The SMAGRINET project has officially come to an end after three years of existence. The European Union project had been working towards tackling the skill gap that is halting the current energy transition to an European smart grid. The consortium of the European Union founded project now announces that it will make available all materials of the project and that will keep delivering the courses at universities.
SMAGRINET was a project funded by the European Union under Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. It came to life as “POWER ON”: a learning and knowledge centre that aimed to empower smart grid expertise in Europe, providing services to European universities, municipalities and industries to enhance their capacity in energy research and innovation to tackle the smart grid energy transition. Universities from Estonia (TalTech), Slovenia (ULJUB), Germany (TUD and TUB), Lithuania (KTU) and France (ULOR), as well as enterprises from Estonia (Elektriliit and Civitta) and Portugal (LOBA.cx), made part of the project consortium.
The consortium has developed and has been executing a set of “Powerful Services” that aim to empower smart grid implementation by improving the skills of the current industries’ workforce and by capacitating academic organizations with the courses needed for smart grid implementation. These services include master level modules piloted at universities, online courses “SMART Grid from A to Z”, an international mobility programme and a Train-the-Trainers programme.
- Master Level Modules: The three modules have been developed, focusing on artificial intelligence in power systems, economic operation and the smart grids planning. All six universities from the SMAGRINET consortium integrated one of the three modules into their curriculum and implemented it during the project’s lifetime. Presentations of teaching methods from each partnering university and online manuals of the modules are available on SMAGRINET’s website.
- Student Mobility: Complementary to the master level modules, a practical hands-on approach of the industry-academia collaboration was integrated to the project in the form of international mobility. Selected students who have completed the SMAGRINET modules gained the possibility to participate in the mobility program. The duration of the mobility varied from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the requirements of the curriculum to what the mobility was related.
- Online Courses: The SMAGRINET project aimed to respond to urgent challenges of European industries concerning smart grids through online short programmes. These programmes responded to industrial needs in terms of skills and knowledge, but also to societal inspiration. The short-term programmes were designed for 3 different profiles: the broader public, engineering researchers and the electrical engineering workforce. They were not only implemented by all consortium universities, but also by four organizations beyond the consortium. All the materials and presented programmes are available via SMAGRINET’s YouTube channel.
- Training the trainers: SMAGRINET implemented a Train-the-Trainers pilot aimed at educating local experts, so they can teach the modules and programmes developed during the project. This allows for deployment, replication, and exploitation of the projects' results. Within the 2-day Workshop, all Case-Based modules and short-term programmes were presented in detail. Moreover, in order to assist in the uptake of the materials at universities all over Europe, online manuals were offered to the participants. All presented materials are available on the SMAGRINET’s website.
These Powerful Services contributed to the successful conclusion of the SMAGRINET project. All the consortium universities showed great interest in implementing these materials in their Masters' Curriculums, and said to “believe that is a crucial step in the journey towards a steadier energy transition in Europe.”
On the 17th of March the SMAGRINET project had already brought to us a conference open to anyone interested in discussing about the role of modern, industry-driven and accessible education on smart grids for the success of energy transition. It brought together renowned names such as Jaak Aaviksoo (former Estonian Minister of Defence and Minister of Education and Research, and former rector of the University of Tartu and Tallinn University of Technology), Maiju Korhonen (senior Advisor at Finnish Energy) and Tarvo Õng (CEO and founder of Fusebox). The recording of the conference broadcasted from Tallinn (Estonia) that brought together more than 400 participants online is now also made available (here).
Know more about SMAGRINET project at www.smagrinet.eu