Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PROSPECT (Peer Powered Cities and Regions)

Teaser

The overall aim of PROSPECT is to enable peer to peer learning in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement sustainable energy plans. The learning will empower them to make use of best practices in developing financing for these plans. PROSPECT will...

Summary

The overall aim of PROSPECT is to enable peer to peer learning in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement sustainable energy plans. The learning will empower them to make use of best practices in developing financing for these plans. PROSPECT will address the needs of regional and local authorities through developing a complete peer to peer learning program addressing them. The learning process will be focused on how different sustainable energy projects and measures have been successfully financed. Peer to peer learning involves sharing information and experience from each other through mentoring activities, work shadowing, and study tours, among others. Primarily, the networks Eurocities, Energy Cities and FEDARENE will perform “needs assessment and gaps identifications” with public bodies for learning and match these needs with available best practices. Then PROSPECT will select public authorities and agencies and the roles of mentors and mentees will be assigned.
The programme builds upon successful financing schemes implemented in cities and regions in the European Union and its main objectives are:
• to develop and execute a complete and easily replicable peer to peer learning programme addressing at least 150 local and regional authorities through prominent local and regional associations and agencies;
• to create effective and productive peer-to-peer groups among regional and local authorities and agencies within and outside consortium partners, in order to ensure the exchange of experience and expertise;
• to build partnerships that will stimulate mutual understanding of each other’s issues, situations and challenges with the aim of exploring new ideas, options and solutions.
The number of influenced authorities can differ depending on the demand there is for each module, but as an average value this can be manageable in terms of teaching requirements. The added value of PROSPECT in comparison to other initiatives is that the learning program is not limited to a capacity building process. Instead, the learning curriculum will follow the project steps of energy efficiency finance from the first stages of its development to monitoring its sustainable operation. The learning program will ideally result to the launch of pilot business models and financing partnerships for implementing sustainable energy plans.

Work performed

In the first 18 months, two engagement campaigns have been completed. In the first project year, a peer to peer learning programme was set up, offering five thematic modules (Public Buildings, Private Buildings, Transport, Public Lighting and Cross-Sectoral). The learning programme has been conceived in such a way that there are three learning cycles, and in each, participants get to choose one of the five above-mentioned modules, but they also choose between two different methodologies:
1. A study-visit which caters those with basic knowledge or projects in the early phase of development. In a study visit one mentor covers with up to seven mentees from different cities or regions, or;
2. A peer mentoring, where those with a more in-depth knowledge or in a later development project phase need one on one advice and concrete experience sharing. This method only entails one mentor and one mentee.
Regardless of the method, there are four steps in the programme, created with all the accompanied material, to ensure all participants can acquire same basic knowledge, and to aid mentors in their task.The first engagement campaign was open through January and February 2018 and over 60 applicants have applied from 23 countries. In the second engagement campaign, over 100 applications from 17 countries were received, showing the PROSPECT engagement team made great progress in promoting the project. The first learning cycle is approaching its end, while the second is about to start. The engagement campaign for the third learning cycle started in January 2019 and the last learning cycle is expected to start in April 2019. Through peer mentoring activities and study visits, cities and regions are encouraged to exchange knowledge on innovative financing schemes and to benefit from the experience of their peers in order to launch their own sustainable investments. In order to further aid mentors and mentees, but also to gain a better understanding of different cities’ capacities regarding their ability to set-up and implement financing solutions for sustainable energy projects, an extensive benchmark tool has been developed. This tool will be filled by all project participants and an evaluation will be made with general observations and analysis. To help disseminate information about PROSPECT, as well as its results, over 1888 dissemination actions were taken in form of publications, social media, project website www.h2020prospect.eu and many other forms of communication about PROSPECT. It is estimated that over 130,000 people were reached, including over 40,000 from the scientific community and over 50,000 policy makers.

Final results

The last learning cycle is expected to start in April 2019. The 3rd engagement campaign will be run in 2 steps, so that from 16 January to 6 February 2019 applications will be open to mentors, while from 8 February to 6 March 2019 applications will be open to mentees. The expected results are to have at least 150 participants go through the learning programme. After implementing all three cycles, some other results planned in PROSPECT are to:
• deliver a benchmark for integrated learning, which will help cities outside the programme also to evaluate their capacities for implementing sustainable projects, but also the benchmark will provide a general understanding of cities capacities, divided by regions city size and some other categories;
• develop a sustainability plan which will help ensure the project results continue to be useful to cities beyond projects duration
• make an inventory of sustainable energy measures, which will summarise not only the actions taken in the programme, but also monitor the progress achieved after the programme, as well as potential savings from the actions whose implementation the programme had encouraged;
• conceptualize a booklet on experiences and showcases of successfully implemented learning programs, so that other peer to peer programmes can learn from PROSPECT process.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.h2020prospect.eu.