SMARTEES – Social innovation Modelling Approaches to Realizing Transition to Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

SMARTEES

Back Completed Start date: 01.05.2018 End date: 31.10.2021 Website

ACTIVITY INFORMATION

What we did

Understanding citizen acceptance of the Energy Union, responsiveness to socioeconomic incentives for increased ownership, and prosumerism requires a multidisciplinary understanding of social systems and inclusiveness and robustness of policymaking depends on having empirically and theoretically grounded methodological tools to assess and adapt policy strategies. SMARTEES addresses this need by an iterative process: (1) integration of theories and methodologies of social innovation and agent-based socio-economic simulation in a comprehensive, flexible framework; (2) unprecedented data collection and integration in five trans-European case clusters in the domains of consumer-driven regenerative energy production, energy efficiency in buildings, low-carbon regional transport and consumer empowerment; (3) dynamic, multilevel agent-based models of successful innovation transfer; which ultimately lead to (4) a policy sandbox which allows a realistic prospective analysis of existing and future policy and market incentive scenarios. Each case cluster addresses a particular social innovation and consists of two reference cases and 4-5 followers. This enables SMARTEES to study the upscaling and replicability in different contexts. The policy sandbox is developed in a co-constructive process with users on the case level and in policymakers workshops on the European level. By doing this, SMARTEES contributes to robust and adaptive future policymaking, understanding of barriers and sources of resistance, the effects of the Energy Union on vulnerable consumer groups, genders and cultures. Furthermore, SMARTEES substantially drives advancement of social innovation and social simulation research by dynamic modelling of supply chains, companies, social groups, cities and neighbourhoods. In addition to making all modelling code and findings publically available, SMARTEES also ensures long term impact of the project by developing a commercialized version of the policy sandbox tool.

How we tracked

Expected Impact #1: Socioeconomic incentive structures: Impact will be created on i) the scientific community, ii) the policy-maker level, and iii) related industry and their branch associations. ACHIEVEMENT of the respective impact will be judged based upon i) number of publications in renowned scientific journals, ii) number of citations of SMARTEES in policy-papers and invitations to gatherings of policymakers to present SMARTEES outcomes, and iii) number of presentations held at industrial fora such as the Energy Utility Week, or branch meetings and expos." Expected Impact #2: frameworks that condition and structure citizen participation: Impact will be created on i) political and legal science, ii) policymakers involved in developing governance structures, iii) the management level of the private sector, and iv) and decision-makers with respect of public procurement. Achievement of the respective impact will be judged based upon i) number of publications in journals, books, and conference proceedings, ii) number of citations of SMARTEES in policy papers and invitations to gatherings of policymakers of all levels (municipality/regional/national/EU), and iii) the number of talks, presentations and panel discussions with vendors of related technologies and relevant decision makers from private entities as well as public bodies.

What we achieved

Within this project ICLEI Europe is responsible for the exploitation & dissemination. This includes: to develop and curate the SMARTEES multimedia presence throughout the project and after the project, to develop a dissemination and exploitation strategy for the SMARTEES results to all relevant stakeholder groups, to monitor the implementation of the dissemination and exploitation activities and document the impact, to develop and program the policy sandbox IT tool in a light and pro version, including developing and implementing the workshop concept.