B.A.U.M. shapes discussion forum in the extended programme of the EUSEW

13th October 2022, online: In the extended program of the EU Sustainable Energy Week, more than 60 participants discussed together with speakers i.a. from the European Commission the possibilities for project-related cooperation outside of funding and project durations.

As part of the extended program of the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), the interactive online event on "Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition with Project Chains" on October 13, 2021 kicked off an informal network of funding initiatives and programs to jointly accelerate the clean energy transition. More than 60 participants shared technology developments, market design, testing, and deployment, and talked about opportunities for future collaboration as a network. 

Through this network, partners from different projects are now brought together, ready to cooperate and form “project chains”. The partners are composed of both R&D programme projects (e.g. Joint Programming Platform, Intelligent Energy Systems and other ERA-Net or research programmes), European territorial cooperation (Interreg Central Europe and possibly other Interreg programmes), private sector, and other funding instruments (e.g. EIB EU Innovation Fund).

In this context, project chains can be defined as a sequence of projects addressing the same challenge, from technology development to implementation and deployment, and offer pooled funding opportunities to EU project partners.

The event was moderated by Ludwig Karg and Julia Chenut from B.A.U.M. Consult as members of the JPP SES Support Team. First, Alessia Clochiatti (DG ENERGY, European Commission) gave a keynote speech on "Ensuring the rapid implementation of EU strategies" and pointed out the importance of accelerating the transition to clean energy especially in times of exploding gas and oil prices. Diving deeper into the Project Chains Programme, Julia Chenut, JPP SES Support Team, gave a brief introduction to the Project Chain Programme, followed by a panel discussion on “Expectations of the Project Chain Programme" with the following speakers and topics:

• Bringing technology solutions to the market and adoption (Orsolya Küttel, Co-Chair JPP SES, National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary)
• Improving access of the European regions and cities to excellent research results (Viktorija Dobravec, Interreg Central Europe Joint Secretariat, City of Vienna, Austria)
• Experience from the Ocean Power Innovation Network (OPIN) (Solène Goy, Lead Partner of the OPIN project, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland)

To get impressions from the audience, the presenters asked the following questions in an online survey: 

• What are your expectations from the Project Chain Programme?
• What support could be offered to research projects/applicants under the programmes to help them finance their activities until they are accepted?
• What would help cities and regions access new technologies developed in R&D programmes?

The participants' answers were then presented and provided an important impetus for the subsequent discussions in the two breakout sessions, in which the following questions were discussed:

• Programme Manager - What can we do better?
• Project Applicants/Partners - What can the network offer me to address my needs?

Finally, the results from the various groups were presented and discussed, and the next steps for the network were determined. This included agreeing to hold a session on project chains at the JPP SES Policy Conference on November 23, 2021.