On Wednesday 19 March in Brussels, the EERA team was in attendance at the European Technology and Innovation Platforms (ETIPs) Forum, focused on Advancing the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan for a sustainable energy future.

Together with Zabala Innovation, EERA is the facilitator of the ETIPs FORUM. Moreover, as the research pillar of the SET Plan, EERA actively contributed to a series of key discussions during the event on topics ranging from industrial decarbonisation to clean energy technology competitiveness.

Against this backdrop, EERA’s SET Plan & Strategic Programming Director, Ivan Matejak, moderated a session on reviving the virtuous innovating cycle, shedding light on the key challenges and solutions for bridging the innovation gap.

Furthermore, three key European projects in which EERA plays an active role provided insightful input to the day’s conversations.

Representing Batteries Europe, Edel Sheridan (SINTEF) spoke during the session on Driving a Clean Industrial Future – Decarbonisation, Competitiveness, and Affordable Energy. She emphasised the need to scale up efficient and agile manufacturing processes to advance Europe’s clean industrial landscape going forward.

Horzenberger Franz (ArcelorMittal, SET Plan Implementation Working Group (IWG) Industry co-chair) from the SET-IndEU project also intervened during this session, detailing the urgent need to scale up industrial waste heat recovery, energy flow optimisation, and flexibility management, as well as to accelerate the shift to 60% renewables in industry within the next decade.

Finally, EERA Project Manager, Gabriele Gaffuri, went on to present the latest project report from SSH CENTRE, which delves into the importance of integrating social sciences and humanities (SSH) perspectives into the SET Plan.