n episode #208 of The Grant – the EU funding podcast, I’m joined by Eric Lecomte from the European Commission’s DG Energy to open the “machine room” behind EU energy research and innovation. Eric brings a rare mix of 19 years in industry and a long career in the Commission, moving from DG Research & Innovation to DG Energy where he now works on energy technology R&I and the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan. We talk through the origins of the SET Plan (launched in 2007, revamped in 2015 as the R&I pillar of the Energy Union) and how it connects to the European Green Deal, the Net-Zero Industry Act, the Draghi report and the Clean Industrial Deal. The core idea: align national and European R&I priorities so we don’t have 27 parallel energy strategies competing with each other.

Eric explains the governance and structure: a steering group plus 14 Implementation Working Groups covering renewables, energy systems and grids, efficiency in buildings and industry, transport, carbon capture and nuclear. In his own industry group, members range from ministries and funding agencies to industrial associations (steel, paper, cement, chemicals, heat pumps) and the European Energy Research Alliance. Together they co-develop Implementation Plans with concrete targets and R&I activities, which are then picked up in Horizon Europe work programmes (Cluster 5), the LIFE programme, the Innovation Fund and national R&I schemes. We dive into concrete examples: industrial heat pumps and waste heat recovery topics in Horizon Europe, a LIFE call replicating cooperation between the paper and heat pump sectors into the food & drink industry (“Exquisite Heat”), and how the Innovation Fund supports first-of-a-kind projects like the HYBRIT green steel plant in Sweden. We end on challenges: mobilising national funding, avoiding duplication, Europe’s fear of failure – and how the new SET Plan governance aims to push towards real market uptake and manufacturing of clean energy technologies in Europe. 

Time codes:

00:01:32 Introduction

00:03:44 Fly in

00:07:23 Introduction to the SET Plan

00:11:36 The SET Plan structure and governance

00:23:16 The role of the SET Plan in funding and competitiveness

00:45:26 Challenges and future outlook

00:48:09 The toughest challenge