SENSE4US

Dear readers,

Our project partners have been continuing their work in building the tools that are part of the Sense4us toolkit: Theme Analysis, Sentiment Analysis, Linked Open Data Search and Policy Impact Analysis. These tools will assist the policy makers to make sense of the multitudes of information that may be relevant to a policy and to examine the impact of a proposed policy.

We have showcased the scope of our work and the developments of our project so far to the PACITA event that took place in Berlin in February. We had the opportunity to discuss and engage in interesting conversations with fellow scientists and researchers and share valuable insights.
We also continue the engagement with policy makers and the general public, in our continuous effort to communicate the essence and the value of our work.

If you have any comments or suggestions, we will be more than glad to receive them, so please feel free to contact us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Enjoy the reading!

The Sense4us Dissemination and Communication Team

Sense4us presentation at the 2nd European TA Conference – PACITA

Sense4us project partners participated at the 2nd European TA Conference, which took place in Berlin (25-27 February 2015) and was organized in the framework of the FP7 funded project “Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment” (PACITA).

In this event, the partners provided an overview of the Sense4us project and the components focusing on its added value to users –starting from the point of analyzing social media to inform policy making and talking about modeling and simulating policy problems of our age, resulting in the presentation of how the current toolkit of the Sense4us project is applied in a selected case study.

Commission launches plan for Energy Union

On February 25th 2015, the European Commission adopted its strategy for a European Energy Union. Energy is used to heat and to cool buildings and homes, transport goods, and power the economy. But with ageing infrastructure, insufficiently integrated markets, and uncoordinated policies, our consumers, households and businesses do not reap the full benefits of increased choice and lower energy prices. It is time to complete the single energy market in Europe. By unveiling its strategy to achieve a resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy, the European Commission delivers on a top priority set out in President Juncker's political guidelines.

The Energy Union means in particular:

• Solidarity clause: reducing the dependence on single suppliers and fully relying on their neighbours, especially when confronted with energy supply disruptions. With more transparency when EU countries make deals to buy energy or gas from countries outside the EU;
• Energy flows, as if it were a Fifth freedom: that of free flow of energy across borders - strictly enforcing the current rules in areas such as energy unbundling and the independence of regulators – taking legal action if needed. Redesigning the electricity market, to be more interconnected, more renewable, and more responsive. Seriously overhauling state interventions in the internal market, and phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies.
• Energy efficiency first: fundamentally rethinking energy efficiency and treating it as an energy source in its own right so that it can compete on equal terms with generation capacity;
• Transition to a low-carbon society that is built to last: ensuring that locally produced energy – including from renewables – can be absorbed easily and efficiently into the grid; promoting EU technological leadership, through developing the next generation of renewables technology and becoming a leader in electromobility, while European companies expand exports and compete globally.

Find out more
Read the press release

PM+: EU policymakers must send 'clear signal' on energy policy

Recent EU announcements on energy are welcome but as always, argues Sandrine Dixson-Declève, the 'devil is in the detail'.

There’s a series of highly technical decisions taking place in Brussels that will determine the future investment of billions of Euros across Europe.

Last week [of February] saw the launch of the new energy union framework strategy, the EU’s vision for an international climate agreement, and a vote on reforming carbon trading.

There’s no coincidence that these should come together. Europe can’t achieve its commitment of at least a 40 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions without appropriate means - namely robust energy policy and an effective carbon market.

It’s easy to drown in the acronyms, but the ins-and-outs of an MSR (market stability reserve) lowering UEAs (carbon allowances) in the EU-ETS (European Union emissions trading scheme) are not going to be discussed in many board meetings. Business simply needs a clear signal that low-carbon is the direction of travel. And it’s looking to policymakers to deliver.

Read the full article

Energy Policy Making in the EU

This book:

• Discusses successful and unsuccessful attempts to include energy issues in the European policy agenda
• Presents successful cases in which energy issues were addressed by means of public policy and analyzes failed attempts to make issues part of the European policy agenda
• Helps to develop a research agenda for future research

The book adopts an innovative analytical approach to agenda setting by not only presenting successful cases in which energy issues were addressed by means of public policy, but by also analyzing failed attempts to make issues part of the European policy agenda. Another outstanding feature of the book is its use of the latest empirical data on a broad range of energy issues.
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Energy, Policy, and the Environment

This book:

• Presents the view of small communities and what they can offer to current developments in terms of energy as well as the perspective of rural bioenergy producers
• Opens the debate on the linkages between energy and the environment in specifically the Northern European context.
• Looks at how an emergent Russia affects energy and environmental issues in the north

This book sets the questions of energy and the environment in the North in the global context and further addresses historical developments, views on energy taxation and tariffs, and effects of EU energy policy.

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Affective Computing and Sentiment Analysis

This book:

• Intellectual Challenge: Research on sentiment analysis is rooted in the ancient arts of hermeneutics and linguistic philosophy
• Academic Relevance: Sentiment analysis is exemplar qualitative analysis that has been automated
• Semantic Web : Sentiment analysis is key to ‘intelligent’ search and retrieval especially in the mission critical area of surveillance and law & order
• Financial Reward: Sentiment analysis is the missing link between fundamental analysis and technical analysis for financial markets

This volume maps the watershed areas between two 'holy grails' of computer science: the identification and interpretation of affect – including sentiment and mood. The expression of sentiment and mood involves the use of metaphors, especially in emotive situations. Affect computing is rooted in hermeneutics, philosophy, political science and sociology, and is now a key area of research in computer science. The 24/7 news sites and blogs facilitate the expression and shaping of opinion locally and globally.  Sentiment analysis, based on text and data mining, is being used in the looking at news and blogs for purposes as diverse as: brand management, film reviews, financial market analysis and prediction, homeland security. There are systems that learn how sentiments are articulated.
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