Cities need support to implement their Sustainable Action Plans in line with the ambitious and stringent regulations towards a zero carbon Europe. The EYES HEARTS HANDS Urban Revolution (EHHUR) project will develop and test a co-designed methodological structure to support cities in their built environment transformation by using already existing good practices and complementing them with the New European Bauhaus and EU Missions principles. 7 Lighthouse demonstrators will be involved across EU and Associated countries (DK, EL, BE, PT, TK, HR, IT). EHHUR will tackle socio-economic and cultural challenges through relevant case studies facing social segregation, vulnerable residents (experiencing energy poverty), coal transition, depopulated and degraded historic centres. EHHUR relies on engagement and co-design as the “backbone” of its methodology, by deploying a set of tailored social innovation activities aimed not only to engage, but also to commit the participation of relevant urban players at multiple and multidisciplinary levels (technology co-design, co-financing, aesthetic co-creation). The EHHUR new integrated methodology will cover innovative i) engagement practices to transform citizens into active players of their future urban transformation and empower them in the decision-making process, ii) financing schemes involving local businesses and citizens, iii) digital and green technologies, iv) architectural design and materials to meet climate change and sustainability challenges while respecting heritage and cultural eco-systems, v) arts and creative co-design in third sector buildings and public areas. The diversified experiences of the LH demonstrators will provide a variety of good practices and guidelines for future replication. Future adopters will benefit from a DSS tool, supported by a capacity building programme, that offers the ideal mix of best technical solutions, optimal financing schemes and engagement tools and social innovation practice.

URBiNAT focuses on the regeneration and integration of deprived social housing urban developments through an innovative and inclusive catalogue of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), ensuring sustainability and mobilising driving forces for social cohesion. Interventions focus on the public space to co-create with citizens new urban, social and nature-based relations within and between different neighbourhoods. Taking the full physical, mental and social well-being of citizens as its main goal, URBiNAT aims to co-plan a healthy corridor as an innovative and flexible NBS, which itself integrates a large number of micro NBS emerging from community-driven design processes. URBiNAT consists of a worldwide consortium of academic and business partners around 7 European cities (Porto, Nantes and Sofia as ‘frontrunners’; Siena, Nova Gorica, Brussels and Høje-Taastrup as followers), that will act as living laboratories to implement healthy corridor solutions. The cities will be supported by local partners, associations and research centres, and by Europe-wide centres, universities and companies. These will develop a participatory process, an NBS catalogue and a healthy corridor, while monitoring impacts, disseminating and marketing results. Together, they form an inclusive community of practice (CoP), collaborating with partners from Iran and China, and NBS observers located in Brazil, Oman, Japan and a Chinese city, bringing experiences and an international dimension to the project. Partners will contribute their innovative NBS experience deployed through an array of transdisciplinary knowledge, methodologies and tools, as nature-based solutions. This will be supplmented by ‘smart’ digital tools, citizen engagement, solidarity and social economy initiatives, social innovation for value-generation, incubation for business development and capacity building, and ICT governance platforms. The social, economic and urban impacts will be measured and replicated by URBiNAT Observatory.

The COOL DH project will innovate, demonstrate, evaluate and disseminate technological solutions needed to exploit and utilise sources of very low-grade "waste" heat for heating of energy efficient buildings via Low Temperature District Heating (LTDH) and show how the District Heating (DH) systems can be more resource efficient and more energy efficient. The demonstration covers both new developments and stepwise transition of existing areas with district heating and energy retrofitting of buildings. The COOL DH consortium consists of the utilities and municipalities of the two cities Lund (SE) and Høje-Taastrup (DK) and leading DH energy specialists as well as leading industrial manufacturers. COOL DH will: - Innovate, design and build cooling and heat recovery process systems, enabling heat recovery to a local low- temperature district heating grid. They will mainly be driven by renewables. Design work will start in 2017 and heat recovery will start in 2019. - Design and build a low-temperature district heating grid with non-conventional pipe materials and testing of new innovative pipe components that will become new products introduced as a result of COOL DH. - Innovate and design suitable innovative heating systems and controls inside buildings that combine LTDH with distributed integration of local produced renewable energy on the buildings. Erection of new buildings in Lund will start in 2018 and will continue throughout the time of this project, while LTDH in Høje-Taastrup mainly will be for existing buildings being refurbished including modification of the heating system. - Develop viable business models and new pricing systems, that ensures a good (low) return temperature and provide the building companies with maximum flexibility regarding the choice of heating systems. - Demonstrate a full system with all needed components suitable for ultra-low DH temperatures (40 oC) incl. demonstration of systems for heating of DHW without risk of legionella.

ELEXIA will develop/upgrade validated tools for planning and managing integrated energy systems in different conditions and will integrate and combine energy systems across vectors and sectors towards a cost-optimised as well as flexible and resilient energy system of systems. A Digital Services Platform will host the energy management and planning services and will foster flexibility and sector coupling. A System Planning Toolbox will be developed and deployed to support effective sector coupling at local sites considering different scenarios, operational details, possibly conflicting interests of multiple local actors, and security of supply. An Energy Management Systems will be built and deployed for flexible, cost-optimised, and resilient operation of sector coupled local sites including forecasting, digital twins, optimization, control, monitoring, assessing operating conditions, predicting anomalous operation, and preventing occurrence of breakdowns. ELEXIA will demonstrate the use of planning and operational tools in a one-stop-shop, modular and open, digital platform at TRL7–8. It will demonstrate the benefits of sector integration at local / national level in three different geographical, climate and economic conditions in Europe: in an industrial port environment in Portugal, in an urban-city hub environment in Denmark, and in an industrial-urban-residential environment in Norway. ELEXIA will assess environmental, economic and social sustainability, will deliver a methodology for CAPEX / OPEX and value creation, and will focus on policy and governance. It will put focus on stakeholder engagement and societal acceptance and will ensure effort towards future exploitation and replication. ELEXIA will establish and demonstrate realistic and concrete pathways to ultimately achieve independence of fossil fuels by harnessing the latent flexibility of the energy system through integration, data-intelligence, and planning, working towards the 2050 European goals.