We are living challenging times. Covid-19 is putting a strain on humanity, and especially on some categories of people: poor, old, disabled, and so on. Only with a collective response, and thanks to effective politics (on an healthcare, but also on an economic and social perspective), we can face the pandemics and all the problems it involves.
One challenge, however, should not eliminate the others. Transition to clean energy, as well as the contrast to climate change, remains a central pillar for the future of the planet, and of Europe in particular.
For this reason, we are delighted that, no matter the difficulties of the last months, SocialRES is regularly proceeding and is reaching important results, thanks to the activity of all the partners.
To name only a few progress, Abundance developed the world’s first crowdfunding council bond (more info here). Tractebel is developing its platform that will address the need of the local community at the level of individual households: the platform will be customized for the citizens of a residential neighbourhood in Bucharest. The Trinity College of Dublin launched two surveys, one addressed to existing customers and focused on getting motivations, demographics, feedback and suggestions; the other addressed to the general public focusing on getting attitudes, preferences and suggestions. The results will be analyzed and available soon.
Furthermore, next year we will launch a European Social Innovation Platform (ESIP), which aims to become a reference point for European professionals in the energy sector.
These are only some of the advancements of SocialRES, and 2021 promises to be a great year for our project with numerous milestones, deliverables and outputs.
Finally, let us be also a little self-celebrative: at the beginning of November, we also had our first real “exam”, the first review meeting with the EU Commission: we can say that we passed it with honors!
