The TRIP-Eu (TRansformative Innovation Policy European hub) continues to grow and develop. Launched in September 2024, the hub is a joint initiative between the Transformative Policy Consortium (TIPC) and the European Forum for Studies of Policies for Research and Innovation (Eu-SPRI). The hub supports research and new approaches for evaluation, deep learning, and capacity building as well as the development of local implementation projects and global research network.
The newest members to join the hub, as a collaborating pair working together on Transformative Innovation Policy experimentation, are the University of Vaasa and the City of Vaasa in Finland. Backed by a €4.3 million grant from the European Commission’s European Urban Initiative they are working with ecosystem partners to tackle one of today’s biggest challenges: how to balance rapid regional growth with sustainable energy and urban development.
Turning energy transition into practice
This partnership aims to revolutionise regional development across the Kvarken area by investing in an innovation ecosystem around energy transition, addressing the challenge of balancing significant growth with sustainable urban development. Their collaborative efforts involve enhancing the knowledge base for urban development, supporting strategic decision-making, and leveraging university resources to improve the effectiveness of city development initiatives.
This experimentation centres on two main initiatives: developing a digital twin of the Vaskiluoto energy system and co-creating a tailored data model for energy efficiency, including an interactive online portal. The digital twin facilitates sector coupling and the integration of smart heat and power solutions.
The data model utilises satellite imagery and real-world data to promote citizen engagement, raise awareness, and reduce energy consumption. These initiatives aim to meet carbon neutrality targets by promoting greener technologies and enhancing energy system management through space innovations, supported by a newly established ‘Professor of Practice’ focused on urban research and collaboration between the University of Vaasa and the City of Vaasa.
Building a stronger hub community
At last week’s meeting of the TRIP-Eu hub, the newest hub members were warmly welcomed. Sandra Boni, Director of the TRIP-Eu hub and professor at Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain), said, ‘We are delighted to have the University of Vaasa and the City of Vaasa join as hub members. Their experiment is an exciting one, and one which will in due course, we anticipate, lead to much new knowledge being shared with the wider TIP community.’
This is an exciting time for the TRIP-Eu hub as we continue to develop our joint training and funding development programme for members.
After a successful initial training session held earlier this year for early-career researchers on ‘Mission-Oriented Science-Policy Dialogues’, the application round for the next set of training has now concluded. This training will be held in Vienna at the end of January 2026. Once again, this will be co-organised by members of TIPC’s European Hub, the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences, Innovations, Sociétés (LISIS) and the Center for Innovation Systems & Policy within the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT).
We look forward to continuing to work with all our members organisations to further develop these and other hub initiatives over the coming months.