INTENSSS-PA will support public authorities to integrate the energy theme into spatial planning and regional physical and socioeconomic landscapes. To achieve this objective INTENSS-PA will provide human and institutional capacity building to public authorities and to the wider network of private and public actors related to energy and regional planning by implementing the Living Lab concept, i.e. an innovative environment of co-creation. Specifically, a network of seven Regional Living Labs (RLL) within the seven different Countries/Regions that participate in the consortium (Thessaly-Greece, Calabria-Italy, Castilla y Leon- Spain, Association of Municipalities-Slovenia, Groningen-Netherlands, Triangle-Denmark and Zemgale-Latvia), will be created. Involving public authorities, private and civil society actors, the RLLs are focused on improving and designing a shared and integrated sustainable energy planning concept and on applying it in order to develop seven sustainable energy plans, i.e. one for each Region. The overall approach will involve learning sessions and experiential projects alongside intense networking. Communication and exploitation activities are envisaged including national Roadshows and a survey with policy makers. It is expected that over 200 people participate in the capacity-building activities performed within the RLLs network, while the stakeholders and policy makers informed on the project results and activities will exceed the 1000 individuals. The project objectives are completely inline with topic EE07’s scope, since it considers innovative capacity building activities to public authorities for integrated energy planning through the establishment of a network of RLLs, i.e. of an ecosystem that stakeholders bring their own specific wealth of knowledge and expertise to the collective, helping to achieve boundary spanning knowledge transfer. Special consideration will be provided on planning requirements deriving from 27/2012/EU Directive.

The main goal is to strengthen capacity of public authorities to successfully apply GPP with priority, enhancing their ability and capacity to save energy, reduce CO2 emissions and costs by applying innovative solutions on GPP. By the establishment of “supporting permanent structures”, called G.PP.S. – Green Public Procurement Supporters (Supporting Units) within the participating Energy Agencies, the project implementation provides long-term support and technical assistance on GPP to the public authorities, and multi-level cooperation among different actors at national, regional and local level on GPP. The project objectives are to address the obstacles to the uptake of GPP that have been identified by the partners in their own country (context analysis) and which come from the WP2 – Institutional needs on GPP and Good and bad practices analysis in each participating country. The implementation of pilot projects, by aiming to intensively consult public administrations in the implementation of pilot green procurement process, have the scope to test on the field that are the most efficient and effective actions to provide GPP implementation and up-take. More concretely, the project aims at achieving the specific objectives, by implementing the following actions: • analysing in each participating country the existing bad and good practices on GPP; • analyzing the SEAPs in each participant country. By the SEAPs’ analysis, the consortium will find where local authorities need support for “Green” products and services (energy related); • establishing so-called G.PP.S. in Energy Agencies in 7 EU participating countries. • giving support on GPP instruments and tools • setting up and supporting sustainable training programmes (including how to finance them) and finding long-term solutions by the institutionalisation of GPP training • testing GPP application and innovation • at least 21 PA will be invited to experiment the technical support by the G.PP.S

The project ‘Institutionalized Integrated Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans’ (2ISECAP) aims to bridge the gap between local sustainable energy planning and implementation by supporting the capacity building of public authorities and by developing interface capacities within public authorities to engage with civil society towards energy transition. 2ISECAP will attempt the creation of an institutional environment for effective decision-making processes combining the democratic legitimacy and legal power of formal plans/policies with the creativity, energy and social capacity of bottom-up initiatives, entrepreneurship and community involvement. 2ISECAP will develop and apply an innovative holistic approach for participatory and integrated sustainable energy and climate actions planning that considers the required institutional tools, legal frameworks and local initiatives. Emphasis will be given on driving the sustainable energy transition at cities level through the Climate City Contracts. The planning approach will enhance SECAPs visibility and implementation capacity and the development of sustainable relationships between government and civil society. 2ISECAP utilizes the Living Lab (LL) concept to activate participants to co-create knowledge, energy plans and future policies. The project will provide experiential learning to 6 European Municipalities, by applying 2ISECAP approach to revise/develop their SECAPs, within a LL environment. Eight EU Countries are involved in 2ISECAP. Over 100 public officers will enhance their institutional and technical capacity on participatory integrated planning and governance structures engaging civil society on local energy transition. At least 6 institutionalized collaborations between public authorities are expected to derive and about 30 policies to be influenced. In total, more than 1,300 stakeholders will be informed on Integrated SECAP planning and 5,500 citizens will be involved in the project’s activities.