Low2HighDH aims to support district heating operators in Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia by integrating low-grade and waste heat technologies into their systems, aiding them in meeting their decarbonisation goals. To achieve this, the project requires active engagement from high-temperature district heating sites and will evaluate prospective participants through a Call for Applications.

The application will be carried out by completing an online application form which will gather all relevant information to be used to score candidates. Then the consortium will use the selection criteria, to select the most appropriate applicants. Last, the selected applicants will be contacted by the consortium partner in charge of providing the specific support in order to define the support facility and formalise the collaboration agreement.

More information: https://low2highdh.eu/call-for-applications/

AURORAL is a public funded project under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program. It is a consortium of 30 partners from 10 different European countries.

Project goal is to use digitization for improving rural regions in many aspects, like economical growth, social aspects or to contribute to overcome the digital divide between rural and urban areas. The AURORAL project is now proudly looking for interested parties to join our efforts through an Open Call for projects.

AURORAL are looking for projects that aim to improve our ecosystems for Smart Communities, creating new Smart Communities or support existing ones. The maximum project duration is 6 months with a funding rate of 70% of all eligible costs. There are two types of projects that correspond to two strands:

Strand A: Call for new Smart Communities – coming soon
Strand B: Call for new complementary services – max grant amount: € 55.200

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSALS BY JUNE 28TH, 2024 23:59 CET.
For more info: https://www.auroral.eu/#/open-calls

On 28th March, coordinator of Green Municipalities Romualdas Petraitis participated in an event organized by the Research Council of Lithuania and the Association of Lithuanian Municipalities for the climate change solutions of the European Union Mission and Horizon Europe – Lithuanian municipalities. The event was attended by representatives of the Network of Green Municipalities and scientific institutions.

The EU’s Urban Mission aims to make at least 100 European cities climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 and to ensure that these cities act as reference hubs for innovation for other European cities. The mission aims to increase the innovation capacity of cities and regions and to accelerate the deployment of smart and sustainable solutions in the areas of urban mobility, landscaping, infrastructure, energy and the involvement of townspeople. Two Lithuanian cities – Vilnius and Tauragė – participate in this EU urban transformation agenda among the 112 EU cities, which have become a role model for other Lithuanian cities.

On March 8th, together with the scientists of the KTU Institute of Environmental Engineering, we had an interesting and meaningful discussion with the representatives of the Network of Green Municipalities of Panevėžys city about the green and social infrastructure of the city. In this conversation, we examined how well-being could be promoted through an innovative approach to the sufficiency of an urbanised environment, which aims to rationally meet the basic needs of society while respecting the planet’s limited resources and responding to climate challenges

On March 6th, together with the scientists of the KTU Institute of Environmental Engineering, we had an interesting and meaningful discussion with the representatives of the Network of Green Municipalities of Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys and Alytus cities about the green and social infrastructure of the city. Urbanisation and climate change pose serious challenges in terms of a living environment, quality of life and the equality of society, which are becoming increasingly important issues in urban governance and development. In this conversation, we examined how well-being could be promoted through an innovative approach to the sufficiency of an urbanised environment, which aims to rationally meet the basic needs of society while respecting the planet’s limited resources and responding to climate challenges. The green and social infrastructure of cities can be analysed from an innovative sufficiency perspective, which is one of the most important factors in the development of a climate-friendly environment and resource-efficient society. The data will be analyzed and visualized by GIS software.

AURORAL

H2020-AURORAL Project organises its Open Call to validate and complement the project’s technology and use cases which will help to create an Open Innovation Ecosystem of developers, innovators, service providers and Smart Communities and will prioritize the maturity of projects.

Project will fund the development and implementation of highly innovative and challenging, but mature pilots in 12 lots (health, mobility, farming, energy, tourism, media, education, governance, industry, territory, and nature), as well as platforms (marketplaces) in 16 different regions.

For this purpose, the consortium has planned to allocate a budget for the cascade funding across a total of up to 1.550.400 € to third parties who submitted an eligible proposal.

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSALS BY FEB 29TH, 2024 23:59 CET.
For more info: https://www.auroral.eu/#/open-calls

EUKI

EUKI funds selected projects that promote cross-border climate action in Europe. Funding of between 120,000 and 1 Million euros will be awarded per project, following a Europe-wide call for project ideas that we put out every year. The 8th EUKI Call for Project Ideas runs from 6 February until 12 March 2024. For the 2024 selection procedure, project ideas must be received by 15:00 CET (Central European Time) using this online platform. The projects provisionally selected will be asked to submit a full project proposal, probably in June 2024. The first projects are scheduled to start in December 2024.

For more info: https://www.euki.de/en/project-funding/

On January 26th, a discussion took place with the municipalities of the Utena region. The sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector of the Utena region was discussed, as well as familiarization with good practices from other regions and their implementation to strengthen the sustainability of tourism SMEs.

During the discussion, topics included how to promote the implementation of sustainable innovations using certification schemes and/or labeling, how to develop management skills for the transformation of tourism SMEs by applying digitization and environmentally friendly solutions.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May the holiday spirit be with you and your family today and throughout the New Year.

– Romualdas Petraitis, Coordinator of Lithuanian Green Municipalities Network

As the European Union publishes new directives for recycling and the circular economy, Lithuania is trying to keep up and set ambitious goals. Studies show that we are above the EU average in some areas, but there is still room for improvement. Specialists from abroad come to find out the principle of operation of our deposit system, and government support programs encourage businesses to reduce the amount of waste and recycle as much as possible.

The possibilities of the circular economy in Lithuania – the broad goals of the European Union – to become a climate-neutral economy by 2050 and to decouple economic growth from the use of resources – make it possible to predict that the circular economy will more or less affect all economic activities and sectors. Based on this, long-term (until 2050) and short-term (until 2030) are formulated. The goals of the transformation of Lithuanian industry into a circular economy. The long-term objectives are closely correlated with the EU’s industrial transformation objectives: full circularity (use of secondary raw materials), competitiveness, and climate neutrality.

At the end of 2021, on the Ministry of Economy and Innovation initiative, a compass for the transition of Lithuanian industry to a circular economy was prepared. The Lithuanian Government’s programme aims to achieve a value of the circularity index not lower than the EU average. In 2021, our circularity rate was 4%, according to Eurostat (EU average: 11.7%).

In this area, even closer interinstitutional cooperation is needed, which can ensure more detailed monitoring and analysis of circular economy indicators at the Lithuanian level. This could include one-stop-shop services for businesses: advice on regulatory changes, financial support, promoting the development of circular and green technologies and related innovative business models, public information and international networking.

Changes in EU regulation that have already been adopted or are still planned in the coming years will contribute to the changes, including corporate sustainability reporting, ecodesign, waste, packaging and packaging waste and other directives.

In recent years, due to intense demographic changes, the population in many Lithuanian municipalities has been shrinking, the population is  ageing, and it is increasingly difficult for municipalities to ensure the effective and high-quality provision of public services. Taking into account the need to jointly solve the challenges affecting the four municipalities, Jurbarkas, Pagėgiai, Šilalė districts and Tauragė district municipalities joined forces. It implemented the first functional zone initiative in Lithuania Tauragė+, the results of which were discussed at a conference organised by the Central Project Management Agency (CPVA) and the public institution “Žaliasis regionas”.

At the event in Jurbarkas, which brought together representatives of business and the public sector, it was presented how the municipalities of Tauragė region,  to ensure more efficient access to public services that meet the needs of the population for citizens and attract investments after long discussions, prepared and approved a strategy for joint actions in municipal councils, thus forming a functional zone Tauragė+, based on cooperation and partnership.

The event focused on reviewing the experience of cooperation in Tauragė region, discussing the importance of partnership in finding more effective ways to provide public services and sharing the challenges that had to be faced in implementing joint actions of the functional zone.

As part of the strategy of joint actions of the functional zone, a unified public transport system covering the municipalities of Jurbarkas, Pagėgiai, Šilalė and Tauragė districts was created, which makes it possible to travel with one ticket for the same price in all municipalities of the region, an electronic ticket and route planning tools were installed. A joint institution implementing initiatives “Green Region” was established. Thanks to the efforts of all four municipalities, the public transport infrastructure was developed – bus stations in Jurbarkas and Pagėgiai were reconstructed, six electric buses were purchased, and bus routes and schedules were further improved to make communication in the region even more attractive and convenient for both its residents and guests.