Under the support of the IncoNet Eastern Partnership project, energy experts (in fields of solar technology, photovoltaic, heating and cooling, ecological building material, etc.) from Eastern Partnership countries participated at the Energy Days Graz event, an international Energy Efficiency brokerage event. On 13 January RCISD provided H2020 training back-to-back with the brokerage event for experts from Eastern Partnership countries.

The Energy Days Graz took place at the Häuslbauermesse, Grazer Stadthalle. The Häuslbauermesse Graz is a regional fair which is well known in Austria and its neighbouring countries. This fair attracts approximately 400 exhibitors and 40,000 international visitors every year.

On 13 January RCISD provided H2020 training back-to-back with the brokerage event for experts from Eastern Partnership countries (Razmik Barseghyan, Engineering Academy of Armenia; Ruben Vardanyan, National Polytechnic University of Armenia; Lina L.Sartinska, Frantsevich Institute for Problems of Materials Science, NAS of Ukraine; Tatsiana Zoryna, Institute of Power Engineering of the National Academy of  Sciences of Belarus Controllable transmission lines laboratory). During the workshop the following topics were introduced:

–          General indications and advice of proposal writing,

–          H2020 The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation

–          Preparation of the proposal

–          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, this training included in addition some relevant topics such as  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 discussion session.

On 14 January morning the EaP researchers participated in the Renewable Energy R&D Roundtable organised by Enterprise Europe Network, Eco World Styria and SFG (Styrian Business Promotion Agency). All participants from Eastern Partnership countries and Austria introduced their institutions, the specific topic that they are interested in and projects which they are looking for potential partners in 5 minutes elevator speeches. After the presentations EaP partners discussed the possibilities for co-operations in bilateral talks with experts from Austrian, like, FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Science, Bioenergy 2020+, Joanneum Research RESOURCES – Institute for water, energy and sustainability.

On 14 January afternoon the EaP researchers had the opportunity to share knowledge with more than 4000 international exhibitors, visitors and experts during the fair and expand their international energy network, find partners for cooperation and built partnerships for future international funding calls (e.g. H2020) during 30 minutes meetings. They had bilateral talks with about 6 European counterparts on average. In addition thanks to the scheduled face-to-face talks, researchers from Eastern Partnership countries had the chance to initiate less formal talks with 103 registered participants from 20 different countries. They managed to establish contacts with organisations like ASIO, spol. s r.o., (Czech Republic), CEH Planning Developing Consulting Inc. (Hungary),  Elektro-energetika projekt d.o.o. (Croaita), EUC Energie- und Umweltconsulting DI. Gerfried Cebrat e.U. (Austria), FH JOANNEUM, University of applied sciences (Austria), Institute of Physics Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland), TU Wien Continuing Education Center (Austria) 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.