On the last day of March, on a snowy day in Oxford, the NEWCOMERS team has finally reunited. The two-day affair took place at our Oxford partner's headquarters at the Environmental Change Institute, where the NEWCOMERS partners spent two days discussing project findings, planning the final activities and looking forward to new collaborations. With most partners there in person and some, including our project leader, joining us online, this meeting was not only very productive, but also a fun and exciting experience.
On the first day, March 31, all work package leaders presented their findings and final deliverables. This was followed by sythesising our results and developing project recommendations in smaller groups. On April 1, the final day of our meeting, planning final events and other activities, as well as communication activities took the centre stage.
In between all the hard work done, the partners also took the time to do some sightseeing of the charming host town, eat some delicious meals, swap gifts and simply hang out. Our hosts, Sarah Darby and Jake Barnes, also arranged a wonderful community energy focused experienced - a tour of the Osney Lock Hydro, the first community owned hydro scheme built on the Thames, led by Dr Barbara Hammond.
The partners are satisfied with the work and progress of the project so far and are looking forward to the final two months of NEWCOMERS activities. These fruitful debates and presentations were a wonderful motivation for the final two months of the project.
The partners are now actively preparing for the final event, titled Putting people at the heart of energy transitions, where the NEWCOMERS project will be joining forces with three of our sister projects – SocialRES, COMETS, and SONNET – to host a joint conference and share our findings and policy recommendations.
This two-day online event will dig into social innovation and collective action as key drivers of just and sustainable energy transitions. It will draw on and present nearly three years of work and research that the four sister projects have spearheaded.
