Port Cities can be seen as multidimensional laboratories where challenges connected with urban mobility are more complex due to the dual system of gravity centre: the city, the port, not to mention their shared hinterland.These peculiarities are at once a challenge and an opportunity, as they provide scope for planning, researching and implementing integrated mobility solutions in distinctively complex urban contexts. Civitas PORTIS designs, demonstrates and evaluates integrated sets of sustainable mobility measures in 5 major port cities located on the North Sea (Aberdeen and Antwerp), the Mediterranean Sea (Trieste), the Black Sea (Constanta), and Baltic Sea (Klaipeda). The project also involves a major international follower port city on the East China Sea (Ningbo). Thanks to the Civitas Initiative, the partner cities expect to prove that more efficient and sustainable mobility is conducive to the establishment of vital and multi-modal hubs for urban, regional, national and International movements of passengers and goods. To do this, they establish integrated living laboratories clustering local measures according to four major aspects of sustainable urban mobility: 1. Governance: to increase port-city collaborative planning and participation, leading to enhanced forms of SUMPs. 2. People: to foster less car-dependent mobility styles, leading to modal shift in favour of collective and more active transport. 3. Transport system: to strengthen the efficiency of road traffic management to/from the port and through the city, and foster the use of clean vehicles. 4. Goods: to enhance logistics and freight transport, improving the efficiency and coordination of city, port and regional freight movements. Working with port cities, Civitas PORTIS will generate a strong and twofold replication potential: 1) specifically to other port cities, and 2) more generally to cities presenting major transport nodes and attractors for the benefit of the whole CIVITAS Initiative.

SO WHAT main objective is to develop and demonstrate at TRL8 an integrated software which will support industries and energy utilities in selecting, simulating and comparing alternative Waste Heat and Waste Cold (WH/C) exploitation technologies that could cost-effectively balance the local forecasted H&C demand also via RES integration. The SO WHAT integrated tool will be designed to support industries, and energy utilities in 1) auditing the industrial process to understand where WH/WC could be valorised 2) mapping the potential of locally available RES sources to be integrated with WH/WC potential 3) mapping the local forecasted demand for heating and cooling 4) define and simulate alternative cost-effective scenarios based on WH/WC technologies also leveraging TES introduction 5) evaluate the impacts (in terms of energetic, economic and environmental KPIs) that the adoption of the new scenarios will generate against the current situation (i.e., baseline) both at industrial and local level 6) promoting innovative contractual arrangements and financing models to guarantee economically viable solutions and less risky investments. To do so SO WHAT will capitalize already existing tool and knowledge from previous research experiences (REEMAIN, PLANHEAT, REUSEHEAT, CELSIUS…) and the expertise of 11 industrial validation sites from different REII/ non-REII sectors (petrochemical, chemical, metallurgic, food etc.) that will be involved in the project to validate the tool and provide relevant insights for its development. SOWHAT tool will be built indeed following a participatory approach involving both National clusters from Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Romania (composed by local industries, public authorities/energy agencies, energy utilities/ESCOs) and external stakeholder since the very beginning of the development in order to have a wide, clear and structured promotion of WH/C also thanks to a robust training campaign and policy oriented dissemination actions.

The HI2 Valley project will establish a large-scale renewable hydrogen (H2) economy in the Austrian industrial regions of Upper Austria, Styria and Carinthia, directly contributing to the goals outlined in the European Green Deal, REPower EU and Hydrogen Strategy. The project will achieve this by decarbonising key sectors through H2, drastically reducing emissions in the steel, chemical, and cement industries as well as in energy and mobility via displacement of fossil fuels – including reducing the reliance on natural gas which Austria overwhelmingly imports from Russia. With 13,000 tons of green hydrogen being needed in the regions by 2028, over 10,000 tpy of green hydrogen will be produced within this HI2 Valley. By introducing strategically placed, decentralised H2 production facilities, the project will strengthen the country's energy resilience and flexibility and create a robust domestic market for green H2. The HI2 Valley will play a crucial role in bridging the gap between Southern and Eastern European hydrogen supply corridors. Being embedded on the European Hydrogen Backbone and TEN-T network and future pipeline connections (PCIs) with Southern Europe and North Africa, the HI2 Valley will seamlessly connect Austria's multi-user H2 ecosystem with neighbouring countries like Germany, Italy and Slovakia, fostering a truly interconnected Central European hydrogen network. This role model helps to secure industrial jobs, and through standardisation and integration brings costs of hydrogen down, creating a green industrial future for Europe. Going beyond its immediate neighbours, the HI2 Valley will also foster knowledge sharing and wider adoption of green hydrogen through the active collaboration with five other emerging Hydrogen Valleys in Eastern Europe in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Latvia and the Czech Republic.