AURORA Project (H2020)

AURORA is one the lighthouse projects in the EU-funded "Green Deal". It was launched in December 2021 and will receive a total of €4.6 million in funding over 3.5 years [GA No. 101036418]. More than 7,000 citizens across five locations in Denmark, England, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain, will engage to become ‘near-zero emission’ citizens. These communities of citizen scientists will crowd-fund photovoltaic facilities locally to produce a total of ca. 1 megawatt of renewable energy. A mobile app – developed as part of the project and about to be released – will allow citizens to monitor their own behavioural patterns of heating and cooling, transport and use of electricity. In return, they will receive tailored suggestions on how they can lower their energy demand and reduce their costs. Approaches like these are meant to engage particularly younger generations and empower them to become agents of change beyond the project itself. Through workshops and hands-on activities, the project will encourage citizens to change their behaviour and attitudes towards energy. Four locations across Europe are established around university campuses as hubs for social innovation. Additionally, a fifth demonstrator is being established in a municipal area, the Forest of Dean, one of England’s economically most deprived regions, where the authorities have declared a state of ‘Climate Emergency’ as early as December 2018.