The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU 2024 (Hungarian EU Presidency) aims to organize a series of discussions on research and innovation priorities in the field of bioeconomy. The series of events will commence on July 4 in Brussels and will culminate in a high-level event on December 4-6, 2024. This proposal aims to support the organization of the Presidency event in December by financing some of the costs not covered by the central budget of the Hungarian EU Presidency coordination. The high-level conference will be organized in collaboration with the European Commission and the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research under the auspices of the BIOEAST Initiative. The event is expected to attract 300-350 participants, including European Commissioners, representatives from national and EU institutions, diplomats from Member States, and policymakers from various ministries, as well as stakeholders from academia and the private sector. Additionally, EU candidate countries from the Western Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia will participate. The science-policy discussions at this event aim to enhance the understanding of priorities at both the Member States and European Institutions levels and will help guide the future strategic research and innovation agenda for the macro-region. The BIOEAST Initiative aims to establish a pan-European research and innovation partnership with a focus on Eastern Europe. During the Hungarian EU Presidency the initiative will center discussions on four thematic areas: healthy soils, freshwater resilience, food systems security, and modern biomanufacturing. These topics will be discussed during the high-level official Presidency event scheduled for December 4-6, 2024, Budapest, Hungary. The financial support is crucial to ensuring the event's success and facilitating comprehensive discussions and side events, including a field trip.

The Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) is a long-standing committee of EU Member States and Associated Countries presided over by the European Commission. It has become a respected source of advice on European agricultural and wider bioeconomy research and has been a catalyst for the coordination of national research and innovation (R&I) programmes. It is supported in these strategic functions by SCAR Working Groups (WGs), including a Foresight Group, which provide domain-specific expert advice and input. RefreSCAR will strengthen the strategic functioning and capacities of SCAR WGs in order to facilitate the improved coordination of national and European bioeconomy R&I programmes. Through a toolkit of measures, RefreSCAR will provide robust scientific support to SCAR WGs through regular portfolio analysis of projects, expert studies and support for the SCAR Foresight process. Combined with practical administrative support, this will enable a better structured organisation, facilitation and reporting of SCAR WG activities in themes of relevance for Horizon Europe, the Common Agricultural Policy, European Green Deal, Digital Europe and the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies. In order to boost the participation of under-represented countries in SCAR WGs, a SCAR-Engage Programme will be developed involving tailored action plans, financial and peer-to-peer support, networking and knowledge exchange. Targeted support for communication and dissemination will immerse a broad audience of stakeholders in the activities of the WGs. Furthermore, RefreSCAR will cultivate connections between SCAR WGs, key actors in EU policy, practitioners and relevant EU and international initiatives through dedicated fora, helping to build a bridge between R&I, policy and practice. The outcome will be more impactful SCAR WGs that are better resourced and empowered to deliver strategic advice, contributing to a strengthened SCAR within the European Research Area.

Building on earlier experiences such as LEAP-Agri, Belmont Forum and JPI FACCE, the project will implement a range of joint activities, contributing to the creation of a strong and effective trans-national, European-African-Latin America and the Caribbean research and innovation network and the better coordination and synergising of national, international and EU research programmes relevant to food security under climate change evolution. The joint call will focus on regional food systems within a global perspective and addressing: - Assessing climate change-related risks for food value chains, including impacts on prices, international trade and food security, and resulting changes in consumer behaviours. The three dimensions of sustainability will be adressed: social-cultural, economic, and environmental (including climate change mitigation); - Improving resilience and reducing volatility in agri-food production and food markets to sustainably improve food security in the context of climatic variation; - Reducing food losses under climate change including through novel approaches to valorise side streams and reduce food waste. The first pillar of the proposal relates to the preparation and implementation of a joint call for proposals for collaborative research and innovation projects, funded by European, African and South American national research funding agencies, with additional support from the European Commission. In addition, the call will be co-funded by some Belmont Forum members. These countries does not want to participate to the EU project but will be surely, as Belmont forum, member participating to the call, funding their national teams without any top up from the European Commission. The projects selected through the call will focus on achieving goals of mutual benefit for Member States, Associated Countries and Africa and South America countries, based on a balanced and cooperative approach.

The overall objective of BIOEASTsUP project is to support the BIOEAST initiative and Action Plan for transition of 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) to bioeconomy. The specific objectives are: SO1: To trigger strategic thinking at governmental level and transnational peer-to-peer development of national circular bioeconomy strategies in BIOEAST countries. SО2: To emphasize the role of multi-actor approach in developing new value chains to advance bioeconomies. SO3: To develop in a multi-stakeholder driven approach a consolidated BIOEAST Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). SO4: To set-up and maintain a macro-regional framework in support of the BIOEAST initiative and the SRIA development and sustainability. SO5: To facilitate evidence-based policy making. SO6: To increase the visibility of the bioeconomy within the quintuple helix in the BIOEAST region. BIOEASTsUP methodology was developed to support a parallel setup: the project structure and the structure of the BIOEAST Initiative. Two work packages focus on the national bioeconomy deployment (WP1, WP2), two are dedicated to the impact at the macro-regional and the EU level (WP3, WP4) whereas dissemination activity complements all the components (WP5). The work plan is as follows: WP 1: Framework for National Bioeconomy Strategies Development WP 2: Capacity building for BIOEAST stakeholders WP 3: Establishing macro-regional structures in support of the BIOEAST initiative WP 4: BIOEAST SRIA development and positioning the macro-regional economies WP 5: Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation WP 6: Project Management and Evaluation BIOEASTsUP has been initiated directly by the BIOEAST Initiative’s ministries. In total 26 ministries support the project. In addition associations, industrial chambers, innovation centres, other research organisations and NGOs have committed to the project. BIOEASTsUP will further engage all stakeholders in the bioeconomy value chain to coordinate efforts to maximize the impact.

The Hungarian Ministry of Energy presents this proposal to host the 18th SET Plan conference in 2024 which will take place in Hungary during the Hungarian Presidency of the EU. The conference will be held in Budapest on 14-15 November 2024 and will be organized by the Hungarian Ministry of Energy and the European Commission. The general theme of the conference is “Energy R&D for resilient, autonomous and competitive European energy system”. The agenda includes several thematic parallel sessions and high level panels as well in the following areas: commercialisation of innovative technologies, industrial decarbonisations, geothermal energy, energy storage, hydrogen, skills. We are expecting high level speakers from the European Commission and the Hungarian Minister of Energy to open the conference. The main goals of the conference are: (1) enhancing cooperation and synergies between national and European policies, (2) facilitating collaboration within the energy R&I, (3) gathering the most promising results of the energy R&I.