The Pioneers into Practice (PIP) programme offered a platform for policymakers and practitioners to study, design and promote day-to-day professional practices in business, government and research. Climate-KIC is one of three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) created in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). This community of European partners from the private, public and academic sectors engages in various activities to offer new solutions for innovation, entrepreneurship and training.

I joined PIP in 2010 when it was just a pilot initiative, and I discovered as a Pioneer new forms of interaction between professionals involved in environmental innovation. I became a Regional mentor in 2012, and since that moment, I have applied different methodologies to foster group dynamics in exploring business and research ideas within a participatory environment. In 2014, as the Coordinator of regional coaches in Valencia, I had the challenge of designing activities, developing materials and guiding a team of professional coaches to encourage pioneers to think “out of the box” and apply the Transition approach through an intensive and interactive process of professional upgrade.

PIP group 2012

PIP group 2013

PIP group 2014

The critical element of the programme was upgrading multidisciplinary professional skills through opportunities and broadening the professional and institutional networks among different knowledge fields and geographies. Participants explore visions of new low-carbon scenarios and opportunities to innovate in different knowledge areas such as transport, buildings, energy networks, and water management. Still, they also integrate professional capacities in organizational, technological, natural science, economics and many other fields.

The video below collects different perspectives on the experience of the Pioneers into Practice programme.