Lead Partner: Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

We believe that a metropolitan region of tomorrow should provide its residents with a safe, functional and resilient environment. Low-carbon transportation and mobility are vital components of such smart urban areas. However, transportation in metropolitan regions today generates congestion and vast greenhouse gas emissions. This imposes enormous challenges upon local and regional authorities in providing healthy living conditions for inhabitants and a supportive environment for businesses.   SMART-MR finds solutions and helps local and regional authorities improve transport policies.  The key project outputs include a guide on sustainable measures for achieving low-carbon and resilient transportation in metropolitan regions, selected good practice descriptions, and policy recommendations. Through these outputs, as well as dissemination events (such as political meetings, the final conference, and regional stakeholder meetings), SMART-MR contributes to Europe 2020 goals, Cohesion Policy, and the Interreg Europe Program.    Smarter together 7 workshops are organised by the project partners in order to find solutions by sharing experiences in transport and mobility planning. For each workshop, the partners will issue an in-depth analysis, describe good practices and organise a study visit. Practical experiences will be presented and discussed, and policy recommendations developed. The partner metropolitan regions will also prepare and implement action plans to improve the implementation of regional transport policies and instruments by: creating sustainable mobility planspromoting low-carbon network-oriented urban development relying on public transportation and development of nodes including stakeholders in project activities and in the design and implementation of the action plans. SMART-MR brings together 10 project partners from 8 metropolitan regions (Oslo, Göteborg, Helsinki, Budapest, Ljubljana, Rome, Porto and Barcelona).

Lead Partner: Municipality of Prato

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here, are we ready? Companies across the globe are digitally transforming as they are challenged to improve business processes and develop new capabilities and business models. 4IR technology patent applications are on the rise, Industry 4.0 ambitions are high, manufacturing and manufacturing technologies do well, spending on the Internet of Things in industrial markets looks promising … and the list goes on. The so-called fourth industrial revolution is of course not just a matter of technology. It is also a matter of cooperation between European regions! But while large companies are anticipating the changes arising from the digital revolution in the production and value creation process, SMEs are struggling to embrace the Industry 4.0 revolution. The uptake of advanced manufacturing solutions is still a challenge to SMEs: only one in five manufacturing companies have already used advanced manufacturing solutions. Partners from regions across Europe have decided to join forces to exchange experience on how policies related to Structural Funds can unlock the full potential of Industry 4.0, fully convinced that the success of digital transformation will greatly depend on the SMEs, which feels in need of more practical support. SMARTY is born to establish a common basis for policy learning among its members to overcome fragmentation of Industry 4.0 solutions and their enabling potential by dealing with main challenges hampering their diffusion into the European Union ecosystem. It is therefore key to bring together and to connect best capabilities across the EU as to foster the development, upscale, and commercialization but also diffusion of Industry 4.0 solutions – whether these are new technologies, products, services, business models, etc.  The time has come to implement Industry 4.0, let’s cooperate!

Lead Partner: Major Development Agency Thessaloniki S.A. (MDAT S.A.)

What is DESTI-SMART? DESTI-SMART is a project addressing challenges for efficient sustainable tourism and at the same time promotion of low-carbon ecconomy through sustainable mobility and accessibility. Public regional/local and transport authorities increasingly face such challenges, particularly at busy destinations with high tourism travel flows. The 9 project partners, representing mass tourism destinations in South Europe, emerging tourism destinations, coastal, maritime and insular ones, form an interregional working sceme promoting interregional cooperation for sustainable mobility, accessibility and low-carbon responsible travel, through capitalisation of best practices, improvement of regional/local policy instruments and preparation of action plans towards their emergence and recognition as 'Smart Destinations'. The partnership includes an advisory partner with specialisation in tourism mobility. The project is managed and coordinated by a Management and Coordination Unit of exeternal experts with substantial experience in management, sustainable tourism and transport planning. Overall objective of DESTI-SMART is to improve the transport and tourism policies of EU destinations, by integrating strategies for sustainable mobility, accessibility and responsible travel with efficient & sustainable tourism development, for transition to a low-carbon economy, through efficiency, resilience, multimodality, novel low-carbon transport systems, cycling & walking, with implementation innovations, policy learning and capacity building. Issue addressed Promoting Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility with low-carbon transport in tourism destinations is a theme that has not been given the emphasis that it deserves, particularly in busy destinations with high tourist flows at peak seasons. This is particularly the case in coastal, maritime and insular destinations of South Europe, where peak summer demand is greater and transport systems are often inadequate. Transport planning is usually geared to the normal travel demand of residents and businesses, with the special needs of tourists frequently overlooked, underestimated or given inadequate attention. Visitors, usually foreign, are not very familiar with the destination transport networks and language, but have to use the available facilities for their mobility. There is a large scope for shifting travel demand to low-carbon transport solutions in tourism, with significant quality of life, socioeconomic, environmental and climate action benefits. The increase in holiday travel, shortbreaks and day visits increases accessibility and mobility problems in destinations at different territorial levels (ie countries or regions, tourist districts or single resorts). There is a strong need for adequate policies at all levels. Instruments include passenger intermodality improvements, public transport, encouragement of environmentally friendly low-carbon tourism mobility, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) development and harmonization, Mobile Aplications, etc. Efficient transport policies have to consider the whole travel chain and be customer oriented, taking into account the needs of all tourists as well as residents.  In particular, the following pressing issues need to be addressed, through interregional cooperation with innovations towards a low-carbon economy in EU destinations:  A. Investments in and provision of low-carbon transport systems, with the needs of visitors explicitly taken into consideration, including internalisation and reduction of external costs of transport by mode shift to low-carbon  travel solutions and E-Mobility.  B. Interchange between long-distance travel and local transport services, including Intermodality facilities for visitors, multimodal connectivity improvements that would shift travel demand to low-carbon transport. C. Accessible tourism facilities for visitors with mobility difficulties (disabled, elderly, families with young children, etc). D. Cycling & Walking for Tourists, Cycling routes provision, Shared bikes, CycloTourism, integration of cycling in tourism mobility strategies, promoting ‘Greenways’. Europe 2020 growth strategy aims for the EU to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. The project has clear and strong links, in terms of transport and tourism sustainability and it addresses four of the EU2020 objectives, on employment (policy instruments on Growth & Jobs), innovation (comprehensive novel tourism mobility solutions), social inclusion (through accessibility for all) and climate/energy (through low-carbon transport). Interreg Europe Priority Axis 3, Investment priority 4(e) promotes low-carbon strategies including sustainable multimodal mobility, with mitigation and adapatation measures. This covers all types of territories and tourism destinations must not be left out.

Lead Partner: Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant

SmartPilots' objective is to improve regional policies in support of Shared Pilot Facilities (SPF) to increase their impact on the Key Enabling technology (KET) Industrial Biotech and the bio-economy. The bio-economy adresses societal challenges such as climate change, sustainable economic growth and energy independence. The bio-economy enables the sustainable production of chemicals, pharmaceutical products, materials, food, feed and energy from renewable raw materials. Shared pilot facilities (SPF) are open access test sites that bring bio-economy innovations from the laboratory into industrial practice. They are open to all companies and research institutes, and can thus be seen as shared investments in innovation equipment. They have proven to be successful in helping innovators, especially SMEs, to bridge the so-called Valley of Death, i.e. the innovation phase between between laboratory and successful market introduction, that comes with a high technological and financial risk. Typically, initial funding from governments is available to build a Shared Pilot Facility, but it is a challenge to safeguard their long-term existence, especially since bio-economy is relatively new and dedicated policies are currently lacking in many regions. SmartPilots aims to improve regional policies to provide support in a cost-effective and impact oriented manner. This will be done by: Optimizing direct support for shared pilot facilitiesOptimizing indirect support i.e. direct support for users of shared pilot facilitiesFacilitating interregional cooperation regarding Shared Pilot Facilities. The Shared Pilot Facilities and regions involved are Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant and the Department of Economy, Science and Innovation from Flanders (Belgium), Centre for Process Innovation from Tees Valley (UK), VTT Technical Research Centre Ltd from Helsinki (Finland), Bioprocess Pilot Facility and Provincie Zuid Holland (the Netherlands), Innovhub SSI from Lombardy (Italy) and ARD (France) and Fraunhofer CBP (Germany) as Case Studies.

Lead Partner: Viken County Council (until 31.12.2019 Akershus County Council)

SmartEdge will address the potential for greenhouse gas emission reductions that lie in the development of smaller cities within metropolitan areas. Edge cities are an integral part of the existing metropolitan fabric and may be laboratories for smart, green, economic solutions and have the opportunity to play a crucial role in the low carbon economy. The overall objective of the project is to improve low carbon economy policies in edge cities and their metropolitan regions. To achieve this, eight partners from the metropolitan areas of Akershus, Barcelona, Brandenburg, Ilfov, Krakow, Milano and Stockholm, and the Romanian Ministry of Environment will exchange experience, transfer good practices and facilitate learning between the partners on innovative tools for urban planning. Transport and buildings represent the lion’s share of our emissions, and may be reduced through efficient policies on a local and regional level. Smart Edge will in particular explore the potential for local renewable energy production, reduction of emissions from transport through renewable energy and energy systems ad reduction of emissions from buildings through renewable energy and energy systems. SmartEdge is expected to result in improved low carbon economy policies in edge cities and their metropolitan regions. In particular the metropolitan regions will prepare and implement action plans to improved selected seven policy instuments by sharing solutions for Integrated Strategic Planning for edge cities and their regions, providing tools and methods for multi-level governance and participatory planning, actively including the edge cities and other stakeholders in the metropolitan areas, and develop policy recommendations. 205 MEUR in Structural funds and 124,8 MEUR in other fundsof other funds are estimated to be influenced by the project.

Lead Partner: Resources Recovery Regional Agency

Local, regional, and national authorities are working hard to manage in an always more sustainable way their waste and implement a comprehensive and circular approach. They consider new approaches and technologies to reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover waste. They attempt to fit these into a comprehensive and circular approach. SMART WASTE wants to improve public policy instruments supporting innovation within waste management procedures. The final result? Smarter, more effective, sustainable, and cost-efficient waste management, benefiting all territorial stakeholders. But what are the results of their actions? Are these measures having a concrete impact? Could their implementation be more effective?  The SMART WASTE project is born to answer these questions. To make a long story short, the SMART WASTE project evaluates to what extent current national, regional and local policies have promoted successful innovation in waste management. It then proposes interregional solutions to address policy weaknesses. How will partners proceed? The project aims to understand the real impact that innovative policy measures have on the effectiveness and sustainability of waste management procedures. To do so, the five regional project partners chose one policy instrument to be assessed and improved. More information about the chosen policy instruments can be found below. The first step for the regional partners is to develop a shared methodology to evaluate, in close collaboration with local stakeholders, innovation in their waste management policies. Through this policy analysis, they will identify interregional Good Practices and assess them to find solutions to address potential failures in their selected policy instruments. These good practices will be applied to partners’ regional policy contexts through concrete Action Plans aimed to address not only their policies of interest but also long-term recommendations for future policies. They will then implement their Action Plans with regional or national resources and with continued stakeholder engagement. What are the expected results? Each regional partner can expect to achieve several results. First, they can expect to have improved their policy instrument in terms of smart and innovative waste. Second, thanks to continuous engagement with their stakeholders, they can expect to have increased professional capacity among these stakeholders. Finally, they can also expect to have increased the awareness of the public about the importance of innovation in waste management and of related public policies.

Lead Partner: Government of Aragón - Development Agency of Aragón

SMART-HY-AWARE aims to promote hydrogen-electric mobility by tackling main infrastructural, technological (range anxiety related) and market uptake barriers related to hydrogen for electro-mobility through the improvement of PI linked to Structural Funds in Europe, addressing the transition to a low carbon economy, as clearly requested by objective 3.1 of the INTERREG EUROPE Programme. Specific sub-objectives of the project, to reach the main goal, are: • Exploiting the potential of hydrogen technologies for electro-mobility involving the whole supply chain; • Improving regional and local strategies which focus on real needs for implementation such as giving impulses for new models of fuel cells integration; • Increasing efficiency of green propulsion in transport; • Improving renewable energy grids to cut down electrolysis costs and IT management applications to enable advanced planning of short-tomid-term power productions and foster use of hydrogen power within distributed networks (Gopalakrishnan Kumar, Serhan Dermici, Chiu-Yue Lin, 2013); • Increasing the deployment and the accessibility to refuelling infrastructure for both public and private sector in urban and rural areas; • Supporting the deployment of alternative fuel vehicles in public transport by setting up regional financial support schemes; • Promoting and assessing new measures favouring public-private partnership (PPP) in e-mobility sector, by designing suitable PPP business schemes to trigger hydrogen mobility; • Enhancing the capability of public Authorities in developing effective policies for reducing the carbon footprint of transport activities.

Lead Partner: Centre for Research and Technology Hellas

Many European urban areas face a series of environmental challenges linked to mobility congestion and air pollution. Based on experience, sustainable urban mobility planning cannot be achieved without the commitment of key stakeholders and travellers and given this need, e-smartec proposes accompanying each step of mobility planning with the deployment of targeted marketing techniques for linking bottom-up and top-down decision making. The e-smartec project is designed to strengthen the urban dimension of regional and local mobility policymaking, contributing to the implementation of the EU Transport White Paper, Urban Agenda and EU 2020 with a view to transit to a low carbon economy. e-smartec aims at developing Action Plans to start and implement effective mobility interventions, as the basis for a competitive, resource-efficient and low carbon oriented European transport system. The 9 e-smartec partners, from 7 EU countries representing the 6 e-smartec test-bed areas, join their forces in an ultimate goal to provide tailored guidelines on citizens and stakeholders' engagement marketing techniques for innovative decision-making and traditional procedures.