1 Annual Report 2016
10 Years of Greenovate! Europe
Greenovate! Europe was founded on 27 August 2007, with the aim of becoming a Virtual Company, combining and pooling Europewide expertise into a one-stopshop to support the emergence of green and sustainable businesses in Europe.
In ten years we have grown from eight founder members, to 25 members in fourteen countries, linking key players of the eco-innovation valuechain to strengthen their businesses through synergies covering technical, organisational, managerial and financial innovation expertise. Today, Greenovate! Europe cover all parts of the innovation value chain, bringing together the expertise required for technology and service developers to successfully transfer research to market, and for policy-makers to create an environment in which eco-innovative business can thrive. To this end, we bring together over 500 experienced innovation advisers and 2,000 technical experts, providing all of the expertise needed to support the innovation process.
Contents
Introduction from the President ............................................................................................................ 1 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 2 10 Years of Greenovate! Europe............................................................................................................ 3 Addressing Sustainability Challenges in Europe................................................................................. 3 Supporting the Research Community to Achieve Impact .................................................................. 7 Co-ordination and Support Actions ............................................................................................... 7 Maximising the Impact of Public R&I ............................................................................................. 8 Networking, Communication and Information Sharing ................................................................. 9 Shaping Eco-Innovation Policy ..................................................................................................... 10 Report from the Secretariat 2016........................................................................................................ 15 Fostering Co-operation .................................................................................................................... 15 Communication and Representation ............................................................................................... 17 Membership..................................................................................................................................... 20 Policy ............................................................................................................................................... 24 European Projects ........................................................................................................................... 27 Buildings and Smart Cities ........................................................................................................... 27 Resource Efficient Manufacturing ............................................................................................... 32 Bio-based Economy ..................................................................................................................... 33 Sustainable Electricity .................................................................................................................. 40 Management ....................................................................................................................................... 42 Supervisory Board............................................................................................................................ 42 Secretariat ....................................................................................................................................... 42
Introduction from the President
Greenovate! Europe have finalised its 9th year of existence and is on the way to its first jubilee; the 10th anniversary on 27 August 2017. In this period we have grown to become a stable and well known partner for eco-innovation in Europe. As a result of the new board elections that took place at the end of 2016 we passed a significant threshold, whereby no ‘founding fathers’ remain as board members. This demonstrates that a new generation has taken up the responsibility to lead Greenovate! Europe into the second decennium of its existence - a hurdle that not all start-ups are capable of overcoming! We give credit for this achievement to our two dedicated directors, Astrid Severin and Katharina Krell, together with their support staff. In line with our 2020 strategy, Greenovate! Europe has developed a strong position in the areas of Buildings and Smart Cities, Sustainable Electricity, Resource Efficient Manufacturing and the Bio-based Economy - in particular biofuels and bio-based products for buildings. The cooperation between members has been strengthened by a substantial number of us working together in the same projects. This has strengthened our ambition to function as a panEuropean R&D and consultancy group.
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Still many challenges lay ahead of us in the coming years. New political developments must be taken into account and new technologies and competences have to be assessed and acquired by our group. The increasing digitisation and impact of data on industries and industrial value chains, as well as society as a whole, will be especially important. We as Greenovate! Europe have the inner strength and capability to address these challenges. In 2017 we will start the process of updating our strategy to align with the demands of the future. By doing so, Greenovate! Europe will continue to bring significant added value to industry and society, supporting decarbonisation and resource efficiency in Europe and contributing to an economy that is increasingly based on renewable materials.
Gosse Hiemstra CEO of Van der Meer & van Tilburg President of Greenovate! Europe EEIG Member of the Board
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Executive Summary
In its 10th year, Greenovate! Europe can showcase a strong track record as key partner for the exploitation of research results as well as for tailor-made replication, dissemination and communication campaigns supporting exploitation. To date, we have worked in 25 research & innovation projects and studies in collaboration with more than 160 organisations from research, industry and the public sector. 2016 has been a particularly strong year for the bio-economy projects at Greenovate! Europe. Our innovation experts engaged in exploitation and dissemination activities in two new bioeconomy projects: the BIOrescue project offering an innovative conversion process to create biobased products from mushroom compost (www.biorescue.eu) and the Bio4Products project aspiring to substitute fossil resources currently used in the process industry with renewable materials (www.bio4products.eu). Furthermore, our experts worked with the owners of over 75 bioeconomy R&D results from past FP7 projects to ensure uptake of the knowledge created by the market, policy makers or further research projects (www.probioproject.eu). They also presented a business plan and a comprehensive set of policy recommendations for new logistics and value chains for woody bio-mass at a lively dinner debate at the European Parliament (www.europruning.eu). Moreover, a project proposal on biofuels has been prepared at the end of 2016 and approved at the time of writing the report. Smart Cities have also received a strong boost with a replication cluster of 45 cities from 19 countries devised by Greenovate! Europe and kick-started in 2016 (www.sinfoniasmartcities.eu). The energy efficient façade
Greenovate! Europe – Annual Report 2016
system of the MeeFS projects (www.meefsretrofitting.eu) was installed in 2016 and is planned for commercialisation in 2017. The WINDTRUST project (www.windtrust.eu) was concluded with very positive feedback for the Greenovate! Europe team from both the Coordinator and the EC Evaluator. In the area of electricity grids and integration of renewables, Greenovate! Europe participates in the largest ever funded FP7 energy demonstration project BEST PATHS (www.bestpaths-project.eu), where the 40 top players in power grids develop solutions for the grid of tomorrow. Besides supporting the exploitation and dissemination efforts of FP7 and Horizon2020 consortia, Greenovate! Europe members are also producing own knowledge, among other in the area of resource efficiency for industry where they have developed an integrated methodology that, for the first time, covers both company and value chain levels to reveal hidden resource saving potentials. The year concluded with the organisation of a major policy event on the ‘Eco-innovation for the Water-Energy-Food Nexus’ in Nicosia, Cyprus. A highly performing, multi-national team of seven is now at the service of Greenovate! Europe members in the Brussels Secretariat and relentlessly liaises with members and outside stakeholders to attract more exciting green innovation projects to the group and to professionally implement the ongoing projects.
Katharina Krell Managing Director
Astrid Severin Managing Director
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10 Years of Greenovate! Europe Addressing sustainability challenges in Europe Since our foundation, Greenovate! Europe have worked at the forefront of key areas for sustainability in Europe, with a particular focus on Buildings and Smart Cities, Resource Efficient Manufacturing, Biobased Economy, and Sustainable Electricity.
Buildings and Smart Cities Cities face many challenges in enhancing urban life, from improving energy efficiency and reducing energy dependency, to advancing sustainable transport and supporting green construction, all while they push their digitalisation agenda. Solutions to these issues require close co-operation between authorities, industry and citizens to develop integrated projects that reach across these varied sectors.
The city of Aachen, Germany, is carrying out nearly-zero energy building renovation within the EU-GUGLE smart city project. Greenovate! Europe are supporting replication and communication of the project.
Greenovate! Europe have taken advantage of their interdisciplinary expertise to work in a large number of European research and innovation projects in the field of Buildings and Smart Cities. We work together with 15 cities in the Sinfonia and EU-GUGLE projects to demonstrate large-scale integrated solutions for the creation of smart cities and districts. In view of triggering Europe-wide replication, we have established links with 40 cities inside a Replication Cluster, to share knowledge on smart city solutions. As a result of elaborating district renovation strategies for cities, and supporting the commercialisation of innovative retrofitting technologies such as the MeeFS multifunctional façade system, we have developed unique expertise in the area of energy efficient retrofitting. Within FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects such as ECO-SEE, ISOBIO and ETFE-MFM, we are working with Europe’s leading researchers on the next generation of sustainable construction materials. Together with technologies for the integration of renewable energies, being developed in projects such as SWIP (small wind turbines) and ETFE-MFM (building integrated photovoltaics), this will accelerate the commercialisation of nearly zero-energy building solutions. To support construction companies to embrace the transition we provide innovation support services, and have designed, tested and implemented a green service innovation voucher scheme in Norway, France and Germany as part of the CIP GreenConServe project.
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Resource Efficient Manufacturing Resource efficiency is not only a critical environmental issue, it also plays a decisive role in industrial competitiveness. The complexity of industrial value chains means that there is so-far untapped potential for substantial cost savings and resource efficient innovation. Greenovate! Europe provide tools, methodologies and strategies to make these savings accessible and turn them into profits. With our technical know-how and long-standing experience of working with both industrial players and research organisations, Greenovate! Europe makes industrial processes more efficient and bring the most promising solutions to the market. The Horizon 2020 Factories of the Future project MEMAN, which involves six G!E members, has created a toolbox for the optimisation of resource use in entire manufacturing value chains. The project managed, for the first time, to integrate a coherent set of indicators for companies, which has previously been very difficult and often inefficient, because there are no available tools or models for this. The toolbox developed by MEMAN can have a huge impact for industry and is a massive step towards making the manufacturing industry more resource efficient. As a result of the REMake project, Greenovate! Europe were contracted to produce a study entitled, ‘Resource efficiency potentials of Manufacturing Industries: A comparison of resource saving potentials of single companies vs manufacturing value chains’, by the United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (UK DEFRA). The report examined resource efficiency in individual companies and in value chains, highlighting the large savings potentials that are possible from value chain optimisation, and made recommendations for policy-makers that a better understanding of resource efficiency potential is needed.
In the MEMAN project, the Greenovate! Europe experts are helping to maximise the resource saving potentials of the metal mechanical sector supplying the automotive and aerospace industry. Among others, partners have successfully created a toolbox for the optimisation of resource use in entire manufacturing value chains.
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Bio-based Economy Bio-based products and services – either wholly or partly derived from renewable materials of biological origin – are expected to present strong growth opportunities for Europe in the coming years, contributing to sustainable re-industrialisation and growth, as well as addressing societal challenges, particularly for rural areas. Greenovate! Europe support the development and commercialisation of biobased materials, processes and products, whilst considering sustainability throughout their life-cycle. Our expertise covers research into these sectors as well as life-cycle assessment, market analysis, business development and dissemination and communication. Within the ProBIO project, Greenovate! Europe are helping to create a more competitive European bioeconomy by providing professional support to the uptake of R&D results. ProBIO offers bioeconomy result owners expert coaching for market uptake and tailored support for further R&I. Dedicated events have also offered bioeconomy stakeholders knowledge exchange opportunities. The first such event, held in Brussels in October 2015, attracted over 120 attendants, bringing together the agricultural, fisheries, food and biotechnology communities, while the second attracted over 70 stakeholders in June 2016.
The ECO-SEE project developed a range of breakthrough ecobuilding solutions for healthy and energy efficient buildings. Greenovate! Europe produced an extended publication to promote the new products. Greenovate! Europe have extensive experience supporting researchers and industry to bring the latest bioeconomy innovations to market. This includes in advanced biofuels, where within the ButaNexT project, we will help to overcome the technical and economic constraints to the wider use of biobutanol. Innovative bio-based products and chemicals will open up new and diversified markets in Europe. Greenovate! Europe is working at the forefront of this in projects such as BIOrescue (novel biorefinery concept for mushroom compost) and Bio4Products (replacing fossil resources in process industry). The next generation of bio-based construction materials, under development in projects such as ISOBIO and ECO-SEE, look to bring low carbon, healthy building solutions into mainstream use. Focusing on the valorisation of residual biomass and fostering rural development, the EuroPruning project developed new biomass logistics chains for prunings.
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Sustainable Electricity The transition to low carbon electricity calls for novel technologies and approaches to energy production, transmission and consumption in all sectors of the economy, requiring a fundamental rethink of our energy system, including flexibility in distribution and transmission of electricity. Greenovate! Europe support this transition in all areas. We work towards the development and optimisation of renewable energy generation technologies in a number of research and innovation projects. In the Windtrust project we joined with some of Europe’s largest companies to reduce the cost of wind energy generation by further improving the reliability of key components of the turbine. While in the SWIP project we helped develop new innovative solutions, components and tools for the integration of small wind turbines in urban and peri-urban areas. Besides wind energy, the ETFE-MFM project has advanced the state-of-the-art in building integrated photovoltaics, providing decentralised energy generation for self-sufficient buildings. In the areas of distribution and storage we are working in the BestPaths project - the largest European renewable energy demonstration project, benefitting from an EU contribution of over ₏35 million - to improve the interconnections, capacity and flexibility of the entire European power grid. In the Sinfonia and EU-GUGLE project we are also supporting solutions to optimise the electricity grid at district level. Greenovate! Europe are working with 40 leading organisations in the Best Paths project to increase the efficiency, flexibility, safety and quality of the European electricity system.
Source: 50 Hertz
To support the introduction of green technologies to the marketplace, we have designed and implemented new financial instruments and funding schemes. In the KIS-PIMS project this took the form of innovation vouchers for SMEs to buy consulting services to strengthen business plans for innovative renewable energy services.
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Supporting the Research Community to Achieve Impact Greenovate! Europe have become established as a strong player on the eco-innovation scene, with an excellent reputation at the European level, and the group is actively sought as an exploitation partner for research contracts. We are specialised in bridging the ‘valley of death’ between research and market, by developing business models and exploitation strategies for R&D results, and disseminating research results to key stakeholders.
Over the past ten years, we have demonstrated experience in supporting the exploitation of research results, in both Co-ordination and Support Actions (CSAs) and in collaborative research and innovation projects. Additionally, G!E provide networking, communication and information sharing services to the community, enabling new connections and opportunities to arise.
Co-ordination and Support Actions The ProRETT project (Promotion of Renewable Energy Technology Transfer) brought together expertise from across Europe to support the exploitation of European funded research in renewable energy technologies. The project investigated the commercial potential of more than 60 FP6 project results, and provided coaching and support to those results with high commercial potentials. ProRETT led to the creation of 10 new companies, 2 licencing deals, and €4.3 million of investments. At the end of the project, several members of the project consortium decided to consolidate their co-operation in a permanent organisation – creating Greenovate! Europe as an Economic Interest Group (EEIG). ProNANO (Promoting Technology Transfer of Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new Production Technologies), was a FP7 project which ran from 2010 to 2012 and was co-ordinated by Zabala Innovation Consulting, involving six G!E member organisations. Building on ProRETT experiences, the project sought to support the commercialisation of nanotechnology research, looking into 50 research results with high commercial potentials. Ten of the results ultimately made a positive decision on commercialisation, financing or acquisition, and the project enabled 17 times its own EC contribution in investments to be raised for the coached research owners.
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The latest support action, ProBIO (Professional support to the uptake of bioeconomy R&D results towards market, further research and policy for a more competitive European bioeconomy), running from 2015-2017, supports the consortia of FP7 KBBE and Horizon 2020 bioeconomy projects to take results to market. ProBIO has explored over 400 projects funded by the Knowledge Based Bioeconomy (KBBE) FP7 Programme, to identify the most advanced research results, and provide result owners with individual coaching to help them commercialise their products and services. Over 75 business opportunities have already received support from the project. The project also enables networking and knowledge exchange between different European bioeconomy initiatives and relevant stakeholders. Over 75 bioeconomy business opportunities have received coaching from Greenovate! Europe experts in the ProBIO project.
Maximising the Impact of Public R&I To date, Greenovate! Europe have worked in eighteen FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects, supporting Europe’s leading researchers to maximise the impact of their results, in the areas of renewable energies, energy distribution, bioeconomy, smart cities and energy efficient buildings, and sustainable manufacturing. Our dedicated methodologies and practices have been tested and improved in order to continually refine our offer, to ensure the maximum possible impact from research results. To this end, a Greenovate! Europe Work Packages for Maximising Impact of R&D will: Develop an Exploitation Strategy, taking account of TRL, IPR, market, finance, business models, and management; Foster Market Uptake by describing results in a functional manner for potential end-users, appraising the market and ensuring that stakeholders are engaged throughout the project; Support Further Research by identifying additional research possibilities and recommending funding-routes to advance TRLs and take research to market; Contribute to Policy Development by extracting policy lessons from scientific results and disseminating them to policy-makers through publications, workshops and debates; Disseminate Results through integrated Communication Plans for all partners, using state-ofthe-art communication, including audio-visual materials, webinars and social media. Greenovate! Europe – Annual Report 2016
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Networking, Communication and Information Sharing Alongside research and innovation projects, we have also developed a number of support services for the eco-innovation community, to bring knowledge brokers and end-users together and contribute to the emergence of a sustainable economy. The InnovationSeeds knowledge platform identifies and packages research results in a functional manner to act as a one-stop-shop for eco-innovation knowledge. It provides access to global policy case studies, eco-innovations, and network descriptions which can be explored through an intuitive guided search tool, to find exactly the knowledge you are looking for. Find out more at innovationseeds.eu The InnovationSeeds ProfileNet is an online platform for the global eco-innovation community. It provides members with a functional online tool which allows them to exchange information, find experts and make requests for support. The network of eco-innovation experts is searchable by knowledge areas, skills and geographic focus to help you to find the expertise that you need. Sign up at profilenet.innovationseeds.eu Greenovate! Europe is a founding member of the global Innovation for Sustainable Network (inno4sd network). inno4sd supports the emergence of a sustainable economy, contributing to economic growth and supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, by consolidating the global eco-innovation community. The network mobilises actors from around the world, and co-ordinates and creates links between initiatives to bridge gaps in understanding and ensure that research findings can be practically applied to support transformative change. Visit the network website at inno4sd.net As a part of the EU-GUGLE and SINFONIA projects, Greenovate! Europe runs a Replication Cluster of more than 40 cities, interested in learning about the experiences of eight demonstration cities and seven ‘early adopter cities’, in the two projects. Together, they offer peer-to-peer support to other cities and communities interested in implementing their own district-scale refurbishment strategies for greater energy efficiency. Find out more at EU-GUGLE.eu
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Shaping Eco-Innovation Policy Whilst not a lobbying organisation, Greenovate! Europe have been committed to shaping the ecoinnovation policy landscape, and have become an increasingly valued member of the Brussels political landscape, securing opportunities to influence policies and programmes. The group was active in shaping Horizon 2020 and the SME instrument, and has received particular recognition for excellent input on eco-innovation issues and SME support. We have also been contributing to the policy landscape with the production of reports and studies on green policy issues for clients such as the European Cluster Observatory, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, INTERREG IVC and the CENTRAL EUROPE Programme. The SME Instrument Greenovate! Europe was a key player in the establishment of the dedicated SME Instrument of Horizon 2020, having worked closely with European Commission DG Research & Innovation’s SME Unit on the issue since 2012. We advocated extensively the creation of such an instrument, with Greenovate! Europe and its members giving presentations on SME support at several meetings and events with the European Parliament and the European Commission. As a result of our efforts, Bernd Reichert, Head of the SME Unit in European Commission DG Research and Innovation invited Uffe Bundgaard-Jørgensen from InvestorNet-Gate2Growth, Francisco de Aristegui from Zabala Innovation Consulting and Katharina Krell from Greenovate! Europe to form an expert group to provide advice on the design of the Instrument, including the application form and marking criteria. In addition, Uffe was invited into the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 SME Advisory Group and was elected as its Chairman. Innovation Vouchers Greenovate! Europe and its members have developed substantial experience in designing and implementing support tools, and Innovation Vouchers in particular. Between 2009 and 2013, G!E and its members were involved in 19 green innovation voucher pilots within the EUROPE INNOVA Programme of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). Vouchers address the lack of interaction on the part of businesses with researchers and consultants, by brokering contact between SMEs and external expertise, and providing financial support for including such expertise in innovation processes. The KIS-PIMS, GreenConServe and REMake projects each ran voucher schemes, involving regions in ten European countries, with 15 national and regional public agencies. These vouchers were in the areas of renewable energy, sustainable construction, industrial resource efficiency, sustainable water and waste water. The experiences and lessons from these voucher schemes are available in the publications: KIS-PIMS Guide to Green Innovation Vouchers GreenConServe Green Service Innovation Vouchers REMake Guide to Resource Efficiency in Manufacturing
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Studies Greenovate! Europe have been contracted to produce a number of reports for European programmes and initiatives, all of which are available on the Greenovate! Europe website. The first such studies were on cluster policy and cluster organisations, commissioned by the European Cluster Observatory. The studies focused on exploring the links between the concept of eco-innovation and cluster policy; as well as eco-innovation priorities and practices in managed clusters across Europe. The first study, ‘Eco-innovation and national cluster policies in Europe’, examined if national cluster policies in EU Member States are being used specifically to support eco-innovation and in what way, whilst the second, ‘Eco-innovation in cluster organisations in the chemical and textiles-clothingleather sectors’, aimed to understand if and how cluster organisations are using eco-innovation to foster competitiveness and growth. In 2012, G!E published a ‘Screening of good practices in regional eco-management and eco-innovation support schemes’, for the INTERREG IVC funded ‘RECOMMEND’ (Regions using eco-management for eco-innovation development) project, which aimed to deliver new and improved policy instruments to improve eco-innovation. The study evaluated good practices in regional eco-management and ecoinnovation support schemes, presenting a qualitative overview of 15 policies collected from around Europe. As thematic experts for the Interreg Europe Programme, Greenovate! Europe helped shape the approach to ‘Environment and Resource Efficiency’ of the new programme. In 2014, Astrid Severin, Managing Director of Greenovate! Europe, presented the results of their study at the Interreg Europe launch event in Bologna to over 1000 European stakeholders.
From 2013-2015, Greenovate! Europe acted as Thematic Experts for the INTERREG IVC Thematic Capitalisation on Renewable Energy, analysing all of the projects funded by INTERREG IVC in this area. The capitalisation collected the knowledge gained from the projects to make links between project results and provide an analysis of collective experiences and practices. From the projects studied, G!E collected and analysed 259 good practices and established a development cycle to explore criteria for technology and policy uptake, and elaborated a new instrument called ‘accelerator projects’ for policy transfer from one region to another. The reports also provided recommendations for the INTERREG IVC Secretariat, which were influential in the formation of the follow-up programme, Interreg Europe, with the ‘accelerator projects’, represented now as a post-project implementation phase. Greenovate! Europe were also the Thematic Experts for the INTERREG IVC Capitalisation on Entrepreneurship from
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2014-2015. Greenovate! Europe also presented during the launch event of the Interreg Europe Programme, in December 2014, in Bologna. The event brought together 1,800 participants from 30 different European countries – 800 in person, and 1,000 people online – to learn about the new programme and to network with other regions. In 2013, Greenovate! Europe were hired by the CENTRAL EUROPE Programme, to produce a Thematic Study on the programme’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency projects. The Thematic Study aimed to communicate the results and achievements of the programme and demonstrate its thematic value by identifying the most promising outputs of the 21 projects funded under the theme of energy efficiency and renewable energies. In the study, Greenovate! Europe brought together the most promising tools and outcomes into policy packages for both energy efficiency in buildings and renewable energy, giving advice to regions on what tools to use, and in what order, to begin planning regional actions. Policy Events and Workshops Between 2008 and 2011 Greenovate! Europe organised a series of policy events on ‘Sustainable Manufacturing in Europe’, in collaboration with ZVO, the German Association of Surface Engineering. The first event entitled ‘Potentialities for clean products and production in the process chain from forming to surface finishing’ was held in October 2008. It promoted the results of the CleanProd project, raising awareness about green surface finishing as an issue of transversal importance for future manufacturing, and lobbying for its inclusion in future calls of FP7. The second workshop, held in December 2009, ‘Safety and sustainability in handling chemicals in metal working and surface treatment’, made decision makers aware of the large potential for producing chemical goods in a safer, cleaner and more efficient way. The 2011 edition was called ‘Innovation and environmental regulation: Opportunities and challenges for SMEs’. The important role of supply chains in addressing resource efficiency was emphasised. Presenters called for a harmonised regulatory framework within the EU, and more incentives for SME’s in surface finishing to implement new process technologies and better resource efficiency in their operations.
Debating panel at the second ‘Sustainable Manufacturing in Europe’ event, held in Brussels in 2009.
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In Feb 2011 G!E arranged a dinner debate on ‘Opportunities and Challenges for resource efficiency in manufacturing companies and supply chains: the example of the surface industry’. The Dinner Debate brought together Members of the European Parliament with stakeholders from industry associations and private companies, to debate the opportunities and challenges that manufacturing companies and more specifically those in the surface finishing sector face in Europe. The debate was hosted by Claude Turmes MEP (Vice-President Greens/EFA; Luxembourg), and attracted other Parliamentarians including Paul Rübig (EPP; Austria), Maria Da Garça Carvalho (EPP; Portugal) and Marita Ulvskog (S&D; Sweden).
The REMake Dinner Debate on resource efficiency in manufacturing was hosted by Reinhard Bütikofer, MEP.
G!E organised the final events for the REMake project in June 2012, taking the form of a large conference for general participants, and an invite-only dinner debate in the European Parliament. Both were entitled, ‘Tapping the potential of resource efficiency in the European manufacturing industry’. The conference attracted over 100 participants from industrial associations, resource efficiency experts and policy-makers. The evening dinner debate was hosted by Reinhard Bütikofer MEP (Greens/EFA; Germany), member of the ITRE committee and former rapporteur of the European Parliament on the own-initiative report on ‘An effective raw materials strategy for Europe'. Policy recommendations developed during the project were presented and awards were handed out to three European manufacturers and one innovation agency for excellent performance in implementing Debating panel at the resource efficient measures. second ‘Sustainable Manufacturing in Udo Sievers and Uffe BundgaardEurope’ event, held in Jørgensen, from members eiffo Brussels in 2009. (Germany) and InvestorNetGate2Growth (Denmark), contributed to the ProNANO debate.
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In March 2012, G!E organised a dinner debate at the European Parliament entitled ‘How to complete the full innovation cycle? Lessons for Horizon2020 from commercialisation support actions for R&D results in nanomaterial and production’. The event was organised as the final event of the ProNANO project. Hosted by Maria de Graça Carvalho MEP, former Portuguese Minister of Science, and ITRE member, the event explored the weaknesses of FP7 in terms of result exploitation, illustrated approaches of turning R&D into business and examined how to strengthen Horizon 2020’s innovation performance. In September 2015 Katharina Krell presented at the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan Conference, organised by the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The event attracted the ‘who’s who’ in EU energy research and policy, including the Commissioners for both R&I and Energy, as well as numerous EC high-level officials, amongst the estimated audience of over 500 people. The SET-Plan conference was focused on collecting input to a new, integrated SET-Plan, one of the first deliverables from the Commission's Energy Union Roadmap, which was adopted in February. Katharina spoke in a panel moderated by Marie Donnelly, Director of DG Energy, and emphasised the importance of system approaches (full industrial value chains, city districts, including the final customer) and the need to look at resource efficiency beyond the sole parameter of energy, to achieve best optimisation results.
Managing Director Katharina Krell presented on behalf of Greenovate! Europe to an audience of over 500 at the SET Plan Conference in 2015.
In 2016 Greenovate! Europe coordinated two dinner debates in the European Parliament – ‘Accelerating the Commercialisation of Eco-Innovation in Europe‘s Regions’ organised on behalf of the INNEON consortium, and ‘Mobilising pruning residues to expand Europe's biomass market’ for the EuroPruning project. More details about these events can be found in the Report from the Secretariat section.
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Debating panel at the second ‘Sustainable
Report from the Secretariat 2016 Fostering Co-operation General Assemblies The 18th Greenovate! Europe General Assembly was held in Brussels on 2 June 2016. The G!E Secretariat presented the activity report from the first half of 2016 before presentations from the European Commission gave G!E members the inside scoop in the areas of the bioeconomy, smart cities and renewables. The GA concluded with a customary session on fostering cooperation, offering the chance for members to discuss future calls and possible opportunities to work together. In the evening, G!E hosted its Wine Tasting and Networking event, which was a great success (despite the weather), with over 100 people in attendance. The evening was opened with a speech from Prince Laurent of Belgium, and in order to make the event carbon neutral, we offered to plant trees for all of our attendees.
Prince Laurent gave a welcome speech at the Greenovate! Europe networking event in June.
On 14 December 2016 the 19th General Assembly was held at the headquarters of CENER in Pamplona, Spain. The G!E Secretariat presented the activity report from the second half of 2016 and an update on the budget. A tour de table took place to collect initial input from participants to a position paper for the interim review of Horizon 2020. The meeting also saw the election of a new Supervisory Board, with Gosse Hiemstra (Van der Meer & Van Tilburg) elected as President and Eric Peirano (Technofi) as Vice-President. The afternoon session of the Assembly was dedicated to getting to know the host, CENER, and was comprised of presentations from each of the CENER Departments and visits to the PV and Solar Thermal Laboratories – visits to the wind lab and the second generation biofuels plant took place on the previous day.
Debating panel at the second ‘Sustainable Manufacturing in Europe’ event, held in Brussels in 2009. 15
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Greenovate! Europe Academies Financial, Legal and Administrative management of European projects The fifth G!E Academy was held on 2 June 2016 in Brussels, the day before the 18th General Assembly, offering members the chance to learn more about the financial, legal and administrative management of FP7 and Horizon2020 projects. The event was co-organised between member Zabala Innovation Consulting and the Greenovate! Europe secretariat and offered a detailed explanation of funding rates, categories of costs, principles of reporting and payment procedures used in European projects. A representative of the Common Audit Service, DG Research & Innovation also presented an overview of common errors and was on hand to answer questions related to project auditing. Storage The sixth Greenovate! Europe Academy took place on 13 December 2016 with the focus on Energy Storage. It was organised in co-operation with the Spanish National Renewable Energy Centre (CENER) and held back-to-back with the General Assembly in Pamplona. Members presented their expanding competences in the area of Storage with a view to further collaboration in the sector. CENER’s Renewable Energy Grid Integration Department (IRE) hosted the event, showcasing the impressive depth and scope of their research and development activities in this field. Among the other Greenovate! Europe members in attendance, Technofi, Zabala Innovation Consulting, C-Tech Innovation and Michael Heidenreich also showcased their broad range of activities, covering storage for the energy system as well as industrial and residential solutions.
In combination with the Academy on Storage, Greenovate! Europe members were given a tour of CENER’s facilities in Pamplona.
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Communication and Representation Website The Greenovate! Europe website – www.greenovate-europe.eu – was redesigned in 2016 in line with the broader communications realignment that took place in 2015, to give greater prominence to G!E’s main competence areas of the bioeconomy, electricity, water, transport and sustainable buildings. Over the course of the year, 59 news articles and announcements regarding eco-innovation policy, financing and projects were posted. Special features were also written on the MEMAN, ProBIO and ISOBIO projects, as well as on the inno4sd network, the inno4sd symposium in Cyprus, and the EuroPruning and INNEON final events. CENER – the National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain – was also given a special ‘Members Focus’ feature, and a long-form piece was written on the G!E Academy on Storage.
The Greenovate! Europe website, redesigned in 2016.
Newsletter and Funding Roadmap In 2016, G!E produced and sent out 11 members-only newsletters with Funding Roadmaps. The newsletter now has an audience of over 100 people, with increased numbers of staff from member organisations having signed up. The funding roadmap compiles open calls and tenders from the European Commission and is updated every month to give members access to the most recent ecoinnovation funding opportunities.
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Social Media G!E maintains a social media presence through Twitter (@GreenovateEU) and LinkedIn (Group: Green Knowledge for Industry and Politics). Both channels frequently carry updates on G!E project news and outputs, as well as promoting G!E competencies and members, and providing space for discussing the latest issues in eco-innovation.
YouTube As G!E is producing more and more videos to promote project results, particular effort has been put into improving the G!E YouTube channel, which provides access to videos in thematic lists, and promotes the videos of our member organisations. In 2016, G!E produced videos to promote the EuroPruning, ISOBIO, Best Paths and WINDTRUST projects. Videos produced for projects by other partners are also featured on the channel.
Events and Presentations The Greenovate! Europe Secretariat represents the network at several events each year, in order to promote the expertise of the members, the work that Greenovate! Europe is doing, and to find out about, and foster, new opportunities for members. EU Sustainable Energy Week – Visualising Energy For the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW; 13-17 June 2016), Greenovate! Europe became a knowledge partner in Revolve Media’s Visualising Energy Exhibition, in order to further promote the organisation and its renewable energy projects. The annual exhibition, which takes place on the esplanade of the European Parliament and around the Schuman roundabout aims to show the human dimension of energy transition and promote renewable energies and energy efficiency projects that can create jobs in Europe. G!E contributed two exhibition displays on the Best Paths and Windtrust projects, and also wrote features on the two projects for the special EUSEW edition of the exhibition Magazine.
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EFARO Blue Growth and Innovations Katharina Krell gave a keynote speech at the ‘Blue Growth and Innovation’ conference, organised by the European Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Organizations (EFARO), on 25 May in Brussels. The presentation, ‘How to cross the valley of death between science and innovation or policy’, focused on the importance of exploiting results – which the marine sector has been slow to pick up on – with a pitch about G!E and its experience in exploitation, as well as on the ProBIO project and its free consulting services. The event explored the opportunities and challenges for Blue Growth in Europe, and was attended by the directors of the leading marine research organisations in Europe, as well as numerous officials from DG MARE including the Director-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries João Aguiar Machado. European Construction Technology Platform (ECTP) Conference Greenovate! Europe was present at the 7th ECTP Conference which took place in Brussels on 17-18 November, and attracted over 100 people. The conference is an important international event dedicated to presenting and discussing current and anticipated innovation in the built environment field. The event gave the opportunity to present the building materials developed in the MeeFS and ECO-SEE projects, as well as discussing G!E’s services with attendees from across the construction industry. Additionally, the Greenovate! Europe secretariat was present as speaker, exhibitor or participant at the following events: • Committee of the Regions event on Entrepreneurship (9 February) • SPIRE General Assembly and events (17-18 February) • Business and practitioners workshop on financial opportunities and legislative barriers for the circular economy (21 March) • Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking Info Day (21 April) • EIP on Smart Cities and Communities General Assembly (23-24 May) • Visualising Energy Debate (13 June) • EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) Policy Conference (14-16 June) • CYPRUS 2016 Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management (23–25 June) • Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 Info Week (27-29 June) • Scottish Renewables Onshore Wind Conference & Exhibition (29 June) • Straw Construction Week Conference (14 September) • Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5 Info Day (15 September) • Horizon 2020 Energy Efficiency Info Day (19 September) • Horizon 2020 Smart Cities Info Day (23 September) • Renovate Europe Steering Group Meeting (4 October) • Renovate Europe Day REDay (13 October) • Horizon 2020 Research PPPs Info Day (14 October) • Environment Knowledge Week (E2KW) Congress (28 October) • Smart Cities and Communities Action Clusters GA (22 November) • Factories of the future – making innovation happen (1 December) • Horizon 2020 Nature based solutions Info Day (8 December)
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Membership In 2007 Greenovate! Europe was founded by eight member companies. Ten years on, the group consists of 25 members from fourteen EU member states. Our current members have extended networks into communities related to eco-innovation (science, clusters, intermediaries, SMEs, finance). Together, they cover all parts of the innovation value chain, bringing together the expertise needed for technology and service developers to successfully bring research to market, and for policy-makers to create an environment in which eco-innovative businesses can thrive.
Amsterdam Economic Board Member since: 2010 Location: The Netherlands www.amsterdameconomicboard.com Amsterdam Economic Board is an economic and innovation development organisation in the larger Amsterdam region. AEB functions as a facilitator to promote mutual cooperation between knowledge institutions, commerce and industry, and government and social organisations in the Amsterdam region.
Atlantis Consulting Cyprus Member since: 2009 Location: Cyprus www.atlantis-consulting.eu Atlantis provides environmental management and management consultancy services, supporting public and private sector organisations in Cyprus and the EU with holistic and integrated consulting services, expertise and added value. Atlantis’ main focus areas are water, waste and energy.
CETIM - Technical Centre for the Mechanical Industries Member since: 2008 Location: France www.cetim.fr CETIM, the Technical Centre for the Mechanical Industries, is a major player in the development of
Greenovate! Europe – Annual Report 2016
advanced manufacturing technologies. CETIM provides its member companies with a wide range of services, from research and testing to product codevelopment, market analysis and training.
CluBE - Cluster of Bioenergy and Environment of Western Macedonia Member since: 2017 Location: Greece www.pta.pdm.gr/biocluster The Cluster of Bioenergy and Environment of Western Macedonia (CluBE) is a non-profit company established among local actors and stakeholders in the region. The Cluster is developing R&D and business activities in the fields of bioenergy and environment in the region and the neighbouring area.
CENER - National Renewable Energy Centre Member since: 2012 Location: Spain www.cener.com The National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain is a large technology centre specialised in applied research and the development and promotion of renewable energies. It has excellent qualifications and recognised national and international prestige. Having started its activity in 2002, CENER provides services and performs research work in six areas: Wind, Solar Thermal and Solar Photovoltaic, Biomass, Energy in Buildings and Renewable Energy Grid Integration.
C-Tech Innovation Member since: 2013 Location: United Kingdom www.ctechinnovation.com Since its foundation in 2001 C-Tech Innovation has grown to be a UK leader in helping clients to generate innovative, sustainable and profitable products and services. C-Tech uses its expertise in sustainability, innovation, new product development and knowledge transfer to help clients strengthen their products, processes and people through a wide-range of consultancy services, specialist networks and business intelligence.
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Membership Dundee & Angus College
communication, state-of-the-art videos, social media, workshops and end-user engagement.
Member since: 2015 Location: UK www.dundeeandangus.ac.uk
EWP - European Water Partnership
Dundee & Angus College is an academic and research centre with a well-established track record of engaging in European projects. The college is increasingly active in sectors relevant for sustainability and the green economy, including engineering, building and construction and renewable energies.
eiffo Member since: 2017 Location: Germany www.eiffo.de eiffo eG coordinates the research, development and innovation activities of 200 industrial companies from the German, Austrian and Swiss surface technology industries. Based on long-standing professional expertise eiffo offers a complete range of technical, engineering, and research management services.
Energie Agentur Steiermark Member since: 2008 Location: Austria www.ea-stmk.at
Member since: 2008 Location: Belgium www.ewp.eu EWP is an action-oriented open forum with the objective of finding solutions to the water challenges in wider Europe. The partnership brings together governmental agencies, knowledge institutes, companies, NGOs, end-users and civil society groups to exchange views and stimulate partnerships.
GreenMatters Founding Member Location: Belgium www.greenmatterz.eu GreenMatters is a private consultancy based in Brussels with a mission to provide environment and climate-friendly solutions to the problems caused by today’s resource use. The company cover two activity areas: project development services for waste management projects; and specialised communication and dissemination services at EU level for resource efficiency projects in the framework of European Programmes.
Energie Agentur Steiermark aims to increase energy efficiency and renewable energy in the Austrian region of Styria. It provides support to energy projects, consciousness raising and PR work, expert training, access to European cooperation and initiatives, energy advice and the administration and awarding of grants.
IFAU - Institute for Food Studies & Agroindustrial Development
ESCI - European Science Communication Institute
IFAU is a private, independent research institute with a deep understanding of the agri food industry, and the key challenges and opportunities from ‘farm to fork’. It is one of the few European specialist institutes in its field, and provides services to support industry development, innovation and company growth.
Member since: 2017 Location: Germany, France, Belgium, UK www.sciencecommunicators.eu
Member since: 2015 Location: Denmark www.ifau.dk
ESCI supports national and international research initiatives to communicate effectively and leverage their dissemination potential. In addition to providing up-to-date media training, ESCI can offer: web
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Innovhub – Stazioni Sperimentali per l’Industria (SSI) Member since: 2014 Location: Italy www.innovhub-ssi.it Innovhub supports the public administration in Milan to improve economic competitiveness through the provision of high quality technological support, the promotion of innovation, and research and training of staff in relevant sectors. It is specialised in the textile, paper, fuels, and oils and fats industries, and runs the Green Chemistry Cluster in Lombardy.
InvestorNet-Gate2Growth Founding Member Location: Denmark www.gate2growth.com The InvestorNet-Gate2Growth corporate advisory team is a dedicated group of experts with excellent long-term investor relations and an outstanding track record in business plan development. The team has extensive experience from the energy and clean tech sectors and represents a real 'gate to finance' for innovative companies looking for funding from Venture Capital or Business Angels. The team has regular contact with investors from across Europe.
KTN – Knowledge Transfer Network Member since: 2017 Location: UK www.ktn-uk.co.uk KTN helps UK industry access the knowledge base in science, engineering and manufacturing, thereby enabling them to innovate faster and more successfully. KTN has built a unique network that helps enterprising people and companies reach the full potential of their innovative capabilities.
Lahti Region Development LADEC Member since: 2008 Location: Finland www.ladec.fi
Greenovate! Europe – Annual Report 2016
LADEC is the development and promotion agency of the Finnish region of Lahti. Focused on clean tech and design, LADEC promotes the establishment and development of growth companies and investments to the region. The cluster gives SMEs advice and services that help them to network and internationalise their business.
Michael Heidenreich Consulting Member since: 2008 Location: Austria Michael Heidenreich Consulting conducts market research in the fields of: renewable energy sources and energy efficiency, support instruments, innovation vouchers and comparative studies on sustainable development practices. The company provides solutions to strategic problems by removing economic and technical barriers, by finding and designing selected co-financing models and by establishing high-quality business practices.
Ö.O.Energiesparverband Member since: 2009 Location: Austria www.energiesparverband.at The Clean Tech Cluster managed by Ö.O.Energiesparverband is a network of more than 150 clean tech businesses in Upper Austria. The Cluster is specialised in renewables and energy efficiency and supports co-operation, technology transfer, information and communication, training, and co-operation with other networks.
Revolve Media Member since: 2016 Location: Belgium www.revolve.media Revolve is a communication agency fostering cultures of sustainability and accelerating the energy transition. Revolve products include a quarterly international magazine, public information campaigns/photo exhibitions, high-level forums, communication services and training for journalists.
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RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
youris.com
Member since: 2010 Location: Sweden www.ri.se
Member since: 2013 Location: Italy www.youris.com
RISE (formerly SP Technical Research Institute) is a leading international research institute. They work closely with customers to create value, delivering high-quality input in all parts of the innovation chain, and play an important part in assisting the competitiveness of industry and its evolution towards sustainable development. They provide world class expertise for innovation and create added value both for the corporate sector and for a sustainable society.
youris.com is an independent non-profit media agency promoting European innovation via TV media and the web. youris.com designs and implements communication strategies for research organisations and EU projects and has established permanent links between the research community and the media.
Technofi Founding Member Location: France www.technofi.eu Technofi is a French consulting company dedicated since 1985, its incorporation date, to innovation management. Its business experience covers a wide range of business situations: idea development, business creation, start-up/business development, industrial exploitation/business consolidation of innovative projects, large scale exploitation of innovative concepts based on multi company cooperative or collaborative programmes.
Zabala Innovation Consulting Member since: 2008 Location: Spain www.zabala.eu Zabala is an independent international consultancy firm founded in 1986, specialising in comprehensive consultancy of both R&D and Innovation management, for industrial and service enterprises. The company’s mission is to make innovation the key competitiveness factor for both companies and administrations, collaborating in the planning of their projects and the management of all types of subsidies and funding at regional national and community level.
Van der Meer & van Tilburg Member since: 2010 Location: The Netherlands www.innovation.nl Van der Meer & van Tilburg is an innovation consultancy with a strong focus on the commercialisation of new technologies. Founded in 1979, the executives have backgrounds in business strategy and technology. The company has skills in entrepreneurship, strategy, technology, marketing and organisation. Clients include government, branch organisations, regional development organisations, SMEs and knowledge institutions.
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Policy Bringing Recommendations from R&I Projects to the Attention of Policy Makers EuroPruning Dinner Debate - Mobilising pruning residues to expand Europe's biomass market Greenovate! Europe organised a dinner debate in the European Parliament on 15 June 2016 to promote the completion of the EuroPruning project and make recommendations to policy-makers for how to make the pruning-to-energy value chain possible. The event was organised with two MEPs: Czesław Adam Siekierski MEP (Poland; European People’s Party), Chairman of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, and Jan Huitema MEP (Netherlands; Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), who is a member of the same Committee. Prior to the event, Greenovate! Europe drafted a policy paper on implications from the project. The background research found that as a marginal biomass resource, policy often does not reflect the specific characteristics of prunings, resulting in a lack of supporting frameworks at regional, national and supranational levels, and the emergence of a number of regulatory barriers. The paper advocated that policy frameworks and interventions need to change in order to modify the ‘prunings as waste’ mind-set amongst farmers and policy-makers, recognising the specific characteristics of agrarian wastes in EU regulations, and supporting a more nuanced appreciation of the soil quality requirements of Common Agricultural Policy Cross Compliance, which encourage farmers to integrate prunings into the soil, even when there is no environmental benefit from doing so. The paper also argued that regional action is necessary to overcome inherently local barriers, and made a number of recommendations on how to use existing funding tools and initiatives to increase the use of prunings as a biomass resource. The paper argued that Member States should take account of prunings in their National Renewable Energy Action Plans, in order to encourage use in their regions, who can also make use of the Rural Development Pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy to support local business and value chain creation. The policy paper is available at the G!E website, and was also featured in a paper for the European Biomass Conference and Exhibition 2016. INNEON Dinner Debate - Accelerating the Commercialisation of Eco-Innovation in Europe‘s Regions Greenovate! Europe organised a dinner debate in the European Parliament for the European Network for Eco-Innovation Investment (INNEON) on 31 May, hosted by Pablo Zalba Bidegain MEP (Spain; European People’s Party). INNEON brought together ten partners, including six G!E members: Atlantis Consulting, TECHNOFI, Zabala Innovation Consulting, the European Water partnership, InvestorNet Gate2Growth, and Van der Meer en Van Tilburg. The debate brought together a large number of European and regional policy makers, and partners presented their plans for a new regional platform and Impact Investment Fund to accelerate the
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commercialisation of eco-innovation in Europe. Under the platform, INNEON would offer its services supporting eco-innovative SMEs towards investment readiness - to Europe’s regions, to help them to attract and retain eco-innovative SMEs to boost regional competitiveness, and deliver low-carbon jobs, in line with Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS3).
inno4sd Network Since January 2015, Greenovate! Europe has been working as part of the green.eu Horizon 2020 project, which is building the Innovation for Sustainable Development Network (inno4sd.net), a global network of networks that aims to reduce fragmentation amongst global and regional networks working on eco-innovation. The network is dedicated to considering how eco-innovation can support the achievement of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, and how policy-makers can support a sustainable transition.
Greenovate! Europe co-organised the second inno4sd symposium event in Cyprus.
The founding consortium is composed of leading European organisations in the domain of ecoinnovation, including Greenovate! Europe, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, TNO, Tecnalia, United Nations University Maastricht, King’s College London, University College London and ICLEI, amongst others. Within the consortium, Greenovate! Europe is responsible for communications and stakeholder outreach activities, as well as supporting network building, strategy and event organisation. G!E and TNO led the organisation of the second annual inno4sd symposium event, which took place at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, on 17-18 November 2016. The event, which focused on challenges of the Water-Energy-Food nexus, with a particular focus on the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region, was co-organised with FutureEarth and the European Commission. The Symposium attracted over 50 attendees from Europe, the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region, and as far as India, Canada and South Africa, representing international institutions, universities, networks, consultancies and companies, amongst others. Input collected from the event – which was moderated by Greenovate! Europe – has been used to devise a new Collaborative Research Agenda for the Nexus which should assist the Commission in defining its future funding orientations.
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Commission Consultations G!E provided input into three consultations throughout the year: • Interim review of Horizon 2020; • Preparation of a new Renewable Energy Directive for the period after 2020; • Preparation of a sustainable bioenergy policy for the period after 2020. Position Paper on Horizon 2020 Interim Review In late 2016, G!E began to co-ordinate the production of a position paper amongst its members, to contribute to the European Commission’s consultation on the Interim Review of Horizon 2020. Following initial rounds of input collection via email, the draft position was presented at the 19th General Assembly and opened to discussion. The paper made numerous recommendations on both how to improve performance of Horizon 2020, and how to ensure that the follow-up programme from 2020 can perform better. In the paper, G!E recommended that the Commission: • Better define Innovation Actions with industry and society, targeting higher TRL technologies to produce directly exploitable results; • Make call topics for Research & Innovation Actions broader to encourage bottom-up, innovative applications; • Deliver more detailed evaluation reports, to help consortiums to understand the weaknesses of their proposals and prepare for re-submission; • Support the involvement of dedicated exploitation experts in projects, and insist on robust exploitation activities; • Provide 100% funding for Management, Exploitation, Communication and Dissemination activities – activities that do not create value for those who perform them; • Revert to actual cost overheads for research centres rather than a flat rate; • Give greater guidance and training to SME Instrument evaluators, to ensure that evaluations are consistent; • Reinstate a fully-fledged Eco-innovation Programme to support new environmental products and services.
Continuous Input to the SME Instrument Unit Katharina and Astrid met with Bernd Reichert in March 2016, Head of Unit at the Executive Agency for SMEs, to discuss the marking criteria for the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument. The application form and marking criteria was initially proposed by a consortium of G!E members, and new changes proposed by G!E were positively received.
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European Projects Greenovate! Europe have a strong track record working in FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects, supporting researchers to maximise the impact of their results. In 2016, together with our members, we were actively involved in 14 projects, spread across our four focus areas: Buildings and Smart Cities, Resource Efficient Manufacturing, Bio-based Economy and Sustainable Electricity. During the year three projects came to an end – EuroPruning, WINDTRUST and MeeFS – and two new projects got underway - BIOrescue and Bio4Products.
Buildings and Smart Cities
The project was extended until December 2016, following an amendment agreed with the European Commission. This enabled the consortium to demonstrate and evaluate the MeeFS system on a residential building in Merida, Spain during the second half of 2016.
Multifunctional energy efficient façade system for building retrofitting G!E Secretariat (Technofi, iCons, MH Consulting) January 2012 – December 2016 www.meefs-retrofitting.eu The MeeFS project, co-ordinated by ACCIONA Infrastructure (Spain), aimed to develop, evaluate and demonstrate an innovative multifunctional façade system for improving the energy efficiency of residential buildings across Europe. The innovative façade system integrated multifunctional and energy efficient panels and technological modules, as well as an easy assembling system. Unlike most existing solutions on the market, the MeeFs systems combines the aesthetics of the proposed solutions with high flexibility. The modular approach will allow personalised configurations for each façade typology, orientation and local climatic conditions.
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Greenovate! Europe’s role in the MeeFS project was to lead the Work Package on Exploitation and Dissemination, working with Technofi, iCons and Michael Heidenreich Consulting. In 2016 Technofi continued to lead the exploitation activities through dedicated exploitation workshops as well as working with all partners to complete the final project exploitation plan to coincide with the end of the project. On the 16th of November a final event was organised by Greenovate! Europe in Brussels where the final project results were presented. Technofi and Michael Heidenreich presented the exploitation scenarios for the system during the event. The MeeFS system was also part of the ‘Innovation Cases Exhibition’ at the European Construction Technology Platform conference on 17-18 November.
www.greenovate-europe.eu
Buildings and Smart Cities
European cities serving as Green Urban Gate towards Leadership in sustainable Energy G!E Secretariat (RISE, Zabala), Michael Heidenreich, CENER April 2013 – March 2018 www.eu-gugle.eu The EU-GUGLE project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of nearly-zero energy building renovation models in view of triggering largescale, Europe-wide replication in smart cities and communities by 2020. Over the five years of the projects, the cities of Vienna (AT), Aachen (DE), Milan (IT), Sestao (ES), Tampere (FI), Bratislava (SK), Gothenburg (SE), Plovdiv and Gaziantep (TR) will join efforts to combine the latest research results relevant to smart renovation of groups of buildings at district level and use this knowledge to renovate 260,000m² of living space. EU-GUGLE was Greenovate! Europe’s first Smart Cities and Communities Initiative project. It is coordinated by CENER, Spain’s National Centre for Renewable Energies. Greenovate! Europe is responsible for the project's Replication Campaign. RISE is responsible for a number of communication and dissemination tasks (website and communication contact point for Gothenburg), while Zabala is supporting the coordinator as project office. Michael Heidenreich is chairing the Project Technical Committee and co-ordinating the Vienna pilot district on behalf of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences of Vienna. Greenovate! Europe – Annual Report 2016
In 2016, activities culminated with the coorganisation of the mid-term dissemination event of the project, which took place in Aachen, Germany in April and included a visit to the demonstration buildings. The event brought together 70+ local and regional stakeholders. Another highlight of the year was the development of the Replication Cluster, an initiative shared with the SINFONIA project (please refer to SINFONIA’s page for full details). As with the SINFONIA project, G!E fostered close cooperation with other initiatives and projects and facilitated joint activities, the main one being the series of webinars held during the EUSEW 2016 and which included one presentation from EU-GUGLE. In the same fashion, a joint EUGUGLE / MeeFS workshop on multifunctional facades was organised in November in Vienna by MH Consulting with support from G!E.
The project website, developed and maintained by RISE, was among the finalists of the EURID awards 2016. As chair of the Technical Committee and leader of the Vienna pilot district, Michael Heidenreich played a crucial role in the technical implementation of the project and in the organisation of dissemination activities involving Vienna. Finally, CENER, with support from Zabala acting as Project Office, ensured the coordination of the project.
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Buildings and Smart Cities
New innovative solutions, components and tools for the integration of wind energy in urban and peri-urban areas G!E Secretariat (Van der Meer & van Tilburg) October 2013 – May 2017 www.swipproject.eu The SWIP (‘New innovative solutions, components and tools for the integration of wind energy in urban and peri-urban areas’) project aims to expand the market for small wind turbines in Europe. SWIP is therefore developing, implementing and testing innovative solutions to overcome market barriers, aiming to reduce maintenance costs by 40%, increase performance by 9% and mitigate or eliminate noise and vibrations. Such measures should help to reduce investment costs and increase the attractiveness of small wind turbines.
In 2016, G!E’s work revolved around the production of a series of articles on Small Wind Turbines, and how the SWIP project contributes to overcoming current boundaries. Work also began on producing videos for the project, expected to be completed in 2017. Management of the SWIP Social Acceptance Questionnaire was also ongoing, with particular efforts made to promote the survey to cities and regions throughout Europe. The survey results will be used to make recommendations on social acceptance of small wind turbines at a policy event in 2017, planning for which began in late 2016. Van der Meer & Van Tilburg held exploitation sessions with the SWIP partners at the project’s General Assemblies, getting the project’s researchers to think actively about potential exploitation routes for their developments. Additional market research was performed to identify potential business models for small wind businesses, contributing to the project’s final exploitation strategy.
SWIP is co-ordinated by CIRCE (Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption, Spain). The project consortium contains 13 members from 10 different EU states: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Greenovate! Europe leads the Work Package on Dissemination and Exploitation, with third party Van der Meer en Van Tilburg.
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Buildings and Smart Cities
Development and demonstration of flexible multifunctional ETFE module for architectural façade lighting G!E Secretariat (i.con, O.OE), CENER December 2013 – November 2017 www.etfe-mfm.eu The ETFE-MFM project is developing, evaluating and demonstrating a flexible multifunctional Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) module for architectural façade lighting. ETFE is a fluoridebased plastic that is used in architectural facades. The project will create an ETFE module with embedded additional functionalities (PV cells, LEDs, cables and battery storage) to be used in ETFE textile architecture for Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) applications.
In 2016, G!E focused mostly on co-ordinating the project’s communications activities, and drafting the first version of the project’s training plan. G!E worked with the project partners to define a structure for the University teaching module, and made an initial outreach to Universities to collect their opinion of the proposal. Planning began in late 2016 for activities in the final year of the project, including a dedicated session at the World Sustainable Energy Days in March 2017 and video production, which is expected to be completed in mid-2017. G!E’s Third Party i.con innovation is responsible for the project’s exploitation plan to support commercialisation of the final ETFE Multifunctional Module. i.con innovation met with project partners throughout the year to discover their exploitation expectations and contribute to the final exploitation plan.
Greenovate! Europe are in charge of the Work Package on ‘Awareness, Dissemination, Training and Exploitation’, with third parties i.con innovation and OÖ Energiesparverband. This involves the creation of business plans for the project outputs, as well as promoting the ETFEMFM project at international events and producing a 90 minute training module for use in university architecture courses.
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Buildings and Smart Cities
the project website underwent a major update to better present and valorise the network while at the same time feature regular stories about the project. Communication materials were also updated to reflect the changes in the consortium.
Smart initiative of cities fully committed to invest in advanced large-scale energy solutions G!E Secretariat (MH Consulting, Atlantis), RISE, Zabala, Technofi June 2014 – May 2019 www.sinfonia-smartcities.eu SINFONIA is a five-year project which will demonstrate large-scale integrated solutions for energy efficient districts, with a particular focus on the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions. The demonstrations will take place in the cities of Bolzano and Innsbruck, with constant co-operation between them but also with a group of five early adopter cities taking part in the project (La Rochelle, Sevilla, Pafos, Rosenheim, and Borås). Greenovate! Europe is responsible for Dissemination and Exploitation, and the consortium also contains G!E members, RISE (coordinator), Zabala Innovation Consulting, Technofi, MH Consulting, and Atlantis Consulting Cyprus. In 2016, G!E continued the development of the Replication Cluster, the community of cities interested in receiving knowledge from the SINFONIA and EU-GUGLE projects. The objective of reaching 40 cities in the cluster was achieved in the first half of the year. As the cluster grew,
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In June, G!E and Zabala organised the first dissemination event in one of the SINFONIA ‘early adopter cities’, Seville, with support from MH Consulting. The event attracted a large local and regional audience. G!E also led clustering activities with other smart cities projects, which culminated with the organisation of a series of webinars held during the EUSEW 2016. As part of the WP on Dissemination and Exploitation, Technofi held the first exploitation workshop with project partners in June, and made progress with the development of a decision support tool for district scale refurbishment planning. Atlantis acted as a coach for the early adopter city of Pafos and helped collect data to feed the work undertaken in WP3 and WP9. Zabala continued to assume its role of Project Office in support of RISE, and formally launched knowledge transfer activities with early adopter cities as part of the WP9. Finally, MH Consulting was involved in several work packages (WP2, 3, 9 and 10), especially WP2 on socioeconomic analysis, for which he produced a deliverable on business models for smart cities.
www.greenovate-europe.eu
Resource Efficient Manufacturing
Integral material and energy flow management in manufacturing metal mechanic sector G!E secretariat (InvestorNet, Zabala), CETIM, eiffo, Technofi, VDMVT January 2015 – June 2018 www.meman.eu The MEMAN (Integral Material and Energy Flow Management in Manufacturing Metal Mechanic Sector) project aims to maximise resource saving potentials of the manufacturing industry through integral material and energy flow management across the complete metal mechanical value chain, from casting through machining to surface finishing. The project’s holistic approach addresses optimisation of the whole manufacturing value chain instead of isolated single company or process optimisation, and includes energy, raw materials, and other supplies. The new approach will be developed upon the example of three individual use cases for the automotive, aerospace and mechanical engineering industries, for which MEMAN will create new business models that allow for collaboration of different companies along the value chain, and tools for practical decisionmaking support.
Communication and Dissemination’, working with third party InvestorNet-Gate2Growth on the exploitation of the project.
After having developed the communication plan for the project, the visual and written identity and the communication materials, Greenovate! Europe has been implementing the communication strategy throughout 2016. Since the beginning of the project, MEMAN published 6 press releases in 3 languages, 17 news items online and in magazines, and 9 articles on the MEMAN website (2 of these have a journalistic style to further engage the readers). Additionally, since the beginning of the project partners attended 43 dissemination activities and made 40 presentations of MEMAN at international level. Greenovate! Europe’s members and MEMAN partners organised two stakeholder workshop in October 2016 (in Germany and France) to address how to tap into energy efficiency and supply chain potential in manufacturing companies. Finally, partners met in three technical meetings in Paris, Stuttgart and Nice to discuss the developments of the project.
MEMAN is co-ordinated by Mondragon (Spain), and brings together fourteen partners including six Greenovate! Europe members. Greenovate! Europe is leading the Work Package on ‘Exploitation of Knowledge Created in MEMAN,
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Bio-based Economy
also took place in Spain and France, co-ordinated by G!E and based on the materials produced for the main Brussels event. G!E also co-ordinated the general communications approach of the project, including online communications, communications materials, and attendance at events.
Development and implementation of a new, and non-existent, logistic chain on biomass from pruning G!E Secretariat (InvestorNet-Gate2Growth) April 2013 – June 2016 www.europruning.eu The EuroPruning project, which closed on 15 July 2016, aimed to turn waste agricultural prunings into a fuel source by developing solutions for their collection, transportation and storage, to create growth in the European biofuels market. The project developed new machinery for harvesting and treating prunings from the field, providing solutions for cost-effective storage options, and developed a decision-support tool to improve logistics from farm to final user. EuroPruning is co-ordinated by CIRCE (Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption, Spain) and the project consortium contains 17 members from Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Belgium. Greenovate! Europe’s role in the EuroPruning project was to lead the Work Package on Business Models, Dissemination and Exploitation, working with third party, InvestorNet-Gate2Growth. In 2016, work on EuroPruning revolved mainly around the organisation of the Policy Event, which took place in the European Parliament on 15 June, and drafting the event’s accompanying policy recommendations. Three policy events
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InvestorNet-Gate2Growth, G!E’s Third Party in EuroPruning, was responsible for exploitation of the project results, developing individual business plans, as well as an overall exploitation plan. The exploitation plan involved reviewing current market trends for biomass, defining business models for market take-up of the project results, and developing an overall project exploitation strategy including valorisation, SWOT analysis, exploitation roadmaps and value innovation analysis of individual project results. Each of the five SMEs in the consortium were assisted to develop business plans, to ensure that they can exploit their developments beyond the end of the project.
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Bio-based Economy
Since the project is due to end mid-2017, G!E also launched the production of new communication and dissemination materials, the most important being a booklet presenting the main results of the project.
Eco-innovative, Safe and Energy Efficient wall panels and materials for a healthier indoor environment G!E Secretariat (C-Tech) September 2013 – August 2017 www.eco-see.eu The ECO-SEE project aims to develop new ecomaterials and components for the purpose of creating both healthier and more efficient buildings. It will create and symbiotically use natural eco-materials for healthier indoor environments through hygrothermal (heat and moisture) regulation and the removal of airborne contaminants through both chemical capture and photocatalysis.
2016 was a crucial year for the exploitation work. C-TECH held the third and final exploitation workshop in September in Aveiro. The workshop was the opportunity to fine tune the 7 key exploitable results identified by the project, and contributed directly to the finalisation of the Exploitation Plan, which was delivered at the end of the year. Work will nevertheless continue in 2017.
Greenovate! Europe’s role is to lead the Dissemination and Exploitation activities, with CTECH as exploitation experts. In 2016, G!E focused on coordinating and supporting dissemination and communication activities, in particular by supporting the organisation of the third stakeholder workshops of the project in Munich (Fraunhofer’s premises) and the first two training workshops in London (Skanska) and Madrid (Tecnalia). In addition, G!E took part in the 7th ECTP Conference in Brussels in November on behalf of ECO-SEE.
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Bio-based Economy
Development and demonstration of highly insulating construction materials from bio-derived aggregates G!E secretariat (youris, Van der Meer & van Tilburg) February 2015 – January 2019 www.isobioproject.com The ISOBIO (Development and Demonstration of Highly Insulating Construction Materials from Bio-Derived Aggregates) project aims to develop and bring new bio-based insulation panels and renders into the mainstream for the purpose of creating more energy efficient buildings. Project partners aim to assess and further advance the state-of-the-art in natural insulation materials, hygrothermally (heat and moisture) efficient buffering materials, binders, sol-gel and resins. The aim is to deliver products with at least 50% reduction in embodied energy and CO₂ emissions at component level, 20% improvement in insulation properties, and 30% reductions in life cycle costs.
Greenovate! Europe are in charge of the Work Package on ‘Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation’, working together with third parties youris.com and Van der Meer & Van Tilburg.
In 2016 Van der Meer & Van Tilburg worked extensively, in cooperation with all partners, to elaborate the project exploitation plan, ready for submission in January 2017. Youris implemented the communication activities set out in the dissemination plan, which was updated in July. These activities included producing a project video, writing journalistic articles and creating a following of interested parties on social media. Greenovate! Europe also organised the first two ISOBIO stakeholder workshops during 2016. The first workshop ‘Science and technology solutions for bio-based insulation’ was hosted by the University of Rennes 1, France, on 4 February. The second workshop ‘Environmental and LCA considerations in the production of bio-based insulation’ took place at the University of Bath on 14 September.
The unique blend of organisations and expertise working towards these goals is a consortium of twelve partners from across Europe. The project is led by independent research and technology experts, TWI, and comprises partners from France, Spain, Germany, Norway, the UK and Belgium.
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Bio-based Economy
Professional support to the uptake of bioeconomy R&D results towards market, further research and policy for a more competitive European bioeconomy G!E secretariat, Innovhub, RISE, InvestorNet, Technofi, Zabala, i.con innovation, icons March 2015 – August 2017 www.probio-project.eu ProBIO (Professional support to the uptake of bioeconomy R&D results towards market, further research and policy for a more competitive European bioeconomy) sets out to identify the most useful and exploitable 7th Framework Programme KBBE R&D results and their owners in order to support their market introduction, promote further R&I projects and enable networking and knowledge exchange amongst projects.
In 2016 a lot went on behind the scenes, working alongside bioeconomy projects to facilitate their market uptake. ProBIO partners also produced a set of short videos on business plan writing, how to attract investors and how to exploit intellectual property in a business perspective – the topics most research project have asked assistance for. The ‘ProBIO stories’ were also launched – a series of journalistic articles dedicated to research projects which are making a good use of their results to improve several aspects of our life. Greenovate! Europe leads the work package on enabling networking and knowledge exchange and in 2016 assisted in the organisation of the ‘Exploitation strategies for Bioeconomy Research proposals’ event on 7 June in Brussels. This event provided more than 50 researchers with the opportunity to focus on the exploitation element of their project proposal with practical advice and workshops throughout the day.
The free services offered by the project are: • Coaching for market uptake; • Tailored support for further R&I; • Networking and knowledge exchange. The ProBIO consortium is made up of eight partners, all being Greenovate! Europe members, from a wide EU geographical coverage (Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy and Germany).
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Bio-based Economy
Organised by University of Castilla la Mancha in the frame of the Energy and Environment Knowledge Week (E2KW) Congress in Paris in October, the event focused on the project’ solutions for introducing biobutanol in fuel blends.
Next Generation Bio-butanol G!E secretariat (C-Tech, Zabala), CENER May 2015 – April 2018 www.butanext.eu ButaNexT aims to develop highly efficient processes for the conversion of sustainable feedstocks into the next generation of biobutanol. It is expected that ButaNexT will realise significant reductions in both production costs (up to 50%, to attain price-parity with first generation biofuels) and carbon emissions (up to 85%) compared with fossil fuels (gasoline). Moreover, the project will work on maximising the biobutanol conversion yields from selected lignocellulosic feedstocks such as wheat straw, miscanthus and the organic fraction of Municipal Solid Waste.
2016 also marked the launch of the exploitation activities by C-TECH, who held the first exploitation workshop and identified 9 key exploitable results to be further analysed. Besides their scientific work and coordination, CENER participated in various conferences to disseminate project results.
Greenovate! Europe’s role in ButaNexT is to lead the dissemination and communication tasks, while C-TECH are responsible for the exploitation tasks and the overall leadership of the WP on Dissemination and Exploitation. On the technical side, CENER is the scientific coordinator of the project, and is particularly involved in the integration and scale-up of the innovative processes developed by the project. Acting as Project Office, Zabala are responsible for the administrative and financial management of the project. In 2016, G!E activities mostly revolved around the day to day implementation of communication activities, and the support of the organisation of the first stakeholder workshop of the project.
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Bio-based Economy
‘fast pyrolysis’ plant in the Netherlands. They will supply materials to industrial partners in Belgium and Germany who will integrate these sustainable resources into their production processes. Greenovate! Europe, together with third party Van der Meer & van Tilburg, will lead the exploitation work package to develop and communicate a strong business case for the four end products, and the overall value chain.
4x4, demonstrating a flexible value chain to utilize biomass functionalities in the processing industry G!E Secretariat (Van der Meer & van Tilburg) September 2016 – August 2020 www.bio4products.eu The Bio4Products project will demonstrate an innovative two-step conversion method to transform straw, bark, forest residues and sunflower husks into renewable chemicals. The project will show how these sustainable resources can replace fossil material to create a wide variety of bio-based products. The overall objective is to create four products for which between 30-100% of the original fossil-based stream is substituted with sustainable resources, and which deliver a 75% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The project is funded by the Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) programme, a contractual public-private partnership within Horizon 2020.
The project started in September 2016, with Greenovate! Europe hosting the kick-off meeting in Brussels. Most of the early project work involved producing a communication and dissemination plan for the project, as well as creating the logo and visual identity. Work also began on developing the project website, and creating promotional materials like brochures and posters. Van der Meer & van Tilburg gave an introduction to exploitation at the project kick off meeting and following that began preliminary research towards the first version of the exploitation plan.
Bio4Products is an industry led consortium and will see a unique blend of organisations and expertise working together to create new biobased value chains. The project is coordinated by BTG Biomass Technology Group, whose technical role is to convert the biomass feedstock at their
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Bio-based Economy
Within BIOrescue, Greenovate! Europe is leading the Dissemination and Exploitation activities, with C-Tech as exploitation expert. As project coordinator, CENER is managing the project, with administrative support from Zabala, and is also involved in most of the steps related to mushroom compost conversion.
Enhanced bioconversion of agricultural residues through cascading use G!E Secretariat, CENER, C-Tech, Zabala September 2016 – August 2019 www.biorescue.eu The BIOrescue project aims to create new value from mushroom compost by developing a novel biorefinery concept to transform it into bio-based products such as bio-pesticides, biodegradable nano-carriers for drugs or fertiliser encapsulation and bio-based horticultural fertilisers. It is expected that the bio-based products developed within the project will be capable of replacing many fossil-based alternatives currently on the market and generate new income streams for mushroom producers.
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On 28 and 29 September 2016 project partners met at CENER’s premises to kick-start the work. During the first four months of the project, Greenovate! Europe focused on producing communication material, including key messages and visual identity, and the project leaflet. In the meantime, C-Tech started explaining the exploitation process to BIOrescue partners and CENER began testing different processes for the extraction of valuable components from mushroom compost and for its thermochemical pretreatment.
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Sustainable Electricity
organised. The most significant of those materials has been a 32 page booklet summarising the main results of the project. The final dissemination events mainly took place in June and July. In June, WINDTRUST took part in the Visualize Energy exhibition organised by REVOLVE during the EUSEW, and held its final conference the same week in Brussels. In July, G!E represented the project at the Scottish Onshore Wind Energy Conference & Exhibition in Glasgow.
Demonstration of innovative designs to reduce fatigue loads and improve reliability of multi-MW turbines G!E Secretariat (iCons), CENER September 2013 – August 2016 www.windtrust.eu WINDTRUST aimed to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of innovative and more reliable solutions for multi-MW wind turbines in order to improve the competitiveness of wind energy technologies. The selected components of the wind turbines to be improved include the rotor (specifically the blade), power electronics (specifically the converter), and control and communication system. The proposed solutions were tested on prototype turbines and the results were extrapolated for use in larger wind turbines and off-shore locations. Greenovate! Europe’s role was to lead the WP on Dissemination and Exploitation, and implement specifically the communication and dissemination tasks together with iCons, acting as third party of G!E. CENER was also a key partner of the project, responsible for testing the innovative component at the center’s wind turbine test laboratory and experimental test farm.
In 2016, iCons produced the last two promotional videos of the project, one of which was taken up by Euronews for their “High Tech” segment in May 2016. In addition to the videos, iCons was responsible for delivering a series of journalistic articles about the various innovations developed by WINDTRUST, in cooperation with the technical partners. 6 such articles were produced in 2016, including one focusing on CENER’s contribution to the testing phase. All videos and articles are available at www.windtrust.eu, the project website designed and maintained by iCons.
The project ended in August 2016, which means 2016 was a particularly busy year for G!E and iCons. At the beginning of the year, G!E developed the last communication materials in view of the final events and activities to be
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Sustainable Electricity
Beyond State of the art Technologies for repowering AC corridors and multi-Terminal HVDC Systems G!E Secretariat (youris) October 2014 – September 2018 www.bestpaths-project.eu BEST
PATHS (‘’BEyond State-of-the-art Technologies for rePowering Ac corridors and multi-Terminal HVDC Systems’’) aims to develop and deploy new technologies facilitating the widespread integration of more offshore and onshore wind power into the European electricity system by 2020 and beyond. The project unites expert partners around five large-scale demonstrations to deliver replicable industrial solutions improving the interconnections, capacity and flexibility of the entire power grid. The focus is to upgrade and repower existing overhead transmission lines, increasing their capacity; develop the 3 GW class superconductive cables enabling the transmission of significantly more energy than in any existing conventional system; as well as the Voltage Source Converter, a technology that allows for the transfer of energy to congested cities, and for maintenance of security in the system.
Greenovate! Europe are responsible for the Work Package on ‘Dissemination and Exploitation’. In 2016, Greenovate! Europe continued to work on co-ordinating the communication and dissemination activities, as well as journalistic articles, the latter led by youris. In addition, Greenovate! Europe organised for the project to be featured in the Visualising Energy campaign during the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW). This included a high-profile photo exhibition with ‘cubes’ in Brussels and a magazine article. An animated video explaining the BestPaths project and objectives has also been produced. The second Best Paths dissemination workshop was also organised, titled, ‘Upgrading Europe’s grid to new high-capacity technologies’, which took place on 26 October in Berlin, Germany. The event brought together 60 industry professionals, policy stakeholders, and renewables sector actors.
Best Paths is the biggest European renewable energy demonstration project, benefitting from an EU contribution of over €35 million for a total cost valued at €63 million, and co-ordinated by Spanish Transmission System Operator Red Eléctrica de España.
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www.greenovate-europe.eu
Management
Supervisory Board The Greenovate! Europe Supervisory Board has responsibility for making strategic decisions and overseeing the general development of the Company. The members of the Supervisory Board serve a mandate of three years and are elected by the General Assembly. The Board meets at least twice within a calendar year. The Supervisory board led by Udo Sievers (i.con innovation) reached the end of its mandate in 2016. A large word of thanks goes to Udo, Gosse Hiemstra (Van der Meer en Van Tilburg) - Vice-President, Uffe Bundgaard-Jørgensen (InvestorNet–Gate2Growth), Serge Galant/Eric Peirano (Technofi), David Gardner (C-Tech Innovation), Jason Nielsen (RISE) and Jose-Maria Zabala, (Zabala Innovation Consulting) for their efforts during the last three years. A new Supervisory Board was elected at the 19th General Assembly in December. Gosse Hiemstra (Van der Meer & Van Tilburg) was elected as President, and Eric Peirano (Technofi) as Vice-President. New Supervisory Board: Gosse Hiemstra (Van der Meer & Van Tilburg) – President Eric Peirano (Technofi) – Vice-President Camino Correia (Zabala Innovation Consulting) Rasmus Egvad (InvestorNet–Gate2Growth) Edd Jones (C-Tech Innovation) Florencio Manteca (CENER) Jason Nielsen (RISE) Michael Heidenreich (MH Consulting) – Substitute
Secretariat The Greenovate! Europe Executive Board together with staff at the Secretariat in Brussels are responsible for the daily management of the EEIG and its presentation towards third parties.
Astrid Severin Managing Director Astrid works actively in several European projects and leads the whole team in the weekly task planning, providing guidance and feedback to all staff. She also supports proposal writing conceptually and practically. Astrid actively promotes G!E to potential new members, and liaises with external stakeholders including from the EU Institutions.
Katharina Krell Managing Director Katharina is responsible for financial and resource planning of Greenovate! Europe, including followup and reporting. She contributes to European project activities and is involved in project
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conceptualisation and proposal writing. Katharina is also working closely with the Board and coordinates the Greenovate! Europe Academies and General Assemblies.
Simon Hunkin Manager EU Policies & Communication Simon is responsible for policy monitoring and the development of position papers as well as for G!E’s communications work, including the website and newsletter, and monitors funding and business opportunities. Simon also manages Greenovate! Europe’s involvement in the EuroPruning, SWIP and ETFE-MFM projects, and the ‘Innovation for Sustainable Development Network’ (inno4sd.net).
Guillaume Corradino Head of European Programmes Guillaume is monitoring the implementation of all European projects as well as supporting the definition and implementation of business development activities, including drafting project proposals and developing work plans and budgets. He also manages the SINFONIA, EU-GUGLE, ECO-SEE, Windtrust and ButaNexT projects and supports the Board with strategy development.
Valeria Mazzagatti Manager Events & Communication Valeria is responsible for creating and implementing communications strategies and managing events. She is leading the Work Package on Dissemination and Exploitation in the Best Paths and MEMAN projects and is also working on the communication activities of other EU-funded projects ButaNexT, SINFONIA, ECO-SEE, and ProBIO.
James Ling Project Manager James is working as Project Manager responsible for Greenovate! Europe’s involvement in the ISOBIO and Bio4Products projects. He is also assisting with research and communication tasks in other projects such as ECO-SEE, and within the ‘Innovation for Sustainable Development Network’ (inno4sd.net). James organises the Greenovate! Europe member events.
Bénédicte Julliard Project Manager Bénédicte is managing the Work Package on Dissemination and Exploitation for the BIOrescue project and is also working on the communication campaign of two Smart Cities projects (EU-GUGLE and SINFONIA). Additionally, she contributes to communication tasks and event organisation in the Best Paths project and supports the management with organisational tasks.
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www.greenovate-europe.eu
Greenovate! Europe is a European Economic Interest Group (EEIG) headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, which was founded on 27 August 2007. Operations formally started on 1 October 2007.
President Gosse Hiemstra (Van der Meer en Van Tilburg) Vice-President Eric Peirano (Technofi) Board Rasmus Egvad (InvestorNet-Gate2Growth) Edd Jones (C-Tech Innovation) Jason Nielsen (RISE) Camino Correia (Zabala Innovation Consulting) Florencio Manteca (CENER) Substitute Michael Heidenreich (Michael Heidenreich Consulting)
Managing Directors Katharina Krell – katharina.krell@greenovate.eu Astrid Severin – astrid.severin@greenovate.eu Registered Address Rue d’Arlon 63-65, 1040 Brussels, Belgium Phone +32 (0)2 400 10 05 Website www.greenovate-europe.eu Registration Place and Number Brussels, Belgium: BE 0 891 742 279
Printed on 100% recycled paper in Belgium ©Greenovate! Europe, 2017