Communicating the SHAPE ENERGY H2020 project – Strategies for dissemination and exploitation in the coming year

SHAPE ENERGY – ‘Social sciences and Humanities for Advancing Policy in European Energy’ – aims to develop Europe’s expertise in using and applying energy-related Social Sciences and Humanities (energySSH) to accelerate the delivery of Europe’s Energy Union Strategy. The project integrates and builds upon the experience of pre-existing networks and initiatives, including those of its 13 partners. For it to be successful and well disseminated at a European level, a robust and well-designed communication strategy has been fundamental since the project began in February 2017. The project involves and aims to reach out to a very broad range of stakeholders, represented by academics, policy, industry and communications practitioners. It is therefore important that the project’s communication strategy provides clarity on how to communicate, disseminate and exploit the project objectives and outputs to all members of the consortium and external stakeholders, in order to achieve positive and long-lasting results. Through strategic communication, the project aims to make better use of its results, including by sharing them with e.g. decision-makers to influence policy-making. This document states the communications objectives and targets at the midway point of the project (end of year 1). During the first year (01 Feb 2017 – 31 Jan 2018), SHAPE ENERGY was introduced to the European and national scenes through the creation of a project brand and the launch of an official website. Regular SHAPE ENERGY newsletters, as well as active engagement on our own social media channels, also allowed the project’s followers to stay informed and discover the many project outputs already published – in particular, the first half of 2017 focused on reports from the project’s scoping phase, and the second half focused on an increasing number of videos and blogposts. Furthermore, by making the most of the consortium’s broad geographical outreach, as well as contacts with various stakeholder groups, the project gained traction across several key EU countries. A full review of the extensive communication activities across the project to date is provided in Appendix 8.3. ‘SHAPE ENERGY communications activities to date’. We however want to go even further in the coming year; whilst our outreach to a wide audience has proven to be successful, more can be done to ensure even higher results. By taking stock of the achieved successes and lessons learned in 2017, this document provides a comprehensive communication, dissemination and exploitation plan for the final year of the project. As such, through providing further guidance and support to all SHAPE ENERGY partners, this document will improve existing methodologies and strategies, as well as provides a new evaluation and quarterly review system to ensure that the strategy remains on track, particularly for end of project outputs. It introduces all appropriate channels for each activity and details how we are using them in a timely manner. Toolkits and strategies for specific activity-types, as well as a timeline for the upcoming international and European energy agenda, together identify further opportunities to promote the project and ensure its success will be disseminated to its fullest potential. The last year of the project is key for SHAPE ENERGY, as the project’s ‘2020-2030 Research and Innovation Agenda’ (RIA) will be drafted and agreed among consortium partners on the basis of the various insights and learning gained thanks to the project’s activities. Its dissemination will culminate at the final pan-European conference, officially presenting the project results and completing the collection of the 500+ signatories that we are aiming for with the RIA document. Strategic communication will ensure maximum outreach and impact and seek to guarantee a future for the SHAPE ENERGY platform beyond its set end date.