Tag: Alba Iulia

From the 23rd-25th of October, 2019, 70 representatives of the project partners, and additional local stakeholders of +CityxChange project were gathered in Limerick, as part of our second consortium meeting. Taking advantage of this face-to-face interaction, we dived into key challenges that had arise during the first year of the project implementation and and developed joint outcomes which help us to move from the development phase to the deployment phase for the second year of +CityxChange.  In total, we organised 8 in-depth workshops, each with a moderator, a problem owner, a clearly defined problem statement and an intended outcome. 

Four sessions of 2 parallel workshops each were kicked-off, covering different topics such as: 

1. Glossary / Pictionary workshop: The aim of this workshop was to develop a common understanding and definitions of central project terms, discussing contested definitions, aligning different usage of terms across project and laying foundation for citizen-friendly definitions and visual descriptions. 
2. Monitoring and Evaluation workshop: The development of a standardised framework for the M&E, development of a data collation, management and analysis methodology, development of an interactive web based dashboard, and providing an early-warning scoring system were the main issues to work upon
3. Privacy and Smart City Data Model Structure:  The challenges discussed in this workshop, were related to IT architecture and data, open data portals, APIs, data protection impact assessment, informed consent, the Data Management Plan, and open research data.
4. Exploring and sharing ways towards citizen-led energy transitions (Storytelling Workshop): The workshop aimed at exploring ways of creating a better understanding of the experiences, challenges, failures and successes of similar projects in engaging citizens as well as fostering interactive and progressive exchanges between external participants and the +CityxChange team.
5. Common Energy Market: During the workshop, the participants reviewed status and learning points from the first year, what to expect in year 2, and how to improve learning between Lighthouse and Follower Cities. In addition, important new knowledge was discussed of how to organize a local energy market so it stimulates the PEB process, principles for the flexibility markets and community grid, as well as replication and investment / financial models and joint funding opportunities.
6. CommunityxChange: The workshop included, amongst others, an overview of learnings from the first year, how to transition from the development to the deployment phase, as well as first experiences with monitoring and evaluation, and opportunities for investment, scaling and replication.  
7. City Modelling: Current modeling on building level is not sufficient, and needs to be able to easier and faster work on community/neighborhood level for better scale-up into a neighborhood. This is needed to be addressed to any community for its operational performance. 
8. Transport / Mobility: The workshop worked on different approaches to transport and mobility in Europe, depending on size, geographies, etc. The project is trying to define the basic topics firsts and then have breakout discussions.

In addition to the parallel workshops, we held the 2nd General Assembly, and organised PEB Walks of the Limerick demo areas and demo sites. On the final day, we organised an excursion to the ESB Ardnacrusha Hydroelectric Power Station, as well as the Cliffs of Moher.

For more information on our workshops check our report on Intra-Project Collaboration Including Study Visits and Peer-to-Peer Workshops

During our second +CityxChange Consortium Meeting in Limerick, we organised a storytelling workshop with the objective to exchange knowledge and best practices internally and externally on how to involve citizens effectively. The workshop was facilitated by Limerick County and City Council and ISOCARP Institute and took place in the Fab Lab Limerick – a collaborative space to engage, produce, and co-create.

The workshop was attended by 31 project representatives, three international speakers (online) as well as local residents from the demonstration areas of Limerick. The workshop aimed at exploring ways of creating a better understanding of the experiences, challenges, failures and successes of similar projects in engaging citizens as well as fostering interactive and progressive exchanges between external participants and the +CityxChange team. As overarching problem statements, three key questions were formulated:

1. What techniques/tools/approaches are effective to inform citizens about energy-related concepts, projects, and necessary technical/financial details?

2. How can effective collaboration between a representative group of the society and projects/cities be achieved? Which methods work; which do not? How to reach out to those who are usually not involved?

3. How do behavioural changes evolve? What does it take to reach a community-driven process in which citizens take the leading role and become proactive prosumers?

With this starting point, the first part of the workshop was dedicated to learning from other projects and individuals working on similar challenges. Muriël Pels, advisor for international cooperation and EU funding affairs (H2020) at Municipality Utrecht and project partner of +CityxChange’s sister project IRIS presented the approach, challenges and successes in generating support from the residents in IRIS’ demonstration area in Utrecht. Ariane Lelieveld, one of the initiators of Blijstroom in Rotterdam, presented the motivation, and ups and downs of the solely community-run project in Rotterdam. Lastly, John W. Lee, the community representative of Tallaght, a community outside of Dublin, shared his story how to collectively transform their community into a more sustainable and energy-neutral one.

Afterwards, the three external speakers discussed the three above-mentioned questions with smaller groups, accompanied by a collaborative brainstorming on best practices, learned lessons, and promising approaches. A compilation of the results and a detailed overview will be published on our project website soon. If you have questions or comments, please contact us.