Under the support of the IncoNet Eastern Partnership project, energy experts from Eastern Partnership countries participated at the Energy Networking4Innovation Bratislava event, an international energy efficiency and renewable energy brokerage event. On 29 November RCISD provided H2020 training back-to-back with the brokerage event for experts from Eastern Partnership countries.

On 29 November 11 experts from Eastern Partnership countries participated in H2020 Training(Gagik Kirakosyan, National Polytechnic University Of Armenia; Karen Trchounian, Yerevan State University – Faculty of Biology; Ruben Vardanyan, National Polytechnic University of Armenia – Cybernetics; Elnur Safarov, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography; Vladimir Makarenko, Institute for Nuclear Problems of Belarusian State University; Vitali Mikutski, State Scientific Institution “Powder Metallurgy  Institute” (PMI), National Academy of Sciences of Belarus; Iraki Nanobashvili, Andronikashvili Institute of Physics of the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University; Natalia Shatirishvili, Think tank “World Experience for Georgia”; Valentin Olesciuk, Academy of Sciences of Moldova; Petro Iukhymets, Paton Electric Welding Institute of NAS of Ukraine; Artur Voronych; Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas). The training took place in L!NDER Hotel Gallery Central. During the workshop the following topics were introduced:

–          General indications and advice of H2020 proposal writing,

–          H2020 The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation

–          Preparation of the proposal

–          Financial issues

–          Submission process of project proposal illustrated on EC H2020 Participant Portal and a project proposal template

–          New Work Programmes 2016-2017 on SC3-Secure, Clean and Energy Efficiency and SC5-Climate Action, Environment

According to the needs of the Eastern Partnership experts – who participated in the previous similar training that took place in Amsterdam, Graz – this training included in addition some relevant topics such as financial issues, guidelines to how to find the best partners, how proposals are evaluated and the common problems in proposal writing.

The training closed with a ‘questions and answers’ and a long discussion session.

On 30 November the EaP researchers participated in several 20-minutes face-to-face bilateral meetings that facilitate the setup of Horizon 2020 project consortia. This Networking event targeted a wide spectrum of companies, universities and researchers in the field of energy from all over Europe and beyond interested in sharing new project ideas and finding collaboration within the upcoming calls in Horizon 2020, finding new business partners, consult project ideas with the experts. 185 researchers attend the bilateral meetings from almost 40 countries. The Networking4Innovation was funded by the European Commission in the frame of the Danube-INCO.net project funded from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 609497.  The event was co-organised by the Enterprise Europe Network, the Europe’s largest network for internationalisation and innovation of SMEs. The Energy Networking4Innovation took place at DOUBLE TREE by Hilton Hotel.

EaP researchers had bilateral talks from 5 to 15 researchers from EU countries and other regions. They managed to establish contacts with organisations like ADEME (France), ECOPolis Cluster (Hungary), MOL  (Hungary), NCP Energy (Germany), University Centre for Energy Efficiency Buildings (Czech Republic)as well as other innovative companies, universities and consulting organisations.

Based on the follow-up reports of the EaP participants, the events provided the scientists with valuable networking opportunities for future EU-EaP collaboration.