Summary reports of the SSH knowledge brokerage programme for regional-level governance initiative have been published at https://sshcentre.eu/publications/. Dr Maria Kola-Bezka from the Department of Economic Policy and Regional Studies is co-author of two of them.
The SSH knowledge brokerage programme for regional-level governance initiative ran from September 2023 to July 2024 as part of the SSH CENTRE project funded by the European Commission and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under Horizon Europe. It comprised three phases. In the first phase, 30 participants (researchers from different European countries) were recruited, assigned to 6 thematic teams and initiated to work with 6 European cities. Dr Maria Kola-Bezka, due to her research interests, was placed in the team dealing with energy communities, working with the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands.
In the second stage, all teams participated in a 20-hour online training on knowledge brokering.
In the third phase, the knowledge and skills acquired during the training were put into practice. One of the major activities of the teams in this phase was to hold workshops in the cities. The workshop in Arnhem took place on 10-11 April 2024, and in addition to the team members, it was attended by representatives of the municipality, residents, representatives of social and energy cooperatives, representatives of other European cities and organisations working on social aspects of the energy transition.
During the workshop, participants discussed the opportunities and challenges of energy communities and proposed solutions to ensure their inclusivity. They also shared their personal experiences in this regard. The discussions revealed the complexity of creating and operating energy communities and illuminated the different contexts and considerations for including residents in the design of such initiatives. Combining these different perspectives and revising their earlier findings, Dr Maria Kola-Bezka's team developed recommendations for the Arnhem authorities (Towards Inclusive Energy Communities in Arnhem) and universal tools (Inclusivity Framework and Serious Game) that can be used by city authorities to increase the involvement of residents in energy transition.