The meeting was hosted by the European Policies Research Centre (University of Strathclyde, STRATH), one of the partners of the Horizon 2020 project TRACER. The project supports nine coal-intensive regions across Europe to (re-)design their Research and Innovation strategies to facilitate their transition towards a sustainable energy system.

This co-creative workshop aimed to continue the dialogue that started in 2020 with interviewing key stakeholders in the Welsh energy transition. The workshop presented findings from the interviews and provided the opportunity to discuss the changes in the Welsh energy R&I context since mid-late 2020. This included the post-Brexit and pandemic landscape, as well as new policies and strategies introduced, such as the publication of both the Regional Investment in Wales Framework, the strategies developed in Wales during the Regional and Local Area Energy Planning processes, and the recently published recommendations by the Innovation Advisory Council for Wales on the future of innovation policy in Wales. This discussion enabled revisiting identified challenges, strengths and priorities in light of these recent developments. Specifically to the energy transition, participants indicated whether priorities had changed, became clearer, or less/more urgent.

The STRATH team will continue the discussion of R&I priorities, organise an event about energy-related funding opportunities, and feed the research findings into future projections for the energy sector and roadmaps for R&I strategies and implications for skills and the labour market.

Source tourism-picture: Visit Wales (2021)
Source skills infographic: Future Generations Commissioner for Wales (2021), https://www.futuregenerations.wales/resources_posts/skills-through-crisis-upskilling-and-retraining-for-a-green-recovery-in-wales/