Projects List

The REDD-Chain Project (RCP) aims to launch a pioneering land-use management service, powered by troika of Internet of Things, Distributed Ledger Technology and Artificial Intelligence. The RCP platform integrates and transforms satellite, drone, sensor and stakeholder-captured information.
RCP is an initiative in collaboration with the Chilean Government (represented by CONAF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

RCP addresses concrete needs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) processes and climate finance instruments for MRV in order to incentivise sustainable land-use practices, Payment for Ecosystem Services and biodiversity schemes that promote public and private investment in sustainable land-use activities.

RCP will build on best practices, UN REDD+ requirements, inputs from pilot project and experts/stakeholders and from the requirements funding sources, such as voluntary carbon markets and climate funds (e.g. Green Climate Fund). RCP will also explore an expansion to new opportunities such as Biodiversity, Payment schemes for Ecosystem Services (PES) and their connection with the national carbon pricing strategy, and results-based payment mechanism already in place.

RCP will be operated as a not-for-profit platform, catering primarily to governments, while at the same time allowing a wide range of private sector stakeholders to interact. The pilot has commenced in Chile, focusing on forest management in the Valdivia region [1]. It includes CONAF and IDB as partners. RCP has elements of learning and reflect on built into the project design, including workshops and dissemination of the first project results at COP25. From 2020 onwards, RCP will target to expand into other geographies.

RESETTLE! is intended to be part of the ‘1 mln homes program’.
Current
The built environment is responsible for 40% of the European energy consumption and 36% of the CO2 emission. Currently less than 3% of all homes in Europe have an A-energy label (which does not equal zero emission) and over 50% a G-label or worse.

Challenge
In order to refurbish all the 250 mln homes in Europe by 2050 a renovation rate of 4+% needs to be achieved. Current rate is below 1% (and most of that is not energy neutral). Important element in accelerating the renovation rate, is financing renovation of individually owned homes as well as part of a Home Owners Association (HOA).

Objective and Target Groups
RESETTLE! aims to catalyse transformation in the financing of net-zero home retrofits on a scaleable basis.

Target group: Apartment blocks (HOA):
Aim: Expand successful Dutch retrofit-funding instrument
1) Understand International replication;
2) Replicate current guarantee-based Euro 600 mln fund to 50 bln market fund

Target group: Other privately owned homes
3) Prepare for a scalable funding scheme based upon the concept of objectrelated funding

Output
The unique contribution of RESETTLE! is the validation of the combined integral business models for (near) zero energy refurbishments from the perspective of home-owners, funders and suppliers. Besides, the project will make recommendations for further improvement and upscaling of these business models. By doing so, the RESETTLE! project will trigger systemic change and initiate scalable financing solutions for (near) zero energy home refurbishments.

The project is aimed at fostering and accelerating the development of the circular bioeconomy in Italy by creating adequate “devices” to give strength to the already existing collaborations and actions, outlined in the Italian Bioeconomy Strategy.
The circular bioeconomy has a fundamental role in the decarbonisation of systems and the regeneration of territories, starting from the centrality of soil health and the ensuing need to redesign integrated value chain, our consumption habits and our approaches to recycling. It can be an effective accelerator for sustainable innovation, regenerating resources and marginal/desertified/abandoned lands and transforming peripheral areas into strategic centres, a driving force of competitiveness for Italy and for the EU.
More specifically the project deals with the creation of a stakeholder network, involving Climate Kic and National Bioeconomy Working group, including Ministers and Regions, to foster and formalize the existing collaborations by a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at supporting the Italian circular bioeconomy from a legislative, financial and technical perspective.
In order to define the proper guidelines to be promoted, the project should work for the definition and mapping of bottlenecks – by programming workshops, sectoral studies, interviews – and for the creation of a roadmap of activities to concretely respond to the main problems, creating or systematizing existing normative and financial instruments.

Rybnik 360 Deep Demonstration project will implement just
transformation in the city of Rybnik. It will influence the whole Silesia
region which is mostly based on the coal industry. Rybnik aspires to enact
social, environmental, climate, economic, political and democratic justice.
In 2020, the Silesia DD Just Transformations will build an impacting
partnership and the foundations for a transformative and systemic change in
Silesia (the City of the Rybnik), Poland. Citizens of Silesia are very
connected with their region, identifying themselves with it in every area.
The feeling of a common identity, different from the rest of the country,
based on history, culture and language, prompts the Silesian region and its
community to search for a transformed identity and the ability to control
their own future, and thus to take up the challenge of transformation of the
region. The region of Silesia has a specific administrative structure which,
on the one hand, makes it a challenging region and, on the other hand, brings
a huge potential for contributing to the transformation process. There are
four administrative levels within the region. The region has a large
scientific and research potential, represented by a number of State
universities and research institutes, supported by many private universities.
The city of Rybnik will continue the discussion about the future with
different groups of stakeholders, e.g. NGO, business, coal mine industry,
local and regional politicians, residents, including especially conservative
residents – sport fans, miners, pensioners, trade unions, church communities,
district councils, women’s council, senior council, well-known figures in the
field of culture, art and sport from Rybnik, e.g. cabarets, speedway stars,
local community, activists – associated with the fight against smog,
non-residents – people coming to Rybnik to work, foreigners, e.g. Ukrainians
and Czechs, people living in Rybnik and working in other cities.  Emphasis will also be placed on analysing
the city hall’s readiness for transformation and familiarising officials with
innovative project methods using a learning by doing approach.

The Regional Nordic Hub is formed by a strong academic consortium with experts from of seven top Nordic Universities and
research institutions, where main focus is on innovation for the production of alternative protein sources (biomass) to replace and
also circulate side streams to develop new products as ingredients in the feed and food chains, in order to reduce the climate
impact of current sources such as soya beans. The Regional Nordic Hub is based on multidisciplinary and holistic approaches to the
bioeconomy of the region. The goal is to highlight the innovative research in this field from the Nordic countries perspective, which
is leading in the field of sustainable production and utilization of living natural resources for the purpose of reducing waste and
promote innovation in sustainable food production, green economy, and regional development.

SAFERPLACES a cloud-web mapping platform for flood risk profiling and  climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation  in urban areas.



SAFERPLACES – Improved assessment of pluvial, fluvial and coastal flood hazards and risks in European cities as a means to build safer and resilient communities. SaferPLACES provides tailored consulting services and products made available troughts a cloud web platform for supporting multiple stakeholders and end-users in cost-effective mapping and assessment of fluvial, pluvial and coastal hazards,  damage and risks in urban areas. The product and services will support adaptation to future climate risk and strengthen flood resilience in our cities. SAFERPLACES contributes primarily to the Impact Goal 11: Democratise climate risk information. Risk-informed choices are essential for planning purposes in territorial development, disaster risk management, stability and economic growth, health and social care to name a few examples. SAFERPLACES addresses all levels of learning and change: First, we aim at extending availability of data, models and tools for flood hazard mapping and risk assessment, based on computationally efficient methods and harnessing the recent advancement in hazard modelling and damage estimation. Second, our service will support new users’ access to tailor-made flood hazard and risk knowledge suitable for assessing the impacts of short- to long-term planning decisions (such as flood protection or prevention measures), as well as evolution of flood risk under different environmental. social and economic scenarios. Third, our service will contribute to greater uptake of harmonised and quality assured climate and flood risk knowledge – including past records, re-assessment, short-term forecasts and long term projection – for adaptation planning. SAFERPLACES will also address all priorities of the Impact Goal, including (i) building a culture of standardisation and interoperability, (ii) increasing demand for climate risk information, (iii) fostering financial and policy innovation (informed by cutting-edge flood risk assessment), and (iv) co-developing demonstration/pilot projects with end-users and stakeholders. SAFERPLACES will implement a range of activites enabling an effective exploitation, disseminaton and communication of SAFERPLACES service and outcomes, improving awareness of value comprised in a knowledgeable deployment of the services and eventually contributing to ensuring financial viability. Finally a demonstrator cloud web-mapping service for supporting decisions (DSS) will be co-designed , both in long-term planning and emergency management, related to flood hazards in urban areas.

The world has been shaken up in the last months due to COVID19. We have seen the health impact, but the social and economic impact that will affect millions of people worldwide is still set to rise. Simultaneously, a unique opportunity is presented to shape a new reality of resilience and sustainability in communities and societies. We want to create models and tools to allow people to collectively shape a new approach to fight massive unemployment, the exploitation of workers in the gig economy, and the destruction of the environment for economic growth.

Digitalization is a core competitive advantage in this new era, but existing platform businesses are profitable for the owners while exploitative for workers, suppliers and the environment. We create and accelerate early-stage platform cooperatives (digital platforms owned by the workers and suppliers instead of the investor). Through our project, citizens with no prior experience in operating a business will develop their cooperative platform idea, prove their business model and connect to a global movement of inclusive digitalization. The project will scale an ongoing digital course for platform cooperatives and accelerate the solutions that graduate from the digital course, so that they attain a level of sustainability where they can grow independently.

This initiative is fully compatible and cooperating with the Just Transitions Deep Demonstration process and the Future of Work position that MONDRAGON is leading. The project seeks to build a collective capacity to create resilient activities and jobs in emerging sectors to respond to new social and environmental challenges. This project aims to:
-Facilitate the participation of citizens in building economic alternatives and the future of work;
-Create new jobs through digital platform cooperatives in sustainable areas such as circular economy, local value chains, and climate resilience;
-Share and connect with other social digital movements to gain scale and

Scaling Landscape Rewilding – We will create a service for providing reliable green house gas measurements to support monetization such as for carbon trading and new uses of the land to the benefit of the local economies. Extending the contribution of existing sponsors and attracting new ones, currently including an airline and top law firm that demand clear measurable success, sustainable business models and citizen outreach. Value propositions from eco tourism to carbon trading,

Landscape Rewilding in Europe for wetland, marsh-mire and forest located restoration of biodiversity and species, as a carbon sink with water protection measures and ICCAs.

Supporting project to help enable the existing goals in securing and rewilding 600-1000 hectares (which positively influence much larger areas) by 2022 over 5 pilot catchment areas to assess and put in place measures that restore carbon sinks, biodiversity hotspots, Indigenous and Community Conserved (ICCA) areas and alleviate water pollution. The purpose of this cooperation with Climate-KIC relates to developing transformative business models and in creating new rewilding techniques and measurements, for scaling the work across Finland and the High Arctic and Western Boreal, Sweden, Russia, Canada and can be shared as part of a knowledge transfer for restoration best practice across Climate-KIC’s Europe wide partners.

As part of the Citizen Outreach such learning is planned to be shared through a new digital platform that can help attract stakeholders and others expand their own use of wetlands as carbon sinks, biodiversity hotspots and engaging local communities and upholding traditions.

We wish to work with external bodies and our own personnel to study and measure across various regions and multiple types of wetlands in regards to use as carbon sinks, whilst understanding the emissions such as for depleted peat lands as well as other green house gases such as the complex nature of methane on these sites.

The project will support private and public actors to improve awareness, strategies, and solutions to replace single-use plastics (SUP) products within a systemic approach. The support will be customized to support the identification of different solutions for both the private and public problem owners (e.g. new business models, new services or products, the application of the protocol designed).
The solutions identified by the project and the incentivizing protocol to be designed local level will stimulate engaging with local communities and tourists on free single-use plastics (non-SUP) innovations in two countries along the Mediterranean coast: Italy and Greece. The objective of the project is to implement innovative experiments at the local level to design a replicable methodology to design voluntary protocols for non-SUP food packaging adoption for several types of foodservice operators (FO), and to assess solutions to replace SUP products with a proven environmental impact.

The TRANSFORM project is about creating stakeholder momentum in the city of Sofia that will boost the transformation of the city towards a zero-carbon, economical flourishing, living environment. We see two routes to realize that: through digital- and full-transformation of homes, multi-family buildings and entire neighborhoods, while creating new jobs.
The advantage of the digital transformation is low cost and easy to implement, where people have direct control over comfort, energy spending and personal health and it creates new jobs.This solutions also applies for full home transformations. But this solution does not cover the lack of maintenance that many buildings and neighborhoods in Sofia suffer and it does not create as many jobs as the full transformations. The project strategy we implemented therefore is to use the digital solution to convince citizens and other stakeholders and create necessary momentum for the full transformations that we expect to be demonstrated in 2021 with 250+ full home renovations, targeting 30,000 homes/y in 2024.
We will use the initial funding to execute the above and to start-up an organisation, which will be responsible for the further roll out of the agenda set for the coming years and organise a finance model, backed by public and private investors, to ensure sufficient capital for the planned transformations.
The TRANSFORM digital solutions that we are going to use is based on an open-source, blockchain-based, GDPR compliant, platform, that manages and secures the exchange of personal data with supplied services: e-Energy, e-Health and as such creating the perfect platform to support the development of smart cities. This enables, alternative funding mechanisms (impact investments, outcome buying, etc.), automated tools for urban planning, and other bureaucratic and administrative processes; as well as using this functional data architecture to generate new innovations and social interactions.

Speedboat-C addresses the challenges of global, fragmented and predominantly linear value chains in the textile and clothing industry, where materials and products are often sourced long distance and <1 % of all textiles worldwide are recycled to new textile fibres. We will create a holistic solution to 3 main challenges, currently holding back the emergence of a circular textile industry in Europe: (1) knowledge and tools to design products recyclable according to feedstock requirements of fibre recyclers (2) digital data and access to local manufacturing and processing facilities to match supply and demand for European circular textile supply chains (3) missing regional recovery infrastructures with automated identification and material specific sorting for fibre recycling. The project will create a resilient regional circular textiles economy in Europe through interconnecting and further developing the existing partner’s platforms for Speedboat-C: A one-stop-platform to ease and incentivise responsible decisions for circular clothing design and production providing automated recommendations and impact measurement to advance circularity, transparency and reduce CO2 emissions in regional value chains by creating:
– Circular Manufacturing Guidelines and a matchmaking service of registered circular manufacturers with buyers of materials and ready made garments
– a Circular Material Database with a machine learning algorithm for relevant recommendations of circular product constructions
– A Critical Path Tracker with a CO2 emissions calculator for different material and manufacturer choices
– A Blockchain based tool to track dynamic data of the product’s life cycle using the circularity.ID Open Data Standard & product identifier to enable material specific recovery
The Textile ETP involving its key stakeholder EURATEX will accompany the development by creating policy recommendations for a circular textile economy in close exchange with the involved partners.

SMARTA Wood aims to demonstrate a substitution framework in the construction sector of the utilization of wood in construction as an alternative for conventional materials e.g. concrete. It showcases the sustainability impact assessment of wood in construction by applying ToSIA and achieve the maximum sustainability impact potential considering the wood resource availability in Europe. ToSIA is the only publicly available tool to carry out scenario based sustainability impact assessment combining LCA and Material Flow Analysis, a crucial approach when assessing the sustainability impacts of utilizing resources with limited availability. The project will demonstrate case studies in Sweden, Finland and Switzerland in two scenarios (1: timber alternative and 2: concrete alternative). The case studies will receive feedback by local stakeholders (city planners and building owners) in each country to ensure ToSIA can be utilized as a decision support tool with regards to the material substitution. The business model of ToSIA will be also assessed with the stakeholders in each country.This project is key to SLU’s portfolio as it connects to the research activities on a possible substitution framework. SMARTA Wood fits within impact goal 6 and addresses two main barriers to enhancing wood use in the construction sector: lack of science-based evaluation methodologies of buildings’ sustainability impact which hinders the shift of the construction industry towards more sustainable alternatives, despite the great demand among policy makers, city planners and buildings owners for the promotion of more sustainable constructions, there is a lack of approaches and processes for the optimization of wood usage.The outcome of this project will be the development of a new decision-making tool that could be taken to market through a spinoff. Potential customers would be municipalities’ departments, construction companies, building owners/developers, architects, environmental experts.

The SCAA project aims to launch a new product expanding the integration of carbon risks & constraints into the Strategic Asset Allocation of institutional investors. Strategic asset allocation is a portfolio strategy that involves setting target allocations for various asset classes and re-balancing periodically portfolio allocations when they deviate significantly from the initial settings. Target allocations depend on several factors and may change over time as these parameters change. Strategic asset allocation is compatible with a buy-and-hold strategy, as opposed to tactical asset allocation. Strategic and tactical asset allocation styles are based on modern portfolio theory, which emphasizes diversification to reduce risk and improve portfolio returns. SCAA outputs will help institutional investors tackle climate change at the root of the investment process:
– How much carbon constraint embedded into the investment process?
– What effect on the whole allocation process?
– What effect on the selection and proportion of investments?
– Can it bring value from now on and modify the risk profile?
This 18-month project will leverage and scale up the outcomes of two previous EIT Climate-KIC projects, NCTIP (on geographic and sector carbon budgets in a dynamic view) and SPCR (as a second step of integrating climate-constraint into the whole project). This project relies on the active contribution of IRCANTEC, an institutional investor already using asset allocation sophisticated tools and willing to see its full investment process comply with a 2°C scenario (or less). Besides technical expertise and funding, IRCANTEC will contribute to the dissemination of the project outcomes among its peers.
This research program will rely on methodologies co-developed with the support of AAA and ILB to specifically tackle and isolate the climate factor without diverting energy in more fundamental, macroeconomic modelling.

The proposal addresses ITE’s participation in the co-design process of the Zero-Net emissions Maritime Hubs DD supporting energy innovation for systemic decarbonisation of the ports-maritime sector.
Decarbonisation of energy systems will lead the European energy economy in the next decades. The electrification of energy systems, such as Ports, will be an extremely relevant innovation field together with efficiency and reduction of energy consumption. This electrification will have influence over the energy demand and will enable renewable generation, energy storage solutions, and new consumptions as cold ironing energy supply, in addition to cross- cutting technologies like digitalization of assets and processes.
Information about energy demand and Port’s daily operation will help ITE and the challenge-owners involved, to understand the landscape and to develop the capabilities to detect the needs, barriers and opportunities which have to be taken into account when defining lines of action (Frame-Portfolio). It will take place according to current and future demand, investment, state of the art, regulation, and short-medium term European strategies.
ITE will bring expertise, a long existing collaborative experience with the Valencia Port, and capabilities to map the needs and opportunities for systems innovation defining a frame for the election of specific proposals and solutions to be tested. A final result expected is the design of a portfolio of solutions for low emissions energy supply and demand electrification and energy efficiency understood as a series of positions to focus during the next DD stage. It will be approached in a systemic way including technological – technical, economic, regulatory and social issues.
The work will be carried by ITE working with the challenge-owners in the DD, co-designers and partners allowing the exploration of different scenarios and looking for future scalability and implementation around European ports and maritime sect

This project develops process innovation in pursuit of the mission of zero-carbon districts by 2030. The customers will be the citizens of these cities and other cities wanting to emulate this approach.This KAVA will support the development of a new type of integrated innovation projects through participatory processes in cities. It departs from an holistic approach to address common challenges already identified in historic districts of five cities from four EU Mediterranean countries [Lisboa (PT), , Savona (IT), Ptuj (SI), Nicosia (CY), and Sassari (IT)] to work, within a shared framework, to change their historic districts towards more sustainable, climate resilient and inclusive ones, through innovative integrated solutions and social change.It will adopt a common framework to identify innovation opportunities to accelerate the learning process to transform the historic districts into sustainable and lively ones. SUSHI key concept is to put sustainable development at the heart of the districts transformation to become the engine for local empowerment, by taking integrated approaches instead of isolated challenges. The project aims to demonstrate how a collaborative approach to taking integrated action in those cities for systemic change will deliver innovation through social change towards sustainability and climate change mitigation and resilience. Taking the five historic districts, it will deliver tested innovative solutions along the innovation chain, namely on: housing & buildings, circular systems & nature-based solutions, mobility & accessibility, local economic development & tourism, communications& progress monitoring, community participation, models& finance platform, urban planning approaches, and governance & partnerships.Along the 29 months, evolving from Vision to an Agenda to a Plan to change the historic districts, the consortium is aiming to evidence launch of this process innovation in cities by 2020.

The Center for Sustainable Finance & Private Wealth (CSP) is a research and teaching unit that works with ultra-high net worth (UHNW) wealth owners to mobilize capital for sustainable & impact investing. Through its training programs, CSP has built an alumni network of ~150 UHNW investors.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, CSP’s alumni have acted in response with initiatives including investments in mental health, health tech, and logistics.
Despite the will to act, CSP’s network is confronted by these challenges:
1. Lack of information on Covid-19 investments & initiatives leading to inefficiencies & lost opportunities.
2. Lack of capacity & knowledge on maximizing impact per investment.
3. Lack of pathways to link the momentum of the crisis to trigger a financial systems change.

Sustainability = New Normal project addresses these challenges by setting up an online Covid-19 Response Base consisting of an information-sharing platform, a resource toolkit, and nodes to impact investing experts. The project consists of a series of engagement activities and the creation of tools to help alums to effectively use their assets for Covid-19 recovery. The project also addresses long-term challenges and streamlines the work of other impact investor networks through the creation of a roadmap for a financial systems change.

The project thus addresses the listed challenges by:
1. Facilitating information sharing on Covid-19 initiatives in a no-pitching & no-selling environment – an exception in the sector.
2. Providing hands-on capacity building on impact investing in times of crisis through exchanges & dialogues with experts.
3. Deepening partnerships with impact investing networks to identify levers & pathways for a financial systems change.

The project strengthens Climate-KIC’s portfolio through collaboration with UHNW investors who have the ability to deploy capital rapidly across sectors to support a sustainable response & recovery to the Covid-19 crisis.

SAPIENCE intends to realize a system that incentivises and rewards virtuous behaviour in agricultural practices. It promotes efficient irrigation water use, aiming to achieve at least a further 30% reduction on drip feed irrigation systems through IoT monitoring and proposing a system that rewards good behaviour in the identified ecosystem but can easily grow to side domains.
Currently, in the region of Trentino, but similarly in most agricultural settings in Italy and Europe, agriculturers pay irrigation by the size of their field rather than by volume of used water. This means there is no compelling interest in saving water from farmers’ individual perspective. SAPIENCE will provide the means to encourage and incentivise sustainable behaviours in agricultural practices, starting from reducing use of irrigation water, which will enable the region to comply with EU water policies.
The idea is to identify a small, but complete multi-actor ecosystem, assess where potential savings and incentives might be created from virtuous behaviour one wants to foster, and then reinvest such advantages to create further incentives aimed at reinforcing and enlarging the virtuous behaviour, therefore sustaining the project well beyond the pathfinder execution end.
SAPIENCE will
1. design and deploy an appropriate IoT monitoring infrastructure, able to collect objective information about behaviours and irrigation water savings,
2. design the best irrigation strategies for the considered crops and implement a thorough assessment and comparison of results in terms of grapes yield and quality,
3. integrate a blockchain with duly designed smart contracts that are able to “release” rewards as various water saving targets are reached,
4. analyse how the savings made can be turned into services which help the agriculturers achieve better business goals while contributing to the environment and how these can carry on after the end of the pathfinder.

Investments to revive our economies must go beyond a recovery of what existed before COVID-19. To enable governments, regions & cities to act against future pandemics and other global threats including the threat of climate change by enabling a resilient society and long-term economic sustainability a clear map of the system functioning and existing interconnections is needed.
The System Mapping as a Service for post-COVID Regional Transition project responds to this need, by providing a knowledge intensive management service for sustainability transitions and resilience planning. The service will be applied in 9 South-Eastern European countries for the most vulnerable and value-added sectors that need to be kept as priorities after COVID-19 (i.e. tourism, food supply, mobility) and address fast recovery objectives.
Through an orchestrated co-creation process, a diverse cohort of partners from private bodies and civil society, will work with stakeholders & decision makers to generate practice-based knowledge and strategies.
The project activity builds on the Transformation in time strategy and the mission-oriented approach that policymakers together with private actors need to assume, shaping and creating new markets, focusing on emerging problem-specific societal challenges.
The output of the project is a tested and validated knowledge management service tool to boost alternatives for challenge-owners in prioritizing economic activities and inform investment in Southern Europe to speed the transition process, aimed at making resilient, healthy communities, recognizing innovations for market and positive transformation. The service will provide the opportunity for utilization of current and novel unstructured data, allowing for path-emergence and systemic decision-making to be applied as a rapid response, providing for a customer-oriented tool that responds to a clear need.

IIASA, together with CRS, proposes to continue contributing to the ‘Forging Resilience’ Deep Demonstration with a transdisciplinary co-design team. Our work, based on the experience and feedback received in the previous (ongoing) phase, will further support Climate-KIC’s Deep Demonstrations Design Process fostering a new understanding of the nature of complexity and systems thinking with the aim of making regions in Europe more resilient.
Our tools include:
(I) Systems Thinking Tools
After a sense-making period in 2019 where we designed and tested systems tools, we propose to continue their development and application in interested regions. The tools will enable existing and newly joining regional partners and ‘problem owners’ to:
(i) map relevant systems, including, for instance, stakeholder/actor networks, governance institutions and processes, value-based discourse communities, as well as economic, financial, ecological and other complex systems;
(ii) identify what is understood by the concept, and what system changes are required, for deep transformation towards a resilient future;
(iii) create ‘conditions for the unexpected’;
(iv) create a shared understanding among regional partners and problem owners of the regional systems as a basis for creating roadmaps, dealing with difficult tradeoffs, and managing the portfolio phase.

(II) Social Simulation of the Deep Demonstration Process (developed and applied by IIASA’s partner Center for Systems Solution CRS)
Abstract concepts and processes are often difficult to grasp for more practically oriented people. Therefore both the Deep Demonstration process itself and supporting systemic tools will be experientially explained using a dedicated Social Simulation.

Meat and dairy products are our main sources of proteins despite their major climate-damaging effects. There is an increasing demand from a growing population for more sustainable protein-rich foods like plant-based meat and dairy alternatives.
The Climate-KIC project “Tailoring starter cultures for the production of meat- and dairy alternatives from BSG” aims at producing plant-based meat and dairy substitutes with better taste, texture and nutritional value than currently available substitutes. Our products will be base on the largest side-stream from brewing industry, Brewers spent grain (BSG), which is currently regarded as a low- or non-value side stream.
The 3-year project will include the formulation of multiple plant-based products such as plant-based yogurt alternatives from the liquid fraction of BSG and plant-based meat alternatives from the solid fraction of BSG, life cycle assessment, short PhD course and a state-of-the-art report on the valorization of plant-based side-streams. This will be done by fermenting the BSG, using plant-isolated microorganisms to enhance taste, texture and nutritional value of the product in cooperation with the food industry. We aim to develop a specialized starter culture for the fermentation of BSG, by selecting and adapting carefully selected strains. Furthermore, we will test BSG from both barley and wheat beer.
The project can create a new business opportunity for breweries by implementing strategies for utilization of BSG into ingredients that can be used in plant-based foods, resulting a significant increase in the value of the BSG side-stream. Furthermore, the project results will be transferable to all other plant-based side-streams.