermore, within the project all regulations, social, ethical and legal elements will be studied thoroughly and continuously with an impact assessment produced and its results monitored during the project’s lifetime.

ALADDIN’s sensing arsenal is comprised of a set of custom, innovative, and unique technologies as well as established and standard sensors used for UAV detection and localisation: 1) 2D/3D paired radars; 2) Innovative optro and thermal panoramic imaging; 3) Custom designed acoustic sensors. These will be fused through novel deep learning techniques in order to provide excellent detection accuracy.

Status: Completed   Project Duration: 40 months, 1st September 2017 - 31st December 2020

TECHCARE 

Training on the adaptability of Assisted Living Technologies in home and community care.The objective of the project is to train carers on acting as evaluators and primary level counselors upon the ethical and practical challenges that determine the acceptability of ALT’s into home and community care.

The Erasmus + TechCare Project is a 36 months project running from October 2017 to September 2020. The project puts together educational institutions and organizations with the purpose of strengthening the ties between technology advancements, education and caregivers. The project focuses on training formal and informal caregivers about the ethical and practical challenges that determine the acceptability of Assisted Living Technologies (ALTs) into home and community care. 

Commissioned by: EU ERASMUS + (ref. EUPOM43) Promoter for VUB: Prof P. de Hert (promotor) Researchers:  Eugenio  Mantovani  Duration: 01-09-2017 to 31.08.2020 Budget: 403050.00 Euros 

Partners: Wohlfahrtswerk für Baden-Württemberg (DE), Aphoi Koumanakou & SIAEE (GR), Fundacio per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Technische Universität Darmstadt.

IRIS - Interoperable platform for Remote monitoring and Integrated e-Solutions

The objective of the project is to develop, validate and implement an open source and secure ICT platform for interoperable collection and communication of wireless 3G/4G audio-video data, point-of-care device data and patient medical history data, across hospitals, emergency vehicles and patient portals at home. The ICT platform will also enable blinded big data analysis of the medical data to optimize treatment and to facilitate clinical research and health economic studies. The IRIS platform will comply with legislation on privacy and data protection, medical device regulations and liability legislation as well as technological regulations. 

Commissioned by: INNOVIRIS (ref. BRGEOZ310) Promoter for VUB: Prof P de Hert (promotor) Reserachers:  Eugenio  Mantovani, Efrain Castaneda Mogollon, Pedro Cristobal Bocos Duration: September 2014 – October  2017 Budget: 1.354.058  EUROS 

Partners: Center for Neurosciences’ (C4N)  at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), OPERA department (Optique, Photonique, Electromagnétisme, Radiocommunications et Acoustique), Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), ETRO Department of Electronics and Informatics at the Engineering Faculty of VUB, ULB Erasme Hospital (Brussels), Law Science Technology & Society at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (LSTS), UCL St Luc (Brussels). 

SENIOR - Social Ethical and privacy Needs in ICT for Older people: a dialogue Roadmap

SENIOR (Social, Ethical and Privacy Needs in ICT for Older People: A Dialogue Roadmap) was a two-year project which began in January 2008 and finished in December 2009. It provided a systematic assessment of the social, ethical and privacy issues involved in ICT and Ageing, an understanding of what lessons should be learned from current technological trends and developed strategies for governing future trends. SENIOR had eight partners. Its website is http://www.seniorproject.eu. 

‘The Gerontopole Brussels” 

• Commissioned by: VUB Onderzoeksraad Horizontale Onderzoeksacties – Interdisciplinaire Netwerken 2013 Title: ‘The Gerontopole Brussels’ Promotor/spokesperson:  Prof. Ivan Bautmans Co-promoter: Prof. Dominique Verté Team-representatives: Ivan Bautmans (VUB, FRIA); Ingo Beyer (UZBrussel); Mirko Petrovic (Ugent); Dominique Verté & Liesbeth De Donder (VUB, BAST); Tinie Kardol (VUB, Leerstoel Bevordering Active Ageing); Gina Rossi & Eva Dierckx (VUB, KLEP); Benedicte Deforche (VUB, PANU); Jan-Pieter Clarys (VUB, EXAN); Paul De Hert (VUB, FRC), Bart Jansen (VUB, ETRO). Total budget: 525.000 EUR (max. 105.000 EUR per year) Period: 01.10.2013 t.e.m. 01.01.2018 Researchers: Ann-Katrin Habig (Predoc); Sofie Vermeiren (Predoc), Roberta Vella-Azzopardi (Predoc)  
• Commissioned by: European Commission DG INFSO Project Coördinator: Prof. E. Mordini, Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (IT), Project coordinator and Promoter VUB: Prof. P. De Hert Co-Promoter VUB: Prof. Serge Gutwirth Researchers for the VUB:  Eugenio  Mantovani Partners: Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (IT), European Business Associates (IT), Global Security Intelligence (UK), Inclusion Alliance for Europe (RO), In-JeT ApS (DK), International Forum for Biophilosophy (BE), Trilateral Research & Consulting LLP (UK), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE) Duration: 1 januari 2008 t/m 31.12.2009 Budget (total): EUR 950.000 Budget (Vub): EUR 88.864 Website: www.seniorproject.eu 

REACTION - Remote Accessibility to Diabetes Management and Therapy in Operational healthcare Networks  

The REACTION project is committed to improve the daily life of diabetes patients across Europe with the aid of world class Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The project is developing an integrated ICT platform that will improve long term management of diabetes based on wearable, continuous blood glucose monitoring sensors and automated closed-loop delivery of insulin.  

Reaction - FP7 IP in Personal Healthcare Systems beginning in march 2010 - FP7 248590 www.reaction-project.eu http://reactionproject.eu/newsletters/November2010.html 

Commissioned by: European Commission DG  Project coördinator: Lydia Montandon ATOS ORIGIN Sociedad Anonima Espanola Promoter VUB: Prof. P. De Hert Co-Promoter VUB: Prof. Serge Gutwirth  Researchers for the VUB: Eugenio Mantovani, Paul Quinn  Duration time: 1 April 2010 to 31 December 2013 Budget: 11,8 Mio € Partners: Solianis Monitoring AG SOLIANIS Switzerland; Bayer Technology Services GMBH BTS Germany; Vrije Universiteit Brussels VUB Belgium; Brunel University, Department of Information Systems and Computing UBRUN UK; Chorleywood Health Centre CHC UK; Joanneum Research, Institute of Medical Technologies & Health Management MSG Austria; Medizinische Universität Graz MUG Austria; Applied Logic Laboratory ALL Hungary; In-JeT ApS IN-JET Denmark, Hellenic Telecommunications And Telematics Applications Company S.A. FORTHNET Greece; Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology FHG-SIT Germany; Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas , Inst. f. Computer Science FORTH-ICS Greece; Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz IMM Germany; DELTA Dansk Elektronik, Lys & Akustik DELTA Denmark CNet Svenska AB CNET Sweden 

MOVING LIFE MObile eHealth for the VINdication of Global LIFEstyle change and disease management solutions  

MovingLife—MObile eHealth for the VINdication of Global LIFEstyle change and disease management solutions – is a FP7 programme (287352) that aims to deliver roadmaps for technological research, implementation practice and policy support with the aim of accelerating the establishment, acceptance and wide use of mobile eHealth solutions to accelerate the establishment, acceptance and wide use of mobile eHealth solutions that will support lifestyle changes.  

This coordination and support action takes a global perspective on mHealth not only from the developed world, but equally so from the newly developed and developing regions. The roadmaps will address a broad group of fundamental issues such as technology options for applications and services, options for new and improved medical guidelines, user empowerment and acceptance. Additionally ethical and privacy related issues will be considered in the context of socio-economic environments and policy and regulatory frameworks. The project will provide a better understanding of the technology options available for defining research policies and also the business and regulatory aspects for both private sector-driven and publicly-funded mHealth services.  

The expected impact covers improved understanding of the technology options in areas such as network resilience, interoperability, security, etc. as well as improved understanding of the business and regulatory aspects.

Commissioned by: Europese Commissie. (7th Community Framework Programme in Research and Development (FP 7)) Promotor VUB: Prof. P. De Hert Researchers: P. De Hert, Jesper Thestrup, Trine F. Sørensen, Eugenio Mantovani, Paul Quinn, Ann-Katrin Habbig, Kush Wadhwa, Manuel Marcelino Perez Perez, Blanca Jordan Rodriguez, Mads Stampe Frederiksen, Alessio Gugliotta, Paul McCarthy Partners: The MovingLife consortium comprises six partners: the Atos Origin Sociedad Anoninma Espanola Atos (Spain), the Innova Spa (Italy), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), the In-JeT ApS (Denmark), the Global Security Intelligence Limited (GSI, UK) and the Region Hovestaden (CSI, Denmark).  Duration: The MovingLife project began on 1 September 2011 and will conclude in March 2013. Budget: 538,825.00 euro (total) - 66,960.00 euro (VUB) 

Value Ageing 

Incorporating European Fundamental Values into ICT for Ageing: A Vital Political, Ethical, Technological, and Industrial Challenge (VALUE-AGEING) is a 48 month Marie Curie Industry Academia Partnerships and Pathways Action which aims to foster cooperation between on commercial and commercial entities on a joint research project about the incorporation of Fundamental Values of the EU in Info Communication Technology (ICT) for Ageing. http://www.vub.ac.be/e-brief/index.php/news/nl/4/20101206/50/ Over the course of the projects (start date October 2010), LSTS received a full time post doctoral researcher and a three seconded early experienced researchers from partners’ organisations. Content-wise, LSTS lead work package 2, which is tasked to carry out a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral analysis of the main ICT-developments impacting on freedom and autonomy of older citizens. The research work on autonomy involved a dialogue between legal practice and care in practice studies delving on three main themes, older citizens in situations of dependency, people with dementia, and assistive robotics 

Commissioned by: European Commission DG FP7 "People" Programme: Marie Curie Actions "Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways" (IAPP) FP7-PEOPLE- 2009-IAPP Call identifier: FP7-PEOPLE- 2009-IAPP Activity: Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) Grant agreement no: 251686 Date of preparation of Annex I:              24 August 2009 Start date of the project: 01 October 2010 Promoter VUB: Prof. P. De Hert LSTS Researchers: Eugenio Mantovani @ Daniel Lopez LSTS Budget : 191718 Euro 

PICASO - A Personalised Integrated Care Approach for Service Organisations and Care Models for Patients with Multi-Morbidity and Chronic Conditions (PICASO) 

The vision of the PICASO project is that it will become a Europe-wide Continuum of Care service platform that will improve cooperation and exchange of knowledge between professional caregivers in health, rehabilitation and social care domains and actively include patients and their relatives in the integrated care settings thus supporting patient empowerment and self-care; will bring about improvements in health outcomes, daily activities, and quality of life of older persons with multi-morbidities by personalising care management programmes to specific characteristics of the patients' profiles and support adherence to care plans at the point of need; will reinforced medical knowledge and create new care models for management and treatment of patients with multi-morbidity conditions; will allow more cost-effective care management through increased skills and collaboration of care professionals and more automated and efficient workflows, which eventually will lead to better health outcome and a reduction in hospitals admissions, and thus contributing significantly to the sustainability of health and social care systems in Europe. 

Award                          216250,00 Euro