Overview
Within the Roadmaps for Energy (R4E) project the partners worked together to develop a new type of energy strategy through visions and roadmaps for the 8 partner cities, in co-creation with local stakeholders. The stakeholders included the benefactors of the strategy, such as citizens, as well as relevant research and industry partners, to offer a clear picture of the future potential of the city. At the end of the project each partner city each had 2 future scenarios, 2 roadmaps and a portfolio of individual and joint projects to implement sustainable energy policies and measures. Also, the visioning and roadmapping capacities within the municipalities were developed to spur future development and implementation of innovative energy solutions.
In the R4E project a four step process was applied. The first step sets the ambitions for the project. The ambitions of the participating cities on sustainable energy and Smart Cities in general were set, as well as the partner cities' choice for 2 focus areas within Smart Energy Savings: 1.Smart Buildings, 2. Smart Mobility or 3. Smart Urban Spaces.
The second step was to develop desired scenarios for the cities for the selected focus areas.
During the third step the roadmap was created, existing and future technologies and other developments will be identified, which enable the realization of the desired future scenarios. Opportunities and developments were plotted on a timeline to provide insight into the required steps and milestones towards the favoured scenarios. The roadmaps contained generic parts that are common for the partner cities, as well as specific parts that cater for the specific context of the cities.
During the final and fourth step a project portfolio was generated with new projects and initiatives to reach the ambitions, visions and roadmaps of the cities. This portfolio provided an overview of individual and joint projects and includes a cross-city learning plan and a financial plan.
Funding
Results
Through the 4 steps of R4E, 16 visions and roadmaps for the 8 partner cities were developed to plan and implement sustainable energy policies and measures. Three things at the same time were achieved:
- Quality in content: Creation of high quality visions and roadmaps that drive collaboration between municipalities, entrepreneurs, knowledge institutes and citizens to achieve longer term ambitious goals through short term decisions and actions
- Quality in process: Implementation of a similar participative process for vision and roadmap development that enabled continuous cross-city learning exchange of experiences, challenges and best practices
- Quality in ecosystem: Building an ecosystem of relevant local parties in each city and internationally recognised thought leaders, laying the foundation for extended collaboration between partners to drive innovation for sustainability purposes, through joint projects
At the final phase, the consortium worked on a Project Portfolio, including joint and individual projects, to help the R4E cities to take the first steps towards reaching the ambitions and visions set in their visions and roadmaps. The Portfolio process enabled the partners to focus on their plans in the (near) future after finalisation of R4E, and helped them to get a good idea of each other’s’ strengths and learning objectives, thereby deepening the relations and paving the way for future cooperation.
Part of the 4 steps were the 3 different workshops: Ambition, Scenario and Roadmap workshops, that were organised in each city. Local stakeholders were invited to co-create the different parts of the roadmaps, such as setting the ambitions and developing the desired future scenarios for the city, resulting in the City Specific Roadmaps and Final Reports. Each step ended in a Joint Workshop: Joint Ambition (1), Vision (2), Roadmap (3) and Project Portfolio (4) Workshop, where all partners met to share results, compare and learn from each other. Dissemination of R4E results and outreach was achieved through the R4E Animation movies and the 3 official R4E Dissemination events, of which the R4E Final Conference had the biggest impact through the high number of participants, Social Media and the impressive media coverage. Additionally, 3 videos were developed, which explain the added value of R4E and its methodology to the R4E cities and what others can learn from this. All R4E reports (except for confidential reports) and videos, as well as relevant publications and news, are available and published on the R4E website.