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Learnings from project development with
Climate-KIC
Experiences & Opportunities with EIT Climate-KIC.
European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) in Horizon Europe.
NTNU Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ Launch Week. 17.11.2020.
Dr. Dirk Ahlers
Smart Sustainable Cities Group
Department of Architecture and Design
NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology
https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/dirk.ahlers

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Project experience
• CTT – Carbon Track and Trace
• CTT2.0 – Carbon Track and Trace 2.0 (starting point ➜ smart
city projects, IoT projects, publications, CTT AS, …)
• c-valuate – Economic options appraisal for low-carbon cities
• (evaluation partner in other projects)

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CTT2.0 – Carbon Track and Trace: IoT emission sensor network
https://www.ntnu.edu/ad/ctt

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Consortium building
CTT2.0 example

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Climate-KIC network events
• Good opportunities to exchange ideas and meet potential
project partners
• Necessary to understand the complexity
• Not always ideal for an individual researcher
• Talk to someone who is already “in”
• Talk to Lars ;-)

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Benefits (2016-2018 experience)
• Interesting European network and potential partners across sectors
– Academia, industry, cities, networks, etc.
• Focus on (climate) impact and innovation ➜ forces targeted ideas,
brings in a business and scaleup angle
• Applied research with industry/application/impact partners
• Fast implementation of ideas
• Pathfinder model
– Easy support for fast ideation
– ‘Startup’ funding for ideas
• Low proposal and reporting overhead (but see next slide)
• Possible scale-up path (fast result, little feedback)
• “personal connection” on proposal preparation/submission
• Ability to shape or contribute to strategy/operation

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Caveats (2015-2018 experience)
• We at times were guinea pigs 🐹
• Complex structure of LoCal (City Finance Lab) – Climate-KIC (+ local
chapters and focus areas) – EIT 🤔
• Call structures not always clear
• Changing forms and reporting 🤔
• No multi-year small projects
• Limited ability for non-CKIC members / subcontractors
• Drawn out and error-prone financial reporting, auditing, payment
💸 (CKIC and NTNU)
• Limited feedback on proposals
• Hard to understand who to approach for an idea/proposal
• No good project/partner overview at CKIC 🔬
• Lack of dissemination support 📣

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Takeaways and personal recommendations
• Understand your own requirements and the EU landscape
• Good to start with EU projects for quick ideas without going
the full H2020
• If you start from scratch, start with partners and consortium
building, find people and partners in the network
• Double-check finances and project conditions with NTNU EU
finance office, own department, and Lars
• Validate ideas/proposals with Climate-KIC

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Q&A
Contact
Dirk Ahlers
search://Dirk Ahlers
@dirkahlers
dirk.ahlers@ntnu.no
Carbon Track and Trace (CTT) project
documentation:
https://www.ntnu.edu/ad/ctt
C-Valuate: Improving City-Scale Low-
Carbon Investment Decision-Making: Final
report
https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-
xmlui/handle/11250/2607887

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