The European tourism sector plays a pivotal role in driving economic growth, employment, and social development. However, it faces challenges deriving from its predominant reliance on linear models, causing significant environmental impacts and resource depletion. Recognizing the necessity for a paradigm shift, the VERNE project aspires to accelerate the transition of local and regional tourist destinations toward sustainable and circular models across Europe. VERNE aims to provide an integrated framework for analysing the feasibility and impact of circular interventions in tourism destinations, offering recommendations for authorities, tourism industries, and citizens for the sector's transition into more sustainable business models. In collaboration with public administrations, DMOs, private sector services, industries, citizens and tourists, NGOs, and other stakeholders, VERNE will create and validate a range of systemic, replicable, and scalable solutions, tailored on the real needs and attitudes of these actors. These solutions will encompass diverse approaches and technologies (i.e., digital solutions, improved waste and food waste management, wastewater treatment, use of electric vehicles, etc.) and will cover several sector and services for tourism . The VERNE solutions will be implemented and demonstrated in 5 European representative tourist destinations (VERNE Pilots). The project's outcomes will be incorporated into new business models, providing a quantified demonstration of their effects on the competitiveness and sustainability of existing tourism services. Finally, VERNE will have the ambition to emerge as one-stop-shop for sustainable tourism, serving as a comprehensive hub of expertise, tools, and best practices on sustainable tourism, facilitating the adoption and replication of circular systemic solutions across Europe.

The EU has set bold quantified and measurable targets to achieve its Ocean Mission objectives relating to protecting and restoring marine ecosystems and biodiversity (Mission Objective 1); preventing and eliminating pollution of our ocean (Mission Obj. 2); and making the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular (Mission Obj.3) by 2030. The EU Mission Implementation Plan has two demanding, but necessarily near-term phases: the first ‘development and piloting’ phase by 2025, and the second ‘deployment and upscaling’ phase from 2026-2030. PHAROS will be the logical stepping stone bridging Mission Phase 1 ‘development and piloting’ and the second ‘deployment and upscaling’ phase from 2026-2030. • PHAROS will have three demos in the Atlantic using a combination of newly developed innovative NBS and IMTA, tailored to the local context, resulting in multiple biodiversity and ecosystem restoration benefits (Mission Phase 1). These demos will also leverage key Mission projects including Ocean Citizen, Climarest, and Ultfarms (Mission phase 2). • PHAROS will also partner with H2020 ECOTIP to leverage and extend its project in a demo to reduce invasive species in Iceland with eDNA monitoring (Mission phase 1 and 2). • PHAROS will extending (TRL advancement) and rolling out leading Mission projects across the AA basin including Prep4Blue MPA platform and network, Nettagplus and Remedies Fisher Guardian and Citizen Litter Entrepreneur programs, and Probleu EU Blue School Network platform for education(bridge to phase 2) PHAROS will establish Living Labs, early in the project in each demo and replication region, securing participation for its co-creation approach, across all relevant and necessary actors including different levels of government, researchers and innovators, education institutions, small and large, businesses, investors and civil society.

The overall objective of the TASC-RestoreMed programme is to strongly contribute to the Mission Ocean programme “Restore our Seas and Waters by 2030”, forcing a transformative change through the Blue doughnut concept – Phase 2 with: [1] A FSTP programme of 9 million euro supporting 2 types of projects, one type being at the stage of scale-up and deployment of solutions in the Mediterranean Basin and another type on Transition Agendas, being local and regional roadmaps for the Mediterranean Basin to support the solutions scale-up and deployment and legislation development/adaptation for the future. [2] Attracting, engaging and onboarding strong consortia with challenging projects, showing critical mass for scale-up and deployment through an open call organised according to fair, transparent, objective and open principles. [3] Offering technical support measures on relevant topics that suit all projects in TASC-RestoreMed, with a focus on policy/legislation, access to funding and business/impact case and business plan development, realised through feasibility studies, clustering and networking activities, impact assessment, digital tool for funding, access to infrastructure and a variety of more general support activities. All tangible tools developed and used in the programme brought together in RestoreMedTOOLS, for the sake of the programme and for the future. [4] Support Member States/Associated countries national, regional and/or local authorities, as well as all concerned stakeholders, to implement EU legislation related to marine/freshwater ecosystems and reach the biodiversity, pollution and climate targets of the European Green Deal, through Transition Agendas and impact assessments. [5] A vibrant dissemination and communication plan to promote the call for proposals as well as to maximise the visibility of the TASC-RestoreMed programme and the projects within TASC-RestoreMed.

Achieving a climate-neutral and resilient society requires the transformation of Europe’s building stock, not only at the level of individual structures but also across neighborhoods and urban districts. This transformation goes beyond technical retrofitting, demanding an inclusive approach that engages all stakeholders in participatory processes. In response to this, BLUEPRINT, will combine technological innovation with participatory processes in digital solutions that foster greater citizens’ and stakeholders’ engagement and drive the adoption of sustainable renovation practices aiming to promote sustainable, aesthetic and accessible urban spaces with better living conditions for all. This will be achieved with a NEB grounded unified, evidence-based framework for urban regeneration and stakeholder participation integrating immersive and interactive technologies - including AI assistants in urban renovation, participatory and modeling tools, Building Information Modeling, Virtual and Augmented reality - in multiscale Digital Twins to create a novel and robust system for community participation during the design and planning stage of climate-resilient renovation strategies and efficient management of urban systems. Complementing this, an innovative low-tech, analog approach ensures inclusive participation aligned with "leave no one behind" principles, addressing gaps in current participatory tools, which often fail to engage vulnerable groups such as the elderly, disabled, and low-income communities. The project will validate its innovative solutions in Balla (IE), Issy-les-Moulineaux (FR), Athens (GR), Budapest (HU), Benetutti (IT), tackling diverse challenges like energy-efficient renovations, sustainable mobility, public space revitalization, and climate resilience. The learnings from these living labs will translate into new guidelines and recommendations in line with the Built4People Partnership goals to foster replication across Europe and beyond.

The project is built around the three main pillars of monitoring plastic litter, its collection and valorisation and, of course, the prevention of the distribution of non-degradable plastics. We will do so by strongly building on former projects addressing these topics and by connecting to previously identified major initiatives active in this area. For us, the most promising aspect is the activation and necessary participation of citizens affected by plastic pollution directly on the shorelines. We will guide them to becoming plastic entrepreneurs with a deeply rooted knowledge base and the right tools to start their own businesses through the valorisation of collected plastic litter and the provision of zero-waste solutions to all actors. We plan to employ 4 breakthrough innovations per pillar (monitoring, collection, prevention) that are neatly interwoven, building upon each other to create an even better whole. We will test these solutions in 8 demonstration sites in 8 Mediterranean countries and after validation, scale them up in 33 more sites with the potential to be launched across the whole Mediterranean. In parallel we will run two open calls to third parties to attract more solutions for implementation following our same methodology. All-in-all, we plan to map out 170 km2 for plastic litter, reach circa 100,000 citizens, collect around 400 tons of plastic waste, and build up plastic prevention pathways through scaling and replication for an equivalent of 3,700 tons of plastic.