The 12th SET Plan Conference^[1] was combined with the European Committee of the Regions Environment, Climate Change and Energy (ENVE) Conference. It took place from 12 to 14 June in Bucharest and focused strongly on the interaction of stakeholders with local and regional authorities on the road towards a clean energy transition. The European R&I community played a key role, discussing common priorities and ways of improving cooperation among public and private stakeholders

Back to back with the 12th SET Plan Conference, a workshop was organised by SET Plan countries, led by the Finnish representative. It provided a framework for discussing the main challenges to setting up working groups to lead the execution of the endorsed Implementation plans (IPs). This event provided an overview of the current situation and the challenges faced by each working group, such as the complexity of the landscape, the broadness of the sector and financing mechanisms. SET Plan countries outlined the importance of such workshops for keeping track of progress on executing the IPs.

The upcoming 13th SET Plan Conference, "R&I in the energy sector to enhance European industrial leadership", is being organised by Finland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission. It will take place on 13-15 November 2019 in Helsinki, Finland. The event will address, among other topics, the decarbonisation of industry, sector coupling and developments in renewable energy. Financing of low-carbon technologies, small modular nuclear reactors and the role of women in clean energy transition will also be discussed. Registration open!^[2]

Having endorsed its 14 IPs^[3], the last SET Plan Steering Group (SG) addressed progress made towards a common methodology in several stages: mapping, monitoring and data validation, including agreements on baseline and the templates to be used. The meeting also included an overview of the structure of the working groups for implementing the R&I activities listed in the IPs, which will work collectively to accelerate the clean energy transition in the European Union.

The EU Governance Regulation establishes a new system for the Union and its Member States to plan their energy and climate plans together, in order to fulfil the 2030 targets collectively, delivering the transition towards a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. In this context, a joint meeting took place of the Technical Working Group of the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), the SET Plan SG and the Innovation Fund Expert Group to align the additional efforts of Member States to integrate research, innovation and competitiveness into their NECPs.