The main objective of POWERPOOR is to develop support programmes/schemes for energy poor citizens and encourage the use of alternative financing schemes (e.g. establishing energy communities / cooperatives, crowd funding). POWERPOOR will facilitate experience and knowledge sharing, as well as the implementation of small-scale energy efficiency interventions and the installation of renewable energy sources, increasing the active participation of citizens. Pilot energy poor support programmes/schemes will be designed, developed and implemented in eight countries across Europe, led by a network of certified Energy Supporters and Energy Communities Mentors. The Energy Supporters / Mentors will support (more than 22,000) energy poor households to plan and implement energy efficiency interventions, as well as participate in joint energy initiatives. Energy poor citizens will be engaged through various planned activities, such as Info Days, Local Energy Poverty Offices, and ICT-driven tools (Energy Poverty Mitigation Toolkit). The establishment of the Stakeholders Liaison Groups will also facilitate the engagement and the provision of support to energy poor households. Guidelines on how to tackle energy poverty in Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans will also be developed. Based on the experience gained and the lessons learnt from implementing POWERPOOR, EU policy recommendations and 8 National Roadmaps will be elaborated, so that policy makers at all governance levels can learn from the project. The project results will be broadly disseminated, and synergies will be pursued with global and EU initiatives, such as the EU Energy Poverty Observatory and the (EU and Global) Covenant of Mayors on Energy and Climate. The participation of networks in the Consortium will strengthen the dissemination and exploitation of POWERPOOR outputs across Europe during and beyond the project implementation.

The proposed project aims to engage public authorities through a competition and to develop a targeted peer-to-peer learning program, to increase the uptake of cross-sectoral integrated urban planning at district level. The consortium is composed of 7 competent partners from countries covering different socio-economic and geographical areas of Europe, 6 of whom will implement all the project activities in their country, while the last partner, including its linked third party, serves as a supporting expert. National competitions for municipalities will enable the matching of forerunner cities in the field of integrated planning with committed cities, based on their excellence as well as outstanding ambitions. This transparent and innovative matching procedure will help to promote the contents of the project and to activate municipalities. The following peer-to-peer learning program, including a total of 42 municipalities will increase the capacities of municipal politicians, technical planning staff and communications representatives to effectively plan, finance, communicate and implement the energy transition. Targeted workshops will address the specific needs of these groups. The partners will draw on their broad experience to enrich, guide and moderate the peer-exchanges. With their increased capacities, 24 committed cities will develop institutionalised Energy Plans for the energy efficient development of one model district in their territory. The program also includes a European exchange dimension, to connect municipal authorities across the EU. The knowledge gained during this program will be disseminated by the consortium to further multiply the number of integrated planning projects for energy efficiency. MULTIPLY will contribute to the expected impact, triggering energy savings of around 177GWh/year and the production of renewable energy of around 80 GWh/year. It will link 42 municipalities across Europe and directly reach an estimated 960 municipal professionals with its learning programs.

The QualDeEPC project is aiming to both improve quality and cross-EU convergence of Ener-gy Performance Certificate (EPC) schemes, and the link between EPCs and deep renovation: High-quality Energy Performance Assessment and Certification in Europe Accelerating Deep Energy Renovation (QualDeEPC). The objective of the project is to improve the practical implementation of the assessment, is-suance, design, and use of EPCs as well as their renovation recommendations, in the partici-pating countries and beyond. Recommendations for renovation shall be made coherent with deep energy renovation towards a nearly-zero energy building stock by 2050. In order to reach these objectives, the project will organise its activities in four stages: 1 | Analysis of existing EPC schemes, good practice, shortcomings, and priorities for improvement 2 | Development and testing of concrete proposals and tools for enhanced EPC assessment, certifi-cation, and verification, as well as Deep Renovation Network Platforms 3 | Adaptation to country needs and implementation of consensus elements, and developing a roadmap for further dialogue and 4 | Sustainability Strategy and Conclusive policy recommendations, dialogue, and transfer. Project partners will work to achieve consensus and implementation during the project for as many improvements as possible, seeking the cooperation of certification bodies, energy agen-cies and other organisations. Some of these are project partners, many others agreed to sup-port the project as associated partners. However, many of the potential improvements to EPC assessment, certification, and independent monitoring and verification will need adaptation of standards, regulations, or even legislation. The QualDeEPC project will stimulate such changes by (1) intensive dialogue involving the important stakeholders at all levels from the very beginning in the above four project stages and (2) disseminating its findings among the relevant target audiences in Europe.

As currently there is a lack of skilled and trained experts with multidisciplinary knowledge on sustainable architecture, technical building systems and electric engineering in the European Union, both higher education and adult education have to respond to this urgent need with newly elaborated training materials.The main objective of HI-SMART project is to develop an innovative educational package targeting higher education students and professionals in Hungary, Slovakia and Germany to support design, construction and operation of intelligent, energy efficient buildings in compliance with the requirements of the energy performance of buildings (EPBD) directive of the European Union. The complex educational package will provide students with the newest competences and skills on energy efficient building technologies, and will make the professional knowledge of engineers and construction professionals more competitive in the labour market. The main intellectual output of the project is an innovative, complex educational package that will be elaborated on energy efficient building technologies, renewable energy sources, smart solutions in buildings in a broad perspective utilising the various fields of expertise the project partners own. The education material will be integrated into the curricula of the participating universities, and will be shared with the relevant business sector stakeholders and actors in each participating country. A short intensive training materail will also be elaborated by the partners, which will be suitable for adult education purposes as well besides using it in the academic and business sectors.The development of the educational package and the short intensive training will be supported by short-term joint staff training sessions, blended mobility activities for students and professionals. The results of the project will be shared at multiplier events organized in each participating country for the business sector stakeholders, for professionals working in the building industry, and for higher education institutions.