In order to mitigate climate change effects, urgent action is required in all sectors of the economy to significantly reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emission. Energy System Models (ESM) are tools that help energy analysts, planners and policy makers to rationally describe energy systems and systematically evaluate the impacts of long-term scenarios. On the supply side, ESMs have provided useful results, but however, on the demand side, they lack the degree of accuracy required for proper characterization of, among others, the use of energy in households. One of the intrinsic difficulties is that energy demand in the residential sector is influenced by a myriad of factors (like the high diversity of dwellings, socio-economic conditions of the social/family units, and behavioral-related consumption patterns) that cannot easily be accounted for in traditional ESMs. To overcome this challenge, the novel Causal Modeling will be used to quantitatively analyse human decision making in energy consumption and their reactions to interventions (e.g. policy changes). This will be combined with an innovative FFORMA approach which allows multiple different load profiles to be categorised by a set of vectors describing it. WHY will therefore create innovative methodologies for short and long term load forecasting. The WHY modeling will allow to directly assess the impact of a multitude of policies on the energy system as well as performing both ex-ante and ex-post assessment over policy measures. WHY will therefore contribute to a holistic understanding of household energy consumption and improved demand modelling. The WHY toolkit will be used to assess several scenarios simulating different policy measures. Integration with widely-used ESMs (PRIMES, TIMES) will be demonstrated and the results analyzed. All results will be open-sourced to maximize uptake, and be widely disseminated to diverse target audiences (i.e. DSOs, energy companies, policy makers, researchers).

From the second half of the twentieth century, forgiveness has come to occupy an important place in political transition processes, both in the passage from dictatorship to democracy and at the end of violent internal political conflicts. The implications of forgiveness are not limited to moral or religious issues, but also involve social, political and legal aspects that further complicate the widely disparate interpretations of its conditions (acknowledgement of fault, repentance, etc.) and purposes (reconciliation, social cohesion, justice, etc.). FORGIVEBASQ aims to study the uses of forgiveness in the Basque conflict and its role in the current peace process. Firstly, I will develop a theoretical framework on forgiveness by adopting a philosophical approach that incorporates a transversal moral, political and social perspective and helps to illustrate its complex transformations and diverse practices. This transdisciplinary theoretical framework will be articulated around three axes: history, areas and conditions/purposes of forgiveness. Secondly, a diachronic study of forgiveness in the Basque context will be carried out by means of a documentary analysis. This will serve to identify and explain how forgiveness has been present in the Basque conflict, what role it plays in the peace process, how it has evolved and been transformed, and the key points at which forgiveness emerged in the political and social debate. Previously developed analytical tools will be employed in this endeavor. Training activities and academic dissemination measures will be complemented by transfer activities that include meetings and public activities with Basque institutions and social organizations. This will go hand-in-hand with the development of educational resources that will use the project findings to achieve a significant social impact.

SOCIO-BEE proposes that community engagement and social innovation combined with Citizen Science (CS) through emerging technologies and playful interaction can bridge the gap between the capacity of communities to adopt more sustainable behaviours aligned with environmental policy objectives and between the citizen intentions and the real behaviour to act in favour of the environment (in this project, to reduce air pollution). Furthermore, community engagement can raise other citizens’ awareness of climate change and their own responses to it, through experimentation, better monitoring, and observation of the environment. This idea is emphasised in this project through the metaphor of bees’ behaviour (with queens, working and drone bees as main CS actors), interested stakeholders that aim at learning from results of CS evidence-based research (honey bears) and the Citizen Science hives as incubators of CS ideas and projects that will be tested in three different pilot sites (Ancona, Marousi and Ancona) and with different population: elderly people, everyday commuters and young adults, respectively. The SOCIO-BEE project ambitions the scalable activation of changes in citizens’ behaviour in support of pro-environment action groups, local sponsors, voluntary sector and policies in cities. This process will be carried out through low-cost technological innovations (CS enablers within the SOCIO BEE platform), together with the creation of proper instruments for institutions (Whitebook and toolkits with recommendations) that will contribute to the replication, upscaling, massive adoption and to the duration of the SOCIO-BEE project. The solution sustainability and maximum outreach will be ensured by proposing a set of public-private partnerships schemes and innovative targeted communication means to streamline exploitation and accessibility to the project impacts.

Devising and implementing GEPs in higher education institutions or research centers is a formal requirement to enhance actions that favor real and effective equality between women and men. While this is a reality, its effectiveness is bound to a series of factors, like the suitability of the agents involved in its setting-up, the strategic alliances built, and the awareness raised on the potential resistances –both tangible and intangible- that are to be faced in its implementation and prevent real structural changes in these organisations. Every GEP should be understood as a process that is born out of the will to grow and become stronger so that equality between women and men can be promoted and legitimised. One way to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of a GEP is to collect and incorporate the expertise, knowledge and experience of previous projects. For this reason, our project aims to implement 6 equality plans in 6 organizations (5 Universities and 1 Research Funding Organization) applying the criteria established and tested by GEAR-tools. The goal is to advance in the application and evaluation of equality measures in universities with the support of non-university entities that favor their promotion, impulse, evaluation and development. The GEPs will pursue the recognition and promotion of the research career of women, the incorporation of women in decision-making positions, and the promotion of a culture of equality in organizations. To this end, the focus will be on the deconstruction of sexual roles in order to unveil often unconscious gender biases that operate in processes of decision-making, selection and promotion of people and in the attribution of value and recognition.

Lower population and business density make it more challenging to develop private businesses and public services in rural areas, negatively impacting socio-economic indicators. Rural areas are key to solve climate change, food, biomass and energy challenges. Favourable climate for entrepreneurship is needed for better provision of jobs, basic services, including health and care, connectivity, smart transport, energy solutions and attractiveness as whole, overcoming digital divide between rural and urban areas. AURORAL focus on delivering a digital environment of interoperable services through platforms able to trigger dynamic rural ecosystems of innovation chains, applications and services. Thus, AURORAL contributes to increasing economic growth in rural areas and to tackle significant societal challenges. AURORAL digital environment is demonstrated by cost-efficient and flexible cross-domain applications through large-scale pilots in five European regions. AURORAL digital environment builds on an open, API-based, interoperable and federated IoT architecture and includes a reference implementation supporting flexible integration of heterogeneous services, bridging the interoperability gap of the smart object platforms and creating markets for services in rural areas. AURORAL digital environment addresses the integration of data and information across different platforms, establishment of an open market place, large-scale demonstration, multiplication of novel applications, the leverage of infrastructure and inclusion of public services. AURORAL pilots follow an evolutionary agile, well-delineated, and lean approach demonstrated in large-scale applications capable of meeting social and economic objectives critical to boost new rural services and business. AURORAL digital environment supports a vibrant ecosystem of developers, service providers and user communities and addresses barriers currently opposing the socio-economic development of rural areas.