The W4RES project has come to an end

W4RES held its final event as part of "RE-Energising Europe", a two-day event on 24 and 25 October in Brussels where 7 EU-funded projects (BECoop, Micat, NEWTrends, NRG2Peers, UP-STAIRS and NUDGE) joined forces to organise joint-sessions focusing on energy communities, energy efficiency, energy behaviour, gender equality and new trends.

On 25 October, Yiannis Konstas (Q-PLAN), master of ceremony, kicked off the event. During his keynote speech, Tadhg O'Briain (European Commission, DG ENER) emphasised the potential of energy communities. The event continued with fire pitches of four projects: BECoop, NRG2Peers, UP-STAIRS and W4RES. Giulia Zendron (White Research) gave an overview of W4RES objectives and actions developed during the past three years. During the policy panel, Elsebeth Terkelsen (European Green Cities - EGC) presented the project's policy recommendations and gave an example of how EGC has implemented its gender action plan (30h work week, family-friendly practices etc.). She also added that women should be more supported in energy communities in order to be more involved.

In addition, Charlotte Schlicke (Steinbeis Europa Zentrum) displayed the market uptake support measures and the method used to support women-led projects. Carina Holzapfel, founder and CEO of H2mc-Heating, had the opportunity to explain how W4RES helped her project.

During the networking lunch, speakers and participants had the opportunity to discuss about the projects and read the posters that highlighted the key findings of all the projects. Miriam Angelis and Flaminia Rocca (APRE) presented the W4SHE awareness raising campaign developed in collaboration with SHE IS A SCIENTIST and Marilys Louvet (WECF) emphasised the gender barriers in the RHC sector and communication tools to be used to overcome these barriers in the renewable energy sector.

The last session focused on the results and legacy of the projects. Yiannis Konstas (Q-PLAN) summarised the W4RES approach and method that can be replicated in the RHC sector but also in energy communities in order to support women and reach an inclusive energy transition. Finally, Marilys Louvet, Katharina Habersbrunner and Franziska Reichmann (WECF) organised a co-creation workshop to provide concrete gender tools and information to participants.

The recordings, presentations and posters of the event are available here.