Seed project report
January 13, 2020
Project title
Exploring data and establishing routines for collaboration on energy experiments
Participants and research area
Mike Farjam, Krushna Mahapatra, Giangiacomo Bravo (CSS)
Summary of activities and results of the seed project
The main goal of the project was to create better routines of collaboration with V¨axj¨o Kommun and V¨axj¨obost¨ader to jointly plan for research on the consumption of energy and other resources in public apartments, and to share/use the related data. Krushna worked on this task, personally contacting several individuals within the two organization, as well as within V¨axj¨o Energi AB (VEAB), to exactly identify who is in charge of the activities interesting us and can provide the data. This led to a nice clarification of the role played by each actor in the three organizations, and to the establishment of direct channels of communication. In addition, we organized a meeting with representatives of the municipality and V¨axj¨obost¨ader on November 11, while a new meeting is planned for January 24.
In addition, we ran two online experiments to get some example data to show to the partners. The first experiment (which also involved two master students) only has demonstrative/didactic value, and has mainly been used as example to better explain the method and its potentialities to our partners.
The second one led instead to results with significant scientific value (besides having a demonstrative potential) The plan is now to write a paper based on its results that will be published on a scientific journal.
Finally, some preliminary data on water consumption in the Docenten residence, provided by VEAB and V¨axj¨obost¨ader, were analysed and used when communicating with the partners.
To what extent have the objectives of the project been achieved / challenges were met?
The main objective to established routines of collaboration with V¨axj¨obost¨ader in order to get the data needed for our research has been largely met, although some details still need to be discussed in the next meeting. At the same time, we realised that V¨axj¨obost¨ader is able to directly access to most, if not all, the data concerning resource consumption and waste production in its buildings, without the need to involve VEAB. This is positive as it reduces the need to coordinate many partners at the same time, e.g., when organizing meetings or writing applications.
As the applications to FORMAS and Energimyndigheten sent last year were rejected, this improved collaboration looks especially important since we are now in the process of writing new ones (see below).
In addition, having some clear outcomes from our preliminary experiments will also help when writing
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the new applications, both as clarification and as example of the research team expertise. The same holds for the water consumption data from the Docenten residence.
In addition, the Municipality expressed the intention to cover our future research on the topic of sustainable behaviour with up to 500,000 SEK per year for three years. This intention now needs to be finalized.
Has the budget of the project been followed?
The total amount used is 89,826 SEK of the 97,900 SEK granted by the seed project.
• We entirely used the 30,000 SEK requested for the experiments, actually merging them with other funds to cover the cost of the second experiment, which was larger than expected.
• Krushna used a total of 59,826 SEK (incl, salary, social security, and OH), which is in line with the amount requested (59,000 SEK).
• We did not use any of the planned funds for the meetings, as these were hosted by V¨axj¨obost¨ader, which covered all expenses.
General description of the experience gained in the project and an assess- ment of project results, including any unexpected effects / events.
The most positive results of the seed project lies in the improved collaboration with V¨axj¨o Kommun and V¨axj¨obost¨ader, and especially in the identification of the individuals within the two organizations that have both the needed authority and the interest to interact with us. Also positive is the fact that the municipality expressed a strong interest to enlarge the scope of the collaboration to other sustainable behaviours, for instance in relation to transport. How to do that in practice will be part of the discussion planned for the next meeting.
The failure of the two previous applications highlighted the need to have more concrete objectives and a clearer relation with the external partner. Fixing these two issues will possibly lead to a successful application in this year (see below).
Describe the next steps
• The most immediate step is the meeting with V¨axj¨o Kommun and V¨axj¨obost¨ader planned for January 24. The idea is to start a discussion that will continue in the future with regular meetings and other joint activities.
• One of the concrete outcomes of the seed project is a new application, currently under preparation, which will be submitted to Energimyndigheten at the end of February (see https://tinyurl.com/t5qwxa8).
With the experience gained from the seed project, we hope to be able to write a successful application this time.
• V¨axj¨o Kommun expressed the willingness to fund our research with up to 500,000 SEK per year for three years. With the mediation of the grant office (Kj¨arstin Hagman Bostr¨om and Mikael H¨arlin), we are now working to finalize this opportunity.
• A paper reporting the results of the second experiment is now in preparation. It will be submitted to a scientific journal still to define (a possibility under consideration is Environment and Behavior but no clear decision has been made yet).
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