Make-a-thek creates modular, replicable set-ups of makerspaces in public libraries providing access to innovative and circular approaches to fashion and crafts. Based on extensive mapping and co-creation, make-a-thek will create a resource toolkit and open educational resources for modular fashion and craft focussed makerspaces in libraries and will test their application in at least 9 European and 3 international pilot trials. During these trials, target communities of practitioners and prosumers (engaged citizens) will learn from each other by co-designing and piloting new ways of digitising heritage craft and linking them to digital fabrication techniques. They will also create and share new tools, techniques, skills, and culture for circularity in fashion and craft. This approach is in line with the New European Bauhaus principles: It is inclusive, as it democratises access to innovation technologies by creating new public infrastructures and inviting all citizens to engage in the green transition. It is sustainable as it opens up ways to contribute to the circular society. It is also enriching, as it enables people’s self-expression through fashion and crafts. With a focus on social innovation, the project aims to create impact on four dimensions that are aligned with the work programme and will be measured according to their Societal Readiness Levels: 1) Supporting New Prosumers in Fashion and Crafts, 2) Establishing Public Libraries as Hubs for Circular Knowledge and Creation for All, 3) Preservation of Heritage Crafts through Digital Innovation and Skill Building, 4) Circularity and Green Innovation for Fashion and Crafts. Make-a-thek aims to scale its results beyond the pilot trails in libraries through a networking and embedding approach and an exploitation Guide aimed at other Cultural and Creative Sectors and Cultural Heritage stakeholders.

A growing trend in the field are NFTs or non-fungible tokens. “Non-fungible” is a relevant feature in the creative industries as it is unique and can’t be replaced by anything else. Transactions using NFTs over blockchains allow audiences to easily acquire unique content from the artists, users and creators take part in a cultural and artistic distributed community or gamify the experience with creative content. DAFNE+ will use this technologies to focus on the definition of novel revenue and business models to the cultural and creative industries, improving their global reach and open up new distributions channels without the imposed rules by intermediaries - even controlling the artists revenues- which is many cases are not based on EU (e.g YouTube). Therefore, DAFNE+ aims to create new distributed autonomous organizations / communities (DAO) around digital tokens and NFT, with a decentralized governance where cultural and creative industries (CCI), as be a driver of innovation and competitiveness, can play a role in the community governance and deciding on the rules of the community. DAFNE+ will provide novel services and tools for intuitive and simple content creation by developing new applications (in case of absence or closed approach) that will enable users to produce and ingest new content which can be directly valued and distributed. DAFNE+ will also aim at increasing the legal transparency around the creation, online distribution, and sharing of existing and novel forms of artistic content via blockchain technologies and involving smart contracts NFTs and other digital tokens. Towards this objective, DAFNE+ will map and analyse the relevant IP legal framework in the EU, and in particular the copyright regulatory framework, in order to identify and assess specific legal requirements, opportunities as well as barriers stemming from the identified IP framework which may impact the use of blockchain technologies in online content creation and sharing.

This proposal addresses a missing link in the current landscape of digital innovation for manufacturing. mAkE focuses on makerspaces as key players of local digital innovation ecosystems and global collaboration networks, which are complementary to the current efforts in digitisation in Europe and central for localised production in Africa. mAkE will build on existing networks of makerspaces as key drivers for local digital innovation in Africa and establish mutual relationships and sustainable networks with European DIHs. Via capacity building activities mAkE will equip African makerspaces and their attached local SMEs and digital start-ups with entrepreneurial and digital skills, and offer concrete incubation, mentoring and matching activities to drive digital transformation. mAkE’s matching and networking activities will link local digital innovators in makerspaces with ICT professionals, investors, entrepreneurs, researchers and policy makers, fostering investments in African digital innovations and creating a sustainable and strengthened EU-Africa start-up ecosystem. mAkE has chosen to work with makerspaces because of the important and growing role they play in the digital innovation ecosystem, particularly in Africa where manufacturing has been identified as a critical growth area to bring more jobs to the African economy. The aim of mAkE is to reinforce cooperation and strategic partnership with selected countries in Africa to support the strengthening of existing digital innovation hubs (DIHs) in Africa and to facilitate the collaboration between EU and African DIHs in order to strengthen a common EU-Africa innovation and start-up ecosystem. This project will focus on connecting Makerspaces, Fablabs, Open Hardware and Software Innovation that perform Critical & Sustainable Making committing to Open Source, Open Science, Open Data; we will address Policy issues and Frugal Innovation related to the activities, products and processes emerging in these spaces.

Europe gave birth to the industrial revolution about two centuries ago thanks to the convergence of a series of factors that allowed technology to be closer to society, while creating economic benefits to regional and national economies. With the globalisation, European cities lost a large volume of manufacturing capacity and transitioned to a knowledge economy. The result: a decrease in manufacturing jobs, the lack appreciation for these jobs, and neglected industrial areas subject to decay. Decay of industrial heritage has a major imprint on European city's identities, but also is a source of opportunity. The result, industrial areas with high historical value for Europe being abandoned or exploited by extractive economic activities, with no connection to local knowledge, and with no generation of value at the local level. CENTRINNO aims to develop and demonstrate strategies, approaches and solutions for regeneration of industrial historic sites and areas as creative production and manufacturing hubs, that 1) hold true to the ecological challenges of our time, 2) boost a diverse, inclusive and innovative urban economy, and 3) and use heritage as a catalizer for innovation and social inclusion. We give centre stage to craftsmen, vocationally trained professionals, entrepreneurs, makers, SME’s, Fab Labs, Food Labs and Makerpaces to become key players in the cities supply of local goods and support them to take on a fundamental role in our future cities, thus opposing disengagement and stagnation of local economies. Through a holistic method combining the Fab City Global Initiative approach to productive cities with Emotion Networking, life cycle assessment and spatially-specific material flow analyses, we bring to the fore both complex, layered histories of these sites as well as the cities available resources in terms of urban landscape, materials, current day skills and practice and human capital.

In recent decades, new planning paradigms have reshaped cities. Urban regeneration has renovated public spaces, redeveloped city centers, and established innovation districts. Smart cities have implemented technological systems, such as transport management, water and contamination monitoring, and energy-efficient buildings. A new sustainable approach, including recycling, renaturalization, and recovery, has emerged in response to the demand for environmental sensitivity in urban planning. These strategies have mainly been applied to wealthy areas to attract tourism and companies, repositioning cities in the global economic framework. However, applying these regeneration strategies, smart systems, and renaturalization processes to deprived areas is crucial. These areas tend to face multiple urban problems, such as pollution, social and cultural issues, lack of services and low-quality built environments, and public spaces, leading to issues related to liveability, functionality, quality of life, social cohesiveness, and physical and mental health. Moreover, there is a growing need for climate change adaptation strategies, which has led to the implementation of Nature Based Solutions (NBS). However, a new pattern is emerging, which considers nature as a stakeholder in itself, beyond the ecosystem services it provides. Innovative technologies such as AI, machine learning, and immersive realities are also emerging, which can enhance the accuracy of information delivery and people engagement. GreenIn Cities aims to develop methodologies and tools for collaborative climate mitigation and adaptation urban planning approaches, specifically for deprived areas, addressing three main challenges: improving societal readiness level and awareness of vulnerable groups, going beyond classical greening and renaturing interventions, and leveraging cutting-edge technologies to enhance co-creation and maximize urban regeneration impacts.