Design, Preparation, Presentation and Management of European Projects

Identify sources of innovation funding

The European Commission, as the main responsible and catalyst for Europe’s technological effort to maintain its growth and competitiveness, has used various tools to ensure that R&D&I efforts are made in time and place.

The European Commission has organised experts and technologists from industry, academia and research centres around three key organisational formulas:

  • Alliances with industry, consisting of partnerships with the private sector. In HORIZON 2020 it has pooled Europe’s resources to tackle the biggest challenges, support competitiveness, provide high quality jobs and encourage more private investment in research and innovation. Generally in the form of “Joint Initiatives”, a well-known example would be the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Initiative (FCH JU).
  • Public-public partnerships are agreements that allow EU countries to develop joint research programmes in which the EU can participate. The aim is to pool national research efforts to make better use of Europe’s public research and development resources and to address common challenges more effectively. This is the well-known case of the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI), programmes jointly undertaken by several EU member countries or the ERA-NET COFUND instrument.
  • Contractual public-private partnerships (cPPPs). There are ten contractual public-private partnerships between the EU and business representatives that are of strategic importance for European industry. All of them are of high relevance for their importance in future European development: Factories of the Future (FoF), Energy Efficient Buildings (EeB), European Green Vehicle Initiative (EGVI), Sustainable Process Industries (SPIRE), Photonics, Robotics, High Performance Computing (HPC), Advanced 5G Networks for the Future of the Internet (5G), Cybersecurity, and Big Data.

 

According to the chosen formula, there are several possible ways to access funds and the corresponding collaborative research, as some of the above associations or initiatives have their own management capacity, launching their own calls for proposals through which public money would be received. It is therefore essential to know the right formula and to choose the most beneficial route for our innovation interests.

In the case of energy, it is important to mention that there is an agreed development guide that sets out the guidelines for European research, the Integrated European Energy Technology Strategy Plan or SET Plan.

European Integrated Energy Technology Strategy Plan (SET Plan)

Due to the fact that there is no common European energy strategy, i.e. there is no common Energy Plan (countries are sovereign in their decisions on how they want to organise their energy resources), the European Commission, as guarantor of European growth and competitiveness, developed in the past the Integrated European Energy Technology Strategy Plan or SEP Plan.

This Plan, which is developed with the contribution of the best experts in the field, lists the energy technologies that are considered to be developed by Europe to ensure its long-term growth and competitiveness, so that countries and their companies decide to use the technologies that seem most appropriate according to their national strategies. What is clear is that it includes the most relevant innovation efforts to ensure that Europe remains at the highest level of innovation and competitiveness (see SET Plan in detail).

It is also important to mention here the important role that the so-called European Technology and Innovation Platforms (ETIPs) have and have had in the configuration of the SET Plan and the definition of the calls of the Energy Programme and its future configuration.

Can I participate in a project in the European co-operative framework?

In the European Commission’s own words (SET Plan), the SET Plan:

  • It identifies 10 research and innovation actions, based on an assessment of the needs of the energy system and their relevance for the transformation of the energy system and their potential to create growth and jobs in the EU.
  • It addresses the entire innovation chain, from research to market uptake, and addresses both financing and the regulatory framework.
  • Adapt the governance structures under the SET Plan umbrella to ensure more effective interaction with EU countries and stakeholders.
  • It proposes to measure progress through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as the level of investment in research and innovation, or cost reduction.

 

It is organised through an EU Steering Group on Strategic Energy Technologies (SET Plan Steering Group) which consists of high-level representatives from EU countries, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. It ensures better alignment between the different research and innovation programmes at national and EU level, as well as the SET Plan priorities. It also increases cooperation between national programmes to avoid duplication of efforts, thus increasing the impact of public investment.

Innovation and Technology Platforms (ETIPs)

The European Technology and Innovation Platforms (ETIPs) were created to support the implementation and development of the SET Plan, bringing together experts from EU countries, industry and researchers in key development areas. They are in charge of analysing, proposing and promoting the direction of research, technological development and innovation efforts in key energy technologies, identifying the problems inherent to them and their solutions, their social acceptance and proposing possible financing schemes.

There are currently 10 Technology and Innovation Platforms recognised at European level:

 

I say again the importance, not only of being involved in their activities, but also of being aware of them and being able to influence them directly or indirectly, since their proposals are considered to be the most advanced and therefore the object of economic support in general at regional, national and international level.