The AlgaeProBANOS project addresses a challenge in the Baltic and North Sea (BANOS) area: how to harmonise economic development with social and environmental goals in line with the Mission Ocean... There is a rising demand for green healthy natural consumer and biobased products, and algae can become the biomass resource of the future, without using fresh water, arable land, or added fertilisers and or pesticides. Both the Baltic and North sea engulf the necessary conditions to scale up production and produce both commodity and sophisticated algae-based products. AlgaeProBanos (APB) brings together 26 experts and industry partners from the BANOS area and beyond, to accelerate product development and market access of sustainable algae solutions. Concretely, APB will support six business pilots, SMEs and startups, to bring eight algae products to the market (TRL7-9) namely in food, feed, nutraceuticals, textiles, cosmetics and plant biostimulants applications. Value chains are based on microalgae and seaweeds, sourced in the Baltic or North Sea or from recycled resources. Innovation takes place in iterative loops with assessments to secure maximum robustness, efficiency, and sustainablesustainability. Furthermore value chains are built with end-users' needs put in the centre, through engaging users in co-creation activities, to ensure maximum uptake. Digital tools are developed to support all actors from biomass producers to consumers. In the end, GoToMarket strategies are tailored to the pilots, providing a trajectory to reach the market. In a meta level, the Algae Accelerator develops new and aggregates existing knowledge, and develops a portfolio of solutions, guidelines and a collaboration and training platform, to benefit the entire algae industry and nourish it into a thriving industry by 2050. The legacy of APB will be deposited to the Ocean Mission BANOS and the EU4Algae.

The European tourism sector plays a pivotal role in driving economic growth, employment, and social development. However, it faces challenges deriving from its predominant reliance on linear models, causing significant environmental impacts and resource depletion. Recognizing the necessity for a paradigm shift, the VERNE project aspires to accelerate the transition of local and regional tourist destinations toward sustainable and circular models across Europe. VERNE aims to provide an integrated framework for analysing the feasibility and impact of circular interventions in tourism destinations, offering recommendations for authorities, tourism industries, and citizens for the sector's transition into more sustainable business models. In collaboration with public administrations, DMOs, private sector services, industries, citizens and tourists, NGOs, and other stakeholders, VERNE will create and validate a range of systemic, replicable, and scalable solutions, tailored on the real needs and attitudes of these actors. These solutions will encompass diverse approaches and technologies (i.e., digital solutions, improved waste and food waste management, wastewater treatment, use of electric vehicles, etc.) and will cover several sector and services for tourism . The VERNE solutions will be implemented and demonstrated in 5 European representative tourist destinations (VERNE Pilots). The project's outcomes will be incorporated into new business models, providing a quantified demonstration of their effects on the competitiveness and sustainability of existing tourism services. Finally, VERNE will have the ambition to emerge as one-stop-shop for sustainable tourism, serving as a comprehensive hub of expertise, tools, and best practices on sustainable tourism, facilitating the adoption and replication of circular systemic solutions across Europe.

The HOOP Project will help to unlock bio-based investments and deploy local bio economies in Europe through a systemic and cross-cutting approach. It will offer Project Development Assistance (PDA) to a group of 8 lighthouse cities and city clusters - to build the technical, economic, financial and legal expertise needed to develop concrete investments to valorise OFMSW (Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste) or UWWS (Urban Wastewater Sludge) with the aim of obtaining safe and sustainable bio-based products. Each PDA will contain detailed implementation assistance and a defined Circular Business Model tailored to each participating lighthouse city, as well as financing mechanisms to be used for mobilising investment. Moreover, HOOP will launch stakeholder engagement and citizen science initiatives to allow for the co-design of an improved collection of OFMSW for its later optimum valorisation. It will promote behavioural change and acceptability of biowaste-based products, as well as food waste prevention. The HOOP Project will also feature the HOOP Urban Circular Bioeconomy Hub (UCBH), an online platform that will provide opportunities to replicate the PDAs of the lighthouse cities in other follower cities (currently composed by 26 committed cities from all around Europe) – under the launch of the Network of Follower European Cities. HOOP continues the work of the projects VALUEWASTE, Scalibur and WaystUP!, funded under topic CE-SFS-25-2018 and coordinated by the three technical leaders of HOOP. The HOOP Consortium covers the whole value chain, from biowaste recovery to valorisation and characterization of the final products and unites complementary stakeholders with the deep multi-disciplinary knowledge crucial to PDA creation and the achievement of project objectives. It includes partners from 10 EU member countries, 5 municipalities and 3 clusters of cities.