Peatlands are crucial in climate change resilience as critical habitats for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and Carbon storage. Today, 50% of the EU peatland area is degraded due to peat extraction, with a high environmental impact associated and poses a high risk for the Green Transition goals. The horticultural industry depends entirely on peat for growing media, as current alternatives face technical, socio-cultural, and economic barriers. PEATLESS aims to contribute to overcoming these barriers to promote the uptake of sustainable and locally available substrates blends with reduced peat content in selected horticultural systems: mushrooms, seedlings and ornamental. These blends will be designed through co-creation and will be tailored to sectorial needs. The performance of these alternative media will be demonstrated and showed to growers at commercial facilities across 4 key regions for horticulture. To demonstrate performance and support decision-making, a digital sensoring system for results monitoring will be developed. To overcome socio-cultural barriers, social innovation, educational and innovative dissemination activities will boost knowledge exchange to raise growers’ confidence in alternatives to peat. To overcome economic barriers, an integral feasibility assessment will be developed (e.g., LCSA) followed by new business and organisational models’ creation. Furthermore, an upscaling plan to replicate the PEATLESS approach at national and European levels will ensure project continuation. This 3-year project involves 12 partners from 4 countries, including RTOs, universities, industry, end-users’ representatives and decision-makers, following a multi-actor approach. By 2050, significant long-term impact is expected, predominantly: 1) Environmental: 2.5m m3 of peat saved with a reduction of 900k t CO2eq); 2) Socio-economic: 5,000 horticultural business with PEATLESS substrates across 40 regions; 3) Policy: +30 recommendations.

<< Background >>75% of the world’s main food crops and 85% of wild plants rely on pollinating insects (European Commission, 2020) which provide a crucial ecosystem service, but nowadays many pollinator species are in decline. Reports reveal declines in all key insect pollinator groups, including honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, and hoverflies (Althaus et al, 2021; Rhodes, 2018; Stavert, 2018; Bellamy et al, 2017). The loss, degradation, and fragmentation of natural habitats are some of the key drivers of this decline, with urbanization and lack of green infrastructure being regarded as one of the main threats (Seto et al, 2012). City actors need to understand that pollinators are an essential component of urban ecosystems, because they support and contribute to the biodiversity and functioning of urban green infrastructure, and also deliver health and well-being benefits to towns and cities, by strengthening residents’ connection to nature (Stange et al. 2018). Their actions should be prioritized, focusing on providing and maintaining a high-quality framework to support pollinators and make their urban environments pollinator-friendly, but unfortunately, they don’t have the tools to guide them on how to do it. According to the European Court of Auditors (2020) the EC has not consistently approached the protection of wild pollinators in the EU countries, and there are limited tools and mechanisms to address this issue. The partnership was purposely built including Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, France, and Poland since they are some of the EU countries which either have taken no initiatives or have taken a number of initiatives to build pollinator-friendly mechanisms, but their efforts were not sustained. In fact, a small scale research carried out in all partner countries before the commencement of the project, gave the following evidence: In Cyprus there is no pollinator strategy, while the biodiversity strategy of the country does not address pollinators specifically; Spain declares that only a small number of local raising awareness initiatives for pollinators were led or supported and a very limited number of educational campaigns have been launched; in Italy there has been some exchanging knowledge and making progress in implementing pollinator-friendly policies and measures, but there is a long way to go in order to advance in pollinator conservation-cities; Greece has no national pollinator strategy and the only organisation carrying out awareness-raising and educational activities about wild pollinators in the country is the Laboratory of Biogeography and Ecology; France has a range of examples of actions on the issues of pollinators, but not all are directly aimed at this but they are in good route for understanding pollinator issues; in Latvia no awareness-raising campaigns or education and training opportunities focused on wild pollinators were identified; In Poland a group of scientists prepared a National Strategy for Protecting Insect Pollinators in 2018, but up to now it has not been accepted or supported by the Polish Ministry of Environment and no measures are targeted specifically at pollinators. Further, the small scale research revealed that the majority of the countries lacked sufficient education and training material and tools for VET trainers to use in order to competently offer training courses for the professional development of the target groups, including city actors and urban planners, professionals in urban and sustainable development, biodiversity protection associations and NGOs and generally to all interested stakeholders on how to tackle the decline of wild pollinator populations in urban settings.<< Objectives >>The partnership is cross-border cooperation with partners strategically chosen -The School of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki– applicant, the Agrifood Research and Technology Centre of Aragon - a public research centre in Spain, a Union of Municipalities in Italy, 2 SMEs -1 from Cyprus(VET centre), and 1 from France (ICT expert), the Institute of Life Sciences and Technology of Daugavpils University from Latvia, and 2 NGOs, 1 from Poland (ARID-VET provider) and 1 from Greece (iAgroCert)- because of their specific expertise and knowledge (analysed in the following pages), and all will make a significant contribution to the development of the BlossomingCities training model for VET trainers to train urban actors. All partners agreed to compare issues of concern, exchange knowledge, make progress and work collaboratively in promoting and implementing activities, taking initiatives, and building tools that will encourage city actors and related stakeholders to follow the pathway towards building pollinator-friendly urban settings. One of the main needs that will be addressed is to manage to bring together the skills of such a diverse set of partners in creating a novel training model, with new, digital training tools, in order to educate city actors to activate pollinator-friendly mechanisms, within common cooperation. Additionally, the need to expand the previous work and knowledge of partner organisations in similar fields will be addressed.This project titled 'BlossomingCities' will bring together partners from diverse backgrounds and fields of expertise, who will collaboratively work at local, national, and European levels to build an innovative Pollinator-friendly training model for Urban environments, to support and enhance VET education delivery, and guide VET Trainers through appropriate information, training tools, and resources. VET trainers will, then, train city actors (including mayors, local policymakers, city decision-makers, city council members, local authority practitioners), NGOs, urban planners, representatives of educational institutions of all levels, public and private organisations, and professionals in urban and sustainable development and biodiversity protection, bees and butterflies conservation associations, beekeepers associations, entomological societies, botanical gardens, natural history museums on how to tackle the decline of wild pollinator populations in urban settings through their stand. The training model will propose best practices, ways to develop strategies and initiatives, as well as awareness-raising actions and campaigns that can be taken in the frames of organized urban planning. It will, also, include activities and actions referring to the involvement of civil society-at-large and the value of collaborations at local, national, and European levels to tackle the decline of wild pollinator populations.It is hoped that BlossomingCities to reach city actors, urban planners, related experts, policymakers and government officials, and activate mechanisms towards tackling the wild pollinators' decline in the urban settings. To achieve this, BlossomingCities sets the following objectives: -To develop, pilot-test, and publish an innovative Pollinator-friendly training model for VET trainers to train urban actors to contribute to the development of pollinator-friendly urban environments -To engage urban actors in actions and initiatives towards the creation of pollinator-friendly cities-To target nature-based solutions to improve biodiversity and increase environmental stewardship, with the aim of providing a more attractive city to live, work and invest in. -To sensitise policy- and decision-makers to use their legislative and administrative power to bring about change and boost pollinator diversity in cities.<< Implementation >>The project activities will be developed as followed: Phase 1: Efficient project management to ensure that all partners have a deep understanding of the project's aims, objectives, results, activities, and phases. Project management predetermines the implementation of actions right from the beginning of the project and includes the building Plans (Project Management Plan (P1), Evaluation and Quality Assurance Plan (P3), Dissemination Plan (P5), and the Sustainability and Exploitation Plan (P7). Phase 2: Desk/Field research which will give R1 – The BlossomingCities Blueprint including a state-of-the-Art Report on the current situation of wild pollinators conservation status in Europe and worldwide, and European, national and local best practices and recommendations on developing pollinator-friendly urban environments.Phase 3: Preparation of the Training Course and Pilots (R4) for VET trainers based on R1, and together with the digital training means and tools (R3 and R4) will consist a complete training model for VET trainers to train relevant target groups on how to promote pollinator-friendly practices to urban environments. A complete modular training course will be developed, which will combine face-to-face and online learning to satisfy the learning needs of all interested target groups. The training course will be piloted by at least 2 groups of at least 10 learners in each group, from each country to give a useful compilation for its improvement. Before the pilot training takes place in the partners' respective countries, 3 VET trainers from each partner organisation will receive a 5-day training in Latvia to acquire the knowledge, skills, and competences through their direct involvement with the Pollinator-friendly training model for Urban environments, in order to effectively train the target groups back in their countries during the pilots in R4. Phase 4: Preparation of the digital tools for training and learning purposes, the BlossomingCities 4 interactive modules (R3) and the BlossomingCities e-Learning portal (R4), which will be the online learning tool of the blended training and learning of the target group. Phase 5: It is the dissemination phase where the outcomes and results of the project will be presented to reach the wider public. 8 multiplier events will be carried out to promote the project, its outcomes and results to all interested parties. This phase is crucial for the impact, dissemination, and sustainability of BlossomingCities results. This phase will determine the dissemination pathways, such as social media involvement, newsletters, leaflets production, etc.<< Results >>The project outcomes, including Results (Rs) during the implementation period, are as followed:Results (Rs)R1: The BlossomingCities Blueprint including a state-of-the-Art Report on the current situation of wild pollinators' conservation status in Europe and worldwide, and local and national best practices and recommendations on developing pollinator-friendly urban environments including a desk and field research.R2: The BlossomingCities training course and pilots, which will be developed as a complete modular course for VET trainers to train the target group on how to develop pollinator-friendly urban practices and take appropriate initiatives and actions. The training course will combine face-to-face and online learning (through the e-Learning portal of the project) in order to accommodate the needs of the target groups. R3: The BlossomingCities 4 gamified interactive modules: 4 gamified interactive modules through which VET trainers will involve their learners/target groups in digital playful and motivating learning processes on 1. the ecological value of wild pollinators, 2. the causes and consequences of its decline, 3. Tackling the causes of pollinator decline, 4. Raising awareness, engaging society-at-large, and promoting collaboration efforts at the local, regional, EU, and international levels.R4: The BlossomingCities e-Learning portal: will be the online learning tool of the blended training and learning of the target group (a combination of face-to-face and virtual training). 14 (2 per partners country) trained VET trainers on the VET training model for Urban environments to tackle the decline of wild pollinator populations (C1). We will create a pool of well-trained multipliers coming from different organisations.2 groups of at least 10 learners in each group, from each country (total 140 learners) to pilot test the VET training model during R2 pilots 7 “BlossomingCities” multiplier events to publicize the project, its outcomes, and Results among all interested stakeholders i.e. city actors, urban planners, biodiversity associations and NGOs, etc on how to tackle the decline of wild pollinator populations in urban settings (E1-E7) and 1 Final multiplier event in Greece (E8).