MI Call Series

Mission Innovation’s “Joint Funders Dialogue” and “MI Call Series” are two linked initiatives under the MI Collaborate module that support dialogue and activities between MI member national and regional research and innovation funding agencies. This includes promoting multilateral funding calls as opportunities for members to maximise the impact of their national and regional innovation programmes. 


Joint Funders Dialogue 

The MI Public Funders Dialogue is a network of national/regional innovation funding agencies whose aim is to deepen the understanding among MI countries about the needs and opportunities of transnational R&I funding collaboration. Among several different ongoing funding networks, the public funders dialogue is specifically linked to following existing networks and platforms of funders; JPP Smart Energy Systems, JPI Urban Europe, CETPartnership and DUT Partnership

Are you interested in establishing international calls for research funding in the areas of energy systems, technologies, climate neutral cities or industry decarbonisation? The Funders Dialogue is now collecting expression of interests for participation in the next calls. All interested countries should send the EoI to programme coordinator Christoph Gollner before the deadline on 15, June 2022.

Objectives

  • Provide a global forum for public funders of clean energy innovation to meet, share knowledge, develop joint understanding and to engage in joint activities (e.g. MI Calls). 
  • Build, connect and coordinate existing funding networks and programmes rather than creating new ones.

The forum is expected to create impact through better and more efficient global and transnational coordination of national and regional clean energy innovation funding. 


Activities

  • Establish and maintain a R&I funding network of MI member countries. 
  • Regularly meet to discuss national priorities for funding calls, discuss new joint funding formats or opportunities, as well as new RD&D topics and themes.  
  • Share best practice in setting up and designing collaborative transnational funding calls. 
  • Advise MI Missions, Innovation Communities and wider stakeholder on designing transnational innovation calls. 
  • Support strategic direction of MI Call series. 

MI Call Series

The MI CALL SERIES is a SERIES of yearly Multilateral RD&I calls initiated through the public funders dialogue and always hosted by one or several funding networks or partners. The MICall19 and MICall20 was hosted by JPP SES, the MICall21 is hosted by JPI Urban Europe. The upcoming MICall22 will be hosted jointly by the CETPartnership and DUT Partnership.


Objective

The MICall series, initiated by Austria and Sweden in the first phase of MI, aims to address research challenges that cannot be tackled effectively by national research programmes on their own.  It aims to increase the participation from a wider section of society in funding calls, both to identify the needs of citizens and to find innovative solutionsThe MICall series was built upon the existing Joint Programming Platforms Smart Energy Systems1 and JPI Urban Europe2 and continues to be organised in partnership with established transnational R&I funding networks. 


Activities

  • Create joint funding calls, with R&I partners from at least two or three participating countries, to further the collaborative objectives of Mission Innovation 2.0. 

New funding call: showcasing the role of cities  

A new call – MICall21 – will be hosted by another funding network, JPI Urban Europe. The funding call addresses the role of urban transformation in achieving climate goals. Specifically, it seeks to spur technological and process design innovations to develop climate-neutral urban neighbourhoods that could be building blocks of Positive Energy Districts, or PEDs.  

PEDs are energy-efficient, energy-flexible and net-zero urban areas that produce a local or regional surplus of renewable energy and actively manage this throughout the year to reach overall net-zero carbon status. PEDs require integration of different systems and infrastructure, including buildings, their users and regional energy, mobility and information and communication technology systems.  

The MICall21 focuses on three main areas:  

  1. Convening international experts to address and help solve challenges to implementing PEDs on a transnational level. 
  2. Transforming existing urban structures toward climate-neutral neighbourhoods. For example, this could include addressing urban retrofitting strategies and managing complex ownership and stakeholder ecosystems and regulatory frameworks. 
  3. Bringing forward innovative solutions for public-private partnerships, business models, stakeholder mobilization and public involvement. 

The MICall21 opened on October 20th 2021. The deadline for proposals is 24 February 2022. Projects with at least three countries participating and an average volume of about €1 million are expected to be selected and start by mid-June 2022. Countries and/or their RD&D funding agencies that are interested in joining the call consortium are invited to contact programme coordinator Christoph Gollner.