Research: ENEA, 14 million euro funding for EU projects in 2023

In 2023 ENEA won 29 new projects, which obtained a funding of almost 8 million euro from the European Commission, of which over 60% from the Horizon Europe program^[1]. Additional 6 million euro came from the EUROfusion consortium^[2], for a total of approximately 14 million euro, as shown in the ENEA Report “Contracts with the European Commission”, which indicates that last year ENEA participated in 162 European projects, both old and new, for a total of 48.5 million euro^[3].

The study highlights that, compared to the 298 projects presented in the 2021-2027 period^[4], ENEA's average success rate was 33%, 12 percentage points higher than the 2014-2020 period (21%).

Most of the ENEA projects that have had access to European funding concern “energy” (44%), of which the majority pertain  “renewable sources” (35%), followed by “nuclear fission and fusion” (34%) and “energy efficiency” (22%). Following “energy”, the largest number of funded projects regards “life sciences” (12%) and “the environment” (10%).

ENEA coordinated over 10% of the 162 projects underway in 2023, while the projects in which ENEA was partner were coordinated by research organizations (about 57%), universities and higher education institutes (about 18%) and industries (6%).

 “These data confirm the excellent result obtained in the first three years of the 2021-2027 period, also consolidated by the first evidence for the year 2024 in which 20 contracts have already been signed, four of which are coordinated by ENEA, which places us in the medium high-range among all participants and in line with peer research institutions”, pointed out Alessandro Coppola, head of the ENEA Technology Transfer Directorate. “The numerous proposals presented last year in response to the new calls involved approximately 1,500 international partners from 58 different countries, proving the level of competitiveness we have achieved”, concluded Coppola.