Multi-Sectoral approaches to innovative skills training for renewable energy and social acceptance
Europe is at the beginning of a major transition to a low carbon economy and is experiencing substantial growth in  the expansion of renewable energy generating capacity. However, parallel to this technological investment, many Member States are witnessing increasing levels of local opposition to individual projects, particularly for wind energy, which is now the cheapest form of energy generation. This has a range of consequences including increased deployment costs/delays, increased regulatory demands, reduced market support and highlights a major social challenge for the energy transition. In response to this, MISTRAL aims to nurture a new generation of researchers who can effectively evaluate the complexity of social acceptance issues facing the deployment of renewable energy infrastructure and propose innovative solutions in a variety of research, government and business contexts. It will do this by fostering a vibrant inter-disciplinary environment to change the way we understand and respond to declining social acceptance of renewable energy infrastructure and engage a wider range of inter-sectoral stakeholders to develop innovative solutions. MISTRAL will also provide an innovative training environment where young researchers can develop advanced skills in research and transferable skills, benefit form a range of diverse secondment experiences and debate current issues with some of the world leading researchers in the field, in order to develop advanced capacities for progressing Europe’s energy transition.