Seed funding

Below are the selected projects for the 2023 call

Cluster 1_MHUS_Mental Health of University Students: associated factors between countries

To have sustainable academic environments, it is necessary to promote the well-being of staff and students. Mental health has been getting worse over time in university students, with the pandemic exacerbating it. The aim is to leverage a mental health project, by comparing the mental health of university students between European countries and the factors that influence it. Data from this study will be used to apply for funding from Horizon Europe for the development of strategies to promote the mental health of university students, contributing to sustainable development.

Cluster 1_TAILEXER_Prescription of tailored physical exercise from the integration of omic, clinical and lifestyle data to prevent cardiovascular diseases 

Research has shown that physical exercise is an effective therapeutic tool to deal with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). However, the success of these preventive programs depends on the ability to identify the population at risk and to apply tailored physical exercise interventions. The purpose of this project will be to integrate omic, clinical and lifestyle data to define the cardiovascular risk level of an adult population to propose tailored physical exercise programs that focuses on those physical condition factors most necessary for each person according with their health status. A randomized representative sample of the population (men and women) with ages between 18 and 65 years old will be selected. At a methodological level, participants will be classified into several risk levels of suffering from CVDs and an initial evaluation of inflammatory, protein, lipid, clinical and lifestyle markers will be made. Based on this stratification, a tailored physical exercise intervention will be performed. Lastly, a final evaluation will be made to analyze the effectiveness of the intervention in each of the defined categories. We will try to carry out a proof of concept to evaluate the  feasibility of our plan and methodology to refine the proposal to improve it to subsequently participate in future European calls (HORIZON, ERAPerMed, or MSCA schemes).

Cluster 2_AGRIOPEP_Bioactive peptides recovery from agrifood industry waste

The project proposes solutions for reusing and valorizing the high percentages of waste from agri-food industries. This involves studying alternative and natural sources of low-cost proteins that would reduce the dependence and environmental footprint that animal proteins tend to leave behind. It aligns with the Horizon Europe strategy "from farm to fork" and with the priorities of the European "Green Deal". Proteins would be used in future projects to develop technologies for use bioactive peptides as innovative food ingredients and supplements in the food industry.

Cluster 2_CDF+_Circular Dairy Farming Plus

The CDF+ seed funding project aims at creation of EUGREEN joint research and informative network focused on the application to international research calls related to the sustainable food production chain and waste management. Considering the need for an interdisciplinary approach to improve the dairy production system sustainability, an MSCA staff exchange proposal including cutting-edge research, covering the entire dairy production cycle phases (production, processing, recycling) will be finalized and submitted. Other proposals will be developed under the same concept.

Cluster 3 _ CHAIN2Sustain_ Collaborative Human AI Decision-Making for Sustainability

Decision making under the perspective of sustainability is a complicated endeavour. It requires taking into consideration several complex and uncertain factors, competing interests over varying
timescales regarding cost, environmental aspects, quality of life and fairness.We aim at benchmarking different approaches to hybrid Human and Artificial Intelligence (AI) collaboration, for the purpose of assisted decision making, with a sustainability bias.

Cluster 4_MOTEA_MODEL OF TOURISM FOR ENGAGEMENT ADOPTION

This project aims to enhance the digital communication of European Tourist Destinations (ETD) to transform them into Smart Tourist Destinations (STD) and promote sustainability. It focuses on studying ETDs webpages in the Strategic Online Communication Approach context for public engagement. The result is a scale MOTE-A (Model of Tourism Webpages for Engagement Adoption), applied to a sample of ETDs webpages to show their level of engagement. Then, model MOTE-P (Prediction) will then be tested with PLS to explain if greater engagement leads to better tourism economic results.  

Cluster 4_NOTES (Net-zerO challenge for Tourism EducatorS)

This project is a collaboration among EU GREEN Universities to support tourism, cultural and natural heritage industries transition to Net Zero. To address the significant gap in sustainable literacy  and decarbonisation knowledge (Conefrey, et al. 2023) this project will assess and identify the skills and training required by the tourism industry. This project will aid curricula design to provide skilled graduates to facilitate transition towards Net Zero, enable the sector to become more sustainable, align with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and benefit communities and destinations.

Cluster 5_BASE_Baseline Assessment of Sustainability related Educational practices and perceptions of the academic and research staff across EU Green 

Taking an intra-disciplinary approach, this project will design, execute, and evaluate a survey to explore the sustainability-related education practices and perceptions (SREPP) of academic and research staff across the partner Universities. It will establish critical insights into the existing SREPP and the associated challenges, and support the development of a framework to monitor the progress of EU Green towards embedding Sustainability, Education for Sustainable Development and the SDGs (collectively referred to in this document as SHE) in pedagogical practice.

Cluster 6_EUFoodHabits_European consumers' preferences and attitudes towards plant-based products designed to replace animal-based products

Across the world, there's a growing trend to eat less animal-based foods (ABF) for health and environmental purposes and eat plant-based alternatives (PBF). There is also the emergence of highly processed PBF, which aim to imitate the sensorial and nutritional qualities of ABF, but their impact on health is still under debate. This project aims to explore how European consumers, with different cultural backgrounds, perceive these plant-based options, so that we can provide as main outcome, scientific-based dietary recommendations based on enhanced and sustainable dietary patterns.

Cluster 6_PROVES_Promoting evidence-based solutions for biodiversity and ecosystem services delivery

Pollution, overexploitation, urbanization, demography, land use change and inequality, is leading to unprecedent biodiversity loss and humanity to face pervasive socio-economic crisis,aggravated by climate change. Decisive action and solutions are needed to overcome these challenges. We envision to build a long-term research collaboration platform to provide evidence based solutions that can foster biodiversity, restore degraded environments, promote ecosystem resilience and adaptation, and human well-being, with a focus on EUGreen regions.