In line with its commitment to energy policies at national and European level, and in an effort to improve energy efficiency through consumers’ energy friendly behaviors, Cittadinanzattiva - through its EU branch Active Citizenship Network - is actively participating to the NUDGE Project, whose objective is to systematically assess and fully unleash the potential of behavioral interventions towards achieving higher energy efficiency, paving the way to the generalized use of such interventions as a worthy addition to the policy-making toolbox.
The NUDGE project is funded by the EU’s funding programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020. More specifically, the project addresses EASME’s call LC-SC3-EC-4-2020 on “Socio-economic research: non- energy impacts and behavioral insights on energy efficiency interventions” and specifically scope (b) - Behavioral insights for energy efficiency interventions.
The project, which has a planned duration of 36 months, is carried out by a multidisciplinary team of 10 partners and trials take place in 5 different EU countries. Taking into consideration the Italian situation with regard to matters concerning renewable energies and also given the EU’s position on the importance of energy efficiency, Cittadinanzattiva decided to join the NUDGE consortium as the only Italian participant.
Through NUDGE, Cittadinanzattiva aims to contribute to achieve the adoption of behaviorally tested policy interventions at local, regional, national, and EU levels.

JOIN THE SURVEY NOW!

The online survey is currently available in several languages! Click on the link to fill it in and let us know how you consume and save energy at home! Deadline is 31 of May!

- ENGLISH
- PORTUGUES
- FRENCH
- CROATIAN
- ITALIAN
- DUTCH
- GREEK
- GERMAN
- ROMANIAN
- SPANISH
- LITHUANIAN
- LATVIAN
- SLOVAKIAN
- SLOVENIAN

Survey description
One of the first steps of the project is to profile consumers by considering a variety of psychological (e.g., self-efficacy, value priorities, attitudes, outcome expectations) and contextual variables (household size and composition, economic incentives, technologies in use). This will be accomplished through the employment of surveys – realized through online structured questionnaires or interviews – aimed at capturing consumers’ perceptions of their own behavior and their original disposition against specific interventions conceived to diminish energy consumption.

The first phase of the project thus deals with pre-pilot user profiling based on survey data and aims at collecting and statistically evaluating survey-type data on a diverse set of consumers across Europe. These surveys will be used to record and evaluate the running behaviors of the pilot participants about energy-efficiency measures and actions; analyze the reactions of end users to the various behavioral interventions and derive predictive models of their energy-related behavior; classify different groups of end users on the basis of their energy-related behavior and explore their generalizability across pilots.

Aim of the survey:
The survey is used to gather information about the following aspects at household level:

- Household characteristics, building characteristics, and level of environmental conscience.
- Consumer behavior with respect to the energy consumption aspects
- Their intentions and perceptions with regard to the adoption of measures that enhance the energy efficiency
- Major obstacles to the adoption of more energy efficient behaviors.

Read more about the target audience of the survey!

The Project
The EU ambitiously aims to increase energy efficiency and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change by gradually reducing net greenhouse gas emissions and become climate-neutral by 2050. To achieve this and similar goals, much effort has been devoted to the development of digital infrastructure which allow energy consumer to monitor their energy consumption more accurately and efficiently. Nonetheless, energy efficiency requires radical behavioral changes in the energy-related behavior of consumers, starting from every-day activities such as the way people use heating and electric appliances.

The project “NUDging consumers towards enerGy Efficiency through behavioral science” (NUDGE) seeks to analyze the behavior of European citizens with concern the energy consumption and to consequently design and test nudging interventions on different segments of the population. Pilot projects will indeed be carries out in households, energy communities, and schools in five EU countries (Greece, Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Croatia). The research and experimentation of the NUDGE project also aims to develop recommendations tailored to each country and design more general policies at European level.

The project, deeply rooted in behavioral science methods, will investigate individual psychological and contextual variables underlying consumers’ attitudes in order to customize the design of behavioral interventions for them.To do this, it takes a mixed approach to the consumer analysis and intervention design with tasks combining surveys and field trials. The designed interventions are compared against traditional ones in field trials (pilots) in five different EU states, presenting remarkable diversity with regard to innovative energy usage scenarios, demographic and socio-economic variables of the involved populations, mediation platforms for operationalizing the intervention (smart mobile apps, dashboards, web portals, educational material and intergenerational learning practices).

More information:
Visit the NUDGE official website
Download the brochure and poster

… And don’t forget to follow NUDGE on Twitter: @NUDGEH2020

The Objective
The overarching goal of the NUDGE project is to examine and unleash the potential of behavioral interventions for long-term changes in energy efficiency behaviours, paving the way to the systematic application of such interventions as a worthwhile contribution to policy making. This will be achieved through behavioural interventions; a solid expertise in behavioural science; (mobile) user interface and policy design; synergies between different stakeholders (energy providers, co-operatives, and communities; consumer associations; and technology providers); as well as an extensive network of experts and industrial/consumer associations amplifying the potential for tangible impacts on policy making at all levels. In its effort to achieve its ultimate goal and improve energy efficiency, as well as to overcome the challenges resulting from the implementation of nudging techniques in the energy sector, the project has four major objectives:

- Objective 1: Tailor the design of behavioural interventions to individual psychological and contextual variables;
- Objective 2: Execute extensive field trials (pilots) that address multiple instances of consumer behaviour, implementing different mixes of behaviour-based and traditional interventions even across participants of the same pilot;
- Objective 3: Develop a systematic core and contextual research protocol to continuously measure the impact of the implemented behavioural interventions; and
- Objective 4: Consolidate the findings of pilots into recommendations towards policy makers and relevant stakeholders.

More information:
To know more the role of Cittadinanzattiva/Active Citizenship Network within the project, click here

The Consortium
The project NUDGE is characterized by its unique multidisciplinary character, which combines different fields of expertise and capacities. These include knowledge and methods of behavioral science, digital platforms and tools, access to and engagement of heterogeneous user populations, as well as skills in formulating policy recommendations and the capacity to reach and influence policymakers. Therefore, the NUDGE consortium includes ten partners from seven different EU countries and with highly heterogeneous but remarkably complementary backgrounds for the project needs. The consortium is coordinated by the Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy Stitching (IEECP).

The partners are: the Institute For European Energy And Climate Policy (Netherlands); Domx Idiotiki Kefalaiouchiki Etaireia (Greece); Athens University Of Economics And Business - Research Center (Greece); Inegi - Instituto De Ciencia E Inovacao Em Engenharia Mecanica E Engenharia Industrial (Portugal); Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.V. (Germany); Zelena Energetska Zadruga Za Usluge (Croatia); MVV Energie AG (Germany); Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum (Belgium); Spring-Stof (Belgium); and Associazione CittadinanzattivaOnlus – Active Citizenship Network (Italy).

External partners from the civil society
The NUDGE project recognizes the key role of citizens in the energy sector, as their behavior is crucial to promote energy efficiency and thus a low-carbon, climate resilient future. In order to attain Objective 7 of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development , which aims at “ensuring access to economic, reliable, sustainable and modern energy systems for al”, not only energy sources need to become more ‘renewable’, but also consumers’ behaviours and choices. Since the energy transition starts from the citizens, they have to be directly involved in initiatives targeting their attitudes and everyday life. To encourage citizens’ participation, as well as to guarantee a significant participation of civic actors in the NUDGE project, Cittadinanzattiva has involved different external stakeholders, including civic and consumer organizations, but not only. These will assist Cittadinanzattiva and the other members of the consortium in the first phase of the project by helping translate the general profiling survey in their native language and disseminate it across their country.

More information:
To know more about our commitment on energy policies at national and EU level, please click here.

Media Partnerships
In order to raise awareness of the NUDGE project and ensure the engagement of as many European citizens as possible, Cittadinanzattiva has also established different media partnership at international, European and national level. The media partners include The Innovation Platform, the peer review journal Resources and Environmental Economics, EKOenergy, and the Italian online magazine CanaleEnergia.

More information:
Here you can read a selection of articles published by the media partners that support Cittadinanzattiva along the project:
CANALE ENERGIA (04 Feb 2021): La scienza comportamentale per aiutare i cittadini a fare più efficienza energetica (IT).
CANALE ENERGIA (25 Jan, 2021): Nudge, ovvero la scienza comportamentale a servizio dell’efficienza energetica (IT)
THE INNOVATION PLATFORM - ISSUE 3 (Sept 2020): The role of citizens in achieving a low-carbon future

European Citizens for a greener future and the Inter-Institutional Group “SDGs for well-being and consumers’ protection”
The transition to a sustainable and efficient economy requires radical changes in the consumption habits of our society and in the production models of our economy. Remarkably, the transition to a sustainable Europe has to be based on the commitment that "no one is left behind," and that everyone has to be involved in the achievement of this goal. “Leaving no one behind” also means empowering as many people as possible to play a positive and active role so that they can fully participate in the transition. For these reasons, the active participation of European citizens is pivotal for this transition.

The consortium hopes that the results of the NUDGE project will be taken into consideration by the European Institutions. Accordingly, the main outputs to the project will be presented to the Inter-Institutional Group “SDGs for well-being and consumers’ protection”, promoted by Cittadinanzattiva through its EU branch Active Citizenship Network (ACN), the European Consumers Union (ECU) and the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS). This group was indeed created to become a) an awareness raising catalyst across Europe for civil society, business, research, media, etc. at national and European level; b) a dialogue facilitator between the European institutions and stakeholders active in specific fields; c) an incubator of good practices in order to facilitate the process of exchange, contamination and dissemination of best practices experiences to enable EU citizens to make sustainable choices.

More information:
To know more about the Inter-Institutional Group “Sustainable Development Goals SDGs for well-being and consumers’ protection”, visit the official website: http://www.interestgroupsdgs.eu/

The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Cittadinanzattiva and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.

5-6 May 2021: XV European Patients’ Rights Day
Active Citizenship Network aims to value the good practices of citizens & PAGs’ engagement in health policies & multi-stakeholder actions to tackle the pandemic for a stronger European Health Union: starting from concrete experiences coming from different countries, involving the point of view of patients’ and civic associations, EU Institutions and experts, health professionals, public and private bodies.The ambition is to provide a message and a contribution to the discussion around the World Health Summit, that will be held on May 21, 2021.

For the second year in a row, its celebration will be realized throughan EU webinar split in 2 days: the first day is dedicated to the health challenges faced by NCDs-Non communicable diseases & non-COVID patients; the second day is focused on the resilience of HCSs and the national immunization plans during and after the pandemic.

Launched by ACN, the European Patients’ Rights Day (EPRD) was established on 18 April 2007 at the European Parliament to highlight a number of patients’ rights, drafted in the European Charter of Patients' Rights, that should be recognized, respected and implemented all around Europe. Over the years, the EPRD has become a fixed appointment hosted in the EU Parliament and included in the EU agenda (some examples by EU Commission: 2013, 2014, participation & messages by Health Commissioner Andriukaitis in 2016, 2017, 2018, etc.).

Also thanks to ACN’s constituency, thee EPRD is celebrated in hundreds of local events across Europe (here some examples of the celebrations in the last 4 years, several of them also in France). ACN leads the European celebration of the EPRD with the direct involvement of the EU Institutions.

To learn more about the European Patient Day, click here.

12 March 2021: Launch of Life After Stroke Series of Interactive Webinars
Stroke Alliance for Europe, ACN's partner for the project "Increasing consciousness and access to treatment, reducing the burden of cardiovascular diseases across Europe," has launched a series of free interactive events to build the life after stroke healthcare, research and stroke survivor community, to stimulate debate, improve life after stroke care and build interest for SAFE’s 1st European Life After Stroke Forum on 11 March 2022.

The opening session on Friday 12 March 10.00-11.30 CET is titled Life after stroke: priorities, challenges and ways forward.

We will hear updates from Sweden, the UK, Ireland and Italy on people’s experiences of the impact of stroke before and during the pandemic, and how healthcare and support services have adapted to meet the challenges of post-pandemic stroke care. We will learn about new and creative ways of offering support such as using telemedicine and telerehabilitation and remote methods of looking after stroke survivors.

Registration is FREE and you can do so here