The annual EU Sustainable Energy Week [1] took place in Brussels on 5-7 June, and involved over 60 sessions and 2,500 participants. The SET-Plan Secretariat organised the session, Strategic Energy Technology Plan: from a joint vision into investments, exploring answers to the following questions, highly pertinent given the current ‘implementation stage’ of the SET-Plan:

• How can public and private sources of finance support the execution of the Implementation Plans?
• Are innovators’ financing needs sufficiently met by the existing funding framework?
• Is the current innovation ecosystem conducive to the required increase in R&I investments, or does it need to be improved?

This year’s SET-Plan Conference will take place in Messe Wien in Vienna (Austria) on 20-21 November 2018. It will take stock of progress towards the SETPlan priorities, following the finalisation of the relevant Implementation Plans [2] , and aims to identify how publicly and privately funded R&I efforts, at European and national level, contribute to the EU’s energy transition. It will highlight the importance of making synergies and developing partnerships among public and private actors to implement R&I activities with real impact. The discussions will address the challenges of meeting the objectives for 2030 and 2050, the financial instruments in support of R&I, the EU’s position in the world, and the importance of engaging cities and regions. Registration opens soon and participation is free. You can find out more on the conference website [3].

One SET-Plan Steering Group meeting took place during the second quarter of 2018. The main result was the endorsement of three new Implementation Plans. One regarding the Initiative for global leadership in wind energy [4], another on Bioenergy and renewable fuels for sustainable transport [5] and finally, Europe to become a global role model in integrated, innovative solutions for the planning, deployment, and replication of Positive Energy Districts [6].

Another important outcome was the approval of the forward-looking SET-Plan agenda 2018-2023 [7] (Agenda 23), including activities to be carried out over the next five years to ensure the SET-Plan’s success and impact over that period. The document is operational in nature and aims to record the actual working methods which can facilitate the delivery of the actions described in the various Implementation Plans. This document was jointly drafted by the SETPlan countries and the European Commission, led by Austria and the Netherlands.

The afternoon session of the Steering Group meeting hosted representatives from the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), who presented EERA’s contribution to the SET-Plan Implementation Plans. Earlier in the meeting, SET-Plan countries debated and expressed their support for the participation of relevant stakeholders (EERA, ETIPs and other relevant players) during the upcoming Steering Group meetings.