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Tag: The Innovation Platform Issue 18

  • A cohesive force for astroparticle physics research in Canada

    A cohesive force for astroparticle physics research in Canada

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    The McDonald Institute is guiding Canada’s astroparticle physics research community, in collaboration with its international partners, to answer fundamental questions about the universe’s constituents.

    The Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute is Canada’s network for astroparticle physics research, uniting researchers, theorists, and technical experts within one organisation. Located at Queen’s University, the McDonald Institute has 13 partner universities and research institutes across the country, all of which are key players in Canada’s astroparticle physics community. The Institute is building new programmes to advance research co-operation between Canada’s academic researchers and their colleagues in the EU, US, Japan, and worldwide, striving to detect dark matter and determine the fundamental properties of neutrinos. These new programmes will contribute to the Institute’s work, which is supported by a generous $45.5m commitment from the Government of Canada.

    Dr Arthur McDonald at the launch of the McDonald Institute in 2018

    Driving astroparticle physics research

    Dr Tony Noble, the Scientific Director of the McDonald Institute, said: “These are exciting times for the field. “Globally, astroparticle physics has rapidly expanded in the last decade, both as a way to broaden our toolkit for observing cosmological phenomena and as an optimal approach for testing some of physics’ most important theories about the particle composition of the universe.”

    Canada hosts SNOLAB, the deepest, cleanest underground research facility in the world. Several cutting-edge instruments searching for elusive particle interactions, including dark matter, have recently been commissioned there, including experiments either led or co-developed by European partners, such as NEWS-G and SNO+. Experiments like SuperCDMS are in the process of installation and calibration.

    As the fast-growing field’s international research collaborations expand and individual detector experiments approach decade-length durations, the Institute plays a key role in connecting the Canadian university research ecosystem with international collaborators. The Institute supports university-based researchers and engineers with a series of flexible programmes that advance the science while providing timely project support.

    Dr Gilles Gerbier moved from Université Paris-Saclay to Queen’s University as a Canada Excellence in Research Chair in 2014 to oversee the completion and installation of the France-Canada led NEWS-G dark matter detector. He said: “The McDonald Institute’s work complements a facility like SNOLAB, making it easier to cultivate local academic research groups that can design, bench-test, troubleshoot and integrate key components for one-of-a-kind experimental prototypes. The Institute was able to expedite engineering resources at critical moments and facilitate exchanges of research fellows and students while providing them with a wide range of tailored professional development opportunities to help them succeed.”

    Astroparticle physics

    Astroparticle physicists study particles – often of cosmological origin – to develop and test theories about the nature of neutrinos, the origins of matter and antimatter asymmetry, and the elusive dark matter that physicists calculate must exist but whose existence has never been directly observed.

    Frontier research over the past few decades has proven the field’s role in reshaping core scientific knowledge, including the standard model of particle physics that predicted a massless neutrino – which was disproved by separate Canada and Japan-based detector observations of solar neutrinos oscillating between electron, muon, and tau types – a major result that was honoured with a Nobel Prize in 2015.

    The DEAP 3600 liquid argon dark matter detector

    Working with Canadians

    The McDonald Institute has facilitated university faculty, fellows, and students working on important collaborations, including NEWS-G, SNO+, SuperCDMS, and DEAP-3600 (an experiment that is part of the Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration that includes DarkSide-20k currently under construction in Italy’s Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso). It is also active in supporting proposed next-generation experiments under the nEXO, LEGEND, Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE), and Scintillating Bubble Chamber collaborations. The McDonald Institute has established a common-interest working partnership with AstroCeNT, Poland’s premiere astroparticle physics research centre, which is actively developing wavelength shifter and Silicon Photomultiplier technologies that will be used by the Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration. Dr Marcin Kuźniak, an AstroCeNT professor, said: with Canada through the McDonald Institute expands our opportunities to design, build, and test the next generation of optical materials and single-photon detectors that are crucial for the work in our field. The McDonald Institute and other European partners have also co-applied with us for a €15m Horizon Europe ‘Teaming for Excellence’ call, with results expected this summer. The success of that initiative would elevate our partnership to an entirely new level.”

    Apart from designing increasingly large and complex experiments, there is an art to progressing academics’ promising ideas from bench-scale prototypes to full-scale working experiments. Here, the McDonald Institute helps develop scientists’ ability to be creative in Big Science problem-solving.

    “There are things you can plan for and things you can’t,” says Dr Jocelyn Monroe, a professor at the University of Oxford, who contributed to the DEAP-3600 detector located at SNOLAB. “The real talent of physicists is creative problem-solving of something that’s never been done before. Getting the resources together to support university researchers and engineering roles in such problem solving is a remarkable strength of the McDonald Institute.”

    An important part of dealing with entirely novel problems is making sure you have responsive talent close at hand. Dr Noble explained: “One of the things we’ve done well at the Institute is responding to the rising needs of our colleagues working on projects important to Canada – whether it’s been supporting critical research fellows at key moments or finding engineers who can address experimental problems. We are expanding our capacity along these lines by increasing our pool of engineers and technical experts who are uniquely skilled in addressing the design and prototyping challenges typically encountered in very low background experiments in deep subsurface labs.”

    Canadian creativity is a national point of pride in its contributions to the field. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), and later SNOLAB, were built 2km underground in a working nickel mine. SNO+, among the first large-scale neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) experiments, makes use of SNO’s original 10m acrylic scintillator vessel. Similar resourcefulness is seen in the P-ONE experiment, a proposed massive Cherenkov detector that uses very deep water as a medium for detecting high-energy neutrino interactions and plans to make use of the pre-existing seabed digital infrastructure operated by Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) off Canada’s western coast. Dr Darren Grant, a Canada Excellence Research Chair based at Simon Fraser University, explained: “Canada already had the infrastructure for the experiment – an underwater array for monitoring climate-induced changes to ocean currents and temperatures. Particle astrophysics was a new scientific direction for ONC, and over the past nearly ten years, a concerted effort has developed to explore the deep ocean site and ultimately realise a path to instrument it for high-energy neutrino detection.”

    Noble said: “We certainly have been enthusiastic in supporting P-ONE researchers’ early validation work with timely support that extended that team’s ability to respond to unexpected challenges and opportunities. “The Institute’s mission is, ultimately, to get the most scientific advancement possible from the investments made by many partners.”

    Common scientific questions

    The McDonald Institute’s role as a talent-oriented facilitator of Canada’s contributions to astroparticle physics puts it in conversation with a broad range of international research. Key areas of common interest with its EU colleagues are:

    Deep expertise

    A key area of expertise in Canada concerns the design and operation of uniquely sensitive instruments in sub-surface environments with ultra-low background radiation. SNOLAB is the world’s premiere underground research facility. The 2km of rock above the lab filters most of the cosmic ray particles bombarding the surface of the earth from space. The entire facility operates as a Class-2000 clean lab with 5,000m² of space, providing an ideal site for a range of projects from tabletop prototypes to multi-tonne scale detectors.

    Dr Monroe said: “Our field uses underground facilities all over the world to host experiments. “What Canada and SNOLAB offer is a specific scale and quality of low-background operating environments that can be critically important for certain kinds of experiments.” With a leading facility already established, the Institute’s role since 2016 has focused on expanding the number of university-based astroparticle physicists working in Canada and making it as easy as possible for them to engage their international colleagues’ work at home but also in the UK, EU, US, and Japan. Dr Monroe continued: “We’ve seen an enormous growth in the number of academic colleagues in Canada who can contribute to the most ambitious dark matter detection collaborations.”

    Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) 

    The idea that neutrinos could be their own antiparticle was first postulated by Ettore Majorana in 1937. If true, this would mean that two neutrinos in contact could co-annihilate each other like any other matter and antimatter pair. Such an event has never been observed but would have important scientific implications:

    1. It would determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, an unanswered question in physics that arose shortly after the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory and Kamiokande Detector collaborations won the Nobel Prize in 2015 for their joint discovery of neutrino oscillations
    2. It would contribute to the understanding of why the universe is made up of matter and not antimatter and why, during the Big Bang, there was an asymmetry of the two, allowing matter to persist and dominate the universe as we know it
    3. It would would be a huge step for future antimatter research

    The SNO+ experiment is in its first phase of geo-neutrino observation (neutrinos emanating from the natural radioactivity of the Earth’s core) and is designed to eventually be loaded with material that could experience 0νββ decay. Other Canadian scientists are working with their EU and US colleagues on proposed 0νββ experiments like nEXO and LEGEND.

    Dark matter 

    Theories of ‘invisible’ matter have been discussed since the early 20th century. Galaxy cluster behaviours, the rotation of galaxies, and other evidence support the notion that 85% of the matter in the universe cannot be seen or easily detected. A leading theory on the nature of this matter is that it is comprised of one or more Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) and, as such, should occasionally interact with ‘visible’ matter in a way that can be detected. Over the years, dark matter experimentalists have been able to put constraints on the range of possible WIMP properties. Future experiments will also look for low-mass non-WIMP dark matter candidates while larger-scale next-generation WIMP detectors are pursued through long-term multi-national partnerships. The McDonald Institute is engaged with a wide range of dark matter collaborations, including, but not limited to, NEWS-G, SuperCDMS, the Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration, PICO, and the Scintillating Bubble Chamber.

    High energy neutrinos & multi-messenger astronomy

    As astrophysicists look deeper into space and more closely at nature’s largest-scale phenomena, astroparticle experiments can combine with electromagnetic and gravitational-wave detection to build a richer understanding of the universe’s workings. This ‘multi-messenger’ astronomy is a growing topic of interest in the field.

    The IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica and KM3NeT’s pending ARCA detector in the Mediterranean Sea can detect uniquely high-energy neutrinos that emanate from the most violent cosmic phenomena and can also locate the direction of such particles’ origins. Often, these neutrinos arrive at nearly the same time as the electromagnetic or gravitational wave disturbances of such events, promising extended observational data for astronomers. The proposed P-ONE observatory in Western Canada would add to the amount of total sky coverage available for this kind of multi-messenger astronomy.

    Theoretical physics

    A unique cluster of astroparticle-focused theoretical physicists has emerged in Canada after the McDonald Institute expanded the numbers of university research faculty, fellows, and students working in the field thanks to the support of the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. This group is engaged with their experimentalist colleagues as well as their peers in high-energy particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology – using observational data and experimental evidence to hypothesise and simulate the ways dark matter, neutrinos and the known fundamental particles could shape the evolution of the cosmos.

    Dr Sarah Schön, an early member of this cluster and an Assistant Research Professor at Penn State University, uses astrophysical data to constrain the possible properties of dark matter. She said: “Successful modern physics research relies more and more on bringing together theorists, experimentalists, and observers, leveraging distinct perspectives and resources to push our understanding of physics and the Universe. The McDonald Institute, in conjunction with the Perimeter Institute and SNOLAB, creates a unique syzygy of approaches to astroparticle physics in one close-knit environment. There really is no substitute for exploring new ideas and building interdisciplinary collaborations than being able to talk to and learn from your fellow physicists on a regular basis. It’s an exciting place to do science.”

    Addressing the challenges of long-duration, large-scale experimentation
    Astroparticle physics plays the long game in frontier research, and it is one of Canada’s best implementations of long-duration, multinational knowledge work that increasingly dominates Big Science ambitions everywhere in the world.

    The McDonald Institute values equity, diversity, and inclusion in astroparticle physics and contributes to co-developing and improving operational standards of practice for scientists that will sustain long-term research excellence. This work can help build a welcoming research community and make the best use of long-duration experiments as sites of global scientific diplomacy.

    A highly skilled, adaptable, and internationally connected research community is an asset in itself. Scientific discovery aside, the ability to pivot and solve unexpected problems has tremendous value to Canada and the international community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a team from Italy led by Dr Christiano Galbiati designed reliable mechanical ventilators that could be built quickly using readily available parts. Nobel Laureate Dr Arthur McDonald joined the effort and recruited SNOLAB, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, TRIUMF, and the McDonald Institute into a Canadian arm of the Mechanical Ventilator Milano collaboration. Dr Galbiati said: “The Canadians were, of course, important design and engineering contributors to our collaboration. They were also extremely effective in collaborating with industrial and government partners to get 7,800 of the ventilators built in response to the pandemic threat.”

    The McDonald Institute also dedicates funding for small, high-risk/high-reward, early-stage research and engineering projects and integrates the diverse and innovative research of university-based working groups within the broader research ecosystem, increasing connectivity, collaboration, and overall efficiency. This has come in the form of funding students, engineers, and postdocs to accelerate faculty projects and through extensive network-building activities within the community.

    What’s next?

    The Canadian research community has demonstrated world-leading science and reliable international collaboration and is ready for the next chapter. The McDonald Institute looks forward to the next 15 years of astroparticle physics research in Canada and plans for the next generation of large-scale, long-term projects, developing a critical mass of university-based researchers – a network of hundreds of scientists working in university labs, experimental facilities, and technology suppliers.

    Stay connected with developments at the McDonald Institute through its monthly newsletter.

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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  • Supporting sustainability in the agricultural sector

    Supporting sustainability in the agricultural sector

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    Between climate change, disease, loss of soil health, and more, the agricultural sector is facing a myriad of challenges – urban farming could solve these issues.

    Urban farming is simply the practice of farming foods in an urban setting, towns, cities, etc.

    UK Urban Agritech’s (UKUAT) Founder and Chairman, Mark Horler, sat down with The Innovation Platform’s Assistant Editor, Matt Brundrett, to discuss their work and the world of urban farming.

    What benefits does urban farming offer for urban residents and the environment?

    What urban farming ultimately does is position food-growing closer to where people live. Much of our food is imported into the UK, and this is especially true of fresh produce. Long, complex supply chains are well-established but are vulnerable to acute shocks and disruptions. In the longer term, our food systems often rely on production in areas that are likely to be affected by chronic challenges such as climate change. Moreover, people are disconnected from food in the broader sense – often not knowing where and how their food is produced or by whom.

    Urban agritech offers some degree of solutions and support for all of these problems. In the first instance, growing food more locally (hyper-local, as it is called) reduces the risk of short-term supply shocks, though some questions remain about how to scale up and down the supply of produce and the supply of consumables required for production. Dramatically scaling up urban and peri-urban farming could also reduce the chronic longer-term risks to supply in that it could partially or wholly replace entire supply chains for some produce. If this also serves to reduce emissions from the transport of produce, that is also an added benefit! Perhaps most importantly, growing food where people live aids transparency, traceability and, crucially, trust in food production. End consumers often highlight this as a notable benefit of urban farming, although questions remain about how to reach price parity with conventional produce.

    Which crops are commonly grown in urban farming, and how does this contribute to local food security?

    The most commonly grown crops in the urban vertical farms are leafy greens such as salad crops, herbs, microgreens, and more exotic crops such as edible flowers. Gourmet mushrooms have also been a popular choice for prospective urban growers. In greenhouse environments, crops such as tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, chilis and others of a similar kind are often grown alongside the leafy greens they have in common with the vertical farms. There is an ever-increasing interest in soft fruits, too, most notably strawberries, but increasingly also considering the potential of other berries and related crops.

    There are two ways to think about food security. In the first instance, crops grown in urban areas can help to provide nutritional security, especially with regard to particular micro-nutrients which may otherwise be lacking in local diets. This has important potential health implications, and there is, therefore, a strong argument for public procurement of such crops, for example, in schools and hospitals, so that those benefits might be best realised. It is also worth noting that a key component of a good food policy is to provide safe, healthy, nutritious and culturally appropriate food. By giving people access to healthy food that is culturally appropriate to them, market demand can be met whilst at the same time ensuring all people get what they need.

    The area of food security as a whole is more nuanced since staple crops are not currently grown in urban farms and are not likely to be so anytime soon. That said, urban farms, and especially large-scale peri-urban farms, may be able to support resilience in the food system. If supplies of crops from elsewhere, particularly those with long and complex supply chains, are disrupted by climate change, geopolitics, foodborne pathogen outbreaks, and other such concerns, there is a real risk of supply shortages. Urban farming can offer a potential solution to address such a situation, though consideration is required of how urban production might be scaled up and down to meet fluctuating needs. It is also vital that, if urban farming is to realise its full potential, it must be at or near price parity with conventional produce from elsewhere, lest it become solely the preserve of the well-off.

    How do urban farmers overcome space limitations to maximise yields and efficiency?

    A key benefit of urban agritech lies in the efficient use of space and resources. Controlled Environment Agriculture generally uses much less in the way of inputs, such as water and fertilisers, than more conventional agricultural approaches. Furthermore, the number of crops grown in any given space can be greatly increased – both through increasing plant density and, in the case of vertical farming in particular, by stacking layers vertically. Furthermore, since these growing environments are carefully controlled and less subject to challenges of weather, pests and so on, yields may consistently be significantly higher per given land area than in conventional growing outdoors.

    That said, there is a substantial challenge in terms of resource use around the energy consumed by more technological approaches to urban farming. Whilst these growing operations are very efficient in terms of their space use and productivity, they are still reliant on energy to a greater or lesser degree. This is particularly true in urban areas. In other areas, farms might be co-located with renewables, but the more urban the setting, the less likely this is, and farms are likely to be grid-dependent as a result. Until such time as renewables come to dominate the grid, this means accepting at least some degree of fossil fuel dependency. However, as grids decarbonise over time, this is expected to be a decreasing problem, and indeed, renewably powered farms may ultimately be less carbon intensive than their conventional peers.

    urban farming

    It should also be noted that Building Integrated Agriculture is an important set of solutions in this respect. Urban farms often find themselves competing for space with other land uses, buildings, etc. By integrating urban agriculture into existing buildings and designing it into new buildings, this competition may be alleviated. Any given building can, therefore, have multiple uses, with food growing occupying spaces and utilising resources that would otherwise be wasted.

    What role does technology play in modern farming practices?

    There are a number of ways in which certain technological developments have enabled and helped to drive the advance of urban agritech in recent years. The first and perhaps primary of these was the development and subsequent wide availability of LED grow lights. Because these are much more efficient than other lights (such as HPS, fluorescent, halide), they have made it much easier to grow indoors in urban and peri-urban areas. This happened remarkably quickly, with some initial debate pretty quickly giving way as the superiority of LEDs became clear and prices continued to fall.

    Another major driver has been and continues to be automation, particularly in the ways in which it is entwined with other technologies. Moving crops around the growing space, climate control, nutrient dosing, and plant morphological analysis, all involve some degree of automation. As control systems become ever smarter, this is likely to be a continuing trend. One area of particular interest in the coming years is robotics. Though many advancements have been made, the tech is still emerging and awaiting a tipping point in AI-assisted imaging, soft product handling, and price. Nevertheless, as labour remains one of the two largest op-ex costs in any indoor farm (the other being energy), the trend will likely continue.

    Looking to the future, the biggest trends in technologies for the sector are likely to be based around sustainability, resilience, and integration. In the area of materials, substrates have been an innovation area of late, given the energy intensity embodied in rock wool and the carbon impact of peat, resulting in coir and novel designs formed in bioplastics becoming more prevalent. Digital twinning and renewable energy integrations will likely go hand-in-hand both to reduce absolute energy use and to increase use efficiency, as well as to help make the case for renewable energy and storage projects themselves. Heat exchange between CEA farms and neighbouring properties with excess or insufficient heat also offers a promising case for integrations (glasshouses tend to need heat, and vertical farms tend to have too much), as are situations where CO2 needed by plants and oxygen produced by them can be exchanged with facilities requiring the opposite. Similarly, circular material and resource flows will increase efficiency and reduce resource use as a whole, for example, the conversion of waste organic material (both from within the farm and local economy) into fertiliser. Lastly, one big area of research at present is in the microbiome. Indoor farms have traditionally (and perhaps naively) tried to create and maintain an inert environment in the grow space, but now the optimisation of microbial activity in the rootzone is receiving notable attention, with a view towards improving conditions for the plant and excluding any undesirable microbes which might otherwise thrive in the absence of competition.

    Can you provide examples of successful projects globally, and what lessons can be learned from them?

    How can urban farming initiatives address challenges like soil quality, water management, and pest control in urban settings?

    Urban agritech offers substantial potential benefits around water management. Controlled environment agriculture systems typically use less water and fertilisers. Some CEA and more TCEA settings use recirculating systems in a closed loop, but this is not easy to implement in small settings due to the complexity of the setup and the highly specialised knowledge that it requires. In addition, they actually
    use very little water in the first place due to the efficiency of the use of water within the systems themselves.

    This means that there is little or no run-off from these farms into water systems. Furthermore, some urban farms can help with stormwater management by collecting, holding, and utilising water that would otherwise fall on hard urban surfaces and immediately run off or gather.

    In controlled environment agriculture, with sufficient biosecurity controls in place, there is relatively little risk from pests. This aids the successful growing of crops, of course, but it also means that little or no pesticides, fungicides and other harmful chemicals need to be used. If pest problems do occur, integrated pest management approaches can be used to minimise or remove any need for the use of toxic substances.

    Since urban agritech is most often soilless in its growing methods, the impact on soil management is limited. However, there is an argument that urban farming can contribute to land sparing in other environments – i.e. by growing in urban areas, we can free up land currently under cultivation elsewhere.

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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  • S34I, from sky to soil

    S34I, from sky to soil

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    S34I is an innovative European project that seeks to increase Europe’s autonomy in raw materials resources by utilising advanced data-driven techniques for analysing Earth observation (EO) data.

    The backbone of Europe’s economy lies in its raw materials. They provide a robust industrial foundation, producing a diverse range of goods and applications that are a part of our daily lives and modern technologies. However, the availability of certain raw materials remains a growing concern both within the EU and throughout the world. It’s essential to ensure reliable and unrestricted access to these materials to maintain a stable and flourishing economy.

    European raw materials are crucial

    Europe has always been dependent on other regions for its raw materials, which makes it vulnerable. However, a new project called S34I, which was launched in January 2023 and co-ordinated by the University of Oporto, aims to increase Europe’s autonomy in raw materials resources by utilising advanced data-driven techniques for analysing Earth Observation (EO) data.

    The project leverages Copernicus and other satellite sensors (including optical and radar) for data collection, while other platforms like airborne, low altitude platforms, ground-based, in-situ techniques/methods, and fieldwork are used to complement Copernicus data or for calibration and validation purposes. The S34I project’s primary focus is on systematically exploring minerals and continually monitoring extraction, closure, and post-closure activities to improve European knowledge and autonomy on raw materials resources. Additionally, the project seeks to improve social acceptance of mining (SLO) and promote better legislation.

    S34I is developing technical experiments and pilot validations/demonstrations for six pilot use cases, including Onshore Exploration, Shallow Water Exploration, Extraction, and Closure/Post-Closure:

    • Onshore Exploration (Áramo, Spain): Using artificial intelligence (AI)techniques like support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and artificial neural networks (ANN), the project aims to map potential Cobalt (Co) target areas using various satellite-based datasets. This includes leveraging self-organising maps (SOM) for preprocessing exploration datasets and combining geological and remote sensing models to detect hydrothermal alterations associated with Co.
    • Shallow Water Exploration (Ria de Vigo, Spain): AI/ML techniques are utilised to post-process UHI data to establish a spectral library for ground-truthing and correlate it with onshore EO data. Geological studies help in identifying promising areas for placer deposit occurrences.
    • Extraction (Gummern, Austria): The project aims to improve volume mapping of mining waste deposits and monitor ground instability using techniques like Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry and InSAR methods, respectively. Additionally, mineral stockpile volume estimation is performed using satellite photogrammetry and 3D-stereo images.
    • Closure/Post-Closure (Lausitz, Germany and Keretti-Outokumpu, Finland): Advanced AI techniques such as SBAS-InSAR and predictive modelling are employed for ground instability mapping and Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) prediction.

    Earth observation data is key

    The project’s methodology involves conducting multi-scale and multi-platform analysis of EO data, which is harmonised to meet EU data quality standards. Prototype processing pipelines are currently under development for three service categories: mapping raw materials deposits, providing early warnings for risk reduction, and monitoring environmental changes.

    S34I uses advanced AI techniques, such as SBAS-InSAR and predictive modelling, to create a comprehensive view of ground instability mapping and Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) prediction. The project is also paying special attention to enhancing geological integration at the land-sea interface and ensuring open access to research datasets.

    Ultimately, the project aims to demonstrate the value of its results to stakeholders by promoting secure and sustainable raw materials supply to Europe while enhancing resilience and reducing dependence on non-EU sources.

    S34I is the perfect example of how innovation and technology can help boost Europe’s self-reliance and ensure that it remains a leader in raw materials resources.

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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  • Building a sustainable global future through transformational and collaborative research

    Building a sustainable global future through transformational and collaborative research

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    Toronto Metropolitan University researchers are advancing innovative solutions that facilitate a robust, sustainable, and inclusive future where everyone can engage and thrive.

    Through local and global partnerships and collaborations, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) drives forward new ideas to accelerate a healthy, sustainable, and inclusive future where everyone can participate, learn, and succeed. From global migration to equity in health care to responsible digital technology, research at TMU reaches across borders and disciplines to find innovative and collaborative solutions to the world’s most complex challenges.

    This research advances robust cybersecurity, prepares for the future of work, and develops sustainable policy and infrastructure to not only address society’s current needs but also anticipate the needs of tomorrow.

    Professor Steven N Liss, Vice-President, Research and Innovation at TMU said: “The world is experiencing an extraordinary era of change. Social, economic, environmental, and digital transformations are occurring more rapidly than ever before, bringing forth challenges that demand bold and creative solutions. These transformations also present unique opportunities to change the way our world works, shaping a brighter future.”

    TMU seeks new opportunities to scale and apply our research and innovations in communities worldwide, enter new partnerships, and tackle major global challenges together.

    Professor Liss said: “Our world-class researchers exemplify an exceptional ability to collaborate with scholars, governments, and industry organisations beyond our community to advance knowledge, improve lives, and increase economic competitiveness. Through our collaborations with international partners, we have embarked on trailblazing research that brings together diverse perspectives to strengthen our endeavours and accomplish positive, real-world impact.”

    Interdisciplinary migration research

    Immigration is a cornerstone of economic growth and labour markets worldwide, including Canada. For more than three decades, TMU has been at the forefront of immigration and migration research and education. This leadership paved the way for the university’s ‘Migrant Integration in the Mid-21st Century: Bridging Divides’ research programme, engaging more than 35 research leaders, 100 scholars, and 200 organisations from across Canada and the world.

    Led by the international scholar and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration, Professor Anna Triandafyllidou, the programme’s collaborative, interdisciplinary, and transformational research explores global migration and how it intersects with technology adoption, community health, infrastructure, and more. This $98.6m investment by the Government of Canada’s  Canada First Research Excellence Fund enables critical insights to improve outcomes for migrants and produce practical solutions that support thriving, equitable, and resilient communities.

    Professor Triandafyllidou noted: “The world is experiencing rapid digital change affecting all aspects of how we live, work, and travel, as well as how we participate in society. Bridging Divides research is focused on how advanced digital technologies can be applied to improve immigrants’ integration and make our societies richer, more creative, and more resilient.”

    One of the programme’s key research areas identifies the practices that enable migrants to engage in work and explores how they can be scaled up to fit the needs of migrants in Canada and elsewhere. Researchers are examining how the strategic deployment of digital technology can improve immigrants’ economic integration in all forms of work.

    For instance, many newly arrived migrants enter the workforce through jobs in the digital platform economy, from gig-based apps for ride services and freelance labour to apps connecting healthcare workers with employers who have available shifts.

    Professor Triandafyllidou and her collaborators are examining how migrants use these platforms to create networks and develop employment experiences. They’re also investigating technology’s role in unemployment and underemployment, combating employer bias, training and retraining newcomers, and facilitating foreign credential recognition.

    Innovating for health equity

    TMU has significantly accelerated its health research, with a particular focus on addressing critical community health issues and filling gaps, such as access and equity.

    Professor Karen Soldatic, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Health Equity and Community Wellbeing, is internationally recognised in her field. She works with a global network of disability, social, and healthcare scholars, institutions, service providers, and civil society organisations on research that aims to provide equitable and accessible community-engaged models of sustainable social, economic, cultural, and emotional well-being.

    A vision of person-centred care is at the heart of TMU’s new community-first, intentionally inclusive School of Medicine enterprise. Welcoming its first class in 2025, the medical school is developing critical relationships with health partners and other academic institutions. Agreements with collaborators, such as the Indigenous Primary Health Care Council, highlight TMU’s dedication to advancing equity in medical education and health care.

    The medical school is an extension of the university’s strength in health research. It will intersect with top-tier researchers and their work in fields such as biomedical science, psychology, and nursing. Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing Professor Mandana Vahabi is increasing cancer screening accessibility internationally, with a special focus on cervical cancer – one of the leading causes of death among women globally, but preventable with regular testing.

    Leading a five-year research project in India, she and researchers from Canada and the Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai are promoting the uptake of screening among low-income urban and rural women from across eight states. They are using a culturally appropriate arts-based sexual health education approach and HPV self-sampling tests to reach those who are under-screened or have never been tested.

    Sustainability research and infrastructure

    The environment we live in greatly impacts the health of people, cities, and communities. TMU is a leader in sustainability research and has a robust water research community. A multidisciplinary consortium of researchers and international partners works together to solve complex urban water challenges, from policy to the natural sciences.

    A first-of-its-kind research project led by Professor Elsayed Elbeshbishy is set to build greener wastewater systems. Wastewater systems are one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) worldwide, and TMU is at the forefront of solution-based research in this area. Professor Elbeshbishy is working with 16 partners, including municipal governments and industry organisations, on multi-level GHG detection research to measure methane and nitrous oxide using computer simulations, ground and drone sensors, and aircraft and satellite imaging. The comprehensive data, collection will allow researchers to better understand the uncertainties in measurement methods.

    Professor Elbeshbishy said: “Governments around the world want to reduce their GHG emissions from different sectors, including wastewater treatment plants. If we’re able to understand why there is a difference in measuring GHGs with different methods, we can minimise the difference, reduce uncertainty in the data and have a measurement tool that we can rely on.”

    This project entails numerous additional components that contribute to a better understanding of GHGs, including developing mathematical models to predict GHG emissions from sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants, assessing GHG emission calculators, and creating educational videos and social media content.

    Decarbonising communities

    Reducing GHGs is critical as the world seeks to lessen the impacts of climate change. TMU researchers are leading the way in developing the innovations and knowledge needed to decarbonise communities.

    TMU’s Centre for Urban Energy focuses on developing novel, sustainable, and accessible energy solutions that integrate local, small-scale, and renewable power sources into electricity grids for more adaptable energy infrastructure. Professor Bala Venkatesh is the centre’s founding academic director and an internationally recognised clean energy expert.

    © iStock/redtea

    Professor Venkatesh works closely with researchers from Europe, the US, South America, and Asia to explore topics that range from policy and regulation to energy storage to smart micropower grids. He has cultivated local and international collaborations, including an ongoing partnership with Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited, to develop on-the-ground clean energy in Delhi, the world’s second-largest city.

    TMU’s Smart Campus Integration and Testing Hub, led by Professor Jenn McArthur, is set to be the world’s first fully digitally enabled building. Digital twins – virtual models of a physical object or system constantly updated with data to reflect physical reality – can be used to optimise buildings and cities around the world to be more sustainable, reducing carbon emissions while ensuring occupants’ comfort and safety.

    Professor McArthur is at the leading edge of this field, creating cognitive digital twins that integrate data streams such as sensors into up-to-date digital versions of buildings capable of learning, predicting, and optimising building performance.

    To date, Professor McArthur and her team have developed 18 unique pieces of licensable intellectual property for smart campus digital twins. Early results from twinned TMU facilities are promising, showing cost, energy, and other efficiencies.

    Off-campus, her cognitive digital twin work has also demonstrated positive changes in different settings. Of one example, McArthur said: “We’ve done work with some optimisation models in multi-unit residential buildings that have shown 25-40% energy savings without any change to equipment, just based on control optimisation.”

    Professor McArthur has most recently embarked on a collaboration with European colleagues exploring various areas, including developing city-scale energy models to plan and optimise for decarbonisation.

    Developing responsible technology sectors

    Technology has brought the world closer together, eliminating barriers in distance, time, and culture. As technology advances, researchers at TMU work to ensure that our digital industries are ethical, equitable, and secure.

    Professor Ebrahim Bagheri’s research focuses on the development of artificial intelligence methods and tools that will benefit both society and the global economy. He is the director of Responsible Development of Artifical Intelligence (AI), a multi-sector, multi-institutional, and collaborative training programme. This programme and his research ensure that the next generation of AI talent is aware of and ready to engage with the ethical, legal, and policy concerns involved in using this technology.

    Bias and fairness in AI, consumer privacy, and AI trustworthiness are at the core of his research. He and his team address challenges, such as the historical biases encoded in large search engines, to avoid the spread of such biases and stereotypes at scale. This focus is particularly important since search engines process more than eight billion queries per day, shaping the beliefs and decisions of many individuals.

    Professor Bagheri and his team have developed various state-of-the-art approaches for quantifying, measuring, and reducing biases in search systems, including bias-aware methods that anticipate and compensate for these issues. They have had successful results, though Professor Bagheri notes that dealing with bias is a multifaceted problem that requires solutions beyond technological development.

    With technological advancement comes the growing need for robust cybersecurity. As part of TMU’s commitment to global cyber resilience and fostering innovation, collaboration and excellence in this sector, the university established the Rogers Cybersecurity Catalyst (the Catalyst).

    From research fellowships to training and certification programmes to support small and medium businesses with practical cybersecurity resources, the Catalyst empowers individuals and organisations to take on the challenges of cybersecurity to support healthy democracies and thriving societies. More than 7,000 people and 500 businesses across Canada and around the world have benefitted from the Catalyst’s groundbreaking programmes since its inception in 2018.

    A new partnership with BlackBerry Limited will bring TMU’s world-class cybersecurity leadership programme to Malaysia. Through this international partnership, TMU will help bolster cybersecurity capacity in the Indo-Pacific region. Participants in the programme will gain access to career mentorship from leading cyber experts and training across skill sets, including regulatory compliance and cybersecurity ethics.

    Global impacts

    TMU’s innovators create positive global impacts with their novel approaches to the world’s most critical issues, from climate change to health care to cybersecurity. At TMU, we believe cooperation, collaboration, and diverse perspectives are crucial to finding innovative solutions.

    We are looking to partner with dynamic collaborators to address the issues facing humanity today and create a more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive future for tomorrow. Novel ideas are needed as we prepare vital sectors to adapt to our changing world.

    Research referenced in this article is supported, in part, by funding from: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

     

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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  • CANTRAIN: Clinical trial training programmes

    CANTRAIN: Clinical trial training programmes

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    The emergence of a novel Canadian Consortium of Clinical Trial Training Platform, a patient-centred, competency-based e-learning curriculum with mentorship, to support career development.

    CANTRAIN is a national programme supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Clinical Trials Fund (CTF), part of Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy led by Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada. CANTRAIN addresses a key aspect of the clinical trial environment — the training of current Graduate Students, Postdoctoral Fellows, and the next generations of Trialists and Clinical Research Professionals in the development and conduct of clinical trials. Through a state-of-the-art Learning Management System (LMS), CANTRAIN provides competency-based courses in clinical research enriched by real-work and real-world experiential activities and expert mentorship.

    CANTRAIN curriculum

    CANTRAIN is unlike any other training platform. We offer an innovative, competency-based clinical trial training curriculum enriched by experiential learning and expert mentorship. CANTRAIN offers uniquely designed training for four streams of learners, including:

    1. Graduate and postdoctoral trainees (GPT) – not exclusive to medical and health sciences;
    2. Clinical trial/research professionals (CTP/CRP) – as assistants, associates, co-ordinators, and managers;
    3. Clinicians/clinical researchers/trialists, as Principal Investigators (PI); and
    4. Patients and community partners.
    ©AdobeStock/Africa Studio

    This latest stream aimed at public engagement is further defined to include health charities, policymakers, journalists, social media influencers, and more. Its specific intention is to increase equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) for underserved and underrepresented groups interested in working and/or participating in clinical trial research.

    The CANTRAIN programmes and platform are available to all Canadian public, academic, and healthcare institutions (hospitals, research centres/institutes) that host Clinical Trial Units (CTUs). Through federal funding, all CANTRAIN programmes are free in Canada.  We intend to offer the same portfolio of training programmes on a fee-for-service basis to the private sector (biotech, biopharma, clinical contract research organisations (CCRO), Site Management Organisation (SMO)), to support the training of their own personnel as well as study staff at clinical trials sites across the country. The time will soon come to expand CANTRAIN’s horizons and engage public and private organisations abroad, including in Europe.

    CANTRAIN’s innovative approach to clinical trial training is competency-based and scientifically grounded. Such innovation in the adult learning curriculum and in clinical trials research is aligned with the needs of the persona of learners listed above, starting with the Principal Investigator (PI) / Qualified Investigator (QI) responsible for the conduct of clinical trials, assisted by a variety of clinical research professionals (CRP) from co-ordination to management, ethics, and regulatory affairs. We have adopted and are adapting ‘The Levelled Core Competency Framework for the Clinical Research Professional’ by the Joint Task Force for Clinical Trial Competency (JTF) of the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials (MRCT) Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard. This framework includes 47 competencies across eight domains, graded for different levels of expertise and experience. Furthermore, using adult education principles based on cognitive science, CANTRAIN is now innovating by expanding this framework to new groups of learners, namely trialists, patients and community partners.

    CANTRAIN

    CANTRAIN is the creation of academic health and clinical researchers from all over Canada who are partnering to collaborate with patients’ engaged organisations, such as Canadian SPOR (Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research).  Similar, yet distinct organisations in Europe, such as EUPATI (European Patients Academy on Therapeutic Innovation), and in the US, such as PCORI (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute), are inspiring strategies to engage and embed patient, caregiver and community perspectives and priorities into health research, and therefore speed up clinical trials research outcomes into evidence for better health policy, health services, health experiences and overall health.

    CANTRAIN’s strategy focuses on building the knowledge and skills of researchers, patients, and community members to increase the capacity of clinical trials, aiming for knowledge and learner-specific competencies related to clinical trial research.

    To encourage Canada’s highly trained students to get involved with clinical trials, CANTRAIN offers three salary award programmes. Supported by the current CIHR grant (2022-2026), and the collaboration with Canadian provincial health research organisations as co-funders, CANTRAIN has been enabled to double the number of awards on offer to master’s and doctoral trainees and postdoctoral fellows. This one-year renewable programme supports these trainees in conducting clinical trial research and following the CANTRAIN curriculum of courses and mentorship.

    CANTRAIN’s programming also includes salary and internship awards with practica. There are four dedicated programmes combining courses and mentorship with real-work/real-world experience (RWE) in a clinical trial setting.

    • A first programme combines the support of a federal government agency (MITACS) with the private biopharmaceutical sector, ensuring that CANTRAIN can be the rendez-vous portal for graduates and postdoctoral fellows who want to gain experience in industry, the primary clinical trial sponsors. This programme provides trainees with a salary stipendand enables them to gain real-world and real-work experience within a private sector environment for a period of four to 12 months.
    • A second programme combines the support of Canadian provincial health research organisations as co-funders to enable CRPs or Early Career Researchers (ECRs) from the public sector to have a combination of virtual and in-person exchanges between their home institution and another public host institution anywhere in Canada.
    • A third programme addresses the significant influx of immigrants, many of whom have a medical and/or health sciences background but cannot practice their art and implement their knowledge into their new home. The aim of this internship programme is to enable these skilled immigrants to find a valuable and productive place in their new society based on their initial qualifications. With the retirements of baby boomers and post-COVID human resources changes, there is a need for CRP training and recruitment in both the public and private sectors. These roles range from assistant to associate, co-ordinator, manager,  specialists in ethics, informed consent, and regulatory affairs. This programme will allow this group to benefit from CANTRAIN’s training and mentorship programmes along with a pre-determined four to six months practicum in a public or private clinical trial research environment, opening the door to employment.
    • A fourth CANTRAIN programme addresses the very specific needs of an essential group, the general public (see above), by giving them the opportunity to spend a day of internship in a public academic Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) with professionals operating various aspects of clinical trials. This approach is designed to develop and strengthen the trust of the population in the conduct of clinical trials sponsored by public grants and private sector sponsors. Back in the community, what better ambassadors than these ‘interns’ to promote participation in clinical trials research, allowing to increase the randomisation of subjects and patients into trials. It also teaches the clinical trial community the importance of having the public and the patients involvement in the whole process of implementing a clinical trial. Acquiring knowledge through education, as CANTRAIN proposes, is mutually beneficial for all parties involved and engaged in the pursuit of successful clinical trials.

    CANTRAIN

    Horizon Europe is the world’s largest research and innovation funding programme involving countries around the globe. Canada is part of this most ambitious funding programme as of November 2023. It gives Canadians access to even more opportunities to elevate their research and innovations through global partnerships. Through Horizon Europe, Canada’s talented research and innovation communities, such as CANTRAIN-CTTP, can contribute to the development of solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, mainly toward Horizon Europe Pillar 1 aimed to support excellence in advanced research training, which CANTRAIN provides in the field of clinical trials.

    CANTRAIN CTTP includes a level dedicated to ‘Regulatory Compliance.’ At this level, courses are devoted to ICH-GCP (International Council for Harmonisation – Good Clinical Practice), Health Canada, Food and Drug Regulations, and international research ethics standards.  Additional courses are being developed to address ITA (Investigational Testing Authorisation) for medical devices,  and other jurisdictions such as the US-FDA Chapter 21 of the CFR12 on clinical investigations of drugs, biological products, and medical devices and current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) regulations. The same approach is true for EMA (European Medicines Agency) and UK-MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency).  All courses can also be translated to other languages to enable sponsors to qualify sites and conduct trials in different countries.

    CANTRAIN

    CANTRAIN CTTP also includes a level dedicated to fundamental (basic or entry level) training, called the Common Core Foundation (CCF). This training consists of 11 courses designed to provide learners of various profiles with a strong knowledge baseline of key concepts in the planning and conduct of clinical trials. Everyone involved in clinical trials should know and understand this information, regardless of their role. Through this level, CANTRAIN modules are tailored, sequenced, and assembled in a way to meet the needs of a wide variety of learners (GPT, CTP/CRP, Trialists and patients/community partners), by selecting optimal content from amongst the domains and competencies of the JTF Core Competency Framework.

    CANTRAIN’s vision goes beyond knowledge-based training because it aims at mentoring all people on how to conduct or participate in clinical trials research.  It is CANTRAIN’s mission to prepare all learners for the future through an innovative, competency-based clinical trials training curriculum enriched by experiential learning and expert mentorship.

    CANADIAN CONSORTIUM OF CLINICAL TRIAL TRAINING – Clinical Trial Training Programmes

    Now that Canada has joined Horizon Europe as an associate country under Pillar 1-2-3, CANTRAIN intends to apply with EU partners to form a consortium focusing on providing a multi-lingual, multi-competency, multi-jurisdictional (Health Canada-Regulatory Operations and Enforcement Branch (ROEB), Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA), European Medicines Agencies (EMA), and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (UK-MHRA)) clinical trials training platform across two continents and beyond.

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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  • Green ammonia: Maritime fuel and energy storage for a zero-emission future

    Green ammonia: Maritime fuel and energy storage for a zero-emission future

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    Green ammonia is a new energy vector and a game changer for the hydrogen economy. The CAMPFIRE alliance develops ammonia technologies along the entire value chain for a better tomorrow.

    Green ammonia has emerged as a game-changer for the uprising global hydrogen economy. The favourable properties of ammonia overcome many technological hurdles that still exist for hydrogen.

    Ammonia is increasingly considered as renewable fuel for shipping, heavy-duty land-based transport, and power generation. With a hydrogen content of around 18%, it offers a great compromise between energy density and production costs and, unlike other synthetic fuels, does not cause any CO2 emissions for the consumer. As a raw material for fertiliser production, around 180 million tonnes of ammonia are already produced annually, and is transported worldwide by pipeline, rail, road, and ship via an established infrastructure. Whilst grey, blue, or turquoise ammonia is produced from natural gas or coal, green ammonia is made by means of renewable energy from atmospheric nitrogen and water.

    It is increasingly valued as the major player for the future roll-out of a hydrogen economy, and key to the security of supply in Europe from 2026 onwards. It is truly carbon-free and hydrogen 2.0. Since nitrogen, water, wind and solar are available in abundance, an endless and sustainable supply of ammonia is possible – as fuel and energy storage for a zero-emission future.

    The CAMPFIRE alliance

    Founded in 2018 as part of the German programme WIR! Wandel durch Innovation in der Region – Regional Development through Innovation of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the CAMPFIRE alliance brings together more than 70 partners for the development and implementation of new technologies for the regional production of green ammonia and its use as a marine fuel and energy storage.

    The partners are developing innovative products for green ammonia as an energy vector for implementation in renewable energy generation, plant engineering, the chemical industry, shipbuilding and shipping, metal construction, fuel cell and combustion engine producers, lightweight construction, measurement and control technology, and engineering services. They are mostly based in the North-East, but also throughout Germany and Europe. Within the frame of 25 joint projects, technologies are developed for power-to-ammonia and ammonia-to-power.

    For small- and medium-scale ammonia production from renewable energy, new catalysts, reactors and plants are developed by the partners ENERTRAG, sunfire, KIT, Gesmex, University of Rostock, INP, and ZBT. New reactor designs involve 3D printed flow guiding elements and shell-and-plate heat exchangers and are coupled with solid oxide or alkaline electrolysers as well as solar thermal technologies for increased efficiency.

    green ammonia

    Developing ammonia technologies

    The focus of the CAMPFIRE alliance is on technologies for direct utilisation of ammonia. Ammonia can be used directly in turbines, fuel cells, and internal combustion engines such as in ship propulsion. To address the poor combustion properties of ammonia, CAMPFIRE partners develop a dual-fuel operation with ammonia and hydrogen as an accelerator. Fuel cells are a class of new marine propulsion technologies.

    New Enerday — a SME company in the North-East of Germany developed a solid oxide fuel cell system that can be operated directly with ammonia, offering high efficiencies and currently awaiting its market introduction. In co-operation with partners HanseYachts, autosoft, FVTR, IKEM and ISC as well as research institutes ZBT and INP, an ammonia-cracker-ICE-SOFC marine drive was developed and implemented on board of the yacht ‘Ammonia Sherpa’ in 2023.

    The CAMPFIRE cracker-ICE propulsion concept will also be implemented to an inland water way vessel, and ammonia bunkering ship ‘Odin’ in 2026.  Currently, a retrofit approach is developed by Tamsen Maritim, Spetrans, DST, DNV, University of Applied Science Stralsund, ISV, KIT, University of Rostock, Liebherr, ABZ Aggregatebau, ELDATA, GaskraftEngineering, FVTR, ZBT, IKEM, and INP for the integration of a cracker-ICE and all required infrastructures.

    The propulsion system consists of an ammonia-powered high-speed combustion engine that drives a generator. To improve ignition and efficient conversion of the ammonia in the engine, a cracker is developed by the partner ZBT, which breaks down part of the ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen, and feeds this mixture to the combustion engine as pilot fuel.

    The generator feeds up to 350kWel into a hybrid electric drive train in order to reduce load fluctuations of the cracker-engine unit and to enable distribution to several propeller drives for the shallow-water operation typical of inland waterway vessels. The project also addresses safety, peripheral and tank systems, ship design and training concepts for personnel.

    On this base, the partners develop a blueprint for the modification of inland vessels in accordance with project results, the outcome of a parallel economic feasibility study and the procedures required within the existing safety and legal framework. In the future, this blueprint can also be used on seagoing vessels to facilitate the rapid implementation of the new technology for zero-emission shipping and reduce the effects of shipping on climate change.

    Partner projects

    In the project GreenBalticCruising, CAMPFIRE aims to develop a concept for the Port of Rostock in Northern Germany as a blueprint for a bunker port for green ammonia, ship design and the technological and economic concept for an ammonia-powered cruise ship and a ferry line in the Baltic Sea region. A detailed review of the Baltic Sea countries and suitability of their port structures regarding ammonia was carried out by Port Rostock, DNV and MET to take an important step towards ammonia-based cruise shipping on an international level.

    Project partners Carnival Maritim and ZBT conducted a technical evaluation of a new propulsion system for cruise liners consisting of an ammonia cracker and a low-temperature polymer-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The overall objective is to open new economic potential for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region by establishing new value chains with equal partnerships in the Baltic Sea Region.

    To achieve this goal, partners University of Greifswald, IKEM and INP examined the national strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the respective climate targets of the neighbouring states, and will identify relevant political, scientific and economic stakeholders. In addition, the legal framework was refined and measures recommended for further development to enable ammonia as a marine fuel in shipping and create new business models through sustainable tourism.

    CAMPFIRE partners also develop solutions for stationary energy generation based on combined cracker gas engine CHP for remote off-grid generation. Partners Jenbacher Innio, ZBT, LEC and INP are developing a stationary remote off-grid application in the power range of 1MW.

    The development steps include various evaluation steps of critical components of the gas engine, up to the detailed design and implementation of the container CHP plant including the integration of the NH3 cracker and necessary safety equipment. After multi-stage commissioning, various test runs are carried out in which the general mode of operation is tested and operating strategies, including stationary and flexible start/stop operation, are optimised. The focus will be on optimising efficiency and minimising exhaust emissions.

    Finally, the results will be used to plan further or comparable plants.

    Ammonia refuelling, transport, and storage

    CAMPFIRE is also developing ammonia refuelling systems and shoreside and seaside safety systems, including sensor technology for the application in ammonia drives. Based on data on the current supply of fossil fuels, the temporal and spatial demand for green ammonia was forecasted by the partners DST, ISV, Göhler, Elaflex, Dettmer Reederei und Bunker One.

    In a first phase of the ramp-up, moderate quantities are initially expected to be supplied to a limited number of ships. For this purpose, a mobile solution in the form of a container module for bunkering the ships, for example by truck, is being developed. As soon as there is a sufficiently large demand for ammonia on the part of the ship fleet, distribution with special bunker ships is advantageous and a corresponding ship design is developed for this purpose. The bunker barge is set to achieve a high safety level in all operating conditions and is flexible in use.

    Another project under the CAMPFIRE umbrella focuses on the development of an ammonia-to-hydrogen refuelling station.

    A cost-effective fine purification technology for the optimisation of the product gas from an ammonia cracker is key enabling technology developed by partners ZBT, PSL Lasertechnik and Exentis. At its core are CuPd membranes and a novel manufacturing process based on laser welding and 3‑D screen printing for production of the module.

    The ultrafine purification system also involves a salt storage tank for ammonia and a high-pressure hydrogen refuelling system. With the determination of the costs for the supply of hydrogen and the derivation of a roadmap for the introduction of ammonia-to-hydrogen refuelling stations in selected regions of Europe.

    The future of the ammonia industry

    In order to utilise green ammonia as a transport and storage solution for green hydrogen, an efficient infrastructure and a logistics concept geared to the specific framework conditions are required.

    Another aim of CAMPFIRE is therefore to develop an economical, sustainable, and ecological logistics and infrastructure concept and to define and investigate associated future scenarios for the transport of green ammonia.

    In this context, the needs of industry and transport as well as the already existing and future required sea- and land-based transport facilities, storage, bunkering and transhipment structures are analysed by partners University of Applied Science Wismar, DST, ISC and Dettmer Reederei.

    The new concept is based on the evaluation of different scenarios and configurations with regard to the distribution of ammonia in Germany and the associated key figures determined by means of a logistics simulation. The logistics simulation can thus be used to generate essential system knowledge for the construction and coupling of the energy infrastructures. In the future, it can be used to estimate the contribution of ammonia as a transport and storage solution for green hydrogen.

    CAMPFIRE partners will continue to develop ammonia technologies as an important key for short-term measures to replace fossil fuels and open economic medium- and long-term avenues for a fast-track decarbonisation of the global energy system. As such, ammonia is an increasingly important global energy carrier for the future economic system. First movers must be supported by strong partnerships across the value chain sharing costs, benefits, and risks.

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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  • Composite materials for the future

    Composite materials for the future

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    Composite materials are vital to supporting sustainable technologies by combining aspects of materials to create the best material for its purpose. The Bristol Composites Institute’s Engagement Manager, Simon Quinn, tells us more about the importance of this work.

    Fibre-reinforced polymer composites offer exceptional properties ideal for aerospace, automotive, and civil engineering applications. These include their high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, durability, potential for complex designs and geometries, and tailored properties.

    The importance of composite materials

    Composite materials play a crucial role in promoting sustainability by mitigating environmental impacts throughout the lifecycle, from production to ultimate end-of-life disposal, potentially through a cascade of uses. One of the ways that composites have contributed to decreasing energy consumption and emissions during transportation is by reducing the overall weight of vehicles, aircraft, and infrastructure. The fact that composites also exhibit exceptional durability and corrosion resistance, extending the lifespan of products and reducing the need for frequent replacements, in turn, lowers resource consumption and waste generation.

    Furthermore, composite manufacturing techniques, such as resin infusion and additive manufacturing, offer opportunities for resource efficiency by minimising material wastage and enabling complex geometries with reduced material usage. The widespread adoption of composite materials faces several sustainability challenges that must be addressed to maximise their environmental benefits.

    These challenges include embracing a holistic approach that integrates material design, lean manufacturing, use phase optimisation, and end-of-life considerations. All these are important to tackle in order to realise their full potential while minimising their environmental footprint and ensuring long-term viability in various applications. The production of synthetic fibres such as glass, carbon, and para-aramids and the manufacturing of high-performance composites present significant environmental challenges.

    Synthetic fibre production still primarily relies on the consumption of non-renewable petrochemicals and contributes to air and water pollution. Manufacturing of composites often involves energy-intensive processes, emitting greenhouse gases. Additionally, waste generation and disposal pose challenges due to non-biodegradable materials. Addressing these challenges requires implementing sustainable production methods, such as utilising recycled materials, reducing energy consumption, and developing low to zero-waste manufacturing techniques. Adopting circular economy principles and investing in research for greener alternatives are critical steps towards mitigating the environmental impact of these processes.

    The Bristol Composites Institute’s work

    The Bristol Composites Institute (BCI) is a University of Bristol Specialist Research Institute comprising a core team of 33 academic staff, 23 professional and technical services and 170+ research staff and postgraduate students. BCI was launched in 2017 with a mission to be a world-leading institute for composites research and education, addressing the overreaching grand challenges of sustainability and net zero, and is led by co-directors Professors Ole Thomsen and Stephen Hallett. BCI combines cutting-edge fundamental and applied science with strong industrial links for exploitation and technology transfer to deliver inherently sustainable composite solutions for the benefit of society and the global community.

    Continued research and development in composite materials hold promise for further enhancing sustainability across a wide range of applications. The pivotal role that composite materials can play in achieving net zero goals cannot be emphasised enough. In wind energy, composite blades offer increased efficiency and durability, which are crucial for scaling renewable power generation.

    The BCI’s achievements

    Hydrogen storage vessels benefit from composites’ lightweight and corrosion-resistant properties, enabling safe and efficient hydrogen transport and storage. Lightweight composite structures in transport reduce fuel consumption and emissions, facilitating the transition to electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles. Through innovation in material science and engineering, composites can drive sustainability by optimising energy production, storage, and transportation systems, contributing significantly to the net zero transition.

    One notable project that successfully integrated composite materials into a sustainable design and manufacturing process is the HiPerDiF/AFFTTM process for remanufacturing second-life high-performance composites with reclaimed discontinuous fibres. The production of reclaimed components is still in its infancy. Still, major strides have been made in retaining the strength and modulus of carbon fibres following recovery and high degrees of alignment during the remanufacturing process.

    Another strategy explored by researchers at the BCI to minimise environmental impact and promote circularity in material usage is by enhancing the biodegradability of composite matrices and exploring bio-based alternatives. This encompasses not just poly(furfuryl alcohol) resins but also fibres, with alternative plant-based materials of dimensions both at the micron and nanoscale that are being adapted for high-performance composite applications. These biobased composite materials, derived from renewable resources like plant fibres and biopolymers, offer a sustainable alternative to traditional petroleum-based composites. Additionally, timber and its use in construction is a vital piece in the decarbonisation of a highly gCO2-emitting industry. Furthermore, utilising agricultural waste or fast-growing crops reduces our reliance on finite fossil fuels and can mitigate environmental impact. Moreover, the valorisation of this waste can be achieved to develop high-value products, including composite fibres spun from plant-derived biomass. Their production requires lower energy consumption and generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, biobased composites can be biodegradable or recyclable, minimising end-of-life waste. By promoting circular economy principles and reducing their carbon footprint, biobased composites contribute significantly to sustainable practices in industries such as construction, automotive, and packaging, fostering a more eco-friendly and resource-efficient future.

    Beyond the materials development phase, optimising production techniques to minimise energy consumption and emissions using process modelling and digital tools (particularly for composites involving high-temperature curing and resin synthesis) are crucial strategies for reducing the carbon footprint of composite manufacturing. Collectively, the BCI’s efforts are focused on the challenge of developing inherently more sustainable, scalable engineering of composite materials and technologies for the 21st century without sacrificing performance.

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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  • Predictive analytics are essential for the operation of complex engineered systems

    Predictive analytics are essential for the operation of complex engineered systems

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    Predictive analytics is receiving an upgrade, thanks to the Garrick Institute for Risk Sciences. Ali Mosleh, the Director of the Institute at the University of California, tells us more.

    Predictive analytics, in the broadest definition, is a branch of advanced analytics that uses available information and models to make predictions about future events. As such, it is forward-looking, using past events to anticipate the future, considering inherent uncertainties, and often using probability to codify such uncertainties. It has a long history going back at least four centuries when initial ideas on the formulation of the mathematical theories of chance events, statistics, and probability emerged. While originally, the development and application contexts were insurance and gambling, predictive analytics now play a central role in all branches of science.

    The past 50 years have witnessed significant advances in various subdomains of predictive analytics, which are now firmly recognised as indispensable tools in the engineering of ultra-complex systems. Applications include system simulation for design, design optimisation under uncertainty, system control algorithms, system prognostics and health management, reliability assurance, risk control, digital twins, and autonomous operations and safety.

    Predictive analytics methods for engineering applications include traditional statistical and probabilistic techniques, as well as more advanced data analytics such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). In many cases, data analytics are used in conjunction with physical models, inductive and deductive logic models, and computer simulations. In the majority of cases, a primary objective is to predict possible trajectories or scenarios of system behaviour in time, covering both normal and anticipated or abnormal and unexpected.

    predictive analysis
    Fig. 1: Multi-level predictive modelling and simulation of complex systems

    Ultra-complex systems, however, pose formidable predictability challenges stemming from complexity in topological, functional, and behavioural features, as well as limitations in the data and knowledge needed to understand the complexity. Examples of complex technologies that have benefited from or heavily relied on predictive analytics include nuclear power, petrochemical industries, space systems, numerous consumer products, communication networks, and autonomous transportation systems.

    The scale and scope of models and data needed to apply predictive analysis to such systems vary depending on the end use and the level of resolution needed for the engineering application. In some cases, multiscale modelling and integration of many different types of analytical and numerical techniques might be required, almost always with the aid of highly advanced computational techniques and platforms. The following are some examples of successful implementations in a few complex technologies.

    Nuclear power safety and reliability

    Predictive analytics in the form of Probabilistic Risk Analysis (PRA) and Reliability Analysis play a pivotal role in design, operation, and regulatory compliance in the nuclear industry. In fact, the nuclear industry was the birthplace of the modern model-based PRA. Several techniques have found important applications in operational aspects. Plant Availability and Capacity forecasting and planning, Reliability Centred Maintenance, online risk monitoring, and refuelling shutdown management are examples. The conventional PRA approach in the nuclear industry is based on two primary modelling techniques, namely Event Tree (ET) and Fault Tree (FT) methods, to predict risk scenarios, i.e., the spectrum of evidence (including expert opinion and engineering analysis) are used to estimate the probability of the scenarios.

    More recently, powerful simulation-based PRA methods (aka Dynamic PRA) have been explored, and some have been implemented in computational platforms. Dynamic PRA methods significantly improve plant PRAs by providing rich contextual information and explicit consideration of feedback arising from complex equipment dependencies, plant physical process variables, operator actions, and control software. The Accident Dynamics Simulator (ADS) developed by researchers at UCLA Garrick Institute is one such dynamic method. ADS couples a plant thermal-hydraulic model with an operations crew cognitive model to simulate plant response and operator performance during potential nuclear power plant accidents. ADS generates a discrete dynamic event tree (DDET) of a huge number of scenarios based on hardware/software failures, plant thermal and hydraulic response, operator decisions and actions, and stochastically varying timing of events. In ADS, the experience and training of each crew operator are captured in a computer knowledge base model that includes the information needed to assess the plant state, execute procedural actions, and match memorised response actions to perceived plant needs.

    Compared to more traditional risk assessment methods (using linked ET and FT), dynamic PRA offers several significant advantages. Dynamic simulation methods more explicitly represent the timing and sequencing of events, can directly calculate the impact of variations of hardware and operator performance on the plant state, and are capable of capturing complex interdependencies. This results in the generation of high-fidelity and more realistic accident evolution scenarios, their consequences, and corresponding probabilities. Simulation-based DPRA has the potential to be the basis of a human operator decision support system and can even function as a virtual operator, particularly in the emerging multi-unit small modular reactors.

    Civil aviation system-wide safety

    The civil aviation system is an extremely complex web of private and governmental organisations operating or regulating flights involving diverse types of aircraft, ground support, and other physical and organisational infrastructures.

    In contrast with many other complex systems, the aviation system may be characterised as an ‘open’ system, as there are many dynamic interfaces with outside organisations, commercial entities, individuals, physical systems, and environments.

    Aircraft manufacturers, airlines, airport authorities, and regulatory/oversight agencies such as the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are increasingly relying on predictive analytics to manage complex design and operational decisions. These methods include traditional statistical methods, operations research, reliability analysis, advanced machine learning techniques, and risk-informed decision-making.

    One of the most advanced capabilities developed by the UCLA Garrick Institute researchers for the FAA is the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), a software platform to help the agency in risk-informing its safety oversight. IRIS uses a wide range of predictive analytics, including a new generation of system modelling known as Hybrid Causal Logic (HCL) methodology. HCL provides a multi-layered capability to fully and realistically capture the effect of factors that directly or indirectly impact civil aviation safety. The main layers include:
    •  A model to define safety context. This is done using a technique known as the Event Sequence Diagram (ESD) method that helps define the kinds of accident and incident scenarios that aviation should be concerned with.
    •  A model to capture the behaviours of the physicalsystem (hardware, software, and environmental factors) as possible causes or contributing factors to accident and incident scenarios delineated by the ESDs. This is done using common system modelling techniques such as Fault Tree.
    •  A model to extend the causal chain of events to potential human and organisational roots. This is done using Bayesian Net (BN). BNs are particularly useful since they do not require complete knowledge of causes and effects.

    The integrated model is, therefore, a hybrid causal model with the corresponding sets of analytical and computational procedures to quantify the event probabilities. IRIS offers a unifying framework for system safety assessment, hazard analysis, and risk analysis. As a causal model, it provides a vehicle for identifying cause-effect relations between various elements of the aviation system. Categories of causal factors include human activities (ground and flight crews, inspectors), organisational factors (airline management, FAA regulatory and oversight functions), hardware/software failures, and adverse conditions of the physical environment.  IRIS software provides probabilistic answers to some of the most raised questions regarding aviation safety:

    • What is the current level of aviation safety?
    • What are the most important contributors to aviation risk and hazards?
    • What is the safety/risk impact of changing ‘x’ (e.g., introducing a new operating procedure)?
    • What are the likely causes of a given incident/accident?
    • How significant is a given ‘safety finding’ by inspectors?
    • What should we use as Safety Performance Indicators?
    • Is reducing the statistical rate of accidents (e.g., crash rates) the only way to know that we have improved safety? If not, how do we truly know that we have improved safety?
    Fig. 2: Electric power network wildfire resilience management decision support platform

    IRIS is:

    • A platform to answer the above questions, answers that are reproducible and supported by a broad base of shared knowledge.
    • A common platform for communication on safety and operational matters between the regulator (FAA) and the aviation industry.
    • A platform to support designing and monitoring risk-informed regulation and oversight.
    • A platform for communication of safety matters between the FAA and
      industry.
    • Expandable in scope and depth to assess safety, security, and operational risks, identify and rank hazards, and analyse accident ‘precursors.’
    • A platform that helps to identify common root causes in support of accident investigation.
    • A platform that supports the identification and quantification of ‘safety performance indicators’.

    Electric power network wildfire resilience assessment and management

    Another application of modern predictive analytics is in assessing and improving the resilience of the complex electric power transmission and distribution network with respect to natural hazards such as wildfires. Wildfire events have been growing in frequency and intensity worldwide in recent years and not only threaten public safety but have recently resulted in billions of dollars in direct and indirect damages for single events. In the past few years, a number of fairly advanced predictive analytics have been developed and applied by the owners and operators of electric power networks in order to identify and assess the effectiveness of current and proposed preventive and mitigating technologies such as undergrounding powerlines, vegetation management around powerlines and substations, and smart selective public safety power shutoff (PSPS).

    As a major advancement in providing wildfire risk management capability to network operators, UCLA Garrick Institute in collaboration with the Pacific Gas & Electric public utility company has developed an integrated predictive analytics platform based on the Hybrid Causal Logic approach, which, as mentioned earlier, is also used for aviation systems safety management. The web-based software platform is designed as a decision support system in three different modes:

    1. Planning Mode for long-term risk management and decisions such as asset management strategies and prioritisation of wildfire risk mitigation options.
    2. Operational Mode for continuous risk monitoring and decision support based on real-time or near real-time information (e.g., meteorological conditions) to alarm operators of the changing risk levels and provide input to action decisions such as proactive PSPS.
    3. Event Mode for decision support during an active fire situation, dynamic updating of risks associated with fire propagation and supporting decisions on evacuation of the threatened communities.

    The current scope is the assessment and management of risks due to wildfires caused by equipment failure. Predictive scenarios generated by the software are based models for predicting the behaviour of the natural system, understanding causes of equipment failure, analysing deterministic and stochastic behaviour of wildfires, and understanding complex planning and decisions to mitigate the risks.

    The software dashboard for Mode 1 (see Fig. 2) provides ranked wildfire susceptibility of the individual powerlines and the aggregated system-level risks for the entire power network. It also provides the operators with a window into the causes and factors contributing to the risk and a set of quantitative measures of the consequences in the form of risk curves for public safety, financial loss, and duration of power loss to customers.

    Predictive analytics at the heart of digital twins

    The National Academy of Sciences defines a digital twin as: “A set of virtual information constructs that mimics the structure, context, and behaviour of a natural, engineered, or social system, is dynamically updated with data from its physical twin, has a predictive capability, and informs decisions that realise value.”¹  In pairing physical and digital twins, the physical system is equipped with sensors, data acquisition and data fusion capabilities. In contrast, the virtual twin possesses features such as modelling and simulation, AI, and first-principle mechanistic and empirical models. The two systems communicate (normally in real-time), with sensor data sent by the physical system to the digital twin and automated control and decisions flowing from the digital twin to the physical system. Predictive analytics are clearly essential to digital twin concepts for predicting the behaviour of the physical system. In fact, the same scenario generation and quantification capabilities discussed earlier could be used as the core of a digital twin’s decision support capabilities.

    predictive analytics
    Fig. 3: Digital Twins powered by predictive analytics

    Challenges exist in computationally processing of large volumes of data, conducting large scale probabilistic simulation of system behaviour, and applying other predictive analytics techniques for complex systems. The magnitude of the challenge depends on the level of complexity of the engineered system and the required fidelity of the results. Efforts have been made to overcome these challenges with existing computational infrastructures, including parallel and cloud computing. In the long term, a possible solution could be found in quantum computation, emerging as a promising technology to address many of the most complex computational and system simulation challenges. Some key areas of focus include enhancing combinatorial optimisation solutions and accelerating sampling-based inferential approaches. This is also one of the areas of active research at UCLA Garrick Institute.

    The UCLA Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences (GIRS) is dedicated to providing methods and technology for assessing and managing risks to society for the purpose of saving lives, protecting the environment, and the overall betterment of society. Founded in 2014, the Institute is the umbrella organisation for risk, reliability, and resilience research and related educational activities at UCLA. It has over 80 core, adjunct, and affiliate faculty members with diverse expertise in engineering and scientific domains.

    References

    1. Committee on Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins et al., Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2024, p. 26894. doi: 10.17226/26894

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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  • Canada’s York University fosters global changemakers, makes waves in sustainable research partnerships worldwide

    Canada’s York University fosters global changemakers, makes waves in sustainable research partnerships worldwide

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    York’s Satinder Kaur Brar and Sapna Sharma are among emerging global changemakers who are tackling pressing societal challenges with sustainable research partnerships.

    Canada’s York University is rapidly building momentum on the global stage as home to world-class researchers and educators. The university conducts transformative and interdisciplinary research aligned with the Pillar 2 clusters of Horizon Europe.

    Raising the bar in post-secondary education with three unique campus settings in the Greater Toronto Area – Keele, Glendon and Markham, and centres globally in Hyderabad, India, and Las Nubes in Costa Rica – York University is an international leader in creating a more sustainable and inclusive world.

    Professor Satinder Kaur Brar, who is ranked by Stanford University as a top 2% researcher in the world, says: “The dynamic, interdisciplinary research vision at the Lassonde School of Engineering is what originally drew me to York. Its civil engineering department’s focus on sustainable development, water resources and design for climate change are all aligned closely with my own research interests.”

    research partnerships
    Satinder Kaur Brar

    Brar is a leader in the field of advanced and applied biotechnology and currently holds the James and Joanne Love Chair in Environmental Engineering at York. Brar has collaborated with global research partners on technologies related to the remediation of contaminants and the valorisation of wastes into useful composite materials.

    She is also actively pursuing a research partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, on the valorisation of agricultural residues into biochar in a circular economy approach, which can then be cycled back to remediate the environment. Likewise, she is pursuing decentralised wastewater treatment technologies with IIT Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir.

    To date, Brar has conducted more than 350 peer-reviewed research studies and holds four registered patents. Her lab has successfully led to the training of more than 80 high-quality personnel in the industry.

    Brar was also instrumental in the creation of One WATER, one of York’s Organised Research Units (ORUs), which operate as centres of research excellence. ORUs bring together a cluster of experts who work together across disciplines on pressing societal issues, including the global water crisis.

    Building on One WATER’s work, York is the academic lead for the new UNITAR Global Water Academy (UGWA), a partnership between the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and York.

    Launched in 2023, the Water Academy is an innovative platform for online, offline and immersive learning that will offer courses on sustainable water management practices and water security – some of which will be taught by York’s leading water experts.

    UGWA’s inaugural director is Sapna Sharma, a York Research Chair in Global Change Biology, a freshwater expert and one of Canada’s Top Ten Women Water Scientists. Sharma studies how lakes worldwide respond to climate change, including rapid ice loss, warming water temperatures, degrading water quality, and changing fish distributions.

    Sapna Sharma

    In addition to Brar and Sharma’s work, York has a deep well of expertise in water research and action, prime for partnerships through Horizon Europe’s Pillar 2 cluster of Climate, Energy and Mobility, as well as the cluster of Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment. York researchers stand ready to help develop scientific-based and governance solutions and applications to address water issues in some of the most underserved areas and for those most affected by climate change, flooding, and drought.

    research partnerships
    York University students explore aquatic ecology

    Professor James Elder, the York Research Chair in Human and Computer Vision, who co-heads CAIS, said: “CAIS is one of the founding organised research units of Connected Minds, which unites research on neuroscience, AI and technology. It is particularly important to generate novel and beneficial technologies that will improve quality of life in Canada and elsewhere, as well as to understand how these disruptive technologies can best be integrated into society in order to minimise risk and maximise benefit for all.”

    ‘Connected Minds: Neural and Machine Systems for a Healthy, Just Society’ (Connected Minds) is a $318.4m York-led research initiative launched in 2023, funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), with more than 50 partners in the private, public and academic sector, both in Canada and beyond, and growing.

    As part of Connected Minds, CAIS combines various disciplines, including behavioural and neuroscience studies, computational modelling, statistical analysis and computer vision design. The objective is to not only advance fundamental perception science and AI but also hold implications for urban mobility, social robotics and sports analytics.

    Guided by Elder and Pina D’Agostino, an associate professor at York’s leading Osgoode Hall Law School and the scientific director for Connected Minds, CAIS’s mission extends beyond academic discourse. The centre aims to foster a sense of community among researchers engaged in AI and society studies while promoting dialogue through lectures and conferences on critical issues such as technology and democracy, and disability considerations in AI.

    Aligned with York’s broader institutional goals, Connected Minds investigates how emerging technologies, such as AI, are impacting and transforming society. The Connected Minds programme is well-positioned to engage in potential Horizon Europe research partnerships working across Pillar 2 clusters.

    D’Agostino said: “We’re seeing a changing society with increasing intermingling between humans and machines and a host of different technologies. The social framework – the law – hasn’t kept pace. What we’re trying to do is develop technologies and frameworks that are socially responsible before they are disseminated in society so we get ahead of the biases that may arise. That way, underrepresented communities don’t get sidelined as technologies progress.”

    As AI continues to evolve rapidly, CAIS remains committed to driving innovation while ensuring responsible AI deployment. By fostering collaboration, dialogue, and cutting-edge research, the centre aims to shape a future where AI serves as a force for positive societal change.

    Elder added: “Our systems approach emphasises how AI technologies operate when embedded in real-world contexts, interacting with humans and other technologies. Our research focuses on AI systems that address societal priorities in health care, smart cities, and sustainability and that are fair, explainable, reliable, and trusted.”

    Forging strong relationships beyond geographical boundaries enables the York community to conduct meaningful work that defines the University’s approach to research and innovation: Interdisciplinary, collaborative and equitable.

    Among those leading the way in this is Godfred Boateng, a quantitative sociologist and epidemiologist who was recently appointed Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Humanitarianism.

    One of Boateng’s latest research projects is related to his CRC appointment. It aims to measure and quantify different forms of resource insecurity, including food, water, energy, and housing, and to advance our understanding of the overall health effects of environmental contaminants, both in the Global South and in Canada.

    He says: “Research partnerships are key, and without them, global health research isn’t possible. York’s partnerships in the Global South greatly expand the scope of my research and allow me to reach populations and communities that would not be accessible otherwise.”

    Boateng’s project looks to collect physiological, ecological, and demographic data from informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Using high-cost field equipment, Boateng will assess the quality of the air and water samples (stored, drinking, and groundwater) found in and around the settlements.

    The data will validate scales, like the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale, co-developed by Boateng for use by public health practitioners, NGOs, government officials, and development agencies to monitor progress on targets set out in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for safe drinking water and sanitation.

    The project begins in summer 2024 with 300 households in Accra, Ghana, in collaboration with the University of Ghana and the University of Cape Coast. It then expands to sites in Nigeria, Kenya, and Malawi and subsequently to Colombia and Mexico.

    York recently announced the Global Research Excellence Seed Fund as part of its plan to strengthen its research partnerships worldwide, not only in health but also in other global challenges. The GRE Fund enables York faculty members to forge deeper global connections across communities, academia, and industry, including in Europe.

    Rhonda Lenton, York President and Vice-Chancellor, said: “Building international, values-driven partnerships underscores York University’s dedication to working together cross-culturally to address critical world issues.”

    To learn more about the GRE Fund, visit
    yorku.ca/global-engagement/gre-global-fundings/

    York University’s Centre for AI & Society is pioneering research partnerships for a connected future

    In a bid to spearhead socially conscious artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, the Centre for AI & Society (CAIS) at York University aims to bridge the gap between technological advancements and societal needs

    Professor James Elder, the York Research Chair in Human and Computer Vision, who co-heads CAIS, said: “CAIS is one of the founding organised research units of Connected Minds, which unites research on neuroscience, AI and technology. It is particularly important to generate novel and beneficial technologies that will improve quality of life in Canada and elsewhere, as well as to understand how these disruptive technologies can best be integrated into society in order to minimise risk and maximise benefit for all.”

    James Elder

    ‘Connected Minds: Neural and Machine Systems for a Healthy, Just Society’ (Connected Minds) is a $318.4m York-led research initiative launched in 2023, funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), with more than 50 partners in the private, public and academic sector, both in Canada and beyond, and growing.

    As part of Connected Minds, CAIS combines various disciplines, including behavioural and neuroscience studies, computational modelling, statistical analysis and computer vision design. The objective is to not only advance fundamental perception science and AI but also hold implications for urban mobility, social robotics and sports analytics.

    Guided by Elder and Pina D’Agostino, an associate professor at York’s leading Osgoode Hall Law School and the scientific director for Connected Minds, CAIS’s mission extends beyond academic discourse. The centre aims to foster a sense of community among researchers engaged in AI and society studies while promoting dialogue through lectures and conferences on critical issues such as technology and democracy, and disability considerations in AI.

    Pina D’Agostino

    Aligned with York’s broader institutional goals, Connected Minds investigates how emerging technologies, such as AI, are impacting and transforming society. The Connected Minds programme is well-positioned to engage in potential Horizon Europe research partnerships working across Pillar 2 clusters.

    D’Agostino said: “We’re seeing a changing society with increasing intermingling between humans and machines and a host of different technologies. The social framework – the law – hasn’t kept pace. What we’re trying to do is develop technologies and frameworks that are socially responsible before they are disseminated in society so we get ahead of the biases that may arise. That way, underrepresented communities don’t get sidelined as technologies progress.”

    As AI continues to evolve rapidly, CAIS remains committed to driving innovation while ensuring responsible AI deployment. By fostering collaboration, dialogue, and cutting-edge research, the centre aims to shape a future where AI serves as a force for positive societal change.

    Elder adds, “Our systems approach emphasises how AI technologies operate when embedded in real-world contexts, interacting with humans and other technologies. Our research focuses on AI systems that address societal priorities in health care, smart cities, and sustainability and that are fair, explainable, reliable, and trusted.”

    Prof exemplifies York U excellence in global health research through worldwide partnerships

    York University is fully committed to international collaborations across multiple sectors, including with potential Horizon Europe partners in Pillar 2’s Health cluster

    Forging strong relationships beyond geographical boundaries enables the York community to conduct meaningful work that defines the University’s approach to research and innovation: Interdisciplinary, collaborative and equitable.

    Among those leading the way in this is Godfred Boateng, a quantitative sociologist and epidemiologist who was recently appointed Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Humanitarianism.

    Godfred Boateng

    One of Boateng’s latest research projects is related to his CRC appointment. It aims to measure and quantify different forms of resource insecurity, including food, water, energy, and housing, and to advance our understanding of the overall health effects of environmental contaminants, both in the Global South and in Canada.

    He says: “Research partnerships are key, and without them, global health research isn’t possible. York’s partnerships in the Global South greatly expand the scope of my research and allow me to reach populations and communities that would not be accessible otherwise.”

    Boateng’s project looks to collect physiological, ecological, and demographic data from informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Using high-cost field equipment, Boateng will assess the quality of the air and water samples (stored, drinking, and groundwater) found in and around the settlements.

    The data will validate scales, like the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale, co-developed by Boateng for use by public health practitioners, NGOs, government officials, and development agencies to monitor progress on targets set out in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for safe drinking water and sanitation.

    The project begins in summer 2024 with 300 households in Accra, Ghana, in collaboration with the University of Ghana and the University of Cape Coast. It then expands to sites in Nigeria, Kenya, and Malawi and subsequently to Colombia and Mexico.

    York recently announced the Global Research Excellence Seed Fund as part of its plan to strengthen its research partnerships worldwide, not only in health but also in other global challenges. The GRE Fund enables York faculty members to forge deeper global connections across communities, academia, and industry, including in Europe.

    Rhonda Lenton, York President and Vice-Chancellor, said: “Building international, values-driven partnerships underscores York University’s dedication to working together cross-culturally to address critical world issues.”

    To learn more about the GRE Fund, visit
    yorku.ca/global-engagement/gre-global-fundings/

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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  • Exploration in America’s newest copper district

    Exploration in America’s newest copper district

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    Zeus is unlocking the potential hidden beneath the silver-rich terrain of Idaho by tapping into a newly identified copper district.

    Zeus north america mining corp. (CSE:ZEUS II OTCQB: ZUUZF  II FRANKFURT: O92) has a foothold in Idaho, with three properties highlighted by its flagship copper property, the Cuddy Mountain Property, in Western Idaho. Idaho is considered a top-tier jurisdiction with respect to mining and/or resource development.

    Zeus’ properties

    Zeus recently acquired three properties in Idaho: Selway, Great Western, and its flagship, Cuddy Mountain. The properties were all acquired based on known silver mineralisation and with undetermined Porphyry potential until recently. The properties consist of 82 (Cuddy Mountain), 57 (Selway), and 38 (Great Western) lode mining claims, respectively, and cover a cumulative area of approximately 3,660 acres. All the properties are road accessible.

    The Cuddy Mountain property

    Zeus’ Cuddy Mountain property is adjacent to Hercules Silver Corp.’s (TSXV:BIG, ‘Hercules’ or ‘Hercules Silver’) Leviathan Porphyry Copper Discovery.  On 10 October 2023, Hercules announced the results from drill hole HER-23-05.  This was the first hole to test a large-scale (>1.8km) blind chargeability anomaly and intersected 185.29m of 0.84% Copper (Cu) and 111 ppm Molybdenum (Mo) from 246m to 431.2m, including 45.33m of 1.94% Cu within the Seven Devils Volcanics.

    The hole ended prematurely due to drilling challenges. However, observations in subsequent holes indicate that the mineralisation likely extends significantly below HER-23-05 at 435m (see Hercules press release dated 10 October 2023 at www.herculessilver.com). The chargeability anomaly was delineated by a 3D Induced Polarization (IP) survey, which has since been expanded greatly.  The copper mineralisation is open at depth and in all directions. More recently (09 April 2024), Hercules reported on their expanded 3D IP survey, which delineated multiple new targets with the strongest anomalies open to the northeast where Zeus’ Cuddy Mountain Property is positioned.

    Historical exploration at the Cuddy Mountain Property

    Lead Zone Mine: Historical small-scale silver/lead mine averaging 3.5oz/t silver, which was in production from 1950 to 1952. Seven shallow drill holes were completed in 1977 which intersected anomalous lead and silver. Drill hole Mun 8 contained 90 feet of 2.02 ounces per ton silver (oz/t Ag)(Taylor, 1977).

    Edna May Mine: This historical occurrence hosts a mineralised vein with rock chip samples containing 750 parts per million lead (ppm Pb), 7.7% zinc (% Zn), and 252 parts per million silver (ppm Ag) over 4 feet. Underground drilling in 1979 intersected 1.38oz/t Ag over 7 feet in a breccia zone (Burmeister, 1980).

    Rockslide area: Malachite-stained (Copper) outcrops with a grab sample containing 760 ppm Pb, 0.67 % Zn and 36 ppm Ag (Taylor, 1977).

    Staking rush and major mining companies

    The Leviathan Porphyry Copper discovery led to Barrick Gold completing an initial investment of $23m in Hercules through a share purchase. As this belt was not previously recognised as a porphyry copper district, the discovery spurred a massive staking rush consisting of over 10,000 claims over nearly 50km both to the northwest and south of Hercules, including major mining companies Barrick Gold and Rio Tinto. Hercules also completely staked around Zeus prior to announcing their discovery.

    Cuddy Mountain Property highlights

    Strong similarities have been identified between the Cuddy Mountain Property and the adjacent Hercules copper porphyry discovery:

    • Both properties have Olds Ferry terrane rocks, including the Hercules Rhyolite and Seven Devils Volcanics
    •  Both properties have a number of historical silver occurrences and/or small-scale mines hosted in  rhyolite
    •  Both properties are located along the Bayhorse Thrust Fault, a major structural corridor which thrusts the silver-hosting rhyolite over the top of volcanics, which hosts the Leviathan Porphyry Copper mineralisation
    • Both properties are within an erosional window through the younger Columbia River basalts that cover the vast majority of the district.

    Cuddy Mountain property

    Cuddy Mountain exploration

    Zeus is set to commence its 2024 exploration campaign, which will consist of but not be limited to:
    •    3D IP survey (commencing mid-May 2024)
    •    Geological mapping
    •    Prospecting and rock-grab sampling
    •    Ground Magnetic Survey
    •    Aerial Drone Survey
    •    Soil sampling. Shallow-level porphyry style alteration has been mapped using copper-in-soil anomalies in and around historically defined silver mineralisation.

    The exploration will culminate in the interpretation of the data and selection of high-priority drill targets for 2025.

    The Great Western property

    The Great Western property is located in southeast Idaho and consists of 38 lode mining claims.  The primary exploration target at the Great Western property is a Carbonate Replacement Deposit.  A blind porphyry may be the source of the mineralisation. Rock-grab samples collected in the area have up to 7,300g/t Ag and from 0.61% Cu up to 4.25% Cu.

    A historical, non-compliant 43-101 resource of 4,900 indicated tons averaging 1.7oz/t Ag, 3.6% Pb, and 0.5% Cu (McHugh et al., 1991).

    The Selway property

    The Selway Property is located in north-central Idaho and consists of 57 lode mining claims. The primary exploration target at the Selway property is an intrusive-related Gold-Silver (+/- base metal) vein deposit underlain by a tonalitic orthogneiss and foliated granodiorite unit. Recent rock-grab samples contain 1.37 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold and 7.25g/t silver. Historic grab samples from an old ore bin contain 53.6oz/t silver and 1.08oz/t gold (Gordon, 1973).

    Goldman Sachs says that copper is the new oil and is on a necessary path to $15,000/t. Silver is a real asset that is used for currency, investment, and industrial purposes. Silver’s versatility is resulting in record demand with declining production. Therefore, Zeus is positioned to capitalise on two of the most dynamic and promising metals driving the economy today: Copper and silver.  The macro demand for silver and copper is driving the future, and with metal prices reaching new highs, Zeus is well positioned.

    For investors looking for exposure to America’s newly discovered porphyry copper district, Zeus is a compelling company with a land package adjacent to Hercules Silver and their Leviathan Porphyry Copper discovery.

    Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.

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