ATELIER is a smart city project that demonstrates Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) within 8 European cities with sustainability and carbon neutrality as guiding ambitions. Amsterdam and Bilbao are the Lighthouse cities that will generate an energy surplus of 1340 MWh of primary energy, prevent 1,7 kt of CO2- and 23 t of NOx-emissions, and invest 156 mln Euros to realise their PEDs. Together with district users, ATELIER will showcase innovative solutions that integrate buildings with smart mobility and energy technologies to create a surplus of energy and balance the local energy system. Bratislava, Budapest, Copenhagen, Krakow, Matosinhos, and Riga are the Fellow cities that will replicate and adapt successful solutions. All cities will establish a local PED Innovation Atelier to co-produce locally embedded, smart urban solutions. In the ateliers, the local innovation ecosystem (authorities, industries, knowledge institutes, citizens) is strengthened, enhancing embeddedness and removing any obstacles (legal, financial, social, etc.) for implementation of the smart solutions. The Innovation Ateliers are designed to be self-sustaining and to live on after the project has ended. The ateliers are engines for upscaling solutions within the ATELIER-cities and replication to other EU-cities. ATELIER integrates a high degree of citizen engagement throughout the project, by actively involving local residents (>9000), local initiatives, and energy communities in activities to align technical solutions with citizens’ objectives and behaviour. Each of the cities will develop a City Vision 2050 that creates the roadmap for upscaling the solutions in the long term. ATELIER has the ambition to pave the way for “energy positive cities” in Europe. All ATELIER activities will be monitored (socially and technically), and lessons learned are systematically drawn and disseminated to relevant SET-plan groups, city networks, and innovation forums.

In recent decades, new planning paradigms have reshaped cities. Urban regeneration has renovated public spaces, redeveloped city centers, and established innovation districts. Smart cities have implemented technological systems, such as transport management, water and contamination monitoring, and energy-efficient buildings. A new sustainable approach, including recycling, renaturalization, and recovery, has emerged in response to the demand for environmental sensitivity in urban planning. These strategies have mainly been applied to wealthy areas to attract tourism and companies, repositioning cities in the global economic framework. However, applying these regeneration strategies, smart systems, and renaturalization processes to deprived areas is crucial. These areas tend to face multiple urban problems, such as pollution, social and cultural issues, lack of services and low-quality built environments, and public spaces, leading to issues related to liveability, functionality, quality of life, social cohesiveness, and physical and mental health. Moreover, there is a growing need for climate change adaptation strategies, which has led to the implementation of Nature Based Solutions (NBS). However, a new pattern is emerging, which considers nature as a stakeholder in itself, beyond the ecosystem services it provides. Innovative technologies such as AI, machine learning, and immersive realities are also emerging, which can enhance the accuracy of information delivery and people engagement. GreenIn Cities aims to develop methodologies and tools for collaborative climate mitigation and adaptation urban planning approaches, specifically for deprived areas, addressing three main challenges: improving societal readiness level and awareness of vulnerable groups, going beyond classical greening and renaturing interventions, and leveraging cutting-edge technologies to enhance co-creation and maximize urban regeneration impacts.

The world is losing its wild species and ecosystems at an alarming rate, and Europe is no exception. Yet, biodiversity is the basis for functioning ecosystems, which provide essential goods and services for humans and all other life forms on Earth. We must therefore reverse the trend of BD loss in the foreseeable future, especially by addressing underlying, indirect drivers of biodiversity loss such as consumption patterns, norms and values to achieve double decoupling (of consumption from excessive natural resource use, of satisfaction from consumption). Such transformative change requires social innovation and improved, systemic governance approaches. Additionally, digitalisation and emerging technologies offer potential to support the conservation of biodiversity, increase society well-being and economic prosperity which should be harnessed while reducing their equally existing negative impacts. GoDigiBios aims to support biodiversity-relevant transformative change towards a nature-positive economy and society that will use new digital and other emerging technologies in ways that assist in reversing BD loss. Specifically, GoDigiBioS will deliver i) comprehensive understanding complemented by new insights and operational knowledge of the interactions between biodiversity, social and economic well-being, and technological development, ii) tools to support biodiversity-relevant decision-making, iii) improved, systemic policy mixes and governance approaches. To co-produce these knowledge, tools, and governance approaches, GoDigiBioS will bring together and leverage the knowledge and experience of both researchers and stakeholders from four peri-urban transformation lab regions across Europe and use specific approaches to ensure scalability and replicability of its solutions.