CULTIVATE uses a multi-actor approach to build sustainability and resilience in urban and peri-urban areas through a ground-breaking online social innovation support platform – The Food Sharing Compass. Built with and for five key stakeholder groups – food sharing initiatives, policy makers, food supply actors, researchers and citizens – the platform will make it possible to navigate diverse food sharing landscapes and cultures, in order to understand, develop, replicate, expand and strengthen sustainable food sharing in Europe, supporting the European Green Deal’s Action Plan, Food 2030, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the EU’s climate change ambitions. The open access Food Sharing Compass will comprise five innovative tools: The SHARECITY200 Database, an interactive automated mapping, tracking and monitoring database of food sharing initiatives that will add more than 100 new locations to the SHARECITY100 Database [https://sharecity.ie/research/sharecity100-database/]; The Food Sharing Calculator, which enables comprehensive and holistic assessment of the costs, benefits and impacts of food sharing for all stakeholders; The Menu of Good Governance, which provides options for developing policy making which facilitates sustainable food sharing; The Library of Citizen Engagement, which supports establishing, expanding and maintaining inclusive participation in sustainable food sharing; The sustainable food sharing Community of Practice, which will be established through a bespoke Amplification Programme to optimise the potential for mutual learning and exploitation of the Food Sharing Compass well beyond the project. In essence, CULTIVATE will establish the EU as the global frontrunner in the development of resilient and inclusive food sharing economies, identifying drivers and implementation gaps and challenging existing theories and practices which currently constrain sustainable food sharing.

EQUAL-LIFE will develop and test combined exposure data using a novel approach to multi-modal exposures and their impact on children’s mental health and development. A combination of birth-cohort data with new sources of data, will provide insight into aspects of physical and social exposures hitherto untapped. It will do this at different scale levels and timeframes, while accounting for the distribution of exposures in social groups based on gender, ethnicity, social vulnerability. Beginning with child development and mental health, a set of theory-based questions is formulated, a wide range of relevant environmental and social hazards is defined and validated at the stakeholders end. Exposure assessment combines traditional GIS-based approaches with omics approaches and new sources of data that could explain aspects of the urban environment at a higher spatial and temporal granularity, and provide insight into untapped parameters relating to exposure (spatial quality of neighborhoods). These together form the early-life exposome. Statistical tools integrate data at different scale levels and times and combine e.g. machine learning, causal models with subgroups measures. EQUAL-LIFE uses data from birth-cohorts, longitudinal school data sets and cross-sectional studies (N=>250.000), including data on exposures, biomarkers, mental health and developmental outcomes, in their social context. EQUAL-LIFE contributes to the development/utilization of the exposome concept by 1) integrating the internal, external and social exposome 2) by studying a distinct set of effects on a child’s development and mental health 3) by characterizing/measuring/modelling the child’s environment at different stages and activity spaces 4) by looking at supportive environments for child development, rather than merely pollutants 5) by combining physical, social indicators with novel biomarkers and using new data sources describing child activity patterns and environments. EQUAL-LIFE is part of the European Human Exposome Network comprised of nine projects selected from this same call.

The vision of the ARV project is to contribute to speedy wide scale implementation of Climate Positive Circular Communities (CPCC) where people can thrive and prosper for generations to come. The overall aim is to demonstrate and validate attractive, resilient, and affordable solutions for CPCC that will significantly speed up the deep energy renovations and the deployment of energy and climate measures in the construction and energy industries. To achieve this, the ARV project will employ a novel concept relying on a combination of 3 conceptual pillars, 6 demonstration projects, and 9 thematic focus areas. The 3 conceptual pillars are integration, circularity and simplicity. Integration in ARV means the coupling of people, buildings, and energy systems, through multi-stakeholder co-creation and use of innovative digital tools. Circularity in ARV means a systematic way of addressing circular economy through automated use of LCA, digital logbooks and material banks. Simplicity in ARV means to make the solutions easy to understand and use for all stakeholders, from manufacturers to end-users. The 6 demos are urban regeneration projects in 6 locations around Europe. They have been carefully selected to represent the different European climates and contexts, and due to their high ambitions in environmental, social and economic sustainability. Renovation of social housing and public buildings are specifically focused. Together, they will demonstrate more than 50 innovations in more than 150,00 m2 of buildings. The 9 thematic focus areas are 1) Effective planning and implementation of CPCCs, 2) Citizen engagement, environment and well-being, 3) Sustainable building re(design) 4) Resource efficient manufacturing and construction workflows, 5) Integrated renewables and storage, 6) Energy management and flexibility, 7) Monitoring and evaluation, 8) Business models, financial mechanisms, policy and exploitation, 9) Communication, dissemination, and stakeholder outreach.

The DREAMS project aims to examine how co-created and user-centric mobility services, mobility and flexible activity hubs can contribute to accessible, sustainable and inclusive 15mC neighbourhoods in urban outskirts in European cities and regions. DREAMS will conduct research in six living labs across Europe: Budapest, Brussels, Munich, Paris, Utrecht and Vienna. DREAMS will firstly provide a comprehensive and comparative analysis of 15mC lifestyles in a variety of low- to mid-density suburban and urban outskirts in the five regions. Secondly, DREAMS will develop and test new business models and governance frameworks for new shared mobility services and flexible activity hubs in low/medium density areas. Thirdly, DREAMS will develop and apply a decision support tool for the co-creation and impact assessment of mobility services, mobility hubs and flexible activity hubs in the DREAMS living labs. Fourthly, DREAMS will examine the mobility, accessibility and wider societal impacts of the mobility services, mobility hubs and flexible activity hubs services. Finally, the last aim is to give policy recommendations on pathways towards creating sustainable and inclusive urban mobility in 15mC neighbourhoods in urban outskirts through the utilisation of co-created and user-centric mobility services, mobility and flexible activity hubs and new governance-business models

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have the potential to respond to climate change, enhance biodiversity and improve environmental quality while contributing to economic regeneration and social well-being. Yet there is a substantial gap between the promise of NBS and their uptake. To unlock the potential of NBS for sustainable urban development, NATURVATION will take a transdisciplinary, internationally comparative approach to: advance assessment approaches (Objective 1) to capture the multiple impacts & values of NBS to deliver a robust evidence base for decision-making; enable innovation (Objective 2) to identify the most promising governance, business/finance and participation models and how to overcome the systemic conditions that currently limit their use to support systemic integration; and generate momentum to realise the potential of NBS through co-design, co-development & co-implementation of new partnerships, knowledge, recommendations, processes and tools required to build capacity, enable replication and foster cultural change (Objective 3). Our transdisciplinary approach working with ‘urban-regional innovation partnerships’ in six different cities and a Task Force of highly respected international organisations working in this arena integrates science, social science and humanities (SSH) and practical expertise and experience to achieve a step-change in the use of NBS for urban sustainability.