JustWind4All aims to support the acceleration of on- and offshore wind energy through just and effective governance, i.e., the creation of synergies among people and organisations to coordinate and participate in actions around wind energy strategies and deployment. To this end, JustWind4All develops knowledge, practical guidelines, instruments, strategies, and trainings for just and effective decision-making in on- and offshore wind energy governance. This move towards more effective and just decision-making processes and structures is crucial in the context of ambitious EU renewable energy targets, which require installing more and larger on- and offshore wind farms, speeding up the planning and deployment processes whilst ensuring no one is left behind. JustWind4All makes use of a rigorous trans- and interdisciplinary multi-method research design. It combines holistic impact assessment based on a social-ecological approach with techno-economic modelling to assess a variety of social, environmental, technical, and economic impacts and/or benefits to improve decision-making. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies (e.g., case studies, multicriteria mapping) help to investigate ways to foster wind energy citizenship with a particular focus on participation, energy justice and social innovation. Through transdisciplinary knowledge co-production in Wind Labs, JustWind4All makes the most out of novel resources i.e., practices (repowering), technologies (airborne, floating) and regions (e.g., Bulgaria) and engages in knowledge co-production with wind energy governance actors for fit-for-purpose outcomes. A cutting-edge Wind Forum network enables knowledge exchange and dialogue between multiple stakeholders across policy, community, market and third sector – it ensures that JustWind4All’s knowledge, practical guidelines, instruments, strategies, and training activities have maximum impact.

Trans4Demo is an evidence-based and impact-driven set of actions to address contentious politics arising from climate change and sustainable transitions. These conflicts are seen as a critical challenge for democratic systems, and their importance is expected to grow in the future. Authoritarian tendencies and right-wing populism have weakened social cohesion, making large parts of EU populations less willing to change their practices and hindering responses to climate challenges. The main objective of the project is to investigate the role and evolution of diverse forms of opposition and contentious politics of sustainability transitions, and their impact on democracy. We aim at delivering the temporality-sensitive conceptual framework, practical understandings, and policy recommendations to assist in democracy reinvigoration. By exploring these intersections, we identify specific scientific, consensus-based, and politically normative goals that political communities in diverse European contexts could pursue. Empirically, throughout the project, we will (1) focus on practical understandings of the role of various bottom-up mobilizations against the populist backdrop, (2) identify novel sites of constructive democratic engagement, and (3) address the role of trust in the democratic process, including the validity of electoral processes. Building on this, (4) we will provide sound, research-based policy recommendations that balance bottom-up and top-down perspectives for democratic renewal. To achieve these targets, we will employ triangulated and participatory methodologies, including case studies and future-oriented methods, developed in collaboration with societal actors involved in the project—from the initial design of the research agenda to fieldwork and dissemination activities.

PROSEU aims to enable the mainstreaming of the prosumer phenomenon into the European Energy Union. Prosumers are active energy users who both consume and produce renewable energy (RE). The growth of prosumerism all over Europe challenges current energy market structures and institutions. PROSEU research will look into new business models, market regulations, infrastructural integration, technology scenarios and energy policies. PROSEU’s interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary team will closely work together with RE Prosumer Initiatives (15 Living Labs), policymakers and other stakeholders from eight countries, following a quasi-experimental approach to learn how prosumer communities, start-ups and businesses are dealing with their own challenges, and to determine what incentive structures will enable the mainstreaming of RE Prosumerism, while safeguarding citizen participation, inclusiveness and transparency. Moving beyond a case by case and fragmented body of research on prosumers, PROSEU will build an integrated knowledge framework for a socio-political, socioeconomic, business and financial, technological, socio-technical and sociocultural understanding of RE prosumerism and coalesce in a comprehensive identification and assessment of incentive structures to enable the process of mainstreaming RE prosumers in the context of the energy transition.