The SMARTSPEND project pursued its mission to increase support for energy technology R&I in three ways:
• via high-level meetings between industry representatives and governments in several EU countries;
• by organising 3 conferences on public and private funding for clean energy innovation;
• by preparing publications on energy innovation for industry experts and decisionmakers on various topics.
SMARTSPEND created industrial delegations including CEOs and managers in companies active in low-carbon energy, as well as from well-known research organisations. In total five national delegations were created, each gathering between 3 and 7 sectors, who visited governments (usually Secretaries of States, Directors General or Heads of Cabinets) in five EU countries : Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Poland. The representatives presented recommendations to those governments to better support energy technology R&I in their country and in Europe. Some of the key topics in the discussions included:
• a strong and well targeted Horizon Europe programme while it was being negotiated, with attention to robust monitoring of the goal for 35% of its budget to be spent on climate-relevant projects;
• designing future-proof national recovery and resilience plans that support domestic manufacturing of next generation renewables;
• strengthening national clean energy financing tools;
• R&I aspects in the Delivering the European Green Deal legislative package;
• supporting the SET Plan and involving energy ministries in its Steering Group.
These high-level meetings – and the linked technical side-meetings - have highlighted the importance of innovation in national energy and industrial strategies. They have also strengthened the links between the industry, researchers and government officials.
The project has organised three Access to Risk Finance Conferences between 2020 and 2021 with around 400 participants in total. The conferences had a mix of high-level and technical-level speakers from clean tech and finance sectors, as well as EU and national policy-makers. A wide array of topics including public and private funding streams for clean energy innovations from early-stage to market scale up. The three events were organised digitally and all presentations, recordings and supporting material are available online here:
• 1st edition: Financing Clean Energy Transition in the Context of EU Recovery
• 2nd edition: Online Access to Risk Finance Conference
• 3rd edition: Access to Risk Finance and SMARTSPEND Closing Conference
Spreading knowledge of the availability of funding or financing for energy R&I, and commenting on the features missing from this funding landscape is another task of SMARTSPEND. Reports have been published between 2019 and 2021. These include:
• Mapping report on funding instruments for energy innovation gives overview of all new funding available as of June 2021 for energy R&I;
• Analysis of the industry’s funding needs for the implementation of the SET Plan
• Other reports will be published (
http://smartspend.eu/reports/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)) in early 2022, including possible innovation synergies between clean energy sectors, “ETIPs supporting the SET Plan in the Horizon Europe era”, and policy recommendations to strengthen R&D nationally and at EU level.
