With the start of the final year for the SPIRE SAIS project, the energy crisis, and the launch of the “EU Year of Skills,” the urgency for a holistic, collaborative approach for energy-intensive industries on industrial symbiosis and energy efficiency is becoming more clear. H2O-People is a collaborative partner in the project as one of the training providers and water sector representatives. In 2023, the European Junior Water Programme will be one of the nine pilot trainings to try the developed Training Framework for Energy Efficiency and Industrial Symbioses to develop the final Blueprint.
The Skills Alliance for Industrial Symbiosis: A Cross-sectoral Blueprint for a Sustainable Process Industry (SPIRE-SAIS) is an Erasmus+ project that gathers 25 partners across Europe. Including H2O-People, the partners have complementary profiles for an ideal competence-based collaboration. The partners have been working together since 2020 to enable the take-up of Industrial Symbiosis (IS) and Energy Efficiency (EE) in the energy-intensive sectors, while empowering the EU workforce with the tools for future job profiles.
2022 was a busy year for the SPIRE-SAIS consortium. The project General Assembly team met in Brussels for the first time since the Covid pandemic. In addition, an analysis of the skills supply side relevant to IS and EE was produced to assess how national and European frameworks and individual VET schools supply relevant skills for the EII sectors – with a focus on Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Portugal. Moreover, activities in 2022 have been toward the piloting and sustainable implementation of the blueprint framework, strategies, tools, and measures based on ways to implement a SPIRE-SAIS governance structure, as well as on the plan for the Blueprint strategy.
As the final chapter of SPIRE-SAIS begins, the SPIRE-SAIS Blueprint will be rolled out at the sectoral, national, and regional levels. This is going to be accomplished by the planning of suitable Implementation and Transfer actions with companies and training providers at both the EU and Member State Levels.
About SPIRE-SAIS: The main objective of the project is to develop an industry-driven and proactive skills strategy focusing on industrial-urban symbiosis and energy efficiency across the different sectors of SPIRE (chemicals, steel, engineering, non-ferrous metals, minerals, water, cement, ceramics). Water has a special position in this project as it is considered a link between all sectors.
For more information on SPIRE-SAIS, you can visit https://www.aspire2050.eu/sais and subscribe to SPIRE-SAIS Newsletter.
