AGENCE DE L'ENVIRONNEMENT ET DE LAMAITRISE DE L'ENERGIE

Their core work

ADEME is France's national agency for environment and energy management, operating as the government's primary instrument for energy efficiency policy, renewable energy deployment, and circular economy promotion. In H2020, they coordinate and participate in projects that translate EU energy directives into practical implementation — monitoring energy consumption trends, evaluating policy effectiveness, and helping public authorities retrofit buildings. Their core contribution is bridging national energy policy with EU-wide coordination, bringing France's regulatory experience and large-scale programme management to European consortia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In 2014–2018, ADEME focused primarily on networking, capacity building, and best-practice sharing — acting as a connector between national contact points, running brokerage events, and facilitating international policy dialogue through projects like C-ENERGY 2020 and NCPs CaRE. From 2019 onward, the focus sharpened toward concrete energy policy implementation: monitoring actual energy consumption (ODYSSEE-MURE 2), retrofitting public buildings (BAPAURA), heating and cooling market transformation (HACKS), and the new energy label rollout (LABEL 2020). The arrival of TransformAr in 2021 signals a notable expansion into climate adaptation, their largest single investment and a departure from pure energy efficiency work.

ADEME is moving from convening and knowledge-sharing toward hands-on policy implementation, building retrofitting, and climate adaptation — expect future projects to be more action-oriented and locally grounded.

How they like to work

ADEME predominantly operates as a participant (18 of 24 projects), joining large European consortia rather than leading them, which reflects their role as a national implementing agency that brings France's perspective to EU-wide initiatives. When they do coordinate (6 projects), it tends to be in focused Coordination and Support Actions on energy efficiency topics where they have deep national programme experience. With 239 unique partners across 43 countries, they function as a well-connected hub — a reliable institutional partner that brings policy credibility and access to France's energy efficiency ecosystem.

ADEME has collaborated with 239 distinct partners across 43 countries, making them one of the more broadly connected public agencies in the energy space. Their network spans the full EU and extends to international cooperation partners, reflecting their strong participation in ERA-NET programmes that involve non-EU countries.

What sets them apart

ADEME is not a research lab — they are France's national energy and environment agency with direct authority over energy efficiency programmes, white certificates, and public procurement policy. This gives consortium partners something rare: a direct line to how French energy policy is designed and implemented on the ground. For any project that needs real-world policy testing, regulatory insight, or public-sector deployment pathways in France, ADEME is the institutional anchor that turns research outputs into government action.

Highlights from their portfolio

• TransformAr
  Their largest single H2020 investment (EUR 838K) and a strategic expansion into climate adaptation and water resilience — a significant departure from their core energy efficiency portfolio.
• ODYSSEE-MURE
  Coordinated both funding cycles (2016 and 2019), making this their signature programme — the EU's primary tool for monitoring energy efficiency progress across member states.
• BAPAURA
  Coordinated project directly applying ADEME's national expertise to municipal building retrofitting in their home region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, demonstrating local implementation capacity.