Almost one year has passed since the kick-off meeting in July 2019 in Ljubljana! A good reason for the NEWCOMERS consortium to virtually reunite for the 2020 annual meeting on June 17-18. It offers the opportunity to reflect on the progress we made during the last year in the different work packages - both within the consortium and with two members of the project’s Stakeholder Advisory Board (StAB): We very much look forward to welcoming Siward Zomer (Energie Samen and Rescoop) and Emma Bridge (Community Energy England) to discuss with them our research approach and first findings.

We will further discuss the insights we gained in the virtual dialogue sessions with our collaborating energy communities across the six partner countries, the current status of the comparison of national polycentric settings and how the core concept of ‘polycentricity’, introduced through our theoretical framework, is reflected in the ‘operational’ work packages. These discussions will be rounded off with dedicated sessions on the links between findings in the different work packages, as well as on our planned communication and dissemination activities, including the energy literacy handbook and online platform for energy communities.