Despite growing pressure to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral, circular built environment, many EU- funded innovations remain confined to demonstration pilots. Replication strategies are often included as checkboxes rather than deeply embedded into project design. Yet, real-world replication is complex: it requires aligning technological solutions with socio-economic conditions, local governance, community acceptance, policy timing, and more.

This session, led by ICONS and featuring five Horizon Europe projects, will explore why replication often fails, and what we can do to make it work. Instead of presenting another methodology in abstract, we will take participants on a story-driven journey through the barriers, breakthroughs, and lessons emerging from real-world pilots across Europe. The session will unfold in two parts. The first part will introduce common replication myths and challenges and present a flexible framework to support meaningful scale-up, rooted in ICONS’ cross-project experience and designed to be applied by policymakers, cities, and project developers alike; The second part will bring the filed to the stage. 

Representatives from five flagship projects: DEDALUS, SUPERSHINE, InEEXs, RENplusHOMES, and SIRCULAR, will share candid insights into how replication is being approached, prepared, or tested in their respective contexts. Whether at the early stages of planning or already engaging in uptake activities, each project will reflect on what’s worked, what remains challenging, and what caught them by surprise. From shifting policy landscapes to community resistance, from digital readiness to business model mismatch, these contributions will shed light on replication as a system-level challenge, not a linear or technical step. By bridging methodology and practice, the session will conclude with a discussion on how EU-funded innovation can better prepare for post-project deployment and generate tangible benefits for the built environment across Europe. Throughout the session, delegates will be invited to actively contribute via a live mapping exercise of enablers and blockers (Miro or Slido), guided by audience questions tied to key replication moments in each project, as well as interactive polling to compare perceptions and realities. 

Key takeaways:

• A fresh, grounded perspective on replication from real-life demos
• A shared map of what enables or blocks replication today
• Connections with like minded practitioners facing similar challenges.