Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme for the period 2021-2027, introduces a few novelties. Among them are Strategic Planning and Missions.
Strategic Planning refers to a process whereby the areas of research and innovation that are eligible to be funded are fine-tuned and defined, possibly in a funding plan that spans several years.
“Missions” are catchily-worded headlines for specific achievements that the EU wants to aim for by a certain date. They describe a challenge that is at least in some way technological, but that might rely heavily on behavioral change induced by regulation to be realised.
EUREC and seven European Technology and Innovation Platforms in renewable energy plus ETIP-SNET (dealing in smart grids and storage) have examined what these might mean for governance around European energy technology policy. ETIPs represent the research interest in a particular sector of energy technology. The result is our concise position paper downloadable here.