The EU agri-food sector is at a crossroads. The sector endures a string of crisis, suffering from losses and inefficiencies that affect the overall system efficiency, whilst the society expects always more to be done on environmental protection, and on providing secure, nutritional, and healthy food, demanding high added value products of sustainable production and verifiable traceability. To tackle these challenges, BBTWINS will develop and validate two innovative digital twins in two use cases in Spain and Greece (meat and fruit production) following a multi-actor approach and integrating into a single platform all the processing steps (from crop to final products) and the valorisation of the bio-streams generated using innovative processing treatments. The use cases will be addressed following a holistic approach including an environmental, social, and economic assessment, and logistic issues. The digital twins developed will integrate enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and software analytics, together with blockchain and strategic and operational logistic solutions in a single platform. BBTWINS digital twins will: (i) increase biomass availability, resource efficiency and sustainability for the bio-based industry, (ii) lower biomass losses from feedstock supply through the processing stages of the value chain; and (iii) allow a longer storage time before processing through more efficient pre-treatment steps and storage methods to better preserve the valuable components. BBTWINS will validate at least 3 new products for the bio-based industry such as bioactive compounds for nutritional foods and nutraceutical products, fertilizers, protein concentrates for feed, and snacks. The BBTWINS multi-actor consortium is constituted by 3 RTOs, 7 SMEs, 1 Bioeconomy Cluster, 1 Large Enterprise, and 1 cooperative in 8 EU countries with the necessary knowledge and ambition to succeed in the digital revolution of the agrifood sector

The overarching aim of INHERIT is to define effective inter-sectoral policies and interventions that promote health and well being across the social gradient by tackling key environmental stressors and related inequalities in the areas of living, consuming and moving. INHERIT will bring together relevant stakeholders from different sectors, including the private sector. It will support inter-sectoral cooperation between environment, climate and health by: a) Analysing existing scientific knowledge on key environmental stressors to health and approaches to address these; b) Identifying existing promising inter-sector policies and interventions that enable conditions for more healthy and environmentally sustainable behaviours, in three main areas: living, consuming and moving; c) Developing a Common Analytical Framework using impact assessment tools and quantitative and qualitative indicators to assess the social, environmental and health benefits and the economic value in promising inter-sectoral interventions; d) Developing targets and future visions while considering overall economic and politics contexts and global trends (i.e. participatory back-casting, stakeholder and citizen consultations and household surveys); e) Implementing, testing and evaluating pilot interventions in different European contexts; f) Enhancing the leadership skills of public health professionals in inter-sectoral work to address key environmental stressors to health and promote healthy and environmentally sustainable lifestyles; g) Translating evaluation findings into models of good practice for effective inter-sectoral work and evidence based tools for policy development to contribute to the global and European environment, health and sustainable development policy agenda. The novelty of INHERIT lies in its support for health, environment and climate sectors to jointly pursue the inter-related goals of improving health and well-being of the population while preserving the environment.

The proposed project intends to support Member States in establishing or improving national and local schemes for SMEs to undergo energy audits and implement cost-effective recommended energy-saving measures. An initial work of policies and programmes mapping will be followed by an in-depth understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, with the aim of overcoming the current criticalities and bottlenecks. At the same time a work of characterisation of SMEs in terms of energy consumption, size and sector will be carried out to understand effective ways to properly address existing and innovative energy audit policies. Provided a continuous interaction (by means of workshops, questionnaires, meetings) with policy makers as well as SMEs and ESCOs/Energy Auditors associations, a set of policy proposals and recommendations will be then developed and diffused. The priorities guiding the policy and recommendation development will be: - Effectiveness and orientation to real market needs; - Integration with other points of the EED, particularly article 7 Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes and alternative measures; - Replicability, at least for SMEs sector/size/region; A fundamental part of the project, with a relevant participation requested to each partner, will be a continuous action of capacity building and dissemination addressed to policy makers and relevant stakeholders at European, National and Regional level. In order to concentrate the efforts on new challenges and to valorise previous efforts, the Consortium is committed to take as much advantage as possible of results obtained in previous pertinent EU funded projects (such as ENSPOL, ODYSSEE-MURE, EPATEE) and relevant initiatives such as EEFIG and its related Sustainable Energy Investment Forums. On request of the European Institutions, the Consortium would also be very glad to contribute, through findings and results of the project, to the current debate on the SME definition.

This project aims to facilitate the implementation of the Circular Economy package and the SPIRE Roadmap in various process industries by developing the necessary concepts, technological solutions and business models to re-design the value and supply chains of minerals (including magnesium) and water, while dealing with present organic compounds in a way that allows their subsequent recovery. This is achieved by demonstrating new configurations to recover these resources from saline impaired effluents (brines) generated by process industry, while eliminating wastewater discharge and minimising environmental impact of industrial operations through brines (ZERO BRINE). The project will bring together and integrate several existing and innovative technologies aiming to recover end-products of high quality and sufficient purity with good market value. It will be carried out by large Process Industries, SMEs with disruptive technologies and a Brine Consortium of technology suppliers across EU, while world-class research centres ensure strong scientific capacity and inter-disciplinary coordination to account for social, economic and environmental considerations, including LCA. A large scale demonstration will be developed in the Energy Port and Petrochemical cluster of Rotterdam Port, involving local large industries. Two demo plants will be able to treat part of the brine effluents generated by one process industry (EVIDES), while the waste heat will be sourced by neighbouring factories. The quality of the recovered end-products will be aimed to meet local market specifications. The involvement of representatives covering the whole supply chain will provide an excellent opportunity to showcase Circular Economy in Rotterdam Port, at large scale. Finally, three large-scale pilot plants will be developed in other process industries, providing the potential for immediate replication and uptake of the project results after its successful completion.

The PATHWAYS project will deliver co-developed transition pathways that directly address societal demands for increased resilience in the provision of safe, nutritious, affordable livestock-based food, whilst reducing environmental impacts, and supporting the economic sustainability of the European livestock sector. Visions, scenarios and transition pathways will be co-developed through an ambitious participatory approach based on innovative practice hubs, living labs and interaction within a European multi-actor platform and a wider community of practice. Existing and future, co-designed livestock systems will be characterised and assessed within a scientifically robust, holistic sustainability assessment framework, comprising refined key performance indicators and cutting-edge models, to enhance understanding of productivity, biodiversity, health and welfare, greenhouse gas emissions, human nutrition, trade and economics, and ecosystem service impacts. Living labs and practice hubs will identify bottom-up interventions and adoption routes that will drive a transition to improved livestock system development. Consumer preferences, diet choices and willingness to pay will be supported by consequential LCA and economic analysis of trade and supply chain impacts, addressed through stakeholder input and modelling. The participatory development and application of a holistic sustainability assessment will deliver a scientifically robust analysis for the co-development of scenarios and transition pathways to inform key stakeholders throughout livestock-based food systems, driving a transition to greater sustainability. PATHWAYS will improve the role of livestock in supporting a circular bioeconomy and the place of animal products in future diets through an interactive online platform and policy toolkit to provide user-friendly instruments for a range of stakeholders.