H2020 ACCEPT Project:D3.5 – Report on citizen recruitment activity outcome

As part of the demonstration and living lab (LL) activities, commercial and residential end-customers will be engaged to gather feedback, test and implement the ACCEPT solutions. The aim is to directly engage at least 770 citizens as participants across the four pilot countries. Citizen recruitment was done primarily through the ex-ante surveys conducted as part of task T6.1 in WP6. In addition, interactions with citizens have already begun, and good progress has been made with regard to further recruitment across all four pilot sites. In the Greek pilot, the recruitment goal is a public football stadium and 63 local residences. Currently, 63 potential users have been identified and are currently being assessed for their suitability. A workshop designed to raise awareness of the ACCEPT project and build trust with potential end-users took place in M7. Currently, 63different prospective pilot users have expressed interest in participating in the project. In the Spanish pilot, the recruitment goal is to involve 50 citizens in piloting activities, of which, 15 will be prosumers. Following the initial recruitment process, 54 residential users and 18 prosumers have been identified and are being reviewed to select the final participants who will take part in ACCEPT. A video telco and various correspondences were also undertaken with the goal of recruitment (i.e. instilling confidence in the project with citizens, and opening communication channels with the public.) In the Dutch pilot, the aim is to recruit 50 households and 1 business company. Thus far, awareness has been raised in the community through various communication materials. 40 households with assets of interest to the project have been identified and communication with these end-users has been initiated. The Swiss pilot consists of two separate areas, the Arena Innovation Community (AIC) which consist of a residential area in the suburbs of Lugano and Fondazione La Sosta (FLS), an elderly care home within the urban area. The recruitment objectives were to engage with all the residential users (approximately 50 users, one per house), the 4 building owners and the 2 utility managers in the AIC. For the FLS, all 30 users and the management of the elderly care home are targeted. Engagement activities thus far have included information letters, a workshop and one-to-one communication with 63 members of the community. With regards to the recruitment progress, 50 have signed the agreement with the energy community and it is expected that all citizens will have been engaged by M11. With regards to the recruitment activities undertaken as part of the LL activities, citizens which included consumers and prosumers in each pilot community were engaged to provide feedback on the ACCEPT use cases through concept surveys. 115 end-users in total were engaged, 38 in Greece, 35 in Spain, 23 in Switzerland and 19 in the Netherlands. Engagements with these end-users were facilitated through collaboration with WP9 through the creation of communication materials which enables the process of building trust and a collaborative relationship between pilot leaders and local communities. Combined