Following the endorsement of the Deep Geothermal Implementation Plan (DG-IP) by the SET-Plan Steering Group, a Deep Geothermal Implementation Working Group (DG-IWG) is being established to advance the DG-IP, with the aim of reaching collectively the technology targets that will place Europe at the forefront of the next generation of low carbon technologies. The objective of this project proposal is to create a support unit for the DG-IWG to achieve its goals efficiently and productively. The support unit will have three main work streams, 1) to provide the DG-IWG with relevant information and data from the various stakeholder groups to support the decisionmaking process and the implementations actions of DG-IWG on required actions; 2) to promote and organise initiatives to mobilize growth of and implementation within the geothermal community, e.g.: workshops, brokerages, consortium building and exploitation of RD&I results; 3) provide a secretariat for the DG-IWG for assistance on administrative issues and synergies & strategy support. The consortium will push forward a broad mobilisation of the Geothermal community to implement the action in the IP. Furthermore the project will focus on the development of synergies and strategies. New ways will be explored to maximize the impact of knowledge, funding and market growth at european, national and regional scale. This aproach supports to creation of a durable and long-lasting R&I ecosystem in the different Member-Sates and regions. The partners will focus on a multi-actor, multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach. As such the project will support the collaboration and networking among representatives of the triple helix (research, industry and government) at the regional and national level and with their counterparts from the Horizon 2020 Associated Countries.

The advantages of using geothermal for power production and H&C are little known. Recently, deep geothermal energy production in some regions is confronted with a negative perception, and a special attention from some decision-makers, in terms of environmental performance, which could seriously hamper its market uptake. Media reports focus more on disadvantages than advantages. As a result, decision makers and potential investors have concerns about possible environmental impacts and risks involved in implementing geothermal projects, and social resistance often results in practical obstacles - such as significant slowdowns - to the deployment of the deep geothermal resources. The first objective of the GEOENVI project is to make sure that deep geothermal energy can play its role in Europe’s future energy supply in a sustainable way. It aims to create a robust strategy to respond environmental concerns (by environmental concerns we mean both environmental impacts and risks): • by assessing the environmental impacts and risks of geothermal projects operational or in development in Europe, and • by providing a robust framework to propose recommendations on environmental regulations to the decision-makers, an adapted methodology for assessing environment impact to the project developers, and finally • by communicating properly on environmental concerns with the general public. Secondly, GEOENVI aims at engaging with both decision-makers and geothermal market actors, to have the recommendations on regulations adopted and to see the LCA methodology implemented by geothermal stakeholders. The engagement with stakeholders includes to share knowledge by adopting an open and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data approach.

Europe is challenged to increase the share of renewable energy for heating and cooling, industrial processes, power generation and energy storage. Geothermal energy is a vastly under-utilized indigenous, clean, low footprint and continuously available energy resource, and thus uniquely positioned to substantially contribute to a safe and secure energy supply of Europe’s Energy Union. Hitherto only utilized in choice markets and in only a few geographical regions, GEOTHERMICA’s objective is to combine the financial resources and know-how of 16 geothermal energy research and innovation programme owners and managers from 13 countries, to launch joint actions that demonstrate and validate novel concepts of geothermal energy utilization within the energy system and that identify paths to commerciality. Joint actions comprise joint calls and coordination activities, which will strengthen Europe’s geothermal energy sector by building a tightly interconnected and well-coordinated network of European funding agents. For a first joint call, some € 30 million will be made available for a small number of major demonstration projects. Joint calls will have a strong industry participation with a targeted 50% contribution towards work programs and budgets of successful proposals. In addition to joint programming and joint calls, a number of additional activities will be undertaken to develop shared and deep knowledge, to promote operational excellence, to exchange good practices in the realm of support policies, and to define strategic recommendations related to long-lasting and durable joint pursuits of research and innovation. Ultimately, a strong public sector will complement the research and innovation community as well as Europe’s geothermal industry sector to build an overall strong European geothermal energy sector ready to contribute to the European Energy Union, the implementation of the SET Plan as specified by the SET Plan Roadmap.

The Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP) is a transnational initiative on joint RTDI programming to boost and accelerate the energy transition, building upon regional and national RTDI funding programmes. It aims to empower the energy transition and contribute to the EU’s goal of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, by pooling national and regional RDTI funding for a broad variety of technologies and system solutions required to make the transition. It will foster transnational innovation ecosystems from the very local and regional level, up to the transnational European level, thus overcoming a fragmented European landscape. The CETP is aiming to enable 70 national and regional RDTI programme owners and managers from 32 countries to align their priorities and implement annual joint calls from 2022 to 2027 (original first proposal as published by the EC on CORDIS). Actually 30 countries and 55 programme owners and managers formally participate in this Initial Grant Agreement. They also organise joint accompanying activities to enable a dynamic learning process, extract strategic knowledge (“Knowledge Community”) and maximise the impact (“Impact Network”) to accelerate the upscaling, replication and market diffusion of innovative solutions. This will foster the up-take of cost-effective clean energy technologies. The common vision of the CETP is already manifested in its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) that has been co-created in a broad engagement process during 2020, together with the involved countries, the EU SET-Plan Implementation Workin Groups and ETIPs, all energy relevant ERA-Nets as well as the EERA joint programmes (over 500 editors, co-authors, commenters and discussants). The SRIA was endorsed together with the European Commission (DG RTD and ENER) in November 2020 . This articulates the common goal of (1) building a transnational transformative Joint Programming Platform, (2) developing and demonstrating technology and solutions for the transition of energy systems, and finally (3) building innovation ecosystems that support capacity building at all levels.