On Tuesday, 28 November 2023, the TRANSFORMER User Forum was officially launched online. The User Forum offers knowledge exchange, practical insights from TRANSFORMER Transition Super-Labs, funding possibilities and the opportunity to conduct studies to drive regional transitions towards a climate-neutral future.
The session commenced with a warm welcome and an introductory address from Matthias Kiese (Ruhr University Bochum). During this segment, a brief overview of the Transformer project was presented, and the User Forum activities were situated within the broader context of the project's endeavours. Next, an icebreaker was held followed by an introduction of user forum activities, which included the monthly online sessions and the two in-person meetings. The content providers of each session were presented, and further information was given on what was expected from the participants. Subsequently, the User Forum participants had the opportunity to introduce themselves, offering insights into their region's background and their vision for achieving systemic transformation towards climate transition. They also shared their local stakeholders' commitment and outlined their expectations from the user forum. In the launch session, we heard presentations from the entities representing the following regions: Energy LL, Heso-SO from Wallis, Switzerland, Basaksehir Living Lab from Istanbul, Turkey, ADP-Zid Living Lab from Montenegro and Just Transition Living Lab from Western Macedonia, Greece. To close the session, TWE presented the dissemination plan, which included interviews with each participant, and RC concluded with a presentation on administrative matters, including details on the invoicing procedure. The User Forum launch concluded with a Q&A session.
The next online meeting will be an interactive session led by RUB where the User Forum participants will discuss how to design inclusive regional transitions.