The Jean-Monnet network ‘Governing the EU’s Climate and Energy Transition in Turbulent Times’ (GOVTRAN) brought together senior and early career scholars working in a broad range of fields, including climate and energy policy, European integration, and governance studies. GOVTRAN reached out to the wider epistemic community and other relevant scholarly networks. It actively fostered engagement with policymakers and the broader public in this field.
Network activities focused on two key aspects of recent EU climate and energy policy: the EU climate and energy policy framework for 2030 and the impact of the European Union’s climate and energy policy/governance on, and contribution to, the longer-term future of Europe, European integration, and the EU.
To achieve GOVTRAN’s objectives, the network partners mobilised and coordinated academic research through a range of measures. In particular, they:
- initiated special issues of major academic journals dealing with GOVTRAN’s core themes stated above;
- held international workshops;
- organised panels at major academic conferences.
In addition, GOVTRAN generated cutting-edge scholarly input to inform the policy debate and stimulate dialogue between academia, policymakers, civil society (including business) and the wider public on the two core issues. To this end network partners:
- published policy briefs;
- created blogs and podcasts;
- organised lectures and roundtable debates.
Through the resulting outputs, the GOVTRAN network made available to a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties timely and pertinent knowledge resources on key aspects of the EU’s climate and energy transition and its significance for the political future of Europe. GOVTRAN also establish a related Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).
GOVTRAN was a collaboration of four consortium partners with firmly established track records in relevant fields: The institute for European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, University of East Anglia, University of Eastern Finland, and Ghent University. GOVTRAN ran from September 2018 to August 2021.