FOCUS DRUSTVO ZA SONARAVEN RAZVOJ

Their core work

FOCUS is a Slovenian advocacy and research NGO working at the intersection of energy access, social vulnerability, and environmental sustainability. Their core work involves mobilizing communities — particularly women and low-income households — to take practical action on energy poverty, through living labs, capacity building, and policy engagement. In EU projects they function as a bridge between civil society and policy-makers, bringing in local actors (utilities, health experts, social services) that academic partners often struggle to reach. Their distinctive contribution is translating research findings into community-level action plans and advocacy materials that non-specialist audiences can actually use.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (ENERGISE, 2016-2019), FOCUS worked on broad sustainable energy consumption questions — studying how individuals and communities use energy, with living labs and interdisciplinary methods as the framing. By 2019, their focus sharpened considerably: EmpowerMed moved from behavioral research to targeted social intervention, centering energy poverty as a justice issue and women as the primary change agents. The trajectory is a clear move from descriptive research participation toward leading action-oriented, advocacy-driven projects with a gender and health lens in Southern European contexts.

FOCUS is moving deeper into the social justice dimensions of the energy transition — their next logical projects would likely address energy poverty in urban or peri-urban vulnerable communities, possibly integrating health outcomes, gender equity metrics, or municipal policy reform.

How they like to work

FOCUS has experience on both sides of the coordinator/partner divide — they led EmpowerMed and joined ENERGISE as a participant — which means they understand consortium dynamics from both perspectives. With 20 unique partners across 14 countries from just two projects, they build large, geographically diverse consortia rather than working in tight recurring circles. Their network profile suggests they are effective at recruiting non-academic actors (NGOs, utilities, health bodies) into EU project consortia, a role that adds real value to research-heavy partnerships.

FOCUS has built a network of 20 unique consortium partners across 14 countries from only two projects — an unusually broad reach for an organization of this size. Their recent projects show a clear pull toward Mediterranean member states, likely reflecting their EmpowerMed coordinator role and established contacts in Southern Europe.

What sets them apart

FOCUS occupies a niche that few Slovenian organizations fill: an NGO with demonstrated EU project coordination capability that brings together civil society, health, and energy expertise under a social justice framing. Where most energy-sector partners come from engineering or economics, FOCUS contributes community organizing methods, gender analysis, and direct access to vulnerable household networks. For consortia building projects that need a credible civil society lead or a bridge to non-academic communities in Mediterranean or Central European contexts, FOCUS is one of the few options with an actual coordination track record.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EmpowerMed
  FOCUS served as project coordinator — unusual for an NGO — on a RIA project with €312,750 EC funding, combining energy poverty, gender empowerment, Mediterranean geography, and health impacts in a single interdisciplinary intervention.
• ENERGISE
  Participation in a large European network on sustainable energy consumption gave FOCUS exposure to living-lab methodology and cross-national comparative research, forming the methodological foundation for their later coordination work.