REGENeration of neighbourhoods towards a low-carbon, inclusive and affordable built environment.

Project Information

REGEN

Grant agreement ID: 101123325

DOI

10.3030/101123325

EC signature date 14 December 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2027

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 8 845 138,56

EU contribution

€ 7 489 390,97

Coordinated by

LUXEMBOURG INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Luxembourg

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REGEN (REGENeration of neighbourhoods towards a low-carbon, inclusive and affordable built environment.)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

REGEN paves innovative pathways for the decarbonisation of European neighbourhoods and cities, tackling urgent socioeconomic, climate and built environment challenges by designing a multifaceted Toolbox leveraging cutting-edge digital technologies and life cycle sustainability assessments while engaging citizens and influencing behavioural change. The proposed holistic methodology and framework (Assessment Framework for Urban Regeneration) aims to validate a catalogue of 50 urban regeneration interventions. This framework will be able to estimate the current revitalisation potential of urban infrastructure, with monitoring using digital twins and evaluation based on sustainability assessmentmethodologies, facilitating the benchmarking and selection of appropriate intervention strategies. Additionally, the REGEN solutions are applied with the end-users and all stakeholders in mind, being complemented by social and humanities studies, citizen science, participative design approaches and living labs. The indicators chosen for the assessments rely on proven life cycle methods, extended to social and economic impacts. This demonstrates a holistic sustainability approach, with the end-user being an active participant in the evaluation and validation. REGEN apply this regeneration approach in 4 demonstration sites where individual buildings, streets and districts are to be constantly monitored for their energy, mobility and circularity. The net benefits of applied interventions is monitored and assessed on an individual basis. The results will be upscaled at city level, informing key policy orientations already in place and paving the way for broader deployment. An additional 10 virtual regeneration projects will be used to replicate the regeneration interventions and assess their applicability across the EU. This will strengthen the credibility of the interventions catalogue and provide indispensable for knowledge transfer on delivering resilient urban regeneration.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The key achievements of WP1 can be summarised as follow:
• A complete methodological framework for Living Lab implementation was co-developed and adopted across all demo sites, enabling a structured, iterative, and context-sensitive approach to stakeholder engagement and regeneration planning.
• The Citizen Science Guide was delivered to promote inclusive and community-driven data collection, supporting more democratic and evidence-based local interventions.
• The requirements and implementation guidelines for the Neighbourhood Regeneration Offices were formalised, along with a scalable business model to support their institutional anchoring and financial viability.
• Functional and user requirements for REGEN’s digital platforms were identified through stakeholder consultations and technical scoping, ensuring the forthcoming tools are aligned with real municipal and community needs.

The key achievements of WP2 can be summarised as follow:
• Consolidate the REGEN catalogue of urban regeneration interventions.
• Define a common software architecture for the REGEN toolbox.
• Identify, align and further develop the Technology Components of the REGEN toolbox to support the requirements of the four demo sites.
• Developed and deployed a context-sensitive, multilingual household survey covering energy, mobility, environment, and quality of life in four diverse European cities.
• Captured both behavioural patterns and willingness to adopt low-carbon lifestyles through robust scenario-based preference modelling.
• Defining a common methodology allowing the Assessment of Urban regeneration intervention based on social, economic and environmental indicators.

The key achievements of WP3 can be summarised as follow:
• Establishment of monitoring and evaluation framework: Baseline performance indicators (KPIs) were defined and aligned with Task 2.5; monitoring equipment was installed across demo sites, and performance tracking was initiated to compare real vs. predicted outcomes.
• Creation of Neighbourhood Regeneration Offices (NROs): Operational NROs were launched in Beckerich and Laredo (with preparatory steps in Milan and Dublin), serving as hubs for citizen engagement, participatory workshops, technical advice, and coordination among stakeholders.
• Development of Digital Twins and data-driven tools: Digital twins were advanced for Beckerich, Laredo, Milan and Dublin, integrating geospatial, building, energy, and demographic data, enabling simulations, diagnostics, and participatory urban planning processes.
• Implementation of regeneration actions: Progress was made on building renovation and circular economy strategies (e.g. Beckerich’ s town hall study, Milan’s reuse of demolition materials), mobility and energy efficiency pilots (e.g. district heating optimization in Beckerich, mobility flow demonstrators in Laredo, energy improvement scenarios in Milan and advanced district heating strategies and exploration of peer-to-peer energy trading in Dublin), and the deployment of participatory and sustainability tools (MUST, NBenefits, Greenpass).
• Evaluation and Optimization of the REGEN Toolbox A multi-user survey is being developed to assess the usability, effectiveness, and replicability of the REGEN Toolbox. This feedback loop will guide future improvements and support broader adoption of the AFUR framework.

The key achievements of WP4 can be summarised as follow:
• Identification of the relevant indicators for demo sites and the associated partner who will perform the evaluation for Task 4.1
• Identification of two virtual cases for Task 4.3
• Early preparation of the public call for Expression of Interest to be able to retrieve 8 other virtual cases for Task 4.3

The key achievements of WP5 can be summarised as follow:
• We launched the website, social media channels, the communication toolkit (T5.2) and the DEC plan (T5.1 and D5.2).
• We have raised awareness and communicated broadly about REGEN’s aims (i.e D&C plan - stage 1 - M1–M16). We have initiated dissemination targeting a subset of the initial audience most likely to benefit, fostering a deeper understanding of REGEN innovations (i.e D&C plan - stage 2 - M17–M32).
• We have established relationships with H2020 and Horizon Europe projects, including sister projects (GINNGER, Wegenerate), by defining scopes for collaboration. We have also engaged with B4P through our participation in partnership events, notably via the B4P project Nebula. We have also developed the exploitation plan (e.g. T5.1 and D5.2) and conducted the first round of ER interviews to update the content related to each ER from the proposal phase. This enabled us to identify the elements needed to draft a first version of their updated exploitation plan at the start of the second reporting period (M19–M32).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Amongst other, in RP1 REGEN succeeded in interfacing social sciences methodologies (WP1) with more technical digital services development (WP2), in order to provide enabling conditions to the four demonstration sites.