PR // SMARTSPEND 1st  report presented at SET Plan's Steering Group meeting

PR // SMARTSPEND 1st report presented at SET Plan's Steering Group meeting

The first report of SMARTSPEND includes recommendations for a more efficient and effective use of the national and European funding for clean energy.

SMARTSPEND project partners EUREC and CIRCE Foundation, presented the project and its first report to the Strategic Energy Technology Plan Steering Group on the 30th April in Brussels. The report, ‘Overlapping interests: a description of the common ground between implementation plans’, focuses on the overlaps and synergies between different Implementation Plans (also referred as IMPLANs) developed in the framework of the 10 Key Actions defined by the SET-Plan. Moreover, the report outlines how to make more efficient use of national and European public funding for Research & Development & Innovation in the energy sector.

Carlos Arsuaga, CIRCE Foundation, presented the report’s main goal, objectives and methodology. The consortium has  analysed and described 22 technological synergies among IMPLAN activities budgeted with over 5 billion euro, as well as non-technological issues – factors that may hinder or drive the development of research and innovation activities and the market uptake of their results – in the areas of financing, policy & regulation, social & environmental issues, certification & standardisation and education & training.

Greg Arrowsmith, EUREC policy advisor, gave an overview of SMARTSPEND, a 3-year-project running until December 2021. SMARTSPEND explores how investments in R&D in clean energy can be made in a coordinated way and how they may be increased. SMARTSPEND is working on six reports, which will be disseminated to national governments and organisations interested in developing new innovative energy technology. Among the tasks of the project is to organise a high-level conference in 2020 to help innovators in clean energy access risk finance from public and private sources.

The first SMARTSPEND’s report, ‘Overlapping interests: a description of the common ground between implementation plans’, is available on SMARTSPEND’s official website (www.smartspend.eu).

You can download it here.

Stay informed about SMARTSPEND latest news by following the hashtag #SMARTSPEND_EU on Twitter and by subscribing to the project newsletter via this link.

 

Note for editors:

SMARTSPEND in bullet points:

  • 3-year-project (2018-2021) developed by 11 expert partners from all over Europe
  • Goal: more efficient and effective use of the national and European funding for Research, Development & Innovation in the energy sector
  • Objectives:
    • to foster efficiency in allocation of public & private funding
    • to better inform stakeholders through the preparation and dissemination of six reports; and dissemination based on engagement with policy makers
  • SMARTSPEND’s leaflet and logo are available here: https://smartspend.eu/communication-material/

 

SMARTSPEND partners and sectors:

SMARTSPEND’s partners were chosen because of their links to companies and research centres in particular clean energy fields. This will allow the results of the project to be disseminated widely, including: analysis of industry funding needs; a map of funding instruments for energy innovation; recommendations for alternative models of sectoral organisation at EU level, and recommendations on supporting innovation in energy technology:


  • EUREC – The Association of European Renewable Energy Research Centres: scientific coordinator
  • CIRCE Foundation – Centre of Research for Energy Resources and Consumption): process industry
  • EASE – European Association for Storage of Energy: energy storage
  • ECTP – European Construction Technology Platform: energy-efficient buildings and construction
  • EGEC – European Geothermal Energy Council: geothermal energy
  • EMIRI – Energy Materials Industrial Research Initiative: advanced materials for clean energy and clean mobility technologies
  • ESTELA – European Solar Thermal Electricity Association: Concentrated Solar Power
  • Ocean Energy Europe: Ocean Energy
  • The German Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR) – bioenergy
  • WIP Renewable Energies: photovoltaics
ZABALA Innovation Consulting: smart energy networks