Energise Europe

Across 30 European countries, researchers of ICIS, Maastricht University’s scientific institute for sustainable development, and their research partners are searching for projects that seek to change people’s energy consumption at home. The target is to collect information on 1,000 projects that will inspire the design and implementation of 16 Living Labs in eight countries to study individual and collective influences on energy consumption. Data from the Living Labs will be instrumental in the development and assessment of future energy consumption initiatives all over Europe. The project is called ENERGISE: European Network for Research, Good Practice and Innovation for Sustainable Energy. The ENERGISE consortium includes partners from Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Their call for participation: Are you involved in a project that seeks to change the amount of energy people use at home? Are you promoting energy efficiency and lower energy consumption in households? Whether you are an NGO, an energy agency, a business, a group of neighbours, a school or a sports club, ENERGISE would like to hear and learn from you!

Across Europe, there are a lot of people and organisations who already take steps towards more sustainable, low-energy living. ENERGISE would like to showcase and learn from as many as possible, so help is needed. If your project gets selected for inclusion in the overview of initiatives, it may contribute to European policy-making on reducing energy consumption. It may also gain international recognition by becoming part of a searchable database of 1,000+ initiatives on the ENERGISE website, and through scientific publications, policy papers and media reports.

ENERGISE is an innovative pan-European research initiative to achieve a greater scientific understanding of the social and cultural influences on energy consumption. Funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme for three years (2016-2019), ENERGISE develops, tests and assesses options for a bottom-up transformation of energy use in households and communities across Europe. ENERGISE uses cutting edge research techniques (e.g. Living Labs) to directly observe existing energy cultures in a real-world setting and to test both household and community-level initiatives to reduce energy consumption.

For more information or participation, please send an email to energise[at]maastrichtuniversity[dot]nl or visit the project website.