The Energy-SHIFTS Forum has enhanced dialogue and cooperation between energy-related Social Sciences and Humanities (energy-SSH) stakeholders, to improve policy relating to the EU Energy Union. Our inclusive and engaging Forum – working with academia, policy, citizens, industry, NGOs, and media – facilitated collaborative knowledge generation and SSH-led debate on how energy challenges can be addressed through policies that place societal needs more centrally.
Energy-SHIFTS – “Energy Social sciences & Humanities Innovation Forum Targeting the SET-Plan” – responded to the latest phase of the EC’s support for energy-SSH research at the EU policy level. As is now widely recognised, rapid technological uptake is not the only factor in moving towards low-carbon energy systems. Critical social issues must be centrally considered from the earliest stages, including: democratic inclusion, burden-sharing, participation beyond niche groups, transformative governance, social acceptability, cultures, pervasive values, ethical responsibilities, etc. We also centrally involved EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) stakeholders (including industry) and a wide range of energy policy-facing roles.
Specifically, Energy-SHIFTS worked to:
o Inclusively broaden interactions (objective 1): by developing accessible guides to energy-SSH in EU policy and open databases of key individuals (WP1), through scoping workshops and masterclasses for key audiences (WP1/WP4), and via digital communications channels (WP5);
o Deepen interactions, based on SSH- and policy-led priorities (objectives 2 & 3): through expert SSH Working Groups with 100+ leading academics across 4 SET-Plan Topics (WP2), and via 1-1 policyworker-researcher dialogue on policy-led questions, across 90+ meetings (WP3);
o Evaluate novel collaboration mechanisms (objective 4): utilising SSH methods to implement and test novel interaction streams, e.g. Horizon Scanning (WP2), Fellowships (WP3);
o Collectively set future energy agendas (objective 5): using our SSH Priority Themes and research agendas from 4 Working Groups, we will work to directly inform future H2020/FP9 priorities, as well as the future of the SET-Plan itself.
This work has provided both reactive policy insights for the short-term and pro-active policy insights for the longer-term, thereby enabling evidence-based energy-SSH insights to successfully reach the ‘policy front line’. We involved 19,926+ stakeholders in our innovative activities (exceeding our target of 10,788+).
