"While experts in demography and urbanism projected that the world population will double by 2050 and that by 2020, 80% of people will live in cities and produce nearly 80% of the CO2, it is estimated that the overall investment in new technologies will reach in 2020 the fabulous sum of 110 billion dollars. Another statistic shows that by the year 2050 the final energy demand for buildings sector will increase with 60% while the energy related greenhouse gas emissions will more than double.European Union crosses a period of changing policies to reduce dependence on imported primary energy. Among other related directives, Directive 2010/31/EU stipulates: ""Measures are needed to increase the number of buildings which not only fulfil current minimum energy performance requirements, but are also more energy efficient, thereby reducing both energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. For this purpose, Member States should draw up national plans for increasing the number of nearly zero-energy buildings and regularly report such plans to the Commission"".In this context, the project Educational Laboratories Platform for Complex Engineering Processes with Remote Access (EduLabFrame) addresses the development of sense-making skills through e-learning concerning the design, configuration and administration of complex technological settings. Our objective was to develop an educational framework for essential disciplines related to power and mechanical engineering through e-learning and virtual experience. Throughout project results we pursued the positive impact on the students which would increase the level of:1.Digital competence2.Positive attitude towards the EU values3.Understanding complex engineering processes.4.Competence in foreign languagesThe project consortium was composed of four partners:CO – University Politehnica of Bucharest is the oldest and prestigious engineering school in Romania being recognized at national and European level. Its activity has been started 195 years ago. UPB has more than 25000 students and 1650 academic, 15 faculties, 57 departments, 38 research centres.P1 – University of Ljubljana is an institution with a very rich tradition. It was established in 1919 on the foundations of a long-established pedagogical tradition. It is a very large university, with 50.000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, taking over 300 different undergraduate and postgraduate study programmes. It employs approximately 6,000 higher education teachers, researchers, assistants and administrative staff in 23 faculties and 3 arts academies.P2 – Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving Foundation is a non profit entity founded in 1987 and supervised by the Ministry of Environment, Energy & Climate Change. CRES is by Law the National Centre for Coordination in the fields of RES, RUE, and Energy Saving (ES), its primary aim being to promote technological applications in these fields both at a national and international level. It acts as an advisor to the Greek State, while during the years has established a highly visible profile.P3 – Soft Tehnica is a software company that covers a large area of activities related to computer science and computer engineering, such as: specialized consulting services, analysis and software development, installation and configuration of networks, integration of systems and ready-to-use, customized, software solutions.The project undertaken main activities were:1.Training of the trainees2.Development of virtual laboratories 3.Developing of handbook material4.Implementation of e-learning platform for training purposes5.Dissemination of the project resultsThe carry out of the intellectual outputs has generated a positive impact which is reflected on the real beneficiaries of the project results, namely:Project teams which are the direct beneficiaries of the project results. The personnel involved in either administrative or teaching matters gained greater experience in working in such projects and updating course materials and establishing new connections.Participating organizations are also the beneficiaries of the project results. The institutions gained experience in managing European projects.Students are also the direct beneficiaries of the project results. Throughout training sessions, they had the opportunity to learn the current technologies existing in Europe, learning from best practices that are successfully applied in EU countries. Additionally, results gained along the project will have a great impact on students learning and more attractive education tools in different fields will be generated. The long-term benefits of the projects result we believe to be better prepared engineers, which will have access to better jobs and this will bring benefits to national economies of the partner countries and a better immersion into Industry 4.0 through project efforts to integrate digital technologies in laboratory activities."

Water scarcity is a serious problem for many regions of Europe with some 45% of European territory expected to face water scarcity problems by 2030, where damages caused by floods may increase five-fold by 2050. This is driving growing attention and increasing regulation on water efficiency and water management across Europe, being particularly important in cities and buildings in general, given the estimated water savings of 30%, with consequent reductions on energy and CO2 emissions (“The Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources”). The implementation of water and energy saving measures requires adequate training, capacity building and qualification of construction professionals, sustained on reliable and independent accreditation schemes attesting technical knowledge and social competences, towards market recognition and confidence. The project “WATTer Skills” aimed to develop, implement and propose a common curricula, qualification framework and accreditation scheme at the European level, for training and skills upgrading of construction and green professionals on water efficiency and water energy nexus for construction and retrofit in buildings. The harmonised water efficiency and water-energy nexus competences in building construction and retrofit, was achieved with two proposed qualification frameworks: the water efficiency technician (WET) and the water efficiency expert (WEE). This was materialised in 4 intellectual outputs (in 5 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Greek): IO1 - Setting the Perimeter and definition of the WATTer skills map, IO2 - European Qualification Framework, IO3 - Training Courses Curricula, Contents and Pilots and IO4 - Accreditation System based on European Qualification Framework and European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training, supported by 2 Handbooks with the training contents (six competence areas corresponding to 100 lecture hours for the WET and 4 competence areas corresponding to 50 lecture hours for the WEE) 5 transnational meetings (3 in-person and 2 online), 9 multiplier events (7 training pilots with 144 attendees and 60 lectured hours, 1 Infoday with 28 participants and 1 Final conference with more than 100 participants), the presence at 10 dissemination events (oral communications, poster presentations and scientific publications) and numerous parallel dedicated meetings with the national advisory boards and stakeholder groups. As project outcomes, it can be highlighted the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding by all partners, with a Roadmap of the WATTer Skills follow-up activities, namely the compromise of all partners in continuing the work on the possible integration of the proposed accreditation framework into the national catalogues of the consortium countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. In Portugal, another project outcome already guaranteed is the approval of the “long term strategy for building renovation” (Resolution of the Council of Ministers No 8-A/2021 of 3rd of February 2021), where it is stated that the qualification frameworks produced by the WATTer Skills consortium will be promoted. In addition, ADENE is making the effort to include this topic in the agenda and events of the current Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The Energy Savings Insurance (ESI) Europe 2.0 project aims to: (i) replicate the successful innovative financing scheme ESI (currently being implemented in Italy, Portugal and Spain with the ESI Europe funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme) in three high potential countries in Europe – Croatia, Greece & Slovakia; (ii) hold capacity building, and marketing and promotion activities targeting key market stakeholders to help them understand the model and facilitate access to EE finance; & (iii) to create tools to promote & enable the further replication of ESI across Europe. The ESI model consists of financial & non-financial mechanisms designed to work together to improve the risk-return profile of EE investments & overcome the associated barriers to stimulate the demand for EE projects. It consists of: (i) a standardised contract, which clearly establishes the setup to guarantee energy savings to the SME; (ii) a performance insurance that is used to compensate the SME in case the EE project does not reach the expected energy savings; & (iii) validation mechanisms that provides an independent assessment & verification of the project. These three mechanisms work together to create trust & credibility between actors, & convince SMEs to invest in EE. The model is supported by communications, dissemination & outreach activities, as well as capacity building & EE investment roundtables targeting key market stakeholders, including technology providers with EE solutions, financial institutions, SMEs & others, to create dialogue between the relevant stakeholders & facilitate access to EE finance. The ESI model presents a proven & unique, market based approach that makes use of distribution channels & products that are already available on the market. The ESI mechanisms is complementary to other schemes & available funding, such as green credit lines, credit guarantees, or energy audits.