From 28 – 30 March 2023, the European initiative BRIDGE celebrated its annual General Assembly gathering representatives from the Bridge community, which has 93 projects in total, with 53 running, and will soon reach 150 projects.
The Bridge community has agreed to contribute to the creation and development of a use-case repository, developing a dataspace connector for data exchange between local and federated spaces, identifying what data needs to be exchanged and why, and ensuring semantic interoperability between data models.
The BRIDGE initiative
The energy landscape is changing rapidly, and the EU’s “Fit for 55” legislation package aims to address the challenges posed by climate change. The package includes updated energy directives and focuses on the role of renewables and buildings in achieving net-zero targets. In October 2022, an action plan on digitalizing the energy sector was released, with a focus on exchanging energy data, increasing investments, and greening ICT. The aim is to reduce energy consumption and bills, prevent power shortages and blackouts, and foster the use of apps for energy tracking.
The EU BRIDGE initiative promotes research and innovation in energy, bringing together stakeholders to accelerate the development of new solutions. Its goal is to support the EU’s transition to a low-carbon economy, through activities such as R&D projects, pilot demos, and policy analysis. The program focuses on renewable energy, energy storage, smart grids, and energy efficiency, and aims to facilitate knowledge and technology transfer between regions and countries. By fostering collaboration, the program can accelerate the development and deployment of new energy solutions, supporting the EU’s goal of achieving a carbon-neutral economy by 2050.
Why is important for NESOI project?
The Bridge initiative provides a valuable platform for the NESOI project to engage with a diverse network of stakeholders, including industry experts, researchers, and policymakers. By participating in Bridge's working groups and events, NESOI can share its experiences and insights with other EU-funded projects working towards a common goal of creating a more sustainable energy system. Moreover, the Bridge initiative offers NESOI access to cutting-edge research and best practices, allowing it to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and innovations in the energy sector. Ultimately, by collaborating with other like-minded initiatives through the Bridge platform, NESOI can leverage its resources and maximize its impact, contributing to a more effective and efficient energy transition in Europe.
In addition, the soon-to-be-launched NEF platform was not developed specifically for the needs of small islands and remote communities in Europe, and the platform's functionality and features can also benefit other projects within the BRIDGE initiative. For example, the NEF platform includes a database of renewable energy solutions that can be adapted and implemented in various geographical locations. This information can be used by other BRIDGE projects to identify and explore sustainable energy solutions suitable for their own communities.
Additionally, the NEF platform's community engagement features, such as the stakeholder mapping and consultation tools, can be used by other BRIDGE projects to increase community engagement and ensure that the voices of all stakeholders are heard throughout the project's development.