Aiming at decarbonising the energy systems of geographical islands, MAESHA will deploy the necessary flexibility, storage and energy management solutions for a large penetration of Renewable Energies. Cutting-edge technical systems will be developed and installed, supported by efficient modelling tools and adapted local markets and business frameworks. A community-based approach will be adopted to ensure the constant consideration of local populations’ best interests throughout the project. Putting together 10 SMEs, 3 industrial partners, 2 universities and 6 public organisations from 9 countries, MAESHA gathers strong partners with the needed expertise to develop and disseminate relevant solutions for a universally beneficial energy transition on islands. After establishing the proper use-cases and architecture designs to ensure interoperability (WP1), MAESHA will develop modelling tools from real-time to long-term energy-economy observations (WP2) together with adapted business, market and regulatory frameworks (WP4). In parallel the community-based approach will be launched (WP3). All these activities lay the foundation for the technical development of management systems for aggregating flexibility (WP5) and devices based on synergies with assets of the territories (WP6), optimised together through a flexibility aggregating platform (WP7). After systems integration (WP8), the solutions will be fully demonstrated on Mayotte (WP10) and their replicabilities will be studied in five follower islands (WP10). Dedicated WPs for communication, dissemination (WP11) and management (WP12) will maximize the impacts. With its activities, MAESHA is expected to lead to at least 70% RE penetration and reach more than 90% of Mayotte’s population. Through its strong local implantation and the focus put on replication and dissemination activities, MAESHA will deeply modify insular energy features throughout Europe and its impacts will be felt far beyond the project’s framework.

The loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems jeopardize the sustainable provision of ecosystem services and are major scientific and societal challenges. Addressing this challenge and providing scientific support to stakeholders and policy makers requires a coherent interdisciplinary research framework, with coordinated strategies and programmes at the national, regional and international levels, which are the relevant scales for many biodiversity issues. By networking 32 funding agencies from 18 countries, BiodivERsA3 aims to strengthen the ERA on biodiversity. Building on the previous experiences of the projects BiodivERsA1&2 and NetBiome, BiodivERsA3 will promote and support coordinated pan-European research on biodiversity and ecosystem services. It will strengthen research and research programmes coordination with the ultimate aim to provide policy makers and other stakeholders with adequate knowledge, tools and practical solutions to address biodiversity and ecosystem degradation. The objectives are to: - Enhance the capacity of the network to coordinate research programmes on biodiversity and ecosystem services more completely in Europe (including overseas territories) and to increase the international dimension of BiodivERsA activities - Develop a strategic, multi-annual vision of the network’s priorities, based on ambitious mapping and foresight activities developed in collaboration with key initiatives in the field - Design and implement a co-funded call and other joint calls to better integrate research on biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe - Develop a range of other joint activities, in particular alignment of national research programmes for biodiversity and ecosystem services, and activities for promoting mobility and equal opportunities for researchers and reinforcing data sharing - Promote effective science-policy and science-society (including science-business) dialogue during the whole research process

The biodiversity-climate change interaction is strong, bi-directional, and often positive (actions in favour of one are also beneficial to the other). While the main drivers of biodiversity loss are habitat degradation, the syndrome of factors directly & indirectly associated with climate change is the dominant threat to biodiversity. It is therefore imperative to understand with sufficient detail and confidence the interactions between biodiversity & climate change so they can be incorporated into decision-support models & tools. By networking 36 funding agencies from 25 countries from Europe & other continents, BiodivClim aims to promote coordinated international research on biodiversity & climate change in all environments, incl. agricultural areas. It will strengthen research & research programmes coordination with the ultimate aim to provide policy makers & other stakeholders with adequate knowledge, tools & practical solutions to improve the conservation & sustainable use of biodiversity & ecosystems under a changing climate. The BiodivClim objectives are to: -Coordinate the research agendas of major European & international research funders to agree on shared research priorities related to biodiversity & climate change -Reinforce collaboration with other relevant initiatives in the field to increase synergies & avoid fragmentation -Design & implement a joint co-funded call for research proposals and a knowledge hub in this field -Promote research collaboration across national borders & disciplines in order to build capacity, exchange best practices & have a lasting effect on the international research community & landscape -Support dialogue & collaboration between academia & stakeholders, and stakeholder engagement in research projects in order to increase the impact of research on policy & practice -Ease rapid & efficient uptake of funded research results by the IPBES & IPCC for their future assessments, & by other relevant initiatives -Reinforce data open access