Project description
Rethinking energy access in sub-Saharan Africa
Large parts of sub-Saharan Africa still lack reliable access to electricity. In 2022, about 570 million people (more than half the region’s population) still lacked power, 130 million more than in 1990. Despite decades of investment, the number without reliable electricity remains high. Many international donors, including the EU, fund large electrification programmes, yet impact studies show that projects often end early and bring limited progress. The ERC-funded IntegrateEnergy project takes a different approach. Rather than focusing only on grid connections, it examines the services electricity enables, from irrigation to neonatal care and cold storage. The project’s goal is to explore how energy systems can better support development and livelihoods.
Objective
Current approaches to increasing energy access in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are not working. In 2022, 570 million people had no electricity access in SSA, 130 million more than in 1990 and 10 million more than in 2021. Energy poverty hinders much-needed progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many international donors, including the EU, are funding large energy access initiatives in SSA, but recent impact studies show that they often fail prematurely and create little wider SDG impact.
IntegrateEnergy proposes a paradigm shift towards integrated solutions that prioritise useful energy services such as irrigation, neonatal incubation or cold chains over mere electricity connections. Finding feasible options for systems integration captures key synergies for energy-enabled sustainable development (EESD). It requires to overcome four design failures of existing energy access initiatives: Conceptually, the initiatives view energy access as an end in itself. IntegrateEnergy displaces siloes with actionable systems integration. Strategically, the initiatives are guided by least-cost electrification rather than the needs of local people. IntegrateEnergy captures local visions of development and translates them into efficient, feasible strategic plans for EESD. Institutionally, the initiatives are highly fragmented. IntegrateEnergy examines feasible options for policy and institutional integration to govern EESD effectively. Operationally, current delivery models are limited to providing energy connections. IntegrateEnergy finds feasible modes of operation which reconceptualise value creation towards EESD.
∫Energy addresses the design failures, and their underlying theoretical gaps, through a ground-breaking, interdisciplinary mix of modelling, socio-technical analysis, initiative-based learning and co-production approaches. Combining them allows to produce robust forward-looking, historically-informed and experience-based pathways for EESD in SSA.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
42119 Wuppertal
Germany
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