The Fraunhofer IMW has set up a database on citizen engagement with participation formats (activities), goals and organisational requirements to support municipalities plan better citizen engagement activities.

The database aims to provide an overview and suggestions for possible engagement formats that users can filter according to specified criteria.

Citizen engagement – or the effort to include citizens in the planning and implementation processes, allowing them to express their opinions and actively participate- is one of the overarching topics in the energy transition.

One of the main challenges is that this could be done in very different ways. There is a wide variety of formats to choose according to purpose and target groups. The framework conditions for each project are very different, so the planning requires a high degree of flexibility and a certain willingness to experiment.

Thanks to the database built on final reports and experience reports from other projects, mainly from energy transition or Smart Cities and Communities of the European research framework program Horizon 2020, this problem can be tackled better.

How does the platform work? The “Browse Activities” button takes you from the homepage to the list of participation formats. There you can set the filter for various criteria on the left side and thus already sort out some of the formats. The criteria (level of participation, target group, frequency of implementation, duration, implementation and costs) and their characteristics emerged from the data analysis and are explained in more detail under “Explanations”. With the right filter settings, the formats can be pre-sorted, but the final selection must be individually tailored to the conditions of the project. The database can also be searched for keywords.

Link to the database: https://www.citizen-engagement.eu/