$20K Funding Awarded by Otago Museum’s Science into Action

Flip the Fleet has been thrown us a lifeline!

The Otago Museum’s Science into Action project (http://scienceintoaction.nz/) has granted Flip the Fleet an establishment grant to:

• Complete a first tranche of software development to enable public launch by the end of June 2017
• Build Flip the Fleet membership in Otago
• Run 8 polls of Otago EV Owners about the constraints and practicality of operating EVs in Otago
• Promote EV uptake using mainstream and social media
• Answer two overarching scientific questions (battery SoH, PHEV % EV driving mode) and propose interventions
• Co-design, execute and interpret at least two and up to four local “behavioural change” experiments to test ways that EV owners can increase transport efficiency and/or vehicle care
• Match EV benefits and constraints to the needs of local and regional businesses, service institutions and government in Otago, and
• Recommend smart investments and policy strategies for accelerating EV uptake in Otago.

Although the grant is to be spent in Otago, its benefits will spill out to the national project; and of course the national level data will greatly help interpret the Otago results.  We are all in this together.

The grant is for $20,000, to be spent by December 2017 (no worries there!).  The funds are provided by MBIE’s Curious Minds funding stream http://www.curiousminds.nz/, which are then distributed and managed by Otago Museum.   $9,000 of the grant will be spent on software development.  We will continue to seek funds elsewhere for more software development, marketing and educational outreach, and research using the Flip the Fleet data.

Wheew!   Hats off to Otago Museum!