UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK

If biodiversity is to be placed back on a path to recovery, new tools and knowledge are required to redirect financial resources from destructive economic activity towards nature-positive investment. The financial system consists of interacting and dynamic actors who value certainty (rules and governance structures) and efficiency (outcome transparency and low monitoring costs). We aim to create a unifying framework and technology that creates the enabling conditions for nature-positive investments. Activities that protect and restore biodiversity (such as nature-based solutions) are frequently unique, multi-actor efforts carried out at a local scale with positive, but complex outcomes. We resolve this by establishing a categorisation of nature based solutions (NBS) alongside a menu of good governance structures and a library of stakeholder engagement. This will draw on expertise and best practice in natural capital and economics to streamline decision making and accelerate transaction completion by standardising the investment process and creating the enabling conditions for large-scale finance. To accelerate nature-positive business models, we create a data analytics and underwriting engine to advance conventional project appraisal and risk assessment and account for and model expected outcomes. We will assess and validate our approach across diverse real-life case studies (learning sites). Our findings and approach will initiate a twin green and digital transition that resolves transaction complexity and creates the enabling conditions for large-scale investment that are required if the EU is to achieve its biodiversity goals. Our outcomes will identify remaining gaps in the Taxonomy and support policy forming through evidence-based recommendations and we will co-design, develop and establish pathways for skills and knowledge accelerators for the European financial services industry.

EC contribution:

EUR 993k

Start:

2024-01-01

End:

2026-12-31

Status:

SIGNED

Scheme:

HORIZON-RIA

Call:

HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01

View on CORDIS (DOI 10.3030/101135476)

Most diseases including cancers, viral infections, neurodegenerative conditions, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal disorders, all originate from a molecular level disruption of the biological cell lifecycle. Each year the cost to the EU is ca. 1.9 million lives and ca. €200 billion in health care, informal care and productivity loss for cancers alone. Current live cell imaging tools can only provide a limited view of the in vivo and in vitro microenvironments where diseases originate and grow. The result is a gap in our understanding of the biochemical cellular makeup and how their disturbance leads to disease. By increasing accuracy and speed of imaging and analysis, the gap can be closed allowing novel medical treatments and diagnostics tailored to patients’ specific conditions. uCAIR brings successful R&D photonics SMEs, research laboratories in optics and cell biology, and world-leading microscopists and clinicians to create an innovative, versatile, practical multimodal photonics platform that will enhance and speed up the way cells are examined by scientists and healthcare professionals. uCAIR will achieve breakthrough results by developing a laser platform that inventively combines non-linear optical fibers, optronics, wide-band coherent Raman and artificial intelligence technologies to image at video rates and track cells and biological tissues with augmented chemometric digitalisation. The new coherent light sources will be suitable for fundamental research microscopes and microfluidic channels but also in medical imaging instruments, encompassing a value chain for new biomarker discoveries and translation into medical endoscopy, for example during cystoscopy and resection of bladder cancer. Technology progression to TRL 6 will allow first mover advantage with sustainable supply chain. In this way, uCAIR sustains the European leadership in photonics to deliver continuous innovation and outstanding benefits for its economy and the health of its population.

EC contribution:

EUR 961k

Start:

2024-01-01

End:

2027-12-31

Status:

SIGNED

Scheme:

HORIZON-RIA

Call:

HORIZON-CL4-2023-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01

View on CORDIS (DOI 10.3030/101135175)