Additional Call 2021

Additional Call 2021

Concentrating Solar Power

The CSP ERANET Additional Call 2021 is carried out by national and regional research and technology development (RTD) and innovation programmes, and national and regional Funding Agencies in the field of concentrating solar power (CSP) or solar thermal electricity (STE). The following countries and regions are participating in the CSP ERANET Additional Call: Germany and North-Rhine-Westphalia, Spain, Turkey, Switzerland and Israel.

Call calendar: 

Important dates (tentative):

  • Official opening of the Call: 1.10.2021 12:00 CET
  • Webinar & brokerage event: 21.10.2021 9:00- 13:30 CET (Sustainable Energy Days)
  • Deadline for submitting preproposals: 3.12.2021 17:00 CET
  • Communication on applications selected for full-proposal stage: 03.01.2022 (tentatively)
  • Deadline for submitting full proposals: 25.03.2022 17:00 CET
  • Feedback on funding decisions: 30.06.2022 (tentatively)
  • Start of projects funded: 01.10.2022 (tentatively)

Applications have to be submitted through the Electronic Submission System within the deadline set.

Thematic areas: 

The topics for CSP ERANET Additional Call are based on priorities identified in the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan through the working groups in CSP technology. They include strategic targets that shall serve as a reference for this call and for proposals to be submitted.

The 8 topics, focused on electricity production, are:

  1. Advanced linear concentrator Fresnel technology with direct molten salt circulation
  2. Parabolic trough with molten salts
  3. Parabolic trough with silicon oil
  4. Solar tower power plant to commercially scale-up and optimize the core components of the open volumetric air receiver technology
  5. Improved central receiver molten salt technology
  6. Next Generation of Central Receiver Plants with molten salt receiver
  7. Multi-tower central receiver beam down system
  8. Advanced Thermal energy storage

Scope and subtopics are available at the Guidelines for Applicants. Not all programmes / funding agencies will accept applications in all topics (see Table 2 and in the Annex “National / Regional Requirements” of the Guidelines for Applicants) and for all Technology Readiness Levels (TRL’s), and some will prioritise some topics over others. Lower TRL research activities necessary to support demonstration and validation activities might be potentially in scope for CSP ERA NET funding, where they are a minor but integral part of wider projects, which progress a technology though to TRL’s of this topic. Applicants have to check with their national / regional contact points whether the project idea fits within the national / regional constraints as early as possible but at least before submitting a preproposal.

All applicants have to fulfil (additional) eligibility criteria of their respective national / regional programme / funding organisation and have to contact their national / regional agency as early as possible in the process to understand if their project is within scope/eligible. Furthermore, all applicants must take into account that some funding organisations require a mandatorily submission of a national application in parallel with the international one.

Who can apply: 

SME, large companies, non-profit research organisations, higher education institutions, public research organisations and public organisations may participate according to their national / regional financing regulations (see Annex – National / Regional Requirements of the Guidelines for Applicants).

Eligible consortia shall consist of a minimum of 3 partners from 2 different countries participating in the CSP ERANET Additional Call and providing funding to the project selected. At least one partner in the consortium has to be from the industry. At least one partner in the consortium has to be from the industry. The project consortia may involve as many partners as necessary to successfully deliver the project. Partners from countries that are not members of the CSP-ERANET Additional Call (see list of funding partners under section 2) can join a project consortium as additional partners providing added-value to the project. However, these additional partners have to finance their activities from other sources, as each Funding Agency will only fund partners from their own country. A letter of commitment must be included as an annex to the full proposal including the commitment of this partner to the project.

The project duration is limited to max. 36 months.

Partner Search Tool: 
Participating countries and regions: 

The following countries and regions are participating in the CSP ERANET Additional Call: Germany and North-Rhine-Westphalia, Spain, Turkey, Switzerland and Israel.

More information: 

For further information, please contact the Joint Secretariat (rctully@agenex.org). Updated information and Guidelines for Applicants will be available from 1st October 2021 at https://csp-eranet.eu/calls/additional