Europe’s urban areas face significant challenges to ensure the availability and consumption of healthy, affordable, safe and sustainably produced food. Such challenges converge within local food environments, but are often neglected by public planners. Promising initiatives taken by municipalities to change the architecture of food choice often fail to become embedded in the wider policy context and to reach deprived and vulnerable groups. Key factors responsible for this are: (1) siloed ways of working and (2) fragmentation of knowledge on facilitators and barriers related to food system transformation. These factors hinder the development and implementation of integrated urban food policies. FOODCLIC will create strong science-policy-practice interfaces across eight European city-regions (45 towns and cities). The backbone of such interfaces will be provided by Food Policy Networks, which will manage real-world experimental Living Labs to build a policy-relevant evidence-base through learning-in-action. Activities will be informed by an innovative conceptual framework (the CLIC), which emphasizes four desired outcomes of food system integration (sustainability co-benefits, spatial linkages, social inclusion and sectoral connectivities). Capacity-building and direct support for intensive multi-stakeholder engagement (including deprived and vulnerable groups) will enable policy actors and urban planners across partner city-regions to develop continuously evolving integrated urban food policies and render planning frameworks food-sensitive. Results will be communicated and disseminated amongst others by extending the novel policy practices to another eight city-regions in Europe and Africa, an online Knowledge-Hub, a high-level Think Tank and partners’ networks. In these ways, FOODCLIC aims to contribute to urban food environments that make healthy and sustainable food available, affordable and attractive to all citizens (including deprived and vulnerable groups).

"CONTEXT OF THE PROJECTUrban and peri-urban agriculture is a matter of growing importance on a territorial scale. It is reflected in actions aimed at reconnecting the urban population to agricultural production and relocating food systems by promoting short circuits.Its development is based on entrepreneurs who carry agricultural projects and on the public authorities and planners who will put in place favourable strategies on their territory.THE PROJECT'S GOALSThe main objective of the SESAME project is to promote the deployment of agricultural projects in urban and peri-urban areas of the partner countries through developing innovative training adapted to key players in the sector, taking into account the skills-based approach and the digital transition challenges.1. Encourage entrepreneurship through the creation of an ""Entrepreneurship in urban and peri-urban agriculture"" training module to validate this competence within Level IV vocational training.2. Raise the awareness of public authorities and territorial planning executives at the levers of actions aimed at facilitating the development of urban and peri-urban agriculture at the metropolitan scale. This is done through a micro-learning training ""Challenges and opportunities for urban and peri-urban agriculture"".3. Promote synergies between these two audiences through providing cross-training.4. Decompartmentalize practices on a transnational level and pool experiences.DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES- Project management: several transnational meetings are scheduled throughout the project. The monitoring committee will ensure compliance with the operating charter.- Design phase: we will conceive the pedagogical engineering of both courses and will design innovative pedagogical tools.- Experimentation phase: we will implement the training modules for the two targeted audiences through face-to-face teaching and digital tools. We will include a complementary transnational training activity. - Dissemination phase: several local dissemination events (mid-term and at the end of the project) reaching civil servants and agricultural training trainees will be planned in each partner country as well as a major final transnational dissemination event.EXPECTED RESULTS AND IMPACTS, POTENTIAL BENEFITSSHORT AND MEDIUM TERM1. Upskilling of target audiences- Vocational training contractors on the subject of urban agricultural installation (6 to 15 trainees)- Elected officials and executives of the territorial function on the subject of project support (20 to 30 participants in the pilot cities of Bologna, Barcelona and Aix-Marseille) 2. Integration and dissemination of SESAME training- Integration of the SESAME module within existing training courses* In France, integration of SESAME modules within the “BPREA” diploma (in the form of UCARE or Specialization Certificates) of Antibes CFPPA* In Spain, integration of training modules within the “Grau mitjà Tècnic diploma in Produccio Agroecologica” (in the form of an optional module) of the Escola Agrària d'Amposta * In Italy, integration of training modules within the diploma “Gestione dell'Ambiente e del Territorio” (in the form of Optional Module) of the Istituto Agrario Serpieri - Dissemination of the ""Challenges and opportunities of urban and peri-urban agriculture"" training by public authorities and training actors3. Strengthening training adaptation to digital transition4. Strengthening a multi-stakeholder approach (training actors, civil service and economic stakeholders)5. Pooling and sharing best practices on Mediterranean, European and transnational level- Common design of training courses to European standard (competence block approach, ECVET method)- Transnational learning activity paving the way for European mobilityLONG-TERM 1. Capitalisation of the results on the territories (increased number of projects to be carried out by the trained entrepreneurs, reinforcement of a network of actors) 2. Capitalisation of the SESAME training - SESAME training module spin-off within vocational training centers, first on a regional scale via the Unis-Vert network (FR), Servei Agrari network (ESP) and Rete Agrari Emilia Romagna network (IT), and then on a national and European scale. - Spinning and capitalisation of SESAME training with specialised actors and networks - Diversification of the target audience of SESAME courses (people in need of social inclusion, private companies ...) - Initiating reflection on setting up mobility European projects between agricultural vocational training centers."

BlueBird - BuiLding-integrated User-Empowered flexiBIlity tRaDing With the objectives of the Green Deal in mind, BlueBird aims to tackle the advantages derived from an increased use of flexibility assets in the electricity domain, leveraging AI and data solutions. BlueBird will deliver a comprehensive and validated toolset, to fully allow competitive adoption of buildings as energy flexibility assets, supporting smooth integration of services towards energy market players (i.e., TSO, DSO, aggregators) while maximally aligning with end-user's (i.e., building managers, occupants) requirements and acceptance criteria. BlueBird trials will take place in seven large-scale pilots in six countries: Spain, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Denmark, and Germany. These trials will include the validation of end-user and beneficiary acceptance using social-science methods. To foster replicability, BlueBird will offer a package of lessons learned and recommendations for future adoption. This will include suggestions for feasible win-win industrial partnerships and guidance on ecosystem sustainability. These ambitious objectives will be achieved by a consortium of experienced and highly complementary partners from research institutions, industrial sectors, public authorities, and NGOs across eight European countries.

V2Market is an innovative service to incorporate the Electric Vehicles’ (EV) batteries into the electricity system as storage and flexibility capacity, using Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Building (V2B) technology combined with energy efficiency (EE) and price forecasting ICT tools. V2Market puts together all the relevant actors in the value chain to work on the definition of the role and the contractual arrangements of a new business case, the aggregator, and its different possibilities with the other key stakeholders: the EV owners, and the flexibility buyers (DSO, TSO, BRP). V2Market will tackle energy efficiency at different levels: - Efficiency at the system level, by providing flexibility services to the grid. - Efficiency at the building/end user level, by optimising energy management thanks to the incorporation of the EV battery, which will also facilitate an optimisation of the energy produced by local RES. - Efficiency resulting from the substitution of older fossil-fuel based vehicles for electric vehicles. - It will make the EV battery an independent asset (as a major cost item that needs to be managed separately). This will result in measurable energy savings and performance improvements for the overall energy system. To respond to these EE needs, V2Market will develop a comprehensive business case for aggregators based on two types of service: A – Provision of ancillary services to the grid (frequency regulation, spinning reserves, peak shifting). B – Integration of flexibility services with EE at buildings’ level. V2Market will help the aggregator to develop its business model, and use big data to tailor its services to the patterns of its pool of EV owners. This is intended to consolidate a more predictable pool of EV batteries, which can be useful to develop also contractual arrangements with the flexibility buyers and provide stability to all the transactions within the value chain.

Trees and forests are a proven nature-based solution that contribute to sustainable urban development. Their potential for delivering ecosystem services, enhancing biodiversity and contributing to the wellbeing of urban societies is often underestimated and underused. CLEARING HOUSE provides evidence and tools that facilitate mobilising the full potential of urban forests as nature-based solutions (UF-NBS) for rehabilitating, reconnecting and restoring urban ecosystems. UF-NBS comprise every measure a city can take to address urban development challenges by deploying tree-based ecosystems. CLEARING HOUSE will review existing knowledge and will collect new data from large scale analyses (WP1), and evidence emerging from the comparative analysis of ten case studies in Europe and China (WP2), including a citizen science approach. Knowledge will relate to the social, economic and policy drivers of UF-NBS, their design and implementation, and their impacts on urban ecosystem and human wellbeing across continents. CLEARING HOUSE implements a co-design approach early in the project to ensure that its research programme exactly fits the demand of end-users, and engages stakeholders and scientists in problem-oriented knowledge generation through a set of targeted learning mechanisms (WP3). CLEARING HOUSE then develops user-targeted outputs to support cities, planners, business and civil society in implementing UF-NBS. Inter alia, decision support tools such as an online application, a global benchmarking tool and guidelines will provide knowledge on the design, governance and management of UF-NBS, and on sustainable business models relating to them (WP4). Target group specific communication and dissemination activities complement the project. These include Sino-European science-policy symposia (WP5) targeting senior decision-makers, activities targeting businesses and civil society organisations, and measures reaching out to citizens including school children (WP5).