Start of ReSET project (August 2020)

August 2020 saw the kick-off of ‘Reconfiguring Energy for Social Equity’ (ReSET), a 4-year research project funded by the Volkswagenstiftung. Philipp Späth (as Principal Investigator) and Bleta Arifi (as PostDoc researcher) are part of a consortium of four research institutions, including the Urban Futures Studio at Utrecht University (consortium leader, The Netherlands), the Institute for Human Settlements (India), and the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). ReSET compares case studies in Germany, India, the Netherlands and South Africa to understand how the global energy transition can be made more equitable. It focuses on how ‘software’, in form of policy regimes, determines the flow of investments in the hardware of energy infrastructures. Together with diverse stakeholders, the project aims to develop a generic framework and gain concrete insights that can inform future policies.