The Coordination and Support Action (CSA) BrainHealth will lay the ground for an envisaged ‘European Partnership (EP) on Brain Health’. Twenty participants from 11 Member and Associated States and Third countries will jointly pursue the work plan. The overall objective of the CSA is to sizeably contribute to maintenance and restoration of brain health for citizens in Europe and worldwide. Specifically, the project aims to design a collaboration framework for the EP as an umbrella for existing initiatives and stakeholder communities in this area. The CSA will create a common understanding of achievements, gaps and future developments in European research into brain health, and derive from them priorities and opportunities in a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). Intense consultation with representatives of Member and Associated States is expected to lead to adoption of the SRIA and development of an implementation plan that will allow for strategic alignment of regional and national research programmes and commitments to the EP. Research infrastructures and platforms will be analysed regarding their service opportunities, and solutions will be developed to facilitate data and material sharing in the area of brain health. For highest possible impact, the CSA will reach out to the most relevant globally acting initiatives and their brain research strategies and policies. Synergies will be identified to shape the international landscape and establish new while maintaining existing collaboration. Finally, the CSA activities will be embedded in thoroughly planned dissemination and communication activities and an efficient management structure.

DemoWind 2 proposes to bring together a number of national and transnational organisations with an interest in accelerating cost reduction in offshore wind. It follows on from the first DemoWind initiative that launched in 2014 and, like its predecessor, is focussed on enabling industry, through partnership, to push technologies through TRLs 5-6 to 6-7 in transnationally funded projects. We aim to connect existing and new European offshore wind demonstration opportunities, exchange knowledge and facilitate the acceleration of cost reducing innovative technologies to commercialisation. This action will contribute to European cost reduction targets for offshore wind, economic development of the European offshore wind sector and help to maintain the EU’s internationally leading position in offshore wind. Reducing technology cost is essential to increasing the deployment of offshore wind, making a significant contribution to the EU’s climate change targets, replacing aging fossil burning power plants with affordable energy. The main objectives of the DemoWind 2 project are split into two parts: •Part A is dedicated to activities related to the main co-funded Call (Work Packages 1-5) •Part B is dedicated to additional activities (Work Packages 6-7), which will be aimed at widening the dissemination of technologies supported by DemoWind 2 and at identifying and taking forward further opportunities for the DemoWind 2 partners and others to fund further RD&D activities targeting cost reduction in offshore wind without Commission funding. Initially, these additional activities will involve DemoWind 2 strengthening links with existing OSW industry groups looking at innovation and cost reduction, specifically the OWA Europe programme.

This ERA-NET Co-fund will bring together a number of national and transnational organisations with an interest in promoting the greater use of bioenergy. It follows on from two previous BESTF ERA-NET Plus initiatives launched in 2013 and, like its predecessors, aims to kick-start large scale investment in close-to-market implementation of bioenergy, thereby helping to achieve the key objectives of the European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative (EIBI) Implementation Plan and the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan. The EIBI aims to boost the contribution of sustainable bioenergy to the 2020 climate and energy objectives. This proposal addresses the need for integrated action across Europe to promote the development of bioenergy demonstrators across a number of technologies by coordinating research and development projects and providing a financial mechanism to support projects that are close to commercialisation. The overall aim for this third BESTF ERA-NET is to implement a joint programme for bioenergy demonstration projects to demonstrate enhanced bioenergy technologies that will help Europe progress towards achieving its 2016 and 2020 targets. It will leverage public-private partnerships to manage the risks and share the financing of close to market bioenergy projects. The key objectives of BESTF3 are: 1.To implement a single collaborative funding call that will support projects focused on the generation of bioenergy. 2.To maintain and enhance coherence and networking between national bioenergy programmes across the EU. 3.To further the demonstration of enhanced bioenergy technologies in order to help develop robust project plans for a range of demonstrator and flagship plants, that will help Europe to make progress towards achieving its 2016 and 2020 energy targets. 4.To disseminate knowledge gained from the programme and individual projects across the EU.

ERA-LEARN is the reference point for European Partnerships. It provides evidence and support for their preparation, implementation and evaluation. It is a trusted support platform and service provider for the European Partnership communities, the European Commission, policy makers and other stakeholders at the national/regional level. It supports the Strategic Coordinating Process (SCP) for Partnerships to exploit their potential as an instrument and a policy approach to effectively address major societal challenges. The project activities of ERA-LEARN are geared to serve the specific needs of 1) the European Commission (including executive agencies) 2) EU Member States, Associated Countries, policy makers, and the Partnership Knowledge Hub (PKH), 3) the European Partnership community (governing and managing bodies), and 4) researchers. Collectively, the project aims to increase the effectiveness of the design and implementation of the European Partnerships. ERA-LEARN implements a responsive communication and outreach strategy with various tools and channels for communicating with the broadened Partnership community and the dissemination of results including a strategic and frequent use of social media. The ERA-LEARN consortium will exploit the experience of the previous phases of ERA-LEARN and build on achievements and lessons learned. In particular, the next phase of ERA-LEARN is designed in response to needs of the European Partnership community. ERA-LEARN will engage with the stakeholders and focus on providing support to the Strategic Coordinating Process for the period 2023 to 2027.

The BLUEMED Project is a Coordination and Support Action for the exploitation of the BLUEMED Research and Innovation Initiative for blue jobs and growth in the Mediterranean area, with particular reference to the implementation of the BLUEMED Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). The ultimate objective is to support the activation of sustainable ‘blue’ innovation and growth, by fostering integration of knowledge and efforts of relevant stakeholders from EU Member States of the Mediterranean Basin, and then among these, non-EU and other EU Countries. To this end, the project will set the scene for the effective coordination of marine and maritime research and innovation activities in the long term. In particular, the Work Package 2 will consolidate the BLUEMED SRIA, develop the BLUEMED Implementation Plan, and promote joint implementation. Four dedicated working Platforms on knowledge, economy, technology, and policy will be set up to allow representatives from research, private sector, public administration, and civil society to work together, pivoting on identified key players of these sectors at national level. The Work Package 3 will address relevant framework conditions for efficiently implementing actions, including indicators and assessment methodologies, and key enabling factors such as research infrastructures, data policies, and human resources. Feasibility studies on specific priorities will be developed by the Start-up Actions under Work Package 4. The Work Package 5 will be finally devoted to enlarge the participation to non-EU countries, through connection with project and other suitable activities for promoting the BLUEMED concept and involve all countries in the perspective of a global Mediterranean. The coordination and management of the project, the functioning of the governance as well as communication and dissemination activities will be carried out within Work Package 1.