SPHERE’s ultimate goal is the Improvement and optimisation of buildings’ energy design, construction, performance, and management, reducing construction costs and their environmental impact while increasing overall energy performance. SPHERE project will integrate two planes of research, innovation and improvement: • integration of the processes under the Digital Twin Concept involving not only the Design and Construction of the Building but including also the Manufacturing and the Operational phases • integrated platform that will be achieved through an underlying ICT Systems of Systems infrastructure based on Platform as a Service (PaaS) service to allow large scale data, information and knowledge integration and synchronization thus allowing a better handling and processing e.g BIMBots, machine learning , simulation etc. This Digital Twin concept is in fact a distributed but coordinated Database, including geometrical objects information that forms a unique synchronized virtual model of the reality. As has been proven in other fields, twinning this virtual information model with the reality helps significantly in decision-making during each phase of the whole building’s lifespan (manufacturing, design, construction, maintenance, operation, retrofitting and even demolition). The SPHERE cloud-ICT platform will allow to interact all different stakeholders during any phase of the asset with a building Digital Twin model of information of the building and a scalable set of different software tools, such as energy demand/performance simulation tools, Decision Support and Coaching Systems, BEMs or IoT enabled Predictive Maintenance Algorithms. The Digital Twin Concept, platform and Tools will be tested in four real pilots and finally validateted both technically and especially final social acceptance to accelerate market uptake.

DigiChecks proposes to build a digital framework that implements the following steps to overcome the challenges mentioned and pave the way to a more streamlined approach to manage and process permits: Step 1: Standardized Permit Ontology. The first step is to create a shared language for permitting. This language, formalized in a permit ontology, enables the framework to map data from various sources into a common structure and make it processable by a computer in a repeatable manner. Step 2: Digitizing Permit Processes. To deal with the many different actors and their respective processes for permitting, DigiChecks proposes to develop a tool, based on OMG standards, where these actors can model their processes into DigiChecks. These process models can be updated and or removed when the processess change. Step 3: Building Permit Rules. DigiChecks' proposed solution contains the ability for permitting authorities to build their own rules. These rules are used as a base for an automated compliancy checker. Step 4: Integration of the previous steps into a Permit Service (API). To transform the solution into a service, DigiChecks combines steps one (Permit Ontology), two (Permit Process) and three (Permit Rules) into a service offered through an (Open) API. The DigiChecks Permit Service API implements the concepts from the ontology to defined rules and these rules are mapped to a process, thus digitizing the permit workflow. By having an accessible Permit Service, third party developers will be enabled to create new, innovative and reliable permitting applications. The ultimate objective of the solution is to provide flexibility, ease-of-use and efficiency to the permit validation and approval system in the construction project environments. A solution framework is thus required that allows - regardless of the country, region or municipality -, an easy interoperability with the tools commonly used in construction.

The scope of the project is to develop and test methods for designing and implementing innovative and sustainable Strategic Plans for Waste Prevention and Management in various urban contexts that will enhance urban environmental resilience and guarantee progress towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns together with improvements waste recovery and recovered materials use. Urban_Wins will define a data set, based on material flow indicators, capable of supporting and orienting decision making processes for urban waste prevention and management. Knowledge of the factors that influence the metabolism of cities will be improved together with the understanding of how those factors can be transformed in positive drivers of technological, non-technological and governance changes. The information set produced by the consortium will also focus on how a more efficient use of resources and a better management of waste can improve urban quality and citizens’ welfare, key points for urban stakeholders involvement, both in the planning and implementation of actions. The proposal reunites diverse actors such as cities, research institutes and universities, environmental NGOs, IT&C, technological innovation and waste management companies, professional associations that represent EU regions, sectors and levels of governance. The complex partnership guarantees that advancement in EU research in the field of urban metabolism and waste management strategies is directly linked to stakeholder engagement and mutual learning and contributes to the achievement of resource efficiency and waste management objectives. Urban_Wins analytical tools will be built on the base of datasets and experiences of 24 EU cities from 6 European countries and the Strategic Plans will be tested by 8 EU cities and will encompass regulatory measures, educational initiatives and sector specific actions.