Report on local energy communities in European smart cities
How can European cities enable, replicate and scale Local Energy Communities (LECs)? An expert team consisting of Daniele Vettorato, Judith Borsboom-van Beurden, Rolf Bastiaanssen and Maarja Meitern delved into this hugely relevant topic for the Smart Cities and Communities financed by Horizon2020 in SCC-01. We focused specifically on the role of municipalities as facilitators, regulators, co-investors and innovation enablers in fostering energy democracy and accelerating the clean energy transition.
Material was collected through desk research, workshops, and interviews with not only experts, but also cities and energy communities from eight European cities: Tartu, Estonia; Barcelona, Spain; Espoo, Finland; Munich, Germany; Parma, Italy; Ghent, Belgium; Alba Iulia, Romania; and Stockholm, Sweden.
Our key findings are highly relevant now as many cities consider energy communities as an integral part of the transition to climate-neutral cities.
Key findings highlight that:
Finally, policy recommendations and a practical toolbox (“Pathway to Energy Communities”) support cities in designing, financing, and scaling inclusive LECs.
Download the report here:
Serious game Impact Model played to address complexity in rural areas
Monique Grooten of Netherlands Enterprise Agency and Judith Borsboom of Locality led a work session at the Management Conference of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, 4 November 2025. We used a board game developed in the CrAFt project by VITO and NTNU to explore the administrative and spatial complexity in rural areas. This complexity flows from national and international tasks in the field of climate change, economic competitiveness, protection of biodiversity and nature, defense, water management, energy, and food security, whereas at the same time regional ambitions for housing, industry, recreation and living environment require space, and multiple government levels and a variety of organisations are involved.
As executive government agency, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency is increasingly confronted with this complexity. We played CrAFt’s Impact Model board game with around 60 persons to explore how this tool supports in-depth discussions about the intrinsic values of the living environment that need to be maintained and strengthened, and which potential synergies and conflicts can be identified.
8 Common mistakes in management of European R&I projects
It was a busy day on 4 November, as Judith Borsboom of Locality was also invited by the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences to share her experiences with development and management of European projects at the U!REKA Conference. U!REKA is a network of 30 European universities of applied sciences, an official European University Alliance. U!REKA universities of applied sciences educate future professionals and teach them how to lead the transition to climate-neutral, smart and sustainable cities.
It is not always realised how difficult it is to get and manage European projects, and reality is often less rosy after an enthusiastic start. Judith highlighted the eight most commonly made mistakes and their causes, and shared with the audience her ideas about possible solutions. She concluded that European R&I projects are never perfect, but are usually fun. It is important to keep channels open: talk to and ask questions to your international colleagues. Prepare yourself seriously by following courses and training, e.g. offered by your National Contact Point. Nonetheless, you will definitely learn something: as an individual and a group. And lastly, never do European R&I projects only for the funding, always for realising good ideas and building useful collaboration networks, as they usually require quite a large investment in acquisition.
In October 2025, Locality joined the ClimaGen project meeting and study visit to Gernika-Lumo.
The ClimaGen project -Climate-resilient reGeneration and renaturing for, by and with vulnerable neighbourhoods- is a European initiative funded by the Horizon Europe programme, involving nine cities: Belgrade, Gdansk, Tartu, Turin, Trondheim, Cluj-Napoca, Eindhoven, Gernika and Thessaloniki. Through its mission-driven and co-creation approach, these nine European cities will demonstrate how climate-neutrality and resilience can be achieved not only through technical interventions, but by renaturing, regenerating, and empowering communities.
As a partner in the project, Locality contributes to the development of practical tools and guidance to support cities in implementing climate-resilient regeneration strategies, among others the creation of the ClimaGen Guidance Package.
In Bilbao and Gernika, cities and partners from across Europe came together to share progress, exchange experiences, and work hands-on on key topics such as biodiversity, nature-based solutions, and engagement of youth and communities.
With Lorenzo Vio and Sofia Delgado from Think-E, Judith Borsboom from Locality co-organised a sense making session on learning needs of cities and local stakeholders, building upon the earlier research of Gaia Vaccari from Ca’Fosca University in Venice.
Amazing session at the highly inspiring Springtij Forum on 26/9! Contributing to a workshop in a tent was a first for us! After a fantastic intro by André van Ommeren from RVO, Marloes Arkesteijn and Willemijn Vreugdenhil shared their experiences with the complexity of governance in regional development in Gelderland and Zuid-Holland, and brought us beautiful songs. We played the CrAFt Cities Impact Model Board Game of NTNU and VITO with 8 groups to discuss the underlying values of rural areas. Each group came up with its own unique solutions to overcome this complexity by looking at synergies and potential conflicts. Thanks also to Jolande Sap for great moderation, to Monique Grooten and Jolanda van der Veen for great excellent organisation and co-moderation, and to our highly engaged audience!
