"The University of Mons (UMONS) located in the Walloon Region of Belgium, by the intermediate of its Research Institute for Energy, proposes to build an ERA-Chair Team headed by an ERA-Chair Holder (Established or Leader Researcher) for building a strong, sustainable and highly-performing Research, Development and Innovation (R&D&I) platform in the field of Energy Efficiency in city Districts according to the concept of “Net Zero Energy city Districts (NZED)”. UMONS sets up measures and actions at the level of the Institution and the ERA-Chair hosting departments for creating the best environment and conditions for achieving an ambitious R&D&I program aligned with the smart specialization priorities already initiated by the regional authorities for its socio-economic successful growth and with the European priorities within the European Research Area (ERA). The principal objectives of this project are (i) to reinforce Excellence in Research at UMONS in the field of NZED building through the successful achievement of an ambitious R&D&I program; (ii) to enhance the Innovation potential in the field; (iii) to improve a network around the theme to the benefit of UMONS as well as the main regional, national and European stakeholders; and (iv) to assess the performance of the ERA-Chair model as well as its replication potential, within the Research Institute for Energy and other UMONS Research Institutes."