Heating remains one of the most energy-intensive needs across Northern Europe. In Norway, household heating accounts for approximately 33\% of total energy generation. On a global scale, heating contributes to roughly 10\% of total greenhouse gas emissions, highlighting its central role in the energy transition and in climate mitigation strategies. NNLL, the Nordic Network of Living Labs, brings together early-career scientists from a breadth of scientific topics, such as engineering, economics, and social perspectives, to implement actionable, real-world solutions for sustainable heating in the Nordics – working with a range of Living Labs in the Nordics focusing on District Heating and Cooling (DHC). NNLL brings together KTH in Sweden, DTU in Denmark, and UiO and NMBU in Norway, to build a network of collaboration with student exchanges into various Living Labs in the Nordics to solve pressing problems in control theory, data-driven optimisation, market design, stochastic modelling, and human–building interaction. The network is supported by KTH’s Live-In Lab in Sweden, DTU’s SYSLAB in Denmark, and the Lillestrøm Kommune’s DHC in Norway.
Educating the next generation of Nordic-trained specialists in reducing the climate impact of the very energy-intensive heat demands of the Nordics is one of the core educational targets of NNLL. To this effect, NNLL organises a Summer School at KTH to train specialists from theory to practice, in direct collaboration with the Living Labs, covering core topics in control theory, energy markets, optimisation, and various other central to NNLL. With a strong network of researchers, an active mobility programme, and a flagship Summer School, NNLL aims to bring in 12 active collaborations with industrial and academic partners focused on various aspects of DHC, as well as expand collaboration between the institutions and welcome other researchers to build a Nordic-powered network of scientists.
