All the planned activities for the first and second reporting periods has been accomplished, and the consortium has been worked smoothly together. During the first and second reporting periods of the project, several researchers have been seconded from one sector to another (i.e. between academia and industry, and vice-versa). The activities led by them made significant progress towards creating a solid network for intersectoral collaboration, by exploring the existing synergies between the partners. The Research and Training activities produced the expected results, developed the SmartHELMET prototype, a new generation of bicycle helmet with active thermal management, advanced the state of the art and engaged young researchers in science, as well as provided them with experience and expertise in several areas of knowledge where they had little/no previous experience (e.g. ESRs from industry, with more business-oriented skills, have learned about high-level research from an academia perspective, and had access to specialized approaches such as modelling and advanced design of protective equipment). In order to disseminate research findings, the partners have prepared 6 conference communications and 3 journal papers. We have also organised 6 public workshops, 6 public innovation events and 6 public outreach which focused on transfer of knowledge and expertise in technical and innovation-related aspects. Additionally, we have developed the project website (www.smarthelmetproject.eu),the project logo, created 8 SmartHELMET newsletters where we regularly uploaded information about the project activities, one video about the European Safety Standard EN1078 and four videos about the project activities widely disseminated in social media and the project website and/or UPORTO/SIMTECH Lab’s youtube channel, one SmartHELMET Executive summary, two popularization articles and multiple web activities. Furthermore, we have prepared presentations and/or lectures for the RISE Open Day event, the Summer-school course, and the event “fêtes de la science” in order to disseminate information to a wider audience. We also collaborated in a special issue on Human Health Engineering in the Journal of Applied Sciences as guest editor.
