The BundleUp NEXT project builds on the successful experience of BundleUP (Ponto Energia), a PDA project funded by Horizon 2020, which has developed a very effective methodology that resulted in over 32M€ of investment in energy efficiency (EE) projects (32€ for every 1€ of grant) in Portugal. The BundleUP methodology incorporates energy efficiency projects in different stages of development and proceeds to technical, legal and financial development assistance to bring them to the “investor-ready” (or “tender-ready” in case of public sector) stage. The methodology also focuses on grouping small projects in bundles, in order to provide procurement advantages and more attractiveness for investors and building owners. Due to the success of its predecessor and the strength of the consortium partners, BundleUP NEXT has received more than 60 letters of support and the formal endorsement of the Portuguese Deputy Minister for Energy and the national Directorate-General for Energy and Geology BundleUP NEXT will focus on the following project types: LED and public lighting, PV self-consumption, solar thermal, building envelope and electric mobility, creating a complete array of competences to support projects in any part of Portugal. The project is promoted by a concise and powerful consortium composed by PARITY, experts in sustainable energy investment and coordinators of the previous BundleUP project, ADENE, the national energy agency of Portugal with extensive experience in PDA and close ties to the public central administration, RNAE, the national network of local energy and environment agencies, establishing the projects connection to local administration all across the country and SRS, a law firm that was also part of the BundleUP project with extensive experience in the public and energy sectors. The project is expected to leverage up to 50M€ of investment, overcoming its predecessor’s success (around 1:50 leverage factor on the requested grant).

The proposed project intends to support Member States in establishing or improving national and local schemes for SMEs to undergo energy audits and implement cost-effective recommended energy-saving measures. An initial work of policies and programmes mapping will be followed by an in-depth understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, with the aim of overcoming the current criticalities and bottlenecks. At the same time a work of characterisation of SMEs in terms of energy consumption, size and sector will be carried out to understand effective ways to properly address existing and innovative energy audit policies. Provided a continuous interaction (by means of workshops, questionnaires, meetings) with policy makers as well as SMEs and ESCOs/Energy Auditors associations, a set of policy proposals and recommendations will be then developed and diffused. The priorities guiding the policy and recommendation development will be: - Effectiveness and orientation to real market needs; - Integration with other points of the EED, particularly article 7 Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes and alternative measures; - Replicability, at least for SMEs sector/size/region; A fundamental part of the project, with a relevant participation requested to each partner, will be a continuous action of capacity building and dissemination addressed to policy makers and relevant stakeholders at European, National and Regional level. In order to concentrate the efforts on new challenges and to valorise previous efforts, the Consortium is committed to take as much advantage as possible of results obtained in previous pertinent EU funded projects (such as ENSPOL, ODYSSEE-MURE, EPATEE) and relevant initiatives such as EEFIG and its related Sustainable Energy Investment Forums. On request of the European Institutions, the Consortium would also be very glad to contribute, through findings and results of the project, to the current debate on the SME definition.

The ‘Label Pack A+’ project aims at supporting the implementation of the energy labelling of heating appliances while boosting its impact, the focus being on the “package label” and its potential to push for the uptake or renewable technologies, in particular solar thermal, in combination with more efficient conventional technologies. The project will address one of the main challenges related to this particular energy labelling process in relation to other Energy-related Products : the issuing of the package label by installers. This challenge involves the preparation of the industry, retailers and installers to this process, including the communication to the final consumer. Therefore, the main objectives of the project are to: - Provide guidelines, as well as standardized answers to clarify the responsibility of each actor in the supply chain. These activities will, in particular, focus on installers and SMEs, who might be facing specific implementation challenges; -> Facilitate the exchange of product fiches and product related information on the format of equipment’s databases, available to all the actors in the energy labelling process; -> Apply the energy labelling calculation methodology and make it available to all the actors in the supply chain in the form of a user-friendly online calculation tool; -> Develop and provide industry specific training material, especially focusing on the responsibilities’ and roles of installers in the energy labelling process; -> Provide tailor-made information for end consumers, which will either be directly accessible by them, or used by dealers to explain the significance and added value of the “package label”; -> Provide consolidated expertise on the energy labelling process to the Commission and national authorities, based on the experiences gathered on the pilot implementation in the participating countries.

iBRoad2EPC represents the next step in energy performance assessment schemes and certification practices, promoting and showcasing the integration of Building Renovation Passport elements into EPC schemes. Building on the results of the iBRoad project (2017-2020) which developed, tested and delivered a model for the Building Renovation Passport supporting single-family home-owners with personalised advice to facilitate stepwise deep renovation, iBRoad2EPC aims to bridge the Building Renovation Passport with the EPC, and expand, improve and broaden their format and joint scope to consider additional features and become applicable also to multi-family and public buildings. The aim is to improve reliability, usefulness and effectiveness, thereby establishing the next generation of EPCs that will support Europe's decarbonisation ambitions while improving conditions for building occupants. This will be done by clustering the project’s activities around four main pillars: (1) assess the needs, potential and practicability of merging the EPC with the Building Renovation Passport; (2) adapt the iBRoad concept to become part of EPCs; (3) test and evaluate the applicability of iBRoad2EPC in six countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain), including training for energy auditors and EPC issuers and (4) facilitate the adoption and exploitation of the iBRoad2EPC model across Europe. Implementing authorities in the six countries will be directly involved in the process of conceptualisation, development and testing of iBRoad2EPC to become an integral part of existing relevant schemes. Targeted communication, dissemination and exploitation activities at national and European level will support further acceptance and uptake. The project will leverage existing knowledge from other projects to expand EPC features and contribute back policy proposals as well as training and capacity building modules.

iBROAD intends to explore, design, develop and demonstrate the concept of individual building renovation roadmaps (iBROAD), as a tool outlining deep step-by-step renovation plans with customised recommendations for individual buildings (iBROAD-Plan), combined with a repository of building-related information (logbook, iBROAD- Log). The iBROAD approach is an evolution of EPC and energy audit systems, aiming to become a real driver for renovation. The project will analyse and build upon relevant examples in Germany, France and Flanders, to identify the elements, develop an integrated concept, and produce modular tools, suitable for differing national conditions. The iBROAD innovative concept and tools will be tested in Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal and Germany.Field testing will follow auditor training, and will provide auditor and user experience feedback as input to the feasibility and replicability analyses of the model to other building typologies and EU MS. Stakeholder engagement will be sought from the start at national (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Poland, Portugal and Sweden) and EU levels, for maximum impact. Throughout the project, communication activities will ensure the concept’s broad dissemination and awareness. iBROAD targets residential buildings, with a focus on single-family and small multifamily houses. iBROAD’s implementation, beyond the project duration, will strongly support building owners in step-by-step deep renovation, while avoiding lock-in effects. iBROAD-Plan and iBROAD-Log are expected to empower energy auditors and end-users with knowledge and experience of deep renovation in individual buildings, and to provide public authorities with real-life studies and analysis supporting deep renovation, both for individual buildings and as a long-term national strategy, increasing the renovation rate and depth across the EU.