The European Commission announced on Friday how it will spend €30 billion of the EU research and innovation funding programme Horizon 2020 during 2018-2020 with the release of the Work Programme (2018-2020)
This iteration of the Work Programme is said to be the largest single integrated programme of publicly funded research and innovation during this period across the European Union.
With a specific call to building a low-carbon, climate resilient future through secure, clean and efficient energy, the programme covers, among others:
- energy efficiency: upgrading buildings' energy performance and smartness, enabling next generation of smart energy services, new energy label driving and boosting innovation
- leadership in renewables: next renewable energy solutions, disruptive innovation in clean energy technologies, solar energy in industrial processes, developing solutions to reduce the cost and increase performance of renewable technologies.
- smart and clean energy for consumers: the role of consumers in changing the market through informed decision and collective actions, consumer engagement and demand response
- smart citizen-centered energy systems: solutions for increased regional cross-border cooperation, integrated local energy systems, unlocking financing for energy transitions
- smart cities and communities and
- near-zero CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power plans and carbon-intensive industries: advanced CO2 capture technologies, local carbon industrial production using CCUS, conversion of capture CO2.
According to a statement: "This work programme part supports research, demonstration, innovation and market-uptake actions across different low-carbon energy sectors, notably in the core priorities identified in the Energy Union Strategy: renewable energy; smart energy systems; energy efficiency; and, as an additional priority, carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS).
The programme has a special focus on "... decarbonising the EU building stock by 2050; strengthening EU leadership on renewables; and developing affordable and integrated energy storage solutions."
The transformation of the energy system will require a combination of technological, societal, cultural, economic and environmental interventions.
Contributions to the areas of research are as follows:
- Building a low-carbon, climate resilient future' (LC):€1,953.25 million
- Connecting economic and environmental gains - the Circular Economy' (CE): €12.00 million
- Digitising and transforming European industry and services' (DT): €30.00 million
- Boosting the effectiveness of the Security Union' (SU): €20.00 million
The Work Programme document can be viewed here
