Future sustainable energy systems should be affordable and adapted to the local context, while also preserving natural resources such as forests, water and soil. The Vil2Bio project aims at integrating low-cost biochar, biogas, and solar photovoltaic technologies into a village-scale off-grid hybrid energy system providing energy for cooking, while preserving water, soil and biomass resources. Two demonstration pilots will be installed and operated, near Settat in Morocco, and near Nairobi in Kenya. The Moroccan pilot will include two Indian-type 5m3 biogas reactors developed in Morocco based on agricultural and food residues as feedstock for its operation, and allowing the production of biogas that will be purified to be used on-site for food cooking. Downstream of the biogas reactor, a solid-liquid separation system will be installed, including decanter, vibrating sieve and sand filter, whose efficiency can be further increased by biochar addition. The separated liquid fraction will be treated in a low-cost microalgae (cyanobacteria) cultivation system. The final effluent containing cyanobacteria, along with used biochar and sand, will be applied for direct fertigation of crops with biostimulant effect from phytohormones and organic nutrients contained in cyanobacteria (“cyanobacterisation”). The combined processes of biogas production and microalgae culture will be optimized in lab-scale prototypes in France and Germany, and a bench-scale prototype in Algeria. The Kenyan pilot will comprise an automatic briquette production system already operating at KIRDI institute, along with TLUD pyrolysis stoves and charcoal burners manufactured by the institute, which will be tested at the premises of a small on-farm biogas plant in Kenya. For energy production, small biogas stoves from Chinese and Indian manufacturers used for domestic cooking will be evaluated and installed on the pilots. On the Moroccan pilot, biogas will be cleaned in low-cost water scrubbing system, and fed into a small Chinese-type gas engine generator of 1kWel. Biogas washing water containing dissolved CO2, H2S, NH3 gases will then be recycled as a nutrient source to boost microalgae production. The gas engine will provide a microgrid suitable for island operation. Furthermore, a low-cost and water-efficient briquette production system will be tested, composed of a hand sieve and a hand-operated wooden briquette press, applying a share of the liquid fraction of digestate in place of water as a binding agent. The design and operation of components of the energy system will be optimized by means of computer simulations and experimental tests. Socio-economic challenges related to energy security affecting rural communities will be evaluated in environmental, economic and social analyses, focusing on the pilot regions of Settat in Morocco, and Nairobi in Kenya. Regional biomass availability for pyrolysis and biogas production will be evaluated in GIS analyses, and the exploitation potential for village-scale and on-farm deployment of the hybrid energy system will be estimated. A staff exchange plan will promote North-South staff exchange for specific activities. The project involves 10 partners from 5 countries, including 5 partners from the EU, and 5 partners from Africa.