Recently we have been working with FEUGA (Fundación Empresa Universidad Gallega) on a proposal for Citizens and industrial technologies call (NMBP-38-2020), SOCKET project. The proposal didn’t go through, but FEUGA reached back to us for another call they are interested in.
Proposals are expected to examine the factors affecting the emergence and effectiveness of energy citizenship and its potential for achieving the decarbonisation of the energy system and focus on one or several of the following questions:
- Is energy citizenship more likely to emerge locally, or at regional, national or supranational levels? For what reasons? - What is the relative importance of processes internal to relevant social groups (e.g., creating trust and connection, finding shared goals and solutions, building coalitions), as opposed to external environmental variables (e.g., relative openness of institutional or corporate environments, availability of sympathetic interlocutors, access to financial or other sources of support, legal or other obstacles)? - What impact does the digitisation of the energy system and the proliferation of social media have on the emergence and consolidation of energy citizenship? - Under what conditions is energy citizenship conducive to reaching broader policy goals, particularly the decarbonisation of the energy system, and under what conditions does it have the opposite effect?
Deadline: 01/09
They currently do not have a particular proposal, but with the University of Vigo they could contribute with the expertise in socioeconomic analysis, best practices, state of the art …etc., along with citizen engagement, communication and dissemination. A pilot case could be deployed in their region. They are willing to help build the consortium and find the coordinator.
Now, since this is EarthOS topic we could try to put the consortium together, maybe even propose a concept note @alberto? I know we talked about various energy calls @andreja but can’t remember were you considering this one? What do you think and do you know anyone working on it?
Not for this one, but I am in the contact with one regional energy agency from Croatia who is working on several energy H2020 calls, so I can ask them for their feedback and even for the partnership.
I had a call with my colleague, who is director of the regional energy agency and they are interested, especially in these energy citizenship topics, since they are involved in these activities in their region. They have experience in working in many H2020 projects with and on behalf of public authorities, so it could be an advantage for this project proposal and for the implementation of pilot action activities in their region too (if it is something the project consortium will agree on). They can contribute both in project development and implementation phase and they are ready to take part in writing parts.
But also, I believe that here we can offer our standard WP, with some adjustment and even ask Climate-KIC if FEUGA will not be able to find a lead partner.
Climate-KIC? They were interested to be involved in H2020 projects as coordinator, what do you think @alberto? And the energy agency could support with their expertise and knowledge. Or we can check with FEUGA if they maybe found an interested lead partner in the meantime.
We build a consortium with: C-KIC as a leading partner; possibly the Messina People’s Energy Company (ping @giacomo.pinaffo) ; and involve The Reef Network somehow, especially Fondazione Innovazione Civica in Bologna.
The proposal looks at the viability of highly resilient model: local, autonomous, “hackery” etc.
The “digitization and social media” angle takes on an open source flavor: can good, free-and-open tools for collaboration (from wikis to Arduino) really enable @matthias’s dream of a neighbourhood 24V DC grid?
I can write a concept note, after a 20 mins check-in with Matt.
I suggest that @marina and @andreja organize a meeting to run the idea past the possible partners.
… but I am a bit worried about a possible overlap between U Vigo and us. What are your thoughts, @marina? I would rather solve this before I write my concept note.
This is difficult to say as I don’t know them well, but I’m sure there are different ways they could contribute. I think it would be the best to have the concept and then reach out to them to check if they see a fit in the parts we identify as “weaker” in the sense no one from the partners you listed above can cover the tasks.
Call today with @akmunk to discuss a possible role for U Aalborg.
@marina, please look through this list of private sector offering themselves as partners. Anything interesting?
@giacomo.pinaffo, international cooperation is a priority. Do you have anyone interesting to pull in from your Med network? Also asking the same to @zmorda, and @Alessandro for Armenia, and @khatuna for Georgia.
@andreja, could you confirm with Josephine what Just Transitions test bed she is thinking about? Germany or Poland? And who is the formal organization?
Of the five ecovillages recommended by Robert, two have energy-related projects explicitly mentioned in their websites: Tamera, in Portugal, and [Niederkaufungen], in Germany. Tamera seems the most structured of the two; Niederkafungen is secular (non-religious, non-spiritual), which might make observation easier (or not).
About the regional agency, @andreja: I am now thinking to include them, accepting the costs of a larger partnership. A lot depends on anything they might have going on. If they (like Bologna) have initiatives on the ground, we could make a test bed in Croatia (WP2). If not, their role becomes more of supporting WP3, the policy side of things. Could you ask them? Or maybe organize a call?
I’ve checked with Josephine, they were thinking of Sachsen Anhalt (DE) and Rybnik (Poland) and she is waiting for a short description from their side in order to share it with us.
They can propose someone from local or regional level, as well a university link to a test bed, if we want more test beds.
Regarding the energy provider she can offer to make contacts with ENEL, ENGIE and EON.
I also contacted the regional agency and waiting for their feedback.
The industry partner does not need to be an energy provider. @trythis has suggested an insurer, for example. But if we go by that route, ENGIE seems the more interesting of the three.
These regions both work, but: what is it people are doing there? What is the local energy initiative? And: who would be the partner? The community of people? An NGO? The regional agency? If it is the regional agency, of course we would not involve the Croatians.
In the concept note, I tried to re-package our stuff that we are doing (C-KIC’s Deep Demonstration on Long Termism, the long-term pitch to REGIO, creating value for the Reef Network):
We immediately involved Fondazione di Comunità Messina. They will probably participate with their energy company, Solidarity and Energy. As the consortium got close to complete, we noticed that international cooperation was one of the priorities. How would we address that? I got the idea to talk to UNDP. So I wrote to Millie:
I am asking you to put together a group of innovative policy makers dealing with energy in MENA-CIS, and lead it via some coordination and a secretariat. This group:
Participates in delivering WP4 on policy.
Helps decline results in ways that are potentially more useful for neighborhood countries.
Helps disseminate any useful results “back home”, in their respective spaces.
The beauty of it is, you already know these people: they are the people the Innovation Hub already deals with. I find this an elegant move, because it is one stone that kills several birds:
You can turn around and create some extra value for the people you are working with in MENA-CIS countries.
They get close to cutting edge practices and tools.
The Commission has an international cooperation priority on this call.
We all get closer to European energy innovation policies, which are interesting and relevant (and potentially could go very wrong).
We even get paid for it!
And Millie replied in a very enthusiastic way:
this sounds fantastic!! […] Fully agree- massive opportunity and something where can actually leverage the technical knowledge we have on the ground.
So, we are starting to build a “pitch perfect” consortium, for reasons that I can explain if you want, but we are also broadening our channel to access both C-KIC and UNDP, and trying to create value for everyone involved. Even if we lose, we are building goodwill that could result in new business.
We are also considering another proposal with some of the same partners – this was an idea that came from Messina. I intend to work on both, but let Marina lead the RezNet one, and Andreja lead the EarthOS one. Both unit coordinators will need to coordinate: set deadlines, involve and manage people from the company and the partnership, myself included. This is starting to look like I would like to see the back office run.
Can you think of other efforts to make in the same vein?
