The CSA RIS4Danu proposes a series of concerted actions over 24 months to elaborate strategic business development plans for the re-opening of 21 disused industrial sites in the Danube Macro-Region, an area that stretches from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. The project directly connects to the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), a macro-regional strategy to address common economic and societal challenges and create synergies and coordination between existing policies and initiatives. Danube neighbouring states share a proud and centuries-old history of manufacturing and industrial production, yet political upheavals, globalisation and technological advancements have confronted many Danube regions with the challenges of structural transformation and have triggered the closing down of numerous industrial plants and sites. In many regions, plant closures and the associated displacement of workers caused severe socio-economic effects on workers, local communities and regions. At the heart of the RIS4Danu project is the goal of applying an evidence-based Smart Specialisation (S3) approach to support place-based innovation for green/digital and inclusive transitions in regions along the Danube River. This project ties in with current debates and requests to combine smart specialisation with considerations of socio-ecological challenges such as climate change, environmental issues and growing social and territorial inequality: Smart Specialisation Strategies for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (S4+). We argue that the re-opening of old industrial sites shows the potential to build transformative resilience in less-favoured Danube regions. These sites could serve as innovation anchors, unleashing opportunities for the entire region to strengthen their capacity to develop innovative solutions to place-specific ecological, social and economic challenges. Project activities include cross-regional peer exchange and a transfer of knowledge along the Danube River.

The SYMBIO project provides European regional communities with tools and methodological approaches to building bio-based business models based on circularity by-design and industrial symbiosis. Thanks to tools for integrating big data and artificial intelligence, SYMBIO shapes 10 symbiotic business models with high-profitability sustainability replicable at the EU level to increase bio-based products on the market and provides a system to modelling, measure and monitor symbiosis and its social, economic and environmental impacts. SYMBIO methodology will be designed, tested and validated in 12 EU pilot regions (Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Carinthia, Slovenia, Croatia, Andalusia, Bruxelles Capital, Wallonia, Flanders) that have been selected based on the estimation of their bio-based resources defined by raw material availability, socio-economic indicators, intangible networks and infrastructures and potential for development of CBE close-to-market supply chains and current trends. Involving all supply chain actors in a quadruplex approach will help unlock and stimulate local development potential by promoting sustainable, innovative, tangible and participatory pathways to the green transition through an inclusive bottom-up CBE nexus.

TiCCA4Danu proposes a novel and comprehensive transformative innovation framework to accelerate just climate change adaptation (CCA) at the level of cities and their surrounding administrative regions. In order to address the structural barriers for CCA implementation at the city-region level, TiCCA4Danu proposes a systems-level approach, which requires effective governance changes, introduction of directionality, and a different use of policy instruments favouring discovery and experimentation processes. TiCCA4Danu directly relates to the EU Cities- and Adaptation Mission frameworks and builds on the emerging literature discussing the opportunities and limitations to governing socio-technical change for addressing grand challenges, such as climate change, through novel transformative approaches. At the core of TiCCA4Danu's methodological approach lies the concept of place-based “Transformative Innovation Policy” (TIP), which postulates a systems-level change perspective in innovation policy. TiCCA4Danu aims at applying the theoretical TIP concept to the city-region level by linking TIP to “Local Green Deals” (LGD), an established instrument for sustainable transformation at the city level, and by complementing the LGDs with a novel approach for transformative CCA at the level of regions. With TIP facilitating wider and inclusive societal transformation, TiCCA4Danu features stronger involvement of vulnerable groups as well as stronger private sector involvement. TiCCA4Danu focussing its activities on four "Anchor Cities" and their surrounding regions in the Danube Macro Region, all constituting different bio-geographical regions, i.e. Coastal, Mountain and Continental. By establishing a direct link to the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) and by working with the relevant Priority Area Working Groups, TiCCA4Danu will scale results up to the Macro-Regional level. Applicability at the EU level will be tested as part of the EU's "Week of Regions and Cities".

CEE2ACT will empower countries in Central Eastern Europe and beyond (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia) - CEE2ACT target countries - to develop circular bioeconomy strategies and action plans through knowledge transfer and innovative governance models enabling sustainability and resilience to achieve better informed decision-making processes, societal engagement and innovation, building on the practice of experienced countries serving as role models in this context (Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Sweden). Knowledge transfer and inspiration in creative formats that address the motivations, needs and knowledge gaps of each CEE2ACT target country will be realized through the CEE2ACT National Bioeconomy Hubs. A participatory, non-political, bottom-up approach will be applied throughout the project activities, tackling specific knowledge gaps and shortcomings of the top-down conventional approach, building closer interconnections between actors across public institutions, private sector, industry, energy, SMEs, feedstock providers (e.g., waste, side streams, farmers, foresters, fishermen), academia and research, NGOs, CSOs in the target countries. To achieve this, a baseline assessment will be carried out (socio-economic and environmental aspects), stakeholder engagement activities will be implemented ensuring the proper involvement and active participation of all relevant stakeholders. Digital solutions for sustainable governance will be created, exchange of know-how and best practices on technology transfer, building the capacities of the stakeholders to develop bioeconomy strategies. The findings will be synthetized, in an analytical framework, which will result in National-level Roadmaps for the Bioeconomy Strategies in Targeted CEE2ACT countries, boosting societal engagement in the countries’ transition towards circular bioeconomy.