DISCO will develop and demonstrate - in real-life conditions - a federated European urban freight (UF) data space as one stop shop of data sharing on digital urban logistics solutions and smart tools for ambitious decision making. It will be a continental Ten-T – oriented and distributed real-life ecosystem to prove its value via demonstrated and replicable Use Cases (UCs), build upon innovation drivers to code concrete transformation of urban planning and land use by an open and collaborative UF Data Space with a smart governance model. The DISCO UF Data Space is voluntary based (incentivized), co-created and open framework to achieve a radical transformation and alliance in purpose-oriented data sharing, enabling smart access, fast and resource efficient acquisition, and focused provision, improving knowledge and capacity of city authorities and planners guaranteeing future data availability for dynamic (and predictive) integrated urban logistics planning, synchronizing real-time demand for transport & warehousing with logistics supply, (e.g., as Uber matches the demand for private car transport service with its road drivers’ fleet). DISCO will support European urban logistics players in reducing economic, societal and technical dependence from private digital platforms owned by large global providers, magnifying the scope of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) converging to data-driven Sustainable Urban Logistics Planning (SULPs), expanding them beyond traditional urban boundaries (e.g., rural areas, towns and suburbs, cities, and urban areas according to World Urbanization Prospects ) and beyond Covid-19, to optimally manage, monitor and dynamically predict city freight flows, changing urban nodes accessibility by properly serving Functional Urban Area - FUA on a larger, mixed-use, and flexible scale , and deliver advanced and well-informed planning and purpose oriented, optimised land use within a TEN-T and global dimension.

Soil contamination is a severe hazard to humans and the environment. We propose Achieving Remediation And GOverning Restoration of contaminated soils Now (ARAGORN) through development and implementation of a complete framework. The framework starts from the identification of contaminated sites and presents a decision-making tree to identify remediation and restoration strategies, and contribute to the aims of the EU Soil Strategy. The framework is grounded in scientific progress and adapted to fully support public and private land managers to take effective actions to protect, remediate and restore the environment on Europe’s polluted soils. ARAGORN will provide better insights into contaminated sites and improve remediation and restoration decision-making by implementing robust mapping and monitoring tools that are fit-for-purpose and covers a wide range of contaminants. Neglected hotspot polluted sites will be identified by fit-for-purpose monitoring and decision strategies. This will enable public and private stakeholders of contaminated sites to move from regrettable remediation to restorative remediation. ARAGORN will compile and test remediation strategies and sustainable soil decontamination solutions, and will develop and put in practice nature-based solutions, improve knowledge on biodiversity and deliver a framework for step-by-step decision making in terms of what is the best approach for resilient restoration in various European countries. The complete framework will be developed together with strategic engagement of land managers throughout Europe, and by rooting knowledge through co-creative processes and sustainable infrastructures. The implementation will be done through a strong team of multidisciplinary scientists and practitioners with ongoing commitments with a diverse set of stakeholders across Europe at the local, national and EU level. We will interlink land managers and sectors across Europe to take effective action on soil health and provide longevity links and support to several EU policy and international commitments.

The CIRCOFIN project brings together 4 cities and regions to transition to a circular economy in the construction and buildings sector. Munich, Copenhagen, Scotland and Lisbon will prepare investment-ready circular construction hubs (CCH) and showcase how they transform local and regional markets for secondary building components and materials. CCH cover physical material banks and digital infrastructure to provide the resource basis for the EU Taxonomy requirements for construction. To date, CCH have not successfully scaled-up across Europe. The project will demonstrate that CCHs can become bankable projects at scale and provide lucrative investment opportunities for financiers. The showcases develop sound technical, business, and financial plans of more than 80 M€ total investment volume. CIRCOFIN streamlines a common project development assistance (PDA) methodology for CCH, used and validated by the showcases. The methodology results in a CCH Toolbox, which consists of customizable components for all project development stages, from pre-feasibility to due diligence and bankability appraisal. It covers all elements of CCH – physical design, digital infrastructure, logistics, business models, operation models and financial models. The results will be published as a CCH Cookbook with concrete facts and figures, ready for widespread replication by other cities and regions. Replication and roll-out aim to trigger uptake in 30 other cities and regions from the CCRI, Circular Cities Declaration and the Mission Cities of the 100 Climate-neutral and Smart Cities Mission. Investors and EU financial initiatives will gain expertise in advising CCH projects via robust technical and operational insights and learn how to review associated risks, to make better investment decisions on circular economy projects. Standardization will on CEN and ISO as well as policy recommendations improve regulation to enable business and investment cases for CCH market uptake in Europe.

ELABORATOR uses a holistic approach for planning, designing, implementing and deploying specific innovations and interventions towards safe, inclusive and sustainable urban mobility. These interventions, consist of smart enforcement tools, space redesign and dynamic allocation, shared services, and integration of active and green modes of transportation. They will be specifically co-designed and co-created with identified “vulnerable to exclusion” user groups, local authorities and relevant stakeholders. The interventions will be demonstrated in 6 Lighthouse and 6 Follower cities across Europe with three principal aims: i) to collect, assess and analyse user needs and requirements towards a safe and inclusive mobility and climate neutral cities; ii) to collect and share rich information sets made of real data, traces from dedicated toolkits, users’ and stakeholders’ opinions among the cities, so as to increase the take up of the innovations via a twinning approach and iii) to generate detailed guidelines, policies, future roadmap and built capacity for service providers, planning authorities and urban designers for the optimum integration of such inclusive and safe mobility interventions into Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). The Lighthouse cities are: Milan (Italy), Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki (Finland), Issy-les-Moulineaux (France), Zaragoza (Spain) and Trikala (Greece). The Follower cities are Lund (Sweden), Liberec (Czech Republic), Velejne (Slovenia), Ioannina (Greece), Split (Croatia) and Krusevac (Serbia).

URBAN M2O aims to create solutions to generate the crucial information that is needed to develop and implement risk-based urban water quality management plans at the city scale. Such plans will contribute to achieving sustainable urban water systems with zero pollution impact on human health and the environment. URBAN M2O will achieve this objective by: 1) Developing and benchmarking AI-enhanced, resource-effective monitoring water quality technologies; 2) Developing fit-for-purpose water quality models and harmonized data management systems; 3) Demonstrating open-access urban water digital twins assimilating monitoring data to identify hotspots and prioritize pollution control actions under current and future climate scenarios; 4) Providing tailored guidance to end users and stakeholders for the effective development of urban water quality monitoring and management plans. Industrial partners will enhance their monitoring techniques with AI methods, benchmarking them against state-of-the-art monitoring approaches for trace organic chemicals, microbial contaminants, and microplastics in all urban water systems, namely drinking water, surface water, bathing water, wastewater effluents, groundwater, urban run-off, and sewer overflows. Monitoring and modelling solutions will be demonstrated in three real and operational case studies, selected to represent different challenges faced by urban water infrastructure. The URBAN M2O solutions will be tailored to stakeholders and end-users’ needs, addressing current and future requirements and challenges, and different resources and data availability. URBAN M2O will enable urban water managers and regulators to make informed decisions, prioritizing actions to enhance urban water quality, and protect human health, the environment, and biodiversity at the European scale.