Development of a World-Level Neuroengineering Research Centre by European Twinning

Project Information

BrainTwin

Grant agreement ID: 952378

DOI

10.3030/952378

Project closed

EC signature date 26 June 2020

Start date 1 September 2020

End date 31 August 2023

Funded under

• Twinning of research institutions

Total cost

€ 900 000,00

EU contribution

€ 900 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITATEA TEHNICA GHEORGHE ASACHI DIN IASI
Romania

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BrainTwin (Development of a World-Level Neuroengineering Research Centre by European Twinning)

Reporting period: 2021-12-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project BrainTwin has enhanced networking activities and strengthened the research collaboration in the field of Neuro-Engineering between leading research institutions in Romania, Germany and Spain with the support of knowledge transfer organisations from Austria and Germany.
Neuro-Engineering is a discipline with high potential for the future that uses engineering techniques to study, restore, replace, or enhance neural systems. It comprises the application of engineering principles and techniques to the field of neuroscience. Bringing together research departments from medical sciences and engineering fields have the potential to achieve further significant progress e.g. in the comprehension and care of neurodegenerative diseases, as well as in the development of brain-connected prosthetics.
The city of Iasi in the North-East of Romania is a strong research and higher education hotspot with three well-known public universities. The Technical University of Iasi (TUIASI) is an excellent university in engineering fields and is part of the Imago-Mol North East Regional Innovative Cluster for Structural and Molecular Imaging (the only medical imaging cluster in Romania). For this reason, TUIASI had the strategy to develop a new centre for research and education in the field of Neuro-Engineering based on the strong support of internationally-leading counterparts in Germany and Spain. This twinning exercise has enhanced the scientific and technological capacity by knowledge exchange with a focus on early stage researchers, strengthen the research management skills and visibility of Romanian Neuro-Engineering Research in order to compete at international level and widen scientific excellence and innovation capacity of all the Partners.
The development of an International Projects Support Centre for proposal preparation and project management/administration, as well as joint workshops and summer schools, short-term staff exchanges and expert twinning visits has allowed to achieve these objectives.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The following knowledge exchange and mutually beneficial collaborative research actions were undertaken in the second reporting period, as well as activities aiming at rising the quality of the TUIASI scientific output:
- Organisation of the Second Capacity Building Workshop (online, 9-13.05 2022), involving 15 research teams from 10 different Universities/research institutions from Germany, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Colombia and Romania.
- Organisation of the Third Capacity Building Workshop (hybrid, 27-31.03 2023), in Iasi (Romania), allowing project partners to physically meet with students and researchers of TUIASI. Some of the sessions were additionally broadcast online.
- Organisation of 13 onsite short term expert visits, 5 from Fraunhofer Institute, 7 from Salamanca University, and 1 from S2i. All the visits were organised at the premises of TUIASI.
- Organisation of 11 onsite short term staff exchange visits (1 MSc students, 7 PhD student, and 3 staff members).
- Organisation of the Second Scientific and Technical Writing Workshop (online, 15-16.12.2021) and Third Scientific and Technical Writing Workshop (online, 9-10.03.2023).
- Organisation of the Second Proposal Writing Workshop on 11.11.2021 and Third Proposal Writing Workshop on 22.11.2022.
- Organisation of the BrainTwin 2nd Summer School (online, 5-9.09 2022) that included invited speakers from Germany (Fraunhofer, Steinbeis, Free University of Berlin), Spain (University of Salamanca, Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Autonomous University of Madrid, University of Valladolid, National Hospital for Paraplegics), Switzerland (ETH Zurich), Denmark (Technical University of Denmark), Canada (University of Waterloo) and Romania (TUIASI).
- Organisation of the BrainTwin 3rd Summer School (online, 3-7.07 2023) that included invited speakers from Germany (Fraunhofer, Steinbeis, German Research Centre for AI), Spain (University of Salamanca, Instituto Cajal, Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante), Switzerland (ETH Zurich), Netherlands (University of Groningen), UK (University College London UCL), USA (University of Iowa, University of Pittsburgh) and Romania (TUIASI).
- Organisation of the 2nd Student BarCamp on Early Diagnostics of Neurodegenerative Diseases (hybrid, FabLab Iasi and online 21-22.11 2022) and 3rd Student BarCamp on Improved Diagnostic & Therapy of Neurodegenerative Diseases including Cooperative Robotics (hybrid, FabLab Iasi and online 24-25.07 2023). Each BarCamp was organised as an innovation challenge. Participating students were encouraged to come up with solution ideas on the respective focus topic of each BarCamp.
- Organisation of the two National Annual Contests for the best publication in medical engineering neuroscience (months 15, 30).
- Organisation of the Bridging the gap between research and innovation Workshop 2 (online 24.05.2022) and Workshop 3 (online 07.06.2023) involving S2i, TUIASI, National Hospital for Paraplegics (Toledo, Spain), Central Institute of Mental Health (Mannheim, Germany), Frauen & Business (Germany), Spartha Medical (France), Albstadt-Singmaringen University of Applied Sciences, (Germany), Regional Development Agency North East, (Piatra Neamț, Romania), Digital Innovation Zone (DIZ) NE (Romania), University of Massachusetts.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Over the course of BrainTwin, more than 500 researchers, engineers, students received training in various neuro-engineering topics and latest state-of-the-art technologies, as well as in technical and scientific writing, and international project proposal writing. Out of the 41 submitted proposals to international projects, 11 were successful and accepted for funding, 7 under the Horizon Europe programme. TUIASI received 3.269.698 € from international funding programmes.
The BrainTwin team has applied for the call Teaming for Excellence, submitting the BrainTEAM project that was very well evaluated (8/10). The partners agreed to resubmit the proposal, after the launch by the Romanian POCIDIF programme of the call for teaming projects co-funding.

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