KeepWarm was an EU-funded project whose objective was to accelerate cost-effective investments in the modernization of District Heating Systems (DHS). It brought together eleven project partners from a variety of relevant sectors (energy agencies, national DHS associations, agricultural chambers, research institutes, consultancies on energy efficiency, and NGOs) across Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. Within this region, DHS were frequently inefficient and, for the most part, overly reliant on fossil fuels (oil, gas, or coal).

The aim of this initiative, launched in April 2018, was to modernize DHS across the entire region and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving system operations and promoting a switch to less-polluting sources, such as renewables. The project partners strived to ensure that best practices for environmentally friendlier heating and cooling would be adopted across Europe, replicating KeepWarm’s approach in other countries and regions, even beyond the project’s conclusion in September 2020.

The project was coordinated by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). ICLEI led the coordination of communication, dissemination, and exploitation of the project activities and results, including the organization of peer-to-peer exchange, an ambassador program, and an 'inspire' event series for national and European outreach.

In October 2019, project partners launched a Learning Centre to pool knowledge and resources on district heating systems in different languages. It was open and free for all stakeholders involved in the planning, provision, or use of district heating, who wanted to deepen their knowledge or find hands-on information to support their decision-making process on thermal systems.