EERA Newsletter February 2020

A robust roadmap for faring in times of uncertainty

Dear readers,

I trust you had a rewarding start of the year and I hope 2020 will be a year of increased collaboration and activity with the EERA community.

It would be useless to expand on the multitude of causes making our common future so unpredictable. Instead, they should be just another incentive to concentrate even more on building a robust and resilient roadmap to implement EERA’s strategy and support its new mission, “To catalyse European energy research for a climate-neutral society by 2050”.

At the occasion of the EERA Extraordinary General Assembly convened last December, creating the conditions for EERA to build such a robust roadmap, the EERA membership confirmed its strong determination and commitment to bring EERA to a higher level of impact.

This roadmap will allow EERA to further bolster the level of collaboration between its members, through increased activity within, across and beyond its 17 Joint Programmes, to support the broader challenge of transitioning our society to climate neutrality.
[read on]

Adel El Gammal
EERA Secretary-General

EERA Secretariat

EERA is hiring

Apply before 8 March for the following positions:

Two Senior Energy Experts to provide leading-edge expertise on global transition scenarios. They will closely collaborate with scientific leaders and experts from across the EERA community, particularly the Joint Programmes.
A Communications Manager to take care of EERA's communications, organise events and prepare and implement dissemination and communication work packages of EU-funded projects.

To learn more about these vacancies, click here.

New EERA web portal: check it out!

We have relaunched our website: check out the new design and content at www.eera-set.eu.

Step by step, we will be transforming our website into a web portal, which will contain the central EERA website and dedicated websites for the different EERA Joint Programmes. JP Smart Cities were the first ones; you can learn more about this Joint Programme under eera-sc.eu. Further JPs are at the ready and will launch their own sites in the next weeks and months, so stay tuned!

A developing EU R&I landscape: what to expect?

The year 2020 will have great impact on the European climate and energy R&I landscape. In the months to come the final steps in the preparation of Horizon Europe will influence the way how energy research will be supported throughout the forthcoming EU budgetary period 2021-2027. Moreover, the European Green Deal will aim at making the clean energy transition a reality. Find a timeline of some of the main developments expected in the first half of the year here.

Apply as Mission Innovation Champion!

Mission Innovation is supporting innovative individuals who are accelerating the clean energy revolution. Are you one of them or do you know one? Registrations as Mission Innovation Champions are possible until 18 March. Learn more

EERA Joint Programmes

JP Hydropower develops Strategic Research Agenda

Researchers from 28 universities and research institutes in 12 European countries – organised in the EERA Joint Programme Hydropower – have developed a Strategic Research Agenda. The document identifies key challenges and opportunities for hydropower development and provides guidance to policymakers about future research needs. Read on

JP Bioenergy: Brazil-EU cooperation for development of lignocellulosic advanced biofuels

BECOOL is a Horizon 2020 project for the development of advanced lignocellulosic biofuels produced from sustainable agricultural value chains. Learn more about some interim results and upcoming events of this project: Read on

JP Energy Systems Integration explained

Do you know the EERA Joint Programme Energy Systems Integration? Laurens de Vries, JP Coordinator, explains the purpose and current activities of this JP, which is one of the newest in EERA. Read more

JP Wind: DeepWind' 2020 Conference – report and presentations available

The EERA DeepWind‘ 2020 Research and Innovation Conference, which took place from 15 to 17 January 2020 in Trondheim (Norway), saw a mix of plenary presentations, presentations in parallel sessions and posters. Find a conference report as well as links to the different documents here.

"Manufacturing success: cost down and quality up": Workshop report and presentations available

On 11 December 2019, a joint workshop of the two projects qSOFC and Cell3Ditor and the EERA Joint Programmes for Nuclear Materials and Fuel Cells and Hydrogen explored common approaches to assess the manufacturing processes of tomorrow for high-temperature materials. A short report as well as the presented slides are now available. Read on

JP Nuclear Materials held first Infodays in Brussels

The first edition of the Joint Programme Nuclear Materials Infodays was held in Brussels, Belgium, on 4 and 5 December 2019. 60 people from 34 institutions and 14 European countries attended. The Infodays had two goals: to provide an overview of current and future developments, challenges and actions; and to contribute to fostering links between participants. Read on

JP Energy Storage Workshop on Hybrid Energy and Energy Storage Systems

The main objective of this workshop (7/8 November 2019) was to better define and understand the sustainability implications of conventional and hybrid energy storage technologies in terms of materials used, system design, their hybridization, and finally system optimization. It included a session of the SmILES project and the EERA JP AMPEA. More information on presentations and outcome can be found here.

JPs Fuel Cells and Hydrogen and Energy Storage

JPs Fuel Cells & Hydrogen and Energy Storage: Report and presentations of joint workshop available

On 5 November 2019, the two Joint Programmes invited their respective communities to the joint workshop "Putting the hydrogen into hybridization: how fuel cells and electrolysers can support energy storage". It brought together views on the utilization of hydrogen in hybridization with various technologies as means for energy storage. A short report as well as the presented slides are now available.

EU projects

SUPEERA project launched

We are pleased to announce that in January 2020, EERA has launched the SUPEERA project ("Support to the coordination of national research and innovation programmes in areas of activity of the European Energy Research Alliance") to support the implementation of a clean energy transition in Europe. Five of our members, CEA, DTU, KIT, SINTEF, and VTT, will support the activities. Read more about the project and its objectives here.

SUNERGY initiative kicks off

On 5-6 February 2020, SUNERGY, a large-scale, integrated R&I initiative in the area of fossil-free fuels and chemicals, officially kicked off. SUNERGY stems from two European flagship initiatives on energy, SUNRISE and ENERGY-X. They have joined forces to launch SUNERGY to complement the scope of existing European partnerships and enable the full decoupling of economic growth from the utilization of fossil resources. Read on

EERAdata project to start on 1 March

In a few days, EERAdata will start its activities. The project originated from the EERA Joint Programme e3s and has the overall objective to develop, explore, and test a FAIR and open data ecosystem. This new data
infrastructure will be established through the broad involvement of the energy research community. EERAdata will also implement an open platform for a unified and seamless access to energy data and establish a pool of experts and data stewards. Learn more here.

SETWind: Presentations from the past two workshops available

The SETWind project aims to support the implementation of the SET-Plan Offshore Wind Implementation Plan and organises thematic workshops. The presentations of the past two workshops on the offshore wind lighthouse initiative and metrics for evaluating impact of R&D based solutions for energy systems respectively are now available: click here and here.

Events

JP Wind: Cross-cutting workshop on Open & FAIR Data

Location: Amsterdam
Information & registration: click here

In order to map the vast amount of existing and future data from its members, EERA JP Wind has been financing the project ShareWind. This project aims to make a web-based data registry operational. The workshop will present the possibilities of ShareWind. At the same time, other EERA JPs will present activities and initiatives in the field of FAIR and open data.

28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

Location: Marseille
Information & registration: click here

EUBCE tackles challenges ranging from biomass growth and biomass conversion to bioenergy, biofuels and bioproducts, sustainability and policies.

Energy Transition 2.0 Europe 2020

Energy Transition 2.0 Europe (ETE2.0), organised by Climate Action, will convene 300 major stakeholders from power, heat, and transport in London to discuss the decarbonisation of Europe’s energy system. EERA will be on a panel for policy and regulation. Learn more

JP Smart Cities

Location: Lisbon
Information & registration: click here

The EERA Joint Programme on Smart Cities is delighted to welcome partners and guests to Lisbon for their Summer Partner meeting 2020! This time, the event is hosted by LNEG and will include PED workshops, brokerage/matchmaking sessions and site visits. More info to come, stay tuned!

EUSEW

Location: Brussels
Information & registration: click here

The EUSEW Policy Conference is the biggest European conference dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use in Europe. Sessions organised by the European Commission and energy stakeholders focus on sustainable energy issues, debate new policy developments, best practices and sustainable energy ideas.

11th International Sustainability Transitions conference

Location: Vienna
Information & registration: click here

The conference will organise debates around the main topic "Governance in an Era of Change – Making Sustainability Transitions Happen".

Are you looking for a meeting room for your event?

EERA’s office is located in the heart of Brussels, only a stone’s throw away from the European quarter. Its spacious meeting room (approx. 90 sqm) is perfectly suited for seminars, workshops, conferences and receptions, offering a modern, welcoming space to work and network. The meeting room is technically fully equipped.

For more information click here.