Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are critical and non-substitutable raw materials with high economic importance for European industry, as they are crucial components for a broad range of advanced products. The main goal of the SecREEts project is to establish a stable and secure supply of critical REEs based on sustainable extraction from European apatite sources used in fertiliser production. Pilot processes will be developed for the innovative extraction, separation and transformation of REEs. Rare Earth (RE) metals will be supplied to application areas like electric vehicles, industrial motors and wind turbines. Replication potential will be demonstrated in medical diagnostics, Fluid Catalytic Cracking and consumer products. The main objective of the project is to demonstrate a new integrated value chain for the optimal extraction, refining and production of REEs in Europe. This will be achieved through the development and demonstration of a number of innovative technologies: • Utilise efficiently a novel industrial sidestream process in fertiliser production to extract the REEs • Separate REEs by a novel chromatographic process into distinct nitrate salts • Realise electrochemical production of metals and alloys from the above targeted RE oxides • Demonstrate the market value and relevance of the produced RE metals in permanent magnets and its downstream products • Validate market acceptance of the RE oxides not processed to metals • Create an industrial symbiosis between two value chains • Demonstrate the economic, environmental and societal sustainability as well as safety of the pilot units SecREEts pilots will focus on Pr, Nd and Dy metals used in permanent magnets as these are extremely critical for the European economy. Industrial implementation of the pilots developed in SecREEts will lead to a supply of at least 3000 tonnes annually of REEs to European industries in 2023, with 75 M€ in estimated value.

RESTORE proposes a radically innovative solution for DHC, based on the combination of two key innovative technologies (TCES+ORC), that allows integrating a wide variety of renewable technologies combined with competitive seasonal storage in DHC networks, allowing them to be 100% renewable to radically improve their environmental sustainability. The first technology the project aims to develop is an innovative thermal energy storage system based on Thermo-chemical reactions, the Thermo-Chemical Energy Storage (TCES), that provides daily and seasonal competitive energy storage due to its high energy density, very low energy losses and its low-cost. The system represents a key development due to the fact that it allows harnessing the enormous amount of energy that is normally wasted due to the mismatch between energy demand (loads) and energy generation (related to the availability of the renewable resource or waste heat), mainly occurring between seasons. In addition, the project aims to develop a second technology that is based on Heat Pump and ORC and is combined with the TCES system. This second technology adapts the energy provided by different renewable technologies to feed the storage system, thus a wide variety of renewable technologies as well as waste heat can be integrated into the whole system to finally supply the energy demand under the specific conditions laid down by each DHC. This radically innovative solution would tackle the main barriers for a wide deployment of renewable energy technologies and waste heat in the existing and future DHC networks. The projects consider the experimental validation of the RESTORE concept and also the demonstration of the concept replicability potential, adapting and optimizing the proposed solution to different real sites (different network conditions and local particularities as the available renewable technologies/waste heat) spread over the EU, and quantifying its potential benefits via virtual use-cases.

SUPREEMO aims to establish the first pre-commercial Rare Earth Elements (REEs) production value chain (TRL7) using European (EU) primary resources as feedstock, developing sustainable, cost-competitive processing, refining and Rare Earth (RE) Permanent Magnet (PM) production technologies in a responsible way complying with local and international safety regulations. This will contribute in securing REE materials supply for the EU industry and strategic sectors which depends 100 % on Chinese imports. The largest end-user of REEs is the PMs industry, that contain neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium as key elements to produce high energy-efficient motors, which are vital for electric mobility and renewable energy technologies. SUPREEMO will exploit the European primary resources from two major EU sites: Fen deposit Norway (largest carbonatite deposit in EU) with >200 Mtonne grading 1.2-1.5 % Total Rare Earth Oxides and secondly, exploring extraction technologies related to deposits from uranium extraction in the Czech Republic, technologies which is also intended for implementation in direct extraction during uranium beneficiation related to nuclear energy supply chains. SUPREEMO will capitalise on technologies demonstrated in previous projects to develop innovative, environmentally friendly, socially and economically sustainable REEs processing technologies. During phase 1, the partners will optimise the stand alone technologies to elucidate the final integrated process flowsheet with the best processing parameters in phase 2, guided by LCA and LCCA. This will be validated at the piloting activities in phase 3. Finally, the production of 50-100 kg of REO at similar cost to commercial value from Chinese production will be demonstrated at TRL7 by processing ~ 10 tonnes of ores, and the production of Rare Earth Alloy for the manufacturing of 50 kg PMs. Results will be communicated and disseminated to key stakeholders and a concrete first business plan will be set to attract more investors and stimulate a competitive, resilient and sustainable REEs production value chain ready for full-scale deployment in the EU market.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are interdependent crises, but knowledge gaps on their interplays prevent effective risk assessment and solutions. Trees4Adapt will 1) enhance empirical understanding of climate change, biodiversity loss, their interdependencies, and how these influence risks; 2) develop evidence-informed tools and solutions that build climate resilience and support biodiversity at the same time. We focus particularly on tree-based solutions, which are nature-based solutions involving trees that promise to safeguard the EU by delivering cross-sectoral benefits, if we better tailor their design and implementation. Trees4Adapt combines field-quantified understanding from multi-national research platforms and case studies representative of boreal, temperate, and Mediterranean biomes with novel bioeconomic modelling and high-resolution modelling and mapping of complex risks. Our activities operate from the plot- to EU-level, with interdisciplinary models developed during the project integrating the scale-dependent findings. Trees4Adapt applies co-creational approaches, and key stakeholders - including public administration and authorities - from the local- to EU levels will actively guide, inform, and participate in the project. This will ensure the outputs of our research are useable, custom-made to stakeholders’ specific needs, and result in changes in decision-making and other impact in relation to recognised societal needs and key EU and global policy priorities including the Climate Adaptation, Forest, and Biodiversity Strategies. Trees4Adapt’s consortium consists of leading experts on climate change science, ecosystems and land use changes, nature-based solutions, transdisciplinary and participatory research, bioeconomics, environmental policy, risk assessment and modelling. Ultimately, Trees4Adapt aims to work with and support EU decision-makers to successfully assess and address complex risks from climate change and biodiversity loss.

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.