BiogasAction aim to serve as vehicle for the development of the European biogas sector and thereby contribute to the EU 2020 targets by focusing on removing non-technical barriers to widespread production of biogas/biomethane from manure and other waste. Central driver is the cooperation between different policy levels at EU, national and regional level. The project will boost biogas development in the target regions in conjunction with replication efforts & promotion at broad EU scale. BiogasAction key activity & expected impact: • A web portal containing EU-wide biogas market overview, technical biogas and biomethane information and experience of EU/national biogas projects, case studies and free on-line/off-line biogas tools • Biogas and biomethane intervention strategy plans in the 9 target regions • Replication of the project in 5 EU countries/regions • A guidance document for investors about financing biogas/biomethane project and reducing investment risk. • A guidance document for policy and decision makers and for local authorities/municipalities, to enable them to improve national framework conditions for biogas and biomethane deployment • Definition and support of a total of 50 high quality, sustainable biogas projects in the 9 target regions. • 3 peer learning European workshops focusing on key competence areas (80 participants), 1 European roundtable about advanced biogas applications, organisation of at least 1 national energy info day in each target region, with more than 100 participants/event • 3-4 events/training courses per target region for public administration aimed to improve the framework, including follow-up of the recommendations • 2-4 events/training courses per target region aimed to raise the public acceptance • A local training package incl. use of training material from previous projects • Series of 6-8 trainings in each of the 9 target regions on specific topics for biogas plant operators • Final event on project achievements

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.

INTENSSS-PA will support public authorities to integrate the energy theme into spatial planning and regional physical and socioeconomic landscapes. To achieve this objective INTENSS-PA will provide human and institutional capacity building to public authorities and to the wider network of private and public actors related to energy and regional planning by implementing the Living Lab concept, i.e. an innovative environment of co-creation. Specifically, a network of seven Regional Living Labs (RLL) within the seven different Countries/Regions that participate in the consortium (Thessaly-Greece, Calabria-Italy, Castilla y Leon- Spain, Association of Municipalities-Slovenia, Groningen-Netherlands, Triangle-Denmark and Zemgale-Latvia), will be created. Involving public authorities, private and civil society actors, the RLLs are focused on improving and designing a shared and integrated sustainable energy planning concept and on applying it in order to develop seven sustainable energy plans, i.e. one for each Region. The overall approach will involve learning sessions and experiential projects alongside intense networking. Communication and exploitation activities are envisaged including national Roadshows and a survey with policy makers. It is expected that over 200 people participate in the capacity-building activities performed within the RLLs network, while the stakeholders and policy makers informed on the project results and activities will exceed the 1000 individuals. The project objectives are completely inline with topic EE07’s scope, since it considers innovative capacity building activities to public authorities for integrated energy planning through the establishment of a network of RLLs, i.e. of an ecosystem that stakeholders bring their own specific wealth of knowledge and expertise to the collective, helping to achieve boundary spanning knowledge transfer. Special consideration will be provided on planning requirements deriving from 27/2012/EU Directive.