Dr. Dirk Ahlers presented his experiences with projects developed through Climate-KIC, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology's climate innovation arm. He discussed two projects he led - Carbon Track and Trace (CTT), an IoT emission sensor network, and its follow-up CTT2.0. He highlighted benefits like the interesting European network, focus on climate impact and innovation, and opportunities for applied research. However, he also noted caveats like complex structures, changing reporting requirements, and limited feedback on proposals. He recommended understanding the EU landscape, starting with smaller projects, carefully checking finances, and validating ideas with Climate-KIC.

1. Learnings from project development with
Climate-KIC
Experiences & Opportunities with EIT Climate-KIC.
European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) in Horizon Europe.
NTNU Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ Launch Week. 17.11.2020.
Dr. Dirk Ahlers
Smart Sustainable Cities Group
Department of Architecture and Design
NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology
https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/dirk.ahlers

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Project experience
• CTT – Carbon Track and Trace
• CTT2.0 – Carbon Track and Trace 2.0 (starting point ➜ smart
city projects, IoT projects, publications, CTT AS, …)
• c-valuate – Economic options appraisal for low-carbon cities
• (evaluation partner in other projects)

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CTT2.0 – Carbon Track and Trace: IoT emission sensor network
https://www.ntnu.edu/ad/ctt

4. 4
Consortium building
CTT2.0 example

5. 5
Climate-KIC network events
• Good opportunities to exchange ideas and meet potential
project partners
• Necessary to understand the complexity
• Not always ideal for an individual researcher
• Talk to someone who is already “in”
• Talk to Lars ;-)

6. 6
Benefits (2016-2018 experience)
• Interesting European network and potential partners across sectors
– Academia, industry, cities, networks, etc.
• Focus on (climate) impact and innovation ➜ forces targeted ideas,
brings in a business and scaleup angle
• Applied research with industry/application/impact partners
• Fast implementation of ideas
• Pathfinder model
– Easy support for fast ideation
– ‘Startup’ funding for ideas
• Low proposal and reporting overhead (but see next slide)
• Possible scale-up path (fast result, little feedback)
• “personal connection” on proposal preparation/submission
• Ability to shape or contribute to strategy/operation

7. 7
Caveats (2015-2018 experience)
• We at times were guinea pigs 🐹
• Complex structure of LoCal (City Finance Lab) – Climate-KIC (+ local
chapters and focus areas) – EIT 🤔
• Call structures not always clear
• Changing forms and reporting 🤔
• No multi-year small projects
• Limited ability for non-CKIC members / subcontractors
• Drawn out and error-prone financial reporting, auditing, payment
💸 (CKIC and NTNU)
• Limited feedback on proposals
• Hard to understand who to approach for an idea/proposal
• No good project/partner overview at CKIC 🔬
• Lack of dissemination support 📣

8. 8
Takeaways and personal recommendations
• Understand your own requirements and the EU landscape
• Good to start with EU projects for quick ideas without going
the full H2020
• If you start from scratch, start with partners and consortium
building, find people and partners in the network
• Double-check finances and project conditions with NTNU EU
finance office, own department, and Lars
• Validate ideas/proposals with Climate-KIC

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Q&A
Contact
Dirk Ahlers
search://Dirk Ahlers
@dirkahlers
dirk.ahlers@ntnu.no
Carbon Track and Trace (CTT) project
documentation:
https://www.ntnu.edu/ad/ctt
C-Valuate: Improving City-Scale Low-
Carbon Investment Decision-Making: Final
report
https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-
xmlui/handle/11250/2607887

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