Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SET LU (Organisation and Delivery of the Luxembourgish Presidency Conference on the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan))
Reporting period: 2015-03-25 to 2015-11-24
"The European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) has been the technology pillar of the EU's energy and climate policy since it was established in 2007. It aims at creating a new European policy framework for the development and deployment of low-carbon energy technologies, by delivering a strategic planning, effective implementation, optimised resources and a new approach to cooperation.
This includes a complex coordination between the European and national levels and between the public and the private sectors. Therefore, ""checking points"" are necessary to assess the activities developed so far, review the actions which have been carried out and put together key players from the Member States, the industry, research entities, academia and other stakeholders, in a collaborative effort.
To this aim, every year a large conference is organised in a Member State to network, review the achievements, discuss strategies and define new actions that help achieve the ambitious EU energy and climate targets.
In order to organise the 8th SET Plan conference, the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Council, as major authority of the selected venue, appointed My Energy G.I.E. Luxembourg’s national structure for promoting a sustainable energy transition, with expertise in events related to energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources.
During the conference, My Energy G.I.E. has ensured that relevant debates were facilitated between key actors (i.e. R&I to achieve key energy policy targets, Energy Union concept) while presenting the new SET-Plan to all the stakeholders. Ad-hoc management, dissemination and communication strategies were produced and deployed in order to create maximum awareness of such an event at the regional, national and EU levels.
More specifically, the main objectives of the eighth SET Plan conference (SET LU) which took place in Luxembourg, were:
• Facilitating the debate around the importance of Research & Innovation in achieving the EU's key energy policy targets and building the Energy Union;
• Presenting the main features of the new SET-Plan as adopted by the European Commission on 15 September 2015;
• Presenting the opportunities offered to the Member States and regions by:
o Coordinating their energy research and innovation programmes, as well as helping them making better use of the existing and new financial tools like the InnovFin facility on energy demonstration projects and the EU Structural and
Investment Funds;
o Increasing their collaboration through joint actions and clusters on projects with a European added value;
o Supporting faster market roll-out of low-carbon energy technologies.
"
This includes a complex coordination between the European and national levels and between the public and the private sectors. Therefore, ""checking points"" are necessary to assess the activities developed so far, review the actions which have been carried out and put together key players from the Member States, the industry, research entities, academia and other stakeholders, in a collaborative effort.
To this aim, every year a large conference is organised in a Member State to network, review the achievements, discuss strategies and define new actions that help achieve the ambitious EU energy and climate targets.
In order to organise the 8th SET Plan conference, the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Council, as major authority of the selected venue, appointed My Energy G.I.E. Luxembourg’s national structure for promoting a sustainable energy transition, with expertise in events related to energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources.
During the conference, My Energy G.I.E. has ensured that relevant debates were facilitated between key actors (i.e. R&I to achieve key energy policy targets, Energy Union concept) while presenting the new SET-Plan to all the stakeholders. Ad-hoc management, dissemination and communication strategies were produced and deployed in order to create maximum awareness of such an event at the regional, national and EU levels.
More specifically, the main objectives of the eighth SET Plan conference (SET LU) which took place in Luxembourg, were:
• Facilitating the debate around the importance of Research & Innovation in achieving the EU's key energy policy targets and building the Energy Union;
• Presenting the main features of the new SET-Plan as adopted by the European Commission on 15 September 2015;
• Presenting the opportunities offered to the Member States and regions by:
o Coordinating their energy research and innovation programmes, as well as helping them making better use of the existing and new financial tools like the InnovFin facility on energy demonstration projects and the EU Structural and
Investment Funds;
o Increasing their collaboration through joint actions and clusters on projects with a European added value;
o Supporting faster market roll-out of low-carbon energy technologies.
"
SET LU project has been strategically split in 3 work packages, distributed over eight months. The main tasks carried out during the project's period were the following:
• Organisation and implementation of the 8th SET Plan conference under the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Council, including all aspects of the organisation (logistics, communication and dissemination of information);
• Evaluation of key topics in order to meet the objectives of this conference’s edition;
• Identification and guidance to the speakers on how to address the selected topics.
The main results achieved are:
• All ratings of the conference have been correctly identified, followed up and interpreted in order to assess the impact of the conference. These figures are available on the SET Plan 2015 website and in more details, in the D.1.5 List of follow-up indicators report;
• Participants have positively evaluated the conference from the content point of view as well as from the communication point of view;
• The conference clearly promoted the recently adopted SET-Plan Communication.
• Organisation and implementation of the 8th SET Plan conference under the Luxembourg Presidency of the European Council, including all aspects of the organisation (logistics, communication and dissemination of information);
• Evaluation of key topics in order to meet the objectives of this conference’s edition;
• Identification and guidance to the speakers on how to address the selected topics.
The main results achieved are:
• All ratings of the conference have been correctly identified, followed up and interpreted in order to assess the impact of the conference. These figures are available on the SET Plan 2015 website and in more details, in the D.1.5 List of follow-up indicators report;
• Participants have positively evaluated the conference from the content point of view as well as from the communication point of view;
• The conference clearly promoted the recently adopted SET-Plan Communication.
The SET Plan conference 2015, held in Luxembourg, provided a relevant scenario for the main energy's stakeholders to gather up and discuss their points of view, with the aim of reaching a common frame.
As points to be highlighted, the conference was strategically linked with the informal meeting of the EU Energy Ministers held on 23 September 2015.
In line with the European R&I plan included in the Energy Union Framework strategy, one of the main achievements of the 2015 edition of the SET Plan conference has been its industrially-driven approach, with an attendance increase of more than a 5% in representatives from the private sector in comparison with other editions.
Moreover, the balance of participants brought the perfect setting to stimulate networking and set common innovative initiatives. Taken from the conference's feedback, more than 80% of respondents were able to make new business contacts during the event.
The conference has played its role in bringing together diverse stakeholders of the energy transition and therefore facilitating the exchange of information and building synergies around projects linked to energy efficiency and R&I energy developments.
In summary, we believe that the objectives set up in SET LU’s kick off meeting have been reached without exception, namely:
• Facilitate concise and dynamic speeches with questions and answers (see Annex with specific questions per session);
• Organise an industrially-driven event, with awareness creation at any level of involvement;
• Set up a frame to discuss common energy policies and combination of funding schemes;
• Scale up the scope of the conference’s audience, with a global perspective (6.4% hits on the website's counter were done from US).
Last but not least, the organiser of the SET Plan conference 2016 was invited to the Steering Committee, in order to seamlessly pass on the organisation of the next conference. We believe this is the perfect approach so the next host can build on our success.
As points to be highlighted, the conference was strategically linked with the informal meeting of the EU Energy Ministers held on 23 September 2015.
In line with the European R&I plan included in the Energy Union Framework strategy, one of the main achievements of the 2015 edition of the SET Plan conference has been its industrially-driven approach, with an attendance increase of more than a 5% in representatives from the private sector in comparison with other editions.
Moreover, the balance of participants brought the perfect setting to stimulate networking and set common innovative initiatives. Taken from the conference's feedback, more than 80% of respondents were able to make new business contacts during the event.
The conference has played its role in bringing together diverse stakeholders of the energy transition and therefore facilitating the exchange of information and building synergies around projects linked to energy efficiency and R&I energy developments.
In summary, we believe that the objectives set up in SET LU’s kick off meeting have been reached without exception, namely:
• Facilitate concise and dynamic speeches with questions and answers (see Annex with specific questions per session);
• Organise an industrially-driven event, with awareness creation at any level of involvement;
• Set up a frame to discuss common energy policies and combination of funding schemes;
• Scale up the scope of the conference’s audience, with a global perspective (6.4% hits on the website's counter were done from US).
Last but not least, the organiser of the SET Plan conference 2016 was invited to the Steering Committee, in order to seamlessly pass on the organisation of the next conference. We believe this is the perfect approach so the next host can build on our success.