The Azorean Director for Energy highlighted in Porto, Portugal, that the Azores have been “recognised for their work and for their huge potential to lead the energy transition” within the context of outermost regions, being a privileged space for “research and development of new disruptive solutions regarding energy and electric mobility”.

“This has only been possible through research and development in energy public policy, by bringing together companies, academia, the public sector and citizens as essential entities for a true innovation ecosystem”, she referred.

The Director spoke during the conference “Open innovation in Portugal”, within the subject of “Circular economy and sustainability of territories through open innovation” organised by ANI, the Portuguese agency for innovation. Counting on the participation of several experts, the conference allowed the debate on the importance of open innovation, with the presentation of real success cases.

The Azorean policy for electric mobility was a major focus of the conference within the panel “Mobility and energy transition: success cases and opportunities through open innovation”. During her intervention, the Azorean Director for Energy emphasized that the Azores Government “has been stimulating the dialogue and civic participation with the goal of ameliorating and democratising the definition of energy public policy”.

She referred that actions such as the Meetings with energy efficiency, a type of discussion-based informal meetings on energy, as well as the elaboration processes for the 2030 Azores Energy Strategy or the Azores Plan for Electric Mobility are “collaborative processes that involved several entities participating in workgroups, debates, public consultation and information sessions”.

“We believe that through openness and democratisation, we will be able act in a more effective and robust way, with the engagement of all those willing to collaborate, reaching our goals towards a better quality of life for all Azoreans, with important results regarding the decarbonised development of the Azores”, argued the Azorean Director.