EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for "Support to the SET Plan Community" (HORIZON-CL5-2025-02-D2-11)

1. Single Market Access – 450 + Million Consumers

• Accelerated Market Uptake: Coordinated road-maps and SETIS data make it easier to demonstrate technology readiness to 27 national regulators simultaneously, shortening time-to-market across the EU.

• Pan-European Demand Aggregation: Projects can design common procurement or offtake schemes (e.g. power-purchase agreements for innovative renewables) that pool demand in several Member States, de-risking first-of-a-kind deployments.

• Easier Certification & Labelling: Alignment with the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) non-price criteria allows innovators to access NZIA-driven public tenders EU-wide without having to re-apply for each country.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• One Consortium, Many National Networks: SET Plan IWGs/ETIPs already include ministries, labs and industry from >20 countries; the CSA can formalise these links in a single governance structure and shared digital workspace.

• Harmonised Data Collection: FAIR-compliant datasets feeding the Clean Energy Technology Observatory are automatically comparable across borders, enabling joint benchmarking and peer learning.

• Transnational Pilots: By mapping complementary facilities (e.g. wind-blade recycling pilot in DK linked to composite R&D line in DE), consortia can build distributed demonstration chains that no single country could fund alone.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

| EU Policy | Direct Contribution via CSA |

|-----------|----------------------------|

| European Green Deal | Sector road-maps deliver CO₂-neutral pathways and circularity actions.|

| Green Deal Industrial Plan | Industrial strategy outputs feed into NZIA technology lists and manufacturing milestones.|

| REPowerEU | Accelerates deployment of indigenous renewables (geothermal, ocean, wind) reducing fossil imports.|

| Critical Raw Materials Act | Fora can identify substitution opportunities & recycling loops for rare materials.|

| ERA Policy Agenda | 3 % R&I spending target mainstreamed through national SET Plan focal points.|

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• Single Set of Metrics: Common KPI framework for 15 technology sectors enables comparable progress tracking requested by Parliament & Council.

• Streamlined Permitting Guidance: Working groups can compile best-practice permitting checklists recognised by multiple regulators, cutting lead-times for cross-border infrastructure (e.g. DC grids, hydrogen backbones).

• Standard Setting Power: Early coordination allows ETIPs to propose pre-normative research that feeds CEN/CENELEC standards, giving EU firms a first-mover advantage globally.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Top-Tier RTOs & Test Facilities: The CSA can broker access to infrastructures listed in the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) landscape – wave tanks, geothermal labs, hydrogen valleys, etc.

• Talent & Skills Platforms: Social-sciences partners can align curricula with the Pact for Skills alliances, easing cross-border labour mobility in clean-tech sectors.

• Digital Integration: Linkage with Digital Europe Programme cloud-to-edge infrastructures enables secure sharing of high-frequency performance data (e.g. for AI-driven O&M of PV or wind).

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage

• Structural Funds & Recovery & Resilience Facility: Road-maps produced can be directly annexed to REPowerEU chapters in national RRPs, unlocking cohesion funding for demo plants.

• Innovation Fund & CEF-Energy: Well-documented, stakeholder-validated pipelines improve bankability scores for large-scale projects seeking CAPEX grants or blending.

• EIB & National Promotional Banks: Harmonised sector analyses de-risk lending by providing EU-validated evidence on TRL, cost curves and market potential.

7. Scale & Impact Potential

• Critical Mass per Sector: Only one CSA will be financed per sector, positioning the consortium as the de facto EU reference body – unrivalled visibility and lobbying power.

• EU-Wide KPI Targets: Ability to steer collective action towards NZIA goal of 40 % domestic manufacturing capacity and 5 % innovative renewables share by 2030.

• Replication Toolkit: Deliverables (standardised SRIA templates, business-model catalogues, LCA databases) can be reused by regions and cities, multiplying impact beyond project end.

8. Strategic Value of Operating at EU Level

1. Economies of Scale: Pooling R&I agendas avoids duplication; estimated 20-30 % savings versus 27 separate national studies.

2. Geographic Diversification of Risk: Demonstration assets distributed across climates/geologies (Mediterranean CSP, North-Sea wind, Alpine hydropower) improve technology robustness and investor confidence.

3. Policy Influence: Unified stakeholder voice carries more weight in Commission delegated acts (e.g., sustainability criteria for renewable fuels) than fragmented national lobbies.

4. Sovereignty & Resilience: EU-level supply-chain mapping helps anticipate bottlenecks and design joint strategic stockpiles or recycling hubs.

9. Actionable Opportunities for Applicants

• Position your consortium as the single EU platform for one of the 15 sectors – ensure coverage of ≥15 Member States to outcompete rivals on "widening participation".

• Embed an SSH work-package to address just transition & skills, scoring high on the call’s societal criteria.

• Allocate resources to a finance & sustainability task force that will draft post-EU-funding business models (membership fees, sponsorships, service contracts) as explicitly requested.

• Plan data pipelines compatible with SETIS & CETO APIs to minimise future integration costs and showcase technical readiness.

• Schedule the CSA start date to dovetail with the sunset of current SET Plan support actions (no >1 month overlap) – a compliance detail that can become a scoring differentiator.

Bottom Line: Leveraging the unified EU market, regulatory coherence and an unparalleled clean-energy innovation ecosystem, this Horizon CSA offers applicants the chance to become the authoritative, EU-wide coordination hub for their technology field—unlocking faster market entry, stronger policy influence and durable competitive advantage well beyond the two-year grant horizon.