Cross-cutting topics

This section is intended for activities that cut across the areas of intervention of the Cluster, and which place a particular emphasis on human-centred developments. It will include, for example, business intelligence and valorisation (especially in the context of resilience); societal engagement; contributions to the development of skills; and general coordination and support actions. 

• Valorisation of European R&I and data to address industrial and societal challenges:
  Contribute to prosperity and well-being in Europe through increased valorisation of excellent research results and innovation, i.e. transforming R&I into sustainable solutions with economic and social value. Contribute to engaging citizens and bringing together the supply and demand side (joining technology push and societal pull) to ensure the uptake of results. This further ensures that the solutions developed, including through technological and non-technological innovations, are socially acceptable. The orientation for topics also contributes to promoting a new agenda for industry-relevant skills and standardisation (see Specific Programme HE). 
• Innovation driven by European strengths in cutting-edge technologies and creativity:
  Strengthen and accelerate technology design and deployment across all sectors that emphasise sustainability and centre on human needs and values. Europe must take advantage of its unique assets in culture and the arts to drive an alternative European model to digital innovation. 
• Precautionary socio- and human centric simulation approaches for testing new and emerging technologies:
  The narrow objective to improve our simulation capabilities at scale of complex techno-socio-economic systems. The broader objective is to facilitate research at system level where several cutting-edge technologies will interact with each other within wider complex systems. This is different from, but complementary to, more focused secure-by-design or ethical-by-design approaches in individual areas such as Artificial Intelligence. Systems require holistic analysis as interactions of buildings blocks, digital and physical components, human and machine, etc., regularly lead to impacts that cannot be foreseen from the analysis of individual system components (emergent properties of a system). Cluster 4 gathers research topics in many of the relevant components of advanced technology systems, including many enabling technologies (at system level in addition to component level). More specifically, the objective is therefore to research possible ways of making the precautionary principle a regular design principle in the development of new and emerging technologies. In particular, complex interactions and emergent properties of complex systems combining cutting edge technology components shall be investigated and made fit for future use. Research under this objective will increase trust in complex systems and reduce the likelihood of unintended impacts, accidents and failure, and thereby loss of human life, as well as destruction of economic value. 
• Constant reskilling of workforce:
  to increase productivity and inclusiveness through skills endowment, while maintaining high employability in Europe, by facilitating transitions to quality jobs (in the twin green and digital transition) and reducing the number of people at risk of becoming redundant in the labour market.