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This study examines the performance of the forested land ownership by farmers in Poland this paper compares the efficiency of farms reporting a portion of their operated land as a forest with those that do not own any forested land. Using FADN data, the study focuses first on cost efficiency, which was estimated using the fixed effects stochastic cost frontier model (Kumbakhar and Knox Lovell, 2003). A generalized multiproduct translog cost function (Caves, Christensen, and Tretheway, 1980) was selected to represent the deterministic part of the cost function because it imposes fewer a-priori restrictions than other functional forms commonly used for the task. The efficiency scores (i.e., the fixed effects) were subject to further analysis, to establish the differences between farms with and without forest land (where forest land was measured as the proportion of the total farm area that was under forest land). The results strongly indicated, both in aggregate and considering estimates by farm type, that most of the farms with forest land were relatively less efficient than farms without them. Because the average farm size has been steadily increasing (although it remains relatively small) in response to a decreasing farm numbers in Poland, while the commercial agricultural production contracts in some peripheral areas without creating a shortage of food or agricultural commodities, there is an opportunity to reallocate land from its current uses to reforestation on farms already managing small groves. The speed of reallocating land will, however, depend greatly on ability of forested land to generate a stream of income. Given the FADN data, the transfer of all remaining agricultural land operated by farms with forested acreage to reforestation would add about 170 thousand hectares of privately owned forests in Poland. Additionally, the transition of farms owing woodlands may lead to their new role in the national environmental policy and efforts to cut the greenhouse gas emissions.

With this poster, Dr. Agata Dembek ( Kozminski University, Warsaw) presented the SONNET project at the TIPC (Transformative Innovation Policy Conference) in Valencia, November 2019, on behalf of the SONNET team. SONNET aims to co-create a rich understanding of the diversity, processes, contributions, success and future potentials of social innovation in the energy sector (SIE). Our empirical work bridges qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches in an innovative research design. Among other research activities, given its focus on urban areas as major hubs for SIE, SONNET conducts six transdisciplinary SIE City Labs to experiment with new forms of SIE and learn about how multiple actors can harness the potential of SIE.

The present paper focuses on the energy system of the municipality of Bressanone-Brixen, located in the North of Italy. The aim of this paper is to investigate various possible energy scenarios for this case study in order to improve the overall efficiency of the system. The different scenarios include high penetration of photovoltaics at urban level, considering the maximum rooftop PV potential of the local area. Different solutions have been analyzed in order to study the handling of the consequent excess of electricity production. Electric storage and a solution combining heat pumps and thermal storage have been evaluated to maximize the local use of the generated electricity. A deterministic approach (without the use of an optimization algorithm) and a heuristic optimization approach have been applied to evaluate the different possible configurations. The present analysis can be of interest for other cities in a mountain environment where the production from renewables is limited by orographic constraints, energy consumption per capita is higher and stronger resiliency to climate change is needed. International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, Vol 10 (2016)

Sustainable Development requires an increase in the use of renewable energy sources as opposed to nonrenewable ones. The paper presents a Life Cycle Analysis of chosen heat sources including information concerning environmental impact. The most popular sources to be considered include as follows: natural gas, coal, culm, heating oil, wood and geothermal heat. Prices are taken from the 2002/2003 heating season in Poland. From an economical standpoint the best choices are coal, culm or wood. The heating pump is a worse solution due to the high investment at the starting point of exploitation. From both an ecological and economical perspective the best heating source is wood. The heating pump is a very promising device but a large decrease in the acquisition cost is necessary for it to become a competitive option.

AgroFossilFree H2020 project was presented in the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition (EUBCE) and this poster is part of the presentation regarding Strategies and Technologies to Achieve a European Fossil-Energy-Free Agriculture. It was presented in the context of the Topic: Sustainable Bioeconomy: Impacts and Policies and Subtopic: Biomass Strategies and Policies Towards a Bioeconomy.

Household consumes various forms of energy all day, every day. This applies both to the electricity needed for powering of appliances and lighting, heat used for heating and fuels (used to generate the heat required for heating, cooking and transport). Individual household consumes significant quantities of energy per year. The rationalization of its use can lead not only to reduce energy bills, but also reduce environmental pollution by reducing emissions of harmful substances into the environment. Saving energy at home does not have to be associated with the use of complex and expensive equipment managing power consumption. In many cases it is possible to achieve considerable energy savings with use of simple low investment or non-investment methods. This paper shows simple methods of heat consumption savings that can be used in households and everyday life. ENERGYREGION - 2007-2013 Central Europe Programme co-financed by the ERDF

This deliverable provides an analysis of the barriers and drivers for the establishment of renewable community energy, particularly Renewable Energy Communities as defined in the EU Renewable Energy Directive recast. The analysis considers the regional, environmental, legal and social contexts of five selected target regions: Balearic and Canary Islands (Spain), Latvia, Norte (Portugal), Norway and Warmian-Masurian (Poland). These target regions were selected based on a low deployment of renewable community energy. The analysis addresses a diversity of technologies and rationalities such as energy security (island communities), tourism, farming, as well as social motivations and behavioural aspects relevant for promoting renewable community energy. Our findings in this deliverable are drawn from focus groups as well as individual interviews with potential REC actors (citizens, local authorities, and SMEs). This method enables qualitative and detailed understanding of the participants’ role or involvement in the establishment of RECs, including which technologies they are interested in, their social motivations for engaging in RECs, organisational structure, how they try to promote RECs, who they cooperate with and what they perceive as key impediments for the establishment and running of RECs.

The purpose of this document is to examine the challenges that E-RIHS needs to address to develop into a sustainable infrastructure, as well as the solutions to address these challenges. The Agenda for Smart Future Innovation in E-RIHS is conceived as an operational document setting out the priorities for the medium- and long-term sustainable development of E-RIHS in relation to the funding opportunities at regional, national and European levels. The aim is to align these priorities with national and regional research and innovation policies. The priorities are based on the seven challenges identified in the EC staff working document "Sustainable European Research Infrastructures – A call for action"1. The Agenda is therefore structured into seven chapters that systematically explore the existing E-RIHS documents and strategies and relate them to the priorities. A further additional chapter explores long-term multi-level funding opportunities, especially by linking the specialisation of E-RIHS National Nodes with the national/regional Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). This Agenda comes at a crucial point in the lifetime of E-RIHS: the E-RIHS Preparatory Phase project having been completed (2017-2020), the ERIC process ongoing, access being carried out through the IPERION HS project (2020-2024), and the E-RIHS Implementation Phase project ongoing (2022-2024). The work for the preparation of this Agenda was carried out in the frame of IPERION HS project WP 6: Task 6.2 Sustainability: a strategy for smart future innovation based on identification of specialisations across national nodes.

Over the past decades, the number of cars has been increasing around the world rapidly. In effect, the demand for road space and space for parking has also been growing. At the same time, especially in town centres, space is limited, which leads to many urban conflicts. Our cities are automobile-dependent, which means that transportation and land use patterns favour car users and at the same time create less accessible circumstances for other means of transport, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists. It excludes vulnerable and marginalised groups and harms the majority of inhabitants. There is a need for a different distribution of the forms of mobility, in particular in terms of sustainable development and climate change mitigation. It finds confirmation in many European agreements. The European Union has been dealing with sustainable development and mobility for several years. The results of it are the Green and White Papers. The newest documents like the European Green Deal and the New Leipzig Charter focus on sustainable transformation, which leads to climate neutrality. The main aim is to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. It also concerns the topic of urban mobility. In Poland, transport problems began to increase in the second half of the 20th century. The transition to a market economy led to the decapitalization of transport networks. As a result, differences between regions increased and the accessibility of many areas in the national and European systems deteriorated. The problem concerns especially small towns, where the resignation from public transport is common. and leads to exclusion. Zgierz is a town located in central Poland, in the vicinity of Lodz, the third-largest city in the country. Due to the collapse of the textile and chemical industries, Zgierz faced the need to transform its economic profile, which it has not dealt with yet. Moreover, the negative impact of transportation compounds the effect of the degradation. The problem is the most visible in the centre area due to the radial layout of streets and the lack of ring roads. This study examines the negative impact of transport and mobility inequality in a small town in Poland. Using the case study method it identifies diverse aspects in which users of different means of transport are not treated equally. It analyses traffic congestion, demand for space, barriers in public spaces, road safety and air pollution. It also compares the results of analyses with European guidelines and offers some key recommendations. CITIES 20.50 – Creating Habitats for the 3rd Millennium: Smart – Sustainable – Climate Neutral. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2021, 26th International Conference on Urban Development and Regional Planning in the Information Society, 525-534

Overview SONNET Research Briefs: Research Brief #1: Avelino, Flor (2020) A transformative social innovation perspective on the diversity, contributions and processes of social innovation. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #2a: Hielscher, Sabine (2019) New institutionalism: Examining the processes of social innovation initiatives. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #2b: Hielscher, Sabine (2020) Possible ways to explore the processes and contributions of SIE-initiatives. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #3: Fraaije, M., Wittmayer, J.M. & T. de Geus (2020) The empirical diversity of social innovation in energy. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #4: Winzer, C., Schmid, B., Dzukowski, T. & D. Wemyss (2019) Defining the success of social innovation in energy. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #5: Marie-Charlotte Guetlein, Joachim Schleich (2019) Insights on the future potentials of social innovations in energy. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #6: Wittmayer, J.M., Dütschke, E., & M. Fraaije (2020) Research brief on sociocultural aspects of social innovation in energy – a first draft. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #7: Stadler, M., Avelino, F., Brugger, H., Strumińska-Kutra, M. and K. Rogge (2020) A socio-political focus on social innovation in energy: drivers, barriers and contributions. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #8: Wemyss, D., Hielscher, S., Vernay, Ranville, Struminska, M. & A. Dembek (2019) Research brief on socio-economic issues of social innovation in energy. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #9: Struminska-Kutra, M., Dembek, A., Stasik, A. & B. Rok (2019) City Labs. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498