ETIPWind signs joint paper on strategic planning and missions in Horizon Europe

© Karsten Würth

ETIPWind, together with 6 other European Technology & Innovation Platforms and EUREC, has submitted a joint position on new aspects of the Horizon Europe programme.

Horizon Europe will be the successor programme to Horizon 2020 and will be the EU’s research and innovation funding programme for the period 2021-2027. Whilst the legislative files to establish the programme are still being discussed by the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission, the programme will feature new elements including a “Strategic Planning” and “Missions”.

The strategic planning will be a consultation exercise in which the specific research and innovation areas that will be eligible for funding will be defined. For ETIPWind and the other signatories, the strategic planning should be more inclusive, transparent (inclusion feedback on input provided)and give clear guidelines for the Work Programme.

“Missions” are transversal challenges around which large parts of society can gather. They are easy to understand headlines for specific objectives that the EU wants to achieve by a certain date. The signatories support possible missions on “climate-neutral and smart cities” and on a “net-zero-carbon economy by 2050”. However, the adoption of missions should be in line with the current SET Plan governance and not create a new layer of governance in the field of energy research & innovation.

The signatories, six ETIPs in renewable energy, ETIP-SNET and EURECs have examined what these new elements might entail for governance around European energy technology policy. The result is a concise position paper.