The “Real Value of Energy Efficiency, REFEREE” project strongly advocates the principle that energy efficiency measures will be key for delivering the European Green Deal, which sets out the roadmap for making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and, in this framework, aims to (1) analyze and quantify the direct and indirect non-energy impacts of energy efficiency investments and to (2) develop easy-to-use tools to support policy makers at the national, regional and local level. REFEREE will help households, businesses, financing institutions, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders to evaluate the multiple impacts of their energy efficiency choices. It will encompass the assessment of energy efficiency investments in a variety of ecosystems, including low income regions and socially imbalanced societies. To fulfil these objectives, the project will design and develop an integrated set of analysis tools from the macro-economic level to the micro level at consumer and firm scale. Through a user-friendly interface, it will then develop a Policy Support System will allow policy makers, businesses, financial institutions and others to better understand the real value of energy efficiency policies and their cost effectiveness. It will also allow them to develop more effective plans, means and measures. To maximise the impact of the REFEREE policy support tool, stakeholders will be involved from the inception of the project, through concrete opportunities for its co-development, pilot studies, and focused dissemination and communication actions. Thanks to a unique consortium structure and strategic partnerships, REFEREE can offer an unprecedented effort of dissemination and exploitation with focus on state, municipal as well as entrepreneurial decision makers in the framework of the multilevel governance approach.

Over the last decade, development of Smart Systems Integration (SSI) has demonstrated tremendous benefits in terms of enabling new functionalities of diverse products contributing to enormous economic potential with annual efforts in Europe estimated at approx.10 b€. There is significant opportunity for innovative SME’s to further exploit SSI as they are ideally placed to commercialise and drive the whole product development cycle, effectively bridging the “valley of death”. Europe is in a strong position to champion its’ established RTO’s competitive research, development and production facilities and to be a World leader in transitioning product development in SSI from prototyping to manufacturing, with particular focus in the low volume high value chain domain. SMARTER-SI has a unique opportunity to capitalise on Europe’s research excellence in SSI, leverage expertise of SME’s and RTO’s and drive impact through commercial exploitation. Inspired by the Strategic Research Agenda of EPoSS, SMARTER-SI aims to develop a RTO Community Foundry Model (CFM) that will accelerate a wider deployment of SSI with greater access to design, manufacturing capabilities for prototyping, early validation and first production for SME’s to exploit in niche markets. A strategic objective is to lower entry barriers using the cooperative approach of utilising existing process steps/building blocks available at partner RTOs. This in turn will advance innovative products for SMEs in Europe. The system approach will enable these companies to reach for a higher profit margin than currently achievable with components sales. SMARTER-SI will thus facilitate a greater level of innovation and know-how that will reside within Europe and will be difficult to replicate by competitors in other regions for the manufacture and production of similar products. SMARTER-SI is designed to be a test bed to realise 10 Application Experiments through the CFM that will trigger a bigger action, e.g. in ECSEL.

CRETE VALLEY aims to create a Renewable Energy Valley 'Living Lab' (REV-Lab) in Crete. It is envisioned as a decentralised renewable energy system that combines leading-edge ICT technologies, interoperable and open digital solutions (including data sovereignty), social innovation processes, and sound business models that are easy to adopt. CRETE VALLEY will demonstrate a digitalised, distributed, renewable, low carbon landscape that is affordable for all and fully covers the local energy needs on an annual basis, utilizing multiple renewable energy carriers and leveraging energy storage technologies. The REV-Lab will integrate four Community Energy Labs (CELs) located in distinct sites across CRETE VALLEY, conceived as Innovation Hubs. An integrated social, technological & business approach will be deployed, providing: A Social Science Framework for REV-Labs & CELs, innovative multi-level governance models & social-driven mechanisms for involving citizens in the co-design, implementation and exploitation of RES; AI-based market segmentation algorithms, MCDA methods and consensus analysis for REV configuration; Interactive tools for REV planning (REV Readiness Assessment & computation, Augmented Reality applications, decision support tool); Energy Data Space compliant digital backbone for consumer and REV-level data-driven ‘activation’; P2P DLT/Blockchain digital marketplace for tokenised energy and non-energy assets valuation and reciprocal compensation; Data-driven operational analysis, advanced AI/ML tools and flexibility modelling services for optimal operation & resilience of the local energy grid; System-of-system Dig. Twin for multiple carrier grid management & operation; Data-driven services and apps for energy efficiency and activation performance management towards energy autonomy; Enabling RES technologies to increase the power production; REV Business Sandbox and blueprints for REV-Lab setup, upscaling and replication (including 4 Follower Communities).

The DIGITbrain project is deeply rooted in the innovation ecosystem of the I4MS project CloudiFacturing and the industrial platforms FIWARE and IDS, and it will build on these results, by means of extending the CloudiFacturing solution with an augmented digital-twin concept called “Digital Product Brain” (DPB) and a smart business model called “Manufacturing as a Service” (MaaS). By having access to on-demand data, models, algorithms, and resources for industrial products (i.e. mechatronic systems supporting the production of other products), the DBP will enable their customisation and adaptation according to individual conditions. The availability of industrial-product capacity will facilitate the implementation of MaaS, which will allow manufacturing SMEs to access advanced manufacturing facilities within their regions or to distribute their orders across different ones. The DIGITbrain project will address four principles that will foster the uptake of advanced digital and manufacturing technologies. A) Technology: leverage edge-, cloud- and HPC-based modelling, simulation, optimisation, analytics, and machine learning tools and augment the concept of digital twin with a memorizing capacity that records the provenance of the industrial product over its full lifecycle. B) Feasibility: support more than 20 highly innovative cross-border experiments, bringing together technology providers and manufacturing end users, and facilitating cost-effective distributed and localised production, based on on-demand manufacturing machine capacity. C) Sustainability: coach and empower DIHs to implement the smart business model MaaS and contribute to their long-term sustainability, by increasing their portfolio with services tailored to the industrial needs of their regions. D) Network of DIHs: engage DIHs across Europe that implement MaaS, enable manufacturing SMEs to co-create and experiment with digital innovations before investing, and attract national and regional funding.