Ethylene is the chemical industry’s primary building block. SolDAC’s ambition is to reinvent the ethylene industry by proving (TRL4) an emerging breakthrough technology for producing technically and economically competitive, socially desirable and climate-neutral (sustainable) ethylene and co-product ethanol (C2 products) from solar energy and air. The project features a photo-electrochemical conversion (PEC) unit, being electrochemistry the only possible route for direct conversion of carbon dioxide into ethylene. The PEC exploits bandwidth-selected light from a solar collector (FSS) that splits the solar spectrum for electricity and heat generation at efficiency higher than standalone PV modules and standalone solar thermal collectors. Heat is used in an innovative direct air capture (DAC) unit at ultralow temperature (~60°C), fostering the eventual circular integration with heat networks. The DAC unit removes carbon dioxide from the air, concentrates it to 95+% and compresses it to feed the PEC stack and a pipeline for carbon dioxide storage. This allows the carbon footprint of the whole sun-to-chemicals process to be offset and enables gain in carbon credits, opening an opportunity to exceed climate-neutrality and produce carbon-negative C2 products. The process is energetically self-sufficient, economically viable and carbon-negative on the condition that each unit (DAC, PEC, FSS) reach new targets in efficiency. That is exactly the high-risk/high return outcome expected in the project. The research is balanced to overcome technical, early-stage social and market barriers by exploiting the expertise of its 8 partners (SMEs in the renewable technology field, leading EU research institutions and one networking NGO). This project performs all the necessary groundwork for the full deployment of the process before 2050 through activities that build up a new ecosystem of stakeholders, making Europe the first circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy.

HYBRIS' basis is the optimisation of advanced hybrid systems as high-performant, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solutions in microgrid applications. HYBRIS is an integrated industrially driven action, that will answer to this challenge in 4 key points: - Viability and cost effectiveness: of the use and integration of novel HEES system coupled with innovative microgrid system local RREE generation and loads, (in particular residential, tertiary buildings and EV charges stations). Achieved by the integration and validation of a suite of technologies, tools and methods enabling their easy application and massive deployment. - Technical: pursuing the technical optimization of the HEES system in 3 use case applications covering respectively 1) Energy services in island grids 2) Energy services in private grids 3) EV charging stations in e-mobility, - Optimization and integraton. - Validation: by using the 3 demonstration sites as open case studies representing the 3 differrent use case applications and situations found throughout Europe, to leverage knowledge, key exploitable results, adapted business models and market-oriented dissemination for maximizing impact and wide adoption of these novel heating and cooling technologies and approach. HYBRIS features a fully systematic, collaborative and integrated approach to the development and deployment of innovative battery based hybrid storage sytemm, coupling diverse and complementary breakthrough TRL 5-6 technology assets brought by leading industrials, universities and RTOs, plus ICT tools for viable and cost-effective optimization and further market introduction. All will reach TRL6 by the demonstration and validation of its concepts in 3 use cases applications in 3 pilot sites in 3 four countries

SPHERE’s ultimate goal is the Improvement and optimisation of buildings’ energy design, construction, performance, and management, reducing construction costs and their environmental impact while increasing overall energy performance. SPHERE project will integrate two planes of research, innovation and improvement: • integration of the processes under the Digital Twin Concept involving not only the Design and Construction of the Building but including also the Manufacturing and the Operational phases • integrated platform that will be achieved through an underlying ICT Systems of Systems infrastructure based on Platform as a Service (PaaS) service to allow large scale data, information and knowledge integration and synchronization thus allowing a better handling and processing e.g BIMBots, machine learning , simulation etc. This Digital Twin concept is in fact a distributed but coordinated Database, including geometrical objects information that forms a unique synchronized virtual model of the reality. As has been proven in other fields, twinning this virtual information model with the reality helps significantly in decision-making during each phase of the whole building’s lifespan (manufacturing, design, construction, maintenance, operation, retrofitting and even demolition). The SPHERE cloud-ICT platform will allow to interact all different stakeholders during any phase of the asset with a building Digital Twin model of information of the building and a scalable set of different software tools, such as energy demand/performance simulation tools, Decision Support and Coaching Systems, BEMs or IoT enabled Predictive Maintenance Algorithms. The Digital Twin Concept, platform and Tools will be tested in four real pilots and finally validateted both technically and especially final social acceptance to accelerate market uptake.

If BIM is key to address the construction sector growing technical complexity, to overcome construction processes fragmentation and communication problems between stakeholders, to reduce on-site time and improve quality and affordability, its uptake for the renovation of the EU existing building stock is yet to come and already late. To face this BIM4REN starts from 3 workflows adapted to the construction sector segmentation (90% of companies are SMEs) presenting particular technical and organisational requirements and has adapted the project and consortium to provide adequate and innovative processes, methodologies, software and hardware tools & BIM developments for each one of them, backboned by state of the art BIM technologies like worldwide used BIM Server (open-source) and BIM Bots by TNO among many others. BIM4REN gathers together top European RTOs active in the Built Environment domain (Nobatek, CSTB, Tecnalia, TNO, Fraunhofer ISE) alongside key industrial actors (EDF, CMB Carpi & ATI Project (leading BIM implementers in the EU market) with 2 Universities (RWTH & Vilnius Gedimas) and up to 11 SMEs: R&D performing (R2M, Ekodenge), SME contractors (Kursaal) and technology providers (IES, EnerBIM, WiseBIM, VRM, AEC3, etc.) with the European Builders Confederation, the Green Building Council Italy and a large French Social Housing Organisation (Logirep) representing the whole residential renovation value chain. B4R digital ecosystem will be accessible via a web based One Stop Access Platform, where depending on each user profile and needs, orientation, best practice examples from a dedicated database and links to the different tools and services (from Top-grade to Entry-level) will be provided on differentiated access schemes underpinned by different business models. Inspired by the Open Innovation 2.0 paradigm the project will setup a demonstration campaign with “pilots as Living Labs” integrating all stakeholders in 3 cities (Paris, San Sebastian and Venice).

HYPERGRYD aims at developing a set of replicable and scalable cost effective technical solutions to allow the integration of RES with different dispatchability and intrinsic variability inside Thermal Grids as well as their link with the Electrical Grids, including the development of innovative key components, in parallel with innovative and integrated ICT services formed by a scalable suite of tools for the proper handling of the increased complexity of the systems from building to Local Energy Community (LEC) levels and beyond, accelerate the sustainable transformation, planning and modernization of District Heating and Cooling (DHC) toward 4th and 5th generation. HYPERGRYD also aims at developing real time management of both electrical and thermal energy flows in the coupled energy network complex, including the synergies between them. Therefore, HYPERGRYD aims at three over-arching General Objectives: - To prove Smart Energy Networks as the future of Efficient Energy Management in DHC in synergy with the Electrical Grids in LEC/Smart Cities of the future, - To define the roadmap to design and planning of future DHC as well as the modernization of the existing ones in different climates and RES penetration levels toward 4th-5th generation, -To demonstrate HYPERGRYD RES-based Enabling Technologies, Smart Energy Grid Solutions empowered by new ICT tools and services as the key for this evolution. During the project, the HYPERGRYD?s solutions will be implemented across 4 Live-In-the-Labs cases in 3 representative climates provided by the consortium, with special consideration to their cost effectiveness and potential replicability to finally achieve these 3 main objectives. All these tasks will follow the proposed work program activities to ensure systematic and scientific performance measures, feedback and powerful exploitation.