Interoperability depends on cooperation of multiple domains. While for the energy sector technical interoperability is quite well established, interoperability of functions and businesses needs more attention. Even when standards are defined and interoperability models agreed, framework setters, product developers and users need to agree on their deployment and make sure that solutions are compatible with definitions. The Interoperability Network for the Energy Transition project (IntNET) establishes an open, cross-domain community bringing together all stakeholders relevant for the European energy sector to jointly work on developing, testing and deploying interoperable energy services. The community will be formally established to exist beyond project life-time. With a comprehensive, FAIR knowledge platform and a series of attractive events it guides those who deal with the heterogeneous interoperability landscape of energy services. To support ongoing harmonization of energy services, IntNET will institutionalise an assessment methodology and maturity model (IMM). Involving legal and regulatory bodies from the beginning and constant exchange of interoperability initiatives and standardization bodies will build a deep consensus on how European governance and industry can foster interoperability at all levels. Starting from an extraordinary well balanced and connected consortium of researchers, framework setters (e.g., ministry and EU wide associations), standardisation and communication experts, IntNET’s community approach guarantees wide outreach. IntNET will establish a framework for interoperability testing in ongoing projects and harmonize test procedures in a network of closely cooperating, self-sustained testing facilities. Energy service solutions based on the novel IMM and tested according to the IntNET certification process will be awarded with a widely known quality seal for interoperable smart grid and energy products (working title: “IntNET approved").

PDP4E is an innovation action that will provide software and system engineers with methods and software tools to systematically apply data protection principles in the projects they carry out, so that the products they create comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), thus bringing the principles of Privacy and Data Protection by Design to practice. PDP4E will integrate privacy and data protection engineering functionalities into existent, mainstream software tools that are already in use by engineers, focusing on open-source tools that will be integrated in the Eclipse ecosystem, The approach will integrate methods proposed by the privacy engineering community (e.g. LINDDUN, ISO/IEC 27550 Privacy engineering), and the industry of software and system engineering tools (e.g. MUSE, PAPYRUS or OpenCert) using a model driven engineering approach. PDP4E will introduce privacy and data protection into software and system engineering disciplines (Risk Management, Requirements Engineering, Model-Driven Design, and Assurance), which drive the everyday activities of engineers. Results of PDP4E will be assessed by two demonstration pilots on industries where privacy and data protection are especially relevant, one on C-ITS applications and services (connected vehicle application domain) and one on big data on smart grid (smart grid application domain). PDP4E will promote its results in engineering communities, as Eclipse (community of software developers) or IPEN (community of stakeholders with an interest on privacy engineering). An open Alliance for Privacy and Data Protection Engineering is planned as a follow-up of the project, building on that community and the synergies among partners. PDP4E includes 8 partners and has a 36-month duration.

OpenContinuum addresses the coordination and support of the Cloud-Edge-IoT domain, with a specific thematic focus on the supply-side of the computing continuum landscape. An integrated, open ecosystem built around Open Source, Open Standards, and the effective blending of the two vibrant European communities of Cloud Computing and Internet of Things (IoT) is the key enabler for European prosperity in the Cloud-Edge-IoT domain and more widely in the data economy. Therefore the core ambition of OpenContinuum is fostering European strategic autonomy and interoperability through an open ecosystem for the computing continuum. Such an ecosystem will contain the research and innovation projects in the Cloud-Edge-IoT portfolio to be coordinated, the diverse community evolved from the current Cloud and IoT ones, with the addition of further actors, initiatives, and alliances of significance. The supply-side nature of OpenContinuum's agenda will orient the themes and focus of the project activities, but will not limit the scope of the community building. The active landscaping and engagement work of the project will be key to bring the Cloud and IoT communities together and to express all points of view with a common language and understanding. OpenContinuum will then provide strong guidance and support to European computing continuum actors to contribute to and lead open-source projects and standardisation efforts. Key project contributions to the relevant expected outcomes include: a baseline common open architecture for computing continuum research projects, reinforced collaboration between European public and private initiatives from Cloud to edge to IoT, and increased awareness on the importance of Open Source and standards for EU digital autonomy. These contributions, arising from project results, will evolve further towards larger-scale impacts and strategic objectives for European technological, economic, and societal advancement.

GIFT is an innovative project that aims to decarbonise the energy mix of European islands. European islands have to abide by the law of their countries that push toward a greener energy mix to comply with the European and international agreements. GIFT is willing to develop innovative systems to allow islands to integrate vast amount of renewables. In order to reach that goal, the coordinator INEA has built a well-balanced consortium gathering a total of 17 partners of 7 countries, including 1 industrial partner, 9 SMEs, two municipalities, 3 research centres and 2 universities. Through the development of multiple innovative solutions, such as a virtual power system, energy management systems for harbours, factories, homes, better prediction of supply and demand and visualisation of those date through a GIS platform, and innovative storage systems allowing synergy between electrical, heating and transportation networks, GIFT will increase the penetration rate of renewable energy sources into the islands’ grid, reducing their needs for diesel generation and thus decreasing the greenhouse gases emissions directly related to it. During 4 years, the partners will develop and demonstrate the solutions in two lighthouse islands, in Hinnøya, Norway’s largest island and the small island of Procida in Italy and study the replicability of the solution in a Greek and Italian islands at the minimum, respectively Evia and Favignana. The complementarity of these islands in terms of climate, energy mix, population and activities is meant to have solutions adaptable to different situations. To even increase this, the GIFT project has started to build a replication board with associations that already gather 1640 European islands that will be able to study replication for their territories. The consortium aims to provide sustainable solutions with a strong market uptake and plans to widely disseminate their solutions and replicate it on all relevant islands in the EU and beyond.

Aiming at decarbonising the energy systems of geographical islands, MAESHA will deploy the necessary flexibility, storage and energy management solutions for a large penetration of Renewable Energies. Cutting-edge technical systems will be developed and installed, supported by efficient modelling tools and adapted local markets and business frameworks. A community-based approach will be adopted to ensure the constant consideration of local populations’ best interests throughout the project. Putting together 10 SMEs, 3 industrial partners, 2 universities and 6 public organisations from 9 countries, MAESHA gathers strong partners with the needed expertise to develop and disseminate relevant solutions for a universally beneficial energy transition on islands. After establishing the proper use-cases and architecture designs to ensure interoperability (WP1), MAESHA will develop modelling tools from real-time to long-term energy-economy observations (WP2) together with adapted business, market and regulatory frameworks (WP4). In parallel the community-based approach will be launched (WP3). All these activities lay the foundation for the technical development of management systems for aggregating flexibility (WP5) and devices based on synergies with assets of the territories (WP6), optimised together through a flexibility aggregating platform (WP7). After systems integration (WP8), the solutions will be fully demonstrated on Mayotte (WP10) and their replicabilities will be studied in five follower islands (WP10). Dedicated WPs for communication, dissemination (WP11) and management (WP12) will maximize the impacts. With its activities, MAESHA is expected to lead to at least 70% RE penetration and reach more than 90% of Mayotte’s population. Through its strong local implantation and the focus put on replication and dissemination activities, MAESHA will deeply modify insular energy features throughout Europe and its impacts will be felt far beyond the project’s framework.