HOPPER - HOuseholds' energy Poverty in the EU: PERspectives for research and policies
The purpose of the HOPPER project is to enhance scientific knowledge and to train professionals with an energy-related profile, and to engage the civil society and policymakers on possible solutions to alleviate energy poverty, a condition that jeopardize EU social values. This arising problem across European countries requires the adoption of a new approach: this issue is funded on economic conditions, but involves also a social and a technical dimension. Therefore, new professional profiles need to be prepared. A process of cross-fertilization of knowledge is also desirable: technical professionals as engineers, energy managers and architects – who manage energy efficiency patterns – must be aware of the characteristics and determinants of this phenomenon to contribute to its solution. Finally, civil society and policymakers should be engaged to incentivize and adopt the best practices to limit energy poverty.
The project will combine three key activities:
- (i) existing and new teaching activities concerning energy issues and European integration, with new cycles of seminars for the students of several departments at the host institution;
- (ii) research on the topic of energy poverty determinants and solutions, and their impact on economic systems assessed through macro and micro models;
- (iii) several events on the same topic to enhance the engagement of students, researchers, civil society and policymakers.
Teaching activities provide the necessary skills and expertise to the students concerning European energy markets, the issue of energy poverty and the role of public policies as well as the political aspects of European integration in this field. The proposal fosters the use of new technologies and open education resources (OERs) because it includes blended and open online courses, forums and online discussions groups.
Teaching is complemented by research and dissemination activities. The project will gather a network of Italian and international researchers on the topic of energy policies delivered at the European and national/local level. Some of these researchers are already operating within the Italian Observatory on Energy Poverty (OIPE) hosted by the University of Padua (http://levicases.unipd.it/). The theoretical and empirical analyses are aimed to investigate the determinants of energy poverty and the efficacy of related policies. The ultimate goal is to formulate recommendations to identify opportunities for policymakers to alleviate energy poverty without jeopardising energy security and climate change mitigation priorities. Dissemination activities (seminars, open lectures, workshops and conferences) and outputs (publications, website, video recording) are aimed to reach the target groups and a wider audience even beyond the lifetime of the project. These activities benefit from synergies within the interdepartmental Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence that has been created in 2016 between the departments of law, social sciences and economics of the University of Florence.
Last update
16.11.2023