The Long-term Europe Africa Partnership on Renewable Energy (LEAP-RE) is a 5 years programme co-funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020, aiming at developing a long-term partnership between Europe and Africa on Research and Innovation (R&I) in renewable energy.

The programme is conducted by a consortium of 83 partners from European and African countries. The total budget of the programme is around €32 million, including €15 million from the European Commission. The programme is focused on research and innovation projects proposed by public and private stakeholders.

Activities of LEAP-RE are within the framework of the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy partnership of the AU-EU High Level Policy Dialogue on Science, Technology and Innovation.

LEAP-RE is structured in three Pillars, of which pillar 1 implements transnational open calls for proposals for research, innovation and capacity building, funded by national/regional funding agencies and by the European Commission.

Projects selected through calls for proposals focus on achieving goals of mutual benefit for Member States, Associated Countries and African countries, based on a balanced and cooperative approach. Particular attention will be given to strengthening the impact of R&I supported activities for the benefit of the society, in Europe and in Africa.

A first call was launched in 2021. 124 applicants submitted a pre-proposal, of which 13 resulted in projects. The global funding budget for the first call was € 10.3 million, with € 7.8 provided by funding organisations + € 2.54 million from the EC contribution.

The LEAP-RE consortium has now launched a second call in 2022, and is inviting interested parties to read carefully the call text. Deadline for pre-proposal submission 23 September 2022.12:00 CEST.

Source: European Commission I Research and Innovation (https://bit.ly/3aN5oVN)