GrowSmarter aims to: • Improve the quality of life for European citizens by better mobility, housing and the quality of urban infrastructure while improving the citizens economy by lower energy costs and creating as much as 1500 new jobs (on the demonstration level). • Reduce the environmental impact by lower energy needs by 60 % and increased use of renewable energy thus reducing GHG emissions even more. • Create sustainable economic development by demonstrating and preparing a wider rollout of smart solutions. GrowSmarter will demonstrate at 3 lighthouse cities 12 smart, integrated solutions as a way of preparing for a wider market rollout. These solutions are integrated in specially chosen sites making demonstration easy to reach and take part of for the 5 follower cities and other European and international study groups. All the smart solutions are fit into the Lighthouse-cities strategic development plans and the follower cities replication plans. The solutions solve common urban challenges such as: • Renewal of existing buildings. GrowSmarter demonstrates the cost efficient renewal of 100.000 square meters of Nearly Zero or low energy districts reducing energy demand by 70-90%, • Integrated infrastructures for ICT, street lighting, smart grids district heating and smarter waste handling • Sustainable urban mobility for both passenger and gods integrated in smart grids, biofuels from household waste thus reducing local air quality emissions by 60%. The integration of Cities, strong group of industrial partners together and quality research organisations guarantee that the solutions will be both validated by independent research organisations and transformed into Smart Business Solutions by industry for the wider rollout to Europe. Growsmarter builds on integrated, close to the market solutions, to form business models for their wider deployment by the industrial partners. The project will help Europe GrowSmarter!

Considering the socio-ecological transition of Europe 2030, and towards a more resilient and informed community, focusing on the forests that are near wildfire risk, TREEADS aims to build upon state-of-the-art high TRL products and unite them in a holistic Fire Management platform that optimize and reuse per phase the available Socio-technological Resources in all three main phases of Wildfires. For the prevention and preparedness TREEADS propose the use of a real-time risk evaluation tool that can receive multiple classification inputs and work with a new proposed neural network-powered Risk factor indicator. To create a model of Fire adapted communities (FAC) in parallel to insurance incentives, TREEADS will use alkali activated construction materials (AAM) integrating post-wildfires wood ashes (PWA) for fire-resilient buildings and infrastructure. TREEADS also uses a variety of technological solutions such as the Copernicus infrastructure, and a swarm of small drones customized for accurate forest supervision. In the area of Detection TREEADS propose a variety of toolsets that will accommodate most needs. Stemming from Virtual reality for the training, wearables for the protective equipment of the emergency responders. to UAV (drones), UAG and airships for improving capacity in temporal and spatial analysis as well as to increase the inspected area coverage. Last, TREEADS will build a new land and field-based restoration initiative that will use all modern techniques such as agroforestry, drones for seed spread, Internet of things sensors that will be able to adapt the seeding process based on the ground needs and on the same time with the help of AI to determine post-fire risks factors. TREEADS solution will be demonstrated and validated under real operating conditions. Demonstration will involve Eight complex pilot implementations executed in seven EU countries and in Taiwan.

RES-DHC stands for a wider introduction of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in the District Heating and Cooling (DHC) sector. The RES-DHC project addresses the manifold market uptake challenges related to the transformation of DHC systems to higher shares of RES. In particular it aims at the development of solutions and instruments which support policy and sector stakeholders in (over-)fulfilling Art. 24 of the Renewable Energy Directive II (directive 2018/2001), requiring a yearly increase of RES in DHC by 1%. The main objective of the RES-DHC project is to support the transformation of existing urban DHC systems to RES in six participating regions and thereby to derive - from these practical cases - technical and organizational solutions for such transformation processes. This is reached with two key approaches: A vertical pillar of the project is a close-to-market implementation process of concrete actions and measures by regional stakeholder consortia in the six regions (in DE, AT, IT, PL, FR and CH). The phases of this implementation process are 1) strategy and action planning based on local stakeholder consultation 2) an implementation phase starting already at an early stage of the project including capacity building, legal framework improvements, market support, and triggering investments in RES DHC. Technical enablers are, beside RES, also sector coupling and the use of low grade heat sources. A key horizontal beam of the project is to organize and give transnational support to the regional stakeholder consortia. This support is provided by an international team of expert partners with specific and complementary competences and coordinated by Danish experts. The specific actions of the RES-DHC project meet the market uptake challenges of this call to a great extent, e.g.: Introduction of RES at large scale, stakeholder engagement, assessment of legal and political frameworks and of the environmental, economic and social impact of RES DHC solutions.

The CycloVET concept was initially developed and submitted for the 2014 ERASMUS+ call for proposals. It received a positive evaluation and was placed first in the reserve list, being separated by half a grade from the selected list. In this year’s resubmission various aspects of the project were further refined to improve its consistency, relevance and impact. Most importantly:- The consortium composition was altered to better address the set objectives- Aspects of the proposal have been updated to reflect the comments and suggestions of the 2014 evaluation- Efforts to ensure support from relevant stakeholders have been increased, resulting in the collection of letters of support from 10 municipalities and 1 region.BACKGROUND AND NEEDSThe share of European population using bicycles for commuting purposes has increased significantly (almost by 33% in the last decade according to Eurobarometer). This significant modal shift towards cycling in Europe is sporadically supported with provision of training for cyclists. In countries where systematic training is provided (e.g. Germany) cycling related injuries are declining and adoption growth rates are higher. This strong sectoral growth is hindered by the shortage of qualified cycling instructors and of the provision of corresponding VET skills. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECTObj1: Promote a common cross-border approach on the appropriate necessary skills and competences for cycling instructors;Obj2: Develop a coherent pedagogic methodology and elaboration of the appropriate training materials;Obj3: Design, develop and validate training materials, tools and game-based approaches to learning;Obj4: Develop a pilot examination scheme for certifying instructors;Obj5: Develop links between training programs for cycling instructors and the labour market, through their adoption and promotion by territorial public administrations;Obj6: Promote mutually accepted qualification of trainers’ skills in the ESCO.PARTICIPANTS-NTUA (GR) is specialised in urban mobility management, has capacity in designing and developing thematically relevant curricula and experience in managing EU funded research and cooperation projects. -TECLA (IT), a union of local and regional territorial administrations in Italy, acts as facilitator for the modernisation and change and has capacity in guiding, advising and mobilising local communes to foster the built up of their capabilities. -Graz (AT) is the second biggest Austrian municipality. It has extensive track record in implementing changes in urban mobility management and in accompanying such changes with adequate training and awareness actions. It has extensive European cooperation networks and experience in EU cooperation projects. -EXELIA (GR) brings capacity in developing innovative learning pedagogical methodologies, employing advanced training delivery methods and using technology enhanced learning as well as consulting expertise as regards issues of qualifications.-CI (UK) is a training provider specialised in cycling safety bringing accumulated experience and capacity in developing cycling training courses, designing and providing cycling training services and developing training material.PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTSThe project will deliver 6 intellectual outputs implemented through a total of 11 activities and of 5 multiplier events (4 infodays, 1 “Day of the cyclist” event) and 1 train-the-trainer seminar (L/T/T activities).The expected results are:1. Course Outline (O1). This output will develop a training course for cycling instructors including the pedagogic methodology for providing the skills and competences necessary to prospective cycling instructors;2. Course Materials for trainers (O2, O3 & O4) and training qualified cycling instructors on the basis of the course outline (O1)3. Resources for territorial public administrations to promote and facilitate training for cycling instructors and to integrate it into initiatives for local and regional development (O5). 4. Recommendations and endorsement for the integration of cycling instructors’ skills in ESCO.EXPECTED IMPACTCycling instructors with acquired skills, competences and qualifications are required in the labour market. Investing in these skills will improve their employability and cross-border mobility.European territorial public authorities and VET providers will be able to train or recruit trained/qualified cycling instructors based on the project results.Partners NTUA, CI will increase own capabilities in providing training for cycling instructors. Partners GRAZ, TECLA will enhance quality in their services by increasing improved fit to job skills. Exelia will enhance and expand experience in training methodologies and tools.Overall out of an estimated 10.000-15.000 cycling instructors in Europe, at least 8000 will be reached and informed. At least 1000 will be mobilized to use, review and consult the project results.