Last week, we spent two stimulating days in Brussels at the Scaling Renewable Fuels and Chemicals event. There, we could connect with colleagues and collaborators working in areas such as green hydrogen, carbon capture and sustainable fuels-and to see many known faces! This was a two-day gathering, held on 26–27 March, organised by the European Innovation Council (EIC) and co-organised with Hungarian start-up eChemicles and European initiative SUNERGY.
The event focused on a crucial question: how can renewable technologies be successfully scaled up, and what does it really take to create new markets? The event brought together scientists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, investors and industry leaders who tackled key challenges and explored the pathways needed to move innovation from research to real-world application.
A central theme throughout the discussions was the need to strengthen connections between those driving innovation and investors. Building a strong ecosystem—bringing together local and regional governments, academia, research hubs and industry—is essential to shaping the future.
For us, this was a particularly special edition, as we had the opportunity to present the DeltaSpark spin-off. This took place during a dedicated pitch session alongside other projects from the EIC’s Green Hydrogen Challenge portfolio. The session addressed the topic of how innovation in renewable technologies work in practice. We could hear from projects such as EPOCH, which highlighted the gap between academic and industrial or, the H2Steel project, focused on biomass valorisation, which shared its journey from laboratory research to a five-metre-high prototype. We weren’t the only portfolio attending. The event also brought together the EIC CO2-Nitrogen Portfolio and the EIC Solar-to-X Portfolio, creating connections across projects to catalyse collaboration.
After the event, the EIC hosted the in-person meeting of the Green Hydrogen Challenge portfolio, which brought together project coordinators, innovation managers and communication managers from the different projects. The discussions included the creation of a short summary report of the event, highlighting the technology transfer success stories of the portfolio, which we will release soon. Additionally, ANEMEL and ELOBIO announced what will become the final portfolio event, a workshop focused in green hydrogen technologies, hosted by EPFL, which will take place in November. Stay tuned to our website and newsletter to learn more about the details soon.
As ANEMEL comes to a close later this year, we look forward to continuing to engage with the solar-to-X and CCU communities through DeltaSpark and our researchers all across Europe.