HORIZON EUROPE: Emerging technologies for a climate neutral Europe

Expected Outcome

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Available high-risk/high return technologies for a transition to a net greenhouse gas neutral EU economy by 2050.
• Knowledge and scientific proofs of the technological feasibility of the concept.
• Environmental, social and economic benefits to contribute to R&I strategy and policy forecast.
• Establishing a solid long term dependable European innovation base.

 Scope

The proposal is expected to address one of the following areas:

• Decarbonised, efficient, effective, and safe Transport;
• Fuel cells;
• Efficient energy generators;
• Energy distribution;
• Energy storage;
• Negative GHG emissions.

The following areas should not be covered as they fall within either partnerships or other calls:

• Material research;
• Renewable energy technologies and renewable hydrogen production are addressed under HORIZON-CL5-2021-D3-02-02;
• Batteries.

The proposal should address the validation of its concept to TRL 4, presenting a robust research methodology and activities, establishing the technological feasibility of the proposed concept. The methodology should include proper assessment of the environmental, social and economic benefits, and consider transfers of developments in sectors other than energy whenever relevant. These interdisciplinary aspects may provide ideas, experiences, technology contributions, knowledge, new approaches, innovative materials and skills. The applications of those concepts can also be proposed for various sectors. Economic benefits could be for example technology cost reduction, job creations, new businesses and more efficient motors and generators.

Proposals may consider the following areas:

• Technologies providing the possibility of multi-fuel integration and/or the potential for the transversal;
• Intersectorial decarbonization;
• Concepts targeting hard-to-decarbonize sectors and energy-intensive applications, such as road/rail/maritime transport or energy generation through thermal power generators;
• Flexibility in terms of its scalability to different power/energy demands;
• Compatibility with local or distributed energy production layouts;
• Use of already available industrial processes and raw materials for easy TRL upgrading and final transfer to mass production.

In developing its concept the proposal is expected to address the following related aspects:

• Lower environmental impact (e.g. on climate change, pollution and biodiversity) quantified based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework;
• Better resource efficiency (materials, geographical footprints, water, etc…) than current commercial technologies;
• Barriers to the deployment of such technologies, including issues related to social acceptance or resistance to new energy technologies, related socioeconomic and livelihood issues globally;
• Prospective life cycle approach to be done with the relevant information that can be gathered at such TRL level.

Deadline

19 October 2021

More information

HORIZON EUROPE – CALL