The number of climate-related disasters has been progressively increasing in the last two decades and this trend could be drastically exacerbated in the medium- and long-term horizons according to climate change projections. In this framework, through a multi-disciplinary team and a strong background acquired in relevant recent projects, ICARIA aims to promote the use of asset level modelling to achieve a better understanding on climate related tangible direct and indirect impacts produced by complex, cascading and compound disasters and the related risk reduction provided by suitable, sustainable and cost-effective adaptation solutions. ICARIA focuses on both critical assets and infrastructures that were not designed to consider potential climate changes that can increase the unplanned outages and failures, and also on housing, natural and land areas. Cutting edge methods regarding climate scenario building, assets level coupled models and multi-risk assessment approaches will be implemented and replicated in three EU regions to understand how future climates might affect life-cycle costs of these investments in the coming decades and to help risk owners managing public and private infrastructures to assess costs and benefits of various adaptation solutions. Two of the three case studies, Barcelona Metropolitan Area and the archipelago of South Aegean region, are located in the coastal area of the Mediterranean and are facing increasingly extreme weather events (storm surges, pluvial floods, heatwaves, drought and forest fire) with critical socio-economic and environmental impacts. The third region is situated in Austria, representing an area that is highly affected by climate change with effects (glacier melt and heatwaves) that directly impact the prevailing energy production assets (extremely critical infrastructures) and other important sectors. Moreover, other seven follower regions (third parties) will be the first candidates for replication beyond the project. In this context, ICARIA also fosters several actions to maximize replication and outreaching of the main project outcomes. ICARIA consortium is composed of 16 partners located in 6 EU countries. AQUATEC and UPC share the coordination of the project covering, respectively, administrative/legal and scientific responsibilities with the support of several technical and cross cutting partners formed by technology centres, universities and private companies and the involvement of regional authorities as risk owners of the local critical infrastructures.

RURBANIVE will develop 6 Rural/Urban Enablers (RUEs), innovations in six domains favouring bi-directional rural/urban synergies and a well-being economy. A digital space, the “Community Store”, the prominent result of RURBANIVE, will integrate the RUEs along with the “Community of Practice Suite” of policies, facilitating rural/urban communities to create strong synergies. The Community Store will make possible synergies and recommendations, online interaction, dialogue, collaboration, and participation of rural/urban stakeholders. Rural/urban immersiveness (RUI), exploiting the endless capabilities of immersion, will promote experimentation and innovation in rural/urban areas. Immersive campaigns emerging from co-creation activities will be tailored to the potential of 7 Rural/Urban co-Creation Labs (RUCLs) and will enable rural/urban interactions through enhanced social connectivity and experimentation. The 7 RUCLs will represent different geographical and socio-cultural EU contexts, and RUI will ensure that stakeholders across specificities are included in prototyping, testing, piloting, and demonstrating the RURBANIVE results. A novel rural/urban innovation framework, supported by social and technical innovations, will enhance territorial governance and existing policy tools by equipping RUCLs with tangible outcomes on improving their rural/urban synergies. Participatory processes will support dialogue and cooperation, enabling stakeholders to assess and evaluate approaches and scenarios that contribute further to developing synergies and recommendations. The Open Call will fund projects developing their own RUEs, based on the six RURBANIVE RUE domains, to be applied in other rural/urban areas and be available on the project's Community Store and the RUI. An inviting and sustainable ecosystem will be created around RURBANIVE to maximize the project's impact. The broad application of the project innovations will be enabled through the creation of business model.

CCAM solutions face a significant challenge characterized by decreased societal demand due to their difficulty in effectively conveying their advantages within existing mobility systems and adapting to the diverse environments where citizens live, work, and conduct their daily activities. Diversify-CCAM has the clear objective to promote fair and accessible mobility in European regions by integrating cultural, geographical and policy aspects into the design, development and implementation of CCAM solutions. This initiative encompasses 6 European countries (Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden), collectively hosting 12 pilot sites dedicated to data collection and evaluation. In each country, there are two distinct areas under examination: one focusing on mobility of people within urban environments equipped with existing CCAM solutions and another focusing on mixed transport (people and small goods) solutions within rural or touristic areas primarily reliant on private cars. Diversify-CCAM will deepen our understanding of the diverse social contexts that influence the acceptance, adoption, and utilization of CCAM. Moreover, the project will study the surmount challenges and barriers hindering the effectiveness of shared services, especially in regions with unique geographical and cultural demands. The methodological approach involves the engagement of various user groups and stakeholders at the local level, extending their involvement to the European and international spheres through PAVE and our distinguished Stakeholder Board. This multifaceted involvement aims to positively influence public perception and reimagine the overall design and offerings of CCAM solutions. Ultimately, the project will develop a CCAM Diversification Tool (CCAM D-Tool) for transportation planners and a CCAM Diversity Observatory for the entire CCAM value chain, both focusing on achieving inclusiveness and equity within the European mobility ecosystem.

CARDIMED will introduce a framework to build Climate Resilience in the Mediterranean biogeographical region, efficiently unifying individual efforts of regions and communities across different countries and continents. This will be achieved by deploying the digital infrastructure to harmonise the data collection and evaluation processes, providing open data to all the actors involved in the Nature-based Solutions (NBS) value chain and integrating crucial functions for Climate Resilience. Among these functions, smart digital tools for citizen participation and capacity building will supplement an ambitious multi-stakeholder engagement strategy, focused on knowledge translation and impact pathways. Furthermore, holistic modelling tools introducing the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus approach will provide comprehensive knowledge on the complex NBS interfaces, that will decisively contribute to addressing socio-ecological challenges, along with issues of valuation and low-investment rate in NBS. These actions will be implemented across 9 demonstration sites, composed of 10 regions, 20 locations and 28 communities and comprising 47 NBS that directly relate to 83 interventions and supporting units that tackle climate change and circularity challenges. The consolidation of the demonstrating regions and communities will establish the CARDIMED Resilience Alliance, that will function as the vehicle for expanding the network via upscaling the existing sites and adding new ones. The project includes 5 transferability cases, as well as an additional 10 that will be defined during the implementation. Through these actions, the CARDIMED Resilience Alliance will achieve at least 28 regions and 70 communities by 2030, will create 8000 jobs especially in the NBS sector, and will leverage over 450 M€ in climate investment.