Well-attended seminar on European research initiatives

On January 21, the full-day seminar “How can Sweden benefit from European research initiatives” was organized at Jernkontoret. The seminar was organized jointly by the Impact Innovation programs Swedish Metals & Minerals and Net Zero Industries. 80 people attended.

The main hall at Jernkontoret was filled to capacity when the seminar “How can Sweden benefit from European research initiatives” began. The day was led by Rachel Pettersson, Jernkontoret, Susanne Gylesjö, Svemin, Katarina Nilsson, Svemin, all three also represented Swedish Metals & Minerals, and Cecilia Warrol, from Teknikföretagen and Net Zero Industries. They welcomed all participants and gave an overview of the day and the benefits that Sweden can have from participation in European partnerships and research programs.

It highlighted what a partnership is and the benefits of participating in them, as well as some basic concepts that were useful to know before the day’s presentations.

The seminar started with a business panel, where companies gave their views on European projects. Among other things, they talked about how they have worked at European level and which European programs they have worked towards. The companies were open about both the advantages and difficulties of working in EU projects.

Next on the agenda were presentations of European programs, partnerships and their calls. First among these were ESTEP, EFFRA, A.SPIRE and ADRA.

Then it was time for the next panel discussion. Here, universities and research institutes shared what it is like to work in European projects. They shared their experiences of projects, applications and different levels of consortia.

More presentations of programs and partnerships followed. This time it was a huge list of EU programs that were highlighted. First up were Eurostars, IAM-I, ETP SMR/Raw Materials and the Clean Energy Transition Partnership. This was followed by a presentation of European Research Infrastructures, EiT Raw Materials, EiT Manufacturing and the Innovation Fund.

The day ended with a joint discussion around European research initiatives and expected European calls in 2025, where all seminar participants were invited to join.

– We are delighted with the fantastic turnout and the positive engagement that the participants showed during the day. We received many appreciative comments and it was great to see how many engaged discussions took place. We aim to conduct a similar seminar when the direction of the work programs for 2026-2027 begins to clarify, which will probably be in the autumn of this year, says Rachel Pettersson, Swedish Metals & Minerals’ work area Internationalization and Head of Research at Jernkontoret.

More about the programs:

ESTEP – https://www.estep.eu/

EFFRA – https://www.effra.eu/

A.SPIRE – https://www.aspire2050.eu/

ADRA – https://adr-association.eu/

Eurostars – https://eurekanetwork.org/programmes/eurostars/

IAM-I – https://www.iam-i.eu/

ETP SMR/Raw Materials – https://www.etpsmr.org/

Clean Energy Transition Partnership – https://cetpartnership.eu/

EiT Raw Materials – https://eitrawmaterials.eu/

EiT Manufacturing – https://www.eitmanufacturing.eu/

Innovationsfonden – https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/eu-funding-climate-action/innovation-fund_en