As 2024 draws to a close, our partners T6 Ecosystems and IIASA have  been busy planning next year’s stakeholder engagement activities which will further enrich the research tasks.

The engagement programme of CircEUlar works along three strands:

  1. Continuous expansion and maintenance of the contacts database and the Community of Interest created around the project.
  2. Policy dialogue in two parts: the translation of results and co-drafting of policy briefs on identified salient topics and consultation with policy stakeholders to ensure policy recommendations are relevant and fit-for-purpose.
  3. Bespoke stakeholder engagement activities to gather feedback and inform specific research needs.

Alongside the start of the policy dialogue work early next year,  2025 will be characterised by three substantial stakeholder engagement activities for CircEUlar.

  • In early Spring (likely March), four online sessions will be organised to explore the quantified preliminary pathways as we begin to consolidate the work done by various different models. These quantified pathways build on the narratives tested earlier this year but include numerical insights both from the modelling and survey work. Taking deep dives into mobility infrastructure and rolling stock, buildings, digitalisation, and appliances and waste, we will explore the quantified narrative development, validate any assumptions made, streamline any model integration needed and seek further stakeholder feedback. These webinars will be run as small, collaborative working sessions with key researchers, experts and policy representatives.
  • In early Summer (likely June), we will host a practice-oriented, participatory backcasting workshop. By further combining the quantified narratives with survey data, participants will be asked to work backwards from a specific, future scenario to today’s reality. This can be made quite playful with the use of vignettes, images and foresight questions. This would be the natural progression from the stakeholder event held in Brussels in March of this year.
  • In early Autumn (likely September) in Berlin, we will host our Consortium Meeting along with a stakeholder event which will probably focus on project results most useful to urban planners and capitalise on their practical insight to further improve the results.

We have a lot planned, so watch this space and follow us on LinkedIn to be kept in the loop or email us via Sara at s.giorgi@t-6.it.

 

By Sara Giorgi – T6 Ecosystems