Final Report Summary - ENHANCED (joined Experimental and Numerical methods for HumAN CEntered interior noise Design) ENHANCED - joined Experimental and Numerical methods for HumAN CEntered interior noise Design (http://www.eid-enhanced.eu/) is a European Industrial Doctorate funded by the European Commission within the Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions (Contract PITN-GA-2013-606800). The overall objective of ENHANCED is to create an industrial-oriented educational and research framework for the development of integrated numerical and experimental procedures for the acoustic characterisation and simulation of cabin interior noise, addressing specifically the automotive field. More in details, ENHANCED aims at developing Experimental Measurement Methods, EMM, validating NUmerical Models, NUM, for the characterisation and simulation of interior noise in vehicle cabin, and improving HUman Comfort, HUC. These three topics have been included in the research activities to be carried out by the three ESR fellows enrolled in the project. The three ESRs have been enrolled in a PhD framework at Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM), the academic partner, and are co-supervised by SIEMENS (SISW), the industrial partner. The project Consortium includes also an Associated Partner, A.I.VE.LA. which is a non- profit cultural association with renowned experience in training and dissemination activities and competence in managing EU funded projects.As it can be seen in detail in the document attached, in the 48-month period considered, 1st August 2013 to 31st July 2017, all project activities started and progressed as planned in terms of the Work Packages, Milestones and Deliverables completed, the scientific results achieved, the research training performed and the dissemination and outreach activities carried out, although with some minor deviations from the Contract. In fact, following an initial more careful and in-depth analysis of the State-of-the-Art carried out by the ESRs, some changes were introduced in the objectives, tasks, results, etc. to be accomplished by the ESRs, particularly by ESR1, and some amendments were made to the project deliverables, as agreed at the Mid Term meeting on 15th June 2015. There was a further deviation related to the use of resources after the REA’s decision not to accept the STSM ESR3 did at INSA at the beginning of his PhD second year, because INSA was not part of the Consortium and because of a double funding situation with COST action TU1105. As a result, the 3-month period ESR3 spent at INSA were not considered as part of the project, ESR3’s contract was suspended for those 3 months but it was then extended by 3 months in P2, with no changes to the total researcher-months implemented by ESR3. Finally, there have been minor deviations also in the implementation of Milestones 11 and Milestone 12. In fact, as per UNIVPM academic calendar, ESR2 had his viva and passed his final PhD exam at month 44, while ESR1 and ESR3 had their viva and passed their final PhD exam on 19th October 2017, that is after the official end date of the project. As a consequence, it was decided to hold the project final public closing event on the day of the final oral presentation of ESR1 and ESR3, in the presence of professors, researchers, students of UNIVPM, but also of the many friends and families who came to see the PhD candidates perform their viva.As far as the work performed since the beginning of the project and the main results achieved are concerned, a detailed description is provided in the following sections of the report as well as in Section 2 of the document attached, which illustrates the progress towards the project objectives and the work done in terms of training activities carried out and scientific results obtained.With regards to the dissemination activities, during the project the fellows attended several international scientific and applied conferences specific to their profile. At some of these events they also presented scientific papers that were published in the related proceedings. The fellows also submitted papers for publication in peer-reviewed journals and are continuing to work at future possible papers in view of further submissions. Further details on the papers published and the papers in progress are given in the following sections of this report as well as in Section 3 of the document attached. Among the other dissemination activities carried out, special attention must be paid to the following events: 1) the session “Auto NVH” organised on the topics of ENHANCED at IMAC XXXIII Conference & Exposition, Orlando, Florida, US, 2-5 February 2015, 2) the participation of the ESRs as Exhibitors in the Exhibition organised in conjunction with the 12th Intl Conference on Vibration Measurements by Laser and Noncontact Techniques, held in Ancona, Italy, on 29th June 2016- 1st July 2016, 3) the organisation of the free seminar “Sperimentazione Acustica applicata allo Studio di Prodotti Industriali” (Acoustic Testing applied to the Study of Industrial Products) in collaboration with Siemens Industry Software S.r.l. held at UNIVPM on 8th July 2016, 4) the session “Source Localisation – Array Techniques” organised by the Partners on the topics of ENHANCED at ISMA- International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, which was held in Leuven, Belgium, on 19-21 September 2016. Of course, also the project website (www.eid-ENHACED.eu) and e-Newsletters contributed to disseminating the activities carried out within the project and the results achieved. Further details on the dissemination activities carried out are given in the following sections of this report and in Section 3 of the document attached.As far as the exploitation of project results is concerned, details are given in the Final Exploitation Report attached.In addition to the disseminations activities mentioned above, CORDIS (the European Commission's primary service for EU-funded research results) will publish an article about the results of ENHANCED, which will further contribute to the dissemination and exploitation of the research results achieved.With regards to the outreach activities carried out, the project results were disseminated to a wider audience through the following means: project website, project Facebook page, participation in the European Researchers’ night, etc. Among the outreach activities carried out during the project, special attention must be paid to the participation of the ESRs in the 2014, 2015 and 2016 European Researchers’ Nights held in Ancona on 26th September 2014, 25th September 2015 and 30th September 2016, respectively. Photos of the ENHANCED booths step up at the events can be seen in Section 3 or the document attached. A further important outreach activity was the publication of an article about the project, its aims and activities performed in the November 2015 issue of PLATINUM, a quarterly supplement of Sole 24 Ore targeted to an institutional, business and financial audience which has a run of about 200,000 copies. Further details on the outreach activities carried out may be found in Section 3 of the document attached.Following the assessment of the scientific activities carried out and the credits achieved, all three the fellows were regularly admitted to the final PhD exam. ESR2 passed his viva and graduated on 3rd March 2017, while ESR1 and ESR3 passed their viva and graduated on 19th October 2017, as per UNIVPM Academic calendar.As far as the project Management is concerned, during the 48 months of the technical, scientific and training progress and results achieved were constantly monitored, also through meetings and conference calls, which ensured efficient communication among the Partners and the ESRs. In particular, as far as the project management meetings are concerned, table 4.1 in the document attached lists all the official management events organised. The management of the project did not encounter major problems, however, extra reporting efforts were required to clarify the objections raised by the EC to the First Periodic Report submitted and for SISW to perform the audit procedure for the issuing of the certificate on the financial statements provided by an independent auditor as well as the cost of the certificate.No changes in the consortium or to the legal status of any of the beneficiaries has occurred. The only formal change occurred concerns LMS International, which, in July 2014, changed its name into Siemens industry Software NV, SISW. This change has had no effect on the legal status of the Partner nor on the project. All project activities were carried out in full respect of gender and ethical principles.
