The external evaluation of the project ‘Fostering Intergenerational Entrepreneurship’ of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, carried out by Dinâmia-CET, is a requirment of the call and is a process that monitors all stages of the project’s development.The methodological framework identifies: i) Project’s main dimensions; ii) actions to be developed within those dimensions; iii) indicators for actions assessment; and iv) techniques to be used for data collection. The involvement of social actors, besides participants, that are relevant for the development and success of the Project justifies the observation and characterization of public in general and the realization of participated sessions with partners. Therefore, three groups of actors will be considered: participants, public in general, and partners. Participants will be inquired (3 questionnaire surveys and 2 focus groups) during the different phases of the social experiment in order to get information related with their profile, expectations, options, and actions developed during the project. Partners will be involved in 2 focus groups envisaging the debate of Project objectives, evolution, results, and future developments regarding public policies design. Public in general will be considered for the assessment of dissemination effectiveness and Project’s embeddedness in public domain. Public registration in events and Project’s reference by media and social networks will contribute to the achievement of this objective.

Project goals: This project addresses the role of emerging energy technologies in the transition to an environmentally sustainable paradigm. It focuses on the functions played by new technology-intensive firms (NTIFs) - academic or corporate spin-offs - in the process of developing research-based renewable energy technologies, and introducing them into the market, as well as on their interactions with other key actors.Methodology:Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we will address the commercialization process of new technologies, with a view to understanding:1) the role of firms originating from academic institutions or from established companies in the market introduction of renewable energy technologies;2) the type of alliances and networks they establish and the nature and behaviour of other actors they engage with (research organizations; large energy established firms, etc.);3) the impact of policies, through incentives or through the creation of a legal framework and technical infrastructures and norms;4) the impact of institutional changes, both policy induced and deriving from social behaviour changes. Our final objective is thus to uncover the roles that emerge as a result of the strategies identified their relative prevalence and the specific configurations they assume in the energy area. The impact of particular institutional contexts will be assessed through international comparisons (with Netherlands and UK). This will enable us to typify the roles played by NTIFs in the transition to a sustainable energy regime. The results of this project will contribute to on-going research on how to achieve a regime shift, as well as to an understanding of how these processes are taking place in the Portuguese energy system, providing insights to policy formulation and supporting collective action by environmentally active social groups.