During a seminar (info event and workshop) organized by Co-Evolve4BG project on the 25th and 26th June 2021, the Mediterranean Renewable Energy Centre (MEDREC), lead partner of Med-EcoSuRe, was invited to share the living lab participatory approch developped within the project.

This action is organized as a result of a collaboration agreement signed between the National Institute of Marine Sciences & Technologies (INSTM) and MEDREC.

The first day of the event was dedicated to presentations related to the the pilot actions of Co-Evolve4BG, initiatives and projects fostering  blue economy in the Mediterranean region (e.g.Westmed), and the potential of tourism in Djerba island, pilot region of the project. This info day saw the participation of representatives from ENI CBC MED programme, the Tunisian Ministry of Economy, Finance and Investment Support (former Ministry of Ministry of Development, Investment and International Cooperation), Union for the Mediterranean, and key actors from the Maritime and tourism sectors mainly, in Tunisia.

A workshop took place, in the second day of the seminar, to exchange best practices with other national and regional initiatives and projects and to discuss how the stakeholders and final beneficiaries, in the target regions of Co-Evolve4BG project, can be effectively engaged in the implementation of the ongoing project. In this context, Med-EcoSuRe team presented the Living Lab approach that has been established within the project, to the local tourism actors of Co-Evolve4BG in Djerba. This participatory approach enables to propose solutions that meet the best the needs and expectations of the project stakeholders and final beneficiaries.

The different phases of the Living Lab establishment and involvement of stakeholders were shared with the workshop participants, as well the tools developped to support the energy retrofitting planning in buildings. This includes :

• Toolkits for the passive solution design of energy retrofitting in pubklic buildings ;
• Interactive decision aid tools enabling to simulate and optimize various retrofitting measures for different types of buildings and in different climatic conditions ;
• Simplified calculators are developed for the evaluation of the buildings energy consumption in residential and educational sectors ;
• A collaboration platform to facilitate the cooperation in the LL community.

Following, an overview on the situation of energy management of buildings in the toursim sector was presented including national opportunities (incentives) supporting the energy retrofitting process in existing and new buildings, such as the label EcoBat. 

During the final session of the seminar, a round table was organized identify :

• Potential factors that enables to ensure a sustainable maritime and coastal tourism.
• The different challenges to address in the framework of the development of an action plan.  

All participants chose two potential factors proposed by the project Co-Evolve4BG, and suggested new factors as well.The team of Co-Evolve5BG will classify and assess the proposals, and following will send to all participants the results.