The European project Mosaic, involving researchers from the University of Vigo (UVigo) and seven partners from Italy, Norway, France, Germany, and Serbia, aims to develop a comparative, historical, and spatial understanding of industrial transitions to support a just green transition. The initiative, coordinated by the University of Economics in Katowice (Poland), has a total budget of 3.33 million euros, with 242,000 euros allocated to UVigo.
The primary objective is to analyze how decline and renewal affect regions, the labor market, companies, and institutions. To achieve this, various disciplines will be employed to interpret trends, simulate futures, and guide policies. The work will be structured in three phases: past, present, and future, to evaluate behaviors and policy options. Collaboration with social actors will be crucial for transforming results into strategies that enhance competitiveness and resilience.
“"A just green transition is one that allows progress towards a decarbonized and more sustainable economy without disproportionately shifting costs to workers, companies, sectors, or territories. In other words, it means ensuring that no one is left behind."
The UVigo team, led by postdoctoral researcher Lucas López Manuel and professor Xosé H. Vázquez Vicente, also includes Miguel González and Alexandra França. Their work focuses on the historical analysis of industrial transitions, investigating how companies, sectors, and territories have responded to environmental challenges since the Industrial Revolution. They aim to understand the factors that triggered changes, those that hindered or facilitated them, and why some companies anticipated environmental challenges while others adopted more passive strategies.
The historical perspective allows for the reconstruction of events, incentives, and agent decisions, as well as their consequences, identifying both success stories and failures. Comparing different sectors, periods, and European regions helps distinguish common mechanisms from those dependent on local context, providing valuable insights for designing better policies for the current green transition.
UVigo's participation in the Mosaic project solidifies its position as a reliable European partner, thanks to its intensive efforts in the Transfer Area and its involvement in 13 European projects over the past nine years. This experience has fostered a significant network of collaborations and trust, which are differentiating factors in securing new projects.
