FRACTAL is a roll-out project coming from LUIGI (Linking Urban and Inner-Alpine Green Infrastructure - Multifunctional Ecosystem Services for more liveable territories), with the aim of deepening the engagement of alpine communities in the local implementation of Green Infrastructure (GI). FRACTAL will strengthen the mainstreaming of GI in the educational and governance sectors. The Alpine Space is characterized by a mosaic of natural, agricultural, and small urban areas, where the connectivity between natural and semi-natural ecosystems is not always ensured. A fragmented ecosystem is more sensitive to climate change, being unable to supply human population with fundamental ecosystem services (ES), such as local climate regulation. One of the most effective ways to support ES is implementing GI at local scale.
Through a collaborative transnational effort involving three alpine countries, FRACTAL will operationalise the governance and education-related outputs of LUIGI, by i) standardising the requirements to plan GI at municipality level, thus producing a “GI Pact” that will be signed and adopted by several municipalities throughout the Alps; and by ii) developing and testing an innovative educational toolkit addressed to different education levels, from primary school till high school, that will help reach a widely accepted vision regarding GI and its benefits in the Alpine Space. These outputs and a set of outreach activities will improve the knowledge level and change the mindset of three target groups: 1. young and adult citizens; 2. farmers, future farmers, and beekeepers, and 3. public administrations. The bottom-up participatory approach will ensure a change not only in the well-established network of stakeholders guaranteed by the transnational  consortium, but also beyond the project region.

Principal Investigator: Mita Drius — Faculty of Education
Project Duration: 01/04/2023 – 30/09/2024
Project Total Budget: € 445.786,00 (ERFD funding € 334.339,50)
Project Partners: Triglav National Park, National Institute of Biology Slovenia, Wirtschaftsagentur Burgenland GmbH
Project Website: www.alpine-space.eu/project/fractal

The Alps4GreenC project is focused on setting-the-scene for transnational utilisation of biomass residues through investigation of biomass conversion opportunities in project partner countries and proposal of transnational biochar-based value chains. As such, the project is tackling the challenges of the Alpine area pertaining to adverse effects of energy dependency and high energy prices, biodiversity losses and high vulnerability to climate change, while offering solutions for the use of greatly available biomass in the region.
By proposing the necessary supportive measures through policy recommendations and practical testing and pilot production of green carbon to evaluate the potential of its utilisation for steel and agriculture industry, Alps4GreenC will contribute towards creating the conditions for energy sufficiency and climate-protection of the region showcasing the innovation and resource potentials already present, but currently disconnected. The advantages of this transnational collaboration will be primarily experienced by those directly involved in the value chain (residue producers, tech providers and end users, hence large enterprises and SMEs), however other stakeholders in the ecosystem, such as national/regional public authorities, sectoral agencies and higher education and research organisations, will also benefit from comprehensive framework creation. The framework proposed includes mapping of stakeholders & resources, implementation of crowdsourcing campaign to collect biomass residues and raise awareness, testing and piloting of biochar and context & gap analysis of biomass conversion opportunities for green carbon supply. Without a transnational approach to this issue, appropriate technologies for biomass conversion will not be identified and upgraded, therefore the shift to green, post-carbon approaches might not be fully realised. It is the first time, transnational collaboration for the establishment of biochar production value chain is foreseen.

Principal Investigator: Marco Baratieri — Faculty of Engineering 
Project Duration: 01/09/2022 – 29/02/2024
Project Total Budget: € 740.866,00 EUR (ERFD funding € 555.649,50)
Project Partners: National Institute of Chemistry Ljubljana (Lead partner), Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Štajerska, BEST - Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH, BioBASE GmbH, AIEL —Associazione Italiana Energie Agroforestali
Project Website: www.alpine-space.eu/project/alps4greenc