W4RES – Scaling-up the involvement of women in supporting and accelerating market uptake of renewable energy sources for heating and cooling

WOMEN WANTED!
Second Call for WOMEN-LED PROJECTS / INITIATIVES in RHC solutions is now open!

We are looking for women-led projects in the renewable heating and cooling sector
across selected European countries:

Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Slovakia

The second round of the W4RES call for projects is open from June 1st at 09:00 CET until 14th of October 2022 at 17:00 CET. See below the main elements of the second round of the call for proposals for women-led projects in RHC solutions:

* A “project” can be a classic project in the sense of the word, an initiative or a business idea from any company, organisation, or person.

WHO CAN APPLY?

We are looking for projects with a high level of women engagement that focus on the RHC sector. Such projects1 may include (but are not limited to) innovative technologies or design concepts for energy efficient buildings or city quarters, business ideas on how to engage people to reduce their carbon footprint or that sustainably address negative impacts of climate change.

WHAT YOU GET OUT OF IT:

CUSTOMISED SUPPORT FOR YOUR PROJECT / INITIATIVE
We offer you customised business and technical support for your project. Your project can be part of one or more phases of the following project flow:

Figure 1: Project phases for market uptake service

Below are examples of the business and technical support services we offer over various project phases:

Figure 2: Support services according to project phase & development level

WHEN WILL THIS HAPPEN?

PROJECT SELECTION CRITERIA

Your project or idea will be assessed based on the selection criteria below.

Please note: Category 1 is a key criterion. Your project does not have to address or fulfil all criteria listed below, but rather prove a good balance within the categories 2 to 5.

1. 1. Female Leadership, engagement level of women and/or gender topics in the project,
       e.g. gender mainstreaming tools, gender equality plans
      The project is led by a woman or a woman is part of the project leadership team.
      The applicants want to engage women and gender related topics in their project.
   2. Level of Innovation
      The project is based on the use or development of an innovative product, system or process or on an innovative solution, idea, approach, organizational, cooperation or service concept.
   3. Environmental and Technological Sustainability:
      e.g. use of sustainable technologies, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
      The project shows how people can reduce the carbon footprint or identifies sustainable ways to address negative impacts of climate change.
   4. Business Case: Profitability, Feasibility, Scalability, Chances and Risks
      The overall concept includes one or all of the above-mentioned topics and shows that the project is aware of the relevant market uptake activities of the project is likely to be realizable.
   5. Other impacts: Other than RHC
      The project shows further environmental, social or economic impacts outside of the RHC/energy sector, for example along the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

CONTEXT: GET TO KNOW W4RES

What is W4RES?

The EU-funded W4RES project supports the uptake of renewable energy in heating and cooling (RHC) from a gender-driven perspective. It will take into consideration framework conditions and regional specificities, assessing and mitigating obstacles. Moreover, it will build on gender-disaggregated awareness from the market and successful cases of women leading RHC programmes to develop cost-effective and flexible support initiatives with high reapplication potential. Gender-responsive monitoring will evaluate the performance of the initiatives and produce evidence-based knowledge to guide and facilitate their reapplication in other contexts.

Why do we do what we do?

The heating and cooling market needs to urgently shift towards renewable energy sources. Women hold great potential as agents of change, supporting and accelerating the market uptake of renewable energy for heating and cooling, all while getting us closer to meeting the EU’s renewable energy targets for 2030. W4RES is a unique project that offers hands-on support to women-led and gender-relevant projects in the RHC market to stimulate or improve their business activity and facilitate the uptake of RHC solutions within their region and local market.

We are looking for innovative and daring ideas and solutions!

Contact us if you have any questions or comments or would like to know more about how to apply!

You can find a list of our regional contacts below:

You can download and view the Terms of Reference (ToR) that will apply to your cooperation with the W4RES to receive the support services below in the download section.

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