Events

Workshop “The cleantech industry in the European Green Deal: policy challenges and the finance landscape for SMEs”, Milan, May 23rd, 2023

On May 23rd, 2023, the workshop “The cleantech industry in the European Green Deal: policy challenges and the finance landscape for SMEs” took place at Politecnico di Milano. The workshop represented an opportunity to discuss policies, strategies and solutions, share and gain insights and updates with influential testimonials on the trends, innovative technologies in the cleantech industry, as well as tangible models and real investments in the finance landscape to deliver unparalleled opportunities toward achieving the “Green Deal and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” targets.

In particular, workshop participants discussed the importance of cleantech for the green transitions. They focused on mobilizing innovation strategies and cooperation between stakeholders in the ecosystem, the breakthrough potential of green technologies, and policy instruments to facilitate the transfer of low TRL research. The main results across the roundtable concerned the importance of finance and investment for cleantech, the need for infrastructures, exit opportunities, and the role of the ecosystem in bringing together the stakeholders of the cleantech ecosystem. Also, the simplified access to public funding by means of both existing policy instruments and efficient design of new ones, as well as the speed regarding investment decisions, skills development and the readiness to take risks and fail in the field was emphasized.

During the workshop, the first-year results of the CLEU project were presented by Annalisa Croce, Laura Toschi, and Elisa Ughetto. The presentation of the project results was followed by a round table moderated by Prof. Giancarlo Giudici (Politecnico di Milano). The round table speakers were Wouter Torfs (European Investment Fund), Alessandra Accogli (Sinergy Flow), Arianna Lovera (Forum per la Finanza Sostenibile), Chiara Candelise (Ecomill), Giorgio Ciron (Innovup), Francesco De Michelis (MITO Technology), Gaetano Lapenta (Fybra), Caterina Crociata (Euronext), Federica Loconsolo (Riello Partners), Andrea Scarano (ELIS Innovation Hub), Michela Masoni (LVenture Group), Stefano Peroncini (Eureka Venture SGR), Giacomo Silvestri (Eniverse Ventures), Niccolò Sovico (Ener2Crowd), Giuseppe Spanto (Is Clean Air), and Federico Malgarini (Innovatec Venture).

During the afternoon, the workshop hosted the keynote speeches of Merilin Hörats-Beasley (European Investment Fund) and Adelaide Cracco (European Investment Fund).

Pictures of the workshop