SUSTAINable Offshore Wind (SUSTAINOW) develops innovative, open-access tools for sustainable site identification and holistic design for Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) across their entire life cycle with improved marine data accessibility. To achieve the European Green Deal and REPowerEU Plan, Europe aims for 300 GW offshore wind capacity by 2050. However, existing planning tools for floating and fixed-bottom OWFs face challenges due to data gaps and methodological shortcomings. SUSTAINOW addresses these gaps by developing three prototypes: 1. Cross-border marine data space targeted OWF - Improving data accessibility and compatibility. 2. Evidence-based OWF siting tool – Optimizing site selection for sustainability and feasibility. 3. Informed OWF project design tool – Supporting holistic design and planning by predicting and managing project impacts. SUSTAINOW builds on established decision-support tools such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Social Impact Assessment (SIA), and Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA). These tools facilitate "de-risking" strategies for OWFs by incorporating environmental, social, and economic considerations into planning and implementation, ensuring regulatory compliance and sustainability. The North Sea serves as the primary development basin for pioneering prototypes and establishing strategic roadmaps for implementation across other European sea basins. The project is executed by a multidisciplinary consortium of 11 partners from 8 countries, including academic institutions, industry leaders, and impact assessment specialists. By incorporating a holistic sustainability approach—covering life cycle stages, integration of socio-environmental aspects with economic costs and life-cycle impacts, impact management, and floating and fixed-bottom OWF designs—SUSTAINOW ensures a transparent, inclusive, and efficient pathway for offshore wind energy expansion.

URBAN M2O aims to create solutions to generate the crucial information that is needed to develop and implement risk-based urban water quality management plans at the city scale. Such plans will contribute to achieving sustainable urban water systems with zero pollution impact on human health and the environment. URBAN M2O will achieve this objective by: 1) Developing and benchmarking AI-enhanced, resource-effective monitoring water quality technologies; 2) Developing fit-for-purpose water quality models and harmonized data management systems; 3) Demonstrating open-access urban water digital twins assimilating monitoring data to identify hotspots and prioritize pollution control actions under current and future climate scenarios; 4) Providing tailored guidance to end users and stakeholders for the effective development of urban water quality monitoring and management plans. Industrial partners will enhance their monitoring techniques with AI methods, benchmarking them against state-of-the-art monitoring approaches for trace organic chemicals, microbial contaminants, and microplastics in all urban water systems, namely drinking water, surface water, bathing water, wastewater effluents, groundwater, urban run-off, and sewer overflows. Monitoring and modelling solutions will be demonstrated in three real and operational case studies, selected to represent different challenges faced by urban water infrastructure. The URBAN M2O solutions will be tailored to stakeholders and end-users’ needs, addressing current and future requirements and challenges, and different resources and data availability. URBAN M2O will enable urban water managers and regulators to make informed decisions, prioritizing actions to enhance urban water quality, and protect human health, the environment, and biodiversity at the European scale.

Water is central to all human activities, to all components of the EU Green Deal and to several UN SDGs. The Water4All Partnership aims at enabling water security for all on the long term through boosting systemic transformations and changes across the entire research – water innovation pipeline, fostering the matchmaking between problem owners and solution providers. It gathers more than 70 partners, R&I funders, environment ministries, local authorities, European, national and regional-scale networks, research performing organisations. It will collaborate with other relevant R&I initiatives. Water4All proposes a portfolio of multi-national, cross-sectoral activities, targeting a variety of actors, intending to generate the following outputs: - Strengthen the water R&I collaboration at European and international levels, across at least 31 countries, notably through Joint Transnational Calls - Coordinate and leverage the activities of the Water R&I community - Support and promote the demonstration and access to market of innovative solutions - Produce, share and better communicate water-related knowledge & data, from local to global scales - Enhance talent development of water R&I professionals - Foster capacity development and life-long training of water policy-makers, stakeholders and civil society - Design & implement approaches for participatory development of innovation Water4All will run its activities across 7 themes of its strategic agenda: water for circular economy; water for ecosystems and biodiversity; sustainable water management; water and health; water infrastructure; international cooperation; water governance. Water4All’s outputs will contribute to: - Deliver sound knowledge, tools and evidence basis on water for policy- & decision-making - Improve consideration of water impacts in all relevant policies - Enhance the field/market use of innovative solutions to water challenges - Increase citizens’ awareness and engagement for an inclusive water