Oficina de Proyectos Internacionales

Smart and local reneWable Energy DISTRICT heating and cooling solutions for sustainable living (H2020-LC-SC3-2019-RES-8-857801)

The focus of WEDISTRICT is large-scale replication of best practice: better valorization of local resources, like renewable and waste heat by making District Heating and Cooling networks more efficient in relation to the use of new resources. In parallel, systems will evolve to provide even more flexible solutions by the integration of innovative molten-salts based thermal storage, the interaction with other energy networks (electricity and gas) and the involvement of end-users (operators and consumers) through ICT-based control and decision making.

The renewable air cooling unit proposed in WEDISTRICT, is a Desiccant Indirect Evaporative Renewable Cooling Unit, composed of an indirect evaporative cooler and a desiccant wheel that can independently control the air temperature and humidity in buildings, thereby optimizing indoor air conditions.

General objectives

The overall objective of the project is to demonstrate district heating and cooling (DHC) as integrated solutions that exploit the combination of:

• • Renewable energy sources.
  • Thermal storage.
  • Waste heat recycling technologies to satisfy 100% of the heating and cooling energy demand in new DHC and up to 60-100% in retrofitted DHC.

Role of the University of Cordoba

The University of Córdoba will be responsible for designing, manufacturing and testing an innovative renewable air cooling unit suitable for installation in a DHC. The idea is to take advantage of the thermal energy generated in a district heating to power an air cooling system, which has proved to work with low temperature coming from renewable energy sources.

Investigador Principal: Manuel Ruiz de Adana

Correo electrónico de contacto: manuel.ruiz@uco.es

Página web del proyecto: https://www.wedistrict.eu/

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Rural Water and Food Security (PI/2017/382-112)

The overall objective of the action is to support formulation and implementation of Chinese policies, legislation, standards and measures that will contribute enable better management, use and protection of groundwater resources and increased coverage of safe groundwater-based water supply in rural areas, thereby paving the way for European state-of-the-art business solutions and technologies.

General objectives

• • Efficient management of EU grants for improved rural water and food security
  • Enabling Chinese policies, legislation and socio-economic priorities for sustainable water management, by efficient use, restoration and protection of groundwater resources in rural areas of China affected by water scarcity
  • Protection and restoration of groundwater dependent eco-systems in karst areas
  • Integrated measures to protect groundwater quality against diffuse pollution from agriculture
  • Increased socio-economic efficiency in water allocation and use for irrigated agriculture (in areas with high competition for water)
  • EU Water Technology Innovations applied to deliver safe groundwater-based domestic water supply in rural areas affected by groundwater pollution
  • Managerial and technological measures to restore severely depleted groundwater aquifers

Investigador Principal: Julio Berbel Vecino

Correo electrónico de contacto: es1bevej@uco.es

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Governance tool for sustainable water resources allocation in the Mediterranean through Stakeholder’s collaboration (PRIMA-S1-2019-GOTHAM)

The overarching objective of the GOTHAM project is to develop and validate a user-driven and scalable tool that enables effective groundwater governance to preserve the quantity and quality of this strategic resource on the Mediterranean basin. One of the main strengths of the tool (GTool) is that it involves the different water users in a common framework where they can exchange information in order to reach the most optimal water governance at each point in time as well as in future scenarios. In this sense, this tool will be tested and validated by the own users, ensuring its potential replicability and transferability in other Mediterranean areas with similar geological and environmental constraints.

GOTHAM project presents a scalable and user-specific tool for decentralizing water resources management, including water availability and demand forecasting and their impact on groundwater balance and quality dynamics. GTool will also incorporate two key modules related to Managed Aquifer Recharge/remediation and agro-economic impact assessment, with the possibility of simulating several economic instruments for water policies. An optimised water allocation module will be developed to calculate the optimal Water Resource Mix, assuming socio-economic boundary conditions and several water availability and demand scenarios.

A broad range of impacts are expected as a consequence of project development, including the reduction of groundwater balance uncertainty, the implementation of cost-effectiveness criteria in water allocation as well as the recommendation of water strategies for increasing water resilience and security. Aquifer overexploitation and pollution will be analysed by applying Data Analytics algorithms to time series from data-loggers and remote sensing imagery. The development and validation of an user-based water allocation tool will boost the creation of GWUAs, which self-regulation offers tremendous potential for effective groundwater governance.

General objectives

• • Carry out comprehensive analysis and a complete diagnostic of the water balance and water quality dynamics in Mediterranean groundwater bodies, paramount to understanding the current management decisions and other natural causes that are leading to quantity and quality problems in aquifers and thus establish limits to the governance decisions that can be taken.
  • Determine the best alternatives for groundwater quality and quantity improvement through an optimised allocation system, that takes into account different type of water resources (conventional vs non-conventional) and uses (agricultural, urban and industrial), temporal scales (short – daily operation – and mid/long term – infrastructure planning and management), and environmental, economic and societal impacts.
  • Develop a Groundwater Governance Framework (GGF) that could be applied in all the Mediterranean countries.
  • Effectively implement a set of economic policy instruments in groundwater management.
  • Predict future water demand and drought events in the area of influence of the groundwater body and assess their derived groundwater quantitative impacts (over-abstraction and depletion) and chemical status degradation (seawater intrusion, transport of contaminants including nitrates and organic contaminants) in order to establish the need to change water management decisions with enough time.
  • Calculate the potential feasibility and benefits of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) and aquifer remediation as an additional groundwater governance decisions.

Investigador Principal: Julio Berbel Vecino

Correo electrónico de contacto: es1bevej@uco.es

Página web del proyecto: https://www.gotham-prima.eu/

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Analytics for computation and visualization of liver resections (311393/AAU)

Planning liver surgical resections is an extremely complex task. In this process, surgeons decide the trajectory separating the healthy part of the liver from the part that will be resected. Although liver resection has been practiced for decades, among surgerons, there is still no consensus on what a good resection is. An underlying problem contributing to this lack of consensus is the fact that there are no formal methods to specify and communicate resection plsns—clinicians often use subjective descriptions (written or oral) or hand-drawings. In ALive, we believe that liver surgical practice needs computer-assisted tools allowing the surgeons to specify resection plans in a flexible way, thus accommodating different surgery planning techniques and cultures. We also believe that providing a way to represent resections in a formal way can contribute to a better evaluation and communication of resection plans. ALive is a research project funded by the IKTPluss program from The Research Council of Norway.

General objectives

ALive aims to improve liver surgery practice by researching new methods for planning and visualization of liver resections. The project will work on two different areas:

• • Generation Of resection plans using geometric modeling, AI and vasculature analysis.
  • Formal representation and visualization of 3D resections in lower dimensions (2D).

Role of the University of Cordoba

UCO is responsible of the application of High Performance Computing techniques in Liver Resection Planning and Liver Analytics and Visualization.

Project Manager: Rafael Palomar (Oslo University Hospital)

Investigador Principal UCO: Joaquín Olivares

Correo electrónico de contacto: olivares@uco.es

Página web del proyecto: https://alive-research.no/

Personal: https://alive-research.no/people

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Commercialization of an Automated Monitoring and Control System against the Olive and Med Fruit Flies of the Mediterranean Region (ENI-CBC-MED-2019-B_A.2.1_0043)

This Project aims to facilitate clean tech sharing between research Institutions and SMEs, by commercializing prototypes and new services for effective e-monitoring and ground spray control of specific pests in Med basin.

General objectives

• • Support transfer of clean technological advances and innovations in the agro-environmental sector aiming in the development, demonstration, and popularization of cleaner research products and processes, and strengthening the linkages among research, producers, SMEs/SFBs, and IPM industry.
  • Pre-commercialization of cleaner products and processes articulated to produce a location-aware set of services for e-monitoring and ground spray control solutions for Medfly and olive fruit fly, in order to create business opportunities for research results.
  • Increase dialogue, and sustainable cross-border networking among spin-offs, SMEs/SFBs, IPM industry, and stakeholders, under the living labs’ framework on innovative IPM solutions for effective environmental policy strategies based on the people-to-people approach and institutional capacity building.

Role of the University of Cordoba

The main role of the University of Cordoba (UCO) is to contribute to achieving the general objectives. However, the specific tasks of UCO within the project are:

1) UCO leads the WP6 (Pre-commercialization) and will organize the preparations towards the commercialization of the LAS prototypes based on the outputs of the other WPs. Furthermore, UCO will establish a spin-off.

2) UCO will implement a wide-area OliveFlyNet site in Spain, which aims to field data collection and digitization of all sites.

Investigador Principal: Enrique Quesada Moraga

Correo electrónico de contacto: cr2qumoe@uco.es

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Integration of combined cooling, heating and power microgrids in zero-energy public buildings under high power quality and continuity of service requirements (INTERREG SUDOE SOE3/P3/E0901)

El proyecto IMPROVEMENT, “Integration of combined cooling, heating and power microgrids in zero-energy public buildings under high power quality and continuity of service requirements”, enmarcado en el programa INTERREG SUDOE, tiene como objetivo general convertir edificios públicos existentes en edificios de consumo de energía casi nulo mediante la integración de microrredes de energía renovable con generación combinada de calor, frío y electricidad, y sistemas de almacenamiento.

Además, IMPROVEMENT va a permitir la mejora de las políticas públicas de eficiencia energética y el uso de fuentes de energía renovables en edificios públicos y viviendas mediante la implementación de redes y la experimentación conjunta.

IMPROVEMENT va a permitir conseguir los siguientes resultados:

– Mejorar la autonomía energética de los edificios públicos existentes mediante sistemas híbridos de almacenamiento, incluso bajo condiciones meteorológicas extremas.

– Aumentar la eficiencia energética de los edificios públicos con la integración de técnicas de edificios de energía casi nulo, y sistemas de refrigeración y calefacción basados en energías renovables con almacenamiento térmico.

– Desarrollo microrredes resilientes a fallos mediante el uso de inversores con control activo del neutro para garantizar la calidad de suministro, en presencia de cargas sensibles (equipos de alta tecnología).

– Demostración en edificios públicos reales (y replicables).

– Desarrollar estrategias regionales y planes de implementación.

Objetivos generales:

IMPROVEMENT tiene tres objetivos específicos:

• • • • Desarrollo de un sistema para mejorar la eficiencia energética en edificios públicos a través de un sistema de generación de calefacción y refrigeración solar, y la incorporación de técnicas activas/pasivas para edificios de consumo de energía casi nulo
      • Desarrollo de un sistema de control de potencia resistente a fallos para microrredes bajo criterios de diseño de alta calidad de suministro
      • Desarrollo de un sistema de gestión de energía para microrredes de generación renovable con sistema híbrido de almacenamiento de energía bajo criterios de degradación mínima, máxima eficiencia y prioridad en el uso de las energías renovables

Investigador Principal: Antonio Moreno Muñoz

Correo electrónico de contacto: amoreno@uco.es

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Network for effective knowledge transfer on safe and economic wastewater reuse in agriculture in Europe (H2020-RUR-2018-1-818088)

SuWaNu Europe is an EU funded projected focused on the use of reclaimed water for irrigation in agriculture. The reason behind is that wastewater when treated according to appropriate standards and methods has a strong potential to complement conventional water resources used in agricultural irrigation. The aim of the project is to promote the effective exchange of knowledge, experiences and skills between practitioners and relevant actors of water reuse in agriculture. For that reason, SUWANU EUROPE will create Regional Working Groups between consortium members and relevant actors in 8 target regions that will work to spread the project findings.

Reclaimed water has a strong potential for complementing conventional water resources. According to the European Commission communication “Closing the loop – An EU action plan for the Circular Economy” (COM(2015)0614): “in addition to water-efficiency measures, the reuse of treated wastewater in safe and cost-effective conditions is a valuable but under-used means of increasing water supply and alleviating pressure on over-exploited water resources in the EU”. Water reuse is especially relevant in agriculture as this is one of the main water consumers, having additional benefits for farmers: lower cost compared to other solutions (e.g. desalination), reliability of supply regardless of season, climatic conditions and associated water restrictions, and nutrients contribution of the treated wastewater that can supplement or replace conventional fertilizers.

SuWaNu Europe is intended to bridge the current innovation gaps and achieve an effective implementation of reuse solutions in agriculture. SuWaNu Europe will extend the geographical coverage of its predecessor and will summarize, share and present existing and upcoming knowledge and skills in the field of water reuse in agriculture to the relevant stakeholders such as farmers and farming advisory groups. SuWaNu Europe will also create regional working groups for the development of action plans. These action plans will set strategies at regional level with the objective of boosting innovation in the agricultural and water sectors, improving best practice development and identifying the most appropriate channels to reach stakeholders. In addition to this, dissemination and training will create the capacity and competencies needed to implement these results.

General objectives

• • • To identify and extract existing practical knowledge from projects, networks, success stories and research results with potential application for practitioners, e.g. farmers, agricultural advisory groups, water engineers and operators, etc.
    • To set the basis in a participatory and evidencebased process for the development of implementation strategies in 8 target regions.
    • To develop strategies and recommendations to pave the way for the implementation of water reuse solutions.
    • To create regional networks that combine efforts within and outside the consortium to support implementation and uptake of organizational and technological solutions.
    • To develop, summarize and structure practical knowledge for practitioners in a way that it is easy to understand.
    • To increase the capacities of practitioners and other stakeholders in water reuse for irrigation.
    • To strengthen the links between water and farming sectors in order to find synergies for water reuse in agriculture.
    • To create synergies between Regional Working Groups, operational groups and national and international networks (EIP-Agri, ERIAFF, ERRIN, EUFRAS, WIRE, WssTP, etc.), practitioners, supporting the implementation of water reuse.

Investigador Principal: Julio Berbel Vecino

Correo electrónico de contacto: es1bevej@uco.es

Página web del proyecto: https://suwanu-europe.eu/water-reuse-projects-europe/

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El proyecto MOVING (H2020-RUR-2019-862739) busca la valorización de las zonas de montaña a través de la interconexión y el crecimiento sostenible. Las montañas cubren el 36% de la superficie de Europa y desempeñan un papel esencial en el suministro de bienes públicos y privados. A pesar de su relevancia tanto en términos ecológicos como socioeconómicos, en la actualidad carecemos de conocimientos actualizados y comparables de los impactos del cambio climático, las tendencias demográficas y los factores socioeconómicos en estas zonas, así como de las políticas necesarias para abordarlos. (más…)

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PETal-Play, Education, Toys and Languages (Ref. 599222-EPP-1-2018-1-ES-EPPKA1-JMD-MOB)

The Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree at the heart of this proposal focuses on Play, Education, Toys and Language (hereinafter PETaL). Its design is based on the best practices and expertise of the participating institutions. It is built by three programme country institutions [the University of Cordoba (Spain), the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon (Portugal) and Marmara University (Turkey)] on a unique framework for the delivery of an EMJMD programme. The study programme, including the curriculum content, will be jointly delivered by the teaching staff of all the institutions involved plus the enriching contribution of expert guest scholars from all over the world (e.g. the USA, Africa, South America, and Europe).

 Specific Objectives:

1. To present personal research, thoughts, ideas and opinions of proposals within professional activities in a suitable way, both written and orally.
2. To communicate with specialists and non-specialists new methodologies and approaches, underlying basic thoughts, experiences and opinions and development within the specialization on play, toys, early childhood education, intercultural studies, and early second language acquisition.
3. To interact with early childhood teachers from different countries using English as a second language.
4. To participate in a network of early childhood teachers and researchers in this or close disciplines to increase knowledge on current research, development and new strategies on play, toys, early childhood education, intercultural studies, and early second language acquisition.

Action type: Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree

Budget: 3.110.000,00 €

Investigadora responsable en la UCO: María Elena Gómez Parra

Web: https://web.em-petal.eu

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A transnational study to raise the knowledge and experience of the shepherds ‘training and good practices on the care, nutrition and shelter of animals, in order to raise the shepherds’ mutual understanding and to promote the shepherd cultures (Ref. 2019-1-TR01-KA202-077190)

Although the profession of the shepherd is one of the professions of great importance for all countries’ welfare, it has almost disappeared. While the number of small animals in Europe and in our country continues to increase, the enterprises have difficulty in finding shepherds to  manage their flocks. For this reason, it decreases the number of animals in the enterprise.Despite the large number of sheep goats in our province, there are not enough shepherds to manage these flocks. There are shortcomings in the level of consciousness of our existing shepherds according to European standards.

If we cannot make our shepherds more conscious, or if we cannot raise awareness of the shepherd profession, the yield of sheep livestock will decrease. Therefore, it will affect the national economy negatively.

General Objective:

The aim of the project is to increase awareness of the shepherd profession and to increase the awareness of our existing shepherds to European standards and thus to increase the efficiency of sheep production, meat and dairy products.

Specific Objectives:

1- Make Shepherds to recognize the importance of the sector.

2- To increase the awareness of our shepherds about sheep and goat breeding.

3- To increase the shepherds’ welfare levels

4- To increase animal welfare practices

5- To understand and develop new approaches in sheep and goat farms

6- Developing better strategies for better functioning of ovine enterprises

7-To ensure production in accordance with European Animal Welfare Criteria

Action type: ERASMUS+ KA202 Call 2019

Budget: 187.501,00 €

Investigador responsable en la UCO: Carlos C. Pérez Marín

Web: http://www.shepherdbridge.org/

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