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.

CircularPSP brings together 7 procurers from 7 countries, representing 45 million citizens, to invest €5.64 million in R&D to tackle the common challenge of accelerating digital transition towards a Circular Economy (CE). The Buyers Group represents highly attractive national markets (DE, FI, TR, SE, IE, PT, SI) supported by a Preferred Partner in UK, including capitals with global influence (Berlin, Helsinki, London, Istanbul). The consortium represents European CE-transition and PCP leaders in science and practice. Suppliers are expected to deliver a new green digital public service and data platform enabling entire municipal operations (city) and the local economy (market) to choose, open up, and consume existing and new data. The solution is to support business processes and workflows to plan, procure and implement innovative CE-solutions across Europe more quickly and at larger volume. The unmet procurement needs are: tools to improve organisational and operational performance; data analytics using taxonomies to exploit and exchange CE information and data; removal of language barrier to unlock EU-wide knowledge and learnings. To enable the transition suppliers will answer with ICT innovation in the cross-cutting combination and leveraging of existing and new strategic digital technologies: 1) scalable platforms for city and SMEs users, 2) CE data analytics using EU taxonomy, open linked data, injected by AI, and 3) natural language processing (NLP) to break language barriers across the EU and beyond. The envisaged solution is relevant for all European authorities including cities, ministries, agencies, and housing. Activity triggered by the solution will increase the volume of circular procurement and widen commercialisation opportunities for green digital companies and result in EU leadership in Circular Economy. With interoperability at the core and innovative tools for data sharing and open standards, the solution will provide a use case for the upcoming Common Industrial and Green Deal European Data.

The Cir4Fun Project endeavours to transform the furniture industry by championing circular economy principles across the product life cycle. Through innovative strategies, DPP and digital solutions supporting mechanisms, it aims to enhance furniture sustainability, eco-labelling, and consumer engagement while aligning with relevant regulations and initiatives. Cir4Fun's approach involves creating a comprehensive circular economy roadmap, defining content for a Furniture DPP, developing circular business models and eco-design guidelines, and establishing new assessment methodologies for maintenance, reparability, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recyclability. All this knowledge will be integrated in a holistic Furniture Assessment System (FAS) including a Sustainable Index System, d-LCA, LCC, SLCA. FAS will support the furniture eco-scoring system and DPP. Additionally, it focuses on interoperability, data sharing and data management with reliable approaches to enable simulation testing to inform supply chain strategies and extend product lifespan. Social engagement with stakeholders is emphasized to promote sustainable behaviours and circular practices, ultimately supporting new regulations and standardization in the furniture industry. The project outcomes will be implemented and validated in 3 use cases addressing different value chains across Europe and the findings will be widely circulated across the furniture ecosystem in Europe.

DISTENDER will provide integrated strategies by building a methodological framework that guide the integration of climate change (CC) adaptation and mitigation strategies through participatory approaches in ways that respond to the impacts and risks of climate change (CC), supported by quantitative and qualitative analysis that facilitates the understanding of interactions, synergies and trade-offs. Holistic approaches to mitigation and adaptation must be tailored to the context-specific situation and this requires a flexible and participatory planning process to ensure legitimate and salient action, carried out by all important stakeholders. DISTENDER will develop a set of multi-driver qualitative and quantitative socio-economic-climate scenarios through a facilitated participatory process that integrates bottom-up knowledge and locally-relevant drivers with top-down information from the global European Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and downscaled Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) from IPCC. A cross-sectorial and multi-scale impact assessment modelling toolkit will be developed to analyse the complex interactions over multiple sectors, including an economic evaluation framework. The economic impact of the different efforts will be analyse, including damage claim settlement and how do sectoral activity patterns change under various scenarios considering indirect and cascading effects. It is an innovative project combining three key concepts: cross-scale, integration/harmonization and robustness checking. DISTENDER will follow a pragmatic approach applying methodologies and toolkits across a range of European case studies (six core case studies and five followers) that reflect a cross-section of the challenges posed by CC adaptation and mitigation. The knowledge generated by DISTENDER will be offered by a Decision Support System (DSS) which will include guidelines, manuals, easy-to-use tools and experiences from the application of the cases studies.