SEED – Sustainable Energy EDucation realizes impact to global climate change prevention with excellent and innovative vocational education on solutions to become a fossil free energy continent. Challenges on transition develop rapidly, with a high demand for digital and green. Solutions are not yet clear, and technologies are constantly evolving. Well-equipped students, professionals and suitable labor capacity are needed for the tasks and challenges. Vocational education, as a driver for innovation and growth and agile in adapting to the labor market, has a heavy responsibility. In addition, the shortage in labor capacity forces us to develop new ways of working and educating. SEEDs partners (14) and associate partners (23) are VET providers EQF level 2-7, representatives from regional skills ecosystems and national agenda-setting stakeholders. With the objectives to prepare learners, students and professionals with skills and competences for the future, to empower regional innovation based on regional needs and to scale up and promote work-based education, they will establish an international learning community and COVES in five regions. Defined are 33 deliverables, benefiting educational staff, learners and stakeholders in workshops, good practices, international conferences and a learning platform that benefits the VET sector and regional stakeholders in Europe. The result is regional growing cooperation on vocational excellence in five regions, a shared implemented vision on regional learning, transnational learning and adapting to the labor market, development and exchange of good practices and tools, innovative approaches for learning with impact and an international community on vocational excellence dedicated to sustainable energy. Educational providers, working professionals, policymakers, from different professions and disciplines, will experience how to find answers while co-creating on the challenges ahead. Therefore, the SEED community is needed.

NOMAD gathers partners from China, Greece, the UK, Italy, Romania, Malta and the Netherlands to develop an innovative, small-scale tech solution designed to recover fibre and specific nutrients from digestate for formulation into high performance bio-fertiliser products. It addresses key digestate issues including environmental and health risks, handling, variable composition and the increasing volume being produced. Currently, turning digestate into bio-fertiliser products is not feasible for most small plants due to lack of available, cost-effective equipment, and the expense of achieving end of waste standard PAS110. Building on partners’ previous work, the proposed technology will utilise heat from combustion of waste timber and recovered energy from a collection vehicle to improve energy efficiency while simultaneously addressing regulatory compliance. Specific nutrients will be extracted from the liquid fraction and water recovered for reuse. The remaining sludge will be blended & composted with ash (derived from waste timber combustion) and biochar to produce optimised, nutrient-balanced soil conditioners. The model rests on the solution’s mobility and modularity as one unit could serve multiple plants, tackling digestate from a range of feedstocks with shared costs making it more viable than installing systems at individual plants. Other project activities include stakeholder engagement; field trials across contrasting regions; policy recommendations; a comprehensive impact assessment of the business model; and dissemination of key outputs. The project aims to replace non-renewable mineral fertilisers with low-carbon, organic equivalents; minimise environmental and health risks associated with digestate; create a new, disruptive business model for rural decentralised AD; and achieve a more favourable climate for circular economy development through successful stakeholder engagement.

The SLEEPING BEAUTY project aims to rejuvenate neglected urban, peri-urban, and rural spaces across Europe through the integration of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) and the core values of the New European Bauhaus (NEB). By addressing diverse climatic contexts, this initiative promotes sustainable, inclusive, and resilient communities. The project leverages NBS to enhance biodiversity, foster natural beauty, and provide multifunctional public spaces, aligning with NEB’s principles of sustainability, beauty, and inclusiveness. SLEEPING BEAUTY seeks to transform underutilized and overlooked spaces into vibrant, biodiverse areas that reconnect people with nature. This holistic, co-creative approach combines innovative design and artistic interventions, encouraging collaboration among citizens, experts, and local stakeholders. These efforts will help reshape public spaces, strengthen community ties, and foster a shared sense for caretaking of environment. By emphasizing the creative re-use and revitalization of spaces, the project will demonstrate how integrating NEB and NBS can lead to improved well-being, enhanced biodiversity, and more resilient and beautiful communities. The project’s six pilot sites will serve as showcases for replicating and scaling NBS-NEB solutions across Europe, contributing to a systemic shift in how we design, interact with, and maintain public spaces in close connection with nature and cultural heritage. The initiative promotes long-term societal transformation, focusing on strengthening human-nature relationships, cultural identity, and collective action to address pressing societal challenges like climate change. SLEEPING BEAUTY’s unique blend of artistic co-creation, sustainable spatial planning and innovation will push beyond traditional NBS approaches, setting a new gold standard for innovative, inclusive, and aesthetically compelling public spaces enabled by NEB-NBS and a new Natur-Baukultur.

ROSEWOOD4.0 builds on the well-established ROSEWOOD network of Regional Hubs connecting multiple actors along the forest value chain to reinforce the sustainability of wood mobilisation in Europe. The new action will especially reinforce and enlarge the links with Eastern Europe by creating a new Eastern Hub including new countries (Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine). Secondly, the action puts special emphasis on digitalisation (forestry industry 4.0) and digital tools (social media, platforms, e-learning) for training and coaching, enabling practitioners to share know-how with much wider impact. The focus on ICT addresses the two main challenges in wood mobilisation: 1) better access to resources through defragmentation of forest owners and 2) increased volume to the market and higher transparency. The project’s extensive dissemination of best practices, technological and non-technological innovations and research results feeds directly into national and regional Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) in forestry and builds an efficient interface with the EIP-AGRI and the EIP Raw Materials, supported by the European networks EFI and InnovaWood. The multi-actor action closes knowledge gaps, connects and transfers tangible knowledge and best practice between forestry practitioners across the whole Europe. In an open innovation environment, the coordination of Regional Hubs facilitates also new opportunities for exploitation of near to market innovations and fosters business partnerships between stakeholders, aligned with local and regional development plans, to complement existing or initiate new Operational Groups within the EIP-AGRI. ROSEWOOD4.0 will contribute to enhanced competitiveness of the forest industry and to vital development in rural areas within the European Bioeconomy by responding to the imminent need for broader sharing of ICT-driven solutions in forestry.

Regional clusters are the unsung heroes of sustainable development, driving innovation and economic growth by leveraging local ecosystems and fostering strong connections among businesses, research institutions, and stakeholders. This is even more valid for Clusters in Bioeconomy, where new knowledge is born constantly The project´s collective understanding is that Regional Bio-Economy Clusters are ideally suited to mobilise R&I ecosystems, due to their cross-sectoral nature of bioeconomy in different countries, their proximity to local enterprises, and their ability to reflect common bottlenecks and needs and link the local ecosystem with international knowledge and funding hubs. BIO-INSPIRE, an alliance of 14 transdisciplinary entities from 12 EU countries, demonstrates that regional bio-economy clusters are a valid answer to developing bio-based innovations, driving sustainable growth and fostering resilient local economies across the widening regions of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. BIO-INSPIRE will engage Regional Bio-Economy Clusters in 7 widening countries (Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland, ) and research and technology developers and clusters in 2 non-widening countries (Sweden, The Netherlands) to address systemic causes of underdevelopment across geographical boundaries. BIO-INSPIRE aims to contribute to the transformation of the widening regional bioeconomies by addressing existing bottlenecks and providing to the regions the necessary tools to advance their R&I capacity and their ability to broader their collaboration networks. At the heart of this project is the provision of a Governance Model framework, addressing the critical lack of established structures, norms, and procedures for sustainable collaboration. This framework is designed to be a long-lasting legacy, empowering also other regions to achieve sustainability and growth, and ensuring their effective and enduring engagement in the bio-based economy.