FUTURAL aims to deliver a set of digital Smart Solutions (SS) under 5 Smart Solution domains to address pressing social and environmental challenges. An integrated metasearch platform providing a one-stop shop for SS will be the gateway to FUTURAL's solutions, enabling search and access to SS developed by similar initiatives. FUTURAL will prototype, test, pilot and demonstrate community-led social, technological and business innovations based on the proposed SS in six rural pilot areas in the EU, representing different geographical and socio-cultural contexts. An interdisciplinary consortium of partners and a multi-actor approach will pave a coherent path towards the FUTURAL innovations through joint actions and governance systems. FUTURAL will engage rural communities and pursue public-private interactions to develop new social practices that enable market adoption and widespread social change. A clearly outlined networking, EU-wide Rural Innovation Forum (EU-RIF), building on links with key organisations, networks, projects and initiatives within the European rural development ecosystem will also be developed. The project's Open Call will fund projects that will develop their own SS, based on the five FUTURAL SS domains, to be applied in other rural areas and be available on the project's metasearch platform. A vibrant and sustainable ecosystem will be created around FUTURAL to maximise the impact of the project. The broad application of the project innovations will be enabled through the creation of business models tailored to the needs of different rural contexts and social groups. Policy recommendations and governance frameworks will be co-created in multi-actor workshops in the project's EU-RIF to support, among others, the European Green Deal, the European Digital Strategy, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the EU's long-term vision for rural areas.

REHUBS addresses the issues of climate vulnerability in rural areas and small to medium-sized communities, which are particularly susceptible to climate risks such as droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, floods, and biodiversity loss. REHUBS’ goal is to enhance climate resiliency of these areas by developing an integrated framework of adaptation solutions, advanced digital tools, and participatory approaches, tailored to the specific needs of the rural communities. The project will design, implement and validate a Climate Risk Assessment model, an Advanced Early Warning System, Flood and Drought Modelling tools, Smart Irrigation Systems, a Circular Water Recovery Treatment, a Rapid Wildfire Detection System, as well as a Risk Assessment and Adaptation Platform that will recommend a list of cost-effective nature based solutions (NBS). REHUBS will promote knowledge transfer, enhance the adaptation capacity of local authorities, and upskill local actors through an online academy, an AI support chatbot and through fostering stakeholder collaboration through the project’s established Rural Micro Hubs (RMHs). The solutions developed in REHUBS will be implemented and validated across four Demonstration Cases, with replication in three additional Replication Cases, ensuring that they, not only address immediate climate risks, but also build long-term resilience by integrating climate adaptation strategies into local governance frameworks. Additionally, the project will introduce innovative financial instruments to support the sustainable implementation of these solutions, ensuring both their cost-effectiveness and replicability across different European regions. The project's outcomes will contribute significantly to enhancing the adaptive capacity of rural communities, supporting EU climate goals, and ensuring socio-economic and environmental sustainability in regions facing critical climate challenges.

The European tourism sector plays a pivotal role in driving economic growth, employment, and social development. However, it faces challenges deriving from its predominant reliance on linear models, causing significant environmental impacts and resource depletion. Recognizing the necessity for a paradigm shift, the VERNE project aspires to accelerate the transition of local and regional tourist destinations toward sustainable and circular models across Europe. VERNE aims to provide an integrated framework for analysing the feasibility and impact of circular interventions in tourism destinations, offering recommendations for authorities, tourism industries, and citizens for the sector's transition into more sustainable business models. In collaboration with public administrations, DMOs, private sector services, industries, citizens and tourists, NGOs, and other stakeholders, VERNE will create and validate a range of systemic, replicable, and scalable solutions, tailored on the real needs and attitudes of these actors. These solutions will encompass diverse approaches and technologies (i.e., digital solutions, improved waste and food waste management, wastewater treatment, use of electric vehicles, etc.) and will cover several sector and services for tourism . The VERNE solutions will be implemented and demonstrated in 5 European representative tourist destinations (VERNE Pilots). The project's outcomes will be incorporated into new business models, providing a quantified demonstration of their effects on the competitiveness and sustainability of existing tourism services. Finally, VERNE will have the ambition to emerge as one-stop-shop for sustainable tourism, serving as a comprehensive hub of expertise, tools, and best practices on sustainable tourism, facilitating the adoption and replication of circular systemic solutions across Europe.

CARDIMED will introduce a framework to build Climate Resilience in the Mediterranean biogeographical region, efficiently unifying individual efforts of regions and communities across different countries and continents. This will be achieved by deploying the digital infrastructure to harmonise the data collection and evaluation processes, providing open data to all the actors involved in the Nature-based Solutions (NBS) value chain and integrating crucial functions for Climate Resilience. Among these functions, smart digital tools for citizen participation and capacity building will supplement an ambitious multi-stakeholder engagement strategy, focused on knowledge translation and impact pathways. Furthermore, holistic modelling tools introducing the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus approach will provide comprehensive knowledge on the complex NBS interfaces, that will decisively contribute to addressing socio-ecological challenges, along with issues of valuation and low-investment rate in NBS. These actions will be implemented across 9 demonstration sites, composed of 10 regions, 20 locations and 28 communities and comprising 47 NBS that directly relate to 83 interventions and supporting units that tackle climate change and circularity challenges. The consolidation of the demonstrating regions and communities will establish the CARDIMED Resilience Alliance, that will function as the vehicle for expanding the network via upscaling the existing sites and adding new ones. The project includes 5 transferability cases, as well as an additional 10 that will be defined during the implementation. Through these actions, the CARDIMED Resilience Alliance will achieve at least 28 regions and 70 communities by 2030, will create 8000 jobs especially in the NBS sector, and will leverage over 450 M€ in climate investment.

DEEP PURPLE creates a holistic consortium to transform diluted urban bio-wastes, including mixed waste streams, organicfraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), wastewater (WW) and sewage sludge (SS), into feedstock for bio-industry toobtain sustainable bio-products. This revolutionary concept will be implemented in a novel Single-Site Multi-Platform Concept (Biomass, Cellulose and Biogas) to replace current polluting destructive practices with new value added concepts. The beneficial use of bio-waste is obtained by an innovative combination of optimized recovery technologies and novel solutions: the Purple Phototrophic Bacteria (PPB) PhotoBiorefinery. The use of PPB -the most versatile metabolismreported- ensures the adaption to fluctuating and diluted waste streams to support a stable and profitable production chain. Thefirst PPB PhotoBiorefinery in the EU (the biggest worldwide) will be validated in different environmental, economic, logisticand social scenarios. The concept will be implemented by end-users from four municipalities, namely Madrid (ES), Toledo (ES), and the Moravia-Silesia Region(CZ) to transform bio-wastes (OFMSW: 422 t/y, mixed waste: 438,000 m3/y) into high-added value bioproducts:fine chemicals (bio-cosmetics), fertilizers, bio-packaging and self-repairing construction materials. The marketuptake of DEEP PURPLE is facilitated by optimal logistics of bio-wastes conversion (reduction of landfilled OFMSW: 60%, WWTP, solids recovery: 71%), and bio-products quality to favor their commercialization (440 t/y). The integration of valuechains is boosted by relevant stakeholder’s participation and innovative business models, minimizing waste and maximizingbenefits (85 M€ benefits, GHG emissions savings: 11,300 tCO2eq/y in 2025). Key communities (social engagementstrategies) will participate in the new value creation, calibrating the returns of the project like social innovation promotion and creation of new opportunities along the urban value cycle.