·Västerbotten (Sweden): The second stakeholder workshop was organized on the 20th June 2024. During the session, the pilot team presented a showcase of the Energy Advisory Service (EAS), highlighting its extensions for relevant perspectives. The goal was to gather stakeholder feedback on key aspects: 1) the usability and practicality of the EAS, 2) its features and functionalities, and 3) suggestions for future improvements. The workshop was attended by nine participants from construction companies, representatives from the municipality of Umeå, the chair of the housing board, and Umeå Energy Advisory. The evaluation feedback is positive. The EAS is considered highly meaningful for rural homeowners, enhancing energy efficiency and environmental impact. It specifically addresses the needs of homeowners regarding energy education and economic benefits.
Improvement of Energy Advisory Service was finished in August. It included integration of immersive virtual environments (IVEs) with EAS aiming to enhance local users’ engagement and education. IVEs enable users to interact with and explore various renovation options while communicating with energy advisors. This enhancement is anticipated to significantly improve the overall effectiveness of the EAS, and a demonstration of its use case will be included in the third stakeholder workshop.
·Hålogaland (Norway) Tourism: Hålogaland Tourism Pilot has prioritized the summer months for August for testing the main components of the AURORAL platform and thus the services and data sources connected to the pilot.
Before June 2024, the pilot team installed all sensors and signs, connected to each of the use to the pilot. This includes waste bin fill level sensors, person counters, car counters, digital storytelling signs and voluntary payment signs at the pilots’ six attractions.
The new initiative aimed at enhancing our end-user stakeholder engagement, was introduced. In collaboration with AURORAL partner, LuxActive, the managers developed a feedback system that enables end users to provide their input. This system features a concise and user-friendly survey integrated within our digital storytelling application, oHA, which is facilitated by LuxActive. The feedback gathered will be instrumental in guiding the development of the attractions and will also provide valuable insights to key stakeholders involved in the pilot program and the tourism industry.
·Hålogaland (Norway) Health: The health pilot was presented to stakeholders representing different sectors in August during Arendalsuka in Norway. Three sets of functionalities stood out as being of particular interest. Perimeter control and assigned team roles, which are highly relevant to patrolling, reporting, and generally providing situational awareness. The use of satellite data to provide decision support that is relevant to various sectors and industries. And finally, further integration of positioning information to provide context for the deployment of drones. Additionally, new methodologies have been developed that might shape the foundation for future patents.
Results from the AURORAL project and the health pilot, in particular, can also be transferred to other projects. Hafenstrom has participated in new calls that address both mobility and smart communities. Some of the functionalities that will be explored include how the results from the health pilot can support the detection of bias in decision-making and the management of ongoing onshore and offshore operations. As some of the most important findings from the health pilot are related to situational awareness and management based on collected and stored information, visualization of said data is crucial. Therefore, quick access and easy navigation, in a potentially complex information hierarchy, are considered important.
·Penedès (Spain): In June, the Penedes pilot managers provided a project status update during the monitoring session at the CBC General Assembly.
Later that month, testing and data integration for the BioenerGIS tool took place, supported by the development teams from J3B3 and Walaxia.
In July, representatives from the pilot joined the inaugural meeting to establish the Terra Alta Biomass Utilization Table, held at the Terra Alta Regional Council's headquarters in Gandesa. This collaboration with local stakeholders aims at fostering new opportunities for the cohesion of rural communities in environments similar to the Penedès Pilot area.
·Lapland (Finland): University of Oulu visited LF2- pilot site LOUE in Tervola municipality at the end of May, where the owner of Korpihilla non-alcoholic beverages Ritva Kokko showed the factory and products that will be sold in the Collaboration Platform for Local Food Supply developed during AURORAL project. More information: ( https://www.korpihilla.fi/) After the factory tour, University of Oulu group held a workshop with two local food producers that aimed at defining value propositions for the business model of the platform. Ice Cream Factory ( https://www.arcticicecream.fi/) which will sell its products in the platform developed operates in the vocational school premises and uses the milk produced by Northern Finncattle in the same location.
University of Oulu, as part of Lapland use case, held a pilot planning session in 28th of August in Loue demonstration site. The Collaboration Platform for Local Food Supply -pilot (LF2) has very strong stakeholder group which is committed to piloting but also searching for funding to continue the operations after the AURORAL project. Present in the session were local food ecosystem representative, entrepreneur of the new grocery store, entrepreneur of the logistics company and a technical expert of the platform.
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