Kick-off meeting Zagreb
December 13, 2023Project EMERGE has started!
The EMERGE project has received funding from the European Union’s HORIZON programme with Project Number: 101118278
EMERGE brings together 11 multidisciplinary partners, including 9 different countries among Europe (EU) and Africa (AU) (5 in EU and 4 in AU) ensuring also a well-balanced countries coverture in the two continents, with the intention to connect knowledge, speed up the clean energy transition and capitalize the Project’s outputs.
The EMERGE project seeks to provide African policy makers, academics, investors, and citizens with the
tools and knowledge required to increase the production of clean energy and the sustainable use of resources while bridging cultural and socioeconomic divides. In order to simulate scenarios that optimize the use of current resources while taking into account social, climatic, economic, and technical constraints, EMERGE will co- design and test a Toolbox by integrating and building upon existing tools, methodologies, and approaches. Additionally, a Knowledge Base with a collection of initiatives, materials, and knowledge-exchange activities will be created. The North Western Africa (Morocco), Niger river region (Mali/Nigeria), and east Africa (Mozambique) are three African ecosystems where EMERGE will develop knowledge communities through a participatory approach.
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Specific Objective 1: Establish a network of African experts in energy system analysis through value-based design methodology that reflects on technical, economical, environmental and social aspects of energy planning (WP1,WP4) |
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A track record of successful collaborations between the partners, in addition to the partners' excellent expertise complementarity, guarantees effective communication across many nations, cultures, and disciplines as well as high-quality output. It's also important to note that several of the partners are top-tier European centers with significant ties to regional and global networks. The communication process is made easier and the overall risk of cooperation is reduced thanks to this extensive collaboration network. |
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Specific Objective 2: Connect with other AU-EU cooperation activities through liasation with similar project and initiatives, especially HLPD CCSE Partnership and awarded projects from HORIZON-CL5-2021-D3-03-01for deployment of sound strategy for exploitation and replication of EMERGE results (WP4, WP5, WP6) A track record of successful collaborations between the partners, in addition to the partners' excellent expertise complementarity, guarantees effective communication across many nations, cultures, and disciplines as well as high-quality output. It's also important to note that several of the partners are top-tier European centers with significant ties to regional and global networks. The communication process is made easier and the overall risk of cooperation is reduced thanks to this extensive collaboration network.
Specific Objective 3: Demonstrate innovative EMERGE Toolbox based on a cross-sectoral CSA for energy system analysis and planning as a support mechanism for the policy and decision-makers (WP2, WP3, WP4,WP5) Digital solutions and digital tools can unlock the potential of existing and newly built RES-based energy systems facilitating the global access to sustainable energy services both in EU and AU. At global level, the diffusion of such solutions is already consolidated but only a few of these can rely on a robust validation campaign and an affordable usability. EMERGE wants to convert the success stories within the digital-to-energy sector coming from the Consortium into robust decisional mechanisms for AU by promoting openness, accessibility and pragmatism: EMERGE Toolbox for public authorities and policy/decision makers should become the starting point for leveraging the adoption of sustainable and green strategies in the energy sector. The toolbox will be developed on a common system architecture (CSA) based on the previous methodologies and experiences that will enable evaluation of scenarios with economical, social, environmental and technical parameters. Actually, thanks to such EMERGE Toolbox, EU/AU policy makers will rely on user friendly digital for promoting environmental-friendly and cost-effective energy planning. For achieving this, EMERGE will have a dual nature: i) to adopt a dense validation campaign based on substantial involvement of test case communities and ii) guiding/training target users coming from test cases in the usage of project tools.
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Specific Objective 4: Identify and evaluate regulatory frameworks, energy markets and potential opportunities for clean energy technologies integration to foster an enabling environment for current and future energy transition of the African countries (WP1, WP4)
The EU energy community has received a boost in the adoption of clean and sustainable energy solutions thanks to the improvement in legislation. The same approach must be applied in AU for promoting clean energy systems adoption and generating awareness in this sense. However, the implementation of best practices and successful strategies is still depending on specific country conditions and local contexts. EMERGE wants to define a transversal methodology starting from on-the-field experience, via also the promotion of a massive stakeholders engagement campaign, in order to define transversal regulatory barriers and replicable virtuous mechanisms. This approach will enhance the role of the citizens and communities as stakeholders in the energy sector; enable frameworks that unlock new investments in RES; and overcome administrative, procedural, regulatory and legal barriers. In addition, EMERGE will provide EU and AU institutions with relevant information and lessons learnt to ensure a future transition in the energy sector. A variety of scenarios at medium/long term based on the most promising energy solutions will be assessed to identify the most suitable business models to bring different kind of benefits to the local community.
Specific Objective 5: Promote, raise awareness and facilitate the adoption of the solutions in EMERGE Toolbox to support the wide-scale energy transition of African countries through actions that contribute to the R&I strategy development and AU-EU cooperation (WP4, WP6) EMERGE will develop a toolbox and a database with integrated Knowledge Base for allowing a massive access to information for AU communities, which will help them to determine whether developing an energy project is feasible in a certain region. This will enhance communities advocacy and engagement, and increase market transparency. For this reason, participatory processes will be the key to collectively identify community and regional needs, while the significant presence of R&D institutions in the Consortium will guarantee quality results and effective outcomes. The wide demonstration nature of the project will allow a bottom-up approach, from regional needs (and participatory approach) to transversal methods (and R&D expertise).
