The security of Europe`s clean energy system will, in the long-run, benefit from research and innovation addressing energy-security relevant criticalities of the underlying clean energy technology value chains.

Project results are expected to contribute to some of the following expected outcomes, from which all actors of European clean energy value chains can benefit:

• Strengthened European knowledge base, skills, research and industrial leadership on solutions for energy-security related aspects of renewable energy value chains;
• Technical and value chain solutions are developed addressing key aspects improving the energy security of renewable energy technologies;
• Strengthened availability of skilled labour (crafts, science and business) in order to increase the intra-European share of entire value chains;
• Improved competitiveness, sustainability including social awareness, and resilience of European renewable energy value chains.

Scope:

Proposals are expected to provide in-depth assessments that will lead to novel solutions improving critical aspects of specific renewable energy technologies and their respective value chains impacting EU’s energy security.

Proposals are expected to focus on the development of solutions for these critical aspects, which could highly improve the overall capacity of the specific value chain in contributing to an improved energy security for Europe in the long run. The projects must address precisely only one of the following areas:

Area 1- Sustainability and social awareness of specific renewable energy value chains as a limiting factor for their roll-out and performance over time (this is expected to be addressed either for hydropower or bioenergy);

Area 2- Skills for renewable energy value chains as a limiting factor for innovation and deployment of relevant clean energy technologies;

Area 3- Complexity for specific renewable energy value chains (this is expected to be addressed either for grid based RFNBOs and/or direct solar fuels and can for example include issues such as necessary market interactions for substrates, or interfaces between different reactions).

Applicants must explicitly indicate to which of these three areas they apply.

Proposals are expected to build on the results of the Study on clean energy R&I opportunities to ensure European energy security by targeting challenges of distinct energy value chains for 2030 and beyond^[1].

[1] European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Schleker, T., Hicks, M., Cressida Howard, I. et al., Study on clean energy R&I opportunities to ensure European energy security by targeting challenges of distinct energy value chains for 2030 and beyond final report, Schleker, T.(editor), Publications Office of the European Union, 2024, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/906828