Catching-Up along the global value chain: business models, determinants and policy implications in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (CatChain) is a project built on a multidisciplinary and multi-sectorial exchange program focused on unravelling the process of Catching-Up from different sectorial perspectives at a country level. It analyses the role of business models (BMs) in entering, learning and upgrading the Global Value Chain (GVC), aiming at recognising the determinants and challenges faced by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in tackling the process of upgrading in a globalising economy. The outcome of the project will be the definition of policy tools and frameworks to support effective policy-making actions in the implementation of Research and Innovation Smart Specialization Strategy (RIS3), with respect to the new agenda of Europe 2020, mainly for low-income EU countries. The main aims of the project are: 1.to identify: if and how a country should focus on developing domestic trade networks and upgrading before entering into GVCs; whether it should improve its infrastructures in regional value chains implementing the RIS3 strategy for its economic transformation; 2.to study the emerging BMs underpinning the successful entry, learning, and upgrading in GVCs, after the investigation and valuation of case studies in different sectors and countries; 3.to isolate the conditions that define the preferable entry strategy; 4.to recognise the policy framework that facilitates entries and supports SMEs in developing a profitable business strategy. To give robust scientific answers to the question of whether entering GVCs by sponsoring one large national firm or a set of small and dynamic enterprises, CatChain intends to bridge the Catching-Up approach with the GVCs literature, paying attention to the role that entry, learning and upgrading strategies – integrated with BMs, play in fostering a process of country-level catching-up in distinct sectors.

Housing policy in Europe is characterised by diversity; there is no single concept of ‘social housing’. In Spain, in the industrial development of the XX century, an extensive workers' housing policy was developed, and many social housing options appeared. The renovation of these districts and the refurbishment of this building typology (post-war privately-owned multifamily) requires heavy investment to alleviate situations of constructive pathologies, lack of energy efficiency and accessibility, and to adapt them to modern standards and the new requirements of their current users (often older people). The core ambition of the project is the development of an integrated renovation methodology aiming to transform social housing districts into inclusive smart neighbourhoods. It will guide constructive, energy and digital updates of neighbourhoods to improve urban space, accessibility and quality of life for all resident, and to guarantee connectivity of these neighbourhoods in physical, social and digital areas. The two drivers around which this project is structured are social innovation and local economic development both sharing the integration of innovative technologies as a guiding thread but with a human-centred approach and fit for purpose. The project will also explore the growth creation potential of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in these processes of social neighbourhood renewal while strengthening social cohesion Based on an understanding of users’ needs, it will be validated through a use case in one social housing neighbourhood in Ermua (Spain). This process will be enriched by a peer learning method: Ermua will iterate with Elva (Estonia) as digitally advanced, and Matera (Italy), with their experience around the CCIs having been European Culture Capital 2019. This will also guarantee its replicability reinforced by Housing Europe, with the capacity to widely disseminate the IRM among its members as well as to foster and support its application

Allthings.bioPRO will create and implement a highly innovative gamification ecosystem combining a serious game, a smartphone app and on- and offline communication and engagement activities to enable citizens to provide direct input into the agenda of the bio-based industry. The project will apply a comprehensive participatory approach to engage citizens and all quadruple helix stakeholders in the co-design and co-creation of a serious online game as innovative tool to raise awareness, support learning and gather citizen generated input and data. The project focusses on four themes closely related to everyday life: food packaging, fashion and textiles, kids and schools, and jobs and careers. These themes are central to the serious game and smartphone app and will also guide an associated public communication campaign, building on the current BioCannDo project. Citizen engagement will be organized in a series of Focus Groups and Co-Creation Workshops at the local level, supported by 8 regional partners and implemented in the local language. The serious game and the smartphone app will not only engage citizens using them, but can also be used as tool to aggregate citizens’ ideas, preferences and opinions related to the four themes and relevant products and inform them about bio-based alternatives for fossil based products. Taking up the results of the co-creation process the project will explore possibilities creating a Citizens Action Network and assess how it can support a bioeconomy citizen observatory. Project results will be relevant to brand owners, bio-based industries, Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy, policy actors and others. Allthings.bioPRO will establish close collaboration with them to ensure project results are of high quality, relevant and of direct use. Results will help stakeholders appreciate citizens’ perspectives and views on the bioeconomy and give them access to citizen generated data on preferences and ideas on specific product applications.

For decades, heritage buildings have been an example of resilience, but also low emissions and the core of our cities, towns and villages. A building that has no use or purpose is abandoned and lost. It is imperative to ensure their conservation and maintenance by making them accessible, affordable and easy to maintain but also habitable and that is only possible considering comfort as the main target. Heritage buildings represent an important part of our cultural identity. It is time to include them in the adaptation to a new social and energy model. This project aims to demonstrate that it is possible to improve the overall performance of heritage buildings while preserving their architectural and cultural identity. Given that the spectrum of heritage buildings is very broad and those protection laws may allow for different levels of intervention; the project aims to develop a set of solutions that can be replicated in different parts of Europe. The idea seeks to solve the problem of lack of comfort experienced in many heritage buildings where in many cases either there is no heating/cooling system or the use of the existing one entails a significant economic expense due to the need to air-condition large volumes of air. Achieving acceptable levels of comfort is something that will not only benefit the health of the users but will also help to make these buildings attractive places to develop different uses and thus help to preserve them. When we are faced with the energy rehabilitation of a heritage building in which we normally have construction elements with high thermal inertia, the most recommendable solutions to take advantage of this characteristic are usually to insulate the exterior with hygroscopic materials. Unfortunately, in many cases, this intervention is not possible due to problems with the alignment of the street or because the façade is protected. When the only solution is to insulate on the inside, other problems arise, such as humidity buildup.