The DOMINO project will nudge more than 3,400 households from the regions of Brussels, Berlin and Naples towards more energy efficient behaviour and will connect participating households in their region to nurture peer-learning and strengthen social bonds. To this end, a variety of behavioural interventions will be combined in a smart plug challenge. In this challenge, households in each region form teams that will be provided with smart plug equipment and a smartphone app allowing them to monitor and control their electricity consumption and serving as a means to directly communicate with them and support them with tailored energy conservation advice. By combining feedback, prompts, goal setting, peer comparison, rewards and other behavioural levers, the project will lead to an annual reduction in primary energy consumption of more than 14.48 GWh. Throughout the project, data will be generated that allows looking into energy consumption patterns of households and their appliances. Furthermore, the actual potential for energy savings through behavioural change as well as through the application of smart plug technology and similar innovative product-system-services can be monitored and evaluated very precisely. The project will thereby not only contribute to reducing energy consumption in the three target region and to improving the awareness for the innovative smart plug technology but will also advance the scientific and public debate on energy consumption behaviour and on behavioural interventions for energy efficiency. In addition to creating direct energy savings and to building knowledge, the project will also contribute to building capacities and skills among participating households, multipliers in energy agencies across Europe, policy-makers on national and European level as well as municipalities and energy providers. At the end of the project, smart plugs will be passed on to organsiations who will keep lending them to interested to consumers.

Our vision of the European City Facility (EUCF) is one where European cities have their say on how the EUCF financial support will be used to meet their needs and help them overcome barriers they face in financing and implementing their ambitious energy and climate strategies. The ultimate objective of the EUCF is to build a substantial pipeline of sustainable energy investment projects across cities in Europe. This will be achieved by providing targeted financial, technical, legal and capacity building support to overcome critical barriers, develop credible investment packages and mobilise finance. Delivering this will require organisational, technical and financial innovation, in particular to bridge the capacity and capability gap for small and medium-sized municipalities. The specific objectives are to: - Provide hands-on locally rooted technical and financial expertise, inspired by ‘best in class’ European practice, to cities to deliver at least 225 credible and scalable investment concepts (hereafter referred to as IC) which should trigger more than EUR 320 M of public and private investment. - Build the capacity of at least 450 public authority staff to develop substantial project pipelines and provide them with tools, networking and knowledge transfer opportunities which will facilitate and accelerate the IC implementation, including via innovative financing mechanisms and project aggregation. - Facilitate access especially for small and medium-sized municipalities to private finance, EU funding streams and similar facilities (e.g. ESIF, H2020-PDA, Elena-EIB) and advisory services such as the EIB Advisory Hub to realise and amplify the expected investments. - Use the successful IC and knowledge of EUCF beneficiaries to reach out to more than 8,000 cities and communities, encourage replication and catalyse further action across European cities.