The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) is leading the GAIA project (Bridging Sustainability and Ubiquity in Next-Gen IoT), funded by the Horizon Europe EIC Pathfinder 2025 programme, which aims to develop a new generation of biodegradable, high-performance internet of things (IoT) devices with minimal ecological impact.
On behalf of the UOC, the project is being coordinated by Xavier Vilajosana, the university's Vice Rector for Research, Knowledge Transfer and Entrepreneurship, full professor and researcher in the Wireless Networks (WINE) group, in collaboration with UOC faculty member Joan Melià and the other members of the group. Also, NOVA ID FCT (Portugal), the CTTC Catalonia Telecommunications Technology Centre (Catalonia), the INRIA National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (France), the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany) and Tampere University (Finland) are participating in the project.
The project has a total budget of more than three million euros, and is scheduled to take place over three years. "The Pathfinder projects are cutting-edge research and innovation initiatives, which have a high level of risk and are extraordinarily competitive, and the success rate this year is 2%," said Vilajosana. "Coordinating a project of this nature places the UOC at the forefront of research at the European level. Within a very short period of time, the UOC has obtained Marie Skłodowska-Curie grants, such as those of the highly competitive Doctoral Networks and the prestigious COFUND programme, important projects within the framework of Erasmus+ KA2 and Horizon Europe, and now this EIC Pathfinder. This shows the university is going in a good direction and at a good pace," he added.
A new model for a sustainable and circular IoT
GAIA proposes a revolutionary approach to electronics: creating fully transient and biodegradable devices that are capable of collecting energy from the environment and transferring data to the internet and are soluble in water after their useful life ends. The objective for the end of the project is to build electronic and telecommunications systems on biodegradable substrates, creating a functional prototype applied to smart logistics and cold chain monitoring.
"This project aims to overcome several technological barriers, including constructing electronic circuits with biodegradable materials, capturing energy from the telephone network using its waves to provide them with energy, and direct communication with mobile network systems to ensure their ubiquity. These are major challenges, because they run counter to some of the design principles of our current electronic systems," said Vilajosana, whose group is affiliated to the UOC-TECH centre.
The project has adopted an integrated strategy, covering the design of the materials to the telecommunications infrastructure, to move towards digital objects with almost zero cost and minimal environmental impact, aligned with the European objectives of sustainability and technological sovereignty.
The UOC's leadership and a European impact
In addition to scientific and technical coordination, the UOC is leading the knowledge transfer and exploitation of results strategy, with support from Hubbik, the university's entrepreneurship and innovation platform. GAIA will also train seven doctoral students and six post-doctoral researchers in an interdisciplinary environment, giving them new skills in responsible research and innovation.
With this initiative, the UOC reaffirms its commitment to open, collaborative research aimed at the major challenges in the digital and ecological transition, and positions itself as a European leader in sustainable technology.
GAIA is funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) within the framework of the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 101256099).
This project is part of the UOC's research mission on Ethical and human-centred technology, and supports UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
Transformative, impactful research
At the UOC, we see research as a strategic tool to advance towards a future society that is more critical, responsible and nonconformist. With this vision, we conduct applied research that's interdisciplinary and linked to the most important social, technological and educational challenges.
The UOC’s over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups are working in five research units focusing on five missions: lifelong learning; ethical and human-centred technology; digital transition and sustainability; culture for a critical society, and digital health and planetary well-being.
The university's Hubbik platform fosters knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship in the UOC community.
More information: www.uoc.edu/en/research