The RIPEET project will support Responsible, Research and Innovation (RRI) policy experimentations for energy transition in three European territories - in Extremadura (ES), Highlands and Islands of Scotland (UK) and Ostrobothnia (FI). The framework conditions, processes, and outcomes of these experiments will be mapped, monitored, and evaluated. This constitutes an evidence-base for the revision of sectoral policies, strategies and research and innovation (R&I) instruments as well as for establishing a European RIPEET community. RIPEET will support territories in establishing experimental spaces to address the territorial dimensions of the European Green Deal. RRI-based Transition Labs will create collective stewardship of the territorial energy future via participatory instruments and serve as a framework for envisioning sustainable energy futures. They are points of departure for collective approaches aiming to create more open, inclusive and self-sustaining R&I eco-systems.
The search for solutions to persistent global crisis and problems such as climate change and energy transition requires non-linear and structural responses in complex adaptive systems. Transformative innovation policy (Schot and Steinmüller, 2018) embraces the state’s changing role in providing directionality for R&I, the processes of knowledge creation, diffusion and learning as well as the exploitation of economically valuable knowledge in innovation actions.
The RIPEET experimentation addresses the challenges of sustainability transition with the means of knowledge- and place-based transformative innovation policy at the intersection of challenge-orientation, economy-enhancing and sector-specific policy making in the context of the societal functions of energy provision. The aim of the co-creative Transition Lab experiments is, to enhance the transformative capacity of territorial R&I systems by aligning them to societal needs associated with the SGCs of "Secure, clean and efficient energy" and "Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials". For the effective improvement of territorial trajectories, the strategic planning builds on a responsible, collective reflection process and jointly developed tailor-made visions.
RIPEET builds on the hypothesis that applying RRI methods to territorial transition management contributes to more innovative territorial environments as well as to more suitable innovations which have a higher possibility to contribute to energy transition. By taking a place-based approach rooted in broad stakeholders’ engagement, RIPEET provides evidence for advancing the territorial support system, providing coordination, directionality, demand-orientation as well as reflexivity. Therefore, RIPEET is based on three strands of work (stakeholder, policy, and innovation strand), and follows three phases (Mapping and visioning, Pathways and piloting and Sustainability and exploitation).
RIPEET has been funded in call: SwafS-14-2020. It is a Coordination and support action (CSA). The RIPEET-approach aligns closely with CHERRIES, which was funded in the same call a year earlier, and has the same coordinator, ZSI (AT).
CWTS will be involved in mapping of territorial policies, the co-creation of new policy mixes based on the regional transition labs, and in the monitoring and evaluation of territorial RRI, which feeds into the SUPER MoRRI project.
Website
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101006295
Duration
1 February 2021 – 31 January 2024
Keywords
Smart specialization, regional innovation Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), policy experiments, energy transition
Partners
Zentrum für Soziale Innovation GmbH (ZSI) AT ,
Universiteit Leiden (UL) NL
European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) BE
Conoscenza e Innovazione SrlS (K&I) IT
Vaasan yliopisto (UVA) FI
Österbottens förbund – Pohjanmaan liitto (RCO) FI
Merinova OY AB (MERINOVA) FI
Fundación FUNDECYT Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Extremadura ES (FUNDECYT)
Agencia Extremeña de la Energía (AGENEX) ES
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) UK
Community Energy Scotland (CES) UK
CWTS Staff
Ingeborg Meijer, Gaston Heimeriks, Sonia Mena Jara, Tim Willemse