Imagine if learning how to cut your electricity bill worked like playing a video game — with levels, rewards, and a social feed where you compare notes with neighbors. That's what this project built: a platform where energy consumers play their way through real energy-saving decisions, then take those skills into a real marketplace where they can trade, compare, and connect with utilities and product sellers. Think of it as Duolingo meets Facebook, but for your energy bill. The whole thing was tested with real users across four European countries.
Energy utilities and building managers spend heavily on consumer engagement campaigns that most customers ignore. Traditional leaflets, emails, and rebate programs fail to change behavior because they're boring and impersonal. Companies need a way to make energy efficiency engaging, social, and self-sustaining — turning passive bill-payers into active, educated energy consumers.
A gaming and social network platform that was fully integrated and validated in two rounds (first and final versions). The system combines gamification mechanics with a real-world marketplace where consumers, utilities, and energy product companies can discover each other, learn, and trade. Across 15 deliverables, the team built and tested the complete software stack through real-life experiments.
If you are a utility company dealing with disengaged customers who ignore efficiency programs — this project developed a validated gaming and social network platform that uses behavioral economics to motivate consumers. With 4 partners across 4 countries testing the system, it demonstrated how gamification drives measurable engagement where traditional campaigns fail.
If you are a building services company struggling to convince tenants or homeowners to invest in energy upgrades — this project built a community platform where users educate themselves through gameplay and then connect directly with renovation providers and appliance retailers. The platform was validated through real-life small-scale experiments, offering a ready channel to reach motivated buyers.
If you are a training company looking to add energy literacy to your portfolio — this project created a gamification engine specifically designed to teach energy market concepts and efficiency practices to non-experts. Backed by EUR 998,000 in EU funding and 15 deliverables, the platform's game mechanics and behavioral incentive system could be white-labeled for corporate sustainability programs.
The project received EUR 998,000 in EU funding as an Innovation Action, meaning significant development was publicly funded. Licensing terms would need to be negotiated with the consortium coordinator in Greece. As a publicly funded EU project, some results may be available under favorable terms.
The project performed real-life small-scale but diverse experiments for validation. Scaling to full commercial deployment would require additional infrastructure investment. The platform architecture was designed to handle virtual energy communities, suggesting multi-user scalability was a design goal.
IP is shared among the 4-partner consortium led by a Greek research institute (EREVNITIKO PANEPISTIMIAKO INSTITOUTO SYSTIMATON EPIKOINONION KAI YPOLOGISTON). The consortium includes 2 SMEs and 2 industry partners who likely hold commercialization rights. Contact the coordinator to discuss licensing.
Yes. The project explicitly aimed to perform real-life small-scale but diverse experiments to validate the platform's functionalities. Two demo deliverables confirm that both first and final integration and validation of the system were completed.
The platform applies localized social externalities and behavioral economics principles — essentially, it uses peer pressure and game rewards to drive energy-saving decisions. Users compete, compare, and learn through gameplay before interacting in the real-world marketplace section of the platform.
The project was designed around evolving EU energy markets' operation, suggesting regulatory alignment was built in. However, since the project closed in 2019, any deployment would need to be checked against current EU energy directives and data protection rules.
Based on available project data, the platform was designed as a hosting and advertisement service connecting consumers, utilities, and energy efficiency companies. Integration specifics with existing billing infrastructure would need to be discussed with the development team.
The consortium is compact — 4 partners across 4 countries (Greece, Germany, Bulgaria, Cyprus) with a healthy 50% industry ratio and 2 SMEs involved. The coordinator is a Greek research institute specializing in communications and computing systems. Having 2 industry partners and 2 SMEs suggests the technology was built with commercial viability in mind, not just academic publishing. The cross-country spread across Southern and Central Europe provides diverse energy market testing conditions, though the consortium is relatively small for a platform play that would need wider market adoption.
Contact the Greek research institute (EREVNITIKO PANEPISTIMIAKO INSTITOUTO SYSTIMATON EPIKOINONION KAI YPOLOGISTON) through CORDIS or the project website for licensing and partnership inquiries.
Want to explore how this gamification platform could boost your customer engagement? SciTransfer can arrange a direct introduction to the development team and help structure a licensing or pilot agreement.
