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This guidebook is intended to inspire city representatives, local authorities, citizens and NGOs, local entrepreneurs and academics interested in new ways of engaging in urban sustainable transitions. Its practice based and accessible format should prepare city representatives to set up and conduct their own City Labs, even if they have no previous experience with this form of governance innovation.

The report presents information about a city lab project conducted in Warsaw, focused on achieving energy savings by monitoring energy use in private apartments and providing personalised recommendations about everyday choices to affect energy consumption. The project was based on a small-scale socio-economic-technical experiment, involving a group of eleven apartments (inhabited by 37 people) located in different parts of Warsaw (6 districts). The experiment took place between March 2021 and July 2021 (however, this period included breaks due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions). The insights gained show that both households and the environment can benefit from analyses of, and advice on, energy efficiency in households. The city lab revealed a decrease in energy consumption, with estimated annual energy savings measured over the treated households at nearly 11 MWh, provided that this decrease continued over the year. The environmental benefits after the city lab’s lifetime are to be over 2.5 tonnes of CO2 avoided annually.

The transdisciplinary research protocol for SONNET’s city labs aims to propose a shared understanding of the role and methodology of SONNET’s city labs and to provide SONNET cities and researchers with guidelines for how to conduct a city lab that at the same time meets local needs and overall SONNET objectives.

Overview SONNET Research Briefs: Research Brief #1: Avelino, Flor (2020) A transformative social innovation perspective on the diversity, contributions and processes of social innovation. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #2a: Hielscher, Sabine (2019) New institutionalism: Examining the processes of social innovation initiatives. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #2b: Hielscher, Sabine (2020) Possible ways to explore the processes and contributions of SIE-initiatives. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #3: Fraaije, M., Wittmayer, J.M. & T. de Geus (2020) The empirical diversity of social innovation in energy. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #4: Winzer, C., Schmid, B., Dzukowski, T. & D. Wemyss (2019) Defining the success of social innovation in energy. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #5: Marie-Charlotte Guetlein, Joachim Schleich (2019) Insights on the future potentials of social innovations in energy. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #6: Wittmayer, J.M., Dütschke, E., & M. Fraaije (2020) Research brief on sociocultural aspects of social innovation in energy – a first draft. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #7: Stadler, M., Avelino, F., Brugger, H., Strumińska-Kutra, M. and K. Rogge (2020) A socio-political focus on social innovation in energy: drivers, barriers and contributions. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #8: Wemyss, D., Hielscher, S., Vernay, Ranville, Struminska, M. & A. Dembek (2019) Research brief on socio-economic issues of social innovation in energy. SONNET Research Brief. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498 Research Brief #9: Struminska-Kutra, M., Dembek, A., Stasik, A. & B. Rok (2019) City Labs. SONNET: EU H2020 Grant Agreement 837498

With this poster, Dr. Agata Dembek ( Kozminski University, Warsaw) presented the SONNET project at the TIPC (Transformative Innovation Policy Conference) in Valencia, November 2019, on behalf of the SONNET team. SONNET aims to co-create a rich understanding of the diversity, processes, contributions, success and future potentials of social innovation in the energy sector (SIE). Our empirical work bridges qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches in an innovative research design. Among other research activities, given its focus on urban areas as major hubs for SIE, SONNET conducts six transdisciplinary SIE City Labs to experiment with new forms of SIE and learn about how multiple actors can harness the potential of SIE.

With this poster, Dr. Agata Dembek ( Kozminski University, Warsaw) presented the SONNET project at the TIPC (Transformative Innovation Policy Conference) in Valencia, November 2019, on behalf of the SONNET team. SONNET aims to co-create a rich understanding of the diversity, processes, contributions, success and future potentials of social innovation in the energy sector (SIE). Our empirical work bridges qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches in an innovative research design. Among other research activities, given its focus on urban areas as major hubs for SIE, SONNET conducts six transdisciplinary SIE City Labs to experiment with new forms of SIE and learn about how multiple actors can harness the potential of SIE.

SONNET aims to co-create a rich inter- and transdisciplinary understanding of the diversity,processes (including enabling and impeding factors) and contributions of SIE (social innovation in the energy sector). In WP3, we make use of a multiple, embedded case study approach, using diverse units of analysis to build a better understanding of SIE-fields and the SIE-initiatives within them. The main unit of analysis is the SIE-field, while the subunits of analysis are the SIE, different SIE-field-actors (who work on the SIE) and their SIE-initiatives, and other field-actors (who enable and impede the SIE). The analysis also considers the context of wider socio-political, socio-economic and sociocultural issues linked to these actors and the SIE-field. The case studies are presented as a series of six country reports: France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Each country report presents three embedded case studies of SIE-fields within their national context. Overall, the country reports present 18 embedded case studies of SIE-fields, and 36 cases of SIE-initiatives nested within the SIE-field investigations and published in deliverable D3.2 This deliverable D3.3 has two overall aims. First, to dive into a comparative analysis of each SIE-field and their SIE-initiatives across three SONNET countries (for example, comparing framings against fossil fuel energy pathways in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Poland). This analysis draws on empirical phenomena surfacing in the different cases and specific concepts that help to further the understanding of SIE. Second, to derive key insights into specific aspects of the diversity, processes and contributions of SIE.

This report has been written to document all the stages that the City of Antwerp’s City Lab has been through; from the scoping and mapping phase to collect all existing SIE projects, to the selection of the experiments and supporting the lead stakeholders of these experiments to the roll out and lessons learned.

Bristol City Council focuses on the questions: How can crowdfunding as an investment activity be made use of to collectively raise the capital to install energy efficiency measures within community buildings within an urban area? Community centres have always been hubs for communities in the UK. Cuts from local authorities mean that many services once coordinated by the council are now being taken on by the local community. Community occupied buildings are often the last to receive the necessary energy efficiency adaptations and this is nearly always down to a lack of finance. The energy efficiency of these buildings is key to the level of comfort. Moreover, if energy bills can be reduced, there is ultimately more revenue available for the community to undertake their core activities. Crowdfunding not only has the benefit of being able to raise capital in a collective way, but it also is a method that attracts attention by its very nature and requires the residents of Bristol to come together to raise the funds required.

The deliverable at hand reports on the SONNET city lab in Mannheim which focused on novel governance arrangements to enhance social innovation in energy (SIE) in the district of Neckarstadt-West. The aim of the lab was to develop, test and instigate an organisational governance process, which includes a stakeholder interaction as well as an inner-administrative dialogue and the use of innovative methods to foster dialogue and participation. As part of the lab, different activities were conducted such as design thinking workshops, activities in public and digital spaces to allow for new ways of interaction between local stakeholders as well as for citizen participation in the local energy transition.

The Basel city lab differed slightly from the other SONNET city labs, as it involved a collaboration between the state-owned local energy utility and the SONNET academic partner ZHAW. While the involvement of the city administration supported the initial set-up and scoping of projects with the academic partner, they were subsequently less directly involved. Nonetheless, the city lab, involving the local energy utility as the “city partner” successfully developed and tested a social innovation in energy (SIE).The SIE in focus was a smartphone app designed to encourage reducing an individual’s CO2-footprint. The app was in an early stage of scale up and the city lab developed a real-world experiment with ca. 500 participants to measure the impact of the app and focused on one specific feature (value-based motivational messaging). During the city lab, the app was fully released, and still exists while continuing to look for a viable business model.

This report presents the experience of Grenoble City Lab with developing its energy sufficiency actions with users of its municipal buildings. The aim of the lab was to test new action methods to save energy in public buildings and encourage eco-responsibility through behaviour changes, awareness, and accountability. Most of these actions were developed in collaboration with building users and through the observation of daily practices.

This report addresses the following research questions: How do Social Innovation in energy (SIE) and SIE-fieldsemerge, develop, and institutionalise over time? How do SIE-field-actors and other field-actors interact with the‘outside’ institutional environment and thereby co-shape the SIE-field over time? What are the enabling and impeding factors for SIE-field-actors and other field-actors to conduct institutional work and change the ‘outside’ institutional environment? In WP3, we make use of a multiple, embedded case study approach, building a better understanding of SIE-fields (e.g. ‘local electricity exchange’ and ‘cooperative organisational models for renewable energy’) using diverse units of analysis. The main unit of analysis is the SIE-field, whereas the subunits of analysis are made up of the SIE (e.g. multi-actor collectives implementing local electricity exchange), different SIE-field-actors (who work on) and their SIE-initiatives (e.g. Energy Local or Ripple Energy, UK) and other field-actors (who enable and impede SIE) (e.g. Ofgem’s sandbox trials, UK). They are embedded in their respective context, which relates to wider socio-political, social-economic and sociocultural issues linked to these actors and SIE-field. The case studies are presented as a series of six country reports: France, Germany, Netherlands/Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Each country report contains documentation of three embedded case studies of SIE-fields set in their national context, giving a full set of 18 embedded case studies across all six SONNET countries. In these embedded case studies, 36 cases of SIE-initiatives are nested within the SIE-field investigations.

SONNET (Social Innovation in Energy Transitions) aims to co-create a rich understanding of the diversity, processes, contributions, successes and future potentials of social innovation in the energy sector (SIE). This deliverable addresses SONNET’s objective 2, namely, to identify and analyse socio-political enabling and impeding factors for SIE processes, as well as SONNET's objective 5 – the design of socio-political strategies for encouraging SIE. It provides the conceptual framework and the methodological approach for policy networks as well as the qualitative and quantitative analysis of policy networks in six SONNET cities. In SONNET's task T2.2 we aim to identify for each of our six SONNET cities the policy network in which SIE-initiatives are embedded. A policy network analysis is conducted with a particular focus on the relations between key actors at the local, regional, national and EU level (e.g. policymakers, city administrations, energy utilities, businesses and network organisations), and to identify enabling and impeding structures for SIE-initiatives.

SONNET aims to co-create a rich understanding of the diversity, processes, contributions, successes and future potentials of social innovation in the energy sector (SIE). This deliverable addresses SONNET’s objective to identify and analyse enabling and impeding factors for SIE processes. It provides a joint research protocol for the case studies.

While there are many insights on social innovation on the one hand, and energy systems and their social processes on the other – to date these insights have hardly been brought together. In this report, we build on literature that examines processes of social innovation and their institutionalisation and relate it to insights from sustainability transitions and energy research in social sciences to build a draft conceptual framework for the study of diversity, processes and contributions of social innovation in energy (SIE).

SONNET (Social innovation in Energy Transitions) aims to co-create a rich understanding of the diversity, processes, contributions, successes and future potentials of social innovation in the energy sector (SIE). This report addresses SONNET’s objective 1, namely, to capture the diversity of SIE in Europe within a comprehensive SIE typology.