EnerTEF Factsheet Available
The EnerTEF Factsheet, presenting the project’s approach and contributions to human-centred digitalisation in the energy sector, is now available for consultation.
Key takeaways from the workshop “Human-in-the-loop digitalisation for Europe’s energy transition” (Sustainable Places 2025)
The workshop explored how to move beyond the buzzword “human-in-the-loop” and turn it into real, people-centred methods, participatory processes, and useful technological solutions. Organised by ICONS under the Smart Energy Cluster, it brought together four EU-funded projects, DEDALUS, CRETE VALLEY, EnerTEF and ENPOWER, which all work on human-centred digital and energy innovation.
Participants highlighted that the energy transition is not only a technical challenge; it is also a social and cultural one. Trust, shared language, co-creation, and inclusive digital tools are essential to scale and sustain innovation.
From Concept to Implementation
Although the term “human-in-the-loop” appears frequently in EU projects, it is often not implemented in a meaningful way. The workshop emphasised the need to turn it from a theoretical idea into a practical approach by embedding user engagement and co-design from the beginning, balancing technological and social dimensions, and ensuring that users actively shape innovation rather than passively receive it. EnerTEF demonstrated this shift through co-creation workshops that connect AI start-ups with major energy companies, ensuring that digital tools remain interpretable, trustworthy, and tailored to user needs.
Co-creation and the Social Sciences
All participating projects underlined that co-creation and interdisciplinary collaboration are essential for genuine human-centred innovation. Citizens and local stakeholders must be involved directly to build trust, facilitate adoption, and sustain engagement. Social scientists and behavioural experts play a vital mediating role by translating human needs into system requirements and ensuring solutions remain meaningful and relatable. The Crete Valley project illustrated this through its network of community energy labs combined with a digital twin platform that links technical data with social interaction in a continuous feedback loop.
From Economic to Social Motivation
The workshop highlighted that financial incentives alone are not sufficient to motivate long-term behavioural change. Instead, intrinsic and social motivations, such as community identity, trust, gamified experiences, personalised feedback, and environmental awareness, are far more effective. DEDALUS uses gamification to encourage sustained participation in demand response activities, making energy-saving efforts more engaging. Similarly, ENPOWER applies personalised advice and interactive feedback through the PowerCell tool to encourage behavioural change in a soft, continuous manner.
Language as a Bridge — or a Barrier
A recurring challenge identified during the workshop was the communication gap between disciplines. Engineers tend to communicate through data and algorithms, while social scientists rely on values and narratives. Projects that introduced roles capable of navigating both worlds achieved smoother collaboration and greater success. Language thus becomes a critical interface enabling continuous dialogue between humans and machines.
From the Building Scale to the Community Scale
The human-in-the-loop approach expands from individual buildings to entire communities, increasing complexity but also multiplying impact. Effective scaling requires engagement strategies that reflect local cultures and contexts, empowerment of mediating actors such as municipalities and associations, and the development of multi-level participatory roadmaps.
Towards a Genuinely Human-Centred Digitalisation
The central message of the workshop was that digitalisation should empower people rather than replace them. Achieving this vision demands ongoing collaboration across research, industry, policy, and civic actors, along with the integration of behavioural, ethical, and social justice principles. Success must be evaluated not only through efficiency metrics but also through the cultural, social, and emotional value created for individuals and communities. Human-in-the-loop, as the workshop showed, is a demanding but deeply rewarding practice grounded in empathy, translation, and cooperation. By uniting social and technical expertise and encouraging citizen ownership, Europe can advance an energy transition that is not only smart but truly human.
Download the factsheet here.
