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FLIARA: D2.3: Sustainability innovations
No full textThe mission of futures research is to make us aware of alternative futures. Without visiting the futures field we are stuck in the past and blinded by the complexity of the present. Our choices may not reach all desired future outcomes if we did not know their existence in the first place. Some of our choices in the present might end up as undesired if they were not envisioned before the action.European Commission FLIARA: Female-Led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas 101084234non-peer-reviewe
waves of flickering murmurs in everyday life: playing between ages
No full textThe article explores the rich and varied experiences of a collective writing project, unfolding through an anecdote involving Charlie, a young boy who creatively disrupted conventional photography methods. This incident, during an evening promenade by the sea in Ericeira (Portugal), epitomizes the project's embrace of playfulness and exploration of diverse perspectives–materialized through Charlie's playful insistence on experimenting with different angles. The event embodied the group’s approach to writing, leading to a collective inquiry into the interplay of ages, angles, and other themes like waves, threads, shadows, and liminal spaces. The project, driven by the Between Ages Collective, began with informal gatherings in Plymouth, UK, and expanded into a year-long online reading group. Participants, spanning different generations and academic stages, shared various materials, including films, picture books, and scholarly texts, which inspired individual contributions. Influenced by the Collective's collaborative spirit, these contributions explore the concept of 'between ages' – a metaphorical and literal space of transition and fluidity. Contributors were invited to craft pieces that delve into the 'between ages' theme, often exploring serendipitous moments that transform interactions and experiences. The writing tries to capture a sense of openness and curiosity, embracing the uncertainties and ambiguities inherent in the process. The works do not strictly adhere to conventional academic or narrative forms but rather emerge from the collective's shared experiences, including cooking, eating, swimming and walking together. The article suggests that these writings are not meant to be definitive or conclusive but are explorations that invite readers to engage with the mundane and profound textures of everyday life. The stories and themes explored are marked by their diversity in style, rhythm, and imagery, ranging from reflections on the philosophy of shadows to the profound implications of intergenerational and interspecies relationships. The Collective’s work is presented as an ongoing experiment in thinking and writing together, with each piece offering unique insights into the fluid and often blurred boundaries between different states of being. This openness to the in-between spaces brings into question the notion of fixed identities and experiences, inviting a more nuanced understanding of the relational dynamics that shape existence. The article allows the readers to delve into these narratives and engage with the myriad ways they resonate with broader themes of being, storying, and connecting.peer-reviewe
Numerical wave tank development for hydrodynamic analysis of a tidal turbine
No full textMany existing studies show that the ocean tidal turbine experiences frequent and large-scale fluctuations of hydrodynamic loads during its operation, especially when effected by surface waves, which may lead to blade damage due to fatigue. Therefore, the physical wave tank at the University of Galway is referenced and a numerical wave tank model is developed using the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code ANSYS CFX with calibrated wave parameters from the wave tank as the input wave profile. This numerical wave tank can be combined with a previously developed tidal turbine model to evaluate the hydrodynamic performance of turbines operating in conditions influenced by ocean waves.This research was funded in part by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) through the MaREI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine (Grant no. 12/RC/2302_2) and the European Commission through the H2020 CRIMSON project (grant agreement no.: 971209)
FLIARA: Deliverable 1.2: Women-led innovation research review
No full textIn order to assist women-led innovative practices in farming and rural regions, the FLIARA (Female-led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural regions) project intends to establish a European-wide ecosystem. The project helps rural women by improving the innovation ecosystem, which will highlight their accomplishments, serve as a source of knowledge and inspiration, connect them to key players in the industry, increase their visibility in institutional decision-making contexts at the national and international levels, and assist them in building their capacity and skills so they can continue leading or start leading innovative practices.European Commission FLIARA: Female-Led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas 101084234non-peer-reviewe
FLIARA: D.3.3 Women-led innovations in agriculture and rural areas, lessons learned report and fact sheets on female innovations
No full textThis deliverable focuses on 20 national case studies that shed light on 200 women who spearhead unique innovations in the realm of rural areas and farming across ten European countries. The innovations led by the women are centred around four pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, economic, and cultural. They span across three distinct rural typologies: rural areas close to a city, rural villages, and remote rural regions. This comprehensive study provides a rich tapestry of female-led ingenuity and resilience in rural Europe.European Commission FLIARA: Female-Led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas 101084234non-peer-reviewe
Magnetically-programmed instability-driven pattern transformations in soft materials
No full textA class of transformable materials is introduced with magnetic defect-defined switchable configurations. The soft material can be magnetically-programmed to transform into various encoded patterns utilizing the rich interplay of magnetic interactions and instability phenomenon. The strategy allows us to break the limit of admissible configurations of the instability-induced patterns that dictate the post-transformation behavior. The phenomenon is experimentally realized in a material system consisting of periodically distributed magnetic inclusions in a soft matrix. The programmable magnetic interactions between the inclusions act as smart defects redirecting the material transformations to targeted geometric configurations. Moreover, the role of magnetic spacing and field strength is systematically investigated to map the transition between mechanically-dominant and magnetics-dominant instability patterns. Lastly, the idea of reconfigurable material design is showcased by embedding binary information in magnetic form, which can be read out through the unique repositioning of inclusions via the applied mechanical deformation.The support of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR 17RXCOR435), the Air Force Research Laboratory Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison with funding from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is acknowledged. SR and AC thank the support of the European Research Council (ERC) through Grant No 852281-MAGIC.
Open access funding provided by IReL
FLIARA: D1.1 FLIARA conceptual framework
No full textThe FLIARA (Female-led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas) project aims to create a European-wide ecosystem, which supports women-led innovative practices in farming and rural areas. The project supports rural women by creating an improved ecosystem for innovation, which will highlight their successes, serve as a source of information and inspiration, link them to important players in the field, increase their visibility in institutional decision-making contexts at the national and international levels, and help them develop their capacity and skills so they can continue leading or begin leading innovative practices. Understanding how women engage in innovative sustainable practices on farms and in rural areas will be crucial to opening up new opportunities for rural women throughout the EU. To fill these knowledge gaps a comprehensive co-created conceptual framework has been developed. Deliverable 1.1 is divided into four parts to clearly depict the role of the conceptual framework throughout the life of the FLIARA project.European Commission FLIARA: Female-Led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas 101084234non-peer-reviewe
FLIARA: D1.3: Assessment of rural and farming policy and legal frameworks in relation to women-led innovation
No full textThis report provides an assessment of policy and legal frameworks in relation to women led innovation from across the EU. The focus is on the extent to which current frameworks directly and indirectly support women-led innovation in farming and rural areas. The scope of this assessment is also shaped by the FLIARA Conceptual Framework as well as our analysis of relevant strategies, particularly the European Gender Equality Strategy. In the FLIARA project proposal, our initial interest was rural and farming policy and legal frameworks. However, as the project developed, one of our core concepts understands women-led innovation as an occurring part of an innovation ecosystem where there is an innovation journey that follows a pathway with a number of steps. This led us to a broader focus for this assessment which sees it guided by seven principles, derived largely from the European Gender Equality Strategy.
This assessment aims to uncover a comprehensive framework of policies and laws impacting the innovation ecosystem and pathway towards women-led innovation in farming and rural areas. The emphasis is on a scoping-type exercise that provides a descriptive yet detailed inventory-like review of existing policy and law in the areas examined. The assessment is carried out in ten countries (Finland, Romania, Germany, Ireland, Slovenia, Italy, Sweden, Czech Republic, The Netherlands and Spain) where focus is placed on European and national level policy and law. This is not an exhaustive assessment however it does provide an insight on key policy issues and sets up a foundational knowledge base for the remaining policy related tasks of the FLIARA project. For FLIARA’s future work on policy, particular priority areas of need may need to be identified to ensure we can make a strong contribution. In this context, based on the areas assessed here, a number of high-level overall observations are drawn together below.European Commission FLIARA: Female-Led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas 101084234non-peer-reviewe
FLIARA: D6.2 Plan for dissemination and exploitation including communication activities V2
No full textThis plan is an update to Deliverable 6.1, meticulously drafted by WP6 in M6 of the project and subsequently updated in M18 as Deliverable 6.1. After confirming its continued validity, necessary updates were incorporated to enhance its relevance. The plan serves as a comprehensive guide for the project's communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities, with internal updates to be made as required. It outlines the core activities to be implemented during the first 18 months of the project, emphasising FLIARA's exploitation activities, tools, procedures, and guidelines that partners will follow to achieve clear, consistent, and coherent communication and dissemination of project results to target audiences.European Commission FLIARA: Female-Led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas 101084234non-peer-reviewe
Combining prosodic-pragmatic training and free commentary to develop intonation skills in Italian FL
No full textProsodic skills are a fundamental component of language learning but are notoriously difficult to develop due to their highly variable nature. In the burgeoning research field of didactic audiovisual translation, free commentary (FC) appears to be a less-studied modality of revoicing in the foreign language classroom. The main aim is to investigate the suitability of FC as a reinforcement activity for improving FL intonation skills. This paper presents an experimental study conducted at the University of Galway with undergraduate students studying Italian as a FL. The research design has a multi-stage structure. It consists of prosodic-pragmatic training, during which the experimental group learnt how to pronounce a polar question to ask for information, while the control group attended traditional conversation classes. A discourse completion task (DCT) was administered before and after the training. Secondly, both groups were required to complete FC to reinforce their intonation skills. Data analysis of DCT and FC was carried out within the autosegmental-metrical theoretical framework and the tone and break indices system. The results corroborate previous studies on the effectiveness of training and highlight the didactic value of FC in reinforcing FL intonation skills. The novelty of this study lies in the combination of the disciplines of prosody in FL acquisition, didactic audiovisual translation, and intonational phonology.peer-reviewe