Designing future energy policies

Simone Abram is a professor at the Anthropology Department of Durham University with a specialty in ethnographic fieldwork, particularly in the UK, France and Scandinavia. As Co-Director of DEI, she works to bring together researchers from Durham University’s Science, Social Science and Humanities Departments to produce cutting-edge energy research. As a researcher at the National Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI), Abram strives for the incorporation of a societal perspective in the energy system. She also co-founded the Energy Anthropology Network (EAN), which brings together anthropologists working on energy questions. In addition to that, she is a member of the European Platform for Energy Research in the Socio-economic Nexus (PERSON).

Aziza Akhmouch is the Acting Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development division within the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities. She oversees wide-ranging, thematic work related to transport, housing, smart/green/circular cities, spatial planning, urban financing, metropolitan governance, water governance, cities and climate change. In this role, she advises governments on how to design and better implement the urban policies that have the potential to lead to more fulfilled lives. Her portfolio also includes metropolitan and national urban policy reviews that assess the performance of cities and countries and provide tailored recommendations for their improvement. In addition to these responsibilities, she also oversees the OECD roundtable of Mayors and Ministers.

As Deputy Director-General for Research and Innovation, Patrick Child works to support the EU’s role as a leader in the green technology transition by ensuring it supports public and private investment in clean energy technologies. He also chairs the Steering Committee of Mission Innovation, a global initiative consisting of 23 countries working together to dramatically accelerate clean energy innovation through reinforced international commitment. Child is also responsible for the coordination of the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation budget.

Stephen Cook is an energy consultant and chartered town planner with over two decades of experience in planning, energy, and urban development. Cook is a leader in the Energy and Climate Change consulting practice at Arup, a leading design firm best known for its work in the built environment. Cook’s work lies at the interface between planning and infrastructure for resilient, low-carbon cities. At Arup, he has worked on a wide range of assignments, including energy masterplans, carbon reduction scenario modelling, smart cities and carbon and energy policy advice.

Chris Foulds is Principal Research Fellow at the Global Sustainability Institute, Anglia Ruskin University (Cambridge, UK), and co-lead of the SHAPE ENERGY Platform and upcoming H2020 Energy-SHIFTS Forum. Foulds researches how society and everyday life intersect with energy policies, governance, consumption, and the built environment. He was previously the Principal Investigator of the EU COSME Energy in Water project. Currently, Foulds is Co-Investigator of the H2020 Responsible Research & Innovation Networking Globally project, where he leads a global review concerning the current state-of-the-art on e.g. energy-related innovation.

Michaël Gillis is Director of Strategy, Legal, Regulatory and Public Affairs at ENGIE Benelux. Gillis started his career as a lawyer in Brussels and joined Distrigas NV as a Legal Counsel. He was later appointed Head of Regulatory and Public Affairs as well as Company Secretary. Moving to GDF Suez Europe and International, he served as Senior Vice-President for Strategy before joining ENGIE Benelux, where he started in the position of Chief Legal, Governance, Ethics and Compliance Officer.

Derk Loorbach is a professor of Socio-economic Transitions at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He began his career as a researcher at the International Centre for Integrative Studies (ICIS) of Maastricht University and has been working on sustainable transitions, transition management and governance since 2001. Loorbach is seen as one of the founders of the transition management concept; a form of governance for sustainable development that incorporates complex systems thinking. He has published extensively on the subject and has been involved in numerous transition projects, uniting government, business players, civil society and science.

Florent Marcellesi has been a Member of the European Parliament for the Spanish Green party EQUO since 2016 and was previously spokesperson for the party. He is currently a member of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and the Vice-President of the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources (EUFORES). In addition to this, he serves as a member of the think tank Ecología Politica and has authored titles such as “Which Europe do we want?”. He was trained as a civil engineer and urban planner, and is a specialist in international cooperation.

Renata Mele serves as Head of Strategy for E-City at Enel X, the Global Business Line of the Enel Group dedicated to the creation of innovative energy solutions, operating in more than 20 countries. Within E-City, the product line focused on providing energy and digital services for cities and public stakeholders, she manages the strategy and product portfolio at global level. Formerly, Mele held the position of Deputy Director at the Enel Foundation, the research and study centre created by Enel Group, where she was instrumental in carrying out the Foundations’s research ambitions, in addition to promoting executive training and dissemination initiatives focusing on the thematic areas on energy, socio-economics, sustainable development and innovation. At the Enel Foundation, she led cross-disciplinary international research programs on Sustainable Urban Development.

Rosie Robison is Principal Research Fellow at the Global Sustainability Institute, Anglia Ruskin University (Cambridge, UK), and co-lead of the SHAPE ENERGY Platform and upcoming H2020 Energy-SHIFTS Forum. Rosie researches sustainable lifestyles and journeys of change towards lower consumption. Having led several interdisciplinary networks, she explores how different communities can work together as well as constructively disagree. Rosie was Principal Investigator of the EPSRC Balance Network, exploring smart technologies. In addition to that, Rosie was a UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellow, focusing on electric vehicle policy.

Xavier Troussard is Acting Director of the “Competences” Directorate at the Joint Research Centre, in addition to occupying the role of Head of the “Foresight, behavioural insights and design for Policy” Unit in the same Directorate. The mission of this Unit is to support policymaking at EU level, taking into account the insights from anticipation disciplines (horizon scanning, foresight), behavioural sciences and design thinking. Joining the Commission in 1989 at the DG for Information, Communication, Culture and Audio-visual, he represented the European Commission in the negotiation of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expression, managed programmes, developed policies for the culture and creative industries and contributed to the shaping of the EU Creative Europe Programme.

Kathleen Van Brempt is a Member of the European Parliament for the Belgian social democratic sp.a party. She is the Vice-President responsible for sustainable development of the Socialist and Democrats Group Bureau. Van Brempt has served as the Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector (EMIS). She was also State Secretary for Labour Organisation and Welfare in the Belgian federal government and Minister for Mobility, Social Economy and Equal Opportunities in the Flemish government. Additionally, Van Brempt is a member of the city council of her hometown Antwerp, in Belgium.