EC² at CINEA workshop on energy transition
November 24, 2022
Team members from ZSI and GEN Europe representing our consortium at CINEA
Exploring the energy transition through the Social Sciences and Humanities
On November 22nd, the eight projects currently funded by Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe to work on social sciences and humanities research (SSH) for the energy transition came together at an event hosted by CINEA, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency. Representing EC² were Elisabeth Unterfrauner and Judith Feichtinger from coordinating partner ZSI, and Fran Whitlock from dissemination partner GEN Europe.
As CINEA head of unit Robert Goodchild noted in his introduction to the day, while technical innovation is needed for the energy transition, alongside this social acceptance and engagement are crucial - which is where SSH projects such as EC² come in. It was exciting to finally connect face-to-face with representatives of other SSH projects (learn more about them on our sister projects page) and discovering the many potential synergies in our research, policy and dissemination work.
Working together to find synergies
It became clear that as many of our projects transition from the research phase to creating policy, education and dissemination resources from the research, there will be many opportunities for close collaboration. Between our projects we have worked on defining energy citizenship from various angles; compiled dozens of cases studies of energy communities and citizenship; researched barriers and facilitators to energy citizenship in different areas; and will be creating policy recommendations and educational materials. We look forward to collaborating closely in the coming months and years to ensure all our work on supporting a citizen-led energy transition has the greatest possible impact.
