The Cyprus Institute (CyI) had impressive success in the latest evaluation results for the highly competitive and prestigious “Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions” (MSCA) programme announced in April 2022. Five proposals out of a total of six submitted were selected for funding by the European Commission. This important achievement is the latest in a string of CyI’s successful funding results in national and EU competitive calls, bringing further distinction and recognition to CyI’s important role as a regional research Center of Excellence.

The “Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions” programme aims to help build Europe’s capacity for research and innovation by investing in the long-term careers of excellent researchers. The objective of the MSCA Doctoral Networks is to implement doctoral programmes through partnerships with organisations from different sectors across Europe and beyond to train highly skilled doctoral candidates, stimulate their creativity, enhance their innovation capacities and boost their employability in the long term. These doctoral programmes will respond to well-identified needs in various research and innovation areas, expose the researchers to the academic and non-academic sectors, and offer research training, as well as transferable skills and competencies relevant for innovation and long-term employability.

The proposals receiving funding are:

“CLOUD Doctoral Network” (CLOUD-DOC) is a project in which CyI participates via its Climate & Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C). It will focus on investigations to study under well-controlled laboratory conditions the oxidation chemistry, aerosol nucleation and growth processes that are responsible for aerosol particle formation in cold regions of the atmosphere. The CyI Principal Investigator is Assoc. Prof. Theodoros Christoudias. The project is coordinated by the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, and participating countries are Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.

“Advanced Computing, Quantum Algorithms, and Data-driven Approaches for Science, Technology, and Engineering” (AQTIVATE) is a project in which CyI participates via its Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC). It aims to deliver an interdisciplinary training programme for fifteen fellows, who will learn to utilise high performance computing, develop scalable algorithms and machine learning approaches, and explore quantum computing for research projects in physics, engineering and biology. The CyI Principal Investigator is CaSToRC Director and Institute Prof. Constantia Alexandrou, who is affiliated both with CyI and UCY. The project is coordinated by the University of Cyprus, and other participating countries are Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.

“Combination Therapy for the Treatment of Metastatic MELanOma Using MAgnetic NanoparticlES” (MELOMANES) is a project in which CyI participates vis its Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC). It focuses on computational and in silico approaches, which will be used to extract the maximal knowledge possible from experimental datasets and facilitate the establishment of statistically significant relationships between measured biological activity profiles of the Fe@CNT conjugates and their physical, chemical, and other properties, either measured experimentally or computed from the structure of the conjugates. The CyI Principal Investigator is Prof. Vangelis Harmandaris (ERA Chair). The project is coordinated by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and participating countries are Austria, Cyprus, Finland, France, Spain, Switzerland and UK.

“Multi-sensory Solutions for Increasing Human-building Resilience in Face of Climate Change” (MuSIC) is a project in which CyI participates via its Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC). It aims to expand the provide future generations with more liveable and sustainable indoor and outdoor spaces in and management systems of cities scientific frontiers of passive and hybrid building design and operation to provide future generations with more liveable environments and more predictable, acceptable and sustainable solutions to increase resilience against climate change by applying cutting-edge technology multi-sensory and multi-dimensional research and industrial development cutting-edge solutions. The CyI Principal Investigator is Prof. Salvatore Carlucci. The project is coordinated by the Universitätsklinikum Aachen, and participating countries are Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain, and The Netherlands.

“Towards Competitive, Reliable, Safe and Sustainable Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Plants” (TOPCSP) is a project in which CyI participates via its Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) and Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC). It focuses on concentrating Solar Power (CSP) with Thermal Energy Storage (TES), which is a key technology to support the transition to a competitive and sustainable energy system. TOPCSP project will include research activities aimed at reducing the cost of current CSP plants, increasing the temperature of the heat transfer media of the next generation of CSP plants, developing more efficient power blocks, optimizing the plant design, and automatizing the design of key components, such as the receivers, using Artificial Intelligence approaches. The CyI Principal Investigators are Prof. Manuel Jesus Blanco (ERA Chair) and Assistant Prof. Mihalis Nicolaou. The project is coordinated by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and participating countries are Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain.