Closed Projects

 

The WasteReuse project, was co-funded by the European Union’s Programme LIFE + and aimed i) to increase recycling of nutrients and water with sustainable use of treated (or potentially untreated) agricultural waste and ii) to combine the up to now developed technologies in integrated methodologies for the sustainable recycling of wastes’ nutrients and water in agriculture, by considering the effect of the following significant parameters; soil properties, soil-climate relation and environmental conditions.

Signosis was in charge of dissemination and networking activities and developed an integrated scenario for the use of processed (or un-processed) agricultural waste in agricultural sector in the form of a Code of Waste Management Practices for Agricultural Application. Signosis was also responsible for the legislative analysis of national and EU environmental regulatory frameworks.

 

The OPTIMISM project was a Coordination and Support Action implemented in the context of the 7th EU Framework Programme and aimed at creating and developing different sets of strategies and methodologies for optimising passenger transport systems based on co-modality ICT solutions.

OPTIMISM’s scope was to provide a scientifically documented insight of the transport system and people’s travel choices via the study of social behaviour, mobility patterns and business models. The overall aim of OPTIMISM project was to define which of the future changes in the transport system would lead to a sustainable way of travelling, as people could travel more efficiently, cleaner and more safely, without compromising mobility.  Signosis mainly contributed in the analysis of measures for decarbonisation of transport, in the elaboration of strategies for integrating and optimizing transport systems and to the dissemination activities.

 

Signosis coordinated the Odysseus project, which was co-funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme, in the Space area for “Studies and events in support of European Space Policy”.   Odysseus aimed at engaging and inspiring the European youth in Space exploration, by implementing a pan-European Scientific Contest for young people on Space exploration themes, combining creativity, intelligence and innovation. The project aspired to integrate ongoing educational activities on science in a pan-European perspective, providing the opportunity for young pupils to compete with their peers from different European countries. This action was also enhancing the concept of multinational cooperation, an element necessary in space exploration field.

 

The CONSIDER project, was a research project funded from EU’s 7th Framework Programme and aimed to provide insight to the question of stakeholder engagement in research and more particularly to the participation of CSOs in research design and governance.

CONSIDER explored how Civil Society Organisations can be involved in research projects, developing a model of CSO participation that concluded with recommendations for policy makers, researchers, CSOs and other stakeholders.

Signosis supported the coordination activities in the project management and contributed in the determination of governance models and to the dissemination activities.

 

The Open Discovery Space (ODS) project aimed to contribute to the modernisation of school education, to support stakeholders in acquiring digital competences, to stimulate demand for innovative eLearning resources and to engage teachers and pupils in the development of innovative educational practices. The ODS project fulfilled three principal objectives. Firstly, it empowered stakeholders through a single, integrated access point for eLearning resources from dispersed educational repositories. Secondly, it engaged stakeholders in the production of meaningful educational activities by using a social-network style multilingual portal, offering eLearning resources as well as services for the production of educational activities.

Thirdly, it assessed the impact of the new educational activities, which could serve as a prototype to be adopted by stakeholders in school education.

Signosis contributed in the identification of best practice regarding the implementation of educational contests in large scale and in the validation and exploitation of this model.

 

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 Currently running Projects

The METPEX project is a research project funded in the context of the 7th Framework Programme of the EU, aiming to develop and evaluate a standardised tool to measure passenger experience across whole journeys. METPEX stands for MEasurement Tool to determine the quality of Passenger EXperience and its results will be used to inform policy makers in providing inclusive, passenger-oriented integrated transport systems that are accessible by all citizens. The development of an inclusive, validated passenger experience measurement instrument is the first step in creating high quality, user-centred, integrated, accessible public transport services, which are capable of attracting and retaining public transport users whilst meeting sustainability targets.  Specific objectives of METPEX include:

• the development of an integrated approach to the measurement of the whole journey passenger experience that takes into account human (physiological, perceptual, cognitive, sensory and affective) socio-economic, cultural, geographic and environmental factors,
• the assessment of the costs of ‘inaccessible transport’ for different sectors of society,
• the assessment of the extent to which the measurement of the passenger experience can be used to drive innovation and attention to transport quality from the customer’s perspective in the transport industry,
• the evaluation of the passengers experience from different regions of Europe and support the integration of regional transport networks into an European transport network and
• the facilitation of the harmonization of travel behavior research and analysis across EU countries.

 

The GREAT project aims to develop an empirically based and theoretically sound model of the role of responsible research and innovation governance. The project explores the dynamics of participation in research and innovation, and investigates the characteristics of responsible practices. It will investigate the nature of new partnerships among various stakeholders, researchers and policymakers that are developing within innovation networks and the influence that these developments have on knowledge production and policy.  Based on a grid of analysis, the project will identify collaborative arrangements involving both, responsible research and innovation, and analyse them to identify and understand the characteristics, influencing factors and best practice of responsible research and innovation in a normative way, permitting planning, implementation and assessment of RRI in novel and unforeseen circumstances.  Starting from the grid of analysis, a model of responsible research and innovation will be developed from structured analysis of a pool of case studies.

The RESPONSIBILITY project aims to create a network of stakeholders that would adopt and diffuse a common understanding in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) between different actors in Europe and around the globe.  In doing so it will develop a model and provide a tool for international cooperation, involving the societal, policy and research stakeholders to these activities. It intends to provide practical means and structure a crucial interaction between society and research, providing a set of recommendations and tools to policy makers and active RRI stakeholders in order to take the necessary measures to nest responsible research and innovation into products and services from the very beginning (“efficient RRI by design”).

The RESPONSIBILITY project has the scope to create a virtual Observatory of responsible research and Innovation as a means to develop a structure that would support the enhancement of common understanding and the diffusion of knowledge and the deployment of practical tools. It would also assist the societal stakeholders to have an organised virtual place where the practical and theoretical information will be easily assessable and usable.

 

The Odysseus II project (funded by Horizon2020), aims to inspire young people throughout Europe to engage in space exploration through a series of educational activities. The main activity of the project is a fun-oriented educational contest (The Youth for Space Challenge) that combines scientific learning with hands-on experience. Organized in multiple rounds, the contest targets all pupils and students in Europe, wherever they are living and irrespective of their cultural background or language. The ultimate aim of the project is to foster the development of qualified scientists, engineers and technicians in areas relevant to the priorities of EU space policy.

 

 

 

 

 

The SPRINT project, (funded by Horizon2020), intends to give meaning to the concept of social investment as applied to long-term care provision. Its objective is to articulate in more detail the aspirations of the Social Investment Programme, to provide a means for assessing the social costs and benefits of various ways of providing long-term care for the frail elderly, and to present examples of approaches that do indeed, facilitate provision in a way that social benefits are achieved. More specifically, SPRINT will: identify the current landscape of organisation and resourcing of LTC in Europe in order to understand the place in the discussion that social investment currently has and how the principles of social investment used to improve provision in a fashion that is welfare enhancing; investigate how the different resourcing and delivery forms of LTC create social and economic returns, outcomes and social impact and to determine their success factors; evaluate the fiscal and social costs and benefits of various national approaches to LTC delivery; establish a common vocabulary for social investing and for the financing mechanisms of long-term care; identify the most appropriate frameworks for the definition and analysis of social impact of LTC programmes; define the principles for incorporating social considerations in funding decisions of LTC policies and to analyse their relationship with the social innovations addressing the challenges of demographic ageing and of inequities in access to care; develop appropriate instruments, such as the Feasibility Framework Tool, the assessment scales, thresholds and the Impact Map, which will ensure successful implementation of investment in LTC by public authorities, social insurance funds and private investors; create a model of investment in the care sector, emphasizing in social innovations that will be correlated with the broad economic policies; and propose reforms at policy levels.

 

The TRUST project, “Creating and enhancing trustworthy, responsible and equitable partnerships in international research” is funded under Horizon2020 and it will begin work in October 2015. The mission of the three years project is to counteract the practice of “Ethics dumping” or the application of double standards in research, by building international governance structures with new exciting network opportunities between Europe, India, Sub-Saharan Africa, China and Russia.

In an interdisciplinary collaboration between multi-level ethics bodies, policy advisors, civil society organisations, funding organisations, industry and academic scholars the project will deliver three sets of tools based on participatory engagement covering all continents: (1) a global code of conduct for funders, (2) a fair research contracting on-line tool and (3) a compliance and ethics follow-up tool, which takes limited resources into account.

Thirteen European and international partners are involved in the TRUST project, including SIGNOSIS.  It will be coordinated at the Centre for Professional Ethics of the University of Central Lancashire (UK), by Prof. Doris Schroeder and in addition to SIGNOSIS the consortium consists of the Council on Health Research for Development  Association (Switzerland), the Forum for Ethics Review Committees in India (India), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the South African San Institute (South Africa), the “Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale”, (France), the Partners for Health and Development in Africa (Kenya), the “Action Contre La Faim” (France), the University of Witwatersrand Johannesburg (South Africa), the University of Cape Town (South Africa), the Global Values Alliance (Switzerland) and the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (Τhe Netherlands).