SMCNetZero brings together six successful urban innovation initiatives in Europe with seven (7) regional and Pan-European networks and their partners to create a Satellite Network of innovation actors to support public sector representatives from Small and Medium-sized cities (SMCs), SMEs, academia, NGOs and investors across Europe to facilitate decarbonisation in SMCs. SMCNetZero will leverage its diverse Satellite Network to gain an in-depth understanding of SMC needs and barriers; raise awareness and simplify access to existing successful initiatives supporting decarbonisation; support matchmaking between supply and demand sides by linking SMEs, researchers, and investors with SMCs; and help identify and open access to funding for enabling innovation deployment in SMCs currently underrepresented in the European innovation ecosystem. SMCNetZero is unique in that its diverse consortium partners and broad commitment from target stakeholders in the Satellite Network ensure focus in regions with less innovation capacity, with written confirmed commitment from nearly 100 innovation actors at the proposal stage, to participate in the activities - including an emphasis on largely underrepresented regions and stakeholders. SMCNetZero’s vision is to create and strengthen local innovation ecosystems’ interrelations in SMCNetZero regions through brokerage and knowledge-building activities as well as digital resources to increase capacity for planning, deploying and scaling-up of decarbonisation solutions, overall focusing on increasing the inclusivity of these innovation ecosystems and minimizing existing innovation divides.

Europe’s regional authorities have a crucial role to play as agents of just, inclusive and resilient economic development for their territories. ROBIN sets out to empower them to fulfil this role with support to co-shape their governance structures and models in ways that accelerate the deployment of their circular bioeconomy targets, while also promoting social innovation and accounting for different territorial contexts. To this end, we establish and demonstrate the potential of innovative circular bioeconomy governance structures and models in 5 European Regions within Ireland, Germany, Spain, Slovakia and Greece. Our journey begins by setting-up Multi-Actor Regional Constellations engaging key quadruple helix stakeholders to co-create and work alongside novel governance structures, well-embedded within existing organisational structures of our regions and mandated to coordinate and execute circular bioeconomy strategies with and for the entire actor ecosystem and to coordinate effectively with the CCRI-CSO. Along the way, we provide them with tailored support for enhanced and more inclusive stakeholder engagement, as well as a practical toolbox to improve the design, operation and monitoring of their governance models. In parallel, a monitoring and evaluation framework will gauge the performance and impact of our support actions and tools, providing quantifiable evidence of their economic, social and environmental impact. We will use this evidence to engage over 10 additional European regional authorities to test our tools and make a concrete case for their transferability, while also offering mutual learning and capacity building opportunities. In the process we coordinate our actions with the CCRI-CSO and complementary European initiatives to facilitate the dissemination of our results, ensuring their long-term sustainability as viable solutions for supporting EU regions in adopting governance models that facilitate the transition to a Circular Bioeconomy.