Roadmap Working Groups

Role: The 5 Working Groups (WGs) represent the backbone of the EU DSF ecosystem, namely the wider community of DSF. Reactivation of four Technical Working Groups (TWGs) and establishment of one new cross-sectoral WG, encompassing 100+ experts from industry, academia, research community, civil society and national and regional authorities.

Overarching Goal: Monitoring, revision and updating the SUNERGY/SUNER-C Roadmap and Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). Both documents will provide the foundation for the first EU R&I Roadmap and SRIA on Direct Solar Fuels (DSF).

Composition: Participation will be open to all the most renowned and active Experts in the DSF field (from academia and industry) and related aspects (e.g. socio-technical and cross-cutting aspects). The Experts will be involved in 5 WGs, in direct continuation of SUNER-C work, although with a scope tailored to DSFs. Each WG has 2 leaders who will moderate roadmapping activities. To ensure consistency and quality across the overall process, a Pool of Experts, comprising the 10 WG Co-leaders and other selected Experts, will also be established. The Pool of Experts will provide an additional quality-assurance layer, reviewing and quality-checking the final Roadmap and Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) documents.

WG1 – Direct conversion: Photosynthetic devices

Focuses on the engineering and scaling of artificial photosynthetic devices that capture solar energy and directly convert water and CO₂ into valuable chemical compounds and fuels. Co-leaders: TBA (to be announced).

WG2 – Direct conversion: Bio-based approaches

Investigates biological and bio-hybrid pathways, using photosynthetic micro-organisms, enzymes, or hybrid systems to manufacture green solar fuels directly. Co-leaders: TBA (to be announced).

WG3 – Solar-thermal conversion

Explores high-temperature thermo-chemical cycles driven by concentrated solar radiation to split water and CO₂ for syngas and liquid fuel production. Co-leaders: TBA (to be announced).

WG4 – Sustainable CO₂ sourcing

Determines the technical and socio-economic framework for obtaining CO₂ sustainably (e.g. direct air capture or biogenic sources) as a feedstock for solar fuels. Co-leaders: TBA (to be announced).

WG5 – Cross-cutting topics

Digitalisation, skills, access/alternatives to CRM, SSH, and access to market + energy justice. SUN2X-SET will establish this group ex novo. Co-leaders: TBA (to be announced).

Frequency of meetings

Online meetings every 3 months (Sep and Nov 2026), two in-person meetings at the roadmapping workshops.

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