The European Commission has launched this project (service contract ENER/2015/B3/507-2) to develop a new European Energy Poverty Observatory (EPOV). The EPOV project is scheduled to last 40 months, and is being developed by a pan-European consortium of organisations, led by the University of Manchester.
The overarching aim of EPOV is to engender transformational change in the availability of information about the socio-economic extent of energy poverty in Europe, and measures to combat it. Via the following objectives, the EPOV will:
- O1: Improve transparency by bringing together the disparate sources of data and knowledge that exist in varying degrees across the whole of the EU.
- O2: Provide a user-friendly and open-access resource that will promote public engagement as well as informed decision making by local, national and EU-level decision makers.
- O3: Enable networking and facilitate knowledge sharing and co-production among member states and relevant stakeholders.
- O4: Disseminate information and organise outreach work that will connect and build on existing pan-European and Member State initiatives in the energy poverty domain.
- O5: Provide technical assistance to the widest possible range of interested parties, based on a holistic approach to understanding and addressing energy poverty in the European Union.
A number of exciting outputs and events are planned throughout the duration of the project (November 2017 - March 2020), and we are keen to engage the whole spectrum of stakeholders involved in work relating to energy poverty. It is anticipated that the EPOV will go live in late 2017, with the launch of a new interactive web portal at: www.energypoverty.eu