CEE2ACT will empower countries in Central Eastern Europe and beyond (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia) - CEE2ACT target countries - to develop circular bioeconomy strategies and action plans through knowledge transfer and innovative governance models enabling sustainability and resilience to achieve better informed decision-making processes, societal engagement and innovation, building on the practice of experienced countries serving as role models in this context (Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Sweden). Knowledge transfer and inspiration in creative formats that address the motivations, needs and knowledge gaps of each CEE2ACT target country will be realized through the CEE2ACT National Bioeconomy Hubs. A participatory, non-political, bottom-up approach will be applied throughout the project activities, tackling specific knowledge gaps and shortcomings of the top-down conventional approach, building closer interconnections between actors across public institutions, private sector, industry, energy, SMEs, feedstock providers (e.g., waste, side streams, farmers, foresters, fishermen), academia and research, NGOs, CSOs in the target countries. To achieve this, a baseline assessment will be carried out (socio-economic and environmental aspects), stakeholder engagement activities will be implemented ensuring the proper involvement and active participation of all relevant stakeholders. Digital solutions for sustainable governance will be created, exchange of know-how and best practices on technology transfer, building the capacities of the stakeholders to develop bioeconomy strategies. The findings will be synthetized, in an analytical framework, which will result in National-level Roadmaps for the Bioeconomy Strategies in Targeted CEE2ACT countries, boosting societal engagement in the countries’ transition towards circular bioeconomy.

The COLLECTiEF consortium will enhance, implement, test and evaluate an interoperable and scaleable energy management system based on Collective intelligence (CI) that allows easy and seamless integration of legacy equipment into a collaborative network within and between existing buildings and urban energy systems with reduced installation cost, data transfer and computational power while increasing data security, energy flexibility and climate resilience. This is done through developing software and hardware packages to install and smart up buildings and their legacy equipment on large scale, meanwhile to maintain simple and robust communication with the energy grid. The proposal includes the following objectives: (1)Enhancement and adaptation of algorithms for creating a CI-based energy flexible network (2)Realization of CI-based cost-effective system components with easy deployment and maintenance (3)Demonstration and testing of a CI-based energy network in the real environment (4)Testing and implementing a scalable and customizable occupant-centric fusion sensor network for accurate and non-invasive environmental monitoring (5)Designing and implementing a smart, user-centric and user friendly digital platform for interacting with users and controlling technical building systems (6)New business model for energy services including a clear model for commercialization of COLLECTiEF system. This will be achieved by building on technologies developed in previous EU-funded projects and by expertise from the scientific and commercial partners of this proposal, involving a number of highly innovative SMEs. The consortium forms a full value chain with academic partners, component manufacturers, building owners and - associated through LoIs - energy providers. The provided scalable solutions will integrate seamlessly with existing legacy equipment, and will facilitate demand-side management of multiple buildings, enhancing energy flexibility and resilience in urban areas.

IMPRESS will develop three different prefabricated panels for buildings: (i) a polyurethane based insulated panel with improved thermal performance and light radiation and (ii) a thin, lightweight pre-cast concrete sandwich panel, with optimum thermal and weathering resistance, both of which are suitable for overcladding; (iii) a lightweight pre-cast concrete sandwich panel incorporating Phase Change Materials (PCM) to adapt the thermo-physical properties of the building envelope and enable optimum passive heating and cooling benefits, suitable for recladding. Innovative nano/micro particle based coatings, suitable for 3D printing, will be also developed to achieve anti-corrosion resistance, high mechanical strength, improved solar reflectance, improved ageing resistance and anti-vandalism properties. To create the panels, an innovative manufacturing process will be created that includes Reconfigurable Moulding (RM) techniques, 3D laser scanning and 3D printed technology. In addition, 3D printed microstructured formworks will be developed as permanent external layer for the polyurethane panel to match the existing building aesthetics and provide solar radiation efficiency. The overall manufacturing process will (i) allow for mass production of panels, which take into account complex architectural and aesthetic issues, (ii) allow for faster production while lowering prefabrication costs and (iii) develop new controlled and cost effective solutions. IMPRESS will also develop a new Iterative Design Methodology, which will incorporate all stages of the Design-Construct-Install-Operate process. This will be integrated with a BIM cloud based database focussing on the interoperability between software tools required for the prefabricated process. Furthermore, new penalty based business models will be investigated. The final result will be demonstrated on two existing buildings where final as-built product performance will be validated against the initial design.

The next generation of energy performance assessments and certificates ought to address the transformation into an era where an increasing amount data are available on the operational use of buildings, and the buildings can be observed with ever increasing details via a larger number of stakeholders. The EUB SuperHub project will support the evolvement of the certification process in the EU by development of a scalable methodology to view, assess and monitor the buildings through their lifecycle (embedded energy, costs etc.). The EU Level(s) initiative is already leading a way of a new, holistic view of the buildings taking into account sustainability principles (LCA, LCC etc.) for residential, commercial and public buildings. Energy performance assessments and certificates of buildings therefore need to evolve to reflect the technological development, the needs of the society, and within the EU, they must be consistent throughout Member States. Holistic view of buildings, social and technological shifts in the society require a change in the way we observe and handle the built environment helping incentives to yield in energy efficiency and investments.