AlSiCal is an ambitious Research and Innovation effort to make the mineral and metal industry more sustainable and environmentally sound. The project will further research, develop and de-risk a groundbreaking concept; the patented Aranda-Mastin (AM) technology. This technology enables the co-production of three essential raw materials (alumina, silica and precipitated calcium carbonate), using new resources - e.g. anorthosite, abundantly available worldwide - whilst generating ZERO Bauxite Residue and ZERO CO2. Today´s production of these raw materials is a long way from being environmentally friendly: they are obtained through traditional processes that generate large CO2 emissions, and bauxite residue in the case of alumina production from bauxite by the Bayer process. AlSiCal will research and develop the innovative AM technology that allows: • Green co-production of 3 essential raw materials, in a single process and from one source, with synergetic environmental and economic benefits • Efficient use of anorthosite, a mineral abundant in Europe and worldwide • Integrated CO2 use and capture for ZERO CO2 emissions from production • ZERO Bauxite Residue generation from alumina production AlSiCal will de-risk and develop (from TRL 3-4 to TRL 4-5) the AM technology under sustainability and efficiency principles. It will assess and quantify the: techno-economic feasibility, potential value creation for Europe, Life Cycle Analysis, impact and risks of this technology upon the key sustainability pillars: economy, society and environment. AlSiCal will be performed by a balanced team of R&D and industrial partners representing the whole value chain. AlSiCal will set a roadmap for exploitation of the project results, to foster the later commercialization of the technology. Targeted dissemination and communication actions will contribute to increasing social and industrial engagement for developing innovative sustainable technologies for mineral processing.

Five tonnes of waste per capita are generated every year in the EU. These annual 2.5 billion tonnes of waste contain large volumes of valuable materials for Europe’s industrial base. Proper collection of waste is a pre-condition for their optimal recovery. The current trend of increasing higher collection rates is promising, but progress is uneven between Members States and between regions. Good regional practices have the potential to serve as good practice examples for other regions. So far, however, results of existing studies and good practices have not been effective enough in supporting the implementation of better-performing systems elsewhere. The main objective of the COLLECTORS project is to overcome this situation and to support decision-makers in shifting to better-performing collection system. COLLECTORS will therefore: (1) Increase awareness of the collection potential by compiling, harmonizing and presenting information on systems for packaging and paper waste, WEEE and construction products via an online information platform. (2) Improve decision-making on waste collection by the assessment of twelve good practices on their performance on: (1) quality of collected waste; (2) economics; (3) environment; (4) societal acceptance. (3) Stimulate successful implementation by capacity-building and policy support methods that will increase the technical and operational expertise of decision-makers on waste collection. (4) Engage citizens, decision-makers and other stakeholders throughout the project for validation of project results and to ensure the usability of COLLECTORS-output. The COLLECTORS consortium is well-equipped to achieve these impacts as it is directly connected to more than 30 PROS and 2000+ authorities spread across the EU. In addition, the project is embedded in the full secondary raw material value chain ensuring alignment with waste management, recyclers and producers.

Severe hydro-meteorological phenomena are having a high impact in European territories and are of global concern. The science behind these phenomena is complex and advancement in knowledge proceeds with progress in data acquisition and forecasting useful for real-scenario interventions. The employment of nature-based solutions (NBS) to mitigate the impact of hydro-meteorological phenomena is not adequately demonstrated, still uncoordinated at the European level, therefore not reaching full potential. Actions to achieve highest NBS impact requires strategies to enhance societal acceptance, policy strengthening while demonstrating advantages for market development. The objective of OPERANDUM is to reduce hydro-meteorological risks in European territories through co-designed, co-developed, deployed, tested and demonstrated innovative green and blue/grey/hybrid NBS, and push business exploitation. It aims provision of science-evidence for the usability of NBS, best practices for their design based on participatory processes. It foresees a multiple level of stakeholders engagement from the local community up to the international level to leverage widest possible NBS acceptance to promote its diffusion as a good practice. It establishes the framework for the strengthening of NBS-based policies according to local legislation and promotes technology and innovation in NBS to create a European leadership. OPERANDUM is based on open-air laboratories (OALs), a fairly new concept that expands the Living Labs to a wider vision for natural and rural areas. In OALs novel NBS in seven European countries and three in China and Australia are implemented to address specific risks and their effectiveness, assessed through innovative monitoring systems and cutting-edge numerical modelling approaches. OPERANDUM realizes a multi-dimensional open and flexible platform enabling stakeholders and end users to improve knowledge in NBS to mitigate climate change as well as ways to promote and exploit the improved/preserved environment while increasing business opportunities.

GreenCharge will empower cities and municipalities to make the transition to zero emission/sustainable mobility with innovative business models, technologies and guidelines for cost efficient and successful deployment and operation of charging infrastructure for EVs. Inspired by ideas from sharing economy, the business models will focus on enabling the mutualisation of excess capacity of private RES, private charging facilities and the batteries of parked EVs, leveraging fair gain sharing to ensure sufficient incentives for all stakeholders to participate. The enabling technology will coordinate the power demand of charging with other local demand and availability of local RES, leveraging load flexibility and storage capacity of local stationary batteries and parked EVs. Furthermore, it will provide user friendly charge planning, booking and billing services for EV users. This will reduce the need for grid investments to establish new charging stations, remove range anxiety and enable the sharing of already existing dedicated charging facilities for EV fleets. To implement the technology the project will integrate and extend existing systems. Pilots will be carried out in Barcelona, Bremen and Oslo to demonstrate and evaluate the proposed approach. The pilots will be extended with simulations for exploring more complex scenarios not possible to test in the pilots and to assess scalability. The guidelines will synthesize the experience from the pilots and simulations and advice on localisation of charging points, grid investment reductions, and policy and public communication measures for accelerating uptake of electromobility, and will be aligned with Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) processes. The consortium includes commercial companies (also SMEs) with experience in commercialisation, and ambitious municipalities with significant experience in deploying innovative solutions. The project duration will be 36 months, with a requested funding of 5 M€.

CARBAFIN will develop, based on an integrated biocatalytic production technology, a radically new value chain for the utilisation of surplus sucrose from sugar beet biomass in the EU. CARBAFIN will demonstrate bio-based co-production of a functional glucoside and fructose. The glucoside products of CARBAFIN (glucosylglycerol, cellodextrin) have large-scale uses in nutrition and feed, cosmetics and detergents. Fructose is exploited in the production of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a versatile chemical building block currently considered for making bio-based plastics. Leading platform technologies in biocatalytic cell factories and downstream processing, conjointly optimised in CARBAFIN for performance efficiency and cost-effectiveness under full integration of LCA and economic evaluation, are key to make industrial co-production of glycosides and HMF via fructose competitive in today's markets. In addition, CARBAFIN contributes to the establishment of new, fully renewables-based value chains across the European industries, linking the sugar industry sector to the cosmetics, chemicals, polymer and detergents sectors and strengthening the sugar industries' role in food and feed. It supports the efficient cascading use of sugar beet-derived sucrose in combination with biomass-derived base chemicals (e.g. glycerol, glucose). CARBAFIN's HMF production aims at replacing petroleum-based chemicals with bio-based building blocks. CARBAFIN will thus contribute to development of a chemical industry that is low-carbon, resource-efficient and sustainable. CARBAFIN will help Europe to maintain global leadership in industrial biotechnology and secure position as innovation leader in sugar-based products. CARBAFIN's innovations will involve broadly the engagement of societal actors with particular emphasis on consumer awareness and acceptance.