Industry & Business

Irish research institutions and industry have consistently won funding for energy-related research under the EU Horizon 2020 programme with over €27 million in funding secured to date. As the programme’s National Delegate, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has been supporting many of these organisations in their Horizon 2020 bids, as well as providing additional research funding.

Horizon 2020 is the EU’s largest research and innovation programme with an energy research budget of €6 billion for the period 2014 to 2020. SEAI, with Enterprise Ireland, helps identify opportunities for Irish research institutions and industry in the programme. The Irish energy research community is reaping the rewards from active participation in the programme and, in doing so, is addressing some of the main challenges facing the energy system.

Commenting on Irish participation in Horizon 2020 energy programmes, Dr Eimear Cotter, Head of Low Carbon Technologies, SEAI said: “It’s fantastic to see such support for Irish projects in the area of energy research and renewable energy technologies. SEAI is helping to build national energy research capacity through its Research, Development and Demonstration Programme from which many researchers proceed to European funding. It is particularly pleasing to see Irish SMEs perform well with companies such as NVP Energy and Exergyn successful in drawing down both national and EU funds to support the commercialisation of their products”.

Ireland has also been successful in securing funding in large-scale energy-related projects. RealValue, a consortium led by Glen Dimplex, won €12m for its energy storage project which will see physical demonstrations of its technology in Ireland, Germany and Latvia. SEAI, with Enterprise Ireland, will work with Irish participants to continue to identify large-scale funding opportunities for Ireland in the energy sphere.

For more information on the national support structure for Horizon 2020, see www.horizon2020.ie.