The fuel cells and hydrogen (FCH) industry has made considerable progress toward market deployment. However existing legal framework and administrative processes (LAPs) – covering areas such as planning, safety, installation and operation – only reflect use of incumbent technologies. The limited awareness of FCH technologies in LAPs, the lack of informed national and local administrations and the uncertainty on the legislation applicable to FCH technologies elicit delays and extra-costs, when they do not deter investors or clients. This project aims at tackling this major barrier to deployment as follows: • Systematically identifying and describing the LAPs applicable to FCH technologies in 18 national legal systems as well as in the EU proper legal system. • Assessing and quantifying LAP impacts in time and/or resource terms and identify those LAP constituting a legal barrier to deployment. • Comparing the 18 countries to identify best and bad practices • Raising awareness in the countries where a LAP creates a barrier to deployment. • Advocating targeted improvements in each of 18 countries + EU level • It will make all this work widely available through: (1) A unique online database allowing easy identification, description and assessment of LAPs by country and FCH application. (2) Policy papers by applications and by country with identification of best practice and recommendations for adapting LAP. (3) A series of national (18) and European (1) workshops with public authorities and investors. HyLAW sets up a National Association Alliance not just for the duration of the project, but for the long term consolidation of the sector under a single unified umbrella. By bringing together these national associations and all of Hydrogen Europe’s members, it’s the first time ever that the entire European FCH sector is brought together with a clear and common ambition.

The PharmaLedger project will create a blockchain-based framework for the efficient digitization of the healthcare industry. The goal of the project is to provide a widely trusted platform that will support the design and adoption of blockchain-enabled healthcare solutions while accelerating delivery of innovation that will benefit the entire ecosystem, from manufacturers to patients. PharmaLedger will serve as a single source of truth for the healthcare ecosystem and will be designed for efficient decentralized governance, wide adoption by the stakeholders of the ecosystem, compliance with extant and emerging standards and regulation, and end-to-end connectivity and interoperability. Sustainability of the platform will be ensured by leveraging existing, successful blockchain technologies; open source reference implementation; and a fully documented, actionable methodology for evolutionary digitization of the healthcare industry. The project will address the key challenges of the healthcare ecosystem through prioritized delivery of applications and validation of business use cases, including but not be limited to end-to-end product tracking for combating counterfeit medicines and medical supplies; supply chain integrity; efficiency of recruitment and submission in clinical trials; and machine-learning health data marketplaces. The platform will support integrated use of medical devices across the use cases. The PharmaLedger project brings together 28 partners from 10 EU Member States, including 11 large pharmaceutical companies; highly innovative technology SMEs specializing in blockchain development, security, privacy and business intelligence; universities and research institutes specializing in pharmacoeconomic analysis, research of patient requirements, big data analytics and electronic health records; leading clinical trials companies; supply chain partners; patient representatives; and leading healthcare service providers.

BackgroundHydrogen is a key pillar of the EU’s strategy to achieve its 2050 decarbonisation goals, with an estimated 24% of hydrogen contributing to the total energy demand by 2050, 560Mt CO2 abatement per year, 820 bn euro annual revenue generation, and a 15% reduction in local emissions. The rapid development of the European Hydrogen Value Chain over the coming years is expected to generate approximately 1 million highly skilled jobs by 2030, and up to 5.4 million by 2050. This growth presents a significant economic and environmental opportunity for Europe, but it also creates considerable labour market challenges. ObjectivesThe primary objective of this project is to design and implement a highly innovative, effective, and sustainable Hydrogen Skills Strategy for Europe that will ensure the skills needs of the rapidly expanding and evolving Hydrogen Value Chain can be met in the short, medium, and long term. This blueprint will address the skills need of workers in Declining Sectors and Transition Regions to provide them with upskilling and reskilling opportunities that will enable them to access new employment opportunities within the Hydrogen sector. Participants GreenSkills4H2 is an Alliance of Hydrogen sector partners led by Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Europe Research, bringing together key Industry and Education stakeholders from across the sector. ActivitiesThe project includes the establishment of a long-term partnership between Industry and Education; the design of an innovative and sustainable Hydrogen Skills Strategy; the development, testing and roll-out of VET curricula and training programmes in line with latest market needs and consistently linked with EU instruments and tools; continuous skills and career development that empowers technical professionalism in both green and digital competences; and the widespread dissemination and rollout of the VET training to maximise European impact.