EUREC participated at this event organised by Science Business, a network bringing together industry, research and policy, on 4th February 2020 in Brussels.
The event featured high level speakers, including Patrick Child, Deputy Director at DG RTD, Clara de la Torre, Deputy Director at DG Climate, Ditte Juul-Jorgensen, Director General at DG ENER, and Mauro Ferrari, President of the European Research Council. Originally, the main topic should have been Horizon Europe. However, given that no agreement has been reached by Member States on the budget yet, the focus of the day was wider: a lot of discussion was dedicated to Brexit and its effect on European cooperation. Though it is difficult to understand what will happen, it was acknowledged that there is a strong support from the UK research community to continuing research with other European partners. Horizon 2020 remains fully open to UK participants.
Another main topic of the day was the Green deal as a main driver for innovation. The Communication published last December highlights important steps to further support sustainable investments (EIB to become the first climate bank supporting no fossil fuels and infrastructure projects; InvestEU to invest 30% into climate-related projects…)
EUREC participated in the panel dedicated to “GAME CHANGERS- Training the next generation of green, smart innovators”, presenting its experience in the setting up and coordination of two European Master Programmes dedicated to renewable energy.