Leipzig, 11.01.2022: Almost 20 people came together online for the two-hour interactive workshop “Developing the company with EU projects – and advancing energy & climate!” by SPARCS and NEU e.V. Among them were representatives of solar companies, waste management, researchers of an engineering office and various energy and environmental companies.

Dr. Henry Weber and Tobias Espig from agil GmbH presented EU project funding opportunities related to energy and climate protection. The focus was on the programs “Horizon EUROPE”, “Eurostars”, “Innovation Fund” and “Invest EU”. EU funding is available for many topics and degrees of technological development. Before searching for funding, one should define the development goal around the company. The Enterprise Europe Network advises free of charge and supports the processing for successful applications.

The participants discussed in small groups to what extent EU projects could be suitable for their companies. Mirko Dietrich from the Energy and Environment Network then presented how this network offers support to companies. Nadja Riedel, the overall coordinator of the Leipzig SPARCS consortium, presented the development of this EU project from application to implementation. Afterwards, several companies presented their experiences with EU projects. Good coordination is important to make local exchange meaningful. The international exchange offers valuable suggestions, but is often not directly transferable.

Since there are up to three years between writing the application and starting the project, often changes are necessary. For example, sometimes technical options did not develop as expected and cannot be implemented as foreseen earlier; or legal regulations may change. Solutions have to be found in order to meet the original aspiration. Finally, it was discussed what is necessary to make more companies in Leipzig and the region participate in EU projects. One idea was to make visible which institutions can act as coordinators. Dr. Weber and Mr. Espig mentioned funding for external advice for the application process: for example for researching the state of the technology and writing texts that meet the EU expectations.

Mr. Dietrich took up all suggestions for the further work of NEU e.V. . All mentioned persons are available for further inquiries.

Author: Irene Müller

For questions please contact: Digital City Unit Leipzig, digital@leipzig.de