EU project New concepts for climate-neutral regions in Europe
Four European regions will become Super-Labs in a project designed to test concepts for a climate-neutral future. The EU is providing funding of approximately 2.3 million euros for this purpose.
The key question of the new TRANSFORMER project is: how can European regions become climate-neutral? The project partners intend to develop and test new transformation concepts at intersections of socio-technical regimes such as transportation, energy production and agriculture. TRANSFORMER is funded with approximately 2.3 million Euros as part of the Horizon Europe programme. RUB is coordinating the project headed by Professor Matthias Kiese. It will start in September 2022 and run until August 2024.
Four regions with different priorities
The project team will work on different priorities in the following four regions: in the Ruhr Metropolis, the focus will be on hydrogen technology for industry and transport; in Emilia-Romagna in Italy, the focus will be on harmonising mobility and energy; in Lower Silesia in Poland, the focus will be on developing rail infrastructure and hydrogen buses; in Western Macedonia in Greece, the focus will be on e-mobility, circular economy and CO2 storage.
“The four regions will become Super-Labs where we bring together all relevant stakeholders, universities, municipalities, companies and civil society to develop regional solutions for climate neutrality,” explains Dr. Judith Wiemann, who prepared the project application at the Urban and Regional Economics team at the RUB Institute of Geography. The goal of the international project team is to develop roadmaps towards climate neutrality, which also serve as templates for other regions. The roadmaps will include milestones for implementation, financing and funding schemes.
Co-creative workshops and other exchange formats with all relevant stakeholders are planned in the four TRANSFORMER regions, which will develop the roadmaps and test initial concepts within two years.
Ruhr Metropolis as a Super-Lab
The Ruhr Metropolis will become a living lab for the transformation process in the fields of transportation, circular economy, energy and industry. The main focus will be on hydrogen, which is for example relevant for the steel as well as the shipping industry; several municipalities are already active in this field. TRANSFORMER aims at bringing the various initiatives together to create an integrated hydrogen ecosystem. The entire value chain from production to storage and distribution to final consumption is to be mapped.
“If we want to bring about the Great Transformation, we have to start at a point where we can achieve the most effective results with the means we implement. With its 5.1 million inhabitants, over 130,000 companies and 22 universities, the Ruhr Metropolis offers optimal conditions for this undertaking,” says Professor Julia Frohne, Managing Director at Business Metropole Ruhr GmbH. “Consequently, Ruhr-Universität Bochum spearheads TRANSFORMER for the whole of Europe. As Business Metropole Ruhr, we are looking forward to helping shape the transformation in the living lab Ruhr Metropolis with innovative projects. The question of hydrogen will be at the forefront of this process.”