New NUI Galway-led ENERGISE project seeks to transform energy use in households and communities across Europe and contribute to European policy-making on reducing energy consumption

ENERGISE is an innovative pan-European research initiative setup to achieve a greater scientific understanding of the social and cultural influences on energy consumption. Led by NUI Galway, and funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme for three years (2016-2019), ENERGISE will develop, test and assess options for a bottom-up transformation of energy use in households and communities across Europe. The ENERGISE consortium includes 10 research partners (universities, research institutes, enterprises and NGOs) from Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

ENERGISE stands for European Network for Research, Good Practice and Innovation for Sustainable Energy. The research team at NUI Galway are currently seeking to identify interesting initiatives for reducing energy consumption in households and communities across Ireland, and indeed Europe, inviting people to contact them about their ideas and projects. ENERGISE uses cutting edge research techniques (e.g. Living Labs) to directly observe existing energy cultures in a real-world setting and to test both household and community-level initiatives to reduce energy consumption.

Across Europe, there are a lot of people and organisations that take steps towards more sustainable, low-energy living and this initiative would like to showcase and learn from as many of these different sources as possible.

The ENERGISE team would like to hear and learn from:

• Those involved in a project that seeks to change the way people use and consume energy.
• Those promoting energy efficiency and lower energy consumption in households, for example an NGO, an energy agency, a business, a group of neighbours or a social club.

To participate send your contact details and basic information about your project, or a project you are aware of to: eimear.heaslip@nuigalway.ie or phone Dr Frances Fahy on 091 492315.

Dr Frances Fahy, Lead Investigator on the ENERGISE project, hopes that members of local community groups will get involved and let the NUI Galway team know about the many energy initiatives that are taking place all around the country: “Individual energy consumption is a function of who we are, where we come from, as well as the social and cultural contexts in which we live. We are really keen to hear from groups who are involved in any scale of activities that impact or try to influence the way people use and consume energy.”