REMARKABLE will support local leaders to deliver a step change in progress towards carbon neutrality by 2050 in 7 regions across Europe. REMARKABLE will establish, by 2024, a network of 320 Current and Emerging Climate Leaders who, through their actions and inspiration, will drive their municipalities, public authorities, communities and regions to transform their approaches from ones focused on energy efficiency/renewables to ones focused on the strategic goal of climate neutrality by 2050. REMARKABLE will build new leadership capacity in 120 actors from 7 countries in Europe though a Climate Leadership Programme (CLP). The CLP will be inspired by ethnographic research and will be designed with and for leaders across public authorities. The REMARKABLE CLP will also facilitate the creation of 60 Roadmaps for public authorities aiming at Climate Neutrality by 2050. These Roadmaps will allow our Climate Leaders to translate strategic aspirations and policy ambitions into concrete and disruptive far reaching measures stimulating €300m investment by 2030. A Climate and Energy Check Tool will be developed and tested along with a Climate Neutrality Roadmap Guide. The 7 Regional Energy Agencies involved in REMARKABLE will develop 14 new services to expand their roles as change agents in the Clean Energy Transition and Climate Neutrality challenges. Climate Neutrality Training, Climate One Stop Shops, Financing Solutions are targeted as potential services. REMARKABLE will exploit its outcomes and results through the creation of an EU Climate Leaders Circle, reaching up to 320 members by 2024 including 30 from 7 Observer Regions/Countries. An innovative Climate Neutrality Challenge will be organised for Young Climate Leaders. The REMARKABLE Circle will create synergies with existing networks and initiatives e.g. COMO, ManagEnergy to support and enhance their impacts with the ambition of mobilising 10,000 stakeholders by 2030 (2,000 by 2024)

HP4All brings together leading experts across Europe to enable capacity and skills development within the Heat Pump sector and to ensure that the energy efficiency gains afforded by heat pumps are realised. HP4All, following a a holistic, systemic point of view, will work both with the supply side (manufacturers, SMEs, installers etc) and demand side (building owners, public sector etc.). This way, the project will enhance, develop and promote the skills required for high quality, optimised Heat Pump (HP) installations within residential/non-residential buildings bringing Europe to the forefront of the climatization sector. HP4All will develop the HP4All package, a set of different tools and resources to be used by the different related stakeholders. The package includes a HP Competency Framework to facilitate Mutual Recognition of HP Skills and, from an end user perspective, a HP Knowledge Hub will be created to provide guidance, support and tools e.g. procurement guidance to increase the demand for HP skills and knowledge. HP4All will validate this package through 3 regional plans being implemented (AT, ES and IE) with the ambition of driving market change, influencing end user decisions and planning for new innovations. The implementation plans will be informed by extensive stakeholder engagement to map current and future barriers to HP market exploitation and skills development. Leading experts in the HP and Energy sector will support the regional actors to prepare the market for new innovations related to HP technology, procurement and contracting services. The impact of the project will be maximised through the role of the Observers (HR, PT,RO ) as they will follow closely the development and validation of the HP4All package, being early adopters even before the project ends. Replication activities will include train-the-trainer, a roadmap and pan-European events for policy makers and public bodies.

PROSPECT+ will build on the existing H2020 project PROSPECT to enable capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement effective and efficient sustainable energy plans, including their proper monitoring and verification and also ensuring that such plans are using synergies from other local plans and that their effects are properly monitored. The learning will continue through the 5 learning modules (public buildings, private buildings, public lighting, transport, and cross-sectoral), with more attention given to improved decision-making of cities on how they choose projects for financing, as well as how to assess and ensure that their projects are finance-ready. The types of innovative financing and the modules will stay the same, but the methodology, the process, and the learning materials will be greatly improved. The ambition of PROSPECT+ is to ensure that over 200 EU cities in at least 20 EU MS improve their capacities when it comes to implementing projects from SECAPs and similar sustainable plans.

The residential sector has a significant role to play in achieving the EUs binding target of 32.5% energy efficiency saving by 2030. Recent EU Directives have advanced definitions for two types of energy communities. A ‘Renewable Energy Community’ and a ‘Citizens Energy Community’. While there are similarities between the two, there are key differences - their structure and ability to participate as a market actor. There is limited available information published in an approachable manner that explains these differences. Thus organising an energy community requires a great deal of expertise. The regular consumer often feels side-lined and unable to participate. The UP-STAIRS project addresses these issues with a goal to accelerate the growth of energy communities by providing a common framework. UP-STAIRS removes the barriers to citizen participation in the transition from a consumer-market to a ‘prosumer-market’. This transition requires active learning and participation from all stakeholders. The UP-STAIRS Energy Service Framework enables Local Authorities and Citizens to work together through a common structure embodied in a one-stop-shop. This common structure includes business models and decision support for energy assessment of a community’s energy potential. UP-STAIRS provides a full service information repository on policy and regulatory advice which will give the UP-STAIRS Implementation Champion the confidence to understand the impact that their energy community can make into the market. Community support is through a compendium of energy tutorials on key topics including behaviour change, prosumerism, collective actions and their benefit to consumers, and what it means to become an energy citizen in a sustainable energy community. The UP-STAIRS project consists of 1 RPO, 1 NGO, 1 consultancy organisation, 1 SME, 1 National Energy Authority, 1 Regional Energy Authority, 3 Municipalities/city councils and 1 consumer organisation from 7 member states.

URBAN TECH will support the acceleration of competitive success of European SMEs through market launch of new or significantly improved products and services with higher value (with higher quality, increased access, eco- innovative, resource efficient and internationally scalable). In long term perspective (strategic objective), URBAN TECH will innovate and increase the competitiveness of European Health Tech, Smart City and Greentech industries globally. Value proposition: • Offering innovative solutions to cross-sectoral and cross-border challenges, either public or private. • Bringing together different stakeholders of the industry value-chain to cooperate and innovate together. • Supporting SMEs and start-ups in scaling their solutions and products globally. Advanced partnership of cluster and innovation support organisations from 9 countries, entrepreneurial and innovation support measures providers to SMEs and start-ups, mediators between the societal stakeholders needs and solution providers. Partners’ network bringing together 3 500 start-ups and SMEs and wider outreach to 20 000. The core outputs of the project: • 300 clustered challenges from 9 countries and beyond • Online Open Space, based on Virtual Library of Challenges structured around Health Tech, Greentech and Smart City industries • 320 collaborative innovation solutions by SMEs selected for industry hackathons through Open Call • Up to 9 international industry hackathons, resulting in 80 cross-border and cross-sectoral innovation projects selected for incubation and 1st stage of support (in total, max up to 10 350 €) • ~30 projects selected for 2nd stage support (20-30 k €) for large scale testing and demonstration to deliver minimal viable products (MPVs) • 20 projects selected for Going Global stage support (up to 14 k €) • 20 tested and demonstrated products, partnerships and further public & private funding attracted through project business development and going global support in 3-5 years