State of play and General Information
Renewable energies (RE) are of vital importance in tackling the global challenge posed by climate change and providing reliable energy access to millions of people in Europe, Africa and worldwide. More than 789 million people have no access to electricity and some 4 billion people worldwide still do not have sufficient access to modern energy for cooking. Africa is particularly affected. Therefore, there is a need to increase investment in renewable energy innovation, research, human and institutional capacity. In this regard, the Long term Europe-Africa Partnership on Renewable Energy (LEAP-RE) programme co-funded by the European Commission (EC) under Horizon 2020 aims to increase the use of renewable energy via a well-balanced set of research, demonstration, and technology transfer projects in both continents.
This programme is led by a consortium of 94 partners from European and African countries. The total budget of the programme is approximately € 35 Million, including € 15 Million from the EC. The LEAP RE is structured around three Pillars: Pillar 1, the focus of this pre-announcement call, comprises the implementation of transnational proposals for research, innovation and capacity building, funded by national/regional funding agencies and by the EC; Pillar2, is a cluster of individual Research and Innovation (R&I) and capacity building projects implemented by members of the consortium, whilst Pillar3 focuses on programme management and the design of a long term AU – EU strategic partnership on renewable energy.