CO2CARE aims to support the large scale demonstration of CCS technology by addressing the research requirements of CO2 storage site abandonment. It will deliver technologies and procedures for abandonment and post-closure safety, satisfying the regulatory requirements for transfer of responsibility. The project will focus on three key areas: well abandonment and long-term integrity; reservoir management and prediction from closure to the long-term; risk management methodologies for long-term safety. Objectives will be achieved via integrated laboratory research, field experiments and state-of-the-art numerical modelling, supported by literature review and data from a rich portfolio of real storage sites, covering a wide range of geological and geographical settings.CO2CARE will develop plugging techniques to ensure long-term well integrity; study the factors critical to long-term site safety; develop monitoring methods for leakage detection; investigate and develop remediation technologies. Predictive modelling approaches will be assessed for their ability to help define acceptance criteria. Risk management procedures and tools to assess post-closure system performance will be developed. Integrating these, the technical criteria necessary to assess whether a site meets the high level requirements for transfer of responsibility defined by the EU Directive will be established.The technologies developed will be implemented at the Ketzin site and dry-run applications for site abandonment will be developed for hypothetical closure scenarios at Sleipner and K12-B. Participation of partners from the US, Canada, Japan and Australia and data obtained from current and closed sites will add to the field monitoring database and place the results of CO2CARE in a world-wide perspective.Research findings will be presented as best-practice guidelines. Dissemination strategy will deliver results to a wide range of international stakeholders and the general public.