Our vision is to “co-create Europe'' through a 21st century mindset, methodology, skills and tools, closing the innovation gap between “innovation leaders” and “moderate/modest innovators”. We rely on inclusion and active participation of actors, institutions and places that collaborate to maximize the value of innovation to society and ensure equitable diffusion of its benefits. BOOST project proposes a systemic approach, both inclusive and collaborative, to strengthen innovation ecosystems in Europe. The main aim of BOOST project is to increase the scope and efficiency of interregional collaboration among project partners and their regional innovation ecosystems, in the following thematic areas: Industry 4.0, Cleantech and Green Transition, Health & Well-being, and ICT & Digital Transformation, by designing a structural (multi-dimensional) Interregional Collaboration Framework (ICF), develop tools and mechanisms that enable and support the operationalization and scale up of the ICF among Smart Regions, and contribute to the transition towards Green and Digital Regional development models and policies in Europe. BOOST proposes a two-phase implementation process: (1) first the co-design and co-development of project’s core concepts: Vision, mission, ICF and Unique Selling Proposition, and initiating the BOOST community and collaboration Corridor; and (2) second to set up and mature the ICF among Smart Regions by developing a joint 5-year Innovation Action Plan, aligned with regional/national/EU innovation policies and synchronized with innovation funding mechanisms across partner regions and EU. The consortium brings together 4 partners (TIT, NWRDA, BBF and CLDI) from 3 modest and moderate innovator countries Bulgaria, Romania, and Spain, and 2 partners (VK and TSP) from 2 lead innovator countries Denmark and Estonia, enhancing exchange of innovation and boost best practices at the level of public and private stakeholders.

HESTIA aims to provide a cost-effective solution for the next-generation DR services which will leverage the consumer engagement, energy and non-energy services, while dealing with both energy supply and demand side in a holistic manner. HESTIA intends to engage with residential consumers representing a still largely untapped sector, while enabling them to play an active role in flexibility sharing and grid balancing. HESTIA will enable residential DR services through: (i) exploitation of energy demand flexibility by engaging the consumers in demand-side management activities, and (ii) valorisation of energy efficiency in multi-carrier energy dispatching and optimal operation of building systems. HESTIA will exploit the consumer engagement as part of cooperative DR strategy at the community level, i.e. clusters of individual consumers and prosumers. To motivate the consumers to actively participate, HESTIA will leverage the financial, environmental and social drivers, while cross-fertilizing them to maximize the impact. HESTIA will involve the residents in the designing of the solutions through participatory co-design processes. HESTIA will create community engagement methodology and organisational tools with a high acceptance, that can be replicated and provide the corresponding tailored toolsets for a broader rollout. HESTIA will exploit the aggregated energy resource flexibility at the demand-side, in terms of cumulative energy consumption, distributed energy generation and storage, to better manage the disparity between energy demand, RES availability and grid requirements. User-personalized services will be delivered via a fully service-oriented, flexible ICT platform, underpinned by agent-based concepts, consumer digital twin and non-intrusive data analytics. This way, HESTIA will set the foundation for an open marketplace and a new grid reality, while steering consumer engagement according to the grid requirements and promoting RES and sustainable behaviour.