There are large knowledge gaps around the governance of the low carbon energy system transition in a smooth and participative way, ensuring that citizens are at the centre of the required fundamental transformation and enabling the full efflorescence of their creative potential. Social innovation is a prime way to tap into that potential while Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs), a social innovation in itself, are a prime way to mobilize people and to ensure the acceptance for and participation in the necessary transition process. However, both social innovation and CAIs lack proper scientific and field-tested understanding of their development and factors for success. As of today, the role of citizen-driven CAIs (e.g. energy communities, cooperatives, purchasing groups) and their contribution to the energy transition has neither been quantified at an aggregate level, nor has their contribution potential been estimated or understood in sufficient depth. The COMETS project aims to fill these knowledge gaps by quantifying the European-wide aggregate contribution of CAIs to the energy transition at national and European levels by investigating their evolution and scaling up at an in-depth level in six selected countries. The main expected impacts of the project are two-fold. Firstly, COMETS will advance the scientific knowledge on the motives, desires, objectives and barriers of such collective action initiatives and their historical and future role in the energy transition. Building on the information gathered and tested for its robustness, we will then co-develop and test supportive tools together with CAI members, decision makers and the scientific community. Lastly, these stakeholders will then be able to exploit the main outputs of COMETS, namely a Supporting Platform for CAIs, the enhanced knowledge base, scenarios and roadmaps for spreading CAI models, even after the project is concluded.

The project ‘Institutionalized Integrated Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans’ (2ISECAP) aims to bridge the gap between local sustainable energy planning and implementation by supporting the capacity building of public authorities and by developing interface capacities within public authorities to engage with civil society towards energy transition. 2ISECAP will attempt the creation of an institutional environment for effective decision-making processes combining the democratic legitimacy and legal power of formal plans/policies with the creativity, energy and social capacity of bottom-up initiatives, entrepreneurship and community involvement. 2ISECAP will develop and apply an innovative holistic approach for participatory and integrated sustainable energy and climate actions planning that considers the required institutional tools, legal frameworks and local initiatives. Emphasis will be given on driving the sustainable energy transition at cities level through the Climate City Contracts. The planning approach will enhance SECAPs visibility and implementation capacity and the development of sustainable relationships between government and civil society. 2ISECAP utilizes the Living Lab (LL) concept to activate participants to co-create knowledge, energy plans and future policies. The project will provide experiential learning to 6 European Municipalities, by applying 2ISECAP approach to revise/develop their SECAPs, within a LL environment. Eight EU Countries are involved in 2ISECAP. Over 100 public officers will enhance their institutional and technical capacity on participatory integrated planning and governance structures engaging civil society on local energy transition. At least 6 institutionalized collaborations between public authorities are expected to derive and about 30 policies to be influenced. In total, more than 1,300 stakeholders will be informed on Integrated SECAP planning and 5,500 citizens will be involved in the project’s activities.

CREATORS enables local initiators to create and operate advanced Community Energy Systems (CES) by supporting technical, financial and social processes. With the sector moving beyond inventor-lead pilots, local CES initiators lack the capacity for high-quality simulation, business modelling and automated operations that are required in communities with a range of vectors, 1000s of mixed members, and balancing/ trading that requires controls in milliseconds. Leading engineering firms Cordeel and COMSA work with specialists in simulation and energy trading (i.LECO), emulation for digital twins (Typhoon HIL), and financing (EnergyPro) to develop services that enable local professionals to apply state of the art energy system technologies. These applications and integrated packages will mature from TRL5-6 to TRL7-8 and eventually be offered as ´CES-as-a-Service´. The services will deliver 60% preparation and operational costs reductions, ensuring 99,95% uptime, 20-35% CAPEX reduction, and up to 40% additional incomes. The results are 5-10% local energy price reduction (below €0,18kWh) in systems covering all vectors, with 10³ - 10⁴ participants. The approach creates 2 fte jobs in each CES, whilst for partners remote services could reach 10% the system turnover, in what is a high growth market. In standardizing simulation and assessment tools in close collaboration with local stakeholders (30 LoS), the BRIDGE initiative and lenders (industry-lead Investor Confidence Protocols), CREATORS significantly advances commercial readiness (CRI3). The applications will be developed in 4 sites (Belgium, Spain, Slovenia, Estonia), and replicated in another 6 (the Netherlands, Bulgaria, France, Spain). The pilots mix vectors, participants and business models, covering in total >2000 households, >500SMEs and >5 industrial sites. Ten more prospective CES will be supported in feasibility studies through a competitive process, which also aims to prepare for commercial market entry.

SIRCULAR intends to create digital tools, technological solutions and non-technical services for the decarbonisation of the built environment, as well as a ready-to-use methodology for assessing the circularity of a given building capable of evaluating the impact of the developed construction technologies in the demos. These features are intended to improve access to information on decarbonisation for end users who are not experts in these fields, as well as to provide professionals working in the construction sector with tools capable of easily evaluating and improving the circularity of this area. The SIRCULAR solutions will take a multidisciplinary approach, integrating technical, economic, and social approaches with a focus on social and policy innovation, delivering valuable information to policymakers and establishing a solid foundation for the promotion of developed decarbonisation methods. The project will also be distinguished by an overall people-centric approach that prioritizes the needs, ambitions, and well-being of individuals and communities as critical players in the decarbonization of the construction industry. SIRCULAR will prioritize active participation, inclusion, and ethical concerns to ensure that the project's achievements directly benefit society as a whole. The project will also make special efforts to engage the whole supply chain engaged in all phases of the building's life cycle, with the goal of increasing the circularity and sustainability of each of them. SIRCULAR plans to consider four national clusters to promote a circular and sustainable construction sector using a value chain approach. The clusters will focus on Estonia and Spain, followed by Germany and Greece. The clusters will involve construction companies, housing companies, universities, and local administrative entities, and will include buildings owned or occupied by fragile population groups, in line with the SIRCULAR just and affordable transition approach.

SmartEnCity’s main Objective is to develop a highly adaptable and replicable systemic approach towards urban transformation into sustainable, smart and resource-efficient urban environments in Europe through the integrated planning and implementation of measures aimed at improving energy efficiency in main consuming sectors in cities, while increasing their supply of renewable energy, and demonstrate its benefits. The underlying concept of the proposal is the Smart Zero Carbon City concept, where city carbon footprint and energy demand are kept to a minimum through the use of demand control technologies that save energy and promote raised awareness; energy supply is entirely renewable and clean; and local energy resources are intelligently managed by aware citizens, as well as coordinated public and private stakeholders. This approach will be firstly defined in detail, laid out and implemented in the three Lighthouse demonstrators (Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain, Tartu in Estonia and Sonderborg in Denmark). The three cities will develop a number of coordinated actions aimed at: • Significant demand reduction of the existing residential building stock through cost-effective low energy retrofitting actions at district scale. • Increase in RES share of energy supply, through extensive leveraging of local potentials. • Enhance the use of clean energy in urban mobility, both for citizens and goods, by means of extensive deployment of green vehicles and infrastructure. An extensive use of ICTs is planned to achieve integration and consistency in demo planning and implementation, and to enable further benefits and secure involvement of citizens. These actions will be aligned to city-specific Integrated Urban Plans (IUPs), and the process will be replicated in two Follower cities: Lecce, (Italy), and Asenovgrad (Bulgaria) to ensure adaptability and maximize the project impact. Additionally, a Smart Cities Network will be setup to support project replication at European scale.