Dutch Research Programme Awards €5.7 Million to Advance Data Sharing Solutions for the Energy Transition

Dutch Research Programme Awards €5.7 Million to Advance Data Sharing Solutions for the Energy Transition

(IN BRIEF) Four research projects will receive €5.7 million in KIC funding to explore how better data sharing can support the energy transition in the Netherlands, with total project funding exceeding €8 million when co-funding is included. The projects were selected through the call “Data sharing for the energy transition: sociotechnical challenges,” which focuses on issues such as privacy, trust, data ownership, interoperability and data standards. The research will involve universities, municipalities, provinces, companies, grid operators and other organisations working together on practical solutions for safe and effective energy data use. The selected projects include TRUST-ET, which will help households share energy data through a participatory platform; FEDERATE, which will develop fair and secure energy dataspaces for digital twins; Sharing the Warmth, which will support safe data sharing for urban heat transition planning; and SHARE, which will create synthetic energy datasets to enable better grid planning without exposing sensitive information. Together, the projects aim to improve decision-making, reduce grid congestion, support gas-free heating, protect privacy and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and resilient energy system.

(PRESS RELEASE) THE HAGUE, 2-Jun-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — Four new research projects will receive funding to investigate how data sharing can support and accelerate the energy transition in the Netherlands. The projects have been selected through the KIC call “Data sharing for the energy transition: sociotechnical challenges”, which focuses on practical and societal barriers to using energy data more effectively, including privacy, trust, data ownership, interoperability and differences in standards.

The awarded projects will receive €5.7 million in KIC funding, with the total project value rising to more than €8 million when co-funding is included. The research will bring together universities, applied research institutions, municipalities, provinces, companies, grid operators and other organisations to develop solutions that make energy data easier, safer and more useful to share.

Reliable and high-quality data is becoming increasingly important as the Netherlands works to modernise its energy system. Tools used for grid planning, heat transition strategies, digital twins, household energy management and renewable energy integration all depend on access to trusted data. However, energy data often involves sensitive information, technical differences between systems and unclear governance arrangements. The new programme aims to address these challenges by combining technical innovation with social, legal and organisational approaches.

The projects are funded through the
NWO-KIC innovation programmes, which are designed to address major societal challenges in the Netherlands while strengthening cooperation between knowledge institutions, private organisations and government bodies. Each project includes investment from companies and other partners, ensuring that the research is closely connected to practical needs and real-world implementation.

One of the selected projects, Building Trust through a Participatory Platform for Data Sharing in the Energy Transition, known as TRUST-ET, will be led by Dr I. Lampropoulos of Utrecht University. The project focuses on households equipped with smart meters and energy devices, which generate growing volumes of data that can support energy decisions by residents, companies, governments and energy cooperatives. TRUST-ET will develop a participatory platform that combines data-sharing technology, two-way communication and safeguards for fairness, transparency and trust. The goal is to enable households to participate more actively in the energy transition while ensuring that data sharing is socially responsible and technically reliable.

The FEDERATE project, led by Dr M. Cvetkovic of Delft University of Technology, will develop fair and secure energy data environments for renewable energy digital twins. Digital twins can play an important role in planning and managing local energy systems, but their effectiveness depends on access to reliable data. FEDERATE will address obstacles such as unclear ownership, privacy concerns and incompatible data standards. Working with municipalities, companies and citizen sustainability initiatives, the project will design human-centred rules, tools and reference models for trustworthy energy dataspaces that can help reduce costs, ease grid congestion and support smarter local planning.

A third project, Sharing the Warmth, led by Dr Ir T.A. Alskaif of Wageningen University & Research, will focus on data sharing for urban heat transition planning. The project aims to help Dutch cities move toward affordable, sustainable and gas-free heating by enabling citizens, municipalities and grid operators to share data safely and transparently. It will develop privacy-preserving tools and fair data-sharing arrangements to improve cooperation and decision-making. By doing so, municipalities will be better equipped to plan heating upgrades efficiently and create more equitable and resilient urban energy systems.

The fourth selected project, Synthetic Harmonized Access to Renewable Energy data, or SHARE, will be led by Dr Y. Shapovalova of Radboud University Nijmegen. SHARE will explore the use of synthetic data to support safer energy data sharing. Synthetic datasets are realistic but artificial, allowing grid operators, municipalities and companies to plan electricity grid upgrades without exposing private or commercially sensitive information. The project will work with partners including Alliander, the Municipality of Nijmegen and energy companies to create tools that support better planning for solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and grid expansion.

Together, the four projects will examine how energy data can be shared in ways that are trustworthy, technically effective and socially acceptable. Their work will support key parts of the energy transition, including household participation, grid congestion management, local planning, heat transition strategies and renewable energy integration.

By addressing both the technical and societal dimensions of data sharing, the programme aims to help build an energy system that is more efficient, resilient and better aligned with climate goals. The projects also reflect the growing importance of collaboration between science, public authorities, companies and citizens in solving the complex data challenges linked to the energy transition.

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SOURCE: NWO