Euro Initiative Sets Aside EUR 20 Million for Smart Grids Projects

ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus, an initiative of funding programmes from 21 European countries and regions, will open the second call for proposals for European transnational projects on smart grids on 18 April, offering over EUR 20 million in funding for RDD projects.   

European RDD consortia are invited to submit project proposals by 15 June.

This initiative will, beyond the funding made available for projects, also implement follow-up, monitoring and transfer activities to create an ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus Knowledge Community, with the aim of contributing to smart grids development, scaling-up and replication on an European level.

The focus of the second call will be on validation, scale-up and replication. The three research layers of Stakeholder/Adoption, Marketplace and Technology should be an integrated part of this focus. The aim is to push solutions to meet Technology Readiness Levels.

The vision for smart grids in Europe is to create an electric power system that integrates renewable energies and enables flexible consumer and production technologies. This can help to shape an electricity grid with a high security of supply, coupled with low greenhouse gas emissions, at an affordable price. The aim of the initiative is to support the development of the technologies, market designs and customer adoptions that are necessary to reach this goal.

ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus is supported by funding from the European Union‘s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.