European Transport Network Alliance 2020

Project Information

ETNA 2020

Grant agreement ID: 690637

DOI

10.3030/690637

Project closed

EC signature date 2 December 2015

Start date 1 January 2016

End date 31 December 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 1 999 478,98

EU contribution

€ 1 999 478,98

Coordinated by

AGENZIA PER LA PROMOZIONE DELLA RICERCA EUROPEA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ETNA 2020 (European Transport Network Alliance 2020)

Reporting period: 2019-01-01 to 2020-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Horizon 2020 ‘Societal Challenge 4 - Smart green and integrated transport’ National Contact Points (hereafter H2020 SC4 NCPs) have a crucial role supporting citizens and potential stakeholders in approaching the EC Framework Programme as well as in understanding and benfiting from the funding opportunities the latter offers. As H2020 SC4 NCPs support actors from the whole transport sector with its variety of modes and cross-cutting issues, they need a comprehensive knowledge base and a constant update about the main sectorial R&I trends.
ETNA2020 was conceived to create a network of experienced and less experienced SC4 NCPs, pooling the resources and know-how in order to raise the overall quality of support and services they provide. Through the involvement of NCPs from 16 different countries as beneficiaries, and of all the other NCPs as “Associated Partners”, ETNA2020 strived to nurture, expand and make more accessible the NCPs common knowledge and good practices, offering a framework for interaction, exchange and professional growth.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Thanks to the network, several tools are available in support of NCPs’ daily job:
• Factsheets And Leaflets
• ETNA 2020 Newsletter
• European Transport Organisations
• European Transport Document Repository
• Interactive analysis of the participation in transport calls
• Transport R&I Funding Map Database
• Profiles Database
Such tools are freely accessible to both NCPs and proposers through the ETNA2020 website.
Additionally, in 5 years ETNA2020 has organized several training events for NCPs covering issues such as Legal & Financial’s, transport-related Joint Undertakings, EIT, EEN, IPR, proposal-writing, exc.; as well as several webinars about the SMEs Instrument and the Fast Track, transnational access to transport-related research infrastructures, Clean Sky 2, Shift2 Rail, exc.. These events registered the participation of more than 160 NCPs overall.

In support of proposers, ETNA2020 organised 8 training events engaging almost 200 participants in total. In order to spur partnering and consortia-building, the network organized 16 Brokerage Events (BE) in the framework of major European initiatives such as TRA2016 and 2018, the EC Transport Infoday 2016, 2017 and 2019, the Aerodays 2019, the FIDAE 2018, the Smart City Expo 2018, the ILA Berlin Airshow 2016, the EU Maritime Days 2017, the Drone Days 2017 and 2018, the Shift2Rail Infodays 2019 and 2020, exc.. Overall, these BE involved more than 2600 participants, included cumulatively more than 4150 bilateral meetings, and were often carried out in precious collaboration with Enterprise Europe Network.

Over its lifespan ETNA2020 has been building and feeding the community of both all the H2020 ’Smart green and integrated transport’ National Contact Points and the transport R&I constituency, striving to keep them updated about the evolving trends within the Programme.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Several activities described in the above section enhanced SC4 NCPs’ professionality (e.g. trainings (T5.2) fora (T5.4) and twinning visits (T5.5)) provided them and their clients with new tools (e.g. Transport R&I Landscape interactive Map (T2.1) Funding Map database (T2.3) Partner Profiles database (T3.1) guides and factsheets (T4.1) exc.), simplifying the access to Horizon 2020, increasing the knowledge on the programme, and lowering the barriers for newcomers.
Newly appointed and less experienced NCPs had also the chance to rapidly acquire updated know – how and thereby develop their expertise. Throughout the project, good practices were identified and shared among NCPs through the fora and the newsletter. Within the network, the collaboration of a diverse group of partners, including MS, AC and third countries, encouraged a mutual learning process. So, the basis for a more consistent level of NCPs support across the EU was established. Moreover, brokerage events, training to stakeholders, partner search and profiles tools, contributed to the improvement of the quality of submitted proposals. The adequate and extensive promotion of ETNA2020 was guaranteed by the website platform, the social media accounts, the dissemination material, the project presence at crucial transport-related events and the project steady cooperation with complimentary initiatives. Through such cooperation with other initiatives, new potential clients were more easily reached and supported.

ETNA2020 logo