The project ‘Institutionalized Integrated Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans’ (2ISECAP) aims to bridge the gap between local sustainable energy planning and implementation by supporting the capacity building of public authorities and by developing interface capacities within public authorities to engage with civil society towards energy transition. 2ISECAP will attempt the creation of an institutional environment for effective decision-making processes combining the democratic legitimacy and legal power of formal plans/policies with the creativity, energy and social capacity of bottom-up initiatives, entrepreneurship and community involvement. 2ISECAP will develop and apply an innovative holistic approach for participatory and integrated sustainable energy and climate actions planning that considers the required institutional tools, legal frameworks and local initiatives. Emphasis will be given on driving the sustainable energy transition at cities level through the Climate City Contracts. The planning approach will enhance SECAPs visibility and implementation capacity and the development of sustainable relationships between government and civil society. 2ISECAP utilizes the Living Lab (LL) concept to activate participants to co-create knowledge, energy plans and future policies. The project will provide experiential learning to 6 European Municipalities, by applying 2ISECAP approach to revise/develop their SECAPs, within a LL environment. Eight EU Countries are involved in 2ISECAP. Over 100 public officers will enhance their institutional and technical capacity on participatory integrated planning and governance structures engaging civil society on local energy transition. At least 6 institutionalized collaborations between public authorities are expected to derive and about 30 policies to be influenced. In total, more than 1,300 stakeholders will be informed on Integrated SECAP planning and 5,500 citizens will be involved in the project’s activities.

INTENSSS-PA will support public authorities to integrate the energy theme into spatial planning and regional physical and socioeconomic landscapes. To achieve this objective INTENSS-PA will provide human and institutional capacity building to public authorities and to the wider network of private and public actors related to energy and regional planning by implementing the Living Lab concept, i.e. an innovative environment of co-creation. Specifically, a network of seven Regional Living Labs (RLL) within the seven different Countries/Regions that participate in the consortium (Thessaly-Greece, Calabria-Italy, Castilla y Leon- Spain, Association of Municipalities-Slovenia, Groningen-Netherlands, Triangle-Denmark and Zemgale-Latvia), will be created. Involving public authorities, private and civil society actors, the RLLs are focused on improving and designing a shared and integrated sustainable energy planning concept and on applying it in order to develop seven sustainable energy plans, i.e. one for each Region. The overall approach will involve learning sessions and experiential projects alongside intense networking. Communication and exploitation activities are envisaged including national Roadshows and a survey with policy makers. It is expected that over 200 people participate in the capacity-building activities performed within the RLLs network, while the stakeholders and policy makers informed on the project results and activities will exceed the 1000 individuals. The project objectives are completely inline with topic EE07’s scope, since it considers innovative capacity building activities to public authorities for integrated energy planning through the establishment of a network of RLLs, i.e. of an ecosystem that stakeholders bring their own specific wealth of knowledge and expertise to the collective, helping to achieve boundary spanning knowledge transfer. Special consideration will be provided on planning requirements deriving from 27/2012/EU Directive.

Three place-based innovation ecosystems in Cyprus, Greece and Bulgaria partner together to create an Excellence Hub for Future Cities and Regions in Southeast Europe (SEE). The METACITIES Excellence Hub is a sustainable network that offers a common platform for collaboration, cross-fertilization, and best practices sharing across borders, sectors and disciplines on knowledge production, circulation and use. Founded upon a joint R&I strategy, a nexus of collaborative links across sectors, joint research, innovation and outreach activities as well as business modelling and sustainability plans, the collaboration aims to benefit citizens, stakeholders, regional ecosystems and the whole SEE region. The thematic focus on future and metaverse cities necessitates the definition of ambitious R&I agendas and the uptake of advanced digital technologies. Digital Twins (DT) of future cities/regions provide accurate and reliable reference representation seamlessly unifying the physical, digital and human worlds and enabling stakeholders to assess the effects of any changes before investments and implementations actually occur. The proposed Open Digital Twin Framework facilitates co-development of complementary future city domains along with their equivalent DTs. The applied Quadruple Helix Model forges synergies among actors and alignment of public and private sector priorities for regional development. PoC studies, small-scale pilots and feasibility assessments validate project outcomes. Green Business and Operation Models will be developed for future and metaverse cities, as well as for the METACITIES Excellence Hub. Investment and Sustainability Plans will mobilize the communities of the three innovation ecosystems to progress faster in joined efforts. Common investment plans for R&I, infrastructures and support for real-life experimentation, aim to leverage national, regional and European funds as well as crowd funds and private capital in a synergetic manner.