Implementing a participatory governance tool

The initial idea was to create a community of users centered on the energy transition, thereby bringing the social aspect (end-users of the energy) of the project closer to the technical part (CNHCN). The precise purpose, composition and focus of this community addressed still needed to be defined. As initial discussions progressed, the notion of a community gave rise to the question of an ad hoc governance structure to be defined and set up. 

Discover the full analysis of the Lab’s implementation, prepared by Marcelline Bonneau, the EUI expert supporting the Be.SHARE project. 

Getting all the partners on board

From the very beginning of the project, it appeared crucial to get all the partners of the project in the co-design of the community to embrace it and support it as well as to make it useful for them and the project. To carry out the co-creation, the project tendered an external consultant, 21 Solutions, who worked along the following stages:  

• A desk research and interviews created a first stakeholder mapping.  
• A consultation with a first circle of co-creators, composed of Brussels Environment, Be.SHARE’s project coordinator and Perspective.brussels (Public Participation Expert of the Region of Brussels-Capital and responsible for the tender for the process) then assessed the added value of the community, the topics to be covered and the composition.  
• These exchanges served as the basis for a consultation with a second circle of co-creators, composed of all the Be.SHARE delivery partners.  
• These inputs lead to the design of two scenarios for the community composition and framework, mandate, and basic operating rules.  
• These were debated back with the second circle. A third scenario merging the concerns and interests of the previous scenarios was then proposed and validated by the Be.SHARE partners.

How to compose a meaningful group?

A main challenge was to identify which ones to work with as partners agreed about the impossibility and lack of relevance to work with all of them all the time. Yet, they recognised the need on the one hand to ensure if not representativeness at least sufficient diversity and, on the other, to prevent from the risk of self-censorship or power imbalances if a hierarchy is present. Consequently, the sampling of members of the community would have an equal voice, within stakeholder diversity, that carries different weight. 

Defining a governance structure which makes sense: the Be.SHARE Lab

The partners agreed the community should identify blind spots to adapt the CNHCN to on-the-ground realities. It would serve as a network of local stakeholders, a learning platform for technicians and users, and a space for mediating expectations, misunderstandings, or conflicts, while making partners accountable and transparent. Members are expected to better understand and embrace the CNHCN, and the community will act as a mutual learning environment to test and be open about adjustments.   

This led to the design of the community as the ‘Be.SHARE lab’, a bidirectional transmission belt and improvement laboratory. It will be composed of maximum 30 members, from five groups of stakeholders — everyday users, intermediary representatives, operational managers, local stakeholders and the Be.SHARE partners.  

The aim of the Be.SHARE Lab will be to circulate information in both directions—from the field to the project AND from the project to the field—and to transform this feedback into levers for continuous improvement. The Lab will not be solely consulted: it will act as a sensor of reality and a catalyst for adapting the project, serving as a testbed and enabling the research to evolve. The first Lab will be organized at the end of 2026 to define the framework for the work, establish a climate of trust and set up a collaborative working method. In total, seven Labs will meet throughout the project (the first Lab having been dedicated to co-construction). 

 Read the full version of this article, in English, on the Portico website