The LEAP web site has been updated with a new system for managing license applications. The changes are designed to make it easier for users to understand the licensing options available to them, based on their country and the type of organization they work for. They also make it easier for us (SEI) to administer license requests, which should make the licensing process more efficient. We have also added the ability for users to request that we contact them ahead of purchasing, in case users have questions or need more information about LEAP's capabilities.

We have also made some changes to our licensing policy, which we hope will make LEAP more financially sustainable, whilst retaining our overriding goal of making it as accessible as possible to developing country energy and climate practitioners. These changes do include some price increases, reflecting the fact that the price of LEAP hasn't risen for almost 10 years, even while we have continued to upgrade and improve it, and even as the number of users needing technical support has grown substantially. We have made these changes very reluctantly, but we feel they are required to ensure that LEAP can continue to make a contribution to energy and climate policy-making around the world.

As you may know, our licensing fees are structured so as to ask all users to make a fair contribution to the ongoing development and maintenance of LEAP and the free technical support we provide to all users. Fees are now based on structuring countries/economies into three "tiers"*. Tier 1 consists of low-income and lower-middle-income economies. Tier 2 consists of upper-middle-income economies**. Tier 3 consists of high-income economies. We use the World Bank's country classifications as the basis for our three licensing tiers.

We provide LEAP for free to students worldwide. We also provide it for free to academic organizations, NGOs and not-for-profit government agencies in Tier 1 (low-income) economies. We provide heavily discounted licenses to these same types of users in Tier 2 (middle-income) economies, and we offer a range of different licenses to all other types of users. The costs of these licenses vary depending on the licensing period (e.g. 6 months, 1 year or 2 years), the number of intended users, and the number of applications (i.e. the number of data sets or LEAP models to be developed).

All licensed users are entitled to free software upgrades and limited free technical support via the LEAP forum for the period of their license.

Thanks for your understanding of these changes, and apologies again for any inconvenience caused by the recent unavailability of the licensing pages on the LEAP web site.

Please take a look at the new pages here.

* Previously we used only two tiers: (developing & developed economies)
** Although the least wealthy upper-middle-income countries have been classified as Tier 1 economies.