Sustainable energy Positive & zero cARbon CommunitieS demonstrates and validates technically and socio-economically viable and replicable, innovative solutions for rolling out smart, integrated positive energy systems for the transition to a citizen centred zero carbon & resource efficient economy. SPARCS facilitates the participation of buildings to the energy market enabling new services and a virtual power plant concept, creating VirtualPositiveEnergy communities as energy democratic playground (positive energy districts can exchange energy with energy entities located outside the district). Seven cities will demonstrate 100+ actions turning buildings, blocks, and districts into energy prosumers. Impacts span economic growth, improved quality of life, and environmental benefits towards the EC policy framework for climate and energy, the SET plan and UN Sustainable Development goals. SPARCS co-creation brings together citizens, companies, research organizations, city planning and decision-making entities, transforming cities to carbon-free inclusive communities. Lighthouse cities Espoo (FI) and Leipzig (DE) implement large demonstrations. Fellow cities Reykjavik (IS), Maia (PT), Lviv (UA), Kifissia (EL) and Kladno (CZ) prepare replication with hands-on feasibility studies. SPARCs identifies bankable actions to accelerate market uptake, pioneers innovative, exploitable governance and business models boosting the transformation processes, joint procurement procedures and citizen engaging mechanisms in an overarching city planning instrument toward the bold City Vision 2050. SPARCS engages 30 partners from 8 EU Member States (FI, DE, PT, CY, EL, BE, CZ, IT) and 2 non-EU countries (UA, IS), representing key stakeholders within the value chain of urban challenges and smart, sustainable cities bringing together three distinct but also overlapping knowledge areas: (i) City Energy Systems, (ii) ICT and Interoperability, (iii) Business Innovation and Market Knowledge.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) are profoundly disrupting business sectors worldwide by fundamentally altering existing processes presenting unique opportunities. In industrial engineering design, there is a significant and growing demand for experts proficient in AI and engineering disciplines to drive the digital transformation and enhance productivity and efficiency. Our doctoral training program GenAIDE: Generative AI for Industrial Design Engineering provides top-class training to 14 Doctoral Candidates, who will explore disruptive AI technologies and evolve computer-aided engineering from being mere support tools to becoming proactive AI partners within hybrid engineering teams. The DCs will investigate and develop emerging concepts, methods, and infrastructures to deliver an integrated vision of Human-AI collaboration in design engineering teams. GenAIDE seeks to address unmet needs in doctoral training at both European and international levels, leveraging the complementary expertise of 16 leading academic and non-academic partners. This program explores novel synergies between natural language-based Human-AI interaction, nature-inspired optimization and exploration, social impacts of Human-AI cooperation on the team dynamics and advanced machine learning in the engineering domain. GenAI substantially changes the way engineers interact with and benefit from AI and access domain-specific knowledge, marking a phase transition that not only enhances the productivity of engineering teams but also expands the complexity of solvable design problems. GenAIDE will attract and prepare the necessary researchers and practitioners for contributions to industry and academia across Europe. Our training programme will serve as a blueprint for new curricula in AI-assisted engineering, ensuring the integration of innovative AI methodologies into the educational framework and shaping the future of AI-augmented design engineering.