Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have the potential to respond to climate change, enhance biodiversity and improve environmental quality while contributing to economic regeneration and social well-being. Yet there is a substantial gap between the promise of NBS and their uptake. To unlock the potential of NBS for sustainable urban development, NATURVATION will take a transdisciplinary, internationally comparative approach to: advance assessment approaches (Objective 1) to capture the multiple impacts & values of NBS to deliver a robust evidence base for decision-making; enable innovation (Objective 2) to identify the most promising governance, business/finance and participation models and how to overcome the systemic conditions that currently limit their use to support systemic integration; and generate momentum to realise the potential of NBS through co-design, co-development & co-implementation of new partnerships, knowledge, recommendations, processes and tools required to build capacity, enable replication and foster cultural change (Objective 3). Our transdisciplinary approach working with ‘urban-regional innovation partnerships’ in six different cities and a Task Force of highly respected international organisations working in this arena integrates science, social science and humanities (SSH) and practical expertise and experience to achieve a step-change in the use of NBS for urban sustainability.

The C-MobILE (Accelerating C-ITS Mobility Innovation and depLoyment in Europe) vision is a fully safe & efficient road transport without casualties and serious injuries on European roads, in particular in complex urban areas and for Vulnerable Road Users. We envision a congestion-free, sustainable and economically viable mobility, minimizing the environmental impact of road transport. C-MobILE will set the basis for large scale deployment in Europe, elevating research pilot sites to deployment locations of sustainable services that are supported by local authorities, using a common approach that ensures interoperability and seamless availability of services towards acceptable end user cost and positive business case for parties in the supply chain. The C-MobILE project will produce 7 key results: - C-ITS framework defined in partnerships with major stakeholders for proposing key deployment enabling solutions on existing pilot sites, including business cases - Strategic Research Agenda defined for key researching and innovation areas that promote sustainable C-ITS deployments and will lead towards automated transport in Europe - Assessment including CBA of the cumulative real-life benefits of clustering C-ITS applications and integrating multiple transport modes in the C-ITS ecosystem - Open secure large-scale C-ITS deployment of new and existing applications demonstrated in complex urban environments interoperable across countries involving large groups of end users - Provide an open platform towards C-ITS sources to support deployment of service concepts on commodity devices, validated by developer communities - Validated operational procedures for large-scale deployment of sustainable C-ITS services in Europe - Released testing methodologies to evaluate the proven impact of C-ITS architectures and services

Within the Roadmaps for Energy (R4E) project the partners will work together to develop a new type of energy strategy through visions and roadmaps for the 8 partner cities, in co-creation with local stakeholders. The stakeholders include the benefactors of the strategy, such as citizens, as well as relevant research and industry partners, to offer a clear picture of the future potential of the city. In the R4E project a four step process is applied. The FIRST step sets the ambitions for the project. The ambitions of the participating cities on sustainable energy and Smart Cities in general are set, as well as the partner cities' choice for 2 focus areas within Smart Energy Savings: 1.Smart Buildings, 2. Smart Mobility or 3. Smart Urban Spaces. The SECOND step is to develop desired scenarios for the cities for the selected focus areas. During the THIRD step the roadmap will be created, existing and future technologies and other developments will be identified, which enable the realization of the desired future scenarios. Opportunities and developments will be plotted on a timeline to provide insight in the required steps and milestones towards the favoured scenarios. The roadmaps will contain generic parts that are common for the partner cities, as well as specific parts that cater for the specific context of the cities. During the final and FOURTH step a project portfolio will be generated with new projects and initiatives to reach the ambitions, visions and roadmaps of the cities. This portfolio provides an overview of individual and joint projects and includes a cross-city learning plan and a financial plan. At the end of the project each partner city will each have 2 future scenarios, 2 roadmaps and a portfolio of individual and joint projects to implement sustainable energy policies and measures. Also the visioning and roadmapping capacities within the municipalities are developed to spur future development and implementation of innovative energy solutions.

CONSIDER aims to develop sustainable management model (SMM) for industrial heritage sites (IHS) for the benefits of the local communities as a resource for strengthening collective identities, improving the urban landscape, promoting eco-friendly solutions, and contributing to the urban economy and a sustainablefuture of the city. It will investigate SMM for industrial heritage while exploring participatory governance models as a tool to better integrate IHS with European society. Deindustrialisation processes all around Europe give rise to social, economic and environmental problems that are resulting from structural change. Thus, there is an urgent need to find SMM to overcome these challenges. 3 research objectives are; i) To expand on what is considered as industrial heritage, how to safeguard them ii) To investigate the history of sites to identify most influential factors used to maximise the benefit iii) To explore inclusive governance and participatory models as a tool to better integrate industrial heritage with society. The innovative side of this model is its inclusive approach to the problem (regionally, sectorial, taking into consideration gender aspects, and its highlight on the exchange of knowledge, technology and labour). This novelcollaboration will be improved by through synergies, networking activities, organisation of workshop, summer school, webinars, and final conference to facilitate sharing of knowledge. The circular knowledge exchange is based on systematic and triple-helix approach between academia (universities), policymakers (municipalities), and practitioners (SME/NGO) that will contribute both in identifying problems and developing guidelines for their improvement. This research brings novelty in respect of geographic regions that previously were not sufficiently investigated and inventoried thus providing the basis for further comparative research undertakings and sustainability of the project outcomes in creation of new knowledge.