Supporting Pilot Activities on sustainable energy and bio economy in the Danube Region Alessandro Lombardo, CEI JRC Annual Event on the Scientific Support to the Danube Strategy Ulm, October 2015

Danube-INCO.NET FP7-funded Coordination and Support Action (CSA) About 2 million EUR Contribution to the implementation of EUSDR (mainly, PA7 and PA8) Combination of activities for the advancement of R&I in the Danube Region (policy dialogue, networking, analysis, dissemination) Focus on societal challenge “secure, clean and efficient energy”: WP3, led by the Central European Initiative (CEI), titled “Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in a Bio-based Economy”

WP3 Concept and Tasks CEI SIG CEI MAPPING AND ANALYSIS T3.1 CLUSTERING AND NETWORKING T3.2 PILOT ACTIVITIES T3.3

T3.3 Pilot Activities – main scope T3.3 Pilot Activities shall promote sustainable cooperation in the Danube Region in the specific thematic areas addressed by WP3 (energy efficiency, renewable energy and bio economy) They need to refer to the objectives of WP3 and contribute to their achievement – Assess and improve the potential of the Danube Region for R&I applied to sustainable energy and bio economy – Identify existing gaps and opportunities to overcome them by strengthening the links between the actors in R&I, also in line with the Triple Helix model (business, academia, government) – Facilitate clustering and exploit cross-border synergies – Elaborate recommendations for strengthening R&I cooperation in the Danube Region to be disseminated to the governments Procedure (call, evaluation, selection)

T3.3 Pilot Activities – proposals TitleTowards a Danube bioeconomy RTI strategy for appropriate regional added value Chains Proposed byCentre for Social Innovation (Austria) Partners involvedBIOS Science Austria – Association for the Advancement of Life Sciences University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences – BOKU ICA-CASEE Network Main goalTo develop a bio economy RTI strategy and a related Research and Innovation Agenda for the Danube Region through the identification of relevant stakeholders, the discussion and alignment of current activities and the identification of potential measures to support the expansion of bio economy in the targeted area Main activities and expected results Elaboration of a position paper on developing a bio economy strategy addressing the whole Danube Region Danube-wide virtual consultation Three strategy workshops

T3.3 Pilot Activities – proposals TitleDanube Inno Drive - Danube Region and KIC Cooperation – Opportunities for CEE Proposed byCleantech (Bulgaria) Partners involvedRomania Energy Center (RO) Centre for Research, Development and Innovation (CZ) National Institute for Economic Research (MD) CEI Main goalTo support start ups and innovative SMEs of BG, RO, CZ and MD, active in the field of sustainable energy and bio economy, to make use of existing opportunities provided by KICs (Innoenergy and Climate), thus contributing to narrowing the entrepreneurial and sustainability gap between Western and Eastern Europe Main activities and expected results Mapping start ups and innovative SMEs in the targeted area Organising national workshops/meetings (8) + 1 Final Event 1 Project report including tailored recommendations for each targeted country on how to better exploit existing opportunities in support to business acceleration, as provided by the involved KICs

T3.3 Pilot Activities – proposals TitleIntraregional cluster capacity for adoption of renewable energy sources in transport and logistics (InTraRenew) Proposed byUniversity of Ruse (Blugaria) Partners involvedNo Main goalTo improve the awareness and capacity of the Intermodal Transport and Logistics Cluster of Ruse (ITLC, established under FP7-funded InTraRegio project) for the adoption and application of renewable energy sources (RES) in the activities of its 5 members Main activities and expected results Field interviews Data mining Exchange of knowledge Elaboration of an integrated policy (road map) towards energy efficiency and adoption of RES applicable to all members of ITLC

T3.3 Pilot Activities – proposals TitleEnergy efficient use of wood biomass (EE WOOD) Proposed byEKO-SUSTAV Ltd. (Croatia) Partners involvedSteinbeis-Europa-Zentrum Main goalTo assess and improve the potential of the Spacva basin area (the largest oak forest in Europe on a cross-border area split among Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) by focusing on the energy efficient use of wood biomass Main activities and expected results Analysis (of potential use of biomass from forestry and wood industry; of biomass potential; of stakeholders; of gaps and opportunities) Workshops + study visits (to a wood cluster in Baden- Wurttenberg) + exchange of best practices Elaboration of a Study focused on the efficient use of forest biomass in Spacva basin

T3.3 Pilot Activities – proposals TitleEnergy Orchestration – Strategic Guideline to strengthen the orchestration of activities on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the Danube Region Proposed bySteinbeis Donau Zentrum (Germany) Partners involvedEnergy Innovation Centre “Teslianum” (Serbia) Cleantech (Bulgaria) Main goalTo support the elaboration of macro-regional projects in the field of Environmental Technologies and Energy Efficiency, bearing the potential to become flagship initiatives across the relevant Priority Areas of EUSDR Main activities and expected results Projects mapping with thematic focus on energy-related topics across PA2, PA7 and PA8 3 Transnational workshops (target groups: innovative SMEs, researchers, experts of municipalities and regions, representatives of business organisations) Elaboration of a Strategic Guideline highlighting which projects are needed in the DR to address energy-related societal challenges and how to exploit existing synergies

T3.3 Pilot Activities – proposals TitleBuilding a Bioeconomy Research and Advocacy Network in the Danube Region (DANUBIONET) Proposed byPannon Pro Innovations Ltd. (Hungary) Partners involvedCEI Main goalTo foster the development of sustainable energy towards a bio- based economy, with a particular focus on the Middle Danube area and on biomass feedstock from agricultural and forestry activities + organic industrial by-products Main activities and expected results Online mapping survey based on the existing methodology of the Climate-KIC Biohorizons project (50-80 answers expected from the Danube Region): identification of challenges and gaps hindering the full-scale deployment of bio economy in the targeted area 2 networking events addressing the bottlenecks identified through the online survey

T3.3 Pilot Activities – proposals TitleBio-economy Case Study for Middle Danube Stakeholders (BIO MIDAS) Proposed byRomanian Sustainable Energy Cluster – ROSENC (Romania) Partners involvedCEI FTS - University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences (Serbia) ArchEnerg CLUSTER (Hungary) Main goalTo strengthen the links among the interlocutors within the bio economy debate in the cross-border area covering West Romania, North Serbia and East Hungary (energy clusters, local energy companies and utilities, universities and research institutions, farmers and other providers of sustainable biomass, SMEs and local authorities) Main activities and expected results Analysis + meetings Development of a Joint Research Agenda in the MIDAS Region A pre-feasibility study on establishing a network of Biomass Info-Points supporting project generation towards the implementation of the roadmaps of PA2, PA7, PA8

T3.3 Pilot Activities – proposals TitleEnergy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in a Bio‐based Economy for Serbia Proposed byUniversity of Novi Sad (Serbia) Partners involvedSteinbeis Center for energy technologies (Novi Sad) Steinbeis Advanced Risk Technologies Institute (Kragujevac) Main goalTo transfer knowledge to potential investors (SMEs and individual users of biomass, i.e. farmers) on the following topics:  Technologies available on the market for efficient use of biomass  Biomass available on the market and possible price trends  Design of an energy efficient system  Calculation of energy savings  Relevant legislation and incentive measures  Economic and financial analysis  Entrepreneurial risk assessment Main activities and expected results 8 workshops organised in 8 municipalities of Serbia participants per workshop (target group: SMEs’ owners, SMEs’ managers and energy department managers, officers of local administrations, users in the rural area, i.e. farmers)

T3.3 Pilot Activities – proposals TitleDevelopment of a cross-border innovation cluster for using common reed Phragmites australis biomass as a source of sustainable energy (ReedBASE) Proposed byInstitute for Market Problems and Economic and Ecological Research, National Academy of Sciences (Ukraine) Partners involved NGO Agricola, Odessa, Ukraine NGO Agency of European Innovations, Lviv, Ukraine WWF, Bucharest, Romania Michael Succow Foundation, Greifswald, Germany Deutsches Zentrum fŸr Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) - German Aerospace Center, Bonn, Germany Main goalTo establish a platform/cluster on the use of reed biomass in the lower Danube region (Ukraine + Romania), in order to trigger the economic potential of reed biomass through cross-border collaboration Main activities and expected results Mapping stakeholders involved in reed biomass use Analysis of potential innovations for sustainable reed biomass production and use (focus on harvesting process) Two cross-border workshops to assess the opportunity to establish a specialised cross-border cluster (UA and RO)

Thank you for your attention! Alessandro Lombardo Central European Initiative