Long-Term Joint EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on Renewable Energy

Project Information

LEAP-RE

Grant agreement ID: 963530

DOI

10.3030/963530

EC signature date 23 December 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 30 September 2026

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 33 351 194,59

EU contribution

€ 14 952 219,00

Coordinated by

LGI SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LEAP-RE (Long-Term Joint EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on Renewable Energy)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The LEAP-RE programme aligns with and responds to specific objectives of the CCSE Roadmap. It seeks to create a long-term partnership of African and European stakeholders in a quadruple helix approach: government (programme owners and funding agencies), research and academia, private sector, and civil society. Impact will be sought by creating a framework, methodology, and cooperation model. The aim is to reduce fragmentation by aligning existing bilateral and multilateral frameworks. LEAP-RE establishes and jointly implements research, innovation, and capacitybuilding activities that respond to the Multi-Annual Roadmaps (MARs) developed in PRE-LEAP-RE.
The programme opted for a large-scale, inclusive consortium of 96 partners from 34 countries and 2 international organisations, to ensure a broad thematic, geographical and stakeholder coverage, and to demonstrate the feasibility of the collaboration and build trust in view of a long-term partnership addressing the post-2025 period.
LEAP-RE draws on the experience and partnership developed in PRE-LEAP-RE, which conceptualised and developed a framework for long-term, bi-regional cooperation in research, innovation, and capacity building in renewable energies. This partnership is further strengthened by previous collaboration between partners in other projects supporting the EU-Africa HLPD on STI, such as LEAP-Agri, ERAfrica, LEAP4FNSSA, RINEA, and CAAST-Net Plus. Furthermore, the proposal includes R&I partners around 8 individual projects (formalised as Work Packages), which were chosen among expressions of interest received in late 2019.

The ambition of LEAP-RE is to establish a long-lasting EU-AU research and innovation partnership on renewable energy. One of the most effective ways to support the transformative path toward sustainable, affordable and accessible energy is the promotion of joint research and innovation efforts. By building on the confidence initiated within the PRELEAP-RE consortium, this proposal seeks to demonstrate efficient project delivery of the LEAP-RE programme, building trust and creating momentum for a long-term partnership.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the reporting period, the project got off to a good start, which allowed for the successful implementation of the following activities:

- Organisation of the programme's governance (regular PMB meetings, General Assembly meetings)
- Continuation of Pillar 2 work packages and implementation of activities in the field, under the coordination of Pillar 2 leaders. One project is already finished.
- Launch of the second call for projects under Pillar 1, regular organisation of the steering committees for the call, selection of 10 projects funded, decision to organise a second call for projects. The project now have around 130 subgrantees partners.
- Supervision of Pillar 1 and 2 activities by Pillar 3 partners in terms of communication, community management, clustering
- Definition of the first orientations concerning the output of LEAP-RE which could concern a coordination infrastructure for which the terms of reference will be established in the course of the call.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

– KPI 1.1.1: Percentage of deliverables submitted in time and quality
– KPI 1.1.2: Percentage of project milestones passed successfully
– KPI 1.1.3: Successful risk management
– KPI 1.1.4: Carbon footprint: estimated emissions savings by project travel policy
– KPI 1.1.5: Percentage of indicators satisfactorily addressed in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Plan
– KPI 1.2.1: Number of new organisations joining the LEAP-RE Community (at least 100)
– KPI 1.2.2: Number of individuals joining the LEAP-RE Community (at least 500)
– KPI 1.2.3: Number of respondents in stakeholder surveys (at least 100)
– KPI 1.2.4: Timely agreement on a model, strategy, and governance structure for a long-term partnership
– KPI 1.2.5: Number of organizations committing or expressing interest in a long-term partnership after the completion of LEAP-RE (at least 50)
– KPI 2.1.1: Number of funding organizations committed in each joint LEAP-RE open call (>10)
– KPI 2.1.2: Regional coverage and distribution of amounts committed in each LEAP-RE open call (at least 30% in each continent)
– KPI 2.1.3: Thematic coverage of MARs by the R&I projects
– KPI 2.2.1: Number of R&I project proposals (submitted / selected) in the LEAP-RE open call(s)
– KPI 2.2.2: Number and regional distribution of applicant organisations in LEAP-RE open call(s)
– KPI 3.1.1: Successful completion of individual R&I projects under the LEAP-RE programme
– KPI 3.1.2: Measurable advancement of the state of the art in the 6 MARs
– KPI 3.1.3: Percentage of outputs and outcomes met for each MAR
– KPI 3.2.1: Amount of co-funding invested by R&I project participants in LEAP-RE
– KPI 3.2.2: Respective shares of stakeholder types involved or associated to LEAP-RE R&I projects
– KPI 3.2.2: Additional funding raised during LEAP-RE to support innovation upscaling, exchange of researchers, or additional activities (at least 200k EUR)
– KPI 3.2.3: Number of new collaboration projects launched by the partners outside the LEAP-RE programme
– KPI 3.3.1: Number of capacity-building actions in LEAP-RE R&I projects
– KPI 3.3.2: Number of online training modules deployed (at least 5)
– KPI 3.3.3: Number of participants in LEAP-RE Summer/Winter Schools (at least 15 per school)
– KPI 3.3.4: Number of organisations endorsing future strategy for capacity-building (at least 50)
– KPI 3.3.5: Number of African professionals having accessed capacity-building in LEAP-RE in terms of scientific publication, innovation, and capacity to undertake joint projects
– KPI 3.3.6 Number of exchanges / visiting researchers between AU and EU organisations (>10)
– KPI 4.1.1: Number of co-authored papers resulting from the LEAP-RE R&I projects (>30)
– KPI 4.1.2: Number of patents filed as a result the LEAP-RE R&I projects (>5)
– KPI 4.1.3: Number of service or product launches resulting from the LEAP-RE projects (>5)
– KPI 4.2.1: Number of thematic project clusters formed (at least 6)
– KPI 4.2.2: Successful revision and state of the art update of the MARs
– KPI 4.2.3: Number of participants in LEAP-RE General Workshops (at least 150)
– KPI 4.2.4: Number of individual visitors on LEAP-RE website
– KPI 5.1.1: Number of individual innovators accessing acceleration / upscaling support (at least 10)
– KPI 5.1.2: Number of third-party innovation support organisations engaged (at least 10)
– KPI 5.1.3: Additional funding for innovators raised through third-party organisations (at least 500k€)
– KPI 5.2.1: Number of policy briefs shared with decision-makers (at least 5)
– KPI 5.2.2: Number of additional stakeholders engaged (at least 50)
– KPI 5.3.1: Adherence to the LEAP-RE gender strategy
– KPI 5.3.2: Inclusion of gender perspectives in the LEAP-RE open call (s) and evaluation criteria
– KPI 5.3.3: Gender balance of participants in LEAP-RE R&I projects (at least 40% for each gender)
– KPI 5.3.4: Proportion of women in leadership positions in the LEAP-RE governance (50%)
– KPI 5.4.1: Number of LEAP-RE R&I projects with a youth empowerment strategy (at least 5)
– KPI 5.4.2: Number of youth representatives included in LEAP-RE stakeholder engagement effort

Pillar 2 WPs