A new cooperation partnership on AI-driven energy skills - and a sequel with a mission

We are proud to announce that eCOOP 2 - Building Community Capacity to Engage with AI-Driven Energy and Smart Village Systems - has been approved for funding under the Erasmus+ programme (KA220-VET, cooperation partnerships in vocational education and training). The project begins on 1 October 2026 and will run for 24 months, until September 2028.

eCOOP 2 is the continuation of the eCOOP project, which built community awareness of the energy transition across Europe. The sequel takes the next step: turning that awareness into practical, vocational skill. Green and digital competences are still too often taught in isolation from each other and from real workplaces - and in energy-transition regions like Western Macedonia, where Kozani once produced more than half of Greece's coal-based electricity, the gap between training and the local labour market is felt daily.

What the project will do

• Develop a practical Micro-Guidance Framework at EQF levels 3–4, built on a simple 'observe–decide–check' logic, together with visual learning materials and ten short microlearning units - all published as open educational resources.

• Run VET Energy Labs in five countries, where learner teams walk real facilities - schools, companies, public buildings - document lighting, heating, and standby energy use, analyse their findings with simple digital tools, and propose low-risk improvements that companies and municipalities validate at national roundtables.

• Anchor the results locally through multiplier events, national webinars, and signed VET–Energy Cooperation Frameworks in each country, concluding with an international final conference in Slovakia in September 2028.

The partnership and VERDE's role

The project is coordinated by the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra and brings together Meridaunia (Italy), Momentum Marketing Services (Ireland), Kocatürk (Türkiye), and VERDE - five organisations spanning research, territorial development, applied training, digital tools, and energy policy.

VERDE serves as the project-wide Ethics, Energy Transition & Policy Leader - contributing our experience from Kozani's post-lignite transition, safeguarding ethics, safety, and GDPR compliance across all activities, and validating the responsible use of AI-supported tools. We also lead the framework strand on digital responsibility and ethics in practice, and in May 2027 we will welcome the consortium to Greece for the project's transnational meeting and the Train-the-Trainer learning activity.

Work begins this October. Follow our news section and social media as the first activities get underway. eCOOP 2 is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.