IRES has a core business and wide experience in the fields of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) & Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Exposure and Risk Assessment (hazard and exposure scenarios), Standardization, Data Management Plan (DMP), Machine learning, Quality assurance and Data analysis.
We provide customised and tailored solutions on demand, often in tool form, successfully identify possible business risks and provide sustainable directions. For this, the whole lifecycle of products is considered, through a holistic evaluation of social, environmental and economic aspects based on EU standards and regulations. IRES in collaboration with external bodies and related initiatives, is part of new technological events, rising innovative technologies and strategic research trends.
Through its international network, IRES supports the development of innovative technologies and the optimization of products. Indicatively the company professionals have expertise in Project Risk, Ethics and Knowledge management, market trend analysis, feasibility studies, Impact assessment and Technology Transfer, Research in Materials Science, Development of tailored materials, Nanomaterials, Processing and Upscaling, Design and setup of prototypes, demonstrators, Ethics and integrity in research, Exploitation and Dissemination towards high technology readiness level. Finally, IRES has a direct link to EMMC, EMCC, CFPC, and relevant EU cluster initiative
Role in the project:
IRES (independent Belgian SME, providing specialised services in the fields of Life Cycle Assessment, Cost evaluation, Innovation and Data management) will co-lead the LCA/LCCA activities in WP3 together with VER, utilising commercial software (SimaPRO) and tools to evaluate the environmental impacts of the novel Waste2Fresh system and compare results with conventional wastewater treatment technologies. IRES/VER will additionally lead the validation of the environmental sustainability and techno-economic performance of the Waste2Fresh system.
Relevant Publications:
- Constituents Phase Reconstruction through Applied Machine Learning in Nanoindentation Mapping Data of Mortar Surface, E.P. Koumoulos, K. Paraskevoudis, C.A. Charitidis, Journal of Composites Science 3 (3), 63 2019
- Applying Machine Learning to Nanoindentation Data of (Nano-) Enhanced Composites, E Koumoulos, G Konstantopoulos, C Charitidis, Fibers 8 (1), 3
- Innovative Data Management in advanced characterization: implications for materials design, N. Romanos, M. Kalogerini, E.P. Koumoulos, A.K. Morozinis, M. Sebastiani, Materials Today Communications 2019
- Karayannis, P.; Petrakli, F.; Gkika, A.; Koumoulos, E.P. 3D-Printed Lab-on-a-Chip Diagnostic Systems-Developing a Safe-by-Design Manufacturing Approach. Micromachines 2019, 10, 825.
Relevant Projects:
- DECOAT (H2020-CE-NMBP-26-2018 -814505) main goal is to enable the circular use of coated parts by developing novel smart polymer material systems, and their corresponding recycling processes, currently a missing link. IRES leads the WP related with Environment and Safety including Risk assessment & Safe-by-Design principles, LCA & LCC, Toxicity, Release and Exposure assessment and the development of an Eco-design tool. IRES is the responsible partner to implement an efficient data management ensuring that research data will be easily discoverable, accessible, assessable and intelligible, usable beyond the original purpose for which they were collected, interoperable to specific quality standards, whenever relevant.
- M3DLoC (H2020-NMBP-PILOTS-2017 – 760662) aims at the employment of multi-material 3D printing technologies for the large-scale fabrication of microfluidic MEMS for lab-on-a-chip and sensing applications. IRES leads the WP concerning the control of health risks including exposure assessment, release and safe by design approach. IRES is the responsible partner for Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) & Life Cycle Costing (LCC) in order to perform a comparative risk assessment. Moreover, is responsible for Preparing & implementing the Data Management Plan (DMP) and is task leader on Quality and Risk management.
- SMARTFAN (H2020- NMBP-04-2017– 760779) proposes the development of “smart” material and product architectures, with integrated functionalities, that will interact with their environment and react to stimuli by employing biomimetic, self-sensing, actuating and damage-repairing technologies. IRES leads the WP of Life Cycle Assessment, Cost Evaluation and Data Management as well as is task leader on Risk assessment & Safe-by-Design.
- Repair3D (H2020-CE-NMBP-26-2018– 814588) aims at the development of innovative reclamation and repurposing routes for end-of-life plastic and carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) components. This will be achieved by employing advanced nanotechnology solutions, Additive Manufacturing (AM) and recycled resources, for the production of high added value 3D printed products with advanced functionalities. IRES is WP leader on Life Cycle Assessment and Cost Evaluation and task leader on Preparation & implementation of the Data Management Plan (DMP) and on Quality and risk management.
- MODCOMP (H2020-NMP-22-2015) aims to develop novel engineered fibre-based materials for technical, high value, high performance products for non-clothing applications at realistic cost, with improved functionality and safety. IRES leads the respective WP on Life Cycle Analysis, Nanosafety and Risk analysis providing a complete methodology on machine learning of nanoindentation for quality assurance of CFRPs, together with risk assessment.
Infrastructure & Equipment
IRES is equipped and has access to state-of-the art computational facilities (server and cluster units), commercial software SimaPro 9.0 (with the most updated database Ecoinvent 3.5) and built in-house Life cycle cost tool that will use in the framework of WP3.
