Mountains cover 30% of the land area and are home to 17% of the EU´s population, meaning that every 6th EU citizen lives in mountainous areas. While we often associate mountains with breathtaking landscapes that offer perfect sites for relaxation, in truth, mountains are much more than that. In fact, mountains play a crucial role in our daily lives by providing vital resources and key community systems to the global population. Mountains like other areas face unprecedented challenges in terms of climate change (CC), however mountain ecosystems are more sensitive to CC. The harmful conditions provoked by CC are exacerbated by the significant deficits in adaptation responses mountainous areas have, stemming from several existing gaps, including shortcomings in CCA options, deficits in the uptake and the lack of coherence. MountResilience has been formulated to increase the adaptation capacity of mountainous regions and communities so as to strengthen climate resilience within the European mountainous biogeographical region (Alpine biogeographical region). The project aims to accelerate the climate resilient transformation of 10 of the most relevant communities and regions located in the mountains in 9 European countries. 6 of the regions will develop and test transformative CCA solutions (technological and social innovations with nature-based solutions at their core). These solutions will address policy, governance, societal needs and behaviours, technological requirements, public and financing targets, and CC risks typical of mountainous areas. Regional quadruple-helix partnerships will use open innovation, participatory decision-making, stakeholder engagement approaches, and effective communication to mobilise, engage, and reach out to key communities. The remaining 4 regions will serve as "replicator" regions, repurposing CCA solutions and lessons learned from the demo regions in their regions through special initiatives to improve their adaptive capacity.

Green transformation of built environment is only possible through education and mobilization of all skill and organizational levels within the construction workforce, from the engineering (vocational) level to the higher managerial (PhD) level. The main goal of the project is to implement a comprehensive set of cross-sectoral activities and tackle the mismatch between the current education curricula and market demand regarding digital and green skills in the construction sector in order to speed up its green transformation. Project is based on the following activities: 1) for the sensibilization of vocational level students about the importance of green building and sustainable development of construction sector, handbooks will be made as well as workshops on environmental reporting, training critical number of teaching professionals in vocational schools; 2) for the in-depth education of master level students a new curricula “Green building” will be implemented, in addition to dedicated workshops and training in software use to perform quantitative environmental calculation; 3) to enhance the innovation management skills and to increase the possibility for future green business creation in the sector for the PhD level students will be organized workshops, bootcamps and summer schools; 4) to simulate the decision making within a company, a service-learning event will be held with all three educational levels participating and jointly working on a sustainable solution for a local challenge present in their immediate environment. Through tailor-made activities, each targeted occupational/education level group will be trained for their active role as co-creators in green transformation of the construction sector, securely paving the way towards industrial climate neutrality by 2050, but also serving as a blueprint for possible future educational – entrepreneurial partnership, designed for answering societal and environmental challenges.

RURACTIVE aims to foster a just and sustainable transition of rural areas by developing smart, community-led, tailor-made, place-based and inclusive solutions within local Multi-Actor Rural Innovation Ecosystems (RIEs) in 12 pilot area (Dynamos - Ds) in 7 EU, 2 Associated Countries and Switzerland. RURACTIVE will unlock the innovation potential of rural communities by addressing six integrated Rural Development Drivers (RDDs) – namely multimodal mobility, energy transition, agri-food and agroecology, culture and cultural innovation, health and wellbeing, nature-based and cultural tourism – and transversally integrating climate change mitigation and adaption, biodiversity and social justice and inclusion. RURACTIVE will empower rural communities to act for societal change, by making available existing knowledge around smart solutions that integrate various forms of innovation (digital and technological, technical, organizational and social, business models and financial) and enhancing rural communities' capacities and skills, by providing training, capacity building, and knowledge transfer. Implementing a methodology for RIEs establishment in 12 Ds, RURACTIVE will work towards inclusive decision-making processes for all, including vulnerable groups and people at risk of exclusion, providing RIEs with instruments and capacities to collaboratively co-develop, co-implement and co-monitor smart and community-led solutions. Also, by offering an open set of data-driven tools (Decision Support Tool, Adaptive Monitoring tool), a digital infrastructure (RURACTIVE Digital Hub), and defining a programme for external Innovators, RURACTIVE will provide a fertile ground for change in rural areas. Results will be out-scaled through knowledge exchanges and networking at EU level (open contest for Additional Ds and RURACTIVE Forum), the deployment of training and capacity building activities for further rural communities and the creation of open e-learning courses and MOOC.