On 29 April over 200 participants from 27 countries gathered online for the CO2 Value Europe – SUNERGY joint brokerage event on EU funding. 47% of these participants worked in industry, 36% worked in academia while the remaining share of participants worked in consultancy, associations, policy making, funding or elsewhere.
The brokerage event started with opening remarks and an introduction from the organizers by Célia Sapart (Director Communications and Climate Science at CO2 Value Europe) and Bert Weckhuysen (Utrecht University, SUNERGY coordinator). Speakers from the European Commission then introduced three funding mechanisms that could be of interest to the audience:
-
Horizon Europe: http://ec.europa.eu/horizon-europe, which was introduced by Lucia Fernandez Macia (European Health and Digital Executive Agency)
-
EIC Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator: http://ec.europa.eu/research/eic, which were introduced by Francesco Matteucci and Marco Antonio Pantaleo (EIC Greentech Programme Managers)
-
Innovation Fund: https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/innovation-fund_en, which was introduced by Maria Velkova (DG CLIMA)
The second part of the brokerage event started with a presentation prepared by Frédéric Chandezon (CEA, SUNERGY deputy coordinator) and presented by Gabriele Centi (University of Messina, SUNERGY executive board member) on selected topics in the upcoming Horizon Europe Work Programme that relate to CCU and fossil-free fuels and chemicals. In total 35 calls (20 RIAs, 21 IAs and 4 CSAs) have been identified with a total budget of more than €900 million (for more information on all calls, please consult the booklet prepared by CO2 Value Europe and SUNERGY). Next, six pitches were given by Silvia Gross (University of Padova), Michael Gleeson (DIFFER), José Ramón Galán-Mascarós (ICIQ), Eduard Borràs Camps (LEITAT), Armelle Domas (CEA) and Jennifer Shaw Taberlet (AXELERA) to inspire the audience and to kickstart the brokerage part of the event.
For the third part of the brokerage event participants could schedule bilateral meetings based on each other’s profile, requests and value offers. In total, 275 bilateral meetings were scheduled to network with colleagues from around Europe, discuss project ideas and exchange latest insights. In addition, 50 people joined the two round-table discussions organized by SUNERGY on the Horizon Europe topics “Development of more energy efficient electrically heated catalytic reactors” and “Hybrid catalytic conversion of renewable energy to carbon-neutral fuels”.
The event was concluded by Max Fleischer (Siemens Energy, chair SUNERGY industry board) and Anastasios Perimenis (Secretary General CO2 Value Europe and event moderator).