RRI-LEADERS adopts a meso-level approach, and will explore the application and sustainability of the RRI paradigm within territorial innovation systems. In RRI-LEADERS a “territory” is understood as a confluence between three interconnected primary aspects: geographical location, socio-economic and cultural bonds, and administrative authority. The project will involve four distinct territories from different parts of Europe, representing different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, different scope of territorial oversight, different institutional and decision-making infrastructures, different R&I landscapes, and different dynamics among territorial actors. As such, the four territories will represent a diverse range of opportunities and implications for RRI, which will enable the RRI-LEADERS consortium to carry out a thorough assessment of the RRI relevance to territorial governance and have the involved territories act as demonstrators for the potential of RRI on subnational level. The partners will engage in a multi-stage co-creation process (referred to as RRI-AIRR) that will mobilise territorial quadruple helix stakeholders towards the elaboration of future-oriented strategy and action plans - territorial outlooks for each of the participating territories. Territorial partners will have the leading role in this process, and will additionally work to ensure the broadest societal and governance-level endorsement. The Consortium will further use the accumulated knowledge to chart a detailed outlook for the future potential of RRI as a guiding framework in territorial governance of R&I, and will aim to provide an evolutionary perspective on RRI for the upcoming Horizon Europe programme.

CICERONE brings together programme owners, research organizations and other stakeholders to create a platform for efficient Circular Economy programming. The priority setting and the organization of the future platform will be driven by Programme Owners (POs), involved either as project partners, or via a stakeholder network. Diversity of national / regional situations is reflected in the partnership. The work will be carried out in close cooperation with research & technology organisations (RTOs), which contribute with their expertise of the main scientific and technological challenges. Consultation mechanisms will also ensure that all stakeholders will be able to actively contribute (civil society, industry, innovative SMEs, startups, cities, investors, networks, etc.). An initial benchmarking exercise will be carried out for a deeper understanding of the state of the art, mapping stakeholders, existing RDI priorities as well as funding and legal mechanisms. A prioritisation methodology will be developed to support an analysis of the current performance: synergies, gaps and duplications will be characterised, and pathways for improvements will be formulated. Identified best practices will drive the definition of policy recommendations. Once the state of the art has been clearly mapped out, the actual prioritisation work will be carried out. This includes building a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), performing an ex-ante impact assessment of joint programming on circular economy R&I, and developing a policy toolkit to promote the priorities and foster adoption by policy-makers. The project will also set the grounds for the future PO platform, starting with defining its strategic role in the existing landscape. The next step will be to specify governance and possible legal frameworks, as well as creating a financially sustainable model. It is a key objective that the platform be sustained after the end of the project.

Most of us live in cities, even though cities are not the healthiest places due to poor air quality, noisy surroundings and lack of recreational spaces. Many cities have few green areas and consist of too much ‘concrete jungle’ which makes for a harsh environment for all living things. With the changing climate, the weather is expected to become more extreme. One such effect will be urban heat islands, which will be even more profound, with heatwaves expected to increase 3 to 10-fold by 20801 depending on the climate scenario. A way of tackling all these issues, is to plant more trees within the urban fabric - a well-recognised, and relatively cheap and efficient measure for cities to adapt to future climatic challenges. In view of this, the ambition of 100KTREEs is to make cities a better and healthier place to live by encouraging municipalities to plant more trees and to optimise the impact of tree planting. The team will support cities by mapping the existing trees and by showing a solid business case for planting new trees, as well as attracting third party sponsorship to make it happen. We need to plant trees now to allow our children to enjoy their shade in 20 years’ time. 100KTREEs will develop a mapping and modelling toolbox to optimise the planting of trees and to monitor the health of the trees, based on Copernicus and in-situ data. By assigning monetary value to the key attributes of a tree, e.g. pollution absorption, cooling effect, noise abatement, flood risk reduction and increased biodiversity, a number of business cases will be developed for our two partner cities, Copenhagen and Sofia. Such business cases will also be used to attract third party financing. By means of a crowd science app we will engage with citizens and create awareness of the wonders of trees, also extending to improved life quality and mental health impacts.

Emissions of the existing gasoline engines and brakes of the commercial vehicle fleets in Europe relate to health problems and death of annually >1,45 Mio. people. For the next decades, these vehicles will continue populating the roads, emitting PM/PN exhaust particles and toxic secondary emissions. For immediate reduction, retrofit solutions for tailpipe and brake emissions must be brought to TRL 8 and introduced to the market by 2025. Timing is crucial: Retrofits are transition technologies until full electrification of Europe’s transport fleet. Even beyond, brake retrofits play an important role in the electrified fleet. Quick wins in the reduction of the overall footprint of the existing fleets can be realised by using our 3 retrofits for tailpipe, brake and closed environments: 95% of PM2.5 and 80% of toxic secondary emissions using an innovative Gasoline Particle Filter, 60% of NOx exhaust emissions replacing the aged TWC by original equipment, 90% of the brake particles of long-lived road transport assets using a passive BDPF, 90% of particles in closed environments (bus stops, tunnels, metro stations) using a special designed and enhanced stationary air purifier. To create credible key messages for clients, citizens and policy, we perform lighthouse demo activities: 1) tailpipe retrofit: 1.000 vehicles in 2 climate zones (Germany + Israel) for 4 representative engine type families, 2) brake retrofit: Define emission fingerprints for the public transport of the cities of Valladolid, Ancona, Fermo and Sofia and > 35000 km lab testing on dynamometer and > 8000 km real driving, 3) air purifier retrofit for closed environments: 3 underground stations (Sofia, 2x Lisbon) with > 130000 commuters and Valladolid central bus depot with > 150 buses. For market preparation we will reach >4.000 citizens and policy makers from EU KOM level and >8 EU countries. We unite world leading industry, renowned scientific institutes and lighthouse demo sites in 8 European countries

SYNCLUSIVE is an innovative, integral, and interdisciplinary systems’ approach to stimulate inclusion of vulnerable groups in the labor market. To achieve this, our six central objectives are: 1) developing and consolidating a coalition of stakeholders in 4 regional Living Labs across Europe along the lines of the Community Coalition Action Theory, using the ENGINE approach. This approach includes an integrated package of interventions that stimulates upward and sideward mobility of vulnerable employees, hereby creating vacancies for inflow of vulnerable job seekers; 2) testing the usefulness and applicability of the ENGINE approach for different vulnerable groups identified as being discriminated against; 3) identifying drivers and barriers for mobility and inflow including discrimination; 4) assessing the impact of the implemented ENGINE approach on the labor market mobility and inclusion of vulnerable groups; 5) identifying transition pathways from the regional to the national and EU policy level; and 6) identifying interoperable and comparative indicators and standards that are relevant for the labor market inclusion of vulnerable groups taking into account the regional, national (legislative, social security) and cultural context. Regional stakeholder commitment as well as the interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial for the success of SYNCLUSIVE and for inclusion of vulnerable people in the labor market. SYNCLUSIVE therefore collaborates in an ‘active community coalition’ amongst municipalities, employers, civil society and educational institutes, which interacts with their political counterparts at national and EU level across 7 European regions. SYNCLUSIVE results will lead to sustainable inclusion of vulnerable groups in the regional Living Labs, and have vast potential to result in outcomes far beyond the scope and duration of the project. SYNCLUSIVE will contribute to generic and context-specific EU-wide policy and intervention recommendations that drive inclusion of vulnerable groups and help to start overcoming discrimination in the EU labour market.