Nature-based solutions (NBS) aim to help societies to address a variety of environmental, social and economic challenges in sustainable ways. They are actions which are inspired by and supported by nature. Some involve using and enhancing existing natural solutions to challenges, while others are exploring more novel solutions, for example, based on how non-human organisms and communities cope with environmental extremes. NBS are energy and resource-efficient, and resilient to change, but to be successful they must be adapted to local conditions. The main objective of the present project is the development of a multi-stakeholder communication platform that will support the understanding and the promotion of nature based solutions in local, regional, EU and International level. Through dialogue uptake facilitation and steering mechanisms as well as knowledge capacity building, the ThinkNature Platform will bring together multi-disciplinary scientific expertise, policy, business and society, as well as citizens. This platform will be efficient, fluent to use and attractive to a wide variety of actors and stakeholders because it merges all aspects of NBS in a clear, pyramidal methodological approach. It will create a wide interactive society that builds new knowledge with a wide geographical scope. As a result, ThinkNature will provide the necessary policy and regulatory tools to solve significant societal challenges such as human well-being, tackling energy poverty, impacts of climate change, etc. through continuous dialogue and interaction.

STAR*track aims at expanding the Built4People Innovation Cluster (B4PIC) network developed in the HE project NEBULA and strengthening and supporting B4PICs and their members to deliver sustainable and people-centric innovation and accelerate uptake by regional value and supply chains. This overarching objective will be achieved by: - Integrating new B4PICS: 6 new B4PICs will be set-up in regions so far not covered by the B4PIC network and receive direct support. Outreach activities to innovation clusters will be made in order to reach the B4P contractual target of 10-15 fully mature B4PICs by 2028. - Creating enabling conditions and providing tools and training for B4PICs and their members for increased development and market transfer of sustainable construction and renovation innovation. - Accelerating the demonstration of holistic and inclusive solutions with high market potential through tailored support mechanisms (incl. access to demo sites) - Facilitating access to funding for demonstration, scale-up and implementation of sustainable innovation by local/regional construction value chains - Paving the way for replication, wide-spread use of the supporting tools and services, and continuous expansion of the Built4People network based on a UE27 replication plan with a long-term vision and business model. In order to make B4PICs attractive for different target groups of the innovation value chain, concrete value propositions will be defined to highlight the impact of B4PIC with respect to improvement of innovation capacities and development of sustainable business opportunities. The impact of the B4PIC network and the B4PICs themselves will be measured to show their significance for the green, digital, and people-centric transition of the Built Environment sector, the up-skilling of innovation actors, and the acceleration of construction and renovation products and solutions towards climate neutrality, in line with the impacts laid out in the Work Programme.

IWG5’s brief is to deliver the Implementation Plan on energy-efficient solutions for buildings, requiring Member States to put in place measures favouring both innovation in building design and energy technologies for buildings, and the uptake of these technologies by builders. EURAC will offer scientific support establish the performance of eco-building technologies today and assist the IWG5 in setting realistic but ambitious performance targets, then monitoring progress towards them. WIP will organise study tours to buildings that set the standard in eco-renovation or construction. These will be opportunities for IWG5 members to meet the actors responsible and the people who live in or near them to collect their views. ECTP and EUREC will focus on informing IWG5 of the latest thinking around eco-buildings coming from lobbies (NGOs, associations, public authorities, leaders of initiatives like the Mission for 100 Climate-neutral Cities by 2030) and building bridges to the thinkers in those lobbies. Digitisation is a major theme coming in the new proposed EPBD. We will align the EPBD’s innovation-related comitology committees with IWG5. Fed with ideas, quantitative analysis and with white papers produced by Task Forces tackling specific innovation-related topics, the IWG5 will update its Implementation Plan. A new release will come every year and be given lots of publicity. The IWG5 members will be invited to promote it within their ministries, in order to deliver it with appropriate national policies. IWG5-CSA will play close attention to the revision of National Energy and Climate Plans in 2023 (a joint activity with ETIPs) and, depending on the final legislated EPBD, National Building Renovation Plans in 2024. These plans are where Member States lay out the policies to reach their targets. We will work for take-up by countries of each other’s good ideas.

Age-friendly environments are one of the most effective approaches for responding to demographic ageing and increasing the Healthy Life Year indicator. However, there is still a huge building stock not adapted to the needs of older people. Even today, new buildings don´t yet properly address the need for creating smart living environments for ageing well. Homes4Life addresses this challenge by contributing to the development of a common European framework for age friendly living environments, and defining the Homes4Life certification scheme to tackle end-users’ needs and requirements through a holistic and life-course approach integrating Construction and ICT solutions. The different socio-economic conditions (housing ownership, family structure, health system, etc) and building typologies among the EU member states will be analyzed in detail to provide the necessary flexibility to map the Homes4Life certification scheme to the specificities of each country with a user-centric approach. The scope of Homes4Life scheme will cover both new and existing buildings. The strategy to define the certification scheme will be: i) analyzing the main difficulties and needs faced by older people to age at home, ii) identifying the physical and digital solutions that increase their quality of life and wellbeing, iii) assessing the availability, functionality and quality of service of the existing solutions on a specific home. Homes4Life scheme aims to foster (public and private) investment making explicit the benefits for each stakeholder of transforming the building stock into a smart and integrated age friendly living environment. Considering the need for social consensus for the development of this certification scheme the consortium will be supported by an expert board that includes 14 key players in aging at home domain, covering complementary disciplines (investment, standardization, e-health, building and design, public social services) and a Stakeholders Community.