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Partnerships for innovation- Forward-looking projects – Digital education (cross-sectoral)
Deadline: 15 March 2023
Following the recent pandemic, the need for innovation in our education and training systems, as well as youth has never been so great. Innovation in teaching and learning at individual as well as institutional level is crucial. This action will aim to foster innovation, creativity and participation, as well as social entrepreneurship in different fields of
education and training. The goal is to support transnational cooperation projects implementing a coherent set of sector or cross-sectoral activities that either:
The general objectives are as follows:
The specific objectives are as follows:
NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2022
More sustainable buildings with reduced embodied energy / carbon, high life-cycle performance and reduced life-cycle costs
Deadline: 24 January 2023
Projects results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:
-Increased and more traceable reduction of the GHG emissions of buildings in design, construction, renovation, operation and end of life.
-Faster market uptake of design solutions, materials, products, techniques and business models that are demonstrated to significantly reduce building related life-cycle costs and impacts.
– Mainstreamed affordable high life-cycle performance and improved circularity of buildings in construction and renovation.
The projects should demonstrate innovative design, construction, renovation methods and technology solutions. Where relevant, investigate whether and how the proposed approaches could apply to cultural heritage buildings as well as integrating the use of low embodied carbon products and solutions.
Best international practice for scaling up sustainable biofuels
Deadline: 10 January 2023
The need of including sustainable biofuels in a transformed integrated energy system is recognized worldwide. Project results are expected to contribute to building global knowledge for the scaling-up and the sustainability assessment, contributing to cost effective and more sustainable large-scale production of sustainable biofuels.They should contribute to Mission Innovation Challenge n°4 Sustainable Biofuels and to the SET Plan Action 8 Bioenergy and Renewable Fuels for Sustainable Transport.
The proposals will aim at fostering international cooperation to develop best practices and concepts along the entire value chain for accelerating the scale up of sustainable biofuels worldwide. They should address systemic constraints and opportunities for scaling up complete value chains of sustainable biofuels and propose solutions.
Development of digital solutions for existing hydropower operation and maintenance
Deadline: 10 January 2023
Projects are expected to contribute to advancing the European scientific base, technology base, technology leadership in the area of hydropower ; Increasing the technology competitiveness of the existing hydropower fleet in changing European power markets by increasing hydropower flexibility ; Facilitating market penetration of renewables, getting closer to the European Green Deal and climate and energy targets for 2030 by increasing the flexibility. The proposals will aim at development of novel sensor technologies and digital solutions for the digitalization of existing hydropower plants and improving their sustainable operation by addressing : weather and flow forecast, biodiversity monitoring, predictive modeling and artificial intelligence for the analysis of sensor data for decision-making in operation and maintenance.
Efficient and low-emission technologies for industrial use of combustion and gasification systems for low-value biogenic residues and wastes
Deadline: 10 January 2023
Projects results are expected to contribute to advancing the European scientific basis, technology base, leadership and global role in the area of bioenergy integration into industrial settings while creating evidence for policy making ; to increasing feedstock diversification and better technological performance leading to cost-reduction of bioenergy with positive effects on renewables’ penetration, circularity and security of supply ; to reducing emissions and increasing environmental and socio-economic sustainability of biomass combustion and gasification and bioenergy value chains. The proposals will aim at developing technologies for optimization of advanced biofuel flexible systems regarding upstream multi-feedstock, logistics, feeding, ash management, combustion or gasification processes and effluent emissions and their effective integration into industrial process energy environment through efficient and low-emission technologies for industrial use of combustion and gasification systems from low-economic value, but fully sustainable biogenic residues and wastes.
Copernicus downstream applications and the European Data Economy
Europe needs to strengthen its position as provider of products and services based on data, enabling new market opportunities. Actions under this Topic will contribute to increase the integration and uptake of Copernicus into the economy, and/or to solve societal challenges, bring to the market new or improved applications, products and services by exploiting Copernicus data assets and services products. To achieve the objectives described above, the projects are required to adopt state-of-the-art ICT technologies and make use of existing European data infrastructures. The technical solutions to be adopted should be user-friendly and work at the scale of the large quantities of data involved. They should be adopted to contribute to the digitization challenges of the European industry by opening up innovative business opportunities and to support societal challenges
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NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2022
Deadline: 23 November 2022
Projects are expected to contribute to the outcomes which consist of: 1-Integrated Nature-based solutions (NBS) into overall concepts for the protection of infrastructures and existing integrated risk management plans for cities and urban areas with a view of complementing existing methods for protection and resilience. 2-Novel construction materials and solutions resulting in more durable and damage resistant infrastructure. The aim of this topic is to expand the knowledge on NBS and their ability to enhance infrastructure resilience in cities and urban areas against man-made hazards. Proposals should include a strong involvement of citizen/civil society, together with academia/research, industry/SMEs and government public authorities.
Deadline: 10 January 2023
Projects are expected to build global knowledge for the scaling-up and assessment of sustainable biofuels value chains, to contribute to cost effective and more sustainable large-scale production of sustainable biofuels, to accelerate capacity building for sustainable biofuels in the world as well as to develop networks for skill development and knowledge sharing in sustainable biofuels value chains worldwide. Proposals will aim at fostering international cooperation to develop best practices and concepts along the entire value chain for accelerating the scale-up of sustainable biofuels worldwide. International cooperation with Mission Innovation countries is expected.
Deadline: 10 January 2023
The EU aims to be climate neutral in 2050, and to achieve this goal, wind energy technologies need to unlock their full potential on low-cost reliable clean energy generation. The next generation of wind farms need to be supported by an even more innovative set of physical and digital tools as well as operational control. Project results are expected to contribute to development of open source data-driven tools to decrease energy cost on operation, development of digital and physical tools, as well as interoperable frameworks and controls, for enhanced data collection, analysis and operation aimed at an improved performance at farm level followed by contributing to LCOE reduction in line with the SET Plan targets. The proposal is expected to address how digital innovations on wind farm control are able to provide more stable, resilient, secure, reliable and affordable energy, while retaining high levels of security, how these data driven innovations reduce operational and maintenance costs, increase energy output and address the role of such innovation as a prognostic tool, regarding failures and damages.
Deadline: 23 November 2022
Under the open topic proposals are expected to address new, upcoming or unforeseen challenges and/or creative or disruptive solutions within this Destination that are not covered by the other topics. Adapted to the nature, scope and type of the proposed projects, proposals should convincingly explain how they will plan and/or carry out demonstration, testing and validation of developed tools and solutions. They are also expected to be convincing in explaining the methods they intend to use for demonstrating , testing and validating the proposed tools and solutions. Proposals should also delineate the plans to develop possible future uptake and upscaling at national and EU level for possible next steps after the research project. Research proposals should consider, build on if appropriate and not duplicate previous research, including but is not limited to research by other Framework Programmes’ projects.
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Completata l’associazione dei Balcani Occidentali a Horizon Europe: Albania aderisce, Bosnia diventa membro formale
Bruxelles – Almeno un allargamento ai Balcani Occidentali l’Unione Europea è riuscito a completarlo. Non sarà quello che porta a 33 il numero di Stati membri, ma in termini di integrazione europea ha comunque un valore significativo. Oggi (giovedì 10 febbraio) è stata portata a compimento l’associazione dei Balcani Occidentali a Horizon Europe, grazie alla firma degli accordi da parte dell’Albania e l’applicazione formale di quelli con la Bosnia ed Erzegovina.
La “pietra miliare per una più stretta cooperazione nella ricerca e nell’innovazione con la regione balcanica” è stata siglata dalla commissaria per l’Innovazione, la ricerca, la cultura, l’istruzione e la gioventù, Mariya Gabriel, e dalla ministra dell’Istruzione e dello sport dell’Albania, Evis Kushi. Con questo accordo ricercatori, innovatori ed enti nei sei Paesi dei Balcani Occidentali (Albania, Bosnia ed Erzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia del Nord, Montenegro e Serbia) possono partecipare a tutti gli effetti a Horizon Europe, il programma UE da 95,5 miliardi di euro per la ricerca e l’innovazione (a prezzi correnti), in condizioni di parità con quelli degli Stati membri dell’Unione.
“Attraverso la cooperazione reciproca nella ricerca e nell’innovazione possiamo trasformare le sfide attuali in opportunità“, ha commentato la commissaria Gabriel. “L’attuazione dell’Agenda dei Balcani Occidentali e la partecipazione a Horizon Europe avranno un grande impatto nella regione e in Europa in generale”, ha aggiunto, dando il benvenuto all’ultimo Paese balcanico firmatario. L’accordo dimostra l’impegno di Bruxelles a mettere in comune le risorse con i partner strategici per il progresso scientifico e lo sviluppo di ecosistemi innovativi: “Potremo implementare progetti e tecnologie che contribuiranno ad affrontare le sfide globali”.
Così come Bosnia ed Erzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia del Nord e Serbia, anche l’Albania era stata precedentemente associata al programma Horizon 2020, da cui circa mille organizzazioni balcaniche hanno ricevuto 170 milioni di euro di contributo diretto dell’UE tra il 2014 e il 2020. Il Kosovo è stato invece incluso dal 2021 nel successivo programma Horizon Europe, così come nell‘Agenda dei Balcani Occidentali su innovazione, ricerca, istruzione, cultura, gioventù e sport, la strategia di cooperazione globale e a lungo termine dell’UE e della regione balcanica per promuovere l’eccellenza scientifica e la riforma dei sistemi educativi.
Per quanto riguarda la Bosnia ed Erzegovina, la commissaria Gabriel e la ministra degli Affari civili, Ankica Gudeljević, hanno firmato l’accordo Horizon Europe che ha permesso all’accordo di entrare in vigore con effetti retroattivi dal primo gennaio 2021. Questo significa che ora il Paese è formalmente associato al programma e che tutte le entità e i rappresentanti bosniaci sono pienamente inclusi nelle strutture di governance e nelle attività della rete.
Italy’s Recovery and Resilience Plan: Lack of Communication Strategy
Author: Massimo Romagnoli, expert of European Funds, Government Relations, Public Affairs, Lobbying, Media Relations & Legal Affairs. CEO & Chairman of Progresso APM Consulting Srl.
Published on 31/01/2022
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The majority of European countries have committed their effort to develop their communication strategy within their RRPs (Recovery and Resilience Plans) to make citizens aware of the opportunities of the NextGenerationEU.
On the contrary, Italydoes not seem to have the same attention for this matter.
At this stage, in Italy, it has been activated an institutional website called Italia Domani linked with several social network profiles. But still, a concrete strategy of structural communication is missing.
Among the 1000 new experts, recruited by the Italian government for the implementation of the national RRP, stands out the absence of communicators.
In its regulations and guidelines, the European Commission has called all the member states to include a communication strategy in their national RRP able to increase the awareness and confidence of European citizens in the greatest development plan ever approved in Europe since the Marshall Plan and to provide transparent information on how the EU funds will be invested.
The Italian government should engage consulting companies and communication experts to implement the institutional dispatch of information, hence mitigating the citizens’ distrust of European and national institutions fuelled by the pandemic. In the absence of prompt and transparent information, the national Recovery and Resilience Plan may turn into another occasion of wasting public money, fed by the negative narrative related to the Italian management of EU funds.
As a result, Euroscepticism could also find a fertile ground to grow and revitalize.
Although the Italian RRP obtained widespread consent among the population and extensive interest in the projects provided in the plan, Italy has liquidated its communication plan in a few lines, while most European countries seem to have taken up the challenge.
According to the research “Towards a Sustainable Recovery: Communication for the Recovery Plan and Corporations” edited by the International Corporate Communication Hub, around 63% of respondents see an extraordinary opportunity in the plan.
So far, the judgment on the communication put forward by the Italian government is even considered positive: over 38% perceive it as balanced, 32% as complete, 36% as objective, and 33% as accurate.
A large percentage of citizens (35%) claimed to be familiar with the content, even if are more those who admitted having a moderate knowledge of it (39%).
However, according to the results of a recent survey carried out by FPA in collaboration with Istituto Piepoli and conducted on a sample of 1,023 Italians, only 1 out of 10 believes that the national RRP has been effectively explained with transparency and clarity and the 28% do not even know what it is about.
In short, the data show the need for a long-term communication strategy, which is not limited to the launch phase of the plan alone.
The communication does not only concern the final beneficiaries of the NextGenerationEU, but also companies, central and local public administrations. They will be the primary actors who will participate in the calls financed by the national RRP and then will digitalize public services, design new energy infrastructures and public works, improve health, education and social inclusion.
By contrast, what approach has the other European countries had to the subject of communication of the national RRP?
Analyzing the national RRPs it is clear that most member states have devoted greater attention to the concern of dialogue with citizens, entrusting communication with a strategic role.
For example, France has provided a well-organized communication kit to inform citizens about its plan, so they can investigate every single activity financed with RRP funds. Not only that. Within the web section dedicated to the French RRP, there is also a dynamic map that reports the progress of the main projects.
Both Croatia and Poland have decided to focus on online and traditional media channels to reach a wider audience, older and less “digitized“.
Croatia has planned the organization of briefings and press conferences, regular thematic announcements, appearances of government’s members in daily information spaces on television, newspapers and radio, the organization of public events, the production and dissemination of promotional videos.
Poland has gone even further: throughout the territory will be provided information spots where citizens and businesses will have accurate details on the RRP’s calls, whereas the epidemiological situation will allow it.
Furthermore, Cyprus will invest 1 million to implement multi-channel communication strategies. The Slovenian plan explicitly provides percentages of investment in communication in proportion to the total economic value of the individual projects.
Moreover, Lithuania added financial resources from the national budget to increase the visibility and transparency of communication activities at the national level. In addition, it has set precise indicators to measure the impact and effectiveness that information campaigns will have on citizens.
Estonia has given precise indications to the ministries that will manage the RRP funds to integrate communication in the key issues such as “digital revolution, green revolution, digital state, energy efficiency, sustainable transport, health, and social welfare” reads the plan.
Finally, Portugal has gone further, opening a real call to action aimed at communication professionals and academics to adequately and effectively inform about opportunities of the RRP, making them known to everyone.
Overall, most European countries seem to have taken very seriously the matter of how to communicate the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Italy should align itself with our European colleagues and realize that we will not go very far without a long-term communication strategy that is transparent and inclusive.
Fondi Ue, questi sconosciuti
Progresso Apm Consulting istruisce e cura le pratiche di partecipazione ai bandi Romagnoli (ceo): “Ora allarghiamo l’orizzonte al settore delle esportazioni”
DI DANIELE FUNARO _ MARCO DINU
Progresso Apm Consulting nasce nel 2018 su iniziativa di Massimo Romagnoli, siciliano classe 1971, dalla constatazione dello scarso impiego, da parte dei cittadini, dei fondi predisposti dall’Unione Europea alla realizzazione di progetti innovativi. “Ho individuato
le problematiche principali nella carenza di informazione relativamente alle opportunità
presenti a livello comunitario, nonché nelle difficoltà pratiche legate all’effettiva partecipazione ai bandi emanati dalla Commissione Europea”, ricorda Romagnoli.
Partecipazione ai bandi
Di qui, l’idea di costruire una realtà che supportasse enti pubblici e
privati nel processo di ottenimento dei Fondi Europei Diretti, dalla segnalazione delle opportunità al supporto tecnico per l’effettiva partecipazione ai bandi. “Ho iniziato la mia attività affiancato da un unico collaboratore, oggi sono circondato da un team multidisciplinare di professionisti che operano quotidianamente dagli headquarters
di Bruxelles”, continua il fondatore, ceo e chairman della società, ripercorrendo le tappe della crescita in questi 3 anni: “Ho costruito, con costanza, una rete di consulenti attiva in tutta Europa, per rilevare le esigenze del territorio da trasferire alla sede operativa, che si adopera per trasformarle concretamente in progetti di successo.
Offerta rinnovata
Da qualche mese, inoltre, la struttura della Progresso Apm Consulting si è allargata verso un nuovo settore, quello dell’export management, fornendo assistenza alle aziende nelle
esportazioni di prodotti e servizi. L’obiettivo è supportare le realtà che non dispongono di un ramo aziendale dedito all’esportazione, mettendo a disposizione Export Managers della
Progresso che seguono dall’esterno il processo di internazionalizzazione aziendale, permettendo alle società di ottimizzare i costi e di usufruire di esperienze consolidate. Mi piace immaginare che in futuro si possa procedere nella medesima direzione di crescita.
Gap da recuperare
Progresso Apm Consulting opera a livello europeo, ma non è forse un caso che l’iniziativa sia partita da un italiano, vista la cronica incapacità di utilizzo dei fondi comunitari da parte del nostro Paese. “Ritengo che il problema principale risieda nella mancanza di adeguata
informazione riguardo ai programmi di finanziamento esistenti e ai loro obiettivi”, spiega Romagnoli, ribadendo come i fondi europei diretti siano una risorsa preziosa per lo sviluppo e la crescita; “È per questo motivo che la società investe le proprie risorse per incrementare attività di informazione sulle opportunità che le istituzioni comunitarie mettono a disposizione del cittadino sotto forma di Fondi Europei Diretti e più in generale sui valori, i principi e le politiche promosse dall’Ue. Il mio auspicio è che, attraverso tale attività, possano essere sfruttati al meglio i fondi diretti gestiti dalla Commissione Europea e destinati all’implementazione di progetti che vadano in direzione di un’Europa più green, digitale e resiliente, nel pieno rispetto delle priorità dell’Unione”.
L’innovazione paga
Al riguardo va precisato che solo i progetti che presentano un elevato livello di innovazione e di fruibilità per i beneficiari sono accolti favorevolmente. La procedura per accedere a fondi
diretti prevede l’individuazione del bando più idoneo rispetto all’idea progettuale, la scrittura
del progetto conformemente ai requisiti indicati dal bando stesso, la creazione di un partenariato transnazionale qualora richiesto, la gestione dell’implementazione
del progetto a seguito di finanziamento. E Progresso Apm Consulting assiste i propri clienti
in tutte queste fasi, allo scopo di attribuire ai progetti il valore aggiunto necessario per garantirne il successo. Un supporto tanto più importante nel momento in cui l’Unione Europea sta affrontando uno sforzo senza precedenti per rispondere alla crisi causata dalla pandemia: “Le istituzioni europee concordano oggi sull’esigenza di reagire adeguatamente, rafforzando
la resilienza dell’Unione qualora si presentassero in futuro situazioni analoghe. Per questo sono previsti molteplici bandi per l’erogazione di fondi diretti legati a progetti che implementino attività di resilienza nei diversi settori di interesse, dalla medicina, alla tecnologia, alla comunicazione. Ed è proprio con questo obiettivo che, il 18 dicembre 2020, il
Parlamento e il Consiglio europei hanno raggiunto un accordo sul dispositivo per la ripresa e la resilienza, lo strumento chiave su cui poggia Next Generation Ue”.