Novadays, partner of MEISTER project, is a global research and consultancy firm, highly specialized in public management and public policy. Its mission is to ‘Improve the world in which we live through consulting’.
Novadays aspires to take part in the great trends that are changing the world and make these trends result in greater economic growth and social equality. Adequate public management and correct design of public policies are essential to achieve those impacts. For this reason, Governments often create models capable of converting changes into opportunities for their citizens. Also, the entity develops its mission by contributing to the creation of these models and to their transference between countries and sectors, so that the knowledge of the public sector serves to transform the world in which we live in a better world.
Its team develops consulting services, materialized in different forms of advice and assistance, in various sectors of public policy, for a large number of different Government levels (national, regional, and local) and countries. So far, over 300 governments and multilateral entities have placed their trust in the services of our more than 70 professionals.
In 2009, Novadays set up its Green Growth Excellence Unit, a unit whose mission is to change the world in which we live into a world free of carbon emissions. Four fields have concentrated much of the efforts of the Green Growth unit: (1) the Impulse of clean energies, especially renewable energy and gas; (2) the transformation of mobility into sustainable mobility; (3) the Innovation and industrial transformation towards the low-carbon economy, (4) the social and cultural change of societies and large groups.
What is NOVADAYS’s role within the project?
Novadays is leading the definition of 10 city-specific innovative business cases for smart and integrated electro-mobility services, which are being implemented in Berlin, Malaga, and Stockholm, and are part of 6 general innovative Business Models. Novadays’ participation in MEISTER, focused on the fields of public policy, strategy, economics, and innovation, is aimed at leading and supporting the works and collaboration between the public and private stakeholders involved in launching new sustainable mobility solutions for the citizens of the three MEISTER cities.
Novadays usually works along the whole public policy circle- from the identification and analysis of the public policy problem, throughout the design of the Business Models, and up to the evaluation and validation of the latter-. To this end, in MEISTER our team has adjusted and applied the so-called Public Sector Five Case Model Methodology, in order to gradually describe the evolution of the Business Models from their inception to their realization. Five main dimensions were considered: the so-called strategic, economic, financial, commercial and management cases. This means our team has analysed the strategic and policy context of e-mobility in Europe together with the emerging relevant trends, the economic relevance of the impacts of the solutions, the financial viability of their implementation, and has also mapped the commercial, legal and other operational arrangements needed to enable the implementation of the Business Models.
The result of our work is a comprehensive roadmap that will guide the Business Model leaders- both the City councils and the industry- over the whole decision-making process. It is an instrument that not only provides the public policy and socio-economic basis for the intervention- or ‘Case for Change’-, but also assesses the different options in terms of their scope and the Value for Money they offer. Moreover, in MEISTER, we have geared the ‘Value for Money’ notion to including the key environmental benefits created by the sustainable solutions of the Innovative Business Models.
What is NOVADAYS’s previous experience in e-mobility?
For many years, Novadays has been advising local entities, as well as regional and national governments on mobility policies and projects. Within the process of transition to sustainable mobility -in which we have been working for over a decade- electrification holds a key position. It should be noted that when the MEISTER project idea came up, many electric mobility solutions were still at an early stage and were greatly fostered and advanced only in the past few years. Nowadays in the EU we already have in place a Green Deal and many national Recovery and Resiliency plans setting a clear e-mobility pathway for the future. In the meantime, we have been working on the deployment of electric fleets -some linked to autonomous vehicles- and car-sharing services, on market development approaches for electrification equipment manufacturers, on the drafting of sustainable urban mobility plans, on the creation of logistics hubs, etc. We also managed the European Mobility Week in Spain as well as the National Mobility Awards for which we assessed the leading electrification projects in Spain.
In this regard, all the knowledge generated in MEISTER is already of high value for us as consultants and advisors. Over the last three years we have been able to work hand in hand with three e-mobility leading cities -Berlin, Malaga and Stockholm- in the implementation of 10 alternative models of mobility electrification by carrying out all the strategic, financial, impact and organizational studies needed to do so. This is a body of knowledge key to position ourselves when it comes to advising other local and regional entities in Spain and all over Europe.
How will MEISTER contribute to the E-Mobility in the European Union? What are the main challenges MEISTER is facing?
MEISTER is an innovation project that will serve to test the profitability and technical viability of a number of new sustainable business models. As a result, it should enhance the market penetration of e-mobility interoperability and smart grid solutions, as well as foster a rapid, large-scale EV adoption in Europe.
Many European cities are interested in promoting new ways of sustainable mobility for their citizens and have a shared vision on the issue but find themselves in different contexts. With regard to this, Novadays is contributing to MEISTER’s objective of creating the necessary methodologies and knowledge to allow the policy-makers and public authorities to make decisions about e-mobility policies, plans, programmes, and projects.
A Market Uptake and Deployment Handbook will make easier the transferability of the best practices developed in MEISTER to other areas and European cities by encompassing technical, legal, financial, and commercial recommendations and templates. Together with the publication of the Business Cases, the Handbook will make available the methodology developed for investment evaluation, as well as all other relevant guidance on the implementation of the technological solutions for the Business Models. Furthermore, this instrument will compile the relevant EU regulatory framework and will encompass a set of standard documents for the procurement of innovative MEISTER solutions. The financial section of the Handbook will address financial structuring issues and the existing opportunities in the use of ESIF funds to bring the results closer to commercialisation. Lastly, it will present the Pre-Commercial Procurement and Public Procurement of Innovative Solutions models aimed at facilitating the market adoption of the said new products.
In achieving these results, the MEISTER team has certainly faced stumbling blocks in the process of designing and testing the Business Models. The mobility restrictions following the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 in Europe might handicap, in the short-term, the boosting of the customer acceptance of EVs and the economic viability of some Business Models.
Other key challenges faced in MEISTER had to do with coordinating the objectives and visions -sometimes diverse- of the commercial and the public entities. Novadays’ team is very pleased to have been able to convey to the private and public partners the importance of ensuring the strategic fit of the business models with the public policy priorities, of seeking the best Value for Money, and of considering the notion of ‘social preference’ in the Cost and Benefit Analysis of those models with a high social impact. Another central achievement of the MEISTER team was overcoming the barriers for the definition and piloting of some highly innovative Smart Grid Business Models -due to the lack of suitable national regulation and the lack of some cutting-edge technical infrastructure in the cities-. Notwithstanding the difficulties, we are very positive as everything clearly suggests e-mobility is here to stay.
