The project IMPACT-SC5 aims to assess the impacts of the 87 funded RIAs and IAs, through a multilevel analysis, starting at project (participant) level, via portfolio, network and context analyses. It applies a rigorous methodology that enables to capture the various (intended and unintended) impacts of projects and groups of projects. Horizon 2020 contributes, via its focus on ‘Societal Challenges’ (SCs), to the ongoing paradigm change in Research and Innovation Policy. The pursued objectives are not only to generate economic growth and jobs, but to help resolve pressing socio-economic challenges, including those related to climate, environment, resource efficiency, and raw materials (SC5). The challenge orientation of H2020 implies monitoring the progress of the projects towards the achievement of the targeted objectives and impacts. The scientific, economic and societal/environmental performance of the 87 RIA and IA projects under the SC5 Work Programme 2014-15 will be measured by means of an extensive set of indicators. A portfolio analysis will complement the project-level analysis in order to determine how projects perform together in relation to different objectives. IMPACT-SC5 explores impact pathways to identify good practices and draw recommendations for policymakers and potential EU research funding beneficiaries to increase the impacts of future SC5 projects. Particular attention is paid to the broad and changing policy contexts to ensure a holistic approach for a better understanding of the performance (and the underlying factors) of the 87 projects. Throughout the project, stakeholder engagement will be strongly fostered. The methodology and findings (including the recommendation) will be validated with high-level experts and practitioners who will also be channels for dissemination. The methodology will be made available to the European Commission for its use in the ex-post evaluation of H2020 or future evaluation exercises.

Our reliance on depleting fossil fuel reserves for energy, carbon feedstock, and chemicals poses significant threats to both our energy security and the environment. In response, there is a growing interest in seeking alternative, eco-friendly, and sustainable resources. Thus, international agreements and sustainable development goals set by the European Union and United Nations underscore the urgent need for a transition to a fossil fuel-independent and diversified carbon and energy economy. The MERGE project is dedicated to the valorisation of renewable carbon feedstocks ¬that do not compete with food and land resources–such as waste lignocellulose biomass derivatives. This valorisation is achieved through electro- or photo-catalytic reforming processes, resulting in the production of industrially essential chemicals and fuels. To address this challenge, MERGE project is focused on the development of environmentally friendly, recyclable, low-cost, and efficient cooperative and tailored single-atom catalysts. This endeavour leverages knowledge transfer between the research unit in Czechia and the top-class partners of the consortium. The ultimate goal of MERGE project is to cultivate a culture of excellence in research, strategy, management, and technology transfer to the widening-country partner. At the same time, MERGE will position the widening-country partner and all Twinning Partners as prominent contributors in the European landscape in the field of advanced and sustainable catalysts for green and technologically important chemicals, via a committed and deep alliance towards excellence, permeating all facets of research.

InnORBIT will support 50 start-ups and scale-ups to grow and commercialise their space solutions via 20 sustainable and effective initiatives. We focus on SEE and CEE countries with vibrant tech ecosystems and industry verticals with great potential for contributing to the commercialisation of space. We anchor our initiatives to innovation intermediaries well-embedded in their ecosystems, starting with a pivotal space technology and industry association in Romania, an intermediary managing 3 high-tech clusters in Greece and a major digital innovation hub in Croatia. Alongside them we co-develop our solutions: a business support programme to help space entrepreneurs in starting and scaling-up their commercial activities and a capacity building programme for training intermediaries to set up and run local initiatives. We then ?train their trainers? and support them to scout, screen and select the start-ups and scale-ups to participate in the initiatives, emphasising the ones with the most promising potential for application areas (e.g. Galileo, Copernicus) or spinning-in/-out. Well-trained experts will assess their needs and co-define the services required for catalysing their growth in synergy with EU actions. Our service portfolio includes trainings, mentoring, networking and support to access financing and funding opportunities. A monitoring and evaluation framework will allow us to collect ample evidence on the performance of our solutions, improve them and follow up to train and engage additional intermediaries in SEE and CEE. We will support over 20 intermediaries to generate their own local initiatives, openly demonstrating and proving the replication potential of our solutions. We will then pack our solutions along with business models and lessons learnt into a replication guide, enabling other intermediaries to replicate them, while also delivering recommendations for more enabling environments and innovative financial support frames for space innovation.

The European Space Programme (EUSpace) holds vast potential to fulfil the EU green and digital (twin) transition, but SMEs’ limited uptake and technological capacity is preventing them from fully unlocking the green and digital transformation. FIERCE aims to address these limitations by mobilising 140 SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups with specialised technical and business advisory to design business solutions and engage in process innovation using downstream space data in areas such as circularity, raw materials, environmental monitoring and corporate sustainability (space-enabled green solutions). We mobilise 2.5 million EUR in financial support providing 70 SMEs with access to market services and key infrastructure to realise their vision through Transformation Projects, supporting ideation, scaling up and commercialization of space-enabled solutions, accelerating SMEs journey to the market. We complement our support for SMEs with 10+ Local Entrepreneurship Initiatives driven by innovation intermediaries and business support networks (DIHs, clusters etc.) aimed creating more SME opportunities for space-enabled green innovation through synergies with regional industrial, research and market actors and infrastructure providers (OITBs). We reach further to key EU-wide networks (EEN, SME Alliance, EARSC) through our Strategic Partnership Network to create synergies and joint activities to navigate SMEs and innovation intermediaries towards exploiting high-impact opportunities for funding, collaboration and knowledge exchange, as well as jointly organized FIERCE investment tracks in the frame of key industry and business events. We deploy the FIERCE digital toolbox to enrich our support with 50+ learning resources, 10+ practical tools and 70+ qualified service providers to create a vibrant dedicated community. Finally, we monitor our performance and impact to design practical replication handbooks to inspire wider application and recommendations for enabling policies.