Community of practice - Data-Driven Decision-Making in Energy

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Enhanced EU cooperation to generate knowledge sharing on data and analytics used for the planning and operation of European grids, and market integration;
• Better EU coordination with regard to planning and simulation tools to support the development of electricity grids and integration of RES are made available to the research, academia, grid operators, and key actors in the energy value chains;
• Coordinated processes to generate new and innovative open-source solutions, software modules etc. that are added to the existing and/or new repositories that support the development of grids and integration of high shares of RES;
• Improved EU-wide cooperation and coordination of actions on developing and utilising innovative data-driven solutions for energy, including AI-powered tools.
• Support to researchers and research organizations to maintain their research results FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) beyond research project ending and accommodating for technology evolution.
• Promotion of opensource practices and collaboration across the energy sector value chain to foster the industrialization of shared methods and standards in and by the energy industry.

Scope:

Projects are expected to:

• Facilitate the coordination and cooperation of key actors in the energy value chains (e.g. grid operators, research and academia, providers of technologies and solutions, energy suppliers, providers of energy services traded on energy markets, representatives of consumers) to build a community of practice focused on developing and maintaining key tools and technologies for using data and analytics in planning, operating and maintaining the European electricity grids, while actively managing high shares of RES in the system;
• Involve, cooperate with, and/or build synergies with major European and international initiatives and groupings that are active in this field;
• Create a European ecosystem of innovation hubs that bring together key stakeholders in the energy sector to collaborate on digitalization projects, providing a space for experimentation and agile innovation;
• Showcase targeted cooperation between grid operators and research & academia for implementing specific projects and/or programmes;
• Build blueprints, methodologies, and repositories of open-source solutions for enhanced simulations, observation, forecasting, infrastructure asset management, and decision-making in energy with a view to reduce the overall costs of system operation;
• Promote the use of modern solutions, such as digital twins and AI-enabled systems.

Selected projects are expected to contribute to the BRIDGE initiative [1] and actively participate in its activities.

[1] https: //bridge-smart-grid-storage-systems-digital-projects.ec.europa.eu/

Submissions open on 04 August 2027.

Part of call HORIZON-CL5-2027-07

Type of action: HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions

Programme period: 2021 - 2027

Priorities: INCO, DigitalAgenda, EoscAndFairData, AI

"> General conditions

1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

2. Eligible Countries

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes. A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide .

3. Other Eligible Conditions

If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).

Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion

described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds

are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual .

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluati