ERA-Net Smart Energy Systems: Associated Partners Concept

In its Associated Partner Program, Joint Programming Platform ERA-Net Smart Energy Systems (JPP SES) involves business and government institutions, the start-up and SME sector, additional financers and funders as well as ICT providers. By this, JPP SES intends to establish an innovation eco-system, building bridges in the entire innovation chain.

JPP SES aims to foster the development of technology and business solutions that truly support energy effi-ciency and energy transition processes on a local and regional level while complementing and supporting the functionality of the overall energy system. For this, stakeholders at local and regional governance levels are involved to define the research needs and give RDD consortia confidence that their results will be adopted.

From the business sector, JPP SES involves diverse stakeholders from innovative SMEs to incubators to de-ployment programmes and investors. Big companies are invited to liaise with start-ups and chambers of com-merce. Together they shall create opportunities for enterprises to form or partner with consortia of JPP SES funded research, development, demonstration and innovation projects. Business domains way beyond the energy sector such as municipal infrastructure, transport, trade and agriculture are invited to the Associated Partner Programme.

By this stakeholder involvement, not only the quality of the funded RDD projects will improve. In addition, JPP SES will receive more need-oriented proposals and the overall impact will increase as uptake is fostered with the help of Associated Partners.

Associated partners can take multiple roles:

provide outreach to attract promising project proposals and consortia and multiply the results
help start-ups and other candidates with limited experience to apply
co-create

concepts for projects beyond traditional, R&D only approaches which meet the partners' needs
solutions during the run-time of a projects (e. g. by linking consortia to supporters)
networks and favourable mindsets for the success of the programme and its projects

act as technical enablers (e. g. by providing software modules or other resources)
support accompanying product development
foster the uptake of solutions developed in JPP SES projects
co-finance JPP SES projects
provide aggregated input to the ERA-Net SES programme and projects.

JPP SES Associated Partners can enjoy multiple benefits:

meet valuable partners and build capacities
influence RDI strategies on programme level
get access to the ministerial domain
get early, exclusive access to project results and latest knowledge
attract funds to their region, its municipalities and companies
link the region to international activities
mitigate investment risks by early learning on trends and technologies
learn about visions and activities of the programme.

Take a look at the current Associated Partners here.

The network of associated partners has expanded with the setup of two networks:

The Transnational Validation Network with Living Labs and Testbeds. More information on this network can be found here.
The Associated Partner Network of Digital Platform Providers. More information on this network can be found here.

To become an Associated Partner of JPP SES, please contact office[at]eranet-smartenergysystems.eu for joining ERA-Net SES as an associated partner.