The Jules Verne Institute wins 6 new European projects and ranks 8th among all French institutions in 2022

Jules Verne Institute intensified its efforts to position itself as a leading institution in the European research landscape, and it ranks 8th among all French institutions which submitted new project proposals under the “industry” theme in 2022. After submitting 14 applications in 2022, Jules Verne Institute has been granted 6 new projects for a total of nearly €73 million, doubling the number of ongoing European projects in which the Institute is involved (total budget of €161 million).
The institute participation in collaborative projects keeps growing, confirming that Jules Verne Institute expertise and know-how in the fields of additive manufacturing, robotics, composite and metallic materials processes, modelling, simulation and characterisation is widely appreciated by the European consortia.

• For the first time, Jules Verne Institute is leading as coordinating institution the European project: SUSPENS “Sustainable structural sandwiches and hollow composites parts for automotive, boat and aerospace markets”. As the title suggests, this project aims to develop composite parts in sandwiches and hollow composite parts that use up to 95% biosourced thermoset resins for the automotive, naval and aeronautical markets. These resins will be combined with sustainable fibres, such as natural cellulose fibres, lignin-based carbon and recycled carbon fibres. The technologies developed will contribute to drastically reduce CO2 emissions by several hundred thousand tons compared to current methods. The “Processes and Composite Materials” technological research team of the IRT Jules Verne will be in charge of the Work Package dedicated to the manufacturing of industrial demonstrators. SUSPENS project gathers 13 European partners, including the EMC2 French competitiveness cluster, but also Centexbel – Scientific and Technical Centre of the Belgian Textile Industry (Belgium), the University of Aalto (Finland) and the National Technological University of Athens – NTUA (Greece), Forvia Faurecia Group (France), Orineo (Belgium), APM – Anthony Patrick & Murta-Exportação (Portugal), Reciclalia (Spain), the Institute for Economic and Social Research – IRES (Belgium), the University of Côte d’Azur (France), WH LIPEX (Germany) and Megara Resin Industry (Greece).

• In the frame of another Horizon Europe project, SALTO “reuSable strAtegic space Launcher Technologies & Operations”, Jules Verne Institute will gain new skills in relation to the space sector. This project will make it possible to produce, for the first time in Europe, a reusable first stage rocket demonstrator. By operating a large-scale, low-altitude vehicle, in line with future European strategic needs, and by integrating a set of critical technologies, the project will considerably strengthen the roadmap for strategic reusable launchers. This will impact the vision of a future launch fleet improving space access costs by 50% and reducing environmental impacts. SALTO will therefore serve as a “steppingstone” towards the reuse of strategic launchers in Europe, which is one of the key leverages to achieve this vision. SALTO project will result in flight test campaigns to demonstrate and validate the technologies needed for a reusable launch vehicle.

The “Characterisation, Monitoring and Control” technological research team of the Jules Verne Institute will be responsible for developing innovative non-destructive testing (NDT) technologies. SALTO project is coordinated by ArianeGroup (France) and comprises 27 partners. Industrial partners: MT Aerospace AG (Germany), ArianeGroup GmbH (Germany), Safran Data Systems (France), Safran Electronics & Defense (France), Avio S.p.A. (Italy), Sabca (Belgium), Thales Alenia Space Belgium S.A. (Belgium), GTD Sistemas de Informacion S.A (Spain), GMV Aerospace and Defence SA (Spain), Deimos Engineering and Systems S.L.U (Portugal), Sener TAFS SAU (Spain), Swedish Space Corporation (Sweden), Amorim Cork Composites SA (Portugal). Research institutes: DLR (Germany), CNES (France), ONERA (France), IRT Jules Verne (France), INCAS (Romania). Start-ups: ETAEM (Germany), ID-Services (France), Shark Robotics SARL (France), G.L.Electronics s.r.o (Czechia), SIA WIT Berry (Latvia), Realtime Technologies Ltd (Ireland), SpaceForest sp. z o.o. (Poland).

As mentioned above, Jules Verne Institute is also participating in other new Horizon Europe projects expected to kick-off in January 2023:

• FOREST “Advanced lightweight materials FOR Energy-efficient Structures”, which deals with the use of bio-based and recycled materials in the aeronautical, automotive and bus transport sectors, and is coordinated by AIMPLAS – ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION DE MATERIALES PLASTICOS Y CONEXAS (Spain).
• IN TRANSIT “Strengthening the resilience of textile, aerospace, and construction SMEs to transition towards greener and more digital sectors with social and business innovation”, which aims to strengthen the resilience of SMEs in the aerospace and textile sectors, which is coordinated by ASOCIACION DE EMPRESARIOS TEXTILES DE LA COMUNIDAD VALENCIANA (Spain).
• MUSIC “Materials for Sustainable Sodium-Ion Capacitors Note”, which will develop a new supercapacitor technology for innovative batteries that can be recharged in seconds, and is coordinated by CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION COOPERATIVA DE ENERGIAS ALTERNATIVAS FUNDACION, CIC ENERGIGUNE FUNDAZIOA (Spain).
• COGNIMAN “COGNitive Industries for smart MANufacturing”, which aims to integrate artificial intelligence into several manufacturing industries and is coordinated by NORCE NORWEGIAN RESEARCH CENTRE AS (Norway).

“Five years after creating the Europe Unit within the Jules Verne Institute, I am delighted with the very good results obtained this year. The increased skills of our R&D teams in the construction of competitive proposals, the quality of the network of European partners that we are building day by day, and the special relationship that we maintain with our French industrial partners made this possible. Our research work spans from technologies development to their application with high impact on European manufacturing industry, which is highly appreciated by the European Commission,” explains Marie Weiss, Head of Europe Unit IRT Jules Verne.