The BundleUp NEXT project builds on the successful experience of BundleUP (Ponto Energia), a PDA project funded by Horizon 2020, which has developed a very effective methodology that resulted in over 32M€ of investment in energy efficiency (EE) projects (32€ for every 1€ of grant) in Portugal. The BundleUP methodology incorporates energy efficiency projects in different stages of development and proceeds to technical, legal and financial development assistance to bring them to the “investor-ready” (or “tender-ready” in case of public sector) stage. The methodology also focuses on grouping small projects in bundles, in order to provide procurement advantages and more attractiveness for investors and building owners. Due to the success of its predecessor and the strength of the consortium partners, BundleUP NEXT has received more than 60 letters of support and the formal endorsement of the Portuguese Deputy Minister for Energy and the national Directorate-General for Energy and Geology BundleUP NEXT will focus on the following project types: LED and public lighting, PV self-consumption, solar thermal, building envelope and electric mobility, creating a complete array of competences to support projects in any part of Portugal. The project is promoted by a concise and powerful consortium composed by PARITY, experts in sustainable energy investment and coordinators of the previous BundleUP project, ADENE, the national energy agency of Portugal with extensive experience in PDA and close ties to the public central administration, RNAE, the national network of local energy and environment agencies, establishing the projects connection to local administration all across the country and SRS, a law firm that was also part of the BundleUP project with extensive experience in the public and energy sectors. The project is expected to leverage up to 50M€ of investment, overcoming its predecessor’s success (around 1:50 leverage factor on the requested grant).

Water scarcity is a serious problem for many regions of Europe with some 45% of European territory expected to face water scarcity problems by 2030, where damages caused by floods may increase five-fold by 2050. This is driving growing attention and increasing regulation on water efficiency and water management across Europe, being particularly important in cities and buildings in general, given the estimated water savings of 30%, with consequent reductions on energy and CO2 emissions (“The Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources”). The implementation of water and energy saving measures requires adequate training, capacity building and qualification of construction professionals, sustained on reliable and independent accreditation schemes attesting technical knowledge and social competences, towards market recognition and confidence. The project “WATTer Skills” aimed to develop, implement and propose a common curricula, qualification framework and accreditation scheme at the European level, for training and skills upgrading of construction and green professionals on water efficiency and water energy nexus for construction and retrofit in buildings. The harmonised water efficiency and water-energy nexus competences in building construction and retrofit, was achieved with two proposed qualification frameworks: the water efficiency technician (WET) and the water efficiency expert (WEE). This was materialised in 4 intellectual outputs (in 5 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Greek): IO1 - Setting the Perimeter and definition of the WATTer skills map, IO2 - European Qualification Framework, IO3 - Training Courses Curricula, Contents and Pilots and IO4 - Accreditation System based on European Qualification Framework and European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training, supported by 2 Handbooks with the training contents (six competence areas corresponding to 100 lecture hours for the WET and 4 competence areas corresponding to 50 lecture hours for the WEE) 5 transnational meetings (3 in-person and 2 online), 9 multiplier events (7 training pilots with 144 attendees and 60 lectured hours, 1 Infoday with 28 participants and 1 Final conference with more than 100 participants), the presence at 10 dissemination events (oral communications, poster presentations and scientific publications) and numerous parallel dedicated meetings with the national advisory boards and stakeholder groups. As project outcomes, it can be highlighted the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding by all partners, with a Roadmap of the WATTer Skills follow-up activities, namely the compromise of all partners in continuing the work on the possible integration of the proposed accreditation framework into the national catalogues of the consortium countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. In Portugal, another project outcome already guaranteed is the approval of the “long term strategy for building renovation” (Resolution of the Council of Ministers No 8-A/2021 of 3rd of February 2021), where it is stated that the qualification frameworks produced by the WATTer Skills consortium will be promoted. In addition, ADENE is making the effort to include this topic in the agenda and events of the current Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

"The project ""European Center for E-Learning for Green Professions"" was carried out by the Foundation for the Development of Education in partnership with four organizations:VISTULA UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY ACADEMY OF FINANCES AND BUSINESS (Poland)PODLASKA NATURAL STATION ""NAREW"" (Poland)SOFTRONIC Sp. z o.o. (Poland)ADENE - AGENCIA PARA A ENERGY (Portugal)DIDA SRL (Italy)The main objective of the project was to increase the accessibility to vocational training and to increase the key competences of people at risk of social exclusion, i.e. people with disabilities, 50+, with low level of education, in a difficult economic situation, young people who are not on the labor market. This goal was achieved through the creation of a generally accessible platform: the European Center for E-learning for Green Professions. The platform is available in four language versions: Polish, English, Italian, Portuguese, so it can also be used by people from other European Union countries.9 online courses have been made available on the platform: Eco-educator, consultant for the implementation of green solutions, ecological wastewater treatment plants, producer of healthy food, producer-collector of herbs., Installer of green energy devices, expert in renewable energy management, installer of solar collectors, installer of building systems isolation and one module in the field of developing key competences of initiative and entrepreneurship. Each course is completed with an online exam, after which the participant receives a certificate confirming the acquired competences, the certificate can be printed by yourself.During the 30 months of the project, an International Promotion Seminar in Poland, a Regional Seminar in Italy and Portugal were carried out and, at the end of the project, an International Dissemination Conference in Poland (due to the COVID 19 pandemic, foreign partners connected with Poland online. platform tested by meeting participants.The project increased the awareness of employers, representatives of NGOS, local organizations working with people at risk of social exclusion (such as MOPS, OPS, ZOZ, UP) throughout the country, regarding the possibility of acquiring new professional competences, specialization in new professions by their charges.The impact of the project at the national and European level was ensured thanks to the functionalities of the created platform, i.e. a version in four languages, adapting the website to the needs of people with disabilities, intuitive operation, and 10 trainings responding to the demand of the labor market for innovative professions.The long-term benefit resulting from the solutions developed in the project are the created tools and products that could be used in the future and expanded with new functionalities, in accordance with the needs of the green jobs market."

"ENACT - ENergy Auditors Competences, Training and profiles - is a European project within the ERASMUS+ programme involving 6 partners from 4 European countries (Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain) carried out from September 2014 to August 2016.ENACT addressed the need to define the professional figure of the energy auditor in the civil sector with focus on residential buildings, the proposed ENACT Energy Auditor represents in fact an important professional figure in modern societies considering the third target ""Climate change and energy sustainability"" of the Europe 2020 strategy (20% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions , 20% increase of of energy from renewables, 20% increase in energy efficiency). In order to reach the 20% increase in energy efficiency in the civil sector, a proper and skilled figure to support consumers in their energy efficiency process (from the awareness raising to the take-up in the household of energy efficient measures) is highly needed in the market. The professional figure for this activity defined and proposed within the project is the ENACT Energy Auditor. On the development of the ENACT project, 6 European partners have collaborated together: under the coordination of AISFOR, the partners involved were RENAEL (It), ADENE (Pt) Kape (Pl), INCOMA (Es) and APADGE (Es) representing the two sectors addressed: VET and energy. All partners are experts in the European training market / energy market and are involved in other projects related to ENAC:Tnational initiatives, European concertation actions and EU projects.The partners have closely collaborated to implement the ambitious ENACT work plan to define the ENACT Energy Auditor profile, the training programmes, modules and relative training materials in an harmonised and structured manner in all the project countries involved. The partners have also collaborated to design the ENACT ECVET system for the mutual recognition of the ENACT training and have prepared and undersigned a Memorandum of Understanding. During the 24-month ENACT project period, the following activities have been developed:- study of the energy auditing market in Europe with focus on the civil/residential sector,- analysis and comparison of the existing figures in the project national markets for domestic / civil energy auditing - in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies of the various existing figures,- definition of the KSC (Knowledge, Skills and Competencies) matrix of the ENACT Energy Auditor and definition of the relative ENACT Energy Auditor profile leading to the publication of the relative Qualification Scheme,- definition of the ENACT Energy Auditor training course,- validation of the defined profile, training scheme and materials,- collection and analysis of the open training resources related to the modules of the ENACT Energy Auditor training course,- preparation of the relative ENACT training materials for each module for the pilot and validation of the trainign course and material,- set-up of the ICT ENACT system, including the choice of the training platform and its customization for the Italian pilot and the validation in the other countries,- development of the ENACT pilot in Italy by deliverying the full ENACT course through the customised ENACT ICT system,- validation of ENACT (ICT system and uploaded ENACT training material and other underlying documents) in the non Italian countries,- fine-tuning, according to the pilot and validation results, of the ENACT profile / training course / training material / ICT system,- definition of possible recommendations for the take-up of the ENAT Energy Auditor figure by the countries involved in the project and for the dissemination and take-up of the professional figure also in countries outside the ENACT consortium.The ENACT Results and impact attained are both at Nation and Europe (project) level. The timing of the ENACT project enabled the partners to take advantage of the activity in the various countries of the definition of the European norm on energy audit (UNI CEI EN 16247), in particular of chapter 5 of the norm on the ""Energy Audits"". The ENACT results are therefore in line and compatible with the European norm and the national recognition of the technical standards for their implementation. The main outputs of the ENACT project can be sumarised as follows:1) ENACT Comparative Report of the energy auditing scenario in the various countries and of the energy audit professional families,2) ENACT Qualification Scheme illustrating the ENACT energy audit profile and training,3) ENACT training programme and relative training resources,4) ENACT Memorandum of Understanding for the mutual recognition of the training, based on the ECVET system,5) ENACT ICT system,6) Pilot and validation results of the ENACT profile training programme training materials and ICT system,7) ENACT Recommendations illustrating lessons learnt from ENACT experience and indications on follow-up"

The proposed project intends to support Member States in establishing or improving national and local schemes for SMEs to undergo energy audits and implement cost-effective recommended energy-saving measures. An initial work of policies and programmes mapping will be followed by an in-depth understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, with the aim of overcoming the current criticalities and bottlenecks. At the same time a work of characterisation of SMEs in terms of energy consumption, size and sector will be carried out to understand effective ways to properly address existing and innovative energy audit policies. Provided a continuous interaction (by means of workshops, questionnaires, meetings) with policy makers as well as SMEs and ESCOs/Energy Auditors associations, a set of policy proposals and recommendations will be then developed and diffused. The priorities guiding the policy and recommendation development will be: - Effectiveness and orientation to real market needs; - Integration with other points of the EED, particularly article 7 Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes and alternative measures; - Replicability, at least for SMEs sector/size/region; A fundamental part of the project, with a relevant participation requested to each partner, will be a continuous action of capacity building and dissemination addressed to policy makers and relevant stakeholders at European, National and Regional level. In order to concentrate the efforts on new challenges and to valorise previous efforts, the Consortium is committed to take as much advantage as possible of results obtained in previous pertinent EU funded projects (such as ENSPOL, ODYSSEE-MURE, EPATEE) and relevant initiatives such as EEFIG and its related Sustainable Energy Investment Forums. On request of the European Institutions, the Consortium would also be very glad to contribute, through findings and results of the project, to the current debate on the SME definition.