In today’s Morning Brief:

Horizon Europe Info Days on Cluster 5

The Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation announced a new info-day for Horizon Europe Cluster 5 to be held virtually on 3 February.

The info-day will present the research topics proposed under the work programme 2022 of the Horizon Europe Cluster 5 (Climate, Energy & Mobility) giving the opportunity to prospective applicants to learn more about the funding options under the new programme with a focus on twin green and digital transitions to achieve climate neutrality in Europe by 2050.

The primary goal of the info days’ second edition is to present 74 open topics (including batteries, renewable energy, zero-emission road transport, aviation, and many more) of the Horizon Europe Cluster 5 2022 calls by way of a plenary and three parallel sessions.

For a detailed agenda and more information make sure to visit the event website here.

New Industry 5.0 Award contest opens

The Commission is launching the first Industry 5.0 Award dedicated to EU-funded projects whose results make European industry more resilient,, sustainable and human-centric. The award has been prepared in collaboration with European Factories of the Future Research Association (EFFRA) and industrial platform ManuFUTURE.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “Industry 5.0 envisions an industry that promotes European values, supports the twin green and digital transition and ensures that, the benefits of adopting new technologies are shared by all Europeans. With this award, we want to celebrate the projects, which bring us closer to this goal.”

This is a unique occasion to highlight innovative projects that contribute to Commission priorities such as: the European Green Deal, A Europe fit for the digital age, and An economy that works for people. It is also an opportunity to raise awareness, take stock of the implementation of Industry 5.0 in research and innovation programmes, and develop the framework moving forward.

Eligible projects must have obtained funding from Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe or the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. The official start date of the project must be after 31 August 2018 and the projects should clearly be applicable in industry. The deadline for submission is 1 April 2022 – 17:00 CET (Brussels time).

Find out more here.

Horizon Europe: The first assessment

Horizon Europe, the EU’s biggest-ever research and innovation programme, is finally underway. In Spring 2021, the European Commission began publishing calls for proposals from research and innovation actors, and since then has been fleshing out more details of industrial partnerships, research missions, and cooperation with non-EU countries.

So how is the programme going? In this annual Science|Business Network conference, our members and guests will offer the first public assessments of Horizon Europe.

The conference assessments will be assisted by surveys and research by the Science|Business news team in the months leading up to the event. The results will include a high-impact white paper summarising the views of members and guests – a first report card for Europe’s biggest bet on the future.

Register here.

Haldor Topsøe signs €45 million funding deal with the EIB

Danish technology provider Haldor Topsøe has signed a €45 million loan agreement with the EIB to support its R&D investments in carbon emission reduction technologies. The EIB financing is supported under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the main pillar of the European Commission’s Investment Plan for Europe.

The European funding highlights the company’s commitment to developing new technologies to support a wide range of energy intensive industries in their transition towards a low-carbon future.

Find out more here.

TNO Webinar on “Technology Infrastructures in European Innovation Ecosystem”

TNO, in collaboration with Neth-ER, is organising on 16 February an online Webinar about “Technology Infrastructures in Innovation Ecosystem”. The goal of this Webinar is to discuss how to proceed in the most efficient way in creating and shaping the European Strategy for Technology Infrastructures (TIs). The European Commission (EC) is currently developing this strategy, as part of the new European Research Area. TIs play an essential role in supporting the twin transition and achieving the strategic open autonomy targeted by the EC.

For more information about the webinar make sure to click here.

EARTO Paper on a better understanding of the RD&I Ecosystem

Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) has been recognised as an essential element to tackle today’s global challenges, such as generating shared prosperity, resilience and peace on a sustainable and healthy planet, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. For RD&I policies to be realistically adapted to the context and the needs of the sector it affects, data-driven decision-making is crucially needed.

In its new paper, EARTO points out that although today the OECD and EUROSTAT capture quite well the role of a few RD&I actors, data on Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs), is direly lacking, despite the key role they play in the RD&I Ecosystem and in RD&I competitive programmes like EU Framework Programmes, and the impact they deliver on the economy and for society.

Click here to read the full paper.

EU delays deadline on green investment rules for nuclear and gas

The European Commission stated yesterday it has delayed to later this month the deadline for experts to give feedback on divisive plans to allow some natural gas and nuclear energy projects to be labelled as sustainable investments.

The Commission drafted a plan late last year to add some gas and nuclear investments to the EU’s ‘taxonomy’, its rulebook to define which investments can be labelled as climate-friendly in the EU.

Brussels said on Monday its expert advisers will have until 21 January to provide feedback on the draft proposal, rather than until 12 January as initially planned.

“The deadline has been postponed by a week and the reason is basically to give a bit more time to the platform to provide its views,” European Commission Chief Spokesperson Eric Mamer told a news briefing, referring to the “platform” of advisers from industry, NGOs and the finance sector.

The long-awaited taxonomy is part of EU plans to mobilise massive low-carbon investments to meet its goal to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Read the article here.