Engineering X launches first-of-its-kind hub to accelerate Colombia’s safe and sustainable energy transition

Colombia is entering a decisive phase in its energy transition. While the country has set ambitious goals for reducing emissions and diversifying its energy mix, progress has been slowed by fragmented governance, uneven regional engagement and complex social, environmental and technical interdependencies. 

InterNodos is designed to respond to this complexity by facilitating cross‑sector collaboration to improve how the energy system works as a whole. The new Engineering X initiative brings together civil society, government, industry, academia and Indigenous communities to tackle systemic challenges that no single organisation can address alone

Engineering X, a partnership between the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, is funding InterNodos after spending more than a year on its design with the help of stakeholders across Colombia’s energy ecosystem, including regulators, researchers and industry partners. This period of consultation helped identify shared priorities, inform the hub’s governance model, and ensure that its design responds directly to territorial needs and opportunities to strengthen collaboration, innovation, and coordinated action across Colombia’s energy ecosystem.

Initially, InterNodos will focus on systems analysis, convening, learning and capacity‑building to enhance the impact of existing initiatives and enable more coherent, resilient decision‑making across the sector. Its day-to-day management is led by Movilizatorio, a Bogotá-based social innovation laboratory.

Dr Nick Starkey, Director of Policy and International at the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “Colombia’s energy transition requires coordinated action, trusted relationships and long‑term thinking. Through InterNodos, Engineering X is supporting a locally led platform that strengthens collaboration across sectors and communities. By drawing on deep local expertise and global systems knowledge, the Hub will help align activity, build capacity and generate the learning needed to drive meaningful, lasting impact. The launch of InterNodos is another step in the Academy’s mission to connect global systems expertise with local knowledge to deliver lasting, practical impact.”

Juliana Uribe, CEO of Movilizatorio, said: “Colombia’s energy transition represents a strategic opportunity to strengthen the country’s long-term development. Beyond a shift in technology, it offers a practical pathway to modernise how energy is generated and consumed, improve resilience and enhance competitiveness. Advancing this transition is not simply an environmental decision; it is a pragmatic strategy to enhance energy security, generate quality employment, attract stable investment and position Colombia as a credible regional leader in sustainable growth. Realising this potential, however, requires deliberate coordination and long-term vision.

InterNodos is a catalyst for long-term transformation, accelerating a transition that brings together economic growth, social justice and environmental sustainability in a way that is both ambitious and grounded in Colombia’s realities.”

Raúl Oliván, CEO of Hexagonal said: "At Hexagonal, we believe knowledge is the best resource for development cooperation: it doesn’t run out; the more it is shared, the more value it creates. Sustainable transformation does not come from importing models, but from strengthening locally grounded capabilities.

Through our methodological support to InterNodos, we seek to move systems thinking into practice — embedding it in how decisions are made, how missions are shaped, and how coordination structures align incentives and action at national scale. By strengthening capabilities within Colombia’s own ecosystem, InterNodos can remain locally led while enabling structural, resilient, and inclusive change."

Dr Ruth Boumphrey, Chief Executive of Lloyd’s Register Foundation said: “Delivering long-term positive change across complex systems is not easy. As a charitable Foundation, it is our responsibility to make sure that the work we support and champion is providing safer outcomes across the entire ecosystem, and not creating unintended consequences for other workers, the environment or local communities. By focusing on coordination, shared learning, and mission-driven innovation, locally-led initiatives like InterNodos are ensuring that engineering choices – across the life-cycle of the energy system, from construction, expansion, adaptation to decommissioning – are made democratically, equitably, strengthen local capacity, and foster tangible growth. We’re really looking forward to seeing how it develops under Juliana's leadership.