The large potential for energy savings in buildings led the EU Commission to adopt the 2010/31/EU Directive on the energy performance of buildings with the objective that all new buildings are Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) by 2020. Renewable energy technologies, and in particular the integration of photovoltaic systems in the building environment offer many possibilities to play a key role within the NZEB scenario. The objective of PVSITES project is to drive BIPV technology to a large market deployment by demonstrating an ambitious portfolio of building-integrated solar technologies and systems, giving a forceful, reliable answer to the market requirements identified by the industrial members of the consortium in their day-to-day activity.

Only 1.2% of the EU building stock is renovated every year, and the rate is even lower in case of deep renovation (i.e., savings exceed 60% compared to pre-renovation levels), since such interventions are often too expensive. To answer these challenges, 4RinEU will define robust, cost-effective, tailorable deep renovation technology packages supported by usable methodologies, feeding into reliable business models. The project will manage different stages of the deep renovation process, from the preliminary audit up to the component end-of-life, and will provide information on energy, comfort, users’ impact, and investment performance. The 4RinEU deep renovation strategy is based on 3 pillars: (i) technologies, to decrease net primary energy use (60 to 70% compared to pre-renovation), ant to reduce the life cycle costs over 30 years (15% compared to a typical renovation); (ii) methodologies to support the design and implementation of the technologies; (iii) business models to enhance the level of confidence of deep renovation investors.

Residential flexibility (a.k.a demand response) is a key component of smart grids to reduce our carbon footprint, to have reliable power (balance between power and demand, and avoiding congestion) and more affordable electricity tariffs. However, to have a significant participation in the flexibility markets, households needs good price signals. Today, the electricity bill components (volumetric and capacity for both consumption and generation) are evolving and grid services are increasingly more available to households. This is due to the evolution in the energy mix, deployment of new technologies (smart meter roll-out, gradual uptake of electric vehicles, heat pumps and batteries), regional integration (interconnectors and integration of balancing markets) and evolution of society (sharing economy or Peer2peer and ubiquity of smartphones). These trends will have a quantitative impact on the different energy bills in the short term (2020) and longer term. Further investigation is also suggested to go from the qualitative analysis to a better quantitative analysis.

Nature-based solutions are positive responses to societal challenges, and can have the potential to simultaneously meet environmental, social and economic objectives. The EU research project Nature4Cities aims to deliver an online platform where all stakeholders, such as citizens, urban planners, experts and policymakers are encouraged to discover, discuss and rank nature-based solutions.

Contemporary disaster risk management (DRM) is increasingly challenged by the growing frequency and severity of natural hazards, exacerbated by climate change and complex societal interactions. Traditional approaches fall short in addressing interdependencies among multiple hazards and their cascading impacts. The European MEDiate project aims to develop an integrated Decision Support System (DSS) that effectively captures multi-hazard dynamics, emphasizing ethical compliance, fundamental human rights, and participatory engagement. This paper provides a comprehensive examination of the legal frameworks and fundamental rights considerations underpinning the development of the MEDiate DSS. Additionally, it explores diverse case studies across European regions to illustrate practical applications, current trends, ongoing challenges, and identifies opportunities for future research and innovation. Utilizing advanced methodologies, the DSS synthesizes real-time data with socio-economic indicators to deliver actionable insights for risk mitigation and adaptive response. Validated through extensive Participatory Action Research (PAR) across diverse European testbeds, MEDiate provides a flexible and resilient framework tailored to local and regional DRM contexts.

The FEDECOM project (Federated-system approach for flexible and interoperable energy communities) is a European Union-funded project aimed at fostering the integration and flexibility of local energy systems by demonstrating the potential of cross-border energy exchange by energy sector coupling through a federation of energy communities. The project seeks to provide economic benefits, improve grid stability and reliability, and contribute to the decarbonisation of the energy system. FEDECOM combines direct and indirect electrification strategies to leverage synergies and offers a cloud-based platform for managing local energy systems, including power, gas, thermal energy, industry, and mobility sectors. This paper discusses FEDECOM’s approach to energy management at multiple pilot sites, seeking to optimize resource use, enhance grid stability, and promote sustainable energy practices. It presents an overview of the FEDECOM project's goals, structure, pilot sites, and technical innovations, including peer-to-peer trading, semantic data modeling, and a novel platform architecture.