The overall objective of BioVill is to develop regional bioenergy concepts in Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia and Romania up to the investment stage in order to become “bioenergy villages”. This will increase the market uptake of bioenergy on the basis of cooperation with partners from countries with established bioenergy markets (Austria, Germany). The following specific objectives and activities will contribute to the overall objective: (1) 5 villages have developed the institutional set-up and energy management concept for becoming a bioenergy village up to investment stage for physical infrastructure with at least one bioenergy village in Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania and Macedonia. The local market uptake of bioenergy value chains are to be proven by signing of letters of commitment. (2) Mobilization of 62 GWh/y heat and power based on solid biomass in at least 5 target villages. The individual biomass value chains will include the production and distribution of heat and electricity. The concepts include technical and non-technical aspects for each target village. (3) Increase public acceptance of sustainable bioenergy and raise public awareness on commercial opportunities for farmers, foresters and the bioenergy value chain as a whole by means of public participation. This will be realized by ensuring the public participation of the inhabitants (5,000 households) in the target regions for setting up at least 5 villages across the 5 implementing countries. (4) Capacity Building of users and key actors in business and legislation to manage the bioenergy villages in a sustainable way and be able to either enact the EU based national legislation or make full use of the opportunities that these new markets create for them. In the set-up of bioenergy villages along the bioenergy value chains it will involve at least 500 participants in order to have a critical mass of key actors.

AgroBioHeat project aims to produce a mass deployment of improved and market ready agrobiomass heating solutions in Europe. Agrobiomass is a large, underexploited and indigenous resource, which can support the achievement of the European Energy and Climate targets, while promoting rural development and circular economy. AgroBioHeat actions will take place mostly in 6 EU countries (GR, ES, FR, RO, HR, UA; 5 EU28+Ukraine) where extensive engagement actions are foreseen. Engagement and matchmaking actions will lead to trigger more than 80 initiatives on agrobiomass for heat, 8 of which will be closely accompanied. To generate trust to market actors, the project will detect more than 100 cases running on agrobiomass and 12 will be approached, documented, visualized and visited by potential early adopters. Simultaneously, the project will perform more than 44 tests, covering different market heating technologies and agrobiomass in order to generate reliable data on its emissions and operational performance, and to show the market and community the existing improved technologies. On the EU level, these results will contribute to the anticipated review of the Ecodesign regulation for agrobiomass boilers, while providing suggestions for suitable emission limits in the 500 kW-1 MW range facilities; thus a harmonization of EU legislation will be achieved. Strategic plans for the deployment of agrobiomass for heating market will be drafted and discussed with more than 240 policy makers in the 6 countries. Promotion of the market includes agrobiomass corners at 15 fairs and a dedicated Observatory tool to visualize cases and technology. 60 technicians from ESCOs and installers in the 6 countries will be trained to be ready to adopt mature agrobiomass heating solutions. Social research capturing perceptions of at least 3,500 people will feed into the formulation of a tailored dissemination campaign, aiming to bring the agrobiomass heating solutions to a wider audience.

The development and adoption of renewable and sustainable forms of energy has become a major priority for Europe and is an important theme in H2020. Research into new, energy-related technologies to reduce Europe’s reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels is a critical need, and requires more newly qualified people in areas such as renewable-energy infrastructure management, new energy materials and methods, as well as smart buildings and transport. Bio-energy is particularly relevant to the Work Programme, because it is at the crossroads of several key European policies – from the Strategic Energy Technology Plan Roadmap on Education and Training (SET-Plan) to the European Bio-economy Strategy for European Food Safety and Nutrition Policy. So far, technological development has concentrated on using crops and wood for fuel, energy and industrial products. These conventional bio-resources are, however, limited, and the use of nonconventional, currently unused or under-utilised bio-resources provides the best possibility for the growth of the bioeconomy. However, European development in this priority field is failing to keep pace with demand due to a lack of qualified personnel, a lack of cohesion and integration among stakeholders, and poorly developed links between professional training and the real needs of industry. Based on seven work packages the Phoenix RISE project will address these issues by exploiting the complementary expertise of its partners and creating synergies between them through the targeted secondments of staff to advance research and innovation knowledge in bio-energy research. Phoenix is an international, interdisciplinary, cross-sectorial project, bringing together a total of 16 partners: 14 from the EU (5 companies and 9 academic organisations) and two Third-Country academic partners to enhance its collective research excellence and create new, post-graduate-level research training in key disciplines that support the provision of bio-energy.

The development and adoption of renewable and sustainable energy has become a top priority in Europe, and is Horizon 2020’s most prominent theme. Research into new energy methods required to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint is an urgent and critical need, and is reliant upon a flow of newly qualified persons in areas as diverse as renewable energy infrastructure management, new energy materials and methods, and smart buildings and transport. Bioenergy is a particularly important field in this respect as it is at the cross-roads of several important European policies, from the Strategic Energy Technology Plan Roadmap on Education and Training (SET-Plan) to the European Bioeconomy Strategy to European Food Safety and Nutrition Policy. European development in this prioritised field is stalled due to a lack of qualified personnel, a lack of cohesion and integration among stakeholders, and poor linkage between professional training and industry needs. To address these problems, BioEnergyTrain brings together fifteen partners from six EU countries to create new post-graduate level curricula in key bioenergy disciplines, and a network of tertiary education institutions, research centres, professional associations, and industry stakeholders encompassing the whole value chain of bioenergy from field/forest to integration into the sustainable energy systems of buildings, settlements and regions. The project will foster European cooperation to provide a highly skilled and innovative workforce across the whole bioenergy value chain, closely following the recommendations of the SET-Plan Education Roadmap.

The objective of thERBN is to put into operation an EU-wide multi-actor (MA) thematic network (TN) for knowledge sharing on innovative solutions for sustainable circular bioeconomy (CB) applicable by small farms and foresters (practitioners) at a local scale in rural areas. Such a framework will contribute to empowering practitioners (PPs) solving the gap between available and viable CB solutions and the problems they face in their everyday. Starting from their most urgent needs on the management and use of biological by-products and residues, thERBN will identify existing solutions from grassroots from PPs, innovations developed by Operational Groups (OGs) and research applied results from national and EU projects, to produce practice-oriented easily understandable materials to be shared in national and EU demo days and training and through channels most consulted by PPs. thERBN TN will assure open access to long-term digital structures like EU-Farmbook, and EU-CAP Network, complemented by the thERBN platform to facilitate multilanguage access and a social environment to interact among and integrate CB-interested OGs, TNs & project communities, thus enhancing the cross-border dimensions and effects of thERBN TN, and reducing the fragmentation in knowledge and innovation. The MA thERBN TN will connect with the key actors (researchers, advisors, innovation brokers) and structures (national and regional AKIS, extension services, advisors networks) necessary to encompass the transition of small rural farms and foresters towards climate neutrality and more sustainable and resilient operation. Bottom-up MA-based dialogue will yield evidence on the current PPs' needs, the remaining gaps for CB solutions that new innovative products and services can cover, and policy briefs proposing policies or instruments to support the adoption of small-scaled CB solutions by small farms.