Medium to longer-term research (DG Research)

Research activities having an impact in the medium to long term

The medium to long term research objective is to develop new and renewable energy sources, and new carriers such as hydrogen which are both affordable and clean and which can be well integrated into a future sustainable energy supply both for stationary and transport applications.

The future large-scale development of these technologies will depend on significant improvements in their cost and other aspects of competitiveness against conventional energy sources. The overall socio-economic and institutional context in which they are deployed will be covered in a synergetic approach, which takes account of energy and other related policies.

Proposals addressing medium-to-long term research should:

• Deliver results which could be widely exploited commercially or otherwise, with a time horizon generally beyond 2010; further development and particularly demonstration type actions may be necessary before technologies are ready for full-scale commercial use.

• Consist mainly of research and development activities (including pre-normative and socio-economic research and the validation of technical and economic feasibility in pilot plants and prototypes), research-related networking activities, training and dissemination activities. The main risks to be addressed are scientific and technological rather than market and financial.

• Lead to the generation, exploitation and dissemination of new knowledge and contribute to the implementation of EU research policy, whilst also contributing to the development of energy and associated policies.

The research activities to be funded in the medium-to-long term should address not only the technological aspects, but also incorporate in a multidisciplinary approach the socio-economic research necessary to overcome the non-technical obstacles for the penetration into markets of the technologies concerned.

This part of the SES sub-priority addresses five research areas, as summarised in the following table:

For a detailed description of the topics open for proposals, please refer to the specific call information and Work Programme available here.