Democratized innovation holds undeniable promise for European producers, but the integration with corporate innovation practices is in its infancy. While the interest is real, it is still neither easy or efficient for producers – especially SMEs to benefit from collaborative production. The iPRODUCE project takes well proven concepts and approaches (from DIY manufacturing, FabLabs, Makerspace), and aims to upscale them through innovative technology solutions and to install them in well-connected multi-stakeholder ecosystems under an umbrella concept of collaborative Manufacturing Demonstration Facilities (cMDF)”. We organize our work under a social-manufacturing platform that enables multi-stakeholder interactions and collaborations to support user-driven open-innovation and co-creation. At the heart of the iPRODUCE platform is an open digital space supported by a set of innovative tools that cover matchmaking, secure interactions, generative product design, process orchestration, agile prototyping, usability evaluations and lifecycle management. We complement these technical tools with a strong social component that aims at easing the notorious hardship of engagement with makers and aim to open up to new maker segments, while we improve on SoA tools for Lead User Innovation identification. The iPRODUCE platform will be deployed in six local ‘ecosystems’ which cover different levels of maturity with collaborative production, diverse objectives and application areas spanning from home furnishing, automotive/mobility, consumer photography, medical ecquipment and more. The platform supports knowledge and resource sharing across cMDFs and all our results will be monitored and evaluated.

PLIADES advances the SoA dataspaces reference architectures, towards a step change on the use of data as key enabler of technological advances in AI and Robotics. To this end, PLIADES researches into novel, AI-enabled tools to advance full data life cycles integration, both within and between data spaces. Sustainable data creation methods through data compression, filtering and normalization will be developed, to allow efficient and greener storage in a data-oriented future. Data privacy and sovereignty will be further ensured, through standards and decentralized protocols to protect data-producing organizations and citizens. Alongside, data sharing will be revolutionized through novel AI-based brokers and connectors using extended metadata, shaped through the project’s best practices and domain expert’s knowledge. On top of these, active data discovery services through cross domain AI connectors will allow creating linked data spaces, enabling interoperability between previously disconnected entities, while data quality assessment services will facilitate real time data evaluation. Extended synergies with EU initiatives will be established in order to contribute models, strategies and technologies for a Common European Data Space. Our outcomes will be evaluated in six use cases focusing on direct advancements in key AI and Robotics technologies for everyday use, oriented around multiple data spaces; mobility, healthcare, industrial, energy and green deal. Our use cases provide a challenging validation suite involving vast heterogeneous data creation, management and sharing while addressing full data lifecycles in multiple major domains. Through the developed ecosystem, CCAM and ADAS/AD car technologies will be enhanced, HRI for robot operators and healthcare patients will be reshaped, while further advanced, integrated data spaces will be deployed in the healthcare, manufacturing and green deal sectors aiming to reduce carbon footprints and shape a greener future.

Today, there are still several R&D barriers, and user-acceptance-related challenges that hinder the smooth integration and proliferation of multiple Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in buildings. In response to that, RE-COGNITION proposes a holistic, end-to-end RETs Integration Framework towards energy positive buildings with a focus on small and medium-sized buildings in Europe. Through the envisaged Automated Cognitive Energy Management Engine (ACEME), RE will be utilized more efficiently paired with appropriate storage technologies and innovative energy systems to meet the electricity and heating/cooling demand of the buildings. The framework is designed to enable the integration of multiple, heterogeneous, energy generating systems covering the spectrum of available building-scale RES (solar (PV, thermal/ cooling), wind, bio-energy (renewable biofuel through micro-CHP) and geothermal) and demonstrating future-proof extensibility. To this end, the project entails R&D at the level of single technologies and their interconnection with novel energy systems (like heat-pumps harnessing geothermal energy, absorption chillers) leveraging current IoT and smart-grid standardization outcomes. Along with measurable improvements on each technology’s efficiency, performance, desired characteristics and cost-effectiveness, RE-COGNITION ensures optimal integration of RETs in buildings, as well as (inter)operation and matching between building RE supply and energy demand. Its stakeholder-centred approach aligns both the process and its outcomes with the needs and expectations of (end-)users by providing tools that facilitate large-scale deployment of building-scale RETs. For 36 months 15 partners from 7 EU countries will provide technology know-how, lab facilities & 5 validation sites and will work towards meeting EU’s expectations for reduced dependence on fossil fuels and cost-effectiveness compared to conventional energy generation and management solutions in buildings.

The COLLECTiEF consortium will enhance, implement, test and evaluate an interoperable and scaleable energy management system based on Collective intelligence (CI) that allows easy and seamless integration of legacy equipment into a collaborative network within and between existing buildings and urban energy systems with reduced installation cost, data transfer and computational power while increasing data security, energy flexibility and climate resilience. This is done through developing software and hardware packages to install and smart up buildings and their legacy equipment on large scale, meanwhile to maintain simple and robust communication with the energy grid. The proposal includes the following objectives: (1)Enhancement and adaptation of algorithms for creating a CI-based energy flexible network (2)Realization of CI-based cost-effective system components with easy deployment and maintenance (3)Demonstration and testing of a CI-based energy network in the real environment (4)Testing and implementing a scalable and customizable occupant-centric fusion sensor network for accurate and non-invasive environmental monitoring (5)Designing and implementing a smart, user-centric and user friendly digital platform for interacting with users and controlling technical building systems (6)New business model for energy services including a clear model for commercialization of COLLECTiEF system. This will be achieved by building on technologies developed in previous EU-funded projects and by expertise from the scientific and commercial partners of this proposal, involving a number of highly innovative SMEs. The consortium forms a full value chain with academic partners, component manufacturers, building owners and - associated through LoIs - energy providers. The provided scalable solutions will integrate seamlessly with existing legacy equipment, and will facilitate demand-side management of multiple buildings, enhancing energy flexibility and resilience in urban areas.

POCITYF supports the Lighthouse cities of Evora (PT) and Alkmaar (NL) and their Fellow cities Granada (ES), Bari (ΙΤ), Celje (SI), Ujpest (HU), Ioannina (GR) and Hvidovre (DK) to address their urgent need to deliver positive energy blocks and districts in their cities, towards rendering their mixed urban environment (also including the case of cultural protected buildings) into cheaper, better accessible, healthier and more reliable. By demonstrating in overall 10 integrated solutions (ISs), comprising 73 individual innovative elements (technologies, tools, methods), rooted under existing City Information Platforms (CIPs), POCITYF quantifies their value, and connects interests of many different stakeholders in innovative business models, allowing for upscale and replication of those solutions in a form of a validated roadmap for sustainable cities across Europe and world-wide. To achieve this, POCITYF works along 4 Energy Transition Tracks (ETTs), encompassing the ISs according to the role each one serves for. ETT#1 focuses on the examination and application of ISs transforming existing and new building stock into Energy Positive, while ETT#2 focuses on the application of a) grid flexibility strategies and b) storage systems, supported by DSM platforms for optimizing energy flows to maximize self-consumption and reduce grid stress. ETT#3 with its merit of innovation offers the integration of e-Mobility to as well promote the decarbonisation of the mobility sector. The 3 ETTs under the coordination of ETT#4, which links existing CIPs with innovative apps and other instruments, offers inclusive and holistic services for interdisciplinary citizen engagement and co-creation of them with the city stakeholders and industry, towards the development of each city’s own bold city-vision up to 2050. Through POCITYF the two LHs will achieve a local RES penetration of 16.2 GWh/y, energy savings of 2.32 GWh/y and an emission reduction of 9,743 tons CO2eq/y within their districts.