ASCEND (Accelerate positive Clean Energy Districts) seeks to accelerate the implementation of positive, clean energy districts (PCED) for cities’ transition toward climate neutrality and social justice across Europe. ASCEND will: - Deliver two inclusive, affordable PCEDs in Lyon and Munich; - Successfully "bootstrap" implementation of PCEDs in the Multiplier Cities of Alba Iulia (RO), Budapest (HU), Charleroi (BE), Prague (CZ), Porto (PT), Stockholm (SE); - Scale-up solution packages for a large community of cities and investors across Europe; - Disseminate our results widely to the smart cities community. Our overarching goals are to i) Make cities healthier, inclusive and climate-neutral; ii) Speed up and scale up the deployment of cost-effective PCEDs solution packages. “Getting PCEDs done” across Europe entails the following actions for ASCEND: First, large-scale demonstrations in Lighthouse Cities (LHCs), using existing knowledge built by generation of Smart Cities Projects, offering well-proven and cost-effective solutions packages, scalable by design to cities across Europe. Second, developing our solutions packages across the entire life of the district: from design to implementation and maintenance, performances must be maintained and increased thanks to an urban orchestrator aiming to coordinate the ecosystem in the long run. Third, creating a PCEDs replication wave during ASCEND in our eight partnering cities by iterating between the development of solutions packages and deployment in LHCs and Multiplier cities (MCs) during the project and not after. MCs will achieve impact by bootstrapping their PCEDs during the project. Finally, triggering a PCED wave through outcome-driven collaboration with EC initiatives, such as Climate-Neutral and Smart City Mission, Covenant of Mayor, Smart Cities Marketplace, Scalable cities but also with the deployment of City Alliances in the eight cities, targeting small cities, not used to European projects.

In NEB-STAR, 16 partners will join forces to make the transition to climate-neutral cities inclusive, beautiful and sustainable - for, by and with all stakeholders. Stavanger as the first-generation NEB Lighthouse will provide experimentation, demonstration, insight and guidance on NEB principles in urban transitions in cooperation with twinning cities Prague and Utrecht, and peers in Europe and the Nordics. The project will demonstrate how Territorial Transformation Plans can be operationalised with NEB principles to accelerate the journey towards climate neutrality. In NEB-STAR, NEB principles will be used to address four emblematic challenges: (1) co-creating a new sense of aesthetics for climate-neutral cities and communities that captures places' unique qualities, history and potential, and generates a sense of belonging, pride and ownership; (2) Reconnecting with nature to boost resilience and a sense of community, giving new life to the spaces in between buildings through food and nature; (3) Creating temporary meeting spaces in urban transition areas, that embrace diversity and strengthen the identity and uniqueness of people and places that need it most; (4) Co-creating co-benefits for the neighbourhood and city through multi-functional use of spaces and infrastructures. The project will deliver a Detailed Roadmap for full-scale implementation of Stavanger’s Territorial Transformation Plan, supported by an extensive Co-Creation Process, a Portfolio of Policy Strategies and Tools, Financial and Partnership Models. The plans will be co-created with local stakeholders and partners, tested in Demonstrators in the three cities, jointly evaluated with stakeholders and experts, and exploited and replicated in cooperation with Nordic and European NEB and Missions communities. The NEB-STAR Impact Model will capture the social, cultural, financial, governance and technical impact on the built environment, and the stakeholders that affect / are affected by them.