Citizen & Stakeholder Engagement

The citizens and stakeholders of the ATELIER Lighthouse Cities played an especially important role for the project, both in the role of local residents and in the role of co-deciders, co-implementers and users of PED measures. How should the energy system develop towards 2050 from the citizen’s point of view, and what requirements do citizens have with respect to usability, control and privacy?

Through co-creative and citizen science methods, a citizen- and community-centred perspective drove all interventions in the project and enhanced the local innovation ecosystem: ATELIER involved and supported local actors and initiatives, allowing their participation at the design, development and implementation phases of solutions. It amplified the efforts of the municipalities of Amsterdam and Bilbao in engaging stakeholders and citizens in the energy transition process. Through these processes, local barriers related to the implementation of innovations at the PED and city level were addressed and users’ possibilities to contribute to balancing the local energy network were improved.

This work package was led by WAAG.

Contact: Tessel van Leeuwen, tessel@waag.org