ENTRANCE good practice is recognised on a European level

Description

ENTRANCE initiative, the Green Hydrogen Booster project, has been recognised as a good practice for European regions to learn from by the international Interreg Europe Programme. The Green Hydrogen Booster project succeeded in supporting SME entrepreneurs in the Northern Netherlands to develop innovations around green hydrogen. In this way, the project enhanced SME competitiveness in the region and contributed to its sustainable growth. For that reason, the ENTRANCE project Green Hydrogen Booster is now included in a European database of good practices as a successful approach to address a regional development problem, so that other European regions can follow its example.

For that reason, the ENTRANCE project Green Hydrogen Booster is now included in a European database of good practices as a successful approach to address a regional development problem, so that other European regions can follow its example.

The Green Hydrogen Booster is the project led by ENTRANCE (Centre of Expertise Energy at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen) in cooperation with local partners from education and industry, including Kiwa, GasTerra, BAM, Gasunie, New Energy Coalition, DNV, NAM, VNO-NCW, Stork, TCNN, Noorderpoort College, Solarfields, Energy College, and RENDO. Its aim was to stimulate SME entrepreneurs in the Northern Netherlands to develop ideas for applications using green hydrogen. It supported these entrepreneurs through a voucher scheme, but also by giving them access to facilities and a broad knowledge network. Entrepreneurs were able to work on applications of green hydrogen in areas such as transport, heating boilers, and off-grid mobile power stations, as well as handbooks on regulatory environment and safety regulations in hydrogen applications. This was an important investment in the region, allowing entrepreneurs to explore new sustainable solutions.

The project brought together industry, students, and researchers. In doing so, it had multiple positive effects: it contributed to sustainable growth and job creation the Northern Netherlands, and aided in the transfer of knowledge between students, researchers, professionals and policymakers. The project ran from 2019 to 2023 and received financial support from the Northern Netherlands Alliance (Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland, or SNN), the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, and the European Regional Development Fund, (Europees Fonds voor Regionale Ontwikkeling, or EFRO). You can find a booklet with its key learnings here.

Regional initiative with European importance

The European experts that evaluated the ENTRANCE regional initiative the Green Hydrogen Booster, highlighted that the project succeeded in bringing different stakeholders – students, educational institutions, SMEs, and policymakers – together  for development of green hydrogen ecosystem in the region. It’s a testament to the ingenuity and ambition of the Northern Netherlands to explore new, sustainable technologies. With this good practice, the Northern Netherlands serves as an example to other regions. Here is a quote from Mart Veliste, one of these experts, himself:

"It is great to see the efforts from the Northern Netherlands, where a space for learning, tailored support and, most importantly, for testing new green hydrogen applications has been set up. "

Now that the good practice has been added to the EU database, its insights can be shared and used by the Interreg Europe Community. Its recognition by the Interreg Europe expert will bolster this knowledge dissemination. In the future, this could inspire new collaborations and ideas and aid the development of the green hydrogen economy.

Share more good practices with us

This good practice was identified by another ENTRANCE initiative – the Interreg Europe project UNLOCK that helps policymakers to open regional green H2 economies to SMEs by improving regional policies through learning and exchange of experience with other policymakers in Europe. Identification and sharing of regional (policy) initiatives that are successful in enhancing region's sustainability and SMEs competitiveness is an essential part of an interregional learning. Do you know any good practice – whether a policy initiative or other intervention - that contributes to regions sustainability and enhances SME competitiveness and think it is worth sharing with others? Please contact the ENTRANCE: UNLOCK  project leader Dr Beata Kviatek via the contact card below or check the project page for more information.

The UNLOCK project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as one of the winning project applications in the first call of the Interreg Europe 2021-2027 programme.