Background

gEneSys was a Horizon Europe-funded project active from 1st February 2023 to 30th April 2026. It produced new research evidence and understanding of gendered power relations in energy field, with fresh theoretical insights and policy recommendation on how to advance just, equitable and sustainable transition from traditional to ‘greener’ energy systems. The study conceived energy transition as an ecosystem of interrelated subsystems - socio-cultural, economic, technological, political and environmental – and applied novel gender analysis methods to scrutinise citizen’s attitudes, stakeholder engagement, educational curricula, intersectional dynamics, and conditions for creating credible energy transition pathways. The study focused on the EU and EU’s cooperation with Africa. All project outputs are available on the Zenodo platform.

Contributions from gEneSys

• gender sensitive survey of R&I staff working on energy issues in academic/research institutions and private companies
• a theoretical framework explaining the conditions for citizens’ support of and engagement in energy transition efforts
• a cross-country survey of citizens’ attitudes in six European countries and four Sub-Saharan countries, involving 30,000 participants
• anonymised gEneSys dataset made available for further scholarly publications and secondary analyses beyond the project consortium
• qualitative interviews identifying intersectional dynamics in energy transitions
• analysis of educational curricula in primary and high schools demonstrating disparities in gender representation in school textbooks
• analysis of gender imbalances in the energy transition knowledge community and how women can be more effectively supported in education, research, and professional careers in the field
• analysis of the mechanisms and instruments for operationalizing EU-Africa cooperation on implementing SDGs and advancing the values of equity, justice, fairness, and sustainability in African research and innovation
• criteria for creating sustainable and credible pathways that integrate considerations of gender into the design of socio-technical systems
• novel Gendered Innovation Approach for integration of gender and interdisciplinarity aspects in Master and Doctoral energy transition curriculum
• a week-long gender equality sensitive, interdisciplinary training programme for postgraduate students
• analysis of gender integration in European energy policy measures and comparison of gender equality commitments in national policies on recovery and resilience
• systematic literature review of scholarly and grey resources at the nexus of energy and gender
• comprehensive energy systems ontology that offers an interdisciplinary perspective on semantic relationships
• case study analysis explaining the production and reproduction of inclusion and exclusion of inequality conditions in energy transformation spheres
• concrete recommendations to interconnect science-policy-society sustainability agendas