In today’s Morning Brief:

Deep Tech and Horizon Europe – with Stéphane Ouaki (European Innovation Council)

How important is deep tech for the European Commission? And why? How is the EC going to promote deep tech in Horizon Europe? How does it relate to the digital transition, green deal and health priorities at EU level? These are the core questions that we talk about in the third episode of the Inside Deep Tech series of podcasts, produced by Science Business in partnership with the INESC Brussels HUB.

Listen to all the episodes and subscribe here!

Recommendations for the Implementation of an EU Strategy on Technology Infrastructures (EARTO and JRC)

As technology infrastructures (TIs) are critical enablers for the European research, development and innovation ecosystems, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO) recommend a pan-European, agile and sustainable environment for their development, accessibility and governance, within the framework of a dedicated EU strategy. Part of this work was developed under the EARTO Task Force on Technology Infrastructures, in which the HUB participated actively and contributed to the report as recognised in the acknowledgements.

Importantly, this is a key issue for INESC and will be a key issue in the French Presidency of the EU that has just started. We will be paying a close eye on it. For now, enjoy the two documents recently published:

• JRC Policy Brief: Towards the Implementation of an EU Strategy for Technology Infrastructures
• JRC-EARTO Report: Towards the Implementation of an EU Strategy for Technology Infrastructures

The two documents are also available in the HUB Private Area in EU R&I document repository » EU R&I Policy » Technology Infrastructures.

Workshop on European Health Data Space and Nordic Commons project

The HUB has been invited to this event as part of the network of Brussels based representations (IGLO). We will get an insight into the preparations of the European Health Data Space, what is to be expected and the next steps. In addition, we will get a presentation of the Nordic Commons project, initiated by NordForsk and aiming at creating a secure digital infrastructure for health data.

Participants: Hugo van Haastert, Policy officer at the European Commission, DG Santé, Unit B.3, European Reference Networks and Digital Health

Maria Nilsson, Special Adviser NordForsk

Please register via the link here. The Zoom link becomes available when registered, and it will also be shared via e-mail before the event.

EU overachieves 2020 renewable energy target

At EU level, the share of gross final energy consumption from renewable sources reached 22% in 2020. This is two percentage points above the target level for 2020 which is a major achievement and an important milestone in the EU’s path towards climate neutrality by 2050.

If you’re interested in reading data on renewable energy by Member States in 2020 make sure to click on this study published by Eurostat yesterday here.

Counterfactual Methods for Policy Impact Evaluation – COMPIE’2022

The Counterfactual Methods for Policy Impact Evaluation 2022 has released a call for papers for this year’s event. The aim of COMPIE, as part of the European Commission’s Knowledge for Policy platform, is to bring together practitioners and academics to discuss developments in the theory and the applications of counterfactual methods for policy impact evaluation.

For more information and to access the COMPIE 2022 call for papers, make sure to access this page.

€60.5 million available to reform and enhance the European R&I system

A new call for proposals by the European Commission’s European Research Executive Agency wants to fund projects under Horizon Europe that can reform and enhance the European R&I system is open until 20 April.

The applications will be evaluated by independent experts selected by the European Research Executive Agency, on behalf of the European Commission. Evaluation results should be available in the third quarter of 2022. Successful project proposals will be invited to sign a grant agreement and start in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Make sure to check out the topics the call wants to enhance and how to apply by clicking this link.

Finland to build testing platform for clean energy innovations

The country’s VTT Technical Research Centre is investing €18 million in a new centre for piloting carbon neutral innovations for transport and industry, to be completed in the city of Espoo in 2024.

The goal is to give companies a space to scale innovation to the market in hydrogen, clean and energy-efficient transport, industry and built environment sectors, facilitating the transition towards clean energy domestically and enabling exports. 

“We will have people working on things like the interplay of traffic, households, industry and energy production in the energy system of the future, all under one roof,” said Jussi Manninen, executive vice president at VTT. “The development of winning solutions requires close cooperation between industry, start-ups and research actors, and the piloting centre will provide a good framework for that.”