Projects

Organic electrochemistry is transforming modern synthesis by offering green, efficient methods that replace toxic oxidants and reductants with electricity. Continuous flow electrosynthesis, superior to batch processes, addresses challenges like heat transfer, mixing, and scalability enabling lab-scale replication of industrial methods. This project targets the sustainable synthesis of alkyl and fluoroalkyl hypervalent iodine reagents (λ3-iodanes) using electrochemical flow methods. Traditionally generated with stoichiometric oxidants, these reagents cause waste and separation issues. Electrochemical strategies allow access to unstable aliphatic iodanes cleanly. Their use in stereoselective α-alkylation, amination, and nucleophilic (radio)fluorination and fluoroalkylation reactions will be explored. This work aligns with the European Green Deal, advancing green chemistry and innovation in sustainable catalysis.

Modern society depends on new molecules to advance medicine, agriculture, and materials, but developing safe and sustainable synthetic strategies remains a challenge. Nitrogen heterocycles are especially important due to their presence in many pharmaceuticals and natural products. Haloaziridines are powerful intermediates for constructing diverse nitrogen heterocycles, thanks to their unique reactivity in ring-opening and transition-metal-catalyzed reactions. The FlowHalAzi project addresses this by developing scalable strategies for synthesizing halogen-functionalized aziridines. It will employ zinc-mediated, photochemical, and electrochemical methods to generate halocarben(oid) species from CHX₃ or CRX₃ precursors and directly incorporate them into multicomponent reactions. Continuous-flow conditions will be used to allow precise control and facilitate scale-up.

This proposal places flow chemistry at the heart of this strategy to develop innovative synthetic methods for selective partial dehydrogenative and hydrogenative functionalization of N-heterocycles. N-Heterocycles are crucial scaffolds in medicinal chemistry, forming the core of numerous pharmaceuticals and biologically active compounds. By leveraging the precise control and tunability offered by flow systems, we aim to generate and intercept reactive intermediates that are difficult to access under traditional batch conditions. These intermediates will then undergo downstream transformations, including earth-abundant metal catalysis, and electrochemical activation, to build complex, stereochemically defined heterocyclic frameworks.

The CROSS project aims to strengthen the European Research Area by developing innovative tools to mainstream the new Charters´ principles, fostering organisational change and career interoperability. Key outputs include a Self-Assessment Competence Tool, a comprehensive Roadmap for transversal skills training, a Mentoring Handbook, a Roadmap for career counseling, an Intersectoral Collaboration Handbook, and an HRS4R Repository. These form a comprehensive set of career management services, which will be piloted and implemented across four intersectoral networks. The development of these resources will follow a co-creative process, engaging stakeholders across Europe, facilitated through the creation of our ResearchComp Community of Practice. This approach ensures their adaptability to diverse European ecosystems. A key component of CROSS is the creation of a platform designed to support institutions in obtaining the HRS4R award. This platform can also serve as a shared resource for all projects funded under this call, ensuring their continued use and expansion beyond the project’s lifecycle. By promoting organisational change, CROSS will benefit research-performing organisations and researchers at all career stages, significantly improving career prospects and delivering broader societal impact.

In engineered wood production, the wood goes through many process steps, which affect both the wood and the final product quality. Holistic studies on the co-effect of these processes on adhesive bond quality are lacking. Despite a 20 year old theoretical basis to understand poor adhesion and adhesive testing variability, the tools to understand the impact on surface defects on bond quality are underdeveloped, resulting in uncontrolled bonding conditions, high variances, and slow technical progress. In addition, the fire resistance of engineered wood structures is investigated. Design and assessment methods are improved, and their scope widened to new innovative wood products based on experimental studies and thermo-mechanical simulations. This will accelerate the implementation of bio-based adhesives, improving the competitiveness and safety of the engineered wood products and promoting the utilization of low-quality wood species.

Reinforcing Skills in Chips Design for Europe (RESCHIP4EU) aims to support the excellence of EU higher education in the area of embedded systems design in a holistic way, from silicon via System-on-Chip design and manufacturing to smart and safety-critical platform and application software. The holistic nature of the program is essential for innovation and provides a unique competitive edge to program graduates to design, analyse and innovate smart, green and safety-critical embedded systems in Europe. RESCHIP4EU will achieve this goal by designing and delivering a double-degree master’s programme (ISCED Level 7, 120 ECTS) in Embedded Systems Design with several specialisations related to the holistic design of embedded platforms safer, greener, smarter, and more efficient and a minor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The master’s programme will be designed and delivered by 9 higher education institutions from 5 different countries with the collaboration of Semi.org, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, ST Microelectronics, a global semiconductor company, 1 innovative SME expert in delivering education program, communication and dissemination, 1 ASBL (Association internationale sans but lucrative), and EIT Digital, a pan-European organisation with experience in delivering education programmes in advanced digital skills across Europe.

CitySense is an innovative urban sensing ecosystem that leverages a fleet of public vehicles to provide scalable, mobile data collection and advanced data analytics for smart cities. Unlike traditional static sensors, CitySense uses a modular, roaming hardware system that collects real-time data on urban infrastructure, air quality, and traffic conditions. The system aggregates data from existing sources and processes it using advanced AI models, offering actionable insights for city officials, businesses, researchers, and citizens. By transforming public vehicles into mobile sensing hubs, CitySense reduces the cost and complexity of city-wide sensor networks while ensuring comprehensive coverage of urban environments. The project focuses on addressing key urban challenges in Tallinn (Estonia), Pula (Croatia), and Dublin (Ireland), where each city faces unique issues such as road condition monitoring, traffic sign inventory, and air quality management. CitySense offers a flexible solution through its modular design, allowing the easy integration of various sensor modules to address specific city needs. This approach not only minimizes infrastructure costs but also improves data collection efficiency across large urban areas.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a clinically established cancer treatment but remains limited by the lack of precise control over singlet oxygen (¹O₂) generation, leading to off-target toxicity and prolonged photosensitivity. This project, Programmable Molecular Systems for Oxygen Control (PMSOC), proposes a dual-gated PDT platform integrating a porphyrin photosensitizer with a light-driven molecular motor and a pH-responsive linker. The system enables controlled singlet oxygen generation via triplet–triplet energy transfer and includes an endoperoxide trap for delayed oxygen release. By requiring both light and an acidic tumor environment, PMSOC introduces a molecular logic-gated approach to PDT. The project will develop and evaluate these systems, establishing a framework for spatiotemporally controlled photomedicine with improved precision, reduced side effects, and potential applications in catalysis.

MARTA addresses agronomically and economically important traits in plant breeding to support sustainable and self-sufficient food production in Estonia. We will create novel breeding knowledge together with a toolbox of modern breeding tools (including novel genetic markers, genomic selection and genome editing). Target traits for breeding include climate-resilience, disease resistance, product quality, production sustainability and high yield. We have chosen 7 strategically important crop species for Estonia as prime targets for application of modern breeding tools. Wheat, barley and potato are important in ensuring energy and protein supply as food crops. Nitrogen fixing capability and high protein content (29% of seed dry matter) of faba bean make it a strategically important crop in Estonia’s protein self-sufficiency. Apple and blackcurrant are important horticultural crops ensuring a healthy diet and providing a local supply of vitamin- and antioxidant-rich resources for the industry. Bridging the gap between fundamental and applied plant biology will allow faster translation of research results into breeding. The research questions (Q) addressed in the project range from broad phenotypic and genotypic screening to application of precision breeding and creation of novel genetic markers. The establishment of a pipeline for using genomics and transcriptomics results will speed up and create new possibilities for breeding climate-resilient future crops. Q1 aims to create specific scientific knowledge, data and results for input to Q2 and Q3, which serve to develop modern tools for breeding (e.g. novel genetic markers for disease resistance, pre-breeding material from precision breeding). MARTA will generate and validate a modern breeding toolbox for flexible and sustainable plant breeding in Estonia to ensure food security.

In heart muscle cells, calcium regulates cells' contraction and mitochondria energy production needed to perform mechanical work and maintain ion balance. The primary calcium source in adult mammalian cells is the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). Recently, it has been shown that SR and mitochondria are physically linked and regulate mitochondrial respiration. The precise interaction between them is essential for maintaining energy balance in the heart, yet many aspects of this regulatory pathway are still poorly understood. This project aims to unravel mechanistic aspects of SR-mitochondria interaction by taking advantage of structural and functional changes in heart muscle cells during development and in disease. We expect this knowledge to be applicable at the other end of the heart physiology spectrum – disease, as failing hearts resemble in many ways the hearts from early stages of development.

Asymmetric catalysis plays one of the most important roles in the modern organic chemistry providing methods for the synthesis biologically active compounds and pharmaceuticals. Merging well-developed organocatalysis with electrochemistry opens new horizons for asymmetric transformation beyond the classical thermochemical activation. This approach is sustainable, since it employs harmless organocatalysts to induce chirality and electrons as traceless and green reagents to generate highly reactive radical species under mild reaction conditions avoiding the utilization of highly toxic and expensive RedOx chemicals. The efficiency and reliability of such transformations can be enhanced by performing the reaction in continuous-flow mode. The project is an example of cutting-edge science combining different research areas of organic synthesis and chemical engineering that can be potentially applied for discovery of new and potent life-saving drugs.