Organised by the CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Green Hill Advisory and Union Camere, with the support of the National Energy Cluster, the National network of Energy agencies and ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development), the City Lab Forum on energy policies and instruments was held in Rome, as hybrid meeting, on 6th December 2022.^.

The one-day forum consisted of four sessions divided into two main parts: a “Round Table” on strategies and best practices for innovative production, consumption and solutions for energy efficiency, and the “Open Innovation Workshop”, where new processes and products have been presented to investment foundations and public procurers. Moreover, a focus on private investments and the use of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza) as a part of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) programme has been illustrated.

PPI4MED Italian partner informed about the main objectives of the EU project and provided the website link to the participants. The forum could be useful to foster innovative solutions in the energy sector in the frame of PPI4MED objectives.

City Lab 2022 has been a very important “momentum” to re-affirm the role of Public Promoters and Public Procurers as critical figures to translate in concrete actions both policies and innovative solutions. These actions are related to saving energy, enhancing energy efficiency, and providing clean energy from renewable sources. They need to involve -from the beginning- all the stakeholders and the citizens to maximise the social impact.

In particular, Pierluigi Carugno, Director of the Municipality of Pescara emphasized the role of local governments to spur the development of energy communities (EC) to reduce costs and implement the energy transition. There are four aspects in EC: Politics (New Green Deal; Agenda 2030); Legal (National administrative Rules); Technological (Research and Innovation solutions); Social (Governance and role of citizens).

The Region of Piemonte is among the most active actors in this process towards EC; moreover, they are involved in ‘Stepping Up’, an Interreg project co-funded by EU, with which PPI4MED could find synergies and exchange best practices.

The process towards energy transition is very important for urban areas as well as for little towns or villages. Thanks to innovative solutions the Municipality of Ferla, a little town in Sicily experienced a more efficient use of clean energy resources. Senator Andrea De Priamo, of the Italian Senate - Environmental Commission and Marco Scuria, Italian Senate - European Affairs, appreciated very much such ‘techno-policy’ meeting where researchers, technicians, representatives of industries such as Ascot Industrial, Enjoy, e-ON and many others were gathered to discuss such strategic themes.