On July 8 and 9, the Shift2DC Consortium gathered in Bilbao, for the project’s fourth General Assembly (GA), hosted by Tecnalia — the largest applied research and technological development Center in Spain.
Following the previous meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, hosted by TalTech in November, this edition marked another important milestone in the project’s ongoing journey. Each semester, the General Assembly takes place in a different European city, offering partners an opportunity to meet in person, exchange updates on progress, and set goals for the months ahead.
The July meeting brought together 34 participants onsite, with more than 10 others joining remotely. The event began with a welcome note from Salvador Ceballos of Tecnalia, followed by opening remarks from Hugo Morais, the project coordinator at INESC ID.
To initiate the discussion, Hugo Morais highlighted that at this point of the project, the consortium’s main priority should be to focus on solutions and prepare them to be market-ready within two to three years after the project concludes.
The 4th General Assembly came just one week after the first project review in Brussels, making it an ideal moment to reflect on the feedback received from the Project Officer and define the project’s the next steps.
With 18 months into the project, the consortium is now focused on laying the groundwork for the implementation of Shift2DC’s four DC Demonstrators — located in Germany (Data Centers and Industry), Portugal (Ports), and France (Buildings).
Now that the demonstrator architectures are finalized and nearly half of the proposed solutions have progressed beyond prototyping into implementation and testing, the project is entering a crucial phase: transitioning from design and development to real-world demonstration and system integration.
With a day and a half of meetings ahead, the first afternoon was dedicated to reviewing overall project progress, including updates on management, communication, and the status of active Work Packages (WPs), as well as a review of key milestones and deliverables.
On Day 2, participants were divided into four parallel sessions, each dedicated to one of Shift2DC’s Demonstrators:
- Data Centres Demonstrator – led by Fraunhofer IISB and presented by Kilian Drexler,
- Commercial and Residential Buildings Demonstrator – led by EDF and introduced by Amel Addala,
- Industry Demonstrator – led by Phoenix Contact and presented by Holger Krings,
- Port Digital Twin Demonstrator – led by ITI, with IST ID’s status shared by Lucas Pereira.
These sessions settled the ground for detailed technical discussions and planning for the implementation phase.
The event concluded with all partners returning to the main room for a final wrap-up session. The plan for the next phases of the project was outlined, focusing on the commissioning, testing, and implementation of key components. According to project coordinator Hugo Morais: “All partners are now aligned and fully focused on delivering a fully operational system within the next year. To get there, we need a clear roadmap for the demos, and we must kick off the commissioning, testing, and implementation phases without delay. Integration is essential — bringing all components together efficiently is what will make the difference. Our main priority for this next year is staying on track to meet our shared goals.”
Aftter the meeting, the day concluded with a visit to the TECNALIA Research & Innovation Labs, including a live demonstration.
The next General Assembly meeting will take place in Funchal, hosted by APRAM, on January, following CURRENT/OS Lisbon Plenary Session (January 29–30).
Learn more about our Demo sites at:
👉 https://shift2dc.eu/demos/
In the Media: DNotícias Madeira, RTP Madeira, Funchal Notícias.
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