Evaluation results: Call for Expression of Interest for receiving Technical Assistance to generate Synergies with the Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Background

The Clean Hydrogen Partnership recently launched a call for regional and national Managing Authorities from the EU-27 and Horizon Europe associated countries aiming to develop cooperation in relevant key areas for hydrogen development. 

This initiative has been the latest in a series of valuable collaborations between the Clean Hydrogen Partnership and authorities at different territorial levels (regional/national) and presents an outstanding opportunity to work together to advance hydrogen on a regional/national level. 

As a result of the support, Managing Authorities can expect to strengthen cooperation with the JU in key areas regarding R&I and the exploitation of results, including: Technical Assistance, Knowledge Management and Funding and Financing, leading to the signature of Cooperation Agreements. These Agreements will reflect the assessment of the different synergy instruments at hand, together with concrete commitments in regard to the implementation of synergies. 

The Cooperation Agreements will be structured differently per authority, allowing the implemented synergies to be tailored to each beneficiary’s needs and context.  

All eligible applications were thoroughly reviewed and independently evaluated against the previously published evaluation criteria, resulting in the final 10 selections. 

In pursuing this initiative, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership has contracted a team composed of CIRCE, White Research and Q-Plan International.

Evaluation Results

Over a 6-week period, the Call garnered great interest from a broad range of Managing Authorities spanning diverse geographies and Authority types, overall receiving 21 eligible applications from 15 different countries. From these 21, 10 Authorities were selected to receive the Technical Assistance from the Partnership, based on the objective merits of their Expression of Interest, the need to ensure wide geographic coverage of the initiative (at least half of the selected Managing Authorities must be from 5 different EU-13 countries) and selecting only 1 Managing Authority per country. 

The Authorities selected to receive targeted technical support to develop synergies with the Clean Hydrogen Partnership are the following:

1. Programme Office North Sea Canal Area (Netherlands)
2. Wielkopolska Region (Poland)
3. Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy)
4. Kosice Region (Slovakia)
5. Intermunicipal Community of Medio Tejo (Portugal)
6. Regional Public Body of Energy – Castilla y Leon (Spain)
7. Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (Türkiye)
8. Slovenian Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy (Slovenia)
9. Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency (Croatia)
10. Bulgarian Ministry of Innovation and Growth (Bulgaria)

Among the selected authorities, 6 are regional and 4 are national actors, while 5 out of 10 originate from EU-13 and 1 from a Horizon Europe-associated country, showcasing the Partnership’s multi-level approach to hydrogen development and its intention to generate impact across a range of contexts and maturity levels. Setting an example for strengthening of cooperation and synergies in key areas for Hydrogen R&I and exploitation of results. 

We would like to congratulate the successful applicants and thank all Managing Authorities that expressed interest. Whist detailed support can only be provided to the 10 selected authorities, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership intends to share the lessons learnt with all the Authorities that responded to the EoI.

We look forward to the next phase where we work to the selected Managing Authorities to stablishing cooperation agreements and foster synergies.