Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS demonstrates and validates technically and socio-economically viable and replicable, innovative solutions for rolling out smart, integrated positive energy systems for the transition to a citizen centred zero carbon & resource efficient economy. SPARCS facilitates the participation of buildings to the energy market enabling new services and a virtual power plant concept, creating VirtualPositiveEnergy communities as energy democratic playground (positive energy districts can exchange energy with energy entities located outside the district). Seven cities will demonstrate 100+ actions turning buildings, blocks, and districts into energy prosumers. Impacts span economic growth, improved quality of life, and environmental benefits towards the EC policy framework for climate and energy, the SET plan and UN Sustainable Development goals. SPARCS co-creation brings together citizens, companies, research organizations, city planning and decision-making entities, transforming cities to carbon-free inclusive communities. Lighthouse cities Espoo (FI) and Leipzig (DE) implement large demonstrations. Fellow cities Reykjavik (IS), Maia (PT), Lviv (UA), Kifissia (EL) and Kladno (CZ) prepare replication with hands-on feasibility studies. SPARCs identifies bankable actions to accelerate market uptake, pioneers innovative, exploitable governance and business models boosting the transformation processes, joint procurement procedures and citizen engaging mechanisms in an overarching city planning instrument toward the bold City Vision 2050. SPARCS engages 30 partners from 8 EU Member States (FI, DE, PT, CY, EL, BE, CZ, IT) and 2 non-EU countries (UA, IS), representing key stakeholders within the value chain of urban challenges and smart, sustainable cities bringing together three distinct but also overlapping knowledge areas: (i) City Energy Systems, (ii) ICT and Interoperability, (iii) Business Innovation and Market Knowledge.

In the LIV:IN project, major industry leaders from the ICT sector join forces to co-create more responsible approaches to innovation for the first time. LIV:IN builds on the premise that recognition of the value of RRI among industry is necessary for achieving the aim of the call “to progress further in integrating RRI in industrial contexts”. The project follows an opportunity oriented approach in order to (1) activate industry leaders, experts and citizens to experiment with responsible ways of co-creating innovations; (2) build capacity for RRI implementation and develop tools that are applicable across industry sectors; and (3) transform attitudes towards RRI from risk to opportunity. LIV:IN will demonstrate the added value of RRI in the area of smart future living. We carefully selected this application area because it directly impacts the lives of citizens (societal relevance) but also constitutes a major emerging market (business opportunity). The project includes four key features that will significantly enhance the quality of the proposed coordination and support activities. First, six LIV:IN Labs and a virtual community of practice will constitute the central spaces for experimentation with integrating RRI in industry, and, consequently, the development of new approaches to innovation. Second, the application and continuous improvement of RRI tools in these spaces will contribute to capacity-building among industry and citizens alike. Third, embedded audio-visual story-telling will be the main vehicle for disseminating results and for shifting attitudes towards RRI from risk to opportunity. Finally, continuous dialogue with earlier and present initiatives in the areas of RRI, CSR and open innovation will ensure the transferability of project results across industry sectors. Ultimately, LIV:IN is guided by its vision to become a flagship initiative for effective integration of RRI in industry.

MIN-GUIDE is a project addressing the need for a secure and sustainable supply of minerals in Europe by developing a ‘Minerals Policy Guide’. The key objectives of the project are (1) providing guidance for EU and MS minerals policy, (2) facilitating minerals policy decision making through knowledge co-production for transferability of best practice minerals policy, and (3) fostering community and network building for the co-management of an innovation catalysing minerals policy framework. This will be achieved through a systematic profiling and policy benchmarking of relevant policy and legislation in Europe, which includes the identification of innovation friendly best practices through quantitative indicators and a qualitative analysis country-specific framework conditions, as well as through the compilation of minerals statistics and reporting systems. These insights will form the basis for developing an interactive, tailor-made online ‘Minerals Policy Guide’. Another key feature of the MIN-GUIDE project will be knowledge co-production for minerals policy decision makers through Policy Laboratories exploring these best practice examples along the whole mineral production value chain (exploration and extraction, processing, recycling and mine closure). Furthermore, MIN-GUIDE will facilitate the building of a sustainable minerals policy stakeholder network through this knowledge co-production and utilization in Policy Laboratories as well as through three major Conferences. These Conferences will explore the minerals governance framework, work on recommendations for promoting innovation along the whole minerals production value chain, and put it into the wider context of the circular economy. The MIN-GUIDE project and in particular the dissemination of the ‘Minerals Policy Guide’ to specific target audiences will have the expected impact of guiding EU MS and EU level minerals policy-making towards a more coherent, transparent and innovation-catalysing framework.

SMARTER TOGETHER’s overarching vision is to find the right balance between smart technologies and organizational/ governance dimensions in order to deliver smart and inclusive solutions and to improve citizen’s quality of life. SMARTER TOGETHER gather the European Lighthouse cities Lyon, Munich, Vienna, the Follower cities Santiago de Compostela, Sofia, Venice and Kyiv and Yokohama as observer cities bringing the perspective of East Europe and Asia. The cities are complemented by business partners from energy, mobility and ICT sectors, leading European research and academia organizations, european city network. From the various combinations of the different selected Light House areas, multiples opportunities to learn are offering. SMARTER TOGETHER delivers 5 clusters of co-created, smart and integrated solutions: (1) Living labs for citizen engagement, (2) District heating and RES for low energy districts, (3) Holistic refurbishment for low energy districts addressing public and private housing, (4) Smart Data management platform and smart services (5) E-mobility solutions for sustainable mobility. Expected results are: 1) >151,800 m2 of refurbished buildings, primarily housing estate with a 50-60 % average energy and CO2 reduction; 2) 14.6 MW of newly installed renewable capacity; 3) 10/15new e-mobility solutions for passengers and freight); 4) 1400 created jobs, 130 M€ investments, all deployed with support of integrated ICT solutions and in dialogue with the inhabitants. Large-scale replication will be prepared; 1) in the Lighthouse cities; 2) the Follower cities, which already selected their target area; 3) A Club of 15-20 cities, associate to intensify its roll-out, ensuring a broad geographical and climate coverage. Commercial exploitation is enhanced by the development of new business models for widespread use by the stakeholders. Contributions to open data are expected to create business opportunities as well as inputs to standardization work.