The need to approach climate action, resource efficiency, and circularity performance as integrated, economy-wide, cross-cutting issues is growingly gaining attention in the policy world, stimulating the development of new industrial policies in Europe and worldwide. Currently, however, there is little progress in conceptualising the circular economy and understanding its interactions with climate action. State-of-the-art modelling capacity to capture the interplay of the two agendas and their implications for energy-intensive sectors as well as to represent the European industrys transformation in line with the regions vision for climate neutrality is not yet fully developed. TRANSIENCE will undertake a comprehensive characterisation and assessment of circularity principles and measures vis--vis decarbonisation, by looking at the twin transition of European industries through the lenses of global competitiveness, innovation, and holistic sustainability. It will then produce MIC3, a consistent, fully open-source model ecosystem to assess industrial circularity, decarbonisation, and sustainability. A series of interoperable modules on the socioeconomic, service and product, material, industrial, energy-system, and environmental perspectives of the transformation of European industry will be developed and integrated, building on and opening the code of leading modelling tools. MIC3 will finally be used in extensive scenario modelling to produce diverse pathways toward a material-efficient, circular, climate-neutral, sustainable European industry. Transparency, openness, and knowledge sharing will be promoted, and technical capacities will be developed in four industrial agglomerations in the EU, moving beyond stakeholder consultation, onto model co-development, continuous validation of assumptions, co-creation of scenario modelling, evaluation of the desirability and usability of the developed model and insights, and eventually co-production of science and action.

The project aims at the development of a new innovative highly efficient and fuel flexible micro-scale biomass CHP technology consisting of a small-scale fixed-bed updraft gasifier, a compact gas cleaning system and a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The technology shall be developed for a capacity range of 25 to 150 kW (fuel power) and shall be characterised by a wide fuel spectrum applicable (wood pellets and wood chips of various sizes and moisture contents, SCR, selected agricultural fuels), high gross electric (40%) and overall (85-90%) efficiencies as well as almost zero gaseous and PM emissions. This aim shall be reached by the combination of a fuel-flexible updraft gasification technology with ultra-low particulate matter and condensed alkaline compound concentrations in the product gas, which reduces the efforts for gas cleaning, an integrated gas cleaning approach for dust and HCl removal, desulphurisation and tar cracking as well as a SOFC system which tolerates certain amounts of tars as fuel. It is expected to achieve at the end of the project a TRL of 5. The objectives of the project are highly relevant to the work programme since they focus on the development of a micro-scale CHP technology with extended fuel flexibility which shall be cost efficient and robust and shall distinguish itself by high electric and overall efficiencies as well as almost zero emissions. To fulfil these goals an overall methodology shall be applied which is divided into a technology development part (based on process simulations, computer aided design of the single units and the overall system, test plant construction, performance and evaluation of test runs, risk and safety analysis) as well as a technology assessment part covering risk, techno-economic, environmental and overall impact assessments, market studies regarding the possible potentials for application of the new technology as well as dissemination activities.

Success of science shops is down to finding a topic that is of particular interest to a particular group of people because they need to engage throughout the science shops research process, participate in the brokering and challenge identification and take responsibility for the outcome of the process. SciShops aims at expanding and further building on the capacity of the science shops ecosystem in Europe and beyond. During the SciShops project timeframe, at least ten new university- and non-university-based science shops are being established in Europe by project partners. The non-university ones are affiliated to different types of organizations, such as SMEs, LEs, NGOs/NPOs and research institutes. The project partners have extensive networks of science shops which are included in the SciShops Expert and Advisory Board and thus they can uptake first the solutions developed within the project: the SciShops Knowledge Exchange Roadmap, the SciShops Strategy for Community-Based Participatory Research and Science Shops Further Development, SciShops Guide for Establishment and Running of a Science Shop or the SciShops Web platform with its novel twining, matchmaking and awareness features. Through the use of the platform, organizations willing to establish a science shop are able to find a research organization which can support them with research services or they can be twinned with an experienced similar science shop which will help with the establishment and development of the new one. The SciShops consortium has as a top priority to prove the benefits of starting a science shop for every type of organization, but also the advantages the civil society gains from collaborating with science shops in community-based participatory research. The participatory knowledge transfer and exchange events organized during the project timeline will raise awareness on this win-win concept.

CICERONE brings together programme owners, research organizations and other stakeholders to create a platform for efficient Circular Economy programming. The priority setting and the organization of the future platform will be driven by Programme Owners (POs), involved either as project partners, or via a stakeholder network. Diversity of national / regional situations is reflected in the partnership. The work will be carried out in close cooperation with research & technology organisations (RTOs), which contribute with their expertise of the main scientific and technological challenges. Consultation mechanisms will also ensure that all stakeholders will be able to actively contribute (civil society, industry, innovative SMEs, startups, cities, investors, networks, etc.). An initial benchmarking exercise will be carried out for a deeper understanding of the state of the art, mapping stakeholders, existing RDI priorities as well as funding and legal mechanisms. A prioritisation methodology will be developed to support an analysis of the current performance: synergies, gaps and duplications will be characterised, and pathways for improvements will be formulated. Identified best practices will drive the definition of policy recommendations. Once the state of the art has been clearly mapped out, the actual prioritisation work will be carried out. This includes building a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), performing an ex-ante impact assessment of joint programming on circular economy R&I, and developing a policy toolkit to promote the priorities and foster adoption by policy-makers. The project will also set the grounds for the future PO platform, starting with defining its strategic role in the existing landscape. The next step will be to specify governance and possible legal frameworks, as well as creating a financially sustainable model. It is a key objective that the platform be sustained after the end of the project.