A successful start for EnercitEE

EnercitEE successfully launched at the beginning of the year. The partnership began with a productive kick-off meeting in March 2010. The Lead Partner, the Saxon State Ministry for the Environment and Agriculture, invited the EnercitEE regional partners to Dresden, Germany, to participate in the Working and Steering Group meetings.

EnercitEE Working and Steering Group at the kick-off meeting in Dresden/Germany

The representatives of the Working Group met for around three days. The meeting mainly focussed on presenting the reporting and controlling requirements, developing the work plan for the coming months, clarifying responsibilities, and finalising important project documents. The EnercitEE manual was presented and discussed. The partnership agreement was finalised and recommended for approval by the Steering Group.

Mr. Frank Kupfer, State Minister for the Environment and Agriculture, opened the Steering Group meeting. He welcomed the representatives of the regional partners and the Joint Technical Secretariat, and highlighted Saxony’s interest in exchanging experiences in the vast field of improving energy efficiency. He invited the partners to play a key role in the partnership and to actively shape the results of EnercitEE.

Over the following months, the Working Group and the Mini-Programme Coordination Office worked hard to get EnercitEE up and running on both a project and on a regional level. The regional managers heavily promoted EnercitEE within their regions. By June, all important documents had been approved, the partnership agreement signed, the corporate design including the logo developed, and – perfectly timed for the launch of the 1st Call for Proposals – the EnercitEE website was officially launched.

The Call for Proposals has been open since 14th June 2010 and will close soon. All sub-project proposals must be submitted by Friday 24th September 2010. The launch of the second Call for Proposals will be announced via the website. Further information for interested parties, as well as application requirements, can be found on the website under “Call”.

Exchanging experiences is an integral part of EnercitEE. Besides the ongoing identification of good practices, study visits and training sessions will provide an insight into the experiences of the partner regions.