The aim of SET4H2 is to provide organisational, logistic and secretarial support to the newly formed Implementation Working Group on hydrogen under the revamped SET Plan.
This includes refining the IWG’s mission and identity, finalising the Implementation Plan and exploiting synergies with the activities of other SET Plan stakeholders and relevant European and international hydrogen initiatives.
The new IWG can build on the results already achieved in the ERA pilot initiative “Agenda Process on Green Hydrogen”, a comprehensive pan-European strategy-building process involving 30 European countries, and thus can achieve faster progress in implementing the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda. The CSA supports the IWG in applying an integrated, systematic and interdisciplinary approach to address research needs, while considering the different starting conditions of European countries in the energy transition.
SET4H2 is focused on the support and uptake of research and innovation on hydrogen technology through the IWG Hydrogen mission, as part of the SET Plan.
It is centred around building a more comprehensive European strategy for hydrogen initiatives and therefore obtaining greater progress in implementation of hydrogen technology. SET4H2 is additionally focused on creating greater synergies between hydrogen and other renewable energy technologies – particularly those under the SET Plan.
SET4H2 will implement an integrated, systematic and interdisciplinary approach to address research needs in the hydrogen sector and enhance cooperation across Member States. The consortium of SET4H2 has experience both in the field of hydrogen and in the context of coordination within the SET Plan. The Consortium consists of key players of the European Agenda Process as well as the SRIA as a whole.
In March 2022, the European Research Area (ERA) pilot project on Green Hydrogen published a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) to identify research and innovation priorities within the hydrogen sector.
The European Commission also contributed a Staff Working Document (SWD) titled Building a European Research Area for clean hydrogen – the role of EU research and innovation investments to deliver on the EU’s Hydrogen Strategy, which showcases the role of EU research and innovation investment in green hydrogen and highlights four domains where action is needed to accelerate the energy transition: skills, hydrogen technology infrastructures, monitoring and tutorials. To implement the ERA SRIA, the countries involved in the project set up an Implementation Working Group (IWG) on Hydrogen under the revised Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan), which was adopted by the European Commission in autumn 2023.
