Denys Smolennikov, Associate Professor at the Oleh Balatskyi Department of Management and Vice-Rector for Academic and Pedagogical Work at SumDU, participated alongside fellow researchers in two major international scientific events held in Switzerland and Germany. This participation took place within the framework of the joint Ukrainian-Swiss grant project “Decentralization of Energy and Climate Governance in Ukraine and Switzerland” (supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the National Research Foundation of Ukraine).
A research team from Sumy State University and the Institute for Responsible Innovation, Sustainability and Energy at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) presented the results of their collaborative work at:
– The 17th International Sustainability Transitions Conference (IST 2026), hosted by ETH Zurich. There, the researchers presented a poster titled “Sustainability Transition from the Bottom Up: Drivers of Energy Community Formation in Ukraine and Switzerland”;
– The 19th European IAEE Conference, “Energy Security, Sustainability & Affordability – Rebalancing the Trilemma,” held at the Technical University of Munich (TUM, Germany). During the “Electricity – Microgrids” session, they presented a paper titled “Trust first, energy later: how institutional trust enables local energy communities (a case of Ukraine).”
Presentations and discussions highlighted key project insights regarding the drivers of energy communities, the critical importance of institutional trust, and global challenges related to energy security, affordability, and the achievement of climate goals.
Participation in such prestigious international forums provided an excellent opportunity for the team to share relevant research findings and engage in the global dialogue on the future of decentralized energy and climate governance.