A bilateral French-German call for proposals in the domain of “sustainable energy”

MESRI (via ANR) and BMBF launch a Call for Proposals on energy storage and distribution.

In order to implement the Paris agreement (COP21), Europe needs to establish a sustainable energy system before 2050. This transition requires active research and development effort towards innovative efficient and smart solutions for energy supply, distribution and usage.

MESRI and BMBF are willing to support this effort by strengthening the Franco-German cooperation in energy research, in order to stimulate the innovation processes in Germany and France.

In particular, both sides strive to put into practice what has been agreed between the Ministers Vidal and Wanka at the last Franco-German Ministerial Council on July 13th, 2017:

• Implement one result of the 5th Franco-German Forum for Cooperation in Research in 2014, where energy was identified as one of the three priority areas for bilateral research cooperation between two countries.
• Strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of “sustainable energy” and contribute to the establishment of the Energy Union in accordance with the Paris Agreement (COP21).
• Provide a clear public signal to drive Franco-German cooperation in energy research.

A Call for proposals focused on two main topics

Funding will be provided to collaborative projects between German and French partners that conduct application-oriented basic research (TRL 1-5) aiming at highly innovative, cross-sectoral solutions for economically, ecologically and socially sustainable and secure energy storage and distribution in France, Germany and Europe.

This call features two main topics:

1. Conversion and storage of energy from renewable sources
   • Electrical and electrochemical storage materials and technology, especially new batteries
   • Storage systems for use within smart grids ( p.ex. ancillary services, virtual power plants)
   • Power-to-X technologies including electrolysis, synthetic fuel production, photoelectrochemistry and solar fuels (p. ex. hydrogen, synthetic hydrocarbon fuels)
   • Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, hydrogen storage and distribution
2. Smart Grids at transmission and distribution levels
   • Materials and technologies for smart grids in general and for high-voltage direct current transmission systems
   • Grid flexibilization and management (including architectures, digitalization, storage integration, other flexibilization technologies)
   • Border-crossing aspects on the technical and governance levels (p.ex. interoperability, regulations, European energy market)

The call is aimed at research institutions (university or non-university research) and companies. The involvement of partners along the entire innovation chain from research to industry to end users is encouraged to support the practical relevance of the developed solutions.

The consortium of each proposal shall consist of at least four partners:

• one public research institution from France and one from Germany;
   
• one French company and one German company; these partners can participate as active (and funded by ANR or BMBF) partners or as associated (not funded) partners;