GOES is a Horizon 2020 EU-funded project, launched in January 2023, that aims to develop a Platform-Based Design (PBD) framework for geothermal-based energy systems. The project is coordinated by Empa, and it brings together 8 partners from 5 different countries across the EU and the US. BackgroundThe decarbonization of energy systems is far too slow. Despite the effort in research and development of new technology, the dissemination or uptake in the industry is modest. There are impressive pilot and demonstration projects in operation; however, large-scale uptake is lagging. One of the reasons behind this slow energy transition is that international and national standardization do not address a fully integrated data and information exchange between domains, systems, or components. Platform-Based Design (PBD)PBD is a promising approach to develop further domain specific standardization towards an integrated design framework for holistic, geothermal coupled energy systems. This approach borrows from ideas of PBD that revolutionized the electronic design process and automotive development. A PBD concept consists of a Functional and Architectural space. System requirements (Functional Space) are met by a technical solution, i.e. a combination of standardized 'templates' chosen from the Architectural Space.AimThe aim of the project GOES is to develop a PBD framework to standardize the interface between scales (from subsurface to city), facilitating decision-making for stakeholders involved in urban energy system design.The PBD process will be applied in various sites in different countries to demonstrate the new concept's performance and prove the transferability and replicability of the PBD framework.