SPACE4Cities will dynamise the uptake of space-based solutions for dynamic use and management of public space. This is an area of smart city development which is currently lagging behind in digital transformation when compared to parallel domains of similar economic and social importance. Cities are at the forefront of fighting todays grand societal challenges, as they consume 75% of the natural resources, 78% of the worlds energy, produce 50% of the global waste, and emit 60-80% of the greenhouse gases. Yet, they account for less than 2% of the Earths surface. Therefore, SPACE4Cities project predominantly targets cities and densely populated regions. Cities face increasing pressure to tackle their climate challenges and to utilise their existing assets more efficiently, while at the same time be more agile in reacting to constant change from climate events and other factors. In effect, cities need to be more dynamic and more resilient. However, currently, cities are not able to manage their public space (on ground and in air) in an agile manner that would adequately support the increasing amount of different types of needs. If the management of areas is to become dynamic, it has to be based on dynamic data assets. This project strives for better, more dynamic management of public spaces, answering a concrete need for cities and regions to be able to adapt to fast-changing requirements for transport infrastructure, open spaces and city maintenance, and to increase their resilience to cope with extreme and disruptive events. Via smart exploitation of space data, the SPACE4Cities project aims to build replicable solutions for the dynamic management of public areas, and a clear roadmap for Europe-wide implementation of such space data-based solutions.

One of the principal challenges to reaching targets of the Energy Transition (ET) is to improve the coordination between local authorities and regional governments with the aim to enhance decision-making process, coherence and consistency of the implementation of energy transition measures (ETM). ePLANET will meet this challenge by encouraging the digitalization of measures and plans enabling an interoperable ecosystem of data and tools supporting energy transition decision making, putting it into practice by the public sector. ePLANET builds on an existing infrastructure enabling massive data gathering, making the data and measures comparable and interoperable with existing local initiatives (CoM, Clean Energy for EU Islands Initiative) and regional/national plans, analysing this data and offering relevant results to key stakeholders. This will enhance decision-making -more informed, more transparent and faster decisions-, contributing to improved monitoring and verification schemes. Enabling harmonisation of plans and interoperability across the local and regional authorities to joint application of ETM favouring more efficient use of public spending. ePLANET is a three-year project that will develop a proof of concept over three regional pilots (Girona, Crete and Zlín regions) during the first half of the project, to ensure the correct deployment of developed tools and to fit the real needs of public authorities in the energy transition. The rest of the project will focus on extending and implementing the ePLANET tools and methodology across Europe. To ensure new regions and local authorities’ engagement, the project will leverage existing initiatives (CoM and ManagEnergy) in which the project partners have strong influence (ICLEI and FED in particular).

The overarching goal of ACCEND is to establish capabilities and processes that enable the project partners to conduct impactful and exemplary cross-border startup accelerator programmes in Europe - to initiate and establish a long term cross-border startup acceleration service ecosystem. It brings together and enriches a diverse and complementing array of deep tech acceleration services: support in access to finance; advisory in the use of testbeds and living labs for business development; matchmaking with key public procurers of innovation; and global growth coaching advisory targeting global scaleup pathways with go-to-market activities. ACCEND builds shared understanding and trust between the project partners by collaboratively designing joint, distributed Cross-border Startup Accelerator Services that builds on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each partner and their regional ecosystems; It conducts a pilot programme named ACCEND Accelerator where these complementing services are delivered to a 100+ scale-up companies, aiming towards opening the regional services and funding borders, as well as global markets for these startups. To conduct this successfully, it connects the startup services ecosystem in the partner regions more widely, to leverage local and European initiatives, and to anchor the cross-regional collaboration. The project's ultimate goal is to validate a sustainable model for continuous cross-border Deep Tech acceleration services deployment.

It is evident that the process of green transition reshapes national, regional, and local economic landscapes, and triggers change in ecosystems of various industries, thereby highlighting the urgent need to plan efficient and fair strategies to minimise the costs of job destruction and maximise the benefits of job creation in a socially fair way and a geographically equal way, in the wider patterns of reskilling. ISABEL's main objective is to provide a threefold solution to the aforementioned problem related to JCD with the use of new technologies such as AI and Large Language Models (LLM) that will 1) enrich our understanding of the socially and geographically uneven implications of this process across Europe, 2) broaden our knowledge on the factors underlying this process, and 3) highlight pathways of minimising the effects of job destruction and maximising the benefits of job creation, in a socially and spatially fair way. The latter include upskilling and reskilling of workers and the reallocation of labour, based on existing and forecasted skills shortages, using AI technologies to support these tasks. To achieve its main goal, ISABEL will examine the above elements at 3 different levels: i) the aggregate European level, among the EU, UK and Serbian Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 2 regions (NUTS2), using secondary data, ii) at 6 countries of focus -Denmark, Greece, Poland, UK, Serbia, Spain, collecting and analysing primary data, and iii) Living Labs focusing on 6 regions with diverse socio-economic features.

TOURing, aims at establishing and sharing a common model for skills in Tourism sector in the EU in order to address the skills mismatches and “invest” for the future developments. We are going to establish an effective mechanism where partnering VET Institutions and Tourism Businesses are going to engage mutual learning, peer counselling, and capacity building, aimed at raising the quality and attractiveness of VET provision and a European, National, Regional and Local Level. TOURing, is the answer towards bridging the gap between the market needs in terms of skills and competences in the Tourism Sector, and the ability of the VET to provide more tailored Curricula and Up-Skilling opportunities that would create balance in the booming tourism sector.Based on the above our main goals are:• To support Tourism Stakeholders to respond immediately to the fast changing and increasing skills gaps in digital and green skills sets;• To contribute to the Knowledge Hub of Pact for Skills by providing updated and state-of-the-art curricula addressing the need for digital and green skills in tourism sector;• To create the ground for partnerships and cooperation structures between VET/Education Providers and Labour Market Representatives in Tourism Sector;• To raise the awareness of VET systems and Tourism Industry in digital and green transitions in tourism;• To increase the quality of the VET Curricula related to Tourism which nowadays goes hand in hand with digital technologies and environmental sustainability;