The SINTEF Brussels’s office: A powerful tool to generate H2020 proposals

Are you interested in generating H2020 proposals and you have not been yet at our SINTEF’s Brussels office? Do not wait any longer, pack your suitcase and come to say “Hi!”.

Our office, located at the heart of the EU area, can be a powerful tool to accomplish your H2020 ambitions.

Let me explain to you how. Precisely two years ago, when I had been working in the SINTEF’s Brussels office for about 8 months, I wrote my first SINTEF blog, describing one of the most challenging tasks I had ahead of me: engaging national and European stakeholders to discuss on key bioenergy challenges and opportunities to overcome those through H2020 projects.

At that time and despite my limited experience in Brussels my intuition on the great impact that workshops and brokerage events could have in designing and getting involved in H2020 proposals did not fail.

Success two years later

Two years later, I am writing back to you to share a double success story: Two new H2020 project proposals on bioenergy with SINTEF Energy Research participating in both were recently granted.

And guess what? Both proposals were catalysed during a two-stage workshop I organized in 2017 for the bioenergy sector!

Workshops tailored for different networks

The first workshop was held in Norway and the second one in Brussels. Whereas the first one targeted the bioenergy sector in Norway community with the aim to establish Norwegian partnerships and provide information on funding possibilities in the EU, the second event targeted the European bioenergy community, in particular four specific networks with complementary skills, among which the Norwegian bioenergy community. The other three were the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) – JP Bioenergy, the European Technology and Innovation Platform (ETIP) Bioenergy and the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN).

The aim of this second workshop was to generate and develop projects responding to the bioenergy challenges addressed by the Horizon 2020 framework programme for the time frame 2018-2019, by connecting industry, the scientific community, and the public sector. It provided a unique opportunity to make new contacts, establish new partnerships and develop projects in a multisector approach.

 50 participants = 20 proposals

The workshop/brokerage event was planned as a full-day event, focusing on 8 relevant bioenergy topics addressing stationary bioenergy (heating, power, and cooling), bioenergy carriers and biofuels.

After an initial presentation of the relevant calls, there were parallel working group sessions focusing on distinct calls, with the participation of National Contact Points for H2020 Energy to support and advice during the discussions.

In order to make the workshop efficient, structured and successful, the participants were invited to provide an outline of their project ideas/expertise and/or challenges prior to the event and I have to say that indeed that was crucial for the success of the workshop.

We ended up being nearly 50 participants proposing up to 20 project proposals.

From the 20 initial pitch presentations shared among the participants and after some merging prework based on the project outlines sent prior to the workshop, 12 concrete project ideas were proposed to be discussed in detail. From these 12 ideas at least 3-4 were followed up after the workshop and 2-3 were submitted for proposal so far. And now: 2 proposals were recently granted. One proposal on stationary bioenergy and another one on biofuels. 

The Research Council of Norway an important fascilitator

These two workshops were organized through the ENERGIX funded EU-network project on bioenergy (NorEUnergy) for which I am manager, in close collaboration with the Research Council of Norway. This core team was supported by other Norwegian co-organizers (Innovation Norway, Mid-Norway European Office and the Oslo Region European Office), expanding the outreach.