CIMULACT has as a main objective to add to the relevance and accountability of European research and innovation – Horizon 2020 as well as national - by engaging citizens and stakeholders in co-creation of research agendas based on real and validated societal visions, needs and demands. The project will expand the outlook and debate on STI issues, increase scientific literacy in a broad sense, which includes the understanding of the societal role of Science, Technology and innovation (STI), and create shared understanding between scientific stakeholders, policy-makers and citizens. This multi-actor approach will embrace EU28 plus Norway and Switzerland. The CIMULTACT builds on the principle/conviction that the collective intelligence of society gives Europe a competitive advantage, which may be activated to strengthen the relevance of the European science and technology system. By establishing genuine dialogue between citizens, stakeholders, scientists, and policymakers visions and scenarios for the desirable futures will be developed and debated, and transformed into recommendations and suggestions for research and innovation policies and topics. In short, CIMULACT will ● Create vision and scenarios that connect societal needs with future expected advances in Science and their impact on technology, society, environment etc. in connection to the grand challenges ● Provide concrete input to Horizon 2020 through recommendations and policy options for R&I and simulated calls for the Horizon2020 Work Programmes. ● Engage citizens and stakeholders in a highly participatory debate/consultation/process on scenarios for desirable sustainable futures and research ● Build capacities in citizen and multi-actor engagement in R&I through development, experimentation, training and assessment of methods for engagement ● Facilitate dialogue and shared understanding between policymakers, citizens, and stakeholders ● Reveal the relative merits of the citizen focussed consultations

Considerable challenges remain today regarding Europe´s transition towards a decarbonised energy system that meets the economic and social needs of its citizens. Rebound effects, that is, a full or partial cancelling-out of efficiency gains over time through increased overall energy use, highlight the centrality of consumption in multi-scalar decarbonisation efforts, urgently requiring attention from scientists and policy makers. Calls also abound for innovative, research-led programmes to enhance the social acceptability of energy transition initiatives and technologies. Understanding how culture-specific views and practices and energy policy and governance both shape and reflect individual and collective energy choices is of paramount importance for the success of the Energy Union. ENERGISE responds directly to these challenges by engaging in frontier energy consumption scholarship. Recognising the persistence of diverse energy cultures, both within and between countries, ENERGISE offers an ambitious social science programme to enhance understanding of changes in energy consumption practices across 30 European countries. Moving beyond state-of-the-art research, ENERGISE theoretically frames and empirically investigates socio-economic, cultural, political and gender aspects of the energy transition. It also examines how routines and ruptures (re)shape household energy consumption practices. Adopting a cutting-edge Living Labs approach, designed specifically to facilitate cross-cultural comparisons, ENERGISE fuses tools for changing individual- and community-level energy consumption with a novel method for energy sustainability assessment. ENERGISE will open new research horizons and greatly enhance Europe’s capacity for high-impact, gender-sensitive consumption research. It also offers timely support for public- and private-sector decision-makers who grapple with the design and implementation of measures to effectively reduce household energy consumption.

save@work focusses on overcoming the barriers to energy saving practices in public office buildings and changing the behaviour of public sector employees at work place. A minimum of 9000 employees in at least 180 public office buildings (administrative buildings - municipal/regional or federal state operated) from nine countries will compete in a year-long energy saving contest to achieve the highest energy savings possible compared to the previous year. Throughout the competition participants will benefit from expert knowledge provided by the partners; a web-based Energy Saving Online Tool (feedback system) which helps to visualise actual energy consumption and savings made by each building; tailor made information and campaign materials and the exchange of experience with other participants. The energy saving competition between public office buildings is embedded in an energy quality management system: Analysis – Development of Measures – Implementation – Monitoring and Continuation, which ensures an individual, professional goal-oriented and sustainable approach for realising energy savings. It is projected that the project will lead to 13 GWh primary energy saved and 3,100 t of CO2 avoided in public buildings across Europe. Support from behavioural change experts and an accompanying evaluation of the implemented measures and results will help provide important insights useful for both project implementation as well as future initiatives in this field. Factors of success, barriers and the impact of the project in respect to mid- and long-term changes will be analysed. Project activities and results will be disseminated through a wide communication campaign to the public, as well as other stakeholders in public administrations and academic institutions. By providing a complete set of strategies and materials needed to replicate this project, our goal is to inspire others to follow our lead and develop energy efficient offices of the future.

The IPCC concludeThe IPCC concludes in their Special Report on Global Warming that limiting global temperature increase needs demand-side actions and lifestyle changes. Previous attempts to realise demand-side changes have been hampered by several factors: First, there is very limited quantitative data showing how much a proposed change in lifestyle would contribute to climate change mitigation. Thus, policy makers and citizens lack guidance to make informed choices. Second, there is still limited evidence of public acceptance of drastic changes. This has led to internationally uncoordinated policies and to policies that will very likely fall short on having sufficient impact. Third, policies have usually promoted changes of individual behaviour without addressing structural constraints or structural drivers of unsustainable lifestyles. This has led to policies that remain ineffective and frustrate citizens who wish to make positive lifestyle choices. We aim to address all three of the above issues, by connecting an analysis of individual lifestyle perspectives, on household level, with policies and socio-economic structures, on all levels from international to local. The analysis will be structured according to the emerging 1.5-degree lifestyles approach, which members of the consortium have helped to define. The advantage of a lifestyle-oriented approach is to link concrete transformations of lifestyle by individuals to transformations of the structural context by policies, economic, and societal institutions. This inclusive approach is original in terms of a research strategy. In practical terms, it is very promising as it offers concrete guidance and as it can be scaled to political, social, and economic capacities on regional to (supra-) national levels. We pursue our aims using quantitative and qualitative methods, country-level assessments and sector-based case studies, as well as innovative participatory formats and a broad range of communication methods.

EnergyPROSPECTS (PROactive Strategies and Policies for Energy Citizenship Transformation) will work with a critical understanding of energy citizenship that is grounded in state-of-the-art SSH insights. Our 3-year project aims to develop a broad understanding of energy citizenship, which we understand as a policy concept, a socio-technical imaginary, a knowing-of-governance, i.e. a social construction of desirable/normal civic agency in future energy systems. We identify and examine a range of cross-cutting issues in energy citizenship, which will inform iterative typology development and criteria for case selection. Drawing on existing databases and a search for new cases, we will select 500 initiatives and undertake mapping and typology refinement exercises to demonstrate the depth/breadth of the energy citizenship concept in theory and practice. 40 cases will be selected for in-depth analysis exploring development, evaluation, intermediaries, institutions, governance and ICT in energy systems. Using a multi-actor perspective, we will develop an empowerment toolkit for practitioners and citizens, co-create viable strategies, and develop new business and social innovation models, and new forms of organisation to advance energy citizenship. A critical part of the research involves analysing the external and internal contextual conditions as they support or hinder energy citizenship in its various forms. Based on the analysis we will match suitable models and forms of organisation with different countries, regions and contexts. We will conduct a citizen survey to appraise the validity of various scenarios and discuss and refine results in citizen workshops and policy forums. We will produce practical policy outputs which will be revised with policy actors in knowledge exchange workshops. Overall the project will advance state-of-the-art energy research and provide recommendations for harnessing energy citizenship to achieve energy and decarbonisation goals in Europe.