During a decisive week for the African climate-compatible development, we kick off the Horizon EU project RE-INTEGRATE in hybrid mode in Addis Ababa, where the African Union has its headquarters. Funded under the topic 'AU-EU Energy Systems Modelling', and coordinated by KTH, the project brings together 8 partners from across the AU and 8 from the EU and UK. It aims at promoting a paradigm shift in the modelling and capacity development practice in the EU, focusing on re-thinking existing energy modelling toolkits and on formalising AU-EU partnerships and multi-lateral knowledge sharing. We will be working for the next 42 months in 8 AU contexts (Senegal, Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mauritius, South Africa, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo) and regionally, guided by the members our Scientific Advisory Board, who are working on the Continental Master Plan. We will be sharing our work, seeking to collaborate with all actors contributing to the energy planning ecosystems in the AU. Thanks to our hosts Solomon Tesfamariam Teferi and Fitsum S. KEBEDE, PhD from Addis Ababa institute of Technology. Beyond the – critical – aspect of consolidating the project team and getting to know each others, the kick off meeting marked the start of a few early activities. Among these are an exercise of model fingerprinting across the consortium, an early round of model runs to establish common understanding of the inputs and outputs of the available modelling tools, a mapping of the potential engagement of all partners in capacity development programs, as trainees and trainers. Keywords RE-thinking, Integrated Energy Strategies, Knowledge sharing, African Union, European Union, Energy Systems Modelling, CCSE Partnership, AU-EU High Level Policy Dialogue