UT receives NWA grant for research into an inclusive energy transition

NWO has awarded €2.85 million to a University of Twente-led NWA (National Science Agenda) project that contributes to more inclusive and equitable energy policies. The SYNERGY project investigates how behaviours such as cooperation, resistance, and collective action emerge in local settings like neighbourhoods, energy hubs, and energy communities. This transdisciplinary project aims to produce practical tools and knowledge that governments and practitioners can use to design more effective, fair, and adaptive energy policies.

A key principle of SYNERGY is energy justice: ensuring that everyone, regardless of their resources or background, has the opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, the energy transition. This includes addressing inequalities in access to renewable energy systems and in the decision-making processes that shape them.

The project, SYNERGY, focuses on social dynamics and addresses the question of how to make the energy transition fairer and more inclusive. Le Anh Long, from the Faculty of Behavioural, Management, and Social Sciences (section PA), coordinates the project and works together with colleagues Thomas Hoppe  (BMS-CSTM), Sikke Jansma (BMS-CS), Peter Stegmaier (BMS-KiTES), Ewert Aukes (BMS-CSTM), Imad Ibrahim (BMS-CSTM) and Marco Gerards (EEMCS-CAES). The grant falls under the NWA Call 'Social dynamics in the energy transition. From theory to practice, which aims to deepen understanding of how social behaviour and interactions influence the energy transition.

The technical and social challenges embodied in the energy transition are co-constitutive. SYNERGY aims to generate game-changing insights into different end-users’ multi-faceted engagements with energy systems, with the end goal of contributing to policymaking that promotes an inclusive, sustainable, and just energy transition.