Abegondo (area: 83,81 km2, population 2019: 5.406) is located in the northwest of A Coruña (province), 23 km south of the capital. Abegondo City Council is responsible for the municipality in accordance with the provisions of local administration (Ley 7/1985, de 2 de abril, reguladora de las bases de régimen local y en la Ley 5/1997, de 22 de junio, de administración local de Galicia). The town hall has 45 workers. In environmental matters, the municipality is part of the Reserve of the Biosphere Mariñas Coruñesas e Terras do Mandeo and is one of the 7 entities in Galicia that has a Nature Learning Centre for environmental dissemination. At present, Municiapilty of Abegondo coordinates the project LIFE16ENV/ES/000533 WATER WAY with the aim of promoting the use of cultural itineraries in the European Union (Camino de Santiago Inglés). The main objective of this project is to develop a strategy in accordance with the 98/83/EC Directive, to recover traditional public fountains as a micro-supply solution in areas where centralized water consumption networks have no reach. In addition, Abegondo has coordinated the project LIFE12 ENV/ES/000557 RURAL SUPPLIES, recently finalised, to develop innovative and practical actions that improve the capabilities of the local population in provision of non-centralized water supply services and sanitation systems. This project was awarded as one of the 5 best environmental projects of the Life programme in 2019. Skills/expertise of key persons involved: Carlos AMEIXENDA, Technical Director of Life+ Office, as project manager, has effectively coordinated the following projects: • LIFE+07ENV/E/000826 AQUA-PLANN PROJECT “integrated water resources management and their application to local planning of the SCI Abegondo-Cecebre” • 534898-EFC-1-2012-2-ES-EFC-NTT EFC ECOWAS “raising awareness for eco-friendly behaviours in waste collection practices” • LIFE12 ENV/ES/000557 RURAL SUPPLIES “sostenibles solutions for very small water supplies” • LIFE16ENV/ES/000533 WATER WAY “creating a new concept of natural drinking fountains and demonstrating its viability along St James’ Way” María del Mar CARRO, Coordinator of Department of Culture, has been involved in working on EFC On tour for Europe, “Bringing youth step by step to active citizenship and job- creation”.

SERN is a transnational no-profit network of 55 local and regional authorities from Sweden and Italy. The network was founded in 2005 with the main objective of developing a long-term framework of cooperation for its members in the two countries. It is the main transnational network in Europe fostering relations in a multilevel perspective between Northern and Southern Europe and in particular between Sweden and Italy. SERN acts in 3 priority areas: • Inclusive communities, with a special focus on services for vulnerable groups, active citizenship and quality education • Digitalised communities, in the E-government perspective and in upskilling digital competences • Green and sustainable communities, paying particular attention to climate action, sustainable tourism and smart mobility. The network promotes different forms of collaboration: Exchange of information, experience, knowledge, best practices, staff exchanges, and learning partnerships. SERN also works on project development financed by its members and external funds such as national, international and EU funding. So far, SERN has implemented over 130 projects, most of them regarding the field of learning and education, but also in the field of energy and environment, local and regional development, social inclusion and migration and health and welfare.

Karlstad is located on the Klarälven delta on the northern shore of Vänern, midway between Stockholm and Oslo. Karlstad municipality has over 95,000 inhabitants and over 145,000 people live in the Karlstad region. Karlstad is the residence city in Värmland and here there are services for the entire Karlstad region, which consists of Karlstad and the four crown municipalities Forshaga, Grums, Hammarö and Kil. Together, we are roughly 145,000 inhabitants. Karlstad has one of Sweden’s youngest universities with approximately 16,000 students studying to become teachers, civil engineers, civil economists and nurses. There is also a large central hospital here and many important authorities, such as the Swedish Consumer Agency and the Swedish Agency for Community Protection and Emergency Preparedness. Karlstad is a wonderful city to visit. Experience concerts on any of our stages, enjoy the watercolors at Sandgrund Lars Lerin and see the latest exhibition at Värmlands Museum. Färjestad offers great hockey and IF Göta annually organizes big athletics galas. In Karlstad CCC, state-of-the-art and beautifully located by the rushing waters of the Klarälven, congresses, conferences, exhibitions, concerts and theater performances are arranged. There is plenty of shopping here, with both a lively shopping center with small shops, several shopping malls and an external shopping centre, Bergvik, with, among other things, Ikea. In addition, there are over 50 secondhand shops. We like to have guests and Löfbergs spreads a good coffee aroma over the city. In Karlstad and our region, we are good at collaborating – it leads to business and new meetings. It has given us the cluster The Paper Province, which counts as one of Europe’s most successful clusters. There, the companies collaborate to develop new services in packaging design, tissue manufacturing and energy efficiency. Sweden’s largest network in IT and communication – Compare is another network we have in Karlstad. A large number of all our service companies are gathered in the network. These are two examples of successful collaboration – there are many more. We simply help each other to reach further. Karlstad is strategically located close to both Stockholm, Gothenburg and Oslo. There is daily traffic by bus, train or plane to the three big cities. With its own airport, Karlstad Airport, you can quickly get out into the world. We dare to say that the people in Karlstad are a little more open and sunnier, but then we are also the city with the happy sun as its symbol. The connection to the sun is strong, Karlstad has long been in the top tier among cities with the most hours of sunshine and the waitress Eva-Lisa Holtz (1739– 1818) – better known as Sola i Karlstad – lived and worked here. Nowadays, her statue stands outside the Stadshotellet next to Klarälven and is still a symbol of the residents’ cheerful spirit and enterprising entrepreneurship.

Karlstad University (KAU) is a civic university located in central Sweden. It currently hosts around 70 education programmes and 900 courses within humanities, social studies, science, technology, teaching, health care and the arts. At present, the university has approximately 16,000 students, 800 academic staff and 400 support staff across its campuses in Karlstad and Arvika. KAU’s research programmes have a broad scope, positioning it well for engagement in successful collaborations with a range of partners from both within the academy and beyond, from major national and international companies, such as BillerudKorsnäs, Stora Enso, and Uddeholm to public bodies, such as Region Värmland. This strongly-rooted collaborative approach with public and private actors provides the university with significant expertise in, and opportunities for, the utilisation of research and the wider employability of researchers. KAU’s activities are based on regional, national, and international cooperation, and the university is a preferred option as a partner in change and improvement processes among regional actors. Our longstanding relationship with Region Värmland – the regional authority – serves as a template for excellent collaboration between universities and wider society. Karlstad University has a notable track record for delivering flexible learning, distance-learning provision and this is a focus of further development as part of its university strategy. It is regarded as a leader in this field in Sweden, and this is combined with the fact that Karlstad has identified studies of sustainable development and climate change as a pole for ongoing investment and growth. Karlstad is already an active participant in EU networks and is investing in its environmental studies portfolio. Karlstad University has a long experience in research and education in environmental and climate related issues. Worth mention is the SAMOT research profile launched in 2006 and engage business and trade and public actors. The objective is to present scientific evidence on customer ’s experiences of how they perceive public transport. In a meta-analyses published in Journal of Public Transport 2015, SAMOT is ranked as number one in Europe within its field. Karlstad University have developed several e-learning modules and MOOCs in relation to ongoing research. The appointed project coordinator from Karlstad University has been involved in developing a Jean Monnet-funded module, Regional Action and the European Union” that is an interactive module designed from research findings on strategic subnational leadership in a multilevel governance system. In addition, currently he is working with a MOOC, financed by H2020 project CoSIE, as a learning module aiming to train first-line managers and civil servants in obstacles and drivers for co-creation in public administration.

LepidaScpA is a subsidiary of the Emilia-Romagna Region and is the main operational instrument as regards implementation of the Regional ICT Plan that defines the strategies of broadband networks, ensures and optimizes the delivery of ICT services, develops cloud infrastructure, implements and manages innovative solutions for the modernization of healthcare paths to improve the relationship between citizens and the Regional Health Service in accordance with the provisions of the European, National and Regional Digital Agendas. Mission of the company is the realization of the following activities:

• the constitution of an aggregating hub, supporting the regional plans for ICT development in terms of projecting, research, development, experimentation and management of ICT services and products, in addition to activities related to the realization, maintenance, activation and management of infrastructure, and the management and development of access services favoring the citizenship, public administrations and companies, with high-specialization excellences in the sectors of healthcare, social assistance, personal services by local bodies and socio-health services
• the provision of services deriving from the guidelines by the regional plan for telematic, ICT and e-government development, as provided by art. 6 of regional law n. 11/2004 and its related implementations (see art. 7)
• the provision of services through: the management of demand for process analysis; the definition of standards for information interexchange; the writing of technical documents and tender procedures for service development/purchase; program and project management; exercisability verifications; support to the deployment and provision of services through the identified providers; the monitoring of service levels
• educational activities and technical support within the field of ICT
• activities supporting managerial functions in the organizational and administrative sectors, in favor of the Partners and their Companies
• activities connected to the adoption of new technologies, applied to the government of the Emilia-Romagna regional territory and pivotal for Partners, such as the activities connected to smart cities and smart working
• activities as a central, technical-ICT hub as provided by art. 14 of the regional law n. 11/2004
• activities supporting the implementation of the regional system for distributed calculation (Data center e Cloud computing), as provided by regional law n. 14/2014
• the purchase, development, provision and offering, within the limits and in coherence to the communitarian and national regulations concerning work contracts, services and provisions, of telecommunication, ICT and similar services, including, but not limited to: data services, Internet and telephone services, both traditional and via IP network; services for landline/mobile convergence; data center services with functions as data storage; server farming, server consolidation, facility management, backup, disaster recovery; technological Help Desk services (incident and problem management); provision of managerial applicative software in ASP mode
• the realization, maintenance and management of regional networks, as provided by art. 9 of the regional law n. 11/2004, as well as of local networks at the urban level (thereinafter MAN), of the subnetworks components of MANs and of functional networks, with the aim to reduce the cases of digital divide (also coherently to what provided by the regional law n. 14/2014), that is, of market failure. Activities of realization, maintenance and management include but are not limited to: the planning of material network infrastructures; projecting; work contracts; constructions; the testing of segments covered by the optical fiber network; the renting of traditional circuits, fiber or radio infrastructures for segments not belonging to the network; commissioning; ordinary and extraordinary maintenance; the predisposition of technological infrastructures capable of ensuring connection to the necessary bands, to provide the connectivity services; the monitoring of network performances
• the provision of connectivity services on the regional networks as defined by art. 9 of the regional law n. 11/2004, including but not limited to: data transmission on IP protocols with guaranteed speed and bandwidth; every service strictly connected with data transmission, including but not limited to the provision and configuration of terminal network apparata placed at local access points (PALs) and the configuration of virtual private network (VPNs); the performance of necessary interfacing functions to the public connectivity system (SPC), guaranteeing the service and safety levels provided by the SPC technical regulations;
• when required, the interconnection to the GARR research network; the interconnection to public operators telecommunication networks; the provision to the public of a free Internet connection service through WiFi technology on behalf of the partner Bodies, upon their request and in their interest, operating as their technical service; subsidiary and temporary provision of the services indicated by art. 15 of the regional law n. 14/2014, in case of absence of other market solutions allowing the provision of such services;
• the provision of network services, at fair and non discriminant conditions, to local and national public bodies, public companies, law enforcement corps, for the realization of wide band infrastructures to connect their premises, within the Emilia-Romagna Region and the Partners’ territory;
• the management of the service “Single European Emergency Number – NUE 112” and the related technical components.

ECOCITY is a Greek Environment NGO founded 2004, with 2.870 Members-Volunteers & programs such as Ecomobility, Oikopolis, Ecocamp. An active member of the EEB and MIO-ECSDE. ECOCITY is an urban non-profit organization, established in Athens in 2004. It later expanded to Thessaloniki and Patras. Its function and organization are based on voluntary participation and contribution, with time and knowledge offered by its members, who are scientists and professors, state and public sector officials, local authorities representatives, NGO’s, journalists, as well as students and other citizens. ECOCITY is governed by a 5-member Board of Directors, elected by the General Assembly.

Unione Pedemontana Parmense is located in Northern Italy, within the Emilia-Romagna region, one of the wealthiest and most developed regions in Europe, with the third highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in Italy. Our land, rich in History, Art and Culture, is also in the heart of the so-called “Food Valley”, famous in all over the world for the Parma Ham, Parmesan Cheese and Felino Salami. The Union was created in 2008 and is composed of five municipalities belonging to the province of Parma: Collecchio, Felino, Montechiarugolo, Sala Baganza and Traversetolo. It spreads over an area of 230,66 sq. kms at the foot of the Appennines Mountains, where live about 50.000 inhabitants. The president of the Unione Pedemontana Parmense is one of the mayors of the five municipalities. He is appointed on a rotating basis from the Executive Committee, made up of the mayors, and remains in office for one year. The Union was created to carry out several citizen services and functions on behalf of its municipalities. Among the functions transferred to the Union, the implementation of energy policies is relevant, with the aim of promoting and strengthening local processes related to the development and implementation of SEAPs and the drafting of the SECAP, Climate and Energy Action Plan.