IZMIR EKONOMI UNIVERSITESI

Their core work

Izmir Ekonomi Universitesi (IUE) is a Turkish university specializing in the social and behavioural dimensions of Europe's energy transition. They study how citizens adopt energy-saving behaviours, form energy communities, and shift lifestyles toward low-carbon living — combining behavioural science, citizen engagement methods, and ICT tools. Their work bridges social science research with practical community-level energy interventions, making them a valuable partner for projects that need to understand the human side of energy systems.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

IUE's early H2020 work (2016–2017) was broader and more exploratory, spanning art-based community research (trans-making) and general energy choices (ECHOES). From 2020 onward, they concentrated sharply on citizen-centred energy transition — energy communities, behavioural interventions, lifestyle change, and energy citizenship. The shift signals a deliberate move from social science generalist toward applied behavioural energy research with practical tools like smart meter integration, RCTs, and smartphone apps.

IUE is deepening its focus on citizen-driven energy transition, combining behavioural science with digital tools — expect them to pursue energy democracy, demand-side flexibility, and community energy governance topics next.

How they like to work

IUE operates exclusively as a consortium participant, never as coordinator, which positions them as a reliable contributing partner rather than a project driver. With 96 unique partners across 31 countries from just 7 projects, they work in large, diverse consortia and are comfortable integrating into broad European networks. This wide-reaching but non-leading style suggests they bring specialized social science expertise to technically-led projects without competing for the coordination role.

IUE has built a remarkably broad network for its project count — 96 unique partners across 31 countries from only 7 projects, indicating participation in large pan-European consortia. No strong geographic clustering; their partnerships span across the EU with no single dominant partner country.

What sets them apart

IUE brings a rare combination: deep social science and behavioural expertise applied specifically to energy transition, housed in a Turkish university with strong European integration. While many energy project partners focus on technology or policy, IUE fills the gap on human behaviour — understanding why citizens do or don't adopt energy-saving measures and how communities self-organize around renewables. Their additional background in art-based community research gives them unconventional methods for citizen engagement that purely technical partners cannot offer.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ECHOES
  Their largest funded project (EUR 285,625) and earliest energy engagement, examining how energy choices support the Energy Union — set the foundation for all subsequent work.
• DIALOGUES
  Their second-largest project (EUR 243,125) and most recent, operationalizing the concept of energy citizenship through co-creation and citizen action labs — represents the frontier of their expertise.
• trans-making
  An outlier in their portfolio — an MSCA-RISE project on art, tactical media, and placemaking that reveals unconventional community engagement capabilities beyond standard energy research.