The structure of the RISEnergy ecosystem is defined in two distinct layers as shown below.
Project Core: The core consortium of the project is composed of all members involved, who contribute by providing access to their research infrastructures (RIs), participating in project implementation, or both. Full details on the core consortium can be found here.
External Layer: The project’s external layer consists of experts and stakeholder entities from academia and industry. This layer is an essential component of the RI ecosystem, supporting the implementation of RISEnergy by providing advice and relevant know-how to address the project’s needs.
RISEnergy project structure and layers
Advisory Board
The Advisory Board (AB) is composed of well-recognised experts in renewable energies, selected to ensure comprehensive coverage of all energy technology fields and cross-cutting services associated with the project.
Photovoltaics (PV): David Moser (EURAC, Italy)
Biofuels (Bio): Paula Blanco Sánchez (Aston University, United Kingdom)
Concentrated Solar Power /Solar Thermal Electricity (CSP/STE): Juan Ignacio Burgaleta (Consultant Engineer, Spain)
Integrated grids (IG): Peter Palensky (TU Delft, The Netherlands)
Ocean energy (OE): Deborah Greaves (University of Plymouth, United Kingdom)
Offshore wind (OW): Stephan Barth (ForWind, Germany)
Hydrogen (Hy): John T.S Irvine (University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom)
Energy storage (ES): Philippe Stevens (Électricité de France, France)
Cross-cutting (Materials): Reverant Crispin (University of Linköping, Sweden)
Cross-cutting (ICT enabling): Brian Zahnstecher (PowerRox, USA)
A central task of the Advisory Board is to assist the consortium in assessing the project’s performance. The AB reviews the status reports, considers the criteria proposed in the project, and provides essential external feedback to the General Assembly (GA). The AB is regularly updated on the project’s progress and its members have the opportunity to participate in the project’s general meetings.
Extended Network
The Extended Network (EN) of RISEnergy includes relevant stakeholder representatives in renewable energies. To date, 22 stakeholders have confirmed their participation and provided letters of support. Among them:
- 10 RI EU-projects
- 4 European and 1 international associations
- 1 international stakeholder
- 4 industry partners
- 2 research and academia members
The EN contributes to the RISEnergy ecosystem by assessing the project’s performance from the perspective of industry and diverse stakeholders. Moreover, the project aims to attract additional stakeholders throughout its duration, including national funding institutions, consumer associations, and the recycling industry.
Selection Panel
RISEnergy’s Selection Panel (SP) evaluates the submitted applications for accessing the project’s research infrastructure offerings. Currently, 69 experts across the 10 RISEnergy target areas of renewable energy have confirmed their participation. Additional stakeholders are expected to join the SP throughout the project.
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee (SC) is composed of RISEnergy ’s Work Package leaders, namely EERA, KIT, EPL, and UCC, along with representatives from the project’s 10 target areas:
Photovoltaics (IMEC)
Concentrated solar power/ Solar thermal energy (EU-SOLARIS)
Hydrogen (FZJ)
Biofuels (TNO)
Offshore wind (DTU)
Ocean energy (UCC)
Integrated grids (AIT)
Energy storage (KIT)
Information and communications technology (ICT) (UCC)
Materials research (CEA)
The Steering Committee (SC), led by Project Coordinator (PC) from KIT, Peter Holtappels, is responsible for the revision and coordination of the project’s technical activities and their integration. It identifies technical issues and proposes adequate solutions for approval by the General Assembly. Additionally, the SC evaluates the progress of technical activities and the technical-scientific results achieved against the project’s objectives.
The RISEnergy ecosystem aims to establish permanent cooperation with various EU research infrastructure projects in which core consortium partners are involved. These projects are aligned in their scope, activities, or ambitions:
The StoRIES project brings together a consortium of beneficiaries from the European Strategy Forum on Research Facilities (ESFRI), technology institutes, universities and industry to jointly improve the economic performance of energy storage technologies. The main technological objectives of StoRIES are linked to the development of energy storage by providing access to world-class research infrastructures and services, with a focus on improving materials for devices and optimising hybrid energy systems to make energy technologies more competitive and cost-competitive. In addition, StoRIES focuses on the analysis of socio-technical and environmental aspects of new developments and systems, in order to provide training and education on these issues.
ERIGrid 2.0, the second edition of the European Research Infrastructure supporting Smart Grid and Smart Energy Systems Research, Technology Development, Validation and Rollout, will expand the research services and tools of European research infrastructures for validating smart energy networks with the electric power grid at the centre. Committed to a holistic and cyber-physical systems-based validation approach, ERIGrid 2.0 will foster system-level support and education for industrial and academic researchers in power and energy systems research and technology development.
The mission of VIPERLAB is to facilitate faster and more reliable technology evaluation cycles to enable a swift market entry for Perovskite-based PV products and a more widespread utilisation of renewable energy conversion technology. In this regard, VIPERLAB is an EU-funded project bringing together a network of Europe-based scientists and research organisations in Perovskite PV research to:
- Unite outstanding expertise and research facilities
- Provide external user access to physical and virtual research infrastructure
- Organise events and educational resources
- Unify testing protocols and define common data ontologies
- Define a technology roadmap for Perovskite PV in Europe
- Provide communication and dissemination channels
MARINERG-i will produce the scientific, business and implementation plan for an integrated European Research Infrastructure, designed to facilitate the future growth and development of the Offshore Renewable Energy sector. It is a key step in forming an independent legal entity of distributed testing infrastructures, united to create an integrated centre for delivering Offshore Renewable Energy. By consolidating expertise, investment and access to infrastructures, the MARINERG-i Research Infrastructure will foster innovation across a variety of Offshore Renewable Energy technologies and stages of development. As the only integrated Offshore Renewable Energy platform of this scale worldwide, it will be the epicentre of this developing industry.
EnABLES integrates key European research infrastructures (RIs) in powering the Internet of Things (IoT). Six research institutes together with five knowledge hubs of excellence will address the long-term needs of energy management in self-powered smart sensor systems as required by IoT innovation. To enable truly ‘invisible’, unobtrusive and self-powered (autonomous) wireless devices, a key challenge is to bridge the gap between capturing ‘ambient’ energy supply from energy harvesting sources (EH), integrating new devices for energy storage (ES) and taking into account the micro-power management (MPM) requirements for miniaturised system operation. Through providing access to unique infrastructure, world-leading expertise, advanced equipment and state-of-the-art technologies, EnABLES empowers several hundreds of academic researchers and technologists to advance energy harvesting, storage and micro-power management solutions for the integrated design and deployment of miniaturised autonomous sensors.
Diadem project develops a platform for organic electronics providing a one-stop-shop solution, from digital discovery to experimental verification, by linking the virtual screening of small molecule candidates with the chemical supply chain. Much like novel lead compounds are explored in the drug discovery industry, the field of organic semiconductors needs to extend the palette of suitable structures for light-emitting diodes, photovoltaics, transistors, sensors, etc.
Solar Facilities for the European Research Area (SFERA III) is a Horizon 2020 project funded under the Research Infrastructure Programme. The overall objective of this project is to carry on with the work done during the past 8 years in the SFERA 1 and SFERA 2 projects and reinforce the sustainability of the activities of the European advanced Concentrating Solar Power research infrastructures. These activities will include:
- networking activities to further develop the cooperation between the research infrastructures, the scientific community, industries and other stakeholders;
- transnational access activities aiming at providing access to all European researchers from both academia and industry to singular scientific and technological solar research infrastructures;
- joint research activities whose sole purpose is to improve the integrated services provided by the infrastructure.
ASCENT+ serves as a direct entry point to European Nanoelectronics Research Infrastructure of a global scale, offering access to key enabling capabilities in state-of-the-art processing, modelling and simulation data sets, metrology and characterisation, and devices and test structures. Thus, it offers an unparalleled opportunity to researchers and PhD candidates, along with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by empowering them to respond to new problems and advanced knowledge and technology through the generation of novel results and nurturing talent in their own labs. ASCENT+ enables and stimulates its user community to bridge the gap between the exploration and development of proof-of-concept technologies to accelerate innovation pathfinding.
Emerging Printed Electronics Research Infrastructure (EMERGE) is a pioneer research infrastructure supporting comprehensive user projects for leading-edge multi-and-trans-disciplinary research on sustainable flexible large-area printed electronics and photonics (FLAPEP). This project offers a true open-access facility that connects scientific expertise and technological competencies to a vast network in the ecosystem, intended to boost value creation.