ENERGY AND HYDROGEN ALLIANCE

Their core work

The Energy and Hydrogen Alliance is a Brussels-based industry association operating at the intersection of clean energy advocacy and applied research networks. Based in the EU capital, they bring an industry and policy perspective to research consortia — connecting scientific work to real-world deployment challenges in sectors like aviation and energy chemistry. Their participation in two H2020 projects reveals a dual focus: the safety and viability of liquid hydrogen in aviation, and the emerging field of solar-driven chemical production. As an NGO/association type, their primary value to consortia is likely stakeholder engagement, dissemination across industry networks, and bridging research outputs to European policy and industry audiences.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their earliest H2020 engagement (2018) was firmly rooted in hydrogen energy for transport — specifically the practical engineering and societal challenges of deploying liquid hydrogen in civil aviation. By 2020, their project portfolio shifted toward fundamental clean energy chemistry: solar chemicals, graphene-based semiconductors, and photocatalytic processes, with no direct transport connection. This is a notable pivot from applied aviation engineering to fundamental electrochemical and photochemical science, possibly reflecting a broadening of their alliance's thematic mandate or an opportunistic diversification into adjacent clean energy domains.

They appear to be expanding from hydrogen-as-fuel toward broader solar-driven energy chemistry, positioning themselves across multiple clean energy transition pathways rather than staying hydrogen-only.

How they like to work

They have participated exclusively as consortium partners — never as coordinator — across both projects, suggesting they function as a contributing partner rather than a project leader. With 19 unique partners across 10 countries from only 2 projects, they operate within large, diverse international consortia. This profile is typical of an alliance or association that adds network reach and industry legitimacy rather than technical execution capacity, making them a useful dissemination and stakeholder engagement partner.

Despite a small project portfolio, they have built connections with 19 distinct consortium partners across 10 countries, suggesting they enter well-populated European research consortia. Their Brussels base provides natural proximity to EU institutions and the European hydrogen policy ecosystem.

What sets them apart

As a Brussels-based energy and hydrogen alliance, they occupy a rare position at the overlap of EU policy proximity and clean energy research networks — useful for projects that need both technical partners and an industry voice in the European capital. Their dual involvement in hydrogen aviation (a highly specific engineering domain) and solar chemistry training (a cross-disciplinary science education effort) signals flexibility across the clean energy spectrum. For consortium builders, they offer network access to European energy industry contacts and a non-academic perspective that many RIA and MSCA consortia are required to include.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ENABLEH2
  A Transport-pillar RIA addressing one of the hardest decarbonization challenges — cryogenic liquid hydrogen in commercial aviation — making this the organization's most strategically significant and technically specific project.
• SOLAR2CHEM
  An MSCA-ITN training network covering frontier photocatalysis and graphene chemistry, showing willingness to engage in fundamental science and researcher training far outside the alliance's core hydrogen-transport identity.