HY-CO – Fostering the Development of a Hydrogen Economy Through International Research Coordination

An important factor holding back hydrogen and fuel cell technology development in Europe is the fragmentation and compartmentalisation of public research. The EU project HY-CO aims to overcome this by setting up a hydrogen and fuel cells ERA-NET promoting coordination and cooperation between research programmes in European countries (the EU25 plus associates states Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, and accession countries Romania and Bulgaria). The first step towards coordinated research is the determination of the current status of national research programmes, and the desired areas of cooperation. Stakeholders responsible for the management of national research efforts were consulted to create a benchmark and lay the foundations for coordinated research. Important aspects covered in this survey include the national research budgets related to hydrogen and fuel cells, the distribution of research programmes and their corresponding research foci, stakeholders involved in programme design, desired areas of transnational cooperation and the barriers preventing collaboration. The analyses highlight the importance of public research in developing hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and the need for the private sector to be involved in this research. Broad support for transnational cooperation, especially in the areas of hydrogen production, storage and distribution and socio-economics is clearly demonstrated. However, issues such as lack of resources, intellectual property rights and legal structure must be resolved before successful transnational cooperation can take place.