The ambition of the Global Knowledge Exchange Centre (GKEC) for Urban Climate Neutrality is to mainstream actions towards climate neutral and net-zero urban developments on a global level. In this sense, the GKEC will provide support in terms of global outreach for the European Cities Mission as well as contribute to the Urban Transition Mission of Mission Innovation. It will provide effective support and knowledge for local governments and international stakeholders and through this, support European policy such as the European Green Deal and work towards the international commitments of the Paris Agreement. The GKEC will make available evidence and good practice for urban climate neutral and net-zero transitions globally and facilitate capacity building, knowledge exchange and moderated learning for municipalities and key stakeholders. In operational terms, the GKEC will set up actions according to the three impact pathways: 1.Mainstream knowledge and good practice to accelerate urban transitions: The mission platform will be extended towards global use, making available international solutions and good practices and promote financing and funding opportunities to implement integrated urban climate action and net-zero pathways. 2.Offer advanced frameworks and moderated learning across all governance levels to raise awareness of and capacities for CN and NZ policies: Policy advocacy for climate neutral and net-zero approaches will allow aligning of global policies. Capacity building measures for local and regional actors will provide guidelines and support mutual learning to drive systemic change. 3.Establish the GKEC as a forum for international exchange and cooperation on climate neutral and net-zero transitions: Global and regional events accompanied by comprehensive dissemination measures will raise visibility of EU and international good practice and strengthen international cooperation on climate neutrality and net-zero pathways.

Fostering a Transition towards Responsible Research and Innovation Systems The main objective of FoTRRIS is to develop and introduce new governance practices to foster Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) policies and methods in research and innovation systems. Since research and innovation systems and practices in different European MS and within different research performing organisations vary, FoTRRIS will consider the implementation of new governance practices in five different MS In order to stress that responsible research and innovation is a collaborative activity from the very beginning—collaboration starts ‘upstream’, from the definition of the problem or challenge, continues with the analysis of the problem, the projection of potential solutions, the design of a research and innovation project that aims at realising a solution, and goes on during its performance and monitoring—FoTRRIS adds the prefix ‘co’ to the acronym RRI. Moreover, because important present-day challenges are (at least partially) of a global nature, but manifest themselves in ways that are influenced by local conditions, FoTRRIS focusses on ‘glocal’ challenges, i.e. local/regional manifestations of global challenges and on ‘local’ opportunities for solving them. FoTRRIS will perform a transition experiment, i.e. an experiment to support the transformation of present-day research and innovation strategies into co-RRI-strategies. It will design, test and validate the organisation, operation and funding of a co-RRI-hub. This hub is conceived as a small organisational unit, that will function as a local one-stop innovation platform that encourages various knowledge actors from science, policy, industry and civil society to co-design, -perform, and –monitor co-RRI-projects that are attuned to local manifestations of global sustainability challenges. The transition experiments performed in 5 member states will be evaluated and policy recommendations to implement co-RRI derived.

With rising anthropogenic CO2 emissions resulting in climate change, solutions to rapidly bring green hydrogen to market are required. PH2OTOGEN aims to build a scalable photocatalytic flow reactor for green hydrogen production with parallel production of value-added oxidation products, which will contribute to the revenues of the overall system. The PH2OTOGEN consortium will use advanced characterisation techniques to determine promising and novel combinations of semiconducting materials to achieving an average solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of > 5% over 500 hours in a 500 cm2 demonstrator.

ENTRUST provides mapping of Europe’s energy system (key actors & their intersections, technologies, markets, policies, innovations) and an in-depth understanding of how human behaviour around energy is shaped by both technological systems and socio-demographic factors (esp. gender, age and socio-economic status). New understandings of energy-related practices and an intersectional approach to the socio-demographic factors in energy use will be deployed to enhance stakeholder engagement in Europe’s energy transition. The role of gender will be illuminated by intersectional analyses of energy-related behaviour & attitudes towards energy technologies, which will assess how multiple identities and social positions, combine to shape practices. These analyses will be integrated within a transitions management framework which takes account of the complex meshing of human values and identities with technological systems. The third key paradigm informing the research is the concept of energy citizenship, with a key goal of ENTRUST being to enable individuals overcome barriers of gender, age and socio-economic status to become active participants in their own energy transitions. Central to the project will be an in-depth engagement with 5 very different communities across the continent, who will be invited to be co-designers of their own energy transition. The consortium brings a diverse array of expertise to bear in assisting and reflexively monitoring these communities as they work to transform their energy behaviours, generating innovative transition pathways and business models capable of being replicated elsewhere in Europe. Deliverables will include a policy tool-kit incorporating contemporary best practice in promoting energy transitions at a Europe-wide level; a suite of innovative transition pathways and community engagement tools designed to stimulate dialogue and break down barriers to behaviour change and the adoption new technologies at a community level.

SNETP, the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform, was confirmed in 2013 as one of the EC’s officially recognised European Technology Platforms, the only one in the nuclear fission sector. The SPRINT project aims at supporting SNETP in its roadmapping, networking, dissemination and communication activities. The essential purpose of the SPRINT proposal, in particular, is to support SNETP in the elaboration and wide adoption and use of its strategic roadmaps, as well as in strengthening its visibility and interactions with its members and external stakeholders. The project sets out four specific objectives: ensuring an inclusive and efficient process for producing strategic roadmaps; improving the ‘value proposal’ of SNETP for the fission R&D community in Europe; confirming SNETP as a key player within the international energy technology landscape; and enhancing the visibility and dialogue of SNETP towards a wider audience. Focusing on “value creation” and visibility for the Platform, SPRINT will pursue some of the activities initialised through the Euratom FP7 “SNETP-Office” and “SMILE” projects. SPRINT will support the platform, groups and members, with the development and dissemination of main strategic documents (i.a., the Deployment Strategy and the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda). SPRINT will also strengthen and improve the interactions between its pillars/activities and will increase SNETP’s interactions with stakeholders (EU institutions and initiatives, international agencies, other platforms). Finally, SPRINT will propose new added value services to its members and will strengthen SNETP visibility by participating in major international events and updating its communication tools.