BENEFIT takes an innovative approach by analysing funding schemes within an inter-related system. Funding schemes are successful (or not) depending on the Business Model that generates them. The performance of the Business Model is affected by the implementation context and the transport mode. It is matched successfully (or not) by a financing scheme. Relations between actors are described by a governance model (contracting arrangements). These are key elements in Transport Infrastructure Provision, Operation and Maintenance. Success is a measure of the appropriate matching of elements. Within BENEFIT funding and financing schemes are analysed in this respect. Describing these key elements through their characteristics and attributes and clustering each of them is the basis of, first, developing a generic framework. This allows for the transferability of findings with respect to “lessons learned”, “limitations” and “the impact of the financial and economic crisis”. Identifying best matches in their inter-relations and where to intervene, leads to move from a generic framework to a powerful decision policy tool, which can assess funding schemes for investments in modern infrastructure with smart pricing and funding in view of 2050 challenges and needs. The BENEFIT partnership takes stock of over twenty years of EC funded, national and international research. It receives direct input (evidence study cases) from the OMEGA Centre and COST Action TU1001. It is set-up to share and exchange knowledge and debate. Its high level international advisory group and its consultation group demonstrate its ability to reach out to all stakeholders to share its innovative approach. Namely: 1)Transport infrastructure business models and their project rating by which further value propositions may be included to lead to funding schemes with enhanced creditworthiness enabling viable financing 2)Transferability 3)Open-access case study database serving both practitioners and researchers

To objective of the BEACON project is to develop a commercial service package that will enable insurance companies to exploit the untapped market potential of Agricultural Insurance, taking advantage of innovations in Earth Observation, weather intelligence and ICT / blockchain technology. BEACON will enable insurance companies to alleviate the effect of weather uncertainty when estimating risk for Agricultural Insurance products, reduce the number of on-site visits for claim verification, reduce operational and administrative costs for monitoring of insured indexes and contract handling, and design more accurate and personalized contracts. Through an early warning service they will be able to inform their customers (farmers) for potential crop risks related with weather conditions, and advise them to take all the necessary actions to mitigate the impact of weather in their crops. EO data derived by Copernicus Sentinel missions as well as by missions contributing to Copernicus will be used to develop the data products that will act as a complementary source to the information used by insurance companies to design their products and assess natural disasters. Weather intelligence based on data assimilation, numerical weather prediction and ensemble seasonal forecasting will be used to verify the occurrence of a catastrophic weather event and to predict future perils. ICT / blockchain technology will be used for the smart contract service, to provide insurance companies with an automated method for paying out damages to insured parties. The BEACON services will be deployed in the operational environment of more than 10 companies in the insurance sector, openly demonstrating and validating its value proposition and acceptance as a marketable commercial solution. A business model will be developed and validated using the Lean Start-up methodology, and a global roll-out of BEACON will be designed.

The overall objective of APOLLO is to develop a commercial platform that will provide a suite of farm management advisory services specifically designed to address the needs of small farmers. APOLLO will use state-of-the-art methodologies for the calculation of agricultural parameters based on EO data, taking advantage of the improved spatial and temporal coverage of the new Sentinels. APOLLO will produce data on agricultural parameters through available EO, meteorological, and auxiliary data. Especially for the calculation of soil moisture, SAR images will be used for the first time with Sentinel-1, making it possible to obtain maps with a spatial and temporal resolution not achievable before. Based on the agricultural parameters calculated, a suite of farm management services (tillage scheduling, irrigation scheduling, crop growth monitoring, and crop yield estimation) will be developed, and will be delivered through a web and mobile interface. The service requirements will be elaborated in close collaboration with end users. APOLLO services will be cost-effective and affordable, thanks to access to free and open Copernicus data, an automated processing chain for the delivery of agricultural variables, independence from the need for ground-based sensors, and the pioneering use of Sentinel-1 data for estimating soil moisture information. The APOLLO platform and business case will be validated through pilot testing in Spain, Greece, and Serbia, with the participation of small farmers, agricultural consultants, farmers’ associations, and SMEs providing farm management services. A business strategy for the take-up of APOLLO will be developed, assessing the operational sustainability of the platform based on market revenues. According to the preliminary business plan developed, APOLLO has the potential for a Return On Investment (ROI) of 18% - 51% in 3 years (for the low and high uptake scenario, respectively).

RECONECT aims to contribute to European reference framework on Nature Based Solutions (NBS) by demonstrating, referencing and upscaling large scale NBS and by stimulating a new culture for 'land use planning' that links the reduction of risks with local and regional development objectives in a sustainable way. To do that, RECONECT draws upon the network of carefully selected Demonstrators and Collaborators that cover a range of local conditions, geographic characteristics, governance structures and social/cultural settings to successfully upscale NBS throughout Europe and Internationally. The RECONECT consortium is a transdisciplinary partnership between researchers, industry partners (SMEs and large consultancies) and responsible agencies at the local and watershed/regional level dedicated to achieve the desired outcomes of the project.

Safe drinking water is paramount for the health and wellbeing of all populations. Unsafe drinking water can contain pathogenic microorganisms and/or chemicals that can make people immediately unwell or can potentially cause serious illness over prolonged exposures. Within the EU, water is extracted from surface and groundwater sources and treated to comply with EU drinking water standards under the Water Framework Directive and Drinking Water Directive. The water is then circulated through the drinking water distribution system (DWDS). During travel within the DWDS, water quality can deteriorate due to microbiological growth, chemical reactions, interactions with ageing and deteriorating infrastructure, and through maintenance and repair activities. Water utilities within the EU are administered at the local level, i.e. city or county region and while they adhere to the overarching EU directives governing quality, they can choose their own treatment protocols, maintenance procedures and hydraulic operations. Some DWDS actions such as flushing may serve to improve water quality, however, these can also adversely impact the drinking water system and cause instances of poor water quality or disease outbreaks. We propose to bridge the gap between science and practice, involving water utilities and researchers from multiple locations across Europe along with third-country expertise, to examine DWDS operational practices and use scientific research approaches to better understand the water quality impact of different interventions to develop a suite of best practices which can be shared to ensure that the EU’s water remains clean and safe. We have assembled a multi-disciplinary, cross sectoral consortium to address various aspects of DWDS practices including flushing, chlorination and system maintenance.