Projects List

Cities emit vast amounts of waste heat below 100°C which so far can only be utilised for domestic and industrial heating applications given existing infrastructure, which is not often available. Transforming this waste heat into local and distributed electricity has not been feasible yet efficiently but would contribute immensely and immediately to a cleaner environment and systemic change of the city energy.

Magnetocaloric materials (MCMs) can effectively convert thermal energy into magnetic energy and vice versa. MCMs form the heart of novel innovative heat pumps or the thermomagnetic motor (TMM), which can convert waste heat streams below 100°C into electrical power. The goal is to create suitable products of MCMs and show their feasibility in a TMM demonstrator by using parameters of heat streams occurring in city environments.

The Climate KIC program is a major opportunity to make the benefits of MCMs available for citizens, commercial entities and public infrastructures.

There is a clear dissonance with the way that financing happens now with how it should be.
We need to invest over long-time frames, and we are constantly being frustrated by small bets – but we need a really big and risky bet if we are to tackle the issue of long-term sustainability and climate.
We have an instinct that we need to land funding from more systemic sources, rather than be trapped into short-term financing and how they measure things. As a result, there is a critical need to develop funding vehicles to this.
The key underlying idea under this vehicle is to keep fostering a portfolio of solutions and experiments that embed long-term thinking in society. Our mission is:
“We want to drive Europe to be a long-term society, and how we become long-term societies at speed”
We have a portfolio of activities to make this happen, being developed under the Long-termism Deep Demonstration. The Deep Demonstrations are a range of programmes developed launched by EIT Climate-KIC to tackle multiple challenges in an integrated holistic way. The Deep Demonstration about Long-termism is a programme of work covering: culture, narrative, behaviour, rules, identity, values and finance. The aim is to create portfolio briefs that are designed for transformation of mindsets and action towards the long term. The design partners have capabilities and skills ranging from cultural interventions, to design thinking, to deep code, to futures literacy and deep technology.

The question we are trying to answer through this work is: What does long-term funding look like?
The team includes members of EIT Climate KIC, Dark Matter Labs, and IOTA Foundation.
The desired outcome is securing funding interest in the Long-term Alliance by December 2020 as will be defined in the “Collaboration Agreement” to be made with EIT Climate-KIC after selection of the service provider.

The way that cities currently work is through building a climate plan and then identifying isolated solutions to work towards an end goal. The work through the Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration is starting from the point of the city’s existing climate plan, but then challenging the model of delivery, as well as some of the underlying assumptions within it; the aim of which is to provide for a more aggressive approach to accelerating the route to net zero (this might include new governance models centred around climate transition, new processes to engage citizens or the development of financing models). This KAVA will therefore take some time to work through the intent and frame stages of the Deep Demonstration methodology, avoiding a rush to settle on solutions, but working out what the city is aiming for in the way of outcomes. Once this has been completed then the city cohort will be in a good position to go out to the EIT Climate-KIC community (and the wider market) with a call to action – at this stage we will build a portfolio of experiments with Madrid. We will raise funds to complement the EIT grant and select a portfolio of projects that will produce new products, processes, services, tools, start-ups etc, which will be supplied to the challenge owner, associated customers and other similar stakeholders.

The way that cities currently work is through building a climate plan and then identifying isolated solutions to work towards an end goal. The work through the Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration is starting from the point of the city’s existing climate plan, but then challenging the model of delivery, as well as some of the underlying assumptions within it; the aim of which is to provide for a more aggressive approach to accelerating the route to net zero (this might include new governance models centred around climate transition, new processes to engage citizens or the development of financing models). This KAVA will therefore take some time to work through the intent and frame stages of the Deep Demonstration methodology, avoiding a rush to settle on solutions, but working out what the city is aiming for in the way of outcomes. Once this has been completed then the city cohort will be in a good position to go out to the EIT Climate-KIC community (and the wider market) with a call to action – at this stage we will build a portfolio of experiments with Malmo. We will raise funds to complement the EIT grant and select a portfolio of projects that will produce new products, processes, services, tools, start-ups etc, which will be supplied to the challenge owner, associated customers and other similar stakeholders.

MEDIUS bridges the gap between green finance and green projects to decarbonize buildings at scale. Currently only few building owners make use of green finance. The inability for green money to reach the decarbonization of the housing sector is due to barriers such as lack of data, incompatible documentation, heterogeneity of assets etc. Moreover, the two sectors are very alien to each other in terms of semantics and have a general lack of understanding of each other’s problems and needs. Our systemic solution MEDIUS addresses the fragmented communication issues between financers and project managers. Thus, MEDIUS will co-design with bankers and building owners a strategy development yielding in decarbonisation and retrofit roadmaps (DRR) and documentation approach, adapt respective tools, prototype the solution and automate work intensive process steps to enable scalability. MEDIUS connects to the EU taxonomy and initiatives (CBI, PECAF) to enable the financial sector to invest in DRR

The specific challenge of this project is to increase the take up of innovative solutions by integrating them into a new urban development model based on user-centered design aimed at social inclusion, energy efficiency, circular economy, and clean mobility. The project, started in 2018, is demonstrating this approach in a district in Milan called “Merezzate” (that was under construction at the beginning of the project, now tenants are actually moving in), developing innovative measures in terms of energy in building, mobility and social inclusion.
The idea is that the Merezzate district becomes a Living Lab to co-develop, test, and implement the systemic approach where sustainability issues from the social, environmental, and economic point of view will be integrated into a unique body.

The way that cities currently work is through building a climate plan and then identifying isolated solutions to work towards an end goal. The work through the Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration is starting from the point of the city’s existing climate plan, but then challenging the model of delivery, as well as some of the underlying assumptions within it; the aim of which is to provide for a more aggressive approach to accelerating the route to net zero (this might include new governance models centred around climate transition, new processes to engage citizens or the development of financing models). This KAVA will therefore take some time to work through the intent and frame stages of the Deep Demonstration methodology, avoiding a rush to settle on solutions, but working out what the city is aiming for in the way of outcomes. Once this has been completed then the city cohort will be in a good position to go out to the EIT Climate-KIC community (and the wider market) with a call to action – at this stage we will build a portfolio of experiments with Milan. We will raise funds to complement the EIT grant and select a portfolio of projects that will produce new products, processes, services, tools, start-ups etc, which will be supplied to the challenge owner, associated customers and other similar stakeholders.

CIRCULÉIRE – the National Platform for Circular Manufacturing (NPCM) in Ireland – will provide a service to Irish companies that helps to source, test, finance and scale circular supply chains and business models. In January 2020, Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) in collaboration with our Strategic Partners, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and EIT Climate-KIC, launched CIRCULÉIRE to address the “circular innovation gap” that exists in Ireland. Currently the Irish economy utilises over 100 million tonnes of materials per annum (EPA, 2019) and in 2013, it was estimated that a 5% material improvement could yield €2.32bn per annum for the Irish economy (Coakley et al., 2013) but this remains largely uncapitalized (McCarthy et al., 2019). CIRCULÉIRE will use manufacturing companies and their supply-chains as a test bed for circularity to contribute to closing the circularity gap in Ireland.

The objective of this project is to demonstrate and implement a service for estimation and prediction of nitrogen contents so that timing and fertilization amounts are optimized for the crops – mainly focusing on cereals. Three crop species will be assessed in different geographical locations using crop models, soil models, local weather inputs and weekly/monthly control of crop nitrogen status by satellite imaging.

We aim to:
– Reduce fertilizer usage by 20-25% which will increase farmers economic benefits
– Reduce nitrous oxide emissions and N leaching, thus reducing global GHG emissions and local water pollution
– Enable automated post harvesting prediction of N contents in soil
– Reduce need of soil testing
– Improve field operation planning by better local weather forecasts
– Be in line with precision farming concept with generation of fertilization plan

The Regional Nordic Hub is a platform formed by a strong academic consortium with experts from six top Nordic Universities and research institutions, where the main focus is on innovative alternative protein production replacing animal based proteins and also circulating side streams to develop new products as ingredients in the feed and food chains. Such innovative alternative proteins for food and feed not only reduce the climate impact of current sources i.e. soya beans, but also contributes significantly to the Nordic bioeconomy. The Hub will serve as a networking platform and communicate selected innovative Nordic cases with relevant stakeholders and investors to enable scaleability and market uptake of alternative proteins with possible investment opportunities. The main service of the Hub is to provide the necessary knowledge and information on such innovative cases in order to accelerate transitioning to alternative proteins and hence to more sustainable food systems.

The overarching goal of this project is to identify how a specific region can optimise its investments in research and innovation to catalyse a radical transformation of their national food systems.

In accordance with the Deep Demonstration process, this project proposes to create a Nordic Roadmap for food systems transformation geared towards reorienting regional investments in research and innovation. To achieve this, the project will have three primary focus areas.

1. Amplify the Roadmap’s impact by linking it to ongoing regional and international policy processes;

2. Confirm at least two Nordic capitals as Challenge Owners, to deeply demonstrate the collective power of cities to reorient the economic and political priorities of food systems;

3. Facilitate and coordinate a platform of substantial Nordic solutions and commitments for improving food systems, suitable for presentation as Nordic contributions to the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021.

Copenhagen aims to be a world-leading green and liveable city with healthy and sustainable food as a default but faces challenges. Like other urban areas, the city is not systematically addressing or measuring health and sustainability impacts related to diet. Following its conversion to 87% organic public food, Copenhagen has decided to promote plant-forward diets but sees barriers around competency of food preparation staff and public perception related to meal completeness and healthiness. How can the city be certain its food systems interventions are contributing to improved environmental and health outcomes, and how can the public be brought on board? This project will enable cities to set smarter, more ambitious food system targets with greater accountability and measurable benefits to climate, environment, public health, and societal wellbeing. With Copenhagen as a prototype and other cities consulted throughout, we aim to demonstrate how scientific targets for food systems can be operationalized in the city context and disseminate this approach. The project will play on Copenhagen’s strengths and emerging food strategy to help make healthy and sustainable foods as appealing, convenient and accessible as riding a bicycle. This project aims to bring the definition of a healthy and sustainable diet to Copenhagen and establish urban food system science-based targets (SBTs) and identifying appropriate data and indicators to measure progress. We will work to integrate these in the operationalization of the city’s new food strategy and will use innovative measures to engage municipal staff, the private sector, and citizens to bring about food systems change. A core focus will be on disseminating and scaling the approach to other cities.

This KAVA will support the development of new processes through urban planning methodologies and menu development and training activities whom primary customers will be city governments.

The way that cities currently work is through building a climate plan and then identifying isolated solutions to work towards an end goal. The work through the Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration is starting from the point of the city’s existing climate plan, but then challenging the model of delivery, as well as some of the underlying assumptions within it; the aim of which is to provide for a more aggressive approach to accelerating the route to net zero (this might include new governance models centred around climate transition, new processes to engage citizens or the development of financing models). This KAVA will therefore take some time to work through the intent and frame stages of the Deep Demonstration methodology, avoiding a rush to settle on solutions, but working out what the city is aiming for in the way of outcomes. Once this has been completed then the city cohort will be in a good position to go out to the EIT Climate-KIC community (and the wider market) with a call to action – at this stage we will build a portfolio of experiments with Orleans. We will raise funds to complement the EIT grant and select a portfolio of projects that will produce new products, processes, services, tools, start-ups etc, which will be supplied to the challenge owner, associated customers and other similar stakeholders.

To regenerate the retrofitting economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic, we will develop two new online Green Retrofitting Menu’s with country specific financial instruments, policy, historic values and technical know-how on energy efficiency, climate resilience, public health and liveability. Building improvements for energy efficiency are vital to support the global efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The Covid-19 crisis has moreover shown the importance of investing in the resilience of socio-economic systems and healthy living. This change is connected to the built environment we live, play and work in. Renovation of buildings is therefore an essential measure identified by the European Commission, and in the European Green Deal as a key initiative to deliver on EU and global (SDG) objectives.
Historic buildings (built before 1945) account for 10 to 30% of the total building stock and retrofitting them is a particularly complex process, demanding multiple levers of change to be in harmony. This complexity often results in difficult and uninformed decision-making processes.
Our diverse consortium covers some of Europe’s most vulnerable and exposed regions to e.g. climate change, public health and energy poverty, integrating two RIS countries. With the platform to be developed in Portugal, Slovenia and the Netherlands we close the information gap and enable access to context appropriate retrofit measures, without the need for on-site visits. Doing so, we account for new business and spatial models, boost local job creation, regenerate the retrofitting economy and promote health living environments.
By partnering with financial institutes (i.e. Dutch National Restoration Fund and governmental financial subsidy programs) we leverage capital for green bankable assets in cities. Moreover, we stimulate long-term thinking in investment cycles, catalysing system change, strengthening community resilience and supporting the second wave of deep demonstrations.

The aim of the project is to pilot three cooperation formats (hackathon, matchmaking, brainstorming) involving selected start-ups and municipalities. The final project report will include the analysis and learnings from the pilot and identify the most effective cooperation format. Further, these findings will serve to establish the virtual collaboration platform along with the respective long-term, self-sustaining model enabling start-ups and municipalities to collaborate effectively. Through the platform, we will provide paid consultancy services (incl. the development and project management) and charge respective fees. The platform will be available to all municipalities in Estonia.

The Post Coal Future Lab (PCFL) is an initiative to address the complex challenges of the energy transition, facilitating collaboration within and between the Southern, Central and Eastern regions of Europe. The PCFL fosters knowledge sharing, dialogue and co-creation of solutions among diverse actors from different regions, in order to generate innovative initiatives and policies to enhance the benefits of the Just Transition. The laboratory helps to develop long-term plans, ultimately contributing to a prosperous post coal future of the European regions. The PCFL consists of four pilot Regional Mini Labs and a main cross-national lab.

City systems are on the frontline of climate change, and city problem owners occupy a pivotal role in the green transition. But there is an innovation gap which currently inhibits cities’ conceptualisation around clean growth and required systems change. Through PELICAN, IIPP and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) are working to demonstrate at city level, a systems change approach developed by IIPP: Mission Oriented Innovation (MOI). Public organisations should not only fix markets, but actively co-create and shape markets by purposeful policy to deliver public value. MOI starts from the model of a market co-creating rather than market-fixing role for city stakeholders. It defines an ambitious goal, to create a long-term policy landscape, setting out tasks mobilizing actors for bottom-up experimentation across different sectors, creating roadmaps for change. MOI signposts and mobilises investment opportunities for cities to draw in public and private financing to deliver on climate goals. IIPP and GMCA have developed a MOI roadmap for the city-region’s goal to be carbon-neutral by 2038. The MOI approach guides GMCA’s 5 Year Environment Plan, and its recent Independent Prosperity Review. IIPP and GMCA will refine and deliver the Clean Growth MOI Roadmap, decreasing emissions and generating a healthy, livable city via co-creation with sectors such as energy, social care, natural capital, food, and textiles.PELICAN will develop MOI Clean Growth work on-the-ground during the crucial first year of implementation: launching, tracking and monitoring progress. Practice-based learning will create valuable MOI assets for other cities.
The project will demonstrate the design and delivery of a clean-growth innovation roadmap for Greater Manchester, the first of its kind in the UK. The project portfolio to be delivered will establish a series of innovative products, services and cross-sector agencies to catalyse the transition to a zero-carbon economy.

PUFFIN aims to influence the activities of public sector financial institutions (PSFIs) towards climate alignment for the green transition. We use an holistic structural and analytical framework to approach the macro- meso and micro-economics of the networked financial system. Specifically we target central banks and national promotional banks, and their ability to act as catalysts to private financial markets. The directionality and additionality of public sector patient finance is under-realised, through adherence to a ‘market failure/market fixing’ model. Instead, we want to align the activities of PSFIs to be a ‘market shaping’ ecosystem, primed for green investment, including through new metrics, policies and missions, and through interaction with real economy actors.

This activity will create the regulatory and policy environment required for private sector financial institutions to increase the issuance of new products and services that support economic transformation.

Re.Co will conceptually explore a portfolio of transformation business models for public value capitalisation of civic goods and deliver a prototype of a new capital coding tool to enable new approaches to civic investing to manage urban risk and invest in shared assets for a post carbon economy, and alternative ownership model/markets such as a self sovereign real-estate assets economy.
Our cities are packed with a diversity of assets and shared resources – parks, schools, collective intelligence, data. They are the foundations of our current and future wealth, and mitigate against future shared risks. Society recognises the value of such civic assets, but we are failing to collectively preserve, enhance and capitalise them. RE.CO’s goal is to demonstrate that capitalizing civic assets for public value is a keystone innovation for any policy and regulatory frameworks making a structural transition in our economy.

The RECAM project aims to launch a new product for institutional real estate investors that provides a quick and practical approach to understanding climate risks in the real-estate sector.

Timely, accurate and independent data is crucial to improve our understanding of climate change and its impacts on the environment, land and today’s cities. There is a significant barrier which prevents effective climate mitigation and adaptation risk management from taking place by the investment community in cities. There is currently no widely applicable methodology or tool to assess climate risks across many assets. The investment community is hungry for a quick and practical approach to determine the financial risks associated with climate change. Without a way to identify hot spots and rank the assets in terms of risks, investors are left with time consuming, expensive and ineffective ways to assess climate change risks in a portfolio context.

The RECAM project brings a team with financial, engineering, policy and scientific backgrounds that aim to comprehensively analyze and integrate a plethora of climate change risks as they pertain to the built environment; resulting in the establishment of an online tool to visualise, highlight, and interact with those climate change risks as they relate to real estate assets. A simple model that provides insights for real estate investors and managers into direct climate impacts and risks, though more work is now needed in order to provide the information decision makers need to comprehensively understand risk exposures and get the buy-in from investment teams to integrate climate risk data.

RECAM will deliver major insights for policymakers and city-level decision makers. An important output will be publicly available physical and transition risk assessments of multiple global city-regions.